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R.I.P. John Lewis, 80, U.S Representative and Civil Rights Movement Icon

By goodblacknews on July 18, 2020
John Lewis (photo by Rick Diamond / Getty Images)

Rep. John Lewis, an iconic pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement and Freedom Rider who literally shed his blood in the fight for Black voting rights and went on to become a 17-term Democratic member of Congress, died yesterday from pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old.

One of the last surviving leaders of the 1960s Civil Rights era and members of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle, (the Rev. C.T. Vivian passed yesterday as well), Lewis was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in December.

Regardless of his health issues, Lewis took to the streets again in early June to join protests for racial justice near the White House that were in response to the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks, among others.

Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama and attended segregated schools before earning his college degree at Fisk University in Nashville.

While a student there, Lewis organized his first sit-in demonstration at a lunch counter and was soon arrested for what he started to call “good trouble, necessary trouble.”

R.I.P. Rev. C.T. Vivian, 95, Civil Rights Movement Activist and MLK Adviser

By goodblacknews on July 17, 2020
Rev. C.T. Vivian receives 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama (photo: commons.wikipedia.org)

According to nytimes. com, the Rev. C.T. Vivian, a civil rights organizer and adviser for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the struggle for racial justice a half-century ago, died at the age of 95 today at his home in Atlanta. Kira Vivian and Denise Morse, two of Vivian’s daughters, confirmed his passing.

C.T. Vivian was a Baptist minister and member of MLK’s inner circle of advisers, alongside the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy and other civil rights luminaries such as Julian Bond and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

To quote nytimes.com:

Vivian was the national director of some 85 local affiliate chapters of the S.C.L.C. from 1963 to 1966, directing protest activities and training in nonviolence as well as coordinating voter registration and community development projects.

In Selma and Birmingham, Ala.; St. Augustine, Fla.; Jackson, Miss.; and other segregated cities, Mr. Vivian led sit-ins at lunch counters, boycotts of businesses, and marches that continued for weeks or months, raising tensions that often led to mass arrests and harsh repression.

Televised scenes of marchers attacked by police officers and firefighters with cattle prods, snarling dogs, fire hoses and nightsticks shocked the national conscience, legitimized the civil rights movement and led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“Nonviolence is the only honorable way of dealing with social change, because if we are wrong, nobody gets hurt but us,” Mr. Vivian said in an address to civil rights workers, as recounted in “At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68” (2006), by Taylor Branch. “And if we are right, more people will participate in determining their own destinies than ever before.”

Cordy Tindell Vivian was born in Boonville, Mo., on July 30, 1924, the only child of Robert and Euzetta Tindell Vivian. His family moved to Macomb, Ill., when he was 6, and he later graduated from Macomb High School in 1942. He studied history at Western Illinois University in Macomb, but he dropped out and became a recreation worker in Peoria, Ill., where he joined his first protest, in 1947, helping to desegregate a cafeteria.

In 1945, Mr. Vivian married Jane Teague, who worked at a hardware store, and they had one daughter, Jo Anna Walker, who survives him. The couple separated amicably in the late 1940s and divorced later so that Mr. Vivian could marry Octavia Geans, in 1952. She was the author of “Coretta” (1970), the first biography of Dr. King’s wife, Coretta Scott King. She died in 2011.

In addition to his daughters Kira, Denise and Jo Anna, Mr. Vivian is survived by another daughter, Anita Charisse Thornton; two sons, Mark Evans Vivian and Albert Louis Vivian; nine grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; 28 great-great-grandchildren; and two great-great-great-grandchildren. Another son, Cordy Jr., died in 2010.

To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/ct-vivian-dead.html

CBS Network Announces Plan to Commit 25% of Development Budget to BIPOC Creators and Projects

CBS Network Announces Plan to Commit 25% of Development Budget to BIPOC Creators and Projects

By goodblacknews on July 13, 2020

According to Variety.com, the CBS network has announced it will commit 25% of its script development budget to projects created or co-created by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) beginning with the 2021-2022 development season.

CBS also says it will target having a minimum of 40% BIPOC representation in their writers’ rooms  beginning in 2021-2022. The goal is to increase that number to 50% the following season. The network will also hire additional BIPOC writers on some of their series for the upcoming 2020-2021 season.

