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Good Black News

Joaquim Barbosa Sworn In As Brazil’s First Black Supreme Court Justice

By goodblacknews on November 25, 2012
Joaquim Barbosa
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil’s Supreme Court is now headed by a black justice for the first time.  Joaquim Barbosa was sworn in on Thursday. He became the only black ever to serve on the court when he joined it in 2003, even though more than half of the country’s 192 million people identify themselves as having African descent.

Barbosa, 58, was elected in October to a two-year tenure as Supreme Court president. His election was a foregone conclusion since the court’s presidency always goes to the justice who has served on the bench the longest.  

Giving Back: Mike Tyson Launches Children’s Foundation

By goodblacknews on November 24, 2012

Mike Tyson

Former world heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson (pictured) has traveled quite a road from fighter, spousal abuser and convicted rapist, to ear biter, pigeon lover, actor and now, children’s philanthropist. And to prove it, Tyson has launched his very own charity, aptly named, ‘Mike Tyson Cares Foundation.’

The organization’s mission is to ‘“give kids a fighting chance” by providing innovative centers that provide for the comprehensive needs of kids from broken homes.  It will also provide such essentials as healthcare and school assistance, shelter, mentoring, job mentoring and any other needs that the foundation deems necessary for the child in question seeking assistance.

PBS Unveils Black Culture Connection Website

By goodblacknews on November 24, 2012

PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, is expanding its digital platform. The nonprofit television network has announced the launch of Black Culture Connection, an online guide to films, stories and other resources about the black experience in the realms of history and culture. The website, currently in its beginning stages, will evolve into a larger digital resource over the course of the year:

“We’re committed to bringing you the best of PBS and helping you explore Black history and culture around the world through our award-winning programs, special online events, chats … and more!”

“We are in beta and continuing to grow, but invite you to join our journey over the next year. You will be able to connect with award-winning documentaries like Freedom Riders andThe Interrupters, new web original productions like Black Folk Don’t, live chats with your favorite filmmakers, and PBS member stations to help you explore black history and culture locally in your community.”

This is only the first phase of a larger online experience coming to PBS.org. We’ll continue to add new features over the next several months.

Read more about Black Culture Connection here.

article by Stacy-Ann Ellis via theroot.com

Republican Resistance of Obamacare Lessens As Implementation Begins

By goodblacknews on November 24, 2012
Obamacare

Obamacare supporters react to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold President Obama’s health care law, on June 28, 2012 in Washington, DC. Today the high court upheld the whole healthcare law of the Obama Administration. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

This is an easy way for these Republicans to suggest to their party’s base they still oppose Obamacare, but the practical effect is that it gives the Obama administration more power, since the federal government will run the exchange in states where the governor refuses to set one up.

Happy Thanksgiving From GBN

By goodblacknews on November 22, 2012

On this day when family and friends traditionally come together to share a meal and offer gratitude for surviving life’s most humbling challenges, GBN wants to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and say “thank you” for your continued love, positivity and support.  Enjoy!

Self-Taught 15-Year-Old Sierra Leone Engineer Invited to MIT (Video)

By goodblacknews on November 21, 2012

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLOLrUBRBY&w=560&h=315]

There are some pretty amazing kids out there doing the best they can with whatever circumstances were given to them.  In areas of the world where little to no technological advancement has occurred, ideas are being born without any mentors, tools, and/or resources.

PRODIGIES is a bi-weekly series on YouTube that showcases the youngest and brightest as they challenge themselves to reach new heights and the stories behind them.  Kelvin Doe is a 15-year-old Sierra Leone native who admittedly loves inventing.  He’s taught himself how to make things like batteries, FM radio transmitter, and a generator out of need for these things in his community.

He said that his community doesn’t have much electricity.  The lights come on at night in his area once per week and then they don’t have any lights for the rest of the month.  That led to his battery invention, so that his neighbors and family could use the battery to light their homes.

He’s known as DJ Focus because of a valuable radio program that he broadcasts on FM radio.  He was able to create his generator for his station by using scraps.  He chose that name because he said:

“If you can focus you can do invention perfectly.”

He started the station to give “voice to the youth.”

Kelvin was discovered by fellow Sierra Leone native, David Sengeh, who is a Ph.D. student at MIT.  Sengeh directs Summer Innovation Camp in Sierra Leone and that is where he discovered Kelvin and his talents.  When he saw what Kelvin was able to create simply using spare parts from trash in his community, he knew he was someone special.

