BAVUAL The African Heritage Magazine Winter 2023

1st anniversary

THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

BAVUAL ®

BLACK HOLLYWOOD Part II, 1970-2023

OBSERVING BLACK HISTORY MONTH The Top 10 Ways

THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD

The Meaning of MLK and Malcolm X

ATLANTA ON MY MIND

SHOULD BLACK ATHLETES BE PAID? Pro and Con

America's Black Capital

DENZEL WASHINGTON

WINTER 2023

10.00

WHAT NEXT FOR AFRICA?

IN THIS ISSUE

11 THE TIMES: ALI (CLAY) VS. LISTON, 1965

26 THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD: MLK AND MALCOLM CHANGE THE WORLD

49 BLACK HOLLYWOOD PART II: 1970-2023

46-47 OBSERVING BLACK HISTORY MONTH: THE TOP 10 WAYS 6

MY TAKE Our First Year

7

THE DRIFT The Opportunities and Pitfalls of 2023

18

Should Black Student Athletes Be Paid?

21

EDUCATE YOURSELF How to Survive the Police

26

8 ONE YEAR LATER

THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD MLK and Malcolm X Change the World

Update on Stories in the Preview and Premiere Issues

49 11

PRO AND CON

FAMOUS WINTERS

THE CULTURE (COVER) Black Hollywood Part II: 1970-2023

Ali (Clay) vs. Liston, 1965

71 13

TRUE GRIT

Atlanta: America's Black Capital

Senator Raphael Warnock, Political Warrior

15

THE TIMES Don't Drink The Water!

WINTER 2023

DESTINATIONS

76

AFRICAN FACES OF THE WORLD Blasians

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IN THIS ISSUE

92 : JUST THE FACTS: THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

88 THE HUSTLE: THOSE MARVELOUS INVENTORS

83 STYLIN': THE EVOLUTION OF THE SUIT 80 BAVUAL MEETS His Nemesis at the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863

83 STYLIN' The Evolution of the Suit

NEXT ISSUE

AFRICAN COUPLES: RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH TIME

88 THE HUSTLE

Those Marvelous Inventors

92 JUST THE FACTS

The Caribbean Islands

94 roll of honor

8 Lions in Winter; The Lists From 2021-2022

98 benediction

What Next for Africa?

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WINTER 2023

BAVUAL

THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

Bavual Vol. 2 Issue 1 Winter 2023

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 © 2023 Birkett Communications, Inc.

BAVUAL 5

MY TAKE

Earl A. Birkett

OUR FIRST YEAR Nothing is so coldly impersonal as the passage of time. Much like the movie The Terminator, it is an unfeeling machine that you can neither stop nor negotiate with. Good times clash with the bad times and leave only fading memories in their wake.

Such is the case with BAVUAL's first year of publication. I have enjoyed every minute of it, and I am only sorry that the months raced by.

If starting up a new business is a challenge, starting a new magazine is doubly challenging.

The requisite normalities are there: planning, raising capital, assembling a staff, meeting deadlines, introducing and promoting the product.

In the case of a magazine, the situation is compounded because you must plot its editorial direction in a clear and concise manner and find a talented staff to execute it.

Fortunately for BAVUAL, I was able to find a dozen or so gifted editors, writers, designers, illustrators and advisors to produce what everyone who has seen it believes to be one of the best magazines they have ever seen - no joke.

I am personally proud of what BAVUAL has accomplished. The magazine has fulfilled its mission to present a view of our times from the Afrocentric perspective that is truthful, revealing, sweeping in its detail and, hopefully, never boring.

I believe we succeeded, but of course, you, the reader, will always have the last word.

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WINTER 2023

THE DRIFT

THE OPPORTUNITIES AND PITFALLS OF What is the fate of people of African descent in the year 2023? Frankly, the challenges of the new year are far more formidable than the progress that was made in 2022.

POLITICS The political progress of blacks throughout the world was mixed and will continue to be so in 2023. West Indian nations such as Barbados finally shook off the last vestiges of colonial rule by the United Kingdom, but many more countries continue to be ruled by the new king, Charles III. Africa's mineral resources will continue to be exploited by multinational corporations; meanwhile, its governments are still mired in corruption, civil war and retrograde thinking . In the Americas, particularly the U.S., a number of black candidates were elected to positions at the municipal, state and House level but failed to win do-able Senate races in Wisconsin and North Carolina and a governor's race in Georgia.

Critical issues for African Americans - raising the minimum wage, child care, mortality, voting rights, health care and criminal justice among others - will likely continue to be ignored in a House of Representatives and a Supreme Court controlled by Trump-leaning, far right Republicans. Real progress on these issues may be more possible after the results of the 2024 election are known, when another opportunity for a progressive agenda could present itself.

THE ECONOMY A number of economists are predicting a recession brought on by out-of-control inflation in 2023. This is particularly concerning given the proven adage that when white America catches a cold, black America catches the flu. The income inequality brought about by draconian tax cuts for the wealthy during the Trump administration has widened the gap, not only WINTER 2023

between blacks and whites but also between poor whites and the rest of society. Home ownership is increasingly elusive due to prohibitive sale prices, high mortgage interest rates and stagnant wages. Such inequality, based on class as well as race, threatens to further destabilize democratic governments in the U.S. and throughout the world. Access to working capital will continue to be the biggest handicap for black-owned business start-ups and other small to mid-sized businesses. Lurking above all is climate change, which threatens to permanently alter the landscape and financial structure of many nations beyond the U.S. for the worse unless it is addressed by 2030.

CULTURE Probably not since the 1960s has racism against blacks and other minorities been so universal and blatant. What used to be hidden in code words is openly expressed, mainly by extremist Republican politicians and media personalities who have stoked their more gullible followers into opposing a non-existent Critical Race Theory (as far as it being taught in institutions below law school electives is concerned) and pushing the Great Replacement Theory, an old trope used by Nazis and racists to foster "Christian" nationalism, just another tag phrase for white supremacy and fascism.

The year 2023 will find no easy fix to these and other vexing problems. Many people appear to be placing their faith in changing demographics. By 2040, it is estimated, whites will be in the minority in the U.S. and more progressive-minded millennials will assume dominance at the voting booth. Perhaps then, policies will be adopted that address a 21st century planet. It is only hoped that it will not be too late.

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UPDATE

ONE YEAR LATER The Follow-Up to Articles That Appeared in BAVUAL's Preview and Premiere Issues "THE DRIFT": DIVIDED AMERICA If anything, the balkanization of the U.S. that I pointed out in the first issue has gotten worse. Racial divisions and wealth inequality have widened, in turn leading to mass financial hardship and destabilization of the government.

"EVERYTHING YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CRITICAL RACE THEORY (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK)" Politicians in the Republican Party have exploited white guilt over America's past sins on race to their advantage to win elections and advance an agenda called White Replacement Theory. They met with success in Virginia in 2021 but faced setbacks in the 2022 midterm elections.

"HAITI: FROM GREAT PROMISE TO UTTER DESPAIR" Steve Woodhouse examined the Caribbean island nation's descent into chaos following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Since then, the situation has only worsened. Scores of Haitians have fled for the U.S. Southern border, only to be turned away (at times brutally) by immigration agents.

"GUNS AND THE BLACK MALE: A DECADES-LONG TRAGEDY" Urban shootings continue with seemingly no letup due to the pipeline from gun shows and a lack of opportunity in a bad economy incentivizing young black males to join street gangs.

"THE GREAT FOOTBALL BLITZ" Black player domination of the game has not yet penetrated coaching and managerial positions in a significant way, and a black team owner is still elusive. Concerns have shifted to player safety in the wake of the Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin's on-field collapse.

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PREVIEW ISSUE, FALL 2021

A 72-page sample issue, introducing a distinctive title and subtitle logo and in-house cover illustration of the magazine's muse, Bavual Adisa, was published for the benefit of prospective readers, advertisers and investors that would embrace the style and format of the magazine that began regular publication in early 2022.

WINTER 2023

"THE DRIFT: A 'MARSHALL PLAN' FOR BLACK AMERICA" I made the argument for reparations, endorsing billionaire Robert L. Johnson's $14 trillion plan to elevate the wealth of black Americans through direct payments as recompense for slavery. Various U.S. cities have begun to make payments to blacks whose property had been stolen by whites, but it is unlikely to make true headway in a divided federal government, with Republicans in control of the lower chamber of Congress.

"TRUE GRIT: THE ZION CLARK STORY" BAVUAL's first badass continues to amaze. In December 2022, Clark, a championship wrestler who has no body below his torso, won his professional mixed martial arts debut, decisively defeating his full-bodied opponent Eugene Murray - a first in sports history.

"THE TIMES: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WOMEN CHANGE THE FACE OF URBAN LIVING" New York elected its second black mayor, Eric Adams, and Los Angeles chose a black woman, Karen Bass, as its mayor. The top 10 U.S. cities are now governed by African American mayors, many of them black women. They face a formidable job recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and controlling crime and homelessness, often-underfunded school systems, crumbling infrastructure and deteriorating race relations.

GHANA REVISITED The West African gold, oil and cocoa producer, once described as Africa’s shining star by the World Bank and growing in popularity with Western tourists and investors, is battling its worst economic crisis in a generation, with inflation hovering at a record 50.3 percent, the highest in 21 years. Economic woes have forced Ghana to suspend payment of most external debts. Nevertheless, the government and trade unions have agreed to increase all public servants’ salaries by 30 percent for 2023.

"EDUCATE YOURSELF: BLACKS' FEAR OF MEDICINE" Though receding in importance in the eyes of the public, the still-rampant Covid-19 epidemic, which has claimed well over a million lives - many of them elderly blacks - remains controversial. Some blacks believe conservative propaganda that the virus originated in China as part of a Communist plot and that the vaccines not only don't work but are actually harmful, even deadly. None of this has been proven to be true.

"BAVUAL MEETS" Our intrepid time-traveling secret agent, Bavual Adisa, is back for his third mission in this issue (after a three-issue absence), still battling the diabolical Jope, whom he had first met in 1619 Virginia at the dawn of the slave trade and doggedly pursued to 1986 Chicago to save a young Barack Obama's life. Now, he goes to 1863 Gettysburg to prevent the Confederate Army from winning the Civil War - only to return to a Nazi-controlled USA! WINTER 2023

PREMIERe ISSUE, WINTER 2022 The first issue, numbering 92 pages, would again bear the distinctive title and subtitle logo and another unique inhouse illustration, this time of Mali's king Mansa Musa. It did not carry paid advertising.

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BAVUAL 9

FAMOUS WINTERS

Where Past Is Present

ALI (CLAY) VS. LISTON, 1964-65 Two Controversial Bouts End One Legend's Career and Birth Another

By Earl A. Birkett It was the punch that altered the course of boxing history, and it was delivered on May 25, 1965, knocking out Sonny Liston, whom Muhammad Ali had wrested boxing's World Heavyweight Championship from 15 months earlier.

That single controversial punch - known to this day as the "phantom" punch signaled a changing of the guard from the aging has-been Liston to the young and brash Ali. Boxing and sport was never the same again. Liston faded into obscurity, while Ali went on to become one of the pivotal public figures of the 20th century.

MUHAMMAD ALI KNOCKS OUT SONNY LISTON IN ONE OF THE GREATEST PHOTOS IN SPORTS HISTORY, MAY 25, 1965

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Setting the Stage Charles L. "Sonny" Liston" was built up by the press as the Goliath to Cassius Clay's David.

Liston, who could have been anywhere from 32 to 40 years old at the time of his first fight with Clay, was an intimidating figure as a boxer and a personality. A fast hitter with a look that could kill, his brutal technique had defeated one tough opponent after another until his first fight with Clay, on Feb. 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, Fla., to decide the World Heavyweight Championship, then held by Liston. Complicating the fight was Clay's conversion to Islam and his name change to Muhammad Ali after the fight - highly controversial and unpopular at the time.

Fight Night I: Feb. 25, 1964 Liston was the favorite going into the fight, seen as the more experienced boxer. Clay's advantage was his youth (22), his ability to psych-out his opponents with clever words and his unique boxing skill. Liston had been leading through Round 4, when he made a controversial cut to Clay's eye, nearly removing him from the fight. However, he quickly rebounded in the next rounds, and when Liston didn't come out for a seventh round, Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Fight Night II: May 25, 1965 Amidst unproven rumors that the first fight was fixed, Liston and Clay, now known as Muhammad Ali, met for a rematch in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25, 1965. In one of the most stunning bouts in boxing history, Ali knocked Liston down in the first round with a "phantom" punch that many believed was staged. Liston stayed down; the fight lasted 1:44 minutes. The iconic photo of a victorious Ali standing over Liston flat on his back went worldwide.

THE PHANTOM PUNCH THAT CONVINCED MANY THAT THE FIGHT WAS FIXED IN SPORTS HISTORY, MAY 25, 1965

THE TWO FIGHTS MADE ALI A SUPERSTAR AND EVENTUALLY A MOVIE STAR

ALI'S CELEBRITY STATUS CHANGED SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT FOREVER, LEADING TO WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT (WWe) AND MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (mma)

Aftermath Thereafter, Liston, though still considered one of the greatest boxers, faded into near obscurity, while Ali went on to become The Greatest, a pop culture icon, bar none. His showmanship in and out of the ring would transform sport as entertainment and lead to the explosion in Worldwide Wrestling and UFC fighting.

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WINTER 2023

TRUE GRIT

For the Badass Within

THE POLITICAL WARRIOR Senator Raphael Warnock Defeats Herschel Walker and Becomes a National Figure

By Earl A. Birkett On the night of Dec. 6, 2022, all of America was sweating bullets as it awaited the results of one of the most pivotal elections in modern U.S. history: the Senate runoff between the incumbent Democrat, Rev. Raphael Warnock, and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, the ex-college football star. While it was not quite on the level of the legendary boxing face-offs between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the early 1970s, which pitted two African male archetypes - the fiery militant against the placid conformist - the Warnock-Walker race nevertheless was a somewhat similar choice between an independent thinker and a "Trojan horse" controlled by a white Republican power structure. In this contest, Warnock narrowly prevailed by 2.8 points, thus sparing Georgians (and the nation) the embarrassment of being represented by someone deemed by every reasonable person as supremely unqualified and setting himself up as a man who can endure a stacked deck and the slings and arrows of political smears and show true grit.

THE VICTOR ON ELECTION NIGHT

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Who is this wunderkind, the first African American to reach the Senate from Georgia by popular election and one of only three blacks currently serving in that body?

THE LONE DEBATE

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Raphael Warnock's story begins on July 23, 1969, with his birth in Savannah, Ga., the 11th of 12 children. His background was humble; both his parents were Pentecostal pastors. His father was an auto mechanic, and his mother had picked cotton and tobacco as a teenager. The Warnocks lived in public housing.

r. warnock (inc.), dem.

1,816,096

51.4%

h. walker, rep.

1,719,483

48.6%

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Warnock's precocity was aided by participation in the Upward Bound program, which enabled him to take college courses while still in high school. He would earn a BA cum laude in psychology from Morehouse College in Atlanta, alma mater of his role model, Martin Luther King Jr., and like King would earn his PhD , his chosen school being Union Theological Seminary, associated with Columbia University.

HISTORIC EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH IN ATLANTA, WARNOCK'S PASTORSHIP AND POLITICAL BASE

Like most apprentice pastors, Warnock began his ministry in assistant and associate pastorships in black congregations throughout the South and Northeast. During an earlier pastorship at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, Md., he displayed his ability to fight for the underdog when he was arrested for allegedly obstructing a police investigation into child abuse at the church's youth camp. Warnock had merely wanted the accused juveniles not be interviewed without presence of counsel and an adult. The charges against him were subsequently dropped by the prosecutor, who cited a "miscommunication" and admitted that Warnock was indeed cooperative.

Warnock's profile increased dramatically in 2005, when he became senior pastor of the storied Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King's home church. In this post, he was usually called upon by powerful politicians for his input, most notably by President Barack Obama and former Vice President Al Gore. He delivered the eulogy for his congregant, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, at his funeral in 2020.

Long considered a proponent of social justice, Rev. Warnock was coaxed into a run for Senate in a special election in 2020. In the January 2021 runoff, he won 51.04% of the vote against the incumbent Kelly Loeffler, a millionaire who had been under fire for suspicious stock trading. His maiden floor speech in the Senate, in which he advocated for passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, gained attraction for its eloquence.

As a senator, Warnock has mostly hewn to a progressive agenda - raising the minimum wage, voting rights, improved healthcare, aid to black farmers and climate change - while trying to bring home infrastructure money for Georgia. He is prochoice and opposed to the death penalty.

PASTOR WARNOCK AT SUNDAY SERVICE

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH FELLOW SENATE VICTOR JON OSSOFF, 2020-21

SENATOR WARNOCK'S ELECTRIFYING MAIDEN SPEECH, JANuary 2021

Warnock's middle name is Gamaliel - a name also shared with the the 29th U.S. president, Warren Gamaliel Harding. Might that be a hint to his future plans?

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WINTER 2023

THE TIMES

What's Going On in the News

DON'T DRINK THE WATER! Government Neglect Leads to a Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, and Flint, Michigan

By Stephen G. Hall, PhD Climate change has become a pressing issue of the 21st century.

Global warming, hurricane and tornado activity, fires and flooding around the world dominate the headlines. Concerns about the environment have both global and personal implications. Little illustrates this situation better than the recent water crisis in Jackson, Miss. In many ways, this event is, like the climate change challenges it represents—a perfect storm. It is the product of weather events such as the flooding of the Pearl River, neglect of the water system for decades, and bureaucratic infighting between the state of Mississippi and the city of Jackson.

Jackson has the largest water treatment facility in the state. It has more than 71,000 connections and serves nearby Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties. The city is 70 percent black and led by Chokwe Lumumba, a progressive Democratic mayor. Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, is a Republican. The difference between the Democratic and Republican agendas is as wide as the Mississippi River, and this situation has led to infighting between Republicans and Democrats on the best path forward.

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Problems with Jackson’s water system date back to 2010 when a winter storm disrupted the system and caused several waterline breaks and a city-wide outage. As a result, businesses and hospitals increased reliance on private sources of water. Two years later, in 2012, Jackson failed a safe drinking water test administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This led to a settlement later in the year to improve maintenance of the water system. In 2021, a climatic event, a winter storm, shut down the O.B Curtis Water Treatment Plant. This left the city of Jackson without water for a month.

Despite an agreement between the city and the EPA to repair the treatment plant, Jackson’s water infrastructure continued to deteriorate. Water pressure was low to many homes, and sewage flowed in the streets.

Alerted by Gov. Reeves’ request, President Joe Biden declared Mississippi a disaster zone, which released federal funds to address the situation. The crisis caused a major disruption in Jackson, forcing stores to close and schools to engage in virtual learning. In the interim, the state used a well dig at

the Mississippi Fairgrounds and rented pumps to stabilize the water supply. On September 4, the city announced the water supply was stabilized and was much cleaner.

The state has proposed long-term solutions to the water system including privatization and the establishment of a commission to provide oversight.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other national observers are less convinced of the state’s sincerity in solving the problem. The organization has filed a Title VI complaint against the state of Mississippi citing a long and sustained pattern of racial discrimination and blatant mishandling of the recent water crisis. The complaint alleges among other things systematic discrimination by the state of Mississippi against the citizens of Jackson, a longstanding pattern of withholding federal funds from Jackson to fix and maintain the water system, and willful neglect by the state in mitigating the health effects of a failed water system.

Efforts to correct this situation through a series of stopgap

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measures largely failed. Much of this failure can be attributed to inadequate funding at the state level and the inability of city officials to manage the situation with inadequate support and resources. The EPA announced a grant of $74.9 million to Mississippi from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but Mayor Lumumba estimated the cost would exceed $2 billion. The city asked the state for $47 million but was granted only $3 million. Lack of funding to correct basic problems with the water system compounded problems. High break rates in Jackson’s waterlines—55 breaks per 100 miles— were just one of the many problems plaguing the system. The EPA issued a report in 2022 detailing a series of problems with the management of the sewer system including high employee turnover, understaffing, the inability to issue water bills properly, and water meters that malfunctioned. The lack of staff led to the inability to properly maintain the water system. This included among other things failure to record water pressure, failure to regularly flush the lines, lack of maintenance of valves and hydrants, and the inability of staff to cycle water through storage tanks to maintain chlorine levels.

This severely damaged and inadequate water system was ripe for the catastrophe that is currently known as the Jackson Water Crisis. Heavy rains caused the city to receive 12 inches of precipitation in a short period. The rain caused the Pearl River to rise and crest at 38 feet, which is 10 feet over the flood stage. This led to the flooding of the Curtis plant. As the plant teetered on the brink of failure, the state of Mississippi assumed operation of the facility on August 29. Problems with pumps meant that no clean water was available to the residents of Jackson. Gov. Reeves declared an emergency and deployed 600 members of the National Guard. They distributed bottled water to the residents.

No doubt, the national attention garnered by this crisis against the backdrop of rising concern about climatic change, environmental justice, and climate equity make this situation part of the modern playbook for ways to correct environmental inequity.

The challenge here is to heighten the level of concern when problems impact communities of color, not to assume that these problems are less significant or can be allowed to fester precisely because they impact communities of color. We must be as strident and proactive in addressing these inequities as we are to bring relief and assistance in other major disasters. Regardless of race or class, an environmental injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.

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Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is responsible for easing the water crisis

Foul tap water has become Mississippi's shame

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has shown extreme insensitivity to Jackson's predominantly black citizens

WINTER 2023

FLINT, MICHIGAN: THE OTHER WATER CRISIS Bad tap water in predominantly black cities did not begin with Jackson, Miss., nor is it exclusive to poor Southern states. For Flint, Mich., a city of about 81,000, once a manufacturing hub of a booming auto industry, the crisis began in 2014, when drinking water was known to have contained elements of lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. That year, due to a change in water source from the Detroit sewer system to the Flint River, residents began to notice a bad taste, smell and appearance of their water.

Flint's water was so contaminated it led to criminal charges against many elected officials (below), including Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, all of whom were acquitted on a technicality

Because city officials had failed to apply water corrosion inhibitors, lead from aging pipes had leaked into the water supply. It would lead Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency for Flint’s Genesee County and the entire state, respectively, in 2016. The designation made the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security available to Flint.

Before the problem was detected and corrected by eventually signing a new 30-year contract with the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) for water treatment in 2017, the damage had been done.

Between 6,000 and 12,000 largely black children had been exposed to lead poisoning, impairing their intellectual ability and IQ and increasing their chances of contracting Alzheimer’s disease.* In a screw-up this bad, naturally heads rolled. Four government officials—one from the city of Flint, two from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), and one from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—resigned over the mishandling of the crisis, and one additional MDEQ staff member was fired.

In January 2021, former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and eight other officials were charged with 34 felony counts and seven misdemeanors—41 counts in all— for their role in the crisis. Two officials were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Fifteen criminal cases have been filed against local and state officials, but only one minor conviction has been obtained, and all other charges have been dismissed or dropped, which some consider largely the fault of Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, whose indictments were ruled invalid by a state Supreme Court judge.

On Aug. 20, 2020, the victims of the water crisis were awarded a combined settlement of $600 million, with 80 percent going to the families of children affected by the crisis. By November, the settlement grew to $641 million.

GOV. SNYDER

Sadly, the water crisis in Flint remains, and the complaints from residents continue. As of mid-2021, 27,133 water service lines had been excavated and inspected, resulting in the replacement of 10,059 lead pipes. Still, because they have lost trust in the government and leadership’s ability to respond appropriately to the crisis, many residents continue to refuse to drink the tap water in their homes. *Poisoned lead water may also have been responsible for an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease in the county that killed 12 people and made another 87 sick.

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BAVUAL 17

PRO AND CON

Issues and Answers

SHOULD BLACK STUDENT ATHLETES BE PAID? Two Sides Debate the Fairness of College Sports Income Distribution

By Lorraine Jones The exploitation of the talented is as old as the hills. It is all the more surprising - and distressing - when it is found at institutions of higher learning, where America's colleges and universities reap the economic benefits of young black men often recruited from impoverished backgrounds to play football or basketball for them for free. Yes, they do receive an athletic scholarship and the promise of a degree that could lead to a better life; however, the reality is these young student-athletes are often illprepared for the rigors of the classroom, and even with academic tutelage, they are more at risk to flunk out. Moreover, a major injury on the court or the field can also lead to their scholarship being revoked, leaving them with either finding an alternate means of paying for tuition 2007. Players in turn were only or leaving school and being left to allowed to accept scholarships their own devices. covering the cost of attending university. Including tuition, room, How lucrative is college sports? In board and books, that usually 2019 alone, the National Collegiate amounts to a few thousand dollars or Athletic Association (NCAA) reaped so. $18.91 billion from ticket sales and television broadcasting rights. Other This blatant inequality began to be than the NCAA and individual addressed in 2021, when the NCAA colleges themselves, the chief relented, after pressure from state beneficiaries are the coaches. legislatures, who especially oversee According to Newsday, the top 108 public colleges and universities, and NCAA coaches received average adopted a new policy that will allow compensation of $1.75 million in college athletes to engage in name, 2019, consisting largely of salary and image and likeness (NIL) activities, bonuses - a 75 percent increase since enabling them to sign sponsorship BAVUAL

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deals potentially worth millions of dollars.

What remains on the table is the issue of pay-to-play, where colleges recruit star high school athletes to play for their teams in return for certain "incentives," and giving players a piece of the billions collected from fans and sponsors each season.

In order to present the benefits and drawbacks of paying college athletes, BAVUAL presents two opposing viewpoints.

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THE CASE FOR PAYING COLLEGE ATHLETES Ryan Young is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

His research focuses on regulatory reform, trade policy, antitrust regulation, and other issues. His comments were first published at InsideSources.com.

St. Peter’s University’s run of upsets wasn’t the only storyline from this year’s March Madness tournament. The other is that the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team is in trouble for allegedly paying its players, in violation of NCAA rules. It is time for the NCAA to do the right thing and allow players to be paid, for three main reasons.

The first is fairness. College players are unpaid laborers who generate millions of dollars for others.

The second is that big-time college sports are, in fact, a business. There is nothing amateur about the NCAA’s $1.15 billion in revenue, its marketing deals, college coaches’ and athletic directors’ salaries, or the amount of time many athletes put in to compete at a high level.

The third reason is practical: Black markets exist.

Some star college players will always be paid, no matter what the NCAA says. It should be above the table so schools and the NCAA can keep a better eye on it.

The party has already started, even if the NCAA is arriving late. As of last year, some college athletes may now make money from their name, image and likeness (NIL), which were previously the NCAA’s property. The new interim NIL policy means that some players can now make money from endorsements, sell T-shirts and other branded merchandise, and make paid public appearances.

The NIL rule also applies to teams. Georgia Tech, for example, made a deal to promote TiVo on its sports teams’ social media accounts. Some players received a prepaid debit card for $404 to match Atlanta’s 404 area code, plus some merchandise.

The NIL policy specifics vary from state to state, and federal legislation may be on the way. And schools are still, for the most part, not allowed to

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directly pay student-athletes for their work. And the new NIL policy mainly benefits the more recognizable athletes.

This new system has room for improvement, and the next few years will uncover its flaws. But it is a step in a fairer direction. It should be refined, not scrapped.

College sports are big business, amateur or not. College athletes receive almost none of the revenue they generate, beyond scholarships. By contrast, the major professional leagues pay players between 50 percent and 60 percent of revenue.

That is no problem for the few college athletes who go on to NBA or NFL careers, but for most athletes, whose sporting careers end when college does, it is unfair. Just like athletes who go pro, they deserve to have their playing days boost their future earning power.

Other athletes would also benefit. Most college sports, from baseball to field hockey, lose money. Those sports are subsidized by profitable men’s basketball and football programs. If schools and the NCAA see more dollar signs from the big-revenue sports, they will chase after them, same as any other business. That would mean more money for other sports, as well as academic programs. It might even mean some compensation for players, who deserve to be paid for their labor. It could also encourage money-losing sports to find ways to be self-supporting, which would bring stability to many threatened programs.

Paying athletes would also finally acknowledge an open secret: Some college athletes will always get paid, no matter the rules. Boosters have long paid star athletes under the table. Off-the-books compensation is a routine part of the recruiting process, though not all of it is paid in money. Once a recruit is on campus, athletic directors sometimes arrange no-show jobs. College athletes aren’t allowed to have agents, but that happens anyway. Colleges might as well acknowledge the inevitable and bring these activities above ground to help prevent abuses.

College sports can be thrilling to watch, whether it is this year’s Cinderella busting everyone’s bracket, seeing new stars shine for the first time, or cheering for your alma mater. But off the playing field, things are a lot less thrilling for the players.

The NCAA is a cartel, and acts like one. The new NIL rules are the start of something fairer and more honest.

But it isn’t enough. Players should be paid for the value they create, same as everyone else.

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THE CASE AGAINST PAYING COLLEGE ATHLETES Alden Abbott is a senior research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He formerly served as the Federal Trade Commission’s general counsel. His comments were originally printed at InsideSources.com.

As March Madness comes to a close, once again we hear that college student athletes are being unfairly “exploited” by being denied salaries for playing sports.

Should the NCAA and universities be pressured or forced to change its longstanding policy?

This notion, while seemingly sensible at first glance, is badly misguided. If colleges were required to pay athletes salaries, the entire fabric of amateur college sports could unravel, harming the interests of fans, colleges and — most important — players themselves.

Let’s see why.

The National Collegiate Athletics Association is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletes and organizes the athletic programs of its member colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The NCAA also “helps over 480,000 college student athletes who compete annually in college sports.”

In its 1984 NCAA v. Board of Regents decision, the Supreme Court ruled that “artificial limits” on the quantity of televised football games imposed by the NCAA reduced competition and violated antitrust laws.

But at the same time, the court emphasized that certain other NCAA restrictions on athletes — including salary bans — were key to the preservation of the college football “product”: “In order to preserve the character and quality of the (NCAA) ‘product,’ athletes must not be paid, must be required to attend class, and the like. … Thus, the NCAA plays a vital role in enabling college football to preserve its character, and as a result enables a product to be marketed which might otherwise be unavailable.”

The court believed that loss of amateur status will cause a popular alternative to big-time pro sports to lose its luster. But there are lots of other bad things that will happen if the NCAA drops restrictions on paying salaries to athletes.

Eliminating “no salary” rules will favor large, wellfunded athletic programs over others, likely undermining already tenuous competitive balance among schools. Think of an NCAA March Madness

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tournament where an even-higher percentage of elite players have been snapped up by big-name schools, and “Cinderella stories” all but disappear.

It will also incentivize the shifting of large college athletic departments’ funds to bidding for big-name high school basketball and football superstars, whose presence will attract future lucrative contributor donations, endorsements and television deals. In addition to reducing team cohesion between stars and other players, this could eventually transform college football and basketball into little more than ugly minor leagues for their pro counterparts.

The tiny proportion of superstars who would receive a year or two of high salaries will gain relatively little, because they are destined for far larger professional contracts in the very near future. Meanwhile, the vast majority of college athletes — who never go pro — will end up losing.

The biggest losers will be the myriad scholarship athletes — young men and women alike — who compete in nonrevenue producing sports such as swimming, wrestling, gymnastics, volleyball, and track and field, just to name a few. These athletes cannot realistically expect significant salaries.

Even worse, they can expect reduced funding and fewer scholarships due to the increased focus on paying bigrevenue sports superstars. As such, a key quality of their college experience will be diminished as amateurism is swept aside.

Sticking with the existing NCAA rules would allow many more promising but non-superstar athletes in revenuegenerating sports to develop their skills over time without pressure, enhancing the ability for some to eventually compete at the professional level.

In addition, the current rules climate already allows for many student athletes to receive endorsements, and even those who do not can develop personal connections that serve them well in their professional and personal lives, including connections derived from the university’s popularity. (Think of wealthy and well-connected alumni who are huge fans of their colleges’ athletic programs.)

Finally, it’s not clear that college athletes, who are compensated with scholarships and living expenses, are materially “underpaid” and are “exploited.” One major economic study of NCAA rules by economists Richard McKenzie and Dwight Lee, for example, rejected this idea.

The conclusion is clear. The NCAA has its reasons for keeping its rules against paying college athletes. These should remain, for the good of fans and college athletes.

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EDUCATE YOURSELF

Knowledge Is Power

HOW TO SURVIVE THE POLICE Black People - Especially Black Males Must Be Wary of the Cops

By Kristen Jones

Many Americans can relate to the heart-stopping moment that comes when you see the red and blue lights flash, followed by being pulled over by the police. Unlike everyone else, however, more black males in the United States experience fatalities when encountering law enforcement than any other race. Questions abound about how these cases are handled and the actual situation at the time of these encounters. With such cases being more prevalent than normal, black males must know how to “survive” a police interaction. Most have probably already had conversations with family members and have heard stories about what has happened when other black males have come in contact with the police.

