BAVUAL The African Heritage Magazine Fall 2022

SPECIAL ISSUE

THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

BAVUAL

FALL COLLEGE GUIDE The Top HBCUs for You

RATING THE PRESIDENTS The Best and Worst for Black America

FINAL JUSTICE FOR EMMETT TILL?

COME TO JAMAICA

Island Home to Bob Marley and James Bond

SEE US IN 2023

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10.00

IN THIS ISSUE

81 FILM REVIEW: TILL

47 FALL COLLEGE GUIDE

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MY TAKE How I Learned

7

EVALUATING THE PRESIDENTS (COVER)

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45 men impact African Americans in different ways The Top 5 Best Presidents The Next Best 5 Presidents The Middling Presidents The Bottom 5 Worst Presidents

THE DRIFT The Stain of Fascism and White Nationalism

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BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL 5 Gorgeous African Princesses

FAMOUS AUTUMNS The Pioneers: Marshall, Wilder and Brooke

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TRUE GRIT Justice Sisters

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EVALUATING THE PRESIDENTS (COVER)

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FALL COLLEGE GUIDE The Ins and Outs of HBCUs

74

DESTINATIONS Jamaica, Island Home of Bob Marley and James Bond 007

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THE CULTURE Film Review: Till is a masterpiece of social justice

THE TIMES Will Emmett Till Finally Get Justice?

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IN THIS ISSUE

86 BLACK HISTORY QUIZ: BLING

88 KANYE WEST: THE RISE AND FALL

83 IT'S POLITICAL 83 IT'S POLITICAL Cartoons that explain today's world

86 BLACK HISTORY QUIZ The name of the game is "Bling"

88 THE HUSTLE

Kanye West: The Rise and Fall of Ye

NEXT ISSUE

BLACK HOLLYWOOD PART II: 1970-2023

93 roll of honor 8 legends of autumn

98 benediction What should black people be thankful for?

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BAVUAL

THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

Bavual Vol. 1 Issue 4 Fall 2022

Editorial Earl A. Birkett Editor Rick D. Bowers Deputy Editor Stephen G. Hall PhD, Special Editor

Muse Bavual Adisa

Associate Editors Kristen Jones Lorraine Jones Design & Illustrations Debasish Sarma Editorial Advisor Myeshia C. Babers, PhD

BAVUAL: Swahili for "power, strength, force"

Marketing Multitrends International earl.a.birkett@gmail.com

Advertising Multitrends International earl.a.birkett@gmail.com (201) 360-1139 Subscriptions Visit www.bavual.com or contact Earl A. Birkett at eab@bavual.com Write to: 42 Broadway, Suite 12-278.

New York, NY 10004 Phone: (212) 419-5831 Email: eab@bavual.com

Published Quarterly by Birkett Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Earl A. Birkett President Contents copyright

2022 Birkett Communications, Inc.

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MY TAKE

Earl A. Birkett

HOW I LEARNED T

here are three basic ways to learn: formal education through schooling, knowledge acquired through reading books and other printed matter, and life experience through

apprenticeship and “the street.” I utilized all three ways, but if I have to be honest, the best way for me to learn was through reading, a trait that I developed at a very young age.

Thanks to two loving parents who tried to provide me with all the best advantages that were available in my time and place—the working-class suburbs of southern Long Island in the 1960s and 1970s—I had and fully used many opportunities to learn. When I was 4, I began to read the Sunday New York Times, in those days a thick paper chock-full of diverse information about the world. I soaked it all up like a human sponge, which only increased my thirst for more, much more.

Fortunately, I had first-class local libraries available to me, and I was the “nerd” who spent my afternoons and Saturdays there. This habit carried well over into the Internet Age, which began for me when I purchased my first computer—at age 39!

morning cartoons, Captain Kangaroo (I was too old by the time Sesame Street came along in ’69), I Love Lucy re-runs and action/adventure/sci-fi (Batman, Superman, Lost in Space, Star Trek, but Mission: Impossible was my favorite)—I tended toward serious dramas and the news, which in those days meant Walter Cronkite and political talk shows such as David Susskind and William F. Buckley. Don’t get me wrong, the public schools of Malverne, N.Y., that I attended were fine, and a couple of my teachers in high school were particularly inspiring, but really I am self-taught, right through college.

By observing others, first as a student, then as a teacher, and finally as an adult in several occupations and personal interactions, I have discovered that everyone learns at their own pace and level and that there is no one way to learn.

Very few people are slow or stupid; it’s just that, in my view, there are severe gaps in their knowledge and exposure to others who are different from themselves.

The one conclusion that I have drawn is that education is a wonderful thing, but knowledge is so much better, because it is the beginning of wisdom and empathy.

4th Grader, 1970

College Senior, 1983

Television was also a big influence.

While like every little boy I was drawn to the entertainment of the era—Saturday

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THE DRIFT

THE STAIN OF FASCISM AND WHITE NATIONALISM President Joe Biden’s nationally televised speech in early September warning Americans of a rising tide of “semi-fascism” is appropriate and long overdue except for one thing—I would have dropped the “semi.” Ever since Donald Trump came down those golden escalator stairs in 2015, I recognized his candidacy for what it was: a demagogic attempt at white nationalism of the ugliest kind, the one that conjures up the

worst of U.S. and world history like Woodrow Wilson’s racist presidency; the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and the America First Movement of the 1930s and 1940s; the ascent of fascism (Mussolini) in Italy and Nazism (Hitler) in Germany; McCarthy’s witch hunts in the 1950s; J. Edgar Hoover’s attacks on the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panthers in the 1960s; and, since the late 1970s, the advent of neo-Nazism and militia groups, white Christian evangelicals involving themselves in politics, and the demonization of many minority groups, immigrants and Muslims.

The appeal of fascism has also increased in other countries, including Brazil, Germany, Italy (which just elected a fascist as its prime minister), Hungary, Turkey, and the Philippines, just to name a few.

I am alarmed because I know what fascism will lead to: destruction and death. Such hatred has inspired concentration camps, genocide (also called “ethnic cleansing”), political assassinations, terrorist bombings and shootings, and bitter divisions that last decades, even centuries. What has happened abroad is now here, in the United States, something not experienced since the racial strife of the 1960s and the Civil War of the 1860s.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

German pastor Martin Niemollerr

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Is America breaking apart? Maybe. I hear talk of secession, in states as diverse as California, Oregon and Texas. The Republican Party is rapidly turning itself into something akin to a Christian Taliban, intolerant of anyone who would deviate from their narrow-minded and intolerant view of the world and spurred on by propaganda platforms like Fox News and Newsmax that spout something called the “white replacement theory,” an evil ideology that in part inspired the killers of innocent black people in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket and, before that, Jewish worshippers in a Pittsburgh, Pa., synagogue. During the notorious neo-Nazi/white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, then-President Trump had the temerity to find good and bad points “on both sides.” Goebbels would envy the persuasive skills and media apparatus of the worldwide right-wing. I don’t leave the Democrats off the hook either, not only for their timidness in standing up to looming fascism, but because they too are susceptible to the temptation of hatred and authoritarianism. Lest we forget, the Democrats were the party of segregationist southerners up until the mid-1960s.

There are clear warning signs of fascism, and I am sorry to report that the USA in 2022 is checking off the boxes on nearly all of them. BAVUAL will have gone to press by the time the results of the November 8 midterm election are known, but I am hoping that the majority who still believe in America’s best ideals vote in numbers great enough to counteract the very vocal minority who have fallen in love with fascism.

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BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL

5 GORGEOUS AFRICAN PRINCESSES

Beauty Is Far More Than Skin Deep

Jasmine Tookes Age 31 One of the highest paid supermodels in the world, this Victoria’s Secret Angel has been gracing fashion show runways and fashion magazine covers for years.

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Tyra Banks Age 49 An icon in the fashion world, Banks created and hosts the hit television show America’s Next Top Model and was the first black model to make the cover of GQ magazine.

She was also an original Victoria’s Secret Angel.

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Naomi Campbell Age 52 A legend among supermodels, Campbell was the first black model to appear in Time magazine and has modeled for over 500 publication covers around the world.

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Winnie Harlow Age 28 Harlow’s rise to fame from a contestant on America’s Next Top Model to world-class supermodel carries a unique story: she has vitiligo, a rare skin condition which depigments sections of her skin; it only seems to enhance her beauty.

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Nykhor Paul Age 33 The gorgeous, darktoned New York model has an improbable origin: she was born into civil conflict in South Sudan and grew up as a refugee in Ethiopia before moving to the United States as a teenager.

Today she makes the fashions of Louis Vuitton, Rick Owens, Balenciaga, and Vivienne Westwood look sensational.

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FAMOUS AUTUMNS

THE PIONEERS

Thurgood Marshall Associate Justice U.S. Supreme Court 1967-1990

Marshall, Wilder and Brooke Pave the Way

By Kristen Jones During times of great upheaval in the United States, Thurgood Marshall, L. Douglas Wilder and Edward W. Brooke—three black men with differing backgrounds and politics—became symbols of highly significant change in the nation. Other black leaders who have gone on to achieve great things in politics and government after them, can attribute a large part of their success to the doors opened by these three important pioneers.

The Right Man for the Court On Oct. 2, 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren swore in Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall, who was confirmed in a 69-11 floor vote by the U.S. Senate to join the Court, had previously been confirmed by the Senate as a federal judge in the Kennedy administration and then as solicitor general for President Lyndon Johnson. President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court in June 1967 to replace retiring Justice Tom Clark, who left the Court after his son, Ramsey Clark, became attorney general. Johnson said Marshall was “best qualified by training and by very valuable service to the country. I believe it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.”

As chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940s and ’50s, Marshall was the architect and executor of the legal strategy that ended the era of official racial FALL 2022

segregation. The great-grandson of an enslaved person,Marshall was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1908. After being r ejected from the University of Maryland Law School on account of his race, he was accepted at all-black Howard University in Washington, D.C. At Howard, he studied under the tutelage of civil liberties lawyer Charles H. Houston and in 1933 graduated first in his class. In 1936, he joined the legal division of the NAACP, of which Houston was director, and two years later succeeded his mentor in the organization’s top legal post.

During his 24 years on the high court, Associate Justice Marshall consistently challenged discrimination based on race or sex, opposed the death penalty, and vehemently defended affirmative action. He supported the rights of criminal defendants and defended the right to privacy. As appointments by a largely Republican White House changed the ideology of the Supreme Court, Marshall found his liberal views increasingly in the minority. He retired in 1991 because of declining health and died in 1993. After his death, the Court approved a special resolution honoring him.

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L. Douglas Wilder Governor of Virginia 1990-1994

The First Popularly Elected Black Governor On Nov. 7, 1989, Lawrence Douglas Wilder who was born in 1931 and named after famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, made history when he became the first popularly elected black governor in the U.S.. He served as governor of Virginia from 1990 until 1994.

Wilder, a grandson of former slaves, was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War but learned that he would still be exposed to segregation and racism despite earning a Bronze Star for his heroism. Following his military service, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill to attend law school at Howard University (at the time, his home state of Virginia barred blacks from attending its law schools).

After graduating, he established a law firm in Virginia and entered politics with a successful run for Virginia state senator. During his five terms as state senator, he chaired committees on transportation, rehabilitation and social services, privileges and elections, the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council and the Senate Steering Committee, which appoints committee members. He successfully sponsored Virginia’s first drug paraphernalia law and the BAVUAL

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compulsory school attendance law. Other legislative achievements include providing state healthcare coverage for sickle cell anemia patients, toughening penalties for capital murders and prison escapees, and expanding lowand moderate-income housing. For eight years, he persisted in sponsoring legislation that eventually led to establishing a state holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1985, he was elected lieutenant governor and served from 1986 to 1990 before being elected governor in 1989.

He served in that position for four years. As governor, he was commended for his sound fiscal management and balancing the state budget during difficult economic times. Financial World magazine ranked Virginia as the best-managed state in the U.S. for two consecutive years under his administration.

After a 10-year hiatus following his term as governor, in 2005, Wilder became mayor of the city of Richmond—a former capital of the defeated Confederate States of America during the Civil War. When his term ended in 2009, he decided not to pursue re-election.

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Edward W. Brooke U.S. Senator (Mass.)

1967-1979

A Black Senator for Both Parties On Nov. 8, 1966, Edward W. Brooke III became the first black U.S. senator elected by popular vote.

Hailing from Washington, D.C., he ended an 86-year absence of African American senators there. He represented Massachusetts.

Brooke notably labeled himself a “creative Republican,” and his moderate views would help him gain support from members of both parties. Upon accepting the Senate seat, he promised to “unite men who have not been united before,” reiterating his pledge to represent his constituents equally regardless of race.

Born to a middle-class black family, Brooke was raised in Washington, D.C., and graduated from the Boston University School of Law in 1948 after serving in the United States Army during World War II. Beginning in 1950, he became involved in politics, when he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. After serving as chairman of the Finance Commission of Boston, Brooke was elected attorney general of the state in 1962, becoming the first African American to be elected attorney general of any state. He served as attorney general for four years, before running for FALL 2022

the U.S. Senate in 1966. In that election, he defeated Democratic Gov. Endicott Peabody in a landslide and was seated on Jan. 3, 1967. In the Senate, Brooke aligned with the liberal faction in the Republican party, and he co-wrote the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited housing discrimination. He was re-elected to a second term in 1972 after defeating attorney John Droney.

Brooke became a prominent critic of Republican President Richard Nixon and was the first Senate Republican to call for Nixon's resignation in light of the Watergate scandal. In 1978, he ran for a third term but was defeated by Democrat Paul Tsongas.

After leaving the Senate, Brooke practiced law in Washington, D.C., and was affiliated with various businesses and nonprofit organizations. He died on Jan. 3, 2015, at his home in Coral Gables, Fla., at the age of 95.

All of these men achieved unbelievable things while facing plenty of opposition. Their tireless struggles are as significant today as they were then. Without their sacrifices, there may not have been an opportunity for Barack Obama to become the first black president. We must always remember that the sufferings of others have paved the way for today’s possibilities.

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TRUE GRIT

FEARLESS SISTERS

Georgia's Fani Willis and New York's Letitia James Make the Case Against Donald Trump

By Stephen G. Hall, PhD The 2020 presidential electoral cycle was one of the most contentious in American history. Until Donald J. Trump, never had a sitting president refused to acknowledge the lawful election of his successor. The lack of acknowledgment is one thing, but to take action to contravene the electoral process and certification at the state and federal level is quite another. Determined to hold on to the reins of power, former President Trump and his acolytes exerted pressure on the secretaries of state in mostly Republican states to either declare large numbers of absentee ballots as fraudulent or to refuse to certify the results. When these efforts failed in battleground states, Trump supporters, encouraged by a raucous speech by Trump at Washington, D.C.’s Ellipse park, stormed the United States Capitol on January 6 to prevent the certification of the votes from states by the U.S. Congress.

Although the violent assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters was the icing on the cake in the electoral drama, the run-up to these unprecedented events has proven equally fascinating. This was particularly the case in battleground states such as Arizona and Georgia.

Georgia proved particularly troublesome for Trump because the state has been reliably Republican in past electoral cycles. The Republican loss of not only the presidential race but the subsequent election of two Democratic senators proved damaging to Republican morale.

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Efforts by Trump and his campaign officials to reportedly sway the election through direct and indirect pressure on election officials, harassment of officials, tampering with the process, and recruiting fake electors deserve investigation. Although investigating these shenanigans is proving to be a daunting task, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is on the case. Willis is a graduate of Howard University and the Emory University School of Law. Having served as a prosecutor for 16 years in the Fulton County prosecutor’s office, she became district attorney on Jan. 1, 2021, and is the first woman elected to the position.

Willis is pursuing several lines of investigation that revolve around four issues. She is looking at potential criminal wrongdoing in calls Trump and his allies made to Georgia officials including false statements made to lawmakers, harassment of election officials, tampering with election systems in one county in southern Georgia, and attempting to send false electors to Washington, D.C. Willis opened a criminal investigation immediately following the highly publicized calls between Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Reportedly, Trump and his allies also put pressure on the state’s attorney general and governor to find votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s win. Willis is investigating this conduct under a Georgia law that prohibits the solicitation of electoral fraud. Willis is also investigating a series of statements made by Trump

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operatives involving widespread fraud in the Georgia electoral process. These statements were repeatedly uttered by Rudy Giuliani and other Trump campaign advisers and represent potential violations of a Georgia law that prohibits false statements to government. In this instance, Willis is pursuing this misconduct under a Georgia law that prohibits the solicitation of election fraud.