To quote from Variety.com:

“While steady progress has been made in recent years both in front of and behind the camera, change needs to happen faster, especially with creators and leadership roles on the shows,” said George Cheeks, president and CEO of the CBS Entertainment Group.

“As a network with ambitions to be a unifier and an agent of change at this important time, these new initiatives will help accelerate efforts to broaden our storytelling and make CBS programming even more diverse and inclusive.”

News of the commitments comes as the entertainment industry, and the United States in general, continues to undergo a racial reckoning following massive civil unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Under former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, the company had been frequently criticized for lagging behind competitors in terms of diversity and inclusion on both its broadcast network and in its executive ranks. Last year, former CBS executive Whitney Davis published a piece with Variety about the “white problem” at the company at large.

Read more: https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/cbs-bipoc-development-writers-rooms-1234704857/

City of Boston to Remove “Emancipation Group” Statue Depicting Formerly Enslaved Man Kneeling Before President Lincoln

City of Boston to Remove “Emancipation Group” Statue Depicting Formerly Enslaved Man Kneeling Before President Lincoln

By goodblacknews on July 5, 2020

According to cnn.com, a statue depicting a formerly enslaved man kneeling before President Abraham Lincoln in a park in Boston, MA, will be removed.

To quote cnn.com:

After two public hearings, the Boston Art Commission voted to remove the Emancipation Group, a statue installed in 1879 in Boston’s Park Square, according to a statement announcing the removal.

The statue is a replica of one in Washington DC, and has been controversial since its installation for the depiction of the freed slave.

The statue features Archer Alexander, a Black man who “assisted the Union Army, escaped slavery, and was recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act,” the statement says.

The vote follows a nationwide movement calling for the removal of monuments that celebrate the Confederacy or viewed as racist.

“For generations, Bostonians have called for its removal due to its racist depiction of a Black person. Many also feel it implies that one person ended slavery and misrepresents the complexity of United States history,” the statement said.

The statue has always been criticized, but a petition started in early June renewed interest in its removal.

Tory Bullock, a Boston area actor and activist, launched the petition with the intention of getting 1,000 signatures, but quickly surpassed that goal. Currently, the petition has over 12,000 signatures.

Bullock was inspired by the social and cultural moment that Black Lives Matter protests created and felt this was a good time to reintroduce the issue.

Nolan Davis, 8, Organizes Black Lives Matter March for Kids in Missouri

By goodblacknews on July 2, 2020
Children’s BLM protest organizer Nolan Davis (photo: Bailey Elizabeth Rogers)

“We are the children, the mighty mighty children. Here to tell you, Black lives matter!” hundreds of children chanted as they marched down sidewalks in Kirkwood, MO with their parents on Saturday, according to cnn.com.

Nolan Davis, 8, decided to organize the Black Lives Matter march for children in his hometown after attending a few other protests in the area with his mother Kristin Davis.

To quote cnn.com:

“Right after that, he asked me if he could have his own march so that he could let other people’s voices be heard,” his mother, Kristin Davis, told CNN.

So the two created a flyer for their “Children’s Black Lives Matter March” and shared it to Facebook, asking families to meet at Kirkwood Park.

“We thought that maybe 50 people would be there,” Nolan Davis said. “But there were like 700 people.”

Children of different races covered the sidewalks in chalk with phrases such as “Stop Racism” and “Be Kind to Everyone.” They marched with posters in their hands that read among other things “Black Children’s Futures Matter.”

Nolan Davis led the way with his poster that read, “Kids can make a change.”

Despite being a child in elementary school, Nolan Davis has already been taught the ways he needs to act differently in society compared to his White friends, such as playing with water guns only in the backyard “because you don’t want it to get mistaken for something else” or keeping the hood of his hoodie down, according to Kristin Davis.

As his White, adoptive mother, Kristin Davis acknowledged that she would never understand the fear that her Black son and daughter, five-year-old Caroline, would feel as they grow up. But she said she knew these talks were necessary to keep them safe.

“We’re preparing them for when they’re older and taller and bigger. When they’re not going to be perceived as cute little kids anymore,” she said.