Sleeping. Driving. Standing outside an apartment building. These are some of the last things some black Americans were doing before they were approached by police for one reason or another. For many of them, the encounter ended in death. (It should be noted that the notion that every encounter between a white police officer and a black man is going to end in death is not true.)

Of the officers involved in the deadly shootings of unarmed black people over the last five years, 13 were charged with murder. Only two were found guilty. These are all tragic reminders of the dangers black and brown Americans face in a world that has branded them as suspects since birth.

Always be aware of what your rights are as an American, and don’t be quick to react based on your emotions.

First and foremost, stay calm. Regardless of the situation, if you are agitated, you will be more likely to act in a way that might be perceived as hostile or justifying excessive force to be used.

Different encounters, however, require different reactions to make sure you don’t become the next tragic headline involving the police.

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Following are three types of encounters you might experience with the Thin Blue Line and tips to survive them:

1. ENCOUNTERS WHILE DRIVING

Encounters while driving can be some of the most terrorizing encounters of all. The situation is so well-known, in fact, that the term “driving while black” was coined in the 1990s to describe it. Studies have shown that police have unfairly targeted black men for traffic stops, leading to potentially dangerous encounters that can end with incarceration, physical harm or even death.

Traffic stops by police have been so troublesome for African American communities that now black parents across the nation give their driving-age children instructions on how to avoid being harmed or killed by police during these stops. Be courteous. Stay calm. You don’t have to consent to a search. Keep your hands where the police can see them. One tactic you can use is to make certain that any items you have to reach for are visible.

Keep your wallet in a cup holder and your insurance and registration in your visor. When you get pulled over, place your wallet on the dashboard, roll down the window, and keep your hands on the steering wheel. By doing this, you don’t have to reach for anything. To avoid attracting attention from police, you should also make sure your car is in good working condition, from taillights to windshield wipers. You are your first line of defense ultimately when it comes to police encounters. If your vehicle is in order, you will be less likely to be pulled over. If you are pulled over in a traffic stop and have a hands-free phone station in your vehicle, consider turning on your camera to record the interaction. Make sure to do this before the officer gets out of the police car so they don’t see you and think you are reaching for a weapon. Remember, video evidence makes it impossible to ignore the misconduct of some bad cops.

police use of force, often with long-term health and economic consequences for affected communities. In addition to issues of racial and social inequality, concerns about the risk to vulnerable populations (including individuals with mental illness) have been raised.

Many black men have encountered police during nationwide “stop-and-frisk” programs where they are often intimidated and harassed; in many cases, there was no good reason for them to be stopped in the first place. Of the numerous cities in America that have enacted such programs, the racial makeup of the city doesn’t match the racial makeup of the people who are searched and frisked. The question remains: Is stop and frisk essential to combating crime, or is it just another form of racial profiling?

3. ENCOUNTERS IN THE HOME

Black boys and men have been subjected to aggressive policing at every stage in the criminal justice system, with police encounters in the home being seen nationwide recently. Although citizens expect to be safe from harm in their home, even a typical phone call to the police for assistance can cause you to become a victim of police violence. If things go wrong and police misconduct or brutality occurs against you at home, it is often difficult to prove the truth and ensure that justice is served.

2. ENCOUNTERS ON THE STREET

Not too differently than driving, encounters on the street with the police can be equally confusing and dangerous.

Several high-profile cases in the U.S. have drawn public attention to the use of lethal force by law enforcement. For many black men, just existing or standing around anywhere can lead to a police encounter. Concern over such cases fueled nationwide protests in 2015, including some incidents of civil unrest and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Major acts of civil disobedience and unrest have arisen throughout U.S. history in response to concerns about

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“THE TALK”

“The Talk” that many African Americans have with their children about the police is a rite of passage for many African American children, especially boys and young men. Essentially, they are taught how to behave in the presence of police officers to prevent harm and, most importantly, to survive the encounter: no sudden movements, don’t question why you’re being stopped, comply with all verbal commands, and never raise your voice.

The problem isn’t just that black men get killed; it’s that black families are stressed and strained by black men’s daily encounters with police. Studies show that black and Hispanic drivers, compared to white drivers, experience a disproportionate number of police stops and that officers show less respect to black drivers. Given the prevalence of both incarceration and police stops for black men, law-enforcement contact of any kind can become a source of additional stress and racial oppression.

Black people, who account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 27 percent of those fatally shot and killed by police in 2021 (at least 200), according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit group that tracks police shootings. That means black people are twice as likely as white people to be shot and killed by police officers.

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A GALLERY OF VICTIMS

STERLING

CASTILE WRIGHT

Their names are Tamir Rice, 12, shot and killed while in a park with a toy gun; Eric Garner, 43, killed when put in a chokehold after encountering the police on suspicion of selling “loose” cigarettes; Botham Jean, 26, shot and killed when a police officer “accidentally” entered his home thinking it was her own; Stephon Clark, 22, shot and killed by police in his grandmother’s yard after reports of someone breaking car windows in the neighborhood; George Floyd, 46, killed by a police officer kneeling on his neck after a call was made that he might have used a counterfeit $20 bill to purchase cigarettes; Daunte Wright, 20, shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop in which the officer claims to have thought she pulled her Taser; Philando Castile, 32, shot during a traffic stop when he told the officer that he had a licensed weapon and that he was “not” about to pull it out; Alton Sterling, 37, shot and killed while selling CDs after police received a call about a man threatening people outside a store; Andre Hill, 47, shot and killed by a police officer after a non-emergency call was placed about someone turning a car on and off; Akai Gurley, 28, shot and killed in the stairwell of his apartment building; Manuel Ellis, 33, killed by being suffocated during an arrest in which he was accused, against witness testimony, of attacking officers; Rayshard Brooks, 27, killed while being pursued by police after he was found sleeping in his car in a Wendy’s drivethru; Daniel Prude, 41, after ingesting PCP and experiencing a mental-health episode, died as a result of being placed face down in restraints for more than two minutes; Freddie Gray, 25, died as a result of police transport during which he suffered severe injuries to his neck and spinal cord.

These are a few of the many African American men who have lost their lives as a result of encounters with the police. The racial disparities of this centuries-old American tradition need to be changed before more lives are lost. Stay safe, and protect yourself.

GARNER

HILL

In conclusion, the five best ways to avoid negative reactions with the police seem to be the following: 1. Do not run.

2. Educate yourself on your rights and the laws in your state. (Are you required to show the police your identification document? Do you have to answer their questions? Should you answer their questions? Should you let them search your car or enter your home without a warrant?

Should you avail yourself of your right to an attorney?*) 3. Keep your hands where they can be seen.

4. Keep a positive attitude despite the situation.

5. Most importantly, go home at night and avoid hanging out in places that are known for harassment or police violence. (Although it’s unfair that black males need to curtail their legal activities to protect themselves, some BAVUAL

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ELLIS

PRUDE

CLARK,

FLOYD

GRAY

might choose to do so to avoid becoming a victim.)

It is unknown when, if ever, the black man will cease to be seen as a “threat.” Until then, we must remain vigilant in our pursuit of knowledge, transparency, and the right of truth and honesty in relation to law enforcement’s daily interactions with African American communities. In some cases, acting wisely when approached by the police could be the difference between life and death. *For more information about your rights, visit www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/stopped-by-police.

To make change get involved in your community, and demand respect from those who serve and protect you.

WINTER 2023

THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Set Out to Change the World - With Mixed Results

By Stephen G. Hall, PhD, Myeshia C. Babers, PhD and Earl A. Birkett For those who believe in the Great Man Theory of history, there are perhaps no two better examples that oversized personalities can move worlds than Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The story of the 1960s—an era that rocked the racial and economic construct of the United States more than any period since the Civil War—cannot be told without telling the story of these two remarkable men. King and Malcolm, though forged in the fire of American racism, introduced worldviews that were diametrically opposed to one another. The former, a Southern preacher’s son, envisioned an inclusive society where all races learned to live together in peace and cooperation; he was the shield of the Civil Rights Movement. The latter, raised in the mean streets of Northern big cities and saved by Islam, urged blacks to shake off the yoke of racism and colonialism and claim what is their right and BAVUAL

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their heritage, by force if necessary; he was its sword. Today, more than 50 years after their deaths, the world must choose which path to take—or perhaps reconcile them both. But how?

The work of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, who was born Malcolm Little and later became known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, was a significant component of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Like other African American thinkers, activists and leaders of this period, these men represented the crystallization of black thought and liberation tactics that effectively dismantled the racist Jim Crow system and charted the path toward a postJim Crow society. Their work served as the foundation for contemporary struggles ranging from the anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s and ’80s and our current Movement for Black Lives. These WINTER 2023

KING AND MALCOLM X MET ONLY ONCE, AND BRIEFLY, ON CAPITOL HILL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 26, 1964

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LIFE FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE 1950S

EMMETT TILL

BLACK MEN WORKED AS PULLMAN PORTERS

SEGREGATION

BLACK WOMEN WERE MAIDS TO WHITES

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URBAN AND RURAL SLUMS

REDLINING

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movements and those in between used the ideological, organizational and cultural tactics of these leaders. Their contributions to black struggle are undeniable, and they have given us the blueprint for future liberatory movements.

The Muslim minister and the Baptist minister used different tactics based on their experiences and community involvement. These two seemed to be at odds fighting the same war against racial oppression, which is no different from any other war in which change is inevitable and achieved through tools like swords and shields. We might find the answers to why and how their work should be viewed as complementary if we look at how their experiences as black Americans shaped their perspectives on change. After all, they had the same goal: black freedom and liberation. King and Malcolm were both sons of Baptist ministers, but King came from a middle-class family, while Malcolm was the fourth of seven children in a family that was economically struggling during The Great Depression. As they struggled against oppression, their class experiences added an important layer of complexity.

It would be futile to engage in an assessment of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X that simply juxtaposes the two leaders. It is clear that their approaches to black liberation in some ways mirrored rather than conflicted with one another.

Both believed in the importance of a ministerial base as the launching pad for their ideological positions. As a Christian minister, King used the traditions of the Baptist church to articulate a humanistic vision for civil and political rights for African Americans. Indeed, he drew liberally from the oratorical traditions of the black church, its organizational apparatus, and the power of song and the spirituals to build movement culture. Malcolm operated in a similar manner. Aware of the black Christian tradition since his father was a minister, Malcolm also drew heavily on religious cadence and oratory in his role as a minister in the Nation of Islam (NOI). In fact, the corpus of his social and political philosophy is contained primarily in speeches given in that role. Like King, Malcolm used the organizational apparatus of the mosque to deliver his message to the masses, and he was also a skilled street orator. Speaking engagements were opportunities to recruit new members for the faith as well as provide important lessons in black selfsufficiency and cultural appreciation.

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An essential element of their roles as leaders was charisma. Both men were widely revered and viewed as almost messianic. Interestingly, while they were both widely revered in black communities (not all blacks agreed that Malcolm’s philosophy was feasible for black liberation, and some conservative black ministers opposed the agitational quality of the Civil Rights Movement), they were reviled in the white community. Much of Malcolm’s invective was directed at conservative elements in the black community and the white power structure, which he viewed as the central element in black immiseration.

Although King wrote several books, his speeches are widely known and serve as the corpus of his ideological position on black liberation. Malcolm’s legacy is based primarily on one book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley, and a plethora of speeches. King was highly critical of the white moderates he believed were the greatest stumbling block in the path to black liberation and the creation of the beloved community. Both men provided tutelage for and trained subsequent black leaders. King’s lieutenants included Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Marian Wright Edelman, James Bevel, Stokely Carmichael, Diane Nash, C.T. Vivian, and many others. Malcolm influenced Louis Farrakhan, current head of the Nation of Islam, and Warith Deen Mohammed, the son of Elijah Muhammad and founder of the American Society of Muslims.

Both King and Malcolm were committed to overarching tactics and ideological perspectives to effect black liberation. King promoted direct nonviolent resistance and the creation of the beloved community, and Malcolm endorsed selfdefense and black nationalism. Each of these approaches reflected the realities these men faced in the South and the North, respectively.

King framed nonviolence as a counternarrative to the brutality and brute force of white supremacy; indeed, nonviolent resistance was everything that white supremacy was not. White supremacy used the law to enforce discrimination and inequality, while nonviolent resistance meant opposition to unjust laws. White supremacy enforced segregation and exclusion as central in maintaining white hegemony, while nonviolent resistance centered integration and inclusion as a means of creating a just society. White supremacy framed race as biologically based and essentialist with whiteness ensconced as superior, while nonviolent resistance placed character over

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BIRTH OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

ROSA PARKS BOOKED IN MONTGOMERY, 1955 SIT-IN AT WOOLWORTH'S LUNCH COUNTER, GREENSBORO, N.C., 1960

WATER CANONS IN BIRMINGHAM, 1963

EVERS KILLED, JACKSON, MISS., 1963

BULL CONNOR, BIRMINGHAM SAFETY CHIEF BIRMINGHAM, ALA., CHURCH FIREBOMBED, KILLING FOUR

""BLOODY SUNDAY," EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE, SELMA, ALA., 1965 BAVUAL

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skin color and argued for the essential humanity of all Americans.

Although viewed as a tactic emerging from the condition of African Americans in the United States, direct nonviolence action actually had international origins. It was extensively used by Mohandas Gandhi in India to contest colonialism and imperialism. Black thinkers such as Howard Thurman, Bayard Rustin and later Martin Luther King either traveled to India or were deeply influenced by these ideas, which served as a counterweight to the global project of white supremacy.

King and Malcolm also understood the importance of organizational structures. Both men played an important role in building sustainable institutions to combat racism. King built organizations throughout the Civil Rights Movement. At the outset, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the fight to desegregate buses. He also helped establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). King also collaborated with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and the Urban League. Malcolm, as the national spokesman for Elijah Muhammad, built mosques across the country.

These two leaders grew up in the builders generation, which saw racism go from overt to covert forms (and back again). Earlier in their lives, presidents Eisenhower and Truman were in power, and Communism and World War II (1939-45) influenced larger social politics that characterized ideal leaders as authoritarian commanders. When these future leaders and activists of the Civil Rights Movement were coming into their own during the baby boomer generation (1946-1964), King was a sophomore at Morehouse College, and Malcolm was starting an 8-10-year prison sentence for charges such as grand larceny, breaking and entering, and having guns. During their later years, presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were in office, the Vietnam War (1965-73) and the national anthem were social markers of the era, and ideal leaders were then described as commanding thinkers.

National leaders whose politics and policies impacted everyday racial life set the tone for allyship or increased opposition to civil rights activism.

Fighting the juggernaut of racism forced many African Americans to redefine their methods and approaches WINTER 2023

as King and Malcolm did over the years. Nevertheless, between the so-called "violent" and nonviolent tactics of these two leaders, whites had to decide which path the country would take to freedom and equality for all black people. For example, the Kennedy brothers proved to be both friend and foe to King, helping the movement but smearing the man.

POST-WORLD WAR II BLACK AMERICA

Black life in the 1950s, the era that historian Richard Hofstadter termed the Age of Consensus, appeared to mimic the values of white America. The sense of conformity and acquiescence to the status quo was present but operated in ways radically different from majoritarian society. In short, black life was more complex than it seemed. For white Americans, spirits and expectations for the postwar world were buoyed by the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan. The postWorld War II period brought unbridled wealth and domination to the United States. Ideological and technological superiority in the nuclear arms race and the Marshall Plan, which made Europe a dumping ground for American products, assured American hegemony in the postwar world. In a period of unparalleled expansion in all sectors of American society, it seemed American society was moving forward. For black Americans, the same was true but in a radically different way. This period witnessed a concerted effort to wage a frontal assault on the racist Jim Crow system. This struggle laid the foundation for the modern civil rights and black power movements and was the cauldron in which two of the most dominant personalities of the period, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, were forged.

Rather than a spontaneous occurrence, the Civil Rights Movement marked the culmination of a concerted struggle to upend Jim Crow. This movement, by the 1950s, spanned almost 50 years.

The combined legal and social pressure exerted on the system of American apartheid would bear fruit in the 1950s. One of the first indicators of this reality was the success of litigation initiated by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the late 1920s. The purpose of these cases was to challenge the logic of separate but equal.

Starting with graduate and professional schools in Gaines v. Canada, the Legal Defense Fund sought to show the inherent damage caused by legalized segregation. These cases, argued in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, slowly began to establish a clear precedent.

By the 1950s, they were headlined by conditions in the Clarendon County schools in South Carolina and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case.

