5 minute read
SUMMER LIGHTS
Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005) Jurist and politician/USA
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Before there was Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Vice President Kamala Harris, there was Motley, a one-time New York state senator, Manhattan Borough president, and civil rights strategist who was appointed a federal district court judge by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, the first black woman to be so honored.
The New Haven, Connecticut, native earned degrees from Fisk University and Columbia Law School before being hired as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). In this position, she handled many landmark civil rights cases, including the draft submitted to the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). As a federal judge, Motley presided over many high-profile cases involving sex discrimination, protesters' and tenants' rights, and women's access. She retired in 1986 as a chief judge and remained on senior status until her death in 2005.
Among numerous honors and awards, Motley received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001.
George E. Johnson Sr. (b. 1927) Businessman and entrepreneur/USA
Once the king of black hair-care products in the 1970s, Johnson founded Johnson Products Company, an international cosmetics firm headquared in Chicago. Johnson Products was at one time the second-largest black-owned business in the U.S. and the first to be listed on a stock exchange, the American Stock Exchange, in 1971.
A Mississippi sharecropper's son whose family moved to Chicago when he was a child, Johnson worked at odd jobs before he became a chemist at a local cosmetics firm. In 1954, he borrowed money to form Johnson Products and introduced his first products, Ultra Wave for men and Ultra Sheen for women. It was Afro Sheen, introduced in the late 1960s, during the "Afro" craze, that made Johnson a household name. Johnson Products was the exclusive sponsor of the nationally syndicated dance show Soul Train during the 1970s.
Andrew Brimmer (1926-2012)
Economist and business leader/USA
Brimmer gained fame as a key player in U.S. economic policy, having served as the first African American member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, a position he held from 1966 to 1974
Brimmer rose above his birth to a Louisiana sharecropper family and segregated schools to earn a PhD in economics from Harvard University and serve as a Commerce Department official during the Johnson administration before his appointment to the Federal Reserve He later formed a consulting company, Brimmer & Company. Brimmer's association with the Tuskegee University board of directors lasted 45 years, the final 28 as board chairman.
Haile Selassie I (1892-1976) Emperor/Ethiopia
A descendant of Ethiopian royalty that dates back to the Biblical era, Selassie was Ethiopia's emperor from 1930 to 1974 He was a key symbol of respect and admiration for blacks worldwide for his distinguished bearing and his pre-World War II opposition to colonial rule in Africa, especially during Ethiopia's invasion by Mussolini's Italy When Addis Ababa, the capital, fell, Selassie spent a period in exile (1936-41) before Ethiopia was liberated from the Italians in 1941
Selassie, who was said to trace his rule back to King Solomon and Maketa, the Queen of Sheba, had an uneven record as emperor He introduced the country's written constitution in 1931 and abolished slavery but also suppressed rebellion to his reforms among the landed aristocracy and was cited by human rights groups as autocratic and illiberal He was deposed in 1974 and assassinated two years later.
Today he is probably best remembered as the key figure of Rastafari, a religious movement in Jamaica that emerged shortly after he became emperor in the 1930s.
SUMMER 2023
Nikole Hannah-Jones (b. 1976) Journalist/USA
Hannah-Jones is at the center of the American cultural debate on wokeism, having launched The 1619 Project, the massive historical work published by her employer, The New York Times, in 2019. Designed to be a far more revealing account of the origin of slavery in America, the work has become a lightning rod over the teaching of black history The current ban on the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT), a law school-level course, in several red states is largely the result of the popularity of this project. Nevertheless, the veteran journalist was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2020. The award cited her "sweeping, provocative and personal essay which seeks to place the enslavement of Africans at the center of America's story, prompting public conversation about the nation's founding and evolution "
Hannah-Jones, a native Iowan and Notre Dame University graduate, currently teaches race and journalism at Howard University.
Countee Cullen (1903-1946) Poet, novelist and playwright/USA
A generation of Harlem public school students (among them Earl Birkett, the father of BAVUAL's editor) owe their education to Cullen, a teacher and one of the premier poets of American literary history, who helped define the cultural awakening known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s
Harlem became Cullen's home at age 9, and he was educated at New York University and Harvard University. His most creative period was the 1920s. Colors, his poetry collection published in 1925, became a representative element of the Harlem Renaissance. Written in a careful, traditional style, the work celebrated black beauty and deplored the effects of racism The volume included "Heritage" and "Incident," probably his most famous poems
The prolific Cullen would also write novels, plays, and children's stories and edit several leading literary magazines of his day. He mentored a future writer, James Baldwin, one of his students
Colin Kaepernick (b. 1987) Quarterback and civil rights activist/USA
Until 2016, Kaepernick was known primarily for his role as a professional football player. The Californian was an all-state star in three sportsfootball, basketball and baseball - all while maintaining a 4 0 GPA, a feat he repeated at the University of Nevada, where he graduated in 2011. While at Nevada, he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs baseball team, but he decided to remain a football player instead, establishing a college record in total yards and rushes as a quarterback
Drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, Kaepernick as quarterback led the team to a Super Bowl win in 2012 and a place in the NFC Championship in 2013
During the 2016-17 season, Kaepernick first sat, then knelt during the playing of the U S national anthem, rather than stand as is customary, as a protest against racial injustice, police brutality and oppression in the country. Right-wing Americans, led by then-President Donald Trump, exploded with contempt, which likely ended his football career (he has since become an unsigned free agent), but has made him the first modern victim of the anti-woke mob and a symbol for social justice
Ibram X. Kendi (b. 1982) Author, historian and anti-racism activist/USA
Among the many books banned by Florida and other red states as being too "woke," Kendi's antiracist treatises are at the top of the list. He seeks to uncover the underpinnings of race and discriminatory policy in America, making him a villain to white supremacists as well as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Kendi was born in New York City and raised in Virginia. The HBCU graduate (Florida A&M) earned his PhD from Temple University and taught Africana studies, history and international relations at several major universities before founding the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University in 2020 where he serves as director. His best-selling book, How to Be an Anti-Racist (One World, 2019), and essays in other books and journals make him one of the leading intellectual voices against racism
SUMMER 2023
