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“Seeding by Ceding”: MacKenzie Scott Donates $2.7 Billion to Racial Justice Organizations, Arts Groups and Community-Based Non-Profits

“Seeding by Ceding”: MacKenzie Scott Donates $2.7 Billion to Racial Justice Organizations, Arts Groups and Community-Based Non-Profits

By goodblacknews on June 17, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

MacKenzie Scott, novelist, former teacher and ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, is a real one.

Scott’s net worth since her divorce settlement from Bezos stands close to $60 billion, and Scott has vowed to give away her wealth in her lifetime -“until the safe is empty” – because she believes “it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands.”

This week Scott and her team, lead by herself and her current spouse Dan Jewett, donated $2.7 billion to 286 organizations “including major universities, distinguished arts groups, and nonprofits working to combat racial injustice and domestic violence.”

Scott announced the donations in her Medium blog post “Seeding by Ceding,” where she states “major universities, distinguished arts groups, and nonprofits working to combat racial injustice and domestic violence” are among those receiving grants.

The recipients include the Apollo Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Alternate ROOTS, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and Women’s Funding Network.

This is the third time Scott has donated along these lines. In July 2020, Scott donated to “116 Organizations Driving Change,” which all fell under nine categories: racial equity, LGBTQ+ equity, gender equity, economic mobility, empathy and bridging divides, functional democracy, public health, global development and climate change.

She followed that up in December of last year with “384 Ways to Help.” To see the complete list of Scott’s 2021 donation recipients, click here.

MUSIC MONDAY: “She Shreds” – a Black Women Guitarists and Bassists Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “She Shreds” – a Black Women Guitarists and Bassists Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 14, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Monday, you all!

Here is a collection of Black women guitarists and bassists. While woman singers and songwriters often are spotlighted, we want to celebrate women’s fiery musicianship with this playlist.

We are showcasing the legends—many of whom have unfortunately been overlooked, dismissed, or forgotten—who should be recognized as pillars of music history.

This playlist was inspired by SheShreds.com. They are all about steps “taken towards exposing the truth.” It’s for all of us who can’t count the names of Black women guitarists on one hand.

It’s for the young Black girls aspiring to be musicians but seldom see a history that represents them. It’s to learn about our past and evolve into our future—and without Black history, we cannot accurately do so.”

So here’s a playlist to sistas who’s names you’ve heard countless times, such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Elizabeth Cotten, Me’Shell Ndegeocello, Odetta and Barbara Lynn, though there are others who took some digging to find. Please enjoy! There are plenty of treasures to get got.

And as we re-emerge, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
Katori Hall, Les Payne and Tamara Payne, Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris and More Win Pulitzer Prizes in 2021

Katori Hall, Les Payne and Tamara Payne, Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris and More Win Pulitzer Prizes in 2021

By goodblacknews on June 11, 2021

Mitchell S. Jackson’s winning essay from June 2020, Twelve Minutes and a Life, offered a deeply affecting account of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery that combined vivid writing, thorough reporting and personal experience to shed light on systemic racism in America.

A formerly incarcerated person, Jackson is also a social justice advocate who engages in outreach in prisons and youth facilities in the United States and abroad.

Georgetown University professor Marcia Chatelain’s Franchise offers a nuanced account of the complicated role the fast-food industry plays in African-American communities, a portrait of race and capitalism that masterfully illustrates how the fight for civil rights has been intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.

Hall’s Hot Wing King is a deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.

Tania Leon’s Stride premiered at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City on February 13, 2020, a musical journey full of surprise, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate Black music traditions from the US and the Caribbean into a Western orchestral fabric.

To see the complete list of 2021 Pulitzer Prize recipients and more details about them, click here.

[Photo collage: top l-r are Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris, Tania León; bottom l-r are Katori Hall, Michael Paul Williams, Marcia Chatelain via pulitzer.org]

(paid links)

Marsai Martin to Executive Produce and Amber Ruffin to Host Girls Inc. Inaugural Film Festival on June 13

Marsai Martin to Executive Produce and Amber Ruffin to Host Girls Inc. Inaugural Film Festival on June 13

By goodblacknews on June 11, 2021

Producer, actor and entreprenueur Marsai Martin (Black-ish, Little) will executive produce Girls Inc.’s inaugural film festival, which will be held virtually this June 13 starting at 4pmPT/7pmET.

Amber Ruffin, creator and star of Peacock‘s The Amber Ruffin Show, takes on hosting duties for the ticketed festival that will also include appearances by Tracee Ellis Ross, Venus Williams, Hoda Kotb, and Tina Fey.