She is also examining calls made by Trump and others to Georgia officials after the election. In court filings, Willis has cited a Georgia statute prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud. One of the most interesting lines of investigation is the effort to send the names of supposed Trump electors from Georgia to Washington. This pattern is particularly disturbing. Prosecutors are trying to determine whether this project represented an effort in battleground states to create confusion and provide a reason for former Vice President Mike Pence to be unable to certify the election on January 6, 2021.

At present, the investigation is on hold due to the midterm elections. It is clear, however, as many legal observers note, that Georgia law has less-cumbersome procedures than the federal process being utilized by the January 6th Committee. Willis is building a case that targets multiple defendants and includes charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud and racketeering charges for coordinating a scheme to undermine an election. This investigation will determine the extent to which a former president and his campaign officials can— and will—be held accountable for inappropriate behavior in the context of the electoral process. It is clear that the outcome of this investigation will send reverberations throughout the nation’s political system.

COULD IT HAPPEN IN GEORGIA?

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Attorney General James Sues Trump for Fraud in New York When it comes to the woes of Donald Trump, when it rains, it pours. Not only is the former president facing a cascade of criminal and civil investigations from Florida to New York—many of which, like Willis’ probe, could land him in an orange jumpsuit—he faces yet another relentless female pursuer: Letitia James, the attorney general of New York. James is seeking to bankrupt the Trump Organization, the Trump family business responsible for financing Donald’s political rise, by bringing a $250 million suit against Trump, three of his children, and the company, accusing them of fraudulently misstating the value of various real estate assets to receive financial benefits in the form of more favorable loan and insurance rates and tax breaks.

Unlike Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has dragged his feet in bringing similar criminal charges against Trump despite convincing evidence pointing to his culpability, James has courageously plowed forward after a meticulous three-year investigation, seeking to have Trump pay for his numerous financial misdeeds. (James has also referred the ex-president to the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for criminal prosecution based on her findings.) James, a Brooklynite and Howard University School of Law graduate, has a storied record for competence and integrity. She served as a public defender, an assistant state attorney general, and the first African American elected as New York City public advocate before, in 2018, becoming the first black person and the first woman to be elected as the state’s attorney general.

Will James succeed in her latest crusade? Trump himself is nervous. He continuously bullies James for everything from her weight to her political ambition, falsely claiming that she is waging a personal vendetta against him, yet in a recent deposition with James’ office, he pleaded the Fifth more than 440 times.

However, with Trump being a very wealthy and powerful man who has slipped the noose of justice many times, the jury, as they say, is still out.

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THE TIMES

What's Going On in the News

WILL EMMETT TILL GET JUSTICE? After 67 Years, Time Catches Up to His False Accuser

By Stephen G. Hall, PhD The Emmett Till case is one of the most ignominious in the history of the nation. The sheer horror, brutality and inhumanity displayed by Southern segregationists toward a black child defined the Civil Rights era and continues to echo across the decades up to our current time.

The facts of the case are horrific. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His uncle, Mose Wright, had visited Chicago and returned with Till to Mississippi. During his stay in Mississippi, Till, who was unfamiliar with the strict racial codes of behavior for black people in the South, had a chance encounter with a white woman that led to lifealtering outcomes. was weighted down with a 75-pound cotton gin fan While visiting a country store with his cousins , Till

attached to his body with barbed wire.

encountered Carolyn Bryant, a white woman and wife of the owner. Reportedly, he attempted to flirt with Bryant

Determined that the world see what happened to her son,

and whistled at her. In actuality, Till did not attempt to

Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, decided to have an open-

flirt with or whistle at anyone in the store. Till whistled at

casket funeral. Till’s body was displayed at Roberts Temple

Bryant after he left the store, and at no time was he

Church of God in Christ in Chicago where tens of thousands

menacing or threatening. By all accounts, his actions

of people filed past the body. John Johnson, CEO of Ebony

were innocent. Till’s innocent violation of Southern

and Jet magazines, published pictures of the mutilated Till.

etiquette, however, was unpardonable.

The open-casket funeral and the photos brought national and international attention to the murder.

Three days later, Till was taken at gunpoint from Mose Wright’s home by Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant’s husband,

The outrage surrounding the case reached fever pitch,

and his half-brother J.W. Milam. Shortly thereafter, Till’s

and the state of Mississippi charged Bryant and Milam.

body was found floating in the Tallahatchie River. His

Although Mississippi officials projected an aura of concern

body was mutilated with a gunshot in the head and was

regarding the heinous crime, the actual

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prosecution and trial revealed their lack of interest in Till’s murder and the prosecution of his murderers.

The murderers were tried by an all-white male jury, and the courtroom was informal. During the proceedings, jurors ate and drank, and several carried pistols. Although Till’s mother testified in an effort to humanize her murdered son, her pleas largely fell on deaf ears. The local sheriff in Tallahatchie County suggested that Till’s body had not been properly identified. He stated further that Mamie Till and her supporters were perpetuating a hoax, and he speculated that Till was probably alive and well.

Carolyn Bryant testified under oath but outside of the jury’s presence. She said that Till had propositioned her and touched her arm and waist while in the store.

CAROLyN BRYANT, TILL'S ACCUSER, IN 1955 AND IN 2022.

Mose Wright, Till’s uncle, bravely pointed out Bryant and Milam as Till’s abductors by saying “Dere he,” as he pointed at the men. Despite eyewitness accounts of his abduction, the defendants were acquitted. Both Bryant and Milam later confessed to killing Till in an article published by Look magazine in 1956.

The trial was not the last word in the Till case. Till’s murder took on a life of its own. His murderers, Bryant and Milam, faced strong opposition from blacks in Mississippi. Their businesses failed due to intense boycotts, and, unable to secure loans from local banks, they both moved to Texas.

Till’s mother continued to educate people about the

THE INCIDENT AND TRIAL MADE NATIONAL HEADLINES AND SPARKED THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

murder until her death in 2003. Filmmakers and authors took increased interest in the case as a result of her ongoing efforts to secure justice for her son.

Much of the interest in the case revolved around whether or not additional individuals were involved in the murder or a cover-up occurred. Several books and documentaries, including the The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005) and The Murder of Emmett Till (2003), stoked pubic interest in the case. In 2004, 60 Minutes did a segment on the murder, in which anchor Ed Bradley interviewed Till’s cousins Wheeler Parker and Simeon Wright. Bradley also included excerpts from one of the last interviews with Mamie Till. The segment dovetailed with the 2004 reopening of the case by the United States Department of

Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, Till’s abductors, were acquitted at trial;

Justice (DOJ).

they later confessed in Look magazine.

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The DOJ ultimately determined it lacked the

The memoir is titled I Am More Than A Wolf Whistle:

jurisdiction to bring federal charges but assisted

The Story of Carolyn Bryant Donham. Poorly received

Mississippi officials in identifying suspects, including

and widely vilified, the memoir seemed to justify the

Carolyn Bryant. The Mississippi District Attorney’s Office, Fourth District, pursued leads, but a state grand jury failed to bring any charges.

In 2007, Rep. John Lewis introduced the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act in the U.S. Congress, and it became law in 2008. The law facilitates the reopening of cold cases involving violent crimes committed against African Americans before 1970. It has provided the legal justification to continue to pursue leads in the Till murder case.

One of the most interesting developments in this case occurred in 2017. Duke historian Timothy Tyson, author of The Blood of Emmett Till (Simon & Shuster, 2017),

actions of Till’s murderers without Carolyn Bryant accepting any culpability for the murder. In August 2022, after hearing more than seven hours of testimony from investigators, a Leflore County jury determined there was insufficient evidence to convict Bryant.

The trajectory of Emmett Till’s murder investigation and case has been circuitous, to say the least. Despite the many fits and starts, the fact that public interest has remained strong for more than 67 years after the murder is a testament to the tenacity of Mamie Till, Till’s family, civil rights advocates and the federal government. And in more ways thant one, Till’s murder proves the old adage that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

claimed that Carolyn Bryant recanted her trial testimony during an interview for the book. This claim led to renewed activity by the family, civil rights activists, the Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi, and the Mississippi District Attorney’s Office, Fourth District. The case was reopened to determine the level of Carolyn Bryant’s culpability in Till’s murder. Despite launching a multiyear investigation, the federal government could not prove that Bryant had actually recanted her sworn testimony or lied to federal agents when she alleged she had not done so. Additionally, Tyson could not prove his allegation regarding the recantation since it was not part of his recorded audio of the interview. When interviewed by the FBI, Bryant claimed she could not

THE MARKER OF THE CANDY STORE TILL VISITED BEFORE HIS MURDER

remember what had occurred between her and Till and uttered obscenities. Unable to corroborate Tyson’s account or to get on the record a recantation from Carolyn Bryant, the DOJ has been unable to prosecute her for her role in Till’s murder.

In June 2022, an unserved warrant for Carolyn Bryant dated Aug. 29, 1955, signed by the Leflore County Clerk was discovered in the courthouse basement by the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. The Till family called for an arrest, but the district attorney said there was insufficient evidence to reopen the case. The warrant discovery was followed by the leak in July 2022 by

TILL'S GRAVESITE AT BURR OAK CEMETeRY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Tyson of a memoir by Carolyn Bryant Donham.

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EVALUATING THE PRESIDENTS 45 Men Decide the Fate of African Americans

By Earl A. Birkett

PREAMBLE Any nation is always much more than the sum of its leader; however, there is no dispute that the quality of leadership can make a huge difference in shaping the greatness of a nation. This is no less true for the United States of America, a nation that has been led by 45 men over its 246 years as a democratic republic. Throughout this period, a defining aspect of their presidencies has been how they dealt with those Africans who were brought to America 403 years ago in bondage, those who were brought here since, and their descendants who have struggled for freedom and equality ever since. The times in which they lived often dictated their response to the plight of African Americans, but other factors, including the personality and motivations of the individual occupant of the office, have taken on equal or greater weight.

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Bear in mind that for the 81 years under the Constitution adopted in 1787, blacks were not even citizens, or even people, and were considered to be only three-fifths of a person for property reasons. It wasn’t until the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 that former slaves were granted citizenship. The black struggle for social, financial and political equality must be evaluated on two fronts: 1) pre-Civil War America and 2) post-Civil War America. By and large, the 15 presidents who served before the Civil War must be judged by how they dealt with slavery and the preservation of the Union while seeking to grow an empire, whereas the 30 men who proceeded them had to figure out what to do with black Americans who achieved their freedom and wanted to be treated as full partners in the American Experiment.

How are these presidents to be evaluated? I thought it best to evaluate the totality of their lives, before and after they reached the presidency, in addition to how they performed in office. My rankings are broken down into four groups: 1. The Top 5 Best Presidents for black Americans 2. The Next 5 Best Presidents for black Americans 3. The 29 Presidents In the Middle who have had varying effect on black Americans, from Best to Worst 4. The Bottom 5 Worst Presidents for black Americans The reader should be mindful that my ranking is subjective yet based on the impact that each man’s actions have had on the lives of black people in America. It is not a ranking of their overall performance in office or their personal legacy.

THE OVAL OFFICE

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 23

THE TOP 5

1 Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas 36th President 1963-1969

THE TIMES: LBJ was sworn into the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy and presided over the most calamitous national divisions since the Civil War, over civil rights, the war in Vietnam and cultural change.

THE PLUS SIDE: Johnson’s achievements permanently transformed race relations and politics for generations. As senate majority leader, the Democrat was the key to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. His presidential administration—the first to place blacks in senior positions on a large scale—spearheaded passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending segregation; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing Southern blacks the right to vote unencumbered; the Fair Housing Act of 1968, curtailing redlining; home rule for predominantly black Washington, D.C.; the adoption of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which led to a surge of immigrants from Caribbean and African nations; the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); the adoption of Medicare, which has improved healthcare for millions of African Americans; the waging of a War on Poverty in the first attempt to raise the living standard of blacks; and the appointment of the first black Cabinet member, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Robert C. Weaver, and the first black Supreme Court associate justice, Thurgood Marshall. These accomplishments propelled the Black Power Movement and greatly assisted black Americans in achieving a sense of dignity and respect never before achieved in American life.

BAVUAL

24

FALL 2022

JOHNSON SIGNS THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

THE MINUS SIDE: Johnson’s efforts to improve the lives of African Americans led to resentment among bigoted whites, especially in the South and the cities. Southern whites began to switch their allegiance from the Democratic Party to the Republicans, and Northern whites fled the cities to the suburbs, leaving depleted neighborhoods in their wake.

The War on Poverty was poorly managed and prone to abuse and exploitation. The attacks of J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) against civil rights leaders and the Black Panthers and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) flooding black ghettos with illegal narcotics to pacify protest is a human rights low point. The Vietnam War split the black community, unfairly drafted poor inner-city and rural black men over wealthier white men, and painted Americans as imperialists waging war against impoverished Vietnamese patriots.

OVERALL: Despite his many flaws and failures, Lyndon B. Johnson laid the groundwork for the greatest social, economic and political advancement of African Americans in U.S. history.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 25

2 Abraham Lincoln of Illinois 16th President 1861-1865

THE TIMES: Lincoln’s election in 1860 led the Southern slave states to secede from the Union and form another country, the Confederate States of America (CSA), and proceed to fight a bloody and losing four-year war with the Northern U.S. THE PLUS SIDE: The 87-year abolitionist movement culminated in 1863 with Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, outlawing slavery in the South. It took the force of national law with the Union Army’s victory over the Confederacy in 1865. Enslaved Southern blacks were motivated to fight on the Union side for their freedom and expected full citizenship after the war; they also remained loyal Republican Party voters from 1868 to 1932.

THE MINUS SIDE: Although Lincoln opposed slavery, he was not in favor of equal rights for blacks, whom he considered inferior to whites. In fact, he sought to send freed slaves back to Africa.

OVERALL: Lincoln deserves to be the second most consequential president for blacks because he freed them and set them on the road to true citizenship.

BAVUAL

26

FALL 2022

3 Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York 32nd President 1933-1945

THE TIMES: The U.S. was in the tight grip of the Great Depression, the biggest economic downturn in its history; the political and social order was collapsing; and the nation faced a potential revolution.

THE PLUS SIDE: FDR knew that difficult times called for bold measures, and he quickly proceeded to save a country that was imploding. His groundbreaking New Deal administration introduced what Americans take for granted today: Social Security, bank deposit insurance, securities regulation, rural electrification. Government public works projects lifted millions of blacks out of poverty, and manufacturing jobs and perceived equality in the North led to a mass migration of blacks from the rural South to Northern cities. Thanks largely to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and early civil rights leaders, African Americans made substantial social progress and began to switch their political allegiance from Republican to Democratic. Roosevelt appointed the first black woman, Mary McLeod Bethune, to a senior White House position.

THE MINUS SIDE: Black Americans still faced debilitating segregation (an aftereffect of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s), in part brought on by the Roosevelt administration’s housing policies, which introduced redlining and housing projects. The armed forces remained segregated through World War II, and black soldiers were given the more degrading and dangerous military assignments. Roosevelt, a wealthy elitist, had little interest in blacks beyond their status as servants.

OVERALL: FDR’s New Deal was not specifically created to help African Americans; however, they became a major beneficiary of his reforms, which led to greater progress in the postwar years.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 27

4 Barack Hussein Obama 44th President 2009-2017

THE TIMES: After a decade-long real estate bubble brought about by lax banking regulation, the U.S. economy was crippled by the Great Recession, which displaced millions of Americans and threatened to destabilize the government.

THE PLUS SIDE: Obama’s 2008 election and his 2012 re-election as the first African American president was a turning point in U.S. history. The glass ceiling on black aspiration had finally been broken. Seeing a highly intelligent, well-educated and charismatic (and scandal-free) black man and his attractive family in the White House continues to inspire black Americans and all Americans as well as people of all races abroad.

THE MINUS SIDE: Obama’s presidency, though it pulled the U.S. out of the Great Recession, did little to ease the vast and growing social, economic and political divide that plagues relations between black and white Americans.

He introduced few policies that directly improved the lives of African Americans, and much of the legislation he did propose was blocked by Republicans in Congress, often for reasons of prejudice and partisanship.

OVERALL: President Obama was the first, and the first always gets the benefits—and the drawbacks.

