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African-American Jockey Oliver Lewis Made History 135 Years Ago Today

By goodblacknews on May 18, 2010
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Riding the colt Aristides, Oliver Lewis won the inaugural Kentucky Derby on May 17, 1875. His time of two minutes 37.75 seconds also set an American record over the mile and a half distance (the Kentucky Derby became a 1.25 mile race in 1896). Lewis was one of 13 black jockeys in the 15-strong field. Early in the race, he joined a small group behind Volcano, who led the race from the start. Lewis had been instructed to force the pace to favor another horse owned by H.P. McGrath, Chesapeake. But as they entered the final stretch Aristides and Volcano were out in front and Chesapeake was trailing the pack. Lewis, riding Aristides, won the race in front of 10,000 spectators by two lengths ahead of Volcano. Chesapeake came home eighth. Later the same season, again riding Aristides, Lewis took second in the Belmont Stakes and won three races on Churchill Downs that season, but he never rode in the Kentucky Derby again. Very little biographical information is available, but it is known that Lewis later served as a supplier of information about horses for a bookmaker, which was then legal.
Oliver Lewis was born in 1856 in Fayette County, Kentucky; his parents were Goodson and Eleanor Lewis. Very little is known about Lewis’s life, but according to the Black Athlete Web site he was “A family man, a husband and father of six children.” Lewis was 19 years old in 1875 when he entered the inaugural Kentucky Derby riding Aristide, a colt owned by H. Price McGrath and trained by Ansel Williamson, who was also black. In fact blacks dominated racing in the late 1800s, winning 15 of the first 28 Derbies according to BlackAmericaWeb.com and training six of the first 17 winners. By the early 1900s, however, blacks had been pushed out of the business, which had also become wealthier and less accessible to the working classes. Black jockey James Winkfield won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902, but after 1921 there were no black riders in the race until Marlon St. Julien in 2000.
The 1875 race was held on May 17 at the newly-opened Louisville Jockey Club race track, now known as Churchill Downs. Lewis’s mount Aristides was one of two horses entered in the race by owner H. Price McGrath in hopes of netting the $2850 prize money. But it was the other horse—Chesapeake, ridden by William Henry—that was expected to win. Lewis’s role in the race was to force the pace so that Chesapeake could take the lead when the rest of the field tired. Aristides and Chesapeake started the race as favorites. Aristides’ reputation for powerful starts and Chesapeake’s strong finishing made them the two most likely contenders, but it was Volcano who took the lead from the start and pulled away, leaving Aristides, closely followed by Verdigris and McCreary just behind.
By the start of the home stretch the race was between Volcano and Aristides, with Chesapeake struggling in the pack. Wondering what was going on behind Lewis apparently eased up and looked back, but was waved on by owner McGrath, who was trackside on the home straight. Larry Muhammad, writing for BlackAthlete.net quotes the Courier-Journal‘s play-by-play, published the next day: “Right gallantly did [Aristides] the game and speedy son of Leamington and Sarong answer the call to his forces, for he held his own all down the stretch in spite of most determined rushes on the part of Volcano and Verdigris, and dashed under the wire the winner of one of the fastest and hardest run races ever seen on track.” Lewis and Aristides led Volcano home by two lengths, with Verdigris trailing in third and Chesapeake eighth. Lewis’s time for the mile and a half long course (reduced to a mile and a quarter in 1896) was two minutes 37.75, an American record for the distance.
Lewis’s achievement in the opening year of what has become America’s longest-running sporting event went almost unrecognized for over a century. He rode Aristides to second place in the Belmont Stakes, which later became one of the “Triple Crown” races, and won a total of three races at the Louisville Jockey Club that season. He never rode another Kentucky Derby, but it is known that he attended the 33rd race, in 1907. Lewis’s career as a jockey did not last long. After a spell working as a day laborer Lewis began providing notes on racing form to bookmakers and later became a bookmaker himself, a profession that was then legal in the United States. Lewis’s methods of collecting data and compiling detailed handicapping charts have been likened to the systems used by the Daily Racing Form. Lewis passed on his bookmaking skills and business to his son James.
Read more: Oliver Lewis Biography http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2969/Lewis-Oliver.html#ixzz0oEEKOlcU

Happy Sixty-Ninth Birthday, Actor and Adoption Activist Taurean Blacque!

