Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Lori Lakin Hutcherson”

GBN’s Daily Drop (bonus): Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock and Roll Innovator Born On This Day in 1915 (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop (bonus): Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock and Roll Innovator Born On This Day in 1915 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 20, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is a bonus episode about rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe who was born #OnThisDay in 1915, for Sunday, March 20 and based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 format:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, March 20th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

When gospel and R&B guitar sensation Sister Rosetta Tharpe reportedly said, “Can’t no man play like me,” she might not have had a clue how many would actually try.

Little Richard cited Tharpe as one of his major influences, and Chuck Berry once said his career was “one long Rosetta Tharpe impression.”

Born on this day in 1915, Arkansas native Tharpe’s 1930s and 1940s recordings of “Rock Me”:

[Excerpt of “Rock Me”]

 “Strange Things Happening Every Day”:

[Excerpt of “Strange Things Happening Every Day”]

“I Want A Tall Skinny Papa”:

[Excerpt of “I Want A Tall Skinny Papa”]

and the classic “Didn’t It Rain”:

[Excerpt of “Didn’t It Rain”]

These songs melded gospel, jazz and Rhythm and Blues into what was soon and would forever be called rock n roll. In 2018, Tharpe was finally and rightfully inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her musicianship and influence.

To learn more about Tharpe, read the 2008 biography Shout, Sister, Shout: The Untold Story of Rock-And-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle Wald, watch the 2011 documentary The Godmother of Rock and Roll – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Gibson Guitars-produced short documentary Shout, Sister, Shout: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, as well as performance clips of her available on YouTube.

This February, Gibson Guitars also debuted the Rosetta Tharpe Collection of merchandise in tribute to her, including a miniature replica of the iconic 1961 Les Paul she used to play.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of songs by Rosetta Tharpe permitted under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[Photo: Tony Evans/Getty]

(paid links)

Born On This Day in 1894: American Comedy Pioneer Moms Mabley (LISTEN)

Born On This Day in 1894: American Comedy Pioneer Moms Mabley (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 19, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN’s Daily Drop podcast features Jackie “Moms” Mabley, the first woman comedian in the U.S. to have a long-lasting and successful career.

It’s based on the Saturday, March 19 entry from the Black Comedians category called “Yeah, You Funny”in our “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, March  19th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category for Black Comedians we call, “Yeah, You Funny”:

Jackie “Moms” Mabley was the first woman comedian in the U.S. to have a long-lasting and successful career. Born #onthisday in 1894, in Brevard, North Carolina, Mabley got her start performing on vaudeville’s “chitlin’ circuit” for years before becoming widely known from the 1940s to the 1970s for her movie appearances, hit comedy albums, variety show guest spots, and as a headlining stand-up act at venues such as the Apollo Theater, where she appeared more than any other performer in history.

Mabley mostly played the character of an older woman in a housedress who offered subtle commentary on politics, racism, sexism… all while musing on her desire for younger men.

Today we share one of Mabley’s clever quips of the latter variety, which juxtaposed so greatly with her presentation and still feels contemporary:

“There ain’t nothin’ an old man can do for me but bring me a message from a young one.”

To learn more about Moms Mabley, check out the Whoopi Goldberg-directed documentary on her from 2013 called Moms Mabley: I’ve Got Somethin’ To Tell You, watch her in movies such as Amazing Grace from 1974, Killer Diller or Boarding House Blues, both from 1948, or check out her comedy albums like Moms Mabley at the Playboy Club, Moms Mabley at the Geneva Conference, Young Men, Si – Old Men – No, Moms Mabley at the U.N. or her Top 40 pop and Top 20 R&B hit version of “Abraham, Martin & John” from 1969.

All albums are available to stream on Apple Music and some of them are also on Spotify. You can also check out Wanda Sykes’ Emmy-nominated portrayal of Moms Mabley in the Amazon original series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

And today, in honor of Moms Mabley’s birthday, we’re closing with a snippet of her version of “Abraham, Martin and John,” written by Dick Holler:

[Excerpt of “Abraham, Martin and John”]

Sources:

GBN’s Daily Drop: Good Black News Was Founded 12 Years Ago Today (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Good Black News Was Founded 12 Years Ago Today (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 18, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is all about… GBN! Good Black News was founded 12 years ago today, and I celebrate it and our volunteer contributors proudly in the Friday, March 18 entry from the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 18th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

On March 18, 2010, Good Black News was founded as a Facebook page. Within two years, it grew into goodblacknews.org –– a website dedicated to curating and creating posts focused on the good things Black people do, give, and receive all over the world. Reader support for the site across all forms of social media has led to the lovely calendar you are experiencing now, so thank you (or whoever gifted you) – and please continue to spread the word!

