The King children—Bernice, Dexter and Martin III– will accept the posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for their parents Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the White House honored both the civil rights icon and his often unsung wife–who dedicated her life to keeping his legacy and that of the larger movement alive until her death in 2006–at a special ceremony yesterday, June 24.
Earlier this year, the King children were embroiled in a battle over the potential sale of the Nobel Peace Prize medal Dr. King received in 1964 and his personal traveling Bible that President Obama sworn on for his first historic inauguration ceremony. At a news conference held at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her father and grandfather preached, Bernice said “I take this strong position for my father because Daddy is not here to say for himself, ‘My Bible and my medals are not to be sold.”
Although some applauded Bernice’s public stance, others pointed out that the children all sold their father’s papers for $32 million in 2006 and pondered why these possessions were deemed different. In 2009, the King children settled another dispute over the King estate, with Bernice and Martin III teamed against Dexter regarding his decision-making for the estate.
While there appears to be no public record of the resolution of the latest legal battle, it is promising that the children are scheduled to accept the honor for their parents together. Let’s hope the good vibes continue and the Kings can finally get the peace for which their parents fought. George Washington received the first medal in 1776.
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Good Black News
Legendary comedian-actor-activist Dick Gregory will receive a coveted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year, reports Variety.com.
The Walk of Fame Selection Committee announced the list of 30 honorees—which also includes iconic R&B group Kool & The Gang and super-producer Pharrell Williams last week.
“We know that the new selections represent the best of the entertainment industry and will be a great addition to the Walk of Fame for both the Hollywood community and fans from around the world who visit Hollywood every year,” Maureen Schultz, Chair of the Walk of Fame selection committee, said in a statement.
Will Farrell, Melissa McCarthy, Jennifer Garner, Peter Jackson, Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Rudd, Christoph Waltz, James L. Brooks, Ken Ehrlich, Bobby Flay, Seth MacFarlane, Julianna Margulies, Chris O’Donnell, Jim Parsons, Amy Poehler, Kelly Ripa, Sofia Vergara, Lukasz ‘Dr. Luke’ Gottwald, Pitbull, Al Schmitt, Raymond Chandler, Bob Kane and Larry Elder round out the diverse and sure to debated over list.
Of the 30 ceremonies planned for the recipients, approximately 24 of them will be broadcasted to a worldwide audience.
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Barbershops are central to the narrative of Black manhood in the United States.
It is where jokes are cracked, friends are made, issues debated, and, soon, where blood pressure will be tested.
According to the Daily Breeze, Dr. Ronald G. Victor, the head of Cedars-Sinai’s hypertension center, will use a $8.5 million grant to help train Black barbers to check men for high blood pressure.
“Uncontrolled hypertension is one of the biggest health problems facing the African-American community today,” said Victor, the Burns and Allen Chair in Cardiology Research. “Hypertension is called the silent killer because there are no symptoms. We need to find a way to reach out to the community and prevent the serious complications caused by high blood pressure because all too often, by the time a patient finds out they have the condition, the heart and kidneys already have been damaged.”
Read Cedars-Sinai’s statement on the groundbreaking project below:
A Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute physician has been awarded an $8.5 million grant aimed at enlisting African-American barbers in the fight against hypertension, a deadly condition that can cause strokes, heart attacks and organ failure, and which is particularly devastating to African-American men.
Ronald G. Victor, MD, director of the Hypertension Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, was the first to subject increasingly popular barbershop-based health programs to scientific scrutiny with randomized, controlled testing. His study, published in 2011 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that if barbers offered blood pressure checks during men’s haircuts and encouraged patrons with hypertension to follow up with physicians, hundreds of lives could be saved annually.
Now, with the grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Victor is about to start a new, randomized, controlled clinical trial that will include 500 African-American male patrons of 20 Los Angeles-area barbershops. All participants will have uncontrolled hypertension and be longtime customers of the participating barbershops. The goal of the new trial is to test the effectiveness of barbershop hypertension programs and whether expanding such programs is feasible and cost-effective.
The Cedars-Sinai-led research study will be conducted in partnership with several California medical centers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67 million American adults have hypertension. Of that number, 53 million are aware of their condition, 47 million are treated, and 31 million have it under control. Among African-Americans, 43 percent of men and 45.7 percent of women have hypertension, compared to 33.9 percent of White men and 31.3 percent of White women.