These cases not only relied on legal precedent to BAVUAL 31

MORE VIOLENCE AND INTIMIDATION

GOV. GEORGE WALLACE BLOCKS ENTRANCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, 1963

SELMA MARCH SUPPORTER VIOLA LIUZZO KILLED, 1965

PROTESTERS AND MLK ATTACKED BY WHITES, CICERO, ILL., 1966 THREE CIVIL RIGHTS VOLUNTEERS MURDERED IN MISSISSIPPI, 1964

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establish the problematic nature of Jim Crow but also on sociological and psychological evidence. This evidence was collected by African American psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark. Trained at the Columbia University in New York City, the Clarks designed a test to measure the impact of segregation on black youth. The test was known as “the doll test,” and it conclusively showed the psychological damage caused by segregation. Students were presented with two dolls—one black and the other white—and were then asked which doll they favored or wanted to emulate. In an overwhelming number of cases, black students chose the white doll.

This test was introduced in court as part of a mounting pile of documentation showing the problematic nature of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that entrenched the doctrine of “separate but equal.” With precedent and sociological evidence on their side, attorneys Constance Baker Motley and Thurgood Marshall successfully brought and argued Brown v. Board before the Supreme Court. In 1954, the Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and in doing so ushered in a new period in American history.

For most African Americans, everyday life entailed commuting to work at one of the occupations that they were able to choose from. These included nursing, elevator operators, foremen, parking lot attendants, salespeople, social workers and cabbies.

As early as the 1950s, African Americans began to show up as managers, bookkeepers, mechanics, bus and cab drivers, policemen, foremen, salesmen, auditors and accountants. African Americans also participated in or kept up with the larger social and political scene regarding civil rights. As soon as the Brown v. Board of Education decision was announced on May 17, 1954, a wave of protests erupted for and against school desegregation. King had just turned 25 when he delivered his first trial sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. One year earlier, in 1953, Malcolm X was named assistant minister at the Detroit temple. By June 1954, Elijah Muhammad had appointed him chief minister of Harlem's Temple No. 7, and over the next five years, Malcolm grew the Nation of Islam's membership to perhaps 40,000. Racial tensions continued to build as the two ministers reached significant milestones in their careers as civil rights leaders. Shortly thereafter, blacks and whites mobilized in Mississippi after 14year-old Emmett Till was murdered on August 28, 1955.

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THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The success of the Brown v. Board of Education case was quickly followed by one of the most significant mass mobilization efforts ever by African Americans.

It began in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 and became known as the Montgomery bus boycott. Normally presented as a spontaneous event, the boycott represented a well-established strategy of civil disobedience stretching back to the trolley car boycotts of the late 19th century. The bus boycott was sparked by the actions of Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist and secretary for the local NAACP, after she refused to surrender her seat in the white segregated section of a bus in Montgomery. Her arrest led to mass mobilization, and Martin Luther King, then a young 26-year-old minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, was catapulted into the leadership of the boycott. Working with local churches, the NAACP and the newly created Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) established a volunteer taxi service to transport thousands of black people to work and back. This yearlong boycott successfully ended segregated busing in Montgomery and became a foundational component of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

During this period of racism and segregation in the workplace and housing markets, separation, not segregation, was Malcolm’s goal for black selfimprovement and self-determination. The sale of houses to blacks was prohibited in many white communities, and it was not unusual to find poorquality tenements in black communities. Despite their advancement in many fields, African American women continued earning lower wages because fewer nonmenial jobs were available to them, leading them to work as domestics and laundresses instead.

Although Parks, who was also a seamstress at a local department store, was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat, she was not the only black woman who faced such racism and humiliation. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested nine months before Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a crowded, segregated bus, but civil rights advocates didn’t pursue her case, Browder v. Gayle, because she was unmarried and pregnant. Instead, the arrest of Parks, a middle-class married woman, ignited the movement that made Martin Luther King a household name.

The success of the Montgomery boycott was quickly followed by the establishment of new civil rights organizations and the expansion of older ones. The

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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: THE SHIELD WITH THE KENNEDYS, FRIENDS AND FOES

THE 26-YEAR-OLD PASTOR, MONTGOMERY, ALA., 1955

AN EARLY, DANGEROUS MARCH

NEAR-FATAL STABBING IN HARLEM, 1958

LBJ AND MLK CONVERSE AT THE WHITE HOUSE, 1965

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"I HAVE A DREAM," 1963

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older Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) became the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and activists such as Bayard Rustin and Ella Baker joined forces to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. Baker served as the executive secretary and the organizational juggernaut of the organization, and it quickly became the organizational hub for the movement, attracting ministerial talent and becoming the catalyst for the establishment of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.

One of the last important events of the period was the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957, a direct effort to enforce Brown v.

Board of Education. Nine schoolchildren were selected to integrate the school, and the effort to was led by Daisy Bates, the head of the Arkansas NAACP. The effort was challenging and fraught with difficulty as the children faced angry mobs and were abused in untold ways throughout their ordeal. Deeply segregationist and committed to defying the federal government, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus refused to deploy the National Guard to protect the students, so President Eisenhower nationalized it. Eventually, Eisenhower also called in the 101st Airborne to protect the students. Although several students graduated from Central High during its one integrated year, the school was closed for the entire following school year to prevent another year of integration.

In the 1960s, there were many memorable moments, from marches, speeches and sit-ins to police brutality, the imprisonment of civil rights leaders, and challenges to unjust laws and traditions. As the Civil Rights Movement evolved, so did the philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. King had just turned 31 in January 1960 when he moved to Atlanta, Ga., to become co-pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father. The following month, he participated in the first sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. This was the first of many nonviolent protests carried out

by King and his following. In response to this protest, King was jailed for the first time in his life as a civil rights leader. King was freed, however, with the help of the Kennedys. Malcolm, on the other hand, was long since removed from his criminal past as a drug dealer who was imprisoned for various crimes in the 1940s, and the time he spent in prison had led him to convert to the Nation of Islam and change his political outlook. In 1960, he co-founded the newspaper Muhammad Speaks to promote the organization's message.

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During the next five years, African Americans (and their non-black allies) marched and protested following the nonviolent resistance tactics advocated

by King. Marching children were met with fire hoses and police dogs in Birmingham, Ala., in May 1963, and Bull Connor, the city’s commissioner of public safety, arrested King during a sit-in as part of the Birmingham campaign. In June, Gov. George C. Wallace stood in a doorway at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block integration of the school. That same month, a sniper also shot and killed civil rights activist Medgar Evers in Jackson, Miss. Then, on September 15, four black girls were killed in a bombing Sunday morning at a church in Birmingham, further demonstrating the extreme rage of the white community about integration. Still, during "Freedom Summer" the following year, protesters and activists continued to hold strong in response to the continuing injustices facing African Americans across the country. During this time period, three activists were abducted and murdered in Philadelphia, Miss. Then, in March 1965, during a protest march in Selma, Ala., John Lewis was almost killed by law enforcement while attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Another participant in the Selma campaign, white Chicago housewife and civil rights supporter Viola Liuzzo, was shot and killed

by Ku Klux Klan members as she was transporting a black activist in her car. White racist resistance to integration and civil rights remained violent and pervasive, regardless of the law.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: THE SHIELD

The events of the 1950s heightened the prominence of a little-known preacher named Martin Luther King, who was born to a family of preachers in Atlanta. A child prodigy, King entered Morehouse College at 15.

Under the tutelage of Benjamin Mays, he deepened his commitment to the social gospel, the idea of using the gospel to impact the lived conditions of human beings. He also received training at Crozer Theological Seminary and a PhD in systematic theology from Boston University in 1955.

King developed his theory of nonviolent resistance based on the teaching of Mohandas Gandhi, who used nonviolence as a strategy to undermine segregation in South Africa (namely pass laws) and then colonial rule In India. King combined this thinking with tactics extant in the African American freedom struggle, drawing heavily on the traditions of the black church.

In addition, he built on lessons he had learned from Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience earlier in 1944. Around that time, he had also seen how racism impoverished his friends and divided black and

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TRIUMPH - AND TRAGEDY NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER, 1964

ARRESTED AT LEAST 29 TIMES

OPPOSES VIETNAM WAR, 1967

TIME'S MAN OF THE YEAR, 1963

MLK CAME TO MEMPHIS TO HELP STRIKING SANITATION WORKERS BAVUAL

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MEMPHIS, APRIL 4, 1968

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white co-workers at a tobacco farm in Connecticut Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, King evolved where he worked for two summers. It wasn’t until as a preacher and orator, and he ultimately realized 1948 when he was at Crozer that he began reading the the limitations of focusing only on civil rights and works of many other Western thinkers. political rights. By the time the movement achieved considerable success in civil and political rights with In 1954, King's intellectual journey converged into the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the his positive social philosophy that called for Voting Rights Act in 1965, the mood of the country nonviolent resistance. This philosophy, which was shifted. The assassination of President John F. informed by his readings of Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Kennedy, the advent of the Great Society programs Marx, Nietzsche, and Gandhi, led him to prefer a under President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s democratic socialist economic system before turning administration, and the escalation of the war in to a philosophy of pacifism augmented by Vietnam changed the calculus of the movement. Civil "personalistic philosophy." However, King had not yet Rights was no longer in the forefront. Civil rights applied his ideas to effect change while African activists were now vying for access to dollars with Americans were experiencing discrimination and other concerns. brutal attacks caused by racism.

Riots in Harlem and Philadelphia in 1964 and Watts The new movement led by King embraced a larger in 1965 dramatized the impact of police brutality, vision of a beloved community that would emerge harsh living conditions, lack of opportunity, poverty, from a humanistic understanding of the world—an poor educational facilities and housing discrimination. understanding that would embrace all races, creeds, The intense resistance King’s nonviolent tactics traditions and religions. It eschewed war and received meant a sea change in the priorities of the militarism and promoted equality and the even movement. These changes featured increasing distribution of resources. It promoted a deeply student militancy in the South with the organizational interracial vision of the world. These ideas found their activities of SNCC. The shooting of James Meredith, way into King’s sermons, letters, interviews and books civil rights activist and key participant in the and informed his “I Have a Dream Speech” at the integration of the University of Mississippi, during the March on Washington in 1963. He sketched a March Against Fear in Tennessee and Mississippi in panoramic vision of the trajectory of American race 1966 led to calls for Black Power from Stokely relations and the need to address the challenges of Carmichael, leader of SNCC. These events dovetailed dismantling Jim Crow. He also presented a humanistic with the establishment of the Black Panther Party in vision of the future predicated on interracial Oakland, Calif., by Merritt College students Huey cooperation, with little white and black children Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panther Party for sitting down together and judged by the content of Self-Defense embodied the new strident militancy their character rather than the color of their skin. sweeping through urban black communities nationwide, fueled by the shifting tides of the Civil Another poignant King piece, among many, was “A Rights Movement and international events such as the Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” Written just before decolonization of Africa and Asia and the Vietnam the March on Washington, King may have been War. referring to his imprisonment in the Birmingham jail at the march when he said, “Some of you have come Forced to address this shifting reality, King’s shortfresh from narrow jail cells.” King’s letter like Paul’s lived and unsuccessful attempt to address living letter to the church was a rousing call to action. After conditions and housing discrimination in Chicago in his arrest and imprisonment for civil disobedience, he 1966 put a spotlight on racism in the North. Largely turned his attention to critiquing white moderates, stonewalled by Mayor Daley, who ran Chicago’s who he viewed as impediments to the movement, and political machine, King experienced virulent racism as the white church. He viewed both of these groups as he attempted to dramatize discriminatory conditions central to the movement but lamented their in Cicero, Ill., a suburb outside of Chicago. There, he cowardice and refusal to take a stand for justice. He was taunted by racist mobs and hit in the head with a called for these groups to look deeply into their souls rock. The intensity of racism in the North and conscience and summon the courage to enact demonstrated the nationwide presence of anti-black meaningful change in American life. Despite the power sentiment and jolted King. It also forced the of King’s letter, Birmingham was still unswayed, and movement to address Northern conditions, the riots the injustice and violence against blacks continued. in black cities, and the Vietnam War toward the latter

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MALCOLM X: THE SWORD

MALCOLM LITTLE ARREST IN BOSTON FOR LARCENY, 1944

THE BESTSELLER WRITTEN

BY ALEX HALEY

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half of the 1960s. King expanded his civil rights agenda to include militarism, poverty and cultural issues, and this expansion set the stage for the next phase of the Civil Rights Movement, which meshed nicely with the work of Northern activists who were already addressing these issues.

Between 1965 and 1968, King expanded the agenda of the Civil Rights Movement by attacking poverty and militarism. He organized the Poor People’s Campaign, which was a movement designed to address the issue of poverty in America by building an interracial coalition to combat it. King also spoke out forcibly against the war in Vietnam. In his speech “Beyond Vietnam” given at the Riverside Church in 1967, King officially came out in opposition to the war. In the speech, he called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” He also criticized the nation’s massive economic investment in the war at the expense of pressing social and economic challenges at home. Building on the need to address the plight of the working class, King also heeded the call to go to Memphis, Tenn., in April 1968 to assist striking sanitation workers in their fight for higher wages and better working conditions. King’s commitment to addressing the economic challenges faced by working-class black people effectively combined the struggle for civil and political rights with the struggle for economic justice. His desire to offer a radical vision of American life grounded in social and economic justice and interracial cooperation led to his assassination on April 4, 1968.

MALCOLM X: THE SWORD

Not unlike King, Malcolm X also understood the variables that impacted black life. Born in Omaha, Neb., Malcolm was the son of two Garveyite parents.

His father was a minister, and his mother was of Grenadian origin. Outspoken and defiant, Malcolm’s father was probably targeted by the racist Black Legion, tied to railroad tracks, and murdered by means of a speeding locomotive. With the family left destitute because an insurance company ruled that the death was suicide, Malcolm’s mother was soon committed to an insane asylum, and the children were dispersed. Malcom ended up in Boston with his halfsister Ella. There he fell into a life of crime and pursued various lines of work including pimp, hustler, gambler, drug pusher and petty thief. Traveling between New York, Detroit and Boston, Malcom made a name for himself as Red, Detroit Red or Satan. These characterizations symbolized his involvement in street life and what he would later characterize as the

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destruction of black people. He also characterized his time on the street as a practical education in the challenges faced by African Americans.

The turning point for Malcolm came in 1946 when he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in the Charlestown State Prison for burglary and larceny. It was there that he became familiar with the Nation of Islam. Founded by an itinerant preacher known as W. Fard Muhammad, the NOI was based on a wellestablished interest among African American thinkers and mystics in the religions of the Eastern world.

Building on the work of Noble Drew Ali and the Moorish Science Temple and Garveyism, Elijah Muhammad, a sharecropper from Georgia, inherited the mantle of the organization after Fard’s disappearance in 1934 and began to spread a message of black nationalism and self-sufficiency, which called for the establishment of independent black-ownedand-controlled organizations. He based the organization loosely on Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) but limited its scope to national boundaries. The Nation preached economic self-sufficiency and cooperative economics built on donations from members, businesses and mosque attendance. It recruited its membership from the community, but especially from prisons. Women were encouraged to dress in long formal dresses and head coverings, and men wore crisply decorated suits modeled on those of Garvey’s UNIA. Women were encouraged to work in social welfare or nursing, and men played various roles in the mosque. The men also served as foot soldiers, fundraisers for the organization, and recruiters for new members.

Malcolm emerged from prison in 1954, the year of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and, in many ways, his rise to fame paralleled King’s. With an inspirational personal story of overcoming a life of crime and drug addiction that appealed to many, he began a meteoric rise in the Nation. He organized mosques in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, and his subsequent elevation to the rank of official spokesperson for Elijah Muhammad and national minister gave him a great deal of public exposure. In speeches and debates, he preached an uncompromising attack on white supremacy. He advocated black self-defense and viewed violence as a justifiable defense when attacked. He also advocated black self-help and building black businesses and institutions. In his speeches “The Ballot or the Bullet” and “Message to the Grassroots,” he pressed the importance of voting rights, black

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A MAN EVOLVING AT THE END PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA, 1964

THE BREAK WITH ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, 1963

HOME DEFENSE IN QUEENS, N.Y., 1964

CONVERTING CASSIUS CLAY (MUHAMMAD ALI) TO ISLAM, 1964

HARLEM, FEB. 21, 1965

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self-determination and political independence. He also criticized the slavish adherence of African Americans to the two-party system and characterized the Democrats as foxes and the Republicans as wolves. He lambasted African Americans who cooperated with the white power structure or supported causes that opposed their interests.

