After some poking around, I read that Rep. Lewis was a big fan of Aretha Franklin and saw her sing more times than he could count.
As a teenager, Franklin traveled the country on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson and Harry Belafonte. As she became a musical icon, lending her voice in support of equal rights, Franklin was present with Lewis and Vivian, in person or in song, for some of the Civil Rights Movement’s most pivotal moments.
John Lewis and C.T. Vivian (photo: Getty Images)
“If it hadn’t been for Aretha — and others, but particularly Aretha — the Civil Rights Movement would have been a bird without wings,” Lewis said. “She lifted us and she inspired us.”
Here is a playlist featuring her and other artists who lent their voices to the struggle.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
A liquor store in Austin on the West Side of Chicago is being transformed into a pop-up food market after local teens were given the chance to come up with solutions to their neighborhood’s challenges.
According to Block Club Chicago, much of Austin is considered to be a food desert. The pop-up market will be opened on a street where there are 12 liquor stores nearby but only two markets where people can buy fresh food.
The youth-led project got its start when By the Hand Club for Kids held listening circles after the George Floyd protests against police violence. Young people got to voice their feelings around the inequity that led to the lack of resources in their neighborhoods. They said they were frustrated the few grocery stores in the area had to shut their doors temporarily after being looted.
“What I heard coming out of that was that students wanted to take all those raw and powerful emotions and turn them into something good and do something from a social justice standpoint,” said Donnita Travis, executive director of the group.
When presented with the chance to transform one of the looted stores into a resource for the community, “the kids took the idea and ran with it,” Travis said.
The project was also joined by local athletes, including the NFL’s Sam Acho, who wanted to help realize the young people’s vision for their neighborhood.
“People care. It’s a time for people to show up. I think our world has changed,” Acho said. “So for us to be able to come together and say we’re going to lead that change, it means something.”
Acho and the other athletes raised $500,000 to tear down the liquor store at 423 N. Laramie Ave. and turn the spot into a neighborhood food resource.
Some of the pro athletes contributing to the cause included Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky, White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito, Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.
The partners on the project held a pilot pop-up market at the liquor store to give the kids a chance to show the community what their vision is.
The young people were joined by Chicago athletes, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, all of them armed with sledgehammers as they kicked off the process of tearing down the building.
The new fresh food market will begin running full-time in August.
According to Variety.com, Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Old Guard,” “Beyond The Lights,” “Love & Basketball”) is set to direct “The Woman King,” starring Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis at TriStar Pictures.
The movie is being produced by Davis and Julius Tennon of JuVee Productions, Cathy Schulman’s Welle Entertainment, and Maria Bello of Jack Blue Productions.
The film is a historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The story follows Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit, and her daughter Nawi, who together fought the French and neighboring tribes who violated their honor, enslaved their people and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.
“We at JuVee are beyond excited to introduce this incredible story of the Women Warriors of The Dahomey Ahosi tribe to the world. It’s time that they truly occupy their place in history and in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s hands, it will be a gamechanger. This project could not be a more perfect example of our legacy,” said Davis and Tennon.
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.
“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.
City University of New York‘s board of trustees recently voted to appoint two African American scholars to lead colleges in the university system, according to jbhe.com.
Berenecea Johnson Eanes was appointed president of York College of the City University of New York. She has worked as interim president there since last fall.
York College, located in Jamaica, Queens, enrolls nearly 8,500 undergraduate students, according to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 38 percent of the student body.
Dr. Eanes has previously served as vice president for the Division of Student Affairs at California State University, Fullerton and had been on the staff at Cal State Fullerton for seven years.
Dr. Eanes is a graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans. She earned a master’s degree at Boston University and a Ph.D. in social work at Clark Atlanta University.
Anthony E. Munroe will be president of Borough of Manhattan Community College, effective October 1.
Since 2017, Dr. Munroe has been president of Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey. He was previously president of Malcolm X College, part of the City Colleges of Chicago system.
Borough of Manhattan Community College is the largest in the CUNY system with more than 25,000 students, according to the latest U.S. Department of Education statistics. African Americans make up 27 percent of the student body.
Dr. Munroe is a graduate of Regents College of New York. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and earned an MA in public health and a Ph.D in health education from Columbia University in New York.
A reboot and reimagining of 1960s-set half-hour comedy series “The Wonder Years” has landed a pilot production commitment at ABC, with Saladin K. Patterson (“The Last OG,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “The Bernie Mac Show”) writing and executive producing. “Empire” and “Star” producer LeeDaniels will executive produce along with MarcVelez via Lee Daniels Entertainment.
According to variety.com, the updated version of the series will focus on how a Black middle class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the turbulent late 1960’s made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too.
The new show will live in the same time period as the original series, which was set between 1968 and 1973. A mini writer’s room for the show will be opened once ABC signs off on a pilot script.
