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NBA Honors MLK with Shooting Shirts

By goodblacknews on January 20, 2014

Dream Big NBA
All 20 NBA teams playing today will wear special shooting shirts in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.  The NBA announced their “Dream Big” campaign earlier this month to celebrate MLK Day and Black History Month.
A video featuring Chris Bosh aired during four nationally televised games today, as well as during games aired on NBA TV.  Original content and interviews will run on air and digitally on NBA.com until the end of February.
The shooting shirt for MLK Day features the “Dream Big” logo on the front.  The shooting shirt for Black History Month was created in collaboration with Miami Heat guard Ray Allen.  The shirt will feature four prominent African-Americans, Dr. King, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman and Bill Russell, in the NBA logo on the front and the “Dream Big” logo on the back.
BHM NBA
The NBA’s “Dream Big” campaign is also designed to reach children and educate them on the history of African-Americans. The league is teaming up with EverFi, an educational technology company, launch digital curriculum in 30 schools across the country during February. The curriculum is focused on the extensive contributions by blacks.
“The ‘Dream Big’ campaign honors African-Americans for their countless contributions that have opened doors for people around the world,” said Saskia Sorrosa, NBA Vice President of Multicultural/Targeted Marketing in a press release. “With the the NBA’s young and diverse fanbase, we felt it was important to creat a program that would engage kids by educating them about black history to positively impact the future.”
Keep an eye out for the new shooting shirts today and throughout the month of February.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com

MLK Day 2014: Humanizing a King to Celebrate Him

By goodblacknews on January 20, 2014

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss by his wife Coretta
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss by his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgomery, Ala., March 22, 1956. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign to desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspended his $500 fine pending appeal. (AP Photo/Gene Herrick)

On March 22, 1956, the 27-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was having a horrible day. He’d just been convicted for his role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and sentenced to pay $1,000 or spend 386 days in jail. After the ruling and motion to appeal, he walked out of the courthouse a temporarily free man, but his spirit was shaken.
All of a sudden, his wife Coretta rushed at him, threw her arms around him, and kissed him in front of about 300 people who’d gathered outside. The biggest smile ever captured on King swept across his face, and his eyes lifted to the heavens with the giddiness of a young man in love.
In the photo that caught this moment, we see a side of him that sometimes gets lost in our remembrances. For all the important things that Dr. King would go on to do in his life, that day he was just a regular young man whose rough day was made better by a little sugar from the one he loved.
Remembering King as a man, not just a legend
Today, the nation pauses for a moment to pay homage to the legacy of Dr. King. During his less than fifteen years in the national spotlight, he became the voice and embodiment of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Our perception of him is deeply influenced by the iconic pictures and films of King delivering powerful speeches, leading marches in the Deep South, and with his hand outstretched towards the sea of people at the 1963 March on Washington.
These many images and the society-shifting changes that his efforts helped bring about have elevated him to a heroic status with a larger-than-life character. This deification pushed him into a place in our memories that sometimes feels beyond our reach of comprehension as fellow mortals.

The African American Museum In Philadelphia Presents Its Annual Kwanzaa Celebration, This Weekend, December 28-29

By goodblacknews on December 27, 2013

The African American Museum in Philadelphia celebrates Kwanzaa with a full weekend of events, December 28-29. (Photo by G. Widman for Visit Philadelphia)

This Thursday, December 26 marked the first day of Kwanzaa, a week-long celebration of African culture and heritage, and The African American Museum in Philadelphia celebrates with a full weekend of events on December 28 and 29.  Over the course of the weekend, look forward to an informative discussion about the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa and the lighting of the museum’s Kwanzaa candles.  Celebrate the roots of the holiday with expressive dances, music and storytelling as well. All events are family-friendly and encourage a reconnection with African roots and the support of African American communities.
Kwanzaa Celebration activities are included in museum admission. Guests are encouraged to bring a canned food item for Philabundance.
Annual Kwanzaa Celebration at The African American Museum in Philadelphia
When: December 28-29
Where: African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch Street
Cost: Included in general admission
More info: www.aampmuseum.org
article via uwishunu.com

Many African Americans Celebrate Kwanzaa Dec. 26 – Jan.1

By goodblacknews on December 24, 2013

unnamedLOS ANGELES — The seven-day festival of Kwanzaa will begin December 26.  It is a time when African Americans highlight their heritage.
Maulana Karenga, a black activist and African Studies professor, created Kwanzaa in 1966, to – as he said – “give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history.” Each day is dedicated to a different principle, and a candle is lit each night.  At a recent festival at the California African American Museum, Babe Evans explained the principles behind the upcoming holiday to a group of children.  The first is unity.  “Umoja.  It means a time to think about your ancestors, to think about the struggles that people have been through, so that you can now have a life that is much more open,” said Evans.
Kwanzaa is based on African themes.  Its principles are stated in the Swahili language, and the name Kwanzaa comes from a phrase meaning first fruits of the harvest.  “The second day, because it’s a seven-day ceremony, is Kujichagulia, and that means self-determination,” said Evans.  Collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.  These round out the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
Gift-giving is a part of the holiday, but actor Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter says the celebration has not become commercialized, like Christmas.  “In Kwanzaa, we make our gifts.  All the kids will make something and give to each other, and then we have an abundance of food that’s shared,” said Anderson-Gunter.  In many African-American homes, Kwanzaa is celebrated along with Christmas. Writer Marsha Bullock, whose family is Christian, says that’s what her family does.  “We do Christmas, and then Kwanzaa starts directly the day after, so we do that too.  And then of course, my favorite part is the celebration where you get to eat everything,” said Bullock.
The festival will end January 1st with a feast with friends and family.
article via voanews.com

