Ruby Dee - African American History

Ruby Dee's acting career has spanned more than fifty years and has included theater, radio, television, and movies. She has also been active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

The early years

Ruby Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace on October 27, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents, Marshall and Emma Wallace, moved the family to Harlem in New York City when Dee was just a baby. In the evening Dee, her two sisters, and her brother

read aloud to each other from the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), William Wordsworth (1770–1850), and Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906). As a teenager Dee submitted poetry to the New York Amsterdam News, a black weekly newspaper. Later in life, Dee admitted that during those years she was a shy girl but that she always felt a burning desire to express herself.
Pursued education

Dee's love of English and poetry motivated her to study the arts. She attended Hunter High School, one of New York's first-rate schools that drew the brightest girls. While in high school, Dee decided to pursue acting.

After graduation Dee entered Hunter College. There she joined the American Negro Theater (ANT) and adopted the stage name Ruby Dee. While still at Hunter College, Dee took a class in radio training offered through the American Theater Wing. This training led to a part in the radio serial Nora Drake. After college Dee worked as a French and Spanish translator. She knew, however, that the theater was to be her destiny.

First Broadway role

In 1946 Dee got her first Broadway role in Jeb, a drama about a returning African American war hero. There she met Ossie Davis, the actor in the title role. They became close friends and were married on December 9, 1948.

Dee's first movie was Love in Syncopation, released in 1946. In 1950 she appeared in The Jackie Robinson Story and in No Way Out. In 1957 Dee appeared in Edge of the City. Over the next decade, Dee appeared in several plays and movies including A Raisin in the Sun and Davis's play Purlie Victorious. In 1965 Ruby Dee became the first African American actress to appear in major roles at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. Her musical satire Take It from the Top opened in New York in 1979.

Beginning in the early 1960s, Dee made numerous appearances on television including roles in the Play of the Week and in several series. In 1968 she became the first African American actress to be featured on Peyton Place. In 1970 she starred in the critically acclaimed play Boesman and Lena.

Promoting black heritage

Dee and Davis collaborated on several projects designed to promote black heritage in general and other black artists in particular. In 1974 they produced The Ruby Dee/Ossie Davis Story Hour for the National Black Network. In 1981 they produced the series With Ossie and Ruby for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

Dee found this work particularly satisfying because she got to travel the country talking to authors and others who could put the black experience in perspective. She believes that the series made black people look at themselves outside of the problems of racism (believing that one race is superior to another race).

Took up civil rights causes

Issues of equality and civil rights have long been a concern of Dee's. In 1953 she became well-known for denouncing (openly expressing strong disapproval) the U.S. government's decision to execute Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for wartime spying. This experience helped Dee realize that racism and discrimination (treating people differently based on race, gender, or nationality) were not exclusively black experiences.

Dee and Davis were involved in and supported several other civil rights protests and causes, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington. In 1970 the National Urban League honored them with the Frederick Douglass Award for distinguished leadership toward equal opportunity.

In 1999 Dee and Davis were arrested for protesting the fatal shooting of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by white police officers of the New York City Police Department.

Other achievements

Dee's remarkable acting talent has endured over the years. Director Spike Lee cast Dee in his 1989 film Do the Right Thing. In 1990 Dee appeared in the television movie The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson. In 1991 Dee won an Emmy for Decoration Day, and in 1994 she appeared in the television movie version of Stephen King's The Stand.

Dee also has established the Ruby Dee Scholarship in Dramatic Art. The scholarship is awarded to talented young black women who want to become established in the acting profession. In 1988 Ebony magazine featured Dee and Davis as one of "Three Great Love Stories." Both she and Davis donate money and countless hours of time to causes in which they believe.

On March 11, 2001, Dee and Davis received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. At that time, they had been married and worked together for fifty-two years.



Read more: Ruby Dee Biography - http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dee-Ruby.html#b

A Night of Expression- Black History Month Gala is an event celebrating Black History month.

THE DIVINE DUO: DNP & PDP PRESENTS

A Night of Expression- Black History Month Gala is an event celebrating Black History month.
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... ☯☊☯WHEN: 29 FEB, 6-8SLT
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ART EXHIBITIONS, HISTORY FACTS AND DISPLAYS, DANCING, DINNER, MUSIC, AND FUN AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

Come out to learn, grown,fellowship,remember, honor, and inspire!