Fred Savage, the lead of the original series, will direct the pilot and executive produce. NealMarlens, the co-creator of the original series, will serve as consultant.
Photo Credit: Oprah (Harpo Inc./Ruven Afanador) / Nikole (James Estrin/The New York Times )
Pulitzer Prize®-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times have chosen Lionsgate Studios to be the home for a wide-ranging partnership to develop Ms. Hannah-Jones’ landmark issue of The New York Times Magazine, The 1619 Project, and hit New York Times podcast, 1619, into an expansive portfolio of feature films, television series and other content for a global audience.
As part of the ground-breaking venture, Lionsgate has partnered with Oprah Winfrey as a producer who will provide stewardship and guidance to the development and production of The 1619 Project.
Lionsgate, The Times and Ms. Winfrey will join forces with Ms. Hannah-Jones, who will serve as the creative leader and producer in developing feature films, television series, documentaries, unscripted programming and other forms of entertainment enlisting world-class Black creative voices to help adapt her celebrated series chronicling the ways that the original sin of slavery in America still permeates all aspects of our society today.
Jones’ colleague at The Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper, an editor of The 1619 Project and head of scripted entertainment at The Times, will also produce.
One of the most impactful and thought-provoking works of journalism of the past decade, The Times Magazine’s 1619 Project was a landmark undertaking that connected the centrality of slavery in history with an unflinching account of the brutal racism that endures in so many aspects of American life today.
It was launched in August 2019 on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English colonies that would become the United States, and it examines the legacy of slavery in America and how it shaped all aspects of society, from music and law to education and the arts, including the principles of our democracy itself.
Ms. Hannah-Jones created and was the architect of the initiative at The Times Magazine with contributions from Black authors, essayists, poets, playwrights, and scholars comprising a special issue of the magazine and a special section in the print edition of The New York Times produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History & Culture, as well as a five-part podcast that topped the Apple Podcast charts.
One of The Times’ most widely read pieces of journalism last year, The 1619 Project has been discussed in the Senate, is being adapted into a series of books with One World, a division of Penguin Random House, and is already changing the way that American history is being taught in schools.
“We took very seriously our duty to find TV and film partners that would respect and honor the work and mission of The 1619 Project, that understood our vision and deep moral obligation to doing justice to these stories. Through every step of the process, Lionsgate and its leadership have shown themselves to be that partner and it is a dream to be able to produce this work with Ms. Oprah Winfrey, a trailblazer and beacon to so many Black journalists,” said Ms. Hannah-Jones. “I am excited for this opportunity to extend the breadth and reach of The 1619 Project and to introduce these stories of Black resistance and resilience to even more American households.”
“From the first moment I read The 1619 Project and immersed myself in Nikole Hannah-Jones’s transformative work, I was moved, deepened and strengthened by her empowering historical analysis,” said Oprah Winfrey. “I am honored to be a part of Nikole’s vision to bring this project to a global audience.”
Please see a link to The 1619 Project essays here and podcasts here.
According to The New York Times, Dana Canedy was named senior vice president and publisher of its Simon & Schuster‘s named namesake imprint yesterday, one of the biggest jobs in book publishing.
Since 2017, Ms. Canedy, 55, has been the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, overseeing a period when the awards have acknowledged an increasingly diverse body of work, including the music of Kendrick Lamar.
Under Ms. Canedy’s watch, the Pulitzer board also issued a posthumous award to the pioneering Black journalist Ida B. Wells and presented a special citation along with $100,000 to The Capital Gazette, a small daily newspaper in Annapolis, Md., where five people were killed in the newsroom in 2018.
Before that, Ms. Canedy spent 20 years as a reporter and senior editor at The New York Times, where she covered business, politics, race and class. She was part of a Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for the series “How Race Is Lived in America.”
While Ms. Canedy has never worked for a publishing house, she has written a book: a memoir called A Journal for Jordan, about her partner, First Sgt. Charles M. King, and the journal he wrote for their son, Jordan, in case he did not return from the war in Iraq.
He was killed in combat there in 2006. A movie based on the book, starring Michael B. Jordan and directed by Denzel Washington, is scheduled to begin production this fall. Ms. Canedy is a producer on the film.
Ms. Canedy, who will begin her new job on July 27, said she reads books in bed late at night wearing tortoiseshell glasses fitted with tiny lights on either side, which she bought years ago so she could read in the dark when her son would sleep beside her. Jordan, now 14, affectionately calls his mother “word nerd,” she said.
“The ultimate goal of the job is to champion the work of our amazing authors,” Ms. Canedy said of her new position, “to bring in new authors, and to commission books that I and my team think are important. And basically, when you boil all that down, that means applying news judgment.”
While Ms. Canedy has never worked for a publishing house, she has written a book: a memoir called