Nolan Davis doesn’t like that there are different rules in society based on one’s skin color, which is why he organized the march.

He’s hoping he’ll inspire other children to use their voices and coe together to do the same.

Netflix Moves $100 Million to Black-Led Banks to Help Build Economic Opportunity in Black Communities

Netflix Moves $100 Million to Black-Led Banks to Help Build Economic Opportunity in Black Communities

By goodblacknews on June 30, 2020

Netflix announced today it is shifting $100 million of its cash to financial institutions that serve the Black community to draw attention to the racial wealth gap in America.

The streaming giant has $5.1 billion in cash assets, and 2% of that will be moved to Black-led banks.

In its public statement, the company said it will first inject $25 million into a fund managed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a nonprofit that develops underinvested communities. Another $10 million will go to Hope Credit Union, which provides capital for the nation’s most impoverished regions in the Deep South.

To quote from Netflix’s statement:

At Netflix, we know great stories can create empathy and understanding. Stories like Ava DuVernay’s 13TH and Explained’s Racial Wealth Gap show how systemic racism in America has sustained a centuries-long financial gap between Black and White families. As part of our commitment to racial equity, we are turning understanding into action. Going forward, Netflix is going to allocate two percent of our cash holdings – initially up to $100 million – into financial institutions and organizations that directly support Black communities in the U.S.

According to the FDIC, banks that are Black-owned or led represent a mere one percent of America’s commercial banking assets. This is one factor contributing to 19 percent of Black families having either negative wealth or no assets at all – more than double the rate of White households – according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Black banks have been fighting to better their communities for decades but they’re disadvantaged by their lack of access to capital. The major banks, where big multinational companies including ours keep most of their money, are also focusing more on improving equity, but not at the grassroots level these Black-led institutions can and do. So we wanted to redirect some of our cash specifically toward these communities, and hope to inspire other large companies to do the same with their cash deposits.

We plan to redirect even more of our cash to Black-led and focused institutions as we grow, and we hope others will do the same. For example, if every company in the S&P 500 allocated a modest amount of their cash holdings into efforts like the Black Economic Development Initiative, each one percent of their cash would represent $20-$30 billion of new capital. And that would help build stronger communities, offering more Black families pathways to prosperity and a more equitable future.

Aaron Mitchell, Director, Talent Acquisition

Shannon Alwyn, Director, Treasury

The news was welcomed by billionaire Robert F. Smith, who made headlines last year when he offered to pay off the debts of Morehouse College‘s graduating class. He recently expanded on that pledge by creating the Student Freedom Initiative to help students at HBCUs get affordable, low-interest loans for to fund higher learning.

“This is how we turn outrage into action,” Smith tweeted Tuesday. “$100m into Black-owned banks is a giant step forward. If major U.S. companies invest 2% of profits in left-behind communities, we can close the racial wealth gap in 10 years.”

Recently, Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin personally pledged to donate $120 Million to HBCUs.

Candice Carty-Williams and Bernadine Evaristo Become 1st Black Authors to Win Top British Book Awards

Candice Carty-Williams and Bernadine Evaristo Become 1st Black Authors to Win Top British Book Awards

By goodblacknews on June 29, 2020

Candice Carty-Williams and Bernardine Evaristo just won Book of the Year and Author of the Year at the British Book Awards, respectively, becoming the first Black authors to win these top prizes.

According to guardian.com, Carty-Williams won Book of the Year for Queenie, her debut novel about a young black woman navigating life and love in London. The award is judged on quality of writing, innovation of publishing, and sales.

To quote from guardian.com:

“Carty-Williams said she was proud and grateful to win, but also “sad and confused” that she was the first Black writer to receive the top award.

“Overall, this win makes me hopeful that although I’m the first, the industry are waking up to the fact that I shouldn’t and won’t be the last,” said the author.

“The power of Queenie is the way it makes you feel: energised; moved; comforted. It is such an assured and original piece of debut fiction,” said judge Pandora Sykes. “Weighty issues about identity, race, family, heterosexuality and mental health are distilled into prose which is easily digestible, but extremely impactful.”

Evaristo, the joint winner of last year’s Booker prize for her polyphonic novel Girl, Woman, Other, was named author of the year at the British Book awards, also making her the first black writer to win in that category.