Special African-American Santa Holds Court At Macy’s in NYC

By goodblacknews on December 24, 2013
Macy's Special Santa
Crowds in the know come to see a special African-American Santa at Macy’s in Herald Square. (Credit: CBS 2)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Crowds in the know have been drawn to Macy’s to see the “special Santa,” an African-American Santa Claus tucked away in Santaland at the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square.  As CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco reported, the special Santa only appears by request. But he was the sole reason Elizabeth Kittles and her family made the trip from the Bronx Monday night.  “I could have gone anywhere,” Kittles said, “but I came right here to Macy’s because I knew they had an African-American Santa.”

When they reach the front of the line, parents must ask to see the special Santa. But Kittles said he is like a secret Santa to many.  “There was plenty of African-American families that didn’t know, and when I did tell them, one guy said, ‘They have a black Santa?’ (I said), ‘Yeah they do,’” Kittles said.  Kittles, who has been bringing her sons to see the special Santa at Macy’s for 10 years now, wishes the store would make sure more families know.
“An elf just told me as I was going through Santaland,” Kittles said. “It’s great that they have that option, but it would be great if they put it out there either on the visitors’ website or when they advertise when Santaland is open.”  Other parents who spoke to CBS 2 did not know about the special Santa either, but agreed with Kittles.  “I think it would mean a lot to some people; would make a difference for some people,” said Danielle Moriello of Linden, N.J. “It doesn’t matter what color he is.”
“It wouldn’t confuse the kids at all,” added Rafael Mendoza of Washington Heights. “It’s just the way you raise them up.” CBS 2 reached out to Macy’s for a comment about their special Santa. They responded, “Santa is all things to all who believe.”
article via newyork.cbslocal.com

Black Santa Brings Spirit and Cheer at South Los Angeles Mall

By goodblacknews on December 17, 2013

Jahleel Logan, 3, poses with Santa, a.k.a. Langston Patterson, 77, of Rudolph Holiday Photo, at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Dec. 7, 2013. Patterson has been Santa at the Plaza since 2004, with African American families coming at specific times of the day, just to visit him. "I just don't want him to think that all greatness comes from a different race," said Logan's godmother, Arlene Graves, 45. "There are Santa Clauses his color doing good work too." (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Jahleel Logan, 3, poses with Santa, a.k.a. Langston Patterson, 77, at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Dec. 7, 2013. Patterson has been Santa at the Plaza since 2004, with African American families coming at specifically just to visit him. “I just don’t want him to think that all greatness comes from a different race,” said Logan’s godmother, Arlene Graves, 45. “There are Santa Clauses his color doing good work too.” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Dressed in a red Santa suit, white beard and rimless glasses balanced on his nose, Langston Patterson sits on a velvet couch and waits for his adoring fans.  Some call first to make sure he will be there. They come from Palmdale, Thousand Oaks and San Bernardino, driving past many shopping malls with Santas, but none that look like him.  For nearly a decade, Patterson has been the main attraction at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza during Christmastime: a rare black Santa Claus in a sea of white ones.

The mall, located in the heart of black Los Angeles, is one of the few in the country with a black Santa Claus. Some say Patterson is the only black shopping-mall Santa Claus in the Los Angeles area.  As visitors approached him on a recent afternoon, it was hard to tell who was more excited: the youngsters or the adults. The parents are the most loyal. They return with grandchildren, passing on a family tradition with a deep personal meaning.
“We need our kids to understand that good things happen in chocolate skin,” said Til Prince, 50, of Palmdale, watching her granddaughter, niece and her niece’s son pose with Patterson. “We are often bombarded with the opposite. We’re not trying to exclude anybody, but [instead] celebrate our chocolate skin.”