Malcolm was also critical of the nonviolent tactics of civil rights leaders. Often viewed as an ideological opponent of King, his approach represented his background and the objective conditions blacks faced in the North. Nonviolence seemed out of place in Northern ghettoes where African Americans were locked into systematic poverty. Lacking organizational grassroots structures and owning few of the resources in the black communities where they lived, blacks often responded to white aggression and police brutality through riots, which inflicted heavy damage on whiteowned interests in inner cities. Verbal confrontation, rent boycotts and picketing stores in black communities that failed to serve black customers were also a part of the Northern civil rights playbook.

For Malcolm and members of the Nation of Islam, economic self-sufficiency, knowledge of self, separation from the white world, and rejection of Christianity proved useful tools in promoting an alternative to capitalism and white supremacy. He also critiqued the influx of illegal narcotics into black communities and the impact of crime and prostitution, with his previous life of crime giving him a degree of authority in addressing these issues. The orderly nature of black women dressed in crisp dresses and head coverings and tending to social welfare needs in black communities and black men selling copies of Muhammad Speaks served as a counterbalance to the daily degradation of African Americans in the ghettoes.

Malcolm’s popularity reached such heights that it brought jealousy within the Nation of Islam, and the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 proved just the event that his enemies needed. Advised by Elijah Muhammad to make no comment on Kennedy’s assassination, Malcolm instead spoke out when confronted by reporters and stated that the assassination was a case of the chickens coming home to roost. He elaborated by saying that America was involved in political violence around the world and Kennedy’s assassination was the culmination of this reality. Afterwards, Malcolm was officially silenced for 90 days. The silencing never ended, however, and it became clear that Malcolm would have to break with the Nation.

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Malcolm left the NOI in 1964 and soon thereafter made the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca and traveled to several newly independent African nations to seek allies in the civil rights struggle. Like King, he experienced a shift in thinking. After breaking with Elijah Muhammad, he worked tirelessly to align his nationalist thinking with the global world. He also founded two new organizations—the Organization of Afro- American Unity (OAAU) and Muslim Mosque Incorporated—that reflected his more expansive civil, political and human rights agendas following his split with the Nation. Transcending the domestic preoccupations of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm’s travels integrated him into the currents of black internationalism, which were well established among black expatriates as well as contemporary organizations such as the Black Panther Party.

Malcolm sought to highlight the plight of African Americans on the international stage and worked to elevate civil rights to the plane of human rights. Given his ministerial background, he also focused on religious organization and established a broad-based religious organization that practiced traditional Islam and served social and political needs within the black community.

In addition, he embraced an interracial agenda regarding race relations.

Malcolm’s moves were not novel. Black nationalism was never a domestic formulation even from its inception in the 19th century. Early thinkers such as Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden and Marcus Garvey envisioned black nationalism in global terms.

Malcolm, like earlier and later proponents of the concept, utilized white allies. Although largely opposed to white participation in nationalist activities while in the Nation of Islam, he amended his approach after he left the organization. Like King's, however, his global vision of black solidarity and cooperation threatened the Nation of Islam and the U.S. government. Perhaps as a result of his new ideological positions, much of his forward-looking agenda was cut short by his untimely assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on February 21, 1965.

AMERICA AFTER MARTIN AND MALCOLM Given the exalted status that Martin Luther King and Malcom X occupy in American society and the black community, respectively—although in King’s case it is largely insincere and even cynical—it is surprising how unpopular and misunderstood both men were at the time of their assassinations. Part of their esteem flows from the brutal and unfair manner of their deaths, one having been killed by the racism he sought to eliminate (or at least overcome) and the other by jealousy and betrayal within his own ranks.

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THE AFTERMATH

AMERICAN CITIES BURN IN FLAMES AND IMPOSE MARTIAL LAW AFTER MLK'S ASSASSINATION

"BLACK POWER" BORN MLK'S SURVIVORS LEAD HIS PLANNED POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN

MALCOLM X INSPIRES THE BLACK PANTHERS

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In King’s case, his appeal in his time, though never high overall, dropped dramatically between 1963, arguably the year of his greatest personal triumphs, and 1968. Gallup placed him somewhere in the middle of its annual list of Top 10 most admired Americans, in 1964 and 1965, after which he disappeared from the list altogether. In 1963, a Gallup poll gave him a 41 percent positive and a 37 percent negative rating; by 1966, the last year he was measured by Gallup, his rating had plummeted to 32 percent positive and 63 percent negative. Derisively called “De Lawd,” he took flak from all sides, especially with the rise of the Black Power Movement beginning in 1966. White supremacists hated him, white liberals felt betrayed when he came out against the Vietnam War in 1967, the black middle-class he had done so much for grew weary of him, and the black underclass found other heroes to replace him, namely the new Black Panther Party, which was inspired more by Malcolm X and his view of self-defense and self-determination than King’s view of nonviolence and accommodation.

If King was unpopular in mainstream America, Malcolm was off the grid entirely, seen by whites and middle-class blacks as a fearsome villain out of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. Long before 9/11, the Nation of Islam struck fear in the American psyche.

Just a tiny American offshoot of Islam numbering in the hundreds when Malcolm took over its promotion in the early 1950s, the Nation ballooned to perhaps 75,000 by 1965 and was a potent force in the black ghetto and later on college campuses. A documentary on the group, The Hate That Hate Produced, released in 1959, had catapulted Malcolm to national infamy and made him a prime target for the FBI. In actuality, the tide of history around that time appeared to be flowing in his direction with the revolution in Cuba; the decolonization of Africa and the Caribbean; growing Third World immigration to America and the resultant diversity in its population and culture; the dangers imposed by a police state grown bolder by rioting in U.S. cities beginning in the mid-1960s and black militancy; the shallowness and exploitation inherent in capitalism; the movement for human rights and social justice; and the comradeship with developing nations that he dreamed of.

The turning point in King’s legacy began immediately upon his assassination. Blacks in the long-neglected inner cities were angriest, and their rage exploded in violence, unfortunate but justifiable. Whites reacted in fear, martial law was imposed, and federal troops and the National Guard patrolled the streets. After a time, fear was replaced by an overwhelming sense of guilt, and measures were implemented to assuage WINTER 2023

that guilt and cool off the ugly mood that existed among blacks. President Johnson’s War on Poverty, smashed into smithereens by the Vietnam debacle, corruption and mismanagement, saw traces picked up by the Nixon and Ford administrations, such as minority small-business set-asides, affirmative action, and legal action against housing discrimination. The Poor People’s Campaign, conceived by King and expected to be led by him until his death, went forward anyway but had little impact—at first. Aid to the poor eventually did increase in the form of public assistance and weak attempts at urban renewal but petered out beginning in the 1980s, having been demonized by Ronald Reagan at the acquiescence of post-liberal Democrats.

The biggest change that occurred after the era of King and Malcolm X has by far been the realignment in America’s two political parties and the implications it holds for the future. In 1968, the Democratic Party was essentially an uneasy and fraying amalgam of bigcity mayors, Southern segregationists in Congress, white suburban liberals, and a handful of wellconnected black leaders that wielded power and froze out the vast majority of blacks and other minorities.

The Republican Party, which had long been an extension of a white country club, was still moderately progressive on race issues—even briefly embracing King himself as a member—until the cities rioted and Richard Nixon exploited white fear of urban crime (which seldom extended to white neighborhoods) to win the 1968 and 1972 presidential elections.

By 1972, the identities of the two parties had been permanently reversed. The Old Guard Democratic power structure, in place since the New Deal but wounded by Vietnam and the riots, ceded control to minorities and white liberals (who today are ironically considered too conservative). The Republicans only doubled down on white intolerance and fearmongering. The party’s voices of reason were gradually drowned out by the Silent Majority, epitomized by TV’s bigoted Archie Bunker and the forerunner of Make America Great Again (MAGA).

Followers of King and Malcolm struggled to find a footing in this new reality, producing bizarre outcomes. Eldridge Cleaver, a Black Panther inspired

by Malcolm X, was a Reagan Republican by the 1980s, and a top King associate, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, endorsed Reagan for president in 1980. The vast majority of followers of these men, however, would find a home with the Democrats. Some, like Andrew Young, one of King’s lieutenants, and Malcolminspired, ex-Panther Bobby Rush, would rise to positions of power within the party.

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YIN AND YANG OF BLACK ASPIRATION

PROTEST, 2023

MIDDLE-CLASS HOPES, 2023

NONCONFORMISTS, 2023

BUSINESS AND POLITICAL ADVANCEMENT, 2023 BAVUAL

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THE INHERITANCE

Without a doubt, the America of 2023 is a nation shaped by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X—but not entirely in the way that they intended, and not necessarily always for the good.

Events conspired to virtually deify King within 10-15 years after his murder. Even President Reagan, not especially a fan of King in his lifetime, signed the law that made his birthday a national holiday in 1983. In 1999, a Gallup poll named King the second most admired person of the 20th century, behind only Mother Teresa (someone not without her own controversies).

The biggest beneficiary of the Civil Rights Movement has been the black middle class rather than the black underclass, which probably would have disappointed King, an economic socialist. Although ultimate political power was achieved with the election of a black president, Barack Obama, in 2008 and 2012, his administration turned out to be advantageous for holders of capital and few others. Well-positioned blacks were able to take advantage of greater educational opportunities, which led to better jobs, higher incomes, nicer homes and neighborhoods, and more intact families. In 2019, the black poverty rate dropped to 18.8 percent, its lowest ever recorded (though it rose slightly to 19.5 percent in 2021).

Interracial marriage, banned in many Southern states and widely unaccepted by both whites and blacks in King’s and Malcolm’s time but sanctioned by the Supreme Court in 1967 (Loving v. Virginia), is common and accepted today.

Gains by the middle class, however, have been offset by the increasing isolation and radicalization of the black underclass, which has only enhanced Malcolm’s image within this group. They have in essence become America’s version of India’s Untouchables, relegated to fatherless homes, poor schools, crumbling housing projects, crime and drug addiction, with few options for escape beyond hustling. Race discrimination is everpresent, and Living While Black is the accepted mantra in the black community. Black men in particular are forever painted as predators by politicians and the media and are preyed upon by police who are charged by mostly white authority figures with keeping them in check, ironically “by any means necessary.” Little wonder that these blacks have essentially formed their own nation within a nation, not exactly as Malcolm had envisioned but replete with its own political structure (gangs), underground economy (the hustle) and culture (hip-hop). Just about the only thing that unites King’s middle-class values and Malcolm’s underclass rebellion is aspiration.

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The tactics of the Civil Rights Movement—protest marches, media manipulation and political activism— have long since been adopted by other movements, from feminism to gay liberation to animal rights.

However, there is one movement that has appropriated these tactics to greatest effect: right-wing Christian nationalism. Ironically, these tactics were invented specifically to battle such bigots. It would be tragic indeed if all of the efforts of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X only lead to a society dominated by Donald Trump and MAGA.

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BAVUAL THE AFRICAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE

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The Top 10 Ways to Observe

February 2023

1

Tour Historical Sites. They are all over the place: gravesites of slaves in New York City, the route of the Underground Railroad, birth places of great leaders, you name it. Just Google it.

2

Support Black-Owned Businesses. Restaurants, retail stores, online shopping sites, even Uber and Lyft drivers, are just a Google search away.

3

Decorate Your Home With African Art. Prints of the world's great Afrocentric art are available from online art sites, easily found by Googling.

4

5

Become Active. There is plenty of work to perform to improve things. If Black Lives Matter and antifa are not your thing, there is getting involved in politics or volunteering with a nonprofit group in your community. Look into the NAACP and the Urban League for starters.

Educate Your Family and Friends. Not everyone is aware of African heritage, especially millennials. The story of the age-old struggle for survival, equality and progress must be passed down from generation to generation. Know your own family's history. Start a dialogue.

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6

7

8

9

10

Lead By Example. You are living black history. Everything you do is one drop of water that flows into a stream, then a river, and finally an ocean of history. Start making it.

Take Courses in Black History. Many community colleges and four-year colleges offer courses in African and African American history to the public. If you are more ambitious, you might consider attending a historically black college or university for a degree or teaching a seminar yourself.

Hold Teach-Ins. Invite guests who are authorities on black history into your home, office, local library or community center to speak on the Afrocentric experience and why it is important to learn history.

Visit Libraries and Museums. Some of the finest libraries and museums specialize in black history, such as the Schomburg Center in New York City's Harlem, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Ala., and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Subscribe to BAVUAL: The African Heritage Magazine. We publish quarterly and are now one-year-old, so you can also order back issues for $10 in addition to a one-year subscription for $20 (50 percent off the cover price). Well worth the investment.

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BAVUAL 47

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THE CULTURE

All About Media, the Arts and Sports

BLACK HOLLYWOOD Part II: 1970-2023

By Lorraine Jones

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Representation in the film industry has always been limited for African Americans, but with the introduction of a new ethnic subgenre of cinema, which came to be known as “blaxploitation,” in the early 1970s, blacks were able to claim more control over how they wanted to be portrayed in Hollywood. Blaxploitation refers to the surge of low-budget films that were independently produced by black crews for black audiences. The first of these films were Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and Shaft (1971) from directors Melvin Van Peebles and Gordon Parks, respectively. Together, the two films unexpectedly grossed more than $15 million.

Several such blaxploitation films were released over the following years and commonly featured crime, fighting against “the man,” sex, drugs, racial tensions, and a certain type of black American life.

Ranging from comedy to horror, these films gave audiences a view of black Americans from a new perspective in the role of heroes countering white villains. These films unapologetically featured powerful images of black Americans accompanied by enchanting soundtracks.

While this boom in black films became a way for African American actors and filmmakers to make movies on their own terms, these films and those

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involved in them were also criticized for portraying blacks in a negative light. Their many critics included such prominent black leaders as Jesse Jackson—a former presidential candidate—and Junius Griffin—the president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

As the film industry entered the era of the blockbuster cinema, two iconic actresses, Diana Ross and Cicely Tyson, transcended to big-budget stardom. These women established much-needed visibility for black actors in Hollywood by highlighting African Americans with powerful prestige in their roles. In the 1972 film based on the memoirs of Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues, pop-star Diana Ross gave a mesmerizing performance of “Strange Fruit,” a song about the lynching of blacks in the South and a racist system.

Tyson, a well-known dark-skinned black actress, established vital visibility in the face of persistent colorism stemming from systemic racism in Hollywood.

Tyson drew critical attention to black civil rights through the intentional selection of her roles. During this time, a dominant theme in Hollywood was the "white savior," a cinematic trope in which white characters rescued people of color, but Tyson never settled and instead chose roles that amplified the humanity of black Americans in her films.

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In 1972, Tyson played the role of an impoverished black woman in the South during the Depression in Martin Ritt’s Sounder, launching her to stardom. This extraordinary role solidified Tyson as one of the first great black heroines on screen.

In 1974, she also gave a legendary Emmy Awardwinning performance in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. The film adaptation of the 1971 novel

by Ernest J. Gaines earned Tyson her first two Emmys while simultaneously making her the first African American actress to win an Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama. She also won Actress of the Year—Special.

In the 1978 historical drama, A Woman Called Moses, Tyson starred as the abolitionist heroine Harriet Tubman and also served as production associate, making a huge statement as an African American woman.

adversity, from the Harlem Renaissance to the LA Rebellion to the Black Lives Matter protests, blacks are finally being shown as human beings with stories worth telling on film.

In 2015, critics of the film industry started the #OscarsSoWhite social media campaign after the Academy Award nominations revealed a scarcity of diversity. In Hollywood during that time, 92 percent of top film directors were men and 86 percent of top films featured white actors in the lead roles. African American actors were and are limited by the roles that Hollywood deems good at the box office, making it even harder for them to obtain prestigious awards.

Those few black actors who are able to break through numerous barriers then have the pressure to represent their race in a positive manner.

Other than the stereotypical and one-dimensional characters for blacks, well-rounded black roles were rare in Hollywood during this time. This left little frame of reference for consumers. Even todays, recent studies revealed that black actors comprise 12.9 percent of leading roles in cable-scripted shows, and only 6 percent of the writers, directors and producers of U.S.-produced films are black.

Television and mass media appear to have the perception that consumers are exclusively white.

Many white directors create films and media about white people through a white perspective and frame it as a universal norm. This indirectly renders everything else as “abnormal” and leaves little room for black actors to have equal opportunity with roles and scene time, thus suppressing the black experience.

The prevalence of video recordings of racial injustice influenced Hollywood to portray the existence and the plight of black Americans on the big screen. This partly resulted from coverage of cataclysmic events such as civil rights sit-ins, Black Power protests, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, and the Watts uprising of 1965. Slowly, networks began to realize that black Americans were included in their audience and were also consumers. The opinions, spending power of the black community, and talents and entertainment value of blacks in the industry were being recognized.

