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MUSIC MONDAY: Black History Month 2021 Tribute to African American Music Through the Centuries (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: Black History Month 2021 Tribute to African American Music Through the Centuries (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 8, 2021

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

Last week our fearless leader here at GBN, Lori Lakin Hutcherson, suggested a playlist celebrating Black History Month. I joked that every Music Monday at Good Black News is celebrating Black history.

Though a free-wheeling offer celebrating a century of Black music is definitely the thing to do. Here is a collection of African American music ranging from Mamie Smith to Marvin Gaye to J. Cole – from gospel, to hip hop, to jazz, to blues – and all points in between.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:2xqxo8mnM7zRee2yqinbCF”]

As is our wont here on Mondays, this playlist is hours long and will take you on a journey of classics and deep cuts. I hope you all enjoy it.

Next week we’ll celebrate the 76th anniversary of Bob Marley‘s birth with a heaping serving of roots reggae. Until such time, have a great week.

And as always stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Daisy Bates, Civil Rights Activist, Newspaper Publisher, Little Rock Nine Organizer

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Daisy Bates, Civil Rights Activist, Newspaper Publisher, Little Rock Nine Organizer

By goodblacknews on February 5, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

This is Daisy Bates.

President of the NAACP Arkansas chapter during the civil rights movement and co-publisher of The Arkansas State Press, a newspaper dedicated to advocacy journalism for African-Americans.

Bates is best known for organizing and shepherding the Little Rock Nine as they desegregated Central High in 1957 in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Ed. U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Bates regularly drove the students to and from school, hosted them in her home after school and worked tirelessly to ensure they were protected from violent crowds.

One of her most successful protection strategies was to get local ministers to escort the students to school, daring the white Christians protesting and hurling threats to attack men of the cloth. Bates’ plan worked, but she started to receive threats herself.

Rocks were thrown into her home, crosses were burned on her property, and bullet shells were sent to her in the mail. White advertisers boycotted her newspaper and eventually she had to shut it down.

Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine (Credit: Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo)
Bates received support from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who assured her, “World opinion is with you. The moral conscience of millions of white Americans is with you.” Bates was also elected to the executive committee of King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
In 1960, Bates moved to New York City and wrote her memoir The Long Shadow of Little Rock, then later moved to Washington D.C., and worked for the Democratic National Committee.

Bates was also the only woman who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington during the official program, pledging that women would fight just as hard and long as the men until all Black people were free and had the vote.

Bates later served in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson and worked on anti-poverty programs. In 1968 she moved to the rural black community of Mitchellville, Arkansas and worked there to improve the lives of her neighbors by establishing a self-help program which was responsible for new sewer systems, paved streets, a water system, and community center.

Film Adaptation of Nella Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance Novel “Passing” to be Acquired by Netflix for $16 Million

Film Adaptation of Nella Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance Novel “Passing” to be Acquired by Netflix for $16 Million

By goodblacknews on February 3, 2021

Almost one hundred years after its heyday, the Harlem Renaissance is all the rage once again.

Streaming giant Netflix is currently in talks to acquire Passing, the film adaptation of Nella Larsen‘s 1929 novel that examines the relationship of two biracial women in the 1920s where one chooses to hide her Black ancestry and “pass” for white.

Directed and adapted by Rebecca Hall and produced by Significant Productions partners Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi along with Hall and Margot Hand, the movie stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga in the lead roles.

Passing premiered last Saturday as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition lineup for Sundance’s virtual 2021 film festival.

Read more: https://variety.com/2021/film/news/netflix-passing-acquisition-deal-rebecca-hall-tessa-thompson-ruth-negga-1234899976/

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Barbara Jordan – Groundbreaking Congressmember, Lawyer, Professor and Orator

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Barbara Jordan – Groundbreaking Congressmember, Lawyer, Professor and Orator

By goodblacknews on February 2, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Barbara Jordan was born in 1936 in Houston, Texas to a teacher mother and Baptist preacher father. Jordan grew up to become the first African-American woman voted into the Texas Senate (1966-1972) and the first Black woman from the South elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1972-1979).

Jordan is best known for her superlative oratory skills, in particular the U.S. Judiciary Committee speech she gave in Congress almost 46 years ago to the day supporting the impeachment of Richard Nixon, as well as the Keynote address she gave at the 1976 Democratic National Convention (the first Black woman to do so in the Convention’s 144-year history).

Jordan also was the first and (so far) only Black woman to serve as Governor (albeit for one day on June 10, 1972) of any state in America. While in Congress, Jordan supported the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, legislation that required banks to lend and make services available to underserved poor and minority communities.

She also supported the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and expansion of it to cover “language minorities”; this expansion offered protection to Spanish-speaking Latinos in her home state of Texas even when opposed by the Texas Governor and Secretary of State. Jordan also authored an act that ended federal authorization of price fixing by manufacturers.

After retiring from politics in 1979, Jordan worked as a professor of Ethics at the University of Texas at Austin. Around this time, Jordan was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and eventually had to get around via wheelchair, but that did not stop her from being an active scholar and public servant.

From 1994 until her death in 1996, Jordan chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which recommended limits on immigration while also acknowledging how immigration had strengthened and continued to strengthen America.

President Bill Clinton wanted to nominate Jordan to the U.S. Supreme Court, but her health issues (which soon also included leukemia) prevented him from nominating her.

I started reading up on Barbara Jordan a few years ago because I’d always heard about her “firsts” but didn’t really didn’t have a sense of who she was or what made her formidable.

Then I listened to and watched her speeches. My. Heavens. If you haven’t heard it before, you MUST HEAR HER VOICE.