Victor’s 2011 study concludes that if hypertension intervention programs were put in place in the estimated 18,000 African-American barbershops in the U.S., it would result in the first year in about 800 fewer heart attacks, 550 fewer strokes and 900 fewer deaths.
“We hope that the new trial’s outcomes will show an even greater benefit while lowering the cost of providing high-quality healthcare for hypertension in a high-risk population,” Victor said.
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Brooklyn County is leading New York State in inmate exonerations for 2014 thus far, the New York Daily News reports. Of the 11 inmates cleared of criminal wrongdoing this year, Kings County has eight of them, all spearheaded by new boro D.A. Kenneth Thompson’s 13-person team. Thompson has made exonerations one of his offce’s key focuses.
“I am determined to get to the bottom of these cases,” Thompson, who defeated longtime D.A. Charles Hynes in last year’s city elections, told the Daily News. Each of the men cleared had spent two decades behind bars.
To that end, he has made great use of his Conviction Review Unit, which is currently looking at 57 questionable homicide prosecutions. The unit has cleared four defendants so far, Thompson added. D.A.’s in the other boroughs say they don’t plan on launching widescale exoneration units. Though his predecessor started the unit, Thompson has expanded it. He allocated $1.1 million for the unit and plans to broaden its focus once its caseload decreases. Legal authorities say they are impressed by his work.
“It’s absolutely unprecedented,” said Rob Warren, director at the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University. “I hope it lives up to the expectations and becomes a model to the nation.”
“We hope that by the end of this review, we can learn some lessons and shed some light on how these cases come about,” Thompson added.
According to experts, the state’s high number of wrongful convictions stems from the mass homicides from the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
article by Hannington Dia via newsone.com
ATLANTA — Far from his typical Broadway haunts, the director George C. Wolfe was walking through a construction site here this spring when, amid a cacophony of saws and drills, he stopped and stood before what was to become a replica of a lunch counter that he said would claw visitors back into history.
The display at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Mr. Wolfe said, would allow people to don headphones, rest their hands on the counter and hear a volley of heckles similar to what demonstrators heard during the civil rights movement.
“You’re in the moment,” Mr. Wolfe, the center’s chief creative officer, said, his voice rising. “You’re in the times. You’re experiencing the euphoria and the danger that was existing at the time.”
For Mr. Wolfe and the museum’s supporters, summoning the South’s past in a dramatic way is an unequaled opportunity for Atlanta to showcase a present well beyond CNN, Coca-Cola and a vast international airport. Civic boosters contend that the museum will fuel tourism, broaden the city’s reputation and become a place that could host international human rights events.
Whether the $80 million complex — backed by a mix of public and private funding, with the land donated by Coca-Cola — will fulfill the entirety of that lofty vision is a question that could take decades to answer. But Doug Shipman, the center’s chief executive, said it would be both a vivid link to the city’s rich civil rights history and a prod toward social change.
“This isn’t about specialists,” Mr. Shipman said. “This isn’t about academics. This is trying to take a 15-year-old and move them to interest and inspiration.”
The center, set along the northern edge of Pemberton Place, an area honoring the pharmacist who created Coca-Cola, is scheduled to open on Monday and will be the latest Southern museum to honor the region’s civil rights heritage. Birmingham, Ala., and Memphis are among the cities that host popular museums, and another is planned in Jackson, Miss.
“Think Like a Man Too” raised the roof at multiplexes this weekend, carousing its way to $30 million domestically, according to studio estimates.
The Sony Pictures and Screen Gems sequel premiered on 2,225 screens and cost a modest $24 million to produce. It was able to capitalize on star Kevin Hart’s rising profile as it held off challenges from “22 Jump Street” and “How to Train Your Dragon 2.”
“It’s not bad being number one,” said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures president of worldwide distribution. “The girls versus the guys element and getting the perspective of both sexes is something that’s always appealing to folks.”
The first “Think Like a Man” closed out its run with $91.5 million stateside. The follow-up film, brings back director Tim Story, as well as cast members such as Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Regina Hall and Jerry Ferrara, sending them to Las Vegas for a wedding ceremony that involve bachelor and bachelorette parties that take full advantage of all that Sin City has to offer.