BAVUAL

28

FALL 2022

5 Harry S Truman of Missouri 33rd President 1945-1953

THE TIMES: World War II, the worst in history, was drawing to a close, and the planet faced a difficult period of adjustment to the New World Order.

THE PLUS SIDE: Truman’s presidency, which he inherited upon FDR’s sudden death, was among the most consequential of all for many reasons, but his executive order desegregating the military in 1948 was arguably the single greatest advancement of African Americans after passage of the 14th Amendment. Once military life was integrated, it steadily led to the full integration of blacks in American society at large. It was also during this time that Ralph Bunche’s career as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning statesman flourished.

THE MINUS SIDE: A product of his time and birthplace, Truman was not personally receptive to African Americans and harbored many of the prejudices of the day.

OVERALL: Truman was a fair man and a straight shooter. He made a lot of mistakes, but he also often made the right decision, as he did with desegregating the military.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 29

THE NEXT 5

6

7

James Earl Carter Jr. of Georgia 39th President 1977-1981

William Jefferson Clinton of Arkansas 42nd President 1993-2001

THE TIMES: The Vietnam War, Watergate and an economic recession gave rise to the feeling among many Americans that the nation was in decline.

THE TIMES: America, recovering from a mild recession and benefiting from the collapse of the Soviet Union and communist ideology, was at the dawn of a technological transition that would produce both an economic Golden Age and political destabilization.

THE PLUS SIDE: Although his father, Mr. Earl, was a bigot, Jimmy Carter, the Navy veteran and humble peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, represented the “new” more enlightened South when he was elected governor in 1970 and parlayed his single term into a successful White House run in 1976. The Democrat brought with him the most racially diverse administration up to that time, and blacks had a huge say in setting government policy for the first time.

Carter appointed the first black woman Cabinet secretary, the first black U.N. ambassador, and the first black Army secretary.

THE MINUS SIDE: Nothing much changed for the average black American, who like most Americans struggled with high inflation and shrinking manufacturing jobs, and promises to revitalize burnedout inner cities never materialized.

OVERALL: Carter, a determined man of integrity, was a breath of fresh air after years of government corruption and mistrust. Although he opened yet more doors for African Americans in government, his achievements were not enough to put him in the top rank.

BAVUAL

30

THE PLUS SIDE: Bill Clinton, yet another liberal-minded Southern governor, continued Carter’s tradition of appointing black Americans to high-level positions in government. Dubbed “the first black president,” Clinton was the chief executive that was friendliest to blacks until Obama came along. Many blacks could identify with Clinton’s background, lifestyle, habits and flaws.

Banking deregulation and a stock market boom led to the largest increase in black home ownership in U.S. history and a significant drop in the poverty rate.

THE MINUS SIDE: Clinton’s extension of the Reagan/Bush drug war and a crackdown on inner-city crime led to a greater stigmatization of young black males as “super predators.” Deregulating the banks increased blacks’ access to easy credit but would come back to hurt them in the foreclosure crisis the following decade.

OVERALL: Clinton presided over an era of relative peace and great prosperity which, for the first time, lifted the fortunes of African Americans of all class levels.

FALL 2022

8 Richard Milhous Nixon of New York* 37th President 1969-1974

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THE TIMES: The Vietnam War split Americans into two sides: hawks (for the war) and doves (against the war). The Civil Rights Movement turned more militant and violent as riots and police actions exploded the inner cities.

THE PLUS SIDE: Nixon, though an Establishment conservative, was surprisingly helpful to African Americans in several important ways. He started the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), which provided financial and other assistance to black small businesses, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which began to clean up environmentally damaged areas where blacks lived, and he also increased college financial aid for black students. To reduce Soviet influence, his State Department formed closer ties to Caribbean and African nations. Nixon’s Justice Department was also the first to bring a housing discrimination suit against a major landlord, Fred and Donald Trump in New York. (Prior to his presidency, it was Nixon who bailed Martin Luther King Jr. out of a dangerous Georgia prison in 1960, thus potentially saving his life.)

THE MINUS SIDE: Privately, “Tricky Dick” Nixon shared many of the bigoted traits of TV’s Archie Bunker, and his attitude and policies toward equal employment opportunity were regressive.

Many programs designed to help minorities were proven to be rip-offs. The administration intensified the drug war, and the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies continued to undermine black communities. Nixon’s Southern Strategy during his 1968 campaign, designed to appeal to white racists in the North and South, began the Southern and Midwestern party realignment from Democrat to Republican.

OVERALL: If you were the type of black person who was a supporter (or at least remained neutral) and didn’t make waves, you tended to thrive under Nixon’s presidency. Otherwise, you would face the administration’s wrath.

FALL 2022

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BAVUAL

9 Dwight David Eisenhower of Pennsylvania 34th President 1953-1961

THE TIMES: America was finally enjoying postwar prosperity. The underlying problems that would crop up in the 1960s were temporarily hidden behind fast food, shopping malls, split-level homes, television, drive-ins and rock and roll.

THE PLUS SIDE: Everybody liked Ike, including black Americans, who would give their vote to the victorious World War II general in large numbers, the last time they would do so for a Republican. He reciprocated with policies that encouraged banks to lend to black first-time home buyers. The Civil Rights Movement began in 1955 during his first administration, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was passed on his watch, and he famously sent federal troops to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.

THE MINUS SIDE: Operation Wetback, responsible for deporting millions of Hispanics back to Mexico, makes Trump’s Wall pale in comparison. Eisenhower didn’t stand in the way of civil rights equality, but he also did little to encourage it.

OVERALL: Ike was much like the 1950s: decent and well-meaning on the surface but bland and conformist. Middleclass black Americans steadily made their way up the ladder.

BAVUAL

32

FALL 2022

10 John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts 35th President 1961-1963

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THE TIMES: The conformist 1950s ended, and the 1960s, arguably the most transformative decade in U.S. and world history, began. Blacks were impacted the most by the enormous cultural and political changes taking place.

THE PLUS SIDE: The young Catholic president promised a New Frontier; however, he was slow in delivering that promise for black Americans. JFK was more reactive than radical, and needed civil rights legislation languished until after his assassination. His Justice Department, led by his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, battled racist rednecks and protected black and white integrationists in the South every year he was in office, while trying to protect leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. from their own FBI. THE MINUS SIDE: The wealthy Kennedys viewed most blacks as servants if they considered them at all—that is, until the president and his brother Bobby saw them being brutally beaten and murdered in the South while fighting for their civil rights.

OVERALL: Kennedy’s administration was cut short with his murder, so there will always be a “what-if” attached to his brief presidency. Before he died, he showed a capacity to learn and grow and even feel some empathy. He appeared to be moving in the right direction with regard to civil rights—with much prodding.

FALL 2022

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BAVUAL

THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK 11 Ulysses S. (born Hiram Ulysses) Grant of Ohio 18th President, 1869-1877

THE RECORD: The Union general who won the Civil War was rewarded with the presidency in 1868. While he is not generally considered a great overall president, black Americans made their greatest strides in his two terms than at any point until the FDR years. He signed laws that gave equal rights to blacks, allowed them to serve on juries and hold office, in Washington, D.C., and gave foreign-born blacks citizenship. Grant instituted Reconstruction in the South backed by U.S. Army troops, which gave blacks unprecedented political power, and outlawed the nascent Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately, some of the black “carpetbaggers” who moved to the South to take advantage of the political opportunities tended to be corrupt.

12 Theodore Roosevelt of New York 26th President, 1901-1909

THE RECORD: Teddy Roosevelt, only the third vice president to succeed an assassinated president, epitomized America at the dawn of the 20th century: youthful, energetic, idealistic, full of ambition. He was unusually open-minded for his era, and that extended to matters of race. During the SpanishAmerican War, Roosevelt recruited black “Buffalo Soldiers” to serve in his Rough Riders regiment. White Southerners berated him for inviting Booker T. Washington to the White House for a consultation, the first time a black man had been given such an honor. On the other hand, the Brownsville Incident of 1906, wherein a dozen black Army soldiers were wrongfully accused of a shooting based solely on racial prejudice and were dishonorably discharged, thus ruining their lives, represented a low point in race relations.

13 Thomas Jefferson of Virginia 3rd President, 1801-1809

THE RECORD: Yes, Jefferson owned slaves and impregnated one of them, Sally Hemings; however, it was the Declaration of Independence that introduced the concepts of democracy and human rights in the U.S. without which Africans in America could not rise. He was a white supremacist who wanted blacks sent back to Africa after a period of education, but he failed twice in getting slavery banned, first in the Declaration and then in the Constitution—where he nearly succeeded. As president, Jefferson did ban the importation of enslaved Africans but would not recognize Haiti’s independence in 1804, thinking it would encourage enslaved Southern blacks to revolt or emigrate there.

BAVUAL 34

FALL 2022

14 George Washington of Virginia 1st President, 1789-1797

THE RECORD: The Father of His Country started it all by defeating the British monarchy, head of the largest empire in human history, and setting up what would become the world’s first and longest continuing democratic republic. Like almost all of the Founding Fathers, Washington owned slaves (whom he freed in his will) and believed in the then-prevailing white supremacy worldview. As president, he endorsed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which allowed bounty hunters to recapture escaped slaves, and sought to put down slave revolts abroad, while at the same time expecting slavery to die out naturally—that is, until Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin during his administration, making slave labor more popular and profitable than ever.

15 James Madison of Virginia 4th President, 1809-1817

THE RECORD: The Virginia slave owner had a mixed record on the issue of slavery. The Three-Fifths Compromise in the Constitution, wherein enslaved blacks were considered only three-fifths human for political purposes, was his idea. He expected the slave trade, and slavery itself, to die out over a generation or two as America expanded westward and helped set up the colonization of Liberia by American ex-slaves after his presidency.

16 John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts 6th President, 1825-1829

THE RECORD: The son of former President John Adams was unique for his time in that he vigorously opposed slavery before he became president and for many years after, especially when he served in the House of Representatives, although he did not call himself an abolitionist. Many Southerners considered him a leading pre-Civil War voice against slavery. The Amistad incident, where he defended Africans escaping a slave ship for their freedom in court, made him a celebrity for the cause.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 35

17 George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas 41st President, 1989-1993

THE RECORD: “Poppy” Bush, the Connecticut Yankee who made his career in Texas politics, had a mixed civil rights record. Although he had been personally supportive of black friends and causes, he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and won the presidency in 1988 in part on racist Willie Horton ads. However, as a congressman, he voted for the Fair Housing Act of 1968, upsetting Republican conservatives, and was instrumental in the rise of both Colin Powell and, dubiously, Clarence Thomas. Continuing Reagan’s failed drug war only served to needlessly increase the incarceration rate and vilification of young black males.

18 George Walker Bush of Texas 43rd President, 2001-2009

THE RECORD: The self-styled “compassionate conservative” and son of Bush 41 garnered black support during his two successful runs for Texas governor; however, W failed to make much headway when he won the presidency twice, in 2000 and 2004, despite having appointed two African Americans to head the State Department: Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security and Medicare, two mainstays for blacks; his dismal response to Hurricane Katrina; and his failure to curb banking excesses that led to a housing crash and a Great Recession severely harmed black Americans. Further, black veterans did not significantly benefit from service in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

19 Gerald Rudolph Ford of Michigan 38th President, 1974-1977

THE RECORD: Jerry Ford, the only president in U.S. history never to be elected—he ascended to the office as an appointed vice president upon Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal—didn’t do much in his career to further race relations. He gave tepid lip service to civil rights issues as a Republican congressman; appointed a token, William T. Coleman, as the first black transportation secretary; and then ironically came out against the hot-button school busing issue, which may have cost him the 1976 election.

BAVUAL

36

FALL 2022

20 Ronald Wilson Reagan of California 40th President, 1981-1989

THE RECORD: The Gipper, a former Hollywood matinee idol and liberal Democrat-turned-conservative Republican, began a revolution in government that altered its relationship with African Americans, largely for the worse. He inherited Barry Goldwater’s far-right political movement and made it acceptable to mainstream America, making veiled appeals to racists during the 1980 campaign. His administration’s formula of tax cuts for the rich, cuts to vital social services, and demonization of minorities and the poor has been replicated by GOP politicians ever since, sadly with much electoral success. Reagan is infamous for appointing “Silent Sam” Pierce to his Cabinet as HUD secretary; he once mistook Pierce for a big-city mayor during a meeting. A rare accomplishment was signing the bill to create Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. Although Reagan was careful to hide his contempt for blacks, it was exposed in taped phone calls to Nixon many years after their deaths.

21 Chester Alan Arthur of New York 21st President, 1881-1885

THE RECORD: Arthur, a New York politician, lucked into the presidency after President Garfield was assassinated. The widower with expensive tastes has an enduring claim to gratitude from African Americans; during his administration, the U.S. Civil Service, a longtime chief employer of blacks, was formed.

22 Herbert Hoover of California 31st President, 1929-1933

THE RECORD: Hoover, a self-made millionaire came to the presidency with a reputation as a great humanitarian who had saved millions of World War I refugees from starvation.

However, as president, he showed little evident concern for working Americans, including blacks, as the stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression wiped out many of his fellow Americans. For the first time, black voters en masse turned their backs on the Republican party in the 1932 election.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 37

23 William Howard Taft of Ohio 27th President, 1909-1913

THE RECORD: The portly Taft had little patience for issues affecting black Americans and even discouraged Southern governments from hiring blacks. He subscribed to the prevailing belief among many whites that blacks were illequipped to vote. Taft preferred the approach of Booker T. Washington that encouraged blacks to pursue vocational work rather than intellectual pursuits, as W.E.B. Du Bois had advocated. During his single term in office, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

24 William McKinley of Ohio 25th President, 1897-1901

THE RECORD: The last president elected in the 19th century and the first to be assassinated in the 20th century, McKinley was raised to be an abolitionist by his mother and was fully in favor of equal rights for blacks. However, despite having appointed several blacks to valued postal positions in the South—very controversial in its day—and relaxing rules for service of black Buffalo Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, there was little more that President McKinley could do given the atmosphere of Jim Crow.

25 James Abram Garfield of Ohio 20th President, 1881

THE RECORD: President Garfield’s term was tragically cut short by an assassin’s bullet six months after his inauguration, but before his life ended, he had already established himself as a leading proponent of full citizenship rights for black Americans and proposed a plan for their advancement through universal education.

BAVUAL

38

FALL 2022

26 Warren Gamaliel Harding of Ohio 29th President, 1921-1923

THE RECORD: Harding was the first 20th century president to openly advocate for political, educational and economic equality for African Americans. His proposal to form an international commission to improve race relations was shot down by Southern Democrats, and the Senate defeated an anti-lynching bill that he endorsed.

27 Benjamin Harrison of Indiana 23rd President, 1889-1893

THE RECORD: As a Republican, Harrison, the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was progressive when it came to advancing the rights of black Americans. He was the first president to offer (failed) legislation to strengthen the 15th Amendment guaranteeing blacks the right to vote but which was all but ignored in the South, and he spoke out against lynching. Attitudes of the era prevented him from making any headway.

28 John Adams of Massachusetts 2nd President, 1797-1801

THE RECORD: Adams, who never owned slaves (but did employ servants), despised slavery and thought it would eventually lead to the young nation’s ruin, yet he opposed abolition, believing that slavery should die a slow and natural death. His son, John Quincy Adams, would take a far more radical stance on eradicating slavery.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 39

29 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland of New York 22nd and 24th President, 1885-1889 & 1893-1897

THE RECORD: The advancement of African Americans was neither a priority nor an afterthought for the only president elected to two nonconsecutive terms; he seemed not to care one way or the other. He considered Reconstruction to be a failure and refused to use federal power to enforce the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed voting rights to African Americans. Cleveland did not appoint any African Americans to patronage jobs, but he did allow Frederick Douglass to continue in his post as recorder of deeds in Washington, D.C. When Douglass later resigned, Cleveland appointed another African American man to replace him.

30 Martin Van Buren of New York 8th President, 1837-1841

THE RECORD: Jackson’s vice president saw abolition as the greatest threat to America’s existence and opposed interfering with slavery where it already existed. The Amistad slave ship revolt occurred during his administration. Van Buren appealed the ensuing court case, wherein the slaves won their freedom, all the way to the Supreme Court (he lost). The court case was a major catalyst along the journey to abolish slavery and elevate the status of blacks before the public.

31 William Henry Harrison of Ohio 9th President, 1841

THE RECORD: Harrison, scion of a Virginia slave-owning family, had been pro-slavery as governor of Indiana. He died of pneumonia only 30 days after his inauguration, too soon to establish a policy on slavery, though one suspects he would have sided with the South on the issue.