Okay, so what I just read was the calendar entry for this day, but I really have so much to add to it. Every year I write a post celebrating the date Good Black News was founded, reflecting on where Good Black News came from – and I’ll post a link to our origin story and how Good Black News was born from an off-hand conversation I had with Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back best-selling author and screenwriter Terry McMillan —  and what we’ve most recently accomplished.

I’d say for this past year, seeing the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022 get published by Workman Publishing, and me starting this podcast based on it, are the biggest ways we’ve grown over the past 12 months. And I hope to grow even more and expand this podcast beyond the calendar when I have more time and opportunity to do so.

Good Black News also managed to get a little press in 2021 when we were featured in an abcnews10 piece on positive news. Also, last month I officially resumed the Q&A column I started in 2020 entitled “Dear Lori” where I respond to questions about white privilege and race that I’ve been asked by readers over the years.

But what truly keeps me, my co-editor Lesa Lakin and all of GBN’s wonderful volunteer contributors going is the outpouring of appreciation you’ve shown us over the years via follows, likes, comments, shares, reblogs, DMs and e-mails (even when we are overwhelmed and can’t respond to them all) and now, listens.

GBN’s Daily Drop: Journalist, Producer, Activist and Philanthropist Soledad O’Brien (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Journalist, Producer, Activist and Philanthropist Soledad O’Brien (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 17, 2022

[Photo via powherful.org]

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today, on St. Patrick’s Day, GBN Daily Drop podcast features journalist, producer, activist and philanthropist Soledad O’Brien, who in 2016 explored her Irish, Scottish and Afro-Latina heritage on the PBS show Finding Your Roots.

It’s based on the Thursday, March 17 entry from the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Thursday, March 17th, 2022 — also known as St. Patrick’s Day — based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Journalist and activist Soledad O’Brien not only celebrated her Irish, Scottish and Afro-Latina heritage as a 2016 guest on Henry Louis Gates’ PBS show Finding Your Roots, the honorary Delta Sigma Theta member also hosted the critically acclaimed 2007 Black in America CNN special.

The Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien executive producer and host also routinely pays it forward by mentoring college-bound women through her PowHERful Foundation… and through her super tight Twitter game where she often calls out shoddy, inaccurate and biased reporting in the media.

O’Brien is also a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and produces the HBO documentary series Black and Missing, which streams on HBOMax.

O’Brien also hosted the 2021 BET series Disrupt and Dismantle, which sheds light on how systems are the root of injustice and what people can do to change them.

To learn more about Soledad O’Brien, you can read her 2011 book The Next Big Story: My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities, check out her website soledadproductions.com, historymakers.com, as well as other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

GBN’s Daily Drop: “Freedom’s Journal,” the 1st Black-Owned Newspaper in the U.S., Founded 195 Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: “Freedom’s Journal,” the 1st Black-Owned Newspaper in the U.S., Founded 195 Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 16, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is about Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-owned newspaper founded in 1827 #onthisday by Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm. It’s based on the Wednesday, March 16 entry from the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 16th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category of Black Firsts we call, “It’s About Time”:

Fed up with reading racist commentary in the 19th century mainstream press, Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm started their own paper – Freedom’s Journal.

Founded March 16, 1827, in New York City — the same year New York State abolished slavery — the four-page weekly was the first Black-owned newspaper in the United States.

It denounced slavery and lynchings, advocated for voting rights, covered international news and celebrated Black achievements.

Although Freedom’s Journal folded in 1829, shortly before Russwurm emigrated to Liberia, its two-year existence helped spawn at least 40 similar papers over the next four decades and kicked off the long standing, time-honored tradition of the Black Press in America.