First Lady Michelle Obama Reads "The Night Before Christmas" to Kids at the Children's National Medical Center

By goodblacknews on December 16, 2013

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cl3Fu1RdnQ&w=560&h=315]
Michelle Obama Reads To Kids At Children's National Medical CenterAt the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. today, First Lady Michelle Obama read “The Night Before Christmas” to help celebrate the holidays and bring cheer.  Enjoy!
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Remembering the Legacy of Union Leader A. Phillip Randolph on Labor Day

By goodblacknews on September 2, 2013

A. Phillip Randolph (AP Photo)
A. Phillip Randolph (AP Photo)

“We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom. This revolution reverberates throughout the land, touching every village where black men are segregated, oppressed and exploited,” the 74-year-old A. Philip Randolph told the estimated 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom fifty years ago on August 28, 1963.
Although today Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech often symbolizes the March for many, it was very much a stand for black workers with longtime labor leader Randolph at the forefront. He was so committed that neither advanced age nor the death of his wife shortly before the March could keep him home.
More than twenty years before, it was Randolph who had conceived the massive demonstration.  Scheduled to take place July 1, 1941, the original March was intended to protest discrimination against black employment in defense industries and federal bureaus and demand that President Franklin D. Roosevelt issue an Executive Order to end such practices.
So, on June 25, 1941, when Roosevelt, after exhausting all means, including personal appeals from his wife Eleanor to Randolph, to call off the march which anticipated 100,000 participants, issued Executive Order 8802 creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee and barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus, Randolph called off the March in victory.  Merging the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois by setting economic justice as the foundation of civil rights, Randolph would not stop or even begin here.
Born Asa Philip Randolph, the second of his parents’ two sons, on April 15, 1889 in Crescent, Fla, near Jacksonville where he later grew up, service was a consistent message in his childhood. His father, the Rev. James W. Randolph, in keeping with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) philosophy, ministered to his congregation’s social and spiritual needs. Rev. Randolph and his wife Elizabeth, who hailed from a once enslaved family who were also AME members, taught their sons racial pride and self-respect. Encouraging young Asa Randolph’s healthy thirst for knowledge, Rev. Randolph filled the family’s home.
Tall, handsome, popular and smart, Randolph sang in the choir, was a star baseball player and a great speaker. Despite graduating valedictorian from Cookman Institute (later incorporated into Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla.) in 1907, there was not suitable employment for him in Jacksonville. Not wishing to follow in his father’s footsteps as minister, Randolph hired himself out as a hand on a steamship and headed for New York City in 1911, shortly after he turned 22, with dreams of becoming an actor.
In New York, he worked several jobs, including elevator operator, porter and waiter, while also studying English Literature and Sociology at City College at night. Despite organizing the Shakespearean Society in Harlem and playing several roles, including Hamlet, Othello and Romeo, Randolph was clearly destined to make his mark on a different stage. With kindred spirit Chandler Owen, a Columbia University student, Randolph founded the employment agency, the Brotherhood of Labor, where the two tried to unionize black workers.

Celebrating Famous Black Lefties on International Left-Handers Day

By goodblacknews on August 13, 2013

dekAccording to Time.com, today is International Left-Handers Day.  So in honor of this occasion, Good Black News is celebrating a few of the famous African-American southpaws who have made their mark on the world (so to speak):

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has veered more and more to the left — not in policy, but in handedness. Barack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left-handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.

What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office.  And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it’s because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to righties at an early age.
OPRAH WINFREY

dek

The talk-show maven doesn’t need much more to set her apart from the rest — with her estimated $2.7 billion fortune and ever-expanding media empire — but she also has the distinction of being a member of the left-handed club. Since men are more likely to be left-handed than women, that makes Oprah doubly impressive. She’s in good company: Other show business titans of the southpaw persuasion include Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie (FYI, Brad Pitt is also a lefty).
JIMI HENDRIX
Jimi Hendrix learned to play in Nashville blues clubs before touring as a back-up musician for the Isley Brothers and Little Richard. He broke out on his own in 1966, but his career was cut short by a drug overdose in August 1970. Hendrix’s use of distortion and wah-wah effects warped and extended notes in ways no other player could quite achieve; for years,
dekright-handed guitarists have tried to emulate his sound, going so far as to put left-handed necks on their own guitars.  There was one technique not impacted by Hendrix’s lefthandedness: setting his guitar on fire. For that, he used both hands. 

WHOOPI GOLDBERG
Whoopi GoldbergThis Academy-Award winning actress and current “The View” co-host is as eclectic as they come, so it’s no wonder she is also a leftie.  From her dazzling debut on Broadway in the 1980s with her one-woman show, to directing a documentary on comedic pioneer Moms Mabley to her upcoming turn as the matriarch in Lifetime’s adaptation of the Terry McMillan novel “A Day Late and A Dollar Short”, Goldberg always keeps it fresh and interesting, as lefties often do.
BABYFACE
KennethBabyfaceEdmondsHWOFMay2013Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds not only has the distinction of looking much younger than his years, but this multi-platinum award-winning producer, composer (“I’ll Make Love To You”, “Take A Bow”, “Change The World”, “When Will I See You Again”) and musician, like Hendrix, also belongs to the small group of successful and talented left-handed guitarists.  Martin, one of the world’s premiere guitar makers, designed a special model named after Babyface in 2000 and in honor of him, made both left and right-handed versions.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (full disclosure; also a proud leftie)

Happy Father's Day from GBN

By goodblacknews on June 16, 2013