BAVUAL

40

FALL 2022

32 James Knox Polk of Tennessee 11th President, 1845-1849

THE RECORD: As a Tennessee planter, Polk owned slaves, mainly children, and profited handsomely from their labor.

He took slaves with him when he went to the White House yet kept his slave-owning a secret from the public for fear of an outcry from abolitionists. President Polk had no problem with slavery expanding to the new Western territories; it was an easy moneymaker.

33 James Buchanan of Pennsylvania 15th President, 1857-1861

THE RECORD: The state of black Americans couldn’t have been much worse than under Buchanan’s administration.

The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision upheld the right of Africans to be considered property by Southern whites, Kansas erupted into violence over the question of whether it was to be admitted as a slave or a free state, and national tensions finally led to secession of the Southern states into a new illegal country, the CSA. Buchanan was powerless to stop any of it nor was he inclined to do so.

34 Millard Fillmore of New York 13th President, 1850-1853

THE RECORD: Fillmore, an anti-slavery Northerner, was placed on the Whig party ticket to appease abolitionists, and when he became president after Taylor’s sudden death, he worked for passage of the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California to the Union but nearly tore apart the U.S. 10 years before the fact and ended Fillmore’s political career.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 41

35 Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire 14th President, 1853-1857 THE RECORD: Pierce, a New Hampshirite (and ancestor of future First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush), was one of the few Northerners to support Southern slavery. His support of such during the congressional squabble over the KansasNebraska Act, which erupted into “Bleeding Kansas”—a war between pro- and anti-slavery supporters—led to the creation of the Republican Party in 1854 and put an end to Pierce’s presidency after one term in 1856.

36 James Monroe of Virginia 5th President, 1817-1825

THE RECORD: Monroe profited handsomely from his ownership of slaves over his lifetime—he owned approximately 70—and brought some of them with him to the White House. He signed the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. A proponent of recolonization of slaves back to Africa, Monrovia, the capital of the African slave colony Liberia, was named for him.

37 Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts 30th President, 1923-1929

THE RECORD: Under Silent Cal Coolidge’s hands-off administration, the Ku Klux Klan became a powerful national political force in both the Democratic and Republican parties throughout the 1920s, and their frequent Southern lynchings were a national disgrace.

BAVUAL

42

FALL 2022

38 John Tyler of Virginia 10th President, 1841-1845 THE RECORD: Tyler set a precedent by becoming the first vice president to succeed to the presidency upon the death of his predecessor. He was your typical Southern slave owner; no one took “His Accidency” seriously, and he was not nominated by the Whigs in 1844. He eventually helped Virginia secede from the Union in 1860 and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives but died in 1862 before taking office.

39 Zachary Taylor of Virginia 12th President, 1849-1850

THE RECORD: Taylor, a lifelong soldier, was a contradiction.

He was a Mexican-American War hero yet opposed westward expansion. Taylor owned 200 slaves on two plantations in Kentucky and Mississippi yet advocated for inclusion of the Western territories as free states. The president died in 1850 shortly before he could see California admitted as a free state.

FALL 2022

BAVUAL 43

THE BOTTOM 5

BAVUAL

40 Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey 27th President 1913-1921

41 Andrew Johnson of Tennessee 17th President 1865-1869

WHY HE SUCKS: From the standpoint of race relations, there really is nothing good to say about Wilson, perhaps the most overtly racist president since Andrew Johnson. It was under Wilson’s administration that the true effects of Jim Crow were felt among blacks, as he introduced stricter segregationist laws at the federal level, especially in employment. His favorite movie—the racist The Birth of a Nation (1915)—spawned race riots nationwide and a rejuvenation of the Ku Klux Klan. Lynchings of blacks soared. Black soldiers in World War I faced intense racism both in uniform abroad and stateside.

WHY HE SUCKS: Johnson was history’s bad accident. A racist Southern Democrat, he was placed on President Lincoln’s ticket in 1864 to win the non-Republican vote.

Lincoln’s assassination elevated Johnson to the White House. He did not view blacks as his equal, sought to deprive them of their civil liberties in the readmitted Southern states (setting the pattern for Jim Crow), and opposed passage of the 14th Amendment abolishing slavery, which led directly to his impeachment in 1868 (he was acquitted in the Senate), the first ever of a sitting president. The Ku Klux Klan was founded during his presidency.

44

FALL 2022

42 Rutherford Birchard Hayes of Ohio 19th President 1877-1881

43 Andrew Jackson of Tennessee 7th President 1865-1869

WHY HE SUCKS: It was the 1876 election that cemented Hayes’ place as one of the worst presidents on race. In order to defeat his Democratic opponent, New York Governor Samuel J. Tilden, in the Electoral College (Tilden had won the popular vote), the Republican agreed to a disgraceful bargain: accept the votes of racist Southern electors in exchange for removing federal troops from the South, thus ending Reconstruction and consigning blacks to almost 100 years of Southern apartheid.

WHY HE SUCKS: Jackson hypocritically considered himself a “compassionate” slave owner and claimed to treat his 300 enslaved Africans favorably yet mercilessly beat them when they ran away and were recaptured. He sent federal troops to put down Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831 and called abolitionists “monsters” and actively fought to crush their movement. His Indian Removal Act is among history’s most notorious instances of genocide.

44 Donald John Trump of New York* 45th President 2017-2021

FALL 2022

WHY HE SUCKS: Trump, considered by many historians and political pundits to be among history’s great demagogues, began a political movement in 2015 called Make America Great Again (MAGA), which embraced all of the worst elements in U.S. history: racism, misogyny, xenophobia, antiSemitism and authoritarianism. Surprisingly, it propelled him to the White House. Thoroughly corrupt, selfish, greedy and amoral, The Donald’s singular term embraced racism on steroids. He claimed to “love” his lone African American supporter, thought blacks were so bad off that they had nothing to lose by voting for him (when in fact they had everything to lose), appointed an obsequious brain surgeon as his lone black Cabinet secretary (of HUD, of all places), and claimed his 2020 re-election defeat was fraudulent because black voters in big cities “cheated.” Trump capped his ignominious political career by attempting a failed coup of the U.S. government on January 6, 2021, in a bid to remain in office. His legacy is a brainwashed cult following equipped by right-wing media with its own set of bogus “alternative facts.”

BAVUAL 45

NOT RANKED, BUT… Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. of Delaware 46th President 2021-

A PROMISING START: Too soon to fully evaluate a presidency in progress, but Joe Biden ran on a winning ticket with Kamala Harris, the first black woman to serve as vice president, appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first black female Supreme Court associate justice, and selected Lloyd Austin as the first black secretary of defense. He also eliminated crushing student loan debt for millions of black and minority college graduates and pardoned federal marijuana offenders.

*at time of election BAVUAL

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FALL COLLEGE GUIDE

BAVUAL's First Annual Review of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

By Lorraine Jones

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PURPOSE OF THE GUIDE

As a service to its readers, BAVUAL presents its first annual Fall Guide to undergraduate education in the U.S. A college degree has long been considered the surest route to the American Dream, and, for most black Americans, it is virtually the only route.

Of the nation’s approximately 5,300 colleges and universities, only 101 are designated as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This guide will explore the significance of these HBCUs and how prospective students can gain access to them.

Is a College Education Still Necessary?

For centuries, the path to upward mobility began at the halls of academe. After the Civil War, newly free African Americans, especially those in the South who were denied admission to white colleges and universities, took advantage of the new schools of higher learning that sprouted throughout the South and Northern states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. They became the educated professionals who played a huge role in advancing the cause of equal rights for their race.

Over the last few years, however, skeptics have been questioning the value of a college education, which is now more than ever an expensive undertaking. While many consider a liberal arts education a quaint anachronism in a world of cold hard practicality and computer algorithms, these people overlook the opposing viewpoint that measuring the value of a degree only by how much money it can generate misunderstands the college experience and its value. A college education is a long-term investment that can often improve several facets of the graduate’s life. Listed below are a few reasons going to college may be worth it: You Will Likely Earn More. Studies have shown that individuals who go to college earn nearly a million dollars more over their lives than their counterparts who only have a high-school diploma. Ideally, the higher you advance academically, the higher your paycheck.

College Education Can Lead to More Career Opportunities. College students receive training not only in their specific disciplines. They also learn other useful skills such as critical thinking and socializing. As students experience the life of a young adult on campus, they are pushed to practice self-discipline, commitment and analytical skills. They even improve their communication skills. This helps ensure that a college graduate is molded into a professional individual. College graduates can work in many environments, even those outside their specific areas of academic interest. Many jobs in the labor market today also require candidates to have a college degree. Therefore, going to college will likely put you ahead of the pack when seeking gainful employment.

Better Networks. College is a great place to make valuable social and professional connections. Maybe the next owner of that Fortune 500 company is in your class or on the college football team. Even though you may not have your entire class in your phone book, the two or three lasting connections you make over the years might be responsible for meaningful opportunities you come across later in life. Networking on campus can also expose you to different career options or life choices, such as taking a semester to study abroad or volunteering for a local charity. You get to open your mind and gain new perspectives as you connect with a diverse group.

Increased Personal Development. Your college years will probably be the time you make some of the most significant changes in your life. In college, you set the pace for the work you will do, the type of friends you will have, and the kind of life you will lead. Even though nothing is set in stone, going to college can give you a solid direction in life. First, you can develop your people skills, as many colleges will ask for group assignments, group research and presentations. Second, your creative and critical thinking skills might be significantly enhanced. Besides this, the college experience allows you a lot of time to yourself where you can reflect on important things and figure out who you are and what you want from life.

Increased Job Security and Satisfaction. A college degree often makes you more valuable to your employer than someone without a college degree. Many employers regard educated staff as an investment in the company. There is often a lower rate of layoffs for college graduates, even during recessions. Job security often brings heightened job satisfaction, as many college graduates can testify. Other benefits include increased pay and opportunities for advancement across careers. A college degree not only serves as a safety net that you can fall back on but something to push you forward as well.

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WHY ARE HBCUS NECESSARY? HBCUs date back to the 19th century, when many offered black students an opportunity for higher education.

Today, HBCUs continue to serve a vital role in higher education.

The first such institutions began in Pennsylvania with the establishment of Cheyney University in 1837 (the first HBCU) and Lincoln University (founded in 1854), the first degree-granting HBCU. In the wake of emancipation, many black Americans founded HBCUs to educate black students. Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Tuskegee University in Alabama are prominent examples.

During the segregation era, HBCUs offered one of the only paths to a college degree for black students. Two of the most prominent HBCU graduates of this era were Thurgood Marshall (Lincoln University in Pennsylvania ’30), the first black person appointed as a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, and Edward W. Brooke (Howard University ’41), the first black person elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.

Historically, HBCUs enrolled primarily black students. However, today non-black students make up nearly a quarter of HBCU enrollment.

After the Civil Rights Movement, HBCUs continued to offer black students a supportive, inclusive environment.

Today, HBCUs graduate a high number of black STEM majors.

You can find most of the 101 HBCUs in the Southern states. Around half of these HBCUs operate as private schools, while the other half are public institutions.

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WHY SHOULD ANYONE CHOOSE TO ATTEND AN HBCU? Attending an HBCU can give black students advantages that are not necessarily available at other undergraduate institutions.

• They're More Affordable. On average, the cost of HBCUs is 26 percent lower than other four-year nonprofit universities.

• They Offer a Supportive Community. At an HBCU, you will likely have a better chance of being surrounded by students and faculty from similar cultural backgrounds and with similar life experiences. These factors can foster an environment of support and inclusion, which is one of the main reasons why students stick with a degree program and complete their education.

• They're Diverse. At the same time, HBCUs cater to students from all walks of life and from every part of the globe, giving you a chance to expand your horizons and meet people from diverse backgrounds.

• HBCU Student Organizations Are Stellar. HBCUs are famous for offering rich social organizations and unique traditions, including world-famous step groups, black student unions, campus ministries, and black fraternities and sororities. These experiences aren't just fun and enriching. They also create proud networks of current and former students.

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IN FOCUS

MARY LUMPKIN TURNS A SLAVE JAIL INTO VIRGINIA UNION UNIVERSITY Life for an enslaved black woman in the early 19th century South was especially harsh. It was typically so for Mary, who was born in 1832 of an enslaved black woman and her enslaver and then sold into slavery herself at the age of 8 to a brutal man, Robert Lumpkin, who turned out to be a rapist. He forced five or more children upon her, the first of whom was born when she was only 13.

When Lumpkin bought a slave jail in Richmond, Va., in 1844, Mary was forced to work in it—an awful task, as it turned out. Lumpkin’s Jail, or the “Devil’s Half Acre” as it became known, was a place of unspeakable cruelty. It was a place of torture on a daily basis for enslaved men, women and children who had tried to escape to free states, were being punished, or were waiting to be sold or transported.

(The same hellish treatment did not apply to Robert Lumpkin’s illegitimate daughters, however, who were all educated in Massachusetts; Lumpkin moved his slave family to Philadelphia for fear that they would be taken in slavery.)

One prisoner, Anthony Burns, a recaptured slave who had escaped to the North, was so violently abused that his health collapsed and he died at age 28, a few years after his release. Mary, a slave herself, was powerless to provide more than a little comfort on occasion, until 1866, when she inherited the jail in Lumpkin’s will when he died. Mary despised the jail so much that she leased it to Nathaniel Colver, an abolitionist minister who wanted to establish a seminary for formerly enslaved people. It was remodeled as the Richmond Theological School for Freedmen—the first step on the road to becoming Virginia Union University, one of the nation’s oldest continuing HBCUs. Mary sold the property in 1873, and three years later, the jail was demolished. She died in 1905 and was buried in Ohio. Her story is told in a book, The Devil’s Half Acre (2022, Seal Press), by Kristen Green.

The hell-hole of the South that later became known as “God’s Half Acre” and then a premier institution of higher learning owes it existence to Mary Lumpkin, a formerly enslaved person. In 2022, VUU’s president, Hakim J. Lukas, said it best: “For Virginia Union to have a forming story rooted in black womanness … it’s a story of its own.”

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DEVELOPMENTS IN 2021-2022

WHY DID HOWARD UNIVERSITY ELIMINATE ITS CLASSICS DEPARTMENT? Howard University in Washington, D.C., was the nation's only historically black university with a classics department, and the school provoked criticism in April 2021 when it was reported that school officials had decided to eliminate the department, which did not offer a major. Despite efforts to save the department, it was eliminated and the study of classic works of Greek, Latin and Anglo antiquity was absorbed by other departments. The move was no doubt a part of an ongoing effort to replace what some academicians consider “dead” history with thinkers of more contemporary appeal, such as minority writers. Many, including black scholars such as Cornel West, didn’t agree with the decision. (West called it a “spiritual catastrophe.”)

Anika Prather, an adjunct professor in the department, noted that Frederick Douglass, while still enslaved at age 12, was able to read Cicero and other ancient texts. "He said when he would read them, he didn't feel like he was a slave. He didn't feel less than human. He didn't feel like he should be oppressed.

Instead, his mind was liberated.” She emphasized that the classics are part of the bedrock of contemporary American society and "that to remove [them], we remove a piece of ourselves."

IS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DEAD? Affirmative action will likely meet its demise in the near future. The writing is on the wall. The cases against affirmative action at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plus a conservative-led Supreme Court eager to undo progressive laws are a formula for its end.

On Oct. 31, 2022, the justices began hearing cases involving the admissions practices of the two universities, which allow admissions officers to consider applicants’ race to foster diversity. The Court’s ruling, which won’t be issued until summer 2023 at the earliest, could conceivably end affirmative action, but not right away. Colleges and universities would likely be given a five-year grace period, to 2028, to eliminate affirmative action.

Nevertheless, a decision banning affirmative action would be catastrophic for the presence of marginalized racial groups on the nation’s leading campuses.

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FRATERNITIES AND SORORITIES: A RICH TRADITION Greek societies enhance the campus experience and provide important opportunities for social networking beyond the college years. Some of the most influential student societies exist on black campuses. These are the most prominent:

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NOTED HBCU ALUMNI

Colleges and universities like to boast about their alumni who have gone on to careers of great distinction. HBCUs are no different and can list among their graduates the current vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris (Howard ’86).