The ticketed fest will feature live and pre-taped appearances as it offers a series of short films featuring “an inspiring group of girls and young women who represent a new generation of leaders and change,” per Girls Inc. Renée Elise Goldsberry, Darnell Martin, Melinda Hsu Taylor, Busy Philipps and Amber Stevens West directed the projects.

To quote hollywoodreporter.com:

During a VIP reception, Martin and Fey will host a panel to discuss the next generation of female producers. Later, during the program Girls Inc. will hand out a series of honors to Netflix’s Bela Bajaria, Walgreens Boots Alliance’s Rosalind Brewer, ballerina Misty Copeland, Schultz Family Foundation’s Sheri Kersch Schultz, and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine developer and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health assistant professor Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. Also booked to perform during the event is Broadway and recording star Shoshana Bean.

Girls Inc. president and CEO Stephanie J. Hull said the inaugural festival is an “exciting opportunity” for girls to share their experiences through film. “The event will feature compelling stories from a group of girls and young women who represent a new generation of leaders and changemakers. Collaborating with Marsai Martin on this endeavor is a dream come true — she leads by example and inspires girls everywhere to believe in themselves and see no limit to their potential.”

Said Martin: “It gives us a chance to spotlight the next generation of talented filmmakers. It’s also important that we give young girls an opportunity to use their voices.”

Tickets to the virtual event and more information can be found here.

School Board in Jacksonville, FL Votes to Rename Six Schools Honoring Confederates

School Board in Jacksonville, FL Votes to Rename Six Schools Honoring Confederates

By goodblacknews on June 7, 2021

After an almost year-long campaign and debates led by grassroots racial justice organizations (like the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville), the Duval County School Board in Jacksonville, Florida has voted to change the names of six schools currently named after figures prominent in the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.

Come August 3, Kirby-Smith Middle School will become Springfield Middle School, Joseph Finegan Elementary School will become Anchor Academy, Stonewall Jackson Elementary School will become Hidden Oaks Elementary, Jefferson Davis Middle School will become Charger Academy, J.E.B. Stuart Middle School will become Westside Middle School and Robert E. Lee High School will renamed Riverside High.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 103 public schools named for Confederate leaders in the U.S. The SPLC also points out that the years Jim Crow laws emerged and the Civil Rights movement took place were the years with the greatest increase in the dedication of Confederate monuments and symbols.

Whose Heritage map via SPLC.org

“At this point in time it’s important to start thinking about who we want to be,” said Duval County public schools board chair Elizabeth Andersen. “As a board, we were listening to our community members and wanting to move forward so that every student that walks in our building understands that they are respected, that they are capable of achieving their highest potential, and that all of their lives matter.”

MUSIC MONDAY: “Where I’m From” – A Free-Wheeling Celebration of African American Music Appreciation Month 2021 (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Where I’m From” – A Free-Wheeling Celebration of African American Music Appreciation Month 2021 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 7, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Monday again, you all.

Well, it is always African American Music Appreciation Month (aka Black Music Month) around these parts! We celebrate Black music every week here at Good Black News.

It’s been more than a year since I started making weekly playlists honoring African American music in its many forms.

If you’ve been tuning in with any regularity, you know I am no stranger to a free-wheeling and hours-long playlist.

When it comes to a collection that tracks Gospel, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Rock, Hip-Hop, and everything in between, this one was bound to be a long one:

Have a great week.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

[Editor’s Note: ICYMI, below are links to some of Marlon’s most popular playlists from 2020. Enjoy!]

Animated U.S. Civics Series “We The People” Produced by Obamas to Debut on Netflix July 4 (WATCH TRAILER)

Animated U.S. Civics Series “We The People” Produced by Obamas to Debut on Netflix July 4 (WATCH TRAILER)

By goodblacknews on June 3, 2021

Michelle and Barack Obama announced yesterday that they have executive produced and Netflix will stream We the People, a 10-episode television series aimed at educating children on United States civics lessons, starting on July 4 of this year.

Across all three-minute music videos, the Obamas have enlisted artists such as Grammy and Academy Award winner H.E.R., Andra Day, Janelle Monáe, rapper Cordae, rock singer Adam Lambert,  Frozen and Frozen 2 composers Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Hamilton‘s Daveed Diggs, Brittany Howard, In the Heights and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brandi Carlile, KYLE, Bebe Rexha, , and Biden inaugural poet Amanda Gorman to perform original songs and compositions that will soundtrack each narrative.

Episodes were directed by Peter Ramsey, Trisha Gum, Victoria Vincent, Benjy Brooke, Mabel Ye, Tim Rauch, Jorge R. Gutierrez, Daron Nefcy, Everett Downing, and Kendra Ryan. Each episode will offer lessons on basics of U.S. citizenship and rights, evoking the beloved Schoolhouse Rock series that originally aired on ABC in the 1970s.