Documentary “The Forgotten Cowboys” Explores Lives and History of America’s Black Cowboys

By goodblacknews on November 21, 2012
Jason Griffin (center) is one of the stars of "The Forgotten Cowboys," a documentary film by John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald which follows the lives of black cowboys in the U.S.Jason Griffin (center) is one of the stars of “The Forgotten Cowboys,” a documentary film by John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald which follows the lives of black cowboys in the U.S.

(CNN) — Jason Griffin straps his right arm in bandages, preparing himself to grip the reins a wildly bucking bronco. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a rough beard, he steps into his cowboy boots, fits a Stetson hat and heads out to meet his mount in the rodeo arena.  Griffin is a four-time world champion bareback bucking horse rider — competing in a sport that began in the 19th century heyday of the Wild West.  With each victory — he has also won three all-round rodeo championships — the Texan raises awareness of a strong tradition which is rarely seen in the many novels, films and television series dedicated to the tales of the old West: The historic story of America’s black cowboys.

On cinema screens and paperback covers, the cowboys of old were heroic, hard-bitten and — almost always — white. In reality, the American West of the 1800s was traversed by an assortment of black, white, Mexican and Native American cattle hands. Contemporary records are rare but historians now estimate that up to one in four Texan cowboys was African American, while the number of Mexican cowboys was even greater.

John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald’s documentary film — and multimedia project — “The Forgotten Cowboys” follows Griffin and other contemporary black cowboys as they gain a following competing at rodeos and go about their working lives.

Watch online: the video trailer for the documentary “The Forgotten Cowboys”

R.I.P. R&B Singer Billy Scott of The Georgia Prophets

By goodblacknews on November 20, 2012

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rhythm and blues singer Billy Scott died November 17 in North Carolina at age 70.

Bill Kopald with the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame said Scott died from pancreatic and liver cancer Saturday at his home in Charlotte.

Born Peter Pendleton in Huntington, W. Va., he sang with various groups while in the Army. After he was discharged in 1964, he changed his name and with his wife, Barbara, in 1966 began recording as The Prophets. Their first gold record was 1968’s “I Got the Fever.” Other hits included “California” and “Seaside Love” as the Georgia Prophets.

The group recorded a number of hits in the 1970s in the beach music genre, a regional variant of R&B. Scott was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Learn more about his life and music here and watch/listen to “I Got The Fever” below:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3EHUHW-xQ&w=420&h=315]

Book Review: “The Stone Thrower” by Jael Ealey Richardson

By goodblacknews on November 20, 2012

The Stone Thrower
By Jael Ealey Richardson
Thomas Allen Publishers
256 pp; $24.95

The American football quarterback, Chuck Ealey led his University of Toledo Rockets to three undefeated seasons in college football, but he had misfortune to do so at a time when the National Football League looked askance at black quarterbacks. Because the NFL would not draft him, Ealey — like African-American quarterbacks Bernie Custis before him, and Warren Moon after — came to play for the Canadian Football League in 1972. It was Ealey’s best season: he led the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to a Grey Cup victory and was the game’s Most Valuable Player.

Ealey’s daughter, Jael Ealey Richardson, never got to see her father play football because she was born in 1980 — two years after her father sustained a lung injury and retired from the sport. In her memoir The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lessons, a Father’s Life, Ealey Richardson could have taken the easy route by writing a praiseworthy tract meant to set her father up as a role model and hero. Ealey, the exquarterback, does come across as a devoted family man with a depth of vision and discipline that carried him far beyond the stadium lights. However, his daughter’s memoir is engaging because she situates his life in the context of the civil rights movement in the United States, and addresses issues of race in her own family as well as in homes, on the streets and in schools and campuses in the U.S. and Canada.

Ultimately, The Stone Thrower is as much a meditation on a daughter’s emerging sense of identity in Canada as it is a father-daughter memoir. The two threads are inextricably linked, one enriching the other.

Angela Bassett to Star in and Produce NBC’s ‘Vanishing Point’

By goodblacknews on November 20, 2012
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 20: Actress Angela Bassett arrives at Film Independent's 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival Premiere Of AFFRM & Participant Media's 'Middle Of Nowhere' at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live on June 20, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 20: Actress Angela Bassett arrives at Film Independent’s 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival Premiere Of AFFRM & Participant Media’s ‘Middle Of Nowhere’ at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live on June 20, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

Academy Award nominated actress Angela Bassett is set to star and co-executive produce a new legal drama on NBC titled Vanishing Point.  According to Deadline, NBC closed a deal for the show that was penned by Source Code writer, Ben Ripley, who will executive produce the drama that is produce by SONY TV alongside SONY TV-based producers Deborah Spera and Maria Grasso.