Here is a sample list of HBCU alumni: DAVID DINKINS (Howard) 1st African American mayor of New York City

TONI BRAXTON (Bowie State)

LANGSTON HUGHES (Lincoln in Pennsylvania) Poet, social activist and playwright

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter MARLON WAYANS (Howard)

REV. JESSE JACKSON (North Carolina A&T State) Civil rights activist and presidential candidate SPIKE LEE (Morehouse) Oscar-winning film director, producer, writer and actor

Actor, comedian, and film producer

DEBBIE ALLEN (Howard) Actress, choreographer, director and producer ROBERTA FLACK (Howard)

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter

WILMA RUDOLPH (Tennessee State) World-record-holding Olympic track and field champion

W.E.B. DU BOIS (Fisk)

Scholar, activist and NAACP co-founder

TONI MORRISON (Howard)

Nobel Prize-winning novelist

KESHIA KNIGHT PULLIAM (Spelman)

Film and television actress

SAMUEL L. JACKSON (Morehouse) Award-winning actor and film producer LIONEL RICHIE (Tuskegee)Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and actor

ALTHEA GIBSON (Florida A&M) 1st African American tennis player to win 3 major titles

BOB HAYES (Florida A&M) 1st and only athlete to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl

GLADYS KNIGHT (Shaw) Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and actress GEORGE ALCORN (Howard) Inventor of the imaging X-ray spectrometer

PHYLICIA RASHAD (Howard)

Actress, singer and stage director

PAM OLIVER (Florida A&M)

FOX sportscaster and journalist

JOHN W. THOMPSON (Florida A&M) 1st African American chairman of Microsoft Corporation

TESTIMONIAL I decided to attend an HBCU because of the rich tradition that has produced black superheroes like my idol W.E.B. Du Bois, who attended Fisk University. Additionally, during the time that I attended an HBCU, the president of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) was former congressman William Gray, who was a close friend of my mother, and he spoke highly of the tradition of the black college.

Moreover, I was encouraged by my high school English teacher, Mrs. Delores Henderson, who attended Johnson C. Smith University and told me about the Golden Bull tradition. I was more than intrigued, so I attended, and it transformed my life.

Chad Dion Lassiter, Johnson C. Smith University Alumnus

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FINANCING OPPORTUNITIES

A college education in most cases is an expensive undertaking. Most students cannot afford it without substantial assistance, mainly in the form of student loans. However, there are also several other avenues to paying for a higher education, including scholarships, grants and work-study.

THE AVERAGE COST OF UNIVERSITIES IN THE U.S. (YEARLY)

THE AVERAGE TUITION AND FEES OF HBCUS (YEARLY) $7,211 for state residents $15,102 for out-of-state students The Continuing Problem of Underfunding Black students, due to their historically disadvantaged status, have a greater need for financial aid. Often lacking help from well-off parents, they have to resort to scholarships, loans, grants and work-study to complete their higher education. One organization that was formed to help is the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), which has funded more than $5 billion in scholarships for black students and general scholarship funds for 37 private HBCUs since its inception in 1944. Currently, UNCF awards more than 7,000 scholarships worth $83 million. The philanthropy also provides operating funds to its member HBCUs that maintain high academic standards while keeping average tuition approximately 28 percent lower than comparable schools. UNCF (uncf.org) is also the main voice before Congress and federal agencies advocating for black students.

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SCHOLARSHIPS More than 60,000 exclusive scholarships are available to students who attend HBCUs, and a Google search or contacting an HBCU will uncover them.

Here are a few:

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OTHER FINANCIAL AID A combination of student loans, grants and work study usually completes the student aid package.

LOAN TYPES Direct Subsidized Loans do not need to be repaid until you've graduated or left school. The amount you can borrow may depend on your school and your academic level.

Direct Unsubsidized Loans need to start being repaid as soon as you get the money. The amount you can borrow also depends on your school and your academic level.

DirectPLUS Loans are for professional and graduate students or the parents of dependent students.

State Financial Aid. Almost every state in the country offers some form of financial aid to resident students.

Eligibility requirements vary quite a bit. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators is a great resource to see what financial aid is available in your state.

College-Specific Financial Aid. Many colleges and trade schools offer their own merit-based and need-based financial aid. The funds for these are typically provided by former alumni, major corporations, or local businesses and nonprofits. Some may be geared toward underrepresented students, students who are pursuing a specific degree, or students from certain life backgrounds (such as first-generation college students, those who were in foster care or immigrants). To see what your school offers, check out its financial aid website or visit its financial aid office.

Private Loans. These loans are offered by banks, credit unions and independent lenders. The terms vary significantly depending on the lender, but borrowers may need to provide their identity, show what assets they have, demonstrate regular income, and undergo a credit check. Some lenders may allow you 10-15 years to pay off the loan. Unlike federal loans, most private loans do not offer deferments or loan forgiveness, and they almost always come with higher interest rates and less-favorable terms. For this reason, you should exhaust all other financial aid and scholarship opportunities before turning to a private lender.

Work-study programs hook students up with part-time jobs to help pay for school. These jobs are often oncampus and may even be offered in the student's field of study, giving them valuable hands-on experience.

IS LOAN FORGIVENESS ON THE WAY? As of press time, President Joe Biden's executive order to forgive student loans of $10,000 if you did not receive a federal Pell Grant and $20,000 if you received a Pell Grant*, affecting millions of payers, has been frozen by the U.S. Supreme Court, pending a hearing by Summer 2023. Meanwhile, Biden has extended the loan repayment moratorium until a court decision is rendered.

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*assumes you also meet the income levels

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2022-2023 DIRECTORY OF HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES All institutions except a few are regionally accredited ALABAMA Alabama A&M University, Normal Founded 1875. Undergraduate: 5,107. U.S. News Ranking: #40; Niche.com: C-. aamu.edu Alabama State University, Montgomery Founded 1887. Undergraduate: 3,499. U.S. News Ranking : #31, Niche.com: C-. alasu.edu Bishop State Community College, Mobile Founded 1927. Undergraduate: 2,176. U.S. News Ranking : N/A, Niche.com: N/A. bishop.edu Gadsden State Community College, Gadsden Founded 1895. Undergraduate: 3,993. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. gadsdenstate.edu J.F. Drake State Technical College, Huntsville Founded 1961. Undergraduate: 825. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. drakestate.edu Lawson State Community College, Bessemer Founded 1949. Undergraduate: 2,823. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. lawsonstate.edu Miles College, Fairfield Founded 1898. Undergraduate: 1,500. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. miles.edu Oakwood University, Huntsville Founded 1896. Undergraduate: 1,810. U.S. News Ranking: #38, Niche.com: C-. oakwood.edu Selma University, Selma Founded 1878. Undergraduate: 600. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. selmauniversity.edu Shelton State Community College, Tuscaloosa Founded 1952. Undergraduate: 4,659. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. sheltonstate.edu Stillman College, Tuscaloosa Founded 1876. Undergraduate: 728. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. stillman.edu Talladega College, Talladega Founded 1867. Undergraduate: 1,307. U.S. News Ranking: #57, Niche.com: D. talladega.edu Trenholm State Community College, Montgomery Founded 1949. Undergraduate: 1,526. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. trenholmstate.edu

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Tuskegee University, Tuskegee Founded 1881. Undergraduate: 2,395. U.S. News Ranking: #3, Niche.com: C+. Bankrate.com: Best HBCU for aerospace science engineering. tuskegee.edu National Historic Site.

ARKANSAS University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Pine Bluff Founded 1873. Undergraduate: 2,670. U.S. News Ranking: #31, Niche.com: C+. uapb.edu

Arkansas Baptist College, Little Rock Founded 1884. Undergraduate: 525. U.S. News Ranking; #59-77, Niche.com: D-. arkansasbaptist.edu Philander Smith College, Little Rock Founded 1877. Undergraduate 760. U.S. News Ranking: #40, Niche.com: C. philander.edu Shorter College, North Little Rock Founded 1886. Undergraduate: 223. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. shortercollege.edu DELAWARE Delaware State University, Dover Founded 1891. Undergraduate: 5,649. U.S. News Ranking: #8, Niche.com: B-. desu.edu

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. Founded 1851. Undergraduate: 3,867. U.S. News Ranking: #17, Niche.com: C+. udc.edu Howard University, Washington, D.C. Founded 1867. Undergraduate: 8,964. U.S. News Ranking: #2, Niche.com: B+. Bankrate.com: Best HBCU for research opportunities. howard.edu

FLORIDA Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach Founded 1903. Undergraduate: 3,773. U.S. News Ranking: #49, Niche.com: C. cookman.edu Edward Waters University, Jacksonville Founded 1866. Undergraduate: 1,025. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. ew.edu Florida A&M University, Tallahassee Founded 1887. Undergraduate: 9,179. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: B+. Bankrate.com: Best HBCU for STEAM degrees. famu.edu

Florida Memorial University, Miami Gardens Founded 1879. Undergraduate: 1,800. U.S. News Ranking: #45, Niche.com: C. fmuniv.edu BAVUAL

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GEORGIA Albany State University, Albany Founded 1903. Undergraduate: 5,920. U.S. News Ranking; #49, Niche.com: C. asurams.edu Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta Founded 1865. Undergraduate: 2,436. U.S. News Ranking: #23, Niche.com: C. cau.edu Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley Founded 1895. Undergraduate: 2,182. U.S. News Rating; #36, Niche.com: C. fvsu.edu Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta Founded 1958. Undergraduate: 265. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. itc.edu Morehouse College, Atlanta Founded 1867. Undergraduate: 2,260. U.S. News Ranking: #4, Niche.com: B-. morehouse.edu

Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta Founded 1975. Graduate: 665. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. msm.edu Morris Brown College, Atlanta Founded 1881. Undergraduate: 68 (Recently regained accreditation). U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. morrisbrown.edu Paine College, Augusta Founded 1882. Undergraduate: 485. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: C-. paine.edu Savannah State University, Savannah Founded 1890. Undergraduate: 3,420. U.S. News Ranking: #55, Niche.com: C+. savannahstate.edu

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Spelman College, Atlanta Founded 1881. Undergraduate: 2,420. U.S. News Ranking: #1, Niche.com: B. Bankrate.com: Best all-women HBCU. spelman.edu

KENTUCKY Kentucky State University, Frankfort Founded 1886. Undergraduate: 2,220. U.S. News Ranking: #36, Niche.com: C+. kysu.edu

Simmons University, Louisville Founded 1869. Undergraduate: 1,736. U.S. News Ranking: #31, Niche.com: N/A. simmons.edu LOUISIANA Dillard University, New Orleans Founded 1869. Undergraduate: 1,301. U.S. News Ranking: #14, Niche.com: C+. dillard.edu Grambling State University, Grambling Founded 1901. Undergraduate: 5,232. U.S. News Ranking: #49, Niche.com: C. gram.edu

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Southern University at New Orleans, New Orleans Founded 1959. Undergraduate: 2,220. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. suno.edu Southern University of Shreveport, Shreveport Founded 1967. Undergraduate: 3,014. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. susla.edu Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge Founded 1880. Undergraduate: 7,091. U.S. News Ranking: #26, Niche.com: C+. subr.edu Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans Founded 1915. Undergraduate: 3,231. U.S. News Ranking: #5, Niche.com: B-. Bankrate.com: Best HBCU for natural and health sciences. xula.edu

MARYLAND Bowie State University, Bowie Founded 1895. Undergraduate: 5,227. U.S. News Ranking: #18, Niche.com: C+. bowiestate.edu Coppin State University, Baltimore Founded 1900. Undergraduate: 2,383. U.S. News Ranking: #35, Niche.com: C+, coppin.edu University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne Founded 1886. Undergraduate: 2,333. U.S. News Ranking: #16, Niche.com: C. Bankrate.com: Best HBCU for a vibrant campus experience. umes.edu Morgan State University, Baltimore Founded 1867. Undergraduate: 6,461. U.S. News Ranking: #12, Niche.com: C+. Bankrate.com: Best HBCU for engineering majors. morgan.edu

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MISSISSIPPI Alcorn State University, Lorman Founded 1871. Undergraduate: 3,069. U.S. News Ranking: #23, Niche.com: B. alcorn.edu

Coahoma Community College, Coahoma County Founded 1924. Undergraduate: 1,612. U.S. News Ranking: #31, Niche.com: N/A. coahomacc.edu Hinds Community College of Utica, Utica Founded 1903. Undergraduate: 12,000. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. hindscc.edu Jackson State University, Jackson Founded 1875. Undergraduate: 5,152. U.S. News Ranking: #19, Niche.com: B-. jsums.edu

Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena Founded 1950. Undergraduate: 2,406. U.S. News Ranking: #45, Niche.com: C. mvsu.edu Rust College, Holly Springs Founded 1866. Undergraduate: 700 to 900. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. rustcollege.edu Tougaloo College, Hinds County Founded 1869. Undergraduate: 900. U.S. News Ranking: #12, Niche.com: C+. tougaloo.edu

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MISSOURI Harris-Stowe State University, St. Louis Founded 1857. Undergraduate: 1,630. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C. hssu.edu

Lincoln University of Missouri, Jefferson City Founded 1866. Undergraduate: 1,794. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C. lincolnu.edu NORTH CAROLINA Barber-Scotia College, Concord Founded 1887. Undergraduate: 24? (Currently seeking accreditation). U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. b-sc.edu Bennett College for Women, Greensboro Founded 1873. Undergraduate: 232. U.S. News Ranking: #45, Niche.com: C-. bennett.edu Elizabeth City State University, Elizabeth City Founded 1891. Undergraduate: 1,956. U.S. News Ranking: #23, Niche.com: C+. ecsu.edu Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville Founded 1867. Undergraduate: 5,186. U.S. News Ranking: #31, Niche.com: B-. uncfsu.edu Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte Founded 1867. Undergraduate: 1,312. U.S. News Ranking: #26, Niche.com: C+. jcsu.edu Livingstone College, Salisbury Founded 1879. Undergraduate: 1,200. U.S. News Ranking: #49, Niche.com: C-. livingstone.edu North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro Founded 1891. Undergraduate: 13,560. U.S. News Ranking: #9, Niche.com: B. ncat.edu North Carolina Central University, Durham Founded 1910. Undergraduate: 8,207. U.S. News Ranking: #14, Niche.com: C+. nccu.edu

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Shaw University, Raleigh Founded 1865. Undergraduate 1,174. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. shawu.edu

St. Augustine’s University, Raleigh Founded 1867. Undergraduate: 974. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. st-aug.edu Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem Founded 1892. Undergraduate: 4,741. U.S. News Ranking: #19, Niche.com: B-. wssu.edu

OHIO Central State University, Wilberforce Founded 1887. Undergraduate: 2,033. U.S. News Ranking: #40, Niche.com: C-. centralstate.edu Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce Founded 1856. Undergraduate: 177. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. payneseminary.edu Wilberforce University, Wilberforce Founded 1856. Undergraduate: 500. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. wilberforce.edu Oldest HBCU to retain its original name, and the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans.

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OKLAHOMA Langston University, Langston Founded 1897. Undergraduate: 1,873. U.S. News Ranking: #55, Niche.com: C+. langston.edu

PENNSYLVANIA Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Cheyney Founded 1837. Undergraduate: 627. U.S. News Ranking: #43, Niche.com: C. cheyney.edu The oldest HBCU.

Lincoln University, Chester County Founded 1854. Undergraduate: 2,241. U.S. News Ranking: #22, Niche.com: C. lincoln.edu First degree- granting HBCU.