To learn more about Freedom’s Journal, you can check out the digitized archive of all 103 issues of the paper on wisconsinhistory.org, as well as other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[Photo: Samuel E. Cornish, l, John B. Russwurm, r, via uniquecoloring.com]

GBN’s Daily Drop: Misty Copeland, 1st African American Principal Dancer in American Ballet Theatre History (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Misty Copeland, 1st African American Principal Dancer in American Ballet Theatre History (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 15, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is about Misty Copeland, the first African American principal dancer in the elite American Ballet Theatre‘s 75-year history, based on the Tuesday, March 15 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, March 15th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Misty Copeland changed the face of ballet… with her feet. Raised in San Pedro, California, Copeland began taking ballet lessons at her local Boys & Girls Club at the “late” age of thirteen. By fifteen she was dancing professionally.

Misty joined American Ballet Theatre in April 2001 and made history in 2014 as the first Black woman to perform the lead role of Odette/Odile in ABT’s Swan Lake. In June 2015, Misty was promoted to principal dancer, the first African American woman to hold the position in the company’s 75-year history.To learn more about Misty Copeland, check out her 2014 New York Times best-selling memoir Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, 2017’s Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You, and 2021’s Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy, an illustrated nonfiction collection in which Copeland celebrates dancers of color who came before her, the odds they faced, and how they have influenced her on and off the stage.

Copeland has also authored the picture books Firebird from 2014 and 2015’s Bunheads. You can also check out her official website, mistycopeland.com, her biography and performance photos on the American Ballet Theatre site, abt.com, and her online MasterClass on Ballet Technique and Artistry at masterclass.com.

Also worth checking out is the WBUR CitySpace-hosted conversation Tell Me More! Misty Copeland And The Ballerinas Of The 152nd Street Black Ballet Legacy from 2021 on YouTube and the 2015 documentary A Ballerina’s Tale directed by Nelson George and available to rent or buy on Amazon or AppleTV.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

Music from Swan Lake composed by Tchaikovsky was used in today’s episode under Public Domain license.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Additional sources:

(paid links)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Dr. Saint Elmo Brady, the 1st African American Person to Earn a Chemistry Ph.D. in the U.S. (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Dr. Saint Elmo Brady, the 1st African American Person to Earn a Chemistry Ph.D. in the U.S. (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is about Dr. Saint Elmo Brady, the first African American person in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry, based on the Monday, March 14 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Monday, March 14th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Dr. Saint Elmo Brady was fired up in 1916 when he became the first African American person in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Dr. Brady was published three times in Science magazine, taught at Tuskegee Institute, then taught at Howard University – where he built and chaired the Chemistry department.

He took that same position as Chemistry chair at HBCU Fisk University and was there for 25 years. In 2019, Dr. Brady was honored with a National Historic Chemical Landmark at his alma mater, the University of Illinois.

To learn more about Dr. Brady, you can watch the short documentary Twenty Whites and One ‘Other’, read about his contributions to chemistry on the American Chemical Society website, ACS.org, or if you are science-minded or just totally brave and curious, check out Dr. Brady’s work entitled The Scale Influence of Substituents in Paraffine Monobasic Acids, the Divalent Oxygen Atom: Thesis… available on Amazon.

Links to these and other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing. Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[photo: Saint Elmo Brady circa 1910 via chemistry.illiois.edu]

GBN’s Daily Drop (Bonus): Learn About Erma Franklin, Grammy Nominee and Original “Piece of My Heart” Singer (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop (Bonus): Learn About Erma Franklin, Grammy Nominee and Original “Piece of My Heart” Singer (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is a bonus episode for Sunday, March 13 and based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 format.

It’s about Grammy-nominated R&B and gospel singer Erma Franklin, who was born #OnThisDay in 1938 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Yes, she’s one of those Franklins:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, March 13th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today we’re going to celebrate R&B and gospel singer Erma Franklin, eldest daughter of Barbara Siggers and the Reverend C.L. Franklin, and she was born #OnThisDay in 1938.

Though known chiefly for touring with and singing backup for her younger sister (you might have heard of her – Aretha Franklin?) on songs such as “Respect” and “Jump To It,” Erma was a recording artist in her own right. When Aretha Franklin was signed early in her career to Columbia Records, Erma in kind was signed to Epic and released her one and only album for that label in 1962 entitled Her Name is Erma. The music was basically jazz standards and R&B covers and didn’t perform well.