By goodblacknews on May 11, 2010
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Taurean Blacque (born Herbert Middleton Jr. in Newark, New Jersey, May 10, 1941) is an American television and stage actor, best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on the series Hill Street Blues. He also is a past national spokesman for adoptive services, having been one of the first single black men in the United States to adopt a child.

Before appearing on television, Blacque trained and performed at the New Federal Theater in New York, a theater founded to provide opportunities to minorities and women. Early in his acting career, Blacque began making guest appearances in sitcoms such as What’s Happening!!, Sanford and Son, The Bob Newhart Show,The Tony Randall Show, Good Times, and Taxi, and auditioned for permanent roles on others, including Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati, eventually played by Tim Reid.
In 1981 he joined the cast of the fledgling police drama Hill Street Blues, staying with the show throughout its run, which ended in 1987. While appearing on that show, he was nominated in 1982 for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, but lost to fellow HSB actor Michael Conrad, in the only year in which all the nominees in a category came from the same series. His theatrical career continued during his run on the show, winning him an NAACP Image Award of Best Actor (Local) in 1985 for his role in Amen Corner.  In 1986 his stage roles included the male lead in the musical Don’t Get God Started during its initial six-week summer run in Beverly Hills.
After Hill Street ended, Blacque moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to provide a better home for his children; in his new home, he has focused on theatrical work while making occasional guest appearances on television. Notable stage performances include Stepping Into Tomorrow with Yolanda King in 1987, and a 1988 revival ofCeremonies in Dark Old Men.  Television work included a pilot, Off-Duty, for CBS, in which Blacque once again played a police officer; the show was not picked up by the network. Blacque also had a small role in Disney’s animated film Oliver & Company.  In 1989, he portrayed Henry Marshall on NBC’s Generations.

Blacque initially was asked to serve as spokesman for the County of Los Angeles Adoption Services office though he had no adoptive children at the time. Upon looking into adoption, he was told that as a single black male, he was not eligible to adopt; however, he pressed on, eventually adopting ten children in addition to the two sons he already had. The adopted children included twin boys and a group of five children whose mother could not keep them due to her drug addiction. In 1989 he was asked by President George H. W. Bush to serve as a national spokesman for adoption.


article via www.wikipedia.com

President and First Lady Appearing At Commencements Of Several HBCUs

By goodblacknews on May 7, 2010
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The president, first lady and members of the administration will be making a commencement tour of HBCUs, making addresses and appearances at eleven institutions:

This month, President Obama, the First Lady, and officials from throughout the Administration will deliver commencement addresses to Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the nation.  This weekend Mrs. Obama will send off the graduates of University of Arkansas – Pine Bluff Saturday, May 8th and President Obama will greet the graduates of Hampton University Sunday, May 9th.  In total, eleven HBCUs will receive commencement addresses from Obama Administration officials this year.

Other officials participating in graduation ceremonies include Secretary Robert Gates, Department of Defense (Morehouse College), Secretary Arne Duncan, Department of Education (Xavier University), Administrator Charles Bolden, NASA (Huston-Tillotson University), Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President (Morgan State University), Melody Barnes, Director, White House Domestic Policy Council (Virginia Union University), and Ambassador Susan Rice, United Nations (Spelman College).  In addition, John Wilson, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, is scheduled to speak to Wilberforce University, Wiley College, and Harris-Stowe State University.

During a recent White House ceremony honoring HBCUs, President Obama spoke of the importance of these institutions to the well-being of not just the African American community, but to the entire nation.

President Obama said, “[W]e’re not only doing this because these schools are a gateway to a better future for African Americans; we’re doing it because their success is vital to a better future for all Americans.”

Below is the complete schedule of administration appearances

Obama Administration HBCU Commencement Schedule*

Saturday, May 1st

· John Wilson, Executive Director, White House Initiative on HBCUs – Wilberforce University

Saturday, May 8th

· First Lady Michelle Obama – University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

· Secretary Arne Duncan, Department of Education – Xavier University

· NASA Administrator Charles Bolden – Huston-Tillotson University

· White House Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes – Virginia Union University

· John Wilson, Executive Director, White House Initiative on HBCUs – Wiley College

May 9th

· President Barack Obama – Hampton University

May 11th

· John Wilson, Executive Director, White House Initiative on HBCUs – Harris-Stowe State University

May 15th

· Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President – Morgan State University

May 16th

· Secretary Robert Gates, Department of Defense – Morehouse College

· Ambassador Susan Rice, United Nations – Spelman College

article via www.theroot.com

Kerry Washington Repeats on People Magazine's "Most Beautiful" List

By goodblacknews on May 3, 2010
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Kerry Washington not only is a second-time “beautiful” selection for People, but she also did her photo shoot with no make-up and gives her parents credit for her beauty!  Watch video of her talking about this and more by clicking here:  www.people.com

Sixty-Four Years Ago Today: Emma Clarissa Clement Named American Mother Of The Year

By goodblacknews on May 2, 2010
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When the call came through to her Louisville home last week, Emma Clarissa Clement was off at a district church conference in Springfield, Ky. Her daughter took the message. Mrs. Clement had just been elected American Mother of 1946 by the Golden Rule Foundation. Said the citation: “A mother of children who are devotedly serving their country and their people, a partner in her husband’s ministry in his lifetime, a social and community worker in her own right.”
Emma Clement, 71, widow of a bishop, could well be proud of her three daughters and four sons. All of them had graduated from Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., where she had been married on her own Commencement Day nearly 50 years ago. Four were now college professors—one of them a college president, another, a chaplain, just out of the Army with a major’s commission. A fifth was still overseas as a Red Cross field director in Italy. Now her children could be prouder than ever of her.
It took a little while to get the call relayed to Mrs. Clement. She had to get the news of the honor that had come to her, and to her race, at the telephone office. There is only one telephone in the Negro section of Springfield, Ky.

article originally printed May 13, 1946 in Time Magazine

Black Eyed Peas' 'I Gotta Feeling' Breaks Digital Sales Record

By goodblacknews on May 1, 2010

By Keith Caulfield, L.A.
The Black Eyed Peas continue to steamroll their way into the record books this week. The group’s “I Gotta Feeling” surpasses Flo Rida’s “Low” as the best-selling digital song of all time, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
SoundScan began tracking digital song sales in July of 2003, a little more than two months after Apple launched its popular iTunes Store.
Feeling,” which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last year, has now sold 5,561,000 million digital downloads, ahead of “Low’s” 5,536,000. The latter had been the biggest selling song since March 2008, when it trumped Soulja Boy Tell’em’s 2007 hit “Crank That.”
Presently, the Peas own two out of the top five best-selling digital songs in history. Its other ubiquitous 2009 hit, “Boom Boom Pow,” is in fourth place with 5,298,000. Behind Flo Rida is Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” (No. 3 with 5,364,000) and rounding out the top five is Gaga again with “Poker Face” (5,131,000).
Coincidentally, “Boom Boom Pow,” “Poker Face,” “Just Dance” and “I Gotta Feeling” ranked as the top four singles, respectively, on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart last year.

Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I Gotta Feeling’ Breaks Digital Sales Record

By goodblacknews on May 1, 2010

By Keith Caulfield, L.A.

The Black Eyed Peas continue to steamroll their way into the record books this week. The group’s “I Gotta Feeling” surpasses Flo Rida’s “Low” as the best-selling digital song of all time, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

SoundScan began tracking digital song sales in July of 2003, a little more than two months after Apple launched its popular iTunes Store.
Feeling,” which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last year, has now sold 5,561,000 million digital downloads, ahead of “Low’s” 5,536,000. The latter had been the biggest selling song since March 2008, when it trumped Soulja Boy Tell’em’s 2007 hit “Crank That.”