Bill Cosby - African American History

NAME: William Henry Cosby, Jr.
OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Television Actor, Comedian, Television Producer
BIRTH DATE: July 12, 1937 (Age: 74)
EDUCATION: Temple University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bill Cosby was born July 12, 1937, Philadelphia, Pa. During his sophomore year, he left college to entertain as a stand-up comedian. Cosby's first acting assignment, in the espionage series I Spy (1965-1968), made him the first black actor to perform in a starring dramatic role on network television. Cosby's most successful work, The Cosby Show, appeared on NBC from 1984 to 1992.

Actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Born on July 12, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With numerous awards to his credit, Bill Cosby is one of the top names in comedy. He also helped break down racial barriers on television in the 1960s with I Spy and later with The Cosby Show.

Cosby grew up in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood as the oldest of four boys. At first, the Cosbys did okay financially, but their fortunes began to slip as Cosby's father, William, Sr., began to drink heavily. After his father enlisted in the Navy, Cosby became like a parent to his brothers while his mother, Anna, worked cleaning houses. He and his family ended up living in the Richard Allen Homes, a low-income housing project in his neighborhood. At the age of 8, Cosby suffered a great loss when his brother James, the second oldest of the boys, died.

With money very tight for his family, Cosby started shining shoes to help out when he was 9 years old. He also later found a job at a supermarket. Despite their hardships, Cosby's mother stressed the value of education and learning. She often read to Bill and his brothers, including the works by Mark Twain. A gifted storyteller himself, Cosby learned early on that humor could be a way to make friends and to get what he wanted. Cosby excelled at making things up. As one of his teachers once noted, "William should become either a lawyer or an actor because he lies so well.''

In school, Cosby was bright but unmotivated. He liked to tell stories and jokes to his classmates more than he liked to do his schoolwork. One of his teachers encouraged him to put his performing talents to use in school plays, not in her classroom. At home, Cosby listened to a variety of radio programs and started imitating such comedians as Jerry Lewis. He also watched such television performers as Sid Caesar and Jack Benny whenever he could.

More interested in sports than academics, Cosby played on his school's track and football teams. He was placed in a high school for gifted students after scoring high on an IQ test. But Cosby failed to apply himself, and ended up falling behind in his classes. He switched to Germantown High School, and even there he learned that he would have to repeat a grade. In frustration, Cosby dropped out. He worked several odd jobs before joining the U.S. Navy in 1956.

In the middle of his junior year of college, Cosby decided to drop out to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. He toured extensively, winning over fans along the way. In 1963, Cosby made an appearance on The Tonight Show in 1963, which helped introduce him to a national audience. He soon landed a recording contract and released his first comedy album, Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow . . . Right!, that year. He won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Performance for his next effort, 1964's I Started Out as a Child. For the remainder of the 1960s, Cosby released hit album after hit album, winning another five Grammys. He would later pick up two more for his recordings for children.

In 1965, Cosby also helped show television networks and audiences alike that an African-American could play a leading role in a television series. He starred with Robert Culp in the espionage series I Spy. The two spies pretended to be a professional tennis player (Culp) traveling with his coach (Cosby). The show ran for three years, and Cosby received three Emmy Awards for his work.

Not long after I Spy ended, Cosby starred in his own sitcom. The Bill Cosby Show ran for two seasons, from 1969 to 1971, and featured the comedian as a gym teacher at a Los Angeles high school. A former aspiring teacher, Cosby went back to school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He appeared on the educational children's series The Electric Company and developed the animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, which he based on many of his childhood experiences. In 1977, Cosby received a doctorate in urban education from the university, having written his dissertation on Fat Albert.

On the big screen, Cosby enjoyed box-office success with the comedy Uptown Saturday Night in 1974. Cosby co-starred alongside Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte in the film. Continuing to attract big audiences, he appeared opposite Poitier in the comedy smash Let's Do It Again (1975) and A Piece of the Action (1977).

http://www.biography.com/people/bill-cosby-9258468?page=2

President Barack H. Obama - African American History

Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.

He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.

President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama

Spike Lee - African American History

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was making amateur films by age 20, and won a Student Academy Award for his graduate thesis film. Lee drew attention with his first feature, She's Gotta Have It, and continues to create films that explore provoking topics like race, politics, and violence. He is also known for his documentaries and commercials.

Producer, director, actor. Born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up in a relatively well-off African-American family, Lee was making amateur films by age 20. His first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn, was completed when he was an undergraduate at Morehouse College.

He went on to graduate from the New York University Film School in 1982. His thesis film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, won a Student Academy Award.

Lee became a director of promise with his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, in 1986. The film was shot in two weeks on a budget of $160,000 and grossed over $700,000 in the U.S. No stranger to controversy for certain provocative elements in both his films and public statements, Lee often takes a critical look at race relations, political issues and urban crime and violence. His next film, 1989's Do The Right Thing examined all of the above and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989.

Subsequent films, including Malcolm X, Mo' Better Blues, Summer of Sam and She Hate Me, continued to explore social and political issues. 4 Little Girls, a piece about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 1997.

In 2006, Lee directed and produced a four-hour documentary for television, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, about life in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He also did well at the box office that year with the crime caper Inside Man starring Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, and Denzel Washington.

Lee has also had success in directing television commercials, most famously opposite Michael Jordan in Nike's Air Jordan campaign. Other commercial clients include Converse, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry's. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, is located in his childhood neighborhood of Fort Green in Brooklyn.

His most recent feature film release, Miracle at St. Anna (2008), tells the story of four African American soldiers trapped in an Italian village during World War II. This movie was praised for bringing the often overlooked experience of black infantrymen — known as buffalo soldiers — to the big screen. Critics, however, debated over how well the film was done. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Miracle at St. Anna "shows what happens when a film's execution does not measure up to its ideas."

Spike Lee. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 08:33, Feb 08, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/spike-lee-9377207

Harriet Tubman - African American History

Harriet Tubman led over 200 slaves to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Contemporaries called her "Moses" and "General Tubman" in praise of her bravery and leadership.

Early Life

In 1821, Tubman was born into slavery on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harriet's name at birth was Araminta Ross. When she was 11, Araminta chose a new name to signal her coming of age-her mother's name, Harriet. At age five, young Harriet began working as a house slave, doing chores like weaving. When she was 12, her master moved her into the fields to work.

Harriet was brave and confident from an early age. As a teenager, Harriet moved to defend a fellow slave from the violence of an overseer, taking a blow from a heavy weight that was thrown at her compatriot. Harriet suffered the effects of this head injury for the rest of her life. In addition to a scar, Harriet experienced uncontrollable spells of sleep.

Escape to Freedom

Harriet took the surname Tubman when she married John Tubman in 1844. John was free, and he never understood why his wife longed to escape to the North for her own freedom. They parted ways when she finally escaped. In 1849, the master of Harriet's plantation died, and she began to worry that all of the slaves on the plantation would be sold. Slaves who lived in upper-South states like Maryland lived in fear of being sold away from their families to the Deep South, where the work was back-breaking and the punishments harsher. Harriet made the decision to escape.

Tubman ran away at night with the assistance of white abolitionists.

The Underground Railroad

Tubman made contact with abolitionists in Philadelphia, including William Still, a famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a network on individuals who escorted escaping slaves from the South to safety in the North. After Tubman's rescue of her sister and her children, Philadelphia abolitionists inducted into the Underground Railroad, giving her the details of the routes they used and swearing her to secrecy.

Between 1851 and 1860, Tubman made 19 trips as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She rescued her parents and other family members as well as other slaves desirous of freedom. She was proud of never incurring any casualties on these trips; all of her "passengers" made it to the North safely. Tubman operated in strict secrecy, and the details of many her trips remain unknown. She believed that God had orchestrated her freedom so that she could help other slaves escape.

In addition to her faith, Tubman's cool temperament and courage made her a particularly successful conductor. On one trip, she brandished a rifle at a passenger who wanted to turn back, explaining that "a live runaway could do a great harm by going back, but . . . a dead one could tell no secrets," according to William Still in The Underground Railroad (1872). On another trip, she gave a harmless drug that acted as a sedative to a crying baby to avoid detection. If Tubman became aware that she and her group were being followed, she was not afraid to go even deeper into the South to lose the trail. Tubman's success at escorting slaves to freedom became so well-known that by 1856 Southern slaveholders were offering a $40,000 reward for her capture.

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/a/HTubman.htm

Maya Angelou - African American History

Dr. Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Angelou's unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race. Angelou captivates audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.

Global Renaissance Woman
Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.

Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.

As a teenager, Dr. Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She later finished high school, giving birth to her son, Guy, a few weeks after graduation. As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center stage.

In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and, in 1957, recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.

In 1960, Dr. Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer. The next year, she moved to Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times.

During her years abroad, Dr. Angelou read and studied voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti. While in Ghana, she met with Malcolm X and, in 1964, returned to America to help him build his new Organization of African American Unity.

Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated, and the organization dissolved. Soon after X's assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King's assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated.

With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she began work on the book that would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Published in 1970, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published to international acclaim and enormous popular success. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction now includes more than 30 bestselling titles.

A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

She continues to appear on television and in films including the landmark television adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots (1977) and John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993). In 1996, she directed her first feature film, Down in the Delta. In 2008, she composed poetry for and narrated the award-winning documentary The Black Candle, directed by M.K. Asante.

Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received 3 Grammy Awards. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993. Dr. Angelou's reading of her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" was broadcast live around the world.

Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

Dr. Angelou’s words and actions continue to stir our souls, energize our bodies, liberate our minds, and heal our hearts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

http://mayaangelou.com/

Sojourner Truth

Born into slavery in New York State in the 1790s, Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write. Yet she became known as a passionate and intelligent advocate for the abolitionist cause as well as for women's rights.
As she did not write down her speeches, we have to rely on accounts of those who heard her speak, and some of the accounts are disputed.

What is clear is that she was involved in religious and utopian movements in New York before moving on to becoming very involved in the abolition movement. She became known as a feminist and anti-slavery speaker.

Sojourner Truth, lacing her speeches with recollections of her life as a slave, radiated moral authority. And her concerns, which she expressed before many audiences, would provide inspiration for the feminist movement as well as the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century.

1881 Account by Frances Gage:
Ain't I A Woman?

"Wall, chilern, whar dar is so much racket dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. I tink dat 'twixt de niggers of de Souf and de womin at de Nork, all talkin' 'bout rights, de white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all dis here talkin''bout?
"Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place!" And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunders, she asked "And a'n't I a woman? Look at me! Look at me! Look at my arm! (and she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power). I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And a'n't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear de lash a well! And a'n't I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen 'em mos' all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a'n't I a woman?

"Den dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head; what dis dey call it?" ("Intellect," whispered some one near.) "Dat's it, honey. What's dat got to do wid womin's rights or nigger's rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?" And she pointed her significant finger, and sent a keen glance at the minister who had made the argument. The cheering was long and loud.

"Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wan't a woman! Whar did your Christ come from?" Rolling thunder couldn't have stilled that crowd, as did those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with outstretched arms and eyes of fire. Raising her voice still louder, she repeated, "Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin' to do wid Him." Oh, what a rebuke that was to that little man.

Turning again to another objector, she took up the defense of Mother Eve. I can not follow her through it all. It was pointed, and witty, and solemn; eliciting at almost every sentence deafening applause; and she ended by asserting: "If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder (and she glanced her eye over the platform) ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now dey is asking to do it, de men better let 'em." Long-continued cheering greeted this. "Bleeged to ye for hearin' on me, and now old Sojourner han't got nothin' more to say."

Amid roars of applause, she returned to her corner, leaving more than one of us with streaming eyes, and hearts beating with gratitude. She had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the slough of difficulty turning the whole tide in our favor. I have never in my life seen anything like the magical influence that subdued the mobbish spirit of the day, and turned the sneers and jeers of an excited crowd into notes of respect and admiration. Hundreds rushed up to shake hands with her, and congratulate the glorious old mother, and bid her God-speed on her mission of "testifyin' agin concerning the wickedness of this 'ere people."

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/sojournertruth/a/aint_i_a_woman.htm

Beginning of short story

Lisa walks into a the club and from the corner of her eyes she spots him. She has been checking out Marcust for quite some time now but today is different. Today she feels the sexua lof desire her blood rushing down her spine. She was sexually attracted to Marcus but was to shy to approach him. Tonight was different she had this courage growning inside of her that she could just not hold back. She walks up to Marcus and introduced herself. He extended his hand and ivnited her to sit next to him. She had to take a drink so her nerves wouldn't overcome her. After hours of talking and drinking she couldnt take it no more. They were on the dance floor dancing to some R. Kelly Honey love. She started licking his neck and he caress her ass as they dance to the rythem. Have you ever made love in the dance floor. Thats excatly what they were doing. No one else matter no one else was in the dance floor, only Marcus and Lisa. She wraps her leg around him and he craddles her. Sweat dripping from each others body. He slowly walks to the bar counter and puts her down... she takes her hand and holds his manhood in her hands. Oh so strong so soft she carress it...................... TO BE CONTINUE

Malcolm X- African American History Month

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a homemaker occupied with the family's eight children. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and avid supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Earl's civil rights activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday.