From the beginning of black cinema, African American actors were given roles of subservient characters with racist messages, but as racial movements began to broadcast black culture and WINTER 2023

Sounder (1972), about Southern black sharecroppers during The Great Depression, was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture.

In 2020, blacks and Latinos accounted for the majority of movie ticket sales. Blacks constitute 13.9 percent of all actors in the U.S. and have the highest annual salary $76,142* *zippia.com

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THE 1970s

BREAKTHROUGHS

Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), made on a shoestring, revolutionized black film

Pop star Diana Ross captivated audiences with her Oscar-nominated portrayal of singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) The Great White Hope (1970), based on the true story of heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, earned Oscar nods to its stars, James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander

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THE 1970s

HEROES

The dynamic duo of "Gravedigger" Jones (Godfrey Cambridge, right) and "Coffin Ed" Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques, left) were featured in two detective comedies, Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) and Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972)

James Earl Jones as the first black president of the United States in The Man (1972) Muhammad Ali starred as himself in The Greatest (1977)

Fred Williamson (center) introduced thug life in Black Caesar (1973)

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Carl Weathers (left) as boxer Apollo Creed in Rocky (1976)

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THE 1970s

BLAXPLOITATION Jim Kelly achieved cult status in the first mainstream martial arts hit, the Bruce Leestarring Enter The Dragon (1973)

Pam Grier became the queen of badass cinema in flicks like Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974)

The macho trio - Williamson, Kelly and Jim Brown (right photo, right) - in Three the Hard Way (1974)

Rudy Ray Moore found success with his funky comedy actioner, Dolemite (1975); he starred in the title role and co-wrote the script and its soundtrack

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THE 1970s

WESTERNS, SPIES AND COMEDIES

Harry Belafonte (right)) and Sidney Poitier (left) starred in the black western, Buck and the Preacher (1972), in roles that used to go only to John Wayne or Clint Eastwood

Cleavon Little (center) was Sheriff Bart in the controversial Mel Brooks comedy Western Blazing Saddles (1974)

Yaphet Kotto's Dr. Kananga (center) was a formidable opponent for James Bond 007 in Live and Let Die (1973)

An ensemble cast, some of whom went on to achieve cult status, was the highlight of the urban comedy Car Wash (1976)

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THE FIRST BLACK ACTION STAR From the beginning of the movie industry at the turn of the 20th century, blacks, and in particular black men, were always treated in front of the camera as if they never existed or existed as inferior appendages to serve the whims of glamorously portrayed white people. The first feature length film, The Birth of a Nation, released in 1915, portrayed the black man even worse, as an apelike brute whose sole intent is to rape pure Southern white women.

Thankfully, the movie business veered away from that ugly start (it did much better on the subject with To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962), but for the next half century, the best it could do for the black image was Paul Robeson's The Emperor Jones in 1933. Sidney Poitier later went a long way toward elevating the black male image on film to something more admirable, even though it was a white filmmaker's view of a black man, and when he was offered the chance to play a hero in an action-like film, it was usually as the co-star to a white man such as Richard Widmark or Rod Steiger.

That all changed in 1971 when a major studio, MGM, gave the green light to Life magazine photographer turned film director Gordon Parks to make an action film with a black leading man. Not only would he be black, but he would also be BAAAD—a cocky private detective in Harlem who would be a mixture of Sam Spade and James Bond and not back down to anyone, white, black or other. That leading man was Richard Roundtree, a former model, and the role he portrayed was John Shaft in Shaft.

After Shaft’s huge success (which also elevated the career of Isaac Hayes, the first black person to win a Best Original Music Oscar for his legendary musical score), Hollywood opened its wallet to fund movies that made blacks the heroic stars. At first, they were exploitative and over-the-top/borderline insulting—Coffy, Black Caesar, The Klansman, to name a few of many. Eventually they became slicker and more tasteful, elevating to action-hero status Eddie Murphy and Carl Weathers in the 80s, Wesley Snipes in the 90s, and Samuel L. Jackson, Idris Elba and Chadwick Boseman in the 2000s. Today, half of all film actors are black, among them my cousin, Jeremiah Birkett Jr. They all owe a debt to Mr. Roundtree. - Earl A. Birkett

Director Gordon Parks

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THE 1980s

BLOCKBUSTER STARS

James Earl Jones was the intimidating voice of the evil Darth Vader in the Star Wars films (1977-83)

Billy Dee Williams also found fame in the Star Wars franchise as Lando Calrissian

Nichelle Nichols reprised her TV role as Uhura in the Star Trek film series (1979-91)

Grace Jones, the superhuman bodyguard-assassin in the 007 thriller A View to a Kill (1985)

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THE 1980s

BUDDY PAIRINGS & HIGH DRAMA

Several black actors were featured in the Police Academy movie comedies (1984-1994)

Whoopi Goldberg rose to stardom in The Color Purple (1985), based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor kept audiences laughing in a series of comedies beginning with Stir Crazy (1980)

Commandos Carl Weathers and Arnold Schwarzenegger teamed up to battle a killer extraterrestrial in Predator (1987)

Black-white buddy cops Danny Glover and Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series (1987-2023?)

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THE 1980s

KICKASS

Bernie Casey, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Isaac Hayes in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), a comedy tribute to 1970s blaxploitation flicks

Adolph Caesar's hardcase WWII sergeant in A Soldier's Story (1984)

Drill sergeant Louis Gossett Jr. won an Oscar for razzing Navy pilot trainee Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

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Weathers had another hit in the cult favorite Action Jackson (1988)

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THE 1980s

ICONS

Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall play Africans in New York City in the comedy classic Coming to America (1988)

Comedy legends Redd Foxx, Murphy and Pryor in the Murphy-directed 1930s period gangster flick Harlem Nights (1989)

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EDDIE MURPHY BUSTS RECORDS

A household name in the world of cinema, Eddie Murphy has been a cultural phenomenon since the 1980s.

Murphy had a great impact on the industry as one of the first few black entertainers to achieve such success, transforming the perception of black actors in Hollywood.

At the young age of 8, Murphy was placed in the foster-care system, which influenced the development of his sense of humor. When he was 15, he began his career as a stand-up comic in New York and began perfecting his humor. When he was 19, the comic was offered a contract for the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" of Saturday Night Live, which gave him the opportunity to further develop his comedic abilities impersonating African American figures and creating original content. Once a cast member of the series, Murphy portrayed controversial characters such as the pimp Velvet Jones, the convict Tyrone Green, and the angry Gumby.

With the 1982 action-comedy 48 Hrs., Murphy added film actor to his resume. He played Reggie Hammond, an inmate who is sprung from jail to help a white cop track down two criminals. Not only did the film become the seventh highest-grossing film of 1982, but it pushed the theme of interracial male bonding as one of the first of many white/black cop duos.

In 1983, Murphy filmed the profane HBO special Eddie Murphy: Delirious and grew his following as an entertainer. He then returned to film in 1984 with the Beverly Hills Cop franchise and achieved stardom. His humor and refusal to be racially submissive caught the attention of his audience and enhanced his popularity with many viewers.

In 1988, at the age of 27, the comedian starred in the global phenomenon Coming to America. This film became the pinnacle of his career and exerted his power and influence in the industry. The following year, he wrote, directed and starred in Harlem Nights, which become momentous in black cinematic history because of the appearance of three generations of comedy icons; Redd Foxx, 67; Richard Pryor, 49; and Murphy, 28, had all made historic contributions to the genre before starring in this film.

The actor received Golden Globe Award nominations for his performances in 48 Hrs., the Beverly Hills Cop series, Trading Places, The Nutty Professor and Dreamgirls. In 2015, the comedic icon received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which “recognizes individuals who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th-century novelist and essayist Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain.”

Murphy achieved massive commercial success as an actor, forever changing black cinema and becoming one of the wealthiest entertainers in the nation.

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THE 1990s

THUG LIFE

Cuba Gooding Jr. (center left) and Ice Cube (center right) are among Boyz n the Hood (1991), John Singleton's paean to growing up black in LA

Teen gang life in LA highlights Menace II Society (1993)

The Mario Van Peebles-directed New Jack City (1991) made Wesley Snipes a star

Marlon Wayans and his brother Shawn parody teen gang films in Don't Be A Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

Morgan Freeman doing hard time in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Samuel L. Jackson's wise-cracking jerry curl killer in Pulp Fiction (1994)

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SPIKE LEE DOES THE RIGHT THING

As a film director, producer, screenwriter and actor, Spike Lee portrayed the black experience through his exploration of controversial topics and opposition to racial stereotypes. His fresh vision, talent and knowledge of the business facilitated the "new black film wave" in the mid-1980s and opened the eyes of American consumers to black talent. Lee stood out in Hollywood for the ways he exposed racial inequities through cinema.

In 1989, Lee’s film Do the Right Thing exposed the racial and social disparities that aren't often acknowledged by those in power. This Academy Award-nominated film focuses on the frustration of those who feel powerless and how it can ultimately result in violence. Controversial topics such as race relations, political issues and urban crime and violence are examined in the film and reveal a lot about Lee’s character as a director. This $6 million masterpiece was revolutionary for popular culture because it reflected a multidimensional and loving portrait of a black community.

Lee’s 1991 film Jungle Fever looks at race, class and gender through the lens of the community’s response to the office affair of a married black architect and his Italian American secretary. The director used the film to expose the cultural bias and stereotypical expectations society has regarding interracial relationships.

In 1992, Lee’s Malcom X, starring Denzel Washington, was the first major black-authored studio film to provide a three-dimensional portrait of a black leader whose beliefs and actions vigorously opposed the dominant white America. The cinematic chronicle of Malcolm X’s life examines injustices that still plague the world today as it dives into the problematic history of systemic racism in America. Malcolm X was a prominent activist who has consistently been vilified or erased from many U.S. history textbooks.

Lee’s work has had a powerful impact on entertainment culture, which consistently perpetuates the experience of white saviors in civil rights narratives. This cultural icon has forever changed the landscape of independent cinema and the role of black talent in film.

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THE 1990s

DYNAMIC DUOS

Grier and Jackson light up the screen in the crime drama Jackie Brown (1997)

Kid 'n Play (left, right) gained fame in the House Party comedies (1990-94)

Action vets Brown, Grier and Williamson unite in Original Gangstas (1996)

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker (right) fight their way through three Rush Hour police comedies (1998-2007) Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are alien hunters in the sci-fi comedy franchise Men in Black (1997-2012)

Smith and Martin Lawrence (right) are the Bad Boys (1995-2020) cops

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The Matrix films (1999-2003) paired Keanu Reeves with Laurence Fishburne (center, rear)

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DENZEL WASHINGTON ADDS DRAMA TO THE MIX

Denzel Washington’s contributions to film have dramatically expanded the range of dramatic roles available to African Americans by redefining how blacks are perceived in cinema. Washington, a veteran actor often known as the original black heartthrob, acts as a mentor to many black actors such as Michael B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman, who honored him when Washington received the AFI lifetime achievement award.

Washington’s embodiment of Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s riveting biography is considered one of his most captivating performances. The actor radiates black excellence and is a physical reminder to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of what diversity brings to cinema.

Washington received his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in the 1987 film Cry Freedom. The film is set in South Africa during the civil unrest of apartheid in the 1970s and addresses the themes of discrimination, political corruption and the repercussions of violence. Although Washington’s character isn’t in the entire movie, his presence left a lasting impact on audiences.

In the 1989 historical film Glory, Washington helped tell the story of the first all-black regiment in the U.S. Civil War. Washington’s moving performance earned him his first Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor. This film is significant to black and American history because it is the first feature film to acknowledge the role of black soldiers in the American Civil War. This served as a lasting reminder for white Americans of the service of approximately 200,000 black Americans in Union ranks who risked their lives on the battlefield and faced relentless racial discrimination from both sides.

In 2022, Washington was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (which he won) for his performance in The Tragedy of Macbeth. This was his 10th Oscar nomination, strengthening his record as the most Oscar-nominated black actor of all time. It was also Washington’s seventh nomination for the Best Actor in a Leading Role award.

GLORY PHILADELPHIA

MALCOLM X

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THE 2000s

BIOPICS AND FRANCHISES

Jamie Foxx scored an Oscar for Best Actor as a dead-on Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004)

Dreamgirls (2006), a fictional account of The Supremes, earned Murphy an Oscar nomination

Tyler Perry (in drag) built a stage, film and TV empire on the Madea comedydrama series (2005-22)

Don Cheadle, one of the crew of cool thieves in the heist capers Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen (20012007)

Ice Cube & Co. struck box-office gold with the Barbershop franchise (2002-16) and its spin-off Beauty Shop (2005), starring Queen Latifah

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BLACK PANTHER: A HERO FOR A NEW GENERATION

What originated as a Marvel comic strip superhero in the Fantastic Four no. 52 in 1966 has now become a cultural declaration of racial pride for African Americans. With one of the first black comic book superheroes in the U.S., the release of the film Black Panther in 2018 served as a defining moment for black America.

Showcasing the star power of many exciting young African American actors such as Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira and Daniel Kaluuya, the movie and its huge success showed Hollywood the potential of films dominated by black talent.

The film was groundbreaking on many levels; it's the first superhero movie with an African protagonist, the first in the genre with a majority black cast, headlined by the late Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther (below right), and the first with a black writer and director (Ryan Coogler, below middle).

The fictional setting of Wakanda not only holds interest for Marvel fans of various ethnicities but it acts as a cultural oasis for black viewers. While Africa has often been viewed in history and the media as unsophisticated, savage and impoverished, Black Panther’s vision of the futuristic Wakanda is as a bustling vibranium-powered metropolis. The production team drew upon Kenya, Namibia and South Africa as references to develop the film’s authenticity and produce the tribal and cultural diversity that exists within Wakanda.

The film fulfills a vital need of black Americans to celebrate the African diaspora, and its heavy emphasis on Afrocentrism and black people’s natural hair and beauty makes viewers proud to be black. The movie acknowledges and celebrates traditional African society and African American political debates and exemplifies the power and beauty of black women to the preservation of identity. The aesthetic of the movie screams black cultural pride, and as a result, many fans showed up to the premiere in traditional African apparel to celebrate its depiction of black heritage.

Because the film grapples with complicated and controversial themes about race, identity and the modern-day black experience, its cultural impact is bigger and more important than Marvel, Hollywood, or box office records.

Disney consciously chose to release the film in February in time for Black History Month, furthering its market power and cultural impact.

The movie certainly opened an important dialogue about black identity and helped unite the black community around the globe through hashtags such as #WhatBlackPantherMeansToMe. One black female who posted with the hashtag, for example, said that she was so happy about the film’s positive portrayal of black women that she actually cried. That is the impact of such a film.

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THE 2000s

THE A LIST

Halle Berry, the first black female Best Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland (2006) playing Actress for Monster's Ball (2001) Ugandan dictator Idi Amin

Ghana-born, UK-raised Idris Elba is one of the hottest stars in Hollywood

If Octavia Spencer of The Help (2011) offers you a pie, don't eat it!

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Michael B. Jordan is in demand after starring roles in Creed (2015) and Black Panther (2018)

Director Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013) vividly portrayed American slavery

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THE 2000s

MODERN CLASSICS

Jordan Peele, the actor, comedian and director, proved that black filmmakers can excel at horror, with Us (2019) and Get Out (2017)

Foxx and Jackson give bravura performances in Quentin Tarantino's bloody Western epic, Django Unchained (2012)

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THE CONTROVERSY OVER HALLE BAILEY’S STARRING ROLE IN THE LITTLE MERMAID

After nearly 100 years of Disney, the franchise had only featured two black princesses: Princess Tiana in the 2009 animated movie Princess and the Frog and Cinderella in the 1997 made-for-TV film version of Cinderella, featuring the singer Brandy. Now, the brand will finally debut its third black princess with the new version of The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey, which is scheduled to be released in 2023.

The teaser trailer showcasing the African American actress and singer from the Grammy-nominated R&B duo Chloe x Halle as Ariel has been seen by more than 104 million viewers and has inspired a wave of hashtags such as #representationmatters and #blackgirlmagic.

By featuring another prominent black princess, Disney gives young black girls an opportunity to see themselves as royalty and associate the attributes often associated with princesses such as beauty, grace, adoration and fortune with themselves. This example of racial inclusion is a progressive addition to Disney’s princess franchise.

Black girls only sporadically get to see those who resemble them showcased in mainstream media, so this creates a sense of connectedness, community and pride. In the trailer, Bailey’s long locks are used for Ariel’s signature red hair. Instead of the typical mainstream narrative that locks are unprofessional, unkempt, unhygienic and distracting, locks are now being shown as regal and beautiful - even for a princess.

