Pioneering percussionist, composer, band leader, and drummer Max Roach was born Maxwell Lemuel “Max” Roach in North Carolina to parents Alphonse and Cressie, and worked with dozens of musical greats, including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Good Black News
Cleaning service worker Patrick Morgan was honored for his honesty at an award ceremony Wednesday morning. He talked about finding a big wad of cash in an iPad case.
Patrick Morgan was working an early shift at the airport last month when he came across the iPad that had been left behind at a bar in one of the terminals at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. When he opened the case, he spotted the big wad of cash. “I opened it first and I see the money and I closed it back,” he said.
Morgan, of Patrick’s Cleaning Service which works for Sunshine Cleaning Systems Inc., immediately turned in the iPad and $13,000 cash to the airport communications center and Broward Sheriff’s Office substation. Minutes later, the owner, who had returned from a trip to Las Vegas, came back to the bar and Morgan told him where he could find the money and iPad. The iPad owner gave Morgan a $60 reward, which Morgan passed on to a homeless woman.
The Broward County Aviation Department honored Morgan for his honesty and hard work, and Sunshine Cleaning awarded him $625, which is equal to one week paid vacation. He says he’ll keep it.
article by Julia Bagg via nbcmiami.com
This film image released by Paramount Pictures shows Denzel Washington portraying Whip Whitaker in a scene from “Flight.” (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Robert Zuckerman)
Denzel Washington scored his first Oscar nomination in over a decade this morning for his acclaimed performance as an alcoholic pilot in the hit drama Flight. This is Denzel’s sixth career Academy Award nomination, making him the most honored black actor in history. He’s won twice before: supporting actor for 1989′s Glory and best actor for his villainous role in 2001′s Training Day.
This recognition caps perhaps a career-best year for the A-list superstar, following the box office success of February’s action thriller Safe House and now his return to Hollywood’s most prestigious night.
Meanwhile, Quvenzhané Wallis received her first Oscar nomination ever for her acting debut in Beasts of the Southern Wild. At nine, Wallis is also the youngest actress to ever be nominated in the Academy’s leading actress category.Auditioning for the lead role when she was only 5 years old, Quvenzhané was 6 when filming began in 2010 in Pointe-aux-Chenes and Isle de Jean Charles, not too far from her hometown of Houma, Louisiana.
Beasts of the Southern Wild won the ‘Grand Jury Prize’ at the Sundance Independent Film Festival and won the Camera d’Or for best first film at the Cannes Film Festival.
To Randall Halstead and other minority officers in the Boston Police Department, the story of Sergeant Horatio J. Homer serves as a beacon of hope and of the power of perseverance.
Homer, who in 1878 became the department’s first African-American officer, ushered in a new era in the city over a 40-year career. In the decade after his appointment, the force hired as many as a half-dozen additional black officers, in large part on his recommendation.
Last week, the department unveiled a plaque honoring Homer at the Area B-2 police precinct in Roxbury, a neighborhood where he once resided. Halstead, a deputy superintendent, presided over the ceremony, which some of Homer’s descendants attended.
“This man set a precedent,” said Halstead. “To move forward, you have to know where you come from.”
The tribute is the latest honor bestowed upon Homer by the Police Department.
Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers (Michael Caulfield/Wire Image/Getty Images)
Medgar Evers’ widow to deliver inauguration prayer: President Obama has chosen Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers, to deliver the invocation at his public swearing-in later this month, the Washington Post reports. This will be the first time a woman, and a layperson rather than a clergy member, has been chosen to perform the invocation.
item by Jenée Desmond-Harris via theroot.com
item by Jenée Desmond-Harris via theroot.com
Singers Jill Scott (L) and Maxwell arrive at the 41st NAACP Image awards held at The Shrine Auditorium on February 26, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NAACP)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Essence Music Festival is dropping the music — from its name, that is.
The festival held in New Orleans every July 4th weekend for the past 18 years has rebranded itself The Essence Festival. Organizers say the change is designed to showcase the event as more than a music festival.
Still, music will remain a focus for the 19th annual festival, which is July 4-7.
The lineup includes more than 30 acts — a number of them Essence veterans. On the roster are Jill Scott, Maxwell, New Edition, Charlie Wilson, Keyshia Cole, LL Cool J and Brandy.