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SOUTH CAROLINA Allen University, Columbia Founded 1870. Undergraduate: 630. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. allenuniversity.edu Benedict College, Columbia Founded 1870. Undergraduate: 2,140. U.S. News Ranking: #58, Niche.com: C-. benedict.edu Claflin University, Orangeburg Founded 1869. Undergraduate: 1,978. U.S. News Ranking: #9, Niche.com: B-. claflin.edu

Clinton Junior College, Rock Hill Founded 1894. Undergraduate: 200. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: C. clintoncollege.edu Denmark Technical College, Denmark Founded 1947. Undergraduate: 491. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. denmarktech.edu Morris College, Sumter Founded 1908. Undergraduate: 538. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. morris.edu South Carolina State University, Orangeburg Founded 1896. Undergraduate: 1,529. U.S. News Ranking: #39, Niche.com: C. scsu.edu

Voorhees College, Denmark Founded 1897. Undergraduate: 600. U.S. News Ranking: #26, Niche.com: C-. voorhees.edu

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TENNESSEE American Baptist College, Nashville Founded 1924. Undergraduate: 152. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. abcnash.edu Fisk University, Nashville Founded 1866. Undergraduate: 1,053 . U.S. News Ranking: #11, Niche.com: B-. Bankrate.com: Best liberal arts HBCU.fisk.edu

Knoxville College, Knoxville (Mechanicsville) Founded 1875. Undergraduate: 11 (Currently rebuilding its program and seeking to regain accreditation). U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. knoxvillecollege.edu Lane College, Jackson Founded 1882. Undergraduate: 1,426. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: D. lanecollege.edu LeMoyne-Owen College, Memphis Founded 1862. Undergraduate: 950. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C. loc.edu Meharry Medical College, Nashville Founded 1876. Graduate: 956. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. mmc.edu Tennessee State University, Nashville Founded 1912. Undergraduate: 5,875. U.S. News Ranking: #34, Niche.com: C. tnstate.edu TEXAS Huston-Tillotson University, Austin Founded 1875. Undergraduate: 968. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C+. htu.edu Jarvis Christian University, Hawkins Founded 1912. Undergraduate: 800. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C-. jarvis.edu Paul Quinn College, Dallas Founded 1872. Undergraduate: 551. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: C-. pqc-edu.squarespace.com

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Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View Founded 1876. Undergraduate: 9,350. U.S. News Ranking: #26, Niche.com: B-. pvamu.edu

Southwestern Christian College, Terrell Founded 1948. Undergraduate: 106. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. swcc.edu St. Phillip’s College, San Antonio Founded 1898. Undergraduate: 11,655. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. .alamo.edu/spc Texas College, Tyler Founded 1894. Undergraduate: 972. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: D+. texascollege.edu Texas Southern University, Houston Founded 1927. Undergraduate: 7,524. U.S. News Ranking: #49, Niche.com: C. tsu.edu Wiley College, Marshall Founded 1873. Undergraduate: 1,100. U.S. News Ranking: #49, Niche.com: D+. wileyc.edu UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix & St. Thomas Founded 1962. Undergraduate: 2,138. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: C+. uvi.edu

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VIRGINIA Hampton University, Hampton Founded 1868. Undergraduate: 3,836. U.S. News Ranking: #6, Niche.com: C. hamptonu.edu

Norfolk State University, Norfolk Founded 1935. Undergraduate: 5,000. U.S. News Ranking: #19, Niche.com: C. nsu.edu Virginia State University, Petersburg Founded 1882. Undergraduate: 4,713. U.S. News Ranking: #26, Niche.com: C. Bankrate.com: Best HBCU for agricultural science. vsu.edu Virginia Union University, Richmond Founded 1865. Undergraduate: 1,700. U.S. News Ranking: #43, Niche.com: C-. vuu.edu Virginia University of Lynchburg, Lynchburg Founded 1886. Undergraduate: 750. U.S. News Ranking: N/A, Niche.com: N/A. vul.edu WEST VIRGINIA Bluefield State University, Bluefield Founded 1895. Undergraduate: 1,246. U.S. News Ranking: #48, Niche.com: C. bluefieldstate.edu

West Virginia State University, Institute Founded 1891. Undergraduate: 3,755. U.S. News Ranking: #59-77, Niche.com: C+. wvstateu.edu

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ANSWERS

TO THE BLACK HISTORY QUIZ ON PAGE 86 PEOPLE 1. Brown purchased a private Learjet in 1966 – the first African American to own one - and became its spokesman.

2. Though she allegedly had dark skin, the evidence is inconclusive. According to some historians, she is 25 percent Middle Eastern and European; the other 75 percent is inconclusive.

3. Blue Ivy Carter, first child of music stars JAY-Z and Beyoncé, has a net worth of $500 million, making her among the wealthiest children of any race in the U.S. 4. Audi, Audi Q7, Mercedes Benz, BMW X5, Jeep Grand Cherokee 5. In addition to being able to afford it, he did it to honor his African heritage and the three wise men who brought gifts to Jesus at his birth.

6. Singer Bruno Mars reportedly rakes in $950,000 for a single concert.

PLACES 1. Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. aka Bishop T.D. Jakes, head of The Potter’s House, a non-denominational U.S. church, with a net worth in excess of $150 million. He wears custom-made suits whilst sporting a diamond ring.

2. Villa Lewaro, in upstate Irvington, N.Y., was built in 1918 and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

3. Ghana (142.4 tonnes) and South Africa (118.2 tonnes), respectively.

4. South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo 5. Jnane Tamsna–Marrakech, Morocco; Spice Island Beach Resort–Grand Anse Beach, St. George’s, Grenada; Negril Tree House Resort–Negril, Jamaica; La Maison Michelle–St. James, Barbados; iKhaya Lodge–Cape Town, South Africa; Soweto Hotel & Conference Center–Soweto, South Africa; Salamander Resort & Spa–Middleburg, Va.; La Maison In Midtown–Houston, Texas; Paradise Cove Resort–Anguilla; RLJ Kendeja–Paynesville, Liberia 6. Sylvia’s Restaurant, Amy Ruth’s, Melba’s Restaurant and Red Rooster Harlem, all located in New York City, and Farmerbrown, in San Francisco.

EVENTS 1. Hammer, once worth $33 million, filed for bankruptcy, owing $13 million, due to declining album sales, unpaid loans, a large payroll and an extravagant lifestyle. He has since recovered handsomely in other businesses.

2. He became the first African American to sail around the world solo via the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn.

3. Combs held a star-studded gala at the Plaza Hotel to celebrate his 40th birthday.

4. Jackie Aina, who appeared at the city’s hottest social event on September 15, 2021, sporting the dress “90s Black Barbie Meets Pamela Anderson.”

5. Allen closed on a modest 11,000-square-foot mansion on 3.5 acres in Malibu, Calif.; however, it is loaded with amenities, including two guesthouses and a rumored breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean.

6. Berry became the first and only black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress at the Academy Awards ceremony, for her performance in Monster’s Ball (2001).

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DESTINATIONS

Fascinating Places to Visit

COME TO JAMAICA, MAN The West Indian Island That Gave Us Bob Marley and Bond, James Bond

By Kristen Jones

brought with them. As a result, early historians believed that by 1602, the diverse Caribbean island of Jamaica is Arawak-speaking Taino tribe had an attractive tourist magnet, it also has become extinct. However, it is now a long and ugly history of genocide and believed that some of these people slavery that goes back at least to the escaped into the forested mountains of arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494 the interior, where they mixed with runaway African slaves and survived and the Spanish colonizers who free from Spanish and then English followed. rule.

thousands of enslaved people, the

After seeing its stunning land and

While the Spanish also transported hundreds of West African people to the island as slaves, most Africans were “the fairest island that eyes have beheld: mountains and the land seem to brought into Jamaica by the English who invaded the island in 1655. During touch the sky … all full of valleys and this time, the Spaniards themselves fields and plains.” escaped the island or were expelled shortly afterward. The population of The Coming of the Colonizers English settlers remained small, but they brought in vast numbers of Centuries before the arrival of these European invaders, this scenic land was African slaves to work the sugar estates. inhabited in 600 or 650 C.E. by the

extremely brutal in their repression of

beaches, Columbus wrote that it was

the slaves. As noted in 1739 by

Redware people, often associated with

abolished the evil institution in 1834.

While the beautiful and culturally

redware pottery. Then, by roughly 800

74

wars with free Africans called Maroons.

To maintain control, the British were

Barbadian writer Charles Leslie in his book, A New and Exact History of Jamaica, "No country excels (Jamaica) in a barbarous treatment of slaves, or in the cruel methods they put them to death."

Still, after nearly 180 years of slavery in Jamaica, the English finally

that practice was also abolished in

water."

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had to deal with slave rebellions and

masters for several years afterward,

"Xaymaca," meaning "land of wood and

ravaged by diseases that the Spanish

though, and from time to time, they

apprentices to the former slave

arrived. These people named the land

enslaved these natives, who were also

from the island. It was not always easy

Although the “freed” slaves remained

C.E., Arawak tribes, including the Taino,

When the Spanish arrived, they

English acquired exorbitant wealth

1838, and they received full freedom.

Independence—Finally Through the cultivation of sugar and the exploitation of hundreds of

More than a hundred years later, in 1962, the long-exploited island finally FALL 2022

gained its independence from England.

extending generally east to west for

Today, the nation is a stable

about 100 miles.

parliamentary democracy that operates as a constitutional monarchy

The official language of the nation is

and member of the Commonwealth.

English, so English-speaking visitors

The current prime minister, Andrew

will have little problem communicating

Michael Holness, began his second

with the local people. In addition to

term on March 3, 2016. Jamaica has

English, Jamaican Creole is widely

two main political parties: the People's

spoken. This language’s vocabulary

National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica

and grammar are based in English, but

Labor Party (JLP). The JLP now forms

its various dialects also derive

the government, and the PNP now

vocabulary and phrasing from West

forms the opposition.

African languages, Spanish, Irish, American English, and, to a lesser

THIS ICONIC PHOTO FROM A 1970S AD LED TO A TOURISM BOOM.

Geography and Language

degree, French. Some elements of the

Jamaica lies about 87 miles south of

language can be traced back to the

Cuba and about 118 miles west of Haiti.

island’s past in slavery, where African

At its greatest extent, it is 146 miles

languages mixed with the native

long. It is the largest island of the

language of slave owners. The

Commonwealth Caribbean and the

grammatical structure, lyrical

third largest of the Greater Antilles,

cadences, intonations and

after Cuba and Hispaniola. Many small

pronunciations of Creole make it a

islands are located along the southern

distinct language and a wonderful

coast of Jamaica, such as the Port

manifestation of the melting pot of

Royal Cays. Southwest of mainland

cultures that make up the island’s

Jamaica lies Pedro Bank, an area of

populace.

shallow seas, with a number of cays

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Famous Jamaicans and the Rise of

Followers of Garvey’s teachings

Rastafarianism

came together to form a religion in

When most people think of Jamaica,

1930, when Haile Selassie I became

they probably think about Bob Marley.

the emperor of Ethiopia. Rastafarians

Arguably the nation's most famous

consider the emperor their messiah,

export, even though he died more than

naming the movement after his birth

four decades ago, Marley still holds

name, Ras Tafari Makonnen.

stock as a reggae music pioneer who brought Jamaica's music, culture and

There are approximately a million

worldview sharply into focus on the

followers of the Rastafari movement

global stage. Successive Jamaican

worldwide. Clean eaters, Rastas

governments have remained keenly

consider their body to be a temple,

aware of his enduring star power, using

based on the Old Testament

his music in tourism commercials,

teachings. Rastas do not drink alcohol

promoting the Bob Marley Museum as

or eat food that is not nourishing to

a must-see attraction, and even

their body, which includes meat.

partially decriminalizing marijuana.

Many follow a strict dietary law called

Marley was a staunch Rastafari, a

ital, which states that all food must be

religion that uses ganja as an integral

completely natural and pure,

part of spiritual observances.

although what this means is interpreted in various ways.

Another famed artist of Jamaican

According to Old Testament scripture

descent, Jimmy Cliff, was born July 30,

(Leviticus 19:27), they also believe

1944. He is known as a Jamaican ska,

they should not cut their hair because

rocksteady, reggae and soul musician,

it is where their strength lies. As a

multi-instrumentalist, singer and actor.

result, dreadlocks form naturally over

He is the only living reggae musician to

time. Rastas also do not consider

hold the Order of Merit, the highest

marijuana a drug. Instead, it is a

honor that can be granted by the

medium that is used to open their

Jamaican government for

mind and increase their spiritual

achievements in the arts and sciences.

awareness. Smoking marijuana is

Cliff was also briefly a member of the

considered a religious ritual.

Rastafari movement before converting to Islam from Christianity.

Rastas see Africa as a paradise on earth, and at the core of the

Marcus Garvey, born in Jamaica in

movement is the belief that all people

1887, was a political activist and

of the African diaspora should return

supporter of black self-empowerment.

to their homeland. Many Rastafaris

Many Rastafari consider Garvey to be a

hope to return to Africa during their

prophet, similar to John the Baptist’s

lifetime. The colors of their flag are

role in Christianity. In his teachings, he

red, green, black and gold.

KING CHARLES III, TITULAR HEAD OF STATE

Nuclear Island It is surprising to discover that Jamaica, the pristine paradise in the tropical Caribbean, has its own nuclear power plant, the first and so far only one in the West Indies. Erected in 1984, its purpose is not to make Jamaica a nuclear power with its own arsenal of bombs, but rather to supply energy, not only to the island but to the entire Caribbean. Currently the reactor, located on the University of the West Indies campus at Mona, Jamaica, is for research purposes only. At the moment neither the technology nor the budget is available to convert Jamaica’s electrical grid, now powered 90 percent by fossil fuels, to nuclear power, but the development of smaller, cheaper reactors may make it possible in the near future.

urged those of the African diaspora to not only return to Africa but to also “Look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned.” Some believe that prophecy was realized with the crowning of the last emperor of Ethiopia.

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A Diverse Cuisine Derived From Many Nations Jamaican cuisine developed on the island as a result of waves of slavery and the various nations involved in the practice. Jamaican callaloo, for example, is based on the African Angolan dish calulu. The fruit of the most popular Jamaican dish, ackee, was also brought to the Island by West African peoples. The Spanish, the first European arrivals to the island, and Spanish Jews contributed dishes such as the vinegary escovitch fish (Spanish escabeche), which was partly altered by Jamaicans.

Later, the Cornish may have influenced the development of the Jamaican patty, a pasty-style turnover filled with spiced meat. Chinese and East Indian influences can also be found in Jamaican

JAMAICAN COAT OF ARMS

cuisine such as roti and curry goat as a result of indentured laborers who replaced slaves after emancipation and brought their own culinary talents.

Salted codfish was brought by Portuguese Jews who had escaped the Inquisition in the 1500s and is now used in the national dish ackee and saltfish, but it was also a staple for enslaved Africans as a longlasting, affordable protein.

Jamaican cuisine also includes Rastafarian influences. Rastafarians have a vegetarian approach to preparing food, cooking and eating, and they introduced a host of unique vegetarian dishes to Jamaican cuisine. Some also believe in cooking with little or no salt.

Pork is very popular in Jamaica, and stew pork and jerk pork are among the most popular pork cuisine.

Ackee, saltfish and Jamaican patties wrapped in coco

FAMED PIRATE CAPTAIN JUAN MORGAN MADE JAMAICA HIS HOME BASE.

bread are also popular Jamaica staples. A typical Jamaican breakfast might include ackee and saltfish, seasoned callaloo, boiled green bananas, and fried dumplings.

Tourism: A Great Opportunity for the Island Tourism began in Jamaica in the 1890s when the United Fruit Company, seeking to use the excess capacity of its ships, encouraged cruises to the island and tourist hotels were constructed. Tourism, however, did not flourish until after World War II when accelerated depreciation allowances for investment in that sector helped triple the number of hotels from 1945 to 1970. Further hotel incentive

ENSLAVED AFRICANS WAGED THE BAPTIST WAR IN 1831-32, DESTROYING MANY PLANTATIONS. IT LED TO THE END OF SLAVERY IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1838.

legislation in 1968 continued to transform the industry, eventually strengthening the role of larger

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STREET LIFE IN DOWNTOWN KINGSTON, THE CAPITAL CITY.

COLORFUL CARNIVALS ARE FREQUENT.

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hotels. After a 20-year period of growth, tourism slumped in the mid-1970s for a variety of reasons, ranging from radical domestic policies to negative press coverage abroad.

In the 1980s, the tourist market was recaptured, and it expanded more quickly than the rest of the economy.

American tourists were believed to be traveling more often to the Caribbean as a result of growing terrorism in Europe. In addition, Jamaica became particularly attractive as numerous devaluations of the Jamaican dollar made United States dollars more valuable and because English was widely spoken there. Mainly because of the white-sand beaches and pleasant weather, Jamaica's north coast has become the island's tourist center, the main points being Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Port Antonio. Many tourists also visit Kingston, but this city is most important as a commercial center and the seat of the government.

CURRY GOAT WITH RICE AND PEAS, A POPULAR DISH.

RUM, JAMAICA'S MOST FAMOUS EXPORT. FALL 2022

MARCUS GARVEY, FATHER OF THE BACK TO AFRICA MOVEMENT AND NATIONAL HERO.

REGGAE ARTIST BOB MARLEY HELPED PUT JAMAICA AND SOCIAL ACTIVISM ON THE MAP IN THE 1970S.