Debbie Allen Champions Arts Education for Youth, Kicks Off National Tour of "Brothers of the Knight"
Debbie Allen Champions Arts Education for Youth, Kicks Off National Tour of "Brothers of the Knight"
Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Debbie Allen premiered her new theatrical production Brothers of the Knight at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills last night, kicking off a five-city summer tour. Turning out to support Allen and her passion for training today’s youth in the arts were actors Jenifer Lewis, Clifton Powell, “Grey’s Anatomy” star Ellen Pompeo, Darrin Hewitt Henson, New Kids on the Block singer Joey McIntyre and WNBA All-Star Lisa Leslie, among others. (Click here to see GBN’s Instagram photos from the event.)
Grammy-winning musician James Ingram wrote the music to this modern adaptation of the classic Brothers Grimm tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, where twelve brothers steal away to a magical ballroom and dance every night away unbeknownst to their strict preacher father.
Allen, who produced the show with husband and former NBA All-Star Norm Nixon, went on a five-city tour to find the best young talent possible, then trained and worked closely with them to bring the production to life.
“I opened this audition to kids who are not just in dance schools,” Allen said, but “to people who simply love to dance.”
Allen is passionate about arts education for youth and mounts productions like this every year to shed light on its importance as more and more public schools drop arts, music and theatre programs.
“It’s a battle right now. Arts education is disappearing without a trace from the public schools. If you don’t have arts as part of the core of your curriculum, you are not going to be well educated,” Allen recently told WGBH in Boston.
Allen has been fighting to keep dance and the arts available for youth for quite some time. In 2001, Allen opened the Debbie Allen Dance Academy (DADA), a non-profit organization which offers classes in various dance disciplines for youth and teens.
Brothers of the Knight runs until June 22 in Los Angeles, then moves to Boston from June 27-29, Philadelphia July 3-6, Washington DC July 10-13 and Charlotte July 17-20. To order tickets, go to brothersoftheknight.com. To sponsor or donate to this show, click here.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
Conductor Thomas Wilkins has been a familiar face to classical music fans in Los Angeles since at least 2008, when he was appointed principal guest conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
On Thursday, Wilkins officially took on a new title with the orchestra — principal conductor — signaling a more permanent role in the institution. Wilkins made his Bowl debut in 2007 and has held a series of two-year appointments in his role as principal guest conductor.
On Thursday, Wilkins officially took on a new title with the orchestra — principal conductor — signaling a more permanent role in the institution. Wilkins made his Bowl debut in 2007 and has held a series of two-year appointments in his role as principal guest conductor.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, which made the announcement on Thursday, said that Wilkins has led the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at 50 concerts during his periods as principal guest conductor.
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was led for many years by conductor John Mauceri, who stepped down in 2006.
The five men whose convictions in the brutal 1989 beating and rape of a female jogger in Central Park were later overturned have agreed to a settlement of about $40 million from New York City to resolve a bitterly fought civil rights lawsuit over their arrests and imprisonment in the sensational crime.
The agreement, reached between the city’s Law Department and the five plaintiffs, would bring to an end an extraordinary legal battle over a crime that came to symbolize a sense of lawlessness in New York, amid reports of “wilding” youths and a marauding “wolf pack” that set its sights on a 28-year-old investment banker who ran in the park many evenings after work.
The confidential deal, disclosed by a person who is not a party in the lawsuit but was told about the proposed settlement, must still be approved by the city comptroller and then by a federal judge.
The initial story of the crime, as told by the police and prosecutors, was that a band of young people, part of a larger gang that rampaged through Central Park, had mercilessly beaten and sexually assaulted the jogger. The story quickly exploded into the public psyche, fanned by politicians and sensational news reports that served to inflame racial tensions.
The five black and Hispanic men, ages 14 to 16 at the time of their arrests, claimed that incriminating statements they had given had been coerced by the authorities. The statements were ruled admissible, and the men were convicted in two separate trials in 1990.
In December 2002, an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, found DNA and other evidence that the woman had been raped and beaten not by the five teenagers but by another man, Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist and murderer who had confessed to acting alone in the attack. Concluding that the new evidence could have changed the original verdict, Mr. Morgenthau’s office joined a defense motion asking that the convictions be vacated.
If approved, the settlement would fulfill a pledge by Mayor Bill de Blasio to meet a “moral obligation to right this injustice.”
If anyone was still wondering if breakout actress and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o was having the best year ever, Vogue just solidified it. The 12 Years a Slave star, 31, made her first appearance on the most coveted of fashion magazines, covering Vogue’s July issue.
This isn’t Nyong’o’s first cover. In April, she took the title of People’s “Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” She was also recently named a Lancome beauty ambassador and has joined the cast of the upcoming “Star Wars” feature directed by J.J. Abrams.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)