This racial change in the character has made Ariel more relatable to young girls of color and is another step in the right direction for Hollywood.

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DESTINATIONS

Fascinating Places to Visit

ATLANTA ON MY MIND America's Black Capital May Yet Define the 21st Century

By Kristen Jones

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Atlanta has long been known as a center of black wealth, higher education, political power and culture; a cradle of the Civil Rights Movement; and the home of Martin Luther King Jr.

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Atlanta is Georgia’s largest city, with a population just under 500,000; the 38th largest U.S. city; and the principal trade and transportation center of the Southeastern United States. It is the center of an extensive metropolitan area that includes 20 counties and cities such as Decatur, East Point, and Marietta. The spirit of the city has tended to be liberal within the framework of Southern conservatism, though its customs have been influenced by the Protestant church traditions of the Bible Belt. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was born and raised in Atlanta; his boyhood home, Ebenezer Baptist Church (where he and his father once preached), and his gravesite (along with his wife Coretta's) is preserved at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change is also there.

The Atlanta economy is the 10th largest in the country and 18th in the world. It is fast becoming known for having a sizable sector in Finance, and the Federal Reserve System has a district headquarters there.

The city is home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola (founded in Atlanta in 1886), Georgia Power and Home Depot.

Cable News Network (CNN), which gave a start to several prominent black anchors and reporters, was founded there in 1980.

MLK's boyhood home in the prestigious Sweet Auburn section of Atlanta

King's tomb at the Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which was named for him

The many streets in the area called Peachtree were not named for a Georgia peach but instead for a Native American village called "Standing Pitch Tree." Somehow, Southerners drawled it into "Peachtree.”

The thriving metropolis' origins pre-date European settlement in the early 19th century by thousands of years, when the indigenous Creek people inhabited the area. After the natives were pushed out under Indian Removal by the federal government in 1821, white settlers began to populate the area the following year, greatly aided by the building of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which made the area a major transportation hub.

Slavery thrived along with the growing town of Marthasville, which was renamed Atlanta in 1847.

Atlanta's turning point was the American Civil War, when the town, a key hub for the distribution of Confederate supplies, was burned to the ground during Union Gen. William T. Sherman's infamous march through Georgia. After the war, Atlanta was rebuilt with Reconstruction funds, and the railroad along with job and business opportunities attracted new residents. The city was made the state capital in 1868.

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Cable News Network (CNN), founded in Atlanta in 1980, employs many black TV journalists

Pre-Civil War Atlanta was a center for buying and selling enslaved Africans

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For more than four decades, Atlanta has been linked to the Civil Rights Movement. Civil rights leaders were the visionaries who saw a new South, a new Atlanta.

They believed in peace and made monumental sacrifices for that peace. It has often been called a "black mecca" and largely resisted the mass black migration from the South to the Northern cities during the 1930s Jim Crow era when Ku Klux Klan terrorism was at its height. At present, 49.1 percent of the city's population is black.

Union Gen. Sherman's 1864 defeat of Atlanta in his march through Georgia was traumatic and unforgettable

Atlanta has long attracted African Americans who seek financial prosperity, especially those seeking to enter the entertainment industry. The city has also attracted many African and Caribbean immigrants, and its black population is increasingly foreign-born.

In addition to people, it hosts several sports teams that have gone on to make a name for themselves.

The city is also home to the Atlanta University Center, the largest consortium of historically black colleges in the U.S.

Atlanta is home to some of America's leading historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)

Atlanta's fertile black political heritage goes back to 1870, when William Finch and George Graham became the first African Americans to be elected to the Atlanta Board of Aldermen (now the Atlanta City Council). Since 1973, the city has consistently elected black mayors, and two in particular have been prominent on the national stage: Andrew Young and Maynard Jackson. Jackson was elected with the support of the predominantly white business community, including the chairman of Coca-Cola.

Shirley Clarke Franklin was elected Atlanta's first black female mayor in 2001.

Since 2000, Atlanta’s black voting-age population has grown close to four times as fast as its white voting-age population. The city’s surrounding metro area has been a center of black voting-age population growth in the U.S., with close to 700,000 more black Americans 18 years old or over calling the Atlanta area home since 2000. These factors have led to record numbers coming out to the polls to vote, ultimately transforming the political climate of the state as a whole. The trend has already been felt statewide, with the election of local pastor Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate in 2021 and 2022.

Political empowerment and civil rights are far from Atlanta's only distinctions.

Black political power in Atlanta dates back to 1870 and includes several black mayors, including Maynard Jackson, elected as the first, in 1973

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Atlanta also has a growing hi-tech community and biotechnology sector, gaining recognition through such events as the 2009 BIO International Convention. In addition, the 1996 Summer Olympic games were held in Atlanta, giving the city attention, prestige and a major economic boost. A portion of Atlanta's huge and busy Hartsfield International Airport complex was built by a black contractor, H.J. Russell & Co. The city has also become a major Afrocentric arts and culture center. Georgia ranks third in the nation for U.S. film production and first for growth. Tyler Perry's large film and TV studio is located in Atlanta, and Black Panther, Spider-Man and Avengers were all filmed in or near the city. Atlanta also has a thriving music scene and is considered the capital of hip-hop. Ludacris, Usher, Monica, Jermaine Dupri, Ray Charles, T. I., Gucci Mane and 2 Chainz are just a handful of the artists who have called Atlanta home.

The city also has a bustling, trending arts industry.

It’s home to over 15 art museums and 26 design schools, and it hosts art shows and galleries nearly every weekend. If you love art, you’ll love Atlanta.

Tyler Perry moved to Atlanta and became an entertainment mogul and one of the city's VIPs

The 1996 Summer Olympics was held in Atlanta, helping to make it a world-class city

The Atlanta restaurant scene reflects the diversity of its people. You can find everything from fresh takes on Southern cuisine to every type of Asian cuisine and everything in between. That’s why Atlanta is considered the foodie capital of the American South.

Atlanta is one of the few cities that has a professional team for almost every sport. It’s home to the Falcons (NFL), Braves (MLB), Hawks (NBA), United FC (MLS), Dream (WNBA), Swarm (NLL), and Rugby ATL (MLR). And those are just the professional teams! The city is also home to the Georgia Tech and Georgia State college sports teams.

Atlanta's all-purpose Mercedes-Benz Stadium is host to the National Football League's (NFL) Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS)

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The Atlanta Daily World is the city’s oldest black newspaper, founded in 1928 by William Alexander Scott II, a graduate of Morehouse College. It continues to operate to this day and has newsstands at the Atlanta airport.

Herndon Home Museum is named after Alonzo Herndon, who became the city’s first black millionaire after founding Atlanta Life Insurance Company in 1905. A former slave, Herndon found success managing barbershops and later in real estate. He built his home in 1910 not far from his office in Sweet Auburn. The Beaux-Arts mansion now operates as a museum, interpreting Herndon’s lasting legacy.

Paschal’s is a restaurant founded in 1947 as a humble sandwich shop by brothers Robert and James Paschal. In the following years, the business boomed, expanding to a larger building and later a The historic Herndon house is now a museum and major jazz club and hotel. The restaurant welcomed all tourist attraction people during segregation and was a meeting place for Civil Rights leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Fannie Lou Hamer. Paschal’s is now located in Castleberry Hill and has the same beloved dishes like sweet potato pie and fried chicken.

Sweet Auburn is like a living black history museum and is the neighborhood that political leader John Wesley Dobbs famously called the “richest Negro street in the world” in 1956. The neighborhood was where Martin Luther King Jr. grew up.

Paschal's Restaurant not only serves fine Southern soul food but is a city treasure rich in history

The Royal Peacock was a club that hosted black music legends such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye.

South-View Cemetery was established in 1886 in South Atlanta exclusively for black Atlantans in the wake of Reconstruction. It’s the final resting place of baseball great Hank Aaron, Royal Peacock owner Carrie Cunningham, businessman Alonzo Herndon, and civil rights heroes Representative John Lewis, Julian Bond and John Wesley Dobbs. Two members of the Tuskegee Airmen are also interred there.

Martin Luther King Jr. was originally buried in the cemetery but was relocated to his tomb at The King Center.

Remnants of the 1996 Olympic Park have views of the scenic Atlanta skyline

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AFRICAN FACES OF THE WORLD

Earth Is a Diverse Planet

BLASIANS

Those of African-Asian Descent Make Their Presence Known

By Lorraine Jones

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The connection between Africans and Asians goes back more than a thousand years and is largely a result of trade, colonialism, a shared experience of racism and oppression, globalization, the search for education and employment, and war.

Early links between these ethnic groups began with the migration of almost 12.5 million Africans to South Asia as a legacy of the slave trade, and the two groups have remained intricately connected through cultural, political and economic practices.

War has played perhaps one of the largest roles in bringing Africans and Asians together and leading to interracial relations and intermarriage between them.

During and after World War II, for example, many black Americans were stationed in Asia where they developed relationships with Asian women. Similarly, during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, Asian women sometimes married black soldiers. In addition, after the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese refugees immigrated to the United States, where they married African Americans.

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diversity of populations in various countries. These children are sometimes called Blasians, Black Asians, Afro-Asians or African Asians. Well-known examples include golf legend Tiger Woods, retired professional American football player Hines Ward, model Naomi Campbell, and athlete and actor Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock).

Unfortunately, because Blasians are racially mixed, they may sometimes feel that they don't fully belong to either the black or Asian community. On the other hand, some take pride in their mixed heritage and appreciate and embrace the qualities they have acquired from both sides.

The Shared Struggle Against Racism In some instances, Africans and Asians have recognized their mutual fight against global racism, colonialism and white supremacy and have joined efforts in the struggle against them.

In 1905, famed black American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois noted the connection between the racist “yellow peril” ideology of the late nineteenth century and the “color line.” According to Keisha N. Blain in The Black Intellectual Tradition, this “yellow peril” ideology, “which stemmed from white fears and anxieties BAVUAL 77

over Asian immigration, persisted well into the twentieth century and extended beyond national borders. The negative images and stereotypical depictions of Asian cultures that dominated Western mass media mirror[ed] the pervasive global racist attitudes toward African Americans and other people of color.” By mentioning the “color line” and “yellow peril” together, Du Bois was highlighting the shared experiences of oppression that the two minorities faced at the hand of white supremacy.

One of the most distinguished political exchanges between these ethnic groups was the Bandung Conference in 1955. There, representatives from 29 governments of Asian and African nations assembled in Bandung, Indonesia, to discuss pressing political matters such as peace and the role of the Third World in the Cold War, economic development and decolonization.

This interaction inspired a series of gatherings of literary figures from Asia and Africa that were held over two decades to denounce imperialism and develop cultural contacts among the countries. The Afro-Asian Writers Association had its first conference in 1958 in Tashkent, consisting of 140 writers from 36 countries. These conferences provided a forum for sharing literary works, acted as a venue for political discussion, and enabled Africa and Asia to raise their political profiles.

In the following decade, the relationship between these cultures was furthered when Asian American activists contributed to the efforts of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers in the 1960s. In a 1963 statement, Mao Tse-tung, chairman of the Chinese Communist party, also showed African allyship when he said, “I wish to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Chinese people, to express our resolute support for the American Negroes in their struggle against racial discrimination and for freedom and equal rights.”

Ferguson protests, this Tokyo rally raised awareness for the violence black people face at the hands of law enforcement. The Afro-Asian community also helps spread black internationalism.

Other Ties That Bind Afro-Asian solidarity also continues to be displayed through culture collectives in contemporary art and music. The 2015 New York-based BUFU (By Us For Us) collective strengthened Black-Asian collaboration through its mission of communitybuilding, skill-sharing, and art as a form of resistance and a way to celebrate black and Asian diasporas and preserve their stories. The group originated as a documentary archive project, for which it has filmed and interviewed black and Asian people all over the world. Since then, it has grown to hosting daily panel conversations, workshops, film screenings, and other community gatherings centered on the theme of examining and celebrating collective organizing.

Famous Blasians include actress Rae Dawn Chong, model Naomi Campbell (right) and tennis pro Naomi Osaka (below)

Recent Solidarity Against Police Brutality After the 2014 shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., #Tokyo4Ferguson started trending, and protests emerged globally. After the jury decided not to prosecute, protests broke out around the world drawing attention to the issues of police brutality and violence against the black community. Shortly afterward, Tokyo-based African American Youth Travel Program (AAYTP), a nonprofit that provides underprivileged black youth travel opportunities, orchestrated a peaceful demonstration in response to the injustice. Standing in solidarity with the

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TIGER WOODS

AFRO-ASIAN POPULATION: World: Unknown U.S.: 185,595 (2010) Regions: Africa, The Americas, Central Asia, East Asia, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia People of mixed ethnicity who live in a community that includes others like themselves may be bonded through their shared culture, such as how community members in Sirambiadiya share the rhythm-driven music of the Roman Catholic AfroSri Lankan community and their Indo-Portuguese songs. The music helps them retain their unique identity and culture across the Indian Ocean.

Such mixed-race communities may also be united through their common language or religion.

The Struggle for Acceptance As previously mentioned, many members of the Blasian community who live outside Blasian communities struggle to be accepted by society due to their multicultural identities. Soul singer and actress Jhené Aiko, for example, whose mother is of Dominican, Spanish and Japanese descent while her father is of Native American, African American, and German-Jewish descent, constantly has to break down her ethnicity. The Afro-Asian actress reveals that her multiracial background has often affected her life’s experiences. While auditioning for roles, Aiko was constantly put into a box as “the Spanish girl,” “the Japanese girl” or the “black girl” and has been advised to play up one race or the other.

She was pressured to straighten her hair to look more Asian or keep her hair natural and curly and add a little bronzer to look more black.

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THE WAYANS BROTHERS DAMON, KEENAN IVORY, MARLON, SHAWN VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS

As another example, Vice President Kamala Harris, who transformed the ivory halls of Congress, constantly faces scrutiny about her mixed-race identity, which is an important aspect of her personality and perspective. As the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and a South Asian immigrant mother from India, Harris is the first black person and first person of South Asian descent to become the vice president of the United States. Harris is a proud alumna of the historically black college Howard University, and her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who immigrated to the U.S. at 19, helped her nurture her South Asian culture. Despite being wellsteeped in her mixed heritage, Harris’ ethnicity was often used against her during her campaign, with some critics questioning her black or Indian identity and others focusing too heavily on it Harris’ ascension to such a high political office, regardless of her critics, is a huge reflection on the cultural blend of America as an estimated 6.3 million American adults identified with more than one race in the 2019 census. With the Afro-Asian connection finally being given more visibility in the struggle for equality and justice and with more Blasians being in the spotlight, others have the opportunity to learn about their mixed-race identity and celebrate both their similarities and differences.

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STYLIN'

The History of Fashion

120 YEARS OF THE SUIT 1905 Proper Man Heavily influenced as always by British royalty, the world's reigning culture, the Edwardian look made its first appearance, complemented with slim neckties, starched collars and maybe a bowler hat.

1925 Stepping Out The decadent tuxedo, symbol of The Jazz Age, had a good run during The Roaring Twenties and thereafter cemented itself as the uniform of high society.

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1945 Zoot Suit Dress apparel's wildest decade by far, the zoot suit worn largely by Latino men in LA and young black male hipsters in the big cities was the 1930s gangster suit on steroids: baggy pants, super-long tapered coats, clashing colors, extra-wide brimmed hats.

Cigarette holder, pocket watch and spats were optional.

1955 Business Suit I The style was more tailored than the 1940s but still a bit baggy, and it emphasized plenty of flannel, the fabric of the business world. The dress code of the era was conservative and functional; individualism was discouraged and even seen as subversive.

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1965 Business Suit II The classics never die, and this sleek, elegant look still lives among us. Back then, the fit was looser, pants cuffs were "in," and leg hems were somewhat higher what we used to called "floods." Also popular: three buttons, striped neckwear, stick-pin collars. The top hat gradually disappeared during this decade. You can thank President John F. Kennedy for that; he often refused to wear a hat.

1975 Business Suit III The major sartorial change to the standard two- or three-piece suit was wider lapels, neckties and shirt collars - and often plenty of that wonder fabric, polyester. The dreaded "leisure suit" was born in this decade.

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1985 Miami Vice Look It seemed as if all men wanted to dress like their two favorite television undercover Miami narcs, Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs (portrayed

by Philip Michael Thomas, left). The style is retro gangster updated to the 1980s and emphasized vivid colors, stripes, silk shirts, cotton suit fabrics, and fewer buttons.