Unfortunately, the vast tourism potential of the island is currently marred by its high crime rate, and the U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory on October 5, 2022, cautioning potential tourists to reconsider Jamaica due to crime and not to travel to certain areas. Before planning a trip, it is therefore recommended to check current advisories.

JIMMY CLIFF'S 1972 CULT CRIME ACTIONER HAS INSPIRED HOLLYWOOD EVER SINCE.

POPULIST PM MICHAEL MANLEY TRIED TO ELEVATE THE STATUS OF JAMAICA'S POOR.

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If the nation can dramatically reduce its high crime rate in the coming years, it should be even better able to attract vacationers who want to learn about its history and enjoy its music, ethnically rich foods, people, diverse ecosystem, resorts, and beautiful landscape and beaches.

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COMMANDER JAMAICA The name James Bond is synonymous with exotic locales, beautiful femmes fatale, cool gadgets and sports cars and dastardly villains. He is the invention of a British journalist and World War II British navy spy, Ian Fleming, who from 1952 to 1964 wrote his classic novels depicting the adventures of British Secret Service Agent 007 at his beachfront vacation home in Jamaica, Goldeneye.

In the late 1940s while serving after the war as head of foreign correspondents for London’s Sunday Times, Fleming wanted to settle in the Caribbean. He was looking for a suitable place where he could return every winter and write, and although he’d only briefly been to Jamaica during World War II, he loved it and decided he would one day make a home there. He once noted that if he had not moved to Jamaica, he would likely not have written Casino Royale, the first of his 14 James Bond books, in 1952. In the series, Fleming often showcased the people, scenery and culture of Jamaica.

As Bond rose in popularity, first in the novels, then in the 1960s-era movies starring Sean Connery, so did Fleming and Jamaica. The first Bond film, Dr. No (based on a Fleming script for a prospective TV series called Commander Jamaica), released in 1962, was filmed in Jamaica, and the island has traded on the glamorous 007 image ever since.

The iconic Jamaican soca band, the Dragonaires, led by Byron Lee, recorded and performed “Jamaica Jump Up” in the film and is on the first Bond soundtrack. (Roger Moore’s first Bond outing, Live And Let Die, was also filmed in part in Jamaica.)

After Fleming’s death in 1964, Goldeneye was nearly bought by Bob Marley before it was eventually purchased by Chris Blackwell in 1976. Today it is a 21-room resort with a private beach and a major tourist attraction; the last Bond film, No Time To Die (2021), was partly filmed there. Mr. Fleming no doubt would be stirred but not shaken.

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THE CULTURE

All About Media, the Arts and Sports

FILM REVIEW: TILL A Modern Masterpiece of Social Justice

By Stephen G. Hall, PhD

This film is rated PG-13, and parents are strongly cautioned, that some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

The murder of Emmett Till has proven over the years to be an enduring take on humankind’s injustice to one another. This inhumanity has not gone unnoticed or unanswered by African Americans. Agitation against lynching and other forms of extrajudicial justice against African Americans has always been particularly important to black women, especially black mothers. The daring exploits of Ida B. Wells, who brought attention through her writings and activism in the late 19th century to the gruesome practice of lynching and it’s connection to white supremacy and notions of pure white femininity, are well-known. Wells, a mother, business owner and tireless advocate for black progress, understood what was at stake and broadcasted her findings to the world.

The Scottsboro mothers, the mothers of nine teenagers and young men falsely accused of raping two white women on a boxcar near

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Scottsboro, Ala., in the 1930s, galvanized national and international opinion to highlight the plight of their sons. Mamie Till-Mobley, rather than an anomaly, followed in the footsteps of her foremothers and in doing so memorialized her son for the ages. The movie Till captures the essence of a mother and child’s relationship and in doing so earns a 5-star rating.

At the center of the film are two defining elements: first, the tenacity of a mother to preserve the memory of her son, and, second, the desire to humanize an African American child and to demonstrate that he was a human being deserving of respect and honor and that his life mattered— Black Lives Matter. These two elements are constantly on display throughout the film.

Led by a strong cast featuring Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till, Sean Patrick Thomas as Gene Mobley, Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till, Whoopi Goldberg and Frankie Faison as Till’s grandparents, John Douglas Thompson as Mose Wright, and Keisha Tillis as Elizabeth Wright, this movie thrills with potent realism and deep empathy with Till’s murder and the structural racism that engenders it.

The quality of the acting exceeds the

standard cinematic experience. Here, given the strength of the cast, it seems more like an onstage play. The character development is rich and deep, and each character comes alive in vivid and vibrant ways.

Another example of the film’s potent realism is Mamie’s testimony during the murder trial in Mississippi. She travels to Mississippi with her father.

She meets Medgar Evers played by Tosin Cole and journeys to Mound Bayou, an all-black town in the Delta founded by Isaiah Montgomery in the aftermath of the Civil War. While there, Mamie stays with T.R.M. Howard, a black physician, prominent civil rights leader, and founder in the 1950s of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, who is ably portrayed by veteran film and stage actor Roger Guenveur Smith. Howard paid all of Mamie’s expenses and lodged not only her but other black participants in the trial at his home.

Here we see the underpinnings of civil rights activism in Mississippi.

Howard’s home is spacious and surrounded by armed guards. He also escorted Mamie and others in caravans with heavily armed guards from the courthouse and back to his home during the trial. Howard’s home/compound was ground zero for the African American fight for civil

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promise. He is adored by his mother, grandparents and his stepfather.

Although he is a bit of a prankster, as viewers, we come away with the firm understanding that he is a child not unlike any other young boy of this age. His brightness carries through Mamie Till is a presence through the movie even as he seems on a the film. Her character moves collision course with his fate. His seamlessly from a loving, doting smile is endearing as we see him with mother to a fierce and undeterred his mother at the train station advocate for her son. Her leaving for Mississippi. In Mississippi, protectiveness is on display as she The Till murder trial is just as we see Emmett in the cotton field muses and frets over the decision riveting as the murder. The with relatives picking cotton. Even in to allow Emmett to travel to courtroom scenes, from the frisking Bryant’s Grocery, we see a young Mississippi. She says repeatedly of the black participants and guests boy innocently making conversation that they (she and her son) have at the door, to the enforced with an older white woman. His inner never been separated from one light shines brightly. We see what is another. Persuaded by her mother segregation in the courtroom, to the sheriff’s announcement that he good and wholesome about him. His to allow him to go, Mamie quickly innocence is frozen in time. realizes it is a mistake. Alerted that has reserved seats in the front for Emmett is missing, she reaches out the n-word folks with a gun While we see Emmett’s abduction to Chicago’s black power structure strapped to his waist, set a tone of and murder and his mutilated corpse and the NAACP. Chicago had a large injustice. These realities are compounded by the sheriff’’s in the funeral home and in the open black middle class and casket, that is not our final like New York was well-established testimony that Emmett Till’s body was unidentifiable and his death impression. As the move ends, as a site for black social, cultural, was a hoax concocted by his Mamie Till is in her son’s room. Her political and economic power. mother. Mamie’s testimony works fight continues, and we see Emmett in a dreamlike sequence in vibrant When she is informed of Emmett’s to humanize her son. She deflates the idea that he is a man, which is a colors with a bright shirt and an even death and discovery in the river, brighter smile. There he stands with one of the most poignant scenes in mythology used to dehumanize black children by making them his classic hat and with his vibrant the movie unfolds. Mamie falls to seem older and by extension presence. Mamie smiles and hugs the ground, and the whole room is deserving of any punishment they him. In this instance, we know his convulsed in grief. Grief quickly receive. She also challenges any spirit lives on, the cause he ignited is turns to concerted action and determination. Mamie seems stoic idea that Emmett was familiar with eternal, and a mother’s love and white women or would brazenly connection to her offspring cannot in her indignation regarding her ever be denied or end. It is as son’s death. She insists he must not assault a white woman in any way.

Recognizing that the odds are constant as the seasons and as be buried in Mississippi and his stacked against her, she does not unending as the eternal quest for body should be returned to stay for the verdict. human dignity. Till places a mother's Chicago. The film recreates the love on full display and venerates arrival of Till’s body in a pine box.

Mamie is inconsolable as she greets As much as Mamie humanizes her the object of her affection, her son.

It is like nothing I have seen before, the coffin and bursts into tears and son through a collective set of and it represents the ability of film wails uncontrollably. While viewing purposeful actions, Emmett also comes alive in this film in untold to touch the deep heartstrings of our her son’s disfigured body at the ways. All too often we see pictures shared humanity. funeral home, she decides to have of Emmett as a young boy in a hat an open-casket funeral. The film, or in another famous picture next like Mamie Till, does not flinch in Directed by Chinonye Chukhu; to his mother. But those images are showing a recreation of Till’s Starring Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn the most we see of Till. The movie disfigured body. The crime and its Hall, Frankie Faison, Haley shows us Emmett’s life in Chicago. result are unvarnished and Bennett, Whoopi Goldberg; We see a jovial, happy-go-lucky displayed in their entirety. The Running time: 130 minutes. child full of expectation and recreation of the mourners who rights in Mississippi. While there, Mamie meets Myrlie Evers portrayed by Jayme Lawson. The two women talk about their families and trade stories of love and loss.

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viewed Till’s disfigured body at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago is also lifelike. We as viewers feel as though we are in Roberts Temple in what seems to be a never- ending line of mourners.

The emotions are palpable, and the grief is real. We can hear and feel the wailing and lamentations. It is enough to make the angels in heaven weep.

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IT'S POLITICAL

Cartoons That Explain Today's World

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BLACK HISTORY QUIZ

THEME: BLING

BAVUAL's Nod to Conspicuous Consumption Test your knowledge of those who flaunt it if they have it. And remember: Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

PEOPLE

1 James Brown was a spokesman for and owner of which well-known product beginning in 1966?

2 Was Cleopatra a black African woman?

3

Who is the richest black kid?

What are the top five most expensive 4 cars purchased by famous African politicians?

Why did Mr. T (aka Laurence Tureaud)

5 wear up to 40 pounds of gold jewelry around his neck?

6

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LEFT

Who is the highest paid black entertainer in Las Vegas?

FALL 2022

PLACES

1 As of 2015, who was the richest black pastor in the world?

2 What was the name of beauty

millionaire Madam C.J. Walker’s elegant mansion, and where was it located?

3 What two African countries are the world’s seventh and eighth largest producers of gold?

EVENTS

1 Famous American rapper MC

Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell) made worldwide headlines for what 1996 event?

The late yachtsman William 2 Pinkney was the first African American to achieve this feat in 1992. What was it?

Rap mogul Sean Combs aka Puff

3 Daddy/P. Diddy spent $3 million on what 2009 New York City event?

4 Who was the first black content 4 Which four African countries

creator to attend New York City’s prestigious Met Gala?

produce the most diamonds?

5 Entrepreneur Byron Allen was the Where are the 10 most beautiful

5 black-owned hotels in the world

first black American to make this $100 million purchase in 2022.

What was it?

located?

Actress Halle Berry earned

6 distinction at what 2002 event?

6 What are the top five black-owned restaurants in the U.S.?

HOW DID YOU DO? ANSWERS ARE ON PAGE 73 FALL 2022

BAVUAL 87

THE HUSTLE

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

KANYE WEST The Rise and Fall of Ye

By Kristen Jones Rising from middle-class Chicago, Ill., to the lap of luxury in Beverly Hills, Calif., would seem like an impossible dream for most people, but for rapper, music producer, fashion designer and influencer Kanye West, it was a reality. Although the 45-year-old star quickly rose to nearunimaginable heights, recent controversies have even more quickly brought him down, costing him heavily both socially and financially. According to Forbes magazine, West, whose previous net worth was in the billions, is a “billionaire no more.”

So, what happened? What led to this giant star’s epic fall?

The Beginning Born in Atlanta, Ga., in 1977, West moved to Chicago at the age of 3 with his mother, Donda West, after she divorced his father. They then briefly lived overseas when his mother taught in China. His love for the arts bloomed early, and he released his first musical endeavor in the third grade and began making musical compositions in the seventh grade, eventually selling them to other artists.

He soon achieved recognition for his

dollars in a short time. He is among the

abilities and is often credited with

top best-selling digital artists in history,

revitalizing JAY-Z's career with his

according to the Recording Industry

contributions to JAY-Z’s 2001 album

Association of America (RIAA).

The Blueprint.

As his career was in full swing, however,

On Oct. 23, 2002, while he was driving

his mother passed away in 2007,

home from a California recording

possibly due to complications following

studio after working late, he fell asleep

cosmetic surgery. During this traumatic

at the wheel causing a head-on crash

time, many began to question the young

After graduating from high school, West received a scholarship to attend Chicago's American Academy of Art in 1997 and began taking painting classes.

Shortly afterward, he transferred to Chicago State University to study English. He soon realized, however, that his busy class schedule was detrimental to his musical work, and at age 20, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical dreams.

with another car. The crash left him

artist’s mental health, and some say that

with a shattered jaw, which had to be

the grief and pain still affect him today.

Big Breaks West, who changed his name to Ye in 2021, got a big break in 2000 when he began to produce for artists on Roc-AFella Records.

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wired shut with reconstructive surgery.

Sunday Services

While recovering from his injuries,

More than a decade later, on Jan. 6,

West recorded his debut studio album

2019, West started his weekly "Sunday

The College Dropout, which went on to

Service,” which is basically a Christian

gain critical acclaim and launch his

worship meeting that includes

career. The album won several awards,

unstructured prayer and nontraditional

including a Grammy for Best Rap Album

music. The meeting includes variations

in 2005; was certified four times

of his and others' songs and has been

platinum; and led West to continue

attended by multiple celebrities

making more studio albums, collect

including the Kardashians, Charlie

more awards, and earn billions of

Wilson and Kid Cudi.

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Entering the World of Fashion Design In addition to his rap music and

In 2005, during a Hurricane Katrina benefit concert on NBC, he went off

Christian Sunday Services, early in his the prepared script and criticized career, West also made clear his

President George Bush and his

interest in fashion and desire to work treatment of African Americans. in the clothing design industry. In

The list of such incidents goes on and

January 2007, he began fulfilling this on, but more recently, he has drawn dream when he released of one of his the ire of many critics for his first sneaker collaborations, a

comments about slavery, George

special-edition Bapesta from A

Floyd’s death, and White Lives Matter.

Bathing Ape. In 2018, during an appearance on

In 2009, he collaborated with Nike to release his own shoe, the Air

TMZ, he said, "When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... for 400 years?

Yeezy, with a second version released That sounds like a choice. You were in 2012. He became the first

there for 400 years and it's all of y'all.”

nonathlete to be given a shoe deal with Nike.

In October 2022, talking about the cause of George Floyd’s death, he told

On Dec. 3, 2013, Adidas officially

Revolt TV’s Drink Champs, “If you look,

confirmed a new shoe collaboration

the guy’s [police officer’s] knee wasn’t

deal with the rapper, and months

even on his neck like that.” In fact,

later, West confirmed the release of

officer Derek Chauvin had already

the Adidas Yeezy Boost. Then, in

been convicted of Floyd’s murder as a

2015, he unveiled his Yeezy Season

result of pressing his knee to Floyd’s

clothing line, premiering Season 1 in

neck.

collaboration with Adidas. His Yeezy shoe line became one of the most

In October, during Paris Fashion

influential sneaker brands in the

Week, West also created a scandal

world.

when he wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt, which many criticized as taking

people, “Jewish media” and “Jewish Zionists” for numerous alleged misdeeds, stating that “Jewish people have owned the black voice” and that “the Jewish community, especially in the music industry … they’ll take us and milk us till we die.”

Many criticized his expressions as anti-Semitic, and his Twitter account was locked. His Instagram account was also blocked after a now-deleted post that included what some consider anti-Semitic tropes accusing Sean "Diddy" Combs of being controlled by "the Jewish people."

In an interview with Piers Morgan, West, when discussing Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, said that "these tech companies feel they're more powerful than the U.S. government." Following these social media restrictions, West entered into an agreement to purchase controversial social media platform Parler.

During the Drink Champs interview, West, referencing Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, also asserted

Controversies, Controversies,

away from the Black Lives Matter

Controversies

movement that was started in 2013

Even though West has been highly

following the fatal shooting of Trayvon

culture. “I’m saying y’all gotta stand

successful in many areas of his life,

Martin. The Southern Poverty Law

up and admit to what you've been

he has also been involved in a lot of

Center has identified the growing

doing,” he said.

that he was #MeToo-ing the Jewish

problems and controversies over the “White Lives Matter” movement as years—most of his own making.

white supremacist and neo-Nazi.