"When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Klu Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home... Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out."

Regardless of the Little's efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground. Two years later, Earl's body was found lying across the town's trolley tracks. Police ruled both incidents as accidents, but the Little's were certain that members of the Black Legion were responsible. Louise suffered emotional breakdown several years after the death of her husband and was committed to a mental institution. Her children were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages.

Achievements

In December 1953, a little more than a year after he was paroled from prison, Malcolm was named the minister at the NOI's Boston mosque, Temple No. 11. The following year he also became the minister at Temple No. 12 (Philadelphia) and Temple No. 7 (New York).

Muhammad Speaks, the NOI newspaper, was founded by Malcolm in 1957.

Beginning in the 1960s, Malcolm was invited to participate in numerous debates, including forums on radio stations (Los Angeles, New York, Washington), television programs ("Open Mind," "The Mike Wallace News Program") and universities (Harvard Law School, Howard University, Columbia University).

In 1963, the New York Times reported that Malcolm X was the second most sought after speaker in the United States.

On June 29, 1963 Malcolm lead the Unity Rally in Harlem. It was one of the nations largest civil rights events.

After befriending and ministering to boxer Cassius Clay, the boxer decides to convert to the Muslim religion and join the Nation of Islam. In February 1964, Clay announces he has changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

In March 1964, after his split with the NOI, Malcolm forms the Muslim Mosque, Inc. Several months later, he also organizes the Organizations of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).

Malcolm's autobiography, which he worked on for two years with writer Alex Haley, was published in November 1965.

By Malcolm X
"When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire . . . or preserve his freedom."

Cited from http://www.malcolmx.com/index.html

Hiram Revels - African American History Fact #1

Hiram Revels was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in approximately 1827 (the 1850 Census lists “about 1825”), but an exact birthplace has not been identified. He was born to free parents of mixed African and Croatan Indian heritage. In March 1838, Revels was apprenticed to his brother as a barber in Lincolnton, North Carolina. Although Hiram Revels' apprenticeship was to last until his 21st birthday, his brother died in 1841, leaving Hiram to manage the barber shop.

Revels apparently left the barber shop to further his education. In 1844 he was a student at the Beech Grove Quaker Seminary in Liberty, Indiana. He also attended school in Ohio and was a student of Knox College. Revels was ordained as a minister by the African Methodist Church and traveled extensively, ministering to African American congregations in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas. He eventually settled in Baltimore, where he became principal of a school for African Americans as well as pastor of a local church.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Hiram Revels turned his resources toward support for the Union cause in Maryland, a border state with divided loyalties. Revels aided in the organization of two regiments of African American troops from Maryland. Having moved to St. Louis to organize a school for African Americans, he recruited African American men for service in a Missouri regiment in 1863. His recruiting ability and ministerial training equipped Revels for active service as a Union chaplain serving with a Mississippi regiment of free blacks. Some records indicate that Revels was for some time the provost marshal, or at least assisted the provost marshal, of Vicksburg, the militarily important Mississippi River town and scene of a bloody and prolonged Union siege.

At the conclusion of the war, Revels settled in Natchez, Mississippi, and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He continued his pastoral duties and founded new churches. In 1868, Revels was elected alderman. Struggling to keep his political and pastoral duties separate and to avoid racial conflict, Revels earned the respect of both whites and African Americans. His moderation and efforts at conciliation led to his election as a state senator from Adams County, Mississippi. In 1870 Revels was elected as the first African American member of the United States Senate. Revels took his seat in the Senate, after contentious debate, on February 25, 1870 and served through March 4, 1871.

Returning to Mississippi in 1871, Revels was named president of Alcorn College, the state's first college for African American students. He was dismissed from the Alcorn presidency in 1874 by Governor Ames but returned to the position two years later. Revels retired from Alcorn in 1882. Aside from his duties at Alcorn College, Revels served as Secretary of State ad interim for Mississippi in 1873. Revels actively participated in the 1875 political campaign to oust the "carpet-bag" government of Mississippi. He defended his actions in a letter to President Ulysses Grant which was published in the Daily Times of Jackson, Mississippi, and widely reprinted (Read a portion of the letter here). The next year he became editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate. While attending to these public activities, Revels actively continued his religious work. It was while attending a church conference in Aberdeen, Mississippi that Hiram Rhoades Revels died on January 16, 1901.

African American national biography vol. 6, Moore, Lenny - Romain. 2008. New York, NY [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press.: 567-569.