2000 Double Breasts Return The look of the 1930s through the 1950s had a revival at the turn of the century, this time with a more tapered fit, narrower lapels and softer fabrics.

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2023 Tom Ford Look

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Popularized by Daniel Craig's James Bond among others, the style tight-fitting, narrow tie, solid colors, silk fabric harkens back to the 1960s with a decidedly modern spin.

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THE HUSTLE

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

THOSE MARVELOUS INVENTIONS Gadgets That We Can't Live Without and the Black Men and Women Who Created Them

By Lorraine Jones

If you look around your home or the neighborhood, chances are you will find everyday products and gadgets that you take for granted but cannot do without. It may also surprise you to know that many of these inventions sprung from the minds of some of the most creative men and women of African descent who ever lived. While names like Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and Steve Jobs are more familiar, many of their achievements have been enhanced by the creativity of inventors of color. Indeed, Lewis Latimer improved on several of Edison's inventions as his associate.

The phrase, "The Real McCoy," denoting the difference between a high-quality original and a cheap knockoff, is named for black inventor Elijah McCoy. Sadly, despite having earned billions for the large corporations that employed them or appropriated their ideas, few inventors of color received adequate profit, having been denied access to top legal talent or wise business advice - a situation that has only recently altered itself. (Unfair treatment is not limited only to inventors of color; Robert Kearns, inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, fought both Ford and Chrysler in court over patent infringement for decades before he finally won his case, at great personal and financial stress.)

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Invention is a perpetual pursuit and unpredictable to boot, as no one knows how or when inspiration will strike. The next Latimer, McCoy, Valerie Thomas or Lonnie Johnson may be toiling away in a garage or at a kitchen table, coming up with that revolutionary product that will not only enrich themselves but alter our lives forever. Who knows? Perhaps it will even be you.

In this issue, BAVUAL is combining its Black History Quiz with The Hustle to give you, the reader, the opportunity to match the inventor with his/her great invention. There are 41 inventors and groups of inventors listed; however, the actual count is too numerous to print in this issue alone. It stretches from the Industrial Age to the Space Age to the Digital age.

The quiz is inspired by and dedicated to the memory of Earl Birkett (father of BAVUAL's founder and editor), inventor of the ballpoint pen assembly machine and owner of one of the first black-owned firms in the field of automated machine manufacturing.

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QUIZ: Match the Inventors With Their Inventions INVENTOR

Lewis Latimer

Jan Ernst Matzeliger

George Washington Carver

Elijah McCoy

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INVENTION

1. The automatic ballpoint pen assembly machine

2. The traffic stoplight and the gas mask

3. Automatic elevator doors

4. ISA bus, color computer monitor, collaborated on the first gigahertz chip

Granville T. Woods

5. Water lead detector (at age 12)

Garrett A. Morgan

6. Founded Netcom Solutions, telecommunications pioneer

Charles R. Drew

7. Automatic gear shift, multiple barrel machine gun, beer keg tap, safety brakes

Gitanjali Rao

8. The Manhattan Project (which developed the atomic bomb), nuclear reactor design

Bishop Curry V

9. The mailbox, street railway switches

Marc Dean

10. Mechanical dryer, sled propeller

Sarah Boone

11. The Illusion Transmitter, which uses concave mirrors on both ends to transmit and produce optical illusion images

Lloyd Ray

12. Shoe-lasting machine

Annie J. Easley

13. Voice Over Internet Protocal (VoIP) technology

Earl Birkett

14. The table lamp and carbon filament light bulb

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INVENTOR

George T. Sampson

15. The air conditioner

Alexander Miles

16. First cartridge-based video game systems

Philip Downing

17. The dust pan

John Standard

18. The ultraviolet camera (aka the spectrograph)

John Burr

Marie Van Brittan Brown

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INVENTION

19. One of the first black computer programmers to work on alternative-energy technologies, energy-conservation systems, and the Centaur launch system at NASA

20. Encouraging farmers to grow peanuts and sweet potatoes to replenish the soil and increase profits

Lonnie Johnson

21. The ironing board

Emmit McHenry

22. The spectrometer (imaging X-ray technology)

Dr. Marian Croak

23. Early web animation that led to the development of Shockwave

Richard Spikes

24. The Laserphaco Probe, which uses laser technology to more precisely and less painfully treat cataracts

Valerie Thomas

25. The world's first supercomputer (not universal agreement on this)

Frederick McKinley Jones

26. Natural gas heating furnace

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

27. The home security system

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INVENTOR

James E. West (with Gerhard M. Sessler)

INVENTION

28. The "Super Soaker" toy gun

Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr.

29. Mathematical computations for NASA's first space missions

Dr. Philip Emeagwali

30. Famous animations, Silicon Graphics (co-founder)

Otis Boykin

Shirley Jackson

Marc Hannah

31. The chilled refrigerator, the stove top oven

32. A device to help prevent infant deaths in hot cars (at age 10)

33. The train telegraph and other innovations to electric railways

Gerald A. Lawson

34. The pacemaker

George Carruthers

35. Train lubricating cup

Dr. Patricia Bath

36. The microphone

George E. Alcorn

37. Method of chemotheraphy treatment

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright

38. Telecommunications breakthroughs (fiber optics, touch-tone telephones, caller ID, call waiting, solar cells)

Alice H. Parker

39. Rotary blade lawn mower

Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson

40. The sanitary napkin belt

Lisa Gelobter

41. Blood plasma storage

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JUST THE FACTS

When You Need to Know

THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

AKA: West Indies LOCATION: Islands in the Caribbean Sea of the South Atlantic Ocean, between Florida and Brazil AREA: 1,063,000 square miles (1,710,733 kilometers) TOTAL NUMBER OF SOVEREIGN ISLAND NATIONS: 16 – Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago BAVUAL

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TOTAL NUMBER OF DEPENDANT ISLAND TERRITORIES: 21– Anguilla (United Kingdom), Aruba (Netherlands), Bonaire (Netherlands), British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom), Cayman Islands (United Kingdom), Curacao (Netherlands), Federal Dependencies of Venezuela (Venezuela), Guadaloupe (France), Martinique (France), Montserrat (United Kingdom), Navassa Island (United States/Haiti), Nueva Esparta (Venezuela), Puerto Rico (United States), Saint Barthelemy (France), Saba (Netherlands), Saint Martin (France), San Andres and Providencia (Colombia), Sint Eustatius (Netherlands), Sint Maarten (Netherlands), Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom), United States Virgin Islands (United States) POPULATION: 44,636,789 AFRICAN POPULACE: In Haiti and most of the French, Anglophone and Dutch Caribbean, the population is predominantly of African origin, a result of the slave trade. The Spanish-speaking Caribbean populations are primarily of European, African or racially mixed origins.

LANGUAGES: Spanish is the predominant language, followed by French, English, Dutch, Haitian Creole, and Papiamento DOMINANT RELIGION: Christianity (84.7%) CLIMATE: Tropical; tropical rainforest in some areas to tropical monsoon and tropical savanna in others. Hurricane season is from June to November, but they occur more frequently in August and September and more commonly in the Northern islands.

The Caribbean islands have one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, including threatened animals, fungi and plants. The islands have been classified as one of Conservation International's biodiversity hotspots because of their exceptionally diverse terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ranging from montane cloud forests, to tropical rainforest, to cactus scrublands ECONOMY: Chief industries are exporting natural resources (oil and gas, bauxite, etc.) and agriculture (sugar cane, bananas, etc.) and importing travel and tourism (world-class beaches).

POLITICS: Diverse, ranging from communist systems such as Cuba toward more capitalist Westminsterstyle parliamentary systems as in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Many nations have formed collective coalitions to increase their clout.

CULTURE: Mixture of Native Islander, European, African and Central/South American.

HISTORICAL TRIVIA: The Caribbean was known for pirates, especially between 1640 and 1680. The term "buccaneer" is often used to describe a pirate operating in this region. The Caribbean region was war-torn throughout much of its colonial history, but the wars were often based in Europe, with only minor battles fought in the Caribbean. Some wars, however, were born of political turmoil in the Caribbean itself.

ISSUES: Labor exportation from the Caribbean to host countries offers education and employment opportunities to women but also limits the opportunities for the Caribbean. Caribbean governments are increasingly looking at the need for digital communications networks to help economic growth.

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ROLL OF HONOR

Recognizing Greatness at Any Level

LIONS IN WINTER Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) Author and critic / Nigeria Achebe, a native Nigerian who was influenced by both Igbo traditional culture and postcolonial Christianity, is often referred to as the "father of African llterature," although he vigorously rejected the characterization.

He is best known for the "Africa Trilogy" of novels: Things Fall Apart (1958), which occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated and read African novel; No Longer at Ease (1960); and Arrow of God (1964). Later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). In addition to writing numerous short stories, poems, essays and children's books, Achebe was also ambassador to Biafra, whose independence he supported, and a professor of African studies at Brown University.

Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) Athlete and tennis star / USA Arthur Robert Ashe Jr., a native of Richmond Va., who started playing tennis at the age of 6, won three Grand Slam singles titles. In 1963, he became the first black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon (1975), the US Open (1968), and the Australian Open (1970). He retired in 1980. He was ranked world No. 1 by Tennis Magazine in 1975. In his post-tennis life, Ashe was a prominent protestor of apartheid in South Africa and worked to educate the public about HIV and AIDS, which he had contracted by a blood transfusion in 1983. After his death from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by United States President Bill Clinton.

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Achebe sought to escape the colonial perspective that framed African literature at the time and drew from the traditions of the Igbo people, Christian influences, and the clash of Western and African values to create a uniquely African voice. He wrote in and defended the use of English, describing it as a means to reach a broad audience, particularly readers of colonial nations.

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Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745-1797) Writer and abolitionist / Nigeria Equiano, who was known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved as a child in Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean as a victim of the Atlantic slave trade and sold as a slave to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more but purchased his freedom in 1766.

As a freedman in London, Equiano supported the British abolitionist movement. He was part of the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group comprised of Africans living in Britain, and he was active among leaders of the anti-slave trade movement in the 1780s. He published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), which depicted the horrors of slavery. It went through nine editions in his lifetime and helped obtain passing of the British Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the slave trade.

Dorothy Pitman Hughes (1938-2022) Feminist and author / USA Pitman Hughes, born Dorothy Jean Ridley in Georgia, began her commitment to social activism at age 10, when her father was beaten and left for dead on the family's doorstep; the family believes it to be a crime committed by Ku Klux Klan members. Her lifelong association and friendship with fellow feminist, Gloria Steinem, began in the early 1970s, when Steinem publicized her multiracial cooperative daycare center in New York City. Together they formed the Women's Action Alliance, which helped bring racial balance to the feminist movement. She opened the first shelter for battered women in the city, cofounded the city's Agency for Childhood Development, and was a key inspiration in the founding of Ms. magazine in 1972.

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PRIOR ROLL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS / 2021-2022 James Meredith (USA), civil rights symbol Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. (USA), war hero and military officer Carter Godwin Woodson (USA), historian, writer and journalist WAVES Ida Pickens and Frances Wills (USA), pioneering World War II female officers Ralph Bunche (USA), diplomat Colin Luther Powell (USA), statesman and military leader Earl Birkett (USA), inventor, engineer and businessman Granville Teller Woods (USA), inventor and enginner John Harold Johnson Jr. (USA), publisher and businessman Frederick Drew Gregory (USA), astronaut Robert Parris Moses (USA), civil and human rights activist and educator Lloyd Lionel Gaines USA), civil rights icon Doris "Dorie" Miller (USA), sailor and World War II hero Francis Gregory Alan "Greg" Morris (USA), television actor Nichelle Nichols (USA), television and film actress John S. Rock (USA), doctor, lawyer, abolitionist and civil rights advocate Bernard Harris (USA), scientist, surgeon, astronaut and entrepreneur Fanny M. Jackson (USA), pioneer educator Earl G. Graves Sr. (USA), publisher and philanthropist Bessie Coleman (USA), pioneer aviator, educator Ronald McNair (USA), physicist and astronaut Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez (Cuba), military officer and astronaut Claudia Jones (Trinidad/USA), feminist, journalist and political activist

Charlotte E. Ray (USA), legal pioneer Rodney King (USA), police beating victim and civil rights symbol Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. (USA), civil rights activist Arthur Winston (USA), "The Hardest-Working Man" Charles W. Mills (USA), professor, author and philosopher Albert J. Raboteau (USA), Afrocentric scholar Mary Bowser (USA), Civil War Union Army spy Lani Guinier (USA), civil rights lawyer Ernest J. Gaines (USA), novelist Andre Leon Talley (USA), fashion editor Samuel Lyons (USA), exceptional student Jarrett Adams (USA), prisoners' rights advocate Dr. Charles Drew (USA), medical pioneer Mary Fields (USA), worker extraordinaire Wilma Rudolph (USA), star athlete James Alan McPherson (USA), essayist Charles Evers (USA), civil rights activist Ida Keeling (USA), track and field athlete Walter Moseley (USA), writer Ida E. Lewis (USA), journalist Pauli Murray (USA), civil rights advocate and feminist Abdulrazak Gurnah (Tanzania), novelist Robert Abbott (USA), publisher Gabriel Prosser (USA), slave rebel Anna Murray Douglass (USA), early rights advocate and wife of Frederick Douglass Bill Russell (USA), basketball star Usain Bolt (Jamaica), athlete extraordinaire Aunt Polly Jackson (USA), enslaved freedom fighter Julius Waties Waring (USA), jurist Bill Pinkney (USA), record-breaking sailor Rev. Calvin O. Butts III (USA), church pastor and educator Benjamin Lay (USA), humanitarian and abolitionist Gladys West (USA), mathematician

BLACK HISTORY QUIZ (PAGES 89-91) ANSWERS 1 - Earl Birkett 2 - Garrett A. Morgan 3 - Alexander Miles 4 - Marc Dean 5 - Gitanjali Rao 6 - Emmit McHenry 7 - Richard Spikes 8 - Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. 9 - Philip Downing 10 - George T. Sampson 11 - Valerie Thomas 12 - Jan Ernst Matzeliger 13 - Dr. Marian Croak 14 - Lewis Latimer 15- Frederick McKinley Jones 16 - Gerald A. Lawson 17 - Lloyd Ray 18 - George Carruthers 19 - Annie J. Easley 20 - George Washington Carver 21 - Sarah Boone 22 - George E. Alcorn 23 - Lisa Gelobter 24 - Dr. Patricia Bath 25 - Dr. Philip Emeagwali 26 - Alice H. Parker 27 - Marie Van Britten Brown 28 - Lonnie Johnson 29 - Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson 30 - Marc Hannah 31 - John Standard 32 - Bishop Curry V 33 - Granville T. Woods 34 - Otis Boykin 35 - Elijah McCoy 36 - James E. West 37 - Dr. Jane Cooke Wright 38 - Shirley Jackson 39 - John Burr 40 - Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner 41 - Dr. Charles R. Drew

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BENEDICTION

The Last Word

WHAT'S NEXT FOR AFRICA? BOOK RECOMMENDED: The Next Africa From time to time, BAVUAL will recommend books the magazine deems to be of vital importance to understanding key trends in human and societal development. The first recommendation is this exploration by two Africa experts of what's in store for the neglected but much exploited continent for the remainder of the 21st century.

THE NEXT AFRICA: AN EMERGING CONTINENT BECOMES A GLOBAL POWERHOUSE Rating

and Review on Amazon.com:

When most Americans think of Africa, what leaps to mind is a long list of problems: genocide, civil strife, corruption, exploitation, AIDS, famine, poverty, disease, displacement and many more. It is a bleak and discouraging image, one that has persisted for generations. This book aims to change it for good.

A paradigm-shifting guide to the events, trends, and people reshaping African countries and their relationship to the world, [The Next Africa] persuasively argues that, throughout the coming decades, the magnitude of Africa’s business developments will intersect with other global trends and permanently transform the continent.

Having spent years on the ground researching and reporting on African business, Jake Bright and Aubrey Hruby are ideally positioned to give readers the inside story on what has recently become headline-grabbing news. So too do they understand that Africa is not one nation, nor is it populated by one people, and their nuanced account is sensitive to the many challenges still facing the continent.

From global investment seminars to corporate boardrooms, from Hollywood studios to Italian runways, the excitement surrounding Africa has grown from the isolated murmurs of think-tank economists to a roar of opportunity the world can no longer ignore. Packed with anecdotal, statistical and cultural analysis, [The Next Africa] is the perfect resource for those seeking an informed entry point to this exciting and extremely relevant conversation.

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Authors: Jake Bright and Aubrey Hruby. 304 pages, hardcover. Publication: 2015. Publisher: Thomas Dunnie Books

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