As these comments gained widespread attention, major

Such controversies include storming the stage at multiple awards events

West’s Biggest Unbreak

partnerships ended lucrative deals

over the years to express his opinion

The costliest backlash to West’s

they’d made with him, and his net

about who should have won an award expressions came, however, after he

worth plummeted. In addition to

instead of the actual awardee. He

criticized Jewish influence in society

losing relationships with major

drew heavy criticism in 2009, for

and tweeted that he was going to "go

corporations such as Adidas, leaders

example, when he went on stage at

death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE."

and celebrities around the world

the MTV Video Music Awards while Taylor Swift was accepting her award

During a later interview on Drink

for Best Female Video and grabbed

Champs that was posted and then

the microphone from her to suggest

removed on October 16, West

that Beyoncé's video should have

repeatedly blamed “the Jewish

chimed in and blacklisted him from industry ceremonies and events. In addition, his famed Donda Academy had to be shut down for the rest of

received the award.

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the school year, and Madame

Ego, Mental Illness and Narcissism

Tussauds removed his wax figure

Over the years, West has gained

from public view.

many haters nationwide as his monster ego and political beliefs

Fashion house Balenciaga

have become front page news,

became the first brand to

especially since his messy divorce

announce the end of its

from Kim Kardashian earlier in 2022

relationship with West following his comments, followed by Adidas, Foot Locker and Peloton. He was also escorted from Skechers’ corporate office in Los Angeles after arriving "unannounced and uninvited," according to the shoe brand. The company said West and his party were made to leave the premises as he was "engaged in unauthorized filming."

During all of the backlash, West is also getting some support, mostly from members of black extremist groups and anti-Semitic influencers who believe that he is speaking truth and that he shouldn’t be blackballed for it. His relationship with Minister Farrakhan has been scrutinized as the two have expressed respect and support for each other on many occasions. Earlier, in 2013, West made remarks about Jewish “connections” and was defended

by Farrakhan who stated that he “said nothing wrong.” It appears that the OK West has received from the Nation of Islam leader has once again given him reasons to believe it’s OK to use such words.

and its aftermath. His presidential candidacy in 2020 and some of his political stances have also raised questions about other issues, such as narcissism.

EMBARRASSING TAYLOR SWIFT AT THE 2009 MTV VMA AWARDS.

many others. It seems the voice that has made him internationally

Since his 2016 diagnosis of bipolar

famous and earned him billions of

disorder, he has said he struggled

dollars may also be the same voice

with the disorder and has had

that leads to his further descent.

difficulty accepting his diagnosis, sometimes even saying that it was a

Unfortunately, for West, who

misdiagnosis. Moreover, he has

boasts about his wealth, influence

stated that he does not use

and brilliance, these things can be a

medication to treat it. As a result, he

double-edged sword. While they

likely shifts between manic and

make him popular to millions of

depressive moods, with each lasting

people, they also make him a much

several weeks. Recently, however,

greater target when he does

when Piers Morgan asked him in an

something scandalous or

interview if he suffers from mental

controversial. While those without

illness, he said that he believes he

wealth, influence and brilliance

suffered from “exhaustion” and

would simply be ignored, these

“being lied to constantly.”

features ensure that his scandals will be broadcast loudly to the

While many people blame West’s

world.

recent influx of controversial posts and rants on his bipolar disorder,

Whether he is going through a

others argue that being bipolar does

mental break or is just using his

not excuse racism. They say that he

platform to speak on issues as he

should be held accountable for his

has done in the past, we all have a

actions and be banned from social

front-row seat to watch it all unfold.

media for spreading hate.

While all of this is going on, perhaps the ones who will be most affected are his children. What his words and

Holocaust Museum LA invited

Although West often offers some

him to visit and educate himself on

type of apology for his actions and

actions will mean for his future

anti-Semitism, but he rejected the

words, it's usually far too late and

legacy and that of his family is

offer, and it’s unknown if he will

after he has already suffered severe

unknown. What is known is that this

later take the museum up on its

consequences. In the recent cases,

has given the world an opportunity

offer. So far, there is no reporting

his ill-chosen words have managed

to openly discuss thoughts and

that he has.

to anger blacks, Jews, whites and

feelings on these subjects. And, for some, it is a welcome discussion.

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2013 CONTRACT WITH ADIDAS TO CARRY HIS YEEZY FASHION LINE HELPED MAKE HIM BILLIONS.

MARRIAGE TO KIM KARDASHIAN IN 2014 CREATED A CELEBRITY POWER COUPLE.

YEEZY FOAM RUBBER "SAND" SNEAKERS, POPULAR YET CONTROVERSIAL.

A GRAMMY WINNER 24 TIMES, A NOMINEE 75 TIMES.

THE RISE ONE OF HIS "SUNDAY SERVICES" ATTRACTED 50,000 FANS AT COACHELLA IN 2019.

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THE FALL 2022 INTERVIEW WITH FOX NEWS' TUCKER CARLSON CONFIRMED YE'S BIGOTRY, SPARKED OTHER BIGOTS NATIONWIDE (BELOW).

COZYING UP TO "FATHER FIGURE" TRUMP IN 2018 AS THE PRESIDENT FACED HIS FIRST IMPEACHMENT.

WITH FRIEND CANDACE OWENS SPORTING THEIR SELF-HATRED AT PARIS FASHION SHOW, 2022.

YE IS OPEN AND PROUD OF HIS LOVE OF HITLER, HATRED OF JEWS.

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FALL 2022

ROLL OF HONOR

Recognizing Greatness at Any Level

AUTUMN LEGENDS Bill Russell (1934-2022) Basketball star / USA If there is one player who popularized the sport of basketball for Americans and set a career path for young black males, it is Bill Russell, who played center for the NBA’s Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1969. Born William Felton Russell in Monroe, Louisiana, he stood 6 feet 10 inches tall and had a 7-foot-4-inch arm span. These traits enabled him to stand out on the University of San Francisco Dons, which he led to two consecutive NCAA championships; captain the gold medal-winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics; and power the Celtics to a record-setting 11 NBA championships. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and a 12-time NBA All-Star, Russell (along with rival Wilt Chamberlain) is one of just two players to have grabbed more than 50 rebounds in a game. He was player-coach of the Celtics in his final three years, the first black coach in the NBA, and the first to win a championship. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Russell’s highest honor was arguably having his #6 jersey retired upon his death in 2022, the only NBA player so honored.

Usain Bolt (b. 1986) Athlete extraordinaire / Jamaica The eight-time Olympic gold medalist is widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is a symbol of excellence for young people of all races. Bolt, who was born and raised in the West Indian island of Jamaica, holds the world record in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4x100-meter relay. He is the only sprinter to win Olympic 100m and 200m titles at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012 and 2016), and he gained worldwide fame for his double sprint victory in world record times at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, making him the first person to hold both records since fully automatic time became necessary. He is the most successful male athlete of the World Championships, having won four titles in the 200m and three in the 100m. Nicknamed “Lighting Bolt” in the sports media, he is a worldclass celebrity and influencer and is the subject of a documentary, I Am Bolt. Since his retirement, Bolt has amassed millions from varied business interests.

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Julius Waties Waring (1880-1968) Jurist / USA

Aunt Polly Jackson (? - ?)

Enslaved freedom fighter / USA While Harriet Tubman has become the enduring symbol of the Underground Railroad System and the struggle of enslaved Africans for freedom, she was far from alone. Aunt Polly played just as vital a role in helping her people escape Southern slavery for freedom and opportunity in the North. Because she was born a slave, little is known of this courageous woman, as plantation owners did not always deem it necessary to keep records of birth and death of their human property. All that is known about her is that she became fed up with the extreme abuse in her middle age and made her escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad. She settled near Ripley, Ohio, in a place called Africa, an Underground Railroad stop for escaped slaves who were given the choice to settle there or proceed further north. Aunt Polly decided to stay and establish a small farm. She used her farm to battle anti-abolitionists who sought to recapture escaped slaves in what became known as a Reverse Underground Railroad. In addition to hiding escapees on her farm, she used clever subterfuge to fight off slave hunters, dressing as a meek old lady to fool the hunters and then attacking them with a kitchen knife and boiling water. She was so successful that she inspired similar attacks, some resulting in the deaths of those hunters, which helped crush the Reverse Underground Railroad.

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Whites of good conscience helped speed along the African American quest for freedom and equality. One such person was Waring, a federal district judge in South Carolina. The native South Carolinian had been in private practice when President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated him to the federal bench in 1941. Sworn in the following year after Senate confirmation, Waring had been a moderate on race issues but altered his stance to activism, in part influenced by his second marriage to a Northern socialite. As chief judge, Waring ended segregated seating in the courtroom and chose a black bailiff, John Fleming, who quickly became known as "John the Bailiff." Speaking at a Harlem church, he proclaimed, "The cancer of segregation will never be cured by the sedative of gradualism." Waring’s dissent in Briggs v. Elliott, a 1951 school desegregation test case, where he wrote the pivotal line, “Segregation is per se inequality," laid the foundation for Brown v.

Board of Education (1954), outlawing segregated schools. Waring and his wife became so unpopular among Southern whites that they had to move permanently to New York City. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on his lawn in Charleston. Upon his death in 1968, approximately 200 African Americans but less than a dozen whites attended his burial in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. In 2015, as a small act of contrition, the Hollings Judicial Center in Charleston was renamed the J. Waties Waring Judicial Center.

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Rev. Calvin O. Butts III (1949-2022) Church pastor and educator / USA

Bill Pinkney (b. 1935) Sailor and executive / USA It was astounding when Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition first accomplished the feat of circling the globe by sea in 1522, and equally so when it was done by William Pinkney, the first black man to do so, when in 1992 he sailed the Seven Seas solo via the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. The Chicago native and Navy veteran learned to sail in Puerto Rico, where he lived for a few years. Beginning in the 1960s, Pinkney worked in marketing for two cosmetics companies, Revlon and black-owned Johnson Products Company. He started planning to sail around the world in 1985, after being laid off from his job at the Department of Human Services, and fundraised throughout the late 1980s. The historic voyage began and ended in Boston and lasted 22 months, from August 1990 to June 1992, during which he traveled 27,000 miles in a Valiant 47, a 47-foot cutter he named The Commitment. The expedition cost $1 million. The documentary of his trip, The Incredible Voyage of Bill Pinkney, won a Peabody Award in 1992. Other honors included winning the Chicago Yacht Club’s Yachtsman of the Year Award in 1992 and induction into the National Sailing Hall of Fame. From 2000 to 2002, Pinkney served as the first captain of the replica of the Amistad. As captain, he took a group of teachers to Africa as part of a trip that traced the route of the Middle Passage crossing from Senegal to the Americas.

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If you lived in the New York area in the racially turbulent 1980s and 1990s, you were familiar with Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, a regular fixture in television news as the go-to person for commentary on the local civil rights struggle among blacks. Reared in Queens, one of New York City’s outer boroughs, Butts was an alumnus of Morehouse College, a historically black college. He also studied at Union Theological Seminary and earned his doctorate of ministry at Drew University. Butts joined the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, traditionally New York City's largest and pre-eminent black church (where Adam Clayton Powell—both father and son—once served as senior pastor), in 1972 and rose to become senior pastor. He became well-known to New Yorkers by delivering a weekly sermon on local radio station 98.7 FM, aka KISS-FM. He came out early in support of AIDS patients and their families. As chair of the Abyssinian Development Corporation (ADC), which he also founded, Butts was credited with several community projects to better Harlem, including a new high school, businesses and an apartment complex. He was a key player in New York state politics and served from 1990 to 2020 as president of the State University of New York at Old Westbury.

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Benjamin Lay (1682-1759) Humanitarian and abolitionist / USA Human and animal rights activists owe a debt to this Quaker farmer, author and vegetarian. Born in England into a farming family, he worked as a sailor and in 1718 moved to Barbados.

Here he witnessed the poor treatment of enslaved Africans that instilled in him his lifelong abolitionist principles. Lay later settled in Philadelphia and became unpopular among his fellow Quakers due to his confrontational anti-slavery stance. He published over 200 pamphlets against such social ills as slavery, capital punishment, the prison system and the moneyed Quaker elite; one book—All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates—was one of the earliest North American works against slavery. Lay, who stood about 4 feet 7 inches tall and had a hunchback, ate only fruits, vegetables and honey and drank only milk and water. He made his own clothes as he despised slave labor. He did not believe that humans were superior to non-human animals and lived much of his adult life in a cave in the Pennsylvania countryside.

Gladys West (b. 1930) Mathematician / USA Born Gladys Brown in Virginia, this brilliant mathematician received her education at Virginia State University (at the time Virginia State College), a historically black university, before she began her teaching career. In 1956, she was the second black woman recruited to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., which employed only four blacks. By the 1960s, West began to analyze data from satellites, especially satellite altimeters such as GEOS 3, putting together models of the Earth's shape. From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, West programmed an IBM 7030 Stretch computer to deliver increasingly precise calculations to model the shape of the Earth—an ellipsoid with additional undulations, known as the geoid. Generating an extremely accurate geopotential model required her to employ complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal and other forces that distort Earth's shape. In her autobiography, West spoke of some of the complex problems she solved, which had proven too difficult for other members of the team. West's model ultimately became the basis for the Global Positioning System (GPS). West was inducted into the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2018. She was also awarded the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th Annual Webby Awards for the development of satellite geodesy models.

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DO YOU HAVE A NOMINEE FOR THE ROLL OF HONOR? LET US KNOW: EAB@BAVUAL.COM

Dedicated to the Memory of Earl Birkett 1922-2014 FALL 2022

BENEDICTION

The Last Word

WHAT SHOULD BLACK PEOPLE BE THANKFUL FOR? NOTHING

By Tiwa Adebayo Adebayo, a graduate of Cambridge University in the UK, is a communications consultant and freelance journalist. She recently led a national campaign calling for an end to racism in independent schools. This letter on her alma mater was published on the inews.co.uk website on August 13, 2020. It can apply to any black person in any non-African country.

When Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton took the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement ahead of the recent Styrian Grand Prix, he was met with a series of comments questioning his right to protest because of his millionaire status.

“I had no idea that the multi-millionaire driver had suffered so much. Puts my troubles into perspective,” complained one fan in the comments of a news article covering the event.

“Grow up, you are rich and famous, live with it,” was the sour response of another.

Unease with black wealth and the belief that black people should be ‘grateful’ for their status are not new – and is something I have experienced myself.

Despite constant efforts to distance itself from its colonial history it seems the UK cannot let go of the imperial image of itself as a paternal figure, bestowing benevolence upon the black community who should in turn be silently thankful for the chance to succeed.

As the leader of a nationwide campaign to end racism in some of the UK’s most elite private schools, which attracted the attention of the national media, I have found myself on the receiving end of this very line of rhetoric.

A letter I authored, published in The Independent, calling on independent schools to commit to anti-racism, was signed by more than 300 black students and alumni of private schools.

Social media comments referred to the signatories as “spoilt little rich kids” for simply asking that the institutions, which in many cases our parents paid thousands of pounds a year for us to attend, honor their duty of care to non-white students.

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achievement somehow rescinded my right to a voice.

As someone who’s grown up almost entirely in traditionally white spaces I’m no stranger to this particular method of silencing. What is often thinly veiled as ‘wealth fatigue’ is actually severe anti-blackness, designed to rob black people of their right to call out racism and question the validity of their success.

The message is clear. Black people don’t deserve wealth or places in prestigious institutions, and so any racism or mistreatment we face is fair game. It is this line of thinking that prompted senior staff at my Cambridge college to suggest that I consider my position of privilege in relation to the college porters when I asked that they undergo unconscious bias training in response to the constant micro-aggressions that myself and other students of colour faced from them.

Classism remains an entrenched feature of our society. I do recognise the privileged upbringing that I enjoyed and how it increased my chances of success in life. I will not however, allow that to force me into submission when faced with racism.

By its very nature, racism does not discriminate. Black people in all walks of life are affected by it and all the wealth and status in the world cannot prevent it from happening.

The UK is in dire need of introspection when it comes to its discomfort with black success. How have we reached a point where a black female MP has been forced to close her constituency office because of racist abuse? Why do police officers ask my father how he can afford to drive the car he does or live in his own house?

Consider this, if you are only moved to point out a person’s privilege in response to their condemnation of racism, perhaps it is not their privilege that upsets you, but the colour of their skin.

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