Erma toured for a time as a featured vocalist with Lloyd Price until in 1967, she signed to a new label and scored a Top 10 R&B hit and Grammy nomination with her original recording of “Piece of My Heart”:

[Excerpt of “Piece of My Heart” by Erma Franklin]

A few years later, that song would become a rock n roll staple when remade by Janis Joplin. Erma Franklin also recorded another Top 40 R&B hit “Gotta Find Me A Lover (24 Hours A Day)”:

[Excerpt of “Gotta Find Me A Lover (24 Hours A Day)” by Erma Franklin] She also covered “Son of a Preacher Man” on her Soul Sister album before her sister Aretha did on the same on her This Girl’s In Love With You album:

[Excerpt of “Son of A Preacher Man” by Erma Franklin]

Erma also recorded a stand-out version of the Doors’ song “Light My Fire”:

[Excerpt of “Light My Fire” by Erma Franklin]

And not to be outdone by her songwriting sisters, Erma even wrote some of her own material, such as the could-have-been-a-hit with-proper-promotion song “You’ve Been Cancelled”:

[Excerpt of “You’ve Been Cancelled” by Erma Franklin]

Although Erma’s singing career had its peaks and valleys, her career in public service in her home state was steady.

Erma devoted most of her time and energy to Boysville of Michigan Inc., the largest childcare agency in the state, and acted as the liaison for twenty-five or more similar agencies in Michigan for decades.

In 1992, Erma Franklin’s singing career experienced a resurgence when in Great Britain, her original version of “Piece of My Heart” was re-released after its use in a popular Levi’s Jeans commercial.

It hit number nine in the UK, and Erma made her first and only solo music video, which is available on YouTube.

To learn more about Erma Franklin, check out the sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org. And of course, you can stream or buy her music online.

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.  Excerpts of music by Erma Franklin were included in today’s episode under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links of your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” – 1st Black Woman Contracted to Deliver U.S. Mail

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” – 1st Black Woman Contracted to Deliver U.S. Mail

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Saturday, March 12 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 about Mary Fields aka “Stagecoach Mary” the formerly enslaved woman who delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service in the Old West:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, March 12th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Nicknames in the Old West had to be earned, not given. “Stagecoach Mary” was no exception. After the Civil War, the newly freed Mary Fields worked as a groundskeeper at a convent.

After clashing with several nuns who objected to her smoking, drinking and gun-toting gruffness, Fields accepted a donated stagecoach from a sympathetic Mother Superior and used it to pursue a new line of work.

In 1895, Fields became the first Black woman to get a postal service contract to deliver the U.S. mail. With her guns and tough demeanor, “Stagecoach Mary” unfailingly protected her route from bandits and became beloved by locals in Cascade, Montana.
To learn more about Stagecoach Mary, you can read Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States: A Montana History by Miantae Metcalf McConnell from 2016, the 2019 children’s picture book Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver written by Tami Charles and illustrated by Claire Almon, or the 2007 book African American Women of the Old West by Tricia Wagner on which Mary graces the cover.

You can also watch 2016’s True First: African American Legends and their Untold Stories documentary on her on AllBlk via Amazon, or listen to the very informative 2021 episode about Mary on the podcast Black Cowboys.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional music permitted under Public Domain license: “Maple Leaf Rag” composed by Scott Joplin.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Black Lexicon – What “Sadiddy” Means (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Black Lexicon – What “Sadiddy” Means (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 11, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast looks at our Black Lexicon category “Lemme Break It Down” from the Friday,  March 11 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 where we explain the term “Sadiddy”:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 11th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

It’s in the category we call “Lemme Break It Down,” where we explore the origins and meanings of words and phrases rooted in the Black Lexicon and Black culture. Today’s word? “Sadiddy.”

“Sadiddy” —  s-a-d-i-d-d-y — is a term meaning stuck-up, snobby, arrogant, conceited or superior- acting. What Brandy says she ain’t in her 2004 song of the same name:

[Excerpt from “Sadiddy” by Brandy]

Alternate spellings include “s-e-d-i-t-ty-,” “s-a-d-d-i-t-y,” “s-a-d-i-t-t-y” or basically any two words put together that sound like “suh” and “ditty.” The word is traceable in written form to the 1940s, where it was employed in several African American newspaper columns.

Example usage: “She used to be cool, but ever since she bought that used Mercedes, she’s acting all sadiddy.”

To learn more about sadiddy, there are two great segments on the A Way With Words show on Soundcloud, that discuss the etymology of “sadiddy” in more detail, and I’ll provide the links to both in today’s show notes as well embed them in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.