As in past years, concerts will be held at the Superdome while empowerment seminars on health, beauty, careers, education and relationships are held at a nearby convention center.
article by Stacey Plaisance via thegrio.com
Tamron Hall, Michael Eric Dyson, and Al Sharpton. (Photo: Getty Images)
From Ebony.com:
MSNBC yesterday reported a huge increase in their overall ratings, a 20% increase, in 2012, no doubt due to the 2012 Presidential campaign, but also due to a another major factor – Black viewership. The network announced an incredible increase in their already large number of Black viewers – a whopping 60.5% increase during the past year.
That’s compared to CNN, whose Black audience increased last year by 23.7%, while Fox News’ Black audience decreased by the same amount.
No doubt MSNBC’s more progressive leaning approach to the news and their wide array of black hosts and pundits such as Toure, Melissa Harris-Perry, Tamron Hall, Joy-Ann Reid (pictured above and who I predict is headed for her own MSNBC show soon) Karen Finney, Michael Steele, Al Sharpton, Eugene Robinson, Jonathan Capehart, Goldie Taylor and if I’ve forgotten anyone, I’m sorry, have played a large part in the increase in black viewers.
When recently asked about this remarkable development, MSNBC president Phil Griffith said: “I think we made a commitment, we decided, that in order for this channel to succeed, that we had to reflect the country. This meant that we had to be part of the country in ways that the other channels weren’t.”
Read the rest of this story on Ebony.com.
post via thegrio.com
Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall in the National Blacks in Wax Museum (Courtesy of Joanne Martin)
With Black History Month just around the corner, there’s a more unique way to learn about the African-American experience besides opening up a textbook.
The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore has been featuring African-American historical wax figures for the past 30 years.
When they opened the first African-American wax museum in 1983, founder Dr. Joanne Martin along with her late husband Dr. Elmer Martin were inspired to create this museum when they realized children in their community felt the color of their skin was a negative trait.
“For children, it becomes as close as we can to help them understand that [these historical figures] were real people who had real challenges, who had to make hard decisions in life,” Martin told theGrio in a phone interview. “[The displays] depict their struggles and hardships in a more tangible way.”
Starting with only four wax figures in their store front in the early 1980s, the museum now has moved into a 15,000 square foot facility and houses over 150 African-American wax figures.
From a scene of Harriet Tubman helping to free a runaway slave to a powerful display of a black man being lynched, Martin’s mission for the museum is to depict compelling, realistic scenes to stimulate a public interest for African-American history.
She believes while children learn about these prominent black historical figures in school, many of them do not know what these men and women look like.
“[Our museum] puts a face on history – brings these people up close and personal,” Martin adds. “As a child growing up, I didn’t even know what Booker T. Washington looked like and I’m from the south! He was one of the most well-known and powerful men during his time. I didn’t know what he looked like until I saw the figure in the museum.”
The museum plans on setting up a national traveling exhibit so other cities can experience these one-of-a-kind wax figures. While the schedule for the exhibit is still pending, Martin tells theGrio that they plan on traveling to Dallas, Jacksonville, and Panama City.
The museum is also hoping to expand again to an even larger, more modern facility in April 2017.
While February or “Black History Month” tends to be the museum’s busiest time, Martin also encourages the community to visit the exhibit throughout the entire year, reinforcing the names of these figures in the minds of young people.
“You’re in a position to teach people history that art, pictures, books or other media won’t allow,” Martin says. “So much history, so much struggle, so many people to be honored, therefore it takes more than a month to be able to do justice to black history.”
article by Brittany Tom via thegrio.com
Writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston (pictured) was one of the most-outstanding authors that emerged from the Harlem Renaissance. Over the course of four novels, an autobiography, and dozens of published writings, Hurston has been an inspiration for distinguished writers, such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, and countless others.
Hurston was the fifth of eight children born to her parents, John and Lucy Ann, in the small town of Notasulga in Alabama. The family uprooted when she was just a toddler, making their new home in Eatonville, Fla. Her father, a preacher, would become mayor of the town, which was one of the first all-black incorporated cities in the United States. After the death of her school teacher mother in 1904, her father remarried and she was sent to boarding school in nearby Jacksonville. Hurston was later expelled after her father stopped paying the tuition.
The University of Arizona has announced that it has created a “Hip-Hop Concentration” minor under the Africana Studies department, the first of its kind for any institution, according to the school’s website.
The course’s objectives are to “provide students with a solid introduction and broad understanding of the origins and developing of the forms of expression that make up hip-hop culture throughout the world: hip-hop dance, rap music, graffiti/tagging, fashion, business, and film.