Evaristo also won the fiction category, beating her fellow Booker winner Margaret Atwood to the prize. The novelist, who became the first black British woman to top the fiction paperback charts earlier this month, said she was honoured.

“This is such an interesting moment in our cultural history because the Black Lives Matter movement has generated an unprecedented amount of self-interrogating in the publishing industry,” said Evaristo, who described her recent experience topping the charts as “quite surreal.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/29/candice-carty-williams-bernardine-evaristo-first-black-authors-to-win-top-british-book-awards

(paid links)

Mississippi’s State Legislature Passes Bill to Remove Confederate Emblem from Flag

Mississippi’s State Legislature Passes Bill to Remove Confederate Emblem from Flag

By goodblacknews on June 28, 2020

The Mississippi state legislature — both House and Senate — passed a bill today to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its state flag.

According to cnn.com, the bill will now go to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who has said he would sign legislation that state lawmakers send him to remove the Confederate insignia.

To quote the cnn.com article:

“The legislation — which cleared the state House in a 91-23 vote and the state Senate with a 37-14 vote — comes as Mississippi lawmakers in recent weeks have been weighing a change to their flag amid the continued racial justice protests across the country.

Mississippi is the last state in the country whose flag features the Confederate emblem. The flag, first adopted in 1894, has red, white and blue stripes with the Confederate battle emblem in the corner.

The bill establishes a commission to develop a new flag design without the Confederate emblem that includes the phrase “In God, We Trust.” Mississippi state voters would then vote on the new design this November.”

NASA’s Headquarters to be Renamed in Honor of its 1st Black Woman Engineer, “Hidden Figure” Mary W. Jackson

NASA’s Headquarters to be Renamed in Honor of its 1st Black Woman Engineer, “Hidden Figure” Mary W. Jackson

By goodblacknews on June 24, 2020

NASA announced Wednesday the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA.

Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

“Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space. Mary never accepted the status quo, she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

“Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building. It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success. Hidden no more, we will continue to recognize the contributions of women, African Americans, and people of all backgrounds who have made NASA’s successful history of exploration possible.”

Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington, D.C (Credit: NASA)

The work of the West Area Computing Unit caught widespread national attention in the 2016 Margot Lee Shetterly book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. The book was made into a popular movie that same year and Jackson’s character was played by award-winning actress Janelle Monáe.

“We are honored that NASA continues to celebrate the legacy of our mother and grandmother Mary W. Jackson,” said, Carolyn Lewis, Mary’s daughter. “She was a scientist, humanitarian, wife, mother, and trailblazer who paved the way for thousands of others to succeed, not only at NASA, but throughout this nation.”

Rt. Rev Deon Kevin Johnson Ordained Bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, 1st Openly Black Gay Man to Hold Post

Rt. Rev Deon Kevin Johnson Ordained Bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, 1st Openly Black Gay Man to Hold Post

By goodblacknews on June 23, 2020

According to the Advocate, the Rt. Rev. Deon Kevin Johnson has become the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, making him the first openly gay Black man to hold the post in the diocese’s 179-year history.

Johnson was ordained and consecrated last week in a ceremony at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis.

To quote from advocate.com:

“To find ourselves in this moment, the [descendant] of a slave, to be called to be the bishop of Missouri — God is good!” he said during his ordination service, according to the Episcopal News Service. “To the people of Missouri, we have a whole new story to tell and a whole new boldness to tell it with. So I look forward to the adventure.”

An immigrant from Barbados, Johnson has been an Episcopal priest since 2003. He was most recently rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brighton, Mich.

In the week following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Johnson joined in peaceful protests in the St. Louis region. Days after the clearing of nonviolent protesters at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., so Donald Trump could have a photo op, Johnson spoke at a solidarity rally at St. John’s Episcopal Church in St. Louis.

“Fear would tell us that dignity belongs to some and not to others. As followers of Jesus, we must live and know that perfect love casts out fear,” he wrote in a statement following the rally. “We must, in the words of the Prophet Micah, ‘do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.’”

Read more: https://www.advocate.com/religion/2020/6/16/openly-gay-black-bishop-ordained-missouri-episcopalians