Voting Rights Activist Stacey Abrams Garners Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize

Voting Rights Activist Stacey Abrams Garners Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize

By goodblacknews on February 2, 2021

Stacey Abrams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to promote voting rights via Fair Fight in Georgia and the United States overall.

“Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights,” said Lars Haltbrekken, a member of Norway’s parliament.

“Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peaceful and just society,” Haltbrekken said.

Other candidates this year include the Black Lives Matter movement, the World Health Organization, U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee and climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.

According to Reuters the Nobel Committee in Norway, which decides who wins the award, does not comment on nominations but nominators can choose to reveal their picks.

The 2021 laureate will be announced in October.

MUSIC MONDAY: “Daydreaming” – Massive Attack and the Birth of Trip Hop (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Daydreaming” – Massive Attack and the Birth of Trip Hop (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 1, 2021

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

Massive Attack was formed in Bristol, England, in the late 1980s, coalescing out of a sound-system culture of D.J.s and musicians.

It is hard to overstate the impact his collective, originally known as The Wild Bunch, would go on to have on electronic and popular music. They would knit together previously disparate styles of hip-hop, post-punk, dub reggae, electronica and just enough pop to provide melodic discipline and skeletal structure.

Their first three records Blue Lines, Protection, and Mezzanine were part of the vanguard of artists that created the “Trip Hop” movement. The group launched Tricky and collaborated with others like Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins and the reggae songwriter Horace Andy.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:5r8NV9lknr4DEc3mOo9DMO”]

This collection is devoted to their work and to those that have in many ways come through the proverbial door that they kicked open.

Enjoy. Stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Carter G. Woodson, “The Father of Black History”

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Carter G. Woodson, “The Father of Black History”

By goodblacknews on February 1, 2021

Happy Black History Month 2021! The team at Good Black News is excited as ever to celebrate and explore the events, movements and people who have contributed indelibly to African American life and culture throughout the centuries.

Today we start by honoring Carter G. Woodson, the man responsible for creating and advancing the concept of having a specific time every year nationally to recognize the achievements of Black people in the U.S.

Known as “The Father of Black History,” author and historian Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents who were never taught to read and write.

To make ends meet, Woodson often had to forgo school for farm or mining work, but he was encouraged to learn independently and eventually earned advanced degrees from the University of Chicago and Harvard University.

In 1915 he helped found the Journal of Negro History, (see issues of the Journal here) and starting in 1926 he developed and promoted the second week of February as Negro History Week.

In 1933, Woodson published The Mis-Education of the Negro, a book where he argues that African Americans were being indoctrinated instead of taught in American schools, and being led to view themselves as inferior. Woodson encourages his readers to become autodidacts and to “do for themselves”, regardless of what they learn in the educational system.

February officially became Black History Month across the nation in 1976.

(paid links)

Black Lives Matter Movement Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, Wins Sweden’s Human Rights Prize for 2020

Black Lives Matter Movement Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, Wins Sweden’s Human Rights Prize for 2020

By goodblacknews on January 30, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Petter Eide, a member of Norway’s parliament, nominated Black Lives Matter for a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the movement’s continuous work towards manifesting racial justice in the U.S. and across the globe.

“To carry forward a movement of racial justice and to spread that to other countries is very, very important. Black Lives Matter is the strongest force today doing this, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and in Asia,” Eide told USA TODAY.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 in recognition for his work and mission of non-violent protest during the Civil Rights Movement.

Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela won in 1960 and 1993, respectively, for their campaigns against racial discrimination and apartheid in South Africa.

Additionally, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has won Sweden’s Olof Palme human rights prize for 2020, for promoting “peaceful civil disobedience against police brutality and racial violence” according to the prize’s organizers.

Patrice Cullors, one of the original founders of Black Lives Matter, will accept the $100,000 on behalf of BLM during an online ceremony today.

To read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/30/black-lives-matter-nominated-nobel-peace-prize-norwegian-mp/4322546001/

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-55862130

MUSIC MONDAY: “A Change is Gonna Come” – A Sam Cooke Birthday Tribute Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “A Change is Gonna Come” – A Sam Cooke Birthday Tribute Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on January 25, 2021

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

Last week marked the 90th anniversary of the birth of Sam Cooke, one of the most famous gospel and pop singers in American music history.

Along with Ray Charles, he was one of the earliest artists to span both musical genres. By the end of his short life, he heralded the advent of Soul.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:0Q33lNpk7gYNJqXXSvaaQN”]

Cooke’s magical voice animated a long string of hits that came to a sudden end, when he was shot and killed in a motel manager’s office in 1964. The brotha was 33.

As the lead singer of the gospel group, The Soul Stirrers, and a solo artist he was a writer and singer of great impact. Today folks still speculate about his violent and senseless death.

Certainly director Regina King and writer Kemp Power’s One Night in Miami will introduce a new generation to Cooke though the beautiful performance of Leslie Odom Jr. Please enjoy this collection of Sam Cooke’s finest offerings.

As always, stay sane, safe, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
Jennifer King Makes History as 1st Black Woman to be Full-Time NFL Coach

Jennifer King Makes History as 1st Black Woman to be Full-Time NFL Coach

By goodblacknews on January 23, 2021

With the amount of glass ceilings broken this past week, America’s going to need a bigger broom.

Jennifer King continues her historic ascension up the coaching ladder by becoming the first full-time African-American woman coach in the National Football League.

The Washington Football Team will make King a full-time offensive assistant after spending this past season as a coaching intern.

The news was first reported by NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport on Thursday night.

King spent 2018 and 2019 interning in for the league the off-season and during training camp for the Carolina Panthers. King spent the 2020 season as a full-time intern, working with running backs coach Randy Jordan.

In between her two stints with the Panthers, King worked as an assistant wide receiver coach and special teams assistant for the now-defunct Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football.