Presently, the Peas own two out of the top five best-selling digital songs in history. Its other ubiquitous 2009 hit, “Boom Boom Pow,” is in fourth place with 5,298,000. Behind Flo Rida is Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” (No. 3 with 5,364,000) and rounding out the top five is Gaga again with “Poker Face” (5,131,000).
Coincidentally, “Boom Boom Pow,” “Poker Face,” “Just Dance” and “I Gotta Feeling” ranked as the top four singles, respectively, on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart last year.

The Fifth Annual African Movie Academy Awards Help Raise Global Awareness of African Movie Industry

By goodblacknews on May 1, 2010
Bayelsa, Nigeria (CNN) — The stars of African cinema graced the red carpet at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), in Nigeria, showcasing the films that could make waves on the global festival circuit.
The African movie industry gathered in Yenagoa, in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, for the fifth annual “African Oscars.”  Set up in 2005 by former lawyer Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, the awards have helped raise the profile of African movies around the world.  “African film has a hard time in getting recognition in most film festivals [outside Africa],” Anyiam-Osigwe told CNN.  “I think one of the biggest achievements of the AMAA is that the main festivals now look upon us as a selection process, and will pick those particular films that we’ve looked at and carry them on to the different festival circuits.
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Gallery: African Movie Academy Awards

“The first Nollywood film that the British International Film Festival showed was ‘Irapada,’ by Kunle Afolayan, which won Best Indigenous Film at AMAA in 2007. ‘The Figurine’ premiered at Rotterdam this year and has gone on to other film festivals and ‘From a Whisper’ traveled the festival circuit based on its win at AMAA.”
“The Figurine,” a thriller about a sculpture with mystical powers, also by Nigerian director Kunle Afolayan, stole the show at this year’s ceremony, claiming five awards in total — including Best Picture.  Afolayan told CNN, “It feels great — like we’ve not worked in vain. It feels like we’ve opened up a new page in African cinema.
For me, a good story will cut across, not just appeal to Nigerians.
–Nigerian Director Kunle Afolayan
In its first years the AMAAs focused on Nigeria’s booming movie industry — known as “Nollywood.” But since then they have become more pan-African. The 24 awards at this year’s ceremony included nominations from across the continent.
Nonetheless, in terms of sheer output, Nigeria dominates African cinema. Nigeria is the world’s second-biggest producer of movies, behind only India. In 2006 it produced 872 movies, compared with 485 major feature films made in the U.S., according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.  Nollywood movies are typically low-budget — often filmed, edited and released within a month. Most don’t end up on the big screen. Instead, they are distributed as VCDs costing about $1 to $2, meaning they are affordable for the mass African market.
But it is Nollywood’s pioneering use of relatively inexpensive digital cameras instead of costly 35mm film that Anyiam-Osigwe says has been its most important contribution to African cinema.  “There is a new wave of African cinema which is mostly the digital revolution, which has gone on from what Nollywood started in the early 90s,” she told CNN.
“Nigeria made people believe they could make films for less [by using digital cameras]. That has spread across the continent and I think that’s a good thing, otherwise Africa would not be able to have any kind of production, because it couldn’t afford it.
“You see a lot of the older generation of filmmakers from Africa who have made only one short film or one feature-length film in their lifetime, because they have not been able to make up the cost of making another film.”
Anyiam-Osigwe said that while some older filmmakers still believe movies should be shot only on 35mm film, directors from Malawi, Kenya, and Johannesburg’s “Joziewood” have now made the switch to digital.  She added that while every African country has its own movie-making style, the themes are often universal.  “Everyone tries to do a film that people in their own community will watch,” she said. “But I’ve found that all over the continent we have similar stories — it’s just how we tell them.”
story via CNN.com

Syracuse University Law School Team Works Cold Cases From Civil Rights Era

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2010

Never Too Late For Justice:  Syracuse University Law School Professor Paula Johnson and her team work with families to solve cold cases from the Civil Rights era!  Watch the story on CNN by clicking here.

Former NBA Star John Salley On Mission To Help Kids Eat Healthy!

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2010
Former NBA Star John Salley, like First Lady Michelle Obama, is on a mission to help children eat healthy and get fit.  He discusses his new cause with HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell here:  John Salley on CNN.