Other producers on the project include Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and Doc McStuffins creator Chris Nee.

Ahead of We the People‘s July 4 premiere date on Netflix, the show will premiere at a free screening in the DOCS Talks section of the American Film Institute‘s DOCS film festival on Thursday, June 24.

Read more: https://ew.com/tv/barack-obama-michelle-new-netflix-animated-series/

“We Will Never Forget”: Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard’s Tulsa Tribute Anthem Proceeds to Aid Reparations Campaign for Massacre Survivors and Descendants (WATCH)

“We Will Never Forget”: Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard’s Tulsa Tribute Anthem Proceeds to Aid Reparations Campaign for Massacre Survivors and Descendants (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2021

It’s more than fitting that this year’s Black Music Month begins with the release of a tribute anthem honoring the legacy of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 100th anniversary of its purposeful destruction, which was officially acknowledged by President Joe Biden in a speech yesterday.

“We Will Never Forget” is the featured track from LeBron James’ Springhill Company and CNN Documentary film, Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, that premiered on CNN on the centennial anniversary of the Black Wall Street Massacre May 31, 2021.

This soul stirring song recorded by Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard, written and produced by Greg Curtis and executive produced by Michelle Le Fleur, honors the families and descendants of the 1921 Greenwood District massacre in Tulsa. 

Proceeds from the single benefit social change grassroots organization Color of Change to aid the social justice movement to end systemic racism and racially motivated violence.

Color of Change currently has a campaign going to demand the Centennial Commission and City of Tulsa give 80% of the $30 million raised to the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Learn more about it here.

To learn more about Tulsa, read: Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre

or The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

(paid links)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Birth of the Cool” – a Tribute to Miles Davis (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Birth of the Cool” – a Tribute to Miles Davis (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on May 31, 2021

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy Memorial Day, you all. I also need to acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the Black Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Last week included the 95th anniversary of the birth of Miles Davis. His hometown of East St. Louis, Missouri was the site of another race massacre in 1917.

So much has been written about Miles Davis. Including is his own autobiography. There have been documentaries long and short about him, so I won’t go on.

At over 10 hours this collection is still the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes his creative output. Miles was a giant in American music, and one of this nation’s most iconic and influential figures in music and culture.

In a career that spanned five decades, he kept at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. From being of the vanguards of bebop and blazing the trail of electric jazz.

The list of his collaborators is far too long, but here are just a few: Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Max Roach, Gil Evans, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, and Joe Zawinul.

Miles Davis gave many of these now-legendary artists, who all appear on this playlist, their first break. Davis was tough as nails from all reports, though he seemed more than willing to imbue great vulnerability and tenderness in his playing.

Do enjoy.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
HISTORY: Honoring Memorial Day and its African American Origins

HISTORY: Honoring Memorial Day and its African American Origins

By goodblacknews on May 31, 2021

[Photo/Image via chicagocrusader.com]

Although May 30, 1868 is cited as the first national commemoration of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, events lead by African Americans in Charleston, SC to decorate the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers occurred on May 1, 1865, less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered.

Reports of this early version of Memorial Day or “Decoration Day” as it was called, were rediscovered in the Harvard University archives in the late 1990s by historian David Blight, author of the 2018 biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

To quote from history.com:

When Charleston fell and Confederate troops evacuated the badly damaged city, those freed from enslavement remained. One of the first things those emancipated men and women did was to give the fallen Union prisoners a proper burial. They exhumed the mass grave and reinterred the bodies in a new cemetery with a tall whitewashed fence inscribed with the words: “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

And then on May 1, 1865, something even more extraordinary happened. According to two reports that Blight found in The New York Tribune and The Charleston Courier, a crowd of 10,000 people, mostly freed slaves with some white missionaries, staged a parade around the race track. Three thousand Black schoolchildren carried bouquets of flowers and sang “John Brown’s Body.” Members of the famed 54th Massachusetts and other Black Union regiments were in attendance and performed double-time marches. Black ministers recited verses from the Bible.

Despite the size of the gathering and newspaper coverage, the memory of this event was “suppressed by white Charlestonians in favor of their own version of the day,” Blight stated in the New York Times in 2011.

On May 31, 2010, near a reflecting pool at Hampton Park, the city of Charleston reclaimed this history by installing a plaque commemorating the site as the place where Blacks held the first Memorial Day on May 1, 1865.

During the dedication of the plaque, the city’s mayor at the time, Joe Riley, was present to celebrate the historic occasion which included a brass band and a reenactment of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment.

In 2017, the City of Charleston erected yet another sign reclaiming the history and commemorating the event:

Read more: