African American Eras Library

African American Eras Contemporary Times African American Eras Contemporary Times African American Eras: Contempora...

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African American Eras Contemporary Times

African American Eras Contemporary Times

African American Eras: Contemporary Times

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ª 2010 Gale, Cengage Learning LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA African American eras : contemporary times. v. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 13: 978 1 4144 3591 6 (set) ISBN 10: 1 4144 3591 6 (set) ISBN 13: 978 1 4144 3592 3 (vol. 1) ISBN 10: 1 4144 3592 4 (vol. 1) [etc.] 1. African Americans History 1964 Juvenile literature.

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 Table of Contents Reader’s Guide

. . . . . . . . . . .

xix

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii



Era Overview

chap ter o ne

. . . . . . . . . . . . xxix

. . . . . .

1

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5

Headline Makers . . . . . Mandy Carter . . . . . Benjamin Chavis . . . Eldridge Cleaver . . . Angela Davis . . . . . Marian Wright Edelman Kweisi Mfume . . . . Al Sharpton . . . . . . Cornel West . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . .

8

. . . . . . . . . .

8

Activism and Reform

. . . . . . . . . . 10 . . . . . . . . . . 14 . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . . 24 . . . . . . . . . . 28 . . . . . . . . . . 31 v

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . Affirmative Action Takes Aim at Institutional Racism . . . . . . . . Black Panther Party Is Founded . . . . Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination Shocks the Nation . . . . . . . . . Jesse Jackson Founds the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition . . . . . . . . . . . . . Womanism Gives Voice to Black Women’s Struggles . . . . . . . . Support Builds for Slavery Reparations . The Black Community Reacts to Rodney King Verdict . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Farrakhan Organizes the Million Man March . . . . . . . . . . . . Hurricane Katrina Highlights Racial Inequalities . . . . . . . . . . . . Jena Six Case Stirs Racial Sentencing Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . African Americans Fight for Gay and Lesbian Rights . . . . . . . . . .

. . 34 . . 34 . . 36 . . 42 . . 44 . . 47 . . 49 . . 52 . . 54 . . 56 . . 59 . . 61

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Platform and Program (1966) . . . . . Robert F. Kennedy’s Speech Announcing the Death of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) . . . . . . . . . . . . Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act (1989)



64 64

66 68

Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . 71 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

c hapt e r t w o

The Arts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Headline Makers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Maya Angelou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

vi

African American Eras



Contemporary Times

Jean-Michel Basquiat Octavia Butler . . Savion Glover . . . Bill T. Jones . . . Wynton Marsalis . Toni Morrison . . Suzan-Lori Parks . Faith Ringgold . . Ntozake Shange . . Alice Walker . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . 83 . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . Black Arts Movement Showcases African American Artistic Expression . . . . . Dance Theatre of Harlem Opens Its Doors . Black Playwrights Shake Up the World of Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . Free Jazz and Traditional Jazz Both Flower . Organization of Black American Culture Inspires Black Visual Artists . . . . . Graffiti Becomes a New Kind of Folk Art . African American Poets Reach New Heights Black Women Authors Find Mainstream Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opera Opens Up to African Americans . .

. 106 . 106 . 110 . 112 . 116 . 118 . 121 . 123 . 125 . 128

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 SAMO Graffiti Messages (1970s) . . . . . . 131 Nobel Prize Committee Honors Toni Morrison (1993) . . . . . . . . . . . 132




c hap t e r t h r ee

Business and Industry

. . . . . 137

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Headline Makers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Ursula Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 African American Eras



Contemporary Times

vii

Kenneth I. Chenault . Sean Combs . . . . Janice Bryant Howroyd Daymond John . . . Robert L. Johnson . . Richard Parsons . . . Russell Simmons . . David L. Steward . . Oprah Winfrey . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . 145 . . . . . . . . . . . 148 . . . . . . . . . . 151 . . . . . . . . . . . 153 . . . . . . . . . . . 155 . . . . . . . . . . . 157 . . . . . . . . . . . 159 . . . . . . . . . . . 161 . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . Affirmative Action Programs Rise, then Decline . . . . . . . . . . . Number of African American CEOs Grows Black Entrepreneurs Introduce Traditional Foods to New Fans . . . Professional Development Organization Founded for African American Career Women . . . . . . . . . . Wage Gap Persists between African Americans and Whites . . . . . . . Collapse of the Automobile Industry Devastates African Americans . . . . Modern Economy Challenges African Americans . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 166 . . 166 . . 170 . . 173

. . 178 . . 180 . . 183 . . 186

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 The First Federal Affirmative Action Policy (1965) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Supreme Court’s Bakke Decision (1978) . . . 191 Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . 195



For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

c h a pt e r f o u r

Communications and Media

. 199

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

viii




Contemporary Times

Headline Makers . . . Mara Brock Akil . Jayson Blair . . . . Ed Bradley . . . . Farai Chideya . . . Don Cornelius . . Bill Cosby . . . . Earl G. Graves Sr. . Gwen Ifill . . . . Tom Joyner . . . . Spike Lee . . . . . Robert C. Maynard Michele Norris . . Shonda Rhimes . . Bernard Shaw . . . Tavis Smiley . . . Will Smith . . . . Susan L. Taylor . . Denzel Washington

. . . . . . . . . . . . 205 . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . African American Media Challenged by Modern Times . . . . . . . . Studios Turn to “Blaxploitation” Films Black Musicians Cross Over to Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . Black Comedians Thrive in Film in the 1970s and 1980s . . . . . . . . A New Generation of Black Filmmakers Finds Success . . . . . . . . . . Television Opens Up to Black Stories and Characters . . . . . . . . . Cable Networks Target African Americans . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . 232 . . . 232 . . . 239 . . . 242 . . . 243 . . . 245 . . . 250 . . . 254

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Do The Right Thing Movie Review (1989) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 African American Eras



Contemporary Times

ix

Testimony on the Impact of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on Black Radio (2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260




ch apter fi ve

Demographics

. . . . . . . . . . . 267

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Headline Makers . Roland G. Fryer bell hooks . . Mildred Loving

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . The 2000 Census Provides a Snapshot of African American Demographics Drugs and Gangs Plague African American Communities . . . . . African American Family Life Undergoes Changes . . . . . . . A Black Middle Class Emerges . . . . Great Migrations Change the Demographics of U.S. Cities . . .

. . . 284 . . . 284 . . . 285 . . . 291 . . . 297 . . . 300

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Supreme Court’s Loving v. Virginia Decision (1967) . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Ten Places of 100,000 or More Population with the Highest Percentage of Blacks or African Americans: 2000 . . 306




cha pter s ix

Education

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

311


x




Contemporary Times

Headline Makers . . . . Joe Clark . . . . . . Johnnetta B. Cole . . Michael Eric Dyson . Harry Edwards . . . Henry Louis Gates Jr. Rod Paige . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . 318 . . . . . . . . . . . 318 . . . . . . . . . . . 321 . . . . . . . . . . . 326 . . . . . . . . . . . 330 . . . . . . . . . . . 333 . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . Black Studies Programs Are Established in Higher Education . . . . . . . Courts Order School Busing to Achieve Integration . . . . . . . . . . . School Administrators Propose Ebonics to Aid Black Students . . . . . . Charter Schools Provide an Alternative to Minority Students . . . . . . . States Take Over Failing Inner-City Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . Historically Black Colleges and Universities Face Challenges . . .

. . . 343 . . . 343 . . . 346 . . . 352 . . . 354 . . . 358 . . . 363

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . Supreme Court’s Green v. County School Board of Kent County Decision (1968) . . . . . . . . . . The No Child Left Behind Act Statement of Purpose (2001) . . . . . . . . . Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (2004) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 369

. . 369 . . 371 . . 373

Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . 375




c h a p t er s e v e n

Government and Politics

. . . . 379

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 African American Eras



Contemporary Times

xi

Headline Makers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Shirley Chisholm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Keith M. Ellison Barbara Jordan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Cynthia McKinney Carol Moseley-Braun Barack Obama

. . . . . . . . . . . . 392 . . . . . . . . . . . 395

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Condoleezza Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 J. C. Watts Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 L. Douglas Wilder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Black Voters Play Important Role in Elections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Walter Washington Becomes “Father of Modern Washington” . . . . . . . . 409 Congressional Black Caucus Increases Politicians’ Clout . . . . . . . . . . . 411 Detroit’s Mayors Face a City in Crisis . . . . 414 Black Leadership Forum Exerts Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 Martin Luther King Day Declared a Federal Holiday . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 Harold Washington Tries to Reform Chicago Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 Barack Obama Becomes First Black President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Primary Sources

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Barbara Jordan’s Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee, Proceedings on the Impeachment of Richard Nixon (1974) . . . . . .

428

President-Elect Barack Obama’s Victory Speech (2008) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . 433 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434 xii




Contemporary Times

 chap ter e ight

Health and Medicine

. . . . . . 435

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Headline Makers . . Patricia Bath . . Keith L. Black . Clive Callender . Benjamin Carson Joycelyn Elders . Levi Watkins Jr. .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tuskegee Syphilis Study Outrages Black Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . African American Poverty Leads to Health Disparities . . . . . . . . . . Breast Cancer Hits African American Women Harder . . . . . . . . . . . HIV/AIDS Disproportionately Harms African Americans . . . . . . . . . . Obesity Epidemic Impacts African Americans African Americans Hope for Sickle Cell Anemia Cure . . . . . . . . . . . . National Black Women’s Health Imperative Advocates for Health Reform . . . . .

. 472 . 472 . 474 . 478 . 482 . 486 . 488 . 492

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494 Tuskegee Syphilis Study Apology (1997) . . 494 Sally Satel’s Congressional Testimony on Minority Healthcare Reform (2008) . . . 496




c hap t er n ine

Law and Justice

. . . . . . . . . 503

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 Headline Makers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510




Contemporary Times

xiii

Janice Rogers Brown . . Lani Guinier . . . . . Anita Hill . . . . . . Eric Holder . . . . . . Thurgood Marshall . . Charles Moose . . . . Constance Baker Motley Charles J. Ogletree Jr. . Clarence Thomas . . .

. . . . . . . . . . 510 . . . . . . . . . . 512 . . . . . . . . . . 515 . . . . . . . . . . 517 . . . . . . . . . . 519 . . . . . . . . . . 524 . . . . . . . . . . 526 . . . . . . . . . . 528 . . . . . . . . . . 531

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Ends Racial Discrimination in Voting . . Major Court Cases Define Affirmative Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . Major Civil Rights Legislation Promotes Equality . . . . . . . . . . . . Police Brutality Sparks Public Outcry . Controversy Erupts at Clarence Thomas’s Confirmation Hearing . High-Profile Cases Spark Debate About Hate Crime Laws . . . . . . . . Racial Profiling Generates Controversy Crime Emerges as a Major Issue for African American Communities . .

. . . 536 . . . 536 . . . 540 . . . 544 . . . 546 . . . 549 . . . 553 . . . 556 . . . 558

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562 Bakke Dissenting Opinion (1978) . . . . . . 562 Grutter v. Bollinger Dissenting Opinion (2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . 564 Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . 568




c hap t er t e n

Military

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

571


xiv




Contemporary Times

Headline Makers . . . . . . Clifford Alexander . . . Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. Hazel Johnson . . . . . Colin Powell . . . . . . J. Paul Reason . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . 577 . . . . . . . . . 577 . . . . . . . . 580 . . . . . . . . . 586 . . . . . . . . . 588 . . . . . . . . . 595

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . Vietnam War Disillusions Black Soldiers Boxer Muhammad Ali Refuses the Draft Racial Tensions Prompt Changes in the Military . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Gesell Committee Addresses Discrimination in the Military . . Colin Powell Oversees Gulf War . . . African American Participation in the Military Rises and Falls . . . . .

. . . 600 . . 600 . . . 602 . . . 606 . . . 610 . . . 612 . . . 613

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617 Colin Powell Makes the Case for War in Iraq to the United Nations (2003) . . 617 Clifford Alexander Defends the Rights of Gays in the Military (2009) . . . . . 620




c ha p t e r e l e v e n

Popular Culture

. . . . . . . . . 627

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631 Headline Makers . . . . Arthur Ashe . . . . Barry Bonds . . . . James Brown . . . . Aretha Franklin . . . Jimi Hendrix . . . . Michael Jackson . . . Michael Jordan . . . Kimora Lee Simmons

. . . . . . . . . . . 633 . . . . . . . . . . . 633 . . . . . . . . . . . 634 . . . . . . . . . . . 636 . . . . . . . . . . . 638 . . . . . . . . . . . 639 . . . . . . . . . . . 643 . . . . . . . . . . . 648 . . . . . . . . . . . 650




Contemporary Times

xv

Venus and Serena Williams . . . . . . . . 652 Stevie Wonder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653 Tiger Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . African Americans Break through in Golf and Tennis . . . . . . . . . African American Music Goes Mainstream . . . . . . . . . . . Black Power Salute Causes Stir at Olympics . . . . . . . . . . . . The Afro Hairstyle Makes Bold Statement Hank Aaron Breaks Home Run Record Funk and Soul Give Way to Disco . . The Pop Music Color Barrier Comes Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . African American Culture Influences Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . Rap and Hip Hop Become Cultural Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . Black Coaches Make Progress in Sports

. . . 658 . . . 658 . . . 659 . . . 662 . . 665 . . . 667 . . . 669 . . . 672 . . . 676 . . . 680 . . . 684

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud” by James Brown (1968) . . . . . . Muhammad Ali’s Pre-Fight Comments (1974) . . . . . . . . . “Ladies First” by Queen Latifah (1989) . Tommie Smith Reflects on His Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympics (2007) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



. . 687 . . 687 . . 688 . . 688

. . 690


c hap t er t w e l ve

Religion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

695

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699 Headline Makers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702 Juanita Bynum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702

xvi




Contemporary Times

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704

James H. Cone Louis Farrakhan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 706

Wilton Gregory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709 T. D. Jakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712 Bernice A. King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714 Vashti Murphy McKenzie Anna Pauline Murray

. . . . . . . . . 715

. . . . . . . . . . . 718

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Iyanla Vanzant Jeremiah Wright

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725 African American Religious Leaders Impact Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . 725 Black Judaism Remains Diverse . . . . . . . 728 Nation of Islam Offers Different Approach to Equality . . . . . . . . . 733 The Civil Rights Movement Sparks Black Theology . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 The Womanist Theology Emerges

. . . . . 739

Black Women Take Leadership Roles in the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740 African Americans Challenge the Catholic Church . . . . . . . . . . . 742 The Issue of Gay Rights Strains Black Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744 Contemporary Times See Changes in the Black Church . . . . . . . . . . . 746

Primary Sources

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

“Go Down, Moses” Lyrics (Date Unknown) . . . . . . . . . . . 748 The Nation of Islam Responds to the September 11th Terrorist Attacks (2001) . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . 754 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755 African American Eras



Contemporary Times

xvii

 c ha p t e r t h i r t e e n

Science and Technology

. . . .

757

Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761 Headline Makers . . . . Guion “Guy” Bluford George R. Carruthers Christine Darden . . Philip Emeagwali . . Shirley Ann Jackson . Mae Jemison . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . 763 . . . . . . . . . . . 763 . . . . . . . . . . . 767 . . . . . . . . . . . 771 . . . . . . . . . . . 775 . . . . . . . . . . . 778 . . . . . . . . . . . 784

Topics in the News . . . . . . . . . . Airline Industry Employs African Americans . . . . . . . . . . NASA Is Integrated . . . . . . . . Inventions by African Americans Improve Lives . . . . . . . . . African Americans Suffer Knowledge Gap in Information Age . . . . Black Scientists Promote Science Education for Minorities . . . . African Americans Shape the Age of Information Technology . . . .

. . . . 788 . . . . 788 . . . . 790 . . . . 797 . . . . 800 . . . . 803 . . . . 806

Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Senate Testimony of William H. Gray on the Digital Divide and Minority-Serving Institutions (2002) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Charles Bolden’s Confirmation Hearing Testimony for NASA Appointment (2009) . . . . . . . . . . 815 Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . 819 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820

Where to Learn More . . . . . . . . . xxxiii Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxv

xviii


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Contemporary Times

 Reader’s Guide U•X•L African American Eras: Contemporary Times provides a broad overview of African American history and culture from 1965 through the first decade of the twenty-first century. The four-volume set is broken into thirteen chapters. Each chapter covers a major subject area as it relates to the African American community. Readers have the opportunity to engage with history in multiple ways within the chapter, beginning with a chronology of major events related to that subject area and a chapterspecific overview of developments in African American history. They are next introduced to the men and women who shaped that history through biographies of prominent African Americans, as well as topical entries on major events related to the chapter’s subject area. Primary sources provide a firsthand perspective of the people and events discussed in the chapter, and readers have the opportunity to engage with the content further in a research and activity ideas section. The complete list of chapters is as follows: • Activism and Reform • The Arts • Business and Industry • Communications and Media • Demographics • Education

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• Government and Politics • Health and Medicine • Law and Justice • Military • Popular Culture • Religion • Science and Technology

These chapters are then divided into seven sections:



Chronology: A timeline of significant events in the African American community within the scope of the chapter’s subject matter.

 Overview: A summary of major developments and trends in the African American community as they relate to the subject matter of the chapter.

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Headline Makers: Biographies of key African Americans and their achievements within the scope of the chapter’s subject matter. Topics in the News: A series of topical essays describing significant events and developments important to the African American community within the scope of the chapter’s subject matter.

 Primary Sources: Historical documents that provide a firsthand perspective on African American history as it relates to the content of the chapter.

 Research and Activity Ideas: Brief suggestions for activities and research opportunities that will further engage the reader with the subject matter.

 For More Information: A section that lists books, periodicals, and Web

sites directing the reader to further information about the events and people covered in the chapter.

OTHER FEATURES The content of U•X•L African American Eras: Contemporary Times is illustrated with 240 black-and-white images that bring the events and people discussed to life. Sidebar boxes also expand on items of highinterest to readers. Concluding each volume is a general bibliography of books and Web sites, and a thorough subject index that allows readers to easily locate the events, people, and places discussed throughout the set. xx


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COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS We welcome your comments on U•X•L African American Eras: Contemporary Times and suggestions for other history topics to consider. Please write: Editor, U•X•L African American Eras: Contemporary Times, 27500 Drake Rd., Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535; call toll-free: 1-800877-4253; or send e-mail via http://www.galegroup.com.


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 Chronology 1965

February 21 Black nationalist Malcolm X is killed in New York by a member of the Nation of Islam, a religious and political faction he had recently left.

1965

March 21 African Americans begin a four-day march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama, to protest the government’s interference with voting rights.

1965

April 9 Congress enacts the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), a landmark legislative act intended to close the achievement gap between students from low-income families— a large percentage of whom are minorities—and those from privileged families.

1965

July 2 The federal government establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate discrimination complaints in the workplace and prevent retaliation for reporting workplace discrimination.

1965

August 6 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law. The act outlaws many practices common in southern voting precincts that were designed to keep African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

1965

August 11 Riots begin in the largely African American Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles and end six days later with thirtyfour people dead. xxiii

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1966

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California.

1967

June 12 In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court unanimously rules that a Virginia state law banning marriages between people of different races is unconstitutional.

1967

October 2 Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1968

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, making it illegal to discriminate against African Americans and other minorities in the sale, rental, or financing of housing.

1968

April 4 Prominent African American minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.

1968

November 5 Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She represents New York’s Twelfth District as a Democrat.

1969

Alfred Day Hershey becomes the first African American to win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (which he shares with two other researchers) for his research on the structure of viruses and how they reproduce themselves.

1969

Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook found the Dance Theatre of Harlem, which is credited with bringing ballet to African American audiences and with bringing African American performers to ballet.

1970

Maya Angelou publishes her landmark autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

1970

May Essence magazine becomes the first monthly magazine for African American women.

1970

September 17 Flip Wilson becomes the first African American comedian to host his own television program The Flip Wilson Show.

1971

February The Congressional Black Caucus is founded, consisting of thirteen members.

1971

April 20 In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that school districts in the South can be required to bus children to schools in different neighborhoods in order to achieve racial integration.


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1972

Willie Hobbs Moore is the first African American woman ever to receive a doctorate in physics when she graduates from the University of Michigan.

1972

Shirley Chisholm becomes the first black woman to run for president of the United States from one of the major parties.

1972

April 21 Astrophysicist George E. Carruthers invents the ultraviolet camera/spectrograph. The device is placed on the surface of the moon and records more than two hundred ultraviolet pictures of Earth’s atmosphere, newly discovered stars, and the Milky Way galaxy.

1972

July 25 Associated Press reporter Jean Heller exposes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, an unethical government study on the effects of untreated syphilis on poor black men through the Tuskegee Institute. Doctors never told the men they had syphilis, and withheld treatment that would have cured them.

1974

April 8 Baseball player Hank Aaron beats Babe Ruth’s record for most career home runs—a record once thought unbreakable— when he hits home run number 715.

1975

July 5 Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American man to win the Wimbledon singles tennis championship, defeating Jimmy Connors.

1975

September 1 Upon his promotion to four-star general, the Air Force’s Daniel “Chappie” James becomes the first African American to achieve the rank.

1977

February 14 Clifford Alexander Jr. becomes the first African American to serve as secretary of the Army.

1978

Louis Farrakhan reestablishes the Nation of Islam under the teachings of Elijah Muhammad.

1978

The Supreme Court decides in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke that university admissions programs cannot set aside a certain number of slots for minority students.

1979

September 1 Hazel Johnson becomes the first African American woman to attain the rank of general in the U.S. Army.

1980

January 25 Black Entertainment Television (BET) becomes the first television cable network for African Americans.

1982

November 30 Michael Jackson releases the album Thriller. The album is the number-one seller in the nation for thirty-seven consecutive weeks. African American Eras

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1983

African Americans make up 20 percent of all new enlisted personnel in the armed forces despite making up just over 10 percent of the civilian population in the United States.

1984

Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis becomes the first recording artist to win Grammy Awards for best classical soloist and best jazz soloist in the same year.

1984

African American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson runs for president of the United States for the first time, but does not ultimately win the Democratic nomination. He would run for president, and again fail to secure the nomination, in 1988.

1984

September 20 The Cosby Show debuts. The program about an affluent African American family living in Brooklyn becomes one of the most successful television shows of the 1980s.

1984

October 26 Michael Jordan makes his professional basketball debut with the Chicago Bulls. Within a month, he makes the cover of Sports Illustrated. He goes on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award for the 1984–1985 season.

1985

April 29 Astronaut Frederick D. Gregory becomes the first African American to pilot a space shuttle.

1985

September 9 African American inventor Mark Dean collaborates with Dennis Moeller to create a microcomputer system that paves the way for devices such as keyboards, monitors, and printers to be plugged into the computer and work together at high speeds.

1986

January 7 The Oprah Winfrey Show debuts. Featuring African American host Oprah Winfrey, it becomes the most popular daytime talk show in the history of American television.

1987

June 4 Mae C. Jemison becomes the first African American woman ever admitted into NASA’s astronaut training program.

1988

Toni Morrison wins the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved.

1989

Democratic representative John Conyers introduces Resolution 40 in Congress, calling for an investigation into the legacy of slavery in America and a consideration of whether reparations, or payments, are warranted for descendants of slaves.

1989

September 24 The Reverend Barbara C. Harris becomes the first African American female bishop in the Episcopal Church.

1989

November 7 L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia becomes the first African American governor.


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1992

Hip-hop promoter Russell Simmons founds Phat Farm, a line of urban-inspired clothing. The same year, the clothing company FUBU begins operations in Queens, New York.

1992

April 29 The four white police officers charged with police brutality for beating African American motorist Rodney King are acquitted of all charges, sparking a violent uprising in protest in Los Angeles.

1992

November 3 Carol Moseley-Braun becomes the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

1993

Toni Morrison is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first African American woman to win the prize.

1993

September 8 Joycelyn Elders is named the U.S. surgeon general, becoming the first African American and the second female to hold that position.

1995

February Physician and astronaut Bernard Harris becomes the first African American to walk in space.

1995

October 16 Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam host the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. This event demonstrates solidarity among African American men and encourages black men to cultivate responsibility and self-respect.

1996

December J. Paul Reason becomes the first African American ever to attain the rank of four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy.

2000

July 8 Tennis player Venus Williams wins her first Wimbledon title, becoming the first African American female to do so since Althea Gibson in 1958.

2002

A U.S. Census Bureau report reveals that between 1997 and 2002 the number of black-owned businesses in the United States rose by 45 percent to 1.2 million.

2002

March 24 Halle Berry becomes the first African American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. Berry wins the award for her performance in Monster’s Ball.

2002

April 8 Suzan-Lori Parks wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Topdog/Underdog. She is the first African American woman to win the award.

2003

January 8 Representative Charles Rangel (D–NY) introduces a bill in Congress to reinstate the military draft, arguing that the makeup of the military’s combat forces should reflect the makeup of American society. African American Eras

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2004

July A CBS News poll shows that 84 percent of African Americans oppose the war in Iraq. The same poll shows that only 57 percent of white Americans oppose the war.

2005

August 29 Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in southeastern Louisiana, eventually causing massive flooding and catastrophic damage to the city of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf coast. The hurricane causes the most damage in poor, predominantly African American neighborhoods in New Orleans. More than 90 percent of New Orleanians needing evacuation assistance after the hurricane are African American.

2007

According to the U.S. Census, nineteen percent of the African American population has completed four or more years of college, as opposed to thirty-two percent of the white population.

2007

August 7 Surrounded by questions and controversy regarding alleged steroid use, Barry Bonds hits career home run 756, passing Hank Aaron’s record.

2008

November 4 Barack Obama is elected the 44th president of the United States.

2009

Eric Holder becomes the first African American to serve as the U.S. attorney general.

2009

July 1 Ursula Burns becomes the first African American woman to run a Fortune 500 company when she becomes the CEO of Xerox.

2009

July 27 Major General Charles Frank Bolden Jr., a veteran of four shuttle missions, becomes the first African American administrator of NASA.


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 Era Overview The African American community has gone through enormous changes since 1965, thanks in large part to the tireless work of civil rights activists. The civil rights movement, which began in the 1950s, came to a climax in the second half of the 1960s as leaders of various parts of this diverse movement pushed urgently for change. Martin Luther King Jr., who had promoted a peaceful approach to change for more than a decade, was increasingly critical of the U.S. government and its treatment of African Americans. Frustrated by the slow rate of progress in their fight for equal rights, some African American civil rights activists veered away from King’s nonviolent philosophy and took a more radial position. These leaders, often called “black nationalists,” argued that African Americans should cut ties with the white community and work on fostering their own unique culture. Finally, after a tumultuous end to a troubled decade, African Americans began to see some real change. This transformation is most obvious in the area of politics and government. In 1945, just three percent of voting-age blacks in the South were registered to vote. The registration of black voters became a major goal of the civil rights movement. But despite the brave efforts of voter registration volunteers who faced violence and harassment in the South, by 1964 only about 40 percent of eligible black voters were registered. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the historic Voting Rights Act into law. The Voting Rights Act banned many of the practices (such as literacy tests and poll taxes) that had prevented blacks from voting for so long. The results were dramatic. African American voter registration shot up to nearly xxix

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the same level as white voter registration. African American politicians at the local, state, and federal levels saw new opportunities open up for them. By the early 1970s, major cities across the country elected their first black mayors. The number of African Americans holding office in state legislature and the U.S. Congress grew dramatically. And in 2008, forty years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated because of his pursuit of equal rights for African Americans, the people of the United States elected Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president. A stronger African American presence in the public sphere was complemented by a growing African American presence in the private sector. In 1965, President Johnson established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and issued executive orders meant to ensure that African Americans, who had faced generations of employment discrimination, would get fair consideration for jobs, promotions, and government contracts. The wage gap between blacks and whites shrunk (though it did not disappear). By the 1990s, several African Americans had worked their way to the very top of the corporate ladder. Some, including Franklin Delano Raines and Lloyd Ward, became chief executives of Fortune 500 companies. Other African Americans found enormous success as entrepreneurs. Influential talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, for example, built a fortune worth billions of dollars on the success of her publishing and media business. Still, while African Americans in the business world reached the highest levels of success, African Americans as a population still earned only about two-thirds of what whites earned. Success in business sprang from new educational opportunities for African Americans. Though the U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) had made racial segregation in public schools illegal, the process of desegregation in education took many years. In 1970, only around 40 percent of African Americans had finished high school. The number rose to nearly 80 percent by 2000. According to the American Council on Education, black enrollment in college surged 122 percent between 1984 and 2004. These higher achievement rates were evident in humanities as well as science and technological fields. In 1969, Clarence Ellis became the first African American to earn a doctorate in computer science. In 1972, Willie Hobbs Moore became the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in physics. African Americans played key roles in the growth of the U.S. space program starting in the 1970s, both as engineers and astronauts. In the early 1970s, astrophysicist George E. Carruthers developed a spectrograph that recorded important images of Earth, stars, and the Milky Way galaxy. In 1983, Guion “Guy” S. Bluford became the first African American

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astronaut in space. He was followed by the first African American female astronaut, Mae Jemison, in 1987.

Era Overview ........................................................

On college campuses, in community centers, and in theaters and art spaces across the country, African Americans began eagerly exploring their unique cultural heritage with confidence and creativity. Students protesting at San Francisco State University prompted the establishment of the country’s first black studies program in 1968. Several prominent universities followed suit. This interest in black identity, black collective power, and black culture gave rise to the black arts movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The leaders of the black arts movement took their cues from black nationalist activists who called for African Americans to establish a culture independent of the majority white culture. Black arts movement writers and artists, such as poet Amiri Baraka (born LeRoi Jones) and visual artist Haki Madhubuti (formerly Don Lee), rejected white artistic traditions and created openly political art based on African and African American models. The black arts movement boomed through the mid-1970s, at which point its influence faded and gave way to a wider range of African American artistic voices. Many black female artists and writers, including visual artist Faith Ringgold and writer Toni Morrison, found success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. African Americans grabbed the spotlight in sports and entertainment in the last decades of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, as performers and athletes, but also as coaches, managers, directors, and producers. Many of the biggest sports stars of that time period were black, including Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Venus and Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods. African American actors won acclaim for a wide variety of challenging roles. African American music, especially hip hop, became a mainstream cultural phenomenon. American society became significantly more integrated in the latter half of the twentieth century. Interracial marriage became fully legal in the United States in 1967. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made racial discrimination in the rental, sale, or financing of homes illegal. African Americans made up 14.5 percent of the U.S. military and almost 10 percent of the U.S. Congress at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Despite this progress, African Americans still suffered disproportionately from certain health and social problems. The life expectancy for African Americans was six years less than the life expectancy for whites, and young African American men were imprisoned at ten times the rate of young white men. African Americans were also more severely affected by economic downturns than whites. During the global recession of 2008 and 2009, unemployment for white Americans reached 10 percent, but it African American Eras

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topped 15 percent for African Americans. While change has been dramatic since 1965, and successes by African Americans in all areas have been numerous, it is clear that some of the goals of the civil rights era have yet to be achieved.


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Activism and Reform

c h a p t e r o n e

Chronology . . . . . . . . .

2

Overview . . . . . . . . . .

5

Headline Makers . . . . . .

8 8 10 14 18 21 24 28 31

Mandy Carter . . . . . Benjamin Chavis . . . . Eldridge Cleaver . . . . Angela Davis . . . . . Marian Wright Edelman Kweisi Mfume. . . . . Al Sharpton . . . . . . Cornel West . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

Topics in the News . . . . . 34 Affirmative Action Takes Aim at Institutional Racism . . . 34 Black Panther Party Is Founded . . . . . . . . . 36 Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination Shocks the Nation . . . . . . . . . . 42

Jesse Jackson Founds the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Womanism Gives Voice to Black Women’s Struggles Support Builds for Slavery Reparations . . . . . . The Black Community Reacts to Rodney King Verdict . Louis Farrakhan Organizes the Million Man March . Hurricane Katrina Highlights Racial Inequalities . . . Jena Six Case Stirs Racial Sentencing Debate . . . African Americans Fight for Gay and Lesbian Rights .

. . 44 . . 47 . . 49 . . 52 . . 54 . . 56 . . 59 . . 61

Primary Sources . . . . . . . 64 Research and Activity Ideas . . 71 For More Information . . . . 72

1

Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 January 2 Civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama, begin a voter registration drive led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1965 February 1 Seven hundred African Americans protesting the denial of minority voting rights are arrested in Selma, Alabama. 1965 February 21 Black nationalist leader Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City. 1965 March 21 African Americans protesting the government’s interference with voting rights begin a four-day march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama. 1965 May 26 The United States Congress prohibits poll taxes, or money that must be paid before a person can vote. Poll taxes had been used to keep poor African Americans from voting. 1965 August 6 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law. The act outlaws many practices common in southern voting precincts that were designed to keep African Americans from exercising their right to vote. 1965 August 11 Race riots erupt in the largely African American Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The riots last ten days.

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1966 Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party for SelfDefense in Oakland, California. 1966 Female African American activists Pauli Murray, Fannie Lou Hamer, Flo Kennedy, and Shirley Chisholm help found the National Organization of Women. 1967 May 2 Armed Black Panthers storm the California state capitol building to protest a weapons ban, receiving widespread media attention. 1967 October 28 Black Panther leader Huey Newton is arrested on murder charges. 1968 February Eldridge Cleaver publishes Soul on Ice. 1968 April 4 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. 1968 April 6 Black Panther leaders Bobby Hutton and Eldridge Cleaver are involved in a police shoot-out in Oakland. Hutton is killed and Cleaver arrested. 1968 April 9 President Lyndon B. Johnson announces a national day of mourning for Martin Luther King Jr. 1968 June Angela Davis joins the Communist Party. 1969 Women’s rights activist Frances Beale publishes the essay “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female.”

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......................................................................................... 1969 Black theologian James H. Cone publishes Black Theology and Black Power. 1970 Black Panther leader Huey Newton is acquitted of murder charges and released from prison. 1971 Jesse Jackson founds Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). 1971 Activist and minister Megorah Kennedy delivers the keynote speech at the 1971 Gay Pride Parade in Boston. 1972 Angela Davis is tried on charges of kidnapping, conspiracy, and murder. She later is acquitted of all charges. 1973 Marion Wright Edelman founds the Children’s Defense Fund. 1973 Marco DeFunis, a white man, sues the University of Washington Law School, claiming to have been denied admission due to racial quotas. This is the first legal challenge to affirmative action policies. 1973 Law professor Boris I. Bittiker publishes The Case for Black Reparations. 1975 February 24 Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad dies, leaving the leadership of the organization to his son. 1978 The Supreme Court rules that minority admissions quotas are unconstitutional in the case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.

1982 The Black Panther Party disbands. 1983 November 2 The Martin Luther King Day Bill is enacted, creating a national holiday to celebrate King’s birthday. 1983 Alice Walker coins the term “womanism” in her book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens as a way to distinguish black feminists from the overall feminist movement. 1984 July 18 Jesse Jackson makes his first campaign for president of the United States, delivering his “Rainbow Coalition” speech to the Democratic National Convention. 1986 Jesse Jackson founds the National Rainbow Coalition, a religious and social development organization that advocates for equal rights for African Americans, women, and homosexuals. 1988 Jesse Jackson makes a second campaign for U.S. president. 1989 Democratic representative John Conyers introduces Resolution 40 in Congress, calling for an investigation of the legacy of slavery in America and a consideration of whether reparations, or payments, are warranted for descendants of slaves. 1992 April 29 A jury acquits the white officers accused of beating Rodney King, sparking days of violence, looting, and arson in the streets of Los Angeles.


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....................................................................................... 1993 April 17 Two of the police officers accused of violating Rodney King’s civil rights are found guilty in a federal trial. 1995 October 16 Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam organize the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. 1996 Jesse Jackson forms the Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition. The organization is a merger of Jackson’s Operation PUSH, a civil rights advocacy organization founded in 1971, and the National Rainbow Coalition, which Jackson founded in 1984. The merged organization is a broad civil rights advocacy group that struggles for equality for all minorities, women, and homosexuals. 1996 November 5 Voters in the state of California pass Proposition 209, banning affirmative action preferences in state college admissions. 2000 October 16 Louis Farrakhan, Benjamin Chavis, and the Nation of Islam organize the Million Family March.

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2003 May 11 Fifteen-year-old Sakia Gunn is stabbed to death after trying to repel the advances of two unknown men by explaining she was a lesbian. The case receives little media attention, in contrast to the well-publicized cases of “gay-bashing” against white men. The case highlights the need for increased advocacy for the rights of African American homosexuals. 2005 August 29 Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the Louisiana coast, causing catastrophic damage. Many critics charge racism was at least in part to blame for the government’s slow response since the overwhelming majority of people needing emergency evacuation from the region were African American. 2007 September 20 More than fifteen thousand people, led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, protest the treatment of the “Jena Six” in Jena, Louisiana. The Jena Six are six African American youths accused of beating a white student at their high school.

Contemporary Times

 ............................................................... Overview

The political landscape of the United States during the 1960s was dominated by the African American civil rights movement. The movement was led by minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) and the members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC was dedicated to nonviolent protest, voting rights for minorities, educational and economic reform, and integration. The group staged boycotts, rallies, and marches to achieve full equality for African Americans.

Activism and Reform ........................................................

OVERVIEW

On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated by a white supremacist. Across America, riots broke out in reaction to the leader’s murder. Violence, arson, and looting continued for nearly a week after King’s death. Though King would continue to be remembered as the leader of the civil rights movement, a new phase in African American activism had begun. Many activists saw King’s death and the slow pace of progress towards equal rights as evidence that King’s nonviolent protest methods should be given up. They began instead to favor philosophies centered on separatism (the philosophy that blacks and whites should have their own separate societies and institutions) and militancy. Leaders such as Stokely Carmichael (1941–98), Huey Newton (1942–89), and Bobby Seale (1936– ) supported philosophies based on black pride, nonintegration, and the right to self-defense against racially discriminatory authorities. Carmichael coined the term “Black Power,” a concept over which he frequently argued with King. King had believed the phrase was too aggressive and threatening to whites. Carmichael became leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1966 and pushed the organization in a more radical direction before stepping down in 1967. He then aligned himself with the Black Panther Party. Activists Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California, in 1966. The distinctive look of Black Panther Party members became a powerful symbol of the Black Power movement. Though the Panthers sponsored many effective social outreach programs, they were best known for their independent policing of black neighborhoods in Oakland. They guarded against police brutality and discrimination while wearing black leather jackets, dark sunglasses, and black berets. Often carrying loaded weapons, the Panthers represented an open challenge to white authority and received widespread media attention. During the same period in Detroit, Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), leader of the Nation of Islam, recruited large numbers of African Americans to his movement. African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

The radical separatism of the Black Power movement lasted only a short time, but the philosophies it presented influenced African American activism throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The combination of black pride and liberation theory put forward by separatists had a strong effect on later groups of African American activists, including black feminists, womanists, and gay and lesbian activists. Many African American feminists in the 1970s, for example, broke with the white leadership of the overall feminist movement. They argued that black women, who faced the “triple threat” of sexism, racism, and classism (discrimination based on economic class), did not have the same concerns as middle-class white feminists. Likewise, African American gay rights activists such as Mandy Carter (1948– ) and Megorah Kennedy argued that the concerns of black gays and lesbians were different from those of white homosexuals. This was due to a long history of social and economic inequality between whites and blacks. These socioeconomic differences would be highlighted with the rise of the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s. Lacking health care and insurance, the community of black gay men has been one of the groups hardest hit by the disease, but African Americans in general have suffered and died disproportionately from AIDS. Although African Americans make up about 13 percent of the population, by 1998 they accounted for nearly half of all AIDS-related deaths. The efforts of such activist organizations as the Black AIDS Institute, the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Group, and Balm in Gilead (a cooperative effort among African American churches) have led the way in pushing for increased support for African American victims of AIDS. The latter half of the twentieth century also saw the beginnings of the lasting public controversy over programs intended to “level the playing field” between whites and blacks in terms of economic and educational opportunity. One part of this debate involved proposals for reparations, typically payments of money, for descendents of former slaves. Affirmative action—policies that give women and minorities preferential treatment in an effort to make up for past discrimination—was challenged in the 1980s and 1990s in a series of Supreme Court cases. Critics argued that affirmative action may have been necessary when first required by presidential executive order in the 1960s, but that women and minorities no longer need special treatment. While many African American activists argue that affirmative action is still necessary, others maintain that these practices conflict with the civil rights goal of a “color-blind” society. African American activists have continued the struggle for equal rights in America in the twenty-first century. One of the largest controversies of the new century has been the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf coast on August 29, 2005. Katrina and the flooding it

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caused killed nearly two thousand people and caused billions of dollars in damages. Thousands of New Orleans citizens—most of them African American residents of the city’s poorest neighborhoods—were stranded in the Louisiana Superdome, where they had sought shelter, without food or clean water. Rescue efforts were slow and uncoordinated, and it took several days to get trapped New Orleans residents to safety. The fact that those in need of rescue were mostly poor and black prompted critics to claim that racism was a factor in the government’s sluggish response to the disaster. Many African American activists believe that Katrina stands as clear evidence that the struggle for racial equality in America is far from over.


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O VE RV IE W

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H EA D L I N E M A K E R S

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MANDY CARTER (1948– )

For nearly forty years, womanist and gay rights activist Mandy Carter has waged a campaign against homophobia, or hatred of homosexuals, in the United States. Carter argues that discrimination against gays and lesbians is often overshadowed by issues of race in America. She has received nationwide attention for her campaigns against such high-profile people and groups as the “religious right” and North Carolina senator Jesse Helms (1921–2008).

Mandy Carter. Reproduced by permission of Mandy Carter

Carter was born in 1948 in Albany, New York. She was raised in two orphanages and the Schenectady Children’s Home, a foster home for juveniles. Despite suffering disadvantages and racial discrimination in her foster-home environment, Carter excelled in high school. She enrolled at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York. She pursued pre–medical school courses in hopes of moving on to a four-year college and one day becoming a physician. Carter soon found herself dissatisfied with school and the town of Troy. She became eager to participate in the civil rights movements that were taking place primarily in larger cities. After one year at Hudson Valley Community College, Carter dropped out. Though she had almost no money, she made her way to New York in 1967. Carter Joins the Counterculture of the 1960s Carter struggled to survive in New York. She soon was reduced to sleeping in Central Park. Desperate for food and shelter, Carter one day happened upon the headquarters of the League for Spiritual Discovery. It was an organization founded by radical philosopher Timothy Leary (1920–96). She offered to exchange clerical, or administrative, work for a couch to sleep on. The League agreed, providing a turning point in Carter’s life and career. Near the end of the summer of 1967, Carter joined some new friends and moved to San Francisco, at the time the center of the countercultural movement in the United States.

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In San Francisco, Carter met antidraft advocate Vince O’Connor. She became heavily involved in protesting against the war in Vietnam. During this volatile period of the late 1960s, Carter began her advocacy of civil disobedience—the nonviolent tactics espoused by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She became a central figure in San Francisco’s War Resisters League. She showed great ability for grassroots organizing and fundraising. In 1969, Carter revealed her homosexuality to her associates in the War Resisters League.


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Gay Rights Activism After announcing that she was gay, Carter became more and more involved with gay and lesbian activism in California. She became good friends with many female civil rights activists, such as folk singer Joan Baez (1941– ) and War Resisters League leaders Irma Zigas and Norma Becker. She also became close to civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (1910–87). Rustin, an openly gay man, had an enormous influence on Carter. As a dedicated, nonviolent Quaker who had been an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr., he had frequently found himself at the edges of the civil rights movement due to his sexual preference. Rustin encouraged Carter to become involved in gay and lesbian culture in San Francisco and to assist in organizing gay pride marches.

Carter briefly worked with the War Resisters League in Los Angeles. She returned to San Francisco in 1977. At that time, she became involved in the gay and lesbian political movement. In 1982, she joined the War Resisters League’s southeast office in North Carolina. While in North Carolina she served on the planning committee for an annual lesbian and gay pride march. She later worked as a national coordinator for the 1987 lesbian and gay march on Washington. Campaign Against Jesse Helms During her residency in North Carolina in the 1980s, Carter made national news through her relentless efforts to unseat North Carolina senator Jesse Helms. Helms was an ultraconservative Republican who had originally won his seat in Congress as a segregationist. Throughout his long career, he had led the opposition to affirmative action and other causes connected to African American civil rights. Helms had opposed such high-profile legislation as the Martin Luther King Day bill in 1983 and the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988. He was criticized as employing racist and homophobic (antihomosexual) rhetoric in his public speeches. In 1990, Helms ran a highly controversial and racially charged campaign for reelection against Harvey Gantt (1943– ). Gantt was the African American former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. Carter served as African American Eras

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campaign director of North Carolina Senate Vote ’90, the campaign to defeat Helms. After months of aggressive campaigning on both sides of the race, Helms was reelected by a slim majority. The Womanist Movement and the Religious Right After working against Jesse Helms’s reelection in 1990, Carter focused her organizational talents against another conservative group: the “religious right.” This was the name for the religiously motivated conservative movement in America. Many of Carter’s political beliefs had been influenced by the womanist movement, a movement that focused on issues facing black women. It was a campaign for equality that had emerged from the black theology movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Carter found herself appalled that many African American ministers were using their pulpits to argue that homosexuality was morally wrong. As a leader of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, Carter worked tirelessly to defy conservative fundamentalist ministers who told their black congregations that white gay men were trying to take over the civil rights struggle in order to gain power and privilege.

Carter’s most persistent and outspoken opponent was the Reverend Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. In response to Carter’s efforts to fight the homophobia of right-wing churches, Sheldon launched a “There Is No Comparison” campaign. He circulated antigay videos insisting that the black struggle for civil rights and the gay struggle for equal protection under the law shared no similarities. As of 2010, Carter continued to battle against Sheldon and conservative churches, arguing that religious-right discrimination against gays and lesbians will lead to increasing inequality and hatred. Carter was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 as one of the “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize,” in recognition of the often invisible work done by women in the efforts towards peace. In 2008, she served as a member of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual) steering committee for the campaign of presidential candidate Barack Obama (1961– ).

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BENJAMIN CHAVIS (1948– )

Activist and minister Benjamin Chavis’s long career in social justice led him to become one of the most vocal African American leaders in America. Chavis is probably best known as being a member of the “Wilmington Ten.” The Wilmington Ten was a group of African American men and women who were wrongfully imprisoned for the 10


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firebombing of a grocery store in Wilmington, North Carolina, during race riots in 1971. Chavis received the longest sentence of all the individuals accused (thirty-four years in prison). The felony sentences of the ten were finally overturned in 1980. After this victory of legal justice, Chavis went on to serve as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was a primary organizer of the Million Man March, the Million Family March, and the Millions More March, demonstrations meant to call attention to the issues facing African Americans. During the administration of President Bill Clinton (1946– ), he became a key adviser to government agencies. Chavis continues to speak out against the unfairness of government and industry decisions to pollute poor minority areas and neighborhoods. Chavis was born to a long line of ministers from the small town of Oxford, North Carolina. Born in 1948, Chavis grew up well acquainted with the discriminatory traditions of the American South. Chavis excelled at school and was active in the community and in church activities. He joined the NAACP at the age of twelve and campaigned for social justice with the organization throughout his teenage years. In 1969, Chavis received an undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His early studies in chemistry would later influence his environmental activism and help him shape his notion of “environmental racism.”

Benjamin Chavis in 2004. Stephen Boitano/Getty Images

Wrongful Imprisonment In 1971, the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice sent Chavis to Wilmington, North Carolina. He went there seeking support for a local school desegregation lawsuit that had been filed by the NAACP. The suit had caused widespread unrest in the town, which led to racial violence. On one such night of increased tension, Mike’s Grocery, a white-owned store in a black neighborhood in Wilmington, was firebombed. Fear and public outrage spread throughout the town. Citizens pressured authorities to find those guilty of the crime. A year after the bombing, Chavis, along with eight African American Eras

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other African American men and one African American woman, was accused of arson and conspiracy. After a lengthy and well-publicized trial, the so-called Wilmington Ten were sentenced to a combined total of 282 years in prison. Chavis received the most lengthy individual term: thirty-four years. The Wilmington Ten case became a worldwide focus of the civil rights movement. Chavis’s defense attorneys cited 2,685 errors in the trial, but Chavis and the other accused individuals were denied appeals. They went to prison in 1976. A year later, human-rights organization Amnesty International listed the ten as political prisoners. Chavis kept busy during his time in prison. Through a study-release program, Chavis enrolled in Duke University’s divinity school. He had to be escorted to his classes in handcuffs and leg irons. Chavis went on to receive a master’s degree from the seminary. The Wilmington Ten case took a dramatic turn in the late 1970s. Three principal prosecution witnesses from the trial admitted they had made up their stories after being pressured by local law enforcement authorities. The NAACP and worldwide human rights watchdog agencies revived interest in the case. They pressured legal authorities and politicians to address the injustice of the false testimony. North Carolina governor Jim Hunt reduced the sentences of the ten but fell short of overturning the convictions. Finally, in 1980, a federal appeals court overturned the convictions. Chavis returned to the Commission for Racial Justice after winning his freedom. He served as deputy director of its New York office from 1983 to 1985. In 1985, Chavis became executive director of the organization. He used the talent for speech-making that he had honed at divinity school to speak out on a wide range of issues, including the violence, high drop-out rates, and rampant drug involvement plaguing young African Americans. He also participated in mainstream American politics, most notably as counselor to Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign. Pioneers the Concept of Environmental Racism During the early 1980s, Chavis developed an interest in environmental issues, and he began to question whether government agencies and industries exploited not just the land, but the people on it—particularly African Americans in poor areas of the country. In 1983 Chavis joined in a protest against the depositing of tons of contaminated soil in rural Warren County, North Carolina. Warren County’s population was 75 percent black, and the majority of the population lived below the poverty line. Though the vigorous campaigning of Chavis and his associates did not reverse the state’s decision to place the polluted soil in Warren County, it did

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encourage the abandonment of plans to put a landfill and incinerator in the area. The high-profile controversy caused activists to associate Chavis with “environmental racism,” a term he coined himself.



Chavis became convinced that industrial garbage was being pushed off on the lower-class, politically voiceless members of society. He spearheaded research for the environmental report “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States,” which was published in 1987. Chavis spared few in his condemnation of this previously overlooked form of racism. Chavis argued that both federal and state governments targeted poor— usually minority—areas as primary sites for landfills, nuclear power plants, and radioactive waste management facilities. In addition, he found that the large corporations contracted to run these sites often used the promise of jobs to politically mobilize residents of poor areas to accept environmentally harmful industries. These jobs frequently proved to be dangerous to the health of workers. According to Chavis’s findings, environmental racism was one of the most dangerous forms of injustice in America. Following the publication of the report, Chavis became one of the most vocal spokespersons on environmental policy. He served as an adviser to President Bill Clinton and various high-ranking officials at the Environmental Protection Agency. He encouraged officials to recognize environmentally racist practices against all minorities. This included Mexican American farmers, Native Americans, and indigenous (or native) peoples of Alaska. Controversy and Conversion In 1993, Chavis was elected executive director of the NAACP. Upon his election he stated that “Now is the time for healing. Now is the time for unity.” Unfortunately, however, Chavis’s direction of the organization quickly caused great division. Soon after assuming the directorship, sources revealed that Chavis had improperly taken funds from the NAACP. He used funds to satisfy a legal settlement for a sexual harassment case that had been brought against him. In 1994 he was removed from leadership in the NAACP.

In 1995, Chavis helped Louis Farrakhan (1933– ) and the Nation of Islam organize the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., a demonstration meant to revive interest and action on issues facing African Americans. Chavis hoped it would help change negative images of black men in America. In February 1997 Benjamin Chavis converted to the Nation of Islam. He changed his last name to Muhammad. Though Chavis Muhammad desired to remain a minister of the United Church of Christ, the church revoked his ministerial standing. In October 2000, African American Eras

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Chavis Muhammad assisted in the organization of the Million Family March. He continues to serve as an active member of the Nation of Islam, as well as an occasional governmental adviser on environmental policy. Chavis teamed up with hip-hop music and fashion mogul Russell Simmons (1957– ) in 2001 to found the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a nonprofit group that seeks to harness the influence of hip-hop music and use it to further a variety of educational and civil rights causes. In 2003, the two lobbied for a reform of New York’s drug sentencing laws. In 2007, Chavis and Russell advocated for a ban of racist language in hiphop lyrics.

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Eldridge Cleaver in 1982. ª Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis

ELDRIDGE CLEAVER (1935–1998)

After a childhood and young adulthood spent in reform schools and prisons, black militant Eldridge Cleaver exploded into public awareness with the publication of his 1968 book Soul on Ice. Soul on Ice is a collection of stories and essays on Cleaver’s experience of race in America, particularly in its prisons. Cleaver earned widespread praise and criticism for the book. He also joined forces with Huey P. Newton (1942–89) and Bobby Seale (1936– ), founders of the black nationalist Black Panther Party. As minister of information for the party, Cleaver spoke out against racial repression, police brutality, and unequal economic opportunity. Cleaver’s published writings and public speeches established him as a radical whose advocacy of Black Power was seen as a threat to mainstream society and the federal government. Incarceration Begins at an Early Age Eldridge Cleaver was born in 1935 in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, a small town near Little Rock. His family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, while he was still a young child. His father had obtained a job in a railway dining car running between Phoenix and Los Angeles. Eventually Cleaver’s family moved to the mostly African American Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Watts neighborhood would, in 1965, become the site of what was then the most brutal race riot ever seen in America. (The scale

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of the Watts riot—in which thirty-four people died—would later be overshadowed by riots in South Central Los Angeles following the 1992 beating of Rodney King.)



Cleaver was first imprisoned in 1950 at the age of twelve when he was placed in a reform school after stealing a bicycle. He was released in 1953, but he was soon arrested again for selling marijuana. He spent another year in a home for juvenile delinquents. Cleaver was arrested a third time for drug possession soon after his release. This time Cleaver was tried as an adult and sent to prison. In interviews, Cleaver noted that these early years spent behind bars made him angry at society. Cleaver returned to prison less than one year after his release from California State Prison in Soledad. He was convicted of assault with intent to kill in the rape of a white woman and served nine years of a fourteenyear sentence. Cleaver would later claim that his anger at white women, and his decision to rape as a “political” act, was motivated by the murder of African American teenager Emmett Till in 1955. Till was brutally murdered by a group of white men in Money, Mississippi, after a white woman accused him of flirting with her. Cleaver had received his high school equivalency degree while serving his prison term in Soledad for possession of marijuana. Cleaver returned to reading and writing while serving time for his rape conviction. This time he pursued the works of radical political philosophers. He read the works of Karl Marx (1818–83), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), Thomas Paine (1737–1809), Voltaire (1694–1778), and Mikhail Bakunin (1814–76), among others. Cleaver had been born a Protestant and had converted to Roman Catholicism in reform school as a teenager. While he was in prison he became extremely interested in the teachings of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975). Eventually Cleaver converted to Islam. He took the name Eldridge X and became a prison minister for the movement. Cleaver supported the high-profile Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X (1925–65) when he broke with Elijah Muhammad in 1964. Cleaver continued to preach the ideas of black pride and militancy. Cleaver recorded his experiences in stories, essays, and poems throughout the time he spent in prison. In 1965 he showed these writings to San Francisco civil liberties lawyer Beverley Axelrod, who had been assisting Cleaver in his quest for parole. In turn, Axelrod showed his manuscripts to left-wing writer Edward M. Keating (1925–2003). Keating was then an editor and contributor to Ramparts magazine. Keating published many of Cleaver’s works in the magazine. Publication in Ramparts gained Cleaver the support of many influential writers, such as African American Eras

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Norman Mailer (1923–2007) and Max Geismar. Keating also promised Cleaver employment when he was released from prison.


Joins the Black Panthers Cleaver was granted parole in 1966. He was already well known for his prison writings. He quickly became acquainted with the leading intellectuals and black leaders on the West Coast. He served as an editor and contributor to Ramparts and helped to start Black House, a cultural center for African American youth in San Francisco. Cleaver met Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, founders of the Black Panther Party, while working at Black House.

Cleaver became heavily involved with the Panthers. The Panthers championed African American empowerment and focused in particular on fighting racially motivated police brutality. To guard against false arrest and the use of unnecessary force, members of the Panthers would shadow policemen who were assigned to black neighborhoods. Participating in these activities presented a great risk to Cleaver’s newfound freedom because of the conditions of his parole. Nonetheless, he continued to support the Panthers and eventually became their minister of information. The Black Panther Party’s militant agenda of self-determination and black pride quickly attracted interest across the nation. Cleaver became a sought-after writer and public speaker. Cleaver edited the official publications of the party and spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War (1954–75), which the Black Panthers considered a racist conflict. As tensions mounted in the late 1960s, Cleaver, as well as Newton and Seale, were followed by the FBI. Cleaver’s notoriety increased with the February 1968 publication of his book Soul on Ice. The book collected his writings from prison and from his experiences as a Black Panther. The book was praised by the New York Times as one of the most notable books of the year. Soul on Ice became one of the most widely read and discussed books on the market in the late 1960s. In the book, Cleaver denounced Elijah Muhammad, praised Malcolm X, and questioned the moderate, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King Jr., who would be assassinated just two months after the book’s publication. Cleaver also wrote that, although the white-dominated government of the United States was corrupt, he saw hope in a new generation of white youth who would defy the racism of their elders. The most controversial—and most dominant—theme in Soul on Ice was Cleaver’s insistence that African American men are obsessed with white women. Cleaver used his own life experiences to describe the 16


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African American male’s interest in white women. He also criticized black women for being masculine and unsympathetic to their African American male counterparts.



A Puzzling Career Follows a Return from Exile Eldridge Cleaver and Black Panther Party treasurer Little Bobby Hutton were involved in a shoot-out with Oakland police following a riot on April 6, 1968. The shoot-out took place two months after the publication of Soul on Ice and two days after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Hutton was killed, and Cleaver was jailed. A local judge, however, ruled that the charges against Cleaver were politically rather than criminally motivated. This ruling prevented Cleaver’s parole from being cancelled. It also allowed him to go free for many months. During this time he ran for president of the United States on the radical Peace and Freedom Party ticket.

A higher court ruled later in 1968 that Cleaver should return to jail for parole violation and face new charges stemming from the April shootout incident. Cleaver believed that he was being targeted as a political show of power on the part of authorities. He fled the country after a federal warrant was issued for his arrest. He took refuge in Cuba, Algeria, and later Paris in an exile that lasted almost a decade. Cleaver’s political and religious ties changed frequently and dramatically during his exile. The firsthand experience of life in Communist nations such as Cuba dramatically transformed Cleaver’s thinking on his American homeland. Cleaver was welcomed by Communist leaders such as Fidel Castro (1926– ). However, Cleaver grew disappointed with the nations they led. He came to believe that communism encouraged dictatorship and tyrannical rule. Cleaver attempted to pursue his Black Panther activities while in Algeria, but he was often defied by the country’s government. He collaborated with high-ranking officials in France such as Francois Mitterand (1916–96) and Jacques Chirac (1932– ). However, by this point in his exile Cleaver was penniless and wanted to return to the United States so that he could claim the profits from his book Soul on Ice. The book’s earnings had been withheld when Cleaver fled the country. In secret meetings, Cleaver brokered a deal with U.S. officials that allowed for his reentry to the country. He would serve time in prison, but he was released on parole in 1980. Cleaver pursued more conventional political goals upon his return to the United States in 1976. He abandoned communism and stated that he had newfound respect and support for democracy and capitalism. He further distanced himself from his previous associates when he rejected his previous radicalism. Cleaver became a born-again Christian while he African American Eras

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was in prison. He began voicing his support for politically conservative causes after he was released in 1980. He endorsed Republican candidate Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) for U.S. president in the 1980 election. Cleaver stated that he opposed welfare, abortion, and Mexican immigration, and that he advocated capital punishment. Cleaver converted to Mormonism—a religion often criticized by African American activists due to its history of racial discrimination—in 1982 in yet another highly publicized move that infuriated his former allies. He also spoke out against Arabs and collaborated with Jews in America to raise funds for militant Israeli groups. Cleaver eventually became the leader of the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC). In 1987 he was arrested for cocaine possession, and in 1988 he was placed on probation for burglary. He died on May 1, 1998, in Pomona, California, suffering from prostate cancer and diabetes.

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ANGELA DAVIS (1944– )

In the late 1960s, activist academic and public speaker Angela Davis emerged as an international symbol of a proud, defiant African American woman resisting white male power. Davis was fired from a prestigious

Angela Davis in 2007. Dan Tuffs/Getty Images

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professorship because she was openly a Communist and later was jailed for sixteen months for crimes of which she was later found innocent. After her wrongful imprisonment, Davis continued her Black Power campaign and rallied tirelessly for women’s rights and the end of poverty and oppression. She continues to write, speak, and protest on issues concerning civil rights, nuclear disarmament, and national health care. She remains an active member of the Communist Party.



Davis was born in 1944 in a segregated neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama. The neighborhood came to be known as “Dynamite Hill” during the 1960s due to the number of houses that were firebombed by white supremacists. The racially motivated violence and the unfair laws governing blacks’ behavior in public places helped give Davis a sense of social purpose. It also instilled in her a deep resentment of white power structures. Davis’s parents were schoolteachers who taught their children a respect for education as well as community activism. While Davis was a teenager, her mother spent summers living in Manhattan working toward a master’s degree at New York University. Davis would often accompany her mother. Davis was a straight-A student, and earned a scholarship to attend Elisabeth Irwin High School, a private school in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. In 1961 she graduated and accepted a scholarship to Brandeis University in Massachusetts. At Brandeis, Davis majored in French literature and spent a year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. While overseas, Davis met many students from Algeria and other African nations who had grown up under European colonial rule. Davis’s views became radical as she listened to stories from oppressed people in other nations. She also learned of revolutionary tactics employed to overthrow colonizers around the world. She read major works of revolutionary political philosophy, such as Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961). Davis’s commitment to fighting racial oppression was solidified during this time when she received word on September 15, 1963, that the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church of Birmingham was firebombed by the Ku Klux Klan (a white supremacist terrorist organization). The blast killed four young African American girls and made the city the center of attention in the civil rights movement. Davis’s political convictions deepened in reaction to this tragedy in her hometown. During her college years Davis was mentored by Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), a professor of philosophy who encouraged Davis to read the works of nineteenth-century thinker Karl Marx (1818–83). It was Marx’s works upon which the Communist Party had structured its ideas. In her African American Eras

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autobiography, Angela Davis (1974), she wrote that Marx’s Communist Manifesto (1848) taught her to see the problems of black people as similar to the problems of working-class people everywhere. Davis graduated from Brandeis with top honors in 1965. She attended graduate school at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. While there, she focused her study on Marxist philosophy. As the civil rights movement escalated in the United States, Davis wanted to return to her home country to take part in protests and rallies. In 1967, Davis returned to America, where she received a master’s degree at the University of California at San Diego and then entered doctoral study. She also joined a number of activist groups, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panthers. In June of 1968, she formally joined the Communist Party and became involved with the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-black Communist collective in Los Angeles. As a member of Che-Lumumba, she helped to organize demonstrations and protests designed to focus public attention on the plight of minorities. Meanwhile, Davis had also taken a faculty position at the University of California at Los Angeles. She taught philosophy and African American literature, focusing on Marxist thought and ethnic and third-world politics. Shortly after taking her professorial post, however, news of her affiliation with the Communist Party was published by various newspapers. The board of regents of the university fired her. Many of her fellow faculty members condemned the regents’ action as illegal and a violation of academic freedom. Davis sued the university. She was returned to her position by court order, though she would be dismissed a year later when her contract with the school expired. Davis’s life and career took an even more dramatic turn in 1970, when members of the Soledad Brothers—a prison-based black empowerment group that Davis had supported—staged an armed protest in a courtroom. Members of the group shot a county judge during the protest. They used guns originally bought by Davis. When a warrant was issued for her arrest, Davis fled California. Two months later authorities found her in New York City and took her back to California, where she was held in prison for over a year. Once a tireless crusader for people in prisons, Davis found herself—in her own words—held as a “political prisoner.” Her case gained international attention. Protesters with “Free Angela” signs picketed in front of the prison where she was held. Davis went on trial to face charges of kidnapping, conspiracy, and murder in the spring of 1972. Though the prosecution could prove that Davis did indeed buy the guns used in the Marin County Court shoot-out, they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she had any part in

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planning or carrying out the actions of the Soledad Brothers. She was acquitted on all charges.

Activism and Reform

Following her trial, Davis recommitted herself to political action. She became a central figure in the Communist Party. She spoke widely on its behalf, calling for multicultural cooperation and global strategies to achieve equality for all peoples. In the 1980s, she championed nuclear disarmament, or getting rid of nuclear weapons. In the 1990s, she became a spokesperson for women’s rights, dedicating herself in particular to the aim of achieving affordable health care for all American women. Aside from public appearances, she continued to teach and publish academic work. Between 1979 and 1991, she held a faculty position at San Francisco State University. In 1992, she moved to a job at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She retired in 2008, but she continues to speak out for racial and gender equality and the reform of the prison system.


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MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN (1939– )

Longtime civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman is one of the leading advocates for children’s rights in America. She has won fame as the founder of the highly effective Children’s Defense Fund. Edelman started her career as a civil rights attorney in Mississippi. She pioneered the Head Start program, which is dedicated to providing education to young children, particularly those in low-income areas. Throughout her long career, Edelman has fought tirelessly for education and health care for struggling women and children. She has also spoken out against racial discrimination and police brutality. Marian Wright Edelman’s own childhood in segregated Bennettsville, South Carolina, influenced her dedication to the well-being of children in America. Born on June 6, 1939, she was a teenager when the Supreme Court’s historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision banned school segregation and fanned the flames of the civil rights movement in the United States. Her parents encouraged both her education and activism. In 1956, Edelman enrolled at Spelman College, an Atlanta liberal arts school where Martin Luther King Jr. frequently spoke. While an undergraduate in Atlanta, Edelman participated in multiple sit-ins in protest of racial discrimination. She became a volunteer for her local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was convinced that poor black families in the South had almost no one to represent them. As a result, Edelman decided to become a civil rights attorney. African American Eras

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Marian Wright Edelman in 2009. Mark Wilson/ Getty Images

Edelman attended Yale Law School, where she met Bob Moses (1935– ), a pioneering member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Moses encouraged Edelman to use her organizing talents and legal expertise to assist in the effort to end racial oppression in the South. At Moses’s suggestion, Edelman spent many of her breaks from law school as a volunteer to increase black voter registration in Mississippi. After graduating from law school in 1963, Edelman spent a year in New York as a staff attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. She then returned to Mississippi to protest racist practices in voter registration. As the first black woman to practice law in the state, Edelman 22


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defended many African Americans who were arrested during the voter registration efforts of the 1960s. During this volatile time in the civil rights effort, Edelman witnessed the violence and fear caused by police brutality. It was an issue that she would remain vocal about during her entire career. She also became heavily involved with the new Head Start program, a project founded by the federal government in 1965. It aimed to improve the health, nutrition, and level of parental involvement in the lives of poor American children. Through her efforts with Head Start, Edelman met influential Democratic senators Robert Kennedy (1925–68) and Joseph Clark (1902–90). In 1967, she took the senators on a tour of the Mississippi Delta slums where families lived without heat, light, and running water. She raised their awareness of the conditions of poverty in the South. She also gained national attention by testifying during a televised Senate subcommittee meeting on issues of health and poverty.



Edelman moved to Washington, D.C., in 1968. She hoped to be even more effective in the quest for social justice by being based in the nation’s capital. After Martin Luther King’s assassination in the same year, Edelman helped organize the slain leader’s new Poor People’s Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign aimed to draw attention to poverty in the United States. In the 1970s, Edelman focused her civil service work on issues involving women and children. In 1971, she brought several activist groups together to support a comprehensive child development bill. It passed through both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, but it was vetoed by President Richard Nixon (1913–94). Disappointed but unwilling to give up, Edelman in 1973 founded the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). The CDF was an independent organization dedicated to protecting the interests of the country’s children. The CDF, which is funded entirely by private foundations, is considered by many to be one of the most reliable authorities on issues related to children and mothers. The organization also lobbies for policies and laws it finds to be in the interest of the nation’s children. The CDF has publicized such issues as foster care, teen pregnancy, care for the handicapped, nutrition in school cafeterias, and Medicaid coverage for poor children. The CDF is praised for its thorough investigations into contemporary issues. It is often used as a source for statistics by government officials and nonprofit organizations. In the late 1980s, Edelman and the CDF consulted with more than 150 human-rights groups throughout the country. It developed a multibilliondollar program that would assist low-income families and improve the health and safety guidelines for children in America. Following the success African American Eras

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of the bill, Edelman concentrated her efforts on teen pregnancy, which, she argues, plays a major role in the perpetuation of poverty. By stressing pregnancy prevention, the organization was able to avoid the sensitive issue of abortion. In the early 2000s, the CDF continued to sponsor annual conferences on pregnancy prevention that open dialogue between adolescents, social workers, and community and church leaders. Under Edelman’s leadership, the CDF ballooned in size. As of 2010 it boasted a staff of over one hundred child-care specialists. It has a budget of nearly nine million dollars. Edelman continues to challenge politicians and everday citizens to dedicate themselves to the well-being of the nation’s youth. In 1990, the CDF shepherded a child-care bill through Congress. In 1992, it received two hundred million dollars to fund its “Leave No Child Behind” campaign for Head Start. With the inauguration of Democratic president Bill Clinton in 1993, the CDF was presented with a sympathetic climate for achieving its goals. Not only did Clinton support Edelman’s proposals for medical insurance and vaccinations for children, but First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947– ), herself a former board member of the CDF, vocally advocated Edelman’s aims. Encouraged by the Clinton administration, Edelman organized the Stand for Children March in Washington in 1996. The march brought together the NAACP, the March of Dimes, the Salvation Army, and the National Urban League, among others. In 2000, President Clinton awarded Edelman the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the country. After making great strides forward in the 1990s, Edelman and the CDF faced governmental opposition with the election of Republican president George W. Bush (1946– ). In 2002 President Bush, who had taken the CDF’s “Leave No Child Behind” slogan during his 2000 campaign, unveiled a budget proposal which would slash funding for Head Start and various other programs advocated by the CDF. Edelman, as well as senators Edward Kennedy (1932–2009) and Christopher Dodd (1944– ), spoke out against the proposed funding cuts, but many of the programs suffered. After the election of Barack Obama (1961– ) as president in 2008, Edelman and the CDF lobbied in Congress to regain some of their lost funding.

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KWEISI MFUME (1948– )

Politician and activist Kweisi Mfume served as president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for eight years. His leadership spanned the years 24


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from 1996 to 2004, during which time Mfume brought new energy to the organization. He did this by becoming involved in high-profile lawsuits that tackled race issues. He also successfully organized rallies that had widespread media coverage. Mfume, who left a secure seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to assume control of the NAACP, brought political savvy and rhetorical polish to the organization. He moved it toward successful collaboration with governmental groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus. Between 1996 and 2004, NAACP membership increased by nearly five hundred thousand members. Mfume was also a driving force behind the NAACP’s receiving nongovernmental organization status from the United Nations. This allowed the organization to consult with international agencies on issues of foreign relations. Early Years Are Turbulent Kweisi Mfume was born Frizell Gray in a tough neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1948. He overcame severe emotional, economic, and ethnic hardship to rise to the leadership positions he held later in life. Mfume was an extremely sickly child, but he used the periods spent recovering from illness to develop a love of reading. He was a good student, and he was extremely close with his three sisters. Mfume’s stepfather, a truck driver, had difficulty making enough money to support the large family. Mfume, his mother, and his sisters often worked odd jobs to make ends meet. His parents championed education and civil rights. They considered President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) and Martin Luther King Jr. to be role models for their children.

Kweisi Mfume in 2004. Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images

True disaster struck when Mfume’s stepfather left the family when Mfume was a teenager. Soon afterward, when Mfume was only sixteen, his mother was diagnosed with cancer and died. He was devastated. Having lost both mother and father, Mfume was forced to quit school and find work to support himself and his three sisters. He worked at a bread factory, in a local grocery store, and as a shoe shiner. Regardless of his efforts, however, he could not make enough money to support his siblings. They eventually had to seek refuge in the houses of family and friends. Mfume became frustrated. He began hanging out on street corners African American Eras

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and became involved with gang violence. The racial tensions of the Baltimore community in the 1960s fostered Mfume’s anger and rebelliousness. Finally, in the late 1960s, Mfume became fed up with life on the street. He decided to try to improve his situation through education. Mfume received his high school equivalency degree. He graduated with high honors from Morgan State University in 1976. While in college he developed an interest in his African heritage. He changed his name from Frizell Gray to Kweisi Mfume, an Ibo (a West African tribe) name which translates as “conquering son of kings.” Talk Radio and Urban Politics The newly named Mfume debuted his talk-radio skills at WEEB Baltimore, a station owned by soul singer James Brown (1933–2006). Mfume started out as an unpaid volunteer. He moved up to reading advertisements and news clips and eventually became one of the radio’s most popular announcers. Around the same time, Morgan State University opened a campus radio station and asked Mfume to become its program director. Having finally found an open forum for his political commentary, he hosted an enormously popular talk radio show. Encouraged by its success, Mfume ran for Baltimore City Council in 1978.

Mfume won his seat on the council by a mere three votes. He used it as a platform from which to pursue the same fiery politics that had made his radio show popular. Gradually Mfume became aware that successful politics involved developing friendships and making compromises. He focused on the art of negotiation rather than that of confrontation. In 1986 the politically polished Mfume announced his candidacy for Maryland’s seventh congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mfume’s opponents in the congressional race tried to discredit him by painting him as a high school dropout with a checkered past that included fathering several illegitimate children. Their strategies backfired, however, as Mfume pointed out that although poverty had forced him to quit high school, he had gone on to receive undergraduate and graduate degrees. (Mfume had received a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1984.) In addition, his sons went to the media to show support for their father. They stated that he had always acknowledged and supported them. Mfume won his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives by a large margin. He launched an engaged and successful career in Washington. Drawing from his experiences in city politics in Baltimore, Mfume became 26


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known as an advocate for federal programs that benefited citizens of urban areas. He advocated the Equal Credit Opportunity Law, which would allow residents in poorer urban areas to start and promote independent businesses. He also championed gun control laws aimed at reducing urban crime. By his fourth term in office, Mfume had earned enough political clout to win the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus, a coalition of black politicians in the House of Representatives.



Assuming Control of the NAACP In the November elections of 1994, the Republican Party won a majority of the votes in Congress, and the Congressional Black Caucus faced a reduction of its power. Many African American representatives restructured their committee involvements. They tried to regain the lost strength of the caucus. Many, faced with Republican opposition, decided to retire. Meanwhile, Mfume’s own career took a drastic turn. He decided to leave politics to take the position of president and chief executive officer of the NAACP. In 1994, Benjamin Chavis had been removed from the post. He left the organization in structural and financial trouble. Upon assuming leadership in 1996, Mfume viewed his new position in a positive light.

Mfume’s largest initial challenge was overcoming the financial trouble that plagued the organization due to previous mishandling of funds and undocumented or unnecessary spending. By 1997, Mfume had created a system that accounted for all spending in the organization. He erased the organization’s deficit, or budget shortfall, of four million dollars and created a two-million-dollar surplus. This would be only the first of Mfume’s successes with the NAACP. After fixing the financial problems of the organization, Mfume launched a large-scale campaign against network television. He was convinced that the four major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) lacked diversity and failed to devote proper primetime broadcasting to minority-related shows. Mfume and the NAACP threatened a television boycott and class action lawsuits. Mfume also accused the networks of discriminatory hiring practices in their executive positions. In order to be able to attend board meetings, Mfume had the NAACP buy shares of stock in each company. Eventually, in 1999, the networks put diversity initiatives in place. Following this breakthrough, the NAACP kept close tabs on their broadcasting practices. Under the strength of Mfume’s leadership, the NAACP expanded its influence in different areas of politics and social justice. In 2000, for example, the NAACP launched strong attacks against the voting African American Eras

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problems that occurred in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. It filed lawsuits that argued that the government presented unclear ballots to minorities. Mfume himself has been an outspoken opponent of former president George W. Bush and his refusal to meet with the NAACP. He also has been a staunch supporter of affirmative action legislation. Perhaps the most significant direction that Mfume took the NAACP is that of international affairs. In 2003 Mfume was successful in obtaining nongovernmental organizational (NGO) status for the NAACP. This allowed it to serve as an adviser and consultant to foreign governments. Mfume took full advantage of the new privileges of the organization. He traveled to Africa and the Caribbean to discuss the future of people of color with various international leaders.

Al Sharpton in 2009. Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic

Kweisi Mfume resigned as president and CEO of the NAACP on November 30, 2004, to spend more time with his family. In 2006, he lost the Maryland Democratic primary for U.S. Senate to Congressman Benjamin L. Cardin (1943– ). Mfume continues, however, to fight for minority rights and work closely with the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP.

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AL SHARPTON (1954– )

The outspoken—and often controversial— Reverend Al Sharpton has been a highly visible presence in the world of African American activism and politics since the 1960s. In particular, he has been a champion of the poor and often underserved neighborhoods in his native New York. He has worked with such well-known figures as Jesse Jackson (1941– ), Louis Farrakhan, and Barack Obama. He is considered one of the most successful grassroots activists in recent history. He is noted for his personalized, dynamic style of preaching. Born to Preach and Protest Sharpton was born in 1954 to parents extremely dedicated to the Pentecostal church. His father, Albert Sharpton Sr., was a contractor and landlord. His mother Ada was a seamstress. 28


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They encouraged the outgoing Al Jr. to participate in church activities. Sharpton first addressed the church at the age of four. He was ordained a minister by Bishop F. D. Washington at the age of ten. Sharpton made frequent appearances throughout New York and also was part of a tour with renowned gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911–72). At the age of twelve, he initiated a meeting with the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908–72). Powell, the first African American congressman from New York, was beloved by black communities for his outgoing personality and charm. He became a role model and mentor to young Sharpton.



The settled, middle-class atmosphere of the Sharpton home ended abruptly in 1963. Sharpton’s father eloped with his stepdaughter Tina (who was Ada’s daughter from a previous marriage). The separation of the family forced Sharpton, his mother, and his sister to leave their comfortable home in Queens. They moved to a housing project, or government-funded apartment building, in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Ada struggled to support her children, and the family soon went on welfare. Sharpton was heavily influenced by his family’s experiences with poverty, and he spent his teenage years as a young activist. The teenage Sharpton began to adapt his signature preaching style to the culture of protest that he learned on the streets of New York in the late 1960s. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the civil rights organization headed by Martin Luther King Jr. He also met the Reverend Jesse Jackson. In 1969, Jackson nominated fifteen-year-old Sharpton as the youth director of the New York branch of Operation Breadbasket, an activist organization that directed boycotts against unfair business practices in predominantly black neighborhoods. Sharpton’s efforts with the program were successful. In 1971, Sharpton established the National Youth Movement (NYM). NYM was designed as an extension of Operation Breadbasket’s battle against discriminatory hiring and business practices. NYM also worked to combat police brutality and drug and alcohol abuse. Through these activist organizations Sharpton met soul singer James Brown. He briefly toured as the musician’s bodyguard. Through James Brown, Sharpton met many of the major African American personalities with whom he would later collaborate. One was Don King (1931– ), for whom he would promote boxing events. Another was Michael Jackson (1958–2009), with whom he worked to increase job opportunities for African Americans in the entertainment industry. Speaking Out Against Police Brutality Al Sharpton’s long and effective fight against police brutality began in the 1980s. In 1985, Bernhard Goetz, a white subway rider in New York, African American Eras

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shot several young African American men on a subway train after they tried to rob him. Despite the testimony of eyewitnesses that seemed to indicate Goetz’s actions had gone beyond what would be reasonable for self-defense, Goetz was not indicted (formally accused of a crime). The lack of criminal charges following the incident caused outrage in the black community. Sharpton led rallies and protests, and finally Goetz was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon. Following his success with the Goetz case, Sharpton continued to lead high-profile protests over cases that affected the black community in New York. For example, he became heavily involved in the case concerning the racially motivated killing of Michael Griffith. Griffith was a black teen who was chased onto a highway by white youths who had beat him and his friends in Brooklyn’s Howard Beach neighborhood. Griffith was struck by a car and killed. Sharpton led a march of thousands of supporters of Griffith’s family. He convinced New York mayor Ed Koch (1924– ) to issue a condemnation of the violent incident. Public opinion of Sharpton suffered in 1987, when he became heavily involved in the controversial Tawana Brawley rape trial. Brawley, an African American teenager, was found on the street wrapped in a trash bag after having been missing for several days. She was unresponsive and covered with feces. She later claimed that she had been abducted and assaulted by six white males, some of whom were police officers. The case received national media coverage and became a celebrated cause for justice-seekers in the African American community. Sharpton, without fully investigating Brawley’s story, publicly accused assistant district attorney Steven Pagones of being one of the rapists. After in-depth investigation uncovered inconsistencies in Brawley’s story, however, a grand jury concluded that Brawley had invented the story to explain her four-day disappearance. Pagones sued Sharpton for defamation, or making untrue statements that would lower a person’s reputation in society. A jury concluded that Sharpton (along with two other defendants) had defamed Pagones. The jury awarded Pagones almost $400,000 in damages. Overall, Sharpton’s participation in the Brawley affair did great damage to his public image, but Sharpton continued to campaign for social justice. Assassination Attempt Sharpton was stabbed by a drunk Italian-American man named Michael Riccardi on January 12, 1991, in the working-class Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. Sharpton and his supporters had been protesting the death of Yusuf Hawkins, a sixteen-year-old African American boy who had been attacked and shot in the heavily Italian-American neighborhood

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in 1989. Riccardi fled while Sharpton removed the knife from his chest and collapsed. In many interviews, Sharpton has said that the attack changed his life and doubled his commitment to the pursuit of social justice. During his recovery in the hospital, Sharpton received the support of New York’s first black mayor, David Dinkins (1927– ). He was reunited with both his father and his mentor, Jesse Jackson. Sharpton appealed to the courts for leniency for his attacker, Riccardi. Riccardi was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and served ten. During that time, Sharpton visited him and the two reconciled. Following his recovery, Sharpton continued his campaigns for racial equality. In 1992, Sharpton finished third in the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat. He also organized vigils outside the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (1948– ) to protest the judge’s opposition to affirmative action (policies that give preferential treatment to women and minorities). In 1997, Sharpton ran in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary. He won 32 percent of the vote, almost forcing a runoff, or an additional election to determine a clear-cut winner. He also attempted to obtain a Democratic nomination for U.S. president in the 2004 general election. In general, however, Sharpton has found his highest rate of success in grassroots organizing. He remains a powerful presence in New York. He also continues to organize rallies, protests, and vigils that consistently bring issues of race to national attention.

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Academic Cornel West in 2006. Moses Robinson/ WireImage

CORNEL WEST (1953– )

Cornel West is considered one of the most important contemporary African American academics. As of 2010 West was a professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University in New Jersey. He is the author of many texts concerning black culture in America. West combines an advocacy of democracy and activism with traditional Christian values. He speaks both nationally and internationally on issues related to race relations, cultural diversity, and progressive politics. African American Eras

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Develops a Philosophy of Race in America Cornel West was born into a close-knit family and community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1953. West states that his childhood was influenced by the Baptist Church, where his grandfather had a long career as a pastor. West’s mother was an elementary school teacher. His father was a civilian Air Force administrator. Both of his parents emphasized religion and social betterment to their children. They taught their children Christian stories emphasizing dignity and honesty. They also taught their children to see civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a role model for the Christian ethics of love, humility, and service to the community.

West was an unusually bright child. He enrolled in Harvard University at the age of seventeen, and took on a heavy course load so that he could graduate a year early. He graduated with high honors with a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. West was exposed to various new philosophies of race and religion at Harvard. He also became a well-known activist outside of the classroom. West used his undergraduate years to develop the combination of book knowledge and street smarts that would characterize his later career. After completing his degree at Harvard, West pursued a doctorate at Princeton University. His intense study at Princeton led him to develop a historical and cultural view of race in America. He would later develop this view into his well-known book The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought (1991). The book examines West’s own experiences and those of his ancestors against a broad historical landscape. Early in life West had been influenced by the black militancy of Malcolm X, The Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party, as well as the separatist teachings of theologian James H. Cone (1938– ). Later, West rejected radical, violent politics and supported the formation of multiracial groups that championed equality of race, gender, and class. He wrote and published his ideas extensively during the 1980s. His 1982 work Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity explored the power of the black church to oppose racism and oppression. Prophetic Fragments, an essay collection published in 1988, addressed a wide variety of issues in contemporary American culture. Confronts the Academic Establishment West took a job as an assistant professor at Union Theological Seminary in 1977. In 1984 he went to work at Yale Divinity School. He became active in protests both on campus and in the international community during his time at Yale. West was a strong opponent of the practice of apartheid (a legal system of racial separation) in South Africa. West was jailed after being arrested at an antiapartheid demonstration. 32


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Yale punished him by denying him leave and assigning him heavy teaching loads. This prompted West to return to Union Theological Seminary in 1988. One year later he returned to Princeton University as a professor of religion and director of the African American studies program. He continued to publish and speak out on social issues. His work appealed for cross-cultural tolerance and unity, and urged Americans to recognize the power of diversity within a society. He also increased his contributions to popular, rather than academic, publications. For example, he commented extensively in the New York Times Magazine on the 1992 Los Angeles riots sparked by the acquittal of four white police officers accused of beating African American Rodney King.



West accepted a position at Harvard in 1994. There, in collaboration with colleague Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1950– ), West extended the public outreach of the school’s already active W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. West and Gates published the highly commercially successful book The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country (2000). The book covers approximately one hundred African Americans who influenced the development of the country. West also began to address feminist issues in collaboration with writers bell hooks (1952– ) and Toni Morrison (1931– ). In 1995, West participated in the Million Man March, a demonstration of black solidarity organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. West took an even bolder step into popular media in 2001 when he released a rap and spoken word CD entitled Sketches of My Culture. The recording was not a large commercial success. Its release caused tension between West and the administration of Harvard. Harvard administrators had already criticized West for spending more time on pop culture projects than on scholarly pursuits. Larry Summers, the university’s president at the time, was particularly opposed to West’s activities outside the university. Summers suggested that West was too interested in profit and guilty of grade inflation in the classes he taught at Harvard. West denied these accusations, and decided to leave Harvard in 2002. West returned to Princeton that year, where he contributed to a thriving African American studies program. He continues to publish in both academic and mainstream publications and is perhaps the most sought-after black public intellectual of the twenty-first century. In 2008 he published Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom.


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T OP ICS I N TH E N EWS

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AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TAKES AIM AT INSTITUTIONAL RACISM “Affirmative action” is a term coined by President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) in his 1961 Executive Order 10925. It ordered government contractors to take active steps—or “affirmative action”—to ensure that hiring decisions were made without regard to race. The term came to refer to the practice of requiring that color and gender be taken into account in decisions about who will be hired in a company or admitted to a school. The idea is to give some preference to minorities and women to overcome decades of past discrimination. The goal of affirmative action is to support the economic development of groups who have historically suffered prejudice in employment and educational opportunities. Affirmative action seeks to remedy discrimination based on a person’s race, national origin, ethnicity, language, sex, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Affirmative action became an accepted practice after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which aimed to eliminate workplace and educational discrimination, among other things. Simply outlawing racial discrimination was seen as insufficient for combatting “institutional racism.” Institutional racism is a term meant to describe the failure of the government and large institutions to provide appropriate opportunities and services to racial minorities. Institutional racism is different from bigotry, or racism on a personal, individual level (which might include acts of verbal or physical abuse against a specific person based on skin color). President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) pushed Kennedy’s “affirmative action” concept even further, and ordered the Department of Labor to pursue a vigorous program of recruitment and outreach to bring African American employees into government service. Affirmative action policies have been successful at boosting black enrollment in colleges and the percentage of black employees in federal, state, and local government positions. College enrollment of African Americans jumped from less than 5 percent in 1965 to 11.3 percent in 1990. Labor statistics for the 1960s through the 1990s show a dramatic increase in black employment in many professions. But affirmative action had its vocal critics, both white and black, from the start. By the late 1980s, a major backlash against affirmative action was underway. Critics of the programs claim that affirmative action is not in line with the original vision of civil rights, which they contend was based on the vision of a “colorblind” society. These critics claim that giving one race or gender preferential treatment over another serves to further strengthen a racial and

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gender system that divides rather than unites. The result, they claim, is a feeling of inferiority among women and minorities. An early high-profile challenge to affirmative action came in 1974. Marco DeFunis, a white male, sued the University of Washington Law School. He claimed he was denied admission while minority students with lower admission test scores were admitted to the program. The university had been ordered by the court to admit DeFunis while the case was under review, and DeFunis appealed the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case came up for review within weeks of DeFunis’s graduation. Thus, the Supreme Court said the case was moot (meaning its decision would have no practical effect), and did not rule on the constitutionality of the university’s practices. Though not a conclusive case, DeFunis v. Odegaard was a highly publicized challenge to federal mandates that required minority quotas (fixed amounts) in the admissions process of public universities.


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Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of affirmative action in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Allan Bakke, a twice-rejected applicant to the University of California at Davis Medical School, challenged the school on the basis of its sixteen-person quota for people of color. The medical school argued that the purpose of the quota was to increase minority representation in the medical field, to compensate minorities for past societal injustice, to increase medical care in underserved communities, and to diversify the student body. The Supreme

Two University of Michigan students protest their school’s affirmative action policy in its law school’s admissions in front of the Supreme Court in 2003. Affirmative action policies came increasingly under fire in the twenty first century for “reverse discrimination.” ª Molly Riley/Reuters/Corbis


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Court handed down a complex series of opinions to resolve Bakke’s case. The Bakke ruling established that race could be one factor weighed against other factors in the admissions process, but that a fixed number of places, or quotas, for minority candidates could not be used. Following the Bakke decision, the question of how much of a factor race could be in affirmative action programs before constitutional rights were violated occupied the courts. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Supreme Court became increasingly sympathetic to opponents of the policy, and affirmative action was scaled back in both state and federal programs. Aside from the anti-affirmative action platforms held by the administrations of Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) and George H. W. Bush (1924– ), the policy came under fire due to increasing controversy over government “set asides.” The term refers to programs that have a stated goal that 5–10 percent of all government contracts should be awarded to businesses owned by minorities and/or women. The issue of institutional racism and how it should be addressed continues in the twenty-first century. In the confirmation process of Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor (1954– ), the issue took center stage. A central focus of Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings in July 2009 was her decision as part of a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In that decision, Ricci v. DiStefano, Sotomayor and her colleagues ruled against Frank Ricci and a group of other white firefighters from New Haven, Connecticut. The group had claimed “reverse discrimination” when the New Haven Fire Department threw out the results of a test normally used to determine promotions within the department. The department’s concern was that the test seemed to be biased in favor of white test-takers. The department threw out the test results for fear of what is known as a “disparate impact” lawsuit. These lawsuits seek to challenge an employer’s action that does not seem to be intentionally discriminatory, but nevertheless has discriminatory effects. The Second Circuit, led by Judge Sotomayor, said the department’s actions had been appropriate. However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. The Ricci case became a centerpiece of Sotomayor’s confirmation process. Numerous critics said she was “racist” for her decision in that case, demonstrating that the battle over institutional racism is far from over.

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BLACK PANTHER PARTY IS FOUNDED The civil rights movement in America was dominated by a platform of nonviolence and integration during the 1950s and 1960s. The goal was the creation of a colorblind society that would ensure equality for all 36


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individuals. Heavily influenced by Protestant churches and led by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68), the civil rights movement advocated peaceful protest in the form of boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and public speeches.



By contrast, the late 1960s and early 1970s gave rise to many activists who disagreed with these nonviolent approaches. They believed these approaches would never make blacks fully equal with whites, who still held the reins of economic and political power and were resistant to letting them go. As violence against blacks escalated, many leaders argued that self-defense was not only justified but necessary. Militants such as Stokely Carmichael (1941– 98), the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), did not believe in reforming institutions such as schools, political parties, and government. They believed that African Americans should establish their own institutions independent of whites. Carmichael debated fiercely with King over the place of violence in the civil rights struggle. He argued that whites would never give up power to blacks and believed that separatism was the only way of improving the fate of the oppressed African American race. Carmichael coined the phrase “Black Power” as a way of advocating for blacks to take power for themselves. Finally breaking with King, Carmichael expelled all whites from SNCC. He continued to build a “Black Power”

The slogan “Black Power” was a rallying cry for many African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, but the movement had largely dissolved by the 1980s. ª David J. & Janice L. Frent Collection/Corbis


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Stokley Carmichael Speaks About Black Power ...................................................................................

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n 1966 and 1967, Carmichael toured college campuses giving increasingly militant speeches to audiences both black and white. In the following speech delivered on October 29, 1966, Carmichael addressed a predominantly white audience of students at the University of California at Berkley on the topic of Black Power. Now we are engaged in a psychological struggle in this country. And that is whether or not black people have the right to use the words they want to use without white people giving their sanction to it. And that we maintain whether they like it or not we gonna use the word “black power” and let them address themselves to that. But that we are not going to wait for white people to sanction black power. We’re tired of waiting; every time black people move in this country, they’re forced to defend their position before they move. It’s time that the people who are supposed to be defending their position do that, that’s white people. They ought to start defending themselves as to why they have oppressed and exploited us. Now it is clear that when this country started to move in terms of slavery, the reason for a man being picked as a slave was one reason—because of the color of his skin. If one was black one was automatically inferior, inhuman, and therefore fit for slavery. So that the question of whether or not we are individually suppressed is nonsensical, and it’s a downright lie. We are oppressed as a group because we are black. Not because we are lazy. Not because we’re apathetic. Not because we’re stupid. Not because we smell. Not because we eat watermelon and have good rhythm. We are oppressed because we are black.

platform that became the inspiration for other radical groups. King’s assassination in 1968 by a white supremacist confirmed in the minds of militant black activists that nonviolent protest against discrimination was ineffective against white people willing to use violence to maintain that system of discrimination. Black Panther Party Founded Militant groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s emphasized African Americans’ right to fight back against violence and injustice committed by the military, the government, and the police. The Black Panther Party was one of the most visible and vocal black militant groups to advocate black power in the 1960s and 1970s. It was established in October 1966 in 38


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Oakland, California, by Huey Newton (1942–89) and Bobby Seale (1936– ). Newton and Seale were two young black college students. The two wrote the famous “Ten Point Program,” which outlined the Black Panther Party’s demands for self-determination in black neighborhoods. Before that, Newton and Seale had collaborated at Merritt Community College, where they successfully fought for a black studies curriculum and participated in the Afro-American Association and the Revolutionary Action Movement.



Newton and Seale’s vision for the party combined their academic study of revolutionary philosophy with an aggressive opposition to the incidents of police brutality that were occurring in the Oakland and San Francisco Bay area in the 1960s. The group’s primary influences included Malcolm X (1925–65), who advocated strategies of self-defense for African Americans. They were also influenced by Cuba-based civil rights leader Robert F. Williams (1925–96). Williams advocated armed struggle against oppressive authority. Newton and Seale encouraged Panthers to consider the civil rights struggle in America within a global context. They encouraged party members to read the works of revolutionary leaders from other countries, including German philosopher Karl Marx (1818–83), Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara (1928–67), and Martiniquan writer and philosopher Frantz Fanon (1925–61). Philosophically, the organization’s members identified themselves as part of an international struggle to overthrow capitalism (an economic system in which wealth is privately controlled). The Panthers linked the civil rights struggle with the struggles of poor people of all different races. They sought to form alliances, or partnerships, with organizations both black and nonblack. This made the party highly unpopular with other black militant groups, such as the Nation of Islam, who believed that blacks should stay separate from other races. Regardless, the Black Panther Party made strong ties with groups such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Peace and Freedom Party, the Red Guard, and Communist leaders in Algeria, China, Cuba, and Vietnam. It was also one of the few black militant groups of that time period to have a substantial number of female members. It was the only major black organization to endorse gay and lesbian rights in the early 1970s. Panthers Monitor Police Activity The Black Panthers advocated, and fought for, health care, housing, employment, and education reforms to improve living conditions for African Americans. They were most visible, however, in their militant stance against police brutality in black neighborhoods. Newton and Seale were outraged by the abuses of power that were reported in the African American sectors of Oakland and the Bay area as a whole. They organized armed Black Panther members to monitor police activities in black areas. African American Eras

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These Panthers sought to ensure that residents’ civil rights were respected. Sporting military-style clothing—black berets, black leather jackets, dark sunglasses, and openly displayed firearms—the Panthers soon gained the attention of the media. Images of Panthers were frequently found in newspapers and magazines and on television. The Panthers quickly won local celebrity. They captured the political imagination of frustrated African American urban youths. Their numbers swelled and local authorities began to regard them as a threat to civil peace. On April 1, 1967, an unarmed African American man named Denzil Dowell was killed by police in Oakland’s neighboring town of Richmond. The Dowell family asked the Black Panther Party to assist them in speaking out against the police. The Panthers publicly confronted the local sheriff about Dowell’s death. They organized street rallies that brought massive support. The state legislature reacted to the increasing racial tension and the armed threat represented by the Panthers. It introduced a bill that would ban the carrying of loaded guns in public. In response, a large group of Black Panthers marched into the Sacramento, California, state capitol building on May 2, 1967, toting loaded weapons. Images of Black Panther Party members at the California capitol building were broadcast all over the world.

Black Panther Party members stand outside the New York City courthouse in 1969. David Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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Newton Goes on Trial for Murder On October 28, 1967, Black Panther intellectual leader and minister of defense Huey Newton was arrested on murder charges. The charges arose from an altercation with Oakland police that left one officer dead and another wounded. Newton faced a possible death sentence if convicted. Immediately, Black Panther members mobilized support for a “Free Huey” campaign. It was publicized throughout the country. Many Hollywood celebrities became involved in the movement. Activists and representatives from a wide variety of civil rights groups participated in rallies and protests. The national attention given to the case spurred the formation of Black Panther chapters in major cities from coast to coast.



Newton’s arrest and incarceration drastically changed the leadership structure of the party. Cofounder Bobby Seale stepped in to oversee the operations of the organization. Meanwhile, Eldridge Cleaver (1935–98), the party’s outspoken minister of information, campaigned for Newton’s release in increasingly inflammatory language. In this way, Cleaver shaped the public’s image of the Black Panthers as inflexibly hostile. This seemed to some to displace their standing as a group dedicated to multiracial, classbased coalition-building. As part of the support effort to free Newton, Seale and Cleaver contacted Stokely Carmichael. Carmichael was a great asset to the campaign to free Newton because he was an eloquent and well-known public speaker. He joined the Black Panther Party in the summer of 1968. But his alliance with the party was short-lived. His advocacy of black unity and Pan-Africanism put him at odds with other Panther leaders—particularly Eldridge Cleaver— that emphasized class unity and approved of coalitions, or partnerships, with non-black revolutionary groups. Carmichael severed ties with the Black Panther Party after he established residency in Africa in 1969. FBI Targets the Black Panthers The Black Panther Party came to be considered a serious threat to national security by the U.S. government by the end of the 1960s. It was a period of violence and vicious infighting within the black militant community. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), led by J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972), used various techniques to weaken the Black Panther Party and find grounds to arrest its leaders. These techniques included undercover informers, wiretapping and other spying, harassment, and numerous police assaults. In 1968, Bobby Seale was arrested for conspiring to incite a riot at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention. Earlier that year, on April 6, 1968, police had stormed a building housing several Panthers. They killed the party’s seventeen-year-old treasurer Bobby African American Eras

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Hutton and wounded Cleaver, who was returned to prison for parole violation. He later fled to Algeria to avoid imprisonment. Huey Newton was acquitted and released from prison in 1970. At that time, he found a Black Panther Party severely weakened by external attack, internal division, and legal problems. In order to counteract this decline and move the party away from the controversial views held by Cleaver, Newton turned the organization’s focus toward social outreach and communitybuilding. Newton emphasized the party’s free-breakfast programs for children. He became involved in electoral politics in order to advocate education and housing reform. These efforts, however, were undermined by widely published reports that the Panthers engaged in extortion (theft by intimidation or threats) against other African Americans. By the mid-1970s, most veteran leaders of the party—including Seale and Cleaver—had deserted the party. Newton faced criminal charges for drug use and fled to Cuba. After Newton left the country, the Black Panthers were led by Elaine Brown (1943– ), who promoted community service programs. The party continued to decline, however, and officially disbanded in 1982. A black supremacist organization calling itself the New Black Panther Party was founded in Texas in 1989, but it bears no relation to the original Black Panther Party.

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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S ASSASSINATION SHOCKS THE NATION Late in 1967, the civil rights movement was reaching a peak. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began to lay the groundwork for what would be known as the Poor People’s Campaign. King aimed to recruit poor people of all races from urban and rural areas and lead them in a campaign for economic rights. The group would travel to Washington, D.C., and begin a three-month campaign of marches, rallies, sit-ins, and boycotts. Its goal was to lobby the Johnson administration and leading businessmen on behalf of the poor. In March of 1968 King was touring the nation to raise support for this new march on Washington. He accepted an invitation to speak on behalf of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. The workers were striking in an attempt to improve their working conditions. On the night of April 3 at the Mason Temple in Memphis, King delivered a speech entitled “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” In the speech, King spoke emotionally about how he might not see the results of his civil rights struggles. Many historians have argued that King sensed that the time of his death was near. On the following day, April 4, 1968, King was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. He was thirty-nine years old. 42


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“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” ...................................................................................

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ing’s famous last speech includes a dramatic conclusion in which he announces he is not afraid to die, and knows that his work will succeed: We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about a thing. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Authorities arrested James Earl Ray, a fugitive from a Missouri prison, for the murder of King. King’s assassination led to riots in over one hundred cities across America. Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore were among the urban centers most affected. Before the violence subsided on April 11, the riots had accounted for the deaths of forty-six people (mostly African Americans). Thirty-five thousand had been injured and twenty thousand jailed. Throughout the country, grief and shock over King’s death quickly turned to racial violence. The country witnessed acts of arson, destruction of property, and skirmishes with police. In Washington, Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) demanded that Washington-area businesses close out of respect for King’s death. This led to violent clashes with police. Many arson attacks followed. President Lyndon B. Johnson dispatched federal and National Guard troops to patrol the city and protect the White House and Capitol. Mayor Walter Washington (1915–2003) imposed a curfew and banned the sale of alcohol or guns. On April 9, the day of King’s funeral, President Johnson called for a national day of mourning for the slain civil rights leader. This did not end the violence in the nation’s capital. Riots continued to rage for two more days until quelled by federal troops. The massive damage to property caused by the uprising temporarily destroyed the economy of the city. The conditions in the city gave rise to a “white flight,” in which many white residents of Washington African American Eras

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Martin Luther King Jr. (third from left) stands on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel just moments before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The death of the influential civil rights leader shocked the nation. AP/Wide World Photos

moved to suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. Crime and poverty in inner-city Washington rose sharply throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

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JESSE JACKSON FOUNDS THE RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION Influential civil rights leader Jesse Jackson (1941– ) founded the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. The coalition is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of people who lack a voice in the American political process—regardless of their race, sex, and class. It was formed in 1996 from the merger of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity, founded in 1971), and the National Rainbow Coalition (founded in 1985). The organization has been a dominant force in the movement toward social and political equality for minorities. It advocates employment, education, and health-care improvement and reform. Operation Breadbasket Provides the Beginnings of the Coalition Jesse Jackson was very involved with the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In 1965, Jackson joined Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during protests in Selma, Alabama, pushing for voting rights for blacks. The next year, Jackson worked closely with King and SCLC during their Chicago Freedom Movement. Jackson put his knowledge of the city and its residents to great use. Noting Jackson’s gift 44


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Jackson Weeps as Obama Wins Presidency ...................................................................................

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n the night of November 4, 2008, a huge crowd gathered in Grant Park in Chicago, awaiting the results of the presidential election. Barack Obama (1961– ), the Democratic candidate and the first African American to enter a presidential election as the nominee of a major party, was due to address the crowd once the results were known. Standing in the crowd was Jesse Jackson. As the news that Obama had won was announced, news cameras found Jackson’s face. He was crying, clearly overcome by emotion. Many analysts and observers described Jackson’s tear-streaked face as one of the most moving images from that night. While cynics scoffed that he was crying out of jealousy that Obama had succeeded where he had twice failed, Jackson later said that he was remembering all the fallen leaders of the civil rights movement and of how much had been sacrificed to make Obama’s success possible. He said he wished Martin Luther King Jr. could be alive to see that moment of great triumph for the African American community.

for organizing, leaders of the SCLC asked Jackson to spearhead a new “Operation Breadbasket” in the city. Operation Breadbasket organized the black community to use selective buying and boycotts to support black manufacturers and retailers. It also aimed to pressure white-owned businesses to hire more black workers. Jackson put Operation Breadbasket into action in Chicago. It was a great success. Within a year he was made national director of the program. Jackson was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, with King when King was assassinated in April 1968. Jackson’s ambitious leadership style often put him at odds with the new leaders of SCLC after King’s death. He argued with them over issues of policy and funding. In 1971, Jackson resigned from SCLC and founded his own social outreach organization, People United to Save Humanity (PUSH). Through PUSH, Jackson continued to pursue the economic objectives of Operation Breadbasket. During the 1970s, PUSH implemented outreach campaigns to poor neighborhoods. It had weekly radio broadcasts and awards for protecting black homeowners, workers, and businesses. Jackson also promoted education through PUSH-Excel, a spin-off program that focused on keeping inner-city adolescents in school. The program also provided them with job training and placement. Through PUSH-Excel, Jackson coined the slogan “I am somebody.” This slogan would be used by African American African American Eras

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Jesse Jackson speaks at a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition rally to protest the high rates of home foreclosures on January 22, 2008. Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images

youths and community leaders throughout the 1970s. Using his background as a minister and gift for public speaking, Jackson also conducted highly popular Saturday morning meetings through PUSH. The meetings featured food, a gospel choir, and messages of empowerment to the community. Jackson Campaigns for President In 1984, Jackson became the first African American to launch a full-scale campaign for a major-party presidential nomination. Jackson organized the Rainbow Coalition to serve as the political wing of his campaign. In speeches during the primary campaign, Jackson described the coalition as a group founded to protect the rights of the voiceless in America. This especially included the poor, minorities, residents of rural areas, struggling farmers, feminists, gays and lesbians, and other groups who had historically lacked representation in government. Jackson presented himself as an alternative to the mainstream Democratic Party and a fierce opponent of then-president Ronald Reagan’s first term. Jackson argued that Reagan had neglected social issues at home due to his interest in the Cold War (1945–91; an intense political and economic rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union falling just short of military conflict). Jackson initially gained a great deal of support, particularly in southern states. He lost steam as his competitors for the presidential bid began pointing out that Jackson lacked foreign policy experience. Jackson’s campaign suffered a fatal blow when journalists reported overhearing a conversation between Jackson and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan (1933– ) in which the two leaders used ethnic slurs for Jews. In the wake of the scandal, Jackson failed to receive either the presidential or vice presidential nomination from the party.

In 1988, Jackson made another run for the presidency, again with the aid of the Rainbow Coalition. With more experience, organization, and funding, Jackson made a strong showing in the primary elections for the Democratic nomination. He put forward a platform dedicated to strong social programs, affirmative action, the homeless, a higher minimum wage, and an all-out war against drugs and inner-city violence. Though Jackson surprised the country with his success in the polls, he ultimately lost the nomination to Michael Dukakis (1933– ). 46


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After the 1988 elections, Jackson moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. There, he waged a tireless campaign against homelessness. Jackson’s focus on the National Rainbow Coalition and political events in Washington caused PUSH to decline. Without Jackson’s personal involvement, the organization met with severe organizational and financial crises. In September 1996, PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition merged to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.



Jackson remained the organization’s president as of early 2010. The combined operation continues to work with African American communities in order to secure business equality and economic freedom. It also pursues political interests. The organization continues to work to strengthen voter registration and ensure that all people have an equal voice in elections. The coalition also has a wing dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS, a disease that is on the rise more rapidly among African Americans than most other groups. It also works with inmates in prison, providing religious services and educational classes. It lobbies legislatures on behalf of inmates.

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WOMANISM GIVES VOICE TO BLACK WOMEN’S STRUGGLES The civil rights movement, which dominated the social activism of the 1960s, was led primarily by African American men. The following decade gave way to women’s struggles to attain equality. Adopting the slogan “the personal is the political,” feminists (as many supporters of women’s rights called themselves) fought for the right to equal education, employment, and representation. From the beginning of the women’s liberation movement, African American females played a vital role. Black civil rights activists Pauli Murray (1910–85), Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–77), Flo Kennedy (1916–2000), and Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005) were among the founding members of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966. The leadership of women’s groups, however, was predominantly white and middle-class. Some criticized these women for basing their ideals on those of the civil rights movement and yet still allowing for racial discrimination within their ranks. Some black feminists also failed to find common ground with middle-class white women. They felt that white women did not face and could not understand the extreme economic problems that African American women did. Writer Alice Walker (1944– ) attempted to describe the differences between black and white feminism in her 1983 book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. Walker coined the term “womanist” to mean the African American feminist who must oppose discrimination based on race, sex, and class. Walker called for womanists to unify rather than separate from African American men and children. African American Eras

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Coretta Scott King talks about a 1977 resolution that recognized the double discrimination faced by minority women due to their sex and their race. ª Bettmann/Corbis

Many of the core ideas of womanism were formed as a feminist reaction to the black theology movement of the 1970s. Black theology was rooted in James Hal Cone’s 1969 work Black Theology and Black Power. It differed from the Christian ethics of Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Cone argued that the Bible should be read as a story of liberation, or becoming free, similar to the experience of African Americans. In effect, black theology merged the ideals of Black Power with those of Christianity. The movement viewed Jesus Christ as an oppressed victim of the society in which he lived. Though endorsing many of the ideals of the movement, female theologians such as Delores Williams, Katie Cannon (1950– ), and Jacquelyn Grant argued that most black theologians made some mistakes. They argued that it was an error to assume that the experiences of African American women and men were the same. Females in the pulpit and in seminaries called for more attention to be paid to the position of women both in the church and in society as a whole. Multiple African American female activists became ministers, like Pauli Murray, Vashti Murphy McKenzie (1947– ), and Barbara Harris (1930– ). They refined social outreach programs across denominations. Womanism continues to be a dominant force in African American religion, politics, and literature. Universities and seminaries across the country offer courses in womanist studies. Writers such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison (1931– ) promote womanist ideals through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and public speeches. In recent years the womanist movement has expanded to defend the rights of gays and lesbians. 48


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Womanists argue that gays and lesbians have faced many of the same struggles in society as African American women.

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SUPPORT BUILDS FOR SLAVERY REPARATIONS The term “slavery reparations” refers to proposals for financial compensation for the descendents of slaves in America. Supporters of reparations payments argue that African Americans are entitled to payment from whites. They say the American government and economy has benefited from the labor of slaves, and that white Americans have benefited from decades of preferential treatment at the expense of blacks. The movement for reparations has a long history in America. For instance, as early as 1854, black abolitionist Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) warned whites that they owed blacks a debt that must one day be paid. A small attempt at reparation was even made by Union general William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–91) in 1865, when he issued a temporary order granting each freed slave family in Georgia forty acres of farmland and a mule with which to work the land. News of Sherman’s “forty acres and a mule” plan spread, and freed slaves were hopeful that they would be given their own small plots of land on which to build an independent future. However, Sherman’s orders were revoked within months, and the land given to freed slaves under his order was given back to its former owners.

Reparations advocate James Forman campaigned in churches across the country, advocating that the black community be given a $500 million settlement for the injustices they endured. Charles Bonnay/ Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

The swelling civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s revived interest in the idea of reparations. The idea was particularly popular among African American nationalists and separatists. Separatist leader Elijah Muhammad (1897– 1975), leader of the Nation of Islam, called for an independent black state subsidized by the U.S. government until political and economic autonomy was achieved. The Black Panther Party endorsed reparations. It cited the example of German aid to Jews after the Holocaust as an example of economic restitution, or payment for harm done, for past wrongdoing. Perhaps the most outspoken advocate of reparations for blacks was Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) executive secretary James Forman (1928–2005). Forman developed the Black Economic Development Conference. He traveled the country calling for a five hundred African American Eras

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million–dollar reparation settlement. His idea was that the settlement would be put toward black-owned newspapers, television stations, universities, job training centers, and banks. In 1973, white law professor Boris I. Bittker (1916– ) published his landmark work, The Case for Black Reparations, at the height of the Black Power movement. Bittker justified reparations but argued that only those blacks who had been compelled to attend segregated schools should be compensated. John Conyers Pushes for House Resolution 40 The 1980s saw no decrease in interest in the call for reparations. A body of activist organizations known as the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) began to lobby in the legislature. In 1989, Democratic representative John Conyers (1929– ) introduced House Resolution 40, which called for a commission to study proposals for reparations. The bill was named for “Forty Acres and a Mule.”

Supporters of the bill believed that monetary reparations would be an appropriate way to make up for a long history of discrimination. They argued that, due to this long legacy of inequality, even the most degraded whites enjoyed a status higher than the average African American. Reparations, they believed, would even the playing field—particularly in terms of poverty— between blacks and whites. Opponents of the bill, however, argued that there was no way to determine exactly who should or should not be held

A woman holds a doll in a noose to represent the lynchings of African Americans, one of the injustices that reparations advocates hope to get payment for from the U.S. government. She is part of a rally for Reparations for Slavery on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2002. Shawn Thew/AFP/Getty Images

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Purposes of House Resolution 40 ...................................................................................

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ouse Resolution 40 was a reparations bill presented by Representative John Conyers. Conyers said the purposes of the bill were to:

• Acknowledge the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery; • Establish a commission to study slavery and its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves; • Study the impact of those forces on today’s living African Americans; and • Allow the commission to make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans.

accountable for the past crimes of slavery. By lobbying for the federal government to pay for reparations, the burden was placed on the American taxpayer. Critics had many questions: Are those Americans whose ancestors were abolitionists accountable? What about Americans whose ancestors came to America after the Civil War? Such questions hindered the passage of House Resolution 40, which failed to pass in Congress. Class Action Lawsuits Seek to Right the Wrongs of Slavery While the movement for reparations may have been stalled in Congress, leading African American legal minds sought reparations from independent companies throughout the 1990s. They had great success. Celebrated defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (1937–2005) and Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree (1952– ) organized the Reparations Coordinating Committee. The committee initiated class action lawsuits against several private corporations that had profited from slavery. Filed on behalf of the thirty-five million descendents of slaves, the initial suits targeted Aetna, Inc., FleetBoston Financial Corporation, and CSX Corporation. Cochran and Ogletree successfully proved that Aetna had insured slave traders and slaveholders against the deaths of their slaves. FleetBoston had lent money to slave traders. CSX had bought companies that used slave labor for the building of railroads.

In almost every case, the Reparations Coordinating Committee arrived at an out-of-court settlement, the terms of which are private. Reparations supporters were encouraged by the group’s success. They hoped that the publicity of the cases would affect the movement toward congressional support African American Eras

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for federal reparations. Many critics, however, felt that the corporations had settled due to the pressure of being branded racist, and also the threat of national boycott. There have not been as many formal attempts at reparations in the twentyfirst century, but the debate over reparations is far from over. In July 2009, conservative commentator Glenn Beck (1964– ) accused President Barack Obama of supporting “secret” reparations. President Obama has always publicly opposed reparations. Still, Beck argued that Obama’s proposed health-care reform was an undercover attempt at reparations. He alleged that African Americans would benefit from the program at a greater rate than whites, meaning that it was a “racist” program intended to be a form of reparations. Beck’s comments set off a national controversy in the media and on Internet blogs, demonstrating that tensions over reparations still run high.

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THE BLACK COMMUNITY REACTS TO RODNEY KING VERDICT On March 3, 1991, four white members of the Los Angeles Police Department stopped African American motorist Rodney King after a highspeed chase. King had been drinking, and the officers involved claimed he charged at the policemen and resisted arrest. Meanwhile, in a nearby apartment complex, a plumber named George Holliday was experimenting with a newly purchased video camera. He aimed it at the scuffle on the street. Filming for eighty-one seconds, Holliday recorded an arrest scene in which the officers beat King with their nightsticks at least fifty-six times. Holliday promptly sold his videotape to a local television station in Los Angeles, and within days the clip was broadcast nationally. The public— particularly the African American community—was outraged by the violence and brutality used by the officers. Civil rights activists called for justice. The four police officers were indicted for unlawful assault and excessive use of force during the arrest less than two weeks after the incident. The controversy and racial tension surrounding the case caused the trial to be moved out of Los Angeles to Simi Valley, a neighboring suburb. A jury of six men and six women, ten of whom were white, was chosen. The trial began the first week of February 1992. The prosecution’s strategy in the Rodney King case was straightforward. They used the videotape recorded by Holliday and argued that the officers had abused their power and had betrayed the public trust. They did not make racial motivations the primary issue of the case. To counter the arguments of the prosecution, the defense argued that on the night of the arrest King was drunk and aggressive. He was able to withstand the force of two stun-gun darts, which led the officers to believe that he was also under the influence of illegal drugs. The defense also used the videotape. They played it in slow motion, analyzing each frame and 52


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Video Activism ...................................................................................

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he King case highlights the power of portable video cameras as tools ordinary citizens can use to record and document news in their communities, often the kind of news not covered by traditional media. Legal experts agree that without George Holliday’s video, it is likely that the King case would never have gone to trial at all. The term “video activist” has come to be applied to people who make and spread video documentation of events they consider important or overlooked. As the Internet has grown, video activists have found multiple ways to spread video documents around the world. This kind of activism has been especially important in cases of civil unrest or human rights abuse abroad. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), for example, taught women to use video cameras under their burqas (head-totoe covering worn by some Muslim women) to record abuses of women under the Taliban (an ultra-Islamist political group in Afghanistan). Iranians used their cellular telephones to record and send videos of the massive demonstrations that broke out after the disputed presidential election of June 2009. And in Burma a network of underground video activists risked their lives to document the oppressive conditions in their country.

arguing that each blow delivered by a policeman was given in response to specific aggressive actions by King. They did not play the audio portion of the videotape, which included numerous racial slurs. After six weeks of testimony and six hours of deliberation, the jury found the police officers not guilty. Within hours of the verdict’s announcement, a massive riot broke out in the city of Los Angeles. The violence left 54 people dead, more than 2500 injured, and nearly 1100 businesses destroyed. A mob even lit a fire in City Hall. Whole city blocks were burned. Angry minority youths began attacking white motorists, including an ill-fated truck driver named Reginald Denny, who nearly died after being beaten with bricks and bats as a helicopter hovered above recording the incident. Finally, the violence on the streets was quelled by a show of force from the National Guard. Civil Rights Charges and the Aftermath of the Riot While residents tried to rebuild the damaged neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the U.S. Justice Department charged the four police officers from African American Eras

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the King case with civil rights violations. This choice was controversial. Many people thought it was unfair for the officers to be tried twice. Nevertheless, a jury of nine whites, two blacks, and one Latino found two of the officers guilty of violating King’s civil rights on April 17, 1993. The two other officers were acquitted. Though the city remained tense and polarized during the second trial, further violence was avoided.

A man wears a “Justice for King” t shirt at the civil trial of the police officers who beat African American motorist Rodney King. The African American community was outraged when the police officers were acquitted of charges in their criminal trial in 1992. ª Ted Soqui/Sygma/ Corbis

The King trial led to heightened awareness about police brutality. Many organizations began to focus on monitoring and preventing police abuse. For instance, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a guide to help organizations monitor police departments. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has also made monitoring abuse by police a priority. The beating of Rodney King prompted broad reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department and other police departments across the country. An African American police officer, Willie Williams (c. 1943– ), took over as the Los Angeles police chief after the former chief, Daryl Gates (1926– ), resigned following the riots. Williams promised greater minority recruitment on the police force and better interaction between police officers and the communities they are hired to protect and serve.

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LOUIS FARRAKHAN ORGANIZES THE MILLION MAN MARCH The Million Man March was held in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1995. It was organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a coalition of black religious leaders of various denominations. It sought to give African American males the chance to demonstrate unity and brotherhood. According to its organizers, the rally would give African American males—often stereotyped as bad husbands, fathers, and community members—the chance to publicly recommit to their families, jobs, and churches. Farrakhan advertised the march as a “day of atonement.” At this time, black males would be called upon to examine their lives and seek ways to improve themselves. The turnout for the march astounded the city and the media: an estimated 830,000 people attended. The Million Man March became one of

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TO PI CS IN THE NE W S

Thousands of African American men gather on the Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Million Man March in 1995. Richard Ellis/ AFP/Getty Images

the largest demonstrations in American history and the largest assembly of black Americans ever. It was attended by working-, middle-, and upper-class African American men, as well as film stars, recording artists, and prominent activists and politicians. These included the civil rights activists Jesse Jackson and Benjamin Chavis (1948– ), Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry (1936– ), and Illinois senatorial candidate Barack Obama. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, numerous speakers encouraged African American males to cast off the media-generated image of black men as irresponsible African American Eras

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and criminal. They encouraged them to assert themselves as motivated and united. The Million Man March reminded the country overall that civil rights activists remained dedicated to raising awareness of racism and inequality. The march was meant to call to memory the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. Prior to the march, journalists had been skeptical as to whether it would succeed, particularly because it was being organized and led by Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan is a controversial Muslim minister whose extreme views have long been criticized both in the media and by his fellow African American leaders. He is an advocate of clean, drug-free living, commitment to family, and self-empowerment for blacks. But he is just as well known for his anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) rhetoric, antiwhite speeches, and advocacy of radical black separatism. Nevertheless, the march was attended by many of Farrakhan’s former critics, who supported the idea of the event if not its organizer. Farrakhan himself was the featured speaker. He delivered a lengthy sermon, in which he encouraged black men to be good husbands and fathers, to work with black-owned businesses, and to join grassroots political efforts. Women were not invited to participate in the Million Man March. Farrakhan and the other male leaders were criticized for this decision. Many feminists—both black and white—condemned the rally as sexist. Black feminist and radical scholar Angela Davis, as well as poet and activist Amiri Baraka, led the criticism of the event’s exclusion of black women. Davis argued that if the event were really an opportunity for African American men to repent for former mistreatment of black women, then the starting point should be to include women in the event. Perhaps in response to this criticism of the Million Man March, Louis Farrakhan and his fellow organizers went on to expand the scope of the march. They invited women and children to participate in the Million Family March held on October 16, 2000. Women and children were also included in the Millions More March five years later. The march was organized to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Million Man March. Both of these events drew large crowds, though the numbers of attendees were significantly lower than that of the 1995 march.

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HURRICANE KATRINA HIGHLIGHTS RACIAL INEQUALITIES In the early morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the coast of Louisiana. It was one of the deadliest, costliest natural disasters in American history. It crippled the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. While gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina had been 56


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Activism and Reform

........................................................

TO PI CS IN THE NE W S

Hurricane Katrina buried much of the city of New Orleans under water in 2005. AP Images

classified a category 5 hurricane. By the time it hit New Orleans it had been reclassified as a less severe category 3, but it still brought winds of 125 miles per hour. Then-president George W. Bush (1946– ) declared a state of emergency in the Gulf coast region in the week leading up to the hurricane. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin (1956– ) issued a mandatory evacuation for citizens of the city on the day before the hurricane made landfall. Nevertheless, thousands of residents remained in the city when the hurricane arrived. Most of them were elderly and the poorer members of the large African American community in New Orleans. The hurricane struck with even more devastating effects than those predicted by National Weather Service and disaster relief agencies. Aside from damage caused by winds and rain, the levee system (intended to stop flooding from the nearby Mississippi River) failed in more than fifty places. African American Eras

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The flooding that resulted left 80 percent of the city under water. Tens of thousands of victims waited for rescue on the rooftops of buildings while the flood waters rose. With a large part of the city below sea level, entire neighborhoods flooded. One of the hardest hit areas was New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, one of the poorest sections of the city with a mostly African American population. The day before the storm, Mayor Nagin announced that several civic buildings—in particular, the Louisiana Superdome—would be converted to “refuges of last resort” for New Orleans citizens who could not get out of the city. After the initial destruction caused by the hurricane, thousands of residents flocked to the Superdome, which itself had been hard hit in the landfall, suffering holes in its roof. The majority of these citizens were African American. Many of them had fled the dangerous conditions of the Ninth Ward. The Superdome was grossly underprepared for the care of so many evacuees, and conditions in the arena declined rapidly. Lacking food, water, health care, and sanitation, the Superdome was quickly overtaken by a sense of despair and panic. Media reports of the chaos in the Superdome horrified the American public. Meanwhile, desperation in the aftermath of the storm was affecting the streets of New Orleans as well. The media documented widespread looting, violence, and general lawlessness in the streets of the city. Survivors, evacuees, and journalists reported seeing the dead bodies of humans and animals floating in the flooded streets of the city, and mobs roaming through abandoned buildings. In response, thousands of National Guard and federal troops were sent to New Orleans to help local authorities restore order. By September 4, all evacuees had been removed from the Superdome. On September 6, Mayor Nagin announced a mandatory evacuation of the city for all individuals not involved with clean-up or rescue work. The sluggish, uncoordinated governmental response to the situation in New Orleans after the hurricane sparked outrage and anger. Many believed that race and racism played a dominant role in the federal government’s slow response to the catastrophe. The administration of George W. Bush, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), came under heavy fire. Critics condemned government agencies for mismanagement and lack of leadership during the hurricane and its aftermath. Critics questioned why mandatory evacuation orders were not issued earlier than one day before the storm. They asked why more effort was not made to reach poor citizens who relied on public transportation for removal. The Katrina disaster sparked condemnation outside the United States as well, as leaders from around the world expressed shock that there could be such little regard for the welfare of the poor in a country as wealthy as the United States.

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Four years after the disaster, New Orleans showed signs of recovery. Before the hurricane, the city had a population of about 480,000. That number dwindled to about 200,000 following the storm. By March 2009, the population had rebounded to more than 300,000, and rebuilding efforts in the city were robust. In fact, despite an economic downturn in the rest of the country in 2008 and 2009, New Orleans enjoyed a bustling business environment (driven to a large degree by new construction projects) and an unemployment rate of only 5.3 percent, significantly lower than the near10 percent average national unemployment rate.



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JENA SIX CASE STIRS RACIAL SENTENCING DEBATE On December 4, 2006, six African American teenagers in the small town of Jena, Louisiana, were arrested after attacking and severely beating a white seventeen-year-old named Justin Barker at their high school. The Jena Six, as they came to be known, ranged in age from fourteen to eighteen. All of the youths, with the exception of Jesse Ray Beard (who was fourteen at the time of the attack), were initially charged with attempted murder. They were to be tried as adults. Many journalists following the story of the assault argued that the charges were not only excessive but racially motivated. Jena, a predominantly white town, was well known for racial tension. In the months leading up to the attack on Barker, white students had hung nooses from a tree on school grounds, a reference to the lynchings (illegal hangings) of thousands of African Americans by whites in the years after the Civil War. The principal had suggested expulsion for the guilty students, but the school board had overruled his recommendation. It reduced their punishment to three days of in-school suspension. In the wake of this decision, disagreements between black and whites increased. There were frequent fistfights. The media and equal rights activists soon took a strong interest in the Jena Six case. Many activists saw in the case evidence that the racial hatred of the pre–civil rights era still existed in the South. They argued that white boys would not be charged with attempted murder for beating up an African American classmate. The trial of Mychal Bell garnered the most attention. Bell, who had been sixteen at the time of the attack, was nonetheless tried as an adult due to a previous criminal record that included battery charges. The district attorney, perhaps responding to the negative publicity the case was receiving, reduced the charge to second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree battery. All members of Bell’s jury were white. Bell was found guilty. He faced up to twenty-two years in prison. On September 20, 2007, the day of Bell’s sentencing, more than fifteen thousand people—including such well-known figures as Al Sharpton African American Eras

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Al Sharpton sits with the parents of a teenager accused of participating in a racially motivated attack as one of the “Jena 6” in 2007. Other members of the “Jena 6” stand behind them. AP Images

(1954– ), Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King III (1957– )—descended on Jena to protest the trial as a miscarriage of justice. The rally for the Jena Six made national news, and similar rallies were staged in support of the youths in cities across the country. In response to the controversy surrounding the trial, U.S. Representative John Conyers announced that he would hold congressional hearings on the case. He wanted to pressure the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the legality of the proceedings in Jena. Directly following his sentencing, Bell appealed his conviction. The main ground for his appeal was that he should not have been tried as an adult. The Louisiana Court of Appeals overturned Bell’s battery conviction. A month later, Judge J. P. Mauffrey found that Bell had violated his probation for his previous arrests and sent him to a juvenile detention center. The district attorney announced that the state would try Bell as a juvenile. However, before the second trial began, Bell pled guilty to a reduced charge of battery. The judge ruled that he would spend eighteen months in a juvenile detention center. As part of his plea bargain, Bell agreed not to appeal his case. The fairness of the trials of the Jena Six was further questioned in July of 2008. Judge J. P. Mauffrey—who had sentenced Bell and was in the

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process of ruling over the remaining four cases—was removed from the bench due to unprofessional public comments he had made regarding the defendants. Mauffrey allegedly made references to the obvious guilt of the Jena Six. He had indicated that he resented the publicity surrounding the trial. Supporters of the Jena Six demanded that Mauffrey be removed from the case. They questioned the legality of Bell’s trial based on the fact that Mauffrey had ruled in the case. Mauffrey was replaced. Aftwerward, the remaining four members of the Jena Six were tried as adults and convicted of battery. They were sentenced by Judge Thomas Yeager to monetary restitution and put on probation.



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AFRICAN AMERICANS FIGHT FOR GAY AND LESBIAN RIGHTS In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, African American gays and lesbians have played a vital role in the struggle against discrimination based on sexual orientation. African American gay rights activists have argued that black gays and lesbians suffer not just from sexual prejudice, but a long history of racial and economic hardship. As a result, African American activists such as Mandy Carter (1948– ), Alice Walker, Megorah Kennedy, Melvin Boozer (1945–87), and Perry Watkins (1948–96) have played central roles in gay rights issues such as same-sex marriage, gays in the military, and the disproportionate number of African Americans suffering from AIDS.

Much like the women’s liberation movement, the gay rights movement was inspired by the fight for civil rights in the 1960s. Still, many gays and lesbians criticized civil rights leaders for denying full rights to homosexuals. In particular, gay activists were angered by the treatment of Bayard Rustin (1910–87). Rustin was a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. He organized the 1963 March on Washington, one of King’s most important events, but he was denied credit for his efforts. Rustin, a brilliant civil rights organizer and open homosexual, was frequently harassed and jailed by police. He was also discriminated against within civil rights organizations. Many African American leaders were concerned that Rustin’s sexual orientation would reduce support for the civil rights movement. African American congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908–72), who was a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s board of directors, forced Rustin’s resignation from the organization. He threatened to discuss Rustin’s homosexuality in Congress. Rustin faced being further outcast when the FBI released a photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was in a bathtub, which was meant to imply a same-sex relationship between the two. Both men denied any sexual relationship between them. Rustin eventually left the movement to lobby for human rights through the African American Eras

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A black lesbian feminist holds a poster to identify herself at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, California. ª Bettmann/Corbis

War Resisters League, where he became a mentor to the young gay rights activist Mandy Carter. Activists in the 1970s began to make connections between the politics of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. At the same time, many black radicals, like Huey Newton of the Black Panther Party, began to include gays and lesbians in their struggles for equality. African American gays and lesbians also formed many independent organizations to represent the interests of black homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered peoples. These include the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, and the National Body of the Black Men’s and Women’s Exchange. Early in the gay pride movement, black activist, minister, and lesbian Megorah Kennedy organized the Homophile Union of Boston. The organization successfully brought attention to gay rights issues through radio shows and public forums. Her efforts were widely influential. As a result, Kennedy was the keynote speaker at the first gay pride march in Boston in 1971. Gay and lesbian groups became stronger and more vocal through the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time they also faced the threat of the spiking rate of AIDS cases in gay communities. In response, activists such as Mandy Carter attempted to stop the spread of AIDS through education and fundraising for medical research. As the AIDS epidemic began to affect black gay men more than any other group in the late 1980s and 1990s, many black gays and lesbians created new community organizations to respond to the crisis. Care centers were established, and fundraising was implemented for uninsured sufferers of the disease. In 1980 black gay activist Melvin Boozer raised awareness of these issues when he addressed the national convention of the Democratic Party. Boozer, who himself would die of an AIDS-related illness seven years later, likened the pain of homophobia to that of racism. He urged the party to come to the assistance of groups long marginalized in all aspects of society. In the 1980s and 1990s, blacks continued to play a key role in the gay rights movement. In the 1990s, for example, Mandy Carter waged a

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highly publicized campaign against the homophobia of the conservative black religious leaders and congregations. Perry Watkins, an African American gay man who was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War (1954–75), became a spokesperson against homophobic discrimination in the military. He had served for sixteen years before being discharged in 1982 because of his sexual orientation. Watkins fought the discharge for several years and finally won reinstatement when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the U.S. Army’s appeal case. He remains the only person ordered by courts to be reinstated to active military duty after being dismissed for homosexuality. He became the only openly gay person to retire with full honors from the military. In his last years, he lectured and spoke to various groups around the country on topics related to being gay and black in the military. Having tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, he also worked with terminally ill people and lobbied for AIDS education in the black community until his death in 1996.



African American activists maintain a strong voice in issues relating to gay rights. African American activists became involved when Sakia Gunn, a fifteen-year-old African American girl from New Jersey, was stabbed to death at a bus terminal in a sexuality-related hate crime. Gunn turned away the advances of two men by informing them that she was a lesbian. As a result, she was stabbed to death. After Gunn’s 2003 killing, gay and lesbian advocacy groups rallied and marched through the streets of Newark.


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P RI M AR Y SO U R C ES

 ............................................................... Primary Sources

 THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY’S 10-POINT PLATFORM

AND PROGRAM (1966) In 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California. The Panthers implemented many social programs, such as education, job training, and providing breakfasts for children. Still, the group was best known for monitoring black neighborhoods to guard against police brutality and signs of racial discrimination. They dressed in paramilitary uniforms and carried loaded weapons. Founders Seale and Newton outlined their agenda for the party in the following platform, written in 1966. The platform blames racism and capitalism for the problems facing the black community, and calls for African American self-determination.

............................ 1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE D E S T I N Y O F O U R BL A C K C O M M U N I T Y . We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE. We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALIST OF OUR BLACK COMMUNITY. We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make. 64


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4 . W E W A N T D E C E N T H O U S I N G , F IT F O R S H E L T E R O F H U M A N B E I N G S . We believe that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.

5. WE WANT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE O F T H I S D E C A D E N T A M E R I C A N S O C I E T Y . W E W A N T E D U C A T I O N T H AT T E A C H E S U S O U R T R U E H I S T OR Y A N D O U R R O L E I N T H E P R E S E N T - D A Y S O C I E T Y .

Cooperative An organization or business owned by and operated for the benefit of those it serves

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.

6 . W E W A N T A L L BL A C K M E N T O BE E X E M P T F R O M M I L I T A R Y S E R V I C E . We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary.

7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE. We believe we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves for self-defense.

Arms Weapons

8 . W E W A N T F R E E D O M F OR AL L B L A C K M E N H E L D I N F E D E R A L , S T A T E , C O U N T Y A N D C I T Y P R I S O N S A N D JA I L S . We believe that all black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

9 . W E W A N T A L L B L A C K P E O P L E W H E N B R O U G H T T O T R I A L T O B E T RI E D IN C O U R T B Y A J U R Y O F T H E I R P E E R G R O U P OR P E O P L E F R O M T H E IR BL A C K C O M M U N I T I E S , A S D E F I N E D BY T H E C O N S T I T U T I O N O F T H E UN I T E D S T A T E S . We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that black people will receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been, and are being, tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of the “average reasoning man” of the black community. African American Eras

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1 0 . W E W A N T L A N D , B R E A D , H O U S I N G , E D U C A T I O N , C LO T H I N G , J U S T IC E A N D P E A C E . AN D A S O U R M A J O R P O L I T I C A L OB J E C T I V E , A U N I T E D NATIONS-SUPERVISED PLEBISCITE TO BE HELD THROUGHOUT THE BLACK C O L O N Y I N W H I C H O N L Y BL AC K C O L O N I A L S U B J E C T S W I L L B E A L L O W E D T O P A R T I C I P A T E , F O R T H E P U R P O S E OF DE T E R M I N I N G T H E WI L L O F B L A C K P E O P L E A S T O T H E I R N A T I O N A L DE S T I N Y . When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Unalienable Incapable of being transferred or given away

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

 ROBERT F. KENNEDY’S SPEECH ANNOUNCING THE DEATH OF

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (1968) In 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy, brother of slain president John F. Kennedy, announced himself as a Democratic candidate for president. He was running on a strong anti-war, pro-civil rights platform. Kennedy’s bid for the Democratic nomination was gaining momentum, and on April 4, 1968, he was in Indianapolis, Indiana, to address a rally of mostly African American supporters. Shortly after he arrived in Indianapolis, he was informed that civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. Advisors thought he should cancel the campaign stop, but Kennedy insisted on going. He found a cheerful and enthusiastic crowd waiting for him, and it fell to Kennedy to break the painful news that the beloved King had been gunned down. Kennedy knew that the news of King’s death could provoke

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anger, and even violence, in the African American community. He spoke without notes or advance preparation, and his call for calm, restraint, and healing is considered by many political historians to be one of the greatest impromptu speeches in American history. Tragically, Kennedy was also assassinated just two months later.


P R IM A RY SO U RC E S

............................ Ladies and Gentlemen. I’m only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because . . . I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black—considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible—you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization—black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.

Polarization Division into two opposing parts

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times. My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

Aeschylus Ancient Greek playwright and poet

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that’s true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love—a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the African American Eras

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past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it’s not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much.

 COMMISSION

TO STUDY REPARATION PROPOSALS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ACT (1989) Representative John Conyers (1929– ) of Michigan first introduced H.R. 40, proposing a commission to study slavery reparations proposals, to Congress in 1989. Reparations are payments or considerations given as a means of acknowledging and attempting to right a past wrong. In this case, the reparations would be made to address the wrong done by slavery in the United States. Conyers’s bill has never become law. He reintroduced it in every session of Congress since 1989. The bill proposes that a commission study the institution of slavery and its effects and propose possible remedies.

............................ A BILL: To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.”

SECTION 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. (a) Findings- The Congress finds that— 1. approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865; 2. the institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 1865; 68


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3. the slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans’ life, liberty, African citizenship rights, and cultural heritage, and denied them the fruits of their own labor; and 4. sufficient inquiry has not been made into the effects of the institution of slavery on living African-Americans and society in the United States.



(b) Purpose- The purpose of this Act is to establish a commission to— 1. examine the institution of slavery which existed from 1619 through 1865 within the United States and the colonies that became the United States, including the extent to which the Federal and State Governments constitutionally and statutorily supported the institution of slavery; 2. examine discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present, including economic, political, and social discrimination; 3. examine the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the discrimination described in paragraph (2) on living African-Americans and on society in the United States; 4. recommend appropriate ways to educate the American public of the Commission’s findings; 5. recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commission’s findings on the matters described in paragraphs (1) and (2); and 6. submit to the Congress the results of such examination, together with such recommendations.

S E C T IO N 3 . E S T A B L I S H M E N T AN D D U T I E S . (a) Establishment—There is established the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the “Commission”). (b) Duties- The Commission shall perform the following duties: 1. Examine the institution of slavery which existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 through 1865. The Commission’s examination shall include an examination of: (A) the capture and procurement of Africans; (B) the transport of Africans to the United States and the colonies that became the United States for the purpose of enslavement, including their treatment during transport; (C) the sale and acquisition of Africans as chattel property in interstate and intrastate commerce; and (D) the treatment of African slaves in the colonies and the United States, including the deprivation of their freedom, exploitation of their labor, and destruction of their culture, language, religion, and families. 2. Examine the extent to which the Federal and State governments of the United States supported the institution of slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions, including the extent to which such governments prevented, opposed, or restricted efforts of freed African slaves to repatriate to their homeland. 3. Examine Federal and State laws that discriminated against freed African slaves and their descendants during the period between the end of the Civil War and the present. African American Eras

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4. Examine other forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against freed African slaves and their descendants during the period between the end of the Civil War and the present. 5. Examine the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4) on living African-Americans and on society in the United States. 6. Recommend appropriate ways to educate the American public of the Commission’s findings. 7. Recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commission’s findings on the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4). In making such recommendations, the Commission shall address among other issues, the following questions: (A) Whether the Government of the United States should offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of the United States for the perpetration of gross human rights violations on African slaves and their descendants. (B) Whether African-Americans still suffer from the lingering effects of the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4). (C) Whether, in consideration of the Commission’s findings, any form of compensation to the descendants of African slaves is warranted. (D) If the Commission finds that such compensation is warranted, what should be the amount of compensation, what form of compensation should be awarded, and who should be eligible for such compensation. (c) Report to Congress- The Commission shall submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Congress not later than the date which is one year after the date of the first meeting of the Commission held pursuant to section 4(c).

S E C T I O N 5 . P O W E R S O F T H E C O M M IS S I O N .

Subpoena Court order commanding someone to appear in court

(a) Hearings and Sessions—The Commission may, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act, hold such hearings and sit and act at such times and at such places in the United States, and request the attendance and testimony of such witnesses and the production of such books, records, correspondence, memoranda, papers, and documents, as the Commission considers appropriate. The Commission may request the Attorney General to invoke the aid of an appropriate United States district court to require, by subpoena or otherwise, such attendance, testimony, or production. (b) Powers of Subcommittees and Members—Any subcommittee or member of the Commission may, if authorized by the Commission, take any action which the Commission is authorized to take by this section. (c) Obtaining Official Data—The Commission may acquire directly from the head of any department, agency, or instrumentality of the executive branch of the Government, available information which the Commission considers useful in the discharge of its duties. All departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the executive branch of the Government shall cooperate with the Commission with respect to such information and shall furnish all information requested by the Commission to the extent permitted by law.

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1. One of the most widely watched and politically charged events of the past decade was Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of the city of New Orleans, a city with a majority African American population, in 2005. Watch director Spike Lee’s documentary film When the Levees Broke (2006). Think about how race influenced the nation’s reaction to this disaster. Then use the Internet to research the reviews of the film. What are some common criticisms of the film? Write a paper in which you respond to three of them. You can agree or disagree with the criticisms. Consider the following questions as you write. Do you feel that Spike Lee provides an objective view of the event and its aftermath? How does he characterize the city and the nation’s relationship to race? What are some storytelling techniques Lee uses to get his points across? Are the techniques successful?


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2. The Million Man March was a 1995 rally in Washington, D.C., organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Its goal was to offer a positive image of African American manhood to the country. Use the Internet to find news media coverage of the Million Man March from major newspapers and magazines. Write a paper comparing and contrasting two articles you find about the event. Be sure to point out three differences and three similarities between the two articles. Think about some of the following issues: How does each article depict Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan? Is he portrayed in a positive or negative light? How does each article depict the purpose and goals of the event? Does the article seem to suggest that the event was a success? 3. Since the civil rights era, the concept of slavery reparations has been discussed by both activists and politicians. Reparations would be some kind of compensation given to the descendents of African American slaves both for the abuse suffered by their ancestors and in acknowledgement of the economic benefits the United States enjoyed as a result of slave labor. Use the Internet to research the history and controversy over the issue of reparations for slavery in the United States. Next, pretend you and your classmates are advisers to the president of the United States. Divide yourselves into equal-sized groups. One group will support a reparations bill, and the other will oppose it. Take a few minutes to discuss your strategies and arguments. Then stage a debate between the two groups. If possible, use historical facts and examples to support your claims. Be sure to make the best possible arguments you can think of for your side, even if you do not personally agree with them. African American Eras

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4. African American churches and church leaders have played a leading role in the civil rights movement since the 1950s. Churches have not played a central role in the push for equal rights for women or homosexuals. Write a paper offering possible explanations for why black church leaders were and continue to be so active and successful in the civil rights movement and why churches have not played a similar role on behalf of women and homosexuals. Base your arguments on research conducted in your library and on the Internet. 5. With a group of classmates, review the Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Platform reprinted in the Primary Sources section of this chapter. For each point, try to answer the following questions: Has this demand been met in some way? If so, how? If this demand has not been met, will meeting it help the African American community? If so, why? If not, why not? What steps, if any, should be taken to achieve the unfulfilled goals of the Platform?

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BOOKS

Alexander Floyd, Nikol G. Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Contemporary Black Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Baker Fletcher, Garth Kasimu, ed. Black Religion After the Million Man March: Voices on the Future. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1998. Bernstein, Samuel, ed. Uncommon Heroes: A Celebration of Heroes and Role Models for Gay and Lesbian Americans. Atlanta: Fletcher Press, 1994. Bittker, Boris I. The Case for Black Reparations. New York: Random House, 1973. Carson, Clayborne. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2008. Curry, George E. The Affirmative Action Debate. Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1996. Foner, Philip S. The Black Panthers Speak. New York: Da Capo, 1995. Johnson, Ollie A., and Karin L. Stanford. Black Political Organizations in the Post Civil Rights Era. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Lazarow, Jama, and Yohuru Williams, eds. In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006. Madhubuti, Haki R., and Maulana Karenga, eds. Million Man March/Day of Absence: A Commemorative Anthology. Chicago: Third World Press, 1996. Martin, Michael T., and Marilyn Yaquinto. Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States: On Reparations for Slavery, Jim Crow, and Their Legacies. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007. 72


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Morris, Lorenzo, ed. The Social and Political Implications of the 1984 Jesse Jackson Presidential Campaign. New York: Praeger, 1990.

Activism and Reform

Ogbar, Jeffrey Ogbonna Green. Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

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Robinson, Randall. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. New York: Dutton, 2000. Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. New York: Harvest, 1983.

PERIODICALS Browne, Robert S. “The Economic Basis for Reparations to Black America.” The Review of Black Political Economy 21:3 (1993): pp. 99 110. Ellis, David. “L.A. Lawless.” Time (May 11, 1992). McWhorter, John. “Against Reparations.” New Republic (July 23, 2001): pp. 32 38. Meyerson, Harold. “Fractured City.” New Republic (May 25, 1992). Orlans, Harold, and June O’Neill, eds. “Affirmative Action Revisited.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (September 1992): p. 50. Payton, Brenda. “Reparations Now?” Nation 253:1 (July 1, 1991): p. 10. Pickney, Darryl. “Slouching Towards Washington.” New York Review of Books (December 21, 1995): pp. 73 81.


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cha pte r t wo

Chronology . . . . . . . . . 76 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 78 Headline Makers . . . . . . 80 Maya Angelou . . Jean Michel Basquiat Octavia Butler . . Savion Glover . . Bill T. Jones . . . Wynton Marsalis . Toni Morrison . . Suzan Lori Parks . Faith Ringgold . . Ntozake Shange . . Alice Walker . . .

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Topics in the News . . . . . 106 Black Arts Movement Showcases African American Artistic Expression . . . . . . . . 106

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Dance Theatre of Harlem Opens Its Doors . . . . Black Playwrights Shake Up the World of Theater . . Free Jazz and Traditional Jazz Both Flower . . . Organization of Black American Culture Inspires Black Visual Artists . . . Graffiti Becomes a New Kind of Folk Art . . . . . . African American Poets Reach New Heights . . Black Women Authors Find Mainstream Success . . Opera Opens Up to African Americans . . . . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 Alex Haley publishes The Autobiography of Malcolm X. 1965 African American poet Dudley Randall founds Broadside Press as an outlet for African American writers, among the first of many such publishing houses founded over the next few years. 1965 March LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) renounces his ties to the white literary community and moves to Harlem after the assassination of Malcolm X. Many date this event as the beginning of the Black Arts Movement.

1977 Ntozake Shange’s critically acclaimed performance piece For Colored Girls is nominated for a Tony Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award. 1979 Graffiti artists Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy show their graffiti work at a gallery in Rome, spreading the style outside of New York City for the first time. 1982 The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is founded in New York. Jones and Zane were groundbreaking African American choreographers.

1968 Black Fire: An Anthology of AfroAmerican Writing, edited by LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal, is published.

1982 Alice Walker wins the Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award for The Color Purple.

1969 Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook found the Dance Theatre of Harlem, which is credited with bringing ballet to African American audiences and with bringing African American performers to ballet.

1983 Graffiti artist and neo-expressionist painter Jean-Michel Basquiat has several one-man exhibitions, meeting and befriending legendary pop artist Andy Warhol in the process.

1970 Maya Angelou publishes her landmark autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

1984 Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis becomes the first recording artist to win Grammy Awards for best classical soloist and best jazz soloist in the same year.

1970 Toni Morrison publishes her novel The Bluest Eye, launching her literary career. 1972 January 31 Over 40,000 mourners attend the funeral of gospel singing legend Mahalia Jackson. 1976 Alex Haley publishes Roots, a fictionalized account of his ancestors’ experiences in America based on family oral tradition.

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1988 Toni Morrison wins the Pulitzer Prize for her 1987 novel Beloved. 1991 Faith Ringgold publishes her acclaimed children’s book Tar Beach, a reflection on the times she spent as a child on the tarpaper roof of her family’s New York apartment building.

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......................................................................................... 1993 Toni Morrison is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first African American woman to win the prize. 1993 Rita Dove becomes the youngest poet ever to be named poet laureate of the United States. Dove is only the third African American to hold the position. 1993 January 20 Maya Angelou, invited to give a poetry reading at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, reads “On the Pulse of Morning.” Angelou is just the second poet in U.S. history to recite at a presidential inauguration. 1995 Octavia Butler becomes the first science fiction writer to be awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Grant. 1995 December 22 The film adaptation of Terry McMillan’s book Waiting to Exhale premiers. It is the first hit movie to feature an all-black cast and ushers in a new genre of films targeted specifically towards African American audiences. 1996 April 25 The revolutionary dance production Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk, featuring choreography by Savion Glover, opens on Broadway to rave reviews. 1999 Wynton Marsalis releases a total of eight recordings in a single calendar year. 2001 Tyler Perry publishes Diary of a Mad Black Woman, the first of his plays centered on the extremely popular character Madea.

2002 April 8 Suzan-Lori Parks wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Topdog/Underdog. She is the first African American woman to win the award. 2004 Edward P. Jones wins the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Known World. 2006 December 10 Spring Awakening, a critically acclaimed musical set in nineteenth-century Germany, opens on Broadway. Bill T. Jones goes on to win a 2007 Tony Award for choreography for his work in the production. 2007 Kara Walker, known for her distinctive cut-out silhouette art depicting sometimes disturbing imagery drawn from black history, is chosen as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential Artists and Entertainers. 2007 April 17 Poet and professor Nikki Giovanni gains national attention for rallying the traumatized students of Virginia Tech after a student massacre on campus, speaking and reciting poetry at a campus convocation. 2008 October 4 Tyler Perry opens Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Tyler Perry Studios is the first African American-owned film studio in the United States. 2009 January 21 African American poet Elizabeth Alexander recites her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama.


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The period from 1965 to the present has been one of the most productive times for African American arts in all of American history. Not since the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s has there been a period filled with such creativity and experimentation. Unlike the Harlem Renaissance (a flowering of African American arts centered in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood), this new period resulted in levels of critical and financial success never conceived of before in African American arts. The spark for this new age of African American arts came in 1965 with the beginning of the so-called black arts movement. The black arts movement was inspired by the civil rights and black nationalist movements. Black nationalism involved the positive definition and cultivation of African American identity as separate and distinct from mainstream white identity. Like the black nationalists, supporters of the black arts movement endorsed a policy of non-integration with white society. They saw white society as hateful, poisonous, and unapproachable. The ideas underlying black arts were community support, education in black cultural history, and pride in the African roots of black creativity. These ideas caused controversy, both within the African American creative community and in wider American society. Nevertheless, the black arts movement led to an explosion of black-owned and -operated publishing houses, theaters, dance troupes, magazines, and galleries in the 1960s and 1970s. African American studies departments were formed at universities, often after considerable struggle. Black literary criticism became a legitimate and respected field for literature professors. African American playwrights, actors, musicians, dancers, and artists also found themselves with new opportunities. Young audiences were eager to see their work. In 1970, Charles Gordone (1925–95) became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama (for No Place to Be Somebody). The Dance Theatre of Harlem, which opened in 1969, saw its enrollment jump from thirty students to four hundred in the span of two months. The black arts movement played a critical role in unleashing a great untapped pool of creative potential in the African American community. The passions that fueled the creation of the black arts movement soon cooled. As the movement fell apart in the mid-1970s, it was replaced by an increasing focus on the issues facing women of color. Authors such as Alice Walker (1944– ) and Toni Morrison (1931– ) and artists like Faith Ringgold (1930– ) created compelling work that won both praise and nationwide followings. Their works gave voice to the experiences of African American women in a way that had rarely been seen before. Morrison in particular 78


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became the leading figure in African American letters, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She was the first African American woman to be so honored. That same year, noted African American poet Maya Angelou (1928– ) recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Angelou was the first poet to recite at a presidential inauguration in more than thirty years. Clinton (1946– ) appointed African American poet Rita Dove (1952– ) as poet laureate of the United States in 1993.

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O VE RV IE W

Initially dismissed merely as vandalism, graffiti was recognized in the early 1980s by many in the art world as a legitimate form of folk art. JeanMichel Basquiat (1960–88), who began his career as a graffiti artist, became the toast of the art world in the mid-1980s for his urban, expressive paintings. While Basquiat brought street art into galleries and museums, African American dancers like Savion Glover (1973– ) and musicians like Wynton Marsalis (1961– ) reintroduced and reinvigorated traditional artistic forms. Glover breathed new life into tap dancing with his 1995 hit Broadway show Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk. Marsalis reclaimed and modernized traditional jazz for a whole new generation of music fans. As the twenty-first century began, African American artists continued to win acclaim and occupy leadership positions in all major artistic areas. Suzan-Lori Parks (1963– ) became the first African American woman to earn a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002. Author Edward Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2004 for his novel The Known World. As of 2010 Wynton Marsalis served as the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, a position he had held since 1995. And in 2009 August Wilson’s 1988 Tony Award–winning play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone was revived to great acclaim on Broadway. In fact, President Barack Obama (1961– ) saw the show with his wife shortly after taking office in January 2009.


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MAYA ANGELOU (1928– )

One of the giants of American literature, Maya Angelou had humble beginnings. Her extraordinary life path is chronicled in a six-volume series of autobiographies. The first of these volumes, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), is perhaps her best-known work. She grew up in the rural, segregated South of the 1930s. During that time, Angelou suffered racism and sexual abuse that left her with a mental trauma that prevented her from speaking for five years. Over the course of a remarkable lifetime, Angelou has gone on to make her mark as poet, author, singer, dancer, playwright, director, and activist. Angelou’s early life is documented in her works of autobiographical literature. Angelou has stated that she never let “facts” get in the way of “truth” in her stories, but the basic outline of her life story is straightforward. She was born Marguerite Johnson. By the time she was three years old, her parents had divorced. She was put on a train with her four-year-old brother, Bailey Jr., bound for the home of her father’s mother in Stamps, Arkansas.

Author and poet Maya Angelou in 2008. Jemai Countess/WireImage

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Troubled Early Life Up to this point in her brief life, Angelou had lived in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Her journey to a life in a small town in the South marks the beginning of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou’s grandmother, whom she calls “Momma,” ran the town’s only black-owned general store. Despite a life of poverty, she managed to make enough money to keep her small family off government welfare. In addition to the shift from urban to rural living, Angelou quickly learned the realities of being black in the South of the 1930s. She experienced racial hatred, segregation, and degradation.

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Angelou went back to St. Louis to live with her mother at the age of seven. There, she was introduced to her mother’s new boyfriend. He was a man Angelou immediately took to as a comforter, provider, and father figure. That trust was shattered when the man raped Angelou at the age of eight. As a result of the rape, and her feeling of guilt after her molester was beaten to death in prison, Angelou stopped talking for a period of five years. Angelou’s grandmother nurtured her and helped in her healing process. It was during this time that Angelou began writing poetry as a way to express herself. As a teenager, she moved to San Francisco to rejoin her mother, who by that point was earning a living as a professional gambler. Angelou thrived in the big city. She took drama and dance lessons on a scholarship with the California Labor School. Angelou got pregnant at the age of sixteen and gave birth to a son, Guy. She would later recall his birth as the best thing that ever happened to her. Angelou tried to make a life for herself and her young son by working as a nightclub waitress in San Diego. She also worked as a madam, or a person who manages prostitutes. She tried to return to Stamps, but she could not tolerate the racism and segregation. She reached the lowest point in her life around this time. She began to slide into drug addiction. She was saved from this grim fate only by witnessing her brother’s own struggles with addiction and by the support of friends who helped her stop using drugs. When she was twenty-two, Angelou married a white sailor named Tosh Angelos. Though the marriage would only last just over two years, it did provide her with a new name. She adopted “Maya” as her given name after the name her brother called her when they were children. For her last name she modified the spelling of her married name. Angelou recounted the experiences of her young adulthood in Gather Together in My Name (1974). With her new name, Angelou began a career in dance. She danced at local nightclubs before getting noticed and put on the bill at San Francisco’s legendary Purple Onion. She soon had other engagements across the country. Angelou won a place on a government-funded touring performance of the jazz opera Porgy and Bess. The opera toured Europe and Africa from 1953 to African American Eras

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1954. The tour was a turning point in Angelou’s life. She thrived on the pride and discipline that came with putting on a good show night after night. She treasured the fact that she was no longer being judged for her race or gender but for her abilities. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), Angelou’s third autobiographical work, recalls her time on stage. Time in Africa and Civil Rights Activism When Angelou returned from Europe, she was determined to be more politically active. Many in the black artistic community felt the same way at the end of the 1950s. It was at this time that she decided to pursue writing seriously. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild and co-wrote a musical revue in 1960 called Cabaret for Freedom. Her efforts got her noticed by leading figures in the civil rights movement. She was asked by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) to become the northern coordinator for his civil rights group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

In late 1961, Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt, after meeting a South African freedom fighter named Vusumzi Make. Never married, the two lived together for several years. Their bumpy relationship was broken apart by Make’s infidelities and unwillingness to accommodate Angelou’s career. Her relationship and her civil rights work form the bulk of the story in her fourth autobiographical work, The Heart of a Woman (1981). From Cairo, Angelou moved to Ghana. She only meant to stay a short while, but Angelou fell in love with the country. She saw in its citizens distant relations and kindred spirits. Unfortunately, the locals did not return her feelings. Some saw her chiefly as an American with “American faults.” Angelou worked as a newspaper editor and taught classes at the University of Ghana. She gained fluency in the local language, Fanti, adding to her already impressive list of mastered languages. She also speaks French, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic. Her time in Ghana is recounted in her book All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Finding no permanent home in Ghana, Angelou would write in A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002) of her return to the United States. She intended to work with the controversial civil rights leader Malcolm X (1925–65). His assassination in 1965 left Angelou with little idea of what to do with her life. After a singing job in Hawaii fell through, she moved to the Watts district of Los Angeles. She arrived shortly before the large-scale race riot of August 1965. The residents of Watts rioted for six days after tensions between the African American community and police officers came to a boiling point. The violence of the riots, and the national media’s distorted coverage of the reasons behind them, sent Angelou into a depression. Her depression was lifted by the opportunity to once again work with Dr. Martin Luther King. Tragically, this too was cut short by King’s 1968 assassination. 82


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Distinguished Writing Career From this last tragedy, Angelou took the inspiration to begin writing in earnest. Literary friends, including legendary black author James Baldwin (1924–87), had for many years encouraged Angelou to write an autobiography. In the wake of Dr. King’s assassination, she began work on what would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

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After the publication of Caged Bird in 1970, Angelou became a successful and honored author. In addition to her books, she began to publish her poetry. Her poetry largely examines the black experience and memories of the South. Her poetry collections have proven to be as popular as her other books. They have been noted by fans and critics for their joyful, inspirational spirit. Angelou has also done some work in film and television. She penned the screenplay and score for the film Georgia, Georgia (1972). She wrote the 1979 screen adaptation of Caged Bird. She appeared in front of the camera with a role in the landmark television mini-series, Roots (1977). She also had a role in the 1995 film, How to Make an American Quilt. Towards the end of the twentieth century, Angelou became something of a national elder stateswoman. This has been helped in part by her association with talk show host Oprah Winfrey (1954– ). She has received more than thirty honorary degrees and has served on two presidential commissions. She received the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. In 1993, she became the first African American to read a poem at a presidential inauguration when she was invited to do so by President Bill Clinton (1946– ). The poem, “On the Pulse of Morning,” was a highlight of the day and was later published as a book. It was the first time a poet had delivered a reading at a presidential inauguration since 1961. In 2005, she was invited back to the White House, this time to compose and recite a Christmas poem. Her antiwar composition, “Amazing Peace,” was later published. Like “Pulse,” it became a best-seller. Angelou’s projects in the twenty-first century include hosting a radio show on Oprah Winfrey’s satellite radio channel and continuing her activism and philanthropic work.

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JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960–1988)

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 22, 1960. His father was an accountant, and he had a comfortable middleclass upbringing. From a young age, Basquiat showed a strong interest in creating art and exploring the art world. His mother frequently took her young son to museums around New York, where he saw the modern art of masters like Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Jasper Johns (1930– ), and Jean Dubuffet (1901–85). African American Eras

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Graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat poses in front of one of his works in 1988. ª Julio Donoso/Corbis Sygma

Basquiat was an intelligent student, but he proved to be a disciplinary problem for his teachers. His parents sent him to both private and public schools. At the last school he attended, City-as-School in Brooklyn, he created cartoons for the school newspaper. He dropped out of school and ran away at the age of seventeen, and, along with friend Al Diaz, began spray-painting graffiti on buildings and bridges in Manhattan. Diaz and Basquiat’s graffiti included mysterious phrases and odd symbols, always signed “SAMO,” representing the phrase “same old, same old.” Soon, Basquiat branched out and began spraying his artistic creations where influential artists were likely to see them: outside galleries and near nightclubs. To make money, Basquiat painted sweatshirts and made unique postcards, which he sold on the street. In the late 1970s, he sold some of his postcards to the Museum of Modern Art, and his work was displayed in various nightclubs where he also played guitar with an experimental rock band. In 1979, Basquiat met artist and critic Diego Cortez, who encouraged him and arranged to showcase the young artist’s work in an important exhibit called “New York/New Wave” in 1981. Several important European gallery owners took interest in his work, and Basquiat’s career was launched. In the two years that followed, Basquiat’s fame quickly increased. His work hung at the Whitney Museum, and he was selling individual paintings for anywhere from ten thousand to twenty-five thousand dollars. He spent 84


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his money as quickly as he earned it on extravagant parties, clothes, electronics—and drugs. Basquiat’s heroin and cocaine habit cost as much as $2,000 per week. His friend and artistic mentor Andy Warhol (1928–87) tried to help Basquiat get control of his life and drug habit, but the two had a personal and artistic falling out after a joint art show in 1985 was a critical failure.

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Basquiat did not have another art show in New York until 1987. The art was a return to Basquiat’s textual graffiti art, and it was a critical triumph. Personally, however, Basquiat was in turmoil. Without Warhol to help him maintain healthy habits, Basquiat soon returned to heavy heroin use. He increasingly withdrew from society. He had two moderately successful shows in 1988, but the young artist’s life was tragically cut short in August 1988. Basquiat died of a cocaine and heroin overdose, alone in his apartment.

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OCTAVIA BUTLER (1947–2006)

Octavia Butler was one of the most respected science fiction writers of the latter twentieth century. Butler’s work introduced issues of race and gender to a literary genre that had largely been dominated by white male authors and white characters. Before her death in 2006, Butler had won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. These are the top awards in science fiction writing. She also had become the first science fiction writer ever to receive the prestigious “genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Butler was born and raised in Pasadena, California. She was inspired to start writing science fiction at the age of twelve. She watched Devil Girl from Mars, a low-budget science fiction movie, on television and thought to herself that she could write a better story. Butler’s most successful book was 1979’s Kindred. Kindred was a time-travel fantasy in which a modernday African American woman has to travel back to the time of slavery in order to repeatedly save the life of the white slave owner who is destined to become the father of her direct ancestor. Butler had made her mark before she published Kindred with the socalled Patternist series, which includes five novels. The series began with 1976’s Patternmaster. Another of Butler’s notable series, the Xenogenesis trilogy, deals directly with issues of gender and ethnicity. The trilogy is also collectively called Lilith’s Brood. In 2005, Butler shifted from science fiction into fantasy with Fledgling, a vampire novel. The critically acclaimed novel was Butler’s first work in seven years. Unfortunately, it was also her last. Butler died outside her house in 2006 from an apparent stroke. African American Eras

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SAVION GLOVER (1973– )

From the age of twelve, Savion Glover was marked out as a genius of tap dance. Tap dance was a style of dance that many felt was hopelessly oldfashioned and no longer relevant. Glover’s explosive, expressive style modernized tap dancing and showcased the dance’s artistic merit. Glover expressed his approach to tap in a show he choreographed and starred in, Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk. The show premiered in 1995 to rave reviews. It combined tap dance, poetry, and percussive music—utilizing street drummers who played on buckets and pans—to tell the story of the African American struggle both in history and in modern times.

Tap dancer Savion Glover performs at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 2008. Donna Ward/Getty Images

For Savion Glover, life has always been about rhythm. His mother, Yvette, raised Glover by herself in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey. Yvette signed him up for drum lessons at the age of four. Her main reason for doing so was that she wanted to get him out of the kitchen; Glover had developed a habit of lining up pots and pans and banging out rhythms on them. When he was seven years old, Glover took his first tap-dancing lessons. His mother was too poor to afford tap shoes. As a result, his mother sent him off to his first lessons with cowboy boots on his feet. It was six months before Glover wore proper tap shoes to his lessons. Glover fell in love with the dance form and took to it readily. At the time, tap dance was associated with an older generation of dancers such as Fred Astaire (1899–1987) and Gene Kelly (1912–96). Even worse for a young black man like Glover, there were racial overtones associated with tap dancing. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878–1949), an African American, was one of the greatest tap dancers of his day. He had starred in a string of movies in the 1930s alongside child star Shirley Temple (1928– ), who was white. Due to racist attitudes at the time, Robinson had to perform in the role of a friendly, unthreatening butler next to his white co-stars in these movies. Robinson’s performances and tap dancing in general therefore had become associated with black servitude. Nevertheless, there were black tap dancers such as Sammy Davis Jr. (1925–90) and Gregory Hines (1947–2003) who continued to carry the art form forward. It was to these dancers

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that Glover would look for inspiration. Glover himself, in time, would inspire the older generation of tap dancers.

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Glover made his professional dance debut at the young age of twelve. He was cast in The Tap Dance Kid (1983) on Broadway. The show was an immediate success. Glover got his first taste of stardom, but his mother insisted that he still be allowed to lead a normal life outside of his dance commitments. Glover went on to perform in festivals and in the show Black and Blue (1989), which ran both in Paris and on Broadway. Glover appeared in the 1989 film Tap, which co-starred Hines and Davis, and the 1992 Broadway hit Jelly’s Last Jam, which also co-starred Hines. Glover’s next project exposed him to a new audience outside the world of Broadway and dance. He took a role on the popular children’s television show Sesame Street. In various episodes from 1990 to 1995, he played Savion, a dance instructor at Celina’s Dance Studio. Through his work, Glover introduced tap to a whole new generation of young viewers. As he entered maturity as a dancer, Glover looked towards a larger-scale project. He worked with George Wolfe (1954– ), his director from Jelly’s Last Jam. The two collaborated on a new Broadway show that examined the history of African American culture through dance and music. The result was Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk (1995). The show was a combination of music, poetry, and dance that explored the cruelties of slavery and the African American journey towards civil rights. The show echoed Glover’s own childhood of banging on pots and pans in his mother’s kitchen. Glover brought in two back-up musicians he had seen performing out on the street who used plastic buckets and pans as their “drum kits.” Glover choreographed the show and starred in it as well. His mission was nothing less than remaking the image of tap. He updated the look and sound of tap dance to a more urban, contemporary image. Tap forever left behind the “Bojangles” associations. Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk was praised by critics and was a huge success with audiences. Observers remarked that Glover had not only brought tap to a new generation, he had given it something it had never had: raw power and emotion. The show won Glover a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He also won a Tony Award for Best Choreography. Since producing Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk, Glover has remained active in the world of tap and other dance forms. He has appeared in television specials and movies. His most notable work was acting as cochoreographer and principal motion-capture actor for the 2005 animated movie Happy Feet. As of 2009, Glover was working on a new tap dance piece in which he would dance to the sounds of classical music. African American Eras

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BILL T. JONES (1952– )

Bill T. Jones has been a star in the world of dance since the 1970s. He originally made his mark with his partner Arnie Zane (1948–88). Together they founded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982. Jones took Zane’s death in 1988 due to AIDS-related illness and turned it into Absence, his meditation on grief and loss. Jones himself has been HIVpositive since 1985. He has headed up several projects and workshops for people with HIV and AIDS.

Choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones in 2008. ª LAN/Corbis

Bill Jones was born on February 15, 1952. He was the tenth of twelve children born to migrant farmworker parents who moved often between Florida and New York looking for work. In high school, Jones excelled at sports and became a star athlete. At the same time, he discovered a love of the stage that won him local acting awards. He enrolled at the State University of New York in Binghamton after he completed high school. Jones found the theater too conservative for his tastes. He also lost interest in athletics. In place of sports and acting he developed an interest in dance. Around the same time, he became involved in a relationship with Arnie Zane. The two were to remain a couple, both personally and professionally, until Zane’s death. Jones and Zane lived in Amsterdam for several years. They returned to New York in 1973 to co-found the American Dance Asylum with Lois Welk. The troupe’s performances were executed completely nude. They met with immediate acclaim. Jones continued his work as a dancer and choreographer over the next decade. He always worked in close consultation with Zane, whether he was dancing a solo piece or the pair was dancing a duet. Their troupe focused on large-scale productions and dances. The success and future of their company was put in jeopardy when Zane developed AIDS in the mid-1980s. At the time, the disease was little understood by the general public, and AIDS sufferers were often shunned and feared. Jones wanted to keep Zane’s illness a secret, but Zane insisted on going public with his battle. He hoped his story would help humanize the struggle against the disease.

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With Zane unable to dance, the troupe had to cut back on its performances. Soon it was in danger of bankruptcy. Arnie Zane died in 1988. That same year, a group of artists friendly to the troupe got together and raised $100,000 by selling their work. Their donated money ensured that the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company would live on.

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Jones worked through his grief over Zane’s death by creating Absence, an emotional meditation on loss. Absence had Jones dancing solo in a dance that had been designed to be a duet. The dance’s design caused him to seem off-balance on stage. It also found him taking pauses to allow his absent partner to go through his steps. In this way, it was a vivid visual demonstration of the challenges of living without a loved one. Jones continued to work through themes of death, loss, and conflict in other dance pieces. D-Man in the Waters (1989) was inspired by the AIDSrelated death of another troupe member. Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1990) blended the classic slave narrative by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811– 96) with the stories of four downtrodden women, the biblical figure Job, and a version of the Last Supper rendered (represented in art) as a 1960s “love-in.” Jones, himself HIV-positive since 1985, debuted his new piece, Still Here, in 1999. Still Here combined dance with video footage from a series of workshops Jones had conducted with people with HIV and AIDS. For the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, the troupe created what they called The Phantom Project. The project was named for the fact that Jones and Zane rarely bothered to record their dance pieces. They were always pushing on to the next project. The reconstruction and retrospective of past pieces highlighted for the troupe the momentary nature of dance as an art. In 2007, Jones won a Tony Award for Best Choreography for the hit Broadway musical Spring Awakening. He has also been honored with numerous awards, grants, and recognitions of his contributions to modern dance over the last four decades. As of 2009, Jones continued to work as a dancer and choreographer.

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WYNTON MARSALIS (1961– )

Wynton Marsalis is one of the most important figures in contemporary jazz. He has spearheaded a spirited revival of the musical form as both a performer and a composer. Marsalis was a musical prodigy as a teenager. From the time he started playing the trumpet at age twelve, Marsalis has been devoted to jazz. Yet he has also demonstrated a deep love of classical music. He has studied and integrated other forms of music as well. In addition to his African American Eras

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Jazz musician and composer Wynton Marsalis in 2005. ª Andrew Kent/Corbis

musical accomplishments, Marsalis has written books and lectures on jazz history and created and promoted jazz-related events. Wynton Marsalis was born on October 18, 1961, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the city where jazz first developed as a musical form around the turn of the twentieth century. His family was every bit as musical as his hometown. Marsalis’s father Ellis was a locally known and respected pianist and music teacher. Wynton’s three brothers—Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason—would likewise pursue musical careers. Branford (1960– ) eventually became the bandleader on the Tonight Show during Jay Leno’s (1950– ) run as host of the late-night talk show. Despite his own musical career and interests, Ellis Marsalis did not push his children into music. Wynton was twelve years old before he picked up the trumpet in a serious way. He did so after listening to Giant Steps, an album by jazz trumpet legend Clifford Brown (1930–56). Marsalis then began studying under John Longo at the New Orleans School for the Creative Arts. He developed his jazz trumpet skills while at the same time absorbing other musical styles, particularly classical trumpet. Marsalis performed a solo with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra at age fourteen after winning a statewide youth competition. He returned to play with the orchestra again at age sixteen. Marsalis also performed with the New Orleans Civic Orchestra. In addition to playing with local orchestras, Marsalis played with several local bands. One of them was a funk-rock group called the Creators that also 90


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featured his brother Branford on saxophone. Despite keeping busy with music, Wynton continued to maintain a nearly perfect grade-point average at school. As a result, he received scholarship offers from Yale and Harvard universities. He chose instead to attend New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music. At Juilliard, Marsalis found himself disappointed by what he perceived to be a subtle anti-jazz bias among the faculty. He left the school after three years in 1981. By that time, his career was well under way.

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Revitalizes Traditional Jazz Traditional jazz was not a widely popular musical form in the early 1980s. The 1970s had been dominated by “jazz fusion.” Jazz fusion was a kind of music that combined jazz with elements of pop and rock music. It also featured an increasing use of electronic instruments. Very few young musicians were interested in pure, acoustic jazz. Record companies were not interested in signing older, traditional jazz acts.

In 1980, Marsalis joined the Jazz Messengers, a longstanding jazz band led by drummer Art Blakey (1919–90). In 1981 he toured with Herbie Hancock (1940– ) and his V.S.O.P. quartet through the United States and Japan. Marsalis released his self-titled first album in 1981. It sold 125,000 copies, a remarkable number for a jazz album at the time. The following year he recorded his debut classical album. He also toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In 1984, he became the first recording artist to win Grammy Awards for best classical soloist and best jazz soloist in the same year. These would prove to be the first of many Grammy awards Marsalis would win over the course of his career. Marsalis drew inspiration from such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong (1901–71) and Duke Ellington (1899–1974). He played a style of jazz that called on the form’s traditional elements. His obvious talent and his respect for jazz music’s past attracted a great deal of critical attention. Simultaneously, his music inspired a surge of interest among other young musicians. The trumpet, an instrument that had been as much in decline as pure jazz, was suddenly hip again. A whole movement dubbed “the Young Lions” sprang up in the wake of Marsalis’s initial performances and recordings. Despite all the praise being heaped upon Marsalis, he did have his critics. Some called his trumpet style unoriginal. They argued it was too similar to that of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926–91). In addition, Marsalis was openly critical of jazz music that had been made after 1965. He largely dismissed recent forms of jazz as lazy and lacking in creativity. This attitude upset many jazz listeners and critics, who took Marsalis’s comments as a dismissal of every other major jazz musician then working in the industry. African American Eras

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By the mid-1980s, Marsalis had organized his own seven-piece group. The group helped Marsalis develop his own unique musical style. Soon the charge that his sound was just a Miles Davis copy began to fade. Marsalis’s compositions became increasingly sophisticated, longer, and more complex. In 1994 Marsalis composed a 22-section jazz opera titled Blood on the Fields. The opera was a tale of the journey from slavery to freedom. His effort brought him the first-ever Pulitzer Prize awarded for a jazz musician’s work. In 1996, Marsalis was profiled in Time magazine’s “The Time 25: Time’s Most Influential Americans.” Becomes Director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Marsalis also came under fire after his 1995 appointment as musical director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Critics claimed Marsalis favored hiring young black musicians from his old band over otherwise qualified older or non-black candidates. Marsalis chose to perform his own musical compositions at Lincoln Center, and his programming schedule was composed solely of traditional jazz pieces. Critics considered these choices evidence of arrogance. Marsalis answered his critics by pointing out that it was precisely because of his personal artistic vision that he had been hired by Lincoln Center. He further noted that his contract required him to perform his own compositions. As for the charges of favoritism, Marsalis said he was personal friends with some of the best jazz musicians in the world, and it was only natural to want to bring them along on the new project.

Between 1999 and 2009, Marsalis continued to make music at a feverish pace. He released eight recordings in 1999 alone. He recorded soundtracks for television and movies, and he continued to produce original jazz pieces. Throughout his extraordinarily busy career, Marsalis managed to make time to act as an ambassador for the music he loves so much. He has appeared at thousands of schools, where he talks to students about the form and history of jazz music. He also discusses its significance as a uniquely American art form and the value of dedication and self-discipline. Marsalis has become known for his accessibility and willingness to meet with aspiring music students. He often stays in touch with promising young musicians. He acts as a mentor and advisor as they grow and develop their art form. Marsalis has also been a key figure in establishing jazz festivals, youth concerts, and school programs at Lincoln Center and elsewhere. He has worked extensively with inner-city youth. In 1995 he recorded a four-part 92


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television special called Marsalis on Music that explained jazz and classical music appreciation in plain and simple language.

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In the early part of the twenty-first century, Marsalis continued to be a prominent voice in jazz music. In 2003, he was named musician of the year by the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. In 2008, he collaborated with legendary country music singer and songwriter Willie Nelson (1933– ) on a live album, Two Men with the Blues. The album reached number one on the jazz music charts. Marsalis has also been an ambassador for the city of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005, Marsalis made numerous public appearances to raise awareness and money to help rebuild his hometown.

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TONI MORRISON (1931– )

Toni Morrison is one of the most critically acclaimed writers of the late twentieth century, having won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize within five years, in 1988 and 1993, respectively. Her works mostly focus on African American female protagonists, which initially hindered recognition of her work while she was writing in the 1970s; the sexism of the time period favored works that focused on male characters. But her ability to portray the unique viewpoints of African American women eventually was recognized as a strength of her writing, leading to critical and popular success enjoyed by few other writers of the modern era.

Writer Toni Morrison in 2006. Thomas Coex/AFP/ Getty Images

Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, an industrial steel town on the shores of Lake Erie. Both sides of her family had migrated to Ohio from the Deep South. They were seeking an escape from the widespread racism of the South and better educational opportunities for their children. Morrison’s father worked three jobs for seventeen years to provide for his family. He took great pride in his work as a ship welder in particular. He signed his name on the side of the ship he was working on whenever he welded a perfect seam. Morrison was interested in African American folk tales from an early age. She also developed an African American Eras

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early interest in reading. She was the only student in her first-grade class who knew how to read at the start of the school year. As she grew older, she read classics of nineteenth-century literature. She particularly enjoyed the works of Jane Austen (1775–1817) and Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) and Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–81). Their novels told tales of times, places, and cultures that were very distant from Morrison’s life. Even so, she sensed their appeal through their close and careful attention to cultural details. She was impressed by the authors’ abilities to speak directly to her. This ability to communicate an understanding and care for an unfamiliar culture would strongly influence her own future writing. Morrison graduated from high school with honors and enrolled at Howard University. At Howard, she majored in English and minored in classics (the study of ancient Greek and Roman culture). Morrison was disappointed that most of her classmates were mainly concerned with socializing and shopping. She also grew tired of people mispronouncing her name, Chloe, so she changed her name to Toni. Seeking a challenge, she joined a campus theater group, the Howard University Players. The troupe took summer repertory tours, during which they put on plays at venues throughout the South. Morrison graduated from college in 1953. She went straight on to complete a master’s degree in English at Cornell University in 1955. After teaching for two years at Texas Southern University, she accepted a position at Howard University. She also married a Jamaican architect named Harold Morrison and gave birth to two children, Harold Ford and Slade Kevin. Within a few years, she and Harold were divorced. Morrison found herself a single mother living back at her parents’ house. After the divorce, Morrison moved into editing work. She worked with a textbook division of Random House in Syracuse, New York. It was during this time that Morrison became interested in writing. She joined a writing group that required the members to read some of their writing at each meeting. At first, Morrison would read her written material from high school. Eventually, she dashed off a short story based on a childhood memory of a girl who said she had stopped believing in God after praying in vain for blue eyes. This short story would form the basis of Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970). Morrison worked on the manuscript for The Bluest Eye in her spare time, mostly after her children had gone to bed. Once the book was finished, she sent samples and query letters to numerous publishers. She received rejection after rejection. She finally found an editor at a company called Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The editor encouraged her to submit a finalized draft. The novel was accepted, and the book was published in 1970.

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The Bluest Eye contained many of the elements that would characterize Morrison’s writing throughout her career. It featured a mastery of dialog, a subtle blending of the real and the inexplicable, and an ability to create emotionally powerful images. Her first novel traces the descent of the main character into madness. The character becomes insane as she internalizes the racism expressed towards her. The character, an African American girl, recognizes that she does not look like blonde, blue-eyed movie idols such as Shirley Temple (1928– ; a famous white child movie star from the 1930s). She concludes that blackness equals ugliness. The novel received favorable reviews, but did not sell well.

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In the 1970s, black female writers faced an uphill struggle against both sexism and racism. Even within the African American community the tendency was to focus on the male experience against racism. Women were typically given supporting roles in the struggle for civil rights. One example of the sort of attitude that prevailed at the time came from the New York Times. The newspaper reviewed Morrison’s second novel, Sula (1973). Sula is the story of two women, one conformist and “good,” the other rebellious and “evil.” The reviewer expressed a wish that Morrison would stop wasting her writing talents by writing only about black women. Morrison found increasing recognition with each of her subsequent books, but early on this success was not long-lasting. By the time her second novel, Sula, was published in 1973, her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was out of print. By the time Morrison’s third book, Song of Solomon, was published in 1977, Sula was also out of print. Song of Solomon is the book that finally began to win Morrison a larger audience and more widespread critical acclaim. The book became a bestseller in paperback. It sold more than half a million copies. With this book, for the first time, Morrison wrote about a male protagonist. The book’s central theme was about a journey of self-discovery. Critics hailed Morrison as a major new figure in American literature, and with Song of Solomon, Morrison won a large and devoted reading audience. Morrison’s followup book, Tar Baby (1981), was just as commercially successful as Song of Solomon. Morrison’s next novel, Beloved (1987), was widely hailed as Morrison’s masterpiece. The plot of the book was inspired by a newspaper clipping from the 1850s. Morrison had encountered the clipping in the 1970s while she was editing an African American history book entitled The Black Book. The clipping described a runaway slave named Margaret Garner. As slave trackers were closing in on Garner, she had attempted to kill her four children rather than see them returned to a life of slavery. African American Eras

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What particularly impressed Morrison was Garner’s later jail cell interviews. In those interviews, she calmly discussed her decision and expressed no remorse for the death of the one child she did manage to kill before her capture. Beloved takes its cues from the Garner case. Its story is set in a community of escaped slaves. The escaped slaves have shunned the book’s main character, Sethe, because she murdered her child when she thought she was about to be captured and sent back to slavery. Morrison uses a combination of flashbacks and fragmented, shifting narration to tell the story of the child’s murder and return from the dead as a ghost-child named Beloved. Finally, by confronting its slave-haunted past, the community is able to come together to help Sethe come to terms with her past and present. Morrison dedicated the book to the “sixty million and more” who are thought to have died, nameless and forgotten, over the centuries of the slave trade in the New World. The book was a powerful meditation on the legacy of slavery. It earned rave reviews and produced strong sales, but it won neither of the two major literary awards that are given out each year, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A panel of forty-eight black authors and critics published a tribute to Morrison in the New York Times Book Review as a way of publicizing the oversight and showing their support. Morrison was finally accorded the recognition many felt was long overdue in 1988. That year, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved. As it turned out, the Pulitzer was just the beginning of the acclaim and recognition Morrison would receive. However, the immediate years following the publication of Beloved were rough for Morrison. Particularly hard on her was the death of her mother. Things began to turn around somewhat after she published her next novel, Jazz, in 1992. That same year, Morrison published a book of literary criticism, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Then, in 1993, the Swedish Academy named Morrison their Nobel Laureate in Literature. The Nobel Prize in Literature is one of the world’s highest literary honors. She became the first African American ever to earn the award. The Nobel Prize signaled the beginning of a new phase of Morrison’s career. She relocated to Princeton, New Jersey, to become Robert F. Goheen Professor of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University. Her appointment at Princeton marked the first time an African American woman writer had been appointed to an endowed chair at an Ivy League university. She also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996 after Oprah chose

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Song of Solomon for her popular book club. Oprah’s endorsement shot the book back onto the best-seller lists. Morrison met with Oprah and four readers picked from the show’s audience at Winfrey’s home. This marked the beginning of repeated collaborations with the talk show host. In 1998, Winfrey produced and starred in a movie adaptation of Beloved. In 2000, Winfrey chose The Bluest Eye for discussion by her book club. Two years later, Sula made the popular book club.

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Morrison has continued to write since winning her Nobel Prize. Paradise was published in 1998, and Love was published in 2003. In 2002, she published two children’s books with her son Slade. Morrison retired from teaching in 2006. That same year, she was a guest curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris, overseeing a series of arts events on the theme “A Foreigner’s Home.” In 2008, she wrote A Mercy. A Mercy won positive reviews for its fresh perspective on the institution of slavery, framing it in terms of power and not race. The book tells the story of four women (black, white, and Native American) in seventeenthcentury North America each of whom is enslaved in some way. In December 2008, Morrison was given the PEN/Borders Literary Service Award. The award recognizes distinguished authors whose work helps readers to understand the human condition.

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SUZAN-LORI PARKS (1964– )

Experimental playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is a trailblazer, both as one of the few black female playwrights and in the way she tells her stories. Her plays appear both off-Broadway and on, and have earned her multiple awards. In 2002 she became the first African American woman playwright to win a Pulitzer Prize. Suzan-Lori Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 1964. As the child of a colonel in the Army, she moved frequently as she grew up. Parks got a taste of what it means to be judged on her nationality first and her ethnicity second while the family was stationed abroad in Germany. She was surprised that her dark skin was not as much of an issue for Europeans as it was for Americans. This experience gave her a unique perspective on race that she would later incorporate into her plays. Parks attended Mount Holyoke College, where she studied under renowned black author James Baldwin. Baldwin recognized Parks’s writing talent. Baldwin suggested to Parks that she seemed destined for a career as a playwright. She eagerly followed his advice. Another professor, Mary McHenry, steered Parks toward the work of cutting-edge black playwrights African American Eras

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such as Adrienne Kennedy (1931– ) and Ntozake Shange (1948– ). These playwrights, along with prose experimentalists like British novelist Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), inspired Parks to write in a style that was complex, challenging, and multilayered. Her experimental approach tends to produce strong reactions, both favorable and unfavorable.

Playwright Suzan Lori Parks in 2008. Kristian Dowling/Getty Images

Parks quickly gained recognition for her talent when her second play Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom resulted in the New York Times calling her the most promising playwright of 1990. Imperceptible focused on a group of slaves on the day of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (in which President Abraham Lincoln declared slaves owned by Confederate masters to be free), but with a twist that required the actors to wear white makeup. The play also earned her an Obie Award, given to the best off-Broadway play. Six years later, Parks would win another Obie, for her play Venus about a real-life South African woman put in a British sideshow as “The Venus Hottentot” in 1810. Parks often uses historical figures as characters to tell her stories and comment on contemporary race and racism. Parks is best known for her “historical plays,” as she calls them. She has stated that in her view the theater is the ideal locale for raising issues of the past and provoking questions and discussion. Her plays are not strict historical dramas. Rather, they are emotional explorations of painful episodes from the past. Her 1990 drama Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World is generally considered her finest play, although it was 2001’s Topdog/ Underdog that won her a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002. Topdog/ Underdog is based on the Cain and Abel story from the Bible, but with modern African American brothers. The play was described as having the drama of a Greek tragedy, but with modern hip-hop language. Parks has been recognized many times by her community. In addition to her Pulitzer Prize and Obie awards, she received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She has also written screenplays, including Girl 6 (1996) and a co-written adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), which premiered in 2005.

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FAITH RINGGOLD (1930– )

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Faith Ringgold is an artist who specializes in story quilts, a type of quilt that combines words and pictures to tell a story. Ringgold grew up around fabrics in New York City’s mostly black Harlem neighborhood. Her mother, Willi Posey, was a fashion designer. She would have a strong influence on Ringgold’s interest in creative expression as well as her love of fabric and textiles that would later lead to her quilt art. Both her parents were supportive and did their best to provide Faith with a fun and stimulating

Artist Faith Ringgold in front of her story quilt Tar Beach 2 in 1998. Grace Matthews 1998


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home environment. One of young Ringgold’s greatest challenges was a case of severe and chronic asthma that often kept her out of school. It was during her times out of school that she developed a deep love of art. It was an interest she carried on through high school and into college, when she studied art at the City College of New York starting in 1950. Completing her studies in 1955, Ringgold took a job as an art teacher with the New York public school system. She would later say that she learned more from teaching children than from the formal teaching style of traditional art school. Her education had emphasized copying the works of European painters and sculptors. Ringgold would continue with her teaching position for eighteen years, until her career as a fine artist was successful enough to allow her to quit teaching. Ringgold completed a master’s degree with City College in 1959. She chose to spend some time traveling as she continued her quest for a personal artistic voice. Ringgold began to develop a mature style that blended African influences with her formal training, which had centered on European artistic models. She was also influenced by the writings of leaders of the black arts movement such as Leroi Jones (1934– ; who changed his name to Amiri Baraka), and James Baldwin. In the mid-1960s, her work took on a political tone that matched the times, when the civil rights movement and the anti–Vietnam War movement questioned the standard way of doing things. Radical politics became part of mainstream American discussion. Ringgold called her new style “super realism.” Her use of color mirrored the abstract patterns in African art, but she painted clear images of people and objects. Super realism was a direct move away from the abstract art (art that does not depict a recognizable physical object) that had been dominating the art world for the previous decade. She produced political paintings that were meant to produce strong responses. Her paintings criticized the ways in which blacks had been treated unfairly in society. Some of her better-known works include Die (1967) and U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Advent of Black Power (1967). Ringgold became well known in the art community. She had her first solo exhibitions at the Spectrum Gallery in New York. Around the time she was producing her super realist paintings, Ringgold took her politics beyond the canvas. She became an outspoken black feminist activist. She was particularly concerned about the lack of works of black artists in major New York galleries. Her efforts led to a 1968 Whitney Museum show of black artists. She also co-founded the black artists group “Where We At” in 1971. Ringgold gained international attention in 1972 when she participated in the inaugural American Women Artists Show in Hamburg, Germany. The same year, her continued activism

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in New York led to the addition of two major exhibitions of work by black artists at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Masks and Textiles Ringgold’s art was beginning to undergo a dramatic shift in the early 1970s. She made her first efforts to bring textiles and fabrics into her work. Her initial inspiration came from Tibetan paintings framed in cloth called tankas. She also traveled extensively in the African countries of Nigeria and Ghana. She was inspired by the traditions of mask-making she saw there. Soon she was making masks and soft fabric sculptures of her own. She also incorporated these pieces of art into multimedia performances such as The Wake and the Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro (1976) as she toured across the United States.

The use of craft materials and fabrics was a feminist statement for Ringgold. She felt that these were the materials used by women in the home and had as a result long been looked down upon by the male-dominated art world. She produced needlepoint masks of famous civil rights leaders. She also produced doll-sized fabric sculptures of her Harlem neighbors and her family members. She depicted them in everyday clothing and situations. For instance, she put her sculpture Daddy in boxer shorts and Momma in curlers. Ringgold had learned quilting from her mother and grandmother. She had, due to her mother’s status as a well-known fashion designer, grown up around textiles. Beginning in 1980, Ringgold took her early influences along with her most recent work and began to develop a new approach to her art. It was a medium she called “story quilts.” Frustrated by her inability to find a publisher for her autobiography, Ringgold thought to write out her story on a fabric quilt. Her first quilt, Echoes of Harlem, was created in cooperation with her mother. It featured portraits of the faces of people the two Ringgold women had known throughout their lives. Ringgold saw quilting as a powerful link to the past, to the time of slavery when black women exercised their creativity and preserved their ancestral culture through one of the few artistic outlets open to them. This first quilt was not quite a “story quilt” because it lacked writing. With the addition of writing, Ringgold’s quilts became proper story quilts. The first proper story quilt was 1983’s Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima? Ringgold combines traditional quilting techniques with direct painting on the fabric. She tells stories of her life and the lives of those who have touched her own. One unintended side effect of the new approach was the ability to create truly massive works of art, since quilts were so much lighter and easier to transport than traditional frame-and-canvas paintings. The subject matter of these pieces combines the serious, political undertones that have always characterized Ringgold’s work with whimsical, or playful, imagery. African American Eras

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That sense of whimsy allowed Ringgold to easily transition into the world of children’s books. She began with Tar Beach (1991). It was a reflection of the times spent on the tar-paper roof of her family’s New York apartment building during the heat of the summer. The book was based on a story quilt of the same name that had marked the first of a series Ringgold called Women on a Bridge. Ringgold has continued to create more story quilts. She also returned to teaching art, this time at the college level. As of 2009 she was an emeritus professor of visual arts at the University of California, San Diego. Her art can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim Museum, among others. Her children’s books have won dozens of awards. Some of her more recent publications include Counting to Tar Beach (2000), Cassie’s Colorful Day (2000), Cassie’s Word Quilt (2001), and O Holy Night (2004).

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NTOZAKE SHANGE (1948– )

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams on October 18, 1948. She changed her name in 1971 to a Zulu phrase meaning “She who comes with her own things/she who walks with lions.” Shange created a unique

Ntozake Shange (right) in a scene from her play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, a seven woman ensemble that was nominated for a Tony Award in 1977. ª Bettmann/Corbis

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art form dubbed “choreopoetry.” Choreopoetry is a type of stage play that combines poetry, dialogue, and dance. Shange’s first such work was 1975’s award-winning and highly controversial For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. All of Shange’s works explore issues relating to the African American experience and the female experience in America.

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Shange was raised in the type of loving, upper-middle-class home that is not generally noted for turning out radical activists. Her father Paul was an Air Force surgeon and conga drummer, and her mother Eloise was a psychiatric social worker. Yet the open, supportive childhood environment in which she was raised may have helped Shange later feel empowered to protest the injustices she saw in the world. Shange’s upbringing included travel to Mexico, Cuba, and Europe. It also included frequent visits from family friends, including jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie (1917–93) and Miles Davis and rock godfather Chuck Berry (1926– ). These experiences helped broaden Shange’s mind and introduce her to a wide variety of influences. During her upbringing in upstate New York and St. Louis, Missouri, her parents filled the household with a wide variety of music from around the world. Her mother shared her love of books with Shange and her three siblings by reading to them from infancy. Shange became one of the first African American students to attend a previously all-white school in St. Louis. She began attending the school after the Supreme Court ordered an end to segregated education in 1954. As a teenager, Shange began writing poetry from a black female perspective, publishing her work in the high school journal. Shange’s transition into adulthood was difficult. She was discouraged by a society that seemed uninterested in rewarding her intelligence or drive. She married and quickly divorced. She also attempted suicide several times. She graduated from Barnard College with a degree in American Studies in 1970. She adopted her new Zulu name one year later. By 1971, Shange had relocated to California to begin graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She eventually earned a master’s degree in American Studies at UCLA. Being on the West Coast in the early 1970s put Shange in touch with the blossoming feminist movement. Soon she became very active in feminist writing circles. In addition to her feminist political writings and poetry, Shange became deeply involved with African American and Afrocentric music and dance troupes. Shange relocated to the San Francisco area after she finished school at UCLA. She taught women’s studies courses at three different colleges in the Bay Area. While she was teaching, she began working on a poetry series about the lives of seven women of color. This would form the basis of African American Eras

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Shange’s most successful project, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. Shange classified the project as “choreopoetry.” It reflected the radical nature of the artistic and political communities of which Shange was a part. The work employed seven actresses playing unnamed parts. It used a mixture of poetry, dialogues, monologues, and dance. For Colored Girls was designed to show the experience of black women through “danced poetry.” For Colored Girls was a huge success. After its initial run, it went on to show on Broadway for two years. It was nominated in 1977 for a Tony Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award. It ended up winning the Outer Circle Critics Award and multiple Obie Awards. Observers noted that the play mixed a sense of bitterness about the past with hope for the future. It also showcased the virtues of the bond between women. Some critics, however, attacked the production’s lack of positive male-female relationships. Critics also pointed to the play’s tendency to depict black males in a negative light. In 1982, Shange penned another choreopoem, Spell #7: A Geechee Quick Magic Trance Manual. In 1991, she authored The Love Space Demands. Shange has also branched out into other creative arenas, most notably fiction writing. She published Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo: A Novel in 1982 and Betsey Brown in 1985. Whether working in poetry, dance, or fiction, Shange has maintained her political commitment and her mission to promote a strong vision of black femininity. She has continued her writing in the early twenty-first century. In 2003, she wrote and helped produce a play called Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla’s Dream. That same year, Shange published a children’s book about the life of the famous boxer Muhammad Ali (1942– ).

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ALICE WALKER (1944– )

Author Alice Walker is best known for her 1982 novel, The Color Purple, which went on to be a successful film and stage play. But one of her other significant contributions to the field of literature was her discovery of forgotten African American writer Zora Neale Hurston, who had written in the 1920s and 1930s, only to be forgotten by the literary community in the 1940s. Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, the eighth child of sharecroppers living in Eatonton, Georgia. Her brother accidentally blinded her in one eye when she was eight. She did well in school, and won a scholarship for the handicapped. She started at Spelman College, an historically black college for women in Atlanta, in 1961. 104


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Walker transferred to Sarah Lawrence College, a well-regarded all-female school in New York, two years later. She studied the work of white European and American writers, but she wanted to learn more about African and African American culture. She traveled to Africa in her last year of college. When she returned, she devoted herself to civil rights and educational causes. She moved to Mississippi in 1965 to help register African American voters and work and teach in the Head Start early education program. Through her work, she met civil rights lawyer Melvyn Leventhal, whom she married in New York City. When Walker and Leventhal settled in Jackson, Mississippi, they were the first legally married interracial couple in the state. The two had a daughter in 1969. They would divorce in 1976.

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Walker published her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, in 1970. While researching black folk medicine for a story she was writing, Walker encountered the work of African American writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960). Hurston’s work, mostly published in the 1920s and 1930s, was acclaimed during her life. She was at the very center of the Harlem Renaissance (an African American artistic flowering that occurred in New York City in the 1920s) and won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1937 to pursue her folklore research. However, her work fell out of favor in the 1950s and 1960s. Political and protest fiction, mostly by male African American writers, rose to prominence during this time. Walker published an article on Hurston in 1975, around the same time as a new generation of female African American writers—including Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Walker herself—offered a fresh perspective on the lives of black women. In well-known works such as the short stories “Everyday Use” and “1955” and the novel The Color Purple (1982), Walker examined the particular challenges faced by black women, who must combat both racism and sexism. The Color Purple was a commercial and critical success, earning Walker an American Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983. The novel was adapted for film in 1985. The movie version gained eleven Academy Award nominations (though it did not win any). A stage adaptation debuted on Broadway in 2005. Walker published numerous short stories, poetry collections, and novels after The Color Purple, including the critically acclaimed Temple of My Familiar (1989) and Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart (2005). In 2003 Walker was arrested, along with twenty-six other people, after marching to the White House to protest the planned U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 2007, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. She continues to take interest and action in a variety of humanitarian causes, traveling the world to meet with social, religious, and political leaders. She has actively maintained a blog about her work and interests since 2008. African American Eras

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BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT SHOWCASES AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTIC EXPRESSION The black arts movement (BAM) began in 1965. This was the year controversial civil rights leader Malcolm X (1925–65) was assassinated while delivering a speech in New York City. Malcolm X’s message had been one of confrontation. He believed in achieving African American civil rights “by any means necessary,” including by violence. This message stood in sharp contrast to the more nonviolent messages of other black leaders. Like Malcolm X’s message, the black arts movement was marked by a spirit of confrontation in literature, fine art, and performing arts. It was also in 1965 that African American poet LeRoi Jones (1934– ; who later renamed himself Amiri Baraka) divorced his white wife. He moved from his apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side into the primarily African American neighborhood of Harlem. The move represented his decision to actively separate himself from the white-dominated culture of his old neighborhood and immerse himself in an African American community. The move was important because Jones was a leading publisher, poet, and playwright in the African American community. Later historians of the BAM would mark Jones’s move as the symbolic beginning of the movement. Many literary critics have compared the BAM to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Harlem experienced a flowering of African American artistic and intellectual output during that period. The movement’s themes were empowerment and a new sense of pride in the history and potential of African American culture. The crucial difference between the Harlem Renaissance and the BAM lay in their participants’ attitudes towards white American culture. The Harlem Renaissance attempted to make inroads into mainstream culture. In contrast, the BAM attempted to establish a completely separate identity, with no consideration or welcome paid to nonblack audiences. Black Arts Reflect Black Power Philosophy The poetry and literature being produced by this new generation of writers was unlike anything seen before in black literature or elsewhere. The themes echoed those of the black power movement. The emphasis was on self-improvement and self-defense (a popular slogan was “arm yourself or harm yourself”). The writers focused on confrontation rather than integration, a rejection of white middle-class values, and an embracing of black culture. The black arts sought by the BAM writers were often divorced from previous artistic traditions. For instance, their poetry was 106


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filled with unusual verse structures, experimental typography (use of fonts and placement of letters), and a scornful sense of humor.

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Baraka would also provide the very real spark of the movement in the form of his poem “Black Art.” A famous line from that poem was, “We want poems that kill.” Other poets like Larry Neal (1937–81) and Askia M. Touré (1938– ) were also actively involved with creating the poetic sound that would come to typify the BAM. They captured a rhythmic, free-verse quality that rejected traditional white European poetic forms. They also tried to echo the sounds of jazz and black street speech. The manifesto of the BAM would be further refined by other writers in such works as Hoyt Fuller’s essay “Toward a Black Aesthetic” in The Black Aesthetic, a collection of essays published in 1971. An aesthetic is a theory or definition of what is good and beautiful. Fuller (1923–81) argued that whites and blacks should have two completely separate art cultures due to living in two “naturally antagonistic” worlds. Ron Karenga, (1941– ) writing in the essay “Black Cultural Nationalism” (1968), outlined three key elements of what he called “black aesthetic.” First, he said that black art should identify enemies who stood in the way of African American empowerment. Second, he said that it should build up and celebrate the African American community. Third, he said that black art should do its part to advance the agenda of social revolution then being put forth by the more militant black power movement. Artists Celebrate Black Culture and Community While much of BAM literature came in the form of protest literature— criticism, manifestos, and attacks on white-dominated literature—poets like Nikki Giovanni (1943– ), Don L. Lee (1942– ; later changed his name to Haki Madhubuti), and Sonia Sanchez (1934– ) focused on producing works that celebrated black culture. Though still radical and overtly political, the work of these writers experimented with and celebrated uniquely African American cultural traditions, such as African American folktales, blues, and jazz. Giovanni wrote a collection of poems called Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967). Many of the poems in the collection are militant arguments for African American rights, while others are deeply personal meditations. Sanchez wrote a 1970 collection of poems called We a BaddDDD People, which focuses specifically on the lives of black people living on the edges of mainstream society. Even established black authors like Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000), who had enjoyed success with both white and black audiences, began to shift the tone of their writing in a more radical direction.

Although it started in New York City, the black arts movement quickly spread through African American communities across the country. Community involvement, support, and engagement was one of the BAM’s African American Eras

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Malcolm X and African American Autobiography ..................................................................................

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n 1965, the last year of his life, Malcolm X produced an autobiography as told to author Alex Haley (1921–92). Entitled The Autobiography of Malcolm X, it was a literary sensation. White readers were shocked by many episodes in the book. The book included a frank look at the life of poor black men. It also included some of the more radical teachings of the Nation of Islam, an organization of black Muslims with the goal of enriching the spiritual and personal lives of African Americans. Malcolm X concluded his book by revising his early extremist positions, describing a more inclusive worldview grounded in the peaceful teachings of Islam. The autobiography was widely read in black circles. It inspired much new autobiographical writing, a continuation of the tradition of personal narratives by African Americans dating back to Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845). Claude Brown (1937–2002) provided more shocking insights into black youth crime with his autobiography, Manchild in the Promised Land (1965). Anne Moody’s (1940– ) Coming of Age in Mississippi (1969) chronicled both the author’s upbringing in the segregated South and her involvement with the militant civil rights movements in the 1960s. And the first of Maya Angelou’s six autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), rivaled the success of Malcolm X’s work and earned its author a National Book Award nomination.

greatest legacies. In the realm of literature, community support came from several independent publishing houses. These publishers opened to provide a way for black authors to make their voices heard. Chief among these publishers was Broadside Press in Detroit. Broadside was part of a successful scene in the Midwest that included other BAM publishing houses such as Chicago’s Third World Press and Detroit’s Lotus Press. These small publishers were responsible for publishing and making widely available small, cheap volumes of black nationalist poetry. As a result, black readers in the 1960s and 1970s engaged with poetry as a living, vital art form. Journals also had an important role in spreading the BAM. The influential Negro Digest, which would change its name to Black World, was also based in Chicago. On the West Coast, too, BAM writers and thinkers contributed to the Journal of Black Poetry and the Black Scholar publications. 108


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Nikki Giovanni’s poetry collection, Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967), was a combination of militant arguments for African American rights and deeply personal meditations. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Poets also produced their own journals to spread their artistic vision. Hoyt Fuller, editor of Black World, also put out Nommo, the journal of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) Writers Workshop. Other similar workshops produced journals in much the same vein. Writing workshops were an important part of the BAM’s ability to spread its vision and ideas throughout the country. The first such organization actually preceded the BAM proper. It was known as the Umbra Workshop, founded in 1961. Many of its participants would go on to become associated with the BAM. The OBAC was founded in Chicago by Haki Madhubuti and Walter Bradford. Its greatest legacy would lie in the visual arts, but it was also a fundamentally important presence in the growth of the BAM’s literary side as well. Workshop members tended to view their membership as a sort of mission to take the new black art to the people. It was not unusual to see poets giving readings at schools, bars, public parks, or even street corners. Writers Works Outside and Beyond the BAM Not all black authors during this period were part of the BAM. Ishmael Reed (1938– ) is sometimes included with the movement due to his distinctive, radical writing style; however, Reed himself has stated that he “wasn’t invited” to the movement because other leading BAM authors African American Eras

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thought that his writing was too white-friendly. Similarly, female writers who began their literary careers during the height of the BAM, such as Maya Angelou (1928– ) and Toni Morrison (1931– ), were not strictly associated with the movement. This was in part because the BAM tended towards a male-dominated philosophy that frustrated many black female writers and readers. Reed, Angelou, and Morrison produced works during the time of the black arts movement that continue to be held in high regard today. Some of these works are considered among the best literature of the 1960s and 1970s, like Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Reed’s Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (1969), and Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970). By the mid-1970s, the final days of the BAM were heralded with the closing-down of Black World. Works by African American authors around this time also criticized the movement or described it in the past tense. These include Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1975), Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada (1976), and Alice Walker’s Meridian (1976). Some literary critics say the BAM fell apart in part due to its controversial principles, which were most often put forth in its literature. It drew criticism from whites, of course, but also from black authors who questioned the wisdom of its nationalistic, male-centered philosophies. Ishmael Reed led the charge in this regard, penning vicious satires of the more extreme views of many BAM writers. He declared himself a multiculturalist writer. Though short-lived and widely criticized, the BAM opened the door for a new generation of multiculturalist writing and helped create an atmosphere of acceptance for writers of all ethnicities and sexual orientations.

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DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM OPENS ITS DOORS There is a strong and historic tradition in dance in African American performing arts. More so than any other type of African American art form, dance has managed to retain and strengthen a connection to African cultural roots while still reflecting the unique yet diverse cultural blend that characterizes African American culture. African American dance in the 1960s was inevitably affected and influenced by the black arts movement (BAM) that occurred during that decade. The BAM sought to create Afrocentric art and literature that was separate from mainstream culture and reflected the militant values of the black power movement. Yet many of the influences and traditions of African American dance preceded the BAM by decades. African dance teachers had 110


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Kwanzaa ..................................................................................

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erhaps one of the more enduring legacies of the black arts movement and the development of the black aesthetic is Kwanzaa. It was developed by leading BAM author Ron Karenga in 1966 as an alternative winter holiday for African Americans. It consists of a week of celebrations stretching between December 26 and January 1. The holiday was intended by Karenga to provide a means for African Americans to reconnect to their African roots. He also originally envisioned it as an alternative to what he saw as the white-dominated holiday of Christmas. Kwanzaa reflects the separatist tendencies of black nationalism at the time. A family celebrates Kwanzaa, an Afrocentric Still, many African Americans who celebrate holiday that occurs after Christmas. ª Rolf Kwanzaa also celebrate Christmas. Bruderer/Corbis

been operating schools in New York City since the 1930s, and black dancers showed a deep understanding and appreciation of African cultural traditions. The politicized elements of the BAM were largely lost on black dance troupes, which continued a tradition of multiethnic composition based on merit rather than skin color. One element of the black arts movement that was readily taken up in the dance world was the idea of community-based cultural and educational institutions and commitments. The Alvin Ailey Dance Group, founded in 1958, provided a blueprint for later companies, including the Philadelphia Dance Company, or Phildanco, and Rochester, New York’s Bucket Dance. One of the earliest of this wave of new dance companies was the Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell (1934– ) and his teacher Karel Shook (1920–1985). Mitchell had started out as a ballet dancer in the 1950s before founding ballet companies of his own in Washington, D.C., and Brazil. In the wake of the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68), Mitchell returned to Harlem to see what he could do to contribute to the African African American Eras

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American community of his youth. Starting with a class of thirty children in a church basement, the Dance Theatre of Harlem exploded in popularity. Within two months, four hundred students were enrolled in Mitchell’s ballet program. The founding of the company represented the first time that a resource for those interested in dance had been made available to the Harlem community. Mitchell soon used his savings to move the company into a properly dedicated space. Within two years, the first class of students was ready to put on its first professional productions. The company’s productions of both new and classic ballets during the 1970s and 1980s won rave reviews. It was the first American ballet company to perform in Russia (which was then part of the Soviet Union) in 1988 as part of a United States/Soviet cultural exchange. The Russians were sufficiently impressed to induct the Dance Theatre of Harlem into the Kirov Museum. The Kirov ballet company of St. Petersburg, Russia, was one of the most famous and prestigious dance companies in the world. The Dance Theatre of Harlem opened doors of opportunity for black dancers, musicians, and performers. It launched careers not just for dancers, but for teachers, directors, choreographers, and even theater technicians and costume designers. The Theatre offers extensive education and community outreach programs in addition to the dance company and school. In 2000, the company made history when it performed Igor Stravinsky and Michel Fokine’s modernist ballet The Firebird (1910) in China. It was the first time the ballet was ever performed in China. In 2003, the company performed St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York.

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BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS SHAKE UP THE WORLD OF THEATER The black arts movement (BAM) of the 1960s and 1970s played a substantial role in the development of African American drama. The black arts movement encouraged black artists to focus on the real lives of African Americans and break from European-American artistic traditions. Nowhere is this more evident than in Amiri Baraka’s Black Arts Repertory Theater/School (BARTS). LeRoi Jones (1934– ; who would soon change his name to Amiri Baraka in the 1960s) was an established playwright when he relocated to Harlem in 1965. His play, Dutchman (1964), had won an Obie Award, an award given to off-Broadway plays. The play drew considerable controversy for its portrayal of black male identity, interracial relationships, and violence in those relationships. After Jones relocated to Harlem, he established BARTS. The initial idea behind the project was to offer an eight-week summer program for four hundred neighborhood students. 112


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Amiri Baraka directs the 1975 play Sidnee Poet Heroical, which spoofs the career of famous African American actor Sidney Poitier for his acceptance into white society. ª Bettmann/Corbis

Founds the Black Arts Repertory Theater BARTS was funded by revenues from ticket sales to Baraka’s plays and from jazz concerts put on by musicians such as Sun Ra and His Myth-Science Arkestra. BARTS opened officially on May 1, 1965. For the opening, Sun Ra’s group led a parade that made its way to the building waving a “Black Arts” flag and a black-and-gold banner. The program was an immediate success. It set the standard for all Black Arts workshops to follow. There were courses taught in African American history and culture. Musicians held music classes and workshops, and poets and authors taught courses on writing. There were workshops and classes in playwriting and acting as well as dance, painting, drawing, and graphic design.

The establishment of BARTS marked the beginning of an important period for African American theater. Following Baraka’s lead, more than eight hundred black-owned theater/workshop centers opened up across the country. This included the Spirit House in Newark, New Jersey (established by Baraka), Black Arts West in San Francisco, the Free Southern Theater in New Orleans, the Concept East Theater in Detroit, the National Black Theater and the New Lafayette in New York, and the Afro-Arts Theater in Chicago. The type of drama that came out of the BARTS has been called “protest theater.” The authors and actors putting on these plays saw them as a way to advance their social and political agendas. Ed Bullins (1935– ) was one of the African American Eras

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early playwrights who took Amiri Baraka’s example to heart. The connection between radical black politics and the theater can be seen in the role he held in the mid-1960s as a prominent member of the San Francisco theater/ community group Black House. Black House included other prominent BAM and black power figures like Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X (1944– ), and Huey Newton (1942–89), the co-founder of the radical black-power organization the Black Panther Party. Bullins served for a time as Minister of Culture for the Party. Not all BAM playwrights were as explicitly political as Baraka and Bullins. Adrienne Kennedy (1931– ), for example, touched on issues of race and violence as well as gender, but she also gave her plays a symbolic, surrealist format. This means that her plays often did not have any plot. This set her apart from her fellow black playwrights, who mostly strove for realism in their productions. Richard Wesley (1945– ) also diverged from Baraka and Bullins’s example. In his 1971 play Black Terror, he imagined a black revolution occurring in the near future. He did not portray it entirely positively, instead taking care to imagine both the pros and the cons of such an event. Although there were a wide variety of plays being produced, there was a definite central vision to the BAM-era theater. Themes included a country and a culture in crisis; the sense of having arrived at a definitive moment in African American history; and a dedication to challenging the audience’s conventional wisdom about race, class, and gender. These plays even challenged audiences’ expectations about the way plays should be structured. Some of these plays used humor to achieve these goals. Others used shocking language, and still others blended poetry, dance, and dialog. Another trait of black theater productions of the 1960s and 1970s was the hosting of a discussion group immediately following every production. In these discussions, the cast, director, and writer could sit and talk with audience members and discuss the issues raised in the play.

BAM Influence on African American Drama Fades By the mid-1970s, African American drama was beginning to move away from the influence of the BAM. Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1975) is often cited as one of the first African American plays to actively reject much of what the BAM stood for. The play is a “choreopoem,” a theatrical work that combines dance and poetry. It is still political, but it focuses as much on women’s issues as on race issues, in contrast to the pure race consciousness of the BAM. It was also notable for its run on Broadway. It brought radical black theater to whole new, non-black audiences. 114


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Tyler Perry’s Popular Success ..................................................................................

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ew Orleanian Tyler Perry (1969– ) is a rare example of a playwright who has earned critical, popular, and financial success. Perry had his breakout dramatic hit with Diary of a Mad Black Woman, first staged in the spring of 2001. It was adapted for film in 2005. By 2009, most of his ten plays had been adapted for film. Perry’s plays frequently feature a character named Madea, a strong, opinionated African American matriarch (female leader), whom Perry (dressed as a woman) himself portrays. As of 2009, Perry’s films have earned four hundred million dollars worldwide, and Perry maintains ownership and control of all his movies. Their success has made him one of the Tyler Perry’s plays about a black highest-paid men in Hollywood. In 2008, matriarch named Madea have Perry launched Tyler Perry Studios, the first translated into a series of African American–owned film studio in the successful movies. Frederick M. Brown country.

The increasing popularity of African American theater is perhaps the BAM’s greatest legacy to the world of drama. In 1970, as the BAM was still going strong, Charles Gordone (1925–95) became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The award was for his play No Place to Be Somebody. The play premiered in 1969, and it was the first non-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer. The play took Gordone seven years to write after he came up with the basic idea while working as a Greenwich Village bartender. The play had only fiften performances on its initial run. Still, it would go on to three national touring performances between 1970 and 1977. The 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to an African American, Charles Fuller (1939– ), for his work A Soldier’s Play. It was adapted into a movie in 1984. The story looked back to a time when the U.S. military segregated whites from blacks. It was the story of a black army captain’s investigation of a black sergeant’s murder on a Louisiana military base in the 1940s. In this play, Fuller was able to examine the interaction between blacks and whites in the military and in society at large. African American Eras

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August Wilson (1945–2005) is perhaps the most successful and acclaimed black playwright of the late twentieth century. He received much praise for his ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle. Two of the plays from the cycle, Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), won the Pulitzer Prize. George C. Wolfe (1954– ) is another black playwright to find both critical and popular success, particularly with his musical about the life of jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton, Jelly’s Last Jam (1992). The play starred tap dancers Savion Glover (1973– ) and Gregory Hines (1946–2003) as younger and older versions of Morton. More recently, two female African American playwrights have been honored with the Pulitzer. In 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks (1963– ) became the first black woman to win the award for her play Topdog/Underdog (2001). The play looks at two brothers, their relationship with each other, their lives as black men, and the culture in which they live. And in 2009, Lynn Nottage (1964– ) became the second black woman to win a Pulitzer for drama. She won the award for her 2008 play, Ruined. The play focuses on women’s lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation that has been torn apart by internal strife and civil war for over a decade. As an African American writer addressing African issues, Nottage echoes the PanAfricanism (a belief in the connectedness of all people of African descent) of earlier African American writers and playwrights.

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FREE JAZZ AND TRADITIONAL JAZZ BOTH FLOWER Free jazz, an experimental musical style, emerged from the 1950s musical efforts of such musicians as Sun Ra (1914–93), Charles Mingus (1922–79), Ornette Coleman (1930– ), and John Coltrane (1926–67). Free jazz was supported and cultivated to a large extent by Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The AACM called its first meeting in May 1965. Like most other black arts groups, the AACM was community-focused. It was free of any outside financial ties or obligations. The founding members were three respected musicians, Muhal Richard Abrams (1930– ), Phil Cohran, and Jodie Christian. They gathered talented young musicians eager to prove themselves. This prompted the formation in 1967 of an educational program to encourage the composition of new musical pieces. It also led to the creation of the AACM orchestra—which continued to meet on a weekly basis as of 2010—to provide a group to play those compositions. The founding of the AACM came at a time when jazz was suffering a decline in popularity. The AACM created a sort of community center for jazz musicians who found themselves with fewer and fewer opportunities to play. They needed a place to meet and exchange ideas and compositions. In this 116


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The Art Ensemble of Chicago, shown performing in 1992, is a group dedicated to the experimental form of jazz known as free jazz. Fin Costello/Redferns

creative environment, dozens of ensembles, or musical groups, formed and disbanded. The two most well-known groups are the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Creative Construction Company. Both groups interested themselves in avant-garde music, which focused often on musical innovation and technical skill more than the creation of pleasant-sounding music. They saw themselves as pioneers pushing the boundaries of jazz, expanding its possibilities. They took the emphasis off of the jazz solo concept, in which each musician in a band would take turns delivering his or her own variation on a central theme. Instead, these avant-garde groups stressed collective improvisations. The Creative Construction Company lasted only a few years. By contrast, the Art Ensemble has continued as of 2010. The Art Ensemble has never shied away from experimentation. It has even gone so far as to include traditionally nonmusical elements like bicycle horns, screams, and babbled conversations in its compositions. By the end of the 1970s, a counter-reaction to the free jazz movement began to take shape among the younger generation of jazz players. This movement was led by New Orleanian trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis (1961– ). These “Young Lions,” as they were called, wanted to reexamine jazz music’s earlier roots. They rejected the belief of the free jazz artists that traditional jazz music was somehow tainted by the legacy of slavery and oppression, and recovered the music of traditional jazz and blues music giants such as Louis Armstrong (1901–71), Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941), Sidney Bechet (1897–1959), and Bessie Smith (1892–1937). Marsalis did not simply African American Eras

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replay old songs, however. He called on the jazz and blues traditions of the early twentieth century to create a new style of jazz that reflected modern African American life using the “vocabulary” of traditional jazz music. His Black Codes (from the Underground) (1985), an early example of this style, won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. His 2007 album From the Plantation to the Penitentiary is arguably his most political to date, but still recognizably based on “classic” jazz structures. Despite renewed interest in traditional jazz since the 1980s, free jazz continues to be influential to this day. In fact, free jazz inspired a generation of contemporary, mostly white “jam bands,” the most famous being Medeski Martin & Wood (MMW) and Phish. Phish integrates many elements of free jazz, like collective improvisation, into its music. While Phish is mainly rock-based, MMW is a jazz trio directly inspired by the free jazz of the 1970s.

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ORGANIZATION OF BLACK AMERICAN CULTURE INSPIRES BLACK VISUAL ARTISTS The Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) began in Chicago in 1967 as an artistic collective, or group. Its intent was to provide a central organizational resource for artists. It conducted workshops in literature and the visual arts, and served as a community resource. The OBAC’s founders wanted to produce a pool of educated artists and community-based critics. These critics would create, understand, and evaluate the new black art. They would also provide the necessary means of publicizing the new art throughout the community. The OBAC’s strongest gesture towards the local community also became its greatest contribution to the visual arts. The project was called the Wall of Respect. It took the form of a large mural painted on the side of a building at 43rd Street and Langley Avenue in Chicago’s predominantly African American South Side neighborhood. The artists, Jeff Donaldson (1931–2004), Eugene Eda, and Bill Walker, created the work in 1967 with a host of assistants from the OBAC’s workshops. The mural was filled with the imagery of the black power movement. It contained pictures of black leaders from the early twentieth century like Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) and W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) alongside contemporary heroes like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali (1942– ), Gwendolyn Brooks, Nina Simone (1933–2003), and Amiri Baraka. Several changes and updates were made to the painting after its “completion,” based on feedback from the community. The community had welcomed the mural with open arms, and the artists responded to the desires of the community. The Wall was destroyed in 1973 when the building it was 118


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painted on was destroyed, but its legacy and importance lived. Indeed, the mural inspired a boom in community-based mural projects. Soon after its debut, other wall murals were created in cities across the country. Some examples are Detroit’s Wall of Dignity, along with other notable mural projects from New York to San Francisco. Some mural artists like Bill Walker and Dana Chandler (1941– ) even traveled between cities to help lend their expertise to organizing mural projects. The mural boom was also fueled by state and federal governments, which provided funding for mural projects in economically impoverished communities. It was a way to provide summer jobs for unemployed youths as well as increase community pride through public art.

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The mural boom eventually lost steam around the same time as the original Wall of Respect was taken down. This was due in part to lack of government funding for arts projects. Nevertheless, the mural boom helped launch the careers of many black artists who continued work in a variety of other projects. Perhaps most notable of the artists emerging from this period were Jeff Donaldson, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell (1931– ), Barbara B. Jones, and Gerald Williams. They were five OBAC members who in 1968 founded their own visual arts collective. They called it COBRA, short for Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists. The following year, two new artists, Napoleon Henderson (1943– ) and Nelson Stevens (1938– ), joined the group. It was then that the organization was renamed AfriCobra, which stood for African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. More artists were to follow. Sherman Beck, Omar Lama, and Carolyn M. Lawrence had all joined AfriCobra by mid-1970. This was the year that the group’s first show premiered at Harlem’s Studio Museum. Also in 1970, Jeff Donaldson penned AfriCobra’s manifesto, or statement of its values. It outlined the group’s objectives and the artistic vision of its members. The objectives were similar to the broader “black aesthetic” being promoted by BAM (black arts movement) writers. The statement took a spirit of confrontation towards the white establishment, and a spirit of support and interaction towards the black community. The visual imagery outlined in the manifesto and seen in the AfriCobra paintings came to represent what many people meant when they referred to the “new black art.” The work coming out of the AfriCobra collective was made up of vividly bright primary colors. It depicted easily identifiable imagery such as black faces, American flags, and revolutionary symbols. Donaldson outlined the aims of the group’s visual presentation. He stated that their art was created with an eye towards mass production. Donaldson himself called it “poster art.” In that sense, AfriCobra was carrying out the BAM’s goal of spreading black revolution. The art was impossible to ignore and provocative in its content. African American Eras

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Melvin Edwards created this sculpture, Resolved (1986), as part of his Lynch Fragments series. The Newark Museum/Art Resource, NY

Other black artists worked in a similar vein. In fact, the themes, symbols, and style associated with the BAM became almost repetitive over time. The American flag was a constant feature in artists’ works. It was usually a symbol of white oppression and violence, as in Faith Ringgold’s 1969 piece Flag for the Moon: Die Nigger. The flag was also a symbol of oppression in her 1967 piece The Flag Is Bleeding. Ringgold (1930– ) was even brought up on charges in 1970. Along with two other artists, Jean Toche and Jon Hendricks, she was charged with desecrating the American flag. The charges stemmed from a show, called “The People’s Flag Show,” which featured some two hundred artists. All of them exhibited works containing the American flag in some context or another, often intentionally provocative or political. Hendricks, Ringgold, and Toche, the three artists who helped organize the show, became the center of an outpouring of support from the art community. However, they ultimately lost their case and each paid a $100 fine. Another common motif, or recurring image, of the time was chains. Chains represented both the slavery of the past and the racism of the present. Melvin Edwards (1937– ), a sculptor, created a whole series of pieces featuring chains. The series was called the Lynch Fragments. One typical installation, a kind of three-dimensional art, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1970 consisted of barbed wire strands hanging down from the ceiling. The strands were weighted and attached to lengths and loops of heavy chain. David Hammons (1943– ) frequently utilized both chain and flag imagery in his work. Hammons was an artist known for his “body prints”— direct imprints made against paper with greasy skin, creating a ghostly image. Eventually, as with the mural projects, the limited range of images utilized by BAM visual artists began to lose its initial power to provoke a reaction. Artists who had gotten their start producing provocative visual statements began to explore more subtle methods of expressing protest and celebrating the African American experience. Faith Ringgold became celebrated for her story quilts. She began to develop these in the 1970s and 1980s. They told tales visually about her own life and the lives of her parents and grandparents. Melvin Edwards moved away from the overt symbolism of his Lynch

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Fragments and into more abstract forms using large-scale, welded steel structures. They did still occasionally incorporate chains or barbed wire. Hammons’s work, too, became less overtly political. It became more grounded in African American traditions and culture, often displaying a playful sense of humor.

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GRAFFITI BECOMES A NEW KIND OF FOLK ART “Graffiti” refers to marks left on walls or other public spaces, often using paint or chalk. Originally dismissed as mere vandalism, graffiti eventually came to be seen as a new kind of folk art. Urban graffiti has its roots in Latino gang marks beginning in the 1940s. This original, “old school” style of graffiti was used to mark gang territory and warn away potential rivals. At first the graffiti was executed using permanent markers. It was not until the later development of spray paint that more large-scale and ambitious graffiti began to appear.

Graffiti began to move beyond gangs in the late 1960s. In Philadelphia and New York City black and Latino teenagers began to leave their personal “tags” at various points around town. A tag was like a graffiti artist’s signature, an often elaborate design indicating the artist’s identity. Graffiti artists earned respect based on how many tags they could “throw up” and where. In 1971 the New York Times ran an article on a particular tagger known as “Taki 183,” who was leaving his mark all over the city. This introduced an element of real celebrity to the act of tagging. Soon hundreds of copycat taggers were leaving their mark all over New York. By the late 1970s, graffiti had developed into a full-fledged subculture that was closely connected to the rise of hip-hop music. Taggers competed to create complex “pieces” and outdo each other in their daring design and placement. The more a tagger could get his name out, the more prestige he earned. Going “citywide” was the mark of a well-known tagger. The trains of the New York City transit system began to attract particular attention because they traveled all over the city. Taggers began to work in groups, or “crews.” A new, genuinely artistic form of expression—called “Wild Style”— began to take shape. Sometimes entire train cars would be covered with colorful and outlandish decor. Some crews viewed graffiti as an artistic way to spread their ideas. The artists Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–88) and Al Diaz formed a crew they called SAMO and spread their mysterious statements all over New York City. As the 1970s came to a close, artists like Keith Haring (1958–1990) began to explore the possibilities of graffiti as legitimate art. Graffiti artists like Basquiat, Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000, and the United Artists crew African American Eras

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The fact that train cars are very visible and mobile makes them ideal targets for graffiti taggers hoping to increase awareness of their work. ª Trains and Planes/Alamy

suddenly found themselves the toast of New York’s underground art scene. Exhibitions were held at the P.S. 1 art gallery and at the Mudd Club. The Mudd Club exhibition, which opened in the spring of 1981, ended in disaster, though, after Haring, the event’s organizer, invited hundreds of taggers to the opening. The next day, they found the club and the surrounding neighborhood literally covered in hundreds of tags. In 1982, the year after the P.S. 1 show, the film Wild Style was released. It was a history of hip hop and graffiti art, featuring a cast composed partly of real-life taggers, deejays, and b-boys (break dancers). By 1983, a regular frenzy had developed in the art world. Graffiti art was purchased by prominent European collectors and art galleries. Tagger pieces hung in the most exclusive galleries of Rome and other European cities. This move to the galleries was encouraged in part by the development of a special coating that resisted spray paint. When the coating was applied to New York’s subway trains, it marked the end of the wild style years. New York City had spent millions of dollars fighting the graffiti artists. Its officials had declared it a public problem of vandalism and property destruction. Furthermore, the continued use of graffiti by inner-city gangs created a link in many people’s minds between taggers and gang violence. These conflicts have continued into the early twenty-first century. Most art critics recognize graffiti as a legitimate form of folk art. Some have even called it the first truly democratic art form, because anyone can become an artist by tagging. At the same time, civic leaders and community groups continue to 122


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rail against it, citing connections to gangs, drugs, and violence, to say nothing of property destruction and defacement. For instance, in 2006, New York City officials attempted to pass a resolution making it illegal for persons under the age of twenty-one to possess spray paint or permanent markers. In 2005, the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, instituted a database for tracking the work of various graffiti artists to make it easier to prosecute illegal graffiti art.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN POETS REACH NEW HEIGHTS Modern African American poetry owes much to the black arts movement (BAM) of the 1960s and 1970s. The BAM urged artists to turn away from European poetic models and look to African American music and speech for inspiration. Poets such as Amiri Baraka and Nikki Giovanni drew heavily on blues and jazz traditions, sermonizing, and rapping in their work, and focused heavily on political and social issues. Giovanni’s 1967 collection Black Feeling, Black Talk, for example, used fiery, revolutionary language to talk about the turmoil of the 1960s—both in the United States and around the world. Baraka, a famous scholar of African American music as well as a poet, adopted a radical, anti-white stance in his poetry of the late 1960s in such works as the poetry collection Black Magic (1969). Their radicalism and focus on race issues helped break down barriers that had held back African American writers both professionally and artistically. The works of these poets and others received a boost from numerous black publishing houses and magazines devoted to black art in the 1960s and 1970s. Many young African Americans became interested in writing, reading, and publicly reciting new poetry, and they found numerous journals and presses willing to print their work. By the mid-1970s, the BAM was losing steam as a movement, and poets like Baraka and Giovanni began to shift away from the militant perspective of the 1960s. They continued to produce poetry, but with a change of focus. Baraka began to focus on class and economic issues in his work. Giovanni became more personal and inward-looking in such collections as 1978’s Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day. Poet and essayist Audre Lorde (1934–92)— who, like her contemporaries Giovanni and Baraka, focused on issues of race and social justice in her work published in the 1960s—began examining the complex relationships between race, gender, and sexuality. Her poetic autobiography—or “biomythology,” as she called it—took up such topics. The book was called Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982). Poets Win Critical Success In 1971, novelist and poet Maya Angelou was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’Fore I African American Eras

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Die. While she has become most famous for her series of autobiographical novels (including the 1969 novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings), she has received considerable acclaim as a poet. Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. She was the first poet to speak at a presidential inauguration since Robert Frost (1874–1963) read at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. In 1993 Rita Dove (1952– ) became both the youngest person and first African American named to the post of poet laureate of the United States. She was forty years old. Her poetry cannot easily be classed as part of any particular movement. Her subject matter is sophisticated in outlook. She has shown a debt to traditions of American poetry stretching back to the nineteenth century. Yet she acknowledges her debt to the black arts movement. She says that without it, she would not have been freed to write about subject matters other than her own blackness. Dove’s best-known work is the poetry collection Thomas and Beulah (1986). For this collection, she won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for her poetry. The poems in this collection paint an intimate, humanizing portrait of Dove’s maternal grandparents. Elizabeth Alexander (1962– ), another important modern African American poet, explored similar poetic territory in her first collection, The Venus Hottentot (1990). She, like Dove, uses historical figures as a means to address and investigate very real human emotions and experiences in a way that is relevant to modern life. Alexander references several other leading African American poets in her piece “The Dark Room: An Invocation.” The title of the poem refers to a collective of modern poets that includes

Maya Angelou reads her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. Brad Markel/Getty Images

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Thomas Sayers Ellis (1963– ), Sharan Strange, Kevin Young (1970– ), Carl Phillips (1959– ), and Natasha Trethewey (1966– ). This shows that the tradition of a black literary collective begun by the BAM is alive and well. Other poets like Ras Baraka, Kevin Powell (1966– ), Jabari Asim (1962– ), and Esther Iverem are also carrying forward the BAM’s political, racial, and social agendas, with an updated hip-hop sensibility. Alexander gained national recognition when she was invited by President Barack Obama (1961– ) to prepare and read a poem at his inauguration in January 2009. She accepted, and she read her poem, “Praise Song for the Day.”

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BAM Poets Continue to Make Headlines Some of the original BAM poets continued to make headlines with their work in the twenty-first century. Amiri Baraka continued to stir up controversy. At the time of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he was serving as poet laureate of New Jersey. The poem he wrote in response to the attacks, “Somebody Blew Up America,” was accused of being antiSemitic (or anti-Jewish) for its accusations that Israel was somehow involved in the attacks. In response to the controversy, the New Jersey state government passed legislation specifically allowing the governor to abolish Baraka’s post as poet laureate.

Other BAM poets have made recent headlines for using their words to promote healing in the wake of a traumatic event. Nikki Giovanni has been a distinguished professor of English at Virginia Tech University since 1987. When a lone gunman went on a shooting rampage at the school on April 16, 2007, thirty-three people were killed and twenty-three wounded. Giovanni, who had earlier petitioned the English department chair to have the gunman taken out of a class she was teaching, appeared as the final speaker at a special convocation held the day after the shooting. Her rousing chant poem, “We Are Virginia Tech,” brought the somber crowd to its feet with cheers and applause for the poet’s inspiring words.

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BLACK WOMEN AUTHORS FIND MAINSTREAM SUCCESS African Americans have a rich literary tradition that extends back to the eighteenth century when the slave poet Phillis Wheatley (1753?–84) won fame for her 1773 collection Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. In the nineteenth century, African American men and women both published works on slavery, but as the twentieth century advanced African American women writers dropped out of sight. Their male counterparts took center stage during the Harlem Renaissance, which was a time in the 1920s and 1930s when African Americans made significant contributions to the arts. Even those women writers who did make an impact at the time, such as writer Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), had fallen into obscurity by the 1950s. African American Eras

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African American literature experienced another cultural revival during the 1960s when the black arts movement inspired African American artists and writers to create works that were focused on the African American experience, created for African Americans, and removed from white mainstream influence. African American male writers dominated this movement, as they did the Harlem Renaissance. But as the movement declined in the 1970s, the work of African American women writers gained recognition. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, female black authors made a name for themselves not only among African Americans, but among readers of all races. For many black women writers in the 1970s, the issue of gender began to take on as much as, or sometimes even more importance than, race. Black Women Writers Win Multiple Awards Alice Childress wrote A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich in 1973. Childress’s book was a perfect example of this shift in focus for black women writers with her socially conscious examination of life in the urban ghetto. Alice Walker, with both her poetry and her fiction, became a leading figure in African American literature. Two of her most important works were her novels Meridian (1976) and The Color Purple (1981). The latter book, in particular, was a massive best seller that spawned an equally successful movie in 1984 and Broadway musical in 2005. The book dealt with issues of “womanism” (Walker’s term for feminism as applied to women of color). Walker coined the term womanism to refer to the special struggles faced by women of color that were not adequately addressed by either the civil rights movement or the feminist movement. Meridian also engaged issues of lesbianism and domestic violence. For this reason, some black males criticized Meridian. They charged that the book did nothing but promote stereotypes of African American men as drunken, vicious, and prone to adultery and wife beating. Gloria Naylor (1950– ) explored similar territory in her 1982 novel The Women of Brewster Place. The novel covers the lives of seven African American women in a crime-ridden housing project. It won her the National Book Award in 1983, and it was successfully adapted for film in 1989.

The most successful author, female or male, of the post–black arts era is Toni Morrison. Morrison enjoyed a steadily growing following from the time her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Morrison has produced some of the most compelling black fiction of the last three decades. She addresses issues of race, gender, class, and American history in her powerful novels. The Bluest Eye, for example, tells the story of a young black girl driven to insanity by her desire for blue eyes and other Caucasian traits. Morrison’s breakthrough novel, Song of Solomon (1978), traces a black man’s

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cross-country quest from the North back to the Deep South. His quest is not only physical but also is a quest for identity. Morrison’s best-known novel is Beloved (1987). It is based on a real-life incident of a runaway slave who killed her daughter rather than see her returned to a life of slavery. By the time Beloved was published, Morrison had amassed a devoted following. This widespread admiration had not won her critical attention prior to 1988, but in that year Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for Beloved. One year after the publication of her 1992 novel Jazz, Morrison received what many consider to be the top honor a writer can receive: the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was the first African American woman to win that award.

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New Opportunities in Mass-Market Fiction With the accomplishments of authors like Walker, Naylor, and Morrison, the door was opened to African American authors of popular,

Terry McMillan’s novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1997) captivated readers with a story about an African American woman overcoming professional and personal adversity. James Keyser/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images


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mass-market literature. Leading that group was Terry McMillan (1951– ). McMillan penned a series of books about black female empowerment that touched a chord with an American readership. With books like Waiting to Exhale (1992) and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1997), McMillan climbed to the top of the best-seller lists. Her books are tales of successful black women overcoming adversity in their careers and their romantic lives. Both books were in turn made into hit movies. Her 2005 novel The Interruption of Everything, the story of a middle-aged black woman struggling to find pleasure and meaning in her life, was also a popular bestseller. Erica Kennedy’s debut novel Bling, a steamy tale about the hip-hop music and fashion industry, was a best seller in 2004. Kennedy (c. 1970– ) followed up on her success in 2009 with Feminista, a romantic comedy. While the fiction of writers such as Morrison and Walker mostly examines social, historical, and cultural issues facing poor and working-class African American women, McMillan and Kennedy’s work places less emphasis on these issues, and focuses instead on the personal dramas and romantic struggles of upper- and upper-middle-class blacks. The New York Times noted a trend in the success of such novels in 2004, dubbing the brand “black chick lit.” Other examples of the genre include Gotham Diaries (2004) by Tonya Lewis Lee, Can’t Get Enough: A Novel (2005) by Connie Briscoe, and Who Does She Think She Is? (2005) by Benilde Little.

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OPERA OPENS UP TO AFRICAN AMERICANS Opera as a musical form had its roots in sixteenth-century Italy. Though popular with a fairly broad audience in Europe by the nineteenth century, in the twentieth century opera came to be regarded by many as a European art form mostly enjoyed by white intellectuals. That perception changed somewhat with the 1935 introduction of Porgy and Bess, which featured the music of gifted jazz composer George Gershwin (1898–1937) and a libretto (the words sung by the performers) by DuBose Heyward (1895–1940). The opera featured only black characters, and the opera’s original performers were all classically trained African American singers. This opera of rural black life in South Carolina was not an immediate success. A 1952 revival, however, played in major opera houses around the world to great critical acclaim. The production launched the career of African American opera singer Leontyne Price (1927– ), who starred as Bess. (A young Maya Angelou appeared in the small role of Ruby.) Price was the first African American leading female singer at the Metropolitan Opera, following in the footsteps of Marian Anderson (1897– 1993), who was the first African American to perform on the stage of the 128


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Metropolitan Opera in 1955. By the 1990s, however, African American singers ushered in what Ebony magazine called “the age of the black diva.” Some of the leading stars in the world of opera are African American women. They include Jessye Norman (1945– ), winner of four Grammy Awards for her classical recordings, Kathleen Battle (1948– ), winner of five Grammy Awards, and Barbara Hendricks (1948– ), famous for both her jazz and opera performances. Norman is renowned for her wide musical range, mastering everything from American spirituals to works by such modernist composers as Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) and Alban Berg (1885–1935). Norman’s 1969 operatic debut in Richard Wagner’s (1813–83) Tannhaeuser in Berlin was a sensation. She followed up with success after success in every major opera house in the world. The French loved her so much they named an orchid after her and awarded her the Legion of Honor (the most prestigious government decoration in France). Battle is widely praised for her glamorous stage presence and lovely voice, and performed the leading role in many light lyric operas (operas with appealing melodies and romantic plotlines) around the world. Hendricks has used her success as a singer to highlight the plight of refugees around the world. She became a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1987.

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Opera singer Denyce Graves performing as Dalila in the Royal Opera production of Samson et Dalila in 2004. ª Robbie Jack/Corbis

Mezzo-soprano (singer with a middle-high voice) Denyce Graves (1964– ) was proclaimed “likely to be an operatic superstar of the twentyfirst century” by USA Today for her acclaimed performance in the leading roles of such operas as Carmen (in which she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1995) and Samson and Delilah. Graves hosted her own weekly radio show, Voce di Donna, on the nationwide XM satellite radio network. African American operatic composers have also made a name for themselves in recent years. Composer Anthony Davis (1951– ) rose to national prominence with X, an opera about the life of Malcolm X, which had its world premiere at the New York City Opera in 1986. Critical reception of the opera was mixed. His 1997 opera Amistad, based on the true story of a


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slave ship rebellion, was initially unsuccessful. However, a 2008 revival of a significantly revised version of Amistad, which opened at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, was a critical success. Davis’s work combines the European opera tradition with African American musical styles such as hip hop and jazz.


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PR I M A RY S O UR C E S

 SAMO GRAFFITI MESSAGES (1970S) Jean-Michel Basquiat first made his name as a graffiti artist working with Al Diaz. The pair formed a partnership called SAMO (pronounced “same-oh” short for “same old”). Their graffiti began appearing around New York City in the late 1970s. The graffiti consisted of a series of short phrases, or aphorisms, some of which are reproduced here. SAMO graffiti helped change the public perception that graffiti lacked worth as an art form. The phrases, and the fact that they appeared in an illegal format (graffiti on public buildings and structures is legally considered vandalism), were seen as witty acts of rebellion. The phrases poked fun at the wealthy, the powerful, the middle class, and the art world itself.

............................ (SAMO(c)) A PIN DROPS LIKE A PUNGENT ODOR . . . SAMO(c) . . . AS AN END 2 NINE-2-FIVE NONSENSE . . . WASTIN YOUR LIFE 2 MAKE ENDS MEET . . . TO GO HOME AT NIGHT TO YOUR COLOR T.V . . . .

Pungent Sharp and intense

SAMO(c) 4-U . . . SAMO(c) ANOTHER DAY . . . ANOTHER DIME . . . HYPER-COOL . . . ANOTHER WAY 2 KILL SOME TIME . . . SAMO(c) AS AN END 2 VINYL PUNKERY . . . SAMO(c) AS AN EX-PRESSION OF SPIRITUAL LOVE . . . SAMO(c) JUST IN CASE . . . SAMO(c) IS ALL SAMO(c) AS AN END TO AMOS ’N ANDY 1984 . . . SAMO(c) . . . ANTI-ART! SAMO(c) SAVES IDIOTS AND GONZOIDS . . . SAMO(c) FOR THE SO-CALLED AVANT-GARDE SAMO(c) AS AN ALTERNATIVE 2 “PLAYING ART” WITH THE “RADICAL CHIC” SECT ON DADDY’$ FUNDS . . . 4-U . . . SAMO(c) AS AN END TO CONFINING ART TERMS . . . SAMO(c) AS A NEO-ART FORM . . .

Avant-Garde A small group of intellectuals developing new and experimental types of art

SAMO(c) AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO BLAH . . . BLAHBLAHBLAH BLAHZOOEY . . . BLAH BLAH QUASI-BLAH . . . etc. SAMO(c) AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE “MEAT PACK” ARTEEST ON DISPLAY . . . “COME HOME WITH ME TO-NITE” & “I’M A DIVORCEE BLUES” African American Eras

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SAMO(c) 4-THE SEDATE . . . Conglomerate A group made up of diverse members

SAMO(c) . . . AS A CONGLOMERATE OF DORMANT-GENIOUS SAMO(c) . . . AS A RESULT OF OVEREXPOSURE . . . SAMO(c) AS AN END 2 THE NEON FANTASY CALLED “LIFE” . . . SAMO(c)? IT’S A MOVIE! SAMO(c)? DO I HAVE 2 SPELL IT OUT!! SAMO(c) . . . AS A REALIZATION PROCESS . . . MICROWAVE & VIDEO X-SISTANCE “BIG-MAC” CERTIFICATE FOR X-MAS . . . SAMO(c) SAMO(c) . . . IT’S A GONZO’S WORLD . . . AIN’T IT SAD? SAMO(c) . . . FOR THE URBAN RED-NECK . . . SAMO(c) DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER IN LABORATORY ANIMALS . . . SAMO(c) IS DEAD.

 NOBEL PRIZE COMMITTEE HONORS TONI MORRISON (1993)

Laureate The recipient of an honor for achievement in the arts or sciences

Comprise To be made up of Oeuvre An author’s lifetime body of work

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In 1993, Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was the first African American woman ever to win the award. The citation for the award is addressed to Toni Morrison, “who, in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.” Below is an excerpt from the October 7, 1993, press release announcing Morrison as a Nobel laureate. The Nobel Prize committee praises Morrison’s poetic language, her use of myth and folklore, and her humor.

............................ “My work requires me to think about how free I can be as an African American woman writer in my genderized, sexualized, wholly racialized world.” These are the words of this year’s Nobel Laureate in Literature, the American writer Toni Morrison, in her book of essays “Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination” (1992). And she adds, “My project rises from delight, not disappointment . . . .” Toni Morrison is 62 years old, and was born in Lorain, Ohio, in the United States. Her works comprise novels and essays. In her academic career she is a professor in the humanities at the University of Princeton, New Jersey. She has written six novels, each of them of great interest. Her oeuvre is unusually finely wrought and cohesive, yet at the same time rich in variation. One can delight in her unique narrative technique, varying from book to book and developed independently, even though its roots stem from Faulkner and American writers from further south. The lasting impression is nevertheless sympathy, humanity, of the kind which is always based on profound humour. African American Eras

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“Song of Solomon” (1978) with its description of the black world in life and legend, forms an excellent introduction to the work of Toni Morrison. Milkman Dead’s quest for his real self and its source reflects a basic theme in the novels. The Solomon of the title, the southern ancestor, was to be found in the songs of childhood games. His inner intensity had borne him back, like Icarus, through the air to the Africa of his roots. This insight finally becomes Milkman’s too. “Beloved” (1987) continues to widen the themes and to weave together the places and times in the network of motifs. The combination of realistic notation and folklore paradoxically intensifies the credibility. There is enormous power in the depiction of Sethe’s action to liberate her child from the life she envisages for it, and the consequences of this action for Sethe’s own life. In her latest novel “Jazz” (1992), Toni Morrison uses a device which is akin to the way jazz itself is played. The book’s first lines provide a synopsis, and in reading the novel one becomes aware of a narrator who varies, embellishes and intensifies. The result is a richly complex, sensuously conveyed image of the events, the characters and moods. As the motivation for the award implies, Toni Morrison is a literary artist of the first rank. She delves into the language itself, a language she wants to liberate from the fetters of race. And she addresses us with the lustre of poetry.

The Arts ........................................................


Motifs Important themes and ideas in literary works Paradoxically In a way that seems contradictory but is actually true Envisage To imagine or predict Akin Similar Lustre (or luster) Attractiveness and excellence


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 ............................................................... Research and Activity Ideas

1. Octavia Butler was the first person of color to make serious inroads into the world of science fiction. Write an essay exploring the history of African American authors’ involvement in science fiction. Why do you think African American writers have not traditionally been associated with this type of fiction? What other black authors have followed Butler’s path into science fiction writing? What are some other types of literature that are underrepresented by black authorship?

2. How do black authors and poets talk about the past, present, and future? Find two examples of black writing that analyze history, contemporary life, and possibilities for the future. Find two similar examples from white writers. Make a list of the important ways in which the samples from African American writers differ from the writing of white authors. 3. Prepare a speech analyzing the history of the African American autobiography, from Frederick Douglass to Malcolm X and Maya Angelou. As you research your speech, make sure you come up with answers to the following questions. Why is the black autobiography such an important element of African American literature? What can we learn about African American culture from studying black biographies? 4. Leading writers of the black arts movement like Amiri Baraka and Ed Bullins have been accused of “reverse racism” by their critics. Write a paper in which you analyze what is meant by “reverse racism.” How does “reverse racism” differ from the general term “racism,” if at all? Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of seeking separation from the “white” American culture, as Baraka, Bullins, and others did. 5. Prepare a written report discussing the significance of poetry in the black arts movement. Why do you think poetry played such a key role, as opposed to, say, novels or plays? Why do you think poetry is no longer as significant in the African American community as it was in the 1960s? Can you think of any art form or medium that has replaced poetry as a method of community-building and communication? 6. Write an essay assessing the black arts movement (BAM). In your estimation, how successful was it? What were the goals of the BAM? How many of those goals were achieved, and to what extent? Analyze the effect the BAM had on literature and the arts at large. How is the BAM’s influence still being felt today? 7. Pick a classmate as a partner and have a discussion about the art and career of Jean-Michel Basquiat. What messages do you think Al Diaz 134


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and Jean-Michel Basquiat were trying to convey with their SAMO graffiti? Discuss the messages Basquiat conveyed with his graffiti versus the messages conveyed by his later art career and financial success. Would you say that Basquiat “sold out,” as his critics charged? What does it mean for an artist to “sell out”?

The Arts ........................................................


8. Bill T. Jones and Savion Glover are only two examples of the importance of a long tradition of dance in African American cultural expression. What can dance express that other art forms cannot? Why do you think dance is so strongly rooted in African American culture? What are the historical and cultural reasons underlying the importance of dance in black culture? Prepare a written report on the role of dance in the African American arts.

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BOOKS

Baraka, Amiri. The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1997. Brooks, Gwendolyn, ed. A Broadside Treasury: 1965 1970. Detroit: Broadside Press, 1971. Chiappinni, Rudy. Jean Michel Basquiat. Milan: Skira, 2005. Elms, Anthony, et al. Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago’s Afro Futurist Underground, 1954 68. Chicago: WhiteWalls, 2007. Fabre, Geneviève. Drumbeats, Masks, and Metaphor: Contemporary Afro American Theatre. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983. Gayle, Addison, ed. The Black Aesthetic. New York: DoubleDay, 1971. Perpener, John. African American Concert Dance: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Stewart, Jack. Graffiti Kings: New York City Mass Transit Art of the 1970s. New York: Abrams, 2009.

PERIODICALS “Age of the Black Diva.” Ebony 46:10 (August 1991): p. 74. Lee, Felicia E. “Pioneers Are Taking Black Chick Lit into Middle Age.” New York Times (June 27, 2005): p. E1. Walsh, Michael. “Battle Fatigue.” Time 143:8 (February 21, 1994): pp. 60(3).

WEB SITES Barbara Hendricks Official Web Site. http://www.barbarahendricks.com/index2 .htm (accessed on October 12, 2009). African American Eras

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“Biography of Jessye Norman.” The Kennedy Center. http://www.kennedy center .org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showIndividual&entitY id=3781& source type=A (accessed on October 12, 2009). “A Chronological List of Reproductions On line.” Faithringgold.com Web Site. http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/images.htm (accessed on September 29, 2009). “Street to Studio: The Art of Jean Michel Basquiat.” Brooklyn Museum. http:// www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/basquiat/street to studio/english/ home.php (accessed on September 29, 2009). “Denyce Graves Biography.” Denyce Graves. http://www.denycegraves.com/bio .aspx (accessed on October 12, 2009).

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c h a p t e r th r e e


Chronology . . . . . . . . . 138 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 141 Headline Makers . . . . . . 144 Ursula Burns . . . . Kenneth I. Chenault . Sean Combs . . . . Janice Bryant Howroyd Daymond John . . . Robert L. Johnson . . Richard Parsons . . . Russell Simmons . . David L. Steward . . Oprah Winfrey . . .

. . . . . . . . . .

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. 144 . 145 . 148 . 151 . 153 . 155 . 157 . 159 . 161 . 162

Topics in the News . . . . . 166 Affirmative Action Programs Rise, then Decline . . . . . 166 Number of African American CEOs Grows . . . . . . . 170

Black Entrepreneurs Introduce Traditional Foods to New Fans . . Professional Development Organization Founded for African American Career Women . . . . Wage Gap Persists between African Americans and Whites . . . . . . . . Collapse of the Automobile Industry Devastates African Americans . . . Modern Economy Challenges African Americans . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1961 March 6 President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order 10925 mandating that projects receiving federal funding “take affirmative action” to ensure there is no discrimination (decisions or actions based on unfair prejudice) in hiring and employment practices. 1964 June 19 The Civil Rights Act is passed, prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment practices. 1965 July 2 The federal government establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate discrimination complaints in the workplace and prevent retaliation for reporting workplace discrimination. 1965 September 24 President Lyndon B. Johnson issues Executive Order 11246 requiring federal contractors to hire candidates from a “protected class” of minority groups whenever possible and to develop an affirmative action plan to utilize women and minorities in proportion to their percentage in the workforce. 1967 Al Johnson becomes the first African American to receive a General Motors franchise when he opens an Oldsmobile dealership in Chicago. 1967 December 26 The Small Business Administration (SBA) Section 8 (a) program is established. Under

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Section 8 (a), the SBA is authorized to enter into contract with federal agencies on behalf of small and disadvantaged businesses. Through this program, many African American-owned businesses are able to grow. 1968 February 12 City sanitation workers (almost all African American) in Memphis go on strike to gain recognition of their union and demand improved working conditions. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. strongly supports the strike, and it is considered one of the most important struggles of the civil rights era. King’s assassination in Memphis two months later prompts several prominent politicians (including the president and Tennessee’s governor) to pressure Memphis into recognizing the union and ending the strike. 1969 June 25 Richard Nixon develops and implements the “Philadelphia Plan,” which requires federal government contractors to meet certain goals in the hiring of minority workers. 1969 August 25 African American construction workers and members of the Black Construction Coalition begin a protest of discriminatory hiring practices that closes five construction sites in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1970 The Earl G. Graves Publishing Company begins publishing Black

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......................................................................................... Enterprise, with the goal of providing business news and investment information for the African American business community.

business principles and strategies used by these successful individuals. Mandela’s goal is to help blacks in his country attain economic empowerment.

1971 March 8 In Griggs v. Duke Power Co., the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits not only discrimination in employment practices, such as hiring and promotion, but also those practices that have a disparate impact (make it harder for African Americans to succeed at work).

1996 November 5 With the passage of Proposition 209 by 54 percent of the vote, California becomes the first state to ban affirmative action programs, which are government-sponsored efforts to improve the education or employment opportunities for minorities.

1977 The organization Black Career Women is founded to help black women deal with the racism and sexism that thwart their career success.

1998 November 3 Voters in Washington State overwhelmingly pass Initiative 200, which prohibits the state government from using affirmative action in hiring practices.

1983 General Motors establishes the Minority Dealer Advisory Committee (MDAC) responsible for resolving ethnic minority dealer issues. 1988 Oprah Winfrey founds Harpo Studios, a television, film, and publishing company. She becomes only the third woman to own her own studio.

1999 The wage gap between white men and African American men narrows to its lowest level in history, 80.6 percent. This figure means that African American men make 80.6 percent of the money made by white men doing the same job.

1989 January 23 In City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates (makes illegal) a city program giving preference to minority-owned businesses when awarding city contracts.

1999 January 1 Franklin Raines becomes the first African American chief executive officer (CEO) of a Fortune 500 company when he takes the position at the head of Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association.

1991 December 4 Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, meets with African American business and political leaders in order to learn about the

1999 August 12 Lloyd Ward becomes CEO of Maytag Corp. He is the second African American to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company.


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....................................................................................... 2001 Kenneth Chenault becomes CEO of American Express. He is the third African American to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

2008 More than twenty thousand black auto workers lose their jobs, representing a 13.9 percent decline in black auto workers.

2002 A U.S. Census Bureau report, “Survey of Black Business Owners,” reveals that between 1997 and 2002, the number of black-owned businesses in the United States rose by 45 percent to 1.2 million.

2009 July The nationwide unemployment rate for black workers nears 15 percent. The national unemployment rate at this time is 9.4 percent.

2006 November 7 Michigan becomes the third state to ban affirmative action.

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2009 July 1 Ursula Burns becomes the first African American woman to run a Fortune 500 company when she becomes the CEO of Xerox.

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 ............................................................... Overview

Economic power is the key to success in a capitalist society (one driven by financial competition). In the United States, the legacy of slavery and discrimination, both official and unofficial, has put African Americans at a distinct economic disadvantage. Historically, African American workers have never earned wages equal to those of white workers. Also, educational achievement—a stepping stone to career success—among African Americans has always been below that of whites. Advocates for equity in business and industry emphasize the necessity of economic empowerment for African Americans so that a strong business class can be established. In recent years, a growing number of African American executives and entrepreneurs have risen to prominent positions in the business world. In doing so, they have helped strengthen the voice of the African American community in economic and political circles.

Business and Industry ........................................................

OVERVIEW

The civil rights movement resulted in a number of government efforts to improve the economic status of African Americans. Under Presidents John F. Kennedy (1917–63) and Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73), the federal government took measures to end workplace discrimination and provide economic opportunities for African Americans. The initiatives enacted by Kennedy and Johnson, which were instrumental in fighting discrimination in the workplace, were still in effect in the early twenty-first century. One of the most important laws in America’s history is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited employment discrimination. This act led to the formation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1965. The commission is responsible for investigating discrimination complaints in the workplace and preventing retaliation against employees who report workplace discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race when making decisions about whom to hire, whom to promote, and whom to fire. In Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employment practices that had a disparate impact were illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Disparate impact is a legal phrase used in employment law to describe any practice that has a negative effect on members of a protected group, such as minorities and women. Examples of practices that may have a disparate impact include height and weight restrictions, written tests, and educational requirements. The Supreme Court’s decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. provided substantial protections for minorities in the workforce. African American workers made further gains with the establishment of affirmative action hiring programs for the federal government and federal African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

contractors. Affirmative action was a controversial policy from the beginning. The term “affirmative action” was first used in 1961 when President Kennedy issued an executive order requiring those managing projects that received federal funding to “take affirmative action” to ensure that they did not commit employment discrimination. Affirmative action policies were intended to correct decades of racial discrimination. Today, “affirmative action” generally is interpreted as giving preferential treatment to minorities and women in the context of employment or education decisions (such as whether to admit a certain applicant to a certain degree program, or whether to hire a certain job applicant). Some people believe that the diversity seen in society today is evidence that affirmative action policies have been successful, and that they should remain in place. Others believe that affirmative action programs cause more problems than they solve, and should be abolished. The civil rights era (usually dated from 1954 to 1968) witnessed a number of important financial gains for African Americans. The wage gap (a measurement of the economic progress of African Americans as compared to whites) between whites and blacks narrowed during this period, and African American families entered the middle class at a higher rate than ever before. They were aided by a combination of overall economic prosperity in America, civil rights legislation, and affirmative action programs. African American employment rates also rose in such important sectors as the auto industry, which was particularly welcoming to African American workers. Nevertheless, the wage gap between whites and blacks, which had narrowed considerably by 1975, began widening again in the late 1970s and 1980s. Economic progress for African Americans was uneven in the years following the civil rights era. The wage gap increased and decreased unpredictably throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It reached an all-time low in 1999, but it widened again in the early twenty-first century. Regardless of affirmative action policies, African Americans, along with the majority of the U.S. population, remain vulnerable to poverty in times of economic downturns. In 2009, for instance, the lives of thousands of African American workers were affected by the closures of factories related to the automobile industry. For decades, the auto industry offered steady employment and high wages for African Americans. When the automobile companies faced serious financial crises toward the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, many African Americans found their economic well-being at risk. At the same time, African American entrepreneurs have enjoyed groundbreaking successes and entered the ranks of the richest and most influential American businesspeople. Organizations such as Black Career Women (BCW), founded in 1977 in Cincinnati, Ohio, have emerged to

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help level the economic playing field and address the career concerns of African American women. Black executives have begun to enter the uppermanagement levels of major corporations, occupying important positions as publishers, presidents, founders, and chief executive officers (CEOs). The 2008 election of Barack Obama (1961– ) as the first African American president showed young African Americans that there was truly no limit to what they could achieve in their professional lives. However, the global economic crisis of the same period had a disproportionately negative impact on black workers and dampened economic optimism.


O VE RV IE W

African Americans have undeniably made major economic strides since the civil rights era. Even so, economic equality for the African American community as a whole had yet to be achieved by the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century.


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URSULA BURNS (1958– )

Ursula Burns began her career at the Xerox Corporation as an intern in 1981. Her ambition and talent earned her a series of promotions that resulted in her becoming president of Xerox’s largest business unit in just twenty years. In 2009 she made history as the first African American woman to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company when she took over the reins of the company. Burns was born in 1958 in New York City and was raised by a single mother in a housing project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Burns’s mother worked several jobs in order to be able to send her children to a private school. Her mother stressed that education would be the key to success in the future. Burns graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of New York in 1980, then took advantage of a graduate engineering program for minorities funded by the Xerox Corporation in order to go on to Columbia University to earned her master’s degree in mechanical engineering. As part of the Xerox program, Burns became one of the company’s summer interns. After she finished her degree program, she became a full-time employee. Starting in 1981, Burns began working as an engineer in Xerox’s product planning and development departments. That same year, Burns met Lloyd Bean, a Xerox scientist. The couple married in 1988. Within six years, she was managing engineering teams. Burns sensed that she would not reach upper management through the engineering departments at Xerox, and, in 1990, made a bold choice: she abandoned engineering work and became executive assistant to the vice president of marketing and customer operations. One year later, she was executive assistant to Paul Allaire (1938– ), Xerox’s chairman and CEO. She traveled extensively with Allaire, and learned a great deal about Xerox’s operations. Allaire was quick to realize Burns’s management potential, and he put her to work heading several business units between 1992 and 1997. For two years she was vice president and general manager of the Workgroup Copier Business in London. In 1997 she was put in charge of the Departmental Copier Business, a $3 billion division. She was also named a corporate vice president while still shy of her fortieth birthday, an impressive achievement that made her the subject of both envy and awe. Not content to rest on her laurels, Burns continued working her way up the corporate ladder, becoming senior vice president in 2000. In this role, 144


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Burns was in charge of all of Xerox’s worldwide manufacturing. One year later, she became president of the Document Systems and Solutions Group, Xerox’s largest business enterprise. By 2002, she was responsible for 80 percent of Xerox’s worldwide sales and oversaw six major business groups.



Burns faced major challenges in 2002. Xerox was fined $10 million for fraud due to accounting inaccuracies, and the company was almost bankrupt. Burns worked closely with Anne Mulcahy (1952– ), the CEO, to save the company through aggressive restructuring and cost-cutting. Burns decided to outsource the manufacturing of many Xerox products, reportedly saving the company $2 billion in 2003 alone. By 2007, Burns was widely considered to be the obvious choice to replace Mulcahy on her retirement. On July 1, 2009, Burns did replace Mulcahy, marking two firsts: it was the first time a female CEO of a major U.S. corporation handed over power to another female, and it was the first time an African American woman had taken the top position at a Fortune 500 company.

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KENNETH I. CHENAULT (1951– )

As CEO of American Express, Kenneth I. Chenault occupies one of the most prestigious positions in the world of American business. Chenault has enjoyed a remarkably rapid ascent of the corporate ladder at American Express. His rise to CEO was a historic one. Although he was not the first African American to head a Fortune 500 company, his placement as CEO was considered a major accomplishment. Chenault was born in 1951 in Hempstead, New York, to a dentist and a dental hygienist. He was an avid reader of biographies of great men and grew up with high expectations for himself. He attended Bowdoin College in Maine before going on to Harvard Law School. After graduating from Harvard in 1976, Chenault joined a New York law firm. Not long after that, Chenault followed his interests in the theory and practice of business by taking a position at a business consulting firm. There, he learned about all aspects of the business world and made many important contacts. In 1981, he accepted a position at American Express in the merchandise services division. Chenault’s work was quickly noticed, and in 1983 he was named vice-president of marketing for the division. One year later, Chenault took over as general manager of merchandise services. As general manager, Chenault’s job was to sell goods such as leather luggage, computers, and gold watches to American Express members through direct mail. He was also responsible for safeguarding the immense trust that members had developed with American Express. The company had African American Eras

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American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault in 1990. John Chiasson/Getty Images

managed to associate its name and logo with the highest quality of goods and services. American Express marketed itself as an exclusive club, even using the slogan “membership has its privileges” in advertisements. Chenault believed that the American Express name was the company’s most marketable asset. He made the most of that by making card members feel more like club members and presenting them with upscale items for purchase. By the mid-1980s, sales in Chenault’s division had gone up 25 percent annually. This led to Chenault’s promotion to a position that put him in charge of more than five thousand employees providing services to some four million wealthy holders of gold and platinum American Express cards. Within two years, Chenault was again promoted. This time, he became president of a division of American Express that brought in ten billion dollars per year in sales. American Express’s control over the high-end card market was tested in the 1980s by credit card companies. Companies such as Visa and 146


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MasterCard had begun offering merchants and retailers a much lower fee than American Express. By doing so, they succeeded in weakening the loyalty of American Express merchants. In the late 1980s, as merchant loyalty continued to decline, Chenault took over the American Express Consumer Card Group, USA. Prior to 1988, American Express had offered only a charge card that had to be paid off each month. In an attempt to combat the encroaching credit card companies, American Express came out with its own credit card, called Optima.



Still, Chenault faced challenges like the “Boston Fee Party,” in which a group of Boston-area restaurateurs joined forces and decided they would no longer accept the more costly American Express card. Chenault’s response was to offer selective cuts in merchant fees and even greater customer and merchant support, especially to the company’s wealthiest clients and biggest spenders. A big shake-up at American Express in 1993 presented Chenault with an opportunity. The chief executive officer (CEO), James Robinson III (1935– ), was forced to step down and was replaced with Harvey Golub (1939– ). Golub was chosen because he welcomed change. Chenault thrived under this new leadership. Chenault became vice chairman in 1995, and within two years he was promoted to president and chief operating officer (COO). There was little surprise when Golub announced that Chenault would take over as CEO when he retired. Many thought that Chenault might become the first African American CEO of a major U.S. corporation. However, Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae received that honor. Nonetheless, Chenault had become part of a growing list of top-level black executives. Chenault became CEO in 2001 and had to prove that he could handle the twenty-five billion dollar company in a slowing economy. While the summer of 2001 brought financial losses for the company and thousands of layoffs, the worst was yet to come. On September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York. Chenault was out of town at the time. When he learned of the attack, he called security at the American Express building, which was across the street from the Twin Towers, and had them evacuate immediately. According to PR Week, customer service at American Express helped as many as 500,000 stranded cardholders get home. Chenault’s compassion and leadership skills during this trying time drew praise from many sectors. American Express donated one million dollars to the families of the eleven American Express employees who died in the attack. Many credit Chenault with being the glue that held the company together after the attack. In 2002, Fortune magazine named Chenault number two in its list of the fifty most powerful African American executives in America. Even as African American Eras

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he has served as CEO of American Express, Chenault has been on the boards of Procter & Gamble and IBM. In March 2009, American Express was criticized when it announced plans to cut its workforce by 10 percent. American Express also converted to a bank holding company (a corporation in control of two or more banks), which allowed it access to billions of dollars in government bailout funds. Only a month after the announced layoffs, CNN Money Web site listed Chenault as number four on its list of the “10 Biggest CEO Paychecks.” Chenault’s 2008 total earnings were reported to be 42.8 million dollars.

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Entertainment and fashion industry executive Sean Combs in 2009. Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

SEAN COMBS (1969– )

Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is a well-known entertainer and entertainment-industry giant. He is the founder and CEO of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group. The Bad Boy Group is a collection of various entertainment-industry enterprises that engage in recording, marketing, advertising, talent management, music publishing, and television and film production. The group also manages apparel companies and restaurants. Combs’s primary accomplishment has been popularizing rap and hip-hop music through his efforts as a music producer and record executive. The productions of Combs’s Bad Boy Records defined the music of a generation of African Americans and dominated the recording charts in the 1990s. In addition, his popular Sean John clothing line helped bring hip-hop culture into mainstream American society. Combs was born in Harlem, New York, on November 4, 1969. When Combs was two years old, his father was murdered in Central Park. (Combs believed that his father had been killed in an automobile accident until he was fourteen years old, when he uncovered the truth by doing research at the public library.) Combs’s first media success came early. In 1972, the year his father was killed, Combs participated in a fashion show at a day-care center. There, an executive at Baskin-Robbins noticed the boy and hired him to appear in one of the company’s ads.

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Influenced by Rap Pioneers During his childhood in Harlem, Combs would sneak out of his house at night to see rap shows put on by such pioneering rappers as Run-DMC, KRS-One, and Grandmaster Flash. Combs’s mother supported him and his younger sister by working a variety of jobs, including modeling and teaching. In 1982, Combs’s mother moved the family into a house in Mount Vernon, New York, that she had purchased. During his teen years, Combs ran a newspaper route; worked at Playland Park in Rye, New York; and danced in music videos.



After high school, Combs attended Howard University, an historically black university in Washington, D.C. He majored in business administration. During his two years at Howard, the ever-energetic and enterprising Combs sold T-shirts and sodas, promoted parties and concerts, and ran a shuttle service to the airport. In 1990, Combs took an unpaid internship at Uptown Records in New York. Combs continued to attend Howard, commuting between Washington and New York by train. Combs’s mentor at Uptown, Andre Harrell, was impressed with the hard-working intern. In 1991, he promoted Combs to director of A&R (artists and repertoire). During his tenure at Uptown, Combs enjoyed his first success as a record producer. The first record Combs produced, Jodeci’s single, “Come and Talk to Me” (1992), sold two million copies and spent two weeks at the top of the American R&B chart. Combs created one of the music industry’s first remixes when he re-produced the song later that year. Combs’s success with Jodeci’s Forever My Lady (1991) and Mary J. Blige’s What’s the 411? (1992) made him a rising star at Uptown. In 1992, he was promoted to vice president of A&R and artist development. Combs was fired from Uptown in 1993 because of personal and professional clashes with his colleagues. The previous year, Combs had established Bad Boy Entertainment, and he had planned to distribute Bad Boy Records through Uptown. After leaving Uptown, he instead signed a multi-million-dollar contract with Arista Records, which gave Combs a recording studio and let him keep creative control of Bad Boy Records. Combs quickly signed rap artists Craig Mack (1971– ) and Biggie Smalls (1971–97), both of whom released Combs-produced platinum records in 1994. Bad Boy Records went on to sign a long list of hit artists who turned out a string of gold and platinum albums throughout the remainder of the 1990s. In addition to working with the Bad Boy artists, Combs produced hit records for an impressive catalogue of stars both in and out of the rap and hip-hop world, including Aretha Franklin (1942– ), Mariah Carey (1970– ), LL Cool J (1968– ), Whitney Houston (1963– ), Janet Jackson (1966– ), and Jennifer Lopez (1969– ), among others. African American Eras

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Sean Combs: Fact Focus ....................................................................................... • By the time he graduated high school, Sean Combs had appeared as a dancer in music videos by Babyface, Doug E. Fresh, Stacy Lattisaw, and the Fine Young Cannibals. • Combs started out as an intern at Uptown Records because the company had just signed his friend Dwight Myers to a recording contract. Myers, better known as Heavy D, went on to have a successful recording career. • Combs’s first album, No Way Out, sold more than eight million copies. • Combs’s clothing line Sean John began in 1998 with an offering of fifty thousand black hats and T-shirts bearing only Combs’s signature.

Multiple Successful Business Pursuits The 1990s were years of multi-faceted success for Combs. In 1997, in addition to kicking off his solo recording career and pursuing success as a record producer, he opened Justin’s restaurant in New York City. A second Justin’s was opened in Atlanta two years later. In 1998, Combs founded Sean John, a line of men’s designer clothes sold in such stores as Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Fred Segal. Its success paved the way for other entertainers to start clothing lines.

In 1997, Combs debuted as a recording artist with his album No Way Out. The album featured the multi-platinum single, “I’ll Be Missing You,” a tribute to Biggie Smalls, who had been shot to death earlier in the year. No Way Out became one of the first rap albums to gain popularity outside of the United States. The 1997 No Way Out Tour became the most successful tour in rap history, pulling in fifteen million dollars in ticket sales. Combs released three more albums over the next seven years, but none attained the same popularity. Combs’s appeal extends beyond the rap and hip-hop audience. He has appeared on talk shows, award shows, and TV specials. He has also had roles in a number of films. In Monster’s Ball (2001), he played opposite Halle Berry (1966– ), whose performance made her the first African American woman to receive the Academy Award for best actress. He also starred in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun in the role originally played by Sidney Poitier (1924– ). Combs starred alongside Phylicia Rashad 150


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(1948– ), whose performance made her the first African American to receive the Tony Award for best performance by an actress in a play. Combs received no Tony nominations, but he was reviewed well and credited with attracting a younger audience to Broadway. Combs has remained active and successful throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century. Bad Boy Records remains one of America’s most successful record companies. In 2004, Combs announced that he was retiring from solo recording; however, he came out with new albums in 2006 and 2009. Combs continued to expand his entrepreneurial empire. In 2005, he built on the success of Sean John to create Sean by Sean Combs, a line of designer women’s clothing. He also collaborated with the Estee Lauder Company to market a fragrance for men, Unforgivable. Combs has generated both success and controversy throughout his career. He is known for his lavish lifestyle as much as he is for his business successes, his strong work ethic, and his contributions to charities.

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JANICE BRYANT HOWROYD (1952– )

Janice Bryant Howroyd is the founder and head of ACT•1 Group, the largest employment company in the United States owned by an African American woman. The ACT•1 Group began as ACT•1 Personnel Services, a small temporary employment agency based in Los Angeles. Howroyd founded ACT•1 Personnel Services in 1978 with less than 2,000 dollars. By 2003, the company had revenues of 483 million dollars. The rise of ACT•1 from a small employment agency to a large corporation with a global reach is largely the doing of Howroyd herself.



Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder and head of ACT•1 Group, the largest employment agency run by an African American woman in the United States. Jeff Snyder/FilmMagic

Born in 1952, Howroyd was the fourth of eleven children from parents of mixed heritage. Her father was Irish and Cherokee, and her mother was African American. She learned about operating a business from her parents, who ran their thirteen-person household with discipline and efficiency, and her grandparents, who ran a barbeque restaurant out of their house. Howroyd grew up in Tarboro, North Carolina, a racially-divided community. As a African American Eras

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teenager in the 1960s, she became the first black student to attend her town’s previously all-white high school. She excelled as a student. She won a scholarship to North Carolina State Agricultural and Technical College, where she earned a degree in English. In 1976, Howroyd relocated to Los Angeles after visiting one of her sisters who lived there. Through her brother-in-law, she got a temporary job at Billboard magazine, where she was quickly recognized for her organizational skills. During this time, Howroyd noticed that many of the administrative assistants were aspiring actors or screenwriters. These employees were working at the magazine in order to gain entrance into the entertainment industry. When Howroyd started her own employment agency in 1978, she focused on providing companies with permanent workers who were not entertainment-industry hopefuls. Howroyd started her business with a tiny investment of 987 dollars of her own savings and 533 dollars borrowed from her brother and mother. She rented an office in Beverly Hills so that she could take advantage of the prestigious address. She secured her former employer, Billboard, as her first client. At its outset, ACT•1 was nothing more than Howroyd and a telephone. One of her business strategies was what she called the WOMB, or “Word Of Mouth, Brother!” Driven by Howroyd’s energy, intelligence, and good business instincts, ACT•1 grew quickly. She soon expanded outside the Los Angeles area and also moved into temporary-employee staffing. Howroyd’s business really began taking off in the 1990s, when she started providing other services to her clients. For example, Howroyd started a company to conduct drug screening and background checks for employers. She also opened schools that conducted corporate training and distance-learning educational programs. By 2000, ACT•1 had offices in seventy-five U.S. cities and served numerous large corporate clients, including Ford, Toyota, and Cingular. Revenue jumped from 75 million dollars in 1997 to 483 million dollars in 2002. By the mid-2000s, the corporate headquarters had a staff of more than three hundred people and a temporary labor pool of sixty-five thousand contract workers. Howroyd’s business success brought her media attention in the early 2000s. In 2003, ACT•1 placed third on the Black Enterprise magazine’s list of “Top Black-Owned Industrial/Service Companies.” Howroyd was featured on the cover of the magazine’s August issue with the caption, “She’s the Boss.” In 2005, she was given the Spirit of American Enterprise Presidential Award, and in 2008 she was named Black Entertainment Television’s “Entrepreneur of the Year.” She has been featured in the Essence magazine book, 50 of the Most Inspiring African Americans, and

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she has appeared on both Oprah and The Tavis Smiley Show. Howroyd also serves on the board of directors of numerous organizations, including the Urban League of Los Angeles, the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, and the Women’s Leadership Board of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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DAYMOND JOHN (1969– )

Daymond John is a fashion designer and entrepreneur who founded the apparel company FUBU (For Us, By Us). Nicknamed “the Godfather of Urban Fashion,” John used FUBU to transform the sportswear industry in the 1990s. John’s marketing skills and entrepreneurial vision paved the way for other African Americans in the apparel business. During his tenure as president and CEO of FUBU, John designed a line of jerseys, jeans, and outerwear with a uniquely urban flair to them. FUBU’s extraordinary success signaled to mainstream apparel companies that fashionable sportswear appeals to both urban youth and the suburban teens who imitate them. John was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1969. He grew up in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, a predominantly African American community. John was not the only force in hip-hop culture to call Hollis home. Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, and LL Cool J also grew up in this area. John has no siblings and was raised by his mother Margot, a flight attendant for American Airlines. John credits his success to the way his mother raised him to believe that he could do anything he wanted to do.

FUBU company founder Daymond John in 2007. Ray Tamarra/Getty Images

John showed his talent for business as early as first grade, when he began selling pencils at school. Later, he started a delivery service while he was working for a Red Lobster seafood restaurant. He even drove an unlicensed cab for a time. But it was not until he went to buy a tie-top hat and was astounded by the high price that he entered the apparel industry. John’s mother taught him how to use a sewing machine, and he started making hats in the morning and selling them in the neighborhood at night. One day in 1992, he and a friend African American Eras

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sold 800 dollars worth of hats. Soon after, they created a logo and began sewing it onto hockey jerseys, sweatshirts, and T-shirts. Before long, some of John’s childhood friends joined the business: Carl Brown, Keith Perrin, and J. Alexander Martin. In 1993, they convinced another old friend from the neighborhood, LL Cool J, to be photographed wearing one of their Tshirts for a FUBU promotional campaign. Their gear was not an instant hit with the rapper, but his response prompted John and his friends to come up with a better design. John’s mother played a huge role in getting the business going. She took out a mortgage on her house to get 100,000 dollars in start-up capital (money used to open a business). She even moved out of the house so that John and his partners could use the space for their office and makeshift factory. FUBU exploded on the fashion scene after the crew took their wares to an industry trade show in Las Vegas. Without enough money to rent a booth space in the show, they decided to rent a room in a luxury hotel and pass out invitations for people to stop in and see their products. It was a risk, but it worked. Buyers liked the stylish and colorful FUBU gear. John and his partners left Las Vegas with three hundred thousand dollars in new orders. The department store chain Macy’s soon started selling FUBU clothes. At the same time, FUBU expanded its line to include jeans and outerwear. Samsung, a Korean electronics manufacturer, invested in FUBU, which enabled the company to manufacture and deliver FUBU apparel on a much larger scale. Even though the original idea behind FUBU’s clothing line was to reflect what kids on the street were wearing, the distinctively urban style was becoming popular with a much broader range of consumers. FUBU became hugely popular with not just urban teens but also with suburban teens. It joined the ranks of other African American-owned sportswear companies, such as Karl Kani and Wu-Wear, which were also quickly expanding to include a more diverse customer base. By 1996, LL Cool J was acting as a spokesperson for FUBU. The company’s gear could also be seen on other African American celebrities, including Sean Combs, Mariah Carey, Brandy (1979– ), and Whitney Houston. In 1998, FUBU earned 350 million dollars in revenues, ranking it with other designer sportswear labels such as Donna Karan New York and Tommy Hilfiger. John also signed a deal with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to make FUBU “NBA” gear and launched FUBU Ladies, a line of women’s apparel. In addition to being a popular and financial success in the United States, FUBU had over 60 international stores with plans to open around 150 others in China by the end of 2008. On June 16, 2009, John was

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ranked number 10 on The Source magazine’s “Power 30” list of the most powerful figures in hip-hop culture, business, politics, entertainment, and lifestyle. His presence in the business world has made corporate America recognize the power of minority-owned companies.

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ROBERT L. JOHNSON (1946– )

Robert L. Johnson is a successful entrepreneur and investor who has achieved several African American firsts. He is the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first cable network dedicated to allblack programming. Started in 1980, BET rose in popularity after Johnson oriented the programming toward music videos, comedy, and college sports. In 2000, Johnson sold BET to Viacom for three billion dollars, making him the first African American billionaire. In 2003, he bought the Charlotte Hornets National Basketball Association (NBA) team, making him the first African American owner of a major-league sports team.

Founder and chairman of BET Robert L. Johnson in 2005. Todd Williamson/FilmMagic

Black Entertainment Television Launched The ninth of ten children in a poor family, Johnson was born in Hickory, Mississippi, on April 8, 1946. He grew up in Freeport, Illinois, where his family moved shortly after his birth. From a young age, Johnson was convinced that education was the key to success. Knowing that his family would not be able to pay for college, Johnson worked hard in school and secured an academic scholarship. In 1968, he graduated from Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree, and the following year he entered Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He graduated sixth in his class with a master’s degree in public administration three years later.

Johnson moved to Washington, D.C., where he went to work as a press secretary for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He rose to public affairs officer before leaving to pursue other jobs linking media and politics. He served as the press aid for a Washington, D.C., city councilman, and he was the director of communications for the Washington Urban League. African American Eras

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In 1976, he became the vice-president of government relations for the National Cable and Television Association. That job would eventually lead him to success in the cable industry. Johnson studied programming in the newly formed cable industry, and realized that there was little that targeted a specifically African American audience. He decided to create a new cable network to meet this need. Johnson secured fifteen thousand dollars in loans to launch Black Entertainment Television (BET). On January 25, 1980, BET went on the air. The network struggled initially, so Johnson adjusted the lineup to include talk shows, college sports from black colleges, and music videos acquired free from record companies. Still, BET lost money for two consecutive years. In 1982, Johnson partnered with Taft Broadcasting to keep the company afloat. Network Reaches Other Markets In 1984, he secured an investment from Home Box Office (HBO), and BET’s viewership began to grow. By 1989, Johnson was able to pay back all of his investors. Even though it was still the smallest cable network in the country, BET was now showing a profit on its own. Johnson dramatically increased the network’s ratings and revenues by turning over much of its programming lineup to music videos.

In 1991, Johnson took the company public (offered stock in the company for sale to investors), and BET became the first African Americanowned company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock price rose quickly, and Johnson became a millionaire. Johnson did not rest with this success. BET expanded into other forms of media. In 1991, Johnson went into publishing. He started his own magazine, Young Sisters and Brothers (YSB) and invested in Emerge: Black America’s News Magazine. He also developed a BET radio network. By the mid-1990s, the BET company was well established as the leading entertainment provider for the African American community. Johnson built further on his success. He expanded BET’s television division to include public affairs and children’s programming. In 1996, the company created BET Movies, a partnership with STARZ that showed both new and classic African American-oriented films. Johnson also established divisions to produce original television programming and African American films. In addition, he expanded his print offerings to include two new magazines and founded the first publishing company dedicated to African American romance novels. By mid-1998, Johnson felt that BET stock had become undervalued, so he took the company private (bought all of the company’s stock back 156


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from investors). The following year, he sold BET to Viacom for three billion dollars. The sale contract guaranteed that he could remain the CEO and chairman of BET until 2005. In 2005, he announced his retirement from BET effective at the end of the year.



After selling BET, Johnson began to pursue a variety of other business interests. As of 2010 Johnson remained active in many businesses. He is also dedicated to giving back to the African American community. He has donated millions of dollars to support the National Underground Railroad Museum, the Lincoln Center’s Jazz Project, and Denver’s National Cable Television Center and Museum.

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RICHARD PARSONS (1948– )

Richard Parsons oversaw the largest merger in history when he brought together media giant Time Warner with Internet provider AOL as president of Time Warner in 2001. Parsons served as head of the merged company until he left to become chairman of Citigroup in 2009. Parsons’s corporate career is all the more remarkable because he excelled in areas where he had no prior experience, first in banking, and then in the media industry.

Richard Parsons during his time as CEO and chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003. AP Images

Parsons was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1948. He was raised in New York City, and was a promising student with few specific academic or career goals. After graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Parsons attended the University of Hawaii, where he played on the basketball team. While at college, Parsons met Laura Bush, his future wife. Parsons credits Bush with inspiring him to make the most of his potential and to strive for success. After college, Parsons attended the Albany Law School of Union University in Albany, New York. He helped pay his way by working as a janitor part time. He graduated first in his class, and passed the New York bar exam in 1971 with that year’s highest score. The promising young lawyer began his career on the legal staff of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller (1908–79). Rockefeller was impressed enough by his work to keep Parsons on staff when Rockefeller African American Eras

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became vice president of the United States under President Gerald Ford (1917–2006) in 1974. While working in the Ford administration, Parsons focused on domestic issues, particularly drug-related issues. Parsons, like his mentor Rockefeller, is a Republican with conservative economic and social views. Parsons’s connection with Rockefeller got him noticed by many influential people in politics and the business world. By the middle of the 1970s, he was featured as an up-and-comer in Black Enterprise magazine. In 1977, Parsons joined the prominent New York City law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb, & Tyler at the invitation of former deputy attorney general Harold R. Tyler Jr. In just two years, he was made a partner. He spent eleven years with the firm, handling a wide variety of corporate and civil cases. At this point, Parsons’s career took an unusual turn. As an attorney for Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, Parsons had provided legal advice to the Dime Savings Bank of New York. It was assumed Parsons was in line to become head of his law firm, but in 1988 Dime CEO Harry Albright Jr. (1925–2008) appointed Parsons chief operating officer of the bank, despite the fact that he had no experience in the banking industry. He became the first African American to manage a bank as large as Dime. He had difficult work cut out for him. Dime had suffered significant losses in the late 1980s—$92.3 million in 1987 alone. Under Parsons’s management, however, Dime staged a remarkable comeback, and Parsons earned the respect of his employees and colleagues. Albright left Dime in 1995, and Parsons became chairman and CEO. That year Parsons merged Dime with the Anchor Savings Bank to form Dime Bancorp. Dime Bancorp became the fourth largest thrift institution in the nation and the largest on the East Coast. Because Parsons was a Republican, his politics were at odds with those of most of the African American community. This earned him some criticism in 1993, when he openly supported Rudy Giuliani (1944– ) in the race for mayor of New York over the black incumbent David Dinkins (1927– ). When Giuliani won, Parsons stepped up to become the head of his transition council. During this time, Parsons was also attracting the attention of business leaders. He was a sought-after board member, courted by such companies as Time Warner and Tristar Pictures. In 1994, the chairman of Time Warner, Gerald Levin (1939– ), asked Parsons to become the company’s new president. Parsons accepted, taking command over a vast publishing and entertainment enterprise. It was the second time he was hired at a senior position in an industry in which he had no experience. Time Warner, like Dime Savings Bank, was saddled with significant debt and troubled business divisions. Parsons set to work rooting out

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problems and restructuring the workforce. In 2001, the Internet service provider America Online (AOL) merged with Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner. The merger, which Parsons helped negotiate, was one of the largest in history. Parsons became the new head of the giant media company (which changed its name to Time Warner in 2003). During his tenure, Parsons received praise for his ability to pay down the company’s debt, sell business units that were not bringing in as much profit, and negotiate with government and business partners. In 2009 Parsons took on another troubled business when he became chairman of Citigroup, a major financial services company. Citigroup had increasingly relied on government help to pay debts, and management within the company was divided on the direction the company should take. He also served on the economic advisory team of President Barack Obama (1961– ).

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RUSSELL SIMMONS (1957– )

Russell Simmons is a rap producer, promoter, and manager who had a significant influence on the rap music scene in the late 1980s. Simmons helped introduce this new breed of street music to mainstream America. Later, he started the rap label Def Jam Records, which is successful to this day. He has also worked as the head of Rush Artist Management.

Music and fashion executive Russell Simmons in 2009. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

Simmons was born in 1957 in Queens, New York. For a short time in his youth, he was in a local gang. By the mid-1970s, he was studying sociology at City College of New York. It was also around this time that he first heard rap music. Rappers would gather in the city at parks and on corners and take turns rapping for ever-growing crowds. What Simmons saw in these crowds was a group of music lovers that were an underrepresented market for the recording industry. He left college just short of graduating to begin promoting this new music. In 1984, he and another young music producer named Rick Rubin (1963– ) joined forces to form Def Jam Records. Among the groups Def Jam promoted was Run-DMC, which included Simmons’s brother, Joseph. Def Jam decided to grant distribution rights for its records to CBS Records. African American Eras

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Within three years, albums produced by Simmons and Rubin, such as the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill, LL Cool J’s Bigger and Deffer, and Run-DMC’s Raising Hell, were topping the black music charts. Simmons was dedicated to allowing rappers and their music to be an honest reflection of their origins. He did not want a watered-down version of street life because he wanted fans to be able to relate to the rappers. Some have criticized the severity of this representation. For instance, some did not like the Public Enemy logo, which shows a black teen in the scope of a police gun. Simmons explained that black teenagers feel like targets and that his record label identifies with that feeling. When faced with criticism about the lack of positive role models in the rap world, Simmons points out that the artists are talking about a lifestyle that many African American youths are currently living. He believes that rappers give disenchanted black youth hope that they, too, can achieve a better life. With a successful record label under his belt, Simmons began to look for new ventures. He launched Phat Farm, a clothing line, and began the Def Comedy Jam and Def Poetry Jam tours. Simmons brought his knowledge and vision to the small screen with Russell Simmons’ Oneworld Music Beat. The show operated as a showcase and information source for hip-hop culture. With these new endeavors, Simmons introduced hip-hop culture to a wider audience. In 2000, Simmons sold his share of Def Jam to Universal Music Group for more than one hundred million dollars. He then went on to launch the hip-hop Web site, 360hiphop.com, intended to fill the gap in urban radio. By the end of 2000, Simmons had already sold the site to BET.com. Simmons continued to be a strong voice in the hip-hop community. He organized a Hip-Hop Summit in 2000. The summit brought together political and religious leaders such as Congresswoman Maxine Waters (1938– ) and Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan (1933– ) to discuss a variety of topics. Discussion focused on conflict resolution for artists, as well as the responsibilities associated with hip hop’s social, political, and economic impact. In 2005, Simmons formed Russell Simmons Music as a label venture with Island Def Jam, which was formed when Island Records merged with Def Jam records. Simmons and his wife, Kimora Lee (1975– ), started a jewelry company in 2005 called Simmons Jewelry Co. Simmons’s autobiography, Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money + God, was released in 2002 to mixed reviews. Life may never slow down for the man who saw something on the streets of New York and decided to take it to the people.

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DAVID L. STEWARD (1951– )

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David L. Steward is the founder and chairman of World Wide Technology (WWT), one of the country’s largest African American-owned businesses and a leader in the information technology industry. He founded the company in 1990. In less than twenty years, it became a multi-billiondollar company with revenues of 2.5 billion dollars in both 2007 and 2008. Steward has always been a visionary leader and is recognized as an influential figure in the development of the Internet. Throughout the rise of his company, Steward retained a strong personal faith to which he attributes his company’s phenomenal success.


Born in Clinton, Missouri, in 1951, Steward was the fifth of seven children. He experienced racism during his childhood, and he was the only African American male in his high school’s graduating class. After graduating from Central Missouri State University in 1973, Steward spent the next decade working various sales and management jobs. He worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, Wagner Electric, and Federal Express. He was successful in these positions—he was named salesman of the year while at Federal Express—but was unsatisfied in these jobs and decided to become an entrepreneur. In 1984, Steward bought a consulting company, Transportation Business Services (TBS), and he started Transportation Auditing Services (TAS) in 1987. His years performing transportation auditing services led him to get into information processing. In 1987, Steward’s company was hired by Union Pacific Railroad to handle all of its shipping bills. He realized that this information could be processed most efficiently through a local area network (LAN). A LAN is a network that connects a group of computers and other hardware devices. Steward soon realized that there was a widespread need for information technologies. With a small budget, Steward founded World Wide Technology in 1990. The company did less than 1 million dollars worth of business in its first year. During the company’s early years, Steward continued to run TAS and TBS while also heading WWT. Dividing his time this way affected the performance of all three businesses. With WWT in serious debt, Steward closed TAS and TBS in 1993. He restructured WWT’s management and changed some of its business practices. By 1995, the company’s revenue had increased to 74 million dollars. WWT was out of debt and performing so well that it won the Southwestern Bell Minority Supplier of the Year Award. In the late 1990s, WWT formed numerous partnerships with major technology companies and took on high-profile clients, including the African American Eras

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federal government. The company’s management team won awards along the way, including the 1998 Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young. In 2002, Steward was added to Ebony magazine’s list of the one hundred most-influential black Americans. During WWT’s rise, Steward remained committed to a number of core business principles. He believes that diversity in the workplace is a positive force. Steward is strongly committed to his employees, offering good benefits and making the business a place where people can continue to advance their careers. Steward has also maintained a strong commitment to customer service. He reminds his employees of this by printing on the bottom of every paycheck, “This check was made possible by a satisfied customer.” Steward combines his role as a technology entrepreneur with his strong religious conviction. Steward has said that his faith underlies his service-oriented approach to business. He is quite open about the role Christianity has played throughout his career. He refers to both the Bible and Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership (1995) by Laurie Beth Jones. In 2004, Steward wrote his own Christian business guide, Doing Business by the Good Book. As a philanthropist, Steward has supported community service organizations that serve families and children. He has made generous donations to the United Way, Ronald McDonald House, the Minority Scholarship Foundation, and the American Red Cross.

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OPRAH WINFREY (1954– )

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most renowned and beloved business and media figures in the world. She is probably best known for her long-running afternoon talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey has also distinguished herself as an Oscar-nominated actress, a film producer, a magazine publisher, a literary critic, and a champion of selfimprovement. A billionaire, she is among the richest African Americans in the world. Family Situation Difficult to Overcome Winfrey was born Orpah Winfrey in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the daughter of serviceman Vernon Winfrey and farm-girl Vernita Lee. Because most people had trouble pronouncing her name (taken from the Bible), Orpah soon became known as Oprah. Winfrey’s unwed parents had gone their separate ways before she was born. Unaware that Venita was pregnant, Vernon had returned to the military. Venita moved out of state after her 162


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daughter was born, leaving Oprah back on the farm with the girl’s grandparents. Vernon learned of his daughter only after receiving a handwritten note asking him to send baby clothing back home. Even as a young girl, Winfrey displayed the talents that would later make her a star. She was recognized in her community for her exceptionally delivered recitations in church. At the age of three, she wrote a letter to her kindergarten teacher asking to be skipped forward to the first grade. Impressed by Winfrey’s intelligence, the teacher obliged. Winfrey’s childhood was hardly an easy one, though. Her grandparents were oldfashioned when it came to discipline. She was beaten whenever she misbehaved. When Winfrey was six years old, she left her grandparents’ farm to join her mother, who was working as a housecleaner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Venita had little time to spare for her daughter. Winfrey would often tell wild stories in an effort to get her mother’s attention. Winfrey’s hardships worsened when she became the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of an older cousin when she was nine. Over the next five years, she was regularly molested by various male relatives and family friends. When she was fourteen, she escaped to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Under her father’s care, Winfrey’s life started to improve. Vernon and his wife Zelma encouraged ambition, hard work, education, and responsibility. Zelma instilled a love of reading in Winfrey by having her compose book reports and recite them to the family. Although Vernon and Zelma were strict, Winfrey credits both of them with steering her onto a focused path to success.

Oprah Winfrey in 2008. Steve Granitz/WireImage

Talk Show Highlights Talents Winfrey’s talent for public speaking served her well during her teens. She earned a one-thousand-dollar scholarship after making a speech at an Elks lodge meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1971, she started working as a part-time newscaster on a local radio station in Nashville. Two years later, when she was only nineteen, WTVF-TV in Nashville hired her to work as a reporter and news anchor.

Over the next twelve years, Winfrey worked consistently in television. She did not find a perfect fit for her talents until she got a job as co-host of a African American Eras

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morning talk show called People Are Talking in Baltimore, Maryland. Confident and comfortable in her new position, Winfrey marveled as her popularity caused the program’s ratings to rise rapidly. In 1984, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, to take over a failing talk show called AM Chicago. She single-handedly revived the show. Viewers found her directness and friendliness refreshing. Soon, AM Chicago was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. After seeing her show on television, producer Quincy Jones (1933– ) asked Winfrey to audition for a role in the 1985 film adaptation of The Color Purple, a novel by African American writer Alice Walker (1944– ). Winfrey won the role and was widely praised for her performance in the film. She scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The following year, the local Oprah Winfrey Show was syndicated throughout America. After a mere five months in syndication, the program was being watched by more than nine million viewers every day. In 1988, Winfrey founded Harpo Productions, Inc. (“Harpo” being “Oprah” spelled backwards). She became the first African American woman to own a television and film production company. Now a product of Harpo Productions, The Oprah Winfrey Show earned Winfrey fifty million dollars during the show’s 1988–1989 season. Her annual earnings had reached eighty million dollars by 1991, the year Forbes magazine listed her as the third richest entertainer in the world. Honesty and Generosity Change Lives Winfrey has been fearlessly open about her personal struggles throughout her career. She has often spoken about her problems with overeating and her fluctuating weight over the years. In 1991, she spoke frankly about the sexual abuse she suffered as a girl. That same year, she and former Illinois governor James Thompson created a bill to provide federal protection for abused and neglected children. On December 20, 1993, President Bill Clinton (1946– ) signed what had become known as the “Oprah Bill” into a law. In 1995, she spoke of a period during the 1970s when she abused hard drugs. Winfrey’s honesty and willingness to delve into the most personal aspects of her life helped create a bond between herself and her viewers.

Throughout the 1990s, Winfrey continued to expand her media empire. In 1995, she launched the Web site Oprah Online, which has since evolved into Oprah.com. The following year she started featuring “Oprah’s Book Club” on her show. The segment was very influential. Books that were featured on it routinely saw large increases in sales. In 1996, Time magazine named her among the twenty-five most influential people in America.

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In 2000, Winfrey launched a television channel aimed at women called Oxygen. She also established O, The Oprah Magazine, a publication focusing on the interests and personal growth of women. Within three years, 2.65 million people were reading the magazine. Winfrey’s wealth had risen to more than one billion dollars, making her history’s first female African American billionaire. From 2004 through 2006, Forbes listed her as the only African American billionaire in the world. As of 2008, she was earning 275 million dollars per year. Always generous in giving back to the community, Winfrey has donated much of her time and wealth to public charities throughout the world. She also launched a charitable organization called Oprah’s Angel Network, which encourages people to help underprivileged people around the globe. The organization has raised more than 51 million dollars since its launch in 1998.


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AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAMS RISE, THEN DECLINE African Americans have been at the center of several major trends in employment since 1965. Among the most important of these are affirmative action programs designed to create better educational and employment opportunities for minorities and women. Affirmative action was a breakthrough policy in the acceptance of African Americans in the workplace, but it has been heavily criticized over the years. The policy was designed to make amends for a long history of discrimination in the United States based on race, religion, and gender. Generally, affirmative action takes the form of government and private benefits in employment and education. One example of an affirmative action program is requiring businesses to hire a certain number of minorities in order to promote equal opportunities and workplace diversity. A number of important laws came out of the 1960s that laid the groundwork for modern affirmative action policies. On March 6, 1961, President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) signed Executive Order 10925, which contained the first use of the phrase “affirmative action.” The order required government contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” The order was a major landmark in recognizing and making amends for a history of employment discrimination, which has contributed greatly to the economic disadvantages suffered by many African Americans. The President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity followed Executive Order 10925. That committee later evolved into the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the establishment of the EEOC ushered in an era of reform. That act was a sweeping piece of legislation outlawing racial segregation and discrimination in employment, schools, voting, housing, and public accommodations. As part of the act, the EEOC worked to eliminate employment discrimination and help people of all ethnicities to earn equal wages. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act officially banned employment discrimination by labor unions, employment agencies, and businesses with twenty-five or more employees. Laying the Groundwork for Affirmative Action These were not the only important developments in the 1960s that laid the groundwork for affirmative action. On September 28, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) signed Executive Order 11246. This order called for more equal-employment opportunities. The order prohibited “federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and

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Executive Order 10925: The First Use of “Affirmative Action” .......................................................................................

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ection 301 of President Kennedy’s famous Executive Order 10925 was the first usage of “affirmative action.” SECTION 301. Except in contracts exempted in accordance with section 303 of this order, all government contracting agencies shall include in every government contract hereafter entered into the following provisions: In connection with the performance of work under this contract, the contractor agrees as follows: (1) The contractor will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin. The contractor will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin. Such action shall include, but not be limited to, the following: employment, upgrading, demotion or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training, including apprenticeship. The contractor agrees to post in conspicuous places, available to employees and applicants for employment, notices to be provided by the contracting officer setting forth the provisions of this nondiscrimination clause. (2) The contractor will, in all solicitations or advertisements for employees placed by or on behalf of the contractor, state that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin. (3) The contractor will send to each labor union or representative of workers with which he has a collective bargaining agreement or other contract or understanding, a notice, to be provided by the agency contracting officer, advising the said labor union or workers’ representative of the contractor’s commitments under this section, and shall post copies of the notice in conspicuous places available to employees and applicants for employment.

subcontractors who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” The order made affirmative action an essential employment policy throughout the United States. Vice President Hubert Humphrey (1911–78), who was responsible for coordinating African American Eras

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President Johnson’s affirmative action policies, made a speech at a White House conference on August 20, 1965. He publicly acknowledged the fact that the United States had “neglected the Negro too long.” He demanded that “government, business and labor must open more jobs to Negroes.” During the presidency of Richard M. Nixon (1913–94), the federal government introduced specific hiring goals into affirmative action policy. It also encouraged “set-asides,” programs that reserved special places for minorities in federally funded programs and local and state governments. Some people criticized these goals as “quotas” that might benefit minorities but could also harm qualified whites, especially since the EEOC was promoting affirmative action beyond federal contractors to include all employers under its jurisdiction. Legal Challenges Curb Affirmative Action While many welcomed affirmative action, numerous critics voiced opinions against it as well. Some citizens considered set-asides to be unconstitutional. Soon, white people who believed they had been disadvantaged by affirmative action began challenging the policies in court. Marco DeFunis Jr. was a white law student who was denied admission to the University of Washington Law School. He was unhappy because he had higher test scores than a minority applicant who had been accepted. DeFunis attempted to sue the school to force it to reverse its affirmative action policies. The Supreme Court rejected the case because DeFunis was on the verge of graduation from the law school.

In 1978, the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke was decided. That case involved a white applicant named Allan Bakke (1940– ), who challenged the affirmative action policies of the University of California at Davis after he was refused admission to its medical school. Once again, a white student was challenging the policy of admitting minority students with lower test scores. The Court ruled that schools were entitled to consider race during the admission process. At the same time, the Court ruled that the University of California’s program was not constitutional because it used set-asides. To be constitutional, affirmative action programs in education would need to consider all applicants individually. Schools could not set aside a slot for which not all students would be eligible. In light of the DeFunis v. Odegaard and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke cases, affirmative action became increasingly regarded as a flawed policy. In 1975, U.S. attorney general Edward H. Levi (1911– 2000) denounced it as “not good government.” He accused its supporters of insisting on quotas. Although he supported affirmative action, President Jimmy Carter (1924– ) did little to squelch arguments regarding the legality 168


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and effectiveness of affirmative action. As a result, relationships between African Americans and labor unions began to suffer. In 1980, Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) opposed affirmative action during his run for the presidency. Numerous conservatives spoke up in defense of Reagan’s stance. They accused African Americans of relying too heavily on programs such as affirmative action and welfare. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an important African American civil rights organization, continued its support of affirmative action. The federal government no longer strictly enforced the policy under the Reagan administration. By the 1990s, the backlash against affirmative action reached a peak. President Bill Clinton (1946– ), who was generally considered a supporter of affirmative action, nominated American civil rights scholar Lani Guinier (1950– ) to the Justice Department. Almost immediately, conservative critics attacked Guinier for her outspoken support of affirmative action. Clinton withdrew her nomination. During the Clinton years, affirmative action suffered several more major setbacks. The Supreme Court’s decision of the 1995 case Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena outlawed the government’s policy of 10 percent set-asides for minorities. The Court deemed the 10 percent figure arbitrary, or not supported by logic. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (1930– ) said, “Classifications based in race carry a danger of stigmatic harm. Unless they are strictly reserved for remedial settings, they may in fact promote notions of racial inferiority and lead to politics of racial hostility.” Meanwhile, antiaffirmative action sentiments were no longer limited to white conservatives. Several high-profile figures in the African American community criticized affirmative action as “reverse discrimination.” They argued that the government should be “color blind” rather than maintaining such a strong focus on race issues. They blamed this focus on race for increased racial tensions.

Representative Parren Mitchell (D MD) proposed a bill that would allocate a fixed percentage of government contracts to minority owned businesses in 1979. Affirmative action programs came under fire in the late 1970s. AP Images

Affirmative action came under fire at the state level as well. In 1996, American Civil Rights Institute founder and African American businessman Wardell Connerly (1939– ) and California governor Pete Wilson (1933– ) created Proposition 209. This was a proposal that the citizens of California African American Eras

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African Americans demonstrate in support of affirmative action in front of the Supreme Court on April 1, 2003. ª Reuters/Corbis

would vote on. If it passed, it would amend the state’s constitution to end affirmative action programs in the state. The program easily passed. Similar propositions were passed in Washington State in 1998 and Michigan in 2006. Although affirmative action has experienced setbacks in the past several years, some people continue to favor affirmative action, insisting that it is a necessary policy for repairing the harm of past discrimination and achieving greater racial diversity.

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NUMBER OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CEOS GROWS In 1988, Black Enterprise magazine featured a list of the twenty-five “hottest corporate managers.” There was not a single African American chief executive officer (CEO) on the list. African Americans made significant progress in climbing up the ranks of corporate America during and after the civil rights era, but it was clear there was still a long way for them to go.

Many African Americans head successful businesses they founded themselves. In 1970, publisher Earl Graves (1935– ) started Black Enterprise, the first business magazine aimed at African Americans. In 1978, Janice Bryant Howroyd (1952– ) founded ACT•1 Personnel Services, an employment agency that would grow into a multimillion dollar company by the early 170


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EEOC Paves the Way for Success .......................................................................................

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he rise of the African American CEO has its roots in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. African Americans have historically been forced to endure employment discrimination, meaning they have been treated unfairly in the workplace because they are black. Employment opportunities for African Americans were very limited prior to the 1960s. Many were refused all but the lowest-paying jobs by white employers. They suffered serious economic disadvantages as a result. One response to this discrimination was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the formation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC investigates charges of employment discrimination and helps to negotiate settlements for workers who have been the subject of negative action because of their race.

2000s. Robert L. Johnson (1946– ) launched Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first African American-focused cable channel, in 1980. Four years later, Russell Simmons (1957– ) founded the hip-hop record label Def Jam Recordings. In 1988, television talk show host Oprah Winfrey (1954– ) formed her own television and film production company called Harpo Productions. David L. Steward (1951– ) co-founded World Wide Technology, an information-technology company, in 1990. World Wide Technology would become the biggest African American business in the world by 2000. Other African Americans reached the top of their industries by climbing up the corporate ladder. In 1993, Black Enterprise listed the top forty corporate managers. For the first time, two African American CEOs appeared on the list. One was Clifton R. Wharton Jr. (1926– ). He was the CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF). The other was Richard Parsons (1948– ). He was the CEO of Dime Savings Bank of New York. Six years later, Franklin Raines (1949– ), the former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, took the position of CEO at the Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae. The position made him the first African American CEO of a Fortune 500 company (one of the top five hundred corporations in the United States as ranked by Fortune magazine). Lloyd Ward (1949– ) followed that same year when he was appointed CEO of the Maytag Corporation, a large appliance company that makes products African American Eras

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AOL Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons speaks at the Money Summit in Manhattan on June 17, 2002. Parsons was one of 100 of Wall Street’s most influential leaders who gathered to discuss America’s financial future. ª Mark Peterson/Corbis

such as washing machines. Kenneth Chenault (1951– ) was the third such chairman when he was promoted to CEO of the American Express financial services company in 2001. By 2002, he was ranked among the ten highestpaid executives in New York City. In 2004, Stanley O’Neal (1951– ) took over as chair of Merrill Lynch, then one of the largest financial services firms in the world. Under O’Neal’s direction, Merrill Lynch experienced a 79-percent increase in its share price. By February 2005, Black Enterprise profiled eighteen African American CEOs in its list of seventy-five top-ranking African Americans in American business. Furthermore, the list featured several African American female CEOs for the first time, including Ann Fudge (c. 1951– ), CEO of the marketing and communications company Young & Rubicam Brands. In 2009, Ursula Burns (1958– ) made headlines when she became CEO of Xerox. She was the first African American woman to take the top position at a Fortune 500 company. Despite the considerable amount of headway African Americans have made in corporate America since the 1960s, black CEOs remain a relative rarity. As of 2005, less than one percent of American CEOs were black. In 2007, the Associated Press reported that the number of African American CEOs of Fortune 500 companies was rapidly shrinking. Black Enterprise editor-in-chief Alfred Edmond Jr. countered this report by predicting that the number of black CEOs would double in twenty years—although that would raise the number only to about twelve. 172


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Books for African American Business Professionals .......................................................................................

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ue to the increase in business opportunities for African Americans, a wealth of information for this audience is available. Listed below are books written for African American business professionals: • Leading in Black and White: Working across the Racial Divide in Corporate America (2003) by Ancella B. Livers and Keith A. Caver. Livers and Caver, co-facilitators at the Center for Creative Leadership’s African American Leadership Program, draw from their own business experience and over fifty interviews with African American professionals to evaluate and offer advice about dealing with racial diversity in the workplace. • Market Women: Black Women Entrepreneurs—Past, Present, and Future (2005) by Cheryl A. Smith. Smith examines the origins of female African American entrepreneurs and discusses their methods for achieving success. • Working While Black: The Black Person’s Guide to Success in the White Workplace (2004) by Michelle T. Johnson. Johnson is an employment attorney who uses her knowledge of the law to both guide and inspire African Americans who work in predominantly-white businesses. • What’s Black about It? Insights to Increase Your Share of a Changing African-American Market (2005) by Pepper Miller and Herb Kemp. This book examines how corporate America views African American consumer markets and why race is important in advertising. • Race, Gender, and Leadership: Re-envisioning Twenty-first Century Organization Leadership from the Perspectives of African American Women Executives (2004) by Patricia Sue Parker. Focusing on the leadership approaches of fifteen female African American executives, Parker shows a model of organizational leadership that recognizes the unique contributions of black females in the business world.

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BLACK ENTREPRENEURS INTRODUCE TRADITIONAL FOODS TO NEW FANS Food is an important part of the African American community, as it is for many cultures. African Americans were successful in the restaurant industry as early as the nineteenth century. Many restaurants catering to African American Eras

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African American customers throughout the years have served regional dishes, such as barbecue. Another popular kind of traditional African American food is known as “soul food.” The sweet potatoes, hominy grits, and collard greens American slaves had once eaten for breakfast became staples of soul food, as did black-eyed peas, rice, okra, chicken, ham hocks, chitterlings (the small intestines of a pig), pig’s feet, and oxtail. These foods were boiled, fried, grilled, and roasted. Such rich, flavorful foods have found favor with people of all races and cultures, especially during the African American cultural awakening of the 1960s. Sylvia Strikes It Rich With the rise of soul food in the United States came the rise of African American–owned soul food restaurants. After working several years as a waitress at Johnson’s Luncheonette, Sylvia Woods (1926– ) was given the opportunity to purchase the building from her employer, who recognized Woods’s entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic. In 1962, Woods’s mother mortgaged her farm to obtain 20,000 dollars that she loaned her daughter to buy the restaurant.

Johnson’s Luncheonette was a small place that held only a counter and a few booths. It was around the corner from New York City’s famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, a traditionally black neighborhood. Under Woods’s

Sylvia Woods, owner of Sylvia’s Restaurant. ª Reuters/Corbis

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Barbecue Brings People Together .......................................................................................

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he word “barbecue” comes from from the West Indian word barbacoa. American barbecue has its roots in Mexico. The Mexican method of slow-roasting pork, beef, chicken, and fish over hot coals resulted in flavorful, tender, juicy meat. Barbecuing food was not only a popular way to cook meat, but the events surrounding the cooking—simply called barbecues—became important social events for both blacks and whites in the South. Since the Civil War, barbecues have often been held at public gatherings, such as church socials and political rallies. Because barbecue was not associated with a specific class or race at the time, it was viewed as a unifying food. During the twentieth century, informal barbecues evolved into what became modern barbecue restaurants. Barbecue restaurants became popular with black entrepreneurs (people who start their own businesses). First came barbecue shacks, which consisted of metal roofs and walls surrounding a concrete floor and a pit in which the meat was cooked. Because the style of food continued to appeal to all kinds of people, barbecue shacks were among the few restaurants where people of all colors intermingled. As racial tensions came to a head in the 1960s, barbecue restaurants in the South became openly segregated. In 1968, an important Supreme Court case, Newman v. Piggy Park Enterprises, ruled that five barbecue restaurants in Columbia, South Carolina, owned by Maurice Bessinger could not lawfully refuse to serve black customers. After that case, barbecue restaurants once again became places where white and black patrons could eat together.

ownership, the lunch counter (now called Sylvia’s) served soul-food staples such as fried chicken, collard greens, and peach pies. In 1968, Woods, who had earned the title the “Queen of Soul Food” by then, moved her restaurant to a larger location two doors away. Sylvia’s was so popular that it eventually grew to occupy most of the city block where it remained as of 2010. Sylvia’s could seat up to 450 customers. Sylvia’s expanded into a chain of restaurants that earned 3.5 million dollars per year. Woods built her restaurant into a full-blown family-owned food empire that includes Sylvia’s Catering Corp., two soul food cookbooks, and Sylvia’s Queen of Soul Food, a popular nationwide line of canned and bottled foods. African American Eras

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Chicken, Waffles, and Syrup Much like Sylvia Woods, Herb Hudson built a small local restaurant into a profitable chain. In 1975, Hudson moved away from New York City, where he worked as a foreman at a General Motors plant. He studied business at Pepperdine University in California. Around this time, Hudson noticed that the vast majority of Los Angeles restaurants were located in hotels. In his opinion, this was a problem because all of the restaurants closed at some point. Also, none of them served fried chicken and waffles. In 1976, Hudson opened Roscoe’s House of Chicken ’n Waffles, an all-night, take-out restaurant. Over time, the restaurant developed into a sit-down restaurant in five locations. Twenty years after the first restaurant opened, the Roscoe’s chain was making about 2.5 million dollars per year in profits and employing 120 people. The “secret recipe” behind its chicken has made it famous. Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Willis (1955– ), Whoopi Goldberg (1955– ), and Justin Timberlake (1981– ) sing its praises.

Michele Hoskins is another African American who has developed a local business into a thriving empire. It all started with a family recipe for honey crème syrup developed by her great-great-grandmother, America Washington, a former slave. Mysteriously, Washington decided that she would only pass her recipe down to the third daughter born to each generation of her family. Hoskins was not a third daughter, and she had to beg her mother, Audrey Russell, for the syrup recipe. Though tradition was broken when Russell finally agreed to share the recipe with her daughter, a successful business was born. Hoskins began cooking batches of honey crème syrup in her mother’s basement. After a divorce, Hoskins quit her job as a schoolteacher and sold a number of her personal possessions to raise enough money to build a business around her great-great-grandmother’s recipe in 1984. Michele Foods distributed its products directly to supermarkets. Nine years later, Michele Foods made a major breakthrough when Hoskins scored a three-million-dollar contract with Denny’s restaurants. Today, Michele Foods also produces maple crème syrup and butter pecan syrup. The company’s products are sold in more than ten thousand food stores across America. Black Enterprise magazine voted Michele Foods the “Emerging Company of the Year” in 1996. In 2000, Hoskins was awarded the Phenomenal Women Award and was named as one of the 100 Top Professional Women by Dollars and Sense magazine. In 2002, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Woman’s Foodservices Forum. Hoskins’s first book, Sweet Expectations: The Michele Hoskins Success Bible, was published in 2004. Troubled Enterprise While entrepreneurs such as Sylvia Woods, Herb Hudson, and Michele Hoskins continued to thrive in the food industry, others had more 176


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Neo-Soul Championed by Sylvia’s Grandson .......................................................................................

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elebrity chef Lindsey Williams, grandson of the famous Sylvia Woods, made a name for himself in the first decade of the twenty-first century by championing healthier, less caloric versions of the beloved soul-food staples made famous by his grandmother. Williams, author of the Neo Soul (2006) cookbook, was concerned about the rising rate of obesity and heart disease in the African American community, and built his career around trying to help African Americans lead healthier lives without giving up favorite foods. As of 2010 Williams ran a successful catering and events planning business.

difficulty managing their food and restaurant ventures. La-Van Hawkins (1960– ) had risen from the ghettos of Chicago to own Sweet Georgia Brown restaurant and more than one hundred Pizza Huts in Michigan. His Inner City Foods Corporation, founded in 1995, became the twelfth largest African American–owned business in the United States. However, his empire crumbled when a federal investigation targeted Hawkins. He was charged with bribing Treasurer Corey Kemp in exchange for Kemp’s support of various business ventures throughout Philadelphia. The charge resulted in a thirty-three-month prison sentence and a twenty-fivethousand-dollar fine. Numerous lawsuits against Hawkins followed. Combined with his extravagant lifestyle, Hawkins’s legal troubles left him facing bankruptcy by 2005. The face of African American entrepreneurs in the food industry has continued to evolve. In the mid-1990s, the Caribbean & African American Restaurant Association (CARR) was launched to assist members with economic, business, and governmental matters. In 1997, the African American franchise group Atlanta Franchise Development Company bought one hundred Church’s Chicken restaurants. By the end of the 1990s, several African American celebrities had entered the restaurant business. In New York City, Sean Combs’s Justin’s restaurant served Southern and Caribbean foods. Little Jezebel Plantation—backed by such celebrities as Denzel Washington (1954– ), Wesley Snipes (1962– ), and Julius “Dr. J” Irving (1950– )—added a touch of New Orleans food to Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In Chicago, sports legend Michael Jordan (1963– ) opened the Original Michael Jordan’s. African American Eras

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION FOUNDED FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN CAREER WOMEN During the 1970s and 1980s, African American women made their first significant impact on the business world. At the forefront of this movement were Linda Bates Parker (1944– ) and her landmark organization Black Career Women (BCW). The organization has been working to support African American women in the business world since 1977. Based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, BCW works with women in a wide range of fields and at all ranks of power, from entry-level employees to chief executive officers (CEOs). Prior to the 1970s, employment opportunities for African American women had long been limited. Traditionally, black women took jobs as caregivers or positions in the service industry. They generally found work as house cleaners, cooks in school cafeterias, nannies, and nurses in nursing homes. With the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1965, a greater range of job opportunities gradually became available to African Americans at white-owned businesses. Black entrepreneurs also began launching their own businesses. Some of these entrepreneurs were women. Former model Naomi Sims (1948–2009) started a wig-making company called the Naomi Sims Collection in 1973. In 1978, Janice Bryant Howroyd founded her own employment agency called ACT•1 Personnel Services. However, opportunities for black women were scarce in a business world that remained dominated by white men. Parker Founds BCW This landscape provided equal parts inspiration and challenge for Linda Bates Parker. Parker’s groundbreaking achievements came quickly after she graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a master’s degree in 1972. She holds the distinction of being the very first African American woman to work in the Procter & Gamble Company’s market research department. Later, she took a job with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a nonprofit college career services organization. Parker soon learned that the business environment was not very welcoming to a young African American woman. In response to the lack of ethnic diversity she witnessed in the business world, Parker formed the Ethnic Student Career Fair at the University of Cincinnati in 1976. Later known as the Diversity Career Fair, the fair provided students from all ethnic backgrounds a chance to discuss career opportunities with on- and off-campus employers. Parker also started a program called Women in the World of Work to address the concerns of female students interested in business careers.

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Two women attend a small business training event in Miami, Florida. Groups like Black Career Women help African American women connect in the business community. ª Jeff Greenberg/Alamy

Work. Black Career Women provided both employment leads and career advice for African Americans who wanted to become businesswomen. Parker also intended to use BCW to address concerns that had never before been addressed sufficiently, or addressed at all. Every year, BCW launches workshops and seminars that address issues about achieving personal goals in the business world. They also deal with issues of sexism, racism, and classism (discrimination between economic classes) that can hinder the success and progress of black businesswomen. Among the themes of these programs have been career management, career exploration and selfassessment, preparing for professional advancement, employment strategies and resources, and “managing your career in a period of flourishing racism and sexism.” BCW has been widely praised for its work. It has served as a model for other special-interest organizations across the United States. Black Female Entrepreneurship Flourishes During the years following the creation of BCW, the business world saw a rise in the number of female African American entrepreneurs. For instance, as the president and CEO of the engineering and environmental management company Parallax, Margie Lewis turned her company into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. The company is responsible for inspecting nuclear power plants and cleaning up nuclear waste. In the mid-1980s, Pauline C. Brooks started Management Technology Inc. She started with a mere one thousand dollars. By 1996, the computer-technology company was making twenty-five million dollars in sales per year. Saundra Parks, president of the Daily Blossom, made a fortune with her distinctive flower African American Eras

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arrangements. Restaurant-owner T. J. Robinson achieved tremendous success serving gourmet creole cooking, a kind of traditional Louisiana food, to thousands of diners at TJ’s Gingerbread House in Oakland, California. Carol Columbus-Green created a successful girdle, or undergarment, manufacturing company. Jacqueline Lewis-Kemp is the CEO of Lewis Metal Stamping Company. Multimedia entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey is another woman who started a hugely successful business enterprise and empire on the heels of BCW. In 1997, Linda Bates Parker launched Black Career Women (bcw.org), a Web site offering a wealth of information, advice, support, statistics, and career opportunities for African American career women. The site receives more than 3,000 visits every month. Job seekers use it to reach out to potential business contacts, learn new skills, and keep on top of trends in the business world. Employers visit the site in search of new employees, as do community groups looking for volunteers and supporters. The site is also a forum for career women in search of mentors, or teachers, to help them navigate the business world. Following the success of bcw.org, a number of other such sites aimed at African American businesswomen have sprung up on the Internet. As of 2010, BCW had members throughout the world. Linda Bates Parker continued to challenge herself and expand her pursuits. While still serving as president of Black Career Women, she also wrote a column for Black Collegian Magazine and authored Career Portfolio, a professional development textbook. She also teaches as an adjunct professor at the College of Evening and Continuing Education at the University of Cincinnati. She serves on the NACE’s Ethics Task Force. Parker has often been honored for her efforts to improve the business opportunities and conditions of African American women. In 2000, Working Mother Magazine presented her with their National Diversity Champions Award. In 2005, she was inducted into the NACE’s Academy of Fellows.

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WAGE GAP PERSISTS BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WHITES After the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery, many African Americans were forced to take low-paying, physically demanding jobs because, as former slaves, they were qualified to do little else. These jobs were not notably different from the work they performed when they were slaves. In the South, most blacks worked on farms. At the same time, they received inferior education at segregated schools. This deprived them of the education necessary to secure better jobs, so they remained largely poor, with few exceptions. Not until the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was decided in 1954 was 180


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segregation in public facilities outlawed. Even after that, the effects of the long history of segregation and discrimination that preceded Brown v. Board of Education would continue to hamper the economic progress of African Americans for years to come.



Affirmative action initially played a valuable role in helping African Americans gain entry into a wider number of jobs. Affirmative action, as originally designed by the federal government, was a policy meant to ensure than African Americans had the same access to educational and employment opportunities as whites. Later, it came to be more broadly interpreted as a policy of actively recruiting, admitting, and promoting minority job and school applicants. Affirmative action requirements were put into place widely in the 1960s, first by the government and later by universities and other institutions. The number of African American professionals and skilled workers rose significantly throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The number of African Americans who graduated from high school, college, and graduate school also increased. The wage gap dwindled. In 1960, the average black man earned half of what the average white man earned. In 1980, the average black man earned 62 percent of what the average white man earned. After expanding slightly once again in the 1980s, the wage gap dwindled even more by 2000, when black men earned 67 percent of what white men earned. At the end of the 1980s, the average black family earned only 55 cents for every dollar earned by the average white family. By 2000, the average black family earned 64 cents for every dollar earned by the average white family.

A woman types information into a computer at an unemployment office. African Americans are affected more often by layoffs and the lack of jobs than other races. ª James Leynse/Corbis


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The wage gap has obviously shrunk, but not disappeared. Economists also question whether the numbers tell the whole story. Some say that the fact that a large number of African American men are in prison artificially boosts the overall earnings figure for African American men. (Twelve percent of African American men age twenty to thirty-four are in jail or prison.) Others point out that household incomes for African American families are not the same as household incomes for whites because more members of average African American families work. That means that the members of an African American household typically work more hours and more days than the members of white households to earn the same total income. Some economists argue that the wage gap persists even today because of institutional racism. Institutional racism is race discrimination that is a customary part of government or social institutions. For example, the expense of attending college keeps low-income African Americans from furthering their education. Because they do not attend college, it is much harder for them to secure high-paying jobs. As a result, white males continue to hold the highest-paying, most powerful corporate positions in the United States. Even those African Americans who do receive a college education are at a distinct financial disadvantage when compared to white college graduates. The earnings of college-educated African American men are around 13 percent lower than their white counterparts. Wages for college-educated African American women hover around 8 percent lower than wages for college-educated white women. One reason for this persistent wage gap is related to the academic fields African Americans study in college. This demographic is more likely to major in history, social sciences, liberal arts, and ethnic studies—areas that lead to lower-paying jobs than engineering, computer sciences, and law. Another reason is college selection. Graduates from more selective colleges tend to make more money than African Americans who attend historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) or colleges with more lenient admission policies. According to 2007 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, the wage gap continued to shrink in the first part of the twenty-first century. The average black household in 2007 earned 67 percent of what the average white household earned. As a whole, African American individuals earned 65 percent of what whites earned. However, the global economic downturn that began in 2008 affected African Americans more dramatically than whites, and once again widened the wage gap. Census Bureau figures for 2008 indicated that between 2007 and 2008, the wage gap increased by one percent.

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More African Americans Earning Science PhDs .......................................................................................

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fter recognizing that few African American college students were choosing courses of study that would lead to higher paying jobs, the federal government launched the National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), a joint effort by universities and colleges to increase the number of underrepresented minorities (including African Americans) seeking advanced training in sciences and engineering. AGEP was launched in 1998. A 2009 report released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science indicated that these efforts have been extremely successful. Between 2001 and 2009, the number of PhDs granted to underrepresented minorities increased by more than one-third.

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COLLAPSE OF THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY DEVASTATES AFRICAN AMERICANS The Great Migration was the movement of approximately 1.5 million African Americans from the South to the North between the years of 1915 and 1930. Most of these people were fleeing the racism and poverty of the South and seeking employment in such industrial cities as Detroit and Chicago. Between 1940 and 1970, another wave of migration (referred to as the “Second Great Migration” by some historians) saw the U.S. African American population transform from a largely southern rural one to a northern urban one. Many African Americans left behind low-wage, manual labor jobs for high-paying factory jobs, many of them in the automotive industry. In fact Detroit, known as “Motor City” because of its flourishing automobile industry, became one of the leading destinations for black migrants from the South from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Good Jobs in Motor City The motor vehicle and parts industry, located primarily in the major cities of the Midwest, has been among the highest-paying employers in the United States for African Americans with few job skills and little education. Economists say that the auto industry has been a main contributor to the rise of an African American middle class. Jobs in the automobile sector provided African Americans with a financial security the community had African American Eras

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The National Urban League .......................................................................................

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he National Urban League was established in 1910 to help African Americans who had left the South to settle in northern cities adapt to urban life. Those African Americans new to the North found themselves yet again the victims of racial discrimination. Because most of them had little education, they were forced to take menial (fit for servants) jobs that paid little. They lived in harsh economic and social conditions that resulted in part from their lack of experience in the ways of city living. Today, the goal of the National Urban League remains basically unchanged. Its mission is to help African Americans achieve economic self-reliance and secure their civil rights. It uses the following five point strategy to implement its goals: • Education and Youth Empowerment: Providing college scholarships and early childhood literacy, Head Start, and after-school care programs to ensure that African American children are well-educated and prepared for economic self-reliance in the twenty-first century. • Economic Empowerment: Providing job training and encouraging African Americans to attain economic self-sufficiency by such means as securing good jobs, owning their own homes, becoming entrepreneurs, and learning how to manage and save money. • Health and Quality of Life Empowerment: Working to build healthy communities through prevention, nutrition, and fitness programs and ensuring access to affordable health care for African Americans. • Civic Engagement and Leadership Empowerment: Encouraging African Americans to be active participants in public policy and leadership in their communities. • Civil Rights and Racial Justice Empowerment: Promoting and ensuring African American civil rights by working to erase political, educational, social, economic, and cultural inequality.

never before experienced: high wages, medical benefits, guaranteed work. The auto industry stood in contrast to many other manufacturing industries in its willingness to hire black workers. Major car makers Ford and Dodge led the way in hiring African Americans, although mainly in unskilled positions. During the 1960s, in response to civil rights activism, 184


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the so-called “Big Three” automakers—Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors—developed outreach programs designed to place unskilled, unemployed African American men in auto-plant jobs. Unions and civil rights activists continued to push for African Americans to be hired in better-paying skilled and managerial positions.



By the 1970s, considerable progress had been made. By 1970, 20 percent of the auto-industry workers in Detroit was black. One in fifty African Americans in general worked in the auto industry and earned up to three times as much as African Americans in other jobs. They were still underrepresented in management and in the highest-paying plant jobs, but African Americans working in the car industry had steady work that offered them a sustainable, even comfortable, lifestyle. Because of the car industry, thriving black communities developed in such cities as Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland. From Bad to Worse Increased international competition in the auto industry led to tough times for American car makers in the 1980s, and this translated into tough times for African American employees. Looking to cut costs, automakers began cutting back or closing domestic manufacturing and relocating manufacturing jobs in countries where labor was cheaper. Because African Americans held many of the unskilled or low-skilled manufacturing jobs, they were the hardest hit by these production shifts. The downward trend in employment of African Americans by automakers continued steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, and into the twenty-first century. A 2006 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research showed that between 1979 and 2004, the percentage of African American workers employed by the auto industry slipped from 2.1 percent to 1.3 percent. During this time, black communities in the Midwest suffered greatly. The once thriving African American communities in and around Detroit became ghost towns or ghettoes, with failing schools and inadequate public services. Meanwhile, the major automakers continued to fight a losing battle for market share. Layoffs and plant closings continued.

Then, in 2008, a global economic downturn made an already bad situation worse. Executives from the Big Three automakers, facing financial collapse, went to Washington seeking emergency economic assistance from the federal government. They received billions of dollars in loans tied to improved performance. However, the loans were not enough to save two of the Big Three. In March 2009, U.S. president Barack Obama (1961– ) in effect fired the CEO of General Motors. In April, Chrysler declared bankruptcy. In June, General Motors declared bankruptcy. Only Ford stayed afloat, managing to do so without taking any emergency loans from the government. African American Eras

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Obama’s Car Czar .......................................................................................

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dward Montgomery is director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers and a member of President Barack Obama’s Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry. Montgomery is an economist who served as the chief economist in the Department of Labor during the administration of President Bill Clinton and later as the dean of the University of Maryland. Montgomery was charged with making sure that money authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (an act designed to revive the flagging U.S. economy) is easily accessible to the families suffering job losses in the automobile industry. Montgomery was also to direct efforts to create new, well-paying jobs in the areas formerly dominated by the Big Three automakers.

Jobs created by the auto industry, including parts manufacturing— from seats to fuel injectors—as well as car dealerships headed by African American entrepreneurs, were affected by this collapse of the American car industry. No matter what their job capacity, all African Americans in the auto industry felt the blow of the bad economy. In fact, African American auto workers are the population that has been most affected by the economic downturn because the percentage of African Americans in the industry, 14.2 percent, is higher than the combined percentage of whites and hispanics in the auto sector, 11.2 percent. Simply put, more African Americans work in the auto industry; therefore, more African Americans have lost their jobs. The number of African Americans in the auto industry fell from around 137,000 in 2007 to 118,000 in 2008. And that number continued to drop. By the end of October 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, the unemployment rate in the United States was 10.2 percent. For African Americans, it was 15.4 percent, a number that could be attributed in large part to the failure of the motor vehicle and parts industry.

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MODERN ECONOMY CHALLENGES AFRICAN AMERICANS The contemporary job market has created a difficult situation for many African Americans. Business is increasingly conducted between people in different countries, which contributes to the economic disadvantages many African Americans currently face. Globalization has led to the extension of American industries and labor to other parts of the world. With the 186


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availability of cheap labor in foreign countries such as Taiwan and India, more low-paying jobs traditionally held by African Americans are being exported. Created in 1992, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) opened free trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This agreement resulted in increased immigration into the United States. An increase in immigration, both legal and illegal, has further contributed to the relative lack of jobs available to unskilled African American laborers.



Technological advances have affected employment as well. For example, the U.S. Postal Service’s introduction of an electronic sorting machine eliminated many jobs held by African Americans. Like the postal service, the automotive industry has historically employed a large number of black workers. However, automated assembly line machines have eliminated the need for automotive companies to hire people to perform certain tasks in factories. Even workers who are not being replaced by machines are still subject to their negative effects. As workers increasingly spend their days interacting with machines, they also have fewer opportunities to interact with human coworkers. This means that it is harder for them to discuss their job situations and develop strategies for improving their working conditions together. Disappearing jobs have created greater competition among those workers for whom positions do remain. More available workers means that people must be willing to work for less if they want to be considered for a job. For example, an employer is oftentimes more inclined to hire someone who will work for minimum wage over someone who wants to be paid more than minimum wage because she or he is more qualified for a particular position. As a result, many African Americans who have valuable job experience in an industry are not hired. Others accept lower pay in order to get or keep a job. Competition in the workplace drives down wages for everyone. Another challenge facing African Americans in the job market are businesses and industries that have steadily moved from African American– dominated inner cities to predominantly white suburban areas. In the 1960s and 1970s, large numbers of African Americans were employed in low-skill manufacturing jobs at factories located in city centers. The majority of these workers lived in inner-city housing. For these workers, getting to work was easy because of public transportation. Some lived close enough to walk to work. When manufacturing businesses began to leave urban areas for more space to grow, African Americans were left behind. Even a move of only a few miles proved to be a major barrier to some African Americans. In Indianapolis, Indiana, for example, the Coca-Cola bottling plant moved only five miles African American Eras

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northwest of its previous downtown location. Only around 15 percent of African Americans at that time owned cars, and the local bus system did not run early or late enough to accommodate factory workers who had early or late shifts. Similar problems exist for inner-city residents today. Rising transportation costs and the prices of suburban housing make it difficult for African Americans who live in urban areas to take jobs in the suburbs. Most of the time, the low-skill jobs available to African Americans in inner cities do not pay enough to keep them above the poverty level. The global economic crisis that began in 2008 and continued into 2009 affected the African American community more harshly than the white community, mainly because job losses were more pronounced in industries that had large numbers of African American employees (such as construction and manufacturing). The auto manufacturing industry, a long-time provider of good jobs for African Americans, collapsed in 2008 and 2009, with two of the three major U.S. automakers, Chrysler and General Motors, declaring bankruptcy. By October 2009, the joblessness rate for African Americans reached 15.7 percent.

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Primary Sources

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 THE FIRST FEDERAL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY (1965)

Although President John F. Kennedy coined the term “affirmative action” in 1961, it was not until 1965 that the federal government first enacted a policy of affirmative action. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246. That order required federal contractors, or companies employed by the federal government, to develop affirmative action plans to hire more women and minorities as employees.

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Affirmative Action Policies designed to promote educational or employment opportunities for minorities and women

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY Part I—Nondiscrimination in Government Employment Section 101. It is the policy of the Government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in Federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency. The policy of equal opportunity applies to every aspect of Federal employment policy and practice. Section 102. The head of each executive department and agency shall establish and maintain a positive program of equal employment opportunity for all civilian employees and applicants for employment within his jurisdiction in accordance with the policy set forth in Section 101. Section 103. The Civil Service Commission shall supervise and provide leadership and guidance in the conduct of equal employment opportunity programs for the civilian employees of and applications for employment within the executive departments and agencies and shall review agency program accomplishments periodically. In order to facilitate the achievement of a model program for equal employment opportunity in the Federal service, the Commission may consult from time to time with such individuals, groups, or organizations as may be of assistance in improving the Federal program and realizing the objectives of this Part. Section 104. The Civil Service Commission shall provide for the prompt, fair, and impartial consideration of all complaints of discrimination in Federal employment on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. Procedures for the consideration of complaints shall include at least one impartial review within the executive department or agency and shall provide for appeal to the Civil Service Commission. Section 105. The Civil Service Commission shall issue such regulations, orders, and instructions as it deems necessary and appropriate to carry out its responsibilities under this Part, and the head of each executive department and agency shall comply African American Eras

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with the regulations, orders, and instructions issued by the Commission under this Part. . . .

Part III—Nondiscrimination Provisions in Federally Assisted Construction Contracts Section 301. Each executive department and agency which administers a program involving Federal financial assistance shall require as a condition for the approval of any grant, contract, loan, insurance, or guarantee thereunder, which may involve a construction contract, that the applicant for Federal assistance undertake and agree to incorporate, or cause to be incorporated, into all construction contracts paid for in whole or in part with funds obtained from the Federal Government or borrowed on the credit of the Federal Government pursuant to such grant, contract, loan, insurance, or guarantee, or undertaken pursuant to any Federal program involving such grant, contract, loan, insurance, or guarantee, the provisions prescribed for Government contracts by Section 202 of this Order or such modification thereof, preserving in substance the contractor’s obligations thereunder, as may be approved by the Secretary of Labor, together with such additional provisions as the Secretary deems appropriate to establish and protect the interest of the United States in the enforcement of those obligations. Each such applicant shall also undertake and agree (1) to assist and cooperate actively with the administering department or agency and the Secretary of Labor in obtaining the compliance of contractors and subcontractors with those contract provisions and with the rules, regulations, and relevant orders of the Secretary, (2) to obtain and to furnish to the administering department or agency and to the Secretary of Labor such information as they may require for the supervision of such compliance, (3) to carry out sanctions and penalties for violations of such obligations imposed upon contractors and subcontractors by the Secretary of Labor or the administering department or agency pursuant to Part II, Subpart D, of this Order, and (4) to refrain from entering into any contract subject to this Order, or extension or other modification of such a contract with a contractor debarred from Government contracts under Part II, Subpart D, of this Order. . . . Section 303. (a) Each administering department or agency shall be responsible for obtaining the compliance of such applicants with their undertakings under this Order. Each administering department and agency is directed to cooperate with the Secretary of Labor, and to furnish the Secretary such information and assistance as he may require in the performance of his functions under this Order. (b) In the event an applicant fails and refuses to comply with his undertakings, the administering department or agency may take any or all of the following actions: (1) cancel, terminate, or suspend in whole or in part the agreement, contract, or other arrangement with such applicant with respect to which the failure and refusal occurred; (2) refrain from extending any further assistance to the applicant under the program with respect to which the failure or refusal occurred until satisfactory assurance of future compliance has been received from such applicant; and (3) refer the case to the Department of Justice for appropriate legal proceedings.

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(c) Any action with respect to an applicant pursuant to Subsection (b) shall be taken in conformity with Section 602 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (and the regulations of the administering department or agency issued thereunder), to the extent applicable. In no case shall action be taken with respect to an applicant pursuant to Clause (1) or (2) of Subsection (b) without notice and opportunity for hearing before the administering department or agency. Section 304. Any executive department or agency which imposes by rule, regulation or order requirements of nondiscrimination in employment, other than requirements imposed pursuant to this Order, may delegate to the Secretary of Labor by agreement such responsibilities with respect to compliance standards, reports and procedures as would tend to bring the administration of such requirements into conformity with the administration of requirements imposed under this Order: Provided, That actions to effect compliance by recipients of Federal financial assistance with requirements imposed pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shall be taken in conformity with the procedures and limitations prescribed in Section 602 thereof and the regulations of the administering department or agency issued thereunder. Lyndon B. Johnson The White House September 24, 1965



Allan Bakke was the plaintiff in the lawsuit against the University of California for its affirmative action program. ª Bettmann/Corbis

 SUPREME COURT’S BAKKE DECISION (1978) Affirmative action programs, which are government-sponsored efforts to improve the education or employment opportunities for minorities, have long been controversial. The first major court challenge to affirmative action came in 1978 in the case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The case involved a white man named Allan Bakke who had been denied admission to the medical school at the University of California at Davis. Bakke sued the school, claiming that he had been denied admission because he could not compete for a certain number of slots set aside for minority applicants. The Supreme Court agreed with Bakke in 1978, and the school was forced to change its affirmative action program. The following excerpt from the court’s decision, written by Justice Lewis Powell, states that the school cannot set aside a certain number of slots for minority applicants, but that it can consider race as one factor among many in making African American Eras

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admission decisions. The Bakke challenge to affirmative action was the first of several court challenges at the end of the twentieth century that watered down or eliminated affirmative action policies.

............................ Justice Powell delivered the opinion of the Court. . . . The special admissions program is undeniably a classification based on race and ethnic background. . . . Fourteenth Amendment An amendment to the U.S. Constitution adopted in 1868 that grants full citizenship rights to African Americans

The guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment extend to all persons. Its language is explicit: “No State shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” . . . The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal. . . .

Petitioner Person making legal request

[T]here are serious problems of justice connected with the idea of preference. . . . First, it may not always be clear that a so-called preference is in fact benign. Courts may be asked to validate burdens imposed upon individual members of a particular group in order to advance the group’s general interest. . . . Nothing in the Constitution supports the notion that individuals may be asked to suffer otherwise impermissible burdens in order to enhance the societal standing of their ethnic groups. Second, preferential programs may only reinforce common stereotypes holding that certain groups are unable to achieve success without special protection based on a factor having no relationship to individual worth. . . . Third, there is a measure of inequity in forcing innocent persons in respondent position to bear the burdens of redressing grievances not of their making. . . .

Benign Harmless

Inequity Unfairness Respondent Person or group against whom a legal petition is brought

Facially Invalid Unconstitutional 192

Petitioner urges us to adopt . . . [a] more restrictive view of the Equal Protection Clause and hold that discrimination against members of the white “majority” cannot be suspect if its purpose can be characterized as “benign.” . . .

We have held that in “order to justify the use of a suspect classification [i.e. in order to discriminate on the basis of race], a State must show that its purpose . . . is both constitutionally permissible and substantial, and that its use of the classification is ‘necessary . . . to the accomplishment’ of its purpose.” . . . The special admissions program purports to serve the purposes of: (i) “reducing the historic deficit of traditionally disfavored minorities in medical schools and in the medical profession,” . . . (ii) countering the effects of societal discrimination; (iii) increasing the number of physicians who will practice in communities currently underserved; and (iv) obtaining the educational benefits that flow from an ethnically diverse student body. It is necessary to decide which, if any, of these purposes is substantial enough to support the use of a suspect classification. If petitioner’s purpose is to assure within its student body some specified percentage of a particular group merely because of its race or ethnic origin, such a preferential purpose must be rejected not as insubstantial but as facially invalid. African American Eras

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Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids. . . .


Petitioner identifies, as another purpose of its program, improving the delivery of health-care services to communities currently underserved. It may be assumed that in some situations a State’s interest in facilitating the health care of its citizens is sufficiently compelling to support the use of a suspect classification. But there is virtually no evidence in the record indicating that petitioner’s special admissions program is either needed or geared to promote that goal. . . .


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The fourth goal asserted by petitioner is the attainment of a diverse student body. This clearly is a constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education. . . . The freedom of a university to make its own judgments as to education includes the selection of its student body. . . . It may be assumed that the reservation of a specified number of seats in each class for individuals from the preferred ethnic groups would contribute to the attainment of considerable ethnic diversity in the student body. But petitioner’s argument that this is the only effective means of serving the interest of diversity is seriously flawed. . . . The diversity that furthers a compelling state interest encompasses a far broader array of qualifications and characteristics of which racial or ethnic origin is but a single though important element. Petitioner’s special admissions program, focused solely on ethnic diversity, would hinder rather than further attainment of genuine diversity. . . . Race or ethnic background may be deemed a “plus” in a particular applicant’s file, yet it does not insulate the individual from comparison with all other candidates for the available seats. The file of a particular black applicant may be examined for his potential contribution to diversity without the factor of race being decisive when compared, for example, with that of an applicant identified as an Italian-American if the latter is thought to exhibit qualities more likely to promote beneficial educational pluralism. Such qualities could include exceptional personal talents, unique work or service experience, leadership potential, maturity, demonstrated compassion, a history of overcoming disadvantage, ability to communicate with the poor, or other qualifications deemed important. . . . In summary, it is evident that the Davis special admissions program involves the use of an explicit racial classification never before countenanced by this Court. It tells applicants who are not Negro, Asian, or Chicano that they are totally excluded from a specific percentage of the seats in an entering class. No matter how strong their qualifications, quantitative and extracurricular, including their own potential for contribution to educational diversity, they are never afforded the chance to compete with applicants from the preferred groups for the special admissions seats. At the same time, the preferred applicants have the opportunity to compete for every seat in the class. . . .


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Countenanced Permitted

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Injunction Court order

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With respect to respondent’s entitlement to an injunction directing his admission to the Medical School, petitioner has conceded that it could not carry its burden of proving that, but for the existence of its unlawful special admissions program, respondent still would not have been admitted. Hence, respondent is entitled to the injunction, and that portion of the judgment must be affirmed.


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Research and Activity Ideas

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1. The wage gap (the difference between the average earnings of two groups) between black and white workers has widened since 1999. What factors have led to an increasing wage gap between black and white workers between 2000 and 2010? Using the Internet, find out what one commentator believes has caused this trend. Then, find additional research that either supports or opposes that commentator’s conclusion. Write an essay in which you either agree or disagree with the commentator’s position. Use your research to support your argument. Be sure to consider the opinions and arguments made by those whose conclusions you reject.



2. Working with another student, choose two African Americans who have achieved success in business through notably different paths. Next, research their roads to success. Pay particular attention to each person’s background, education, and business style. After you have completed your research, have a debate with your research partner over which type of professional path is more likely to lead to success in the business world. 3. Franklin Delano Raines became the first African American CEO of a Fortune 500 company when he took over Fannie Mae in 1999. Since that time, seven other African Americans have risen to the position of chief executive officer (CEO) of a Fortune 500 company. While this represents great strides for African Americans in the business world, the percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs who are African American (1.2 percent) is only about one-tenth of the percentage of the population represented by African Americans (around 12 percent). Why do you think African Americans are underrepresented as CEOs? Do you think African Americans will achieve greater success as business leaders in the future? If you were on the board of directors of a Fortune 500 company, what advice about corporate advancement would you offer to African Americans who are just beginning their careers with your company? Prepare a PowerPoint presentation that you could show to this group of professionals that would both inform and inspire them to aspire to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. 4. Affirmative action programs have been in place since the mid-1960s. Critics claim that such programs are no longer necessary to aid underrepresented groups or to end discrimination. Supporters point to the wage gap between white men and other groups as evidence that affirmative action is still necessary. Research the issue and find out whether there are any affirmative action programs in your city or African American Eras

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state. Take a position on the issue of affirmative action and write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper in which you outline your solution to the problem. Send a copy to your local city councilmember or your state representative. 5. Many of the most successful African American entrepreneurs have achieved prominence in the entertainment industry before or during their rise in the business world. Compile a list of the ten most successful African American business professionals who are also in the entertainment industry. Write a brief synopsis of the methods used by each person for achieving business success. Finally, write an essay comparing and contrasting how these professionals achieved their business success.

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BOOKS

Rogers, W. Sherman. The African American Entrepreneur: Then and Now. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2009. Smith, Cheryl. Market Women: Black Women Entrepreneurs. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2005.

PERIODICALS “Black Job Losses in Auto Industry Are High.” UPI NewsTrack (December 30, 2008). Chapman, Mary M. “Black Workers In Auto Plants Losing Ground.” New York Times (December 30, 2008): p. A1. Koretz, Gene. “The Racial Wage Gap is Shrinking.” Business Week (November 29, 1999): p. 30. Meeks, Kenneth. “The 75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America.” Black Enterprise (February 2005). “Wage Gap Still Separates Black Baby Boomers from Whites.” Jet (January 17, 2005): p. 6. Western, Bruce, and Becky Pettit. “Black white Wage Inequality, Employment Rates, and Incarceration.” American Journal of Sociology (September 2005): p. 553. “We’ve Really Come a Long Way.” Black Enterprise (January 1, 2009).

WEB SITES African American CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies. Black Profiles. http://www .blackentrepreneurprofile.com/fortune 500 ceos/ (accessed on June 4, 2009). “Black Americans Less Optimistic than Whites.” NPR. http://www.npr.org/ templates/story/story.php?storyId=16268226 (accessed on June 5, 2009). 196


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Black Career Women. www.BCW.org. http://www.bcw.org/ (accessed on June 8, 2009). “Employment, Wages, and Benefits.” United States Department of Labor. http:// www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/herman/reports/futurework/report/ chapter2/main2.htm (accessed on June 5, 2009).



Hutchinson, Earl O. “Corporate America Don’t Preach Diversity, Practice It.” New America Media. http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view article.html? article id=163769a6f444ee96938797936ff896f4 (accessed on June 4, 2009). “Income Gap Between Blacks, Whites Expands.” NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/ story/story.php?storyId=16257374 (accessed on June 5, 2009). “The Wage Gap, by Gender and Race.” Infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/ A0882775.html (accessed on June 5, 2009). Wessler, Seth F. “GM Bankruptcy Hurts People of Color Hardest. Workers Desperately Need EFCA.” The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ seth freed wessler/gm bankruptsy hurts peopl b 211493.html (accessed on June 5, 2009).


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c h a p t e r fo u r

Chronology . . . . . . . . . 200 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 202 Headline Makers . . . . . . 205 Mara Brock Akil . . Jayson Blair . . . . Ed Bradley . . . . Farai Chideya . . . Don Cornelius . . Bill Cosby . . . . Earl G. Graves Sr. . Gwen Ifill . . . . Tom Joyner . . . . Spike Lee. . . . . Robert C. Maynard . Michele Norris . . Shonda Rhimes . . Bernard Shaw . . . Tavis Smiley . . . Will Smith . . . . Susan L. Taylor . . Denzel Washington

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Communications and Media Topics in the News . . . . . 232 African American Media Challenged by Modern Times . . . . . . . . Studios Turn to “Blaxploitation” Films . Black Musicians Cross Over to Film . . . . . . . . Black Comedians Thrive in Film in the 1970s and 1980s . . . . . . . . A New Generation of Black Filmmakers Finds Success . . . . . . . . Television Opens Up to Black Stories and Characters . Cable Networks Target African Americans . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 September 15 Bill Cosby becomes the first African American to star in a television drama as I Spy debuts on NBC. 1966 Belva Davis becomes the West Coast’s first African American news anchor. 1969 Max Robinson becomes the first African American to work as a television news anchor in Washington, D.C. 1970 March 13 Gordon Parks’s The Learning Tree is the first film directed by an African American to be released by a major studio. 1970 May Essence magazine becomes the first monthly magazine targeted to African American women. 1970 August Earl G. Graves Sr. publishes the first issue of Black Enterprise magazine. 1970 September 12 Animated series Josie and the Pussycats debuts. Valerie is the first African American character on an animated television series. 1970 September 17 Flip Wilson becomes the first African American comedian to host his own television program: The Flip Wilson Show. 1971 July 2 Shaft is released, beginning the era of blaxploitation films. 1971 October 2 Soul Train, the first dance show focused on music made by African Americans, debuts. 1972 Percy Sutton becomes the first African American radio-station owner

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when he purchases WLIB in New York City. 1978 July Max Robinson becomes the first African American news anchor on a major television network when he co-hosts ABC’s World News Tonight. 1980 January 25 Black Entertainment Television (BET) becomes the first television cable network for African Americans. 1983 April 30 Robert C. Maynard purchases the Oakland Tribune, becoming the first African American owner of a major newspaper. 1984 September 20 The Cosby Show debuts. The program about an affluent African American family living in Brooklyn became one of the most successful television shows of the 1980s and helped to revive NBC’s sinking ratings. 1986 January 7 The Oprah Winfrey Show debuts. Featuring African American host Oprah Winfrey, it went on to become the most popular daytime talk show in the history of American television. 1989 June 30 African American director Spike Lee’s controversial film Do the Right Thing is released. The film makes Lee one of the hottest young directors in America.

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......................................................................................... 1990 Former basketball player Robin Robert becomes ESPN’s first African American anchor and co-host of the network’s popular Sports Center show. 1990 April 15 In Living Color debuts on the FOX network, becoming the first sketch comedy program created by African Americans with a largely African American cast. 1991 December 27 Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust is the first feature film by an African American woman to be nationally distributed. 1995 September 23 San Diego BLAACK Pages becomes the first African American Web site to focus on a local community. 1996 William Kennard is named the first African American chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. 1996 June 19 African American journalist Farai Chideya founds one of the first pop-culture blogs, Pop+Politics. 1997 December 18 Former blaxploitation actress Pam Grier is nominated for her first Golden Globe Award for her role in Jackie Brown. 2000 September 11 Girlfriends debuts, becoming one of the most popular sitcoms among African American women for eight seasons. 2002 January 7 Tavis Smiley becomes the first African American to host his own show on National Public Radio with The Tavis Smiley Show.

2002 March 24 Halle Berry becomes the first African American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. Berry won the award for her performance in Monster’s Ball. 2004 October 2 Gwen Ifill becomes the first African American to moderate a vicepresidential debate on national television. 2005 Dean Baquet becomes the editor of the Los Angeles Times. This publication is the largest newspaper on the West Coast. 2005 Robin Roberts becomes co-anchor of ABC’s successful morning news and talk show, Good Morning America. 2006 May 8 America Online (AOL) names Neal Scarbrough as the company’s new general manager and editor of sports. Scarbrough had previously been the vice president and news editor for ESPN. 2007 April 4 Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton call for the firing of white radio talk-show host Don Imus after he refers to African American female basketball players with racial slurs. Imus in the Morning is dropped by radio stations across the nation. 2009 Actresses Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson receive Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations. Davis plays the mother of a boy who may have been sexually molested by a priest in Doubt (2008). In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) Henson plays the nursemaid of a man who is aging backwards.


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African Americans have long had to fight to gain control over the way they are depicted (represented or portrayed) in the media. Early twentiethcentury movies made by white filmmakers tended to portray African Americans as lazy and ignorant. In some cases, they were played by white actors in black makeup. These conditions also existed in radio comedy shows. Groups such as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) spoke out against the negative way blacks were depicted in the media. More progressive attitudes slowly began to emerge. The movement away from stereotype-based humor and drama continued gradually through the first half of the twentieth century. However, it was not until the late 1940s and the 1950s that genuine change first became noticeable. African American actors managed to get strong, relatively dignified roles in Hollywood films. At the same time, black disc jockeys (DJs) were beginning to find work on radio. In 1950, J. B. Blayton Jr. became the first black radio station owner. Six years later, singer Nat “King” Cole became the first African American to host his own television show. In print media, black newspapers were struggling for survival, but magazines were thriving. In the 1960s, the civil rights movement paved the way for greater acceptance of African Americans in the media. In 1963, Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win the Academy Award for best actor. Comedian Bill Cosby achieved similar success on the television drama I Spy. He won the Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series in 1968. That same year Essence became the first magazine for African American women, even as black newspapers continued to disappear. On radio, DJs such as future music star Sly Stone spun soul and R&B records. Ex-convict Ralph “Petey” Greene hosted his own challenging talk show called Rapping with Petey Greene. The 1970s saw an explosion of African American influence in the media. Ed Bradley began reporting for CBS TV. He was fast on his way to becoming one of the most respected journalists on television. Susan L. Taylor made history as the first African American woman to become editorin-chief of a major magazine when she took over Essence. Earl G. Graves Sr. launched Black Enterprise, the first black business magazine. An increased black presence on the radio included the formation of the first two all-black radio networks: the Mutual Black Network and the National Black Network. The formation of the National Association of Black Journalists in 1975 worked to strengthen the black journalistic community. It also furthered the positive portrayal of African Americans in the news. In the

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cinema, blaxploitation films rescued Hollywood from a commercial slump and provided numerous jobs for black filmmakers, actors, and actresses. Yet they also stirred up a storm of controversy for their use of negative stereotypes. Similar issues were affecting television. TV shows such as Good Times and Sanford and Son were achieving great popularity even as they provoked cries of racism. In sum, the decade of the 1970s was a somewhat awkward time of growth for African Americans in the media.


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By contrast, the 1980s became an era of real change. In 1983, Robert C. Maynard purchased the Oakland Tribune. He became the first African American owner of a major metropolitan newspaper. Newspaper journalists fought for equal rights, successfully suing New York Daily News in 1987 to receive salaries and assignments comparable to those of white journalists. Black Entertainment Television (BET) became the first all-black cable channel. Increased sensitivity toward the portrayal of African Americans resulted in fewer stereotype-based television programs and films. The Cosby Show triumphed over its initially weak ratings and the lack of confidence of executives at NBC TV to become the most popular television program of the decade. On the talk show circuit, The Oprah Winfrey Show debuted. Winfrey was on her way to building a media empire that would eventually include her own magazine and a successful Internet Web site. Director Spike Lee revived black cinema, which had been inactive since the end of the blaxploitation era in the mid-1970s. Lee’s films, such as She’s Gotta Have It (1986) and Do the Right Thing (1989), were complex, realistic, and vividly entertaining explorations of the modern African American experience. Lee’s film career continued to flourish in the 1990s as he created thoughtful yet entertaining films such as Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), and Clockers (1995). Black filmmakers such as Mario Van Peebles and John Singleton followed Lee’s lead. Black actors and actresses— including Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, and Morgan Freeman—were among the most respected stars in Hollywood. Hollywood was also discovering that rappers such as Will Smith, Ice T, and Ice Cube possessed genuine acting talent. Meanwhile a wealth of black programs, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin, Living Single, and The Steve Harvey Show, flooded onto television. In 1996, publisher Earl G. Graves Sr. continued to expand his business with the debut of a black history and culture magazine called American Legacy. Long-running black newspapers, such as Carolina Peacemaker, Baltimore Afro-American, and the Chicago Defender, remained alive despite overwhelming competition from whiteowned papers. At the same time, a new crop of black journalists, including Gwen Ifill, Michele Norris, and Farai Chideya, achieved success in print, radio, and on television news programs. African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

Black radio stations ran into trouble following the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which relaxed ownership restrictions on radio and television stations and led to a massive consolidation of ownership of radio stations serving black, urban areas. Many critics of the Telecommunications Act say it squashes musical diversity and discourages controversial content. However, during this time black magazines, television shows, and films grew stronger and more diverse than ever. The first decade of the twenty-first century was a time of new technology and new opportunities in the media for African Americans. Following an uncertain relationship with the Internet during the early 1990s, African Americans began to launch black-oriented Web sites, blogs, search engines, and social networking sites. Farai Chideya’s site PopþPolitics, launched in 1996, was one of the first political/popular culture blogs to focus on issues of African American interest. After the turn of the century, blackoriented resources on the Internet expanded significantly. For example, the social networking site blackplanet.com drew seventeen million members as of 2007. Launched in 2009, BlackPlanet Rising (blackplanetrising.com) offers users information on volunteer opportunities in African American communities. Recent statistics show that African Americans are eager and sophisticated Internet users, so online offerings for the black community will likely continue to multiply.

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MARA BROCK AKIL (1970– )

Television writer and producer Mara Brock Akil is one of few African American women to produce more than one television program airing at the same time. During the 2007–2008 television season, Akil produced the long-running situation comedy Girlfriends and its spin-off series The Game. Akil was born in Los Angeles, but she lived most of her childhood in Kansas City, Missouri. She later attended Northwestern University in Chicago. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Following college, Akil sought a career in writing. Her first television writing job was for South Central (1994), a half-hour comedy-drama about an African American family in south-central Los Angeles. Only ten episodes of the series aired. Akil spent the next few years taking occasional writing and acting work on the hit series Moesha. She also served as supervising producer on The Jamie Foxx Show.

Television writer and producer Mara Brock Akil. Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

In 2000, Akil created a comedy titled Girlfriends that would become her first major success. The show was produced by Akil and Kelsey Grammer (star of television’s Frasier). Girlfriends followed the close friendship between four African American women in Los Angeles. Akil based the tight-knit quartet of pals on Girlfriends on her own circle of friends. That circle of friends includes fellow television-show creator Felicia D. Henderson and film director Gina Prince-Bythewood. Girlfriends aired for a total of eight seasons between 2000 and 2008. It aired for six seasons on UPN and an additional two seasons on The CW. It collected NAACP Image Award nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002 and 2003. In 2006, Akil’s second series debuted. The Game follows medical student Melanie Barnett, a character originally introduced on an episode of Girlfriends. Barnett must choose between her own career and supporting that of her boyfriend, a rising pro-football star. The Game became the African American Eras

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top-rated comedy program on The CW during its second season. In 2009, The CW announced it would be moving away from half-hour comedies, ending production of The Game.

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JAYSON BLAIR (1976– )

Jayson Blair is a controversial figure in journalism. Formerly a writer for the New York Times, he was revealed to have plagiarized—stolen someone else’s work and attempted to pass it off as his own—and lied in numerous articles. The scandal dealt a blow to the respected newspaper. Blair was forced to resign.

Journalist Jayson Blair. New York Times/Getty Images

As a boy growing up in Centreville, Virginia, Jayson Blair displayed a true passion for journalism. He wrote for his high school newspaper. In 1995, he began studying journalism at the University of Maryland. Professors remember him as ambitious and charming. He was soon working as the editor-in-chief of the school’s student newspaper, The Diamondback. He held that position from 1996 to 1997. Blair was already attracting controversy during his time at The Diamondback. He often missed deadlines, which cost the paper money. He also tended to make up quotations in his articles. In some cases, he stole quotations from articles that had already been published in other papers. Blair’s poor management at The Diamondback forced him to give up his editorial position less than a year after taking it. But before he left the paper, he edited an article claiming that a basketball player and fellow student had died of a cocaine overdose. In reality, the student had died of a heart problem. The false story ignited the outrage of Blair’s peers at the newspaper. His successor as editorin-chief, Danielle Newman, published a letter of apology for Blair’s deliberate falsehoods. Blair generated a lot of controversy while he was at the University of Maryland. He also never graduated from the university. Nonetheless, in 1998 the New York Times offered Blair an internship. Blair took a full-time position at the New York Times in 2001. However, controversy continued to follow him.

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In April 2003, an editor at the San Antonio Express-News accused Blair of plagiarizing an article written by one of the paper’s reporters. Before long, the New York Times revealed that the article was just one of many that Blair had either plagiarized or padded with lies. As a result, two top editors at the Times resigned. They were ashamed they had not noticed or controlled Blair’s unethical tendencies. Blair was also out of a job, but he managed to score a book deal worth 150,000 dollars out of the scandal. In 2004, he published Burning Down My Master’s House: My Life at the New York Times. The book told his side of the story. It began with the confession, “I lied and I lied—and then I lied some more.” Throughout Burning Down My Master’s House, Blair blamed his behavior on drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness.

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ED BRADLEY (1941–2006)

Ed Bradley was one of the most honored journalists of the later part of the twentieth century. Bradley is best known as a reporter on the longrunning television news program 60 Minutes. His work earned him numerous awards and the respect of the public and the journalistic community alike.

Journalist Ed Bradley in 2006. Ray Tamarra/Getty Images

Bradley grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was largely raised by his mother after his parents’ divorce. He studied to become a teacher at Cheyney State College in his home state. However, it was his time at the school’s radio station that most sparked his interest. After a disc-jockey friend allowed Bradley to read the news on air, he fell in love with radio. Following graduation, Bradley taught sixthgrade classes for several years, but he still loved radio. When he was not teaching, Bradley worked without pay at radio station WDASFM out of Philadelphia. He played jazz records and announced basketball games. During the mid-1960s, a series of race riots occurred in Philadelphia. Bradley was there to report on the violence. He did such an impressive job that the station finally gave him a paying position as a reporter. Shortly afterward, Bradley gave up his teaching position for good to further explore the world of radio African American Eras

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journalism. He left Philadelphia for New York City. In New York, he got a reporting job on WCBS Radio in 1967. The job led to an on-screen position as a news reporter for CBS TV. Bradley reported on location from Saigon during the Vietnam War. He was even injured by mortar shrapnel (sharp metal fragments produced by an explosion) while on the air. Back in the United States following his injury, he worked in Washington, D.C. He reported on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign and presidency. Bradley missed the nonstop action that came along with reporting abroad (from a different country). Soon enough, Bradley found himself back in Vietnam. He arrived just in time for the fall of Saigon in 1975. This event brought the war to a dramatic end. In 1979, Bradley once again shipped off to Vietnam. This time he covered the flight of Vietnamese refugees from Saigon, which had been ravaged—destroyed by violence and chaos—by the war. While in Vietnam, Bradley crossed the line from news reporter to newsmaker when he plunged into Malaysian waters to help rescue refugees from their sinking boat. Bradley’s act of heroism and his inspiring journalism won him his first Emmy Award. It also led to a job on 60 Minutes two years later. For the next twenty-five years, Bradley was a fixture in American households every Sunday night. He reported on such major stories as the AIDS epidemic, the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal. He also conducted challenging interviews with public figures and celebrities, including Michael Jackson (1958–2009) and Muhammad Ali (1942– ). He was regarded for the humanity he brought to any story he covered. As busy as 60 Minutes kept Bradley, he still found time to devote to his undying love of jazz music. He hosted a Peabody Award-winning radio show called Jazz at Lincoln Center every week. Ed Bradley continued his work on television and radio until two weeks before chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a form of cancer, took his life on November 9, 2006.

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FARAI CHIDEYA (1969– )

Farai Chideya is a media Renaissance woman, which means she has interests and expertise in numerous aspects of media. She has written novels, hosted her own radio show, and has distinguished herself as an expressive and insightful journalist. Chideya has made it her personal goal to change the way African Americans are perceived in journalism and the world as a whole. Chideya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. She was exposed to numerous cultures as a young girl. Her father was a businessman from 208


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Zimbabwe. Her mother was an American journalist and high school teacher. She and her parents traveled to Kenya and her father’s home country. Chideya’s parents divorced when she was still a young child. Her father moved back to Zimbabwe, and Chideya stayed with her mother in Baltimore. Chideya’s mother encouraged her to develop a fascination with politics and a thirst for education. She taught Chideya to read at the age of three. That love of reading would last a lifetime. It was a major influence on Chideya’s career decisions.



Chideya considered pursuing a career in medicine. Eventually, her interest in reading and writing drew her to journalism. While attending Harvard University, Chideya was offered an internship by Newsweek magazine. She brought a passion for government, social issues, music, and multiculturalism to the magazine. Soon Chideya was writing for other major magazines, such as Essence, Time, Spin, and Mademoiselle. During this time, she often focused on encouraging young African Americans to vote and get involved in politics. Her concerns about race inspired her first book. Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African-Americans (1995) criticized the “liberal” media for being inept in its portrayals of African Americans. Chideya used the book to expose numerous racial stereotypes she discovered in various newspapers. She argued that such journalism is often more the result of laziness than racism. In an effort to further reach a young audience, Chideya left her position at Newsweek in the mid-1990s for a job as an assignment editor at MTV News. There, she was not able to tackle the kinds of sophisticated news stories she wrote for Newsweek. However, MTV News provided her the opportunity to reach teenagers and college students and educate them about politics and music. Chideya enjoyed her experience at MTV News. Still, she aspired to cover more hard-hitting news stories. While working at MTV, Chideya made regular appearances on Inside Politics, a political discussion show on CNN. The program allowed her a means of debating the most pressing political issues of her day. Before long, CNN offered her a full-time position on Inside Politics. Chideya took advantage of her high-profile position by launching Pop+Politics in 1996. The Web site was one of the first blogs to focus on both politics and pop culture. It afforded Chideya a forum to discuss everything from hip hop to her own personal dating stories. Pop þPolitics won a MOBE IT Innovator Award in 2001. Chideya has also continued to publish nonfiction books. Her books include The Color of the Future (1999) and Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters (2004). In 2009, Chideya published her first fictional novel, Kiss the Sky, proving once again that she is adept (highly skilled) at working in all forms of media. African American Eras

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Soul Train creator and host Don Cornelius in 2003. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

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DON CORNELIUS (1936– )

When the dance show Soul Train first aired in 1971, music made by African American artists reached a wider audience than it ever had before. Every Saturday, viewers would tune in to watch a crowd of young people dancing along to the latest soul, disco, and rhythm and blues records. The deep-voiced, well-dressed man who hosted Soul Train from the year it debuted until 1993 was also its creator: Don Cornelius. Cornelius grew up on the south side of Chicago. As a child, Cornelius displayed a flair (an instinctive ability or talent) for art. He later studied art as a student at DuSable High School. Following a tour in the U.S. Marines Corps, Cornelius wanted to attend college, but he had little money and a new family to support. He resigned himself to working as a salesman. Cornelius earned a decent living selling cars and insurance. Still, he longed to explore his creative side. Cornelius received much attention for his rich voice, so in 1966 he decided to spend four hundred dollars on a broadcasting class. That very same year he landed his first job on the radio. He worked as an announcer for the Chicago-based station WVON. The pay did not compare to what he earned as a salesman, but the work was infinitely more satisfying. At the station, Cornelius did a little bit of everything. He read the news, substituted for disc jockeys, read advertisements, and hosted talk shows. Cornelius was grateful to be working in radio. His schedule was tiring because it constantly changed, and he often had to work late-night shifts. So, when his boss at WVON left the station to take a position at a small local television station called WCIU-TV, Cornelius followed. At WCIUTV, he created a program based on Dick Clark’s long-running American Bandstand, a show that featured teenagers dancing to the latest pop hits. Cornelius’s program focused on music made by African American artists. It primarily featured African American dancers. Soul Train debuted on August 17, 1970. Cornelius produced, hosted, and even sold advertising for the show. At first, it was very difficult to convince major companies to purchase commercial time on a program directed at African Americans. However, the show’s high

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Famous Musical Acts Who Appeared on Soul Train ................................................................................... • • • • • •

Gladys Knight and the Pips The Four Tops Al Green Lou Rawls Tina Turner B.B. King

ratings eventually tempted major companies like Sears and Coca-Cola to buy advertising time on Soul Train. The local success of Soul Train inspired Cornelius to bring his program to a wider audience. Cornelius struck a deal with the African-American-owned Johnson Products Company to sponsor the program. As a result, Soul Train could be watched in living rooms across the country beginning October 2, 1971. Soul Train attracted an impressive array of musical acts. It became even more popular than American Bandstand, the show that inspired it. By 1974, Soul Train was aired on ninety-five stations across the country. As the ever-popular host of his program, Cornelius became a nationally recognized celebrity. In 1982, Cornelius experienced a life-threatening setback when he was hospitalized after suffering a brain hemorrhage (a large, rapid loss of blood from blood vessels in his brain). He took six months to recover from the operation to stop the bleeding. As soon as he was well enough, he was back on the show he loved. By 1992, Soul Train had become the longest-running music program in the history of syndicated television. The following year, Cornelius hosted his final episode of Soul Train. He sold the program to MadVision Entertainment in 2008.

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BILL COSBY (1937– )

For more than four decades, Bill Cosby has been one of the most beloved entertainers in America. His comic observations on family have fueled his stand-up comedy act, numerous comedy albums, much of his writing, and his tremendously popular sitcom The Cosby Show that ran from 1984 to 1992. Bill Cosby grew up in an all-black housing project in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, he spent hours listening to the comedic radio shows of Jack Benny (1894–1974), Jimmy Durante (1893–1980), and Burns & African American Eras

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Allen. Inspired by his heroes, he strove to become a funny man himself. When he was not performing comedy routines for his classmates and teachers, Cosby played a variety of sports. Although he was quite intelligent, his athletic activities often got in the way of his studies. As a result, he was faced with the prospect of having to repeat the tenth grade. Instead, he decided to drop out of school and join the Navy. Cosby soon realized he had made a mistake in ending his education prematurely (earlier than scheduled). So, he planned to earn his diploma through correspondence classes while still in the Navy. In 1961, he won a scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia. At Temple, he studied physical education. While attending the university, he earned pocket money by tending bar and performing comedy shows at a coffeehouse. The money was not great. However, the thrill of making an audience laugh was enough to convince Cosby that he had a future in comedy. Actor and comedian Bill Cosby. George De Sota/ Newsmakers/Getty Images

Every night on stage, Cosby perfected his funny stories, silly faces, and crazy characters. The Gaslight, a café in Greenwich Village, New York City, offered him a room and sixty dollars per week to perform his standup routine. During his time at the Gaslight, he was signed to a contract by the William Morris Agency. The deal resulted in Cosby’s comedy albums, national standup tours, and an appearance on the popular talk show The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Cosby’s appearance on The Tonight Show led to him being cast in a weekly one-hour drama series called I Spy. Cosby became the first African American actor to star in a television drama. He won three Emmy Awards for his work as the tough but witty CIA agent Alex Scott during the show’s run from 1965 to 1968. Cosby was on more familiar comedic ground when he starred in his first television comedy in 1969. The Bill Cosby Show found him playing a physical education teacher in a poor Los Angeles neighborhood. Unfortunately, The Bill Cosby Show was not the hit that I Spy had been. The show only lasted two seasons. Cosby next found a more unusual outlet for his comedic talents. In 1972, he created and hosted a Saturday morning cartoon called Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. The show was based on Cosby’s own boyhood friends. Each episode conveyed an educational message to its young viewers. Meanwhile, Cosby

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continued to pursue his own education. He earned two degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 1977, he received a doctorate of education. His dissertation (a very long paper that a student must write to earn a doctoral degree) was about his own Fat Albert program.



Bill Cosby had enjoyed great popularity ever since he starred in I Spy. However, he would achieve superstardom during the 1980s as a result of a sitcom called The Cosby Show. When the program debuted in 1984, the television network NBC had been suffering from poor ratings. The halfhour sitcom format was growing stale. The Cosby Show brought new life to both NBC and the sitcom format. The show starred Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. It also starred Phylicia Rashad (1948– ) as his wife Clair, a lawyer. The Cosby Show became the number-one television show from 1985 to 1989. It was also notable as the first television program to focus on a professional African American couple. It was hailed as a major break from the stereotypes that were usually presented on television. While continuing work on his show, Cosby penned a series of bestselling humor books. The books focused on marriage and parenting, including Fatherhood (1986) and Time Flies (1987). Meanwhile, The Cosby Show remained incredibly popular until it ended its decade-long run in 1992. Bill Cosby attempted to return to television several times after the end of The Cosby Show, but he never again matched its success. In 1997, Cosby suffered his greatest personal tragedy. That year, his son Ennis was robbed and murdered while fixing a flat tire on a Los Angeles highway. In the wake of his son’s death, Cosby started the Hello Friend/ Ennis William Cosby Foundation. The foundation promotes the detection and treatment of dyslexia, a condition from which Ennis had suffered. Bill Cosby remained active. He wrote the Little Bill series of books about children with learning disabilities. He also created a Little Bill animated series for Nickelodeon. In 2004, Cosby stirred up a storm of controversy when he blamed the problems of African Americans on African Americans themselves. He accused many African Americans of choosing violence over education and failing as parents. His speech inspired critics and supporters alike. Bill Cosby likely will continue to be a forceful public figure for many more years to come.

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EARL G. GRAVES SR. (1935– )

Earl G. Graves Sr. is one of America’s premier entrepreneurs. He is a respected writer, humanitarian, and businessman. He is also the founder and publisher of Black Enterprise magazine. African American Eras

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Graves was born in Brooklyn, New York. Graves looked up to his father as a boy. The elder Graves, who came from a poor background, valued education greatly. He had been the only African American in his high school graduating class. Following in his father’s footsteps, the younger Graves was one of only two African Americans to graduate in his class. The Graves children were raised to be ambitious and business-minded. Earl was hard-working, focused, and goal-oriented. After high school, he attended Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned excellent grades and enthusiastically participated in school activities, including a number of campus businesses.

Publisher Earl G. Graves in 1983. Bachrach/Getty Images

After graduating from college with a degree in economics, Graves enlisted in the U.S. Army. In the army, his achievements were just as impressive as they had been at school. He achieved the rank of captain in the Green Berets. Later, he worked for the U.S. Treasury Department as a narcotics agent. He then returned to Brooklyn. Back home, he bought and sold real estate until an extraordinary opportunity arose in 1966. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68) hired Graves to work on his staff as an administrative assistant. Graves organized and supervised events for Kennedy until the senator’s tragic assassination in 1968. Graves was devastated by the death of his mentor. However, he was also inspired by Kennedy’s “never give up” attitude. Later that year, he established Earl G. Graves Associates. His new company consulted with corporations regarding economic development and urban affairs. The company served a large number of clients. By all standards, it was a tremendous success. In the late 1960s, Graves took a trip to Fayette, Mississippi, to work on Charles Evers’s mayoral campaign. The trip inspired Graves to contribute much of his own money to the improvement of Fayette’s African American community. At the time, African American economic development was becoming a major social issue. Graves decided to provide a resource for those who wanted to get involved. In 1970, he started Black Enterprise, the first business magazine for African Americans. The magazine provided business advice and profiled leaders in the African American business community. By the tenth issue of Black Enterprise, Graves had made back his investment in the magazine. He was already turning a profit.

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Near the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Black Enterprise had 4.3 million readers. The Web site Black Enterprise.com attracted 450,000 visitors per month. The Earl G. Graves Publishing Company has become a true family business. Graves’s wife, Barbara, is vice-president of the publishing company. Their son Earl Jr. is the company’s president and chief executive officer (CEO). Their son John leads Black Enterprise Unlimited. Along with his numerous business ventures, Graves Sr. continues to give back to communities around the world. He volunteered on the board of TransAfrica Forum, a nonprofit organization focused on improving human rights and economic conditions in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Graves contributed one million dollars to the business school at Morgan State University. The university in turn honored him in 1995 by renaming the school the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management.

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GWEN IFILL (1955– )

Gwen Ifill is one of the most respected political moderators working in the early 2000s. As the first African American woman to moderate a political talk show, she is also a media pioneer. Ifill was one of five children. Her father was an African Methodist Episcopal minister. He raised her and her siblings to respect their religious background and to be aware of current events. When Gwen was growing up, her father’s position in the church required the family to move around constantly throughout New England and the East Coast. The church and her family were the only two constants in young Gwen Ifill’s life.

Political moderator Gwen Ifill in 2007. Alex Wong/ Getty Images for Meet the Press

No matter where the family was living, her father made sure they tuned in to a television program called The Huntley-Brinkley Report every night. The Huntley-Brinkley Report kept the Ifills informed about the main news stories of the day. Gwen Ifill developed a keen interest in current events. She went on to study communications at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 1977. She pursued a career in journalism as soon as she graduated. Ifill’s first job was an internship at the Boston Herald. Although she had ambitions of covering major news stories, the only available position was food writer. The Herald gave Ifill a full-time African American Eras

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position to apologize after a co-worker left a racist note on her desk. However, she did not remain at the paper for long. In 1981, she moved on to the Baltimore Evening Sun. Shortly afterward, she was offered the opportunity to appear on a news program for PBS called Maryland Newswrap. Ifill was an onscreen natural. She displayed both a sharp eye for important stories and a lucid (clear and easy to understand) manner of explaining them to her audience. Three years after taking her position at the Baltimore Evening Sun, Ifill went to work for the Washington Post newspaper. She moved up the ranks rapidly at the Post. By 1988, she was covering the presidential campaign. Three years later, she was working as a reporter for the New York Times. She covered the White House and also spent more time on television as a panelist on the news program Washington Week. Ifill’s skill and presence on the show resulted in job offers from all three major television networks. She finally took a job at NBC News. There, she continued to cover the White House. However, she missed the action and personal interaction of print journalism. Luckily for Ifill, PBS soon made a twin offer she could not refuse. PBS wanted to give her a position as a reporter and her very own television program. Gwen Ifill debuted as host of Washington Week in Review in 1999. As the first African American and the first woman to host such a program, she became a welcome role model for others interested in pursuing journalism as a career. She broke further ground in 2004 when she became the first African American woman to moderate a vice-presidential debate. She performed that task again in 2008. In 2009, she published her first book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. The book was published on the day Barack Obama (1961– ) was sworn in as president. The book commemorated the political achievements of other groundbreaking African Americans like herself.

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TOM JOYNER (1949– )

Since 1994, radio listeners across America have started their days laughing along with Tom Joyner. On the nationally-syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, he plays music, presents the news, and performs his special brand of humor. Tom Joyner was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. He was a creative young man who enjoyed performing. While going to school at the Tuskegee Institute, Joyner and classmate Lionel Richie (1949– ) formed a singing group called the Commodores. Richie and the group would go on to international fame, but Joyner left before they achieved stardom. He later joked that leaving the Commodores was his greatest mistake, but Joyner would be no stranger to fame and success. 216


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Joyner’s relationship with radio began when he attended a protest against the only radio station in Tuskegee. The station refused to play records by African American artists. After the protest proved successful, Joyner took a volunteer position at the station. He had no previous experience in radio. Nonetheless, he soon developed a genuine love for it. He took an on-air job at his school’s radio station to help pay his tuition. He also continued his unpaid position at the local station. Joyner spent the 1970s working at radio stations across the South. He collected valuable experience and developed his broadcasting skills. He finally ended up in Chicago in the early 1980s. In Chicago, he found work at several local stations. When KDKA in Dallas, Texas, offered him his own morning radio show in 1983, he returned to the South. Two years later, WGCI, a former employer in Chicago, asked him to return to take on an afternoon program. Unable to turn down a good deal, Joyner accepted the second job while keeping his position in Dallas. Every day he would perform his morning job in Dallas, fly to Chicago for his afternoon show, and then fly back to Dallas to spend the evening with his family. Joyner’s exhausting schedule earned him the nicknames “The Hardest Working Man in Radio” and “The Fly Jock.” Joyner continued his demanding commute for eight years. During that time, both his morning show and his afternoon show were number-one in their respective markets.

Radio personality Tom Joyner in 2008. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

In 1993, an offer from ABC Radio Networks finally brought an end to Joyner’s commute. Having his own syndicated show would allow him to broadcast from a single location. What’s more, it would give him the opportunity to reach more listeners than ever before. The Tom Joyner Morning Show debuted in January 1994. On the show, Joyner played music, conducted interviews with celebrities, performed comedy routines, broadcasted news, and played host to a live band. By the end of the decade, The Tom Joyner Morning Show was airing on almost one hundred stations and attracting eight million listeners per day. Joyner knew that his ability to speak to such a large number of people was a valuable power. He used his position to benefit the African American community. He began the Tom Joyner Foundation in 1996. The African American Eras

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foundation contributes to African American universities. He also partnered with other established organizations, such as the United Negro College Fund and the NAACP, to further benefit society. In 2005, Joyner published his book, I’m Just a DJ but . . . It Makes Sense to Me. The book chronicled his rise to success. That same year he hosted a one-hour comedy variety program called The Tom Joyner Show. The show aired for a single season in syndication. Meanwhile, he continues to host his wildly successful radio program and to work with various charity organizations.

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SPIKE LEE (1957– )

If there is one filmmaker who could be credited with completely revolutionizing the face of African American cinema, that filmmaker is Spike Lee. From independent favorites like She’s Gotta Have It to breakthroughs like Do the Right Thing to epics like Malcolm X, Lee has created works that are thought-provoking, energetic, and controversial. Film director Spike Lee in 1998. Touchstone/The Kobal Collection/Clairborne, Barron

Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the son of an art teacher and a jazz musician. When he was two years old, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Lee’s parents emphasized the importance of racial pride. They also emphasized art, music, and humor. All of these elements would influence the films Lee would make as an adult. Spike Lee first took an interest in film while attending Morehouse College in Atlanta. After graduating from Morehouse in 1979, he attended the New York University (NYU) Graduate Film School. Lee was already stirring up controversy during his graduate school days. He wrote a short screenplay titled The Answer. The script focused on an African American rewriting of The Birth of a Nation, a silent movie famed as much for its pioneering film techniques as for its extreme racism. The script nearly got Lee kicked out of school, but he was able to complete his studies at NYU. He even won a Student Academy Award for a short film about a Brooklyn barber shop. Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barber Shop: We Cut Heads went on to film festival screenings, but it failed to get Lee work on a feature film.

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Eventually, Lee scored a 20,000-dollar grant from the American Film Institute in 1984. Although the amount of money was not enough to produce Messenger, a script he had written about a New York bike messenger, Lee believed it was enough to begin work on another one of his screenplays. She’s Gotta Have It (1986) is the story of Nola Darling, an independent young woman choosing between romance and freedom. The American Film Institute was not willing to back the new film, as it was still too costly. So Lee and a small group of backers worked hard to raise the 175,000 dollars needed to make the movie. She’s Gotta Have It was filmed in just twelve days with Lee himself playing one of Nola’s potential boyfriends.



She’s Gotta Have It was widely praised for its fresh portrayal of urban African Americans. It won an award at the Cannes Film Festival. It also earned Lee a contract to make two more films. He followed She’s Gotta Have It with School Daze (1988), a vibrant musical about rival gangs at a fictional college. School Daze was another hit on the independent circuit. Lee’s true breakthrough arrived in 1989 with Do the Right Thing. Films had been made about racism before, but none approached the subject quite like Do the Right Thing. Lee’s story of pizza deliverer Mookie (played by Lee), his white employer Sal, Sal’s racist son, and a host of other characters in the Bed-Stuy (Bedford-Stuyvesant) area of Brooklyn offered no easy solutions to racial issues. The film ends with conflicting quotes about violence from two slain African American leaders: Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) and Malcolm X (1925–65). Do the Right Thing is a complex, mature film that deals with sensitive issues. It is also funny, brilliantly entertaining, and bursting with music. It became a huge box office hit. It has since been hailed as one of the greatest American movies in film history by the American Film Institute, the very foundation that decided not to fund She’s Gotta Have It. With the success of Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee became one of cinema’s most celebrated and debated filmmakers. He continued to make challenging films, including Mo’ Better Blues (1990) and Jungle Fever (1991). In 1992, Lee made Malcolm X, a nearly three-and-one-half-hour biography about the assassinated African American activist Malcolm X. Actor Denzel Washington (1954– ) received an Academy Award nomination for portraying the title role. Lee worked with Washington again in 2006 on the feature film Inside Man in which Washington played a hostage negotiator trying to secure the release of fifty hostages taken prisoner by bank robbers. In the twenty-first century, Spike Lee produced more television work than feature films. Most notably, his 2006 television documentary When African American Eras

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the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, earned him three Emmy Awards. The documentary, first aired on HBO, explores the devastation and loss caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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Newspaper owner and editor Robert C. Maynard in 1983. Christopher Springmann/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

ROBERT C. MAYNARD (1937–1993)

Journalist Robert Clyve Maynard was a passionate writer, publisher, and humanitarian. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were immigrants from Barbados. His father, Samuel Maynard, was a preacher and a businessman. He owned a trucking company. Robert Maynard would eventually become a businessman himself as an adult, but he spent his childhood infatuated with writing. Young Maynard would cut classes from Boys’ High School to hang around a local African American-owned newspaper called New York Age. At the age of sixteen, he dropped out of high school to write for the paper. During his time at New York Age, Maynard developed his writing craft. He also received encouragement from such major African American writers as Langston Hughes (1902–67) and James Baldwin (1924–87). He received less encouragement when he went looking for a full-time job. Maynard was repeatedly refused work because of his race. He finally landed a position writing about police and urban affairs at the York Gazette and Daily, a Pennsylvania-based paper, in 1961. A series of pieces he wrote about the southern civil rights movement earned him a fellowship from Harvard University. In 1967, Maynard made history as the first African American national correspondent to write for the Washington Post. At the Post, he covered pressing news items such as racial unrest and the Watergate scandal involving President Richard Nixon (1913–94). Maynard split his time between reporting at the Washington Post and working as a senior editor for a monthly magazine called Encore. In 1974, the Post made Maynard an associate editor. He remained at the paper for the following decade. In 1977, Maynard and his wife, Nancy, founded the Institute for Journalism Education

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at the University of California. Since its founding, the organization has placed more nonwhite journalists in jobs than any other organization in America. Two years later, Maynard took a job as the editor of the Oakland Tribune, making him the first African American director of editorial operations for a major daily newspaper. Maynard took advantage of his position by hiring a number of nonwhite journalists. He also hired an openly gay writer. Maynard bought the Oakland Tribune in 1983. He thus became the first African American to own a major newspaper.



Maynard juggled his multiple roles as president, publisher, and editor of the Oakland Tribune for nearly ten years. In 1992, he decided to sell the paper. He continued his work with the Institute for Journalism Education. He also composed his autobiography, Letters to My Children. The book was published in 1995, two years after he died from prostate cancer. Today, the institute he helped found has been renamed the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in his honor.

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Radio host Michele Norris in 2008. Alex Wong/Getty

MICHELE NORRIS (1961– )

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Multi-media journalist Michele Norris is best known as the host of the evening news show All Things Considered on National Public Radio. She has also distinguished herself in print and on television. Norris was born to Belvin and Elizabeth Norris in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her parents stressed the importance of watching the evening news and reading newspapers. Their encouragement created a lifelong fascination in their daughter. Norris majored in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for three years. She eventually returned to her home state to study at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communications. During her time at the school, she wrote for the Minnesota Daily and earned the distinction of minority scholar. In 1985, she received her journalism degree. Following graduation, Norris found work at the Chicago Tribune. The job led to further work with major papers, such as the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. At the Post, African American Eras

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Norris wrote a powerful story detailing the life of Dooney Waters. Waters was the six-year-old son of a crack-addicted mother. The story won Norris the Livingston Award—an honor given to journalists under the age of thirty-five—in 1990. Four years later, it was reprinted in the book Ourselves Among Others: Cross-Cultural Readings for Writers. In 1993, Norris made her television debut on ABC News. She was a correspondent on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. As a correspondent, she tackled issue-oriented stories about poverty, education, and the drug problem. Norris worked on ABC News for nine years. She won a Peabody Award for her coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She also won an Emmy Award in 2002, her final year on the program. Following her run with ABC News, Norris further expanded her experience by taking a job in radio. All Things Considered is the longest running news program on National Public Radio. Norris became host of the program on December 9, 2002.

Television executive producer Shonda Rhimes in 2007. Frederick M. Brown/ Getty Images

Norris is highly regarded for her perceptive and insightful understanding of social issues. She has been nominated for the esteemed Pulitzer Prize four times. She has also been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists and Ebony magazine. In 2006, she received the University of Minnesota’s Outstanding Achievement Award.

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SHONDA RHIMES (1970– )

Award-winning television and film writer Shonda Rhimes is the creator of the popular nighttime drama Grey’s Anatomy. The show has aired on ABC since Rhimes was thirty-five years old. However, she has been creating stories since she was a four-year-old girl living in Chicago. Young Rhimes spent hours telling her stories to a tape recorder. When she was finished, she would pass along the tape she had made to her mother. Her mother would write the stories down for her creative daughter. When Rhimes was in high school, she volunteered at a local hospital, where she worked as a “candy striper.” The nickname “candy striper” comes from the red-and-white striped uniforms, 222


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which resembled peppermints, that female volunteers used to wear. Rhimes loved listening to the stories of the patients with whom she worked. The concept of a hospital as a place where tales unfold would play a major role in Rhimes’s adult life.



Toward the end of the 1980s, Rhimes enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She indulged her passion for reading and writing as an English major. After graduating in 1991, she dreamed of a creative writing job. Her parents, however, encouraged her to take a more “practical” position. On her parents’ advice, Rhimes briefly worked as an advertising copywriter in San Francisco, California. She hated writing commercials, so she decided to further her education at the University of California School of Cinema-Television. Rhimes graduated with a master’s degree in 1994. Two years later she sold a script to Disney. Unfortunately, the script was never produced. In 1998, she managed to get Blossoms and Veils, a romance starring Jada Pinkett Smith (1971– ) and Omar Epps (1973– ), produced, but it was not very successful. Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), a film for HBO television, was a different story. The film was about an African American actress from the mid-twentieth century, and it was a critical hit. Rhimes won the NAACP Image Award for outstanding television movie for her script. The success of Introducing Dorothy Dandridge led to more work. Rhimes wrote a movie script for pop singer Britney Spears (1981– ) called Crossroads (2002). She also wrote the sequel to the popular Princess Diaries movie, which came out in 2004. During this time, Rhimes realized she also had ambitions of motherhood. In 2002, she adopted a baby girl. She named the girl after Harper Lee (1926– ), the author of the famous book To Kill a Mockingbird. After she would put Harper to bed in the evening, Rhimes enjoyed curling up in front of her television. She developed an appreciation for the stories that could unfold gradually on television because, unlike movies, they were free of the limitations of a two-hour running time. She also noticed that there were few substantial roles for female and nonwhite actors on TV. Rhimes was inspired to begin developing Grey’s Anatomy. Grey’s Anatomy recalls Rhimes’s teenage years as a hospital worker. The program is set at Seattle Grace Memorial Hospital. It focuses on the personal and professional lives of the doctors there. ABC purchased Grey’s Anatomy in 2005. It quickly became one of the network’s biggest hits. It won acclaim for its multicultural cast. It also won multiple awards. Rhimes next created Private Practice, a spin-off of Grey’s Anatomy that debuted in 2007. She also signed a deal with Disney to develop more feature films. African American Eras

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Anchorman Bernard Shaw in 2002. Mark Mainz/Getty

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BERNARD SHAW (1940– )

As an anchor on CNN for twenty years, Bernard Shaw made sure that his personal views never slanted the news stories he reported. Shaw’s unemotional and impersonal manner made him one of the most widely recognized journalists on television. Despite his cool personality, Shaw had a passion for the news ever since he was a boy growing up in Chicago. As a teenager, he would trek to a bookstore near the University of Chicago to hunt down the Sunday edition of the New York Times. He would then take a seat in a local coffee shop and read the sizable paper from cover to cover. Shaw’s fascination with the news led to local opportunities. He was allowed to make informative announcements over the loudspeaker at his high school. He also took part in radio shows. Many of his peers were watching the sitcoms and game shows popular in the 1950s, but Shaw favored news-oriented television programs. In 1961, Shaw met famed TV journalist Walter Cronkite (1916–2009). He so impressed the elder newsman that Cronkite helped him get a job on CBS ten years later. Shaw spent the ten years prior to his position on CBS sharpening his journalistic skills. He took jobs at an all-news Chicago radio station and as an anchor and reporter for the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. In 1971, he began working as a reporter for the Washington bureau of CBS News. Shaw’s desire to explore the world outside of Washington, D.C., led him to accept a job offer from ABC News as the Latin American correspondent. It was not as high-profile as his position at CBS, but Shaw knew it would be an opportunity to gain experience. From 1977 to 1979, he covered major international news stories such as the bizarre mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, and the civil war brewing in Nicaragua. Shaw’s ability to present edgy stories with his trademark professional composure led to a position covering the tense hostage crisis at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, in 1979.

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Breaking the Story of the Gulf War ...................................................................................

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n 1991, Bernard Shaw was in Baghdad waiting to interview the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. While he was waiting, the United States began the bombing attacks that would spark the Gulf War. Shaw was one of the very first journalists to report on the war from its center. His harrowing experiences in Iraq elevated him to star status by the time he returned to the United States. He never allowed any of the attention to go to his head. He remained as professional and composed as ever.

would be a success, but the idea sparked his curiosity and interest. He decided to take a gamble on his career and accepted the job. He would stay in that job for twenty years. In 1988, Shaw moderated the second presidential debate between George H. W. Bush (1924– ) and Michael Dukakis (1933– ). He was stern with the audience and tough with the presidential candidates. In 1991, he broke the story of the U.S. bombing attacks that would spark the Gulf War, one of the biggest news stories of the decade. In 2000, Bernard Shaw announced that he would be bringing his long career as a television news journalist to an end. He still planned to take the occasional assignment, but he wanted to focus more on writing and spend more time with his family. Shaw made his final broadcast as the top anchor on CNN on February 28, 2001.

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TAVIS SMILEY (1964– )

Tavis Smiley has taken his political and social commentary to television, radio, and print. He is particularly concerned with issues affecting his fellow African Americans. Smiley has been an inspiring force in the media. Tavis Smiley was one of ten children. The Smiley family was poor. Even so, their father was a hard worker who always provided for his wife and children. When Smiley was thirteen, he saw a campaign speech by Senator Birch Bayh (1928– ) that inspired him to pursue a political path. Impressed by the influence Bayh had on his audience, Smiley ran for class president and won. As a student at Indiana University, he continued his work in student government. He also excelled on the debate team. Later African American Eras

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he took an internship working for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley (1917–98). At this point in his life, Smiley had ambitions of becoming a politician rather than reporting on politics. He ran for city council in Los Angeles in 1991. He lost the election but was not discouraged. He planned to run again in the next election. In the meantime, Smiley was determined to remain in the public spotlight. He started his own radio program called The Smiley Report as a means of speaking about political and social issues to potential voters. Each episode was only one minute long. The show became so popular that it was soon syndicated throughout America, which means it was broadcast simultaneously by many radio stations. In 1993, Smiley collected some of his favorite commentaries in a book titled Just a Thought: The Smiley Report.

Talk show host Tavis Smiley in 2007. Alex Wong/ Getty Images for Meet the Press

In 1996, Smiley published his second book. Hard Left: Straight Talk About the Wrongs of the Right was a strong criticism of political conservatives and an argument in favor of liberalism that won wide critical praise. That same year, he began contributing radio commentaries to The Tom Joyner Morning Show. He also began hosting BET Tonight, a news program on Black Entertainment Television. Five years later, Smiley lost his job on BET after the channel was sold to Viacom. Viacom wanted to steer BET Tonight away from potentially controversial content. Smiley did not miss a beat. He seemed to be more present in the media than ever in 2001. He took jobs as a commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, and ABC News. He also published his next book, How to Make America Better. In 1999, Smiley launched a program called the Tavis Smiley Foundation that contributes to the development of leaders in the African American community. In 2004, The Tavis Smiley School of Communications and The Tavis Smiley Center for Professional Media Studies opened at Texas Southern University. Smiley had become the youngest African American to have a university’s professional school named after him. Toward the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Smiley hosted Tavis Smiley, a late night talk show on PBS television. He also hosted a radio show on Public Radio International and wrote articles for the online news source the Huffington Post. For his tireless work, Tavis Smiley has

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received the NAACP Image Award and the Du Bois Medal from Harvard University.



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WILL SMITH (1968– )

Ever since his song “Parents Just Don’t Understand” became a smash hit in 1988, Will Smith has been one of the most popular entertainers in America. Smith has conquered the music industry, television, and film. It seems there is nothing he cannot do. Will Smith grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a boy he played the piano and was learning to rap by the age of twelve. In 1981, he met Jeffrey Townes (1965– ) at a party. Townes shared Smith’s love of rap music. The two boys began working on an act together. In his role as record spinner, Townes took the name DJ Jazzy Jeff. Smith’s teachers had nicknamed him Prince (as in “Prince Charming”). So, Smith became the Fresh Prince. The duo released their first album Rock This House in 1987. Their breakthrough arrived the following year. He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper contained the big hits “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble,” and “Nightmare on My Street,” which was inspired by the popular 1984 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. The duo released the album at a time when rap lyrics often contained profanity and references to graphic sex and violence. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince made wholesome records that could be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Actor Will Smith in 2009. Florian Seefried/Getty Images

Now that he was a genuine music star, Will Smith turned his sights to television. NBC offered him his very own sitcom titled The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran from 1990 to 1996. The show starred Smith as a teen from the streets of Philadelphia who is sent to live with rich relatives in Bel-Air, California. Much like Smith’s records, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a hit. His sense of humor and charisma won him many new fans. The show won the best comedy series honor at the NAACP Awards in 1992. Smith would next try out his oversized personality on the big screen. In 1992, Smith made his feature film debut as Manny in Where the African American Eras

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Day Takes You. The following year he received critical praise for his daring portrayal of a gay street-kid in Six Degrees of Separation. Smith’s success in such small independent films led to starring roles in big-budget blockbusters like Independence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997). In 1997, he released his first solo record. Big Willie Style proved that Smith could deliver the goods on his own. The dance track “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” as well as the more personal “Just the Two of Us,” a tribute to his son, were ubiquitous (seemingly everywhere at the same time) on the radio. Big Willie Style sold eight million copies. Smith quickly returned to the studio to record its follow-up, Willennium, which was released in 1999. Will Smith’s ever increasing popularity allowed him to take more serious acting roles alongside parts in big action-adventure and science-fiction movies. He played legendary boxer Muhammad Ali in the 2001 film Ali. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. Smith has continued to star in films, including Hitch (2005) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). He has also maintained his music career. Will Smith is one of the most beloved and widely recognized entertainers in America.

Magazine editor Susan L. Taylor in 2009. Jemai

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SUSAN L. TAYLOR (1946– )

Ever since Essence magazine first hit newsstands in 1970, Susan L. Taylor’s main goal has been the emphasis of inner beauty as well as outer beauty. As the publisher of the first magazine specifically aimed at young African American women, she had an irreversible effect on contemporary culture. The child of Caribbean parents, Susan L. Taylor grew up in Harlem and Queens in New York City. A number of the women in the Taylor family had run businesses. Inspired by her heritage and encouraged by her businessminded parents, Taylor developed such ambitions as well. Early in her career, she took a job as a receptionist in Manhattan. At the same time, she was taking a typing class so she could increase her salary. Taylor continued to pursue a career even after she married at the age of twenty. She briefly tried her hand at acting, but she felt discouraged by the limited roles available to African American women. She next 228


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focused on starting her own line of cosmetics. Taylor attended cosmetology school while she was pregnant. She then took a job at the makeup counter in a department store. She took the job not only to earn money but also to learn more about what women wanted from their makeup. Taylor and her husband launched Nequai Cosmetics. The company was named after their daughter Shana-Nequai. The business was short-lived, however. Nequai Cosmetics failed as Taylor’s marriage fell apart.



Despite the challenges of being a single mother in her early twenties, Taylor never lost sight of her career goals. In 1971, she was hired as a freelance beauty writer at a new magazine called Essence. The magazine provided beauty advice and inspirational tips to African American women, targeting women aged eighteen to forty-nine. Before long, Taylor was promoted to beauty editor. Later, she was promoted again to fashion editor. In 1981, the editor-in-chief of Essence departed. Taylor recognized this as a great opportunity. She presented a fresh business plan for the magazine to its owner, Ed Lewis. Many people told Lewis he should not hand Essence over to an editor without a college degree, but he was impressed with Taylor’s abilities. Taylor got the job. With Susan Taylor at its helm, Essence attracted four hundred thousand new subscribers. To her credit, she has resisted pressure to cover scandalous topics. She has regularly emphasized the value of positive thinking. During the 1990s, she expanded her influence to television, hosting a program named after her magazine. Her first book, In the Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor, was published in 1993. Incredibly, Taylor was attending college courses while juggling her magazine, her television show, and her blooming book-writing career. She retired from Essence in 2008 after nineteen years as its editor-in-chief. Taylor devoted herself to the national CARES mentoring movement. The program is an African American community mentoring program she founded in 2006 as Essence Cares.

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DENZEL WASHINGTON (1954– )

Denzel Washington is one of the most critically acclaimed actors of his generation. He is known for selecting quality roles and playing them with trademark intensity and intelligence. Washington is a multiple award winner and was listed among America’s ten favorite actors by USA Weekend in 1998. Washington was born the son of a Pentecostal minister and a barbershop owner in Mount Vernon, New York. He grew up in an integrated African American Eras

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neighborhood near the Bronx. His parents encouraged him and his two siblings to be active in their community. Washington was a member of the Boys Club and the YMCA. After school, he worked in his mother’s barbershop and at a local dry cleaner. When Washington was fourteen, he began to develop behavioral problems. His parents’ divorce was devastating for him, and he responded by causing trouble. Washington’s mother sent him to Oakland Academy, a wealthy, primarily white private school in upstate New York, in an attempt to get him under control. Washington’s time at Oakland Academy instilled a renewed seriousness in him. While at the school he excelled at a number of sports and developed an interest in music. Washington enrolled at Fordham University in 1972. He studied pre-medicine, but his grades were not strong. After a single semester, he dropped out of Fordham. He worked various jobs, including postal worker, trash collector, and summer camp counselor. A successful onstage recitation at Camp Sloane led him to consider a career in acting.

Actor Denzel Washington in 2009. Michael Kappeler/ AFP/Getty Images

With new enthusiasm for his education, Washington reenrolled at Fordham. He switched his major to journalism and began participating in a theater workshop. At school, he starred in productions of The Emperor Jones and Othello. His stellar performances resulted in an offer to act in a television movie about track star Wilma Rudolph (1940–94) called Wilma. Washington made his onscreen debut while completing his degree in journalism and drama. Journalism soon fell by the wayside, and he settled on acting full-time. Washington next studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Praise for his performances in the plays Man and Superman and Moonchildren inspired him to leave the conservatory after a year and travel to Los Angeles to look for acting work. The move did not pay off with jobs, so Washington returned home to Mount Vernon. There, he reconnected with Wilma actress Pauletta Pearson. The two developed a relationship that resulted in marriage. Pauletta’s support kept him grounded during this unsuccessful stretch of his career. Just as Washington was about to begin a job teaching acting and sports to 230


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children, he was offered the role of African American activist Malcolm X in a play called When the Chickens Come Home to Roost. The play led to more acting work. It also would not be the last time Washington played Malcolm X.



In 1982, Washington won the Outer Circle’s Critic Award and the Obie Award for his performance in A Soldier’s Play. He also began getting supporting roles in feature films such as A Soldier’s Story (1984; based on the play in which he starred) and Power (1986). He also took on television work. A recurring role as Dr. Philip Chandler on the popular medical drama St. Elsewhere grew into a full-time job that would last until 1988. In 1987, his performance as South African activist Steve Biko (1946–77) in Cry Freedom scored him an NAACP Image Award and an Academy Award nomination. Two years later, he won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance as an American Civil War soldier in Glory. In 1990, Denzel Washington began one of the most successful professional relationships in his career when he starred in director Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues. Two years later, he and Lee collaborated again on a film about a man that was already quite familiar to Washington. Malcolm X was a vibrant, epic-length film about the assassinated activist. Washington delivered one of his most powerful performances as Malcolm X. He won a number of major awards and nominations for his work. He was now officially one of Hollywood’s most sought-after stars. Denzel Washington has continued to create consistently excellent work throughout his career. He has had the courage to turn down roles that do not represent African Americans well. Starring roles in Courage Under Fire (1996) and Spike Lee’s He Got Game (1998) brought him further acclaim. In 2002, Washington won his second Academy Award for his role in Training Day. He was only the second African American to win the Oscar for best actor. Washington continues to star in successful films. In 2006 he starred in Inside Man, a film directed by Spike Lee. In 2007, he teamed up with Academy Award–winner Russell Crowe (1964– ) in American Gangster. In addition to his work as a world-renowned actor, Denzel Washington works with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and has donated large sums of money to charitable organizations.


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A member of the Nation of Islam sells the group’s official newspaper, The Fi nal Call, on the streets of Chicago in 1995. ª Ralf Finn Hestoft/Corbis

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AFRICAN AMERICAN MEDIA CHALLENGED BY MODERN TIMES African American informational media faced considerable changes and challenges at the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twentyfirst century. A majority of challenges have been the result of diminishing audiences due to alternate sources of news and entertainment. A downturn in the U.S. economy from 2008 to 2009 also contributed to a decline in the number of black media sources in operation. Newspapers, for instance, have been hit particularly hard by Internet-provided news sources. Magazines, on the whole, have maintained a stronger readership than newspapers, in part because they are more entertainment-focused. A large portion of the market for African American media in the future will likely rely on the Internet as a source of information and entertainment. Black Newspapers Face Many Challenges Once-successful African American newspapers suffered from a loss of readership during the 1960s due to the civil rights movement. These included such papers as the Baltimore Afro-American and the Chicago Defender, which was the first black newspaper to have a mass readership. The civil rights marches of the 1960s were major news, but African American-owned newspapers did not have the resources to cover them as completely as whiteowned papers did. Black readers began looking to white-owned papers to learn about the civil rights movement that would become such an important part of their history.

In 1968, a government report criticized the white press for misleading the public about a series of urban riots. It said that this coverage, or media reporting, threatened to damage the public image of African Americans. The report was written by a commission established by President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73). It explained that the riots were the result of poor economic conditions for African Americans and white racism. Responding to the report by Johnson’s Kerner Commission, white newspapers began hiring black journalists in large numbers. African American journalists were hired in the hundreds during the 1970s. Roughly 232


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four thousand African American journalists worked for daily newspapers by the 1990s. The mass hiring of African American journalists by whiteowned papers led to the downfall of the black newspaper industry because there were fewer trained African American journalists available to work at black newspapers. Furthermore, the African American readership found itself better represented in mainstream newspapers that employed black journalists.



Despite the greater presence of African American journalists in the media, critics still recognized that the representation of blacks in mainstream newspapers was often negative and misinformed. There may have been more black writers, but they had little to no control over how their work was presented in the newspaper by white editors. This situation resulted in a number of reactions from the black journalism community. The National Association of Black Journalists was formed in 1975 to strengthen the black journalism community. The association worked to achieve a more realistic and less subjective (biased) portrayal of African Americans in the news. Another goal was to increase the number of jobs for black journalists. Four African American journalists successfully sued the New York Daily News for discrimination, or negative employment action based on prejudice, in 1987. The journalists charged that they did not receive salaries or work assignments comparable to those of white journalists employed by the paper. At least one African American, Robert C. Maynard (1937–93), achieved diversity in the newsroom by actually buying the newspaper company. He purchased the Oakland Tribune in 1983 and added many black journalists to its staff. Black journalists have certainly made headway in the newspaper industry since the 1960s. However, the relative lack of African Americanowned papers means that they continued not to have the voice in the news media that white journalists have. In spite of everything, black newspapers such as the Carolina Peacemaker, Ink Newspaper, the Baltimore AfroAmerican, and the Chicago Defender continued to publish. Furthermore, a number of black journalists, including Nancy Maynard (1937–2008), Gwen Ifill (1955– ), and Michele Norris (1961– ), came to be ranked among the top newspaper journalists in America. In the 2000s, black-owned newspapers have suffered a decrease in circulation as more people turn to the Internet for their news. The Black Press of America reported that the average weekly circulation of its papers in 2008 had decreased by half since 2000. Some daily newspapers have adopted a weekly schedule. Many African American newspapers, such as the Afro-American, St. Louis American, and Philadelphia Tribune, have begun to African American Eras

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dedicate more resources to online news databases. Some small newspapers got out of the print business completely and moved online.


Former Ebony and Jet magazine model Joanna LaShane poses with a cover of Ebony magazine in 2006. Ebony magazine became one of the premiere black magazines following its debut in 1945. ª Noak K. Murray/Star Ledger/Corbis

Black Magazines Hold Steady The modern history of black magazines can be mainly attributed to one man: John H. Johnson (1918–2005). Johnson founded the Johnson Publishing Company in 1945. His company premiered Ebony and Jet, two magazines that have remained enormously popular since they debuted in the late 1950s. In 1965, Johnson launched Black World. This was around the time that black newspapers were losing their readership as African Americans began seeking the coverage of issues such as the civil rights movement in white-owned newspapers. Black World drew some African American readers back to black media sources by reporting on current events and issues relevant specifically to the African American community.

The continuing success of John H. Johnson’s publishing empire inspired other African American entrepreneurs to launch their own magazines. Essence, the first magazine specifically marketed to African American women, debuted in 1968. The magazine featured articles about fashion and beauty along with news and entertainment stories. In 1970, Susan L. Taylor (1946– ) made history as the first black woman to become editor-in-chief of a major magazine when she took over Essence. Essence would eventually have a readership of more than 8 million readers. That same year, Earl G. Graves Sr. (1935– ) established Black Enterprise, the first magazine for African American businesspeople. Black Enterprise went on to reach 4.3 million readers. Graves next published American Legacy, a black history and culture magazine, which debuted in 1996. As of 2010 there were dozens of successful African American magazines, including about . . . time, Black Beat, and African Voices. In 2000, multimedia star Oprah Winfrey (1954– ) launched her own magazine. O, The Oprah Magazine covers a wide variety of topics, including fashion, books, fitness, food, business, and self-improvement. Oprah herself appears on the cover of every issue. (She had shared the cover only twice as of 2009: once with First Lady Michelle Obama and once with fellow talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres.) O, The Oprah Magazine is unique in the world of African American

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magazine publishing because it is geared towards all women, not just blacks. As of 2009, it had a readership of over 300,000.


Black magazines had fared much better than black newspapers in the early 2000s. In 2008, three of the four biggest African American magazines had a growth in circulation: Ebony, up 3 percent; Jet, up 2 percent; and Black Enterprise, also up 2 percent. These increases reflect the result of the magazines’ extensive coverage of Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency. RiseUp, a weekly national magazine dealing with racial issues, was introduced in June 2008 as an insert in mainstream newspapers. The magazine was targeted for readers of all ages but was printed for only a few months.


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Black Radio Shows Go Nationwide During the 1960s, the popularity of black soul and rhythm & blues music led to the creation of several “top forty” soul stations. Although these stations were white-owned, they did employ black DJs. However, the music these disc jockeys played was heavily controlled by the white station owners. DJs such as Sid McCoy, Herb Kent, Skipper Lee Frazier, and future funk legend Sly Stone found great success during the 1960s. They inspired their audiences in unexpected ways. Los Angeles DJ “Magnificent Montague” introduced hit records with the catch phrase “burn, baby, burn.” During the racially charged Watts rebellion of 1965, a large-scale uprising in Los Angeles, protesters adopted Montague’s words as a rallying cry. The previous year, former convict Ralph “Petey” Greene (1931–84) became a sensation as the host of the pioneering black talk show Rapping with Petey Greene. Ten years later, Greene starred in a television talk show of the same name. In 2007, he became the subject of the major motion picture Talk to Me.

Although black-oriented radio stations remained popular at the dawn of the 1970s, only sixteen of the three hundred such stations were owned by African Americans. Over the course of the decade, an increasing number of stations and networks were purchased by black owners. These networks were more news- and talk-oriented than most black stations had been. In 1972, the Mutual Black Network debuted. This network specifically targeted African Americans. It aired an hourly 5-minute newscast, as well as sports broadcasts and a 15-minute daily soap opera, Sounds of the City. The Mutual Black Network also produced programming that included African American history specials. The following year, the National Black Network was launched. It was the first network entirely under African American ownership to have a coast-to-coast audience. Like the Mutual Black Network, the National Black Network had 5-minute newscasts every hour African American Eras

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African American country blues singer Rufus Thomas, shown in 1973, became one of the first black DJs at a white radio station in the late 1940s. ª David Reed/Corbis

and sportscasts several times a day. It also aired an overnight talk show hosted by Bob Law, who would become a radio legend. In the mid-1970s, major music stars such as Stevie Wonder (1950– ) and James Brown (1933–2006) bought their own radio stations. The birth of the “urban contemporary” radio style in the early 1970s contributed to the growth of black radio. Frankie Crocker (1937–2000) of WBLS-FM switched the formerly jazz-oriented station to a pop-soul format that included white soul artists. He scored a number of new listeners. Several other stations followed Crocker’s urban contemporary lead, including WHUR-FM in Washington, D.C. In the 1980s, 88 out of 450 black-oriented stations were owned by African Americans. The decade saw the appearance of black sports shows and the increasing popularity of talk programs. The National Black Network was now drawing 4 million listeners per week. The Sheridan Broadcasting Network (formerly the Mutual Black Network) had 6.2 million listeners. Sheridan Broadcasting merged with the National Black Network in 1991 to form the American Urban Radio Networks (AURN). In the first decade of the twenty-first century AURN produced more urban programming than all other broadcasting companies—including television, cable, and national radio—combined. It was responsible for broadcasting more than three hundred shows every week, reaching about 25 million listeners. Despite the growth of major African American stations, smaller independent stations have been disappearing. In 1996, the Telecommunications Act allowed conglomerates, or large companies consisting of multiple 236


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America’s Most Important African American Talk Radio Hosts ...................................................................................

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ALKERS magazine is a publication that serves America’s talk media industries. Talk media includes broadcast talk radio and television, as well as cable news and talk television. It also refers to talk media delivered via satellite radio, the Internet, and podcasting. Each year, TALKERS publishes a list of the “250 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America.” It is a popular feature that reflects the diversity of the talk media industry. The 250 list includes what is known as the “Heavy Hundred,” or the top 100 on the list. In 2009, the following four African American hosts were selected to the Heavy Hundred: 12. Joe Madison (Sirius XM/WOL, Washington, D.C.) 36. Bev Smith (American Urban Radio Networks, nationally syndicated) 61. Lincoln Ware (WDBZ, Cincinnati) 86. Larry Young (WOLB, Baltimore)

sub-companies, to purchase as many stations as they wanted. Black independent stations were being bought up by largely white-owned conglomerates. Their African American-centered formats were lost. By 2009, black-owned radio was fighting to survive. The small networks and companies were not the only ones to struggle. As of 2008, Radio One, the largest blackowned broadcasting company, owned 53 stations in 16 urban markets. During the first three quarters of 2008, the company posted a net loss of 296.6 million dollars. It appears that the future of African American radio will depend on factors outside its control: the business decisions made by conglomerates. The Internet Creates New Opportunities The personal computer developed into the most widely used and important new technology in America during the 1990s. Despite the widespread use of the Internet in the 1990s, it did not have a major impact on certain cultural groups, including African Americans. The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a report titled Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the “Have Nots” in Rural and Urban America in July 1995. This report coined the term “digital divide” to describe the gap between white Internet users and lower-income African African American Eras

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Americans without Internet resources. The personal computer became increasingly common in white households and schools, but the cost of computers kept them out of the reach of many African Americans. Some local governments acquired computers for use in community centers in low-income neighborhoods and schools. A number of critics, though, felt that this effort still did not provide enough Internet access to African American users. There was also a lack of resources specifically targeted at African Americans on the Internet. However, sites targeted to African Americans began to appear by the late 1990s. These were inspired by journalists such as Alondra Nelson, Anna Everett, and Lisa Nakamura. These women had written of the importance of an increased multicultural presence on the Internet. In 1996, Farai Chideya (1969– ) unveiled PopþPolitics, one of the first political/popular culture blogs. The blog often focused on issues of African American interest. Today there are a number of African American-oriented Web sites, news sources, and search engines throughout the Internet. These include blackfacts.com, blackrefer.com, and everythingblack.com. The social networking site blackplanet.com drew seventeen million members as of 2007, when future president Barack Obama (1961– ) joined the site. Several organizations and for-profit companies have used their presence on the Internet to promote education and social causes in the African American community. These include the Black Women’s Health Network and Black Entertainment Television. In August 2009, Interactive One, LLC,

African Americans as a group lag behind whites in computer ownership and usage, a phenomenon known as the “digital divide.” ª Bill Bachmann/ Alamy

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the Digital Connection for Black America and the digital division of Radio One, Inc. launched BlackPlanet Rising (blackplanetrising.com). This site provides tools and information to connect African Americans with opportunities for volunteer service in their communities.



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STUDIOS TURN TO “BLAXPLOITATION” FILMS At the beginning of the 1960s, African Americans were beginning to experience greater acceptance in the American film industry. Two decades earlier, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) made a deal with several major studios. They wanted the studios to offer more jobs to African Americans. In the 1950s, black actors such as Sidney Poitier (1927– ), Harry Belafonte (1927– ), and Dorothy Dandridge (1922–65) were approaching stardom in Hollywood. Despite the success of such actors in major studio productions, black audiences craved films that focused on issues to which they could relate. They wanted movies featuring casts with more than one or two African American actors. The slow progress of African Americans in the film industry continued through the 1960s. During this time, new stars like Al Freeman Jr. (1934– ), Ossie Davis (1917–2005), Ruby Dee (1924– ), and James Earl Jones (1931– ) emerged. By the end of the 1960s, a financial crisis in Hollywood helped pave the way for an increased African American presence in film. Movies faced serious competition from television and foreign films. American films produced in Hollywood were selling fewer tickets at the box office in the late 1960s. Meanwhile, middle-class whites were relocating from cities to the suburbs. This left urban cinemas with more empty seats. African Americans made up 30 percent of movie audiences in cities, so it became clear to Hollywood that there might be a big demand for movies that catered to African American audiences.

Sweetback Starts a Trend In 1971, black director Melvin Van Peebles (1932– ) made a low-budget, experimental, and highly controversial film titled Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. The film starred the director as Sweetback, a black man who revolts against white society. It contained scenes of graphic violence and sex. One such scene involved Van Peebles’s thirteen-year-old son, Mario, who would grow up to be a successful actor and director himself. Sweetback became tremendously popular among young, male, urban African Americans, but it appealed less to white audiences. Furthermore, the emphasis on Sweetback’s sexual abilities and the film’s poor treatment of women were heavily criticized. Despite such comments, Van Peebles’s film earned ten million dollars over the course of its run. It had only cost five hundred African American Eras

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thousand dollars to make. Hollywood quickly looked to Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song as the kind of film black audiences wanted to see. With Sweetback, the era of blaxploitation was born. “Blaxploitation” is the name given to the types of movies directors made, starting in the 1970s, to appeal to black urban audiences. Most film critics argue that Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was too experimental to qualify as a true blaxploitation film. Whether the movie fit the label or not, its gritty depiction of inner-city street life became a standard feature of blaxploitation films. In the first half of the 1970s, blaxploitation films created even more parts for black actors. Nevertheless, the violent and highly sexual nature of these movies caused many critics to regard such films as a major step backward for the public image of black people. These films often showed African Americans as pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and gang members. Still, they did provide starting points for the successful non-blaxploitation careers of such actors and actresses as Richard Roundtree (1942– ), Fred Williamson (1938– ), and Pam Grier (1949– ). Shaft Sets the Standard Shaft (1971) is usually regarded as the first true blaxploitation film. It was co-directed by father-and-son team Gordon Parks Sr. (1912–2006) and Gordon Parks Jr. (1934–79). Race did not factor into the original concept of Shaft. The tough-but-charming detective John Shaft was written to be played by a white actor, but studio executives had the film rewritten to take

The 1971 movie Shaft is one of the best known of the blaxploitation movies. The Kobal Collection/The Picture Desk, Inc.

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advantage of the demand for black films, and Richard Roundree was cast in the role. John Shaft was now an African American determined to clean up his Harlem neighborhood. Both the film and its funky theme song became huge hits. Singer/songwriter/producer Isaac Hayes (1942–2008) won an Academy Award for “Theme from Shaft.” Two sequels followed: Shaft’s Big Score in 1972 and Shaft in Africa in 1973.



In 1972, Gordon Parks Jr. directed a film that was more controversial than Shaft had been. The main character in Super Fly is no civic-minded detective like John Shaft. Instead, Priest is a Harlem drug dealer who wants to leave his life of crime after completing one last big drug deal. Throughout the film, Priest’s lifestyle of crime is glamorized. The film was well written and well acted. Its soundtrack by soul legend Curtis Mayfield (1942–99) was hailed for its frank assessment of life in the urban ghettoes. After being released as a single, the film’s title song earned more money than the film itself. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine rated the Super Fly soundtrack as the sixty-ninth greatest album of all time. The Women of Blaxploitation While blaxploitation was launched as a genre, or category of movie, directed at young men, its success led to more substantial roles for African American women. In 1973, Tamara Dobson (1944–2006) and Pam Grier both starred in their own blaxploitation movies. Dobson played the title role in Cleopatra Jones (1973) as a secret agent bent on wiping out the drug trade. Grier starred in Coffy (1973) and would go on to become one of the most popular actresses in the genre. Like the blaxploitation films featuring male stars, the ones with female leads also raised debate. Some critics felt that characters like Cleopatra Jones and Coffy supported negative stereotypes, or prejudicial mental images, of black women. Others praised them for their portrayals of strong, independent women.

With the massive success of blaxploitation films came both a degree of expansion and a great number of limitations. On the one hand, films such as Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite (1975) expanded blaxploitation into comedy. Others, such as Blacula (1972) and Blackenstein (1973), became the first blaxploitation horror films. On the other hand, Hollywood pushed the stars of blaxploitation further away from the radical nature of the characters of Sweetback and Priest and more toward traditional ideals. Some critics claim that this was a deliberate move by Hollywood to belittle black empowerment. As critics further denounced the genre, studios basically stopped producing such films by the mid-1970s. They were able to do this in part because blaxploitation movies had helped Hollywood solve its financial problems, and in part because black actors began to play more prominent roles in big-budget Hollywood movies, which helped boost their appeal to black audiences. African American Eras

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BLACK MUSICIANS CROSS OVER TO FILM Throughout the history of cinema, a number of musicians have successfully made the jump from the concert stage to the big screen. In many cases, those musicians played themselves or some versions of themselves in pop musicals. Some examples are A Hard Day’s Night (1964), starring the Beatles, and Performance (1970), starring Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger (1943– ). In other cases, these musicians-turned-actors have displayed great acting ability in roles quite different from their musical personas, or characters. Calypso singer Harry Belafonte (1927– ) was one of the first African American musicians to achieve film stardom. The charisma, or magnetic charm, and expression seen in his music translated nicely to roles in films. Examples are the musical Carmen Jones (1954) and the serious drama Islands in the Sun (1957), in which Belafonte played an up-and-coming politician facing racism. Even in that film he briefly broke character to sing a song. During Belafonte’s time, few other African American musicians pursued film acting with great success. Diana Ross (1944– ), formerly of the pop-soul group the Supremes, was one of the few who managed to find substantial acting roles during the 1970s. Her daring role as troubled blues singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) won much critical praise. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film. She also starred in Mahogany (1975) as a poor woman who rises to success as a fashion designer. This movie received poor reviews compared to Lady Sings the Blues, but was a hit at the box office. Then, in 1978, a movie adaptation, or remake, of the Broadway musical The Wiz was made. The Wiz was based on The Wizard of Oz. The movie provided large roles for a number of popular African American singers, including Ross, Michael Jackson (1958–2009), and Lena Horne (1917– ). Although the film had limited success at the box office, it was nominated for four Academy Awards. Few quality roles for African American musicians emerged during the 1980s. Purple Rain (1984), the semi-autobiographical story of multitalented musician Prince, was tremendously successful. The movie’s popularity may have had more to do with the film’s spectacular, Oscarwinning soundtrack than it did with Prince’s acting or the quality of the script. His starring roles in Under the Cherry Moon (1986) and Graffiti Bridge (1990) (both of which he also directed) were far less popular. In the early 1990s, a number of rappers achieved a great degree of success as actors. With its emphasis on expressive spoken words, rap already had quite a bit in common with acting. On television, Will Smith (1968– ) of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince was on his way to stardom. He starred in the popular show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–96), and translated that success into one of the most successful careers in Hollywood. Smith has

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starred in numerous dramatic, action, and comedic roles in such hits as Independence Day (1996), Men in Black (1997), Ali (2001, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor), and I Am Legend (2007). During the 1990s, Kid ‘n Play were also bringing in moviegoers in House Party (1990). Their roles in that movie had originally been written for Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff. In 1991, rappers Ice-T (New Jack City) and Ice Cube (Boyz n the Hood) displayed great dramatic skill. Their roles in these movies were serious and demanding. Both of these men went on to have acting careers as successful as their musical ones. Suddenly, Hollywood viewed rappers as potential movie stars. The phenomenon of the rapper-turned-actor has continued consistently since the early 1990s. Mos Def (1973– ), Queen Latifah (1970– ), DMX, Bow Wow, and Ludacris are just a few of the rappers who have carved out thriving acting careers for themselves. Latifah was nominated for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role Academy Award for her performance in the musical Chicago (2002). Several soul singers have also found success in cinema. In 2006, former American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson (1981– ) won an Academy Award for her supporting role in Dreamgirls. Two years later, Hudson’s Dreamgirls co-star and Destiny’s Child lead singer Beyoncé Knowles (1981– ) received multiple award nominations and much critical praise for her portrayal of legendary singer Etta James in Cadillac Records (2008).



Jennifer Hudson (center) and Beyoncé Knowles (right), shown here in their roles for the 2006 movie Dreamgirls, are two African American singers who crossed over into acting. Dreamworks/The Kobal Collection

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BLACK COMEDIANS THRIVE IN FILM IN THE 1970S AND 1980S By the 1950s and 1960s, the popularity of African American comedians was on the rise. Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, and Jackie “Moms” Mabley (1894–1975) all made hit comedy records. Foxx and Cosby both had hits on television— Foxx with Sanford and Son (1972–77) and Cosby with the children’s show Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972–79). In 1970, Flip Wilson broke new ground as the first African American to host his own television comedy variety program. Black comedians did not have the same opportunities in film, however. Cosby’s first starring role was a dramatic one in Man and Boy in 1972. Later that year he starred in a crime action film titled Hickey & Boggs. Cosby’s first African American Eras

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Richard Pryor was known for his controversial stand up comedy act in the 1970s before he broke into movies as an actor. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

pure comedy role arrived in 1974 when he costarred with Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier (who also directed) in Uptown Saturday Night. Roles in such comedies as Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976) and The Devil and Max Devlin (1981) followed. None of Cosby’s film work was as commercially or artistically successful as his television and standup comedy work. Richard Pryor Breaks Barriers The first black comedian to have a major impact on the big screen was Richard Pryor (1940–2005). Perhaps the most important and innovative comedian of the 1970s, Pryor was a fearless performer. There was no subject too controversial for him, no taboo too untouchable. His unpredictability made him an exciting comedian. The personal nature of his act often made it quite moving. Pryor’s larger-than-life, yet completely human persona made him a natural for film. He had a few minor roles in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He also had larger parts in the 1973 blaxploitation films The Mack and Hit! Pryor made his first major impact in film not on screen but as a screenwriter. In 1974, he co-wrote a Western parody titled Blazing Saddles for famed funny filmmaker Mel Brooks (1926– ). Comedic actor Cleavon Little (1939–92) played the leading role of Black Bart. Like Pryor’s standup comedy routines, Blazing Saddles was filled with manic energy and edgy attacks on racism. In 2000, the American Film Institute named Blazing Saddles the sixth funniest American film ever made.

Pryor finally got his chance to make a splash as an actor on the big screen in 1976 when he starred in Silver Streak. He essentially played Gene Wilder’s (1933– ) sidekick in the film. Pryor’s comedic acting is one of the most memorable aspects of the film. The success of Silver Streak led to three more Pryor-Wilder pairings in Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991). His 1979 concert film Richard Pryor: Live in Concert has been described as the best of its genre. Sadly, Richard Pryor died after a long battle with multiple sclerosis in 2005. His final role was a cameo in David Lynch’s surreal thriller Lost Highway (1997). Although Pryor needed to use a wheelchair by that point in his life, he still displayed his comedic gifts in the film. 244


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Murphy Builds on Pryor’s Success Pryor enjoyed only occasional success in his various film roles, but a comedy star emerged in the 1980s who would be highly successful. Eddie Murphy (1961– ) first found fame as a cast member on the late-night comedy-sketch show Saturday Night Live. He was adored just as much for his original characters, such as inner-city dweller Mr. Robinson (a spoof of children’s show host Fred Rogers), as he was for impersonations of celebrities, including Stevie Wonder and James Brown. Murphy made his film debut in 1982 as Reggie Hammond in 48 Hours. This action-comedy became a smash success and made Murphy an instant movie star. The following year he had similar success in Trading Places, a satire about racism and Wall Street greed. Huge hits like Beverly Hills Cop (1987) and Coming to America (1988) followed. In 1989, Murphy directed his first film, Harlem Nights. The film co-starred Richard Pryor, but it was a commercial and critical disappointment. Murphy continued to make films in the twenty-first century, but none of them have been as successful as his hits from the 1980s.



In 1982, another African American comedian crossed over from the stage to the screen. Comedian Whoopi Goldberg (1955– ) starred in Citizen, but it was not quite the success that Murphy’s 48 Hours had been. She would have to wait a few more years to achieve stardom. As a standup comic, Goldberg became wildly popular for playing multiple characters in her insightful routines. Though she was a comedian, her first major film role was in Steven Spielberg’s drama The Color Purple (1985). In that movie, she starred as Celie, a girl growing up during the early 1900s who suffered problems with men. The role was not a showcase for Goldberg’s comedic talent, but it did earn her a nomination for an Academy Award for her dramatic work. Soon afterward, she was finally given the opportunity to star in comedies. Her first few efforts, including Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986) and Burglar (1987), were fairly unsuccessful. A comedic supporting role as a psychic in the otherwise serious romance Ghost (1990) scored Goldberg her first Academy Award. She never quite achieved the success in her film comedies that she did in her dramas and standup performances, with the exception of her one major comedy hit, Sister Act, in 1992. Goldberg continued to make films in the twenty-first century, and in 2007 became one of the hosts of the popular television program The View.

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A NEW GENERATION OF BLACK FILMMAKERS FINDS SUCCESS The opportunities for African American filmmakers that arose during the early 1970s came to a halt following the end of the blaxploitation era. The American film industry had used blaxploitation films (low-budget films featuring mainly black characters as well as violent and sexual African American Eras

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content) to help it recover from its financial crisis. Once the studios started making profits, they relied less on that particular type of movie. African American groups like the Coalition Against Blaxploitation and Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH (People United to Save/Serve Humanity) were devoted to battling the negative stereotypes shown in blaxploitation films and helped end their production. As a result, few black filmmakers emerged during the late 1970s and much of the 1980s. Then, in 1986, a determined young writer/director/actor named Spike Lee (1957– ) ushered in a new era of African American cinema. Spike Lee’s Success Opens Doors for Others Spike Lee had received some fame for his short film “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads” (1983). This success did not initially help him get financing to make a feature film. In 1986, he finally raised enough money to make his first feature. She’s Gotta Have It became an independent movie success. Independent movies are movies that are not produced by a major film studio. She’s Gotta Have It won an award at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The film portrayed an independent, intelligent, careerminded African American woman. The character was a refreshing change from some of the violent, sex-obsessed characters seen in blaxploitation films. Lee had another low-budget hit called School Daze (1988). After that, Lee made a huge splash with Do the Right Thing (1989). The movie had a vibrant energy, sharp comedy, and challenging racial politics. Do the Right Thing became one of the biggest hits of 1989, earning more than thirtyseven million dollars throughout the world. It also won numerous awards, and sparked serious debate about its themes. The film demonstrated that African American movies could tackle complex and serious issues. It also showed that a movie featuring African American characters and themes could be successful in the mainstream market.

African American filmmaker Warrington Hudlin (1952– ) proved this to be the case when he teamed with his brother Reginald to make the teen comedy House Party in 1990. Hudlin had first started in the movie business back in the 1970s when he created two short documentaries: Black at Yale (1974) and Streetcorner Stories (1977). Because few opportunities were available to African American filmmakers during that period, Hudlin’s career did not take off until House Party. The movie about a black teenager trying to get to a party starred rappers Kid ‘n Play. The film became popular with audiences and critics alike. Three sequels followed. In 1987, former standup comedian Robert Townsend (1957– ) also achieved success with his Hollywood Shuffle. The movie was satire, or comedy meant to criticize real life, based on his own experiences as a struggling African American actor in Hollywood. The low-budget feature won a Critics Award and was 246


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nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. These awards are presented annually by Film Independent, a nonprofit organization dedicated to independent films and their makers.

The groundbreaking work of film director Spike Lee ushered in a new era of African American filmmaking after the end of the blaxploitation era.

Black Directors Focus on Gangs and Poverty Do the Right Thing, House Party, and Hollywood Shuffle were great successes. This led Hollywood to acknowledge the demand for intelligent films made by African Americans. In 1991, a number of important films by black directors were released. Though not a Hollywood movie, Matty Rich’s (1971– ) Straight Out of Brooklyn made 2.7 million dollars at the box office. This was impressive, considering it was a low-budget film made for 450,000 dollars. Of that, 77,000 dollars was raised by Rich following a plea for funding on a Brooklyn radio show. Rich was only nineteen years old at the time. From inside the Hollywood system came John Singleton’s (1968– ) Boyz n the Hood. It was made by the major studio Columbia Pictures, but it had the gritty feel of the independent films by Spike Lee and Matty Rich. Boyz n the Hood was the story of a young black man’s attempt to survive in a poor, violent neighborhood. It led to a new category of movies: “hood” films. The son of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles also spawned a genre. Mario

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African Americans Win Top Acting Award ....................................................................................

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hen director Spike Lee made the smash hit Do the Right Thing in 1989, opportunities for black actors and actresses increased significantly. They received work from African American filmmakers such as Lee, Mario Van Peebles, John Singleton, and Kasi Lemmons. They also began receiving more roles from white directors and producers such as Tony Scott and Bill Condon. The roles African Americans were given to play were often complex and demanding. With better parts, African American actors and actresses received greater acclaim and more prestigious awards. Their breakthroughs have not brought a permanent end to negative stereotypes of African Americans in Hollywood films. Even so, they have signified the acceptance of African American actors in Hollywood and the rest of the society.

Denzel Washington and Halle Berry pose with the Academy Awards they won for Best Actor and Actress in 2002. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

The following is a list of African Americans who have won an Academy Award, the most prestigious award in movies.

1939, Hattie McDaniel: Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind. 1963, Sidney Poitier: Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. 1982, Louis Gossett Jr.: Best Supporting Actor for An Officer and a Gentleman 1989, Denzel Washington: Best Supporting Actor for Glory 1991, Whoopi Goldberg: Best Supporting Actress for Ghost 1996, Cuba Gooding, Jr.: Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire 2001, Halle Berry: Best Actress for Monster’s Ball 2001, Denzel Washington: Best Actor for Training Day 2004, Morgan Freeman: Best Supporting Actor for Million Dollar Baby 2005, Jamie Foxx: Best Actor for Ray 2006, Forest Whitaker: Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland 2006, Jennifer Hudson: Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls 248


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Van Peebles’s (1957– ) New Jack City sparked “New Jack cinema” with its tale of Harlem gangsters. In the early 1990s, this new era of black filmmaking sometimes had an emphasis on sensationalistic gang violence. Some examples of this are Ernest Dickerson’s Juice (1992), Allen and Albert Hughes’s Menace II Society, and F. Gary Gray’s Set It Off (1996). Set It Off is notable because it focused on a young woman rather than a young man. Soon, satires of the “hood” films were being produced. Some examples are Tamra Davis’s CB4 (1993) and Paris Barclay’s Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996).



A number of filmmakers created works that stood apart from gangoriented films of the time. Female African American filmmakers, such as Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust, 1993), Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman, 1996), and Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou, 1997) examined the varying experiences of black women in America and abroad. Lee also continued to make thought-provoking movies about the black experience during the 1990s, including Mo’ Better Blues (1990) about a jazz musician, Jungle Fever (1991) about an interracial relationship, the epic biography Malcolm X (1992) about the slain civil rights leader, and Crooklyn (1994) about an African American family living in Brooklyn. African American Filmmakers Branch Out By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the cinematic work of African Americans was increasingly viewed as part of mainstream culture. Lee, in particular, proved that African American filmmakers do not have to limit themselves to making films only about African Americans. In 1999, Lee made Summer of Sam, his first film with a primarily white cast. Three years later he made 25th Hour, starring white actor Edward Norton (1969– ) as a drug dealer preparing to serve a seven-year jail sentence. In 2006 he made Inside Man, a thriller about a negotiator trying to resolve a hostage situation during a bank robbery. Lee did not neglect works with African American themes during this time, criticizing the portrayal of African Americans on television in the 2000 movie Bamboozled. He also made several television documentaries about prominent African Americans, including Black Panther leader Huey Newton, football star Jim Brown, and basketball legend Kobe Bryant. His best-known documentary is When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006), which explored the devastation and loss caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It was first aired on HBO, and won three Emmy Awards.

The original stars of black cinema expanded their ranges as well. Mario Van Peebles made a black western called Posse (1993) as well as the horror African American Eras

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film From Hell (2003). John Singleton made action films like the blaxploitation remake Shaft (2000) and 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003).


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TELEVISION OPENS UP TO BLACK STORIES AND CHARACTERS In television as in radio, African Americans have had to fight for both creative equality and the right to a dignified image. The first African American to achieve lasting success on television was Bill Cosby. In 1965, he debuted as secret agent Alexander Scott in the one-hour drama I Spy. Cosby was the first African American performer to win an Emmy Award. He paved the way for an increased black presence on television in the 1970s. Black Comedies in the 1970s One of the most important creators of black-themed television shows of the 1970s was a white writer/producer named Norman Lear (1922– ). Lear’s goal was to bring socially conscious situation comedies, or “sitcoms” to television. In 1971, he introduced the world to All in the Family (1971– 79). It was based on a British program called Til Death Us Do Part. The main character in All in the Family was Archie Bunker, a white racist living in Queens, New York, played by Carroll O’Connor (1924–2001). The show brought issues of race, gender, homosexuality, and the Vietnam War to American living rooms. While Archie Bunker was depicted as somewhat lovable, the show held his racist remarks and opinions up to ridicule. In 1975, Bunker’s African American neighbors, the Jeffersons, received their own sitcom. The Jeffersons (1975–85) broke with stereotypes by presenting a professional black man, George Jefferson, who owned a chain of dry cleaners. The sitcom featured an interracial married couple, something not seen on a mainstream television series before. Like Bunker, Jefferson, played by Sherman Hemsley (1938– ), was also a racist. He often referred to white characters in offensive terms. The Jeffersons was a comedy that dealt with controversial subject matter, including gun control and suicide, not typically aired on television during those times.

A year before The Jeffersons debuted, Lear brought Good Times (1974– 79) to television. Good Times was a spinoff of another successful Lear show, Maude (1972–78), which was itself another spin-off of All in the Family. Unlike The Jeffersons, Good Times focused on a poor black family living in a low-income housing project in Chicago. The comedy originally generated praise as the first television show to focus on black poverty. The show received criticism as well, because the character of J. J. Evans, played by comedian Jimmy Walker (c. 1947– ), was seen as the kind of clownish

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stereotype from the comedies of the pre-1960s era. Lear’s Sanford and Son (1972–77), which starred comedian Red Foxx as a junk dealer, received similar criticism. While Norman Lear was receiving mixed responses to his programs, Bill Cosby was pushing black television into new areas. His Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972–85) became the first weekly cartoon featuring African American characters. The show also tackled social issues, including drug use, racism, and child abuse. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was a major success. It continued for years in syndication, meaning that other networks played reruns of the show. As a live-action TV star, Cosby had only modest success in the 1970s. The Bill Cosby Show, on which the comedian played a physical education instructor, ended its two-year run in 1971. The New Bill Cosby Show, a variety program featuring comedy sketches, was a ratings failure. It lasted just one season, from 1972 to 1973. A far more successful variety program was The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74), starring African American comedian Flip Wilson. Wilson played a number of different comic characters. He also hosted such legendary black musicians as James


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Sherman Hemsley (center) played the main character George Jefferson in the 1970s television hit The Jeffersons. The show was the first to feature well to do African Americans. CBS TV/The Kobal Collection

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Brown, Aretha Franklin (1942– ), Stevie Wonder, and Ray Charles (1930– 2004). During its first two seasons, The Flip Wilson Show was the secondmost-watched show in America. Although African American-oriented comedies thrived in the 1970s, black dramas were rare. Two exceptions were The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), a television movie version of the novel by Ernest J. Gaines (1933– ), and the miniseries Roots (1977). Based on a novel by Alex Haley (1921–92), Roots told the story of Haley’s own family history, beginning with the abduction of African Kunta Kinte into slavery. The program provided numerous high-quality dramatic roles for African American actors and became a tremendous success among critics and viewers. In 1978, Roots won an impressive nine Emmy Awards. Many of the new black television programs aired in the mid- to late 1970s continued in the comedic footsteps of The Jeffersons and Good Times. Most of these programs, however, were criticized for leaning on oldfashioned stereotypes, such as What’s Happening!! (1976–79) and Grady (1975–76). Despite the flaws of these programs, their very existence meant that African Americans now had a foothold in television that would grow more secure in the 1980s. The Cosby Show Breaks New Ground The stereotypes and unrealistic situations that had crept back into African American sitcoms toward the end of the 1970s continued into the beginning of the 1980s. Diff’rent Strokes (1978–85) and Webster (1983–87) were two of the more popular programs with black characters. Both shows featured African American children adopted by wealthy white parents. But comedian Bill Cosby hoped to break with these stereotypes with his idea for a new program about an upper-middle-class black family living in Brooklyn, New York.

At first, the NBC network was not convinced Cosby’s program would be a success. However, a screening of the first episode of The Cosby Show in 1984 was a major hit with television editors. They were delighted by the sophisticated humor of the program. On the show, Cosby starred as Dr. Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable. Cliff and his lawyer wife Clair (played by former Broadway musical actress Phylicia Rashad) lived in a Brooklyn brownstone, or row house, with their four children. The children were Denise (Lisa Bonet), Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), Vanessa (Tempest Bledsoe), and Rudy (Keshia Knight-Pulliam). Daughter Sondra (Sabrina LaBeauf, added to the show in 1985) was away from home at Princeton University. The Cosby Show was unlike other family-oriented sitcoms such as All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and Mama’s Family (1983–84; 1986–90). The humor on The Cosby Show centered on loving relationships rather 252


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than family fighting. Although Cliff ’s children could baffle him, he and Clair loved and nurtured their kids. The Cosby Show was a hit with critics when it debuted on September 20, 1984. It was not an instant ratings success, however. NBC was worried. The network was already behind the other two major TV networks in the ratings race. Network executives tried to convince Cosby to add an adopted white child to the show, a reverse of the formula that had made hits of Diff’rent Strokes and Webster. Cosby refused. Executives then suggested that the Huxtables hire a white housekeeper. Cosby rejected this idea as well. Some critics complained that race was not enough of an issue in the show’s storylines. Others grumbled that the marriage of a black doctor to a black lawyer was unrealistic. Cosby ignored the critics and continued to create quality comedy according to his own rules. He was rewarded when the show became a hit, finishing its first season as the third-mostwatched program on television. From 1985 to 1990, The Cosby Show was the number-one show on TV, single-handedly reviving the sitcom genre and the NBC network. With the massive success of The Cosby Show, viewers began tuning in to NBC again. The network went from a distant third to CBS and ABC to the number-one network on television.

The Cosby Show, featuring an upper class African American family, was one of the most popular tele vision shows in the 1980s. The Kobal Collection/The Picture Desk, Inc

African American-oriented programs slowly received new life following The Cosby Show. One of the first such shows was the Cosby spin-off A Different World (1987–93). A Different World followed Denise Huxtable to college. Unlike The Cosby Show, A Different World was more likely to tackle issues of race, class, and equal rights. The program enjoyed a successful run for four seasons from 1987 to 1991 before its cancellation in 1993. Other successful African American sitcoms, including 227 (1985–90) and Amen (1986–91)—both starring former cast members of The Jeffersons—appeared in the mid-1980s.

African Americans Go Beyond Sitcoms In 1986, a show debuted that became the most successful afternoon talk show ever to appear on television: The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey (1954– ) became one of the most important figures in media, African American Eras

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African American or otherwise. Since her talk show debuted, she has also distinguished herself in film, publishing, and on the Internet. The first network late-night talk show with a black host appeared in 1989 with the launch of The Arsenio Hall Show (1989–94). The debut of the first comedy-sketch show with a mostly black cast was in 1990. Keenen Ivory Wayans’s In Living Color (1990–94) became one of the first big hit shows on the new FOX network. The show launched the careers of such future stars as Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx (1967– ), singer Jennifer Lopez (1970– ), comedian David Alan Grier (c. 1955– ), and movie star Jim Carrey (1962– ), who was one of only two white members of the cast. Wayans (1958– ) moved on to a successful career as a filmmaker. The same year that In Living Color debuted on FOX, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–96) premiered on NBC. Rapper Will “Fresh Prince” Smith (1968– ) starred as a kid from inner-city Philadelphia sent to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel-Air, California. The show became a major ratings hit and set in motion Smith’s tremendously successful acting career. African American comedy shows continued to thrive through the 1990s with shows such as Family Matters (1989–98). The sitcom introduced the nerdy character of Steve Urkel (Jaleel White), who became the show’s most recognizable star. Other African American sitcoms were successful during this time as well. These include Martin (1992–97), Living Single (1993–98), The Steve Harvey Show (1996–2002), Malcolm & Eddie (1996– 2000), and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper (1992–97). The program that started it all, The Cosby Show, ended its wildly successful run in 1992. During its final season, the show experienced its lowest ratings but was still among the top twenty most-watched TV programs. In 2002, TV Guide ranked The Cosby Show as the twenty-eighth greatest television program of all time. African Americans on TV in the 21st Century Black shows that debuted in the twenty-first century still tended to be comedies. Girlfriends (2000–08), My Wife and Kids (2001–05), The Bernie Mac Show (2001–06), Eve (2003–06), All of Us (2003–07), Everybody Hates Chris (2005–09), and The Game (2006–09) all enjoyed great success in mainstream media in the 2000s. A notable exception to the black comedy genre has been ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (2005– ), a one-hour drama created by African American writer Shonda Rhimes (1970– ). While the cast is too multicultural for it to be considered a “black” program, it has featured prominent African American characters during its run.

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A 2007 Nielsen report revealed that African Americans spend ten hours and forty-eight minutes watching television every day. This figure is significantly higher than that of any other race in America. Despite this fact, there were only three black channels on television: BET, TV One, and the Africa Channel. At the same time, however, there was more of an African American presence on cable and broadcast television than ever before.



African American-oriented entertainment flourished on cable television. Although the technology had existed since the 1950s, cable television did not come into common use until 1972. In 1972, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed cable television operators to use satellite transmissions. In November of that year, Home Box Office (HBO) began broadcasting movies. In 1976, HBO became widely available to paying subscribers who wanted to watch uncut, uninterrupted feature films on their televisions. With the success of HBO, other cable channels, such as Showtime and The Movie Channel, appeared. The first network created exclusively for African Americans came to cable TV with the debut of Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1980. BET was the creation of Robert L. Johnson (c. 1946– ). Johnson recognized black television viewers as a 75-billion-dollar consumer market, and he aimed for his channel to cater to them. He saw BET as an alternative to white-owned stations. He planned to air programs that commercial television would not. He knew black viewers wanted to see programming with black actors and actresses. He also knew that African Americans did not want to be limited to the caricatures and stereotypes seen on popular shows such as Good Times and What’s Happening!! In the beginning, BET aired only two hours a week. By 1982, it aired for six hours per day to 3.8 million households. Two years later, BET finally made the transition to a 24-hour channel. It offered a wide variety of entertainment, including, movies, news, specials, and music programs. At first, BET featured gospel, soul, funk, and jazz music only. By the middle of the 1980s, it started featuring rap and hip hop as well. The program Rap City, which debuted in 1989 and ran for ten years, was only the second rap-oriented show on cable television. The first was Yo! MTV Raps, (1988– ) which aired on the MTV channel. BET spawned two other cable channels: the jazz channel BET J and BET Movies: Starz! BET has been criticized because it has not been owned by African Americans since it was sold to the media giant Viacom in 2000. In addition, several high-profile celebrities and organizations have condemned BET for airing programs that support stereotypes and focus on violence. This controversy gave rise to channels that sought to provide alternatives to such programming. Some, such as New Urban Entertainment African American Eras

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Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first cable channel to specifically target African American viewers, celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on October 26, 2005. Vince Bucci/Getty Images

Television (2000–02) did not last long. TV One (2004– ), which focuses on family programming, has been highly successful. The network posted a pretax profit around 90 million dollars in 2008. The Africa Channel was launched in 2005 and expanded in 2006 to reach viewers from coast to coast. This channel is unique in that it offers the African continent’s best Englishlanguage television programs, a format that includes biographies, business news, travel features, reality shows, music and soap operas. The Africa Channel, BET, and TV One all extended their markets to reach more households in 2008. This expansion meant that these networks were potentially able to expand their audiences and their advertising revenues. In 2008, rapper Master P announced that he planned to launch Better Black Television (BBT), the first all-hip-hop music channel in 2009. There have been many African American programs on cable television, several of them hits with both black and white audiences, even though channels such as BET and TV One continue to draw viewers. In 1997, The Chris Rock Show debuted on HBO. Comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Rock (1965– ) interviewed various guests and performed humorous, issue-oriented monologues. The program ran for three seasons, ending in 2000, and won an Emmy Award for its writing. Comedian Dave Chappelle’s comedy-sketch program Chappelle’s Show became a sensation when it first appeared on Comedy Central in 2003. Chappelle (1973– ) broke new ground with characters like blind white supremacist Clayton Bigsby, who does not realize he is black, and crack 256


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addict Tyrone Biggums. It was one of the most popular shows in the history of Comedy Central, but ended in 2006 when Chappelle abruptly left during the making of the third season.



Not all African American cable programs achieved the success of The Chris Rock Show and Chappelle’s Show. In 2006, Wanda Sykes starred in an offbeat show called Wanda Does It (2006). On the show, the comedian tried her hand at a new job every week. The program aired just six episodes on Comedy Central. Chocolate News (2008), starring In Living Color veteran David Alan Grier, had a similarly short run. It was an attempt to put an African American spin on the successful news satire programs The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1999– ) and The Colbert Report (2005– ). Grier’s show aired for ten episodes in 2008. Programs such as Showtime’s Soul Food (2000–04), Nickelodeon’s That’s So Raven (2003–07), and TBS’s The Boondocks (2005–07) have enjoyed longer runs. No matter how long an African American–oriented program remains on air, it is obvious that African Americans are more represented than ever on both cable and network television.


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 ............................................................... Primary Sources

 DO THE RIGHT THING MOVIE REVIEW (1989) Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing was the most controversial film of the year when it was released in 1989, according to movie critic Roger Ebert. The movie was controversial because it provided a realistic look at innercity racial tension and violence without suggesting solutions or assigning blame. Some criticized the movie and said it promoted violence. Roger Ebert gave the movie four stars, his highest possible rating. Part of Ebert’s review appears below. In this passage, he takes on some of these criticisms of Lee’s movie.

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“This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions”

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 TESTIMONY ON THE IMPACT OF THE 1996 TELECOMMUNICATIONS

ACT ON BLACK RADIO (2006) In December 2006, St. John’s University law professor Akila N. Folami testified before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to describe the damaging effects of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on black radio. Because the act relaxed media ownership restrictions, it led to mass consolidation of media outlets, meaning large companies bought and managed multiple radio and television stations. This meant that the

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programming on these stations had less diversity. Folami argues that the Telecommunications Act stifled the freedom of expression many young, urban blacks had enjoyed through the radio. Folami explains that hip-hop music, often politically focused, was played on local black radio stations and performed almost like a “Black CNN,” spreading information about issues of importance to the black community. Further, Folami argues, the musical genre of hip hop was also stifled and twisted because only a certain kind of rap and hip hop were played on the large, corporate radio stations—specifically, gangsta rap. Folami finds this artificially constructed emphasis on gangsta rap—with its anti-woman, violent, materialistic content—harmful, both to African American and white communities.



............................ I would like to thank the Commissioners for coming to Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss these important issues of media ownership. . . . The existing tiered numerical limits, set forth in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, were not “in the public interest,” led to corporate conglomeration in radio, and did not encourage economic competition, or diversity in radio station ownership or in content. For the Hip Hop community, corporate takeover of the radio has had a deadening effect on the much needed discourse that was occurring among America’s younger generation prior to consolidation, particularly among its young, urban, Black men, through Rap. Historically, young urban Black men, through Hip Hop and Rap’s radio air play, attained visibility from an otherwise marginalized existence in America. Hip Hop arose, in the late 1970s, out of the ruins of a post-industrial and ravaged South Bronx, as a cultural expression of urban Black and Latino youth, who were primarily male and who politicians and the dominant public and political discourse had written off, and, for all intent and purposes, abandoned. Rendered invisible by both White and Black politicians alike, and isolated and ignored, in what was categorized by most as a dying city, these youth decided to celebrate and live through Hip Hop and Rap.

Tiered Ranked Conglomeration Joining together into one business Discourse Conversation; verbal exchange Marginalized Pushed to the edges of social standing

Soon Rap would be proclaimed by some as the Black CNN, with many different Rappers giving voice to what would have otherwise remained unseen by the larger dominant American public, such as police brutality, poverty, and the conditions in America’s urban centers. Moreover, some scholars contend that rap would successfully form new allegiances with counter-culture white youth who found genuine pleasure in Rap as a forbidden narrative and a symbol of rebellion, much like punk rock. Rap would defy both Black and White middle class norms with its confrontational style. Rappers, who were primarily urban Black male youth, would speak in their own voice and on their own terms, as members of a historically marginalized segment of America’s population living in America’s blighted urban areas. African American Eras

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Misogyny Hatred of women

Proliferation Spread De facto Actual

Today, Gangsta Rap currently dominates the nation’s radio airwaves with messages of misogyny, violence, and excessive consumer consumption. It is largely corporate driven, heavily marketed, and commercialized by corporate media in a way that more socially conscious Rap cannot be. Gangster Rappers promote anything from sneakers, jeans, iPods, cellphones, colognes, and sports drinks. By solidifying corporate control of the nation’s radio air waves, the Telecommunications Act has stifled the social commentary and diverse views in Rap that were once heard over the radio, and has encouraged the proliferation of Gangsta Rap and the creation of the Gangsta image that has become the de facto voice of contemporary Hip Hop culture. The image and the message are clear: consume, consume, consume! Overlooked for radio air play, are female rappers, and non-Gangsta Rap songs that might appeal to niche audiences or to audiences with smaller buying power. . . . Although non-Gangsta Rappers find other outlets (like the Internet or satellite radio) to distribute their lyrics, such Rap does not attain the same level of visibility because those other media fail to provide inexpensive access like over-the-air radio. In addition, several studies have established that there is still a Digital Divide between Blacks and whites as to access to home computers and the Internet. There is also a racial gap in access to broadband technologies, while access to satellite radio and cable comes at a price. . . . What was once a cultural and political expression of survival of a historically marginalized group has been hampered in a large way by limited access to the nation’s radio air waves. Black male youth have historically had to navigate America’s public space to become visible and assert a voice of their own, and have done so, through Hip Hop and Rap, in the face of considerable odds. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, has contributed to stifling the diversity of viewpoints in the Hip Hop community, to proliferating a very racialized and sexualized image of the Gangsta Rapper, and has served to further marginalize Black male youth who have been, and continue to be, given recent U.S. census data and studies by scholars at Columbia, Georgetown, and Princeton Universities, invisible to the American political and economic discourse.

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1. Over the course of the 1970s and the 1980s, the way African Americans were portrayed on sitcoms changed. Watch an episode of the 1970s television show Good Times. Then, watch an episode of The Cosby Show from the 1980s. (Both are available on DVD.) How is the depiction of African Americans different in the two shows? Explain your answer in an essay using specific examples from both sitcoms to support your response.



2. Some films have a very clear social or political message. However, it is harder to figure out the “message” in director Spike Lee’s films. Some critics complain that films such as Do the Right Thing do not offer a specific solution to problems like racism and inner-city violence. Imagine that you are going to make a movie about issues of race and inner-city problems. What kinds of characters would you create? What specific social problems would you address? Would you supply clear solutions to these problems? If so, what kind of solutions might you suggest? What kind of tone would you use? Would your movie be humorous, dramatic, or both? Write a movie “treatment” (a synopsis that includes a list of characters with descriptions and a plot summary) describing your film. 3. Unlike other forms of African American–oriented media, black newspapers have struggled to remain in business. White-owned newspapers with greater financial resources have made it difficult for black newspapers to compete. Nevertheless, black papers have still published a great deal of high-quality journalism throughout the years. Read two articles from a white-owned newspaper, such as the New York Times or the Washington Post. Then, read two articles in a black-owned newspaper, such as the Baltimore Afro-American or the Chicago Defender. All of these papers publish much of their content online. Compare and contrast the articles in the white-owned paper and the African American-owned paper. How do the viewpoints and voices of the two papers differ? How are they similar? Explain your answer in an essay using specific examples from both newspapers to support your response. 4. In 1996, Farai Chideya launched Pop+Politics (www.popandpolitics .com), one of the first political/pop culture blogs. The blog often focuses on issues of African American interest. Pop+Politics continues to thrive today with articles about music, film, and politics. Read one of Chideya’s articles on Pop+Politics. Then get involved in a discussion of the article in the comments section at the bottom of African American Eras

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the page. Tell Chideya what you liked and disliked about the article, as well as what you learned. If she responds to you, try to keep the discussion going with follow-up questions for the writer. 5. African American journalist Michele Norris hosted the news program All Things Considered on National Public Radio (NPR) beginning in 2002. Listen to two episodes of the program, which can be found online at NPR’s Web site (www.npr.org). Write a review of All Things Considered based on the two shows you have listened to. What kinds of topics are covered on the show? Who is the show’s intended audience? What did you learn from listening? Brainstorm some topics that you think would work well on the show. Then research one of the topics and prepare your own report in the style of All Things Considered.

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BOOKS

Berry, S. Toriano, and Venise Berry. Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2007. Cosby, Bill. Fatherhood. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Fearn Banks, Kathleen. Historical Dictionary of African American Television. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Howard, Josiah. Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide. Surrey, U.K.: FAB Press, 2008. Jaynes, Gerald D., ed. Encyclopedia of African American Society. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Reference, 2005. Joyner, Tom, with Mary Flowers Boyce. I’m Just a DJ But . . . It Makes Sense to Me. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2005. Littleton, Darryl J. Black Comedians on Black Comedy: How African Americans Taught Us to Laugh. New York: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, 2008. Massood, Paula J. Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film. Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 2003. Watkins, Mel. On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

PERIODICALS Collier, Aldore. “The Oscars in Black and White.” Ebony (April 2000): p. 90. Daniels, Cora. “The Hardest Working Man in Radio.” Fortune (December 12, 2005): p. 39. 264


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Graves, Earl G., Jr. “Use Social Media to Enhance Face to Face Networking.” Black Enterprise (September 2009): p. 6.


Hocker, Cliff. “Blacks Go Broadband: High Speed Internet Adoption Grows Among African Americans.” Black Enterprise (February 2008): p. 32.


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Lyons, Douglas C. “Blacks and the New TV Season.” Ebony (October 1990): p. 104. Sturgis, Ingrid. “Adventures in the Blogosphere: As Internet Journals Come into Their Own, African American Voices Are Rising Above the Noise.” Black Issues Book Review (January February 2005): p. 12. White, Paula M. “Changing Frequencies: Minority Ownership of U.S. Radio and TV Stations Remains Stagnant.” Black Enterprise (October 1996): p. 20.

WEB SITES The Root. http://www.theroot.com/ (accessed on November 1, 2009). “The Telecommunications Act of 1996.” Federal Communications Commission. http://www.fcc.gov/telecom.html (accessed November 1, 2009).


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chapter fiv e

Chronology . . . . . . . . . 268 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 271 Headline Makers . . . . . . 274 Roland G. Fryer . . . . . . . . 274 bell hooks . . . . . . . . . . 276 Mildred Loving . . . . . . . . 280

Topics in the News . . . . . 284 The 2000 Census Provides a Snapshot of African American Demographics . . 284 Drugs and Gangs Plague African American Communities . . . . . . . 285

Demographics African American Family Life Undergoes Changes . . . . 291 A Black Middle Class Emerges . . . . . . . . . 297 Great Migrations Change the Demographics of U.S. Cities . . . . . . . . . . 300

Primary Sources . . . . . . . 304 Research and Activity Ideas . . . 308 For More Information . . . . 309

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 The New Great Migration begins, with blacks who had previously been making their homes in the North returning to the South. 1965 February 21 The most widely known face of black nationalism, Malcolm X, is killed in New York by a member of the Nation of Islam, a religious and political faction that he had recently left.

1974 July 25 In the landmark case of Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court rules that the Detroit city schools are barred from busing inner-city students to schools in the primarily white suburbs. 1981 bell hooks publishes her first book, Ain’t I A Woman, a criticism of white feminism.

1965 August 11 The Watts riots begin in Los Angeles and end six days later, with thirty-four people dead as a result of looting and violence.

1984 Crack cocaine, a more potent form of powdered cocaine, is introduced in the illegal drug trade. The cheap, highly addictive drug hits poor African American communities the hardest.

1967 June 12 In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court unanimously rules that a Virginia state law banning marriages between people of different races is unconstitutional.

1984 Bill Cosby’s The Cosby Show goes on the air on NBC. The sitcom offers a groundbreaking television portrayal of a middle-class African American family. The show is number one in the ratings for five consecutive seasons.

1968 April 4 Martin Luther King Jr., the most influential leader of the civil rights movement, is assassinated.

1988 The Reverend Jesse Jackson begins advocating in favor of “African American” as a term of self-identification.

1970 The Second Great Migration, in which many African Americans moved from the South to points in the North and West, comes to an end. 1971 April 20 In Swann v. CharlotteMecklenburg Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that school districts in the South can be required to bus children to schools in different neighborhoods in order to achieve racial integration.

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1990 Studies show that, on average, African American middle-school students score 20 percent lower than white middleschool students on standardized tests in reading, math, and science. 1990 January 18 The second mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry, is arrested on drug charges. Despite his arrest, Barry is reelected to office in 1995.

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......................................................................................... 1992 April 29 The Los Angeles riots begin after the white police officers accused of beating African American motorist Rodney King are acquitted. The riots are the worst in Los Angeles history and result in the deaths of fifty-three people. 1993 The National Youth Gang Center estimates that there are more than eight thousand gangs operating in the United States. 1995 The United States Sentencing Commission determines that crimes involving powdered cocaine should receive 1/100th of the fines and penalties for crimes involving crack cocaine. 2000 The 2000 census shows that almost 13 percent of the U.S. population is African American, with more than 50 percent of African Americans living in the South. 2002 The city of Atlanta, Georgia, sees a 114 percent increase in the number of mortgages held by single black women since 1997. 2002 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the birth rate among African American teenage girls has dropped by 40 percent since 1991. 2004 November 2 African Americans vote overwhelmingly for John Kerry, a Democrat, in the presidential election

(88 percent of the vote vs. 11 percent voting for Republican nominee George W. Bush). 2005 African Americans account for almost 50 percent of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in the United States. 2005 August 29 Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in southeastern Louisiana, eventually causing massive flooding and catastrophic damage to the city of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf coast. The hurricane causes the most damage to poor, predominantly African American neighborhoods in New Orleans. More than 90 percent of New Orleanians needing evacuation assistance after the hurricane are African American. 2007 The African American population grows to over 13 percent of the total U.S. population, up from about 10 percent in 1980. The states with the most African Americans are Texas, New York, and Florida. 2007 Black Enterprise magazine names Washington, D.C., the most desirable place in the United States for African Americans to live. 2007 The median annual income of African American households is approximately $34,000, whereas the median income of white households is nearly $55,000. 2007 African Americans continue to have the highest rate of poverty in the


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....................................................................................... United States (24.5 percent). Hispanics are second at 21.5 percent, while the rate of poverty for whites is 8.2 percent. 2008 At the age of thirty, Roland G. Fryer becomes the youngest African American ever to receive tenure at Harvard University.

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2009 A recession causes black unemployment to rise to 15 percent, whereas the country’s overall rate is less than 9 percent. 2009 January 20 Barack Obama becomes the first African American president of the United States.

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 ............................................................... Overview

Demographics ........................................................

OVERVIEW

Demographics are data and statistics regarding the basic qualities of the general population or a segment of the population. African American demographics have frequently been difficult to assess. One reason for this is that many African Americans were not given proper names or addresses until well after the Civil War. Another reason is that after World War II, the African American population shifted dramatically from the South to the North and West. So many people moved so often that it was difficult for researchers to keep track of them. The U.S. Census 2000 is decidedly more accurate in tracking the education, marriage, and income levels of African Americans than past censuses were. Census 2000 produced a large amount of very useful data about African American demographics. Since the civil rights era, the concept of racial integration and equal opportunity have gone hand in hand. The separation of the educational, public, and cultural lives led by whites and African Americans in the years before the civil rights movement produced dramatic differences in the quality of the lives they led. Blacks, as a whole, were far poorer and lived shorter lives than whites. It seemed clear, both to social scientists and social activists, that giving African Americans access to the same resources as whites through integration would help solve these problems. The courts and the government played a large role in effecting the changes that made integration possible. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) declared segregation in public schools illegal. Later decisions pressured segregated school systems (most of them in the South) to integrate quickly. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination on the basis of race in schools, public places, or employment decisions illegal. In Loving v. Virginia (1967), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that interracial marriages are indeed constitutional. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed racial discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of housing. These and other rulings and laws tried to break down cultural and legal barriers that kept African Americans from living, learning, and working alongside whites. Still, the pace of change was too slow to suit the courts and civil rights activists. The courts and the Congress were not alone in moving toward integration. African Americans themselves quite literally moved—away from the segregation and often violent racism of the South toward the promise of new economic opportunity in the cities of the North and West. Fifty years after the Civil War, from approximately 1915 to 1930, more than one million African Americans fled the South. This movement became known as the African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

Great Migration. It was followed by an even larger movement after World War II, called the Second Great Migration. Starting in 1940, nearly 5 million African Americans continued the migration pattern northward and westward. The Second Great Migration only slowed down around 1970. These changes in the racial makeup of the country’s schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods alarmed many people. The process was far from smooth. The late 1960s saw race riots in most major cities. These riots were sparked by tension between the growing African American populations and the white power structure. Most of those rioting in these cases were African Americans. When the U.S. Supreme Court authorized the use of busing to integrate schools in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), however, white Americans protested, often violently. In Boston, protests against forced busing resulted in numerous attacks and even deaths. The various efforts at pushing Americans to integrate produce mixed results. While African Americans are much more represented in higher education and major professions than they once were, American neighborhoods remain fairly segregated along racial lines. One of the immediate results of the legal changes of the 1960s and 1970s was a demographic trend called white flight. White families who could afford to often moved away from desegregated urban neighborhoods and schools to largely white suburbs. In effect, this was segregation based on economics. Whites could afford the more expensive homes in the suburbs and the private transportation necessary to commute to and from the nearby cities for work. African Americans, in general, could not. With the loss of tax revenue from white residents, many urban centers fell into decline, and African Americans found themselves once again with substandard schools and public facilities. Shortly before 1970, another new trend began in African American demographic movement. This trend was known as the New Great Migration. African Americans began to leave the declining big cities in the North and the West and return to the southern cities that their families had left decades before. In part this was due to the deindustrialization of the North. Towns that once thrived were now being considered part of the Rust Belt. Many African Americans, armed with a college education, returned to their former homes in the South to start businesses and families. While cities like Detroit faltered, cities like Atlanta were picking up steam. In the last few years of the twentieth century, Georgia, Maryland, and Texas became the states with the largest numbers of college-educated African Americans. California lost a great deal of its African American populace. In 2009, the first African American president, Barack Obama (1961– ), took office. Many commentators hailed his success as a sign that the United States had entered a post-racial period in which skin color no longer

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mattered to anyone. While Obama’s election is certainly a sign that America has undergone dramatic changes since 1965, demographic data show that regardless of the many steps toward equality, African Americans are still underpaid, undereducated, and disadvantaged when compared to their white neighbors.

Demographics ........................................................

O VE RV IE W

For instance, in 1970, the median yearly income of an African American household was twenty-two thousand dollars a year. This was fifteen thousand dollars less than the median income of a white household. Almost thirty years later, in 1999, the median African American household income had risen to almost twenty-eight thousand dollars, but white households were still making more—almost forty-five thousand dollars per year. On a more positive note, more African Americans are graduating from college and high school than ever before. In 1970, only 34 percent of African Americans were high school graduates. That number reached 80 percent by 2004, thanks in part to desegregation in schools.


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ROLAND G. FRYER (1977– )

Roland G. Fryer has the distinction of being the youngest African American ever to get tenure at Harvard. Fryer received tenure (a lifetime appointment) in 2008 at the age of 30. Fryer’s quick grasp of economics and education—especially statistics and the difficulties surrounding the black community—enabled him to finish his own education in record time and to jump ahead of his peers. Fryer claims that his motivation is simple: he wants to figure out where African Americans “went wrong.” His methods are unique, and his ideas are innovative. Though young, Fryer has worked hard to accomplish much in the field of economics. Roland Gerhard Fryer was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, on June 4, 1977. He was raised primarily by his father’s mother, whom everyone called “Fat.” His Aunt Ernestine and Uncle Lacey lived down the road. He spent much of his childhood at their house as well, eating dinners, playing with his cousins, and watching the family make and sell crack cocaine. Their business was profitable until one day when Fryer arrived to see police surrounding the house. Later Fryer would note that at least eight of his close family members either died young or were sent to jail. Fryer’s mother had

Economist Roland Fryer in 2008. ª Ramin Talaie/Corbis

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left the family years before. When he was four, Fryer’s father Roland took him to Lewisville, Texas, just north of Dallas. He spent his school years there. He returned to Daytona Beach and his grandmother in the summers.

Demographics ........................................................


Scared Straight Fryer’s father drank heavily. He drank so much that he eventually got fired from his job at Xerox. He once beat his girlfriend in front of his son so badly that she was hospitalized. Occasionally he would beat his son, too. Fryer did anything he could to stay out of the house and avoid his father. When Fryer was thirteen, he got a job at McDonald’s. He was too young to work, so he forged a birth certificate. While he was working at McDonald’s he would steal from the cash register drawer every so often. He spent his high school years doing well in football and basketball but also selling marijuana and carrying a gun. When Fryer was fifteen, his father was arrested for raping a local woman. Shortly thereafter Fryer himself was pulled over and harassed by police who thought he was a crack dealer. His near-arrest scared him so much that he declined later that evening when some friends asked him to participate in a burglary. While he stayed home, his friends were caught and sent to jail. After this, Fryer began to work harder than ever and got accepted into the University of Texas, Arlington, on an athletic scholarship.

Fryer met his future wife Lisa, an elementary school teacher, while he was in college. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics in under three years. He went on to Pennsylvania State University for his master’s degree. At Pennsylvania State, he met Glenn Loury and James Heckman, two important economists who gave him a strong motivation to finish his thesis. His thesis, “Mathematical Models of Discrimination and Inequality,” was strong enough to attract the attention of other researchers and academics. At the age of twenty-five he was invited to join the Society of Fellows, a prestigious teaching position at Harvard University. Fryer does not support affirmative action or other policies or programs that give preference based on gender or race. Instead, he supports the idea of hard work and the value of providing economic motivators in education to all students regardless of race. His own challenges and successes led him to research the effects of educational incentives. Studies African American Communities The goal of Fryer’s research is often to answer various questions about trends that affect black communities. For example, he analyzed why African Americans suffer from high blood pressure more than whites. He theorizes that perhaps this is due in part to slaves’ ability to retain salt and water on the long voyage to America. He has also investigated why African American African American Eras

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schools tend to be worse than white schools and just how much that affects academic performance. In addition to his Harvard research, Fryer pursues several personal projects. One is working for Opportunity NYC, a nonprofit group that gives small amounts of money to needy families of inner-city students. Another of Fryer’s projects is heading the American Inequality Lab at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research. He is also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Fryer also works with economists such as Steven D. Levitt (the author of the best-selling book Freakonomics [2005]) and notable scholars such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1950– ), who called Fryer a rising young star in the academic world. In 2005, Fryer appeared on PBS’s The Tavis Smiley Show to explain his findings and his ongoing work on race. Fryer explained that he does not believe African Americans should blame their troubles on institutions, racism, or white discrimination. Instead, he believes scientific research should carefully analyze each of the various issues confronting the African American community. Fryer achieved a historic milestone in 2008. That year, he received tenure at Harvard University. Fryer’s preference for cold hard facts makes it easier for him to deal with sensitive topics such as race and inequality. It also makes his work accepted and appreciated by progressive thinkers of all races.

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BELL HOOKS (1952– )

The social theorist, educator, and writer who came to be known as bell hooks was born as Gloria Jean Watkins on September 25, 1952, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Hopkinsville at that time was a small and segregated town, close to the booming Nashville, Tennessee, but not much else. The nature of the town and her neighborhood affected hooks. From it she learned the values of community and hard work. Her father was a custodian. Her mother cleaned the houses of local white families. Hooks grew up in a large family of mostly sisters and one brother. Her parents’ long, hard hours were essential to the well-being of the family. In her essay “Chitlin Circuit,” hooks describes Hopkinsville as a place where people were content to live modest lifestyles. Hooks recalls her grandmother making soap, digging fishing worms, setting traps for rabbits, making butter, making wine, and sewing quilts. Hooks’s mother was likewise hard-working. She was the main contributor to a warm and successful home. Hooks also found strength in the examples of her female black teachers. She 276


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attended Booker T. Washington Elementary School and Crispus Attucks High School. Both were segregated public schools where her teachers emphasized morale and confidence as well as education. When her school district became integrated in the late 1960s, hooks was saddened rather than happy. All the special attention that had been given to her and her race now had to be shared with others who had previously not been much a part of her life. Though her education was a good one, she also learned lessons she would later challenge, such as the importance of being loyal to a government that approved of segregation and racism. Hooks’s later writings would examine not only the race roles but also the gender roles she came across in her childhood. Her main companion was her younger brother. Hooks gradually came to recognize the difference between the roles each of them was expected to fulfill. This recognition sowed the seeds of her feminism. Indeed, at this time hooks began to be a bit of a difficult child. She often challenged and “talked back” to her elders. She was curious but at times shy, preferring to spend her time reading and writing on her own rather than socializing.

Social theorist and writer bell hooks, c. 1995. ª Barron Claiborne/Corbis

Grows Love of Poetry and Jazz in Childhood Hooks began writing poetry at age ten. She was influenced by the rhymes she heard in songs at church. She was good at reciting poems, too. In her essay “When I Was a Young Soldier,” she explains that poetry was the form of literary expression that earned absolute respect in her working-class household. Hooks would sometimes recite poems to her family. Some of her favorite poets, including Walt Whitman (1819–92) and Emily Dickinson (1830–86), were white. Among her favorite black poets were Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) and Langston Hughes (1902–67). Black poets and writers were winning widespread acclaim in the 1960s. In fact, Brooks won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1968. Even so, the work of white poets still tended to be the focus of most literature classes.

Hooks also liked jazz artists such as John Coltrane (1926–67) and Louis Armstrong (1901–71). She listened to the latest soul music over the radio with her sisters as they cleaned the house. Around this time she heard the name “bell hooks” for the first time. After she “talked back” to an adult in a corner store, someone remarked that she must be related to Bell Hooks, her mother’s grandmother who was known locally for her defiance. When African American Eras

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she later published a book of poetry, she did not want to be confused with another Gloria Watkins in her community, so she chose her greatgrandmother’s name instead. Choosing “bell hooks” symbolized her decision to be sharp-tongued (and sharp-penned) rather than obedient. Hooks chose to write her pen name in lowercase letters to emphasize the substance of her work rather than the name she had chosen. Towards the end of her high school career, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, hooks accepted a scholarship to Stanford University in northern California. This scholarship would take her very far away from her childhood, both in physical locale and also in terms of ideas. It was a challenge for hooks to leave her small town for the prestigious university right next to the big city of San Francisco, then the center of the counterculture movement and a magnet for artists of all kinds. Joins and Criticizes the Feminist Movement Hooks involved herself in women’s movements on campus. Although it was a relief to someone who had grown up observing females and examining gender roles, she noticed that the presence and discussion of black women in particular was nonexistent. In her first book, Ain’t I a Woman: Looking Back (1981), hooks recalls taking a women’s studies class taught by writer Tillie Olsen (1913–2007). (The title “Ain’t I a Woman” is a reference to a famous 1851 speech of the same name by abolitionist Sojourner Truth.) In the class, hooks began to feel like she was not a part of, or did not belong to, the group of white women in the class who were celebrating the power of “sisterhood.” Hooks would later criticize the feminist movement at that time as being too narrow. She argued that it focused only on escaping male oppression, but not oppression of all sorts. Hooks also claimed that her professors at Stanford ignored black students in their classes. Hooks explained that this furthered her distrust and desire to change the middle-class, white male-dominated social and political structure of the United States.

Despite of, or perhaps spurred on by, the difficulties she encountered at Stanford, hooks began writing her first major work, Ain’t I A Woman, at the age of nineteen. She also took a job as a telephone operator. There, she at last found the community of black women she wanted. These women encouraged her in a way her professors and fellow students did not. Hooks felt that her co-workers at the telephone company wanted to say the same kinds of things about their lives that she did, things that would bring about change and promote understanding. Hooks struggled with finding a strong enough voice for her book in the next six years. She later said that she felt most comfortable as a writer when she felt she was speaking directly to black women. Ain’t I A Woman not only took a long time to write, it also 278


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took a long time to see print. Publishers at that time were reluctant to take on a book dealing with issues of race and gender. Once the book was published, critical reaction to it was strong and primarily negative. However, eleven years after it was published, Publishers Weekly claimed it was one of the “20 most influential women’s books of the last 20 years.”

Demographics ........................................................


Focus on Education After graduating from Stanford in 1973, hooks went on to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. She earned a master’s degree in 1976. Next she went to the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she received her Ph.D. in 1983. Her doctoral dissertation was on modern African American writer Toni Morrison (1931– ), whose fiction broke ground in focusing on African American female protagonists. Hooks again struggled with racism and sexism in programs where no black women were on the faculty. Hooks took a job at Yale teaching African American studies and English literature in 1985. In a sense, hooks chose teaching at the college level to make up for what she felt was the lack in her own education. In 1988 she went to Oberlin College in Ohio to teach literature and women’s studies. In 1993 she taught for a year at the City College of New York.

Hooks prizes education. At the same time, the nature of her writing and her life’s work makes it hard for her to avoid being political. In 2002, she was invited to give the graduation ceremony address at Southwestern University in Texas. She criticized the Bush administration instead of giving her expected commencement speech and was booed by many members of the conservative crowd. In 2004 she returned home to Kentucky to teach there at Berea College as a distinguished professor in residence. At Berea, she offered courses and seminars in women’s and African American studies in a much more desegregated society than the one she left so many years before. While hooks is known for her commitment to teaching innovative courses and difficult subjects, her cultural studies books made her famous. After the controversial and groundbreaking Ain’t I A Woman, she continued to publish books and essays about race and gender. She criticizes Betty Friedan (1921–2006), a well-known feminist and the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), in her book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984). Hooks argues that Friedan’s narrow, white-oriented view of housewives and mothers tends to exclude the presence of strong black women. In All About Love (2001), hooks examines notions of love in America, straying from her usual topics but emphasizing the same concerns about power and stereotypes. In 2004, she published We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity, an attempt to examine and explain black male identity. (The title of this work is a quote from a 1959 poem of the same name by Brooks.) African American Eras

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Hooks has also examined cultural concepts of beauty in such works as the children’s book Happy to Be Nappy (1999) and a book of film criticism called Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992). Hooks criticized many popular mainstream black representations such as the characters in the films The Color Purple (1985) and Waiting to Exhale (1995) for fitting in too neatly with the role of victim too often assigned to black women.

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MILDRED LOVING (1939–2008)

Though Mildred Loving often saw herself as a simple woman from Virginia, her marriage to a white man, Richard Loving, in 1958 turned her into an icon of the civil rights movement. In the landmark court case Loving v. Virginia (1967) she and her husband challenged and eventually changed Virginia’s antimiscegenation law (a law that makes it illegal to marry or live with someone of a different race). By doing so, they became monuments to freedom and equality. Enjoys a Peaceful Childhood in Virginia Mildred Delores Jeter was born in Central Point, Virginia, on June 22, 1939. Central Point was considered a relatively peaceful and accepting Southern community. Though rural, Central Point was home to many citizens of mixed races. Mildred herself was part Native American and part African American. She often identified herself as Native American.

Mildred and Richard Loving answer questions at a press conference following their victory in the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967. Francis Miller/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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Virginia had passed a law called the Racial Integrity Act in 1924. The act made it illegal for any white person in Virginia to marry anyone other than a white person. The act was influenced by the then-popular theory of eugenics. Eugenics was the groundless theory that human society could be perfected if people with “superior” genetic traits had children only with each other. In practice, eugenics had at its core many racist assumptions about different racial and ethnic groups. Some advocates of eugenics believed it was morally acceptable to kill people who they believed were fundamentally flawed. Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was a noted believer in eugenics. During World War II (1939–45), Hitler’s eugenics campaign against Jewish and Roma people was a systematic extermination of human beings that claimed more than six million lives. It became known as the Holocaust. After World War II, belief in eugenics was considered embarrassing at best, and cruel at worst. Nonetheless, the Racial Integrity Act stayed on the books in Virginia. Similar laws remained in place in fifteen other states as well. These laws all prevented couples of different races from living together or marrying. They defined a “pure white” person as someone who had only white ancestors since 1684. If a “pure white” person violated Virginia’s antimiscegenation law and married someone of a different race, the maximum penalty was five years in prison for each partner.

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Growing up, Mildred Jeter was unaware of this law. Her community seemed relatively open-minded, and her family had long been a part of that community. She met her future husband, Richard Loving, when she was eleven and he seventeen. Their families were friends without any racial difficulties. Eventually Mildred and Richard became more than friends. Again, no one thought anything of it within their town. When Mildred became pregnant at age 18, she and Richard decided to marry, since having a child out of wedlock was not nearly as acceptable at the time as being in a mixed-race relationship. The Lovings Are Arrested Mildred apparently did not know much about the law preventing her marriage. However, her soon-to-be-husband Richard knew enough to suggest they go to Washington, D.C., to get married. They were legally married there on June 2, 1958. Afterwards, they returned home ready to start their new life together. But on the morning of July 11, 1958, at around 2:00 A.M., they awoke to police standing over their bed. Even though they had a valid marriage license, they were arrested. They were both charged with living together as husband and wife in violation of Virginia’s antimiscegenation law.

Richard Loving was released after one night in the Bowling Green jail. Mildred was held for days. Afterwards, they went to live with their families African American Eras

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until they could figure out what to do. In 1959, their criminal case came before a Virginia court. The court, under Judge Leon M. Bazile, sentenced them to a year in prison, but gave them the alternative of moving away from Virginia for at least twenty-five years. Bazile’s rationale behind his upholding of the law was “The fact that [God] separated the races [by continents] shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” After Judge Bazile’s ruling, the Lovings moved to Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., was about an hour and a half away from their hometown. They came back for brief visits with their families. They could only visit so long as they did not travel together. The Lovings moved to a lower-income neighborhood in Washington, D.C. While they were living in that city, the Lovings had two more children. Richard worked as a bricklayer and Mildred stayed home with the children. Mildred Loving was frustrated by the distance between her and her family and the economic troubles that went along with having three children. She began to think more and more about challenging Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. Loving took matters into her own hands and wrote to U.S. attorney general Robert Kennedy (1925–68) in 1963. She asked him to consider her case. Kennedy contacted an attorney in Virginia, Bernard S. Cohen of the American Civil Liberties Union. Cohen took on the Lovings’ case. He recognized it as potentially central to the civil rights movement that was beginning to take hold of the country at that time. Cohen would later say that he knew the Lovings’ case was going to be important. He also thought it was a stroke of good fortune that the case would be called Loving v. Virginia. Cohen and another attorney, Phillip J. Hirschkop, got the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case. In the meantime, the Lovings tried to remove themselves from the legal proceedings as much as possible. They preferred to go on with their lives and hope for the best. In an interview in the Washington Evening Star in 1965, when their case was starting to gain national attention, Mildred Loving explained that she and Richard believed that the law should allow people to marry anyone they want. The Supreme Court heard the Lovings’ case in 1967. Cohen and Hirschkop argued that laws that discriminate on the basis of race are unconstitutional. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court voted 9-0 that the Virginia law and other states’ similar antimiscegenation statutes were indeed unconstitutional (Alabama was the last state to repeal its laws regarding racial marriages in 2000). This came to be known as the “Loving Decision,” calling to mind not only the name of the couple but also the cause they fought for.

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The Lovings Return to Virginia After their trial and the resulting spotlight that followed the Lovings, they quietly moved back to their home in Virginia and settled down there. Mildred stayed home with the children. Richard was a construction worker and contractor. He built a house for them to live in, and they enjoyed living near their families. Mildred desperately needed that support after tragedy struck. A drunk driver hit their car and killed Richard in 1975 at the age of 41. Mildred lost an eye in the same accident. She never remarried and continued to live in the home her husband had built until her death. She died of pneumonia in 2008, one month short of what would have been her and Richard’s fiftieth anniversary.

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In 1996, Richard Friedenberg directed a movie about the Lovings’ saga entitled Mr. and Mrs. Loving. Mildred herself said not much was accurate about the film’s portrayal of her life save for the fact that the Lovings had three children. The Lovings’ case has continued to remain important in American politics. It has also changed the demographics of the country. Now that mixed-race couples can marry freely, there are more children of mixed races. Miscegenation is much more widely accepted and appreciated than in previous American eras. June 12 is an unofficial holiday, “Loving Day,” created to commemorate the Lovings and similar couples. Subsequently, the Lovings’ story had an effect on the debate over gay marriage rights. In a rare press statement on the fortieth anniversary of her court case in 2007, Loving stated that she believed that all Americans, regardless of their race, sex, or sexual orientation, should have the same freedom to marry. Loving also said that she believes the government is not entitled to deny some people’s basic civil rights because of other people’s religious beliefs. Loving’s championing of love and loyalty above unfair laws and prejudices made her a symbol of equality and perseverance.


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THE 2000 CENSUS PROVIDES A SNAPSHOT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS The first U.S. census was taken in 1790. A census is a complete count of the population of a country performed by the government. At the time of the first census, the country’s population was almost four million people. Almost seven hundred thousand of those people were slaves. An official U.S. Census Bureau was formed in 1903 to gather statistics and demographic information about the rapidly growing country. Today, the census is primarily used to determine the population of states in order to determine how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. However, the information the census provides is much more extensive than a simple head count. The census is used to divide money among the states, to track immigration levels, and to track changes in education levels and income figures. The population census is taken every ten years. The national census in 2000 showed a marked rise in black achievement and notable demographic changes from previous decades. In 2000, the census showed that the United States had a population of 281.4 million people. Almost 13 percent of the U.S. population were African American. More than 50 percent of polled blacks lived in the South. The smallest percentage (less than 10 percent) lived in the West. New York and Chicago were the cities with the largest black population in 2000, together totaling 9 percent of the black population overall. Most African

The 2000 Census showed that African Americans are attaining higher levels of income than they ever have before. AP Images

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Americans live within cities, while white Americans tend to live in suburbs of major cities.

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African Americans are graduating from high school and seeking college education in greater numbers than ever before, and the gap in educational achievement between African Americans and whites is decreasing. About 80 percent of African Americans under the age of twenty-five reported being high school graduates. Black women are more likely than black men to have a bachelor’s degree. According to the 2000 census, approximately 9 percent of African Americans were unemployed, while only 4 percent of whites were unemployed. Twenty-eight percent of black families made $50,000 or more per year, compared to 52 percent of white families. What this demographic information shows is that the typical African American is making strides in education, employment, and income but that the majority of white Americans continues to have an easier time moving ahead financially. Demographers anticipated the 2010 census would probably show lower incomes and home ownership across the board due to the recession that began in December of 2007. Predicting what will happen beyond 2010 is tricky. Many things can happen to affect population growth and the outcome of a census. However, assuming that the population will continue to grow more or less as it has in recent years, the U.S. Census Bureau projected that the population of the country in 2050 will be 419 million people. Approximately 14.6 percent of the population will be African American. This is not a significant population increase compared to Hispanics and Asian Americans, whose populations are predicted to at least double. However, it is a higher growth rate than that of non-Hispanic whites, who are estimated to actually decline from 69 percent of the population in 2000 to 50 percent in 2050. Immigration will likely be a large part of this shift, as will education (more educated populations tend to have fewer children) and miscegenation (people of two different races marrying and producing offspring who are more difficult to classify).

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DRUGS AND GANGS PLAGUE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Thanks to the civil rights movement and changes in the law, African Americans have enjoyed tremendous advances over the last forty years. At the same time, the African American community has confronted a unique and difficult set of problems involving illegal drug use. African Americans suffer disproportionately from drug addiction and the social problems associated with drug use and the drug trade. African Americans are less likely than whites to seek treatment for drug addiction. They are much more likely to be arrested and imprisoned for drug possession and trafficking. And the gang African American Eras

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violence associated with the drug trade in American cities is much more likely to affect blacks than whites. The reasons for these difference are complex and controversial. Crack Cocaine Epidemic Begins in the 1980s The form of the illegal drug cocaine known as “crack” surfaced in the United States in 1981. Crack is cocaine mixed with either baking soda or lye and sold in a hardened “rock” form that is smokable. It costs much less money than powder cocaine. It is also highly addictive. The first so-called “crack house”—a house or apartment where users gather to smoke the drug—was reported by police in Miami, Florida, in 1982. At first, drug enforcement officials did not see crack as a major problem. Most users appeared to be middle-class whites using the drug recreationally. However, the drug’s cheap price soon made it popular with poorer customers, many of whom were African American. By 1987, the number of people using cocaine and suffering health problems related to cocaine use increased dramatically. National health statistics show that cocaine-related health emergencies increased by 12 percent in 1985—and by 110 percent in 1986. Within just a couple of years, the crack trade dominated the poor African American neighborhoods of several American cities. Prices kept dropping and purity levels increased in the late 1980s, making crack even more dangerous and addictive.

Many law enforcement experts believe crack was primarily responsible for increased gang violence in the 1980s and 1990s. A 1988 study by the

The development of crack cocaine as a relatively cheap and highly addictive drug created a large increase in gang activity and drug use in low income African American communities. ª Darrin Jenkins/Alamy

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Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that 32 percent of all homicides in New York City were crack-related. Washington, D.C., which has one of the largest black populations in the country, was dubbed “the murder capital” in the late 1980s due to its increase in crack-related violence. The news media reported on this crack-related crime frequently, and public alarm grew. The administration of President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) responded by declaring a “war on drugs.” A key feature of this war on drugs was required minimum sentencing for drug offenses.

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The application of drug laws stirred considerable controversy in the 1980s and 1990s. Evidence suggests that the crack sentencing laws have been applied more harshly to African Americans than to whites. For instance, according to some sources, by 1989 70 percent of crack users in New York were upper-income earners and primarily white; however, by 1999, 94 percent of those actually sentenced to jail time for crack use were black or Hispanic. By 2007, although only 25 percent of crack users were black, more than 81 percent of those convicted of crack-related crimes were black. While crack seems to be related to a spike in imprisonment rates for African American men, the lives of African American women and children were also negatively affected by rising rates of crack use in the late 1980s. Use of crack cocaine by pregnant women causes a variety of birth defects. A high number of special-needs babies being born to crackaddicted mothers in the 1980s gave rise to the crisis of the “crack baby” in foster care systems nationwide. These babies are much harder to care for than healthy babies. While the stereotype of the “crack baby” of the 1980s was that of an infant born to a crack-addicted, single, African American mother, the reality was more complex. During the height of the crack epidemic, doctors and hospitals did not compile formal statistics on the number of babies born with signs of pre-birth cocaine exposure. Infants were not routinely tested. Infants born in hospitals serving mostly black patients were much more likely to be tested than infants in hospitals serving mostly white patients, which may have led to an overreporting of the number of black babies testing positive for drugs. The perception that African American babies were more likely to be exposed to crack than white babies was not based on hard evidence, but the perception shaped public policy and cultural attitudes toward African American mothers. By the early twenty-first century, most criminologists (scholars who study the causes and nature of crime) agreed that the crack epidemic had ended and that crack cocaine use was declining. In early 2009, President Barack Obama (1961– ) said that he plans to refocus anti-drug efforts on treatment and counseling rather than tough sentencing. African American Eras

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Marion Barry Rises, Falls, and Rises Again ..........................................................................................

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arion Barry (1936– ), the former mayor of Washington, D.C., was a major player in the civil rights movement, but his story—and his legacy—is a complicated one. Barry was born to Mississippi sharecroppers. He picked cotton for most of his childhood. The notion of hard work led him to college at a time when protest movements were picking up speed and becoming national news. In 1964 he abandoned his doctoral program in chemistry to work for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group that blended Malcolm X’s ideas of black power with Martin Luther King Jr.’s more peaceful protests. Barry eventually moved to Washington, D.C., where he spearheaded the Free D.C. movement, which was designed to get the city’s largely black population the right to vote and have representation in Congress. Until the 1960s, citizens of Washington, D.C., could not vote in national or local elections. Although the District of Columbia Home Rule Act was passed in 1973, citizens continued to have limited power over their own government. Many D.C. license plates read “Taxation without Representation,” a reference to their limited voice in Congress. Because of his efforts to help the city, Barry became Washington, D.C.’s second elected mayor in 1979. As mayor, he implemented a number of programs designed to help the city financially. Though many think the city improved during this time, there were rumors of corruption and abuse of the city’s budget. Allegations came to a head in 1990 when Barry was arrested for smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room. Barry went to prison for six months, a relatively short sentence in the heyday of the crack epidemic.

Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry after his indictment on drug charges in 1990. ª Bettmann/Corbis

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Despite his arrest and conviction, Barry was again elected mayor in a controversial election in 1994. He served until 1999. There were many conflicts during his last term. When it ended, much of the city seemed relieved. His legacy is thus a complicated one. Few contest his allegiance to and hard work for the civil rights movement, but many have criticized his financial and legal problems since then.

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Gangs and Violence Plague the Large Cities The 1980s saw an explosion in gang violence. According to law enforcement agencies, gang members are almost all male, about 40 percent are under eighteen, and 84 percent are black or Latino (49 percent Latino, 35 percent black). The rising rates of gang violence in general therefore affected African American teens disproportionately. According to a 1996 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crimes committed by youths as a whole increased by 172 percent between 1985 and 1994. For African American youths, the increase was 261 percent. Though black male teenagers only made up 1 percent of the population during this period, they accounted for 17 percent of murder victims and 30 percent of murderers.

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An organization called the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) began collecting statistics on gang activity from law enforcement agencies in 1996. Their research shows that most large American cities had gang problems prior to 1990. Large cities remain the areas most likely to have gang problems. The NYGC reported in 1996 that there were more than thirty thousand active gangs in the United States. That number declined steadily to about twenty thousand in 2003. After 2003, however, it climbed every year, reaching about twenty-seven thousand in 2007. The spread of gang activity is due in part to the rising demand for drugs. The illegal drug trade funds the activities of some American gangs. The fact that gang violence spiked around the same time crack cocaine became a widely publicized problem led the public to connect the two trends. This led to the stereotypical picture of a gang member being an inner-city black teen who sells crack. However, some sociologists question how big a role drugs play in gang activity. Many gangs are too unorganized to manage the distribution of drugs in a profitable way. Law enforcement teams find that many serious drug dealers leave their gangs in order to have more order and independence. Thus, the appeal of profits from the drug trade is not always the reason African American teens enter gangs. They are more likely influenced by their peers and the promise of some kind of social network they may be lacking in school or at home. In the early twenty-first century, strides have been made in reducing gangs by providing more police and better social and employment choices for gang members. Even so, as of early 2009 it was estimated that there were one million gang members in the United States and that gang-related crimes accounted for 80 percent of all crimes. Black Men Are Imprisoned at Higher Rates As of May 2009, there were more than two hundred thousand federal prisoners in the United States. The majority of the prisoners were serving sentences between five and ten years long, and more than 50 percent of the African American Eras

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A gang unit officer searches a group of African Americans suspected of being gang members in the violent area of south central Los Angeles in 2007. Robert Nickelsberg/ Getty Images

total crimes committed were drug-related. Over 90 percent of federal prisoners were male, and almost 40 percent were black. By contrast, African Americans make up just 13.5 percent of the nation’s population. These numbers suggest that the criminal justice system treats African Americans unfairly, especially since the rate at which crimes are committed has fallen to its lowest level since the 1960s. Black males are imprisoned at more than six times the rate of white males, and black females at four times the rate of white females. Differences in sentencing for drug crimes partly explain these figures. Because crack was seen as a greater threat to society as a whole than marijuana and powder cocaine, crack-related crimes brought stiffer sentences. While both blacks and whites use crack cocaine, blacks are more likely to be arrested for crack use. Once arrested, African Americans are less likely than whites to have enough money to afford a private attorney who could shield them from a prison sentence. Another factor related to higher imprisonment rates for African Americans is poverty. Poverty is statistically connected with imprisonment. In 2007, 53 percent of the jailed population had earned less than ten thousand dollars before their incarceration. As of 2006, 24.2 percent of African Americans nationwide were living in poverty, compared with just 8.2 percent of white Americans. Statistically, this makes African Americans more likely to go to prison. 290


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The high number of black men in prison takes a toll on African American communities and the country as a whole. Five percent of all state tax dollars collected in the United States go to corrections, including prisons and rehabilitation programs. The increase in the number of black males in prison also affects their families because the imprisoned men are not able to earn an income and provide for their dependents.

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Some experts suggest that the United States should combat these alarming rates of incarceration by reviewing sentencing policies and imprisoning fewer drug-related offenders. Most drug-related crimes occur on a small, personal level. Very rarely are large-scale international drug deals involved. In early 2009, President Barack Obama announced that he plans to work to reduce the mandatory sentencing levels for crack cocaine.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY LIFE UNDERGOES CHANGES There have been many significant changes to marriage and family life in the African American community since the 1970s. Black female students are increasingly outperforming their black male counterparts in school. An increasing number of African Americans are choosing to marry persons who are not also African Americans. As many as 70 percent of African American mothers are single and raising children on their own. African American teenage girls are becoming pregnant at a much higher rate than teenagers of other races. Gay and lesbian couples and families are becoming increasingly visible in the African American community.

Educational Achievement Black middle school students scored approximately 39 percent lower than whites in 1970 on standardized tests such as reading, math, and science. In 1990, they scored only 20 percent lower. By 2007, the difference had dropped to about 6 percent, according to a study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Thanks to school integration and early education programs like Head Start, more middle-class black students are increasing their test scores and graduation rates. Inner-city schools still struggle, as do rural schools. Despite the benefits of desegregation, blacks seem to do better in predominantly black schools rather than more integrated schools. One reason black schoolchildren are doing better overall is the economic advances of their parents. As a group gets wealthier, its children tend to perform better on standardized tests. This is in part due to the fact that school systems are based on property taxes. The best schools are generally in the wealthiest neighborhoods. The rise of charter schools and private schools affect these demographics as well. African American Eras

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The Wealthiest African American of the 20th Century ..........................................................................................

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prah Winfrey—talk show host, actress, and philanthropist—has the distinction of being not only the wealthiest African American of the twentieth century but also one of the wealthiest women in the world. The fact that Winfrey is a “double minority” and came from a poor, rural background in Mississippi makes her rise to fame and fortune all the more remarkable. Winfrey was born to an unwed teenage mother whose income came from cleaning houses. She ran away from home at age thirteen. Eventually Winfrey went back to high school and began working in radio. She won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black college. As a college student she studied media and communication. From there her career skyrocketed. She now spends time influencing not only the nation but also the world. While some worry that Winfrey’s influence is too great, she shows no sign of slowing down. Her story continues to fascinate people the world over.

Despite these changes, one educational statistic has remained constant: black males do not do as well as black females on educational tests, school performance, and college advancement. Significantly more black women than black men graduate from colleges and professional schools. Several theories have been advanced to explain why this could be happening. Many appear to be based on racial stereotypes in addition to actual learning and education. For instance, there are theories that the black male is seen as a potential threat in the classroom, while the black female is more of a victim. Another stereotype is that black males tend to spend their time in athletic pursuits rather than academic ones. The prevalence of these misconceptions in the primary and secondary classroom—particularly in inner-city schools—may lead some teachers to alter their methods of instruction to fit their views. Another issue is that most inner-city black children (over 70 percent) are being raised by their mothers and grandmothers. School systems, too, are primarily matriarchal (run by women), with female teachers outnumbering male teachers. This could lead to compliance on the part of black female students, who are comfortable with the role of women in power, and a sense of rebellion in young black males who miss their fathers and resent the lack of male involvement in their lives. Also, after 292


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high school, many black men choose to get jobs to support their families rather than continue their education.

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While more African Americans and Americans overall are attending college than in previous years, minorities are still underrepresented in college faculties across the country. A 2000 report by the American Council on Education showed that only 6 percent of college and university faculty are African American. Many of these faculty members teach at community colleges and historically black schools. The Rate of Interracial Marriage Is Rising Along with desegregation in the public sphere, the civil rights era saw a good deal of desegregation in the private arena as well. More minorities and whites were working alongside one another, going to schools together, and getting married to each other. The case that sparked the reform in the area of marriage law was the landmark Loving v. Virginia. Decided in 1967, Loving overturned and declared unconstitutional a law in the state of Virginia that banned interracial marriage.

Prior to Loving v. Virginia, which altered the laws of marriage across the states, miscegenation (the mixing of races, either through marriage or cohabitation) was illegal in many states. Antimiscegenation laws prohibited whites from mixing with other races, most often African Americans but also Native Americans and Asians. After the civil rights era, members of all races had greater economic motives and means to move across the United States. More mixed-race relationships naturally occurred. When Mildred Jeter (1939–2008), who was black, married Richard Loving, who was white, in Washington, D.C., in 1958, they did not realize their marriage would be punishable by law once they returned to their home state of Virginia. Just weeks after they returned to Virginia, they awoke in the middle of the night to find themselves being arrested by policemen standing over their bed. Their arrest prompted them to move away from Virginia. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), they successfully won their case in court years later. After their success, they returned to Virginia to be close to their families. Although Richard died in a car crash shortly afterwards, Mildred became a symbol of civil rights and freedom. She never remarried and lived in the home he had built for them until she died in 2008. After the Lovings’ lengthy legal battle, many other states repealed their own similar laws because the Supreme Court had declared them unconstitutional as violations of the Fourteenth Amendment. Some states, where racism was particularly deep-rooted, waited to officially repeal their laws. They waited both as an act of defiance of the Supreme Court and also as a way to condemn interracial marriage. Alabama was the last state to officially revoke its antimiscegenation law in 2000. African American Eras

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The rate of interracial marriages has increased since it was made legal in 1967, but is still relatively rare. ª Neil McAllister/Alamy

The number of interracial marriages has increased dramatically since Loving was decided in 1967, but it still remains relatively rare. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Native Americans are the race most likely to marry another race: 56.7 percent of Native Americans are members of an interracial marriage. African Americans are less likely to marry outside their race. Only 7 percent of blacks marry someone of another race. The number of African Americans in interracial marriages is higher among young people, among people who live in cities, and with the attainment of higher education. According to the 2000 Census, there were 287,576 interracial marriages in the United States. A black man and a white woman was a much more common pairing than a black woman with a white man. Hispanic-white marriage is the most common type of intermarriage in America. Black Single Parents Face Challenges Over the last several decades, family structures in the United States changed. Divorce became more socially accepted, and common, in the 1970s and 1980s. Currently in the United States, approximately one half of marriages end in divorce. Trends show that marriages (and partnerships in general) last longer in wealthier communities. Data also show that black women are the least likely to have successful marriages. Black couples in general marry less frequently than white couples, get divorced more frequently, and are less likely to remarry.

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men earn less money on average than white men, while black women only make, on average, as much as white women (which is less than white men make). Thus, divorce often hits black families—whose income levels are already less stable than those of whites—harder than white families.

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In addition, black males have higher rates of being absentee fathers. Of the twenty-four million children without fathers in this country, the majority are African American. This leaves black mothers (and often their mothers as well) with most of the financial burden. Traditionally, the African American community has been more close-knit than most white communities. Many single black parents turn to neighbors and other family members for help. On the upside of this trend in single parent homes, many new homeowners are unmarried African American females. In Atlanta, a city with 100,000 more unmarried black women than black men, mortgages to such women rose 114 percent from 1997 to 2002. Children of divorced families are affected in many ways. Generally, children of divorced or single parents do worse in school and have more behavioral problems than children from two-parent homes. African American boys can be negatively impacted by the lack of a positive adult male role model in the home. Some people argue that the high rate of absenteeism among black fathers is partially to blame for high drop-out rates and high levels of gang involvement in low-income black communities. However, a 2005 study in the Journal of Family Issues argued that the rate at which African American men are absentee fathers is often overstated. The study found that young black men (age twenty-two and under) who become fathers are no less likely to be involved with their children than fathers of other races. Teenage Pregnancy Becomes More Common Teenage pregnancy is a problem among all races, but the rate of African American teenage births is almost double that of white teenage births. In 1995, black teens were responsible for 23 percent of all teen births. Some progress has been made since then. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the teen birth rate had fallen by 2002. For black teens, the rate was down by over 40 percent. For teens aged fifteen to seventeen, the rates had been cut in half since 1991.

One of the biggest difficulties associated with teen pregnancy is financial strain. Teenagers have less money saved than do their parents. They also have fewer ways to earn money while in school and tend to earn lower wages. A pregnant teenage girl who wants to keep her child faces the hard decision of either staying in school and hoping her family will help with the child or dropping out and not receiving a high school diploma. African American Eras

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The Most Conspicuously Absent Father in the United States ..........................................................................................

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resident Barack Obama is an example of someone who grew up without a father. President Obama now speaks publicly about the importance of good male role models, especially in the African American community, where many believe fathers are needed most. His memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995), was one of the best-selling books of 2008, the year he was elected president.

Barack Obama at age ten with his father. AP Images

Obama’s family was comfortably middleclass. He spent much of his childhood in exotic locales like Indonesia and Hawaii. Even so, the absence of his father was keenly and bitterly felt. His parents met while they were in college. They divorced when Barack was only two. His father moved back to his native country of Kenya after finishing his master’s degree at Harvard University. Obama only saw his father once after that, when he was ten years old. He spent much of his life pondering the man’s absence. Obama was raised by his mother, her second husband, and his grandparents, all of whom were fairly well-to-do and educated.

Either way is a hard road. Many teens find themselves working long hours for little pay. For African American communities, this route is often even more difficult because African Americans still earn lower wages on average than their white counterparts in the same jobs. For a pregnant teenager whose father does not live with the family, the new child relies almost solely on its grandmother for financial support. In 1991, 46 percent of unwed teenage pregnancies ended in abortion, 44 percent were carried to term and kept, and only 2 percent were given up for adoption. The adoption process is a difficult one. Many American families choose to adopt from foreign countries, where there is little chance the mother might want the baby back. This puts another strain on pregnant African American teens, who often do not see adoption as a possibility. 296


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African American Gay and Lesbian Families Struggle to Gain Acceptance In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that laws specifically prohibiting homosexuality are unconstitutional and a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, in the early 2000s gay couples still did not receive the same rights as non-gay unions. Many gay and lesbian activists argue that the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia, which held that state laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional, means that it is also unconstitutional for states to deny gay couples the right to marry. Mildred Loving herself stated her support for gay marriage rights before she died in 2008.

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Gay couples and families often have a hard time dealing with discrimination. Gay black couples have perhaps an even harder time. Gay black men often deny the fact that they are gay, not wanting to seem weak or effeminate in the face of stereotypes that suggest black man are—or should be—strong and aggressive. Many black gay men and lesbians seek out community. The National Coalition of Black Gays was founded in 1979. A number of other groups have been formed to combat AIDS and to help black gay men and lesbian women fit in and find support. The Pentecostal Faith Temple of Washington, D.C., supports gay rights, as do many other black churches. Pop cultural icons often help black gays gain acceptance. Gay performers such as RuPaul (1960– ), writers such as James Baldwin (1924–87) and Countee Cullen (1903–46), politicians such as Barbara Jordan (1936–96), and television characters such as Lafayette Reynolds (played by Nelsan Ellis) on HBO’s series True Blood have garnered a cult following among all races and sexual orientations. These icons go a long way to help black gays and lesbians gain acknowledgment and equality.

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A BLACK MIDDLE CLASS EMERGES Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, African Americans have made great strides in the main areas that contribute to a successful middle class: education, occupation, and income. During the 1950s and 1960s, several U.S. Supreme Court decisions and congressional acts broke down old cultural and legal barriers that kept blacks out of good schools and good jobs. Among these legal decisions and new laws were the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregation in schools unconstitutional, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made racial discrimination in employment and education illegal. Changes such as these allowed African Americans access to better schools. They also gained access to better-paying jobs that required advanced skills. This helped bring many African American Eras

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African Americans into the middle class, which had previously been dominated by whites. Advances Since the 1960s In 1960, only 20 percent of African Americans had graduated from high school. This was less than half the national average for whites. By 2003, that number had risen to 80 percent, which was less than 10 percent lower than the national average for white students. The rates at which African Americans earned college degrees also increased dramatically. According to the 2000 U.S. census, 14.3 percent of African Americans over the age of twenty-five had a college degree. This was significantly less than the 26.1 percent of whites over twenty-five who had a college degree; however, it was a dramatic increase over the rate in 1960, when only 3.5 percent of African Americans older than twenty-five had a college degree (and only 8.1 percent of whites). The increased rate at which African Americans are graduating from high school has had a huge impact on the rise of the black middle class.

A large, stable middle class means less crime, better neighborhoods, and a higher level of education for all. An economic boom in the 1960s swelled the ranks of the middle class of all races; legal desegregation allowed African Americans to take advantage of the strong economy. In 1960, only 10 percent of African Americans belonged to the middle class. During the 1960s and early 1970s, African Americans showed dramatic upward mobility, a term demographers use to describe one generation achieving wealth at a greater level than the generation before them. In 1962, only one in five black

The emergence of the black middle class in the second half of the twentieth century resulted in more African American families owning their own homes. ª Palmer Kane Studio/Alamy

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The Cosby Show ..........................................................................................

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ne of the first popular portrayals of upper-middle-class African Americans came some twenty years after the civil rights movement. The Cosby Show first aired in 1984 and was an instant success among viewers of all races. Centered on comedian Bill Cosby’s character Heathcliff Huxtable and his family, the show presented a model of African American family life that was dramatically different from those seen in such hit shows of the 1970s as Sanford and Son (1972–77) and Good Times (1972–79). Sanford and Son focused on the struggles of a poor black junk dealer and his son. Good Times dealt with the lives of an African American family living in a Chicago housing project. Cosby’s Heathcliff Huxtable, by contrast, was a successful doctor. His wife Claire was an attorney. The family of five lived comfortably in a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. This portrayal of a black family being successful and relatively unconcerned with race was a first on television. The show was sometimes criticized for being too “white” and not addressing serious race issues. Nevertheless, it was number one in the ratings for five consecutive seasons and ran for eight years.

males was born into a class higher than his father’s. By 1973, that figure was one in three. This emerging black middle class was fairly stable, meaning that once middle-class status was achieved, it was maintained. About half of African Americans born into the middle class in 1973 remained middle-class in adulthood. Vulnerability to Economic Downturns Unfortunately, African Americans tend to be hit harder by economic downturns than whites, in part because they may not have a network of middle-class family members to turn to for help. During the economic downturn of the late 1970s, many African Americans lost financial ground, although they regained their footing in the 1980s and 1990s. However, as the world entered a severe recession in 2008 and 2009, African Americans again found themselves disproportionately affected. Home ownership, one of the key indicators of middle-class status, spiked for the African American population—and the U.S. population as a whole—at the turn of the twentyfirst century, as the housing industry enjoyed a boom. By 2004, about half of African American families owned their own homes (and about three-fourths African American Eras

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of whites), up from 44 percent in the early 1990s. The economic downturn of 2008 began in 2007 in the housing market, when home owners began defaulting on high-risk subprime mortgages. African Americans were much more likely to hold one of these risky mortgages: 52.5 percent of black homeowners had these risky subprime mortgages, as opposed to 17.4 percent of whites. Huge numbers of borrowers had the bank foreclose on their loans, but blacks were hit hardest, with one in ten black homeowners losing their homes as opposed to one in twenty-five white homeowners. Despite advances in educational options and job availability, blacks’ incomes are still lower than those of whites. African Americans own more of their own businesses than they did a generation ago, and those businesses no longer solely serve the black community. However, African Americans do not move up the corporate power structure as easily as white Americans do. In addition, due to the problems of the previous generation’s employment levels, many African Americans do not have significant inheritances or pensions. As a result, they must work harder and longer than many middleclass whites. While white families have money invested in stocks, African Americans have fewer investments overall. For example, a 2007 study by the federal government found that white families invest 29 percent of their assets in stocks, bonds, and other similar investments. Black families on average invest only 15 percent in the same areas. African American families put a majority of their assets in housing, the study found. Even so, African American families are less likely to own their own homes. When they do, the homes tend to be in lower-income neighborhoods. Due to a lack of savings, many middle-class blacks feel they are just a paycheck away from poverty.

v

GREAT MIGRATIONS CHANGE THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF U.S. CITIES Since 1965, the African American population has not only grown in size, its composition and location also have changed dramatically. Many African Americans who moved out of the South in the years following World War II returned to the South in search of work or to reunite with their families as part of what is known as the New Great Migration. Several urban areas in the South have become centers of African American wealth and opportunity. However, African Americans also continue to suffer the consequences of poverty and natural disasters. African Americans Leave the South During the years between 1910 and 1970, 5.6 million African Americans left their homes in the South to find better lives elsewhere in the country. This movement came in two large waves. Between 1910 and 1930, more than a million African Americans moved away from the South in what was known 300


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as the First Great Migration. Another bigger wave, known as the Second Great Migration, came after World War II ended in 1945. Demographically speaking, the movement caused a relatively stable population of blacks in the South to head elsewhere, to cities and states that were previously more or less off-limits due to distance or race relations. The manufacturing industry boomed in big midwestern and northeastern cities in the early twentieth century, and African Americans found work in factories that allowed them a much better standard of living than they had on farms in the South. As schools were desegregated in the 1950s and 1960s, new educational opportunities also attracted African Americans to major urban centers outside the South.

Demographics ........................................................


Many black southerners who relocated during the Second Great Migration had to leave their families and friends behind. They did so to better themselves and achieve more than they could in what had always been a segregated and racially biased South. In addition, southern farms no longer needed as many workers, regardless of race, due to the rise of machinery and technology. This Second Great Migration found many blacks moving from places such as Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana to places such as California, Michigan, Illinois, and New York. The civil rights movement peaked during the 1960s, and the South saw many incidents of racially motivated violence and unrest. As the benefits of the civil rights movement began to be seen and the unrest died down, many African Americans who had migrated away from the South reevaluated their decision to move away. The jobs in northern and midwestern factories involved long, hard hours. The manufacturing industry in America faced new foreign competition, and factory jobs were harder to find. Meanwhile, the South developed strong, urban economic centers of its own, offering African Americans appealing job opportunities. For these reasons, the Second Great Migration came to an end around 1970.

The availability of good paying jobs in the auto industry brought many African Americans north in the mid twentieth century. ª Bettmann/Corbis

Other demographic changes happened after the civil rights movement. More blacks were bused to white schools, and more blacks could afford to move to the suburbs. More interracial marriages were legal and accepted, thanks largely to the Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia. As a result, more children of mixed races were born. Incomes of African Americans rose, as did education levels. What was once exclusively African American Eras

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The Richest and Best ..........................................................................................

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rince George’s County in Maryland is the wealthiest black community in the country. Bordering Washington, D.C., the county is home to many politicians, lawmakers, and engineers, which accounts for the relatively high median household income (above eighty thousand dollars per year). Over 60 percent of the county’s residents are African American. Many have college educations. Despite such positive statistics, Prince George’s County also has accounted for 20 percent of the murders in Maryland since 1985. According to a 2007 list by Black Enterprise magazine, Washington, D.C., is the most desirable place for African Americans to live due to the education level of the general populace and the opportunities for high-level employment. Cities like Atlanta, Georgia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, which are the capitals of their states, also appeal to African Americans. They have many universities (some historically black) and thriving economies full of black-owned businesses, thanks to the New Great Migration. Atlanta is home to the world headquarters of AT&T, Coca-Cola, and Delta Airlines. Its airport is a major international hub for the eastern United States. Raleigh has grown thanks to the Research Triangle, a section of the state of North Carolina that supports profitable medical and scientific research.

black culture became popular culture to all races. This mix was not always successful, though. Crime rose in many urban areas. Working-class European Americans in many northern cities were resentful of new African American arrivals who they believed were taking their jobs. Tensions erupted into fullscale riots in many major cities in the late 1960s. By the early 1970s, many African Americans were ready to go back to their southern roots, where the economy had changed for the better and where they could more easily benefit their old communities. The Return South The population of the Sun Belt, which stretches across the southern United States from Florida to California, has grown significantly since the 1970s. African Americans have contributed to that growth. The Sun Belt has always attracted northerners thanks to its warm climate. Between 1950 and 1990, the Sun Belt states’ population grew substantially. For example, Arizona’s population grew by 388 percent and Florida’s by 366 percent. By 302


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contrast, the population of the rest of the United States grew by only 64 percent during the same time. After 1970, industries began to appear in the South where there had once been farms. These industries hired workers who tended not to unionize, which was a perk for southern business owners. Cities like Atlanta, Miami, and Houston became international hubs. The military established many bases in the South. This also attracted African Americans, who found the military lifestyle earned them both respect and a decent living. Air conditioning made it easier for older people of all races to be comfortable in the South. As a result, a vast number of retirees moved to be by the warmth of the coast in their later years; 20 percent of new Florida residents each year are at least sixty–five.

Demographics ........................................................


Another important aspect of this demographic influx into the South from approximately 1970 to the present—commonly referred to as the New Great Migration—is that many of the African Americans who have moved to the South are better educated than before. For example, from 1995 to 2000, Maryland, Georgia, and Texas were the states that gained the most black college graduates. This resulted in more black-owned businesses than before, a distinct shift from just fifty years earlier. In addition to internal domestic migration, immigration from abroad (foreign countries) has contributed to the growth of the African American population in the South. Many Afro-Caribbean Americans continue to move from their island homes to the South, especially to Florida. These immigrants, from places like the Bahamas, Haiti, and Jamaica, bring their own customs to the southern black population. The South continues to grow, both financially and in terms of population, thanks in large part to thriving African American communities.


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 ............................................................... Primary Sources

 SUPREME COURT’S LOVING V. VIRGINIA DECISION (1967)

Abode Home or place of residence

Virginia judge Leon M. Bazile upheld a Virginia law prohibiting interracial marriage when he ruled against Richard and Mildred Loving for violating the statute in 1959. Grey Villet/Time & Life

The selection that follows is an excerpt from the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia (1967). Mildred and Richard Loving were an interracial couple arrested for breaking a Virginia law against interracial marriage in 1957. The Lovings challenged the law before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Chief Justice Earl Warren presented the unanimous decision of the Court. In its decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia’s antimiscegenation laws (laws prohibiting a person from legally marrying or cohabitating with a person from another race) were unconstitutional and violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The Loving case, therefore, made it illegal for any state to have laws prohibiting marriage between people of different races. This excerpt from the ruling explains the initial case and charges, whereby the Lovings were arrested in their own home while they slept, and goes on to refute their conviction.

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Pictures/Getty Images

In June 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Negro woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws. Shortly after their marriage, the Lovings returned to Virginia and established their marital abode in Caroline County. At the October Term, 1958, of the Circuit Court of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” 304


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After their convictions, the Lovings took up residence in the District of Columbia. On November 6, 1963, they filed a motion in the state trial court to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence on the ground that the statutes which they had violated were repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. The motion not having been decided by October 28, 1964, the Lovings instituted a class action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia requesting that a three-judge court be convened to declare the Virginia antimiscegenation statutes unconstitutional and to enjoin state officials from enforcing their convictions. On January 22, 1965, the state trial judge denied the motion to vacate the sentences, and the Lovings perfected an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. On February 11, 1965, the threejudge District Court continued the case to allow the Lovings to present their constitutional claims to the highest state court.

Demographics ........................................................


Repugnant Offensive and inconsistent with

The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the antimiscegenation statutes and, after modifying the sentence, affirmed the convictions. The Lovings appealed this decision, and we noted probable jurisdiction on December 12, 1966. The two statutes under which appellants were convicted and sentenced are part of a comprehensive statutory scheme aimed at prohibiting and punishing interracial marriages. The Lovings were convicted of violating 20-58 of the Virginia Code: “Leaving State to evade law. If any white person and colored person shall go out of this State, for the purpose of being married, and with the intention of returning, and be married out of it, and afterwards return to and reside in it, cohabiting as man and wife, they shall be punished as provided in 20-59, and the marriage shall be governed by the same law as if it had been solemnized in this State. The fact of their cohabitation here as man and wife shall be evidence of their marriage.” Section 20-59, which defines the penalty for miscegenation, provides: “Punishment for marriage. If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years.” . . . There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification. The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving white persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy. We have consistently denied the constitutionality of measures which restrict the rights of citizens on account of race. There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.

Patently Clearly and plainly Invidious Hostile and with an evil purpose

These statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The freedom to African American Eras

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marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men. Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival. . . . To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State. These convictions must be reversed. It is so ordered.

 TEN PLACES OF 100,000 OR MORE POPULATION WITH

THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF BLACKS OR AFRICAN AMERICANS: 2000 The following chart is from the U.S. Census Brief The Black Population: 2000, which highlights data from the 2000 census that relates specifically to the African American population. This brief reveals that in 2000, the African American population was highly concentrated. That means that the percentage of African Americans in a given city or county in the United States is either very high or very low, when compared to the percentage of African Americans nationally. For example, the census showed that 64 percent of counties in the United States had a black population of under 6 percent, but in 96 counties—95 of which are in the South—blacks account for 50 percent or more of the population. This chart shows that eight of the ten U.S. cities with the highest African American population are in the South. Interestingly, however, the two cities with the highest percentage of African Americans are in the Midwest. Detroit and Chicago (just thirty minutes from Gary, Indiana) attracted large numbers of blacks during the Great Migration (1910–70).

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Ten Places of 100,000 or More Population With the Highest Percentage of Blacks or African Americans: 2000

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Black or African American alone or in combination Black or African American alone

85.3 84.0

Gary, IN

82.8 81.6

Detroit, MI 74.0 73.5

Birmingham, AL

71.1 70.6

Jackson, MS

67.9 67.3

New Orleans, LA

65.2 64.3

Baltimore, MD

Atlanta, GA

62.1 61.4

Memphis, TN

61.9 61.4

Washington, DC

61.3 60.0

Richmond, VA

58.1 57.2

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File, Table PL 1.


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1. Every ten years, the U.S. Census Bureau assesses the demographics in the country. Data about wealth, population, children, and education are calculated and analyzed. Think of a measurable factor that affects the African American population that you think should be calculated but currently is not. Write a report explaining how you would go about gathering the information that you believe is being left out. 2. Prepare a speech about the value of a college education for African Americans. In your speech, explain at least three ways that higher education helps not just the person being educated but society as a whole. Propose at least one change to our country’s educational system that you believe would help African Americans pursue college degrees in higher numbers. 3. Write a report about changes to America’s black population. What do you think will have happened to some of the main demographics of the population—income, education, employment, home ownership, and the number of children born—by the year 2020? by 2050? What factors influence your analysis? 4. Take your own census of your classmates. Remind them that their answers will remain anonymous. Ask them about housing, education, how many siblings they have, their parents’ employment, race, gender, and anything else that you think matters statistically. Now ask them where they think they will be in fifteen years. Will their demographics have changed much? If you can, conduct a similar census of another class (of students your age) nearby or elsewhere in the United States. How do their results vary? 5. Some African Americans, like Roland G. Fryer and Oprah Winfrey, have succeeded despite their poor and difficult beginnings. Fryer was raised primarily by relatives who made and sold crack cocaine. Winfrey was raised by a single mother and often wore dresses made of potato sacks to school. Conduct research to find some other examples of people in our lifetime who have risen above their humble beginnings (not necessarily African Americans). Write an essay explaining how you think this happened. Was it something inside of them or help from the outside that made a difference? Explain. 6. Conduct research on the ten large U.S. cities with the highest percentage of African Americans. Write a report in which you discuss what these cities have in common and how they differ in terms of such factors as climate, education, employment and industry, and anything else you 308


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think might be significant. Based on your analysis, make a prediction about the African American population in these areas: will it grow, shrink, or remain about the same in ten years? in twenty years? Use research to back up your prediction.

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BOOKS

hooks, bell. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press, 1981. hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. Kennedy, Randall. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. New York: Vintage, 2002. Newbeck, Phyl. Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers: Interracial Marriage Bans and the Case of Richard and Mildred Loving. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005. Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004. Tolliver, Susan. Black Families in Corporate America. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1998.

PERIODICALS “A Virtuous Circle: Black and White (Academic Achievement of Black Middle Class) (American Survey).” Economist 324:7768 (July 18, 1992): p. A27(1). Dubner, Stephen J. “Toward a Unified Theory of Black America.” New York Times Magazine (March 20, 2005): p. 1. Jenkins, Jeanne E., and John Guidubaldi. “The Nature Nurture Controversy Revisited: Divorce and Gender as Factors in Children’s Racial Group Differences.” Child Study Journal 27:2 (1997): pp. 145 60. Johnson, Kevin. “Report: Gang membership on the rise across U.S.” USA Today (January 30, 2009), reprinted in Arizona Republic. http://www.azcentral.com/ arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/01/30/20090130gns gangs0130.html (ac cessed September 30, 2009). Jones, Lisa. “Rebel Without a Pause.” Village Voice Literary Supplement (October 1992): p. 10.

WEB SITES DeShay, Akiim. “The African American Middle Class.” BlackDemographics.com. http://www.blackdemographics.com/middle class.html (accessed September 30, 2009).


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“Fryer, Roland.” Harvard University Department of Economics. http://www .economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/cv/RolandFryer (accessed September 30, 2009). “United States Census 2010.” U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/ (accessed September 30, 2009). U.S. Supreme Court. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). FindLaw for Legal Professionals. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol= 388&invol=1 (accessed September 30, 2009).

OTHER “Interview with Tavis Smiley.” The Tavis Smiley Show. PBS (March 30, 2005).

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ch apt e r six

Chronology . . . . . . . . . 312 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 315 Headline Makers . . . . . . 318 Joe Clark . . . . . . Johnnetta B. Cole . . Michael Eric Dyson . Harry Edwards . . . Henry Louis Gates Jr.. Rod Paige . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

. 318 . 321 . 326 . 330 . 333 . 338

Topics in the News . . . . . 343 Black Studies Programs Are Established in Higher Education . . . . . . . . 343 Courts Order School Busing to Achieve Integration . . . 346

Education

School Administrators Propose Ebonics to Aid Black Students . . . . Charter Schools Provide an Alternative to Minority Students . . . . . . States Take Over Failing Inner City Schools . . Historically Black Colleges and Universities Face Challenges . . . . .

. . . 352

. . . 354 . . . 358

. . . 363

Primary Sources . . . . . . . 369 Research and Activity Ideas . . . 375 For More Information . . . . 376

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 March 5 The Freedom School, one of the nation’s first integrated schools, is burned to the ground in Indianola, Mississippi. 1965 April 9 Congress enacts the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), a landmark legislative act intended to close the achievement gap between students from low-income families—a large percentage of whom are minorities— and those from privileged families. 1966 February 1 Dr. Samuel P. Massie becomes the first African American professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. 1966 December 29 In U.S. v. Jefferson County Board of Education, a U.S. Court of Appeals declares that the federal government can withhold federal funding from schools that refuse to desegregate. 1968 May 11 During Alfred University’s annual Parents’ Day celebration, a group of students and faculty members stage a demonstration, calling for scholarships for African American students and for African American history to be added to the school’s curriculum. 1968 November 6 Students at San Francisco State University begin a fivemonth strike that prompts the school to establish the first black studies department in a four-year college.

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1968 December 23 In Powe v. Miles, a federal court decrees that the portions of private colleges that receive public funding are subject to the Civil Rights Act. African American students benefit from this ruling because it requires private institutions to follow affirmative action policies, or those programs that attempt to replace discriminatory practices with equal opportunities for people of all races. 1969 The Ford Foundation grants $1 million to Howard University, Yale University, and Morgan State University to prepare faculty members to teach courses in African American studies. 1969 April 22 At City College in New York, 250 African American and Puerto Rican students begin a protest that closes the campus and continues until May 15, 1969. Among the group’s demands is the establishment of a School of Black and Puerto Rican Studies at the college. 1969 June 2 In U.S. v. Montgomery County Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that schools must hire a certain number of minority teachers based on a defined ratio. As a result, one out of every six faculty and staff members at a school must be of a different race than the majority of faculty at that school. 1971 April 20 In Swann v. CharlotteMecklenburg Board of Education, the

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......................................................................................... Supreme Court rules that district courts can require schools to bus students outside of their neighborhoods in order to achieve racial balance. 1973 December 14 The New York Board of Regents orders colleges not to allow minorities living in on-campus housing to segregate themselves. 1974 September 14 In Boston, angry whites throw rocks and shout racial slurs at African American students being bused to white schools as part of an integration plan. The incident is one of many that will affect Boston public schools for the rest of the decade. 1976 February 1 Negro History Week, founded by Professor Carter Woodson’s Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1926, is expanded into Black History Month. 1977 May 11 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) files suit against the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The NAACP charges that the federal agency has been negligent in enforcing the integration of vocational education. 1978 June 28 In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court prohibits the use of a racial quota system (a requirement that a

fixed number of minority applicants be admitted every year) in college admissions. 1979 August 15 In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the school board approves a program that will teach “Black English” to all teachers at Martin Luther King Elementary School. 1983 February 7 In Philadelphia, a U.S. district judge rules that once school districts have initially achieved racial integration, they are not required to maintain racial balance among their faculties by constantly reassigning teachers. 1984 As part of the ongoing Geier v. Alexander case, the U.S. District Court grants a Stipulation of Settlement Agreement to the plaintiffs and defendants. The purpose of the settlement is to improve highereducation opportunities for African Americans and increase the numbers of African American students in predominantly white universities. 1986 June 16 A test given to two hundred thousand teachers in Texas (the Texas Examination for Current Administrators and Teachers, or TECAT) is formally challenged by teachers’ unions on the grounds of racial bias. Eighteen percent of African American teachers and six percent of Hispanic teachers fail the test, while only one percent of white teachers fail it.


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....................................................................................... 1992 City Academy High School, the nation’s first charter school, opens in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a student body that is approximately ninetypercent minority. 1994 Elaine R. Jones is named the first female director-counsel of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), which has been responsible for major civil rights litigation related to education. Under Jones’s leadership, the LDF defended affirmative action at the University of Michigan in the U.S. Supreme Court case Gratz vs. Bollinger (2003). 1994 January 25 Reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Bill Clinton signs the Improving America’s Schools Act (ISA). 1997 October 25 In Philadelphia, African American women participate in the Million Woman March, a movement focusing on education and health care. 1999 Thirty years of court-supervised desegregation ends in the Charlotte-

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Mecklenburg school district, which had been at the center of the school busing controversy in the early 1970s. 2002 January 8 President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is signed into law. It reauthorizes federal programs that aim to improve the performance of elementary and secondary schools by increasing state, district, and campus accountability standards. 2003 June 23 The Supreme Court rules that public institutions of higher education can use race as one of many factors in the admissions process. 2007 According to the U.S. Census, nineteen percent of the African American population has completed four or more years of college, as opposed to thirty-two percent of the white population. 2007 June 28 The Supreme Court rules that race cannot be a factor in assigning students to high schools in Louisville, Kentucky, and Seattle, Washington.

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 ............................................................... Overview

Education ........................................................

OVERVIEW

With its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court breathed life into the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. The Court recognized both civil and political rights for African Americans. Such rights are often referred to as “first generation rights.” In the decades following Brown, African American students began to insist upon more than civil and political liberties. They wanted schools—segregated or not—to affirm their economic, cultural, and social rights as well. Known as “second generation rights,” these are liberties endorsed by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). In the South, many school districts responded to Brown’s ruling that elementary and secondary schools desegregate “with all deliberate speed” by instituting what they called “freedom of choice” plans. Freedom of choice plans allowed parents to select any school within the district for their children to attend. The plans were supposed to provide for integration and racial balance. These plans did transfer some African American students into formerly all-white schools. No white student in any southern state, however, chose to attend schools that were primarily African American. Because most students remained where they were, schools remained segregated, or made up of students of only one race. The persistence of school segregation caused a series of lawsuits to be filed against school districts during the 1960s and 1970s. These lawsuits were heard by various federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. In several of these cases, the courts ruled that a school’s compliance with desegregation orders would determine its eligibility for federal funding. In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education that the school district of Charlotte, North Carolina, was required to bus its students across district lines in order to achieve integration. The ruling set the precedent for African American education for the entire decade. Busing, however, became a controversial topic. African American parents were upset by the fact that for every seven African American students who were bused, only one white student was bused. They also argued that the staff and students at white schools had not been prepared for the arrival of African American students. As a result, they said, African American students were often received with discrimination and even violence. African American students in colleges and universities also experienced racism on and off campus. Demands for second-generation rights, however, resulted in the creation of African American studies programs at both black African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

and white colleges and universities all over the United States. By 1970, these programs had been instituted at universities such as San Francisco State, Harvard, Yale, and Ohio State. Growing numbers of African American students were on college campuses. African American curricular programs increased as well. In response, many organizations and African American student unions were formed to support these students and recruit new students. One important recruitment strategy for colleges was to prepare high school students for higher education by emphasizing the fields of science, technology, and engineering. The National Society for Black Engineers was founded by two undergraduate students at Purdue University as the Society of Black Engineers. It later grew into a national group. It is a particularly successful example of these kinds of organizations. In part because of the changes taking place in colleges and universities during the late 1960s and 1970s, African Americans began to see changes in their public elementary and secondary schools as well. For the first time, many schools acknowledged the need for multicultural education in the classroom. Schools began providing students with the appropriate curriculum plans and textbooks. Black History Month was established as a yearly observance in 1976. African Americans were afforded the unprecedented opportunity to learn about the accomplishments of their people in a school setting. Nevertheless, equal education for African Americans continued to be a problem in the 1980s and 1990s. The gap between academic achievement on standardized tests for whites and African Americans had begun to close. Many people argued, however, that African American students remained at a disadvantage. As evidence, they pointed to the disproportionate (higher than average) numbers of African Americans in low-level courses, remedial classes, and special education programs. Annual evaluations showed that disparity among racial and ethnic student populations persisted in America’s schools. The disparity was most prominent in math and science. In addition, funding for students at predominantly minority urban schools fell well below that of predominantly white suburban schools. This is mainly because, in most states, revenue from property taxes is used to fund many schools. Wealthier neighborhoods (which tend to be white) pay more money in property taxes than poorer neighborhoods (which tend to have higher minority populations). In the late 1990s and early 2000s, lawmakers attempted to address these disparities. For example, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 provides funds for students to transfer to higher-performing schools or receive free tutoring to increase academic-achievement levels. In response, public schools began to devote more money to support diversity training and

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multicultural and bilingual educational programs. Along with these changes came greater parental involvement within the African American community. Parents increasingly became aware of their rights. Parents have a right to know how their children’s schools are performing in comparison to state goals and standards. They also have a right to know if their children’s teachers are fully qualified and if student populations within the schools are making adequate yearly progress.

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O VE RV IE W

Educational research has increasingly shown that a person’s culture and experiences are fundamental to the acquisition of knowledge. As a result, learning opportunities for African Americans are more numerous than ever before. Today, elementary and secondary educators can turn to resources aimed specifically at the African American community. For example, some software programs teach reading by drawing on the students’ familiarity with rap lyrics or traditional clapping and chanting games that many African American girls learn to play at a young age. Schools are looking beyond the conventional, traditional perspectives and expectations of education. Such schools are successful not only in the elementary and secondary education of African American students, but also in the preparation of those individuals to attend college and have more access to jobs on par with whites.


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JOE CLARK (1939– )

Joe Clark became famous as principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey. Clark patrolled the hallways with a bullhorn and a baseball bat, and he often used controversial methods of disciplining students. A former drill instructor in the U.S. Army, Clark believes that education is a mission that requires students to be held to high expectations, to be confronted when they fail to meet those expectations, and to be punished if they interrupt or impede the educational process. His forceful management style and extreme disciplinary tactics put him in the national spotlight when he was deemed a model educator by President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004). Clark was also the subject of the 1989 film Lean on Me. High school principal Joe Clark in 1988. Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images

Born May 7, 1939, in Newark, New Jersey, Joe Louis Clark learned about responsibility, hard work, and the value of education early in his life. He worked while attending high school to help support his mother and his siblings. In 1958, he joined the U.S. Army Reserve, where he served as a drill sergeant. After earning a bachelor’s degree from William Paterson College, Clark attended Seton Hall University. He obtained both master’s and doctoral degrees. In the late 1960s, Clark began his career as an educator in Paterson, New Jersey. He taught grade school and then took a position as the director of camps and playgrounds in Paterson. From the 1970s to the early 1980s, Clark served as an elementary school principal before assuming the position that would make him the center of a nationwide controversy: principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey. Transforming Eastside High Eastside High School was an inner-city school that had been devastated by violence, vandalism (willfully destroying or defacing of public property), drug use, and gang activity. Ninety percent of the school’s approximately 3,200 students were African American or

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Hispanic. Most came from poor families. Fights in classrooms and hallways were common. Teachers as well as students frequently found themselves in confrontations involving weapons. Drug dealers conducted business inside and outside the school building. Students smoked marijuana in the bathrooms and crowded hallways. The school had the appearance of a war zone. Graffiti covered the school’s walls and hallways, and broken windows, doors, and furniture were familiar sights.

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As a result of the school’s atmosphere, most students and teachers were constantly afraid that violence might erupt. The quality of instruction at the school was not good. Little actual learning took place. In addition to high truancy (students skipping school) and dropout rates, the students at Eastside had standardized test scores that were among the lowest in the state of New Jersey. On the first day of school at Eastside High in September 1982, a student was stabbed. On the first day of school in 1983, the students arrived at a school that had undergone a great transformation. Clark had vowed to make Eastside High a place where students would feel safe and be able to learn without serious distractions. He had spent the summer overseeing a renovation of the building to fix broken windows, busted door locks, and dilapidated fences. He also reorganized the school’s administrative structure, which means that several staff members who did not meet Clark’s standards were dismissed. He established a clearly defined chain of command and system of problem-solving channels. His goal was to more effectively maintain order among both students and staff. Clark’s philosophy of education is that all students deserve a good education but should be removed from the school environment if they are not willing to work toward that end. As a consequence, he completely reworked student policies. Under Clark’s management, students and faculty were required to wear photo identification badges and uniforms because Clark believed that such a dress code created a level playing field. As students entered Eastside High that first day of school in 1983, Clark greeted them with the bullhorn that would become part of his daily routine. Clark believed that strict discipline created an environment where the students could excel academically. Therefore, he demanded that students and staff adhere to school regulations with no exceptions. Students who chose not to comply with Clark’s rules were suspended. Teachers who disagreed with his policies were asked to leave. During the new principal’s first week of school, he expelled around 300 students. The school’s newly implemented suspension policy had zero tolerance for verbal assault, fighting, drug possession, vandalism, graffiti, tardiness, and wearing hats. African American Eras

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Clark was a highly visible presence in the halls of Eastside High. He visited classrooms, talked with students, made daily announcements over the public address system, and praised the teachers he felt were performing well. In an effort to stop drug deals, Clark increased campus security and kept exit doors chained to keep out dealers. Clark wanted to make it clear to the students at Eastside High that he was not going to tolerate troublemakers roaming the halls. As a result, he consistently suspended and expelled violators of school policies throughout his tenure at Eastside High. After only two years under Clark’s leadership, the governor of New Jersey declared the school a model school. Clark Becomes a National Figure In December of 1987, Clark’s strict disciplinary methods garnered national attention. He expelled more than sixty students whom he judged to be hindering the education of other students. This group included many students over the age of eighteen who were well short of credits for graduation. The Paterson school board began insubordination (disobedience to authority) proceedings against him. He was charged with denying these students due process, their right to fair treatment under the law. At the same time, he was charged with violating city fire codes for chaining most of the school’s doors shut. Despite the opposition Clark faced from the school board, he had a great deal of support from parents and students in the community. They rallied behind him at board meetings. Clark found even more support from the Reagan administration. A White House official offered him a government post in the Office of Policy Development, but Clark refused, saying that he remained committed to his students at Eastside High.

The school board’s insubordination proceedings were eventually dropped. Clark also allowed some of the expelled students to come back. The controversial principal continued to be the focus of widespread media coverage, however. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in February 1988. He also appeared on numerous news programs and television talk shows to discuss educational reform, particularly in urban schools. The U.S. secretary of education praised Clark’s tough stance in the midst of social crisis and upheld him as an example of what strong leadership can accomplish in inner-city schools. Even so, Clark was not without his share of critics. They said that troubled, disruptive students needed an alternative means of education, not harsh discipline and expulsion. Newspaper editorials called for his resignation. A very critical New York Times opinion piece accused Clark of being abusive to students and teachers. Life After Eastside High After suffering a bout with pneumonia and undergoing open-heart surgery in May of 1989, Clark resigned from Eastside High School in June. 320


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A month later, Clark’s book, Laying Down the Law, was published. This work describes Clark’s time at Eastside High, his philosophy of education, and the reasons for his actions as a principal. Clark believes most school administrators, teachers, and parents are either unable or unwilling to see the main issues affecting schools. As a result, they settle for poor academic performance and disruptive behavior by students. Clark argues that students in such environments miss the opportunity to learn the skills that they need to be successful members of society. The harsh reality, he explains, is that not all students can be saved from a life of violence, ignorance, and corruption. Those students should be removed from the ones who do have productive futures, he concludes. The book was met with both praise and criticism. Clark spent the next several years lecturing all over the country.

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In August 1995, Clark became the director of the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey. The center was an overcrowded facility that had been under the supervision of a federal judge for various violations. There, Clark once again found himself at the center of controversy. His forceful approach to discipline conflicted with state regulations for juvenile detention facilities. Clark’s response to charges against his extreme disciplinary actions was characteristic of his days at Eastside High School. Clark defended his methods by stating that the children in his care were not beaten or abused, but they were held accountable for their actions. After numerous clashes with state officials over the confinement and punishment of violent inmates, Clark resigned from the detention center on January 4, 2002. Despite his aggressive attitude and rebellious actions throughout his career, Clark has consistently drawn praise from supporters. In the early 2000s, he became a keynote speaker at various venues. He shares his success stories and strategies for education reform, school management, and drug prevention in inner-city schools.

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JOHNNETTA B. COLE (1936– )

Johnnetta B. Cole was the first African American female president of Spelman College, the nation’s oldest institution of higher learning for African American women. Cole has been a dynamic presence in the world of academia (colleges and universities) for many years. In addition to her work as an educator and an administrator, she is a respected anthropologist. (Anthropology is the scientific study of the origins and nature of human beings.) Her book All American Women: Lines That Divide, Ties That Bind was a landmark in women’s studies because of the African American Eras

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insightful way it brought together issues of race, class, and gender. Throughout her career, Cole has been an advocate for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). She is convinced that these schools provide African American students more opportunities not only to excel but also to discover their heritage. Johnnetta Cole was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 19, 1936, to an ambitious, highly educated family. In 1901, Cole’s maternal great-grandfather (her mother’s grandfather), Abraham Lincoln Lewis, co-founded the AfroAmerican Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville. Cole’s father, John Betsch Sr., was also an insurance agent, and he joined his wife’s family business. Mary Frances, Cole’s mother, taught English and worked as a registrar at Edward Waters College before she also joined the family insurance business. Both of Cole’s parents were college graduates. They instilled the value of education in all three of their children: Johnnetta, her older sister Marvayne, and younger brother John Jr. Former college president Johnnetta B. Cole speaks at the Essence Music Festival in 2008. AP Images

Cole was a precocious child, meaning she was mature and advanced at an unusually young age. Cole finished high school at the age of fifteen. She entered Fisk University in the summer of 1952 under its early admissions program. There, she befriended Arna Bontemps (1902–73), an award-winning writer, university librarian, and historian of African American culture. Bontemps’s position at Fisk allowed the young Cole to see firsthand a hero of the African American community at work. After a year at Fisk University, Cole joined her sister at Oberlin College. Her intention was to study medicine. However, while taking an anthropology class about racial and cultural minorities, Cole became interested in the African diaspora. She began studying how, despite being scattered all over the world, people of African descent were able to retain their cultural traditions and identities. Cole was inspired and intrigued by what she was learning. She decided to change her major to anthropology. Training in Anthropology Cole graduated from Oberlin in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. Next, Cole enrolled in the anthropology graduate program at Northwestern University. There, she studied under Melville Jean

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Herskovits (1895–1963), an anthropologist noted for having established the study of the “New World Negro” as a new field of research. She also studied under Paul James Bohannan (1920–2007), whose work includes Africa and Africans, a study of African economic and legal anthropology. Cole earned a master’s degree in anthropology in 1959. While she was at Oberlin, she fell in love with Robert Cole, a white graduate student in economics who had grown up on a dairy farm in Iowa. When the couple went to Jacksonville to visit the Betsch family, white extremists threatened to bomb the family’s insurance company. Nevertheless, the two were married in 1960. They moved to Liberia in West Africa for two years to conduct research.

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In Liberia, Cole carried out field studies in local villages, and her husband did economic surveys of the area. In 1962, the Coles’ first child, David, was born in Monrovia, which is the capital of Liberia. Soon afterward, the family returned to the United States. The Coles began teaching at Washington State University. Johnnetta was named Outstanding Faculty Member of 1965, despite having only a part-time position. In 1966, she had her second son, Aaron, followed by a third son, Che, four years later. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology in 1967 and then became assistant professor of anthropology at Washington State University. She helped found the school’s black studies program, serving as its director. In 1970 Cole accepted a tenured faculty position at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She taught there for thirteen years. She was instrumental in developing the university’s Afro-American studies program. She also acted as a liaison—a person who establishes and maintains communication and cooperation—between the university and other schools in the Connecticut River Valley area. Cole taught courses in Afro-American studies and anthropology. She also served as provost of undergraduate education. Cole and her husband divorced in 1982 after twenty-two years of marriage. The next year, she was named a 1983 Russell Sage Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College of the City University of New York. During her time at Hunter College, Cole directed the Latin American and Caribbean studies program. She also taught anthropology courses. Cole recognized that feminist studies had traditionally focused on white, middle-class women. As a result, she conducted fieldwork that included studies of households headed by women, racial and gender inequality in Cuba, the lives of Caribbean women, how women age, Cape Verdean culture in the United States, and labor in Liberia. This abundance of research culminated in the publication of All American Women: Lines That Divide, Ties That Bind (1986). It was a groundbreaking book. African American Eras

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Critics praised it for the way it combined African American studies, cultural anthropology, and women’s issues. “Sistah Prez” On April 5, 1987, Cole made history when she was named the first African American woman president of Spelman College. Spelman College was founded in 1880 by abolitionists from New England. It is a private school located in Atlanta, Georgia. It had been headed by white women until an African American man, Albert Manley, became president in the 1950s. After Cole became president, it was not long before she was known around campus as “Sistah Prez.” She was widely acknowledged as a compassionate, approachable, and exceptional leader. Cole taught classes each semester. She also focused on making Spelman a center of African American scholarship. She wanted it to be a place where teachers, community leaders, artists, and scholars alike could find information about the history and accomplishments of African American women. She also established new academic programs for students. Cole partnered with six major corporations in Atlanta to create a mentorship program. The program gave promising Spelman students the opportunity to work with CEOs of the companies.

One of Cole’s primary responsibilities at Spelman was raising money for the college. She estimated that the task consumed half of her time as president. Comedian and television personality Bill Cosby (1937– ) donated $20 million to Spelman at her inauguration. Cole was grateful, but she did not hesitate in the following months to remind people that schools can

Johnetta Cole made history in 1987 when she became the first female African American president of Spelman College, a historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia. ª Tami Chappell/Reuters/ Corbis

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never have enough money to educate the leaders of tomorrow. Cole proved to be effective at getting donations for Spelman. For example, by the end of only one fundraising campaign, Cole had raised $114 million.

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Even as she was busy with her duties at Spelman, Cole was giving interviews, serving on the boards of many corporations, editing anthropology books, and collecting numerous awards and honorary degrees from various organizations and colleges. She was also steadily writing. In addition to scholarly articles, Cole published Conversations: Straight Talk with America’s Sister President (1993). The book highlights the importance of education, tolerance, and greater social awareness in achieving equality for both sexes and all races. In 1997, the president of Emory University in Atlanta invited Cole to help foster relations between the school and the African American community. Cole decided to resign from her post at Spelman. Before she went to Emory, she took a year off to write Dream the Boldest Dreams: And Other Lessons of Life (1997). The book is filled with sayings and short passages. It explores how learning certain lessons can make life easier. It also gives suggestions about ways people can be more fulfilled. For instance, the book encourages people to get involved in community service and to be willing to work hard for the things in life that truly mean something. Later Career and Retirement While at Emory, Cole served as a Presidential Distinguished Professor of anthropology, women’s studies, and African American studies. She stayed at Emory until she learned of the state of affairs at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. Like Spelman, Bennett is an HBCU. In fact, they are the only two colleges in the United States that were founded specifically for the higher education of African American women. Bennett College has a prestigious history dating back to 1926. However, it had been poorly managed for several years. As a result, enrollment numbers were decreasing, accreditation levels were falling, and debt was mounting. Cole had always been an advocate for the higher education of African American women. Thus, she accepted the position of president of the college and took on the challenge of turning the school around.

During her time at Bennett, Cole established the “Revitalizing Bennett Campaign” to address the school’s three-million-dollar deficit. Former president Bill Clinton (1947– ) and Oprah Winfrey (1954– ) headlined fundraising events. The university raised close to $50 million under Cole’s management. That was enough to free the college from financial probation. It was also enough to renovate three historic buildings on campus and improve many other buildings. Cole also found time to collaborate with fellow educator Beverly Guy-Sheftall (1946– ). Their anthropological research African American Eras

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resulted in the work Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities (2003). In 2005, Cole submitted her resignation from Bennett College because she felt some faculty members were hindering her leadership efforts. The school’s board rejected her resignation. Encouraged by supporters, she withdrew her resignation and served as president of Bennett College until she retired in June 2007. She continued to serve on the board of the school’s Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity and Inclusion Institute, which was founded in March 2004. Throughout her career, Cole has served on the board of directors for numerous organizations. Those organizations include the American Council on Education, Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, the Association of American Colleges, the Global Fund for Women, and the Points of Light Initiative Foundation. She was also the first woman ever elected to the board of Coca-Cola Enterprises. Since the mid-1980s, Cole has been involved with a number of Smithsonian programs. She has been a member of the scholarly advisory board of the National Museum of African American History and Culture ever since the museum opened. On February 9, 2009, Cole was named the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. In addition to organizing fundraising efforts, one of her most important roles at the museum is educating the public about the African diaspora.

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MICHAEL ERIC DYSON (1958– )

Michael Eric Dyson is often called “the hip-hop intellectual.” He has introduced popular culture—from gangsta rap to Malcolm X to hip-hop music to comedian Bill Cosby—into the world of academia (colleges and universities). His reputation does not rest solely on his cultural studies, however. Scholars also consider him a cutting-edge historian whose work has provided a critical, intellectual perspective of historical figures who have influenced African American society. A Hard-Working Son and Scholar Dyson was born on October 23, 1958, in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Addie Mae Leonard, had picked cotton in Alabama before moving to Detroit. In Detroit, she worked in the city’s school system. When Dyson was two, his mother married Everett Dyson. Everett Dyson was a father of four sons, and he soon adopted his wife’s young boy. Dyson’s father worked full-time at an automobile factory. He also worked part-time at a gardening nursery. Dyson helped out at the nursery starting at the age of twelve. 326


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When Dyson’s father was laid off from the automobile factory after thirty-three years, he started his own lawn care service. He also began searching the city for discarded metal to sell to junkyards. Both jobs involved help from his sons. Dyson attended public schools in Detroit. His teachers recognized his intellect and also his talents as both a speaker and a writer. By encouraging him to be proud of his African American heritage, Dyson’s fifth-grade teacher influenced him to learn more about the history of his people. Dyson’s seventh-grade English teacher noticed his gift for public speaking. Dyson honed his skills by giving speeches to the congregation of his church. After listening to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech (given on April 3, 1968, just a day before he was assassinated), Dyson was inspired to enter a speech contest, which he won. Dyson was too young in the 1960s to have been active in the civil rights movement, but he was affected by two particular events during those years. In July 1967, when Dyson was eight, a riot broke out in Detroit after police arrested more than eighty people at an after-hours club. By the time the riot was over, more than forty people were dead, at least four hundred injured, and thousands arrested. For Dyson, the event was a disturbing introduction to curfews imposed upon the African American community and what could happen when people broke it. When Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) was assassinated the next year, Dyson felt that his childhood innocence had died as well; the nine-year-old boy became afraid of standing in front of windows and doors at night.

Scholar Michael Eric Dyson in 2008. Mathew Imaging/ WireImage

In 1971, Dyson met Baptist preacher Frederick G. Sampson II, who quickly became the boy’s mentor. With help from Sampson, Dyson received a scholarship to Cranbrook, a boarding school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a city thirty miles outside Detroit. Dyson had always gone to school with African Americans. At Cranbrook, he found himself surrounded by white classmates. Many of his fellow students were hostile. They addressed him with racial slurs, vandalized his dorm room, and destroyed his possessions. Dyson began to defend himself from their attacks. Within two years he was expelled from the school. African American Eras

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Early Career Struggles After returning home to Detroit, Dyson earned his high school diploma in 1976. In 1977, he married his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time. Dyson began working a series of different jobs to support his family. He worked as a welder, a clerk at a Chrysler automobile plant, a manager-trainee in a fast-food restaurant, and a janitor in the Detroit city schools. His wife, an aspiring actress, worked as a waitress. Nevertheless, Dyson had to apply for welfare. He and his wife divorced in 1979.

Dyson was determined to provide his son a better future than the welfare system. Encouraged by Sampson, he became an ordained Baptist minister by the time he was twenty-one years old. Being a minister rekindled Dyson’s love for public speaking. He moved to Tennessee, where he attended divinity school at Knoxville College. He later transferred to Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1982. He also received the school’s Outstanding Graduate in Philosophy Award. While working toward his undergraduate degree, Dyson worked full-time at a factory. In addition, he served as a pastor at three churches. He was fired from two churches. The first one fired him because he wanted to allow three women to become deacons. The second fired him because he questioned why his predominately white congregation did not invite other African Americans to speak at the church. After he graduated from college, Dyson worked as a freelance journalist. He focused much of his work on African American popular culture and music. He accepted a graduate fellowship at Princeton University. While he worked on his master’s and doctoral degrees, he served as assistant director of a poverty project at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. He also taught ethics and cultural criticism at Chicago Theological Seminary. He received his master’s degree in 1991. One year later, he received the National Magazine Award from the National Association of Black Journalists for his freelance writing. His writing had appeared in such periodicals as Vibe, Atlantic Monthly, and New Republic. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1993. He continued his teaching career as an assistant professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Many academics do not show a scholarly interest in popular culture. Dyson, however, recognized the importance of modern-day personalities such as filmmaker Spike Lee (1957– ), basketball star Michael Jordan (1963– ), and singer Michael Jackson (1958–2009) in mainstream American culture. These personalities are also important to African American culture, gender, race, religion, and class. In 1993, Dyson published his first book, Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism, a collection of essays about these men and other African American icons. The book also 328


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included pieces discussing discrimination, including one about racism in the seminary.

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In 1994, Dyson published another book, Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X. He was inspired to write the book when a group of African American students at Brown University objected to the enrollment of white students in a course he taught about Malcolm X (1925–65). The book was targeted at the general public. It blended biography with social and cultural criticism, and it was a critical and popular success. In addition to being named a Notable Book of 1994 by the New York Times, Making Malcolm was selected as one of the twentieth century’s most outstanding books by Black Issues Book Review. The Professor of Gangsta Rap Dyson moved to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in the mid-1990s. He was a professor of communication studies. He was also the director of the school’s Institute of African-American Research. He began writing articles about contemporary gangsta rap artists such as Ice Cube (1969– ) and Tupac Shakur (1971–96). He came to be regarded as an expert on the social and cultural importance of rap music. He was asked to testify about the subject before a congressional subcommittee. At the university, Dyson’s most popular class was one he taught about the effects of gangsta rap on the values of American society, especially within the African American community. His study of rap music led to his next book, Between God and Gangsta Rap (1995). His next work, Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line (1997), explored racial divisions in America and divisions within the African American community in pieces featuring a number of public figures, including O. J. Simpson (1947– ) and Colin Powell (1937– ). In 1997, Dyson accepted a position as a distinguished visiting professor at Columbia University. His course on gangsta rap continued to be in high demand.

Two years later, Dyson became the first Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor at DePaul University in New York. That position allowed him time to research the life and works of Martin Luther King Jr. Dyson’s studies of King culminated in his 2000 work I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. One year later, he published a book on the life of Tupac Shakur, a rap artist who was murdered in 1996, entitled Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. Dyson then took a job as an Avalon Foundation professor in the humanities and African American studies at the University of Pennsylvania. There, he once again focused his teachings on gangsta rap. He also explored hip-hop music and the lyrics of Shakur. African American Eras

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Dyson has been a very productive writer during the 2000s, publishing Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion (2002), Why I Love Black Women (2003), Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves, and Demons of Marvin Gaye (2004), Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? (2005), Pride (2006), Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster (2006), Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip Hop (2007), and April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King’s Death and How it Changed America (2008). Each of these works has been critically acclaimed. All have further reinforced his reputation as “the hip-hop intellectual.” He received both the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Non-Fiction and the BET/General Motors Black History Makers Award in 2005. Dyson hosted a daily talk show called The Michael Eric Dyson Show from January 2006 to February 2007. His goal with the show was to fill the void in radio talk shows for African Americans. In 2007, Dyson moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, his course load included theology, English, and African American studies classes. In April 2009, he launched a new version of The Michael Eric Dyson Show. His first guest on the daily talk show was Oprah Winfrey (1954– ). Additionally, he is a frequent guest on CNN, National Public Radio, and HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

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HARRY EDWARDS (1942– )

Harry Edwards is internationally known for leading the “Revolt of the Black Athlete,” a movement that led to a boycott of the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968. Edwards is also recognized as one of the world’s preeminent specialists in the field of sports psychology. Over the years he has remained an outspoken and sometimes defiant supporter of African American athletes. He is also an expert on the role of race in both professional and amateur sports. Edwards is a professor of sociology (the study of society, social institutions, and social relationships). In addition, he has worked with professional sports teams—including the San Francisco 49ers—and once served as a consultant for Major League Baseball’s Office of the Commissioner. Athletics Provide Academic Opportunities The second of eight children, Edwards was born on November 22, 1942, in East St. Louis, Illinois. His family lived in such poverty that they often had to boil water they collected from a drainage ditch so that they 330


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had water to drink. His father, an ex-convict, encouraged his son to be an athlete. Edwards’s father realized that playing sports could provide a future for an African American from their part of the country at the time. Edwards excelled in football, basketball, and track and field in high school. He received an athletic scholarship to attend Fresno City College in California.

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Edwards attended Fresno for two years before transferring to San José State College on a scholarship for track and field. There, in addition to becoming a nationally ranked track and field athlete, he played for the college’s basketball team. Despite his success in sports, Edwards, along with other African American student-athletes, encountered campus-wide discrimination. African Americans, for example, were not allowed housing in school facilities. Campus officials were afraid that white students would move out if African Americans moved in. Edwards could not pledge a fraternity, nor could he enjoy access to the university’s recreation center or campus restaurant. The academic restrictions he faced were most frustrating to Edwards. Typically, African American athletes were advised to take only “easy” courses. The administration feared that allowing student-athletes a challenging course load would cause their grades to dip, making them ineligible for sports. Edwards, however, was a serious student who wanted more. He petitioned the college so that he could major in sociology. When he graduated in 1964, he was the first African American student-athlete to graduate from the school since the early 1950s. Because of his strength, stature, and athletic ability, Edwards received offers to play professional football from the Minnesota Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers. Rather than pursue a career as an athlete, Edwards instead chose to attend graduate school. He accepted a Woodrow Wilson fellowship to Cornell University in 1966 and worked on his master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology. Living in upstate New York allowed him access to lectures given by Malcolm X and other civil rights activists in New York City. Edwards increasingly made a connection between their messages and the discrimination suffered by African American athletes. The Revolt of the Black Athlete After receiving a Ph.D. in sociology in 1967, Edwards returned to San José State as a part-time professor and coach. Edwards wanted to improve living conditions and academic opportunities for African American students at the school. Therefore, he presented a list of civil rights violations to the school administration. For the most part, the administration ignored the violations. Angered by this reaction, Edwards co-founded the United Black Students for Action (UBSA). He rallied his supporters and led a movement African American Eras

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that made history. For the first time ever, a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I football game was canceled because of an on-campus protest. The effectiveness of this event prompted Edwards to turn his attention to promoting what was by then known as the “Revolt of the Black Athlete” on a national level. The USBA evolved into the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). The OPHR had the specific purpose of demonstrating to the world that the United States exploited African American athletes. Edwards argued that the United States used African American athletes to project an image of racial harmony and equality that was false. According to Edwards, oppression of African Americans was as widespread as ever. Those African Americans who allowed themselves to be used by the government to show this false image of race relations betrayed their people, he concluded. Edwards faced personal attacks—such as the killing of his pets and Ku Klux Klan threats—but he did not stop his campaign. He led the OPHR in a victorious demand that South Africa and Rhodesia be banned from participating in the 1968 Olympics because of their apartheid (a legal system of racial separation) practices. The highlight of the OPHR’s involvement in the Olympics in Mexico City came on October 19, 1968. When American medalists Tommie Smith (1944– ) and John Carlos (1945– ) stood on the winners’ podium while the national anthem played, both men bowed their heads and raised black-gloved fists in a Black Power salute. Their intention was to show solidarity in an international statement of protest against racism and human oppression. Smith and Carlos were stripped of their medals, and they were required to leave the Olympic Village. Career as an Academic and Consultant In 1970 Edwards accepted a post at the University of California, Berkeley. He continued to fight for social and racial equity for all African Americans, especially athletes. After six years at Berkeley, Edwards was denied tenure by a university committee because he had not been notably published in academic journals. His publications to that point consisted of one book, Revolt of the Black Athlete (1970), and essays and articles in such periodicals as Sports Illustrated. Because of both his reputation as a crusader and his popularity with his students, Edwards received an outpouring of support from fellow sociologists, athletes, members of the clergy, and, of course, students. When Jerry Brown (1938– ), the governor of California, wrote letters protesting the university’s decision, the committee’s ruling was reversed.

Throughout the years, Edwards has focused on the physical and psychological health of amateur and professional athletes. In an age of 332


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performance-enhancing drugs, he has cautioned athletes against taking steroids. In addition, he urges coaches and managers not to ignore drug use. He is also an advocate for the hiring and promotion of African American coaches and managers. In 1987, Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Al Campanis (1916–98) said on national television that African Americans were not suitable for management positions in Major League Baseball. In response, the commissioner of Major League Baseball hired Edwards to help teams employ African Americans in the business sector of professional baseball.

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In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Edwards also served as a consultant to the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco’s professional basketball team, and the San Francisco 49ers. Edwards helped facilitate (bring about and make easier) communications between African American players and mostly white coaching staffs. He traveled with the teams and did psychological evaluations of draft prospects. Perhaps most importantly, Edwards counseled the athletes themselves about practical issues. Those issues included investments, education, dealing with management, and career options after professional sports. Edwards is generally regarded as the first academic to establish the legitimacy of the idea that sports are a reflection of society. He retired from the University of California, Berkeley, in June 2000. On February 14, 2008, he was inducted into the African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame. His opinions remain highly respected. He is often called upon to assess situations involving contemporary athletes. For instance, he was involved in the psychoanalysis of the controversial football star Terrell Owens (1973– ) following his apparent breakdown. After football player Michael Vick (1980– ) pled guilty to dogfighting charges in 2007, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell (1959– ) enlisted Edwards’s help in creating the league’s new personal conduct policy. Ultimately, Edwards sees himself as a role model—not as a former athlete, but as a man who passed on a career in professional sports to become an academic.

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HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. (1950– )

Henry “Skip” Louis Gates Jr. is renowned (widely known and respected) for his cultural studies of African American literature and history and their impact on American oral and literary traditions. Gates was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He was also instrumental in expanding Harvard University’s African American studies program. He has dedicated his career to gaining more African American Eras

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popular and academic recognition of African American literary works. He has written and edited numerous articles and books in his field. He is perhaps most highly regarded for his contribution to the comprehensive reference book Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (1999) and for hosting and producing several documentary series on PBS.

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. ª Marc Brasz/Corbis

Academic Excellence Gates was born on September 19, 1950, in Keyser, West Virginia, a valley town surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains. His father worked as a loader at the local paper mill during the day and as a janitor at the town’s telephone company at night. His father was also a gifted storyteller. Gates’s mother, a housecleaner, was interested in the messages of civil rights leader Malcolm X. She did not agree with his views that the races should live separately, and instead taught her children how to live in an integrated society. Gates’s mother became the first African American member of the Parent Teacher Association in their school community. Gates attended Davis Free School, the area’s only elementary school. He was an excellent student. In the fifth grade, he learned about Africa and the civil rights movement in the United States from lessons on current events. Gates began to develop an appreciation for the contributions and sacrifices African Americans had made—and were making—to the culture and history of the United States.

At the age of twelve, Gates experienced a significant change in his life when his mother was hospitalized with clinical depression. Gates was afraid she was going to die, so he bargained with God: If God would let his mother come home from the hospital, then Gates would devote his life to Christ. His mother did return home, and Gates lived up to his word. He became active in his church. Encouraged by his uncle, a Methodist minister, he attended a summer church camp that fostered his intellectual growth. He explored ideas and issues about religion and race. In 1964, Gates fractured his hip playing touch football. While the doctor, a white man, was examining him, he asked Gates what he planned to be when he grew up. Gates replied that he wanted to be a physician 334


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himself. When the doctor quizzed Gates about his knowledge of science, he answered the man’s questions correctly. At the end of the examination, the doctor incorrectly diagnosed Gates’s hairline fracture as a psychosomatic illness, which is an injury caused by mental or emotional disturbance. As a result of the diagnostic error, Gates’s leg did not heal properly, and he now walks with a cane.

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After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class in 1968, Gates entered Potomac State College of West Virginia University. He planned to go to medical school. His discovery of fascinating new horizons in his history and literature courses, however, changed his career plans. Gates’s literature professor recognized his student’s academic talent and advised him to apply to Ivy League schools. Gates was soon accepted at Yale University. In 1973, he graduated with honors from the prestigious university with a B.A. in history. Gates won a fellowship to study at Cambridge University in England. There, he met Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka (1934– ), a Nigerian playwright who convinced him to study literature along with history. Soyinka introduced Gates to the mythology and writings of the Yoruba people in Nigeria. Soyinka inspired Gates to focus on the background of African American literature and its relationship to the literary traditions of Africa and the Caribbean. Success in Teaching and Writing During graduate school, Gates worked as a London staff correspondent for Time magazine. He received his master’s degree from Cambridge in 1974. Next, he returned to the United States and to Yale University. He was a lecturer at Yale while he worked on his Ph.D. in English language and literature. Gates earned his doctorate in 1979, and he became an assistant professor at Yale. Shortly thereafter, he published an essay called “Preface to Blackness: Text and Pretext,” which appeared in the book Afro-American Literature: The Reconstruction of Instruction by Robert Stepto and Dexter Fisher. In 1980, Gates began work on his Black Periodical Literature Project. The project focused on nineteenth-century African American literary works from periodicals. Gates became well known in the world of African American scholarship when he rediscovered and republished Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig (1859), the first novel published by an African American woman. When it was originally published, the novel had been ignored. It was credited to a white man at a later time. By researching and verifying the original work, Gates both extended the history of African American literature by more than thirty years and influenced scholarship in literature by African American women. African American Eras

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In 1981, Gates received a 150,000-dollar grant from the MacArthur Foundation. He dedicated much of the grant to his Black Periodical Literature Project. In 1984, he was promoted to associate professor of English and the director of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Yale. That same year, Gates published and edited Black Literature and Literary Theory. The book challenged the traditional Western literary canon by proposing an African American literary canon. A “literary canon” is the group of books from a particular time period or place that are considered to be the best or most important. Gates followed that book with The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literature (1989), a work that defined a critical approach to African American literature. The Signifying Monkey won the American Book Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Race Relations. In 1990, Gates used the book’s ideas about African American vernacular (slang, informal language) to defend the rap group 2 Live Crew against obscenity charges in Florida, maintaining that the group’s lyrics reflected the African American mythic tradition and its rich, symbolic language. In 1988, Gates accepted a job as a full professor of English and Africana studies at Cornell University. Also that year, he was named the W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of Literature. He thus earned the distinction of being the first African American male to hold an endowed chair at Cornell. One year later, he joined the faculty of Harvard as chair of the Department of African American Studies. He remained at Harvard until 2006. When Gates first came to Harvard, the department consisted of one white professor and only a few students. Within a few years, Gates had recruited some of the country’s most prominent African American intellectuals, including Cornel West (1953– ). Gates and West co-authored The Future of the Race (1996). Multimedia Projects Gates made a pledge with some of his colleagues in the 1970s to fulfill W. E. B. Du Bois’s dream of publishing the African American equivalent of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Gates fulfilled that pledge by working under an advisory board headed by Soyinka to co-edit the Encarta Africana (1999). Encarta Africana was published on CD-ROM. In print, the volume was published under the name Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. The work included more than three thousand articles. It is an African American reference book of unprecedented scope. In 1999, Gates created Africana.com to provide corrections and revisions to Encarta Africana. The site was purchased by AOL Time Warner the next year. Gates developed an interactive online course about the Harlem Renaissance. He also coordinated the production of The Wonders of the

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African World (1999), a six-part miniseries for PBS. In the miniseries, a team of scholars spent a year traveling through twelve countries in Africa collecting evidence of African cultures from the past.

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During the 2000s, Gates continued to work tirelessly on multiple projects. In 2002, after extensively researching the authenticity of the handwritten manuscript, he published the only known novel written by a female African American slave. The Bondwoman’s Narrative is an autobiographical novel written by Hannah Crafts during the 1850s. For PBS, Gates produced and hosted America beyond the Color Line (2004), African American Lives (2006), and Oprah’s Roots (2007). Gates also published books expanding on those documentaries. These projects used genealogical research (information about a person’s ancestors and relatives) and genetic mapping to help the celebrities he interviewed— actress Whoopi Goldberg (1955– ), music producer Quincy Jones (1933– ), Dr. Ben Carson (1951– ), and actor Chris Tucker (1972– ), for example— learn more about their heritage. The projects also gave Gates the opportunity to explore his own ancestry. He discovered that one of his ancestors was John Redman. Redman was a free African American man who fought in the American Revolution. As a result, Gates was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution in 2006. Gates’s genealogical investigations also led to his editing the African American National Biography (2008), which contains many of the stories he had collected during his research of family history. He even co-founded AfricanDNA, an organization that allows people to receive the same genetic testing, matching, and genealogical exploration that was done for the subjects of his African American Lives series. Gates has been the recipient of more than fifty honorary degrees from such institutions as Dartmouth College, Emory University, and New York University. He has received numerous other awards, ranging from the George Polk Award for Social Commentary in 1993 to the 2008 Ralph Lowell Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 1997, Gates was named one of Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Americans.” He was elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. Gates next published Lincoln on Race and Slavery (2009). It is a volume filled with definitive texts and historical notes gathered from President Abraham Lincoln’s personal letters, speeches, and official documents. The work follows his PBS documentary Looking for Lincoln (2009). Gates is an influential critic of both African American and white culture. He writes articles for Time and the New Yorker. He is also the editor-in-chief of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine for African Americans. African American Eras

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H

ROD PAIGE (1933– )

Rod Paige first distinguished himself as a college football coach, but his commitment to education has extended far beyond the playing field. Drawing from his vast personal experiences in education, Paige was the first African American to serve as U.S. secretary of education. In the George W. Bush administration, Paige was instrumental in drafting President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. He also helped ensure that the policy was implemented throughout the nation. Early Education in the Segregated South Paige was born June 17, 1933, in the segregated town of Monticello, Mississippi. He was the oldest of five children. Paige grew up in a household that understood the value of books and education. His father was a school principal. His mother was a librarian. As a young boy, Paige engaged in lively discussions about his favorite books and literary characters with his parents and siblings. Paige went to Monticello’s Lawrence County Training School, a segregated school for first through twelfth graders. When he realized the differences between his school and the school for white students—the white school had a nice gym, while his school had no gym at all, for example—he got angry. He began to feel the need to prove that he was as smart as white students. He felt this need not only when he was in grade school, but also years later when he was in college and graduate school.

Paige attended Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, after graduating from high school in 1951. He played on the school’s football team. In 1955, he graduated with honors, earning a bachelor’s degree in physical education. He took a job teaching and coaching at a high school in Clinton, Mississippi, after graduation. Soon, he was drafted by the U.S. Navy and moved to San Diego, California. In July 1956, Paige married his college girlfriend Gloria Crawford. A few days later, Paige received orders to ship out to Okinawa, Japan. In Japan, he served as a medical corpsman. When Paige returned to the United States, he took a job as the head football coach at Utica Junior College in Mississippi. He remained there until 1962, when he left to coach at Jackson State University. Seeking a life beyond football, he decided to pursue a master’s degree. At that time, no graduate schools in Mississippi accepted African Americans. Instead, Paige enrolled at Indiana University. He earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in physical education. He wrote his dissertation (a very long paper that a student must write to earn a doctoral degree) on the response time of offensive linemen. 338


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Paige worked briefly as an assistant football coach at the University of Cincinnati after completing graduate school. In 1971, he accepted a position as head coach and athletic director at Texas Southern University in Houston. He accepted on condition that he also be granted faculty status. Impressed by Paige’s intelligence and leadership abilities, university president Granville Sawyer happily agreed. While coaching at Texas State University, Paige grew more and more discouraged by the ever-increasing commercialism in intercollegiate athletics. As a result, he turned his focus from sports to academics. Several teams in the National Football League were interested in hiring him as a coach. Paige instead focused his attention on education. He left coaching completely in 1984 to become dean of Texas State University’s College of Education. A Committed Educator Texas State University’s education program flourished under Paige’s control. At one point, around thirty-three percent of teachers and administrators working in the Houston Independent School District had graduated from the College of Education at Texas State University. During his ten years as dean, Paige established the university’s Center for Excellence in Urban Education, a research facility that addresses instructional and managerial concerns in urban schools.

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige in 2004. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

In 1989, Paige believed that the citizens of Houston wanted a change in the city’s vision for public school education. He ran for a seat on the Houston Independent School District (ISD) school board. He hoped his experience in the field of education would make up for his inexperience in local politics. Paige won the election. Paige was one of four new members of a ninemember board. All of them were prepared to lead Houston ISD in a new direction. At the time, Houston ISD was the nation’s seventh largest school district. With Paige serving as committee chairperson, the Houston ISD school board drafted the Declaration of Beliefs and Visions. The declaration was a statement of the district’s purpose and goals. It called for reform through decentralization, which is the process of taking authority away from one person or group and distributing it among many people or groups. Additionally, schools would be responsible for developing a challenging core curriculum. African American Eras

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The curriculum was to prepare all students—whether bound for college or headed straight into the workforce—for life after graduation. Furthermore, the declaration proposed that district policies hold teachers accountable for the quality of classroom instruction. Joan Raymond, the superintendent of Houston ISD, opposed the Declaration of Beliefs and Visions. After battling with the school board for a year, she was fired. Her replacement, Frank Petruzielo, supported the document’s reforms. Paige was still not satisfied. He felt that the new superintendent viewed the declaration as a fast fix to many of the district’s problems, not a long-term instrument of change. In 1992, Paige was elected president of the Houston ISD school board. Two years later, Petruzielo left the district. Paige resigned from his position at Texas Southern University and was hired as the Houston ISD’s new superintendent. Paige was superintendent from 1994 to 2001. He concentrated on implementing the reforms set forth in the Declaration of Beliefs and Visions. For instance, he created the Peer Examination, Evaluation, and Redesign (PEER) program. The PEER program was designed to facilitate partnerships with business and community professionals who would recommend ways to improve the Houston ISD. Paige made sure that Houston ISD teachers’ salaries were competitive with other large school districts in Texas. He also instituted teacher incentive pay to recognize those instructors who demonstrated outstanding job performance and innovative approaches to education. This system of financial reward required a new system for evaluating teachers and administrators. The state of Texas audited (performed a formal financial investigation of) Houston ISD in 1996. Paige saw an opportunity to use the results of the audit to his further his goals for the district. To help relieve school overcrowding, Paige began contracting with private schools to accept Houston ISD students who were struggling academically. He also established a system of charter schools. Campus administrators with decision-making power over such issues as textbooks, classroom materials, and personnel headed the charter schools. Paige also privatized school maintenance, employee benefits, and food services, which means he changed those businesses from being run by the government to being run by private individuals and companies. Many teachers were critical of Paige. Some teachers did not believe that relying on students’ scores on standardized tests was a good way to measure learning. They also felt Paige had given principals too much authority in making personnel decisions on their campuses. Others disagreed with the decentralization of special education. They argued that such programs were best served from district offices rather than individual

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schools. When a 390-million-dollar bond election failed, it was evident that many members of the Houston ISD were dissatisfied with the Declaration of Beliefs and Visions. Nevertheless, Paige stayed true to his vision of reform. People soon began to appreciate his leadership and the improvements he was making. In 1998, a record 678-million-dollar bond issue was passed. A bond issue is a way for the government to borrow the money it needs to run schools.

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In 1999, the Council of the Great City Schools awarded Paige the Richard R. Green Award for Outstanding Urban Educator. That award was followed by the National Association of Black Educators Superintendent of the Year award. In recognition of his contributions to the city of Houston’s development, Inside Houston Magazine designated Paige as one of the twenty-five most powerful people in Houston. In 2001, the American Association of School Administrators named him National Superintendent of the Year. Secretary of Education In December 2000, president-elect George W. Bush (1946– ) offered Paige the post of U.S. secretary of education. As governor of Texas, George W. Bush was impressed by both Paige’s management style and his reforms. Bush often spoke of Houston ISD as a model for other urban schools. He was confident Paige could help improve schools all across America.

On January 24, 2001, Paige became the first superintendent and the first African American ever to serve as U.S. secretary of education. As head of the Department of Education, Paige gained the support of both Republicans and Democrats. He immediately devoted his energies to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). NCLB addressed many of the same issues Paige had dealt with in Houston ISD schools. Its goal was to give every child—regardless of race, religion, or nationality—the opportunities and resources to achieve academic success. NCLB empowered parents, especially those whose children attended low-performing schools, with a voucher plan. The voucher plan would allow them to have their children attend private schools at no cost to them if their local public school district did not improve within a set time period. NCLB also called for standardized testing, greater accountability, and local control for teachers and school administrators. Educational organizations throughout the country opposed the standardized testing mandated by NCLB. They contended that an emphasis on standardized tests detracted from real classroom learning because they forced teachers to devote the bulk of their time to test preparation. Many state legislatures protested the high standards of achievement set forth in NCLB. The act’s new standards meant that some schools that had formerly been considered excellent now had failing status. Several states even African American Eras

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U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige talks with students in 2003. AP Images

considered rejecting federal funding so they would not be required to comply with NCLB’s guidelines. In response to such opposition, Paige went on a six-month tour to win support for NCLB. He visited school facilities and spoke at town hall meetings. He encouraged parents, teachers, principals, and administrators to work together and be active participants in the educational process. By June 2003, every state had put an approved accountability plan into place. The accountability plans reflected Paige’s philosophy of education: every child deserves equal access to an education, and educational excellence should be the standard for every school. On November 15, 2004, Paige announced his resignation from the Department of Education. In March 2005, he accepted a position as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. He began work on a project addressing the achievement gap between African Americans and other races. He also became a trustee of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a nonprofit think tank committed to the belief that all children deserve a high-quality education. In March 2007, Paige published The War against Hope: How Teachers’ Unions Hurt Children, Hinder Teachers, and Endanger Public Education. The book challenges the methods of the National Education Association, among other groups. Paige also co-founded Chartwell Education Group, a consulting company based in New York. Using his experience as both an educator and an administrator, Paige helps Chartwell provide education-related services—including guidance on policy and how to comply with current laws—to state and local governments, corporations, and other foundations. 342


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TOP I CS IN THE N EW S

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BLACK STUDIES PROGRAMS ARE ESTABLISHED IN HIGHER EDUCATION The civil rights movement during the 1960s inspired African Americans to express pride in their African heritage more publicly than ever before. When the slogan “Black Power” entered the public arena in 1966, African American youth especially found a new sense of empowerment, or sense of high self-esteem. African American activism on college campuses became widespread. Those students demanded a voice in their higher education. Many African Americans thought that schools were teaching from a perspective that did not recognize and represent the lives and concerns of African Americans. For instance, they wanted more teaching on the history of their African American and African ancestors. They also wanted courses that focused on the contributions of African Americans to society and on the social problems in their communities. The result was the field of African American studies, also known as black studies, Afro-American studies, Pan-African studies, and Africana studies.

Students Demand Ethnic Studies The nation’s first African American studies programs were created in response to a student protest. At the predominantly white San Francisco State College (now University), for example, the Black Student Union (BSU) and Third World Liberation organized a strike. The strike lasted from November 6, 1968, to March 20, 1969. The students committed violent acts such as setting fires in the library and planting a bomb in administrative offices during school hours. The groups issued a list of demands, including calls for specific teachers to be given certain jobs, but their central goal was the formation of a department of black studies. While not all of the striking students’ demands were met, San Francisco State College did establish the nation’s first college of ethnic studies. This included the first black studies department in the country. Now a part of San Francisco State University’s curriculum, the student strike is taught in history and social justice courses. Its most lasting effect is that it laid the groundwork for African American studies programs in other colleges and universities.

Supporters of African American studies said it was important to have teachers and administrators who understood and were sensitive to the educational needs of African Americans. They also wanted courses that were relevant to the African American experience. Most early courses taught works by such African American scholars as W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), John Hope Franklin (1915–2009), and Benjamin Brawley (1882–1939). Students also read works by James Baldwin (1924–87), Frederick Douglass (1818–95), and Malcolm X (1925–65). African American studies programs African American Eras

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bring together many different academic subjects, so the courses that could be offered seemed to be endless in possibility. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, typical courses included Africana: A Study in the Problems of Emerging Nations, Jazz Styles and Techniques, Black Capitalism, PanAfricanism: The Politics of Integration, and Community Studies: Problems in Community Living.

Students demonstrate against police during a faculty strike at the San Francisco State College. Faculty and students began the strike in 1968 to force the school administration to establish a black studies department, among other demands. Vernon Merritt III/ Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

Achievements in African American Studies Professor Molefi Kete Asante (1942– ), head of African American studies at Temple University, is credited with founding the nation’s first doctoral program in African American studies in 1988. The first student to earn a Ph.D. in African American studies was Adeniyi Coker, a Nigerian. The first African American to obtain a doctoral degree in African American studies was Mark Hyman, and the first white person was Cynthia Lehman. Temple University set the precedent for doctoral programs in African American studies that were soon developed at other institutions.

One of the nation’s most renowned African American studies programs can be found at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1989, historian and literary critic Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1950– ) accepted a post at Harvard. He was to be the chairman of the Department of African American Studies. At the time Gates arrived at Harvard, the department consisted of only one white professor and a few students. Within only a short time, Gates had recruited some of the country’s most prominent African American thinkers. These included Cornel West (1953– ), with whom he wrote The Future of the Race (1996). He also recruited philosopher Anthony Appiah (1954– ), noted sociologist William Julius Wilson (1935– ), and African art expert Dr. Suzanne Blier (1948– ). From 1991 to 2003, Gates raised more than forty million dollars in donations for the department, which expanded into the Department of African and African American Studies. In 2001, the department instituted a Ph.D. program. Today, Harvard’s Department of African and African American Studies serves thousands of students. The nation’s bad economy during the mid-1970s until the early 1980s led to criticism of African American studies programs. Many colleges and

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First African American President of a Large State University ..........................................................................................

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lifton R. Wharton (1926– ) was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. He was also the first African American to head a Fortune 500 company and the first African American U.S. deputy secretary of state. In the world of education, however, he is known for serving as the first African American president of Michigan State University. He accepted the job in 1970, a turbulent time in American history. Demonstrations, riots, and sit-ins were common on college campuses during the 1960s. At the time Wharton began his tenure, four students were killed and nine others wounded during a Vietnam War protest at Kent State University. Once a visiting professor at the University of Singapore, Wharton shared his views of Asian culture with Michigan State’s student body. He even suspended classes for educational seminars about Indochina, the French colony that in part became Vietnam, and distributed information about how to conduct safe, effective protests.

In 1978, Wharton began his tenure as the longest-serving chancellor of the State University of New York system. It was the nation’s largest university system, with sixty-four campuses. There, he initiated a study of the university’s two most pressing problems. One was the need to elevate the national reputation of the school’s graduate and professional schools, and the other was the need to avoid unnecessary administrative delays so that the school’s business could get done in a timely way. Wharton campaigned for legislation that would allow campus administrators to have more flexibility in funding decisions. Wharton considers this legislation to be one of his major contributions to the university.

universities were struggling with budget cuts. Administrators began to question whether these programs made financial sense, especially given their relatively new status in higher education. Even some prominent African American scholars criticized African American studies programs because they perceived the courses to be of low academic value. Some people argued that the courses were taught by unqualified instructors. Nevertheless, black studies programs have continued to grow over the years. Significant developments in the discipline include the rise of professional African American Eras

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organizations such as the National Council for Black Studies. Also, African American studies programs have expanded to include African American women’s studies and classical African studies.

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COURTS ORDER SCHOOL BUSING TO ACHIEVE INTEGRATION Education in the United States was segregated up until 1954. This means that black and white students could not attend the same schools. This system of segregation became illegal in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education that schools could no longer be segregated. A follow-up case a year later, commonly known as Brown II, ordered that public schools be integrated. Integration, or desegregation, means blending students of different races in the same schools, instead of having separate schools for blacks and whites. Even though the Supreme Court ordered it, many city and state governments continued to resist desegregation. Some white schools responded by trying to close public schools rather than allow African Americans to attend. Others enacted “freedom of choice” plans that allowed students to select what schools they wanted to attend. Not surprisingly, these measures did little more than continue the cycle of segregation. By the mid-1960s, only slightly more than two percent of African American students in the United States attended integrated schools. Supreme Court Rulings Spur Faster Integration In 1968, however, the Supreme Court ruled in Green v. School Board of New Kent County that the New Kent County School Board’s “freedom of choice” plan was unacceptable. The Court ordered that school boards all over the country must immediately start integrating their schools. The problem of school integration, however, was that whites and blacks tended to be segregated by neighborhood; when students attended schools near where they lived, the schools were naturally segregated. School districts would have to find some artificial way to achieve school integration. Some districts decided to bus students to schools farther away from where they lived as a way to accomplish this goal, although it was not until three years later that busing became mandatory in some districts.

In the 1971 case Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the Supreme Court decided that integration had not been fast or effective enough. It found that the Mecklenburg County school district in North Carolina had knowingly taken steps to prevent integration within its schools. The district did this by drawing geographical zones that created segregated schools, as almost all of the African American students 346


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Students in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District participate in busing to achieve integration. The busing program became the model for school integration throughout the 1970s. AP Images

in the county lived in Charlotte. As a result, the Court ordered the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District to bus its students, both white and African American, up to fifteen miles across city lines to achieve desegregation. This ruling became the model for education for the entire decade. Most of the desegregation court cases during the 1960s addressed segregation created by specific policies in southern schools. Busing also became an issue in the North and West. In the early 1970s, voters in Denver had elected opponents of busing to the city’s school board. A federal judge in Colorado, responding to a suit filed by a group of eight Denver families seeking improved school integration, ruled that the school board had deliberately segregated schools by shifting neighborhood school boundaries and building schools in locations that served a racial majority. Some white parents protested the judge’s call for forced busing. They demonstrated, holding signs that read, “No one asked us what we want.” Others’ reactions were more violent. One-third of the city’s buses were destroyed by arsonists (people who set destructive fires on purpose). Also, someone exploded a pipe bomb on the front porch of Wilfred Keyes, the leader of the group of eight families that had filed suit against the Denver public school system to force integration of the school system. When the case got to the Supreme Court, the Court ordered Denver to remedy its racial imbalance by busing. This decision led to more than twenty years of forced busing in Denver. Approximately one-quarter of the city’s students were bused to schools outside their neighborhoods. When many white African American Eras

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White Flight ..........................................................................................

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hite flight” is a trend in which upper- and middle-class whites move out of racially mixed urban neighborhoods and into mostly white suburbs (neighborhoods outside of the city). The beginnings of white flight came in the aftermath of World War II (1939–45). At this time, growing numbers of African Americans migrated to U.S. cities for better employment and educational opportunities. When Brown v. Board of Education required schools to desegregate, many white families chose to leave the city rather than have their children attend school with African American students. The whites established suburban neighborhoods that were, for the most part, segregated in practice. One devastating effect of white flight is urban decay, the process by which an urban area falls into a state of disrepair due to a lack of tax revenue, or funding. In areas of urban decay, abandoned property invites vandalism, and schools have less financial support than they once did. Both crime rates and unemployment figures increase. All of these factors contribute to the gap in education between inner-city students and more affluent, or wealthy, suburban students. Although white flight continues to occur throughout the nation, some areas are seeing a recent trend referred to as “gentrification,” a process in which wealthy whites move back into an urban area, driving up the cost of living so that the current residents are displaced.

families responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by moving, Denver public schools lost approximately 7,000 students in the summer of 1975. In the fall of that same year, around 100 students per week left for suburban schools. Boston Busing Causes Riots, Fights In Boston in 1972, Morgan v. Hennigan was filed in a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. The plaintiffs, or people bringing the lawsuit, charged that Boston public schools were unconstitutionally segregated. Judge W. Arthur Garrity found that the Boston Independent School District School Committee had intentionally resisted desegregation by maintaining separate school systems. Boston appealed the decision to a higher court, asking the court to undo the lower court’s ruling. The appeals court refused. Thus, a plan to integrate Boston schools was put in place in 1974. 348


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Boston police stand in front of South Boston High School to protect incoming African American students to the formerly segregated school in 1974. Lee Lockwood/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

This began with busing students from the African American area of Roxbury to the mainly white neighborhood of South Boston. Buses carrying African American students pulled up at South Boston High School for the start of the school year. An angry white mob greeted them by throwing rocks and rotten tomatoes at the buses and shouting racial slurs. Nine African American students were injured when the windows on their buses were broken. Not long afterwards, leaders in the African American community got a call that protesters were going to attack the buses again. The leaders managed to stop the buses from getting to South Boston High. It was lucky they did. A mob of 2,000 protestors had been waiting for the buses to arrive so that they could turn them over and set them on fire. As the school year went on, some white parents staged a boycott. This means they removed their children from the public schools. Instead, they sent them to nighttime tutoring sessions. Those white students who stayed at the school sat across the room from their African American classmates. Hostility in the school continued to build. Multiple fights occurred on a daily basis. In December, an African American student stabbed a white student, inciting a riot by whites seeking revenge. To avoid further violence, all African American students were secluded, or hidden away, in an office. Their parents had to send five buses to the school. Three were decoys, and only two actually carried the students to safety. African American Eras

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Despite the number of problems caused by mandatory busing at South Boston, the following school year saw larger numbers of students being bused. Approximately twenty-five thousand students of all races were forced to attend schools outside of their neighborhood districts. The cost of busing these students exceeded fifty-six million dollars, causing significant tax increases in Boston to pay for the program. In Charlestown, an area in northern Boston, both African American and Latin American students were bused to Charlestown High School. White students from Charlestown were bused to Roxbury. Once again, racial strife ran rampant. During the first week of school, parents held protests against busing. Those students whose parents had not moved them to private schools boycotted the Charlestown schools. African American students at Charlestown High faced taunts and physical attacks by white students on a daily basis. In response, they created the Minority Students’ Council and met with the school’s headmaster, demanding that he ban racial profanities, or foul words, and slurs. The day following the meeting, 175 white students boycotted school and presented their own list of demands. Their demands included punishing African American students for making obscene gestures and comments to white female students. A few days later, four white males were arrested for attacking an African American male in the hallways. Five African American students were suspended for three days for getting involved in the fight. The next morning, African American students refused to get off the buses when they arrived at Charlestown High. The white students staged a sit-in on the school’s main stairs later in the school year. African American students had to be locked in upstairs classrooms for safety reasons. In spite of the repeated dangers and everyday persecution, African American students continued to attend Charlestown High. Busing was overwhelmingly disliked all over the United States. One 1972 survey found that seventy-three percent of the population—African American and white alike—opposed busing. Indeed, members of white communities were not the only ones upset. A number of African American parents were upset by the fact that for every seven African American students who were bused, only one white student was. Furthermore, they said, the staff and students at white schools had not been prepared for the arrival of African American students. The students endured discrimination and even violence at their new schools. President Richard Nixon (1913–94) himself criticized court-ordered busing, arguing that it affected neighborhoods in a negative way by dividing them. The president asked Congress to ban busing, but his efforts were futile. Busing continued to be upheld by the Supreme Court as a constitutional process by which schools could and should integrate.

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Council of Independent Black Institutions Supports African-Centered Schools ..........................................................................................

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ounded in 1972, the Council of Independent Black Institutions (CIBI) supports independent African-centered schools. The group was born from black scholar Molefi Kete Asante’s concept of “afrocentricity,” a discipline that focuses on African culture and its contributions to the development of Western civilization. Afrocentricity offers an alternative to the traditional Eurocentric (centering on the values and historical perspective of the white European tradition) model of anthropology. The purpose of CIBI is to reconstruct African culture and to ensure that Africa’s cultural history is part of the lives of African Americans today. To this end the CIBI provides schools with African-centered curriculum materials for all ages—infancy through post-graduate levels—and in all subject areas. It also provides methods for implementing and evaluating those programs. The CIBI works internationally to promote African-centered education. It does this through student exchange programs, where students visit and attend school in a different place; conventions, where people from different places come together to focus on a common topic; and computer networking. The CIBI calls for states and districts to build stronger public schools and offer more opportunities for parents to choose where their children go to school. In particular, the CIBI believes that those in government should be obligated to provide African Americans equal access to a quality education within their own neighborhoods rather than force African American students to attend white schools. Greater choice within communities would eliminate the need for busing. The group promotes the improvement of African American educational opportunities through the establishment of charter schools. CIBI also argues for strengthening existing magnet schools and supplying parThe Council of Independent Black Institutions ents with school vouchers to pay for private supports African centered schools like this one in Tallahassee, Florida. ª Jeffery Allan Salter/Corbis schools.


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Supreme Court Reconsiders Court-Ordered Busing In Milliken v. Bradley (1974), the Supreme Court made a landmark decision when it struck down a district-court ruling that called for busing between Detroit’s African American schools and suburban white schools. The Supreme Court ruled that schools could bus students only within their own districts and not across district lines. This ultimately meant that suburban students could not be used to desegregate inner-city schools. Consequently, the upper and middle classes, predominantly white, moved from urban areas to settle in suburbs, essentially segregating schools once again.

In 1977’s Milliken II, the Supreme Court shifted its focus from busing to the improvement of schools. The Court agreed that the purpose of integration was to give African Americans access to a better education. The Court recognized that all students could benefit from being educated in their neighborhood schools if those schools were of acceptable quality. Finally, in 1991, the Supreme Court ruled in Board of Education of Oklahoma v. Dowell that schools were released from busing if they had taken all practical steps to achieve integration. Even so, busing programs continued in some areas of the country into the twenty-first century.

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SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PROPOSE EBONICS TO AID BLACK STUDENTS The term “Ebonics” was coined in 1973 by Dr. Robert L. Williams (1930– ), a director of African American studies at the University of Missouri. The word is a combination of “ebony,” meaning black, and “phonics,” which refers to the sounds words make. Williams used “Ebonics” to refer to a way of speaking by some African Americans. Some linguists (scholars of language) consider Ebonics, which is now also known as African American Vernacular English (AAVE), to be a separate language. Other linguists consider it a dialect, or variety, of English. Although Ebonics had been recognized by linguists for some time, it was not a source of public attention until 1996. That year a school board in Oakland, California, passed a resolution to start using Ebonics in the classroom. The decision to use Ebonics was an attempt to address a significant problem. Many African American students in the Oakland Unified School District did not do as well in school as their white peers, especially on standardized tests. Education advocate Toni Cook (1944– ) campaigned for the formation of a district task force to study the statistics and make recommendations for educational programs that would boost the achievement of African Americans.

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After an eight-month evaluation, the task force proposed that the schools expand what was known as its Standard English Proficiency (SEP) program. In response to the task force’s suggestions, the Oakland school board passed a resolution that recognized Ebonics as the “primary language of African American children.” Ebonics would become part of the language arts curriculum in Oakland schools. The resolution called for using federal bilingual education funds to hire linguists who had studied AAVE to train teachers about Ebonics. The goal of this training was for teachers to learn how to better help African American students improve their standard English-language skills.

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Only hours after the proposal had been passed, Ebonics became the subject of widespread controversy in the United States. With little regard to the proposal’s wording, the media reported that the Oakland Unified School District had accepted Ebonics as a separate language. Reports said the district planned to teach the “broken English” and unconventional grammar of Ebonics to its student body. Cook and members of the Oakland Unified School District issued statements to explain what the proposal had actually said. However, Ebonics continued to be the topic of radio and television programs as well as newspapers and magazines. Wellknown African Americans such as civil rights leader Jesse Jackson (1941– ) and actor Bill Cosby (1937– ) spoke out against the resolution. A U.S. Senate hearing was held on January 23, 1997. Linguists joined educators from Oakland to testify about the benefits of teaching Ebonics. Michael Casserly (1948– ), the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools for the U.S. State Department, provided testimony that summarized data from fifty urban school districts across the nation. He gave statistics from 1992–1993 showing that 60.7 percent of white elementary students scored above the national average in reading. By high school, that percentage had increased to 65.4 percent. In contrast, only 31.3 percent of African American elementary students scored above the national average in reading. That percentage had dropped to 26.6 percent by high school. Casserly intended to illustrate that taking into account the everyday language characteristics of African American students could help ease the educational problems they faced. Nevertheless, the federal government and the California legislature both passed bills to ensure that bilingual funding could not be used to teach Ebonics. In April 1997, the Oakland school board cut the term “Ebonics” from any of its educational plans or programs. Although the controversy over Ebonics has died down since 1997, many linguists and educators continue to study Ebonics as an issue that goes beyond language. They argue that the debate about Ebonics is really a debate about culture and how U.S. schools are failing to meet the needs of African American Eras

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African American students. Several of the ideas concerning the use of Ebonics in schools presented by the Oakland school board have been supported by educational research. For instance, educators now more readily acknowledge the fact that African American students may benefit from teaching materials specifically targeted for speakers of AAVE, even though AAVE may not be what is considered standard English. Ongoing research is being conducted to determine the relationship between both AAVE and African American culture and the development of reading and writing skills.

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CHARTER SCHOOLS PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE TO MINORITY STUDENTS Since the 1990s, one major trend in educational reform that particularly benefited African American students was the growth of charter schools. As of 2010 there were more than four thousand charter schools in the United States. A charter school is a public school that operates independently of the local school board, often with an educational philosophy different from other schools in the area. Charter schools are designed to address the particular needs of a given community of students. For example, one charter school might focus on artistically gifted students, while another might be a school for special education students. The makeup of the student body in charter schools varies from school to school, depending on what the mission of the charter is. Students who attend charter schools are not assigned to go there. Rather, they are there by choice. The first charter school legislation was enacted in Minnesota in 1991, followed by California in 1992. Since then, charter schools have been one of the fastest-growing advancements in educational reform. They have received bipartisan support (meaning support from both major political parties) from state legislators, governors, U.S. secretaries of education, and U.S. presidents. President Bill Clinton (1946– ), for instance, called for the establishment of three thousand charter schools by the year 2002. President George W. Bush (1946– ) issued a call in 2002 for three hundred million dollars to support charter schools. As of 2009, there were forty-six hundred charter schools in the United States, serving around 1.4 million students. Success of Urban Charter Schools Many charter schools have been established to prepare low-income, inner-city minorities (also known as disadvantaged students) for higher education. Urban charter schools in California, Michigan, Texas, and New York serve a high percentage of African Americans and Hispanics. These minority groups tend to be from low-income families. In its 2005 Annual 354


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Survey of America’s Charter Schools, the Center for Education Reform found that approximately 63 percent of the students in a typical charter school qualify for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s free and reducedprice lunch program. At the predominantly black Codman Academy Charter School in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 79 percent of students qualify.

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Charter schools are not required to follow a traditional public school system curriculum that tells them what and how they must teach. Therefore, most charter schools offer special programs specially designed for their students. A number of charter schools that serve mainly black students include African American history as part of their core curriculum. African American cultural events and mentoring programs with members of the African American community help students understand their rich heritage and promising future. In general, the performance of charters schools dealing with minority students is better than that of traditional public schools. The Center for Education Reform reported that forty-six percent of African American eighth graders in charter schools passed the mathematics section of Michigan’s 2004 state assessment test, as compared with only 21 percent of African American students statewide. The growing numbers of charter schools between 2000 and 2010—as of 2010, one in every eighteen public schools in New York City was a charter school—indicates that parents, community members, educators, and politicians all have confidence in their reliability and effectiveness, especially for minority students. A rigorous study published in 2009 revealed that this confidence was wellfounded: the study found that charter schools in New York outperformed traditional public schools, and that they had success in shrinking the achievement gap between poorer African American students and wealthier white students. New Jersey’s charter schools have also received favorable attention for succeeding where most public schools in the state have failed: in the poor, urban neighborhoods. Test scores at the Discovery Charter School, North Star School, and Robert Treat School of Newark, New Jersey, were far above those of the area public schools. Some of the success of charter schools can be attributed to the sense of belonging these schools foster in minority students. Faculties at predominantly African American charter schools encourage students to believe that they have the potential to become great community leaders. In the majority of charter schools, faculty members lead classroom discussions about responsibility and character. They teach students the importance of helping and supporting each other. As a result, the school environment is one of acceptance, respect, and trust. Another major factor in the success of urban charter schools is that students are often in school longer. The school African American Eras

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The Implications of No Child Left Behind for African American Parents ..........................................................................................

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he No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 empowered African American parents by emphasizing the importance of parental involvement in their children’s school systems. It guaranteed them the right to access school data in order to evaluate the academic progress of their children. As outlined by NCLB: • Parents have the right to know how their children’s school is performing overall in comparison to state academic standards and whether it is meeting annual state goals for student achievement, called “Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).” • Parents have the right to information about the AYP of subpopulations within the school. • Parents have the right to request documentation of a teacher’s qualifications. • Parents can transfer their children to higher-performing schools or obtain special tutoring to raise their children’s academic achievement.

year at many charter schools starts earlier and ends later than traditional schools. The school day also starts earlier and ends later. At Newark’s Team Academy, for example, students arrive at 7:30 A.M. and leave at 5:00 P.M. Because of this supportive school culture, violence in charter schools is typically less prevalent than in regular public schools. Even when they are located in the same neighborhoods with violent public schools, charter schools are, on the whole, safer and more peaceful. One reason for the lack of violence or disruption among students at charter schools is the fact that the students are held to high standards of behavior. At Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Boston, Massachusetts, once a district full of racial violence, students are held to a strict code of conduct. They wear uniforms, walk silently in a line down the hallway from class to class, and raise their hands to ask questions. They receive demerits for such rule violations as chewing gum, misbehaving on school buses, being tardy to class, not finishing homework on time, and engaging in disruptive or disrespectful behavior. Ultimately, students at charter schools are taught to accept 356


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responsibility for themselves and their actions in order to maintain structure and focus, as well as peace, in the school.

Critics Challenge Charter School Movement Opponents of charter schools have argued from the beginning that charter schools hurt students who remain in conventional schools because they take resources away from quality public schools. State funding for a school is based on the number of students enrolled there. If a large number of children choose to attend charter schools instead of their neighborhood schools, then the school districts lose a significant amount of money. Critics point out the fact that taxpayers are supporting charter schools even though they may have no voice in how the school is operated. (Public school districts are governed by a board of directors elected by the community.) People who challenge charter schools contend that the schools are not held accountable for issues ranging from student performance to financial management. A charter school can, however, be closed if it fails to perform or uphold its mission, which in turn disrupts the education of the students who must then find a new school. African American Eras

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African American parents sometimes choose to send their children to charter schools like this one in New Jersey to avoid the problems often found in the urban public schools they would normally attend. ª Najlah Feanny/ Corbis

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A major source of contention with charter schools in the twenty-first century is segregation. Critics argue that charter schools catering to African American and economically disadvantaged children are creating segregated schools no different from those schools that were ordered by the Supreme Court to integrate in the 1960s and 1970s. A study conducted by Harvard University in June 2003 revealed that 70 percent of African American students in Massachusetts charter schools attended schools comprised of 90 percent minority students. A lack of diversity, say opponents of charter schools, means an incomplete education. Still, charter schools have clearly succeeded in giving urban African American students educational opportunities they formerly lacked. The success of charter schools serving African American communities has resulted in thousands of students applying for admission. According to the Inner City Foundation in Los Angeles, charter schools in African American and Hispanic neighborhoods have waiting lists of more than 5,000 students. In response to increased interest, communities will most likely continue to pursue charter schools as innovative alternatives to traditional public schools.

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STATES TAKE OVER FAILING INNER-CITY SCHOOLS Serious problems exist in urban schools. These are a direct reflection of the conditions of the inner cities in which they are located. During the 1960s, urban areas from Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey, experienced outbreaks of violence. These areas had largely African American populations. The underlying causes were injustices that had plagued African American neighborhoods for years. Such problems include inadequate schools, high unemployment, poor housing, and rising costs of living. Decades after this violence erupted, these same problems continue to plague inner cities. The education of children in these communities has continued to suffer. When gang activity, widespread drug use, and daily violence dominate urban communities, the same troubles unavoidably make their way into the neighborhood schools. Consequently, students who attend these schools struggle to learn for reasons that extend beyond academics. They often come from broken homes. Some live in substandard housing or are hungry when they come to school. Some fear for their safety both in and outside of school. When wealthy families leave urban areas for mostly segregated suburban neighborhoods, inner-city schools lose tax dollars. As a result of losing wealthy residents while steadily gaining more poor immigrants, a large number of inner-city schools cope with a devastating poverty that cannot be easily overcome. In addition to majority populations of low-income students, urban schools serve a large percentage of minorities. 358


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Schoolbooks holding up a broken desk are evidence of a lack of school funding at a Manhattan school in 2001. African Americans often must attend poorly funded schools because they live in poor urban areas. ª James Leynse/ Corbis

On average, as of 2010 inner-city schools receive 797 dollars less per child than suburban schools. This means each inner-city classroom of twenty students receives 15,940 dollars less than its suburban equivalent. Whereas students in suburban schools work on new computers and play in well-equipped gyms, children in overcrowded inner-city schools do not have enough chairs for everyone. Students must share old textbooks. Even outdated computers are of little use because old school buildings are not wired for today’s technology. The schools are subject to vandalism and graffiti. Inner-city school buildings are also dilapidated, or broken down, and dangerous. They often have broken windows and backed-up toilets that spill sewage on bathroom floors. Moreover, many facilities lack heat and air-conditioning. With no money available for repairs, the problems only get worse as the buildings age. Educational studies show that the inequality in resources between urban and suburban schools leads to lower test scores and lower graduation rates in urban schools. These studies also indicate that inner-city students make the decision to drop out of school as early as fifth grade. Early signs include skipping classes, frequent absences, and being held back to repeat a grade. Thus, it is no surprise that one of the biggest challenges inner-city schools face is motivating students to stay in school and remain focused on future employment goals. People who argue for urban school reform point to the alarming numbers of African American males who are currently in prison. They say that urban schools choose to allow these at-risk students to “fall through the cracks.” African American Eras

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More School Accountability Leads to Takeovers In the 1990s, state takeovers of public schools came to the forefront of education as a strategy for inner-city school reform, particularly during the years from 1995 to 1997. During this period, 38 percent of the decade’s takeovers occurred. Boston, New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Baltimore, Oakland, and Washington, D.C., school districts were taken over during the 1990s. In all of these districts combined, the average African American enrollment was 69.7 percent, as reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics in 2001.

In the early 2000s federal and state educational agencies created policies to make schools more accountable, or responsible, for their students’ education. One such program is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). A main focus of NCLB is the educational success of minority students. The act states that if a school is receiving certain federal funds and fails to demonstrate good yearly progress for five straight years, the school district must make fundamental reforms. Options given to districts that have not met standards include reopening schools as charter schools— most of which are comprised mainly of minorities—and replacing all or most of the schools’ staff. Another alternative a district has is turning over the operation of failing schools to its state educational agency. The reasons for takeovers are generally the same from district to district. Schools turned over to the state have poor financial management and underperforming students and faculty. Most of the schools serve lowincome and disadvantaged populations, including African Americans. Sometimes states plan an immediate state takeover of a school or district in trouble. However, most of the time, a school or school district receives a series of penalties before actually being taken over. Mayor Takes Control of Detroit’s Public Schools One of the most highly publicized state takeovers during the 1990s involved the Detroit public school district. Between 1950 and 2000, the city’s population had dropped from two million to one million. Families chose to leave Detroit and move to suburbs for a variety of reasons. One was the declining quality of its public services, including the public school system. As more people left, the city lost more and more tax revenue, and public services continued to decline. By 1997, schools in the city of Detroit were in dire need of help. Detroit was almost ninety percent African American and was the poorest city in America. About 108,000 of its 180,000 enrolled students lived in poverty. The school dropout rate in Detroit was a little over 26 percent, and scores on the standardized Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) had shown little or no progress for several years. At the beginning of the 1998–1999 school year, 360


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Detroit schools had a shortage of five hundred teachers. It also lacked three hundred substitute teachers. This meant that core subjects sometimes did not have instructors. School buildings in the district were in serious need of repair. One elementary school in a particularly poor section of Detroit had to evacuate students from the building because of a carbon-monoxide (a poisonous gas) leak from an old coal-burning furnace.

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In response to the crisis, Michigan’s governor, John Engler (1948– ), championed Senate Bill 297. The legislation handed over the running of the city’s public schools to Detroit mayor Dennis Archer (1942– ). Engler’s bill called for the removal of the school’s superintendent, along with the district’s school board. The board was composed of eleven elected members. In their place would be a chief executive and a six-member commission appointed by Archer. This would last until the election of a new school board in five years. The planned state takeover of Detroit schools inspired heated debate from its beginnings. Opponents of the takeover bill argued that Engler was an enemy of public education. Their evidence was that he passed legislation that permitted the creation of charter schools, which drew students away from the struggling public schools. Several state senators questioned whether removing a school board that had been elected by the general public was legal. Backed by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and New Detroit (a coalition of community leaders dedicated to maintaining positive race relations), some challengers alleged that the bill was racist. They said it would overrule the voting power of African Americans, who had elected the school board. Still others argued that Engler was proposing an experiment, not a solution. They said that any takeover would merely transfer the control of millions of dollars in bond money from one entity to another. Backers of the bill were quick to point out that the Detroit school district had failed miserably in managing its schools. They said that, more importantly, it had failed in educating its students. Simply put, Detroit schools were in crisis and needed fundamental change. Business professionals in the Detroit area agreed. They showed that graduates of Detroit public schools lacked the reading and math skills to function in the job market. Many supporters of a state takeover were confident that a school board appointed by the mayor would have more professionalism and expertise in management and decision making. Senate Bill 297 became the Public Act 10 of 1999 on March 26, 1999. With modifications made by Mayor Archer, the act granted the mayor’s office authority to order mandatory after-school classes and summer school for students performing below academic standards. In addition, teacher African American Eras

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training would be intensified, and schools would be policed by members of the community. To achieve what legislators, educators, and parents alike wanted for Detroit’s schools, Archer requested that the state provide him with clearly defined standards for the Detroit public school system. Additionally, he proposed hiring 1,200 new teachers. The state-imposed takeover of Detroit public schools lasted for six years. During that time period, the district saw little improvement. Enrollment continued to decline. It fell from around 180,000 students to approximately 140,000 by 2005. While 48.5 percent of seniors scored at the lowest level on the MEAP in 1999, the figure had increased to 59.1 percent in 2005. Compared with other students in the state, Detroit students’ scores are frequently half of the state average. Improvements in financial management were also lacking. In the years from 2000 to 2005, the district had deficits, meaning it spent more money than it brought in. In November 2005, resentful Detroit voters elected a new board of education. They were once again seeking leadership for their inferior schools. Only three years later, however, the state of Michigan was once again planning to take control over the financial operations of the Detroit public school system. After months of controversy surrounding the district’s finances, the district revealed a deficit of $408 million. This prompted hundreds of layoffs and other budget cuts. The state had to give the Detroit school system money so that it could pay its employees as well as vendors who were threatening to sue because of unpaid invoices. In an attempt to

The Michigan Department of Education appointed Robert Bobb as an emergency financial manager for the Detroit Public Schools in 2009 when the school system reached a financial crisis. AP Images

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intervene, the Michigan Department of Education appointed Robert Bobb as an emergency financial manager for the district. He oversaw all financial decisions in the district, including budgeting and contract negotiations.

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Still, Detroit schools were in financial crisis as of 2009. One school asked the community for donations of toilet paper because it had no money for supplies. On May 13, 2009, Bobb shocked the nation when he appealed to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (1964– ) for federal disaster funding. He wanted the Detroit public school system to be put under a presidential emergency declaration. Bobb argued that the district’s educational situation is similar to the one schools in New Orleans faced after Hurricane Katrina, a 2005 disaster that devastated the city. In response, Duncan said that he supports another state takeover of Detroit schools, with Detroit’s new mayor, Dave Bing (1943– ), in charge. Other School Takeovers The challenges faced by Detroit’s schools are extreme, but not unique. Several urban school districts taken over by the state have remained troubled. Others have made improvements. Philadelphia’s school district (which has a student body that is about 65% African American) was taken over by Pennsylvania in 2002, and various private companies and institutions (including local universities, nonprofit groups, and for-profit companies) were put in charge of managing the schools. By 2006, Philadelphia schools were showing marked improvement in student achievement.

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HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES FACE CHALLENGES Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were established to provide higher education for African Americans during a time of segregation, when black students were not allowed to attend college with white students. The oldest HBCU, Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, dates back to 1837. Most organized colleges and universities began to emerge after the Civil War (1861–65), when newly freed slaves looked to education as a way to improve their lives both socially and economically. Groups such as the American Missionary Association and the Freedmen’s Bureau worked to establish private colleges and universities specifically for the education of African Americans. In 1890, the Second Morrill Land Grant Act specified that states receiving federal land-grant funds must either open their white agricultural and mechanical schools to African Americans or provide money for similar schools for African Americans. Some of the schools were founded as religious seminaries or normal schools (schools for the training of teachers). Others were founded as technical African American Eras

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colleges, which provided agricultural and technical courses. These schools produced a number of leading engineers and scientists. The Higher Education Act of 1965 defines an HBCU as “any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting.” HBCUs are valuable alternatives for African Americans who have faced discrimination and have often been excluded from majority white colleges and universities. They provide students with not only a quality education but also a link to their African American cultural history. HBCUs make up about 3 percent of the nation’s colleges and universities. These schools include the prestigious Howard University, founded in Washington, D.C., in 1886; Spelman College, founded in Georgia in 1881; and Bethune-Cookman University, founded in Florida in 1904. More than half of all African American public school teachers and approximately 70 percent of African American dentists have earned their degrees at HBCUs. Many well-known athletes, celebrities, writers, and politicians are graduates of HBCUs. They include Hall of Fame National Football League player Walter Payton (1954–99), actress and comedienne Wanda Sykes (1964– ), Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison (1931– ), and former U.S. secretary of education Rod Paige (1933– ).

Graduates of the historically black Howard University wait for their commencement ceremony in 1996. ª Annie Griffiths Belt/Corbis

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Enrollment in HBCUs Declines After Civil Rights Era Before desegregation, HBCUs were responsible for the education of 90 percent of those African Americans who received a higher education in the United States. The civil rights movement and affirmative action policies of the 1960s, however, opened up all institutions of higher learning to black students. Black students had more options to choose from, and HBCUs began to see a decline in enrollment. During the 1970s and early 1980s, African Americans increasingly enrolled in predominantly white colleges and universities that had formerly denied them admittance. The decline in African American enrollment was at least partially offset by an increase in the number of non-African American students attending HBCUs. From 1986 to 1996, enrollment in HBCUs increased by 25 percent. This figure includes a large number of non-African Americans. By the 2000s, almost one out of every five students at HBCUs was white, and an additional thirteen percent were foreign students.

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The increased presence of non-African American students and faculty in HBCUs has highlighted the need to preserve the unique identities of HBCUs. Unlike mainstream colleges and universities, HBCUs provide African Americans with a source of ethnic pride. They offer programs designed to meet the specific needs of the African American community, while also serving as keepers of African American history and heritage. Since the 1970s, presidential administrations have acknowledged the contribution of HBCUs to both the past and the future of African American scholars. They have done this with a variety of legislative acts. In the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter (1924– ) established a White House initiative program with the purpose of strengthening and expanding the capacity of HBCUs. A few years later, President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) issued an executive order aimed at reversing some of the effects of prior discriminatory actions against HBCUs. Congress also increased federal funding to HBCUs at this time. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush (1924– ) expanded Reagan’s executive order. He created the President’s Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This group is a Department of Education commission that reported directly to him and the Secretary of Education about issues involving HBCUs. These issues included how to increase attention these schools get from private companies. Challenges Faced by HBCUs Throughout the years, HBCUs have had to deal with shortages in funding. This lack of funds has left them struggling to stick to their budgets while maintaining high educational standards. They have not historically received the same level of state and federal funding as mainly white colleges. For this reason, these schools have been forced to rely heavily on African American Eras

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Some Historically Black Colleges and Universities ..........................................................................................

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he United States is home to more than one hundred HBCUs, many of which are located in the South, where freed slaves began their formal educations. Some examples are listed below. • • • • •

Four-Year Public Schools Grambling State University (Louisiana) Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) Morgan State University (Maryland) Prairie View A&M University (Texas) Virginia State University (Virginia)

• • • • •

Four-Year Private Schools Bethune-Cookman College (Florida) Fisk University (Tennessee) Shaw University (North Carolina) Spelman College (Georgia) Tuskegee University (Alabama)

private donations and money from such groups as the United Negro College Fund. Even these resources fall short of what HBCUs need. The financial status of many African American students who attend HBCUs also contributes to the challenges the schools face. Schools like Bennett College and St. Augustine College, both private schools in North Carolina, have been on probation for financial problems and have faced losing their accreditation, which is like a license for colleges. When a college loses accreditation, it also loses access to federal grant programs, which further hurts the college. Some African American educators worry that HBCUs might either be closed down or become a part of white schools. Despite persistent financial troubles, however, supporters of HBCUs remain confident that these schools will go on and continue to provide highquality education that is both empowering and affordable. HBCUs have had a harder time recruiting and keeping talented teachers more so than other colleges and universities in the nation. This is mainly because of the rising number of employment opportunities available to African Americans. Prior to the 1960s, teaching was one of the few professions open to African Americans with college degrees, and black 366


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teachers could only teach at institutions for black students. This began to change as the federal government passed laws prohibiting discrimination in employment because of the civil rights movement. Career opportunities began to open up for qualified African American professors at white universities and colleges. Those jobs typically pay more than what the limited budgets of HBCUs can offer, and it is easier to gain recognition as a scholar. As a result, HBCUs do not always attract the most celebrated or experienced educators, and teacher turnover rates tend to be greater.

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Many HBCUs offer open enrollment, meaning anyone with a high school degree or the equivalent can attend on demand. In contrast, most four-year colleges and universities practice selective admission, meaning students must apply by submitting evidence of their academic abilities (such as standardized test scores and transcripts) and the college admission committee chooses only highly qualified candidates for admission. Because of open enrollment, HBCUs must also manage the academic problems that arise from enrolling students who are not academically prepared for college. This lack of academic preparation is partly due to the elementary and secondary schools that many African Americans attend. Many African Americans attend underfunded schools in poorer neighborhoods that do not provide the same quality of education as schools in wealthier areas. African American students who excel in high school most often choose to attend larger, more prestigious colleges rather than HBCUs. When average students have not been taught basic skills in secondary schools, HBCUs have the added responsibility of helping students make up for what they missed in their early schooling. HBCUs do also attract strong students. This is especially true of schools like Florida A&M, which consistently recruits National Achievement scholars; Morehouse College in Georgia, which graduates many Rhodes scholars; and Howard University in Washington, D.C., which draws students with its renowned law school. Critics of HBCUs question the importance of HBCUs in the twenty-first century. Some argue that the mission and purpose of the schools are no longer relevant in a society of equal educational opportunities and affirmative action. The harshest attacks come from opponents who argue that HBCUs are academically inferior to predominantly white colleges and universities. They point to the achievement gap between African American students who attend HBCUs and those who attend traditionally white schools, pointing out lower SAT scores and high school grade-point averages. Furthermore, critics say, HBCUs cannot offer African American students the same quality of education as predominantly white colleges. They say this is due to poor funding that prevents them from having the resources and facilities to prepare African Americans for the technological demands of the twenty-first century. The global economic crisis of 2008 African American Eras

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The United Negro College Fund ..........................................................................................

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ounded in 1944, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has become one of the nation’s best-known charities. Its mission is:

• to enhance the quality of education by providing financial assistance to deserving students, • to raise operating funds for member colleges and universities, and • to increase access to technology for students and faculty at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). UNCF is the most successful advocate for the higher education of African Americans. In 1972, UNCF began broadcasting public service announcements highlighted by the slogan “A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste,” with the purpose of both educating the public about the organization and getting donations for the fund. Unchanged for almost four decades, the slogan has reached generations of people who have been encouraged to help African Americans get a college education. UNCF makes it possible for more than sixty thousand African American students to attend college every year. It does this through grants, scholarships, and internship programs. UNCF plays a large role in closing the educational attainment gap between African American and white students.

and 2009 hit already cash-strapped HBCUs particularly hard, as donations dwindled. In response, the administration of President Barack Obama (1961– ) pushed for a doubling of the funds set aside in the Department of Education budget for HBCUs, raising the allotment from $10.4 million to $20.6 million.

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Primary Sources

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 SUPREME COURT’S GREEN V. COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD OF KENT

COUNTY DECISION (1968) Green v. County School Board of Kent County was the most important school desegregation case to follow 1955’s Brown II. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ordered that public schools be desegregated. In the so-called Brown II decision of 1955, the Court responded to complaints from school districts about the difficulties posed by immediate integration, and ruled that integration must be carried out “with all deliberate speed.” In Green, the Supreme Court declared that school districts’ freedom-of-choice plans did not meet the Court’s standards for racially balanced schools. The Court established criteria to determine whether a school’s desegregation plan was acceptable. Those criteria included the ratios of black-to-white students and faculty and equal access to facilities, transportation, and extracurricular activities. The Court’s decision, written by Justice William Brennan and excerpted here, accelerated the pace of school desegregation. The percentage of African American students attending integrated schools in the South jumped from thirty-two percent in the 1968–1969 school year to seventy-nine percent in 1970–1971. The decision also sparked the controversial plan to bus students between school districts in order to achieve racial integration—plans that proved extremely unpopular with African American and white parents alike.

............................ The pattern of separate “white” and “Negro” schools in the New Kent County school system established under compulsion of state laws is precisely the pattern of segregation to which Brown I and Brown II were particularly addressed, and which Brown I declared unconstitutionally denied Negro school children equal protection of the laws. Racial identification of the system’s schools was complete, extending not just to the composition of student bodies at the two schools but to every facet of school operations—faculty, staff, transportation, extracurricular activities, and facilities. In short, the State, acting through the local school board and school officials, organized and operated a dual system, part “white” and part “Negro.”

Compulsion State of being forced

It was such dual systems that 14 years ago Brown I held unconstitutional and a year later Brown II held must be abolished; school boards operating such school systems were required by Brown II “to effectuate a transition to a racially nondiscriminatory school system.” . . . It is of course true that for the time immediately after Brown II the concern was with making an initial break in a long-established pattern of excluding Negro children from schools attended by white children. The African American Eras

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Unitary Single

Plaintiffs Those lodging a legal complaint Effectuate Cause to happen

Fourteenth Amendment An 1868 amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted full legal protection and citizenship to African Americans

Articulated Explained

principal focus was on obtaining for those Negro children courageous enough to break with tradition a place in the “white” schools . . . . Under Brown II that immediate goal was only the first step, however. The transition to a unitary, nonracial system of public education was and is the ultimate end to be brought about; it was because of the “complexities arising from the transition to a system of public education freed of racial discrimination” that we provided for “all deliberate speed” in the implementation of the principles of Brown I. . . . Thus we recognized the task would necessarily involve solution of “varied local school problems.” . . . In referring to the “personal interest of the plaintiffs in admission to public schools as soon as practicable on a nondiscriminatory basis,” we also noted that “to effectuate this interest may call for elimination of a variety of obstacles in making the transition . . . .” Yet we emphasized that the constitutional rights of Negro children required school officials to bear the burden of establishing that additional time to carry out the ruling in an effective manner “is necessary in the public interest and is consistent with good faith compliance at the earliest practicable date.” . . . It is against this background that 13 years after Brown II commanded the abolition of dual systems we must measure the effectiveness of respondent School Board’s “freedom-of-choice” plan to achieve that end. The School Board contends that it has fully discharged its obligation by adopting a plan by which every student, regardless of race, may “freely” choose the school he will attend. The Board attempts to cast the issue in its broadest form by arguing that its “freedom-of-choice” plan may be faulted only by reading the Fourteenth Amendment as universally requiring “compulsory integration,” a reading it insists the wording of the Amendment will not support. But that argument ignores the thrust of Brown II. In the light of the command of that case, what is involved here is the question whether the Board has achieved the “racially nondiscriminatory school system” Brown II held must be effectuated in order to remedy the established unconstitutional deficiencies of its segregated system. In the context of the state-imposed segregated pattern of long standing, the fact that in 1965 the Board opened the doors of the former “white” school to Negro children and of the “Negro” school to white children merely begins, not ends, our inquiry whether the Board has taken steps adequate to abolish its dual, segregated system. Brown II was a call for the dismantling of well-entrenched dual systems tempered by an awareness that complex and multifaceted problems would arise which would require time and flexibility for a successful resolution. School boards such as the respondent then operating state-compelled dual systems were nevertheless clearly charged with the affirmative duty to take whatever steps might be necessary to convert to a unitary system in which racial discrimination would be eliminated root and branch. . . . The constitutional rights of Negro school children articulated in Brown I permit no less than this; and it was to this end that Brown II commanded school boards to bend their efforts. . . . Although the general experience under “freedom of choice” to date has been such as to indicate its ineffectiveness as a tool of desegregation, there may well be

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instances in which it can serve as an effective device. Where it offers real promise of aiding a desegregation program to effectuate conversion of a state-imposed dual system to a unitary, nonracial system there might be no objection to allowing such a device to prove itself in operation. On the other hand, if there are reasonably available other ways, such for illustration as zoning, promising speedier and more effective conversion to a unitary, nonracial school system, “freedom of choice” must be held unacceptable.

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The New Kent School Board’s “freedom-of-choice” plan cannot be accepted as a sufficient step to “effectuate a transition” to a unitary system. In three years of operation not a single white child has chosen to attend Watkins school and although 115 Negro children enrolled in New Kent school in 1967 (up from 35 in 1965 and 111 in 1966) 85 percent of the Negro children in the system still attend the all-Negro Watkins school. In other words, the school system remains a dual system. Rather than further the dismantling of the dual system, the plan has operated simply to burden children and their parents with a responsibility which Brown II placed squarely on the School Board. The Board must be required to formulate a new plan and, in light of other courses which appear open to the Board, such as zoning, fashion steps which promise realistically to convert promptly to a system without a “white” school and a “Negro” school, but just schools.

 THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (2001) The No Child Left Behind Act was spearheaded by President George W. Bush’s administration. It was created to decrease the achievement gap

President George W. Bush speaks on the No Child Left Behind Act with students from a New York City public school in 2007. The act aimed to help minority students struggling in inner city schools. Paul J. Richards/ AFP/Getty Images


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between minority and non-minority students and between economically and non-economically disadvantaged students. The act received support from both Democrats and Republicans. Its effect was to significantly increase the federal government’s involvement in education reform. The following excerpt from the act’s statement of purpose lists twelve goals the act hoped to achieve.

............................ Proficiency Competence

The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments. This purpose can be accomplished by— (1) ensuring that high-quality academic assessments, accountability systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional materials are aligned with challenging State academic standards so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators can measure progress against common expectations for student academic achievement; (2) meeting the educational needs of low-achieving children in our Nation’s highest-poverty schools, limited English proficient children, migratory children, children with disabilities, Indian children, neglected or delinquent children, and young children in need of reading assistance; (3) closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and non-minority students, and between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers; (4) holding schools, local educational agencies, and States accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students, and identifying and turning around low-performing schools that have failed to provide a high-quality education to their students, while providing alternatives to students in such schools to enable the students to receive a high-quality education; (5) distributing and targeting resources sufficiently to make a difference to local educational agencies and schools where needs are greatest; (6) improving and strengthening accountability, teaching, and learning by using State assessment systems designed to ensure that students are meeting challenging State academic achievement and content standards and increasing achievement overall, but especially for the disadvantaged; (7) providing greater decision-making authority and flexibility to schools and teachers in exchange for greater responsibility for student performance;

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(8) providing children an enriched and accelerated educational program, including the use of schoolwide programs or additional services that increase the amount and quality of instructional time;

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(9) promoting schoolwide reform and ensuring the access of children to effective, scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic content; (10) significantly elevating the quality of instruction by providing staff in participating schools with substantial opportunities for professional development; (11) coordinating services under all parts of this title with each other, with other educational services, and, to the extent feasible, with other agencies providing services to youth, children, and families; and (12) affording parents substantial and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children.

 IMPACT OF THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT (2004) This excerpt of the 2004 report Closing the Achievement Gap: The Impact of Standards-Based Education Reform on Student Performance from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights examines the civil rights implications of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It also examines how the NCLB affected and addressed the gap in racial achievement. The report contains findings from two states, Maryland and Virginia. Based on those findings, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights created guidelines for other states on the racial impact of NCLB and how to increase student achievement.

............................ The gap in educational achievement between white students and African American and Hispanic students has been well documented and is large and persistent. An average African American or Hispanic elementary, middle, or high school student currently achieves at about the same level as the average white student in the lowest quartile of white achievement. In reading, for example, the average African American 17-year-old performs at the same level as white 13-yearolds. The achievement gap has persisted for decades and has grave consequences for graduating from high school, earning secondary degrees, and earning a living. The gaps actually narrowed in the 1970s and ’80s, but beginning in the late ’80s, progress stalled and the remaining achievement gap differences remained large. Some performance gaps among students appear before children enter kindergarten and persist into adulthood. . . .

Quartile One part of data from a large set of numbers that has been divided into four parts

The bulk of the research literature concludes that high-poverty schools and those with higher numbers of African American and Hispanic students have higher rates of unlicensed teachers, higher student absenteeism, lower rates of parental involvement, higher rates of violence, and generally fewer resources. The Commission finds, African American Eras

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LEP Limited English proficiency

Imperative Necessary Remediation Acts designed to improve or fix

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therefore, that poverty, race, and ethnicity play significant roles in student achievement and that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has substantial civil rights implications for minority and poor students, as well as LEP students and students with disabilities. One of the many concerns is the attachment of high stakes to students based on performance on assessments. While NCLB does not require the attachment of individual high stakes to any tests, states are beginning to attach high stakes such as retention in grade or failure to graduate in response to NCLB’s requirements to show increased student academic performance in all student subgroups and create accountability at all levels. Therefore, the Commission also finds that it is imperative for standards-based education reform to give sufficient resources and support to provide effective remediation to failing students and failing schools. . . . The Commission further finds that highly qualified teachers in high-minority and high-poverty schools have positive results on student performance. Increased teacher pay will attract more qualified teachers to teaching as a career, better classroom resources will provide needed learning tools and opportunities for the students most at risk of underachieving, and appropriate accommodations for LEP students and students with disabilities will help to ensure that tests accurately reflect the performance of these students. We also find that funding to implement the required data collection and information sharing provision of NCLB is essential if parents are to make informed choices about the education of their children. Finally, we find that early and effective remediation programs for low-performing schools and students will help ensure that minority and low-income students are not disproportionately affected by increased dropout and retention rates.


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1. In 1972, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) began broadcasting public service announcements with the slogan “A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste.” The commercials were designed to both educate the public about the organization and solicit financial support for the fund. The slogan has remained unchanged for several decades. It has reached generations of people who have been encouraged to help African Americans achieve their goal of receiving a college education. Using the Internet, locate some of the commercials that have been produced by the UNCF. Do you believe these ad campaigns are effective in helping the UNCF provide higher educational opportunities for African Americans? Pretend you have been selected to create one of these public service advertising commercials, including a new slogan for UNCF. Working in groups of three, create a storyboard, complete with dialogue, outlining your commercial, to present to the class. Be prepared to explain your new slogan and justify why you believe it represents the mission of UNCF. 2. Assume the role of the chairperson of an African American studies program in a college or university. As head of the program, you are in charge of hiring competent instructors to enrich the school’s program and teach courses relevant to today’s African American students. With this in mind, investigate the teaching methods of well-known—and often controversial—educators Michael Eric Dyson, Marva Collins, and Angela Davis. Decide what courses you want each of these instructors to teach in the upcoming semester. Write a syllabus (a summary of a course of study) for each class. 3. Read the article “Some Notes on Language . . . ” by Ronald Kephart (http://www.unf.edu/~rkephart/Writings/Essay on Language.htm). Based on Kephart’s assessment of language, would you classify Ebonics as a language, or should it be categorized as dialect, slang, or vernacular instead? What are some examples of Ebonics in mainstream society today? 4. With your classmates, list the advantages and disadvantages of neighborhood schools. Neighborhood schools are attended by students who live in the surrounding area. Students who live in the same neighborhood are often members of the same race. Next, list the advantages and disadvantages of integrated schools. Integrated schools are legally obligated to have racial balance no matter where students live. After compiling your lists, consider the following questions. Why do you think parents would want to send their African American Eras

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children to a neighborhood school? Why would they want their children to attend an integrated school? Which type of school would you choose to attend? Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining what kind of school—neighborhood or integrated—you think is better for your community. Make sure you support your opinion with clear, logical reasons and specific examples. 5. Find the lyrics to the song “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers. Next, find the lyrics to the song “Rap Summary (Lean on Me)” by Big Daddy Kane. Write an essay comparing and contrasting the two sets of lyrics. As you write the essay, consider these questions. Why do you think Bill Withers’s song was featured in the movie about principal Joe Clark titled Lean on Me? Compare Kane’s lyrics to those by Withers. What specific issues does Kane address in his song? What do you think was his purpose in writing the song?

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BOOKS

Clotfelter, Charles. After “Brown”: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. Formisano, Ronald. Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Gill, Brian, et al. State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia. Arlington, Va.: RAND Corporation, 2007. Merseth, Katherine K., et al. Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High Performing Schools. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Education Publishing, 2009.

PERIODICALS “Boston’s Busing Battle.” Time (September 24, 1965): p. 92. Hanley, Robert. “Disciplinarian for Juveniles Quits in Wake of Censure.” New York Times (January 5, 2002): p. B5. Kellogg, Alex. “Detroit Schools on the Brink.” Wall Street Journal (July 21, 2009): p. A3. Paulson, Amanda. “True Believer.” Christian Science Monitor (September 10, 2002): p. 15. Williams, Joshua. “The ‘War on Education’: the Negative Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on Inner City Public Schools, Students, and Teachers.” Journal of Gender, Race and Justice (Spring 2008): p. 573. 376


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WEB SITES Clyburn, James E. “HBCUs: Institutions for Past, Present, & Future.” United States Congressman James E. Clyburn: Representing the 6th District of South Carolina. http://clyburn.house.gov/statements/049218hbcus.html (accessed on April 10, 2009).

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“Dialects.” CAL: Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/ aae.html (accessed on October 29, 2009). Dylan, Reggie. “Restructuring Inner City Schools for the Global Marketplace: Locke High School and the Green Dot ‘Solution.’” Dissident Voice. http:// dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/restructuring inner city schools for the global marketplace locke high school and the green dot %E2%80%9Csolution%E2% 80%9D (accessed on April 13, 2009). Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). HBCUConnect. http://www .hbcuconnect.com (accessed on October 29, 2009). National Council for Black Studies. http://www.ncbsonline.org/home (accessed on October 29, 2009). “Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Minorities.” IES National Center for Education Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/ minoritytrends/index.asp (access October 29, 2009). The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Ed.gov. http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/list/whhbcu/edlite index.html (accessed October 29, 2009).


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c h a p t e r se v e n

Chronology . . . . . . . . . 380 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 383 Headline Makers . . . . . . 385 Shirley Chisholm . Keith M. Ellison . . Barbara Jordan . . Cynthia McKinney . Carol Moseley Braun Barack Obama. . . Condoleezza Rice . J. C. Watts Jr. . . . L. Douglas Wilder .

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. 385 . 387 . 390 . 392 . 395 . 397 . 399 . 402 . 404

Topics in the News . . . . . 407 Black Voters Play Important Role in Elections . . . . . . 407 Walter Washington Becomes “Father of Modern Washington” . . . . . . . 409

Government and Politics Congressional Black Caucus Increases Politicians’ Clout . . . . . . . . Detroit’s Mayors Face a City in Crisis . . . . . . . Black Leadership Forum Exerts Influence . . . . Martin Luther King Day Declared a Federal Holiday . . . . . . . Harold Washington Tries to Reform Chicago Politics . Barack Obama Becomes First Black President . . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1966 November 1 Edward W. Brooke becomes the first African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. He is elected as a Republican in Massachusetts. 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, making it illegal to discriminate against African Americans and other minorities in the sale, rental, or financing of housing. 1968 November 5 Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She represents New York’s Twelfth District as a Democrat. 1968 November 13 Carl Stokes becomes mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, making him the first African American mayor of a large U.S. city. 1971 Louis Stokes becomes the first black member of the House Appropriations Committee. The committee is the most powerful of congressional committees because it sets the amount of money that can be spent by the government. 1971 February The Congressional Black Caucus is founded, consisting of thirteen African American members of Congress. Its members work together in Congress to advance an agenda favorable to African Americans. 1972 Shirley Chisholm becomes the first black woman to run for president

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when she unsuccessfully campaigns to win the nomination of the Democratic Party. 1972 March 10 Thousands of African Americans meet in Gary, Indiana, for the first National Black Political Convention. The convention produced the “Gary Declaration” announcing a “Black Agenda” in politics and stressing the need for African Americans to join together to push toward achieving common goals. 1973 May 29 Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles. 1973 October 16 Maynard H. Jackson Jr. is elected the first black mayor of Atlanta. 1973 November 6 Coleman Young is elected the first black mayor of Detroit. 1974 July 25 Texas congressional representative Barbara Jordan makes a memorable speech to the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon, arguing that his offenses should indeed be considered “high crimes and misdemeanors.” 1974 November 4 Harold Eugene Ford Sr. becomes the first African American to be elected to Congress from Tennessee. George Brown is elected lieutenant governor of Colorado and Mervyn Dymally is elected lieutenant

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......................................................................................... governor of California. They are the first blacks to hold these positions in the twentieth century. 1977 The Black Leadership Forum is founded. It is an alliance of civil rights and service organizations that seeks to influence legislation and policy on behalf of African Americans. 1977 January President Jimmy Carter appoints Congressman Andrew Young as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Young becomes the first African American to hold this post. 1978 November 7 Marion Barry is elected mayor of Washington, D.C. He is its second black mayor. 1979 October 30 Richard Arrington Jr. becomes the first African American mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. 1980 Willie Brown is elected speaker of the California State Assembly. 1983 April 12 Harold Washington becomes Chicago’s first black mayor. 1983 November 2 President Ronald Reagan signs a law creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor the slain civil rights leader. 1984 Jesse Jackson runs for president for the first time. He receives one-fourth of the votes in the Democratic primary process, and loses the Democratic Party nomination to Walter Mondale.

1986 November 4 Alphonso Michael (“Mike”) Espy becomes the first African American to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi since Reconstruction. 1988 July 20 During his second run for president, Jesse Jackson receives 1,218 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention. He loses the Democratic Party nomination to Michael Dukakis. 1989 February 7 Ronald H. Brown becomes chair of the Democratic National Committee. He is the first African American to lead one of the two major political parties. 1989 November 7 L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia becomes the first African American governor. 1989 November 7 David Dinkins is elected mayor of New York City. He is the city’s first African American mayor. 1992 November 3 Carol Moseley-Braun becomes the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. 1992 November 3 Cynthia McKinney becomes the first African American woman from Georgia to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. 1994 November 8 J. C. Watts becomes the first black Republican from a


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....................................................................................... Southern state to be elected to a national government position since Reconstruction. 1997 December Patrick Brown become the first African American mayor of Houston. 2001 January 20 Colin Powell becomes the first African American U.S. secretary of state. 2005 January 26 Condoleezza Rice becomes the first African American female U.S. secretary of state. 2006 Charles Rangel (D-NY) becomes chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the first African American to hold this position. 2006 November 7 Keith M. Ellison, from Minnesota, becomes the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

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Ellison was raised a Roman Catholic, but converted to Islam as an adult. 2006 November 7 Deval Patrick is elected governor of Massachusetts. He is the first black governor of Massachusetts, and only the second African American to be elected governor of any state. 2008 March 31 After Eliot Spitzer’s resignation, David Paterson becomes the first African American governor of New York. 2008 November 4 Barack Obama is elected the 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to do so. He is sworn in on January 20, 2009. 2009 January Michael Steele becomes chair of the Republican National Committee.

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 ............................................................... Overview

The period from 1965 to the present has been an extraordinary time in the history of African American participation in politics and government. The passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 led to increased voter registration amongst black people. As a result, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of black elected officials at all levels. In 1965, there were only 280 African Americans holding elected office in the United States. By 2001, that figure was greater than 9,000.

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A few examples show the magnitude of the growth. When the 89th U.S. Congress convened in January 1965, there were only six African American members of the House of Representatives. All were men, and all represented midwestern, northeastern, or western states. When the 111th Congress convened in January 2009, there were forty-one African American legislators, including thirteen women. The southern states of Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi all had African American representatives. Part of this rapid expansion of African American representatives was due to legislative redistricting that created congressional districts in which African Americans were in the majority. The rise in the number of African Americans in Congress led to the creation of the influential Congressional Black Caucus in 1971. Two of the founding members of the Black Caucus, Charles Rangel (1930– ) of New York and John Conyers (1929– ) of Michigan, were still in office as of 2009. In 2006, Rangel made history by becoming the first African American chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Conyers became chair of the House Judiciary Committee. The rise of these two congressional representatives to positions of power is typical of the progress made by African American politicians in the period from 1965 to the present. They have moved from a position of struggling for civil rights to full participation in government. During this same time period, the number of black mayors of U.S. cities has risen by a staggering amount. The breakthroughs started to come in the late 1960s. Richard Hatcher (1933– ) was elected mayor of Gary, Indiana, in 1967. He served until 1987. Carl Stokes (1927–96) took the helm in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1968. Kenneth Gibson (1932– ) became mayor of Newark, New Jersey, in 1970. In 1970, there were forty-eight black mayors. By 2009, that figure had risen to more than 650. This includes such notable figures as Newark, New Jersey, mayor Cory Booker (1969– ), elected in 2006 at the age of thirty-seven. It also includes Michael Nutter (1957– ) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, elected in 2007. African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

There have been literally hundreds of “firsts” for African Americans during this period. These range from national to state and local office. In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder (1931– ) from Virginia became the first African American to be elected governor of an American state. As of 2009, there were two African American governors: Deval Patrick (1956– ) of Massachusetts and David Paterson (1954– ) of New York. In 2001, Colin Powell (1937– ) became the first African American to serve as U.S. secretary of state, the highest-ranking position in a president’s administration. He was followed by Condoleezza Rice (1954– ) in 2005. African American advancement reached a crucial turning point in 2008. This was the year Barack Obama (1961– ) became the first African American to be elected president of the United States. Obama showed that African American candidates could win even in states with majority white populations. Obama’s victory in the Iowa caucus in January 2008 was an early sign of this breakthrough; only 2.5 percent of the Iowa population is African American. Obama went on to win Iowa by nine percentage points in the general election. Obama was not the first African American to make this kind of breakthrough in presidential politics. Although no black candidate had won Iowa before, in 1988, Jesse Jackson (1941– ) triumphed in the Michigan Democratic caucus, winning a significant part of the white vote. For a short while, Jackson was considered the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Jackson was the first African American to make a serious run for the presidency on a major-party ticket. At the state level, in 2009 there were 628 black legislators, according to the National Black Caucus of State Legislatures. This figure was on the rise and was expected to continue rising if the trend of the previous decade, in which African American voter registration and turnout increased, continued. It seems likely that it will, since Obama’s victory has inspired African Americans to become more involved in the political process. In spite of recent gains, however, African Americans remain underrepresented in state legislatures in most states. Another recent trend suggests that race is becoming a less important factor in American politics than it was for decades after 1965. As Obama’s victory demonstrated, people tend increasingly to vote for the person they think is the best candidate, regardless of race. For example, of those 628 black state legislators, 30 percent represent majority white districts. This is an increase from 16 percent in 2001. Still, many in the African American community feel a strong need for African American candidates and officials who specifically address issues important to the black community. They believe that progress over the last forty-five years may have been immense, but there is still a long way to go.

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Headline Makers

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SHIRLEY CHISHOLM (1924–2005)

Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She was also the first woman to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Her determination and independent way of thinking brought down many barriers that kept women from succeeding in public life. Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York. Her father was an immigrant from Guyana (then British Guiana) who worked in a factory. Her mother was born in Barbados and worked as a domestic servant and seamstress. After graduating from a girls’ high school, Chisholm entered Brooklyn College on a scholarship. She majored in sociology and also showed great talent for debating. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1946, and she later enrolled in a master’s program in elementary education at Columbia University, graduating in 1952. During the 1950s, she was the director of a child-care center in Manhattan, New York, and became an acknowledged expert on child welfare. She was also active in civic organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the League of Women Voters.

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm endorses Senator George McGovern for president at the Democratic National Convention in Miami, Florida, July 13, 1972. ª Bettmann/Corbis


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Elected to State and National Office Chisholm’s popularity within the black community led her to run for public office. In 1964, she was elected to the New York state legislature as a Democrat. She was only the second black woman to serve in the legislature, and she was reelected in 1965 and 1966.

In 1968, Chisholm ran for the U.S. Congress in the newly created Twelfth New York Congressional District, which included the area that Chisholm represented as a state legislator. The core of the new district was the impoverished Bedford-Stuyvesant area, and blacks and Puerto Ricans made up 70 percent of its population. In June 1968, Chisholm won by a narrow margin, running against two African American candidates in the Democratic primary. Her success was in part due to the support of women, many of whom campaigned vigorously on her behalf. The November campaign, in which Chisholm was opposed by the Republican candidate James Farmer (1920–99), was fought on the issues of employment, housing, and education. Chisholm won by a large margin and took her place in the 91st Congress as the first black woman ever to serve in that institution. She quickly gained a reputation for being an outspoken political maverick, not beholden to the Democratic Party leadership. The slogan she adopted during her election campaign, “unbought and unbossed,” which later became the title of her autobiography, was a good indicator of her independence. She noted in her autobiography that Congress was not doing its job because it did not effectively represent the needs of the voters. The reason for this, she wrote, was that Congress was run by a small group of men. Often during her career, she urged more women to become involved in politics and take up leadership positions. In 1972, Chisholm broke another unseen barrier by becoming the first black candidate from a major party to run for president of the United States and also the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. In a contest that was eventually won by George McGovern (1922– ), Chisholm campaigned in twelve states and won twenty-eight delegates to the Democratic national convention. Chisholm was reelected to Congress six times, serving from 1969 to 1983. She did not run for reelection in 1982. Throughout her congressional career, she supported liberal causes. She advocated increased spending in health care, education, and social services, a rise in the minimum wage, the legalization of abortion, and a reduction in military spending. She opposed the Vietnam War (1954–75) and supported the rights of women, minorities, and children. She was also a supporter of the equal rights amendment, which would have ended legal discrimination based on gender. 386


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Chisholm was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971. She also co-founded both the National Political Congress of Black Women and the National Organization for Women (NOW). When she left Congress in 1983, she was the third-highest ranking member of the Education and Labor Committee.



After Congress After she left Congress, Chisholm spent four years teaching politics and women’s studies at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She also gave many public speeches and lectures in which she continued to advocate the causes in which she believed, urging others to join her. In 1984 and again in 1988, she worked on the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson (1941– ). In 1987, Chisholm retired from teaching and in 1991 she moved to Florida, where she spent much of her time reading political biographies.

Chisholm died on January 1, 2005, following a series of strokes. She was eighty years old. An obituary in the New York Times reported that after she left Washington, Chisholm had said, “I’d like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That’s how I’d like to be remembered.” In March 2009, Chisholm was honored by the Congressional Black Caucus and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (1940– ). Pelosi said Chisholm was “a brave pioneer who was unwilling to settle for the status quo. . . . As the first woman Speaker of the House, I want to say thank you to Shirley Chisholm.”

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KEITH M. ELLISON (1963– )

Keith M. Ellison is an African American lawyer who became Democratic congressman from Minnesota. He made history in 2006 by becoming the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress. His election was a historic moment for African American Muslims, who, according to a 2008 Pew Research report on religion, make up nearly one-fourth of America’s Muslim population. However, Ellison has repeatedly said that he regards himself as a representative not of a world religion but of the voters who have twice sent him to Washington, D.C. Early Life and Career Ellison was born on August 4, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan, into a middle-class Catholic family. His father was a psychiatrist and his mother was a social worker. Ellison graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, a private, all-male Catholic school, in 1981. He then entered Wayne State University. African American Eras

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Keith Ellison on Capitol Hill shortly after being elected as the first Muslim congressman in 2006. Mark Wilson/Getty Images News/ Getty Images

It was during his undergraduate years that he first encountered Islam. Influenced by his Muslim friends and his reading of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), Ellison converted to Islam. He graduated in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend the University of Minnesota Law School. While at law school, he was keenly aware that he was one of only a few black students there, and there were no black faculty. During this time he developed a desire to further the interests of the African American community. Ellison graduated with a law degree in 1990 and continued to live in Minneapolis with his wife Kim, a math teacher. He and Kim eventually had four children together. For the next three years, Ellison worked at a private law firm. In 1993, he became executive director of the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis, a nonprofit organization that provides free representation for low-income people and minorities. He remained in this position for five years, until 1998. Ellison then returned to the private practice of law. During all this time he also worked as a community activist. In 1995, he organized the Minnesota contingent to the Million Man March, a march in Washington, D.C., promoted by the Nation of Islam. The march was designed to renew a sense of purpose and responsibility among African American men. 388


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Ellison’s community activism led naturally to an involvement in politics, and in 2002 he was elected to the Minnesota legislature. He quickly established a reputation as an industrious and effective lawmaker. He comfortably won reelection in 2004.



Elected to U.S. Congress In 2006, Ellison launched his national political career by running for Congress, aiming to replace a retiring Democratic congressman. His candidacy for the ethnically diverse district that included Minneapolis produced much publicity simply because he was a Muslim. During his campaign, Ellison insisted that he did not want to be viewed as a Muslim candidate, but as a politician who happened also to be a Muslim. Nonetheless, some right-wing commentators made an issue of Ellison’s involvement, a decade previously, in the Million Man March. They sought to present Ellison as a friend of Louis Farrakhan (1933– ), leader of the Nation of Islam, who was widely perceived as being anti-Semitic, or against Jews. Ellison sought to defuse the issue by acknowledging and condemning Farrakhan’s antiSemitic views. Ellison explained that he was not aware of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism at the time of the march and admitted that he should have been aware of it earlier.

Supported by a broad coalition of voters, Ellison won the election with 56 percent of the vote. He became the first African American to represent Minnesota in Congress, and the first Muslim to serve in Congress. However, the controversy regarding his religion did not go away. When Ellison announced that he would use the Qur’an for the private congressional swearing-in ceremony, there were protests from people who thought that the only appropriate book for such purposes is the Bible. Ellison responded by pointing out that under the Constitution, no religious test is required for holding political office, and that the Qur’an he used had been owned by Thomas Jefferson. When questioned about the controversy by Wolf Blitzer (1948– ) on CNN, Ellison said he would like his critics to know that “there are about five million [Muslims] in the country, that they’re here to support and strengthen America, that they are nurses, doctors, husbands, wives, kids who just want to live and prosper in the American way and that there’s really nothing to fear.” As a congressman, Ellison was appointed to the Financial Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee. While in Congress, Ellison opposed the Iraq War. He said he wanted to restore the domestic civil rights that he claimed had been eroded during the administrations of George W. Bush (1946– ). Ellison also called for civil rights protections for Muslim women and men in America to ensure they are not unfairly targeted by law enforcement agencies investigating terrorism. African American Eras

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While Ellison was running for reelection in 2008, he was asked in an interview for The Progressive magazine about the significance of being the first Muslim member of Congress. Ellison replied, “Well, in one sense it’s important, and in another sense, it isn’t. It’s important because people who are not Muslim in the United States know that the Muslim community has folks who are willing to serve and participate in American society. It also signals to the Muslim community that, hey look, we need to be involved in politics, and help shape the landscape for the betterment of all.” Ellison was easily reelected to a second congressional term in 2008, winning 71 percent of the vote.

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BARBARA JORDAN (1936–1996)

Barbara Jordan was a politician who entered the national spotlight in 1974. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee she spoke memorably during the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon (1913–94). But this famous defense of the Constitution at a crucial moment in American history was not the first time that Jordan had made an impact on the political scene. Beginning in her native Texas in the 1960s, she showed herself to be a formidable politician who could break through many barriers that were holding women and African Americans back. Jordan was born on February 21, 1936, in Houston, Texas. At Phillis Wheatley High School, Jordan excelled as a debater and orator. She also

Congresswoman Barbara Jordan delivers her opening remarks during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the issue of the impeachment of President Richard Nixon on July 25, 1974. ª Bettmann/Corbis

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wanted to work against racial segregation, which she knew was unjust. Jordan decided that the best way to work for racial integration was to become a lawyer. After her graduation from Texas Southern University in 1956, she went on to Boston University Law School, where she was one of only two black women in the freshman class. She graduated in 1959.



Returning to Houston, she began to practice law, setting up an office in her parents’ house. With a growing interest in politics, in 1960 Jordan campaigned in Houston for John F. Kennedy (1917–63), who was running for president as a Democrat with Texan Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) as his running mate. Elected to Texas Senate In 1962, Jordan made her first bid for public office, running as a Democrat for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. Although she won the votes of the majority of black people, she did not fare well among the white voters who formed the majority vote in the district. Undaunted, Jordan ran again in the same district in 1964, with a similar outcome. But circumstances changed in 1966. The Supreme Court had ordered districts to be redrawn to make political representation more fair and democratic. As a result, a Texas senate district was remade in a way that was much more favorable to Jordan. The district included not only a high percentage of black people but also migrant workers and whites who supported the labor movement. Jordan’s gender and race no longer counted against her, and she won the election by a sizable margin. She also made history. She was the first African American woman to serve in the Texas legislature.

By any standard, Jordan proved to be a highly successful and admired legislator during her six years in the Texas senate. Quickly mastering the way the state senate worked, she gained the respect of her colleagues on both the Democratic and Republican sides. In 1972 she was elected president pro tempore of the Texas legislature, meaning that she acted as president on a temporary basis whenever the president was absent. In 1972, Houston was awarded an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives because of its population growth. Jordan ran for the seat and won, thus adding another “first” to her list of accomplishments. She became the first African American woman elected to Congress from a southern state. Just as she had in the Texas senate, Jordan made an immediate and lasting impact in Congress. She became known not only for her political skill but also for her independence. Wins National Recognition Jordan became nationally famous in 1974, during the impeachment hearings that were being conducted against President Richard Nixon. African American Eras

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Jordan was a member of the House Judiciary Committee and her televised speech made a huge impact on viewers. Jordan spoke of her strong commitment to upholding the values inherent in the Constitution. She said, “My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.” This speech made Jordan a national political figure, and in 1976 she gave the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in New York. Many people considered it to be one of the finest keynote speeches in modern history, and Jordan seemed set to achieve high office. However, although she was considered for various positions by President Jimmy Carter (1924– ) following his victory in 1976, she was not offered a position in the Carter administration. Jordan then surprised everyone by not seeking reelection to Congress in 1978. She said she was frustrated by the inability of Congress to make bold changes, and she no longer believed that she would be able to achieve greater political power herself. In 1979, Jordan returned to Texas to teach at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. She remained involved in politics and gave the keynote address at the Democratic convention in 1992. She also became a special counsel on ethics to Texas governor Ann Richards (1933–2006). Jordan had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1970s. In her later years she used a wheelchair. She died on January 17, 1996, of complications from pneumonia.

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CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (1955– )

Cynthia McKinney was the first African American woman from Georgia to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has been a controversial politician since her election to Congress in 1992. She is admired by many for her courage in expressing unpopular views but regarded with suspicion by some who profess more mainstream opinions. McKinney was born on March 17, 1955. Her father, a retired police officer and Georgia state legislator, was a civil rights campaigner. McKinney went with him to a sit-in in Atlanta, Georgia, when she was very young. Wanting to ensure that their daughter received a good education, McKinney’s parents sent her to a Catholic school, although her parents were Baptists. McKinney went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California in 1978. She later attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. 392


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Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. AP Images

Launching a Career in Politics After living in Jamaica for a while in the 1980s, McKinney returned to Georgia and decided to enter politics. In 1988, she comfortably won election to the Georgia House of Representatives, joining her father who was by then a senior legislator. In 1991, during her second term of office, she angered her fellow Georgia legislators when she spoke out against President George H. W. Bush’s decision to launch the Persian Gulf War. McKinney’s willingness to make controversial criticisms of those in power would become a trademark of her years in the U.S. Congress.

She first won election to Congress in 1992 as a result of the redrawing of boundaries in Georgia that created several districts with large African American populations. In her first year of office, McKinney was often reminded that she did not look like the traditional member of Congress. African American Eras

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On several occasions she was stopped by officials, including an elevator operator, a garage attendant, and a Capitol Hill police officer, who did not realize that she was a member. Later, her cornrow-braided hair and gold tennis shoes made her a recognized figure in the halls of Congress. After winning reelection in 1994, McKinney faced a new challenge in 1996. The Supreme Court had ruled in 1995 that her district had been unconstitutionally redrawn based on race. Redrawn again, the district became only 32 percent black. However, McKinney overcame the odds and won reelection with 59 percent of the vote. She was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from a white-majority district. Controversy Over September 11 McKinney gained national notoriety in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She suggested that President George W. Bush (1946– ) might have known about the attacks in advance and failed to prevent them. McKinney claimed that the war on terror that followed was favorable to the business interests of the Bush family. Her statement was furiously denounced by many. More controversy followed when it became known that McKinney had accepted campaign donations from Arab groups, some of which may have had links with terrorist activities.

In 2002, McKinney was challenged in the Democratic Party primary by a black female judge, Denise Majette (1955– ). Majette was new to politics, but McKinney’s reputation as an extremist who embraced conspiracy theories proved costly. Majette won the primary by a sixteen-point margin and went on to win the congressional seat. During her time out of office, McKinney traveled widely and continued her call for further investigation into the September 11 attacks. She also said that she wanted to return to Congress. When Majette decided not to run for reelection, McKinney seized the opportunity. In 2004, she defeated four opponents in the Democratic primary and comfortably won the election in November. In Congress, McKinney was vocal in her support of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005 and was critical of the government response to the disaster. Continuing her antiwar stance, in November 2005 she supported a congressional resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. McKinney was involved in a controversial incident at the Capitol in March 2006. When entering a building she did not go through a metal detector, which members are not required to do. A Capitol Hill police officer, not recognizing her as a member of Congress, chased after her. In a scuffle, it was alleged by the officer that McKinney struck him in the chest 394


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with a closed fist. No charges were ever filed against McKinney, but the incident generated much publicity and did not help her bid for reelection. She lost the primary in a run-off election.



Following her electoral defeat, in 2007 McKinney left the Democratic Party and joined the Green Party. In 2008, she accepted the nomination of the Green Party for president of the United States. In the election in November she received 161,603 votes, which was less than 0.2 percent of all votes cast.

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CAROL MOSELEY-BRAUN (1947– )

Carol Moseley-Braun is a businesswoman, lawyer, educator, and former national politician with several “firsts” to her name. She was the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate and the first African American to be elected to the Senate as a Democrat. Moseley-Braun was born in a racially segregated area of Chicago on August 16, 1947. Her mother was a medical technician and her father a police officer. Her parents valued education and instilled in Carol a strong work ethic. After she graduated from high school, she worked a number of different jobs to help pay for her college education. She attended the University of Chicago for both college and law school. After graduating from law school in 1972, she became a prosecutor in the office of the U.S. attorney general in Chicago, where she won the U.S. Attorney General’s Special Achievement Award.

Former congresswoman Carol Moseley Braun announces her withdrawal as a candidate in the 2004 presidential race. ª Tannen Maury/epa/Corbis

Moseley-Braun then decided to enter politics. She was successful in her first bid for statewide office, winning election to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1978. She remained a state representative for ten years, becoming known as a skilful politician who could build legislative coalitions and get things done. Moseley-Braun’s Democratic colleagues recognized her abilities and appointed her as assistant majority leader. She was the first African American, and the first woman, to serve in this position. In 1988, Moseley-Braun left the statehouse and was elected recorder of deeds in Cook African American Eras

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County, Illinois. This government office maintains records of real estate ownership. This was a big job, since Cook County has over five million residents and includes the city of Chicago. Moseley-Braun was responsible for supervising hundreds of employees and handling a multimillion-dollar budget. She was the first African American and the first woman ever elected to a government office in Cook County. The experience she gained in state government encouraged her to widen her horizons still further, and in 1991 she decided to run for the U.S. Senate. At first, it did not look very likely that she could win. However, Moseley-Braun ran a skillful campaign and won in the November 1992 election. Moseley-Braun thus made history as the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Throughout her six-year term of office, she was the only African American in the Senate. Moseley-Braun served on several Senate committees, and she was a champion of health-care and educational reform. She had a reputation as a liberal, and this was particularly apparent on social issues. She was a strong supporter of abortion rights and gun control, and she opposed the death penalty. Her term of office was also marked by several controversies that did not help her bid for reelection in 1998. She was dogged by accusations that she had misused campaign funds from the 1992 election, although no formal charges were ever made against her. She also faced criticism over a trip she made to Nigeria in 1996, during which she met with the Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha (1943–98). At the time, the United States was applying sanctions (economic penalties designed to force a nation to change its policies) against Nigeria because of its poor human rights record. Controversies such as this eroded Moseley-Braun’s support in Illinois. In the Senate election of 1998 she was defeated by the Republican candidate, Peter Fitzgerald (1960– ). Following Moseley-Braun’s defeat, President Bill Clinton (1946– ) appointed her as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, a position she served in until 2001. She then accepted a teaching position at Morris Brown College, a traditionally black institution in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2003, she decided once more to return to politics, this time announcing that she would seek the highest office in the land, the presidency of the United States. However, her campaign to win the Democratic Party’s nomination failed to make headway, and she withdrew from the race in early 2004. Moseley-Braun withdrew from politics. She established a private law firm in Chicago and also set herself up in business. Her firm, Ambassador Organics, sells organic food products. As of 2009, Moseley lived in the Hyde Park area of Chicago.

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BARACK OBAMA (1961– )

In November 2008, Barack Obama made history by becoming the first African American to be elected president of the United States. His rise to the most powerful political office in the world was the result of a remarkable life journey. Obama himself said that only in the United States, with its core belief that anyone can rise to the top if he or she has talent and determination, could his story have been possible. Early Life in Hawaii and Indonesia Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, also named Barack, was from Kenya, Africa, and his mother, Ann Dunham, was a white American from Kansas. When Barack was two years old, his father received a scholarship to Harvard. Since he could not afford to support his family on the scholarship, he went to Harvard alone. When he finished his doctorate, he returned to Kenya, and his marriage to Ann ended in divorce in 1964. He visited his son when young Barack was ten years old, but that was the last time Barack saw his father. Barack Obama Sr. died in an automobile accident in Kenya in 1982.

President Barack Obama gives a speech on July 31, 2009. AP Images

In 1967, when Obama was six, his mother married an Indonesian oil company executive and moved with her son to Djakarta, Indonesia. Obama lived in Indonesia until he was ten. He was then sent back to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents. In Honolulu, Obama attended the prestigious Punahou School, where he was one of very few African American students. He writes in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father, that during his teenage years he struggled to come to terms with his multiracial identity and to develop a firm sense of who he was. But the time spent in the multicultural environment of Honolulu also had a positive side. They helped to ground him in his respect for different cultures in the world. As such, these years shaped the values that would guide his life. Continuing Quest to Define Identity After high school graduation in 1979, Obama moved to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College. In Dreams from My Father, he explains that African American Eras

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he was still struggling with questions of self-identity. He writes of his “constant, crippling fear that I didn’t belong somehow, that I would forever remain an outsider, with the rest of the world, black and white, standing in judgment.” After two years he transferred to Columbia University in New York, where he majored in political science. After graduating in 1983, he was hired as a community organizer by a church-based group that assisted people in low-income neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side. In 1988, Obama was admitted to Harvard Law School, where he soon made a lasting mark. In his second year he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, the first time an African American had attained this position. It is the highest position a student can attain at the law school. The appointment was considered so noteworthy that it produced a number of articles in the national press. In the New York Times, Obama was quoted as saying his election to the position indicated that a lot of progress had been made in terms of opportunities for minority students. In 1991, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude (with great honors). Returning to Chicago, Obama met his future wife Michelle Robinson (1964– ). Robinson was from Chicago’s South Side and was also a graduate of Harvard Law School. They married in 1992 and later had two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (known as Sasha). With his impressive credentials, Obama was in a position to secure employment with large corporate law firms. He chose instead to join a small law firm in Chicago that practiced civil rights law. He also became a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. This could have become a full-time profession, but Obama decided to enter politics. Wins Elected Office In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois senate as a Democrat. Two years later, he was reelected to a four-year term with 89 percent of the vote. However, as Obama reports in his second book, The Audacity of Hope, during his second term in the state legislature, he became restless. In 1999, he decided to run for Congress. But Obama fared badly in the Democratic primary, losing by 31 percentage points. Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope that this was “the sort of drubbing that awakens you to the fact that life is not obliged to work out as you’d planned.”

After his loss, Obama threw himself back into his work in the state senate, but the lure of higher office would not go away. Four years later, in 2003, he decided to run for the U.S. Senate, even though he believed his chances of winning were slim. In the Democratic primary in 2004, Obama faced two well-financed and well-connected opponents, but he won the contest with 53 percent of the vote. 398


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Obama’s campaign received a huge boost in late summer when he was chosen to give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. In this speech, he spoke of the election as being about hope, including the “hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. The audacity of hope!” The televised speech electrified the delegates in the convention hall and immediately gave Obama a national reputation. A few months later, Obama won election to the Senate by a landslide, becoming the only African American member of the Senate.



Runs for President and Wins Almost as soon as he reached the Senate in 2005, Obama was being spoken of as a possible future presidential candidate. It was therefore no surprise to some when, in February 2007, he announced his candidacy for the presidency after just two years in the Senate. Obama was not expected to win the Democratic presidential nomination. When he began his campaign, the clear favorite was New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947– ). But Obama’s message of hope and change, and his oratorical skills, attracted voters. Although the contest with Clinton remained close throughout, Obama won. He went on to defeat the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain (1936– ), by a comfortable margin in the general election in November 2008. When he was sworn in as president in January 2009, it was a historic moment: an African American man had undertaken an unlikely journey all the way from Hawaii to Indonesia, New York, and Chicago, and had finally arrived in the White House in Washington, D.C.

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CONDOLEEZZA RICE (1954– )

Condoleezza Rice’s remarkable intellect, self-confidence, drive, and determination led her to an astonishingly successful career in a number of very senior positions in academia and government. She made history in 2001 when she became the first woman of color to serve as national security advisor, taking the position in the administration of George W. Bush. Four years later, she made history again when she became the first African American woman to become U.S. secretary of state. Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on November 14, 1954, the daughter of Angelena Ray and John Wesley Rice. Her father was a university administrator, and Condoleezza grew up in comfortable family circumstances. However, she was also exposed to the segregated world of Birmingham and the dangers of the civil rights struggle. African American Eras

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2008. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Self-Confidence Brings Early Success Despite the difficult situation of African Americans in Birmingham, Rice’s parents encouraged her to believe that she could accomplish anything. This instilled a supreme confidence in her, and Rice showed her remarkable talents very early in life. She excelled in most subjects throughout her early school career and entered the University of Denver at the age of fifteen. She happened to take a course in international politics, taught by Josef Korbel (1909–77), a specialist in the Soviet Union. That course opened up a new world for her and aroused her passionate interest, inspiring her to major in political science. She chose as her area of concentration the Soviet Union, which at the time was the feared adversary of the United States in the Cold War (1945–91; an intense political and economic rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union falling just short of military conflict).

Rice earned her bachelor’s degree in 1974, at the age of nineteen. She graduated cum laude (with honors) and Phi Beta Kappa (a national honor society). She immediately entered graduate school at the University of Notre Dame, studying international relations and economics. Completing the two-year program in eighteen months, she graduated in December 1975. Rice decided to pursue an academic career and entered the doctoral program in international relations at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies. Her area of study was once again the Soviet Union. On her graduation from the University of Denver in 1981, 400


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she was hired as an assistant professor by Stanford. At the age of only twenty-six, she was a member of the faculty at one of the most prestigious universities in the nation. Rice was to remain at Stanford University for eight years, teaching political science. During this period, she also changed her political affiliation from Democrat to Republican.



A Career of Government Service Rice’s brilliant grasp of her academic field and her ability to articulate her views impressed everyone who encountered her. In 1984, Brent Scowcroft (1925– ), an experienced Republican foreign policy expert, met Rice at Stanford and took note of her. When Scowcroft became national security advisor in 1989, in the administration of George H. W. Bush (1924– ), he offered Rice a position as director of Soviet and East European affairs on the National Security Council. This was her first job in government, and it came at a crucial time in world events. Eastern Europe was turning away from communism, the Soviet Union was undergoing a liberalization, and the Cold War was coming to an end. Germany, divided into East and West Germany since shortly after World War II (1939–45), would soon become a unified nation again. Rice’s duties included advising the president about the Soviet Union and preparing him for summit meetings with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (1931– ) in which arms control and German reunification were discussed.

Rice decided to leave Washington in 1991 and return to academic life at Stanford. Then in 1993, to her surprise, she was offered the powerful position of provost (senior academic administrator). This was in spite of the fact that she had little managerial experience. But Rice grasped complex details quickly and had the ability to persuade others to support her proposals. Rice left her post at Stanford in 1999 to become a foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush during his campaign for the presidency. Bush and Rice had become friends in 1998. Bush was greatly impressed with Rice’s intelligence and knowledge, and the fact that they shared a similar view of the world. When Bush became president in 2001, Rice was appointed national security advisor. She was the first African American woman to hold this position. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Rice came to believe, along with Bush, that in order to defeat terrorism, the United States must aggressively promote freedom around the world. In particular, Rice accepted Bush’s view that the Middle East had to be transformed and that a vital beginning could be made by overthrowing the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (1937–2006). In 2002, Rice became a forceful supporter of the invasion of Iraq. She and other members of the Bush administration African American Eras

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told the American public that Iraq was in possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and posed an immediate threat to the United States and its allies. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 produced no evidence of WMDs, she faced heavy criticism in Congress and the press for not ensuring that the intelligence about Iraq was accurate. In Bush’s second term, Rice was nominated for secretary of state. Some Democratic senators questioned Rice’s suitability for the position based on what they called the policy failures of the first Bush administration. But Rice was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 85–13. She was the first African American woman to become secretary of state.

Republic congressman J. C. Watts Jr. in 2001. Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images

It has been widely reported that, as secretary of state, Rice persuaded the president to pursue a less aggressive foreign policy. She wanted to put more emphasis on diplomacy rather than force. In 2007, Rice helped to negotiate an agreement with North Korea under which the Koreans would shut down their nuclear program. Rice was also deeply involved in building up an international diplomatic coalition to put pressure on Iran to abandon its alleged plans to develop nuclear weapons. Rice left office at the end of the Bush administration, in January 2009. She returned to Stanford University where she resumed her former position as professor of political science.

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J. C. WATTS JR. (1957– )

J. C. Watts Jr. hails from Oklahoma. A businessman and lobbyist, he sits on a number of corporate boards. He is a former college football player and politician. Watts is unusual in that, unlike most African American politicians, he joined the Republican rather than the Democratic Party. He was elected to Congress on the Republican ticket in 1994. Julius Caesar Watts Jr. was born on November 18, 1957, in Eufaula, Oklahoma, one of six children in the family. The family had a record of public service and community involvement. His father held a seat on the local city council, and his uncle was head of the Oklahoma branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As he grew up, 402


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Watts enjoyed a stable home life in which his parents encouraged him and his siblings to become self-reliant and live according to the Christian faith.



Football Star Watts soon showed athletic ability, especially in football, and in high school he became varsity quarterback. Excelling at the position, he won a scholarship to the University of Oklahoma. In 1979, he became a starting quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners. He helped them to two successive Orange Bowl victories in 1980 and 1981. Watts was named Most Valuable Player on both occasions, and he became a household name in Oklahoma. He also became known for his oratorical gifts, preaching in Baptist churches and inspiring the young people there.

Watts graduated in 1981 with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism. He went on to play football in the Canadian Football League until 1986. Watts then returned to Oklahoma and became a youth minister with a Baptist church. He was ordained in 1993. He also had ambitions to enter politics. During the early 1980s, Watts was a Democrat like his family and most African Americans. However, as the decade wore on he became more attracted to the philosophy of the Republican Party. He believed in fiscal and social conservatism, and he thought that people should help themselves rather than look to government welfare programs for assistance. He also thought that overregulation made it more difficult for small businesses to succeed. After much thought, Watts formally switched his allegiance from the Democrats to the Republicans in 1989. The following year, Watts ran for statewide office. He won a seat on the three-person Oklahoma corporation commission, which regulates the state’s telephone, oil, and gas industries. He became chairman in 1993, remaining on the commission until 1995. A Successful Run for Congress Oklahoma Republican leaders encouraged Watts to run for Congress, realizing that they had in Watts a highly charismatic candidate. The opportunity arose in 1994, when one of the state’s Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives ran for the U.S. Senate, leaving an open seat. Watts was eager to run.

Watts’s status as a rising star in the Republican Party brought several nationally known figures to Oklahoma in support of his campaign. These included President George H. W. Bush, Senator Bob Dole (1923– ), and Congressman Newt Gingrich (1943– ), who was soon to become Speaker of the House. Watts won 52 percent of the vote in an almost all-white district. He became the first black Republican to be elected to Congress from a southern state since the Reconstruction era just after the Civil War African American Eras

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(1861–65). He was one of many new Republican congressmen elected in 1994. As a result of their success, the Republicans took control of both the House and Senate for the first time in forty years. In Congress, Watts did not join the Congressional Black Caucus, which was made up almost entirely of Democrats. Instead, he pursued his own solutions to social problems, in line with his Republican principles. He opposed big government, and also criticized the political leaders of the black community for always advocating more governmental aid as a solution to problems. Watts made a highly praised speech at the 1996 Republican National Convention, and his national prominence helped him to win reelection in Oklahoma. He continued his rise within the ranks of the congressional Republicans. In 1998, his fellow legislators elected him House Republican Conference Chair, the fourth most powerful office in Congress. He was the first black Republican ever to assume a leadership position in the party.

Former governor of Virginia L. Douglas Wilder in 2007. Moses Robinson/ WireImage

Watts won reelection in 1998 and 2000, but in 2002 he announced his plans to retire from politics. He said he wanted to spend more time with his family. During Watts’s eight years as a congressman, his wife Frankie and their five children had continued to live in Oklahoma, which meant that Watts had spent long periods away from home. After he left Congress in 2003, Watts founded a lobbying and consulting firm. In 2006, he was hired as a lobbyist for the John Deere Company. He also contributes articles to various political, news, and sporting magazines.

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L. DOUGLAS WILDER (1931– )

L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia in 1989. This made him the first African American to be elected to a governorship in the United States. It was remarkable that the first black governor should take office in Virginia, a southern state that had been home to the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Wilder was born on January 17, 1931, in a racially segregated area of Richmond, Virginia. On his father’s side, his grandparents had both been slaves in a neighboring county. Wilder attended an all-black high school, and after 404


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graduation, he enrolled in Virginia Union University, an all-black school in Richmond. He graduated in 1952 and was then drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served in the Korean War (1950–53). His time in the Army was his first experience of a racially integrated environment. Wilder distinguished himself as a soldier, winning a Bronze Star for heroism in 1953.



After being discharged from the army, Wilder decided to become a lawyer. However, there were no law schools in Virginia that admitted African Americans. Wilder therefore attended Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. While in law school, Wilder married Eunice Montgomery. They were to have three children before divorcing in 1978. Wilder graduated as a lawyer in 1959 and returned to his home state to practice law. He decided to enter politics, and in 1969 he was elected to the Senate of Virginia from the Richmond area. He was the first African American to be elected to the state legislature since Reconstruction (the period following the American Civil War). In 1970, redistricting (the redrawing of the boundaries of electoral districts) resulted in Wilder’s representing a majority African American district, and he was repeatedly reelected unopposed until the mid-1980s. During his many years in the state senate, Wilder became a powerful figure. He developed a reputation as a practical, realistic person. Initially he was known as a liberal, but he became more conservative over the years. For example, he had for a long time opposed capital punishment, but by the mid-1980s he changed his mind and supported it. In 1985, Wilder made another advance when he was elected lieutenant governor (a kind of deputy governor) of Virginia on a Democratic ticket with 52 percent of the vote, including 44 percent of the white vote. The result surprised many people, since Wilder had been given only a small chance of success. His victory represented another first for Wilder; he was the first African American to win statewide office in Virginia. He also became the highest-ranking black elected official in the nation. Wilder used the office of lieutenant governor, which had few official duties, to strengthen his political connections. In 1989, his position was such that he secured the Democratic nomination for governor with little opposition. In the general election he faced J. Marshall Coleman, a conservative Republican who tried to present Wilder as a liberal who was soft on crime. Wilder emphasized economic issues, his own rise from poverty, and his ability to form coalitions, indicating to voters that he would appeal to a wide range of political interests. Issues of race did not play a large part in the campaign. On election day in 1990, Wilder won by a small margin, defeating Coleman by a mere 6,741 votes, or one-third of 1 percent of all votes cast. African American Eras

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Wilder served a single four-year term as governor, as mandated by the state constitution, which does not permit consecutive terms for a governor. He was known for fiscal discipline and budget-cutting measures during the recession of the early 1990s. He did not resort to raising taxes. He maintained a pro-choice position on abortion, and he endorsed capital punishment. In 1991, Wilder announced he would seek the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 1992. However, he did not win the support he had anticipated, and he withdrew from the race in January 1992. After he left office in 1994, Wilder taught political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and practiced law. He also chaired a commission that studied efficiency in Virginia state government. In 2004, he was back in the political arena, running for mayor of Richmond. He won the election comfortably, with 79 percent of the vote. Four years later he decided not to seek reelection, and he left office in 2009.

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BLACK VOTERS PLAY IMPORTANT ROLE IN ELECTIONS The numbers of African Americans registered to vote in the South increased dramatically after the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The Voting Rights Act made discriminatory practices that kept African Americans from voting illegal. In Mississippi, for example, black registration increased from 6.7 percent to 59.8 percent in 1967. In seven southern states taken together, black registration increased from 29.3 percent in March 1965 to 56.6 percent in 1971–1972. Larger numbers of African American voters across the nation increased the importance of the black vote in state and national elections. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the black vote was considered independent, meaning African American voters did not support one political party over another in significant numbers. That changed in the 1960s because many prominent Democrats, including President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) and President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73), actively supported the goals of the civil rights movement. This won them the allegiance of black voters. African American support for the Democrats runs at somewhere between 80 and 90 percent. However, the Democrats paid a price for winning the black vote. They lost control of the South, which up to the 1960s had been solidly Democratic. White Democrats in the South resisted civil rights for African Americans and left their party in large numbers. The South was transformed into a Republican stronghold. This remains largely true today.



An NAACP volunteer verifies the voter registration of a man wanting to attend the Hip Hop Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2003. The NAACP partnered with the Hip Hop Summit to promote voter registration in the African American community. Don Murray/ Getty Images

The strong support of Democrats from black voters did not stop Republican Richard Nixon (1913–94) from winning the presidency in 1968 and 1972. Extending civil rights for African Americans was not a priority in Nixon’s administrations. Likewise, Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), president from 1981 to 1989, did not make minority rights a high priority. There was some apparent change in 1992. President Bill Clinton (1946– ) targeted the black vote by speaking often in African American churches. His political agenda favored issues of importance to the African American community. African American Eras

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African American Voters and 2006 and 2008 Democratic Victories ...................................................................................

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ccording to political scientist David Bositis, increased African American voter turnout was important to key Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Some examples are: • the election of a Democratic governor in Ohio; • the reelection of Democratic governors in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee; • the election of two Democrats to the U.S. Senate from Florida; and • the successful defeat of Republican challengers by Democratic senators in Maryland, Virginia, and Michigan Senate races, and by Democratic representatives in House races in Georgia and Kentucky.

However, Clinton was also determined to win the white middle-class vote. This meant that African American issues were sometimes pushed aside. In his second term, Clinton passed a welfare-reform bill that was strongly opposed by the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of black members of Congress. Nevertheless, Clinton won 82 percent of the African American vote in 1992, and 84 percent in 1996. In the twenty-first century, the political landscape changed. This is, in part, because the African American community devoted considerable effort to registering new voters. They also increased turnout at elections. In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) launched a successful voter registration campaign. The campaign increased the number of black voters by one million compared to the 1996 election. African American voters were increasingly distanced from the Republican Party and the policies of the George W. Bush (1946– ) administration. They turned out in even greater numbers for the 2006 midterm elections. As a result, the African American vote was an important part of major victories enjoyed by Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 congressional and gubernatorial elections. These trends were even more pronounced in the 2008 presidential election. That election pitted Republican candidate John McCain (1936– ) against Democratic candidate Barack Obama (1961– ). In the so-called 408


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“battleground states” that might have gone either way, increased African American (as well as Hispanic) turnout boosted the Obama vote. This decreased the advantage held by McCain among white voters. It also helped Obama to win the previously Republican states of North Carolina and Virginia, along with the big states Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Overall, Obama won 95 percent of the black vote. This amounted to about seventeen million votes—more than a quarter of the total vote for Obama. In 2008, new African American voters made up 40 percent of new voters. The African American vote amounts to 13 percent of the electorate. If these voters continue to show a commitment to the political process, the black vote is likely to be increasingly important in state and federal elections in the future.

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WALTER WASHINGTON BECOMES “FATHER OF MODERN WASHINGTON” Walter Washington (1915–2003) is sometimes known as the father of modern Washington, D.C. He helped to bring self-government to the nation’s capital city and was its first elected mayor. He was one of the first African Americans to become mayor of a large American city.



Walter Washington’s appointment as district commissioner of Washington, D.C., in 1967 made him one of the first African American mayors of a major U.S. city. Francis Miller/Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

Born in Georgia and raised in Jamestown, New York, Washington was trained as a lawyer. In 1961, he became executive director of the National Capital Housing Authority in Washington, where he worked to improve housing for the city’s poor. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson offered him a seat on the three-member commission that governed the District of Columbia. At the time Washington, D.C., was controlled by the U.S. Congress; it had no elected officials. Washington turned down the offer because the position gave him no control over the police department. A year later, in 1967, President Johnson recognized that Washington was uniquely qualified to lead the city and appointed him as the sole mayor-commissioner. Washington soon became known simply as the mayor. He faced a stern test of his leadership the following year. In April 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) was assassinated, and there were riots in a number of U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. Thousands of army and National Guard troops were African American Eras

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Marion Barry Bounces Back ........................................................................................................

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s mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry dominated the politics of the capital city for twelve years from the late 1970s until 1990. Brought down by his prosecution for illegal drug use, Barry made one of the most remarkable comebacks in American politics to reclaim the post of mayor five years later. After defeating Washington in 1978, Barry won a second term in 1982. Under his leadership, the city’s budget deficit was eliminated, the downtown area flourished, and crime and unemployment fell. However, there were charges of corruption and incompetence in the city government. Despite some signs of trouble, voters in the predominantly African American city retained their confidence in Barry. He was elected to a third term in 1986 with 61 percent of the vote. In 1989, Charles Lewis, an acquaintance of Barry, was convicted of cocaine possession, and he named

sent in to restore order. Washington rose to the challenge. He walked the streets of the city telling the angry rioters to go home. He refused to go along with the demand of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972) that looters be shot on sight. Washington’s calm response to the crisis won him much respect and praise from the residents of the city. Washington was twice reappointed to the post of mayor-commissioner by President Richard Nixon, in 1969 and 1973. His main task was to persuade Congress to allow the District of Columbia to become selfgoverning, like other U.S. cities. This was not an easy task. But Washington worked hard behind the scenes, and he achieved his goal. In 1973, Congress passed the Home Rule Act, providing for an elected mayor and a thirteen-member Council of the District of Columbia. In the mayoral election held in 1974, Washington won a comfortable victory. He took office in 1975. Washington ran for reelection in 1978. But after eleven years with Washington at the helm of their city, voters were ready for a change. Washington lost the Democratic primary to Marion Barry (1936– ), who went on to become mayor. Despite his rejection by the voters, Washington left the city in sound financial shape, with an annual surplus of $40 million. 410


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.................................................................................... Barry as someone to whom he sold cocaine. In January 1990, Barry was arrested in a Washington hotel and charged with cocaine use. By May 1990, Barry was facing fourteen charges, including cocaine possession, conspiracy, and perjury. In August 1990, the jury convicted Barry of a single misdemeanor charge of cocaine usage. Barry resigned as mayor in October 1990. It appeared that his political career was over. But Barry, always a resilient man, had other ideas. After being released from prison in 1992, he was elected to the city council. He completed his unlikely comeback by regaining the position of mayor in 1995. His fourth term of office lasted until 1999, when he did not seek reelection. He was involved in further drug scandals in 2002, but once again returned to politics, winning election to the city council in 2008.

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CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS INCREASES POLITICIANS’ CLOUT In 1969, Democratic representative Charles Diggs (1922–98), an African American from Michigan, created the Democratic Select Committee. It was made up of the nine black members of Congress. The idea behind it was that African American legislators should come together to share information and promote common interests and goals. By speaking with a single voice, they would be able to attain a political influence far greater than what each could achieve as an individual. Up to that point, black congressmen had pursued their own concerns with little contact between them. In February 1971, the Democratic Select Committee formally became the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Diggs served as the first chairman. Several factors contributed to the emergence of a black caucus in Congress. The success of the civil rights movement was one major factor. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 increased the number of African Americans who were registered to vote. This gave African American politicians more chance of being elected to state or national office. A second factor was court-ordered redistricting (the redrawing of the boundaries of electoral districts). This created more African American Eras

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Original Members of the Congressional Black Caucus ...................................................................................

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he CBC had thirteen original members, all Democrats, and all members of the House of Representatives. The Senate’s sole African American member, Edward Brooke (1919– ) (Massachusetts) was a Republican. Despite efforts to persuade him, he declined to join the CBC. • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Charles Diggs (Michigan) Shirley Chisholm (New York) William Clay (Missouri) George Collins (Illinois) John Conyers (Michigan) William Dawson (Illinois) Walter Fauntroy (District of Columbia) Augustus Hawkins (California) Parren Mitchell (Maryland) Robert Nix (Pennsylvania) Adam Clayton Powell (New York) Charles Rangel (New York) Louis Stokes (Ohio)

congressional districts in which blacks formed a majority. Redistricting was the main reason for the increase in the number of black members of Congress in the 1970s and 1980s. A third factor that led to the creation of the CBC was the election of President Richard Nixon, a Republican, in 1968. Many African Americans felt that Nixon’s election threatened the great advances that had been made in civil rights for minorities during the 1960s. This was because Nixon’s electoral strategy had been to hold on to white voters in the South, which made it unlikely that civil rights for African Americans would be a priority in his administration. The CBC Agenda Early on, the CBC tried to arrange a meeting with President Nixon. Nixon repeatedly refused to meet. In protest, the CBC boycotted his State of the Union address in January 1971. The meeting finally took place two months later and received widespread publicity. Caucus members presented the president with a list of sixty policy recommendations for domestic and 412


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foreign affairs. Nixon’s lukewarm response was considered disappointing. CBC members realized that they needed to develop and strengthen their organization in order to make an impact.



The CBC was active in the 1970s. From July 1971 to September 1972, the CBC sponsored seven national conferences in large American cities. These conferences covered African American perspectives on health care, business, education, and the media. The purpose was to win support for a national agenda focused on developing greater opportunity and equality for minorities. At the Democratic National Convention in Miami in 1972, the CBC made another attempt to lay out an ambitious program for social change. The CBC presented a Black Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. The proposal included a plan for guaranteed full employment, a guaranteed annual income, and a setting aside of 15 percent of all government contracts for black-owned businesses. The plan also called for an end to the Vietnam War (1954–75) and to all U.S. military involvement in Africa. However, these demands were considered too radical for the Democratic Party and did not win support. The CBC went on to focus on more limited goals, working within Congress rather than outside it. Holding seats on congressional committees put the CBC in a better position to influence legislation. Diggs’s strategy was continued by Charles Rangel (1930– ), who served as chairman from 1974 to 1976. Over a period of twenty years, CBC members became chairs of seven out of twenty-seven congressional committees. Although its relationships with both Democratic and Republican administrations have not always been smooth, the CBC has a number of notable achievements. The CBC was involved in the successful efforts to pass the 1977 Full Employment Act. It also prioritized the creation of an official holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and was instrumental in getting this legislation passed in 1983. In 1986, it successfully pushed for U.S. sanctions against South Africa, where a ruling white minority imposed an official policy of racial segregation on the majority black population. The CBC Evolves In the 1980s and 1990s, the CBC grew in numbers and influence. With the growth in numbers, there has also been a corresponding expansion in diversity of viewpoints. Members range from liberal to centrist, and there are spirited internal policy debates. Differences of opinion have emerged on issues such as health care, welfare reform, and crime. Decisions are made on the basis of a two-thirds vote when enough members are present.

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Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan (1933– ), whom many regard as anti-Semitic (against Jews). The caucus rejected the idea. In other respects, however, Mfume was a successful leader. He put pressure on President Bill Clinton to extend more aid to Haitian refugees, place stronger sanctions, or penalties, on Haiti’s military government, and consider using force to restore Haiti’s democratic government. The CBC has continued to be influential in the twenty-first century. In 2004, members of the CBC, in conjunction with Africa Action, spearheaded a petition urging the United States to take action to end the genocide (a deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group) in Darfur, western Sudan. In 2006, the CBC led the effort to pass the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act. Over the course of several decades, the Congressional Black Caucus evolved into one of the most influential voting blocs within Congress. When the 111th Congress convened in January 2009, there were forty-one members of the Congressional Black Caucus representing a wide range of districts, urban and rural, all across the nation. As of 2009, the chairwoman was Representative Barbara Lee (1946– ) from California.

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DETROIT’S MAYORS FACE A CITY IN CRISIS During the twentieth century, a number of African Americans served as mayors of major American cities. These men were popular leaders, though several of them were also controversial at times. In the 1970s, many American cities with large African American communities elected black mayors for the first time. The popularity of these mayors was often based on the fact that these politicians had struggled up from poverty to find their way to political power. Black voters felt these mayors understood their concerns and would fight for them. Young Tackles Problems with Tough Style In 1970, Detroit was about 44 percent African American (and that number would top 60 percent by the 1980s). When Coleman Young (1918–97) became the first African American mayor of Detroit in 1974, the city faced enormous problems. The tough, outspoken Young tackled them with energy and tenacity. He was reelected four times before retiring in 1993 after twenty years as mayor. His time in office was marked by achievements and controversy. He never failed to state his views bluntly, and as a result he gained many enemies as well as friends.

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people moved out to the suburbs. Young promised to restore Detroit’s fortunes, telling the racially polarized city that he would not tolerate crime committed by anyone, white or black. He emphasized the need for racial cooperation and said he wanted to bring business and labor leaders together to revitalize the city.



Young also set about reforming the police department. During the election campaign, he said the mostly white police were racists from the suburbs who did not care about the city. He hired more African American officers and promoted African Americans to create a more racially balanced force. He required all police officers to live within the city and disbanded STRESS (Stop the Robberies and Enjoy Safe Streets), an undercover operation that was responsible for the deaths of seventeen citizens, all African American. Young was a supporter of Jimmy Carter (1924– ), and when Carter assumed the presidency in 1977, millions of dollars in federal funds were allocated to Detroit. Young used some of the funds to restore the vitality of Detroit’s downtown area. The Renaissance Center, an office tower and hotel, and the Joe Louis Arena were built in 1977 and 1980, respectively. Other new construction followed in the 1980s, including the People Mover, a monorail system, in 1987. Young became a nationally known figure and was hugely popular with the city’s African American residents. He built an impressive political machine and dealt ruthlessly with political enemies. He was repeatedly reelected without serious opposition. However, Young’s tenure as mayor was also marked by a series of controversies. In 1989, a former city employee claimed that Young had fathered her child. Young denied the allegation, but a blood test confirmed the woman’s accusation. Young agreed to pay child support. Young was also the subject of an FBI investigation into alleged kickbacks on city contracts. No charges were filed. Other members of his administration were also subject to allegations of corruption. In 1991, the Detroit police chief was sent to prison for stealing two million dollars from police funds. Much of the controversy that surrounded Young was due to his tough manner. No one ever referred to him as a diplomat. He was the kind of man who believed he was right and was willing to confront those who disagreed with him. He is remembered as one of America’s great urban mayors. He died of emphysema in 1997. Every mayor of Detroit since Young has been African American. Young was followed by Dennis Archer (1942– ), a respected justice on the Michigan African American Eras

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Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gives his State of the City address on March 11, 2008. The mayor was convicted on multiple charges stemming from a scandal later that year. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Supreme Court from 1985 to 1993. Archer found Young a difficult act to follow, and many strong Young supporters refused to cooperate with Archer. Archer had defeated Young’s favored candidate, former city council member Sharon McPhail, in 1993. Though Archer launched several development projects in downtown Detroit, including two new professional sports stadiums, his political enemies launched a recall campaign against him. (A recall campaign is a legal procedure to remove an elected official from office before the end of his or her term.) Archer won reelection in 1997, but decided not to run again in 2001. Kilpatrick Administration Ends in Scandal Kwame Kilpatrick (1970– ) has two claims on history, one positive and the other negative. In 2002, he became the youngest mayor ever to lead Detroit. But six years later, he became the first mayor of the city to resign after being charged with a felony.

Born in Detroit in 1970, Kilpatrick came from a political family. He became a state representative in 1996, when he was only twenty-six years old, and was minority leader by 2001. In April of that year, Kilpatrick decided to run for mayor after Archer announced he would not seek reelection. Kilpatrick was elected despite the perception by some that, at thirty-one, he lacked the necessary experience. Despite Young’s strong leadership and Archer’s efforts at downtown revitalization, Detroit continued to struggle as the twenty-first century dawned. Industry was declining, and there was widespread poverty, crime, and unemployment. When the energetic, young Kwame Kilpatrick appeared on the political scene, voters were dazzled. When he became mayor in 2002, he was the youngest person ever to serve as Detroit’s mayor. At first he achieved success in revitalizing the city. He brought two major events to Detroit: Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game at Comerica Park in 2005 and the National Football League’s Super Bowl XL at Ford Field in 2006. Both received favorable national publicity. Given these signs of revival, there was a housing boom in the city. However, Kilpatrick’s lavish lifestyle began to cause problems. It was rumored that there was a party at the mayoral mansion with

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strippers. There were also revelations that Kilpatrick had used city funds for personal purposes.


Kilpatrick was reelected in 2005, but was soon caught up in a scandal that would eventually bring him down. Two Detroit police officers sued the city, alleging they had been fired for taking part in an investigation into charges that Kilpatrick had used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs, including one with Christine Beatty, his chief of staff. Both Kilpatrick and Beatty denied under oath any inappropriate relationship. However, in September 2007, a jury decided in favor of the two officers and awarded them $6.5 million. In January 2008, the Detroit Free Press published excerpts from text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty. The messages proved they had lied about their relationship. Beatty resigned within days. The city council and many business leaders called on Kilpatrick to resign as well, but he resisted. He claimed that the media coverage of the case was racist.


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In March, Kilpatrick and Beatty were charged with twelve felony counts, including perjury, obstruction of justice, misconduct, and conspiracy. Kilpatrick was released on bond, but in August, he was found to have violated his bond agreement by leaving the country without permission. He was sent to the Wayne County Jail for a night. Released the next day, the mayor was charged with assaulting a police officer. This was in reference to an incident in July in which an officer had served a subpoena (order to appear in court to testify) to a friend of Kilpatrick’s. Kilpatrick posted a $25,000 bond and was required to wear an ankle monitor when he returned to work. After Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm (1959– ) scheduled a hearing to explore the possibility of removing Kilpatrick from office, Kilpatrick made a plea agreement. He admitted to two counts of obstruction of justice, and the other charges were dropped. According to the terms of the agreement, Kilpatrick would resign from office, serve four months in jail, spend five years on probation, and pay $1 million in restitution to the city. Kilpatrick left office on September 18, 2008. A period in office that had begun with high hopes and goodwill had ended in scandal and disgrace. Kilpatrick was replaced by interim mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. (1965– ). In May 2009, Cockrel faced Dave Bing (1943– ) in a special mayoral election, and lost. Bing, a former National Basketball Association All-Star who played twelve seasons for the Detroit Pistons, served out the rest of Kilpatrick’s term, and was elected to a full term on November 3, 2009. Bing, a successful business owner, promised to tackle the city’s $300 million budget deficit by cutting inefficiencies, going so far as to threaten to fire city employees who would not agree to salary reductions. African American Eras

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BLACK LEADERSHIP FORUM EXERTS INFLUENCE Since the mid-1960s, many organizations have been founded to promote African American civil rights and participation in government and politics. These organizations have made important contributions on behalf of African Americans on the national stage. One of these African American organizations is the Black Leadership Forum (BLF). It was founded in 1977. The BLF is an umbrella group of more than thirty African American organizations. These include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Congressional Black Caucus. Member organizations are linked together to promote policies and legislation that benefit African Americans. Since its formation, the BLF has had significant influence on a range of events and issues. In 1984, the BLF played a large part in launching the presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson (1941– ). The BLF helped register more than two million new African American voters. These new voters had an impact on the congressional midterm elections in 1986. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the BLF contributed to national policy debates. It weighed in on such issues as illegal drugs and welfare reform. It has brought attention to inadequate health care and unaffordable housing for African Americans. The BLF has also been concerned with crime and affirmative action (active efforts to improve the employment or educational opportunities of minorities). On crime, the BLF pointed out discrimination in the sentencing of black juvenile offenders. It opposed

Members of the Black Leadership Forum meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her office on June 3, 2009. Seated at the table are (from right to left) Representative Bobby Scott (D Virginia), chair of the Black Leadership Forum Marc Morial, Pelosi, House majority whip James E. Clyburn (D South Carolina), and Congressional Black Caucus chair Barbara Lee (D California). Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images

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mandatory sentencing guidelines. The BLF had major input on President Bill Clinton’s 1994 crime bill.


In the presidential election of 2000, the BLF was in the forefront of the voter mobilization drive. After the disputed 2000 election in which President George W. Bush was elected, the BLF brought national attention to issues such as voter fraud and intimidation of minority voters. In the 2004 elections, the BLF conducted voter education and election-monitoring drives. In 2006, the BLF coordinated member actions on issues such as Supreme Court nominations, satellite voting for people affected by Hurricane Katrina, and the passage of the Voting Rights Reauthorization Bill.


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MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY DECLARED A FEDERAL HOLIDAY Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who held America to its highest ideals of liberty and justice for all. After King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, many people felt that he should be honored in some way at the national level. In 1969, African American representative John Conyers (1929– ) introduced a bill in Congress to honor King with a public holiday on his birthday, January 15. It received little support, but Conyers persisted, introducing the bill in each subsequent Congress. Opponents of establishing a holiday to honor King said that a paid holiday would be costly. Federal and state employees would have the day off and be paid for it, but no work would be done.

President Ronald Reagan announces the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday on January 12, 1988. Those in attendance at the ceremony include King’s widow, Coretta Scott King (far right), and his son Dexter (second from the right). Diana Walker/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images


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When Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, he at first opposed the creation of a King holiday. But support continued to build in Congress. Democrats from Southern states, where there were many black voters, did not want to damage their electoral prospects by offending such a large group. By 1982, almost all Democrats and most Republicans were in favor of establishing the holiday. The measure passed the House easily, and President Reagan indicated that he was ready to drop his opposition and sign the bill. But in the Senate, the bill faced fierce opposition from one member in particular. This was Senator Jesse Helms (1921–2008), a Republican from South Carolina. Helms did everything he could to block the bill. He launched a filibuster, meaning that he used extreme tactics to delay or prevent action in the Senate. In a speech in the Senate, he claimed that King was unworthy of the honor, saying that the civil rights leader had links to the Communist Party. This prompted a dramatic scene. New York Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003) threw a copy of Helms’s charges to the floor and denounced Helms’s accusations as disgraceful. Helms even angered his fellow Republicans with his objections to the bill. In spite of Helms’s opposition, the bill passed the Senate on a 78–22 vote. President Reagan signed it into law on November 2, 1983. The bill designated the third Monday in January a public holiday. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed as a holiday in 1986 by twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia. There was still a lot of opposition to it. Some people objected to it because King was a private citizen, not a public servant like the U.S. presidents who are honored on Presidents’ Day. In some states, the holiday was combined with an existing holiday. However, by 2000, fourteen years after Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed, every state in the nation officially celebrated the holiday.

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HAROLD WASHINGTON TRIES TO REFORM CHICAGO POLITICS Though many years have passed since the sudden death in 1987 of Chicago mayor Harold Washington (1922–87), Washington is still remembered with affection by African Americans in his home city. As the first African American mayor of Chicago, he was a reformer who tried to open the door to equality of opportunity in what had been one of America’s most racially segregated cities. Washington grew up in Chicago in a Democratic political family. Before he became mayor in 1983, he had considerable political experience. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. In 1983, African American community leaders in Chicago saw an opportunity to elect the city’s first black mayor. They were disillusioned with the 420


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incumbent Democrat, Jane Byrne (1934– ). Byrne had run as an antiestablishment candidate in 1979, but she had failed to give African Americans fair opportunities in jobs and housing.



Recruited by black leaders to run, Washington inspired African Americans to register to vote in large numbers. He promised to break the control of the old city bosses who ran the Democratic Party and resisted reforms that would spread the power and give minorities more say in how their city was run. Washington defeated Byrne and another candidate in the Democratic primary. Then, in a close and racially charged campaign, he defeated the white Republican candidate, winning 51 percent of the vote. Once in office, Washington faced many obstacles to the enactment of the reform agenda he had promised. Although he was the mayor, the majority of the city council was still allied with the old political machine. The result was that Washington and his allies were outvoted by 29 to 21 on a series of issues. Important committees were in the hands of Washington’s opponents. Washington hit back by using his veto power against measures passed by his opponents. His opponents could not muster the thirty votes needed to override the veto. But the result was stalemate for the city government. Washington did manage to introduce some of the reforms he promised. In particular, he hired more women and minorities to senior positions, including an African American as the new police chief. However, he was forced to lay off seven hundred city employees to reduce a budget deficit. He tried to set an example during difficult times by cutting his own salary by 20 percent. In 1986, there was a change. A federal judge ordered redistricting for seven wards in Chicago to create fairer representation. All these wards were controlled by Washington’s opponents, but in the special election held in March 1986, Washington supporters won four of them. This meant that the city council was now split 25–25. With Washington able to cast the tiebreaking vote, he was at last able to move his agenda forward. The new city council passed an ethics ordinance, a tenant’s bill of rights, and other proconsumer legislation. Washington was reelected in April 1987 and had a firm majority on the council. Tragically, before he could make much headway on his political agenda, he collapsed and died at his desk on November 25, 1987. The cause of death was a heart attack. As many as half a million mourners passed by his casket as he lay in state at City Hall. Chicago had lost one of its favorite sons, a man who fought hard for his ideals and inspired others to believe in a vision of what their city could become. African American Eras

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BARACK OBAMA BECOMES FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT In November 2008, people all over the world celebrated the election of America’s first black president, Barack Obama. His campaign was important not just for its final result. He also fought a historic primary-election battle with then-senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947– ), thought by many to be the first female candidate with a good chance at winning the American presidency. The Campaign Begins Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president of the United States on February 10, 2007, on the grounds of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Thousands of people attended his speech. Obama was the junior senator from Illinois and had only been in the Senate for two years, but he was already a nationally known figure. A rising star in the Democratic Party, he had made a well-received speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Many believed that he was an outstanding potential candidate for president: a man of mixed race who could move beyond old divisions and unite people in a common purpose. Although his supporters were optimistic, others noted that Obama was relatively young and politically inexperienced. He was not yet halfway through his first term as U.S. senator. As late as 2004, he had been a member of the Illinois state senate.

Obama’s main opponents in the Democratic field were all more experienced than he. The frontrunner was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had been the senator from New York for six years. She had also been first lady in the administration of her husband, President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 2001. Hillary Clinton had raised a vast amount of money in donations to her campaign, and she had developed a strong nationwide organization. Early polls showed Clinton as the clear favorite to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination. In the early running, Obama won support based on his longstanding opposition to President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of and the subsequent war in Iraq. By 2007, when Obama was running for president, the war had become extremely unpopular with the American public. Obama made a strong campaign promise to end the war in Iraq and bring U.S. forces home. Throughout 2007 and beyond, the Obama campaign showed great strength in fundraising, a factor vital to the success of a presidential campaign. In the first half of 2007, Obama raised more money than the Clinton campaign. Much of this came in small amounts from individual donors via the Internet, which showed Obama’s ability to win widespread popular support. 422


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Although Obama announced his candidacy in February 2007, the first primary election was not until early the following year. The Iowa caucus, because it is always the first in the nation, is traditionally considered an important predictor of national electoral outcome. A poor showing in Iowa can doom a candidacy; a win can boost a weak campaign or make a candidate into a frontrunner. Presidential candidates make repeated visits to Iowa for months before the caucus, building up grassroots support and talking to small groups in community meeting halls. As 2007 wore on, the Obama campaign worked to bring new voters into the process. They wanted to attract young people and minorities, as well as those who were unhappy with traditional politics. Obama’s strategists presented him as the candidate of hope and change, while trying to define Clinton as belonging to the old way of doing things that could not meet the challenges the nation now faced.



Obama Wins in Iowa Obama’s performance in the early televised primary debates was uneven, and in early fall 2007, Clinton still led by 20 to 30 percentage points in national polls. But Obama was chipping away at Clinton’s lead in Iowa. In November, less than two months before the caucus, Obama gave an inspiring speech at the annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner, a Democratic Party fundraiser in Des Moines, Iowa. From that point on Obama’s campaign took off in Iowa. When the results of the Iowa caucus were calculated on January 3, 2008, Obama had pulled off a victory that few people could have predicted one year before. He had won with 37.6 percent of the vote, followed by John Edwards in second place (29.7 percent) and Clinton third (29.5 percent).

Five days later, the New Hampshire primary, another important contest, was held. New Hampshire voters pride themselves on their independence and often do not follow the lead of Iowa. Clinton recovered her lost momentum and, despite polls showing Obama ahead, Clinton came in first, edging Obama out by narrow margin. In late January, Obama won by a wide margin in South Carolina, a state with a large African American vote. The two leading candidates then battled it out on Super Tuesday, February 5, the date of multiple primary elections across the country. Obama won thirteen of twenty-two states. He had success in all parts of the country, from Alabama and Georgia in the South to Kansas and Missouri in the Midwest, Connecticut in the northeast, and Idaho in the west. Clinton, however, won some of the big states, including New York and California. Obama went on to win eleven straight contests in February, giving him the lead in the number of pledged delegates for the Democratic National Convention. However, Clinton’s support remained strong, especially among women and white working-class voters. In early March she won the primary in Ohio, a big state that added significantly to her delegate count. African American Eras

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She edged out Obama in the Texas primary, but Texas awards its delegates based on a two-step process involving both the primary election and subsequent caucuses. In the end, Obama wound up with 99 Texas delegates compared to Clinton’s 94. As the primary campaign neared its end, Clinton and Obama continued to split victories. Obama won the North Carolina primary, while Clinton won Indiana. However, Obama was winning more and more of the superdelegates. (Superdelegates are delegates to the convention who are party officials or leaders. They are free to support any candidate for the nomination.) Obama lost West Virginia and Kentucky to Clinton but won in Oregon. By early June, he had amassed the required number of delegates to win the nomination. On June 7, Clinton withdrew from the race and endorsed Obama. Then, on August 27, 2008, Obama was nominated by the Democratic Party as its presidential candidate.

Barack Obama shakes hands with his opponent John McCain after a presidential debate in 2008. AP Images

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Obama vs. McCain In the general election campaign, Obama and his vice-presidential running mate, Senator Joe Biden (1942– ), faced the Republican candidates, Arizona senator John McCain and his running mate, Alaska governor Sarah


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Palin (1964– ). Opinion polls showed that it would be a close race. The Obama campaign knew that McCain would be a tough opponent. He was an experienced senator who had run for president in 2000. Although known as a conservative, he also had a reputation as an independent thinker who did not always support Republican positions. In 2000, he had shown that he could win support from independent voters who could be vital to the outcome of the election.



The election focused on several main issues as well as differences in personality and experience. The McCain campaign emphasized that their candidate was a war hero who had made huge sacrifices for his country. McCain had been a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. He had been shot down and held as a prisoner of war for five and a half years, during which time he was tortured. McCain was also known in the Senate as an expert on national security issues. Given this impressive background, McCain tried to present Obama as too inexperienced to be trusted as commander-in-chief, especially at a time when the nation was engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the contrast in age and experience, there was a contrast in personality and temperament. McCain had a reputation as a man of honor and principle, but he was also known for his hot temper. Obama was respected for his intellect and his calm manner, but some saw him as aloof and cold. The Major Issues One major issue in the presidential election was the war in Iraq, which had begun in 2003 and was still unresolved at the time of the election. McCain had supported the war and warned against a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops. Obama argued for a responsible withdrawal. Another election issue was the rising costs of health care and the fact that millions of Americans lacked insurance. Obama’s health-care plan called for coverage for all Americans. McCain favored providing a tax credit to increase incentives for families and individuals to buy insurance. A third major issue was the economy, which was in a recession. Voters named the economy as the top issue that concerned them. Obama promised that households earning less than $250,000 would get a tax cut. He also said he would create jobs through a $50 billion economic stimulus provided by the government. McCain favored extending the tax cuts made by President Bush, which opponents said favored the wealthy. He also wanted to create jobs by cutting corporate taxes.

In mid-September, a major international crisis in the financial industry erupted, and the economy almost collapsed. This changed the presidential race dramatically in Obama’s favor. McCain made several errors that cost him support. He had claimed that the “fundamentals of the economy” were African American Eras

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Barack and Michelle Obama celebrate with Obama’s running mate Joe Biden and his wife Jill in Chicago after winning the presidential election in 2008. ª Orjan F. Ellingvag/ Dagbladet/Corbis

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“strong,” when it was clear to most people that they were not. McCain then said he was suspending his campaign and returning to Washington to help negotiate a bailout package for the financial industry. He also wanted to cancel the first presidential debate, arguing that the national crisis demanded his full attention. McCain’s strategy backfired, however, since he made little contribution to the bailout legislation. In contrast to what was widely seen as McCain’s uneven performance, Obama’s calm demeanor and ability to explain the crisis so people could understand it played well with voters. He was judged to be the more competent of the two candidates on the economy, and he opened up a firm lead in the polls. The Presidential Debates and Election Traditionally, there are three presidential debates in the fall leading up to a presidential election. They are important in shaping voter opinion of the two candidates. The first debate in 2008 focused on foreign affairs. This was McCain’s strong point, but most viewers and commentators agreed that Obama had at least held his own against the experienced senator. In the other two debates, neither candidate made any major errors or had a spectacular success. McCain tried to distance himself from the policies of


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President Bush, present himself as the candidate of change, and sow doubt in people’s minds about Obama’s readiness to lead. Obama emphasized the need for change and explained his detailed plans dealing with Iraq, Afghanistan, and domestic issues. Polls of viewers conducted by the television networks showed that voters had in general been impressed by Obama’s command of the issues, and they had reacted against the negative tone of some of McCain’s comments.



The election was held on November 4, 2008. All the opinion polls were predicting an Obama victory, but Obama urged his supporters not to be overconfident and to make sure they voted. On election night, early returns showed that Obama had won Illinois, the northeastern states, and the critical states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. This meant that he was virtually assured of victory. When Virginia was called for Obama, he was within fifty of the 270 electoral votes he needed. When polls closed on the West Coast, the television networks, calling California, Washington, and Oregon for Obama, declared Obama to be the winner. He had made history by becoming the first African American to be elected president of the United States. The final tally was 365 electoral college votes for Obama (53 percent of the total vote) and 173 for McCain (46 percent). In the opening words of his victory speech on election night, Obama said: “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”


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 BARBARA JORDAN’S OPENING STATEMENT TO THE HOUSE

JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, PROCEEDINGS ON THE IMPEACHMENT OF RICHARD NIXON (1974) Throughout the summer of 1974, Congress and the nation were debating whether President Richard Nixon should be impeached because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal erupted in 1972 when it was discovered that five men who had broken into the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office building were tied directly to the Committee to Re-elect President Richard Nixon (a Republican). As the investigation of the crime continued in 1973 and 1974, it became clear that high-ranking members of the Nixon administration, and Nixon himself, had tried to cover up the crime and hinder investigators. In late July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on the topic. Representative Barbara Jordan made the following statement, in which she argues strongly in favor of impeachment, citing the Constitution and historical precedent. Two days after Jordan’s speech, the committee voted to impeach President Nixon.

............................ Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague Mr. Rangel in thanking you for giving the junior members of this committee the glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry. Mr. Chairman, you are a strong man, and it has not been easy but we have tried as best we can to give you as much assistance as possible. Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: “We, the people.” It’s a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.” I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in “We, the people.” Hyperbole Exaggeration Diminution Making smaller Subversion Undermining or weakening 428

Today I am an inquisitor. An hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution. “Who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?” “The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men.” And that’s what we’re talking about. In other words, [the jurisdiction comes] from the abuse or violation of some public trust. African American Eras

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It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Constitution for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the president should be removed from office. The Constitution doesn’t say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of the body of the legislature against and upon the encroachments of the executive. The division between the two branches of the legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other the right to judge, the framers of this Constitution were very astute. They did not make the accusers and the . . . judges the same person.

Impeachment Formal accusation Encroachment Invasion; advance beyond accepted limits

We know the nature of impeachment. We’ve been talking about it awhile now. It is chiefly designed for the president and his high ministers to somehow be called into account. It is designed to “bridle” the executive if he engages in excesses. “It is designed as a method of national inquest into the conduct of public men.” The framers confided in the Congress the power if need be, to remove the president in order to strike a delicate balance between a president swollen with power and grown tyrannical, and preservation of the independence of the executive. The nature of impeachment: a narrowly channeled exception to the separationof-powers maxim. The Federal Convention of 1787 said that. It limited impeachment to high crimes and misdemeanors and discounted and opposed the term “maladministration.” “It is to be used only for great misdemeanors,” so it was said in the North Carolina ratification convention. And in the Virginia ratification convention: “We do not trust our liberty to a particular branch. We need one branch to check the other.” “No one need be afraid”—the North Carolina ratification convention—“No one need be afraid that officers who commit oppression will pass with immunity.” “Prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community,” said Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, number 65. “We divide into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.” I do not mean political parties in that sense. The drawing of political lines goes to the motivation behind impeachment; but impeachment must proceed within the confines of the constitutional term “high crime[s] and misdemeanors.” Of the impeachment process, it was Woodrow Wilson who said that “Nothing short of the grossest offenses against the plain law of the land will suffice to give them speed and effectiveness. Indignation so great as to overgrow party interest may secure a conviction; but nothing else can.” . . . At this point, I would like to juxtapose a few of the impeachment criteria with some of the actions the president has engaged in. . . . The Carolina ratification convention impeachment criteria: those are impeachable “who behave amiss or betray their public trust.” Beginning shortly after the Watergate break-in and continuing to the present time, the president has engaged in a series of public statements and actions designed to thwart the lawful investigation by African American Eras

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Agitate Stir up

Indignation Feeling of righteous anger Juxtapose Place side by side

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Surreptitious Secret; concealed

government prosecutors. Moreover, the president has made public announcements and assertions bearing on the Watergate case, which the evidence will show he knew to be false. These assertions, false assertions, impeachable, those who misbehave. Those who “behave amiss or betray the public trust.” James Madison again at the Constitutional Convention: “A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.” The Constitution charges the president with the task of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, and yet the president has counseled his aides to commit perjury, willfully disregard the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, conceal surreptitious entry, attempt to compromise a federal judge, while publicly displaying his cooperation with the processes of criminal justice. “A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.” If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that 18th-century Constitution should be abandoned to a 20th-century paper shredder. Has the president committed offenses, and planned, and directed, and acquiesced in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate? That’s the question. We know that. We know the question. We should now forthwith proceed to answer the question. It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

 PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA’S VICTORY SPEECH (2008) On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American ever to be elected president of the United States. That night, thousands of people gathered in Grant Park in Chicago to celebrate his election. Obama gave a victory speech in which he urged people to work together for a better America and move beyond political differences. Portions of that speech are below.

............................ If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voice could be that difference. It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled—Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America. It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of 430


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what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. . . .



The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America—I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you—we as a people will get there. There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for twohundred and twenty-one years—block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek—it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers—in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people. Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House—a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends . . . though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn—I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too. And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down—we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security—we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright—tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope. . . . African American Eras

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America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves—if our children should live to see the next century . . . what change will they see? What progress will we have made? This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time—to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth—that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

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1. All politicians have to become good public speakers. Some African American politicians, such as Jesse Jackson and President Barack Obama, are noted for their oratorical gifts. Listen to some of their speeches (many are available free on the Internet), and read transcripts of the speeches. What is different about reading the transcripts and watching the speeches being delivered? What do you think makes a speech effective? After you analyze these speeches, prepare a short speech of your own on a political issue you care about, and deliver the speech to your class. Practice it ahead of time. Discuss the speech with your classmates after you have given it. Did it come out the way you wanted? Did it make the impression you wanted? How would you change and improve it for next time?



2. In some major American cities with majority black populations, most—or even all—of the mayors elected in recent decades have been African American. Pick one of these cities (examples include Detroit, Newark, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C.) and research elections and mayoral candidates in those cities for the past thirty years. Formulate a thesis about why African American candidates have been successful in these political races, and write a paper explaining your position. Be sure to back up your position with facts and statistics. 3. On November 4, 2008, tens of thousands of Barack Obama supporters gathered in Chicago’s Grant Park to await the results of the presidential election and a victory speech by Obama. When it was announced that Obama had won, television cameras showed a cheering crowd. Standing in the crowd was Jesse Jackson, two-time presidential candidate, with tears streaming down his face. Using the Internet, find a video clip of Jackson’s reaction to the news of Obama’s victory. Then read about Jackson’s own life and political activities. Write a fictional three-page narrative in which you imagine you are Jesse Jackson. Describe your evening in Grant Park the night of Obama’s historic win. How did you feel as you began the night? What did you see and hear in the park? What emotions did you experience as Obama was announced the winner? 4. Using your library and the Internet, find out who the five longestserving African American members of Congress currently are. Pick one of them, and write a short biographical paper on them. Be sure to highlight his or her most important legislative achievements. 5. A large majority of African Americans, usually as many as 80–85 percent, tend to vote for the Democrats. Using your library and the Internet, African American Eras

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conduct historical research to answer the following question: Why do black voters support the Democrats so overwhelmingly? Now, imagine you are a senior official in the Republican Party. You know that the Republicans are failing to attract African American voters, and that this hinders the party’s chances for success in the next election. You have been asked by senior Republicans to make some proposals about how to attract the black vote. Write a brief, one-page list of what the Republicans should do to attract more votes from African Americans and other minorities.

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BOOKS

Alabiso, Vincent, Nicholas Calloway, Amy Cloud, Cathy Ferrara, Nancy Lee, and Alex Ward, eds. Obama: The Historic Journey. New York: New York Times/ Callaway, 2009. Canon, David T. Race, Redistricting, and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Ifill, Gwen. The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. New York: Doubleday, 2009. Jeffries, J. L. Virginia’s Native Son: The Election and Administration of Governor L. Douglas Wilder. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2000. Lee, Silas. “Who’s Going to Take the Weight? African Americans and Civic Engagement in the 21st Century,” in The State of Black America, 2007. New York: National Urban League, 2007, pp. 185 192. Mabry, Marcus. Twice as Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power. New York: Modern Times, 2007. Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown, 2006. Obama, Barack. Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004. Singh, Robert. The Congressional Black Caucus: Racial Politics in the U.S. Congress. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1998. Smith, Hedrick. The Power Game: How Washington Works. New York: Random House, 1988. Smith, Jessie Carnie, ed. Black Firsts: 2,000 Years of Extraordinary Achievement. Detroit, Mich.: Visible Ink, 1994. Walton, Hanes, and Robert C. Smith. American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.

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Chronology . . . . . . . . . 436 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 439 Headline Makers . . . . . . 442 Patricia Bath . . Keith L. Black . . Clive Callender . Benjamin Carson Joycelyn Elders . Levi Watkins Jr.

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Topics in the News . . . . . 472 Tuskegee Syphilis Study Outrages Black Community . . . . . . . . 472 African American Poverty Leads to Health Disparities . . . . . . . . 474

Breast Cancer Hits African American Women Harder . . . . . . . . HIV/AIDS Disproportionately Harms African Americans . . . . . . Obesity Epidemic Impacts African Americans . . . African Americans Hope for Sickle Cell Anemia Cure National Black Women’s Health Imperative Advocates for Health Reform . . . . . . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 January 3 Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 takes effect, mandating that discrimination is illegal in any program or activity receiving any federal funding. Hospitals receiving federal funds of any kind and doctors treating patients covered by the federal programs Medicaid or Medicare are included under this provision. 1968 December 1 Protesters from the Medical Committee for Human Rights (a national organization made up of both white and black doctors) begin a four-day demonstration at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting. They are protesting the association’s failure to improve health care for the poor and prohibit racial discrimination in medicine. 1969 Alfred Day Hershey becomes the first African American to win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (which he shares with two other researchers) for his research on the structure of viruses and how they reproduce themselves. 1972 July 25 Associated Press reporter Jean Heller exposes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, during which government doctors withheld medical treatment to nearly 400 mostly poor, illiterate black men between 1932 and 1972 in order to study the effects of untreated syphilis in the men.

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1973 Konnetta Putman becomes the first African American to serve as president of the American Dental Hygienists Association. 1973 Survivors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study file suit against the U.S. government for withholding treatment from them and failing to inform them they had the disease. 1978 LaSalle D. Leffall becomes the first African American president of the American Cancer Society. 1980 February 4 Levi Watkins introduces a revolutionary surgical procedure when he performs the first implant of an automatic implantable defibrillator (AID) in a human heart. 1983 The National Black Women’s Health Project, an organization intended to address disparities in health care for black women, is founded in Atlanta, Georgia. 1987 September 5 Neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson leads a seventymember surgical team in the separating of conjoined twins joined at the head. 1988 May 17 Ophthalmologist Patricia Bath becomes the first African American female doctor to hold a medical patent for her invention of the Laserphaco Probe, a cataract removal device.

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......................................................................................... 1989 February 10 Physician Louis Sullivan, president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Georgia, is named the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1992 June Edward S. Cooper is the first African American elected as the national president of the American Heart Association. 1993 April 28 The Public Health Service demands that all government policies regarding research on humans be reformed, in response to the severe ethics violations of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. 1993 September 8 Joycelyn Elders is named the U.S. surgeon general, becoming the first African American and the second female to hold that position. 1994 December 4 Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders resigns after making controversial statements about teaching masturbation in sex education in schools. 1997 Renowned African American neurosurgeon Keith L. Black becomes the director of the state-of-the-art Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. 1997 May 16 President Bill Clinton publicly apologizes to the survivors of the

Tuskegee Syphilis Study and their families for the U.S. government’s actions in denying treatment to black male study participants. 1998 February 13 David Satcher is sworn in as the U.S. surgeon general, as well as the U.S. assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services. 2002 Roselyn Payne Epps is the first African American woman to serve as president of the American Medical Women’s Association. 2004 December An analysis published in the American Journal of Public Health states that between 1991 and 2000 more than 886,000 lives could have been saved if African Americans had received the same level of care as white people. 2005 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases a comprehensive study concluding that HIV/AIDS disproportionately harms the black community. 2007 Researchers use stem cells to cure mice of sickle cell anemia—a disease that, in humans, primarily impacts people of African descent—offering hope to sufferers of the disease for a permanent cure. 2007 January 25 Adolescent health expert Nancy L. Brown publishes a report stating that almost 70 percent


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....................................................................................... of all new HIV infections in the United States between 2001 and 2004 were in African American females, who are nineteen times more likely than white females to contract the disease. 2009 June 15 President Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States, addresses the American Medical Association to

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outline his goals for health care, many of which are directly targeted at minority populations. 2009 June 24 Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, president and CEO of the National Black Women’s Health Imperative, speaks to a crowd of 1,000 in Washington, D.C., as part of a rally to encourage Congress to pass a health-reform bill.

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 ............................................................... Overview

Throughout history, African Americans have been subjected to segregation and substandard housing, employment, and education. Medical care is no exception. African Americans have been treated unfairly as patients and as providers of medical care. African American patients have received, on average, inferior health services. Medicine was largely closed as a profession to African Americans who aspired to be doctors or nurses. This discrimination began to change with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Medicare Act in 1965. These acts made segregation, or racial separation, in hospitals illegal. As a result, African American physicians saw more opportunities for a quality education in medicine outside of all-black hospitals. African American physicians also enjoyed gains in professional and social acceptance as physicians. In addition, formerly all-white hospitals were by law required to accept African American patients. Still, African Americans continue to face obstacles and discrimination even in the twenty-first century.

Health and Medicine ........................................................

OVERVIEW

Historically, African Americans have been more often afflicted by illness and have had a shorter life expectancy than whites. What is more, African Americans have less access to preventive health care, which is medical care that helps people avoid illness. Preventive care is essential to discovering diseases in their early stages when treatment is most effective. Preventive care is often given by a primary care physician. However, more than 25 percent of all African Americans do not have a primary care physician. That means the typical African American patient sees doctors who are not familiar with his or her medical history—many times in a hospital emergency room. A report issued by the Institute of Medicine in March of 2002 revealed that African Americans receive poorer care than white Americans. African Americans receive poorer care even when they have the same income, education, insurance, and medical conditions as white patients. For example, heart disease is one of the major causes of death for African Americans. Yet, an African American patient is much less likely to undergo bypass surgery or angioplasty. Furthermore, African Americans also receive less preventive and instructional medical information than white patients receive. According to the report, the evidence clearly shows that African Americans in many parts of the country continue to experience discriminatory medical treatment. In addition, African Americans suffer from certain diseases at higher rates than the rest of the population. For instance, African Americans have a higher incidence than white Americans of such diseases as Acquired African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. Many of these health problems damage major organs. As a result, more African Americans are on waiting lists for organ transplants—especially kidneys—than any other ethnic group. On average, African Americans wait almost twice as long as whites to receive an organ for transplant. Another significant health concern for African Americans is teenage pregnancy. Although the gap has closed in recent years, the rates of pregnancy and childbirth outside of marriage are higher for African American teenagers than white teenagers. Most experts blame the majority of African American health problems on poverty in minority communities. Advocates for African American health oftentimes focus on public awareness campaigns. The campaigns aim to educate minorities not only about diseases that are common to African Americans, but also about how to make healthy choices to prevent those diseases. Statistics reported in February 2009 on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day showed that 41 percent of men and 64 percent of women living with HIV/AIDS were African American. By comparison, African Americans represent only 12 percent of the total population in the United States. Additionally, almost half of the country’s new HIV infections are found in African Americans. In fact, in 2006 African American women contracted new HIV infections at fifteen times the rate white women did. A 2005 study conducted in thirty-three states revealed that 63 percent of children diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were African American. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, African Americans have a greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS than other ethnic groups for three main reasons. They are often unaware of their partners’ HIV/AIDS status, they have a high incidence of other sexually transmitted diseases (the African American population leads the nation in STDs), and 25 percent of them live in poverty. Another serious disease that afflicts African Americans is sickle cell anemia. Sickle cell anemia is an inherited blood disorder that is found in people of African, Mediterranean, Indian, and Middle Eastern heritage. The disease has no cure. The symptoms of sickle cell anemia vary on a case-to-case basis. Some individuals experience chronic fatigue and pain. Little was known about the disease until the pioneering work of Dr. Roland Scott. Scott’s study and treatment of sickle cell anemia garnered attention from both the public and the U.S. government. In 1972, Congress passed the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act. The act requires the National Institutes of Health to set up screening and treatment programs throughout the country. Due to improvements in treatment options,

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African Americans who have sickle cell anemia are currently living into their forties or fifties.

Health and Medicine

African American physicians also face unique difficulties in the field of medicine. African American physicians are a distinct minority in the field of medicine. African Americans account for just over 12 percent of the U.S. population. Yet only 4–5 percent of all physicians and medical students in the country are African American. In part, this discrepancy is a consequence of a lack of interest in the medical profession by African Americans. In the 1990s, the number of African American applicants to medical school dropped so dramatically that the Association of American Medical Colleges launched Project 3000 by 2000. The project’s goal was to graduate 3,000 minorities from medical school by the year 2000. In 1996, the National Dental Association initiated a similar program, the Networking Action Plan. The plan was aimed at educating the African American community about the importance of regular dental care. As of late 2009, the Health and Equity and Accountability Act of 2009 was pending before Congress. The act would provide financial support for historically black colleges and universities so that these institutions can implement health information technology. The goal is to increase the number of minority health care providers in the United States. In spite of such initiatives, African Americans remain underrepresented in the world of medicine.

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PATRICIA BATH (1942– )

Patricia Bath is world-renowned (world-famous and admired) for her work in the field of ophthalmology. Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the structure, function, and diseases of the eye. Bath is one of only a few African American female ophthalmologists in the United States. She has dedicated her career to providing eye-care services to economically disadvantaged populations throughout the world. Bath is the founder of what is known as Community Ophthalmology, a discipline that incorporates elements of health care, community medicine, and clinical eye treatment. She is also renowned for revolutionizing surgical procedures for the removal of cataracts (a disease of the eye) with her invention of the Laserphaco Probe. The patent that she received for this laser device made her the first African American woman to receive a patent for a medical procedure. Early Encouragement and Recognition Bath was born on November 4, 1942, in New York. Her father, Rupert, an immigrant from Trinidad, was the first black motorman for the New York City subway system. Rupert had also traveled as a merchant seaman. His experiences inspired his daughter to appreciate the world beyond the Harlem neighborhood of her youth. Bath’s mother, Gladys, was a descendent of African slaves and Cherokee Indians. She stayed home with Bath and her older brother until the children entered middle school. At that point Gladys began working as a housecleaner. Gladys and Rupert taught their two children to value education as the key to lifelong success and happiness.

Bath enjoyed reading books at a young age. She was also introduced to the world of science when her parents gave her a chemistry set with a microscope. The set and the microscope provided her with hours of entertainment and education throughout her childhood. Bath proved to be a gifted student. Her teachers encouraged her interests in science and math. Bath took two years of biology and advanced chemistry at Charles Evans Hughes High School. She also edited the school’s science newspaper. She spent her free time working in the classroom science lab before graduating two-and-a-half years ahead of schedule. In 1959, when she was sixteen years old, Bath was selected from a large field of applicants to the Summer Institute in Biomedical Science at New York City’s Yeshiva University. The institute was sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Bath and a classmate conducted research 442


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on the relationship between cancer, nutrition and stress. By the end of her summer at the institute, Bath had developed a hypothesis and a mathematical equation to predict the growth rate of cancer cells. Although she was still only a teenager, Bath became nationally recognized when her studies were incorporated into a report by Dr. Robert O. Bernard. Bernard presented the report at the Fifth Annual International Congress on Nutrition in Washington, D.C., on September 2, 1960. In recognition of her contributions to Bernard’s work and her potential for future achievements in science, Mademoiselle magazine named Bath one of its Merit Award winners. The Merit Award is an annual award given to ten promising young women who make a significant contribution to a specific field.



These early experiences inspired Bath to pursue a career in medicine. She studied chemistry and physics at Hunter College in New York. She was on the dean’s list and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with honors in 1964. She next enrolled in medical school at Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C. Attending Howard provided Bath with an experience unlike any she had ever had. She was exposed to African American professors. Her professors’ academic excellence and leadership made a great impact on her. Among her mentors at Howard was Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall Jr. (1930– ), the first African American president of the American Cancer Society. Pursuing Humanitarian Health Care Growing up, Bath had been moved by the humanitarian efforts of Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) in treating the sick in Africa. Schweitzer won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his efforts. Bath had her own opportunity to reach the underprivileged in 1967 while she was still in medical school. She traveled to Yugoslavia and participated in a governmentfunded pediatrics research summer program. The trip allowed her to gain international experience and fostered her interest in health care for the disadvantaged.

The next summer, Bath served as a medical coordinator for the Poor People’s Campaign, a group organized by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to advocate economic rights for minorities. When the organization staged a demonstration in Washington, D.C., approximately fifty thousand African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics erected Resurrection City, a temporary settlement near the Lincoln Memorial. Bath’s responsibilities at Resurrection City included attending to the health and sanitation needs of the thousands of protesters. At Howard University, Bath helped form the Student National Medical Association and was elected its first president. She received a National African American Eras

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Institute of Health fellowship while she was studying at Howard. She also received two National Institute of Mental Health fellowships and the Edwin J. Watson Prize for Outstanding Student in Ophthalmology. Bath earned her medical degree in 1968. She then returned to New York City. She spent a year as an intern at Harlem Hospital before accepting a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University. She worked at Columbia from 1969 to 1970. The contrast between the patients who received treatment at the two facilities opened Bath’s eyes to the quality of medical care available to disadvantaged populations. At Harlem Hospital’s Eye Clinic, many of the predominantly African American patients suffered blindness or other serious visual impairments. Patients at the Columbia Eye Clinic, who were mostly white, had less-severe vision problems. Such unexpected disparities (differences) led Bath to study past case histories. The case histories showed that blindness was twice as common in the African American community than in the general population. Further investigation revealed that African Americans were eight times more likely to suffer blindness from glaucoma than whites. Bath concluded that African Americans were subject to more eye diseases due to their lack of access to quality health care for the eyes. Bath established a new discipline in medicine based on her observations and experiences, known as Community Ophthalmology. Community Ophthalmology combines public health, community medicine,

Harlem Hospital in the late 1960s. Patricia Bath’s internship there opened her eyes to the poor quality of health experienced by African Americans when compared to whites. ª Bettmann/Corbis

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and ophthalmology to detect and treat eye diseases and other problems in disadvantaged populations. Community Ophthalmology is an outreach program that is in operation all over the world today. It enlists the services of volunteers to visit homes and centers for senior citizens and children’s day-care facilities to provide screenings for cataracts, glaucoma, and other diseases of the eye.



Bath knew that such measures would have many benefits. They could help save people’s vision. They also could provide glasses for those who would otherwise not have the resources to obtain them. Finally, such measures could generally prevent vision problems in the future for the underprivileged who previously did not have access to the benefits of eye care. Bath convinced her colleagues at Columbia University to perform eye surgeries at Harlem Hospital’s Eye Clinic free of charge. She volunteered her own services to work as an assistant surgeon at the clinic. As a result of Bath’s advocacy, the first major eye operation was performed at Harlem Hospital in 1973. Throughout the world, Community Ophthalmology has saved the sight of thousands of people whose vision problems otherwise would have gone undiagnosed and untreated. Bath Helps Found the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness Following her internship, Bath spent the years from 1970 to 1973 completing her training at New York University. There, she was the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology. Despite her busy professional life, Bath married and gave birth to a daughter during those years. She also completed a fellowship in corneal transplantation and keratoprosthesis, which is an artificial cornea that replaces a human one. Bath moved to Los Angeles in 1974 and joined the faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) as an assistant professor of ophthalmology. She also served as an assistant professor of surgery at Charles R. Drew University. Bath was appointed to the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute in 1975. She had the distinction of being the first female faculty member in the department’s history.

Bath wanted to find a way to further her commitment to providing quality eye care to the disadvantaged. Thus, she and three of her colleagues co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness (AIPB) in 1976. Bath was the AIPB’s director. The AIPB is based on the belief that eyesight is a basic human right for everyone, regardless of economic status or race. It is dedicated to the prevention of blindness and the restoration of sight for those already blinded. The organization solicits donations from both equipment manufacturers and the general public. AIPB employs university-trained ophthalmic assistants to diagnose African American Eras

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and treat eye diseases. AIPB also supports global initiatives for children. For example, it provides newborn infants with anti-infection eye drops and vaccinates children against diseases that can cause blindness (measles, for example). AIPB also helps ensure that malnourished children receive vitamin A supplements because vitamin A is essential for healthy vision. As the director of AIPB, Bath traveled the world performing surgeries, teaching new medical techniques, and giving lectures to spread awareness about the importance of eye care in all communities. She worked as the chief of ophthalmology at Mercy Hospital in Nigeria in 1977. One of Bath’s greatest personal achievements occurred during a mission in north Africa when she restored sight to a woman who had been blind for thirty years by replacing her cornea with a keratoprosthesis. Bath had traveled and worked in countries all over the globe. Over and over she had observed the one eye condition that affects most people as they age: cataracts. A cataract is a cloudiness that forms in the lens of an eye and causes blurred vision. If left untreated, cataracts often lead to blindness. As people enter their sixties, cataracts become a common condition. In fact, some experts estimate that by the age of eighty, more than half of all Americans are afflicted by cataracts or have had cataract surgery. Bath knew from firsthand experience that people who live in poverty or in remote areas do not have access to quality health care, especially eye care. As a result, a large number of elderly people have lost their sight because of cataracts. Bath Patents an Important New Medical Procedure In 1981, Bath began to develop an idea she had for the removal of cataracts that involved laser technology. At the time, the standard procedure for treating cataracts used a drill-like device to grind away the cloudy lens so that an artificial lens could then be inserted. Bath wanted to pursue a method of cataract removal surgery that would be faster, less invasive to the eye, and more accurate. She determined that laser technology would be an effective tool. However, lasers were not yet commonly used for medical purposes when Bath began her research.

Not surprisingly, Bath’s concept of using lasers for cataract surgery was met with skepticism by many of her colleagues. UCLA did not even have the laser equipment necessary for Bath to conduct her studies and testing. Despite this setback, Bath continued to perfect the design of her laser probe over the next five years. She traveled to Berlin, Germany, home of the most advanced laser technology available, to test her invention in 1986. When the laser device proved successful, Bath returned to the United States and applied for a patent that same year. 446


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Bath’s laser cataract surgery device is known as a Laserphaco Probe. It has an optical laser fiber that is inserted into a one-millimeter incision in the eye. That is a much smaller incision than the one made during traditional cataract surgery. Within minutes, the Laserphaco Probe vaporizes the damaged lens. The remains of the damaged lens are suctioned out. Then, the surgeon inserts the artificial replacement lens. Because this procedure requires less time and causes less trauma to the eye than conventional methods, patients are more comfortable after the surgery and have a shorter recovery time.



Bath received a patent for her laser probe in 1988. She became the first African American female to be granted a patent for a medical invention. Bath received three more U.S. patents for laser cataract surgery. One patent is for the method and apparatus used for removing cataractous lenses (1998). A second is for the laser apparatus used for surgery of cataractous lenses (1999). The third is for an ultrasound method used to break up and remove cataracts (2000). Additionally, she holds patents from Japan, Canada, and multiple European countries. Although the Laserphaco Probe had been successfully used for cataract removal in Italy, Germany, and India since 2000, the Food and Drug Administration did not approve its use in the United States. During the development of the laser cataract removal device, Bath remained a professor at both UCLA and Drew University. She developed

Specialists use video conferencing to prescribe medical treatment. Bath worked for the advance ment of telemedicine, which uses tele communications technol ogy to reach isolated populations, after retiring from the UCLA Medical Center. F. Carter Smith/ Sygma/Corbis


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Neurosurgeon Keith Black in 2001. ª Gregory Pace/

and then served as chair of the Drew/UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Training Program. In assuming this position, Bath became the first female director of a postgraduate training program in the nation. She also became the first female chair of an ophthalmology department. After retiring from the UCLA Medical Center in 1993, Bath turned her attention to the advancement of telemedicine. Telemedicine involves using telecommunications technology to provide medical services to isolated populations. Bath has both promoted and participated in telemedicine. She has worked at Howard University Hospital and at St. George’s University in Grenada. She was also a consultant for an online pharmaceutical company. In 2001, Bath was inducted into the International Women in Medicine Hall of Fame, which is sponsored by the American Medical Women’s Association. This induction was one among many honors for a woman whose personal and professional goals have always centered on helping those who are unable to help themselves.

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KEITH L. BLACK (1957– )

On October 1, 1997, famed African American neurosurgeon Keith L. Black was featured on the cover of Time magazine. The issue was a special issue on “heroes in medicine.” Black is one of about fifty neurosurgeons in the United States—out of some five thousand total—who specialize in removing brain tumors. His advances in neurosurgery have given hope and years of life to many patients who have tried everything else to treat their brain tumors. Black was born in 1957 in Tuskegee, Alabama. He was greatly influenced by his father, who was a school principal at Boykin Elementary. Like all public schools at the time, Boykin was segregated by law. As a principal, his father encouraged students to imagine bigger futures for themselves than society expected of them. He pushed an advanced curriculum, including French lessons for the elementary school students. Black’s father taught him and his brothers to be bold and 448


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challenge injustice. For instance, he encouraged them to swim in the whites-only swimming pool.

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Black’s father was interested in his academic development. When he realized that Black was inclined toward science, he brought home a cow’s heart from the butcher shop for Black to dissect. When Time interviewed Black as a “hero in medicine,” Black cited the influence of his father on his career. He said that his father had been the “ultimate educator,” who taught him and his brothers that there was nothing they could not do.


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When Black was a young teenager, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Black spent much time there at the laboratories at Case Western Reserve University. He learned a tremendous amount about biology and anatomy, or the study of the body. By high school, he was able to perform organ transplants on animals and replace heart valves. He published his first serious medical paper at age seventeen. The paper was about damage to red blood cells suffered by people who have undergone open-heart surgery. Medical Training Sparks Interest in Treating Brain Tumors It was no surprise that the young prodigy was admitted to the University of Michigan in a special advanced program. There, he earned a degree in biomedical science and medicine. While Black was at Michigan, his interest in the human brain began to take shape. He took every possible course offered in neuroscience. At the time, though, his interests in the brain were more philosophical in nature. He wanted to understand the nature of human consciousness. Hence, he explored subjects like neuroanatomy, physiology, and even mysticism. However, Black became frightened after he had what he called an out-of-body experience. This caused him to shift his studies away from his focus on consciousness and more toward practical medicine.

Neurosurgery requires years of difficult training after medical school. Neurosurgeons must complete five years of residency. They must become certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery by taking an intense written and oral exam. During his residency, Black became interested in brain tumors in particular. Brain tumors present special problems for neurosurgeons. They may be connected to parts of the brain that are used for motor skills like speaking or walking. Injury to some parts of the brain will lead to death. To remove a brain tumor, a surgeon must be especially careful not to damage other parts of the brain. But he must also be careful to remove the entire tumor, or it will continue to grow and spread. In addition to surgery, another challenge that Black came to embrace was treating brain tumors with drugs. Many types of tumors and cancers can be treated or cured with powerful drugs. It is not African American Eras

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nearly as easy, though, to treat brain tumors with drugs. This is because of something called the “blood-brain barrier.”


Produces Pioneering Research on Treatment of Brain Tumors In his early career, Black served on the faculty at the medical school at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). This meant that, in addition to performing neurosurgery and teaching young doctors, he would also have to publish a certain amount of research to guide other doctors in the field. By 1995, he had published close to one hundred articles. During his time at UCLA, Black’s work was featured on a television show called The New Explorers in an episode called “Outsmarting the Brain.” It featured three of his patients in a clinical trial. The patients had exhausted all of their other options and were desperate for a way to stay alive. Black was successful with an amazing two of the three.

After his time at UCLA, Black accepted an invitation from the CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He would become the director of the center’s new Neurological Institute. The institute was a multimilliondollar, state-of-the-art facility. It would treat both adults and children for all kinds of neurological conditions, including brain tumors. Black thought the offer was too good to pass up. He liked the idea that the institute would give him the opportunity to do the most cutting-edge research with hopes of better understanding and treating brain conditions. Black still served at Cedars-Sinai as of 2009. He was the chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery and a professor as well. Two of Black’s most impressive accomplishments have been methods for treating brain cancer. One is a kind of “vaccine” for tumors. The process involves removing cells from a tumor and then altering them with the body’s own immune defenses. After the tumor cells are enriched, they are re-injected into the tumor. Once they are there, the body’s immune functions are attracted to the tumor itself, which can help to break down the tumor. Another of Black’s accomplishments was a breakthrough in penetrating the so-called blood-brain barrier. His technique is a means for getting through the protective blood vessels meant to shield the brain from toxins. This makes it easier to deliver medications to treat brain tumors.

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CLIVE CALLENDER (1936– )

Clive Callender became the founder and director of the Transplant Center at Howard University Hospital. Callender is one of the nation’s foremost specialists in the field of organ and tissue transplant. Callender has 450


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devoted much of his career to educating the African American community about the importance of being organ donors. Minority participation in organ donor programs tripled in only five years thanks to his efforts.



Called to a Career in Medicine Callender was born in New York in 1936. He had dreams of being a physician even as a child. Specifically, he wanted to be a missionary doctor. That calling was reinforced by a sermon he heard in church about ministering to both the bodies and souls of humankind. He attended public schools in New York, including Commerce High School. He graduated from New York’s Hunter College with degrees in chemistry and physiology in 1959. From there Callender enrolled at the historically black Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Meharry is an institution that was long esteemed as the leading educator of African American physicians in the country. Callender graduated from Meharry in 1963 ranked first in his class.

Callender planned to specialize in internal medicine. He began an internship at the University of Cincinnati after he graduated from medical school. During his internship he soon realized that he was more suited to surgery than internal medicine. Following a year of residency at Harlem Hospital, Callender was given an American Cancer Society fellowship for the 1965–1966 school year. He received further surgical training as an assistant resident at Howard University and Freedmen’s Hospital. Freedmen’s Hospital is a facility that provided medical care for the African American community in Washington, D.C., for more than a century before it was incorporated into Howard University in 1967. Callender completed another residency at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Disease in New York City before returning to Howard University. He was named chief resident in 1968 and became an instructor at the university in 1969. Callender served as a medical officer at D.C. General Hospital during the early 1970s. During that time he was invited to join the surgery staff at Port Harcourt General Hospital in Nigeria. His invitation came right around the time the Biafran Civil War was drawing to a close in Nigeria. The work Callender performed for Nigeria’s war-ravaged population helped fulfill his childhood dream of being a missionary doctor. Even as he worked in Nigeria, Callender was becoming increasingly interested in organ transplant surgery. Only a few years before, South African surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard (1922–2001) had performed the world’s first successful human-to-human heart transplant. Callender returned to the United States in 1971. He immediately began his studies of transplant surgery and was awarded a fellowship from African American Eras

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the National Institutes of Health, which is a federal medical research agency governed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The fellowship allowed him to visit various transplant hospitals throughout the country. Callender next received a fellowship from the University of Minnesota. There, he studied under Dr. Samuel Kountz, the first African American transplant surgeon. Callender next trained with Dr. Thomas Starz, a liver transplant specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. Callender returned to Howard University in June 1973. There, he established the Howard University Hospital Transplant Center, which was the first transplant center in the United States to be headed by an African American. Callender was also an assistant professor at the university. In that capacity Callender researched methods to avoid organ rejection by the body. Organ rejection occurs when a person’s immune system attacks a transplanted organ or tissue. In 1983, he founded a transplant center at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, which was named in his honor. Takes Aim at African American Misconceptions The course of Callender’s work caused him to grow more and more concerned about the shortage of people willing to become organ donors, especially among African Americans. Callender was well aware that the African American community suffers from a high incidence of kidney failure. African Americans represent approximately 30 percent of all dialysis patients. Callender also knew that organs from African American donors would be scarce for those who might one day need a kidney transplant. Furthermore, his studies had helped prove that having a donor from the same minority group as the recipient reduces the chance of rejection.

Callender conducted a study of the African American community to determine the causes of the discrepancy between the percentage of African Americans willing to be organ donors and the percentage of whites who were willing to do so. The information he obtained reflected both myth and misconception. For example, many African Americans mistrusted the medical community and felt that minorities would be less likely to receive an organ transplant than white patients. Some African Americans were afraid that they would be declared dead prematurely in order to harvest their organs for transplant recipients. Still others objected to organ transplant on religious grounds because the procedure would violate their beliefs about not disturbing a body after death. The main conclusion Callender drew from his research was that African Americans lacked the information necessary to form educated judgments about organ and tissue transplants. 452


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Callender has traveled all over the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean in an effort to correct people’s misconceptions about organ donation. He testified before the Senate in 1983 about the importance of organ donation programs. He also won government funding for community education programs that would reach minority communities. Callender got funding from Dow Chemical Company for an organ donation awareness campaign known as the “Take Initiative” program. Led by Callender, a group comprised (made up) of a doctor, a transplant recipient, a donor or a member of a donor’s family, and a person waiting for an organ shared their viewpoints and personal stories about organ donation with audiences, The program focused particularly on minorities. At the end of their presentation, the Take Initiative group members passed out organ donor cards, which many people immediately signed.



Callender’s efforts showed positive results. By 1990 roughly 24 percent of African Americans had registered to be organ and tissue donors. That was up from just 7 percent in 1985. In addition, the percentage of African Americans willing to donate the organs of relatives had grown from 55 percent in 1985 to 70 percent in 1990. In 1991, Callender was instrumental in establishing the Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP). MOTTEP is a $6 million program funded by the National Institutes of Health to address the nation’s shortage of minority organ donors. MOTTEP’s approach to shortening the national waiting list for donors includes promoting healthy lifestyles in order to help prevent the diseases that make transplants necessary. As of 2009, MOTTEP’s advocacy had reached more than six million people. Speaking at the United Network for Organ Sharing forum in 1994, Callender pointed out that the number of African Americans on waiting lists for kidneys is higher than that of any other ethnic group in the United States. One reason for this, he argued, was that the guidelines for organ matching discriminated against African Americans. He explained that the discrimination forced African Americans to wait almost twice as long as whites for kidney transplants. Two years later, Callender generated controversy when he defended the practice of using medication to preserve organs in patients near death. This practice is controversial because it can sometimes cause patients to die sooner than they might have otherwise. In 1996, Callender was appointed chairman of the Department of Surgery as well as the first LaSalle D. Leffall Jr. Professor of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine. As a prominent spokesperson for organ donation and how it affects minorities, he has appeared on such television programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline, CNN News, and African American Eras

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Nightline. Callender had authored more than one hundred scientific articles and spoken at over seven hundred public forums as of 2007.


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BENJAMIN CARSON (1951– )

Benjamin Carson is the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Carson is famous for his skill in performing complex surgeries with remarkable accuracy. Carson gained international fame in 1987 when he led a surgical team of seventy doctors, nurses, and technicians in a twenty-two-hour operation to separate West German conjoined twins who were joined at the backs of their heads. After retiring from medicine, he travelled the nation as a motivational speaker. He is also the author of several inspirational books that draw upon his life experiences and philosophies for success. Struggles Academically and Socially Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Sonya and Robert Carson. His parents married when she was thirteen and he was twenty-eight. The Carsons moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Detroit, where Robert got a job working at the Cadillac factory. When Carson was eight years old, his parents divorced. His mother was left to raise her two children with no financial support from their father. Sonya gave her best efforts to provide for her family but ultimately was overcome by the strain of that responsibility. Carson and his brother went to live with his aunt and uncle in Boston. Carson found comfort in the Seventh-Day Adventist church he attended during these difficult times. He also enjoyed conducting experiments with a chemistry set he had received for Christmas. Hearing his pastor preach sermons about medical missionaries inspired Carson to become a doctor.

Carson’s early years in school were marked by failing grades and taunts from classmates who said he was the dumbest kid in school. He excelled in science, but he was weak in other subjects. He finished the fifth grade at the bottom of his class. Carson was reunited with his mother Sonya in 1961. Sonya established a study program for Carson and his brother even though she herself had dropped out of school in the third grade. The program included reading two books a week and writing reports on them. Carson surprised his classmates just a few weeks after he started his mother’s program when he identified rock samples his teacher had brought to school based on what he had read in a library book. Most of all, however, he surprised himself. He would later explain in his memoir, entitled Gifted Hands, that this was the first moment he really 454


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believed he was not stupid. Carson also discovered that he needed glasses. The glasses, combined with the support of his mother and teacher, helped him rise to the top of his class by the end of his sixth-grade year.



Carson’s academic status had improved, but his social status had not. He faced discrimination on a daily basis, because of both his race and his family’s poverty. At his predominantly white junior high school, a gang of white boys threatened to kill Carson and his brother. Carson also faced discrimination from teachers. Carson was ranked first in his class in both seventh and eighth grades. He once watched a white teacher criticize a group of white students for not working hard enough by telling them that a black person had no business being number one in a class in which everyone else was white. Carson eventually began to react violently to the prejudice he encountered at school. At the age of fourteen, he tried to stab a boy with a knife during a fight. Fortunately, the boy’s belt buckle deflected the knife. On another occasion, Carson cut a boy across the forehead. Fortunately, Carson realized the danger of an anger he referred to as “pathological” and sought counseling from his pastor. Enters the Field of Neurosurgery Carson graduated from high school with all A’s in 1969. By then he had advanced to the rank of colonel in the school’s ROTC program. He had also been voted most likely to succeed by the same kids who had called him dumb only a few years before. Carson received several offers from various Ivy League schools. He ended up accepting a scholarship to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. At Yale, he met Lacena “Candy” Rustin. He married Rustin in 1975. During summer breaks from Yale, Carson returned home to Detroit. He held various temporary jobs in Detroit, including delivering packages, working in an auto factory, and supervising a highway construction crew.

One summer, Carson was operating a crane at a steel company when he discovered that he had exceptional hand-eye coordination. He also had an uncanny ability to perceive spatial relationships, or, as he once put it, to think and see in three dimensions. Carson has acknowledged the important role this skill has played in his career. Others have noticed it as well. According to Carson, it is not uncommon to hear people say that he has “gifted hands.” Carson graduated from Yale with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1973. He immediately entered medical school at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His plan was to become a psychiatrist. However, during his first year of medical school he found himself intrigued by the field of neurosurgery. The field of neurosurgery focuses on surgery of the brain, nerves, and spinal cord. Carson graduated from medical school in African American Eras

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1977. He was then accepted into the residency program in general surgery and neurosurgery at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He became the hospital’s first African American resident in neurology. By 1982, he was the chief resident of neurosurgery. Carson specialized in a discipline called neuro-oncology. “Neuro” means of or relating to the brain, and oncology is the treatment of cancer. Neurooncology thus focuses on cancerous tumors in the brain and the nervous system. Carson and his wife moved to Perth, Western Australia, in 1983. Carson had accepted a position as senior neurosurgical resident at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, one of Australia’s premier facilities for brain surgery. There was a shortage of neurosurgeons in Australia at that time. As a result, Carson performed a large number of operations. He was able to gain several years’ worth of experience within the span of only one year by working at the hospital. Carson returned to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1984. When he was just thirty-four years old, he was named the director of pediatric neurosurgery. He became the youngest doctor ever to serve in that position. Builds His Reputation as a Surgeon Carson quickly gained a reputation as one of the most skilled surgeons in the United States. He was often consulted by other physicians when they had difficult cases, especially those with high mortality (death) rates. One such situation arose in 1985 with a four-year-old patient named Maranda Francisco. Maranda had suffered up to 120 seizures a day since birth. Maranda’s seizures also had grown increasingly severe. Doctors told the child’s parents that she would eventually become paralyzed and die. When Carson learned of Maranda’s seemingly hopeless condition, he decided to perform a hemispherectomy on the girl. The hemispherectomy was a procedure to surgically remove the left half of the girl’s brain with the hope that the right side could compensate for the section that had been lost. The procedure entailed major surgical risks. There were also unknowns about a person’s ability to function with only part of a brain. Nonetheless, the Francisco family agreed to allow Carson to try the operation as a last resort. Carson’s surgery was a success. Maranda recovered with only a few motor skills being affected. The right side of her brain took over for the missing left hemisphere, controlling her speech, memory, learning, and motor skills. Fourteen years later, Maranda was an active teenager who took karate and dance lessons.

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other radical neurosurgical procedures, too. For most of his patients, Carson offered one last hope. He remained strong in his faith that God would guide him in the operating room.



Carson met one of the greatest challenges of his career in 1987 when he agreed to separate conjoined twins from West Germany. The twins were joined at the back of their heads. This is a condition known as “craniopagal joining.” The condition is very rare. It occurs in one out of approximately every two million births. Surgery to correct craniopagal joining is also very risky. One and sometimes both of the children typically die during the operation to separate them. As a result, most doctors would not consider the case. Carson, however, believed that the surgery could be successfully performed. As a result of the location of their attachment, the brothers, Patrick and Benjamin Binder, would never have been able to sit, crawl, or walk. They would have remained bedridden throughout their lives. The brothers did not share any internal organs. However, they did share the major blood vessel responsible for transporting blood from the brain to the heart. This presented a medical dilemma. Carson and a team of seventy surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and technicians devised a plan for shutting down the blood flow of both twins, severing their common vessel, and then creating individual vessel systems for each boy. Carson and his team studied the surgical strategy for five months in an effort to ensure that no details had been overlooked. The surgery was performed on September 5, 1987. It was an incredibly complex procedure that lasted twenty-two hours. The surgery was a success. The twins were successfully separated and were healthy. Carson was internationally praised for his role in leading the surgical team.

Benjamin Carson stands behind conjoined twins Farah and Saba at a press conference in India in 2005. Carson is the leading expert in separating conjoined twins. AP Images

Carson was also keeping busy in the United States. He performed more than four hundred operations a year. He was also responsible for professorial duties as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Those duties included conducting research, preparing lectures, and being involved in various academic projects. Besides neurosurgery, his work addressed the subjects of plastic surgery, pediatrics, and oncology. In 2001, for African American Eras

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instance, Carson explored treatments for a type of cancer that attaches itself to the brain stem, thereby making surgery difficult and oftentimes fatal. Ethical Controversies Arise Despite Carson’s exceptional skills, not all of his operations to separate conjoined twins have been successful. One case in particular was the subject of an international ethical controversy. In 2003, Carson agreed to separate two adult conjoined twins from Iran. Ladan and Laleh Bijani were twenty-nine-year-old law school graduates who were joined at the top of the head. The consensus among doctors was that a surgical attempt to separate the Bijani twins would almost certainly be fatal for both patients. As a result, no physician had ever attempted to separate the adult craniopagal twins. Ladan and Laleh, however, had decided that the chance to live independent lives was more important to them than life itself. Even so, Carson tried to dissuade the women from undergoing the operation. Carson eventually became convinced that Ladan and Laleh would follow through with the surgery no matter what. He thus agreed to accept the challenge and perform the operation.

Carson led a team of more than one hundred professionals in a fiftytwo-hour operation in Singapore on July 8, 2003. The operation used a three-dimensional imaging technique that Carson had developed for a successful surgery on South African conjoined twins in 1997. Despite the best efforts of the surgical team, both women died due to a severe loss of blood. Their deaths sparked an ethical dilemma. Those who supported the surgery argued that the women had the right to choose their own fate. Critics contended that the medical community had an ethical obligation to refuse the sisters’ request. In 2004, President George W. Bush (1946– ) appointed Carson to the President’s Council on Bioethics. The council is a group of scholars, scientists, theologians, and physicians that was formed in 2001 to issue reports on scientific topics that raise ethical issues. These topics include human cloning, stem cell research, and the use of biotechnology to enhance human beings. Political pundits were quick to point out that Carson and the two other individuals named to the council in 2004 held views that were more in line with Bush’s conservative views than the three members they had replaced. Carson was specifically criticized for the public statements he had made throughout his career about his religious faith and belief in God. Carson has remained true to his beliefs in the face of criticism. He views his medical accomplishments as directly related to God’s power. Carson has explained that he believes that because God created the body, God knows enough about the body to heal almost any problem. 458


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Carson views his role as a surgeon as letting God work through him. This faith helped sustain Carson when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in 2002. Carson made a full recovery from the disease.



Recognition for His Life’s Work As his fame grew, Carson realized that the story of his rise from being a poor boy from Detroit to being a world-renowned surgeon could inspire America’s youth. He published a memoir (a book based on personal experience) entitled Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story in 1990. The book won Blackbook Publishing’s Humanitarian Award in 1991. In both the book and his speaking tours across the United States, Carson has encouraged young people to establish goals and then actively look for ways to accomplish them. He followed Gifted Hands with Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence in 1992. The second book was a motivational work that outlines Carson’s personal method for achieving success. He summarizes his method with the acronym THINK, which stands for Talent, Honesty, Insight, Nice, and Knowledge. Carson devoted one chapter of Think Big to each word. He emphasized the importance of education, positive thinking, self-reliance, and faith. His third book, The Big Picture: Getting Perspective on What’s Really Important in Life (1999), offers further analysis of his philosophies of life.

Carson has also been an active philanthropist (a person who does charitable work). In 1994, Carson and his wife founded the Carson Scholars Fund to provide scholarships for promising students who lack the money to attend school. The program was conceived when Carson saw a study showing that the United States ranked number twenty-one out of twenty-two countries in science and math education. The Fund awards $1,000 scholarships to students in grades four through twelve who have at least a 3.75 grade point average and demonstrate a commitment to their community. In 2000, Carson, whose childhood had been changed by reading, established the Ben Carson Reading Project. This program provides schools with the resources to create reading rooms where students can earn rewards for the number of minutes they spend reading or the number of books they read. Carson is also a co-founder of the Benevolent Endowment Network (BEN) Fund. The BEN Fund is an organization that provides financial assistance to pediatric neurosurgery patients whose families cannot afford the complex medical procedures the children’s conditions require. Carson uses the proceeds from the sale of his three books to help support the Carson Scholars Fund. Carson’s charities have also received financial support from an unlikely source. In 2003, directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly asked Carson if he would be willing to play himself in a African American Eras

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comedy they were producing entitled Stuck on You. The movie is about two adult conjoined twins who decided to undergo surgical separation. Carson determined that the film would provide insight, however humorous, into the lives of two people who must spend their days connected to each other. As a result, he agreed to appear in Stuck on You. His wife and children also played small roles in the movie. When the movie premiered in Baltimore, all proceeds were divided between the Carson Scholars Fund and BEN. Benjamin Carson receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2008. AP Images

Carson has received numerous awards in recognition of his achievements during his remarkable career in the field of medicine. In 2001, he was named one of America’s twenty foremost physicians and scientists by CNN and Time magazine. That same year, the Library of Congress honored him as one of eighty-nine “Living Legends.” He is also the recipient of the NAACP’s 2006 Spingarn Medal, the highest honor given by the organization. In 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor.

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JOYCELYN ELDERS (1933– )

Dr. Joycelyn Elders has worked as a pediatric endocrinologist, medical professor, and public health official. Elders is also a dedicated crusader for health-care reform. She advocates access to quality health care for all Americans. Outspoken and broadminded, Elders has found herself at the center of controversy many times during her career. President Bill Clinton (1946– ) selected her in 1993 to be the first African American U.S. surgeon general. Elders was dismissed from the position only one year later due to her views on such politically sensitive issues as sex education in schools, the legalization of drugs, and abortion.

OPPOSITE PAGE Joycelyn Elders at her Senate confirmation hearing to become surgeon general in 1993. Consolidated News Pictures/ Getty Images

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An Upbringing Marked by Poverty and Racism Joycelyn Elders was born on August 13, 1933, in Schall, Arkansas, a farming community so small that it did not even appear on a map. Elders was the oldest of eight children in a poverty-stricken family. She lived in a home with no electricity or running water. Life for her family was difficult. Her parents, Curtis and Haller Jones, worked as sharecroppers in local cotton fields. They added to their small earnings by selling raccoons African American Eras

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they had trapped. For much of their childhood, Elders and her siblings picked cotton alongside their parents. They often missed school during the harvest season from September to December. Elders grew up in a rural part of Arkansas that was segregated and racist. She had to walk thirteen miles to an all–black school where the children studied in run-down buildings using old textbooks that had been discarded by white schools. Nevertheless, Elders was a devoted student. Her grandmother encouraged her to read books at night by the light of a kerosene lantern. Elders graduated from high school at the age of fifteen. Her dedication to her education resulted in her earning a scholarship to Philander Smith College. Philander Smith was an all-black liberal arts school in Little Rock, Arkansas, the state’s capital. To help pay for Elders’s $3.43 bus fare to Little Rock, her brothers and sisters picked extra cotton and did chores for neighbors. Elders herself scrubbed floors to raise money for the expenses her scholarship did not cover. Later on, Elders encouraged her siblings to improve their lives by attending college and pursuing careers they might not ever have considered. Elders was drawn to biology and chemistry at Philander Smith College. At first she decided that she wanted to become a lab technician. Her career ambitions grew when she heard a lecture given by Dr. Edith Irby Jones. Jones was the first African American to attend medical school at the University of Arkansas. To Elders, who had never even been to a doctor until she was in college, Jones was a role model. Elders realized for the first time in her life that she, too, could be a physician. Elders became an inspired student and graduated from college in three years at the age of nineteen. Elders enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1953. Her intention was to use the G.I. Bill of Rights to pay for her postgraduate studies. Elders trained as a physical therapist at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. She then worked at Army Medical Special Corps hospitals in San Francisco, California, and Denver, Colorado. She treated wounded soldiers returning from the Korean War (1950–53). When President Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969) had a heart attack in 1955, Elders was part of the team that assisted in his recovery. After three years, she left the army to return to school. Rising Above Discrimination to Become a Doctor Elders was accepted into the University of Arkansas Medical School in 1956. She was the only African American woman and one of only three African Americans in the school. The Supreme Court had declared that separate-but-equal education was unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education just two years earlier. Despite the ruling,

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discriminatory segregation was still practiced in Little Rock. Elders and her fellow African American classmates had to use a separate university dining facility that was used by the school’s custodial staff. In 1960, the same year she received her medical degree, Joycelyn married Oliver Elders. She had met Oliver, a teacher, while she was giving physical exams to high school students on the basketball team he coached.



Elders completed a pediatric internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis after she graduated from medical school. Pediatrics is the branch of medicine dealing with the health and care of children. Elders returned to the University of Arkansas Medical Center for her residency in 1961. Her performance as a resident led to her being appointed chief pediatric resident in 1963. As chief resident, she was in charge of an all-male, all-white group of residents and interns. Elders was named a pediatric research fellow the next year. Because of her interest in research, she began master’s studies in biochemistry at the university. She received a master’s of science degree in 1967. Elders soon was made an assistant professor in the pediatrics department. She became a full professor in 1976 and held that post until 1987. In 1978, Elders earned the distinction of becoming the first person in the state of Arkansas to be board certified in pediatric endocrinology, or the study of glands in children. Elders combined a successful clinical practice with research in pediatric endocrinology for more than twenty years. She published more than one hundred papers. Most of her papers concentrated on growth hormone problems and juvenile diabetes. Elders captured the attention of the Arkansas medical community. Physicians routinely referred cases of juveniles with insulin-dependent diabetes to her. Elders’s studies of juvenile diabetes prompted her to take note of the effects of diabetes on pregnant teenagers. She observed, for example, that adolescents with diabetes were at a greater risk of spontaneous abortion and of having infants with birth defects than those girls who did not have diabetes. Elders’s observations prompted her to discuss the dangers of pregnancy with her patients. She also distributed contraceptives to them. Her work increasingly focused on the sexual health and behaviors of adolescents. Elders counseled hundreds of adolescents who were in her care, but teenage pregnancy and births remained a serious problem. The United States had the highest rate of teenage pregnancy of any of the world’s most developed nations. The problem was particularly severe in Arkansas. In 1986, 20 percent of births in Arkansas were to teenage mothers, compared to the national rate of around 13 percent. Arkansas had the second highest rate of teenage births in the United States. Adolescent African American Eras

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pregnancy created serious health risks and also cost taxpayers more than $82 million. Elders was concerned about the social implications and psychological price being paid not only by emotionally immature teenagers forced to become parents, but also by infants who were born to parents who did not want them. Moreover, the number of people afflicted with sexually transmitted diseases was steadily on the rise. The recently discovered HIV virus posed a threat to sexually active individuals, young and old alike. Elders did not hesitate to express her belief that the state urgently needed an intensive public health education campaign. She also advocated for more proactive government involvement in matters of health and sex education. Leading the Arkansas Department of Health Arkansas governor Bill Clinton was impressed by Elders’s work as a physician and her advocacy for juvenile health. Clinton selected Elders to serve as head of the Arkansas Department of Health in 1987. Elders was the first female and the first African American ever to hold this position. She seized the opportunity to improve public health care for the citizens of Arkansas. Within five years, she had helped improve the quality of life for many people who lived in Arkansas through a number of progressive programs. For instance, Elders’s expansion of the state’s prenatal (before birth) care program successfully decreased infant mortality (death) rates. The number of immunized children in the state nearly doubled. The number of early childhood screenings jumped from four thousand to forty-five thousand. Under Elders’s leadership, the state offered affordable mammograms to poor women and increased home health care options for the chronically or terminally ill. HIV testing and counseling programs expanded to serve almost twice as many people.

Elders was particularly troubled by the high numbers of pregnant teenagers, abortions, and children born out of wedlock. She thus advocated an expansive sex education program for the entire state that would address adolescent pregnancy and provide information about sexually transmitted diseases. She praised the state’s first school-based health clinic in Lincoln. Lincoln was an Ozark mountain community where students who requested condoms could receive them free of charge. Consequently, the number of unwanted pregnancies in one class alone had fallen from thirteen to one. Elders also helped establish eighteen other school clinics that offered birth control information and education about sexually transmitted diseases to students. However, only four of those clinics had permission from their local school boards to distribute condoms. In 1989, the Arkansas State Legislature mandated a K–12 healthcare curriculum that would be made up of instruction in hygiene, substance 464


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abuse prevention, self-esteem strategies, and sex education, including options for contraception. Elders faced fierce opposition from political conservatives and religious groups while she was at the Department of Health. Her critics believed her viewpoints and agendas were controversial. Political conservatives who believed the government should be as small as possible were outraged by Elders’s efforts to increase the government’s role in the lives of U.S. citizens. Conservatives argued that government involvement was especially inappropriate in something as private as citizens’ sexual behaviors. Representatives from various religious organizations protested what they considered to be Elders’s encouragement of loose morals for adolescents. They argued that schools that gave students access to condoms were encouraging teens to be sexually active. Another point of disagreement on political, religious, and moral grounds was the issue of abortion. Although she personally opposed abortion, Elders took a prochoice stance in the public arena. She supported easy access to abortion. She outraged many when she blamed right-to-life attitudes toward abortion on a male-dominated society. Elders’s opponents also protested her support of the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes.



Elders maintained that her programs promoted a public health system that protected children and society as a whole. According to Elders, making contraceptives available to adolescents resulted in fewer children having children. She said that she would encourage abstinence if that were a realistic approach to teen sexuality. Elders countered that most teenagers would continue to be sexually active no matter what they were being taught in school. She concluded that the government should offer resources for protecting those kids. Increasing national awareness of adolescent health issues would be one of the greatest accomplishments of Elders’s lifetime. Appointment as U.S. Surgeon General Brings Controversy Resistance to Elders’s methods and practices escalated nationwide when Clinton became president and nominated Elders to be the U.S. surgeon general in July 1993. Some people criticized Elders for not immediately resigning her position at the Arkansas Department of Health. Elders was still the director of the department and intended to keep her position until the Senate confirmed her as surgeon general. In the meantime, she planned to work as a federal consultant. Cabinet members have up to 130 days to resign their current jobs, and Elders was well within that time frame. Even so, opponents of her nomination criticized her for drawing a full-time salary from the state of Arkansas while African American Eras

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working two days a week as a paid consultant to the federal secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services department. Some of the fiercest attacks against her nomination stemmed from her financial involvements in Arkansas. Elders had been associated with a bank scandal with the National Bank of Arkansas. She and other members of the bank’s board of directors were sued by the bank for allegedly violating the National Banking Act by authorizing $1.5 million in bad loans. The suit was eventually settled. However, the terms of the settlement were never disclosed. This was suspicious to many of Elders’s critics. Elders also had important allies who supported her nomination. Elders had gained the support of the American Medical Association and the conservative C. Everett Koop, former surgeon general. After two months of heated confirmation hearings, Elders was sworn in as the surgeon general on September 8, 1993. She was the first African American to serve in that office. Elders had never wavered in her convictions as she responded to her challengers at any point in her career. She remained outspoken about the causes she felt were most important for the health of Americans in her role as U.S. surgeon general. Elders made controversial statements about the abortion-inducing RU 486 pill. She also stated that she believed that legalizing drugs in the United States would reduce crime. The White House began to distance itself from Elders’s remarks. The White House said that President Clinton did not share her views. But Elders was convinced that the only way to deal with important issues was to confront them. She continued to speak out. She urged television networks to lift their ban on condom advertisements, called for higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol, and criticized the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for not admitting homosexuals. Eventually the controversy over Elders’s views came to a head. Elders made what many people considered an inappropriate comment about masturbation at a speaking engagement at the United Nations on World AIDS Day in 1994. The Clinton administration called for her resignation in December 1994. Elders stepped down from her post gracefully, but she announced that she did not regret what she had said. Elders returned to the University of Arkansas Medical Center as a professor of pediatric endocrinology. Elders published her autobiography, Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper’s Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America, in 1996. Elders retired from medicine in 1999. After her retirement, she upheld her commitment to public health education and civic affairs. She traveled the country as an informational and motivational speaker. She also

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Joyceyln Elders received a doctorate of science degree from Bates College in 2002. AP Images

testified at congressional hearings on such issues as health insurance and preventive medicine. She received a D.Sc. degree, which is medicine’s equivalent of a Ph.D., from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in 2002. In the summer of 2009, she gave a series of interviews advocating for comprehensive health education reform to be included as part of health care reform.

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LEVI WATKINS JR. (1945– )

Levi Watkins Jr. was the first African American to graduate from the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. Watkins is renowned (famous and respected) for implanting the first automatic implantable defibrillator (AID) in a human heart in 1980. A defibrillator is an electronic device that can restart the heart if it stops beating. Watkins has also conducted groundbreaking studies on how congestive heart disease affects minority patients and on the applications of lasers in cardiac surgery. Watkins is not only a pioneer in the field of cardiology. He also paved the way for African American and minority students in medical school by actively recruiting African American students for Johns Hopkins University. He helped to increase minority enrollment 400 percent in only four years. At the same time Watkins has tirelessly championed equality for African American health care providers, he has also been an African American Eras

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outspoken advocate for the education of minority patients about the health care they receive.


Blazing a Lonely Trail in Medicine Levi Watkins Jr. was born in Parsons, Kansas, in 1945. He soon moved with his family to Montgomery, Alabama. There, his father, an educator, became the president of Alabama State University. Watkins joined Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church while he was in high school. He was inspired by King’s call for racial equality and leadership in the civil rights movement. Watkins was valedictorian of Alabama State Laboratory High School’s 1962 graduating class. From there he went on to study biology at Tennessee State University in Nashville. His intention was to become a college professor. Watkins served as president of the student government association during his time at the university. He was also active in a number of civil rights and political movements on campus. When he was a junior in college, Watkins decided to pursue a career in medicine rather than one in education.

Watkins graduated with honors from Tennessee State in 1966. He then became the first African American ever admitted to medical school at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. He was the only African American medical student on campus for four years. During that time Watkins realized his potential to be a role model for those African Americans who might feel that they have limited educational and professional opportunities because of their race. He resolved to help change that one day. Watkins was a very good medical student. He was selected for membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. He received his medical degree from Vanderbilt in 1970. On the recommendation of the chief of surgery at Vanderbilt, Watkins completed his residency at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital. Watkins once again found the lack of diversity among both students and faculty members appalling. Watkins took a break from his surgical training at Johns Hopkins in 1973 to spend two years carrying out research at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Physiology. At Harvard he studied the relationship between congestive heart failure and the renin angiotensin system, which is a physiological system that helps regulate blood pressure. His revolutionary research led to the medical community’s use of angiotensin blockers as a treatment for congestive heart failure. Watkins received an award from the Black Scientists’ Society for his contribution to the world of medicine. He returned to Johns Hopkins in 1975. He then completed his surgical residency and became the hospital’s first African American chief resident 468


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of cardiac surgery three years later. He also joined the university’s faculty as an assistant professor of surgery.



Becomes an Innovator in More Ways than One Despite the fact that Watkins held such an accomplished position at Johns Hopkins, only four African American students out of the eight who were admitted chose to enroll at the university hospital in 1978. Many of the country’s most promising African American medical students were not even applying to Johns Hopkins. Watkins’s selection to the medical school’s admissions board in 1979 quickly brought about change. Watkins worked alongside Dr. Earl Kidwell Jr., an ophthalmologist and instructor at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. Kidwell was also the only other African American member of the admissions committee. Watkins and Kidwell persuaded school officials to approve a special program for the recruitment of African Americans.

Watkins and Kidwell then embarked on an extensive campaign to attract the best minority pre-med students (college students who plan to attend medical school) in the nation. The two professors visited college campuses throughout the United States. They wrote thousands of personal letters. One important issue the two professors addressed was the impression that many African American students had of Johns Hopkins’s image. The hospital had a reputation for being a predominantly white institution. As a result, many African American students did not consider Johns Hopkins a possibility. In response, Watkins and Kidwell promoted the hospital’s location in the largely African American area of East Baltimore. The professors also touted attendance at Johns Hopkins as an opportunity for African American students to serve as role models for the community while attending one of the world’s most esteemed medical schools. Watkins would often share his own life story as an example of how an African American from the racially charged state of Alabama could overcome racial barriers and become a successful doctor and instructor. The medical school’s admissions committee accepted almost three times as many African Americans the following year as it had the previous year. Within only four years, minority enrollment had increased by more than 400 percent. Watkins saw this improvement as a victory not only for African American medical students but for all African Americans. The majority of African Americans, Watkins argues, seek treatment from African American doctors. Furthermore, he points out, African American children need more positive influences and inspiration to set high goals for their futures. Watkins proved himself a trailblazer once more on February 4, 1980. That day he performed the world’s first human implantation of the African American Eras

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automatic implantable defibrillator (AID) in a fifty-four-year-old woman from California. Cardiac arrhythmia is a disruption in the heart’s regular rhythm that prevents the heart from pumping blood throughout the body. At the time, cardiac arrhythmia was one of the leading causes of death in the United States. It killed approximately 500,000 people each year. AID is a procedure that was developed over a twelve-year span by Dr. Michel Mirowski (1924–90) at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. The AID is a batteryoperated device approximately the size of a deck of cards that is implanted into the patient’s abdomen. The AID has two electrodes, one of which is inserted into the right chamber of the heart in order to monitor the heart’s electrical signals. The other electrode is attached to the tip of the heart. If a person goes into cardiac arrest and the heart stops pumping blood, the AID detects the arrhythmia within thirty seconds and shocks the heart back into its normal rhythm. Watkins followed that first successful implantation with dozens of other AID surgeries. In addition, numerous other physicians were trained to perform the procedure. Watkins played a major role in developing the Johns Hopkins Cardiac Arrhythmia Service. Watkins explored less-invasive methods for implanting the AID and continued to develop new procedures for the surgery. He became world-renowned for his contributions to the treatment of patients at risk for cardiac arrest. For patients who received the AID, the surgery was a last resort. To qualify for an implantation, they were required to have survived at least one neardeath episode of cardiac arrest and to have a history of being unresponsive to medical treatment. The procedure was very successful. About 90 percent of the patients who underwent AID treatment at Johns Hopkins during the 1980s were living productive lives with a much lower risk of cardiac arrest. Playing Multiple Roles in the Medical Community In addition to his work in the area of cardiac arrhythmia, Watkins has been a leader in the use of laser technology in heart surgery. Watkins established his reputation as an innovative cardiac surgeon early in his career. He divided his time between his surgical responsibilities at Johns Hopkins and his efforts to increase diversity in the medical profession. For instance, he participated in a program at a Baltimore high school to encourage students to explore careers in health-related fields. He also continued his recruitment efforts for minority medical students by visiting a number of college campuses around the country each year. In 1983, he was appointed to the national board of the Robert Wood Johnson Minority Faculty Development Program. The program is an association that works to increase the number of minority faculty members in schools

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across the country. Watkins has also won praise for his explorations of coronary heart disease in African Americans. As a member of the State of Maryland Minority Health Commission, for example, Watkins directed a research project that studied how congestive heart failure affects minorities. He also studied how to reduce the incidence of heart disease in African Americans.



Watkins showed his commitment to racial equality and civil rights in the early 1980s when he enlisted the help of Coretta Scott King (1927– 2006) in establishing an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration at Johns Hopkins. Watkins had known Dr. King’s widow since he was ten years old. He thus realized the impact she would have as the keynote speaker at the inaugural celebration. In addition to honoring King, the commemorative program focuses on worldwide humanitarian issues. The program has hosted such notable speakers as civil rights leader Rosa Parks (1913–2005), Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu (1931– ), and Zenani Mandela D’Lamini, the daughter of South African leader Nelson Mandela (c. 1918– ). Watkins has received hundreds of other professional and community service honors and awards throughout his career, including the American Red Cross Humanitarian Physician Award and a position in a list of the Top 15 Black Physicians in the United States published by Ebony magazine. Vanderbilt University has also honored the man who broke ground as the School of Medicine’s first African American student. Vanderbilt awarded Watkins the Vanderbilt Medal of Honor for outstanding alumnus in 1998. The university also founded the annual Levi Watkins Award to recognize those School of Medicine faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to research and educational programs for minorities at the institution. Vanderbilt created a professorship and associate deanship in Watkins’s name in 2002. Watkins was named Vanderbilt University’s 2008 Distinguished Alumnus because of his commitment to diversity in the field of medicine, as well as his studies of heart disease and how it affects African Americans in particular.


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TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY OUTRAGES BLACK COMMUNITY On July 25, 1972, Associated Press (AP) reporter Jean Heller published a shocking report. The U.S. government had used nearly four hundred poor black men as “human guinea pigs” to study the impact of syphilis on the human body. Syphilis is a highly contagious and destructive sexually transmitted disease. The scientists involved in the Tuskegee Study did not tell the men that they had syphilis. They denied life-saving treatment in order to study the long-term effect of syphilis on human health. The legacy of this horrible chapter in U.S. history continued to have real consequences for public health in the African American community into the twenty-first century. Deception and the Aftermath The Tuskegee Study began officially in 1932. It was the outgrowth of a 1930 program by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The PHS program was initially much broader than the Tuskegee Study. The program had set out to study the treatment of syphilis. But the study happened at the beginning of the Great Depression, and the government could not afford to pay for the treatments. Instead, the government decided not to treat the study’s subjects. Instead, they would leave their diseases untreated and study the long-term effects of syphilis on the human body. The study was to be conducted by PHS scientists at the facilities of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. It was only intended to last for six months, but it ended up lasting forty years.

The participants in the Tuskegee Study were almost all poor, undereducated black men from Macon County, Alabama. None of the men were told that they were being treated for syphilis. Instead, they were told the study was about treatment for “bad blood.” Several things about the study made the participants particularly vulnerable to exploitation by the researchers. One was the rural locale of Macon County. In exchange for their participation, the men received aspirin, free hot meals, free medical exams, and burial insurance. These small perks appealed to the poor population of Macon County. Further, the study’s association with the Tuskegee Institute made the black men more likely to participate. This is because many participants trusted the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college with a tradition of serving the local African Americans. Tuskegee’s status in the community allowed the PHS to recruit local black leaders to encourage people to participate in the study. By 1943, a cure for syphilis had become available. The disease could be cured with simple antibiotics; penicillin was the accepted treatment. However, the Tuskegee participants were not given penicillin to treat their 472


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President Clinton Apologizes for the Tuskegee Experiment ...................................................................................

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n May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton took another step toward justice for the survivors of the Tuskegee Study. He held a ceremony at the White House for survivors of the experiment and their families. He said: The United States Government did something that was wrong, deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens. We can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people what the United States Government did was shameful, and I am sorry.

disease. In fact, they were denied treatment on purpose so that scientists could better understand how the disease progressed. The Tuskegee Study had tragic results. By the time the study was stopped after the release of the AP report in 1972, twenty-eight men had died directly from syphilis. Another hundred had died from complications from the disease. Many of the men had passed the sexually transmitted disease to their wives. As a result, many of them had babies that were born with syphilis. The babies had contracted the disease from their mothers. In 1973, a major class action lawsuit was filed against the U.S. government on behalf of the study participants and their families. A class action lawsuit is one that is brought by one person or entity on behalf of a large class of people affected by some legal wrong. The case never went to court. Instead, the government settled with the study participants. The participants and their families were awarded a $10 million payment. The government also promised lifetime medical benefits and burial services to participants of the study. The government established the Tuskegee Health Benefit Program (THBP) to carry out this task. In 1975, the program expanded to provide benefits to wives and children who contracted the disease as a result of the study. The last Tuskegee Study survivor died in 2004. The last infected wife died in January 2009. As of mid-2009, there were still sixteen living offspring who had been infected with syphilis as a result of the study. African American Eras

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Impact on Modern African American Health The legacy of the Tuskegee Study has left many African Americans with a deep mistrust of the government and public health establishment. These feelings of mistrust may be linked to contemporary conspiracy theories (theories that explain an occurrence as a result of a secret plot) in the African American community about HIV/AIDS.

A 2005 study showed that a significant number of African Americans believe in various AIDS conspiracy theories. The conspiracy-theory study was done by the Rand Corporation, a private research organization, and the University of Oregon. The study involved a phone survey in which five hundred African American participants were asked whether they believed in various conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS. For instance, participants were asked whether they believed that AIDS was created in a government laboratory. They were also asked whether they believe there is a cure for AIDS that is being kept from the poor. These theories are not true, but the study’s disturbing results showed that 48.2 percent of survey participants believed that the AIDS virus was man-made. Also, 26.6 percent believed that AIDS was created in a government laboratory. More than half believed that there is a cure for AIDS that is being withheld from poor people. A shocking 12 percent believed that AIDS was created and spread by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and more than 15 percent believed that AIDS is a form of genocide against black people. Experts say that these mistaken beliefs interfere with efforts to prevent and treat AIDS in the African American community. These conspiracy theories create a sense of helplessness and a lack of motivation. People are less likely to act to try to prevent AIDS by using condoms or clean needles when they believe that their efforts are futile, or that they will not be effective. Experts also say that misinformation makes organizations that serve the black community less likely to educate people. This is because groups are less likely to pass on information that they do not trust.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN POVERTY LEADS TO HEALTH DISPARITIES According to the Office of Minority Health (OMH), African Americans face disease and death at a far higher rate than whites. The OMH is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Numerous statistics, or summaries of mathematical data, show that the OMH is right. There are many possible causes for these disparities, or inequalities. It is important to note that African Americans are not the only group that faces such disparities. In particular, Hispanics face similar 474


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disparities as compared with white Americans. In order to make these disparities clear, the statistics discussed below compare African Americans with whites, as opposed to comparing minority groups with each other.



Statistics Show Disturbing Health Disparities for African Americans One major marker of health inequalities is the death rate. African Americans die at a much higher rate from treatable or preventable conditions than whites do. In 2005, a study showed that African Americans died at a higher rate than whites from stroke, cancer, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS. They also die at a higher rate of diseases like influenza and pneumonia, against which they are less likely to be vaccinated. Black women who contract breast cancer under the age of fifty have a 77 percent higher mortality rate than white women of the same age. They die of pregnancy-related causes at a rate four times that of white women. They are more likely than any other group to give birth to low-birthweight babies. Their babies are more likely to die as infants. They experience a higher rate of infant mortality than the rates in many underdeveloped countries.

One of the areas in which disparities affecting black Americans is most visible is HIV/AIDS. African Americans contract the virus at a far higher rate than the rest of the population. They accounted for 49 percent of HIV/ AIDS cases in the United States in 2007. By contrast, they make up only 13 percent of the population. These inequalities are clearest when the rate of HIV/AIDS among blacks is compared with that of whites. Black males have been found to have HIV/AIDS at seven times the rate of white males. Black females have the disease at a startling rate of twenty-two times that of white females. Once they have the disease, African Americans are also far more likely than whites to die from it. Black men are nine times more likely than white men to die from HIV/AIDS. Black women are more than twenty times more likely to die from the disease than white women. In addition to the death rate and HIV/AIDS, women’s health issues also demonstrate the inequalities in health faced by African Americans. The National Black Women’s Health Imperative—a group committed to health equality for black women—has collected statistics that show the inequalities faced by black women. According to the organization, black women have the highest risk factors for poor health of almost any group. Factors causing poor health among black women include low immunization rates, domestic violence, tobacco use, sexually transmitted diseases, and sedentary lifestyles. The organization reports that African American women also face the highest or near-highest rate of people who have major chronic health problems. These include high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, cancers, glaucoma, arthritis, and lupus. African American Eras

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Statistics About African American Health Disparities ...................................................................................

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he following statistics come from the Web site of the OMH. The purpose of the OMH is to improve and protect the health of minority Americans, including African Americans. These statistics compare how frequently blacks are afflicted by and die from various health conditions as compared to their white counterparts. • African American men are twice as likely as white men to have new cases of stomach cancer. • African American men are 2.4 times as likely as white men to die from prostate cancer. • In 2005, African American women were 34 percent more likely than white women to die from breast cancer, even though they were 10 percent less likely to be diagnosed with the disease. • African American adults are twice as likely as white adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. They are over twice as likely to die from the disease. • In 2005, African American men were 30 percent more likely than white men to die from heart disease. • African American males are 1.7 times more likely than white males to have a stroke and 60 percent more likely to die from a stroke. • In 2005, African Americans had 2.3 times the infant mortality rate of whites. • African American mothers are 2.5 times as likely as white mothers not to receive pregnancy care until the end of their pregnancy, or to not receive care at all while pregnant.

Reasons for Black Health Disparities Economic, or money-related, factors are an important cause of health inequalities between blacks and whites. A higher level of income is strongly linked to a higher level of overall health. People with more money are more able to buy health-care services and pay to see doctors. Further, high-paying jobs are more likely to come with health insurance benefits. Most Americans with health insurance get their insurance through their employers. But employees who have part-time or low-paying work are less likely to get health insurance through their jobs. Without insurance, most Americans cannot afford to see doctors when they are ill or for preventive care. According to the 476


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2007 Census Bureau report, African American families, on average, make far less money than white families. That year, the median (mid-level) income for African American families was $33,916. By contrast, the median income for white families was $54,920. A much higher percentage of blacks than whites live below the poverty level. The poverty level is a number established by the U.S. government as a cutoff for the very poorest Americans. (It was $22,050 for a family of four in 2009.) According to the 2007 Census Bureau report, 24.5 percent of African Americans lived in poverty in the United States. By comparison, only 8.2 percent of white Americans lived at or below the poverty level. Blacks also have a higher rate of unemployment than whites. During the recession of 2008–2009, blacks had an unemployment rate far higher than that of the rest of the population. In June 2009, the U.S. government reported that the overall unemployment rate was 9.4 percent. The rate for blacks was significantly higher at 14.9 percent.



Educational factors are another important cause of health inequalities between blacks and whites. Higher levels of education are linked to higher levels of health. People with more education are more likely to be knowledgeable about healthy lifestyle choices. They tend to be more comfortable asking questions of doctors and other health-care providers. Statistics show that blacks are less likely on the whole to have a college degree. In 2007, 16 percent of black women had at least a bachelor’s degree, as did 14 percent of black men. By contrast, 24 percent of white women had at least a bachelor’s degree, as did 25 percent of white men.

A patient fills out hospital forms. A large number of African Americans cannot afford health insurance, which prevents them from getting proper health care. ª Ed Kashi/Corbis


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Experts also say that black women are more negatively affected by government welfare policies than white women because they are far more likely than white women to live in poverty. For example, government welfare programs often deny health coverage to women on welfare who have children after they go on welfare. This dramatically increases infant mortality for these children and health risks for the mothers. So-called welfare-towork reforms adopted in the mid-1990s forced many welfare recipients to take minimum-wage jobs without providing women with affordable childcare or job training. This contributed to health risks for these women and their children. Lack of Health Insurance Is Key According to a comprehensive report of the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007, African Americans were less likely to be covered by health insurance than whites. However, the numbers probably underestimated the problem. This is because they were compiled before the recession of 2008–2009. For instance, in the ten months between September 2008 and July 2009, five million adults lost their health insurance coverage. In June 2009, African Americans were unemployed at a rate of 14.9 percent, as opposed to the national rate of 9.4 percent. This means it is likely that of the millions of Americans who had lost coverage, African Americans may have been disproportionately affected.

The 2007 Census Bureau report noted that only 49 percent of African Americans had employer-provided health insurance. This was low in comparison to the 66 percent of whites who had employer-provided insurance. More African Americans than whites relied on public health insurance (23.8 percent as compared with 9 percent). African Americans were entirely uninsured at a rate more than twice that of whites. According to the 2007 report, 19.5 percent of African Americans lacked any kind of insurance, as opposed to 10.4 percent of whites. The recession of 2008 and 2009 likely made these numbers even more grim. According to the National Black Women’s Health Imperative, black women also have less access to health insurance than most other women. According to the organization, one out of three black women has no health insurance. More black women than any other group of women have jobs that are part-time or low-paying and do not provide insurance coverage.

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BREAST CANCER HITS AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN HARDER One out of every eight American women will develop breast cancer at some point in her life. Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting American women, and the second leading cause of death (after lung cancer). The disease generally affects women over the age of fifty, although 478


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younger women can develop breast cancer, too. A variety of genetic and environmental factors may cause breast cancer. Certain kinds of breast cancer are strongly linked to a mutation, or change, in particular gene, the BRCA1 gene. This mutation runs in some families. However, BRCA1 gene mutations only cause about five to ten percent of breast cancers.



Differences in Breast Cancers Among African American Women Numerous studies have shown that black women are affected differently by breast cancer than white women. Black women get breast cancer less frequently than white women. The lifetime risk of an African American woman developing breast cancer is just over ten percent, while it is close to fourteen percent for white women. However, once black women get breast cancer, they are more likely to die from it. Black women also tend to develop the disease at younger ages than white women.

Black women are also more likely to be diagnosed (told by a doctor they have the disease) with more serious breast cancer. When they are diagnosed, they typically are diagnosed in a later stage of the disease. In the later stages of breast cancer, the disease spreads to the lymph nodes, part of the body’s immune system. Lymph nodes are small glands that store white blood cells and help the body fight disease. There are many lymph nodes near the breasts, including under the arms. Without treatment, breast cancer often spreads to the lymph nodes. This makes the disease much more difficult to treat. Black women are more likely than white women to have kinds of tumors, or cancerous masses, that doctors consider to be difficult to treat.

An older African American woman receives a mammogram to check for breast cancer in 2001. Many African American women do not have access to early screening procedures like mammograms, resulting in a higher death rate from the disease. ª Ariel Skelley/ Corbis


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Black women also do not live as long as women of other groups after they are diagnosed with cancer. This is especially true in comparison to white women. Five years after diagnosis is considered by doctors to be an especially important milestone for cancer patients. Ninety percent of white women who are diagnosed with breast cancer live at least five years after being diagnosed. By contrast, only seventy-six percent of black women live five years after being told they have the disease. Social Factors Related to Breast Cancer Socioeconomic factors are a major reason why breast cancer is more deadly for black women than white women. “Socioeconomic” means relating to wealth and social status. One example of a socioeconomic factor is health insurance. White women are much more likely than black women to have insurance, meaning that they are more likely to get regular checkups from their doctors. Doctors agree that with breast cancer, as with any kind of cancer, one of the main factors in successful treatment is catching the disease early. Black women also are more likely to live in areas that do not have the best-quality doctors. Having access to doctors who are specialists in dealing with breast cancer is a major factor in successfully treating the disease. In addition, African American women are more likely to be single mothers and more likely to be reluctant to take time off work for their own medical care. Experts have also said that black women are less likely to get mammograms, which are breast X-rays. These are tests that can detect breast cancer early and are considered crucial to the fight against breast cancer. Public health experts have raised awareness about mammograms over the last several decades. Still, some say that these efforts need to be more successful in reaching African American women.

Another set of factors that scientists have pointed to are diet and lifestyle. Some of these are not entirely unique to black women but apply to all American women. One of these factors is obesity after menopause (the time when a woman stops menstruating). Another factor is a high-fat diet. Both of these are believed by scientists to increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. Finally, another lifestyle factor is age of childbearing. Scientists believe that waiting until later in life to have children can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. This is one reason why American women as a whole may have a higher risk of breast cancer than women in developing countries, who tend to have children earlier in life. Some researchers have pointed to environmental factors as a possible reason that black women are more likely to be afflicted with more deadly forms of breast cancer. Scientists have searched for a potential pollutant or substance more likely to be found in predominantly African American neighborhoods. A study at the University of Chicago started in 2008 480


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suggests that neighborhood and environment may be a factor. The researchers think that the stress of living in their neighborhood and social isolation may be factors in higher breast cancer rates among African American women. They suspect that neighborhood crime and stress or fear for one’s safety could produce a physical response in the body that puts African American women in high-crime areas at greater risk for developing breast cancer.



Scientists are not entirely sure why breast cancer tends to be more deadly for black women than white women. Some say this is because researchers do not make studying black women’s health as high a priority as studying issues that impact white women. Others say this is because white women are more likely than black women to sign up for a research study. Some studies indicate that African Americans in general are more likely than whites to distrust doctors and the health care system. This means they are less likely to participate in a study that might give doctors some more insight about African American women. Scientists Begin to Consider Biological Factors Previous research on why black women suffer from more deadly breast cancer focused on social factors. In the early 2000s, researchers concluded that social factors cannot entirely explain the differences between breast cancer in black and white women. Researchers have turned their attentions toward possible biological reasons for the differences. Scientists believe that genetics, or the inherited parts of a person’s biological makeup, may play a role. For instance, even when black women get the same kind of early screening and medical treatment that white women get, they are still more likely to die from the disease.

Many breast cancers are driven by estrogen, a female hormone. Women’s bodies do not make as much estrogen after they enter menopause. For a long time, many women used hormone-replacement therapy, which replaced the lost estrogen. However, these therapies stopped being used as widely in 2002 because they were linked to other health problems for women. At the same time, the rate of breast cancer dropped dramatically in many women. For white women and Hispanic women, the number of cases of breast cancer went down significantly. The same thing was not true for black women, who often tend to get different kinds of breast cancer that are not driven by estrogen. This led scientists to ask why black women are getting different kinds of cancer than white and Hispanic women. The answer may involve genetics. More research is needed to understand the impact that genetic factors have on breast cancer, but studies were underway as of 2010. It is known that there is a genetic link between many African American women and African American Eras

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West African women. This is because most Africans brought to America as slaves were from this part of Africa. According to one study, African American women and women in sub-Saharan West Africa have similar patterns of breast cancer. This kind of finding is exciting to scientists, because it shows the promise of genetic studies for learning more about breast cancer. Scientists all over the world are studying women in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are collaborating, or working together, with scientists in other countries. These scientists are searching for genetic links to learn more about how breast cancer forms and how it can be treated.

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HIV/AIDS DISPROPORTIONATELY HARMS AFRICAN AMERICANS The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). People can have HIV and not develop AIDS; however, people who have HIV can transmit the infection to others through contact with bodily fluids, such as blood or semen. The virus is not transmitted by casual contact. AIDS severely damages the body’s immune system, making sufferers vulnerable to other infections and diseases. AIDS is very often fatal. When the first AIDS case was reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1980, there were no known treatments for the disease. During the 1980s, AIDS diagnoses and deaths skyrocketed, peaking in 1995 with 43,000 deaths. By the mid-1990s, doctors had developed drug therapies that dramatically reduced the number of AIDS deaths. Although the treatments did not cure HIV, they helped people with HIV stay healthy and avoid developing AIDS. According to the CDC, as of 2006, about 1.1 million Americans were living with HIV/AIDS. Despite better health outcomes in general for people who contract HIV, the disease is a health crisis for African Americans. In 2005, the CDC undertook a comprehensive study that reinforced the findings of numerous other public health studies. These studies have shown that African Americans are affected by the deadly HIV/AIDS virus at a rate much higher than that of any other group. While the numbers are shocking, experts say it is important to understand the reasons for this phenomenon in order to slow the spread of the disease. Alarming Spread of HIV/AIDS in Black Community In 2005, the CDC released a comprehensive study of HIV/AIDS in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Its findings were alarming. The study showed that HIV/AIDS affects the black community at a much higher rate than any other ethnic group in the United States. The CDC’s comprehensive study was based on the reports of health officials from thirty-three states up to the year 2005. 482


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A man reads educational literature as he waits for an HIV test at a free mobile testing center in Los Angeles in 2006. African Americans make up a disproportionately large number of new AIDS cases. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they make up a much higher percentage of new HIV cases. In 2005, African Americans represented 49 percent of new HIV cases. They made up 65 percent of perinatal HIV infections (infections passed from mother to baby around the time of birth). African Americans accounted for 61 percent of infections of persons under age twenty-five. They accounted for 67 percent of infections of persons under age thirteen. The CDC study compared the rates of infections of African Americans with those of other ethnic groups. African Americans were infected with HIV/AIDS at a rate ten times that of whites. They were infected at a rate three times that of Hispanics. Black women were infected with HIV/AIDS at a rate twenty-three times that of white women. In addition to being infected at a higher rate, blacks fare worse than other groups once infected with HIV. According to the CDC, after nine years of being diagnosed with HIV, on average, blacks survived at a lower rate than any other ethnic group. Factors in the Unequal Impact of AIDS One set of reasons that AIDS impacts blacks more than whites is socioeconomic. Poverty afflicts the African American community at a high rate. Some studies have shown that as many as one in four blacks in America live in poverty. Studies have also shown a higher rate of AIDS among lower-income populations. This may be because people who are poor do not always get the same quality of health care as people who have more money. African American Eras

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Magic Johnson Reveals His HIV Status to the World ........................................................................................................

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n November 7, 1991, basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson (1959–) made an announcement that shocked the world. He was HIVpositive and would be quitting basketball. His announcement made him one of the earliest and most influential celebrities to speak out about HIV/ AIDS. Magic Johnson was a much beloved sports figure during his professional basketball career. Many consider him to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He was drafted to the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1979 to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. That year, thanks in part to Magic’s skills, the Lakers won the national championship, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers. Magic became the youngest person ever to be named Most Valuable Player of the playoffs. He played with the Lakers for twelve seasons. During that time, his team went to the playoffs eight times, and won five championships. Magic was named Most Valuable Player three times. Johnson learned he had HIV in an unexpected way: in a routine physical exam for an insurance policy in 1991. At the time, he was newly married with a baby on the way. It was an emotional decision for him to tell his teammates and ultimately the nation that he was HIV positive. He told his teammates first before taking the news to the public. One of the reasons Magic wanted to go public with his news was to defeat many misconceptions, or wrong ideas, about HIV/AIDS. In 1991, many still believed that HIV/AIDS mainly or only afflicted gay men. Magic himself had had a similar misunderstanding. He had never had sex with men, though he admitted that he had had many female sexual partners. Magic wanted

They may lack access to HIV education, testing, and screening. People who are poor may also have more pressing considerations that keep them from seeking preventive health care. They may have to focus most or all of their energies on getting food, clothing, and shelter. With less time available, there may be less time to devote to seeking information about HIV/AIDS. Another reason for the high rate of HIV/AIDS infection among African Americans is the use of intravenous, or injected, drugs. The use of intravenous drugs is the second most common cause of HIV/AIDS infection 484


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.................................................................................... everyone to understand the risks of HIV/AIDS. He especially wanted people to know how to prevent the disease by practicing safer sex (such as using condoms or abstaining from sex with partners whose HIV status is not known). He also wanted to combat the widespread belief that many people held that “it couldn’t happen to me” when it came to HIV/AIDS. After going public with his news, Magic devoted himself to spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS. He was appointed to the President’s National Commission on AIDS Research. He did not stay on the commission for long, though. He did not believe that President George H. W. Bush (1924– ) was committed enough to AIDS research. Johnson started his own foundation to promote AIDS research and raised millions of dollars. Magic Johnson stayed active in the world of basketball after his diagnosis. He was a member of the “Dream Team”—the 1992 American Olympic basketball team. He became a part owner of the L.A. Lakers and served for a time as a coach to the team. In 1996, he made a brief return to professional basketball, playing with the Lakers for one more season. Johnson did much to raise awareness about AIDS. He stayed healthy. He had the best medical care that money can buy. He was diligent about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In 1997, it was reported that the virus in Magic’s blood had been reduced to levels that could not be detected with an HIV test. The news did not mean that he had been cured, since there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. A new challenge for Magic was to combat the new myth that HIV/AIDS is curable. He was especially dedicated to raising awareness about the disease among African Americans.

among African Americans, according to the CDC. Sharing needles creates a high risk of HIV transmission from person to person because of direct contact between two or more people’s blood. Further, studies show that people with serious substance abuse issues are also more likely to engage in other highrisk behavior. When people are under the influence of drugs and alcohol, they are more likely to engage in unprotected sex or sex with multiple partners. Other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) increase the spread of HIV/ AIDS among African Americans. Other STDs can cause lesions, or broken African American Eras

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Obesity, which has hit the African American population particularly hard, has been linked to the increased consumption of high sugar, high calorie food and drink. ª Dennis MacDonald/Alamy

skin, on a person’s genitals. These lesions make the spread of HIV more likely because they serve as a point where infected fluids can enter the bloodstream. According to the CDC, African Americans have the highest rate of infection with STDs of any other ethnic group. For instance, African Americans are infected with gonorrhea at a rate eighteen times that of whites. They are infected with syphilis at a rate five times that of whites. The reasons for this are similar to those for the high rate of HIV/AIDS, including lack of access to healthcare resources. The highest rate of HIV infection for black men is among men who have sex with men (known in the public health community as MSM). Black MSM have a higher rate of infection than MSM of other ethnicities. Studies have shown that black men are less likely than men of other ethnicities to reveal their sexual orientation or get tested for HIV. This is due in some part to a stigma, or strong disapproval, regarding homosexuality in the black community. When MSM do not reveal their sexual orientation, there is a problem with distributing health-care resources to them. They are not able to get the information or resources they need to protect themselves properly in male/male sexual behavior. When HIV-positive men do not get tested for HIV, they may not get access to potentially lifesaving treatments, and they are more likely to pass the disease to their sexual partners.

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OBESITY EPIDEMIC IMPACTS AFRICAN AMERICANS Experts have used the term “obesity epidemic” to refer to the alarming numbers of people who are obese, or dangerously overweight. Obesity is by no means a uniquely African American problem. Almost all ethnic groups in the United States struggle with obesity, which carries many severe health risks. It is no longer even a uniquely American problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that obesity has become a health issue around the world. Nearly three hundred million adults are obese and nearly one billion are overweight. Nonetheless, studies have shown that African Americans have been particularly hard hit by the rise in obesity and the health problems it brings. 486


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Health Consequences of Obesity “Obesity” is a clinical term used to refer to people who are severely overweight. The measure for obesity is called the body mass index (BMI). BMI is a number that describes a person’s weight in relation to her height. A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal. A person with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight. An obese person is one with a BMI of 30 or more. The rise in worldwide obesity is a result of a complex set of factors. The WHO cites the fact that people no longer work mainly in jobs that require substantial physical activity. Most jobs in the twentyfirst century involve long periods of being sedentary, or not moving. Another factor is a change in people’s diets. Obesity is linked to an increased consumption of high-fat, high-sugar foods. High levels of fat and sugar are often found in prepackaged, highly processed foods that have become increasingly available and affordable. In America, physical education is a declining part of children’s school days. By some estimates, fewer than 10 percent of American public schools offer some kind of daily physical education. This is a far cry from the National Association for Sport and Physical Activity’s recommendations of at least 150 minutes of exercise a week for elementary students and 225 minutes a week for middle- and high-school students.



The health consequences of obesity are severe and often life-threatening in the long term. Obesity is strongly linked to Type-2 diabetes, the type of diabetes most likely to be brought on by behaviors in adulthood rather than genetics. More than 80 percent of people with the disease are overweight. Overweight individuals are more likely to suffer from the risk factors for heart disease and stroke: high blood pressure, high levels of blood fats, and cholesterol. Obesity can also cause health problems that are not lifethreatening. These include decreased mobility, joint problems, breathing difficulties, and infertility, or the inability to have children. Impact on African American Communities Though obesity is not a uniquely African American problem, studies have shown that African American communities have been particularly affected by obesity. According to a 2007 study, African Americans are more than 1.4 times as likely to be obese as whites. African American women in particular have the highest rates of being overweight or obese compared to other groups in the United States. According to the Office of Minority Health (OMH), some four out of five African American women are overweight or obese. During the time between 2003 and 2006, African American women were 70 percent more likely to be obese than white women. During 2003– 2004, African American children between the ages of six and seventeen were 1.3 times as likely to be overweight as white children. African American Eras

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Some health experts have criticized public discussion of the obesity epidemic, especially as it concerns African Americans. Critics say that the BMI index is linked to factors other than pure health concerns and may be linked to subjective cultural ideals of physical beauty. In particular, BMI has been criticized as reflecting more European and white ideas about body shape and size, which emphasize thinness. Obesity in the African American community, by contrast, does not carry the same social stigma that it does in the white culture. Further supporting critics’ claims, a Japanese study showed that people who were in the “overweight” category (BMI of between 25 and 29.9) had a much higher life expectancy (some six to seven years longer) than people who were very thin. Experts have also begun to question the idea that being overweight is the number-one risk factor for poor health. For instance, about half of overweight people and one-third of obese people were “normal” in terms of all other risk factors for heart problems and stroke. Other studies have shown that physical activity is much more important to long-term health than the size of one’s body. Despite these criticisms, African Americans are still at a much greater risk for heart disease and other diseases thought to be caused by obesity. For instance, African Americans die from heart disease and stroke at a rate almost twice that of whites. A 2006 study showed that African Americans were 60 percent less likely than whites to engage in regular, physical activity, according to the OMH.

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AFRICAN AMERICANS HOPE FOR SICKLE CELL ANEMIA CURE Sickle cell anemia, or sickle cell disease, is a serious disorder with painful symptoms. It overwhelmingly affects persons of African descent. An estimated one in twelve African Americans carries the gene that causes sickle cell anemia, and one of every 500 African American newborns has a form of the illness. In contrast, one out of every 58,000 white newborns has sickle cell anemia. The disease is also found among Hispanics and persons of Arab descent. Sickle cell disease is a crippling and often deadly disease, but new advances in medical treatment offer hope for a full-fledged cure in the twenty-first century. Sickle cell disease gets its name because of the shape of the red blood cells of people suffering from the disease. Normal red blood cells are small and round, but the red blood cells of sufferers of sickle cell anemia are long, with points at the end. The cells are said to look like a sickle (a long, slightly curved farming tool used for cutting). These long red blood cells can clog sufferers’ veins. Because blood carries oxygen, when the veins are clogged, oxygen is cut off from the body’s tissues. This can be intensely 488


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painful and can also lead to organ failure, strokes, infection, and internal bleeding. The life expectancy rate for sufferers of sickle cell disease in the United States as of 2008 was fortytwo years for males and forty-eight for females. There has traditionally been little hope for a cure for the disease, though that fact is changing with current research efforts. Why Does Sickle Cell Anemia Affect African Americans? Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder. This means that it is passed down from a person’s parents through their genes. In order to get the disease, a baby must get the sickle cell gene from both parents. But many people inherit the gene from only one parent. This means that they are carriers of the disease. Carriers’ children can still get the disease.

The genetic aspect of sickle cell disease is important in explaining why African Americans are so disproportionately affected by the disease. African Americans are largely descended from people of West Africa, who were brought to America on slave ships. Doctors and medical researchers have discovered that a possible reason that people of West African descent suffer most often from sickle cell anemia has to do with conditions in West Africa. In the 1940s, doctors in West Africa noticed that patients who were carriers of the sickle cell gene or sickle cell anemia sufferers tended to be more likely than patients without sickle cell mutations to survive malaria. Malaria is a deadly disease spread by mosquitos. It is common in hot, wet climates. Researchers found that the parts of West Africa with the highest rates of malaria had the highest rates of sickle cell anemia. They discovered that blood cells of sickle cell carriers adopt a sickle shape when infected with malaria. The sickle shape make these cells easy to be filtered out by the spleen (an internal organ) and eliminated. The fact that this “bad” gene that causes a painful disease can also have the good effect of protecting people from a different disease is what scientists call an evolutionary “trade-off.”

A patient gets a blood transfusion for treatment of sickle cell anemia, a disease that mostly affects people of African descent. ª Custom Medical Stock Photo, Inc. Reproduced by permission.

Advances Offer Hope for a Universal Cure Treatment of sickle cell anemia has often consisted of managing, rather than curing, the disease. Treatment often includes blood transfusions and pain medications to help the patient cope with the pain of the disease. Bone African American Eras

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Raising Awareness of Sickle Cell Disease ...................................................................................

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arious groups and organizations work hard to raise public awareness about sickle cell disease. For instance, September is “Sickle Cell Awareness Month.” It is organized by the Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Association (SCDAA). Sickle Cell Awareness Month is celebrated by many people and groups. For instance, the Center for Sickle Cell Disease at Howard University in Washington, D.C., sponsors several events. These include speeches and an annual walk-a-thon to raise money for sickle cell research. Another example is the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis. The school sponsors a month-long program each year called “Sickle Cell Sabbath.” The program takes place in February to coincide with Black History Month. The goal of the program is to work with African American churches to increase the number of African American blood donors. African American blood donors are more likely to be a match for people with sickle cell disease. Although African Americans make up 13.5 percent of the population in the United States, they are only 6.5 percent of the blooddonor pool. The Sickle Cell Sabbath aims to educate people about the need for African American blood donations.

marrow transplants are the only known cure for the disease, and until the early 2000s, they were only successful in children. Pamela Newton is believed to have been the first adult cured of sickle cell disease. In 2006, Newton was told by doctors that she only had six months to live. She was diagnosed with the disease at age five and had suffered all of her life. She had to take up to fifteen doses of narcotic pain medication every day, and she still lived with severe pain. She got to the point where she had to have daily transfusions of blood platelets. Newton many times had to be hospitalized for internal bleeding. Her doctors suggested a bone-marrow transplant as a last chance to save her life. At the time of Newton’s bone marrow transplant, some two hundred children had been cured of sickle cell disease through bone marrow transplants. But no adults had been cured that way. A bone marrow transplant is a high-risk treatment option. If sufferers are very ill, their bodies may not tolerate the procedure. Also, it can be very difficult to find an exact match for a donor. In the past, patients needed to find someone whose 490


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bone marrow exactly matched theirs in order to get a transplant. But Newton’s doctor had a new procedure he thought might work. Dr. Robert Brodsky is a hematologist, or blood doctor. He developed a technique for a bone marrow transplant that only requires a half-match, rather than a perfect match. This makes it much easier to find a donor.



Newton’s bone marrow transplant was a success. Her success offers hope for people suffering from sickle cell disease. Still, as of 2010 the procedure remained high-risk and experimental. Indeed, one of the only reasons Newton signed on for the risky procedure was that she had little chance of survival and a very low quality of life. For patients who are healthier than Newton was, the risk may be too great to take. Brodsky hoped that with more study, his procedure would eventually offer hope for thousands of sickle cell patients. Potential Cure in Stem Cell Research Another option for curing sickle cell disease involves stem cells. Stem cells are a kind of human cell that can rapidly reproduce themselves. They are special because they can cause damaged human tissues to regenerate, or regrow. Many scientists believe that stem cell research and therapy holds the key to curing many genetic disorders like sickle cell disease.

The problem with stem cells is how to get them. One method of obtaining stem cells is through umbilical cord blood. An umbilical cord is a cord of tissue that connects an unborn baby to its mother in the womb. The cord is filled with rich blood containing many potentially lifesaving stem cells. If doctors can find an umbilical-cord match for a sickle cell disease patient, a transfusion with cord blood is a possibility. A potential donor might be a baby brother or sister. This is effective but is not available to most sickle cell patients. Many scientists believe most promising stems cells are embryonic stem cells, or unborn human stem cells. More embryonic stem cell research is needed to yield a treatment for sickle cell disease. But methods of harvesting embryonic stem cells involve the destruction of a human embryo. An embryo is a group of cells that could develop into a human baby if implanted in a woman’s uterus. Such harvesting of cells, with the risk of destroying a human embryo, has caused substantial controversy in the United States. Some politicians and lawmakers, including former president George W. Bush (1946– ), have tried to limit the use of stem cell research. They say that the destruction of unimplanted embryos is the same as destroying a human life. Scientists in 2007 made a potentially enormous breakthrough in treating sickle cell disease with nonembryonic stem cells. In December of that year, scientists released results of a study in which they managed to cure sickle cell anemia in mice using the mice’s own skin cells. The procedure essentially African American Eras

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involved “rewinding” a mouse’s cells to their embryonic state. The cells can be made without destroying human embryos. As of 2010 this treatment was not available for use in humans, though. Scientists say that the technique involves reprogramming cells by using viruses or genes that could potentially also cause the growth of tumors. It was expected to be a number of years before the technique might be used on humans. The scientists from the sickle cell mice study warned that this is not a good alternative to embryonic stem cell research. Rudolf Jaenisch, the leader of the study, said that it is not a replacement for embryonic stem cell research and that more embryonic stem cell research is needed.

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NATIONAL BLACK WOMEN’S HEALTH IMPERATIVE ADVOCATES FOR HEALTH REFORM On June 19–22, 2008, the National Black Women’s Health Imperative celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in Washington, D.C. The group used to be called the National Black Women’s Health Project. From the time of the organization’s founding, it has been an active voice on the national stage. Its goals have shifted over the years. In the early years, the organization was more focused on documenting the inequalities black women face in the American health care system. By 2002, the goals of the organization had shifted toward eliminating those inequalities. The National Black Women’s Health Project was born at a conference on black women’s health issues at Spelman College in 1983. Spelman is a historically black college for women in Atlanta, Georgia. The forerunner to the project was a program of the National Women’s Health Network, an organization that focuses on the health issues of all women. It was at the conference at Spelman in 1983 that it became clear that a separate organization devoted to black women’s health issues was needed. The project was inspired by the many health issues faced by African American women. According to the organization, black women are at the highest risk for poor health of almost any group. Risk factors causing their poor health include domestic violence, tobacco use, sexually transmitted diseases, and inactive lifestyles. They face the highest or near-highest rate of most major chronic health problems. These include high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, cancers, glaucoma, arthritis, and lupus. Black women also die of preventable causes at one of the highest rates of any group. According to the National Black Women’s Health Imperative (the Imperative, formerly the National Black Women’s Health Project), black women have the highest rate of death from heart disease, AIDS, and stroke. Black women who contract breast cancer under the age of fifty have a 77 percent higher mortality rate than white women of the same age. They 492


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die of pregnancy-related causes at a rate four times that of white women. They are more likely than any other group to give birth to lowbirthweight babies, and their babies are more likely to die as infants than any other group. They experience a higher level of infant mortality than that of many underdeveloped countries. All of these conditions are either preventable or are treatable if caught early enough. In 2002, the project changed its name to the National Black Women’s Health Imperative. The reason was that the organization’s mission was changing. No longer was it enough simply to document the health disparities, or inequalities, facing black women. The organization’s mission turned toward ending those disparities, and it outlined five health imperatives for black women to accomplish that goal. 1. Make black women’s health an imperative for federal and state governments and communities. 2. Work to eliminate the enormous health disparities that exist for black women. 3. Ensure that black women have access to the broad range of reproductive health options, are empowered to make real choices, and are assured of privacy in reproductive decision-making. 4. Reduce the high death rates from preventable causes among black women.

Many African American mothers do not get proper health care during their pregnancy, resulting in premature births that are greater than the national average. ª Gabe Palmer/ Corbis

5. Increase access to health insurance coverage for all black women and their families. In 2009, the Imperative became an active voice in the national debate over healthcare reform. As part of the promises he made when running for president, President Barack Obama (1961– ) urged Congress to pass a healthcare reform bill. The goal of such a bill was to provide access to health care for the tens of millions of Americans who do not have health insurance. (Some estimates say that as many as forty-seven million Americans did not have health care as of 2009.) The Imperative took a keen interest in this debate because lack of access to health care is such a strong factor contributing to black women’s health disparities. President and CEO of the Imperative, Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, lent her active support to congressional efforts to pass a healthcare reform bill. African American Eras

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 ............................................................... Primary Sources

 TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY APOLOGY (1997) The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was a forty-year study (1932–72) in Macon County, Alabama, that involved the deception of 399 African American men by the U.S. Public Health Service. The men, who were mostly poor sharecroppers, were told they were being treated for “bad blood.” In reality, they did not receive any treatment at all for the disease they actually had, which was syphilis, even after a cure for syphilis was discovered in 1943. Many of the men died from the disease or complications from the disease as a result, or unknowingly passed it on to their wives and children. The impact of the study, when it became public knowledge in 1972, was to significantly damage the trust of the African American community in both the government and in the medical establishment. This distrust continued even into the twenty-first century. Many African Americans do not seek out regular medical care, become organ donors, or participate in research studies because they do not trust the motives of doctors and researchers. This withdrawal from medical care and research, however, is an important factor in the significant health challenges faced by the African American community. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton (1946– ) issued a formal apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study with four of the study’s survivors present,

A survivor of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study speaks during a 1997 ceremony at which President Bill Clinton apologized for the government’s actions. Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

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including 94-year-old Herman Shaw, who expressed his forgiveness. In the following excerpt from Clinton’s apology, he acknowledges the government’s guilt in the study, the damage the study inflicted on modern African American health, and steps to ensure that such abuse of power does not happen again, including the founding of a center for the study of bioethics (moral guidelines in the conduct of scientific research) at the Tuskegee Institute. Clinton hoped that the formal apology would help restore the lost trust of African Americans in their government and in the medical community.



............................ The eight men who are survivors of the syphilis study at Tuskegee are a living link to a time not so very long ago that many Americans would prefer not to remember, but we dare not forget. It was a time when our nation failed to live up to its ideals, when our nation broke the trust with our people that is the very foundation of our democracy. It is not only in remembering that shameful past that we can make amends and repair our nation, but it is in remembering that past that we can build a better present and a better future. And without remembering it, we cannot make amends and we cannot go forward. . . . The legacy of the study at Tuskegee has reached far and deep, in ways that hurt our progress and divide our nation. We cannot be one America when a whole segment of our nation has no trust in America. An apology is the first step, and we take it with a commitment to rebuild that broken trust. We can begin by making sure there is never again another episode like this one. We need to do more to ensure that medical research practices are sound and ethical, and that researchers work more closely with communities. Today I would like to announce several steps to help us achieve these goals. First, we will help to build that lasting memorial at Tuskegee. The school founded by Booker T. Washington, distinguished by the renowned scientist George Washington Carver and so many others who advanced the health and well-being of African Americans and all Americans, is a fitting site. The Department of Health and Human Services will award a planning grant so the school can pursue establishing a center for bioethics in research and health care. The center will serve as a museum of the study and support efforts to address its legacy and strengthen bioethics training. Second, we commit to increase our community involvement so that we may begin restoring lost trust. The study at Tuskegee served to sow distrust of our medical institutions, especially where research is involved. Since the study was halted, abuses have been checked by making informed consent and local review mandatory in federally-funded and mandated research. Still, twenty-five years later, many medical studies have little African American participation and African American organ donors are few. This impedes efforts to conduct promising research and to provide the best health care to all our people, including African Americans. So today, I’m directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, to issue a report in 180 days about how we can best involve African American Eras

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Bioethics The study of the ethical implications of biological research and the practice of medicine Sow To plant seeds for growth or otherwise set in motion

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Vanquish To overcome, defeat, or otherwise gain mastery over

communities, especially minority communities, in research and health care. You must— every American group must be involved in medical research in ways that are positive. We have put the curse behind us; now we must bring the benefits to all Americans. Third, we commit to strengthen researchers’ training in bioethics. We are constantly working on making breakthroughs in protecting the health of our people and in vanquishing diseases. But all our people must be assured that their rights and dignity will be respected as new drugs, treatments and therapies are tested and used. So I am directing Secretary Shalala to work in partnership with higher education to prepare training materials for medical researchers. They will be available in a year. They will help researchers build on core ethical principles of respect for individuals, justice and informed consent, and advise them on how to use these principles effectively in diverse populations. Fourth, to increase and broaden our understanding of ethical issues and clinical research, we commit to providing postgraduate fellowships to train bioethicists especially among African Americans and other minority groups. HHS will offer these fellowships beginning in September of 1998 to promising students enrolled in bioethics graduate programs.

Executive Order A statement written and signed by the president that requires the government to carry out a policy

And, finally, by executive order I am also today extending the charter of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to October of 1999. The need for this commission is clear. We must be able to call on the thoughtful, collective wisdom of experts and community representatives to find ways to further strengthen our protections for subjects in human research. We face a challenge in our time. Science and technology are rapidly changing our lives with the promise of making us much healthier, much more productive and more prosperous. But with these changes we must work harder to see that as we advance we don’t leave behind our conscience. No ground is gained and, indeed, much is lost if we lose our moral bearings in the name of progress. The people who ran the study at Tuskegee diminished the stature of man by abandoning the most basic ethical precepts. They forgot their pledge to heal and repair. They had the power to heal the survivors and all the others and they did not. Today, all we can do is apologize. But you have the power, for only you—Mr. Shaw, the others who are here, the family members who are with us in Tuskegee—only you have the power to forgive. Your presence here shows us that you have chosen a better path than your government did so long ago. You have not withheld the power to forgive. I hope today and tomorrow every American will remember your lesson and live by it.

 SALLY SATEL’S CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY ON

MINORITY HEALTHCARE REFORM (2008) Sally Satel served as a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine. On June 10, 2008, she

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gave the following testimony in support of minority healthcare reform in front of the House Committee on Ways and Means. The Committee on Ways and Means has the primary responsibility for writing taxes and other bills that propose laws that will generate revenue for the federal government. Satel notes that economics and geography play a large role in the substandard care received by African Americans. African Americans tend to live in higher concentration in areas that have lower quality medical facilities. Further, the doctors in these areas, who serve low-income patients, have lower income than physicians elsewhere. The quality of the care they provide might be limited by their financial resources. Satel also stresses that better health insurance coverage and better education of healthcare-related issues could significantly reduce or even eliminate health differences between whites and blacks.



............................ First, we know that differences in health status exist between various ethnic and racial groups, and that there are often discrepancies in indicated procedure rates across groups. Second, we know that many of the factors linked to these discrepant rates (e.g., access to care, geographical differences, good quality care) are much more closely tied to socioeconomic (status), than to race per se.

Discrepancies Variances or differences

Third, and most relevant to my comments today, we know that these factors do not account for the full extent of discrepancy between groups. Thus, enhancing access to care and quality of care, though essential steps toward improving health status among racial and ethnic minorities, must be vigorously fortified by other improvements that will enable patients to benefit the most from the care they do receive (and to need it less frequently and less intensively). My remarks today will focus on those additional areas of need. To effect these changes, health care systems and programs must have flexibility to target local needs in creative ways.

Fortified Strengthened and improved Effect To bring about

C O R R E L A T E S OF H E A L T H DI F F E R E N T I A L S Geography: Geographic residence often explains race-related differences in treatment better than even income or education. Because health care varies a great deal depending on where people live, and because blacks are overrepresented in regions of the United States that are burdened with poorer health facilities, disparities are destined to be, at least in part, a function of residence. Researchers who fail to control for location effects of low income will misdiagnose the underlying causes of many racial disparities in health. Hospital Quality: An underlying cause of disparities may be that minority patients are more likely to receive care in lower-performing hospitals. Hospitals that African American Eras

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treat greater numbers of minority patients generally offer poorer quality service than those that treat fewer minorities. Conversely, within hospitals, the quality of care is generally comparable between whites and minorities when they are admitted for the same reason or receive the same hospital procedure. Quality of Physician: National physician survey data indicate that physicians in high-minority practices depend more on low-paying Medicaid, receive lower private insurance reimbursements, and have lower incomes. These constrained resources help explain the greater quality-related difficulties delivering care—such as coordination of care, ability to spend adequate time with patients during office visits, and obtaining specialty care—that relate directly to physicians’ ability to function as their patients’ medical home. Beyond Access and Quality: Beyond the obvious need to expand access and enhance quality of care, other factors demand attention if health differentials are to be narrowed.

Rapport A comfortable and familiar relationship

Establish Continuity of Care with Same Provider: Patients who see the same doctor from visit to visit have the opportunity to establish a rapport with him (which, in turn, will lead to better adherence with treatment regimen and conscientiousness about self-care). Yet African Americans are more likely than whites to rely on emergency room care because they do not have a primary care physician. Other venues of non-continuous care are community clinics and hospitals. (Note that having Medicaid does not necessarily correlate with having a regular source of care.) The Commonwealth Fund 2006 Health Care Quality Survey finds that when adults have health insurance coverage and a medical home—defined as a health care setting that provides patients with timely, well-organized care, and enhanced access to providers— racial and ethnic disparities in access and quality are reduced or even eliminated.

Elicit To draw out Cognitive Of or related to the brain, thinking, and intellectual activity

Renal Related to the kidneys 498

Expand the Average Length of the Doctor Visit: One of the most effective ways to enhance the doctor-patient relationship is for doctors to spend sufficient time with each patient—more than the standard fifteen minutes—to elicit patients’ concerns, needs, values, and preferences. We need to have Medicare codes expanded to pay for cognitive evaluative services—and pay more for them. Foster Health Literacy: A patient’s accurate understanding of the nature of his illness and the purpose of various therapies is essential to self-care and treatment adherence. An important new study from an economist at Columbia University documented that differences in patient self-management trigger a racial mortality gap even when access and treatment for chronic heart failure are equalized. The authors estimate that targeting compliance patterns could reduce the black-white mortality gap by at least two-thirds. But compliance is difficult. Sociologist Linda Gottfredson puts it well when she says that “chronic diseases are like jobs.” She focuses on diabetes but her list of tasks that patients have to perform to control and monitor their conditions can be generalized to other chronic conditions such as moderate to serious asthma, hypertension, renal failure, and chronic heart failure. African American Eras

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Set of duties to perform:

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• Require training • Implement appropriate regimen • Continuously monitor physical signs • • • •

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Diagnose problems in timely manner Adjust food, exercise, meds in timely and appropriate manner Coordinate & communicate with others Exercise independent judgment with only occasional supervision from medical personnel

• Efforts to control the condition are often tiring, frustrating, and affect family life Most Type 2 diabetics find it hard to believe they are truly sick until it is too late to avoid the complications (pain, dysfunctional eyesight, infections, etc). This is why following disease prevention strategies are even more challenging for those with overwhelming personal and family and occupational problems. Health recedes into the background, surpassed by more pressing daily realities and stresses.

C O M M O N S E N S E LO C A L I N N O V A T I O N S • Educational modules that prepare and coach patients to ask questions and present information about themselves to their doctors are promising where implemented. • Grassroots outreach through black churches, social clubs, and worksites • Patient “navigators” to help negotiate the system • Language services • Bonuses/incentives to get more good doctors into distressed neighborhoods • Clinic night hours: a great boon to patients with hourly-wage employment who risk a loss of income, or even their jobs, by taking time off from work for doctors’ appointments • Active pharmacists who issue reminders, provide education to ensure patients grasp what they need to know; hotlines A key element here is that these services need to be reimbursed.

Reimbursed Paid for by the government or an insurance company

CONCLUSION Resolving health differentials between racial and ethnic groups depends on improved access to care and quality of care. However, reform in those areas alone will not be sufficient. Individuals need to be able to exploit the care that is available to them. And the way to help them achieve this is to target problems that stem from habits and dispositions associated with life lived on the lower reaches of the socioeconomic ladder. To tailor interventions most effectively, healthcare systems need to have the flexibility to respond to specific needs of individual communities.


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1. Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder. Working with a partner, investigate the genetics of sickle cell disease. Create Punnett squares showing how the disease is passed on from parents to children when (1) both parents are carriers of the sickle cell trait, (2) only one parent is a carrier of the trait, (3) both parents have the disease, (4) only one parent has the disease. If you were a doctor, what advice would you give to a couple who are carriers of the sickle cell trait who want to have children? With your partner, write a doctor/patient dialog in which you discuss all possible options for the parents represented in the Punnett squares you have completed. (If you are not familiar with Punnett square diagrams, research them on the Internet before beginning this exercise.) 2. If you knew that you and your spouse were both carriers of the genetic trait that causes sickle cell, would you have children? What if only you were a carrier? What if only your spouse were a carrier? Write a journal entry answering these questions. Discuss in detail the reasons for and the implications of each choice you would make. 3. Select one of the diseases that commonly affects the African American community. Research the disease, including its causes, symptoms, and methods of prevention. Using the media of your choice, create a threefold public service brochure about the disease. The purposes of the brochure are to increase public awareness about the condition and to provide information about how it can be treated and/or controlled. 4. Using your library and the Internet, look up magazine and newspaper articles that deal with the November 7, 1991, announcement by basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson that he was HIV-positive. Then read articles from the past two years that focus on the quality of life for people in the United States living with HIV and AIDS. Imagine you are writing an article for Sports Illustrated. Write about how the public’s feelings about AIDS and HIV have changed since Johnson’s announcement about having HIV. Your article should also discuss how Magic Johnson has helped change the public’s view about what it means to live with HIV. 5. Statistics show African Americans are less likely than white Americans to seek medical treatment for a wide variety of illnesses, from heart disease to depression. Using your library and the Internet, come up with five factors that might explain this difference. Then, for each factor you have listed, come up with at least two possible plans of action that could address these factors.

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6. Obesity is more widespread among the African Americans than any other ethnic group in America. Using your library and the Internet, research the connection between socioeconomic status (a measure of a person’s social position based on wealth and education) and obesity for all races. Based on your research, can you determine whether socioeconomic status is related to obesity? If so, to what degree? Write a paper explaining your position. Support your arguments with statistics.

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BOOKS

Bloom, Miriam. Understanding Sickle Cell Disease. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1995. Hudson, Hilton M., and Herbert Stern. The Heart of the Matter: The African American’s Guide to Heart Disease, Heart Treatment, and Heart Wellness. Roscoe, Ill.: Hilton Publishing Company, 2000. Wright, Kai, ed. The African American Experience: Black History and Culture through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2009.

PERIODICALS Allday, Erin. “Breast Cancer Mortality Studied in Black Women.” San Francisco Chronicle (May 18, 2007): p. B1. Baker, Robert B. “African American Physicians and Organized Medicine, 1846 1968: Origins of a Racial Divide.” Journal of the American Medical Association 300 (July 16, 2008): pp. 306 313. Fear, Darryl. “Study: Many Blacks Cite AIDS Conspiracy.” Washington Post (January 5, 2005): p. A02. Rao, Vijaya, and Glenn Flores. “Why Aren’t There More African American Physicians? A Qualitative Study and Exploratory Inquiry of African American Students’ Perspectives on Careers in Medicine.” Journal of the National Medical Association, 99:9 (September 2007): p. 12. Weiss, Rick. “Bush Ejects Two from Bioethics Council: Changes Renew Criticism That the President Puts Politics Ahead of Science.” Washington Post (February 28, 2004): p. A6.

WEB SITES “African American Profile.” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: The Office of Minority Health. http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2& lvlID=51 (accessed on October 12, 2009). African American Eras

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“American Medical Association Apologizes for ‘Past History of Racial Inequality’ Toward Black Physicians.” Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnews today.com/articles/114819.php (accessed on September 29, 2009). “A Mutation Story.” PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/2/l 012 02.html (accessed on October 12, 2009). “Breast Cancer in Black Women May Be Connected to Neighborhood Conditions, Study Suggests.” Science Daily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/ 03/080317164342.htm (accessed on October 12, 2009). “Genes and Health.” Science Clarified. http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/ Genetics/Genes and Health.html (accessed on October 12, 2009). “Health Disparities: A Case for Closing the Gap.” HealthReform.gov. http://www .healthreform.gov/reports/healthdisparities/index.html (accessed on Septem ber 29, 2009). “Health of Black or African American Population.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/black health.htm (accessed on October 12, 2009). “Hispanic and African American Adults Are Uninsured at Rates One and One Half to Three Times Higher than White Adults.” Commonwealth Fund. http:// www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/News/News Releases/2006/Aug/His panic and African American Adults Are Uninsured at Rates One and a Half to Three Times Higher Tha.aspx (accessed on October 12, 2009). “Learning About Sickle Cell Disease.” National Human Genome Research Institute. http://www.genome.gov/10001219 (accessed on October 12, 2009). “Obesity and African Americans.” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: The Office of Minority Health. http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/content.aspx? ID=6456 (accessed on October 12, 2009). Satel, Sally. “Addressing Disparities in Health and Health Care: Issues for Reform.” American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. http://www .aei.org/speech/28128 (accessed on September 29, 2009). “Sickle Cell Disease.” March of Dimes. http://www.marchofdimes.com/profes sionals/14332 1221.asp (accessed on October 12, 2009).

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c h a p t e r ni n e

Chronology . . . . . . . . . 504 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 507 Headline Makers . . . . . . 510 Janice Rogers Brown . . Lani Guinier . . . . . Anita Hill . . . . . . Eric Holder . . . . . . Thurgood Marshall . . . Charles Moose . . . . Constance Baker Motley Charles J. Ogletree Jr. . Clarence Thomas . . .

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Topics in the News . . . . . 536 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Ends Racial Discrimination in Voting . . 536 Major Court Cases Define Affirmative Action . . . . . 540

Law and Justice Major Civil Rights Legislation Promotes Equality . . . Police Brutality Sparks Public Outcry . . . . . Controversy Erupts at Clarence Thomas’s Confirmation Hearing. . High Profile Cases Spark Debate About Hate Crime Laws . . . . . . Racial Profiling Generates Controversy . . . . . . Crime Emerges as a Major Issue for African American Communities .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark law designed to end racial discrimination in voting. 1966 Constance Baker Motley becomes the first African American woman to be appointed as a federal judge. 1967 October 2 Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. 1970 Congress extends key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for five years. 1972 Philosophy professor and Black Panther Party leader Angela Davis is tried and acquitted for the kidnapping and murder of a judge. 1974 Future Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas graduates from Yale Law School and begins working for John Danforth, the Missouri attorney general. 1975 Congress reauthorizes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for seven more years and adds a provision protecting voters who do not speak English as a first language. 1978 The Supreme Court decides Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, a ruling that strikes down university admissions programs that set aside a certain number of slots for minority students.

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1982 Congress extends key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for twenty-five years and also makes Section 2, the Act’s most important provision, a permanent part of the law. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits voting requirements or procedures that deny voting rights to any citizen based on race or membership in a language minority group. 1984 The Supreme Court decides Grove City College v. Bell, ruling that only the particular subdivision of a private institution receiving federal funds is required to comply with federal antidiscrimination law. 1988 Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which overturns Grove City College v. Bell and mandates that every subdivision of a private institution that receives federal funding must obey federal antidiscrimination law. 1989 African American Charles Ogletree begins his long, illustrious career as a professor at Harvard Law School. 1989 The Supreme Court decides City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., holding that a city program that gave preference to minority-owned businesses when awarding municipal contracts is unconstitutional.

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......................................................................................... 1991 President George H. W. Bush appoints African American judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Anita Hill comes forward with accusations that Thomas sexually harassed her when the two worked together at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Despite the claims of Hill, Thomas is confirmed to the Supreme Court. 1992 April 29 The four white police officers charged with police brutality for beating African American motorist Rodney King are acquitted of all charges, sparking a violent uprising in protest in Los Angeles. 1993 President Bill Clinton nominates African American lawyer Lani Guinier to the position of assistant attorney general for civil rights. Clinton ultimately withdraws her nomination in the face of controversy about Guinier’s scholarship. 1995 The Supreme Court decides Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Pena, holding that there is no constitutional difference between government policies—such as affirmative action—that use race to help racial minorities, and government policies—such as segregating schools—that use race to oppress racial minorities. 1996 The citizens of California adopt Proposition 209, an anti-affirmative

action measure that prevents the California state government from considering race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin when making decisions about public education, public employment, or public contracting. 1997 Anita Hill publishes her autobiographical book entitled Speaking Truth to Power. 1998 Lani Guinier is appointed as the first African American woman to hold a tenured professorship at Harvard Law School. 1998 June 7 White supremacists kill a black man, James Byrd Jr., in a hate crime that shocks the nation. Byrd’s attackers tied him to the back of their pickup truck and dragged him for three miles before he died. 1999 February 4 Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Liberian immigrant, is shot to death by four New York City police officers who wrongly believed he had a gun. Diallo’s shooting sets off a nationwide controversy over law enforcement’s treatment of African Americans. 2002 October African American police chief Charles Moose leads an investigation of the “Beltway sniper” serial killer, who terrified the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks with a string of thirteen random shootings.


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....................................................................................... 2003 February 26 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) publishes a study finding that, as of October 2002, only 12 white defendants had been executed for murders with black victims, compared with 178 black defendants executed for murders with white victims. 2003 The Supreme Court decides Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, two landmark affirmative action cases concerning the admissions policies at the University of Michigan. Grutter held that the “tailored” consideration of race in the university’s law school admissions decisions is acceptable. Gratz held that the consideration of race by the undergraduate admissions office at the University of Michigan is not sufficiently “tailored,” and therefore unconstitutional.

the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after her nomination had been stalled by Congress due to controversy created by her relative inexperience and extremely conservative views. 2006 Congress reauthorizes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another twentyfive years. 2007 The Supreme Court decides Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1., ruling that a plan designed to achieve racial integration in public schools by assigning students to schools solely on the basis of race is unconstitutional. 2009 Eric Holder becomes the first African American to serve as the U.S. attorney general.

2005 June 8 African American judge Janice Rogers Brown is confirmed to

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 ............................................................... Overview

Law and Justice ........................................................

OVERVIEW

The period from 1965 to the present is a time that has witnessed exceptional changes to the law and advances in justice for African Americans. A number of major pieces of legislation have offered important new protections and opportunities to African Americans, especially by protecting the right to vote and prohibiting employment discrimination. Individual African Americans have risen to positions of great prominence in their roles as judges, government officials, and professors. This period has also seen a lot of controversy. African Americans have drawn attention to the unfair, discriminatory treatment they have received at the hands of police departments and the criminal justice system. “Affirmative action”—the common term for any federal or state policies that grant preferential treatment to minorities applying for public education, public employment, or public contracting programs—has generated heavy criticism and sparked several high-profile court cases. Some well-known African American public figures have also been under scrutiny for reasons including decisions they made while in public office, ideas they expressed in academic writings, and politically conservative views they espoused. Some of the most important statutes (laws passed by Congress) in U.S. history benefitted African Americans in the 1960s as part of the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided African Americans with important protections against employment discrimination. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it possible for millions of African Americans to vote for the first time. African American men technically had the right to vote since the ratification (approval) of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1870. African American women gained the right to vote along with all American women with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. However, a combination of racist local voting laws and outright intimidation by parts of the white community prevented most African Americans in the South from voting. Many legal scholars believe the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the most important law of the twentieth century. The law made it possible for so many African Americans to exercise their right to vote, with the result being that many more African Americans now hold elected office than ever have before. For instance, in 1965 there were only two African Americans serving in Congress. As of 2009, there were 42 African Americans serving in Congress. Congress has passed many other important civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 allowed Congress to require numerous institutions and agencies to comply with federal civil rights law. The Civil African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

Rights Act of 1991 made it easier for African Americans to prove that they had been the victims of employment discrimination. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson tried to reinforce recently passed civil rights laws by issuing Executive Order 11246, requiring government agencies and federal contractors to take “affirmative action” to ensure that hiring and promotion practices in their organizations were nondiscriminatory. The order did not explain what types of action should be taken. The term “affirmative action” came to be applied to policies that gave minorities and women preferential treatment. Supporters of such policies argued they were necessary to counteract generations of discrimination. Critics said the policies were simply not fair, and certainly discriminatory. The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the issue several times. In 1978, in the famous case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Court held that some forms of affirmative action are constitutional but that other forms are unconstitutional. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Court became much more critical of affirmative action. It frequently struck down attempts to use race in education, employment, and contracting. But in 2003, in the companion cases of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court again ruled that some forms of affirmative action are constitutional. The Court stated that university admissions policies may use race to make decisions so long as they do so in a flexible, individualized way. They may not consider race rigidly and mechanically, as by setting required numbers of minority or female enrollments. State governments have also made important changes to the law. Beginning in the late 1990s, the controversy over affirmative action policies led the citizens of three states—California, Washington, and Michigan—to vote to ban their state governments from using any form of affirmative action. As of the summer of 2009, several other states were considering passing similar initiatives. During this time, African American leaders have called attention to the fact that black Americans are put into prison much more frequently than white Americans. For example, in the year 2000, African Americans comprised only 12 percent of the U.S. population. However, they comprised nearly 50 percent of the nation’s prison population. Scholars have pointed to numerous factors that contribute to this high rate of incarceration. Poverty and related social problems, strict sentencing policies for drug-related crimes, and disparities (unfair differences) in criminal sentencing all play a part. Many legal scholars have argued that police departments and the courts are systematically biased against African Americans. Police brutality—which occurs when police officers use excessive force and violence against a

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suspect—has been a particular source of concern because African Americans are the victims of police brutality far more often than members of any other racial group. In 1991, Rodney King, an African American man, received a severe beating from four white police officers in Los Angeles. King’s attack, which a witness captured on videotape, drew national attention to the issue of race-based police violence. After an all-white jury acquitted the police officers who beat King, riots broke out across Los Angeles. The issue of police brutality returned to the news in 1999 after police officers in New York shot and killed Amadou Diallo, a twenty-two-year-old black student, because they mistakenly believed he had a gun.

Law and Justice ........................................................

O VE RV IE W

Racial profiling—the practice of police officers enforcing the law more strictly or more often against members of certain racial groups—has also been a major issue during this time. Reports from African Americans and statistical evidence both suggest that racial profiling has long been a regular police practice. Racial profiling has been criticized because the practice is based on the prejudiced, stereotypical belief that African Americans are more likely to commit crimes than members of other racial groups. Most scholars believe the racial profiling is an ineffective law enforcement technique with many negative consequences. African Americans have also faced discrimination outside the legal system. Hate crimes are crimes for which perpetrators choose members of specific racial, ethnic, or gender groups for their victims. Hate crimes are motivated by fear, bias, and prejudice. African Americans continue to be the targets of hate crimes. The issue of hate crimes against African Americans drew national attention in 1998 after three white men brutally murdered a black man in Jasper, Texas. In response, many states imposed extra penalties for offenses considered hate crimes. The Supreme Court has ruled that such laws are permissible under the Constitution.


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JANICE ROGERS BROWN (1949– )

Janice Rogers Brown has had a long and influential career as a judge. She started out as an intermediate appeals court judge in California and went on to serve on the California Supreme Court. She joined the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C.) Circuit in 2005. Rogers has been both popular and controversial as a judge. She has strong conservative views that have won her both admirers and detractors.

California Supreme Court justice Janice Rogers Brown on May 17, 2005, during her nomination process to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C.) Circuit. ª Chip Somodevilla/ Reuters/Corbis

Janice Rogers Brown was born on May 11, 1949, in Greenville, Alabama. Her father was a sharecropper, or a person who farms someone else’s land in exchange for a share of the crops produced. Sharecropping was a common occupation for African Americans in the South for generations after the Civil War (1861–65). She grew up during the era of segregation (racial separation) in the South, so she attended all-black schools. She was especially close with her grandmothers, who taught her the value of hard work and dedication. They also taught her about Fred Gray (1930– ). Gray was a famous African American lawyer who had been an important part of the early civil rights movement. He used the law to fight for justice and social change, defending civil rights activists Rosa Parks (1913– 2005) and Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) in court. Her family opposed segregation, and they refused to enter restaurants or theaters that were segregated. Brown left the South to attend college and law school in California. As a student at California State University in Sacramento, she became even more interested in social change. She became involved with the liberal politics that were popular on college campuses at the time. However, her leanings toward liberal politics and social change would not last. Brown graduated from California State University in 1974. She then enrolled in law school at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). At UCLA, Brown came to believe that it was wrong for the judiciary, or court system, to try to push social change.

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Brown graduated from law school and passed the bar exam in 1977. She spent more than a decade as a lawyer for the state of California. She first served as deputy legislative counsel, and then she was a deputy attorney general. She then went to work for the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency. After her time as a government lawyer, she worked for two years in private practice, from 1989 to 1991.

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In 1991, California’s Republican governor Pete Wilson (1933– ) hired Brown as his legal affairs secretary. Wilson came to greatly admire Brown, and he nominated her in 1994 to the state’s Third District Court of Appeals. He nominated her again in 1996, this time to a position on the state’s highest court, the California Supreme Court. Her nomination to the California Supreme Court was controversial. A twenty-seven member panel of the California Bar rated her as “unqualified.” The panel pointed to the fact that she had only been a judge for two years. Brown had many supporters in California, including her political ally Governor Wilson. But she also had many supporters who, though they respected her personally, disagreed with her extremely conservative politics. In the end, she was confirmed to the California Supreme Court, where she served for a number of years. In Brown’s years on the California Supreme Court, she matured as a judge. She tended to vote along with the conservative wing of the court. She often used strong language to defend her opinions and was critical of those who disagreed with her. Probably her most famous opinion while on the California Supreme Court came in an opinion upholding Proposition 209. Proposition 209 was a state constitutional amendment passed by California voters. The amendment banned state government and statefunded schools from giving preferential treatment to minorities. In that case, Brown wrote a long criticism of the entire history of affirmative action, the term for policies that grant preferential treatment to minorities. Some people criticized her for this action, including the chief justice of the California Supreme Court. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that her long criticism of affirmative action was “unnecessary and inappropriate.” In 2003, President George W. Bush (1946– ) nominated Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The D.C. Circuit is one of the most prestigious federal appeals courts. Many of its judges have gone on to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Brown’s nomination was not universally popular. Congress at the time was bitterly divided along political lines, and Democrats in Congress tried to block many of the president’s court nominees. The president was not able to get Congress to confirm Brown in 2003, but he did not give up. Other public figures supported Brown as well, including Reverend Al Sharpton (1954– ). In African American Eras

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2005, President Bush again nominated her to the D.C. Circuit. This time, Senator John McCain (1936– ) assembled the so-called “Gang of 14,” a group of seven Democratic and seven Republican senators. The Gang of 14 pressured Congress to stop its internal feuding and take a vote on President Bush’s controversial judicial nominees. Finally, the full Senate took a vote on Brown, and confirmed her by a vote of fifty-six to forty-three. In 2005, it looked as if Brown’s judicial career might reach new heights. In that year, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (1930– ) retired from the U.S. Supreme Court. Some believed that President Bush might choose Brown to replace her. The Wall Street Journal listed Brown as one of the people it thought was most likely to be nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bush. In the end, President Bush chose Justice Samuel Alito (1950– ) to replace O’Connor. As of late 2009, Brown continued to serve as a judge on the D.C. Circuit.

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LANI GUINIER (1950– )

Lani Guinier has been a lawyer, activist, professor, and public servant. In all of these roles, she has fought for political representation and voting rights for African Americans and other underrepresented groups. She came to national attention when President Bill Clinton (1946– ) nominated her for assistant attorney general in 1993, a nomination that ultimately failed.

Lani Guinier walking with reporters during her nomination process to head the U.S. Civil Rights office in 1993. Political pressure ultimately killed her nomination. Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images

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Although she did not attain that particular position, she has been extremely successful as a lawyer, a writer, a teacher, and a scholar. She was the first African American woman to hold a tenured professorship at Harvard Law School.

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Guinier’s family life had a great impact on her future career. Lani Guinier was born in New York City on April 19, 1950. Her father was African American and her mother was white. Her mother taught her to learn about and appreciate her African American heritage. Although her mother’s roots were Polish, Russian, and Jewish, she wanted Lani to identify as “an Afro-American woman.” Guinier’s father was also a strong influence. Years before Guinier was born, her father was admitted to Harvard University. He had his admission revoked, however, when the school discovered he was black. The school would only admit one African American on scholarship that year, and Guinier’s father would have been the second. He went to work as an elevator operator, but he still wanted an education. He worked his way through college at New York’s City College. He also worked his way through law school at New York University. He was still working his way through law school and working as a salesman when Lani was born. Lani valued education as her father did. She was a good student in high school, graduating third in her class of more than one thousand students. Guinier continued her dedication to academics through college and law school. In college, Guinier developed some of the interests that she would carry through her career. She enrolled at Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1967. She maintained her academic excellence while also becoming involved with campus activism, rallying around various social causes. One interest she developed in college was voting rights. Voting rights were a central part of the civil rights movement. Although African Americans had won the right to vote years earlier, many states, especially in the South, passed tricky laws and regulations that made it harder for African Americans to exercise their right to vote. Her fight against this injustice would become a central part of Guinier’s career. From Harvard, Guinier went on to Yale Law School, where she enrolled in 1971. She was an excellent student there as well. While at Yale, she met fellow students Bill and Hillary Clinton (1947– ), who would be instrumental later in her career. When Guinier graduated from law school in 1974, she landed a prestigious judicial clerkship with Damon Keith (1922– ), a federal district judge in Detroit, Michigan. Judge Keith would go on to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. After her judicial clerkship, Guinier continued pursuing her passion for voting rights and political equality. She received an opportunity to serve African American Eras

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Assistant Attorney General Drew S. Days (1941– ) in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. While at the Department of Justice, Guinier worked to defend voting rights. Her work included monitoring state and local governments to be sure they conformed with the requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After she left the Department of Justice, Guinier went to work at the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Legal Defense Fund. She was one of the NAACP’s most successful lawyers. There, she won all but one of the cases she took to court. Following her time at the NAACP, Guinier’s career took a new path. She accepted an appointment as a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. As a law professor, Guinier’s job was to teach students about the law and to write articles on important legal issues. Her scholarship focused on the same issues she had focused on as a lawyer. She was concerned with issues of political participation and democratic representation. She was concerned with African Americans having a voice in the American political process, which she felt still discriminated against blacks. Her work was well received both by conservative and liberal professors. Guinier made national headlines in 1993, when President Bill Clinton nominated her to the position of assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. This was the same position that Drew Days had held at the Department of Justice when Guinier worked for him there. Given her experience, it seemed that Guinier should be an easy choice for the position. However, Guinier came under attack from conservatives. The conservative Wall Street Journal newspaper accused her of having “exotic” and undemocratic political views. Others accused her of reinforcing racial tension with her scholarship, even though she said that the purpose of her scholarship was to build consensus. Her supporters stressed that the purpose of her scholarship was to reform the political process so that more, not fewer, people would have a voice in the political process. Many who supported Guinier felt that her articles were being distorted and twisted. They said her opponents opposed civil rights and wanted to make President Clinton look like an extremist. In the end, though, President Clinton withdrew his support from Guinier’s nomination. She did not get a chance to have a confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate or to publicly defend her views. In the end, Guinier’s traumatic confirmation battle gave her new prominence and allowed her career to move in new directions. Many people, including the thirty-nine-member Congressional Black Caucus,

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were angry at the way Clinton had treated Guinier. The battle over her nomination brought many important civil rights issues to the forefront of the national news.

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Guinier has since remained an important legal scholar. In 1998, she joined the faculty of the Harvard Law School. She was the first African American woman ever to hold a tenured position there. In addition to her work as a member of the Harvard faculty, Guinier has taken short-term positions at several other prominent universities. She was a visiting professor at Columbia Law School in New York City in 2007. In the spring of 2009 she was a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Science.

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ANITA HILL (1956– )

Anita Hill is most famous for the allegations of sexual harassment she made against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (1948– ) during Thomas’s confirmation hearings in 1991. Beyond the confirmation hearings, Hill has also had a remarkably successful career.

Anita Hill testifies at the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. ª Bettmann/Corbis

Anita Hill was born on July 30, 1956, in a very small town in rural Oklahoma. She was the youngest of thirteen children. Four of the Hill siblings, including Anita, were the valedictorian of their high school class. Hill attended college at Oklahoma State University. She graduated with honors from the university with a degree in psychology in 1977. Directly after finishing college, she enrolled at Yale Law School. She graduated from Yale in 1980 and moved to Washington, D.C., to practice law. She worked at a law firm for one year before she went to work for the government at the Office for Civil Rights. It was there that Hill worked for Clarence Thomas for the first time. At first, Hill enjoyed working for Thomas. The working relationship took a turn for the worse, Hill alleged, when Thomas began sexually harassing her. Sexual harassment occurs in a workplace when one employee makes repeated sexual advances toward another employee that are unwanted African American Eras

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and uncomfortable. According to Hill, Thomas would make vulgar sexual comments to her and describe his favorite pornographic films. Hill claimed that Thomas eventually stopped harassing her. In 1982, Thomas took a job at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Thomas offered Hill a better job at the EEOC. Hill felt comfortable enough to take the job at EEOC because the harassment had stopped. The harassment unfortunately began again, according to Hill, so she decided to leave the EEOC in 1983. She moved back to her home state of Oklahoma and became a law professor. Hill was very successful as a law professor. She received tenure at the Oklahoma University College of Law in much shorter time than the process usually takes. Tenure is a status granted to the most successful professors, and it makes it very hard for them to be fired from their jobs. Most professors at Oklahoma University’s law school were not eligible for tenure until they had taught at the law school for six years. Hill earned tenure in just four years. Hill’s life changed forever in 1991. That July, President George H. W. Bush (1924– ) nominated Hill’s former boss, Clarence Thomas, to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. When the president nominates someone to serve as a Supreme Court justice, a majority of the Senate must vote to confirm that nomination. Part of the confirmation process involves an investigation into the nominee’s background. The Senate asked Hill about Thomas’s background. At first, according to the New York Times, she did not want to tell them that Thomas had sexually harassed her while he was her boss. She changed her mind after considering the enormous influence Supreme Court justices have. In October 1991, the Senate called Hill to Washington to testify about Thomas. She recounted her allegations against him. The senators asked her many questions in response. Some of them suggested she had fabricated the allegations, which means they thought she was lying. Others asked whether she had misunderstood Thomas or if she possibly had enjoyed the attention. Thomas himself strongly denied her version of events. Many experts who were familiar with the typical pattern of sexual harassment—in which a male supervisor harasses a female who works for him—thought Hill’s allegations were believable. In the end, the Senate voted to confirm Thomas to the Supreme Court despite Hill’s testimony. Hill described the process of testifying against Thomas by saying, “This has taken a great toll on me personally and professionally.” Some good did come out of the experience, however. Many experts believe that Hill’s testimony made the public aware that sexual harassment is a serious problem. One year after Thomas’s

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confirmation, Time magazine reported that, as a result of Hill’s testimony, “Victims of harassment do indeed seem more willing to take action.”

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After Justice Thomas’s confirmation hearings, Hill continued her career as a professor. She has published numerous scholarly articles and is very well respected. In 1997, she released an autobiographical book entitled Speaking Truth to Power. As of 2009, Hill was a professor of social policy, law, and women’s studies at Brandeis University in Boston.

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ERIC HOLDER (1951– )

Eric Holder is the first African American ever to serve as the attorney general of the United States. The attorney general is the highestranking law enforcement officer of the U.S. federal government. Holder has had a remarkable and accomplished legal career dedicated to public service. The position of attorney general is only one of several highranking government positions that he has been the first African American to hold.

U.S. attorney general Eric Holder in 2009. David McNew/Getty Images

Eric Holder was born on January 21, 1951, in New York City. His father was an immigrant from Barbados, as were his mother’s parents. As a young boy, he attended public schools, including a special school for academically gifted students. He later earned a scholarship to attend Stuyvesant High School, one of the best schools in New York City. Holder was an excellent student. After graduating from high school, Holder chose to continue his education in his hometown. He attended Columbia University, and did a lot of volunteer work in Harlem. He began to feel a call toward public service. He graduated from Columbia in 1973 with a degree in history. He immediately enrolled at Columbia Law School. He graduated from law school in 1976. After graduating from Columbia, Holder accepted a job at the Department of Justice. Holder worked there from 1976 to 1988. He worked in the Public Integrity Section. His job was to prosecute elected officials and other African American Eras

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public servants who were charged with corruption. Holder earned national recognition for his work. Among his most famous cases were his prosecution of a corrupt judge from Philadelphia who accepted a bribe and the Mafia figure who paid the bribe. In 1988, Holder left the Department of Justice after President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) appointed him to be a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Superior Court of the District of Columbia is the local trial court for the nation’s capital city. As a judge, Holder heard a wide variety of criminal and civil cases. He served as a judge for five years. His reputation as a hard-working and fair judge helped him earn his next job. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Holder to be the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. U.S. attorneys are criminal prosecutors who represent the United States in federal court. These jobs are very prestigious and selective. Holder became the first African American to serve as the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. He supervised an office of more than five hundred people, including three hundred lawyers. As U.S. attorney, Holder prosecuted a wide variety of cases. One of his most famous prosecutions was a corruption case against a powerful, influential congressman who was misappropriating public funds, which means he was taking the government’s money for himself instead of spending it on the public. Holder had a reputation as a very effective U.S. attorney. Holder credited his success to his previous experience in public service. In April 1997, President Clinton nominated Holder to be deputy attorney general. The deputy attorney general is the second highest ranking position in the Department of Justice, behind only the attorney general. When he was sworn in, Holder became the highest-ranking African American law enforcement official in U.S. history. Holder worked as the deputy attorney general for almost four years. Holder’s last day as deputy attorney general proved to be his most controversial. The day was January 19, 2001, Bill Clinton’s last full day as president. Presidents typically grant a number of pardons (a pardon excuses a person who may have committed a crime from being punished for it) on the last day of their administration. Part of Holder’s job as deputy attorney general was to advise President Clinton on who should get pardons. That day Holder considered a pardon request from a man named Marc Rich. Holder advised that it would not be a problem for Clinton to pardon Rich. Clinton pardoned Rich. Later, it was revealed that Rich’s ex-wife had donated a lot of money to President Clinton. Many Republicans accused Clinton and Holder of essentially accepting a bribe to pardon Rich. Holder had to testify to Congress and answer questions that

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challenged his integrity and reputation. Holder defended himself but also admitted he had made a mistake. “I wish I had done some things differently,” he told Congress.

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Following his time as deputy attorney general, Holder went to work at Covington & Burling, L.L.P., a law firm in Washington, D.C. It was the first time in Holder’s twenty-five-year career that he was not working for the government. Holder was a very successful private attorney. He handled numerous high-profile cases and clients. For example, Holder represented the National Football League in its investigation of quarterback Michael Vick (1980– ) in 2007 after Vick was arrested and charged with dog-fighting. While he was at Covington, Holder also considered running for mayor of Washington, D.C. His wife, Sharon Malone, convinced him to stay in private practice. Holder started down the road to becoming attorney general in 2007, when he accepted then-senator Barack Obama’s invitation to join Obama’s campaign for president. The decision to join Obama’s campaign was not an easy one for him. Holder had worked for President Clinton, whose wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, was also running for president. “Loyalty is something I value an awful lot,” Holder told Law.com in an interview. “But I was overwhelmed by Barack,” Holder explained. “We just clicked.” Holder was a very important part of Obama’s campaign. He made speeches, raised money, and provided advice. He also helped Obama (1961– ) select Joe Biden (1942– ) as his running mate and nominee for vice president. Less than a month after his historic victory in the 2008 presidential election, Obama announced that he would nominate Holder to be the first African American attorney general in the nation’s history. Holder became attorney general on February 2, 2009.

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THURGOOD MARSHALL (1908–1993)

Thurgood Marshall is best known as the first African American Supreme Court justice. Marshall was perhaps the most important champion of constitutional civil rights in the history of American law. He was able to protect and uphold these rights as a judge, but he had to fight to win these rights for African Americans as a lawyer. Marshall was born on July 2, 1908, in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents named him after his great-grandfather Thoroughgood Marshall, who came to America as a slave from the Congo. Marshall had a comfortable African American Eras

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U.S. Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, 1967. Bachrach/Getty Images

childhood. Marshall’s mother worked as a schoolteacher at a local segregated elementary school. His father worked at the local Gibson Island yacht club, which was for whites only. Marshall grew up on Druid Hill Avenue in Baltimore, where his family lived in a modest home. His grandfathers on both his mother’s and his father’s side owned grocery stores. Growing up, Marshall played with both white and black children in his neighborhood. Years later, Marshall would tell an interviewer that he never felt uncomfortable about being African American when he was growing up in Baltimore. He developed a love for the Constitution as a child because his parents would make him read it aloud as punishment 520


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when he got in trouble. By the time he graduated from high school, he knew the Constitution by heart.

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Marshall’s early career as a student was not promising. He was a mediocre student as a child. He dedicated himself more to his studies after his graduation from high school. Marshall attended college at Lincoln University in Philadelphia, where he started in 1925. At first, he wanted to be a dentist or a doctor. He turned from these possible professions, and ended up studying humanities while at Lincoln. These studies led him to consider a career in law. Marshall graduated from Lincoln with honors in 1930. Marshall next attended law school at Howard University, a historically black university. The law school at Howard was small and allblack. It was then that his career as a student really took off. He graduated first in his class from law school, earning his LLB degree in 1933. One of Marshall’s law professors at Howard, Charles Houston (1895– 1950), inspired him to work to change segregated, or racially separated, society. Marshall started off his career in private practice in Maryland after he passed the bar in 1933. In his first big court case, he represented a black student who wanted to attend law school at the University of Maryland. At the time, the law school was for whites only. Marshall fought hard and won a favorable ruling from the judge on his client’s behalf. Marshall then accepted a full-time job as an assistant counsel, or lawyer, with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), an important civil rights organization. Marshall spent his first years as a lawyer for the NAACP traveling all over the country to fight segregation. This was dangerous work at times, especially when he traveled to fight segregation in the South. He argued cases on behalf of black students against such major universities as the University of Missouri and the University of Texas. These students wanted to attend schools traditionally closed to blacks. Marshall won the respect of judges and lawyers all over the country for his knowledge of the Constitution. Marshall also brought a series of lawsuits challenging unequal pay for black and white teachers across the South. Marshall was truly interested in justice for all Americans, not just African Americans. In addition to fighting for desegregation in higher education for blacks, he also spoke out on behalf of Japanese Americans. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 (an act of military aggression that prompted U.S. entry into World War II), the U.S. government had Japanese Americans detained in internment camps (places where groups that are considered undesirable are isolated by the government). Marshall was an outspoken critic of the government’s actions toward these Japanese American citizens. African American Eras

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Marshall quickly rose through the ranks at the NAACP, and in just a couple years he was promoted to the role of special counsel. He succeeded Charles Houston, one of his professors and mentors from law school, who had had that role before him. During Marshall’s years as special counsel, he led the NAACP in much of the most important civil rights litigation in American history. He hired a team of talented young lawyers, most of them African American. African Americans still faced widespread discrimination and limited opportunities in the legal world at this time. Thus, Marshall was able to attract the best talent to work for him at the NAACP. Marshall’s biggest accomplishment as general counsel of the NAACP was leading the legal team that fought school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Brown is perhaps the most famous Supreme Court case of all time. The case started out as a lawsuit against the school board of Topeka, Kansas, over segregated schools. Up to that point, it was considered legal to have whites-only and blacks-only public facilities. This segregationist idea dated back to the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which ruled that schools and other institutions could be “separate but equal.” In that case, the Supreme Court held that separate accommodations for blacks and whites did not violate blacks’ constitutional rights, so long as the separate accommodations were “equal.” This case led to the proliferation, or rapid spread, of segregation and laws designed to keep the races separate in all areas of life. These separate accommodations were never really “equal.” African American schools typically had less funding, fewer supplies, out-of-date books, substandard facilities, and less-capable teachers. Marshall’s legal challenge in Brown went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. There, Marshall’s legal team won a unanimous decision. The Supreme Court held that the school segregation was unconstitutional, saying that segregating children based on their race creates a feeling of inferiority “that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” Of the Court’s decision in Brown, Marshall said that it “probably did more than anything else to awaken the Negro from his apathy to demanding his right to equality.” Indeed, Brown was a watershed moment in the civil rights movement. Marshall worked at the NAACP until 1961. That year, President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) nominated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The U.S. Senate must confirm a president’s nominees to the federal judiciary. Opposition from Southern senators delayed Marshall’s appointment to the Second Circuit for eleven months. He was confirmed in the end, and he served on the Second Circuit for four years. President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) then nominated Marshall to the position of U.S. solicitor general. The solicitor general

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argues cases on behalf of the United States in federal appeals courts, especially the U.S. Supreme Court.

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President Johnson nominated Marshall for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Marshall’s nomination faced opposition not only from Republicans but also from Democrats. The most strenuous opposition to his nomination came from four senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee from the racially tense South. In the end, Marshall was confirmed by a vote of 69–11. Marshall continued to be a champion of individual rights on the Supreme Court. His first few years on the Court were notable for several influential opinions he wrote. Two of these were in the area of the First Amendment, which protects the rights of free speech and other expression. First, he wrote for the majority of the Court in Amalgamated Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza (1968). In that case, the Supreme Court held that the owners of private shopping centers must allow citizens to protest or distribute pamphlets. This is because shopping centers are important public gathering places. Logan Valley Plaza was overruled in 1976, but it remains an extremely important First Amendment case. Marshall wrote another early First Amendment opinion in Stanley v. Georgia (1969). Stanley was a landmark case in which the Court held that the government could not punish a person for merely possessing obscene materials in his home. Marshall argued that the only reason for the government to ban someone for having obscene material is to prevent him from having impure thoughts. Freedom of thought is protected by the First Amendment. Hence, the government is not free to make these kinds of laws. Marshall fit in well with the other justices on the Court in his early career. His first few years on the Court were the last years of what is known as the “Warren Court.” The Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren (1891–1974) is remembered as one of the most politically liberal eras in the entire history of the Court. During that time, the Court made many influential decisions protecting individual rights. However, when Republican Richard M. Nixon (1913–94) was president in the early 1970s, he nominated four much more conservative justices to the Court, changing the makeup of the Court to one not as inclined to protect individual rights. During the last twenty-two years Marshall served on the U.S. Supreme Court, he was a part of a minority on the Court. Despite the Court’s conservative shift, Marshall continued to fight for individual rights. However, he seldom wrote majority opinions for the Court on individual rights cases because he did not vote along with the conservative majority on these issues. In Marshall’s later career on the African American Eras

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Supreme Court, he wrote many famous dissents. Dissents are opinions written by justices who did not vote along with the majority of the Court. They explain why the dissenters disagree with the Court’s decision. One of Marshall’s most famous dissents was in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973). In that case, the majority of the justices said that unequal tax funding for poor and rich schools did not violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection for all. Marshall strenuously dissented. His dissent was a full sixty-three pages long, far longer than is typical. Marshall said the Court was going along with “a system which deprives children in their earliest years of the chance to reach their full potential as citizens.” Marshall reluctantly retired from the Supreme Court in 1991, the year before he died. He suspected—and rightly so—that his successor would be Clarence Thomas, an African American justice as conservative as Marshall was liberal.

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CHARLES MOOSE (1953– )

Charles Moose is most famous for his leadership role in the investigation of the high-profile “Beltway Sniper” case in 2002. The case involved the random sniper shootings of 13 people (ten of whom died) in the area around Washington, D.C. (The Beltway refers to the highway that rings the Washington, D.C. area.) But even before that case propelled him into the national spotlight, Moose had been a highly successful police chief in both Portland, Oregon, and Montgomery County, Maryland. Charles Moose was born in New York City, but he spent most of his childhood in the South. His mother was a nurse and his father was a high school biology teacher. Moose’s father was finishing his degree at Columbia University at the time Moose was born. The family was originally from North Carolina, and they returned there once the degree was complete. They settled in Lexington, North Carolina. Schools in the South during that time were segregated, so Moose attended all-black schools through high school. When it was time for Moose to attend college, he chose the prestigious University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He majored in history there and dreamed of going to law school. Moose’s dreams of a career in the law took a detour toward the end of college. In one of his classes, he had the opportunity to meet with a police recruiter as a class assignment. He had never considered a career in law enforcement, but he became interested. He signed up to be a patrol officer in Portland, Oregon. At that point, Moose still thought about a career in the law. However, he thought he would take a police job for a few years as preparation. 524


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Charles Moose at a press conference, updating reporters on the Beltway Sniper investigation in 2002. Paul J. Richards/AFP/ Getty Images

Moose’s career as a police officer was successful early on. He often worked as an undercover police officer. One of his early successes was an undercover investigation into a forty-person ring of stolen-goods traders. He and his fellow officers made the national news with the investigation. Moose continued his education while on the Portland squad, earning a master’s degree and a doctorate. He received many promotions for his excellent policing. After eighteen years on the force, he was promoted to lead the entire force as chief of police. During Moose’s years as chief, Portland enjoyed a decrease in crime. Moose often spoke out against racial profiling, or applying laws and police procedures more strictly with some ethnic groups than others. His experience in Portland showed that racial profiling was not necessary to achieve positive results. African American Eras

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In 1999, Moose was recruited to be the chief of police in Montgomery County, Maryland. The county’s police force had been in trouble and was in need of reform. The department had been accused multiple times of racial profiling. The county council thought that Moose would be the perfect person for the job because of his successes and strong opposition to racial profiling. Moose reorganized the one-thousand-person department, streamlining its operations (meaning that he made them more efficient). He also investigated charges of racial profiling by the department and concluded that allegations were unfounded. He defended the county police in the national news, telling the Washington Post, “We don’t have any evidence of racial profiling.” The case that propelled Moose into the national spotlight was his investigation of the so-called “Beltway sniper” in 2002. A sniper is someone who shoots at exposed individuals, usually in public places, from a concealed location. The Beltway sniper was a serial killer responsible for ten deaths over the course of a three-week shooting spree in the Washington, D.C., area. The shooter was John Allen Muhammad who, in the company of Lee Boyd Malvo, a minor, randomly shot thirteen people, killing ten and critically injuring three. These shootings caused a public panic, as people were killed at random at everyday places like gas stations and parking lots. Moose spoke often to the media during the hunt for the sniper, because the first shooting happened in Montgomery County. Some people praised Moose for his calm on camera. He reassured the public that the police were working hard to keep them safe. Others criticized him for his handling of the investigation. They said he had made some serious errors in handling the case. In 2003, Moose left the Montgomery County police force for good. His departure was controversial. He had announced that he had sold the movie rights to his life and intended to write a book about his experiences with the Beltway sniper case. Montgomery County barred him from working on these projects while still heading the police force. Moose decided to leave and pursue his projects. In late 2003, he released his book, Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the Serial Sniper. In 2006, Moose resumed his career as a law enforcement officer as a member of the Honolulu, Hawaii, police department.

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CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY (1921–2005)

Constance Baker Motley was one of the great trailblazers of the civil rights movement. During her long and storied career, she was a civil rights attorney, an elected official, and a federal judge. She was the first African American woman to hold a number of high-profile positions. 526


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Constance Baker Motley, the first African American female federal judge, with President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Constance Baker Motley was born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut. She was the ninth of twelve children. Her parents were immigrants from a small island in the Caribbean called Nevis. Motley was the president of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) youth council while still in high school. Based on her early experience with the NAACP, Motley decided she wanted to become a lawyer. Motley’s family could not afford to send her to college. However, while Motley was in high school, a local white philanthropist (someone who makes charitable donations for the benefit of humankind) named Clarence Blakeslee heard Motley make a speech. He was so impressed with her that he offered to pay for her to go to college. Motley accepted his offer and remained grateful to him throughout her life. She began college at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, Fisk was an all-black institution. After one year at Fisk, Motley transferred to New York University. She graduated from there with a degree in economics. In 1944, Motley enrolled at Columbia Law School. While she was in law school, she met Thurgood Marshall, who was the chief counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Motley spent her law school summers working for the NAACP, and when she graduated in 1946, she joined the organization full-time. African American Eras

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Motley worked at the NAACP until 1964. She had an incredibly successful career at the NAACP. In the early 1950s, she played an important role in the NAACP’s litigation of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that ordered desegregation of public schools. Later, she was the lead attorney on ten U.S. Supreme Court cases. She was the first African American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. She was a remarkably effective Supreme Court advocate; she won nine of her ten cases. One of the most famous cases she won was 1962’s Meredith v. Fair. At the time, Mississippi was a stronghold of racial segregation. Meredith v. Fair required the University of Mississippi to admit its first black student, James Meredith. The case was a landmark victory for the civil rights movement. Motley’s high-profile success as a civil rights lawyer helped her build a distinguished reputation. In 1964, she decided to enter politics. That year, she became the first African American woman to be elected to the New York State Senate. She served in the Senate until February of 1965, when the New York City Council chose her to be the Manhattan borough president. Borough presidents are a very important part of the administration of New York’s city government. Motley was the first African American woman to serve as a borough president. Motley attained another notable first in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson nominated her to be a federal judge. She became the first African American woman to serve as a federal judge. She had a long and distinguished career as a judge. She made one of her most famous judicial decisions in 1979. She ruled that a female sports reporter was entitled to the same access to the New York Yankees’ locker room to perform interviews that male reporters received. Motley continued to serve as a judge until she died in 2005. Her death prompted a flood of tributes and remembrances. “One cannot consider civil rights in America without paying homage to Constance Baker Motley,” one obituary said. “Motley survived insults, threats and setbacks to personify that spirit of organized struggle and legal strategy that made America a more just and democratic country for all.”

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CHARLES J. OGLETREE JR. (1952– )

Charles J. Ogletree Jr. is a lawyer and law professor who devoted his career to fighting for the right to a fair trial. He particularly focused on fighting for the rights of poor people who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer. This right is guaranteed by the Constitution but not always practiced. 528


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Ogletree was born in Merced, California, on New Year’s Eve (December 31), 1952. Merced is a rural community in California that had a small African American population. He was very close with his grandparents on his mother’s side, whom he called Big Daddy and Big Mama. He has said that they were a tremendous influence on his legal career, especially on the way he composed himself in the courtroom. Ogletree was known for remaining calm and collected during a trial. Ogletree’s university years sparked his interest in the law. He attended college at Stanford University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1974 and a master’s degree in 1975. At Stanford, Ogletree embraced radical politics. He edited a Black Panther newspaper. The Black Panther Party was started in Oakland, California, very close to Stanford, in 1967. It was closely connected to the black power movement, which, in turn, was heavily influenced by the teachings of civil rights leader Malcolm X (1925–65). The black power movement was a diverse political movement in the 1960s and 1970s that stressed the need for African American unity and pride and, if necessary, aggressive action against white oppression. In particular, Ogletree was influenced by the trial of Angela Davis (1944– ), a leader of the Black Panther Party who was tried and acquitted of murder. He attended every day of Davis’s trial, which began Ogletree’s interest in the law. After his time at Stanford, Ogletree enrolled in Harvard Law School, from which he received his law degree in 1978.

Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree in 2009. ª Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis

After law school, Ogletree moved to Washington, D.C., where he became a public defender. Public defenders are typically government lawyers who represent criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney but have a constitutional right to be represented by an attorney at trial. After a number of years as a successful trial lawyer in Washington, D.C., Ogletree was hired as an assistant professor of law at Harvard University in 1989. Ogletree has made important contributions as a member of the faculty at Harvard. He became the director of the school’s trial advocacy workshops. These workshops give students at Harvard Law School an African American Eras

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opportunity to get hands-on experience with the law. This is an important experience for many law students, who claim that their law training is too theoretical and does not teach them enough practical skills. In 1991, Ogletree also founded Harvard Law’s Criminal Justice Institute. The institute provides legal services for people in poor communities in Boston. Ogletree achieved more recognition in 1991, when the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) asked him to investigate and write a report on the legal career of Clarence Thomas. Thomas had been nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by then-president George H. W. Bush. Thomas’s nomination to the Court was historic for a number of reasons, one of which was that he would be only the second African American to serve on the Supreme Court. The NAACP thought initially that it would support Thomas for that reason, even though Thomas was a conservative Republican and generally not known to be supportive of civil rights issues. Ogletree’s investigation of Thomas’s legal background led him to draft a thirty-page report for the NAACP. The NAACP, based on that report, decided not to endorse Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination. Ogletree’s involvement with Justice Thomas’s confirmation process did not stop there. During the confirmation, allegations surfaced that Thomas had sexually harassed one of his former staff members. Anita Hill had worked for Thomas while he was at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). These allegations sparked a vicious confirmation battle for Thomas before the U.S. Senate. Hill was called to testify and was grilled by both Republican and Democratic senators. Ogletree served as Hill’s attorney, representing her throughout Thomas’s confirmation process. In addition to his work as a lawyer and law professor, Ogletree has been an important commentator on the state of race in America. He has been a vocal advocate of reparations, or payments from the government to the descendants of African Americans who were legally enslaved in the United States until 1865. Ogletree’s career at Harvard has made the news in the early 2000s because he taught both President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (1964– ) when they were law students there. Ogletree was also in the news in the summer of 2009 when he represented fellow Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1950– ) following Gates’s arrest for disorderly conduct on the front steps of his home by Cambridge, Massachusetts, police. Charges against Gates, who is African American, were quickly dropped, but the incident sparked renewed controversy about police treatment of African Americans.

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CLARENCE THOMAS (1948– )

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Clarence Thomas is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is just the second African American to serve on the highest court in the nation. Thomas succeeded the first, Thurgood Marshall, when he joined the Supreme Court in 1991. Thomas’s career as a justice has been polarizing, which means people have very different opinions about him. His nomination to the Court was highly controversial. Some people also criticized him for his conservative political views. Others praise him for those same views, and his life story is marked by an inspiring rise out of extreme poverty. Childhood in the Jim Crow South Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in Pin Point, Georgia. Pin Point is a tiny town on the Georgia coast. His mother Leola was only eighteen years old when Thomas was born. When Thomas was two years old, his father left the family. Thomas lived in a one-room wooden house that did not have plumbing or electricity for the first seven years of his life. The house burned down when Thomas was seven. Thomas’s mother sent him and his younger brother to live with their maternal grandparents (his mother’s parents).

Moving in with his grandparents changed Thomas’s life forever. His grandparents—especially his grandfather, Myers Anderson—were so influential in his life that when Thomas published his autobiography in 2007, he titled it My Grandfather’s Son. Thomas’s grandfather was hardworking and

Clarence Thomas at an all white Catholic high school he attended in Savannah, Georgia. AP Images


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self-reliant. He taught Thomas that hard work was the key to success in life. He refused to give in to the racism and discrimination he faced on a daily basis in the Jim Crow South. (Jim Crow laws were laws that required black Americans to live separate and apart from white Americans because whites believed blacks were inferior to them.) Thomas’s grandfather sent Thomas and his brother to school at St. Benedict the Moor, an all-black Catholic school. After Thomas graduated from middle school, he attended a Catholic high school for two years before his grandfather insisted that he transfer to a predominantly white Catholic boarding school in Savannah, Georgia. Thomas was an honors student at the school. He was also the target of his classmates’ racism. Thomas had previously attended all-black schools and had grown up in a segregated community, so this was his first prolonged exposure to racism. Thomas also attended a seminary in Missouri. He left that seminary after hearing a classmate say that he was happy that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. In 1968, Thomas enrolled at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. No one in Thomas’s family before him had attended college. In college Thomas learned the ideas and writings of famous black intellectuals such as Booker T. Washington (c. 1865–1915) and Malcolm X. Thomas also associated himself with the Black Panthers, a radical African American group that advocated revolutionary ideas. He once urged his fellow students to join him in a protest of apartheid (a system of racial separation imposed by the white minority on the black majority population) in South Africa. Thomas was one of only six black students in his class at Holy Cross. Thomas felt that his white classmates believed that he and his fellow black students had only been admitted to the college because of their race, not because they had earned it or deserved to be there on their merits. Thomas proved himself to be a top student. In 1971, he graduated ninth in his class, earning a degree in English. The day after he graduated, he married Kathy Ambush, a student at a nearby women’s college whom he had met during his time at Holy Cross. Begins Law Career Shortly after he graduated from college, Thomas enrolled at Yale Law School. Thomas joined the law school under Yale’s newly implemented affirmative action program, in which minority applicants received more lenient consideration from the admissions department than white applicants. Just as he had at Holy Cross, at Yale Thomas felt that his white classmates believed he was an unqualified student who had only been admitted because he was black. It was while he was in law school that Thomas began to develop

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his conservative political outlook. He became convinced that many programs, such as affirmative action, which were intended to benefit African Americans, in fact do more harm than good. While many black students at the time studied civil rights law, Thomas set out to fight the stereotypes he faced by studying business law subjects. He hoped that learning these subjects would help him land a job with a prestigious law firm.

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Thomas began looking for a job prior to graduation, but his hopes of working for a major law firm were quickly dashed. Most firms refused to offer him a job even though he was graduating from one of the best law schools in the country. As Thomas later described in his interviews, “one high-priced lawyer after another asked pointed questions, unsubtly suggesting that they doubted I was as smart as my grades indicated.” The firms that did offer Thomas a job offered him a much lower salary than they offered white law school graduates. Thomas was deeply offended by this treatment. He decided to seek employment with the government instead of at a law firm. Thomas graduated from Yale in 1974. After graduation, he went to work for John Danforth (1936– ), the attorney general of the state of Missouri, the same state where Thomas briefly attended seminary. As an assistant attorney general, Thomas worked in the taxation division and was not asked to be involved in civil rights cases. He was able to practice exactly the kind of business law he had studied in school. In 1977, he left the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. He worked for the Monsanto Corporation, a chemical company that specializes in making pesticides. He moved to Washington, D.C., two years later to be a legislative aide to Danforth, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. While he was working in Washington, D.C., Thomas was introduced for the first time to a community of black intellectuals who shared his conservative political views. He joined the advisory board of the Lincoln Review, a well-known black conservative journal. In 1980, Ronald Reagan—who, like Thomas, had a very conservative philosophy—was elected president. President Reagan was looking for conservative African Americans to work in his administration. Thomas’s association with the Lincoln Review helped him land a job in the Reagan administration. The job was in the Office of Civil Rights—exactly the kind of position that Thomas refused to consider when he was a student at Yale. However, Thomas accepted the job in 1981. Becomes Chair of EEOC The next year, Thomas was promoted. He became the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC is the government agency that is responsible for enforcing the laws that prohibit African American Eras

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employers from discriminating against their employees. Thomas’s first case at the EEOC was against General Motors. The auto manufacturer agreed to settle the case for 42.5 million dollars. At the time, it was the largest settlement in EEOC history. Thomas also worked to bring the EEOC’s policies more in line with the conservative philosophy he shared with President Reagan. For example, Thomas had the EEOC stop encouraging companies to use affirmative action in hiring and promotion. His decisions drew a lot of criticism. Some people went so far as to call him a traitor to his race. Thomas and his wife Kathy also divorced in 1981. In 1987, he married a woman named Virginia Lamper. Thomas stayed at the EEOC until 1990. He left after President George H. W. Bush nominated him to be a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. When the president nominates someone to serve as a federal judge, a majority of the Senate must vote to confirm that nomination. Thomas’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit was uncontroversial. He was confirmed easily. Thomas had been a judge for only fifteen months when Justice Thurgood Marshall—the first African American ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court—announced he was retiring from the Supreme Court. President Bush wanted to nominate another African American to take Marshall’s place. He nominated Thomas to the Supreme Court in July of 1991. Controversial Supreme Court Nomination From the start, Thomas’s nomination was very controversial. Many members of the American Bar Association, a national lawyers group, argued that Thomas was not qualified to be a Supreme Court justice. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) opposed Thomas’s confirmation because of the positions he had taken at the EEOC and his opposition to affirmative action. The biggest source of controversy emerged several months after Thomas’s nomination. In October of 1991, a lawyer named Anita Hill came forward and alleged that Thomas had sexually harassed her when they were coworkers at the Office of Civil Rights and the EEOC. Sexual harassment occurs in a workplace when one employee makes repeated sexual advances toward another employee that are unwanted and uncomfortable. Hill testified in great detail at Thomas’s confirmation hearing about his alleged harassment. Several other women who had worked for Thomas supported Hill, while other women said her allegations were not true. The hearing was carried live on television and became a national spectacle.

Thomas was angered by the accusations and by what he felt was unfair treatment. The Senate voted to confirm Thomas despite the controversy. The 534


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vote was only 52–48. It was the closest confirmation vote of any nominee to the Supreme Court in the entire twentieth century. Thomas has followed a very conservative judicial philosophy as a Supreme Court justice. In fact, by many measures he has been the most conservative member of the Court. Some of Thomas’s most famous opinions as a justice have been his opinions in cases involving race. For example, in a concurring opinion (meaning he agreed with the majority opinion) in U.S. v. Fordice (1992), Thomas vigorously defended the value of historically black colleges and universities. On Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), the Court upheld the use of affirmative action in university admissions. Thomas wrote a long and eloquent dissent (statement of disagreement). Thomas has also gained notoriety for his silence during oral arguments. During oral argument, the lawyers on each side of a case come to the Supreme Court, and the justices ask the lawyers questions that help them decide the case. Most of the justices are active during oral argument, asking numerous questions. However, as of June 2009, Justice Thomas has not asked a question during oral argument for more than three years. In interviews, Thomas has explained that he prefers to listen during oral argument, that he thinks the other justices ask too many questions, and that he developed the habit of staying quiet when he was the only African American student in his high school classes. Thomas was in the news in 2007 when he published his autobiography My Grandfather’s Son. As a justice, Thomas has gradually earned a reputation as a thoughtful and principled judge among conservatives and liberals alike.


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Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. U.S. Supreme Court

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THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 ENDS RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN VOTING Many legal scholars consider the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to be the single most important statute (law enacted by Congress) passed in the twentieth century. The Voting Rights Act was designed to prevent state and local governments—primarily in Southern states—from using racially discriminatory tools to prevent African Americans and other racial minorities from voting. The act has been an overwhelming success and remains in force in the twenty-first century. Before the Civil War (1861–65), it was illegal for African Americans to vote. After the Civil War, three amendments were added to the Constitution that were designed to provide African Americans with equal rights and full citizenship. The Fifteenth Amendment specifically prohibited racial discrimination in voting and elections. The amendment states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified (officially added to the Constitution) in 1870. State governments throughout the South responded to the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment by passing new laws. These laws technically did not discriminate on the basis of race. However, they were designed to prevent African Americans from voting. For example, many Southern states only extended the right to vote to those citizens who could pass a literacy test. African Americans did not have the same access to good schools that whites did, so many African Americans failed the literacy tests. Furthermore, the tests were selectively applied, meaning not everyone was required to take one. Poll workers often singled out African American voters to take a literacy test, or gave them harder questions than they did white voters. Poll taxes, or taxes charged as a requirement for voting, were also passed. These taxes also targeted blacks, who were more likely to be poor. These laws, combined with physical intimidation and harassment by some members of the white community, effectively prevented most African Americans from being able to vote. In 1940, seventy years after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, only 1 percent of all eligible African Americans were registered to vote in the state of Mississippi. Act Has Immediate Benefits In the early 1960s, the civil rights movement drew the nation’s attention to the problem of racial discrimination in voting in the South. President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) responded by asking Congress to 536


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pass a federal law that would prevent such discrimination. Numerous Southern representatives and senators strongly opposed a voting rights law. Despite their opposition, the law passed. On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The Voting Rights Act contains two major provisions. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act directly forbids racial discrimination. Section 2 prohibits the use of any “standard, practice, or procedure” that “results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizens of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” The second major provision of the Voting Rights Act is section 5. Section 5 requires those states with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination in voting to obtain the federal government’s approval before they can enact changes to their voting laws. This is known as the “preclearance” requirement because it requires the states to obtain clearance from the federal government before they act. Passage of the Voting Rights Act had immediate, powerful effects. For example, in the state of Mississippi in 1960, only 5 percent of African Americans who were eligible to vote had registered to vote. By 1968, that number had risen to almost 60 percent. Similar increases were seen across


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African American voters line up outside a polling station in Alabama in 1966. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 struck down the unfair policies that kept many African Americans from voting. MPI/Hulton Archives/Getty Images

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the South. In 1965, only 2 million African Americans were registered to vote throughout the South. By the mid-1970s, 3.3 million African Americans were registered to vote in Southern states. In addition, between 1965 and 1990, the number of African Americans serving in Congress and in state legislatures rose from 2 to 160. Many white Southerners opposed the Voting Rights Act. They quickly filed lawsuits arguing that the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional. The first case challenging the Voting Rights Act reached the Supreme Court in 1966. In South Carolina v. Katzenbach, the Supreme Court ruled that the Voting Rights Act was constitutional and strongly endorsed the act’s goals. Chief Justice Earl Warren, who had also written the famous decision Brown v. Board of Education, was the author of the Court’s decision. Warren, on behalf of the Court, wrote that the Constitution allowed Congress to pass legislation to overcome almost one hundred years of systematic resistance. He also expressed hope that the millions of African Americans who had long been denied the right to vote finally would be able to participate in government on an equal basis with whites. Act Is Renewed and Challenged in Court When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it hoped that the problem of racial discrimination in voting could be quickly eliminated. It also recognized that the act’s provisions imposed burdens on state governments and made it more difficult for the states to run their elections. As a result, several sections of the Voting Rights of Act of 1965 included sunset provisions, which provide that a law will “sunset” and no longer be a law after a certain period of time. Important parts of the Voting Rights Act were set to sunset after only five years.

As a result, in 1970, Congress voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act for another five years. Congress also added some new provisions. Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had only banned the use of literacy tests in the South, the 1970 extension banned the use of literacy tests nationwide. Just as the initial passage of the act had been challenged in court, lawsuits were filed challenging the constitutionality of the 1970 changes. In Oregon v. Mitchell, the Supreme Court upheld all of the provisions of the 1970 extension of the Voting Rights Act. In 1975, Congress again voted to extend the Voting Rights Act. This time, the provisions of the act were extended for seven years. Congress also made an important change. The provisions of the Voting Rights Act were expanded so that they addressed voting discrimination not only against racial minorities but also “language minority groups”—potential voters who did not speak English as a first language. The 1975 amendments 538


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required states with a large number of voters who do not speak English to provide ballots in a language other than English.

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Five years later, the Voting Rights Act encountered its first major setback in court. In Bolden v. Mobile, the Supreme Court ruled that the Voting Rights Act did not make it illegal for states to pass voting laws that had the unintended effect of disenfranchising (denying the vote to) African American voters. The Court explained that the Voting Rights Act applied only to intentional, purposeful discrimination, not laws that were passed for non-discriminatory reasons that had the unintended, accidental effect of discriminating against African American voters. Congress responded in 1982. Just as it had in 1970 and 1975, Congress reauthorized the provisions of the Voting Rights Act that were scheduled to expire that year. This time, Congress reauthorized them for the longest period yet—twenty-five years. In addition, Congress addressed the Supreme Court’s decision in Bolden. Congress amended section 2 of the Voting Rights Act so that it also prohibited voting standards, practices, or procedures that had a discriminatory effect, even if that discrimination was unintentional. Finally, Congress also removed the sunset provision from section 2 and made that portion of the act permanent. In 2006, one year before various provisions of the Voting Rights Act were set to expire, Congress once again voted for a twenty-five-year reauthorization. Once again, the Supreme Court heard a court case that challenged the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act. In Northwest

Congressman John Lewis holds a press conference after the vote to extend the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2006. Scott J. Ferrell/ Congressional Quarterly/ Getty Images


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Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder (2009), the Supreme Court once again ruled that the act was constitutional. “The historic accomplishments of the Voting Rights Act are undeniable,” the Court said. However, the Court also cautioned that some parts of the Voting Rights Act, especially section 5’s preclearance requirement, might need to be modified. Section 5 requires any change to local voting procedure to be cleared by the federal government, but the section only applies to certain states and districts (mostly in the South and Southwest).

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MAJOR COURT CASES DEFINE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION The Supreme Court of the United States has played a major role in shaping the law in ways that affect the lives of many African Americans. Specifically, the Supreme Court has decided a number of cases about the constitutionality of affirmative action. Between 1980 and 2010, the law governing affirmative action changed substantially. Affirmative action is a policy of treating applicants to public education, public employment, or public contracting programs more favorably because of their race, ethnicity or gender. Beginning in the 1960s, many public universities and employers working for the government had quotastyle affirmative action policies. These policies reserved a certain number of spots in the university for African American students or required government employers to hire or promote a fixed number of African American employees. Affirmative action has always been controversial. Supporters of affirmative action argue that it helps remedy (make up for) the past wrongs suffered by African Americans and other minority groups. They also argue that affirmative action promotes diversity in the workplace and in the classroom. Opponents of affirmative action argue that it is always bad to treat people differently based on their race. They contend that it is unfair for white applicants to universities and government jobs to be treated unfavorably simply because they are white. Bakke Case Addresses Affirmative Action in Education The Supreme Court’s first major decision on affirmative action came in 1978. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Court held that some forms of affirmative action are constitutional but that other forms are unconstitutional. In Bakke, a white student who had been denied admission to the University of California at Davis’s medical school sued the medical school. The medical school admitted one hundred students each year. The school reserved sixteen spots in every class for minority students.

The white student argued that it was unconstitutional for the medical school not to allow him to apply for admission to those sixteen spots. The 540


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Supreme Court agreed with that part of the white student’s argument. The Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the medical school to use an admissions quota—to set aside a certain number of spots in each entering class and not allow white students to have any chance to earn one of those spots. The Court concluded that white applicants were not considered for any of the seats specifically set aside for minority students simply because of their race.

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The Court did rule that a different kind of affirmative action would be constitutional. Specifically, the Court said that race or ethnic background could be deemed a “plus” in a particular applicant’s file so long as it did not protect that applicant from competing against all other candidates for all the available seats. Universities and other public institutions were not allowed to use quotas, but they were free to set goals or targets of minority enrollment or hiring. Bakke thus established two rules. Flexible, individualized consideration of race was constitutional. Rigid, mechanical consideration of race was prohibited. Two Cases Restrict Affirmative Action in Government Contracting The Supreme Court did not decide another case about affirmative action in university admissions after Bakke for twenty-five years. In the meantime, it decided two very important cases about affirmative action in the area of government contracting.

In 1989, the Supreme Court decided City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co. The Supreme Court ruled that a city program that gave preference to minority-owned businesses when awarding contracts was unconstitutional. The city argued that giving preference to businesses owned by African Americans and members of other racial minority groups was a good way to make up for the past injustices that had been committed against those groups. The Supreme Court rejected that argument. The Court said that the city could not rely on the fact that African Americans had been subjected to discriminatory treatment in the past. The city could not even rely on the fact that African Americans had been discriminated against in the construction business overall, the Court said. Rather, the Court concluded that the city was required to show that African American construction companies in that particular city had faced discrimination. One of the city’s main arguments was that it should not be difficult to justify using race in a way that is favorable to African Americans and other minority groups. The city argued that benign (friendly) uses of race were not as concerning as hostile uses of race that were designed to subordinate (oppress and place in a lower position) racial minorities. The Supreme Court disagreed. It concluded that it is not possible to distinguish between African American Eras

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those racial classifications that are truly “benign” or “remedial” and those classifications that are motivated by wrong notions of racial inferiority. In 1995, in Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Pena, the Supreme Court once again said that there is no constitutional difference between government policies that use race to help racial minorities, such as affirmative action, and government policies that use race to oppress racial minorities, such as school segregation. The Court reasoned that, in many situations, it is not clear whether a racial preference is actually benign. Therefore, the Court concluded that all racial classifications—even those designed to help African Americans and other minorities—are unconstitutional unless the government can point to extremely convincing evidence that the policy is both necessary and successful. The Supreme Court Revisits Affirmative Action in Education Just one year later, a lower federal court ruled in the Hopwood v. Texas case that the University of Texas at Austin’s affirmative action policy was

Barbara Grutter was unsuccessful in her case against the University of Michigan Law School’s consideration of race in its admissions policy in 2003. Michael L. Abramson/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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unconstitutional. Texas’s admissions policy treated African American and Hispanic applicants more favorably than other applicants. The Supreme Court had ruled in Bakke that some consideration of race in university admissions was constitutional. The Hopwood case, however, ruled that it was no longer constitutional for universities to give any consideration at all to race in admissions. Hopwood, when combined with the decisions in the Croson and Adarand cases, pointed to a definite shift away from affirmative action policies.

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It was not until 2003 that the Supreme Court once again weighed in on the constitutionality of using race in university admissions. That year, the Court decided two cases, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. Each case reviewed a different admissions policy. Grutter considered the admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School. Gratz considered the University of Michigan’s undergraduate admissions policy. In Grutter, the Supreme Court held that the law school’s admissions policy was constitutional. The law school considered the race of each applicant individually and in the context of the overall application. Some minority students received a “plus” on their application because of their race. Other minority students did not. The Supreme Court ruled that the law school had a compelling interest in obtaining a diverse student body and that the flexible, individualized consideration of race in the application process could help it attain that diversity. The Court also cautioned that it did not expect the law school to consider race forever. “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary,” the Court said. By contrast, the Supreme Court concluded in Gratz that the university’s use of race in its undergraduate admissions policy was unconstitutional. The admissions system determined whether an applicant would be admitted based on the number of points in the applicant’s file. The university gave every minority applicant an automatic twenty-point bonus. The university did not set a quota of minority admissions. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court ruled that the university’s use of race was unconstitutional because it did not provide individualized consideration of each applicant’s race. Instead, the Court concluded that the policy was based on the stereotypical assumption that “a particular applicant, by virtue of race or ethnicity alone, is more valued than other applicants because the applicant is likely to provide a distinct perspective.” A recent Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of affirmative action came in 2007 in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. In that case, the Court considered the constitutionality of two public school districts’ use of race in assigning students to different schools with the goal of promoting racial integration. The Court explained the significance of its rulings in Grutter and Gratz. The Court said that the African American Eras

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admissions program at issue in Grutter focused on each applicant as an individual, and not simply as a member of a particular racial group. This emphasis on the importance of individual treatment continued in Parents Involved. Because the school assignment plans considered nothing other than race, the Court ruled they were unconstitutional. In Parents Involved the Court also issued its strongest statement yet criticizing affirmative action as a tool for correcting past injustices. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” the Court said. Many legal experts have interpreted that statement to mean that the Court might one day rule that all forms of affirmative action are unconstitutional.

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MAJOR CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION PROMOTES EQUALITY Shortly after the Civil War, three amendments were added to the Constitution that were designed to prevent racial discrimination. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, and the Fifteenth Amendment made it illegal for states to deny the right to vote on the basis of race. Of the three post-Civil War amendments, the Fourteenth Amendment had the potential to be the most wide ranging. It guaranteed all persons “the equal protection of the laws.” In the late 1800s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment only applied to actions taken by the government itself. The Court said that the Fourteenth Amendment did not make it illegal for individuals, groups, or businesses to commit acts of racial discrimination. As a result, racial discrimination by non-government actors was rampant for the next one hundred years. In the 1960s, Congress passed a series of important laws that prohibited individuals, groups, and businesses from discriminating on the basis of race. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is one of the most famous and important laws of the twentieth century. It prohibited employers, schools, public facilities (such as parks), and businesses serving customers in interstate commerce from discriminating on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a very important piece of legislation, but it did not completely solve the problem of racial discrimination. Congress has since passed several other laws that are designed to eradicate—which means to eliminate forever—racial discrimination. The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 was an important statute, or a law enacted by Congress, that changed and updated several federal antidiscrimination laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One of the most important ways that Congress uses its influence is by attaching 544


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conditions to the money it gives to other organizations. Congress can attach conditions on the money it gives to state governments or to private businesses and institutions. For example, Congress might say that as a condition for receiving federal money to build highways, state governments must enact laws that make twenty-one the minimum drinking age within their states.

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The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 was a response to the Supreme Court’s 1984 decision in Grove City College v. Bell. Previously, Congress had passed a law that any college that received money from the federal government had to comply with federal antidiscrimination law as a condition for receiving those federal funds. In Grove City College, the Supreme Court said that it considered a private college to have received federal funds if it enrolls students who received federally funded scholarships. As a result, the Court ruled that the college’s financial aid office had to comply with Congress’s conditions. Specifically, the college had to obey federal antidiscrimination law. The Court clarified, however, that only the financial aid office had to comply with federal antidiscrimination law. The rest of the college did not. The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 overturned the part of Grove City College that said that only the college’s financial aid office had to comply with federal antidiscrimination law. The law stated that if any part of a college received federal funds, then every department in the college had to comply with federal antidiscrimination law. Thus, the act substantially expanded the reach of laws that prohibited racial discrimination. As a result, many people received protection from racial discrimination who had not received it before. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 The Civil Rights Act of 1991 made a number of important changes and additions to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII deals with employment discrimination. It prohibits private and government employers from making hiring, promotion, and firing decisions on the basis of race. Like the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was enacted in response to Supreme Court decisions. The effect of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was to make it easier for employees who had suffered racial discrimination to sue their employers.

The most important change the 1991 act made was to make it easier for African American employees to prove that they had been the victims of impact discrimination. There are two main types of racial discrimination in employment: intentional discrimination and impact discrimination. Intentional discrimination is when an employer deliberately and purposefully discriminates against African Americans. Impact discrimination African American Eras

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occurs when an employer adopts a policy that has the effect of discriminating against African Americans, even though the employer did not intend to discriminate. The Supreme Court has said that a common form of impact discrimination is a rule that only employees with college degrees are eligible for promotions. African American employees are less likely to have earned college degrees than are white employees. As a result, such a rule is likely to have a discriminatory impact on African American employees. However, a 1989 Supreme Court case had made it very difficult for African American employees to prove that they had been the victims of impact discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 enacted new rules that made it easier for African American employees to prove such claims. For example, the act provided a right to a jury trial in employment discrimination cases. It also required employers to justify any policies or practices that resulted in the hiring or promotion of fewer members of a particular racial group.

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POLICE BRUTALITY SPARKS PUBLIC OUTCRY Police brutality is another term for excessive violence by the police. The issue has special significance for the African American community because African Americans are often the targets of police brutality. It is often motivated by fear or racial prejudice on the part of police. Brutality against African Americans has a long history in the United States. During the time of slavery, violence toward slaves was common. Slaves did not have civil or political rights, so they were not entitled, as others were, to a fair trial or the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Police were free to use corporal punishment, or beatings, against African Americans without any formal trial or hearing. Police brutality against African Americans was also common during the civil rights era. In the early 1960s, there were several well-publicized incidents of police assaulting peaceful demonstrators by using water hoses, dogs, and clubs. In fact, images of a 1963 civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama, showing police clubbing and setting their dogs on child picketers sparked outrage around the world. Police brutality received national attention throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, when several high-profile cases made national news. Two of the most famous were the Rodney King beating in 1991 and the shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999. Both incidents were important because they brought attention to the problem of police brutality. They were also significant because there were extensive social consequences as the public responded to the violence. 546


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This still shot from an amateur video shows four police officers beating unarmed African American motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles on March 3, 1991. CNN/Getty Images

The Rodney King Beating Perhaps the most famous incident of police brutality is the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers in 1991. On March 3 of that year, 27-year-old King was involved in a high-speed chase with the Los Angeles police. When police finally caught him, instead of restraining and arresting him right away, they brutally beat him with their heavy batons. Police also kicked and stomped on King while he lay on the ground. An onlooker, George Holliday, videotaped about three minutes of the incident.

The aftermath of the King beating was at least as notorious as the beating itself. George Holliday sold the tape of the police officers beating King to a local television station. Soon, the national news picked up the tape, and the video aired on stations across the country. Many members of the public cried out for justice, though a smaller number came to the defense of the officers. The four officers involved in the beating were indicted, which means that they were charged with a crime in the incident and had to stand trial. Theodore Briseno, Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, and Timothy Wind were charged with police brutality. Before their trial began, their attorney requested a change of venue, or specific court location, for the trial. The men feared that they could not get a fair trial in Los Angeles. A judge granted the request and moved the trial to Simi Valley, California, a mostly white community. This angered many people who thought that an all-white jury would be too inclined to side with the African American Eras

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officers. In the end, the Simi Valley jury acquitted the officers of all charges, meaning they found them innocent. The acquittal of the officers led to one of the most violent incidents of urban unrest in American history. People, including African Americans, Latinos, and many poor whites, were frustrated and angry. They saw the entire King incident as a symptom of a broken justice system. People took their outrage to the streets for several days of violence, looting, and arson (setting things on fire). Rioters set fire to City Hall and a local criminal courts building. Fifty-three people died and far more were injured. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Angry mobs pulled several white motorists from their cars and beat them; one of these motorists, Reginald Denny, was almost killed. The National Guard had to be brought in to restore the peace. After the uprising in Los Angeles, the officers were again charged, this time in federal court. They were charged with violating King’s civil rights. This time, two of the officers were convicted and sentenced to thirty months in federal prison. Amadou Diallo Shooting Amadou Diallo was born in the African country of Liberia. He was born into a wealthy family; his parents’ business was exporting gemstones from Africa to Asia. As a boy, he traveled the world with his family and attended private schools. In school, he became interested in America and American culture. He was fascinated with basketball and was an avid fan of basketball legend Michael Jordan (1963– ). Diallo finally moved to America in 1997, at the age of twenty-one. He lived in the working-class Bronx neighborhood in New York City with numerous other immigrants. He earned his living as a street merchant. He had a small table where he sold trinkets, shirts, and other items to people on the street. At times he struggled to get by, but he dreamed of getting an education in America and becoming a successful businessman.

Diallo’s dreams came to a tragic end in 1999, some two years after he came to America. On February 4 of that year, Diallo was returning to his apartment late at night. As he approached his apartment, an unmarked police car pulled up. Four officers in plainclothes got out of the car to question him. Diallo reached into his pocket to retrieve his wallet. One of the officers panicked, thinking he was reaching for a gun. He yelled, “Gun!” Then all four officers opened fire on Diallo. Forty-one bullets were fired, nineteen of which hit Diallo. He died instantly at the scene. Diallo’s shooting sparked a political firestorm. People were outraged that four officers would use such excessive force against an unarmed immigrant. Prominent African American leaders like Al Sharpton (1954– ) and Jesse Jackson (1941– ) condemned the actions of the police officers and demanded 548


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justice. The four officers who shot Diallo—Sean Carroll, Edward McMellan, Kenneth Boss, and Richard Murphy—were indicted and charged with Diallo’s death.

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The trial of the officers who killed Diallo led to more unrest. First, a court granted the officers’ motion to move the trial to a different venue. The trial would have taken place in the Bronx, where the shooting happened. The court agreed with the officers that it would be impossible for them to receive a fair trial in the Bronx due to the public nature of the case. The trial was moved to Albany, New York, the state capital. The move further fanned the flames of public outrage over the shooting, because in Albany there would likely be a mostly white jury. In the end, Carroll, McMellan, Boss, and Murphy were acquitted, or found innocent of, murder in Diallo’s case. To many, this outcome proved that police brutality remained a problem for the African American community.

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CONTROVERSY ERUPTS AT CLARENCE THOMAS’S CONFIRMATION HEARING In 1991, President George H. W. Bush (1924– ) appointed Clarence Thomas (1948– ) to be a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Thurgood Marshall (1908–93), the nation’s first and only African American justice, was retiring, and Bush wanted to appoint an African American to fill Marshall’s seat. Thomas’s nomination to the Supreme Court proved to be extremely controversial. His conservative philosophy drew criticism from numerous political groups. The most explosive criticism of Thomas, however, came from Anita Hill (1956– ). Hill was a former coworker of Thomas who alleged that he had sexually harassed her. Hill’s allegations set off a firestorm of controversy. Although Thomas was eventually confirmed to the Supreme Court, he came closer to having his nomination rejected than any Supreme Court nominee in more than one hundred years.

During the 1980s, Clarence Thomas worked in the Reagan administration. He worked in the Office of Civil Rights and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He left the EEOC in 1990 after President George H. W. Bush nominated him to be a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C.). When the president nominates someone to serve as a federal judge, a majority of the Senate must vote to confirm that nomination. Thomas’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit was uncontroversial. He was easily confirmed. The next time Thomas was before the Senate for confirmation hearings, things were not so easy. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the nation. Its justices also have life tenure, which means they can never be African American Eras

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Clarence Thomas (center) facing the Senate Judiciary Committee on the first day of hearings on his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, September 1, 1991. Terry Ashe/Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

fired. As a result, many political groups are very concerned about who is nominated to the Supreme Court. When President Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, Thomas was subjected to intense criticism. Thomas’s Nomination Is Challenged Some people challenged Thomas’s qualifications for the job. He had only served as a judge on the Court of Appeals for a year and a half. He was not a former professor, and he had not written any important books or articles about the law. The American Bar Association (ABA), a well-respected nationwide group of lawyers, researches every nominee to the Supreme Court and assesses his or her qualifications. The ABA divided on Thomas, with some members saying he was qualified and others saying he was not.

Thomas’s conservative political philosophy also caused him to come under scrutiny. During his time working under President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), Thomas had made it clear that he opposed the use of affirmative action in employment and education. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is one of the nation’s leading civil rights groups. Normally, the NAACP is a strong advocate in favor of African Americans who have been appointed to the highest levels of government. Thomas’s views on affirmative action were so conservative, however, that the NAACP decided to oppose his nomination. Women’s groups such as the National Organization of Women also opposed 550


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Thomas’s nomination because of statements he had made that suggested he did not support Roe v. Wade, the highly controversial 1973 Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized abortion (termination of a pregnancy by medical means). Many supporters of women’s rights consider the right of women to control their reproductive functions, even through abortion of a pregnancy, as vital to the continuing struggle for social and economic equality with men, and part of the basic human freedom to decide what to do with one’s own body.

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Before the full Senate votes on a Supreme Court nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings in which the nominee answers questions from members of the committee. Fourteen senators sit on the committee. The Judiciary Committee began questioning Thomas in early September 1991. Thomas was famously reticent (silent and uncommunicative) during his hearings. He did say enough to address the senators’ concerns over his conservative views. As the full Senate began considering his nomination, it looked like Thomas would be confirmed. A news story derailed the confirmation process, however, causing the Judiciary Committee to withold its recommendation that the full Senate confirm Thomas. The media had broken the story that Anita Hill, a former coworker of Thomas’s at the Office of Civil Rights and at the EEOC, had accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment occurs in a workplace when one employee makes repeated sexual advances toward another employee that are unwanted and uncomfortable. Hill’s allegations were very serious. As a result, the Judiciary Committee decided to hold further hearings. Thomas Is Confirmed Despite Hill’s Testimony Anita Hill testified before the Judiciary Committee in October 1991. She described Thomas’s alleged sexually harassing conduct in vivid detail. According to Hill, Thomas had made numerous sexual comments and advances toward her. Many experts who were familiar with the typical pattern of sexual harassment—in which a male supervisor harasses a female who works for him—believed Hill’s allegations were credible. Hill was the only person to testify against Thomas. Several other women who had worked for Thomas at the EEOC supported Hill. Other women who had worked for Thomas said Hill’s allegations were not true.

The committee’s hearings were televised live on national television. More people watched the hearings than had watched almost any other political event ever. When Thomas testified, he forcefully denied Hill’s allegations. He said he was offended and infuriated by the committee’s treatment of him. He made an angry statement at the beginning of this African American Eras

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A “High-Tech Lynching” ...................................................................................

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uring Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings on his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, Anita Hill testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about her allegations of sexual harassment against Thomas. Thomas then came before the committee to answer questions from the senators. Before answering questions, he made the following statement. Senator, I would like to start by saying unequivocally, uncategorically, that I deny each and every single allegation against me today. . . . A second, and I think more important point, I think that this today is a travesty. I think that it is disgusting. I think that this hearing should never occur in America. This is a case in which this sleaze, this dirt, was searched for by staffers of members of this committee, was then leaked to the media, and this committee and this body validated it and displayed it at prime time over our entire nation. . . . The Supreme Court is not worth it. No job is worth it. I’m not here for that. I’m here for my name, my family, my life and my integrity. I think something is dreadfully wrong with this country when any person, any person in this free country would be subjected to this. . . . This is a circus. It’s a national disgrace. And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I’m concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.

testimony. During the rest of his testimony, he mostly refused to answer the questions he was asked. After the Judiciary Committee’s hearings concluded, the entire Senate had to vote on whether to confirm Thomas. President Bush defended his nominee and argued that Hill’s allegations had not been proven. Ultimately, the Senate confirmed Thomas, but the vote was only 52–48. It was the closest confirmation vote of any nominee to the Supreme Court in the entire twentieth century. Thomas’s confirmation process was in the news again in 2007. That year, Thomas published an autobiography called My Grandfather’s Son. In his book, Thomas revealed that he remains bitter and resentful toward Anita Hill 552


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and the news media over what happened during his confirmation. That same year, Anita Hill wrote an op-ed in the New York Times responding to Thomas’s book. “I stand by my testimony,” Hill said. “I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me.”

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HIGH-PROFILE CASES SPARK DEBATE ABOUT HATE CRIME LAWS Hate crimes are crimes that are motivated by prejudice, bias, and fear. Hate crimes involve selecting crime victims based on their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or other characteristic. African Americans in particular have long been the target of hate crimes in America. Hate crimes are viewed by many as especially harmful crimes. This is because they have a negative effect on more than just their victims. Hate crimes cause widespread panic and anger in the broader community. Hate crimes have sparked a large amount of public discussion. In particular, laws making hate crimes more serious offenses, carrying greater punishment, have caused public debate. The first hate crime law in the United States was passed in California in 1978 in response to an increasing number of episodes of violence and intimidation motivated by racial and ethnic prejudice. As of 2010, forty-five states had some kind of hate crimes law in place.

James Byrd Jr. was the victim of a hate crime in 1998 when he was murdered by being dragged behind a pickup truck by three white men in Jasper, Texas. ª R. Jaap/ Beaumont Enterprise/Corbis Sygma

One of the most famous hate crimes in several decades was the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas. On June 7, 1998, Shawn Allen Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer, and John King offered Byrd a ride. Instead of taking him where he wanted to go, the three took him behind a convenience store and beat him. They then stripped off his clothes and chained him by the ankles to the back of their pickup truck. They dragged Byrd for three miles. Autopsy evidence suggested that Byrd was alive for much of it. Forensic evidence, or scientific evidence applied in the legal context, showed that he had tried to keep his head from hitting the ground. At King’s trial for murder, a doctor testified that Byrd suffered horribly. He said he believed Byrd was alive until the truck hit a roadside ditch and his head, shoulder and right arm were separated from the rest of his body. After Byrd was dead, the three dumped his remains in the local black cemetery and went to a barbeque. African American Eras

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Byrd’s Killers Stand Trial There was little doubt that Byrd’s murder had been racially motivated. Berry, Brewer, and King were arrested soon after the incident. While they awaited trial, King wrote a letter to Brewer in prison. He expressed pride in his crime. “Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history,” he wrote. “Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!” “Sieg heil” is a German phrase that was a popular Nazi rallying cry before and during World War II (1939– 45). Many white supremacists have adopted the call, along with other Nazi symbols like swastikas, which they often tattoo on their bodies. White supremacists believe that whites are superior to blacks, and they often condone violence towards African Americans.

Two major issues arose as to the appropriate response to Byrd’s death. One involved the death penalty as a form of punishment for a crime. Berry, Brewer, and King were charged with capital murder for killing Byrd. Capital murder is murder committed in the course of committing another serious crime, in this case, kidnapping. It is considered to be an especially serious crime. For that reason, in Texas, capital murder is punishable by the death penalty. When all three men were convicted of killing Byrd, both Brewer and King were sentenced to death. Because of the horrible nature of Byrd’s death, many were happy to see his killers receive the ultimate form of punishment. But others, including Byrd’s own son, oppose the death penalty, even in this case. Indeed, many members of the African American community oppose the death penalty and believe it has been enforced unequally against blacks. Statistics support their position. Blacks have received the death penalty for killing whites at a much higher rate than whites have received the death penalty for killing blacks. In fact, when King was sentenced to death for killing Byrd, he was the first white person ever sentenced to death by the state of Texas for killing an African American. The Supreme Court Upholds Hate Crimes Laws Another issue that arose in response to Byrd’s death was the proper application of hate crimes law. Typically, these laws call for stiffer punishment for hate crimes. Generally, crimes motivated by hatred toward people of a certain race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disability status are classed as hate crimes. Different states have laws that are more or less inclusive. Critics of hate crimes laws often oppose them on free speech grounds. They say that the government cannot regulate people’s thoughts. They worry also that such laws would make it a crime to say racist things, a freedom that is protected by the First Amendment. Proponents of hate crimes laws say these concerns are misplaced. They say that these laws leave people free to think whatever they want to think, or harbor whatever hatred they want. The only thing they are forbidden to do 554


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What Groups Should Hate Crimes Laws Protect? ...................................................................................

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ontroversy surrounds the question of what groups or classes of people should be specifically covered by hate crimes laws. This issue gained national attention in 1998, the same year that James Byrd Jr., an African American man, was murdered as part of a hate crime. Later that year, a young gay man named Matthew Shepard was killed in an apparent hate crime in Colorado. Shepard’s killers offered him a ride home, but they then tied him to a fence post, beat him in the face with a pistol, and tortured him. Shepard was left to die. After Shepard’s death, President Bill Clinton sought to introduce legislation extending the federal hate crimes law to gays and lesbians, women, and people with disabilities. Congress did not pass the law. However, in 2007, Congress did pass the law, known by then as the Matthew Shepard Act. Then-president George W. Bush vetoed the bill. The act, renamed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed in 2009 under the Obama administration.

is commit crimes based on those prejudices. Further, supporters of hate crimes laws argue, people are free to say as many racist things as they want. Hate crimes laws only prevent people from making these statements when such statements would be a criminal threat. Five years before James Byrd’s death, the Supreme Court considered these free-speech arguments in Wisconsin v. Mitchell. That case involved a hate crime committed by a group of black men against a young white boy. The men had been discussing a scene from the movie Mississippi Burning (1988) in which a group of white men attack a young black boy who is praying. Todd Mitchell asked the group, “Do you all feel hyped up to move on some white people?” He then directed the group to attack a young white boy on the other side of the street. Mitchell was sentenced to aggravated assault and received an enhanced penalty for the crime’s racial motivation. Mitchell argued that the Wisconsin statute violated his First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court disagreed. It held that the legislature was well within its rights to pass a law that singles out hate-based crimes as more blameworthy than others. Many state legislatures have made this same determination because hate crimes have the effect of terrorizing entire communities of people. The Court did not agree that this was the same thing as punishing Mitchell’s thoughts. African American Eras

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RACIAL PROFILING GENERATES CONTROVERSY “Racial profiling” is a law enforcement term. It refers to the practice of the government enforcing the law more strictly or more often for certain racial groups. Profiling in general is considered to be necessary for effective law enforcement. One example of profiling happens in drug enforcement. When police are fighting drug trafficking, or the large-scale shipment and sale of illegal drugs, they often rely on profiling. Police might look at an individual’s travel patterns for suspicious activity. If a person flies to a major drug-producing country and back in a very short period of time, this might raise suspicions. Another example is shoplifting. Persons browsing around stores wearing a large coat or carrying a large bag might raise suspicions that they are shoplifting. More controversial than these examples of profiling, though, is profiling based solely on a person’s race or ethnicity. In 1996, the television program Primetime Live aired a news report called “Driving While Black.” In the segment, three young African Americans drove around in an expensive vehicle with a hidden camera. Police stopped their car and searched them. To many who watched the segment, it seemed like a clear incident of racial profiling. The reporter interviewed many African Americans, who all reported that they had been pulled over for “driving while black.” Some said the police suspected that they were driving a stolen car; others said they had been pulled over for being in a wealthy or mostly white neighborhood. The people who reported this included Charles Ogletree (1952– ), a distinguished African American law professor at

An African American clergyman protests racial profiling by police as he stands near officers surrounding the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters during a national protest against police brutality on October 22, 2001. David McNew/Getty Images News/ Getty Images

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Harvard University. He said he had definitely been the victim of racial profiling in a traffic stop.

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Racial Profiling Remains a Common Practice Several statistical studies support Primetime Live’s report. One study looked at the percentage of white and black drivers on a stretch of highway along Interstate 95. The study also considered what percentage of drivers stopped and searched by police were black or white. The findings were startling. Of the drivers that were stopped and searched by police, 70 percent were black. However, blacks composed only 17 percent of drivers on the street. The study is good evidence that race was a major factor in whether officers pulled people over. A similar study was conducted along the New Jersey Turnpike. In that study, blacks accounted for 15 percent of drivers going over the speed limit. However, 46 percent of drivers who were actually pulled over for speeding were black. This study was more evidence of the selective enforcement of the law against African Americans.

One recent allegation of racial profiling happened in Bellaire, Texas, on January 31, 2008. Twenty-three-year-old Robbie Tolan, the son of former major league baseball player Bobby Tolan, was returning home around 2 A.M. with his cousin after going out for fast food. When he pulled into his driveway in Bellaire—a wealthy, mostly white neighborhood of Houston— two police officers approached his car. They shined a flashlight on Robbie and his cousin. They had stopped them because they suspected the SUV, or sports utility vehicle, was a stolen vehicle. The SUV was not stolen, however, and neither man was armed. The officers told Robbie and his cousin to lie on the ground, which they did. Robbie’s mother came out of the house at this point to see what was happening. The police officer had a scuffle with the woman, who was also not armed. He pushed her against the wall. When he saw this, Robbie started to get up off the ground. The officer turned and shot him. A bullet lodged in his liver and he had to be hospitalized. Tolan survived, and the officer was charged with aggravated assault. As of late 2009, the officer had not yet faced trial, but he and the City of Bellaire denied that race was a factor. Consequences of Racial Profiling Racial profiling has many negative effects for its victims. When laws are selectively enforced, or enforced more against people of one race than another, the profiled group will be convicted of crimes more often. This is a problem for several reasons. For one, it raises basic fairness issues; it means that the profiled group will be punished more. In one report, statistics showed that, in 2000, more African American males were in prison than in college. This selective enforcement of the laws also leads to harmful stereotypes about African Americans. If African Americans are convicted African American Eras

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more frequently of drug-related offenses, the public may perceive African Americans as more likely to break the law. However, racial profiling skews these statistics. Some argue that African Americans are no more likely than any other group to break the law. They say the problem is that police simply choose to enforce the rules against them more than any other group. Racial profiling also has consequences for the criminal justice system itself. For the justice system to work, it is important that people support the work of police and prosecutors. It is important for people to believe that the system is fair and functional. Studies have shown, however, that this is not the case for many African Americans.

Half of the prison population is African American even though African Americans represent only 12% of the U.S. population. John Chiasson/Getty Images

There are some who support racial profiling as a police tactic. They say that the Constitution allows the police broad discretion, or freedom of choice, in how they enforce the laws. The idea is that police are experts on law enforcement, and they are less able to do their jobs when others interfere. Some claim that racial profiling works. They say that police should be allowed to focus their attentions on the people most likely to commit crimes. While that logic is appealing, opponents of racial profiling point to the fact that sometimes it is profiling itself that makes groups appear to be more or less likely to commit crimes.

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CRIME EMERGES AS A MAJOR ISSUE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Statistics show that African Americans are incarcerated, or put in prison, at a rate far greater than that of the general population. For instance, in the year 2000, African Americans made up almost half of the population of American prisons. By contrast, African Americans only compose 12 percent of the nation’s population. By 2003, an African American male had a one-inthree chance of going to prison some time in his life. Statistics show that African American males have a greater chance of going to prison than going to college. Incarceration has devastating consequences for individuals. The prison experience is often marked by sexual assault or voluntary but unsafe male-male sexual activity. This has led to a sharp increase of HIV/AIDS among African American males, even as the spread of this deadly disease

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African Americans Receive the Death Penalty More Often than White Americans ...................................................................................

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erhaps no other area better showcases unequal sentencing than the death penalty. The death penalty was illegal in the United States from 1972 to 1976. Since the death penalty was reinstated, 43 percent of those executed have been African American. Of inmates awaiting execution on death row, 42 percent are African American. In 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that for federal prisoners—who were convicted under federal law instead of state law—77 percent of death row inmates were African American. Another racial difference in the death penalty involves the race of victims. The number of African American and white murder victims are roughly comparable. However, 80 percent of executions in the United States involved white victims. A far, far smaller number of people are executed for killing African Americans. The ACLU reported that as of October 2002, only 12 white defendants have been executed for murdering a black victim, whereas 178 black defendants have been executed in murder cases with white victims.

has decreased in other segments of the population. In fact, in 2003, another study showed that AIDS was the leading cause of death for African American males aged twenty-five to forty-four. Serving time in prison leads to difficulties after release as well. Unemployment rates are significantly higher among ex-convicts than they are among the rest of the population. This is because many employers are reluctant to hire ex-convicts. In some states, ex-convicts also permanently lose their right to vote. Thus, individuals who have been incarcerated have less of a voice in the political process and can become increasingly shut off from society. The high rate of incarceration among African American males has also had serious consequences for the black community as a whole. When men are in prison, they are unable to work and earn money to support their families. A significant percentage of African American men are in prison, contributing to overall rates of poverty in African American communities. The absence of large numbers of black males also means that large numbers of children grow up without one of their parents. This can have serious effects on a child’s development and ability to do well in school. These African American Eras

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factors contribute to what has been called the “achievement gap” between African American students and their white counterparts. Many scholars have tried to determine why incarceration rates are so much higher among African Americans than for the rest of the population. A number of factors contribute to this phenomenon. One is cultural: African American males in many communities come to see prison as part of life, so they have less motivation to obey the law. Another is that African Americans experience a much higher rate of poverty than whites. Lack of economic prosperity, or wealth, is a major factor that contributes to crime. However, there are other significant factors that have nothing to do with the relative rate at which African Americans commit crimes. One is that the so-called “war on drugs” targets inner-city, African American communities more so than other communities. Another is inequalities in sentencing, in which African Americans receive harsher penalties than other races for the same crimes. African Americans are also targets of racial profiling by the police, in which they become targets for police investigation because of their race. The “War on Drugs” Devastates African American Communities Throughout American history, African Americans have been incarcerated at a higher rate than the general population. The problem took a significant turn for the worse in the 1970s and 1980s, when the federal government began to crack down harshly on drug users as well as drug dealers. President Richard Nixon (1913–94) first introduced the term “war on drugs” in 1969. Between 1980 and 1988, President Ronald Reagan made the war on drugs a centerpiece of his policies. The war on drugs was fought on several fronts. One was that law enforcement would devote more resources to investigating drug offenses and making arrests. Another involved changes in federal sentencing guidelines that imposed harsh penalties and mandatory prison sentences for drug offenses, including drug possession. As of 2010, roughly half of the prisoners in America were incarcerated for drug offenses. During the period of 1986 to 1991, the height of the Reagan-era war on drugs, the rate of people in prison and jail skyrocketed. The number of white inmates increased by 110 percent during that period. The number of African Americans incarcerated rose by 465 percent.

These numbers show that the war on drugs disproportionately, or unequally, affected African Americans. Many critics argued that the war on drugs unfairly targeted inner-city, African American communities. They said that in those neighborhoods, drug use was more visible, as drugs are often sold on street corners or other public spaces. In suburban areas, which tended to be more populated by whites, drug use and drug trade happens more in private. This meant that it was much easier for police to 560


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target inner-city communities. The government also tended to target crack cocaine (a crystallized form of cocaine that is smoked) more so than many other kinds of drugs. Crack cocaine was more prevalent in inner-city areas and was more likely to be used by African Americans than other forms of drugs, including powder cocaine and marijuana.

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Another way in which the war on drugs contributed to unequal incarceration rates among African Americans has to do with sentencing. Sentencing guidelines for cocaine in particular have had a huge impact on the African American community. Sentencing guidelines are issued by the federal government to assist federal judges in determining how long a person convicted of a crime will spend in prison. Since the 1980s, the problem for African Americans has been that under federal sentencing guidelines, crack cocaine is treated more harshly than powder cocaine. This means that African Americans have been punished more harshly than whites for using the same drug. These issues involving criminal justice and the African American community have led many to call for serious reforms. Among reforms that have been proposed are repealing laws barring convicted felons from voting. Another proposed reform is changing federal sentencing guidelines so that crack cocaine is punished no more harshly than powder cocaine. Finally, proposed reforms to the death penalty—including entirely repealing it—have special significance to many in the African American community.


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 ............................................................... Primary Sources

 BAKKE DISSENTING OPINION (1978)

Onerous Hard to bear The Bakke ruling was a major setback for affirma tive action programs. ª Bettmann/Corbis

The selection that follows is an excerpt from Justice Thurgood Marshall’s dissent from the Supreme Court’s opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. A dissenting opinion is one in which a justice who does not agree with the Court’s opinion writes to explain why. Prior to Bakke, the medical school at the University of California at Davis had reserved 16 slots out of the 100 in each entering class for minority students. In Bakke, the Court held that the University of California at Davis’s affirmative action program was unconstitutional because it set aside a fixed number of spots in the class exclusively for minority students. The Court rejected the argument that such a policy was necessary to counteract the legacy of slavery and other effects of past racial discrimination. Marshall, in the following excerpt from his dissent, disagrees with this reasoning, arguing that the level of discrimination experienced by African Americans is so widespread that such programs must be put into place to bring about equality of opportunity.

.............. Three hundred and fifty years ago, the Negro was dragged to this country in chains to be sold into slavery. Uprooted from his homeland and thrust into bondage for forced labor, the slave was deprived of all legal rights. It was unlawful to teach him to read; he could be sold away from his family and friends at the whim of his master; and killing or maiming him was not a crime. The system of slavery brutalized and dehumanized both master and slave. . . . The status of the Negro as property was officially erased by his emancipation at the end of the Civil War. But the long-awaited emancipation, while freeing the Negro from slavery, did not bring him citizenship or equality in any meaningful way. Slavery was replaced by a system of “laws which imposed upon the colored race onerous disabilities and burdens, and curtailed their rights in the pursuit of life, liberty, and property to such an extent that their freedom was of little value.” Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 36, 70 (1873). Despite the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the Negro was systematically 562


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denied the rights those Amendments were supposed to secure. The combined actions and inactions of the State and Federal Governments maintained Negroes in a position of legal inferiority for another century after the Civil War. . . .

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The position of the Negro today in America is the tragic but inevitable consequence of centuries of unequal treatment. Measured by any benchmark of comfort or achievement, meaningful equality remains a distant dream for the Negro. A Negro child today has a life expectancy which is shorter by more than five years than that of a white child. The Negro child’s mother is over three times more likely to die of complications in childbirth, and the infant mortality rate for Negroes is nearly twice that for whites. The median income of the Negro family is only 60% that of the median of a white family, and the percentage of Negroes who live in families with incomes below the poverty line is nearly four times greater than that of whites. When the Negro child reaches working age, he finds that America offers him significantly less than it offers his white counterpart. For Negro adults, the unemployment rate is twice that of whites, and the unemployment rate for Negro teenagers is nearly three times that of white teenagers. A Negro male who completes four years of college can expect a median annual income of merely $110 more than a white male who has only a high school diploma. Although Negroes represent 11.5% of the population, they are only 1.2% of the lawyers and judges, 2% of the physicians, 2.3% of the dentists, 1.1% of the engineers and 2.6% of the college and university professors. The relationship between those figures and the history of unequal treatment afforded to the Negro cannot be denied. At every point from birth to death the impact of the past is reflected in the still disfavored position of the Negro. In light of the sorry history of discrimination and its devastating impact on the lives of Negroes, bringing the Negro into the mainstream of American life should be a state interest of the highest order. To fail to do so is to ensure that America will forever remain a divided society. . . . While I applaud the judgment of the Court that a university may consider race in its admissions process, it is more than a little ironic that, after several hundred years of class-based discrimination against Negroes, the Court is unwilling to hold that a classbased remedy for that discrimination is permissible. In declining to so hold, today’s judgment ignores the fact that for several hundred years Negroes have been discriminated against, not as individuals, but rather solely because of the color of their skins. It is unnecessary in 20th-century America to have individual Negroes demonstrate that they have been victims of racial discrimination; the racism of our society has been so pervasive that none, regardless of wealth or position, has managed to escape its impact. The experience of Negroes in America has been different in kind, not just in degree, from that of other ethnic groups. It is not merely the history of slavery alone but also that a whole people were marked as inferior by the law. And that mark has endured. The dream of America as the great melting pot African American Eras

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has not been realized for the Negro; because of his skin color he never even made it into the pot. . . . It is because of a legacy of unequal treatment that we now must permit the institutions of this society to give consideration to race in making decisions about who will hold the positions of influence, affluence, and prestige in America. For far too long, the doors to those positions have been shut to Negroes. If we are ever to become a fully integrated society, one in which the color of a person’s skin will not determine the opportunities available to him or her, we must be willing to take steps to open those doors. I do not believe that anyone can truly look into America’s past and still find that a remedy for the effects of that past is impermissible.

 GRUTTER V. BOLLINGER DISSENTING OPINION (2003) Jesse Jackson speaks in support of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action policy was legal. AP Images

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The selection that follows is an excerpt from Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger. Justice Thomas dissented from the majority of the Court’s opinion that the law school at the University of Michigan could continue its affirmative action program. The Court ruled that the law school’s use of race was not a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court’s


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reasoning was that the law school considered race in a individualized, flexible, and holistic (concerned with the whole, not just the parts) way, which means race was one factor among many that could be given more or less weight depending on context. Thomas disagreed with the use of racial preferences of any kind, arguing in the following excerpt that affirmative action promotes undeserving individuals and undermines the accomplishments of those who are able to achieve without the benefit of racial preferences.

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............................ I believe what lies beneath the Court’s decision today are the benighted notions that one can tell when racial discrimination benefits (rather than hurts) minority groups, and that racial discrimination is necessary to remedy general societal ills. This Court’s precedents supposedly settled both issues, but clearly the majority still cannot commit to the principle that racial classifications are per se harmful and that almost no amount of benefit in the eye of the beholder can justify such classifications.

Benighted Existing in darkness

[N]owhere in any of the filings in this Court is any evidence that the purported “beneficiaries” of this racial discrimination prove themselves by performing at (or even near) the same level as those students who receive no preferences. The silence in this case is deafening to those of us who view higher education’s purpose as imparting knowledge and skills to students, rather than a communal, rubber-stamp, credentialing process. The Law School is not looking for those students who, despite a lower LSAT score or undergraduate grade point average, will succeed in the study of law. The Law School seeks only a facade—it is sufficient that the class looks right, even if it does not perform right. The Law School tantalizes unprepared students with the promise of a University of Michigan degree and all of the opportunities that it offers. These overmatched students take the bait, only to find that they cannot succeed in the cauldron of competition. And this mismatch crisis is not restricted to elite institutions. Indeed, to cover the tracks of the aestheticists, this cruel farce of racial discrimination must continue—in selection for the Michigan Law Review, and in hiring at law firms and for judicial clerkships—until the “beneficiaries” are no longer tolerated. While these students may graduate with law degrees, there is no evidence that they have received a qualitatively better legal education (or become better lawyers) than if they had gone to a less “elite” law school for which they were better prepared. And the aestheticists will never address the real problems facing “underrepresented minorities,” instead continuing their social experiments on other people’s children.

LSAT Law School Admission Test

Aestheticists People concerned only with appearance

Beyond the harm the Law School’s racial discrimination visits upon its test subjects, no social science has disproved the notion that this discrimination “engender[s] attitudes of superiority or, alternatively, provoke[s] resentment among those who believe that they have been wronged by the government’s use of race.” Adarand, 515 U.S., at 241 (Thomas, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). “These African American Eras

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Stigma Mark of shame

programs stamp minorities with a badge of inferiority and may cause them to develop dependencies or to adopt an attitude that they are ‘entitled’ to preferences.” Ibid. It is uncontested that each year, the Law School admits a handful of blacks who would be admitted in the absence of racial discrimination. Who can differentiate between those who belong and those who do not? The majority of blacks are admitted to the Law School because of discrimination, and because of this policy all are tarred as undeserving. This problem of stigma does not depend on determinacy as to whether those stigmatized are actually the “beneficiaries” of racial discrimination. When blacks take positions in the highest places of government, industry, or academia, it is an open question today whether their skin color played a part in their advancement. The question itself is the stigma—because either racial discrimination did play a role, in which case the person may be deemed “otherwise unqualified,” or it did not, in which case asking the question itself unfairly marks those blacks who would succeed without discrimination. Is this what the Court means by “visibly open”? Finally, the Court’s disturbing reference to the importance of the country’s law schools as training grounds meant to cultivate “a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry,” ibid., through the use of racial discrimination deserves discussion. As noted earlier, the Court has soundly rejected the remedying of societal discrimination as a justification for governmental use of race. For those who believe that every racial disproportionality in our society is caused by some kind of racial discrimination, there can be no distinction between remedying societal discrimination and erasing racial disproportionalities in the country’s leadership caste. And if the lack of proportional racial representation among our leaders is not caused by societal discrimination, then “fixing” it is even less of a pressing public necessity. . . .

Fabricated Made up

Contingent Dependent Imprimatur Stamp of approval

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The Court also holds that racial discrimination in admissions should be given another 25 years before it is deemed no longer narrowly tailored to the Law School’s fabricated compelling state interest. . . . While I agree that in 25 years the practices of the Law School will be illegal, they are, for the reasons I have given, illegal now. The majority does not and cannot rest its time limitation on any evidence that the gap in credentials between black and white students is shrinking or will be gone in that timeframe. In recent years there has been virtually no change, for example, in the proportion of law school applicants with LSAT scores of 165 and higher who are black. In 1993 blacks constituted 1.1% of law school applicants in that score range, though they represented 11.1% of all applicants. In 2000 the comparable numbers were 1.0% and 11.3%. No one can seriously contend, and the Court does not, that the racial gap in academic credentials will disappear in 25 years. Nor is the Court’s holding that racial discrimination will be unconstitutional in 25 years made contingent on the gap closing in that time. . . . For the immediate future, however, the majority has placed its imprimatur on a practice that can only weaken the principle of equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Equal Protection Clause. “Our Constitution is color-blind, and


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neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 559 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting). It has been nearly 140 years since Frederick Douglass asked the intellectual ancestors of the Law School to “[d]o nothing with us!” and the Nation adopted the Fourteenth Amendment. Now we must wait another 25 years to see this principle of equality vindicated. I therefore respectfully dissent from the remainder of the Court’s opinion and the judgment.


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1. Police officers use profiling to determine who is likely to commit crimes. For example, officers often use travel profiling to determine who is likely to be smuggling drugs into the country. They look at such things as where travelers fly and the length of their trips; a person who flies often to countries known for drug-smuggling and stays only a short time may be bringing drugs back into the country. Profiling helps officers focus their investigations to conserve time and resources. One type of profiling is known as “racial profiling.” Racial profiling is the practice of selectively enforcing laws against certain people based on their race. The practice is potentially illegal in addition to being ineffective. Imagine that you are a police chief. Think of several kinds of nonracial profiling that you would instruct your squad to use to effectively fight crime without racial considerations. Prepare a written report outlining your proposal. 2. America has had two African American Supreme Court justices: Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. Both of them participated in landmark affirmative action cases before the Court and wrote memorable opinions on the topic. Their views, however, are very different. Read Justice Marshall’s dissenting opinion from Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Then, read Justice Thomas’s dissenting opinion from Grutter v. Bollinger. Both are available in the “Primary Sources” section of this chapter. What are the major differences in their views? Pay special attention to the justices’ views on whether affirmative action is good for African Americans. Write an essay comparing and contrasting Marshall’s and Thomas’s views. 3. After white supremacists killed James Byrd Jr. in 1998 just because he was black, there has been much public debate about hate crimes laws. These laws give extra punishment for crimes motivated by racial prejudice or hatred. Some reformers have argued that it is important to prevent hate crimes before they happen. Think about some ways this might be done. Write a policy proposal aimed at your local legislature detailing at least three types of things that might be done to prevent hate crimes. 4. Many commentators have said that the two most important civil rights laws of the twentieth century were the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Using the Internet or resources from your local library, research both laws. Be sure to research the effects that each law has had. Based on your research, which do you think has been more important? Write a newspaper editorial defending your position. Be sure to back up your argument with specific details about each law and its history. 568


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5. As the biographies in this chapter show, African American leaders do not always agree on such issues as affirmative action and other civil rights issues. However, their views on these issues are often closely watched by the public. Choose three of the leaders detailed in the “Headline Makers” section of this chapter. Using the Internet or your local library, research their views on civil rights issues. Write a paper comparing and contrasting their views.

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BOOKS

Guinier, Lani. Tyranny of the Majority: Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy. New York: Free Press, 1994. Merida, Kevin. Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas. New York: Broadway Books, 2007. Moose, Charles A. Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the Serial Sniper. New York: Signet, 2003. Ogletree, Charles. All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Ogletree, Charles, and Austin Sarat, eds. From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine. New York: Random House, 2007. Totenberg, Nina, ed. The Complete Transcripts of the Clarence Thomas Anita Hill Hearings. Chicago, Ill.: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1994. Tushnet, Mark, ed. Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences. Chicago, Ill.: Lawrence Hill Books, 2001. Wilson, William Julius. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Woodward, Bob. The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.

PERIODICALS Kousser, J. Morgan. “The Strange, Ironic Career of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 1965 2007.” Texas Law Review 86 (2008): p. 667. Martin, Douglas. “Constance Baker Motley, 84, Civil Rights Trailblazer, Lawmaker and Judge Dies.” New York Times. 29 (September 2005): p. B10.

WEB SITES Longstreth, Andrew. “Making History with Obama.” American Lawyer (June 5, 2008). http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202421950304 (accessed on November 5, 2009). African American Eras

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c h a p t e r te n

Chronology . . . . . . . . . 572 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 575 Headline Makers . . . . . . 577 Clifford Alexander . . . . Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. Hazel Johnson. . . . . . Colin Powell . . . . . . J. Paul Reason . . . . . .

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Topics in the News . . . . . 600 Vietnam War Disillusions Black Soldiers . . . . . . . 600 Boxer Muhammad Ali Refuses the Draft. . . . . . 602

Military

Racial Tensions Prompt Changes in the Military . The Gesell Committee Addresses Discrimination in the Military . . . . . Colin Powell Oversees Gulf War . . . . . . . African American Participation in the Military Rises and Falls .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 December 31 The number of U.S. troops committed to Vietnam stands at 184,000, compared to just 16,000 at the end of John F. Kennedy’s presidency. African Americans served in the Vietnam War at a higher percentage than in any previous war. 1967 June 20 World heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to serve in the military after he is drafted for the Vietnam War. 1967 July 23 A major race riot breaks out in Detroit, Michigan. The National Guard plays a prominent role in suppressing the seven-day riot, chilling enlistment by African Americans. 1968 The number of U.S. troops involved in Vietnam peaks at 537,000. African Americans make up 25 percent of the combat troops. 1968 August 29 A race riot breaks out among service members held at the Long Binh stockade in Vietnam.

12.8 percent, down from 66.5 percent in 1966, mainly because of perceived racist treatment of black troops, the mounting death toll in the Vietnam War, and the growing unpopularity of the war in the United States in general. 1971 May 21 A four-day race riot erupts between white and black servicemen stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California. 1972 January The Defense Race Relations Institute opens at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. The institute’s objective is to train military officers to teach courses in racial cooperation and understanding. 1972 October 12 While en route to the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam, the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk is the scene of a racially motivated brawl between white and black crewmen. Nearly fifty sailors are injured during the fight.

1969 November Lucius D. Theus, a former Tuskegee airman and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, chairs a task force charged with developing an educational program on race relations for the military.

1973 January 27 The ceasefire mandated by the Paris Peace Accords marks the official end of U.S. military action in Vietnam, though the fighting continues for the next two years. Over the course of the Vietnam War, twenty African Americans received the Medal of Honor.

1970 The reenlistment rate of African American soldiers plummets to

1974 Fifteen percent of the soldiers in the armed forces are African American,

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......................................................................................... compared to just 11 percent in 1970, in part due to concerted efforts by the military to improve race relations in the armed forces. 1975 September 1 The Air Force’s Daniel “Chappie” James becomes the first African American to achieve the rank of four-star general. 1977 February 14 Clifford Alexander becomes the first African American to serve as secretary of the Army. Alexander serves for four years under President Jimmy Carter, leaving office on January 20, 1981. 1979 September 1 Hazel Johnson becomes the first African American woman to attain the rank of general in the U.S. Army. 1983 African Americans make up 20 percent of all new enlisted personnel in the armed forces despite making up just over 10 percent of the civilian population in the United States. 1984 September 13 The film A Soldier’s Story is released. Set shortly after World War II, the film deals with issues of racism and segregation in the military. 1989 October 1 Army general Colin Powell begins his term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the most senior military post held by an African American to date.

1989 December 15 The film Glory is released. It focuses on the exploits of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, one of the first African American units in the U.S. Army, and highlights the sacrifices of black soldiers in the Civil War. 1991 The Persian Gulf War begins. The conflict between the United States and Iraq occurs after Iraq invades the oil-rich nation of Kuwait. Nearly onequarter of U.S. military personnel are African American at this time. 1992 Operation Restore Hope, a five-month United Nations humanitarian mission in Somalia, begins. The United States is the only one of the two dozen nations participating in the mission to field a racially integrated military. 1993 September 30 Colin Powell completes his final term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 1996 December J. Paul Reason becomes the first African American ever to attain the rank of four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. 1998 March 17 A military jury acquits Sergeant Major Gene C. McKinney of charges of sexual harassment and misconduct. McKinney, an African American, had previously been the sergeant major of the Army, the highest-ranking enlisted position in the Army. He is convicted of one


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....................................................................................... that only 57 percent of white Americans oppose the war.

count of obstruction of justice and is forced to retire from the military. 2001 January 20 Colin Powell becomes secretary of state in the administration of President George W. Bush. 2003 January 8 Representative Charles Rangel (D–NY) introduces a bill in Congress to reinstate the military draft, arguing that the makeup of the military’s combat forces should reflect the makeup of American society. 2003 February 5 Secretary of State Powell appears before the United Nations to make a case for war with Iraq. 2004 July A CBS News poll shows that 84 percent of African Americans oppose the war in Iraq. The same poll shows

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2007 Defense Department statistics show that the number of African Americans enlisting in the armed forces has dropped off by 58 percent since 2000, compared with a 10 percent drop in white enlistment and a 7 percent drop in Hispanic enlistment. Widespread disapproval of the Iraq War among African Americans may be a factor in this drop. 2009 July 6 Robert McNamara, the former secretary of defense and architect of the “Project 100,000” plan that resulted in a significant number of African Americans being drafted into military service in Vietnam, dies at the age of 93.

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 ............................................................... Overview

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OVERVIEW

President Harry Truman (1884–1972) officially ended segregation in the U.S. armed forces on July 26, 1948, with the signing of Executive Order 9981. Prior to 1948, African Americans had served in all major American conflicts, but often in all-black, white-led, noncombat divisions. During World War II (1939–45), the U.S. Army was forced to integrate some units to deal with personnel shortages. Commanders of these integrated units reported that their African American troops performed very well in battle. Still, many people questioned whether African American troops and white troops would be able to serve together harmoniously during peacetime and during times of war. Today, the United States fields a fully integrated military, and incidents of racial tension are relatively rare. While the integration of military units was hailed as progress in the years after World War II, African American participation in the Vietnam War (1954–75) proved controversial. The Vietnam War was a long, deeply divisive conflict that put great strains on the military and on American society. African Americans served in the military in higher proportions during Vietnam than they ever had before. At the end of the 1960s, the war had grown deeply unpopular with Americans, and many antiwar protesters charged that poor African Americans were being used to fight a rich white man’s war. Respected civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) went so far as to call the war racist, saying it was “a white man’s war, a black man’s fight.” Though many of the soldiers in Vietnam were volunteers, more than two million men were drafted (required to join the armed forces) to serve in the war. Young African Americans were twice as likely to be drafted as young white men, in part because wealthier whites were able to qualify for deferments (delays or excuses from service) if they were enrolled in college. The fact that whites had options for avoiding combat that blacks did not angered many African Americans. African Americans were also upset because they believed they were being called upon to fight and die for a country that still actively resisted granting them basic civil rights. The military draft ended in 1973, and the U.S. military became an allvolunteer force. As the military shrank, interracial tensions began to ease. This process was helped along by the military’s ability to focus its resources toward required training programs in racial sensitivity. African American enlistment rates began to rebound, then skyrocket. The training and educational opportunities offered by the military came to be seen as a path out of poverty for many young African Americans. By the 1980s, the African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

percentage of African Americans enlisted in the armed forces had nearly doubled from a low of 11 percent in 1970. In the years after Vietnam, African Americans finally achieved meaningful representation among the officers’ ranks. With a greater African American presence among commanding officers, African American concerns and issues were more fully addressed. The first African American four-star general, Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. (1920–78), was named in 1976. In the 1980s, Colin Powell (1937– ) became the first black national security advisor. Later, he became the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest post attainable for an officer from any branch of the military. The 1990s continued the trends of the previous decade. The American military boasted a completely integrated force that had largely left the racial divides of previous decades behind. J. Paul Reason (1941– ) became the first African American to attain the rank of four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. In the early twenty-first century, the military once again faced controversy over the role of African American troops. In 2001, U.S. and allied troops invaded Afghanistan, whose government was protecting al-Qaeda, a radical Islamic terrorist group responsible for deadly attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, claiming that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) had “weapons of mass destruction” and posed an immediate threat to the safety of America. While the U.S. military quickly toppled both the Afghan and Iraqi governments, as of 2009 it remained bogged down in the complicated process of establishing peace in both countries. The two conflicts became increasingly unpopular with Americans, and, once again, the high proportion of African Americans in the armed forces led some politicians and antiwar activists to claim that blacks were shouldering too much responsibility for American wars. Enlistment rates dropped. As the first decade of the twenty-first century drew to a close, it remained to be seen whether African American enlistment would pick up again or whether the 1980s and 1990s were a high-water mark for African Americans in the military.

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H H

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CLIFFORD ALEXANDER (1933– )

Clifford Alexander’s service to the military was relatively brief. However, Alexander left a lasting mark on the history of African Americans in the military. He served as the first black secretary of the Army. Secretary Alexander was a champion of civil rights for African Americans and fair treatment for all. His career in government began in 1962. By the time his term as secretary of the Army ended in 1981, Alexander had served in some capacity under four U.S. presidents. Clifford Alexander distinguished himself throughout his career with his leadership abilities and ability to navigate the complex waters of government. He likely learned these skills at a young age from watching his parents at work. Both his mother and father were ambitious and hardworking. They passed those values on to their son, along with a passion for equality and fair treatment. Alexander’s father, a native of Jamaica, was a bank manager and ran the YMCA in the Harlem neighborhood where Clifford grew up. His mother, a native of Yonkers, New York, worked for the New York City welfare department and was an active civil servant. She was even named as the first African American woman to serve as a Democratic member of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the body that is technically responsible for electing the president of the United States.

Clifford Alexander became the first African American secretary of the Army when President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the position in 1976. Alexandra De Borchgrave/ Getty Images

Clifford Alexander led a well-rounded life growing up. He excelled at both sports and academics. His parents provided him with a topnotch education. They sent him to private academies such as New York’s Ethical Cultural School and the Fieldston School. Alexander’s skill at sports, particularly basketball, was such that he even considered pursuing a professional career as an athlete. He chose instead to attend Harvard University. His strong work ethic and personal charm won him many friends at Harvard, and he became the first African American in the university’s history to be elected student body president. African American Eras

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Alexander graduated from Harvard cum laude (“with honors”) with a degree in government in 1955. He immediately went on to attend Yale Law School. Alexander completed the rigorous program at Yale while holding down a job with Mutual Life Insurance. Alexander graduated from Yale in 1958. He immediately began to lay the foundations of a successful professional and personal life. He served a six-month stint with the National Guard. He also married Adele Logan, whom he had known since they attended high school together. After his time with the National Guard, Alexander threw himself into his work. His first job was as an assistant district attorney for New York County (Manhattan). Then, in 1961, he took a job as the executive director of the Manhattanville-Hamilton-Grange Neighborhood Conservation District, a housing agency that oversaw housing codes and living conditions for apartment dwellings in New York City. From 1962 to 1963, Alexander served as executive director for Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited. Launches Career in the White House Alexander was not yet out of his twenties, but his tireless work at improving housing conditions and opportunities for poor black youth was getting him noticed. President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) had come to the White House in 1961 with a strong civil rights agenda. Kennedy was looking for talented young African Americans to serve in his administration. Alexander had a host of educational and career credentials to his name. He was a natural choice. Alexander started out at the National Security Council in 1963. He worked with McGeorge Bundy (1919–96), whom Alexander had first impressed during his college years when Bundy was serving as dean of Harvard University. Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) had become president following the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Alexander moved to the White House to serve under President Johnson in 1964. He served first as deputy special assistant to the president, then as deputy special counsel, and then as associate special counsel.

Civil rights issues were of central concern to the Johnson administration. Alexander found himself at the forefront of the White House’s efforts to force an end to segregation (the practice of using the law to make members of different races live apart from each other). He worked closely with Johnson on the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed racial discrimination in voting. President Johnson named Alexander chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) in 1967. During his time serving as a presidential aide, Alexander had used his influence to bring about an increase both in the number of qualified African Americans holding government jobs and in the number of African American leaders receiving 578


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invitations to White House social events, meetings, and conferences. The EEOC was one of several federal agencies responsible for seeing that new civil rights and antidiscrimination laws were being followed. Alexander’s appointment as chairman was a direct continuation of his previous work on behalf of African Americans whose voting rights had been threatened.

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The EEOC’s objective was to investigate and end race-based job discrimination in major industries and labor unions. Alexander took to his new position with enthusiasm. He held widely publicized hearings that questioned big corporations on their hiring practices. The hearings effectively forced these corporations to admit to discriminatory employment patterns. African Americans were practically nonexistent on television at that time. Alexander called in the heads of the three big networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—and received their assurances that efforts would be made to increase African American visibility in their programming. Alexander also made the EEOC much more accessible to the public. He oversaw a dramatic increase in the commission’s activity. The EEOC handled about seventy thousand individual complaints under Alexander. By contrast, only five thousand complaints had been handled under the previous chairman. Alexander retained his position with the EEOC after the election of Republican Richard Nixon (1913–94) to the presidency in 1968. However, Alexander resigned his post in April 1969, presumably because of political differences with the White House. Becomes Secretary of the Army Alexander spent the next eight years working in the private sector. He first worked as an attorney at a Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold & Porter. He became the first African American to become partner at a major Washington law firm. Alexander moved on in 1976 to the firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson, and Alexander. He also taught law at Howard University and Georgetown University Law Center. In addition, he hosted a local television show, Cliff Alexander: Black on White, from 1971 to 1974. His interest in politics remained strong as well. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Washington, D.C., in 1976.

Democrat Jimmy Carter (1924– ) was elected president in 1976, and Alexander returned to the world of presidential politics. Carter picked Alexander to be his secretary of the Army. He became the first African American ever to hold that position. Alexander was in charge of a 34-billion-dollar budget as secretary of the Army. He also came in at a crucial time for the modern American military. As the Vietnam War ended, the military draft was abolished. Alexander played an essential role in shepherding the Army into a new era as an African American Eras

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all-volunteer force. Alexander’s background also left him uniquely qualified to handle the increasing levels of minority enlistment. He stressed a personal approach within the Army’s bureaucracy. He took steps to address racial tensions and award contracts to qualified minority-owned businesses. It was during Clifford Alexander’s term as secretary of the Army that Hazel Johnson (1927– ) became the first African American woman general. She was one of thirty African Americans whom Alexander appointed to that rank. His efforts were recognized with the Outstanding Civilian Award, Department of the Army in 1980, and the Distinguished Public Service Award, Department of Defense in 1981. The election of Republican Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) to the White House in 1980 brought Alexander’s time as secretary of the Army to a close. Alexander returned to the private sector. After leaving the White House, Alexander devoted his efforts to increasing equality in hiring and employment practices. He founded a consulting firm, Alexander and Associates, in 1981. The firm took on clients with the goal of addressing minority hiring practices. One of the firm’s most noteworthy corporate clients was Major League Baseball (MLB). MLB has been criticized because minorities are underrepresented at the managerial level. Later, Alexander came forward to publicly support the inclusion of gays in the military. Under existing regulations, homosexuals may be discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation. Alexander’s tradition of excellence and association with presidential politics has been passed down to his children. His daughter Elizabeth, a poet and professor at Yale University, composed and recited the poem “Praise Song for the Day” at the inauguration of President Barack Obama (1961– ) on January 20, 2009. Alexander’s son Mark served as a policy adviser for the Obama campaign.

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DANIEL “CHAPPIE” JAMES JR. (1920–1978)

Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. was the first African American ever to attain the rank of four-star general. He worked his way up the Air Force ranks over the course of a long and distinguished military career. James faced the sort of widespread discrimination that was part of American society and the military in the 1930s and 1940s. James responded by becoming a passionate defender of the promise of America and the possibilities that came with a military career. Many African Americans both within and outside the military were openly questioning the U.S. government and political structure during the 1960s. James argued in essays, articles, and speeches that the way to advance oneself was through 580


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dedication and excellence, as opposed to waiting on government or mass movements to solve problems. James was incredibly hardworking. He piled a regular lecture tour at high schools and college campuses on top of his demanding military duties. Tragically, his drive contributed to his death just three weeks after he retired from the Air Force. Overcomes a Difficult Background James was born into circumstances that were about as far as can be imagined from the lofty heights he would one day scale. He was the last of seventeen children born to Daniel James Sr. and Lillie Brown James. He was raised in rural poverty in northern Florida, near Pensacola. Both of his parents instilled in Daniel a strict work ethic and self-discipline. Daniel Sr. worked long hours six days a week for the local gas company. Lillie ran a home school for Daniel, his siblings, and many local children whose parents, like Lillie, were not satisfied with the severely underfunded all-black schools of the segregated South.

The driving force in young Daniel’s life was his mother. She liked to talk about her personal motto, which she dubbed the “Eleventh Commandment”: Thou shalt not quit. At a time when many whites believed that blacks were naturally inferior physically and mentally, Lillie taught her students that the only way to overcome this perception was to excel at everything and to lead an exemplary life. James developed an interest in flight at an early age. Black pilots were virtually unknown at the time, but young Daniel, inspired by his mother, resolved to one day fly a plane.

Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. was the first African American ever to attain the rank of four star general, on September 1, 1975. UPI/Corbis Bettmann

James graduated from Washington High School in 1937. He enrolled at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a respected, historically black college. James was tall, handsome, and athletic. The well-liked James earned his nickname “Chappie Boy” during his college years. Young “Chappie Boy” was also a bit of a prankster. He was finally expelled three months prior to graduation for fighting with another classmate. What seemed at first to be a disastrous turn quickly became a positive. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had been pressuring the Civil Aeronautics Administration African American Eras

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(CAA) to provide opportunities for aspiring African American pilots. The CAA responded by offering flying lessons and pilot training programs at six all-black colleges. James learned of the program after he was expelled. He signed up at Tuskegee and received his pilot certification. His childhood dreams of flight had become a reality. James was soon working as a civilian pilot and flight instructor. By 1941, however, U.S. entry into World War II seemed unavoidable. The NAACP and other black political action groups convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1881–1945) to start an experimental program at Tuskegee. The purpose of the experiment was to see whether African American pilots could meet the same strict standards that white pilots did. This experiment led to the formation of the core of the famous unit that would come to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. A Tuskegee Airman Is Born James submitted to the tests, which measured intelligence, education, mental endurance, and emotional stability. He passed easily. He then went onto the waiting list for combat training. James finally got his shot in January 1943. Six months later James graduated and was assigned to the newly formed 477th Bombardment Group. As part of the first all-black bomber group, James was assigned to Detroit’s Selfridge Field to await deployment to Europe.

Much to the disappointment and frustration of James and his comrades, that time was never to come. The base’s white commander, Brigadier General Frank O. D. Hunter (1894–1982), purposely held back the African American servicemen under his command. Hunter also enforced a strict policy of segregation (requiring members of different races to remain separated from each other) that caused considerable racial tension. Selfridge, like all U.S. military installations at the time, was required to provide separate but equal facilities for white and black officers. However, the separate facilities, such as the black officers’ club and black servicemen’s movie theater, left much to be desired. Tensions finally exploded in a series of confrontations in which black airmen repeatedly entered the all-white officers’ bar. James was among the airmen participating in these protests, which grew bigger with each repeated incident. James and his fellow African American officers were finally shipped off to Godman Field, Kentucky, amid national media coverage. Segregation in the military caused numerous confrontations like the one at Selfridge Field. It was also very expensive for the military because it required the building of twice as many facilities (one white, one “colored”) as it really needed. These factors led to the desegregation of the armed forces on July 26, 1948. 582


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Meanwhile, James had elected to stay in the Air Force after World War II ended in 1945. In 1949, he reported to his first integrated unit at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. There he encountered more racism. However, James determined to rise above it and put individual achievement ahead of concerns of race. To Chappie, racial politics was no excuse for poor service. He believed that held true for blacks as well as whites. For example, he chose to report a fellow black airman who was dangerously unqualified to the base’s white commanding officer. James held himself to the same high standards he expected of others. He earned a Distinguished Service Medal for bravery after surviving a plane crash in which the pilot was knocked unconscious. James was able to pull the pilot and himself from the flaming wreckage, although he suffered severe burns in the process.

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The Korean War broke out in 1950 shortly after James was posted to Clark Air Force Base. He finally had a chance to prove himself in combat. He flew 101 combat missions over Korea. His missions were against both ground and air targets. James earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and promotion to the rank of major for his actions in combat. James began to steadily climb the ranks of the Air Force brass in 1953. He earned ever more important postings and promotions as he was moved from one Air Force base to another. He moved from America to Europe to Asia to Africa and back. With his Korean War heroics behind him, James was reassigned to Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. There, in 1953, he became the first African American to head an all-white combat unit. James also stayed busy outside of the military. He had married in 1942 and had two children. He also made time for the local community. He gave talks at high schools and assisted disadvantaged students with scholarship applications. He even led a campaign to integrate a local all-white golf course. His exemplary actions earned James the 1954 Young Man of the Year award from the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. Distinguishes Himself in Vietnam James was reassigned to England’s Royal Air Force Bentwaters Base in 1962 after nearly a decade at Otis. At Bentwaters he trained the base’s eighty fighter pilots and was promoted to deputy commander of wing operations. He attracted the attention of Colonel Robin Olds (1922–2007). Olds asked James to transfer to Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand in March 1965 as the American involvement in the Vietnam War began to move into full combat operations.

While at Ubon, James supervised the base’s four thousand personnel as director of operations and vice wing commander. In the latter capacity, James African American Eras

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flew seventy-eight combat missions over Vietnam. He often volunteered to lead difficult missions, particularly night raids over the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. James flew alongside Colonel Olds as part of the team the two friends dubbed “Blackman and Robin.” James flew in as leader of the second flight of the famous Operation Bolo, an air battle which took place on January 2, 1967. The operation was planned as a trap to corner the North Vietnamese fighter jets that had been threatening American fighter bombers. James and his comrades, piloting F-4 Phantom II fighter jets, downed seven enemy fighters with no losses to themselves. While fighting for his country in Southeast Asia, James was often angered by the news that was coming from the States. Some African American rights activists, notably the members of the Black Panther party, were growing increasingly militant in their opposition to American political structures and the war in Vietnam. The Black Panthers and other black nationalist organizations believed that African Americans should not be part of mainstream white America, and should focus instead on strengthening their own, independent culture. In response, James submitted his entry for an essay contest sponsored by Stars and Stripes, the military’s newspaper, under the topic “Freedom—My Heritage, My Responsibility.” The essay was picked by the Freedoms Foundation as the winner of the contest. James received a George Washington honor medal along with national attention for his patriotic argument. James was even invited to the White House to meet President Lyndon Johnson. James continued to reject notions of black separateness. He preferred to focus on individual excellence. As James put it to the New York Times, he was an American first and a black man second. In September 1969, James was sent to Wheelus Air Force Base in Tripoli, Libya. He took command of the 7272nd Flying Training Wing. Unfortunately for James, his reassignment coincided with the overthrow of Libya’s King Idris by the anti-American Libyan colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi (1942– ). Wheelus was the largest Air Force base outside of the United States at the time. It came under immediate pressure by the new Libyan government. The new government established requirements that all incoming and outgoing flights had to be cleared with the Libyans and that all shipments were subject to search by the Libyan customs authorities. One particularly unfortunate episode even found James’s wife subjected to a gunpoint search of her car by Libyan authorities. Despite James’s protests, the American ambassador decided to evacuate Wheelus. James accepted the order and oversaw an orderly withdrawal. After returning from Libya in 1970, James was sent to the Pentagon. He also received a promotion to the rank of brigadier general. His outgoing personality, well-earned reputation for excellence and

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Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. sits in his fighter plane cockpit while serving as commander of the Wheelus Air Force Base in Tripoli, Libya, in 1970. AP Images

discipline, and record of public speaking brought him a position as spokesman for the Department of Public Affairs. The appointment proved a good one for James. He continued to make appearances at high schools to give inspirational speeches. He also answered the growing anti-Vietnam War sentiment among Americans with calls for patience as the military began to disengage from the war. In particular, he made time to speak to disaffected Vietnam veterans, servicemen, and wives of servicemen who were missing in action or were prisoners of war. Promotion to Four-Star General From this point on, James rose rapidly in the Air Force. In 1973, he was transferred to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois and named vice commander of the Military Airlift Command. A promotion to lieutenant general followed the next year. On September 1, 1975, James became the first African American to attain the rank of four-star general. This is the highest peacetime rank an officer can achieve in the Air Force. The promotion brought with it a new assignment as head of North American Air Defense (NORAD) in Cheyenne, Wyoming. NORAD is a huge base literally built inside and under a mountain. It is the strategic nerve center of the Air Force’s global monitoring system. NORAD maintains an extensive radar and satellite network to guard against surprise nuclear attack. African American Eras

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James’s new post carried awesome responsibilities: he oversaw a staff of twenty thousand at the facility itself. He was also required to constantly stay on the move. He visited bases across America and abroad and also kept up with substantial supervisory duties at Cheyenne Mountain. He attempted as best he could to keep up with the constant demand for speaking engagements he received from hundreds of colleges and high schools every year. James suffered a minor heart attack in September 1977. He decided to retire from the Air Force after thirty-five years of loyal service. Unfortunately, James had little time to enjoy his retirement. He suffered a major heart attack and died on February 25, 1978. He was in Colorado at the time for one of his many speaking engagements. He was survived by Dorothy, his wife of thirty-six years, and his three children. James’s youngest son, Daniel III, followed his father into the Air Force. He served as director of the Air National Guard from 2002 to 2006 and retired after a thirty-eight-year military career, having attained the rank of lieutenant-general. “Chappie” James left behind a legacy of service and excellence. His status as one of the military’s premier African American servicemen earned him a place of honor in the history of the American armed forces. Today the F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber that James flew in Vietnam stands as a memorial to him on the Tuskegee University campus.

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HAZEL JOHNSON (1927– )

Hazel Johnson did not set out to make history. However, through a long and distinguished career as an Army nurse she did just that. Johnson became the first African American woman to reach the rank of general. Her natural leadership abilities ensured a steady rise through the ranks. Her emphasis on education and training allowed her to have a distinguished career both in the military and in academia. Johnson was born in 1927. She was one of seven children of a Pennsylvania farmer. She decided on a career in nursing at the age of twelve after she was inspired by a local public health nurse. She hit a snag in her plans when her application to the West Chester School of Nursing was rejected based on race. Johnson did not give up. She enrolled at Harlem Hospital in New York City in 1950. She graduated in 1953. Her first job after graduation was at the Philadelphia Veterans Hospital. This post put her in touch with a former army nurse who, hearing of Johnson’s desire to travel and see the world, urged her to join the military. Johnson’s natural leadership abilities brought further encouragement from other staff 586


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members. She enlisted in the Army in 1955 after a single meeting with a recruiter. What began as a two-year tour of duty turned into a lifetime career. Johnson’s leadership qualities were quickly noted. Within five years she had received a commission in the Army Nurse Corps as first lieutenant. Her career as an army officer was underway. Joining the military proved to be a smart career move for Johnson. According to Johnson’s own recollections, she never dealt with any incidents of discrimination or a lack of opportunity due to her race. Good timing was on her side. The U.S. military had been desegregated only seven years earlier. Johnson found herself in a fully integrated military where, officially, all barriers to advancement by African Americans had been taken down, and she was allowed opportunities to demonstrate her abilities in full. Johnson used these opportunities to her advantage and traveled the world. She served as a staff nurse in Japan. She then moved on to serve on the Surgical Directorate at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command in Washington, D.C., as dean of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing. She was also chief nurse of the U.S. Army Medical Command in Korea and a special assistant to the chief of the Army Nurse Corps. Johnson was rewarded for her service with regular promotions. After earning her lieutenant commission, she rose to major, to lieutenant-colonel, and then to colonel. By the mid-1970s, Johnson was the highest-ranking African American woman in the military. Along the way she also took advantage of the Army’s educational opportunities. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Villanova University, a master’s degree in nursing education from Columbia University, and a doctorate in education administration from Catholic University. Thanks to her extensive educational credentials, Johnson was also appointed assistant dean of the undergraduate program of the School of Nursing at the University of Maryland. In that capacity she oversaw the training of new Army nurses, men and women alike.

Hazel Johnson became the first African American woman to attain the rank of general in the U.S. military in 1979. AP Images

In 1979 Hazel Johnson received a general’s star from Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander. She became head of the Army Nurse Corps and the first African American woman to attain the rank of general in U.S. African American Eras

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military history. Her new rank saw her in charge of over seven thousand nurses from the Army, Army Reserves, and Army National Guard. Her term in charge of the Nurse Corps lasted four years. Johnson set a goal of improving educational and training programs in the eight Army medical centers, 56 community hospitals, and 143 freestanding clinics in the United States, Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, and Panama that she oversaw. Johnson decided to retire when her four-year-term was up. Her retirement brought to a close a nearly thirty-year military career. She made this decision in part to allow her to focus on her personal life. Policies in place at the time she enlisted prevented Johnson from marrying as an Army nurse. Once her career as an officer had taken off, she found little time for outside relationships—or partners able to cope with her busy and demanding schedule. After retirement, however, Johnson was finally able to put down roots. She married a man named David Brown. In 1986, after a two-year stint as director of government affairs for the American Nursing Association in Washington, D.C., Johnson took a position as professor of nursing at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. After a few years she settled in at George Mason University in Virginia. Johnson—now Johnson-Brown—drew upon her long career experience and educational background in her work as a professor. She focused her remaining professional years on helping to train new Army nurses. While at George Mason, she founded the Center for Health Policy, an organization centered on involving nurses in the development of health policy design. Hazel Johnson-Brown retired from teaching in 1997. She remained active in retirement. She served on a variety of health- and education-related boards and committees. She also received honors and recognition for her trailblazing career. The U.S. Army commemorated Johnson’s career in February 2009 in honor of African American History Month by featuring her biography in an Internet tribute to African American “firsts” in the military.

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COLIN POWELL (1937– )

Colin Powell often talks about his childhood as one of unpromising beginnings. He is the son of poor Jamaican immigrants who found his calling in the Army. He served a distinguished career that would culminate with his appointment to the top position in the American military: chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He became both the first African American and youngest person appointed to the position. After retiring from the military, Powell would again take on a national role as secretary of state—again becoming the first African American to hold that position— during the first term of George W. Bush’s (1946– ) presidency. 588


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The Military Welcomes a New Recruit Powell was born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. He grew up in a racially mixed, economically depressed neighborhood of the South Bronx. He states in his autobiography, My American Journey, that he was “a black kid of no early promise from an immigrant family of limited means.” His parents’ union jobs in the garment industry assured the family a certain level of financial stability. Even so, Powell was a constant witness to poverty and deprivation. He failed to stand out as a student. He dabbled in a variety of hobbies and sports, but nothing captured his interest enough for him to pursue it in a dedicated way.

Powell graduated from Morris High School in 1954. He chose to attend City College of New York (CCNY) mainly for financial reasons. Although he maintained only a C-average during his undergraduate years, Powell would later credit CCNY with giving him the proper foundation to transition into adult life and deal with the wider world around him. Powell often talks about the small moments in his life that have proven to be the biggest influences on his character. One of those moments was his decision to join CCNY’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Powell joined the drill club known as Pershing’s Rifles. He would spend most of his weekends and free time at the ROTC’s drill hall. He often practiced drill for six or seven hours a day. Powell graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in geology, a rank of cadet colonel—the highest in the ROTC—and a second lieutenant commission in the U.S. Army.

Colin Powell just after being appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on August 10, 1989. He was the first African American to attain this highest position in the U.S. military. Cynthia Johnson/Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

Powell had found a world that excited and welcomed him. He began a military career and headed south to Fort Benning, Georgia, for basic training. Powell’s experiences at Fort Benning formed another touchstone he often returns to when discussing where he learned his lessons on leadership. He says that most of what he learned about being an effective leader goes back to his first two months at Fort Benning. Powell completed basic training during the height of the Cold War, the decades-long power struggle between the world’s two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. His first assignment was in West Germany. He was assigned to the Third Armored Division. The division’s task was to guard the so-called Fulda Gap, a strategically important stretch African American Eras

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of terrain, from possible Soviet invasion. All remained quiet on the front, and Powell completed his two-year tour without incident. He was then transferred back to the United States. He was stationed at Fort Devens outside Boston, Massachusetts. Powell met his future wife Alma on a blind date while he was stationed at Fort Devens. The couple had three children: Michael, Linda, and Annemarie. Tours in Vietnam Powell received training as a military adviser in 1952 and was later sent to Vietnam. At the time Vietnam was in the midst of a civil war that pitted the Communist North against the U.S.-aligned South. Powell was one of the sixteen thousand military advisers the United States sent to aid the antiCommunist faction. Powell was in Vietnam from 1962 to 1963. He was injured by an enemy booby trap while on patrol along the Vietnam-Laos border. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and sent home.

As the war in Vietnam heated up, Powell completed several training programs—including the elite Pathfinder course for paratroopers—and continued to excel at his work. He earned further decorations and a promotion to the rank of major. Powell was redeployed to Vietnam in July 1968. He was put in charge of investigating one of the war’s most controversial incidents, the My Lai Massacre. The My Lai Massacre was an incident in which more than three hundred Vietnamese civilians were killed by American troops. At first, the Army maintained that those killed were enemy fighters. Powell’s report found no wrongdoing in the event and asserted that relations between American troops and the Vietnamese were “excellent.” It was later revealed that the soldiers knowingly murdered the unarmed civilians of My Lai, including many women and children. The lieutenant in command was later convicted of twenty-two murders in a court martial. Powell’s report would come back to haunt him later in his career. Some would point to it as early evidence of Powell’s trying to cover up the wrongdoings of others. Powell’s second tour in Vietnam was once again cut short by injury. Powell was involved in a helicopter crash landing in July 1969. Despite his injuries, he helped rescue several other passengers from the burning wreckage. In addition to a second Purple Heart, Powell’s actions in Vietnam won him a Soldier’s Medal and a Legion of Merit. Over the course of his career, he would earn eleven decorations. Back in the States, Powell furthered his education by earning a master’s in business administration from George Washington University. His new degree helped him return to Washington as the recipient of a prestigious White House fellowship. Powell worked with future secretaries of defense Frank Carlucci (1930– ) and Caspar Weinberger (1917–2006) 590


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in the Office of Management and Budget from 1972 to 1973. He established ties that would later prove helpful to his career.

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Work in the White House Powell was briefly deployed to South Korea, a U.S. ally, after his fellowship during a period of heightened tensions with Communist North Korea. He was soon promoted to the rank of colonel. He took command of the Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in 1976 after completing his military education at the National War College. Powell would have liked to stay on with the assignment. However, the incoming administration of newly elected president Jimmy Carter (1924– ) called him back to Washington in 1977. There Powell was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1979. After his promotion, Powell served as an executive assistant to Charles Duncan Jr. (1926– ), the secretary of energy, and as a senior military assistant to the deputy secretary of defense.

Powell became one of a large number of “Reagan Democrats.” Reagan Democrats were voters who had tended to vote for Democratic candidates in the past but voted Republican to elect Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) to the White House in 1980. Powell’s personal reason for the switch lay in the Iranian hostage crisis, which had erupted in 1979. Fifty-three American embassy employees in Tehran, Iran, were taken hostage by a group of Islamist revolutionaries in 1979 and held captive for more than a year. Powell was disappointed by the subsequently botched military rescue efforts launched by the Carter administration. Powell teamed up with his old associate Frank Carlucci to head a transition team for the incoming Department of Defense. Powell then worked as a military assistant to Secretary of Defense Weinberger from 1983 to 1986. Part of Powell’s duties in that post involved helping to coordinate U.S. military actions such as the invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983 and retaliatory bombing strikes on Libya in 1986. In 1986, Powell was sent to West Germany again after being promoted to three-star general, also known as lieutenant general. By January 1987, however, Powell was back in Washington. He was working again with Carlucci, this time as deputy assistant at the National Security Council (NSC). Powell took on a very prominent position at the end of the Reagan administration. He served as the national security adviser to President Reagan from 1987 until the end of Reagan’s term in 1989. At this time the NSC was involved in what would soon explode into the so-called IranContra scandal. The Iran-Contra scandal was a covert (secret) operation in which the United States sold American weapons to Iran in order to fund anti-Communist forces in Nicaragua. Many of Powell’s Washington African American Eras

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associates would soon become embroiled in the scandal. Powell, despite knowing about the arms sales and testifying before Congress, remained above suspicion due to his strict adherence to legal procedure. Powell also showed an ability to effectively administer without letting his personal biases or agendas get in the way. This was a character trait that he would repeatedly exhibit throughout his later posts. Carlucci and Powell worked to reorganize the NSC to ensure that future repetitions of the Iran-Contra scandal would not occur. Powell’s position as national security adviser carried with it other high-level duties. For example, he coordinated the summit meetings that President Reagan held with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (1931– ) in 1987. Becomes Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff In 1989, incoming president George H. W. Bush (1924– ) tapped Powell to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This is the highest post in the military. It was a historic appointment in more ways than one. Powell was the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He was also the youngest person ever to hold the position. Powell came to the post at a time when, thanks to new laws and procedures introduced in the previous decade, the position had unprecedented influence and power. As a result, when Saddam Hussein touched off an international crisis by invading Kuwait in 1990, Powell found himself at the center of a global media spotlight as chief architect of the strategic response to the invasion.

The response was a multinational military coalition deployed to Saudi Arabia. It was code-named Operation Desert Shield. Powell masterfully orchestrated the alliance between the United States and other countries. Powell worked quickly to streamline communications and operations between dozens of American, European, and Middle Eastern units in the field. Simultaneously, he left the operational details up to the generals on the ground. Powell advised President Bush to respond to an Iraqi peace offer with an ultimatum for withdrawal from Kuwait by February 23. When the withdrawal did not come, Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm. The coalition invaded Kuwait to successfully oust the Iraqis. It was during the military phase of the operation that Powell’s strategy, which would come to be known as the “Powell Doctrine,” was put into effect. The approach is simple: utilize overwhelming military firepower to achieve a quick success with minimal friendly casualties. Life Outside the Military and Politics Beckons Powell’s capable handling of the Gulf War earned praise from many. He was hailed as a black role model and a patriot. Critics and peace activists 592


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labeled him a hawk—one who advocates war—and servant of the white establishment. This was not the last time he would hear such criticisms. Powell’s policy decisions were not without missteps, either. He resisted a military solution to the war-torn situation in the Balkans in 1993. This strategy proved to be wrong when it became apparent that it was only by force of arms that peace would come to the Balkans. Powell also advised President Bill Clinton (1946– ) to send troops into Somalia. This advice handed the Clinton administration its most tragic military failure. Nevertheless, public opinion of Powell was overwhelmingly positive. Talk began to circulate of a run for the presidency or vice presidency. Powell repeatedly rejected these rumors.

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Powell decided not to pursue a political career. He retired from the military in September 1993. The following year, Powell traveled with former president Jimmy Carter and Senator Sam Nunn (1938– ) to the island nation of Haiti. Haiti had been suffering under military rule and civil strife. The peacekeeping mission was successful, and a democratically elected government was restored. In 1995, Powell published his best-selling autobiography. In 1997 he began to devote his time towards helping America’s youth. After attending the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future, an event hosted by then-president Bill Clinton along with former presidents Bush, Reagan, and Carter, Powell was inspired to answer the summit’s call to help

Colin Powell continued his work with the America’s Promise organization he founded with his wife Alma after leaving government service. He and his wife are shown here with former presidents Bill Clinton (left) and George H. W. Bush (second from right) at an America’s Promise event in 2007. AP Images


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America’s fifteen million disadvantaged youth. To do so, Powell founded the organization America’s Promise. Despite a rocky start, America’s Promise, which Powell co-chaired with his wife Alma, went on to impact the lives of ten million children. America’s Promise operates outreach programs in five hundred communities across all fifty states. The program emphasizes the importance of strong adult role models in children’s lives. It also provides safe places and activities for after-school programs, career guidance, and community service opportunities. Becomes Secretary of State Powell returned to Washington, D.C., after seven years outside the world of politics and government. This time he was tapped by the son of the last president he served. George W. Bush announced that Powell would be his secretary of state. It was the first time an African American had been named to that highly esteemed cabinet post. Powell accepted and was unanimously approved by the Senate in January 2001. He became the first former general since Harry Truman’s administration to serve as secretary of state. He also attained the highest civilian rank ever held by an African American up to that point.

Powell found himself surrounded by a White House staff bent on military action as a means to solve international disputes, whereas he himself, despite his military background, was chiefly interested in diplomatic solutions. These differences became even more pronounced after the deadly terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Bush’s cabinet members such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (1932– ) began pushing for military action against Iraq. Rumsfeld insisted that Iraq’s suspected stockpile of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was being used to supply terrorists and should be removed by force. Powell did not agree with this position, but he supported the president. Powell’s most visible moment of support for war in Iraq came with his address in February 2003 to the United Nations Security Council. Powell laid out the George W. Bush administration’s case for war with Iraq in a long, detailed speech. His reputation for integrity convinced many observers to support President Bush’s invasion plans. However, much of the information Powell included in his speech was later found to be inaccurate or unreliable. Long-time Powell advisor Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson would later say that the moment was the lowest point in Powell’s life. Powell resigned his cabinet post within days of President Bush’s reelection in 2004. He was succeeded by another African American, former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (1954– ). After his retirement, Powell continued his work with America’s Promise. He also became involved with a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Powell remained an 594


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active commentator on political issues. He made his criticisms of the Bush administration public after he left the White House. He testified before Congress on the need for reform of the intelligence community and more humane treatment of inmates held in military prison.

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A mark of the political muscle Powell continued to wield could be seen during the 2008 presidential campaign. Powell endorsed candidate Barack Obama two weeks before the election. The endorsement by a respected moderate Republican was seen as a major victory for Obama. Some experts believe that Powell’s endorsement of Obama convinced many independent voters to choose Obama over his Republican rival John McCain (1936– ).

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J. PAUL REASON (1941– )

J. Paul Reason has had a long and distinguished military career. His career reached its high point in 1996 when he was appointed commanderin-chief of the U.S. Atlantic fleet. Reason became the first African American ever to attain the rank of four-star admiral. J. Paul Reason was born the son of a professor and a school teacher. He was brought up with a love of learning. Reason’s upbringing was remarkably multiracial, especially given that it came during a time when much of America was racially segregated. It was not until his late adolescence and early adulthood that Reason would begin to encounter discrimination. In spite of such incidents, he has always chosen to focus on the people who have helped him, not those who have tried to hold him back.

J. Paul Reason became the U.S. Navy’s first African American four star admiral in 1996. U.S. Navy

Reason’s home in Washington, D.C., was close to the shipyards, piers, and docks of Chesapeake Bay. From this early exposure Reason developed a love of the sea. A career in the Navy seemed like a logical choice for Reason. However, he hit an early obstacle. His application to join the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) in high school was rejected. Later, Reason would learn that he had been rejected despite the fact that he had earned the third highest score out of three hundred students on the application test. Racial discrimination is the most likely explanation for why he was not accepted. African American Eras

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Reason had allies who wanted to assist him. A helpful incident occurred after Reason had graduated high school. He had spent one year at Swarthmore College and one year at Lincoln University, both in Pennsylvania, before transferring to Howard University. Howard is a famous, well-respected historically black university in Washington, D.C. It was while Reason was attending Howard that Michigan congressman Charles Diggs (1922–98) recommended Reason for the Naval Academy. Diggs had discussed the lack of black midshipmen (students at the Naval Academy) with the dean of Howard University. The dean had told Diggs about Reason’s dreams of a naval career. Reason had to start over as a freshman at the Naval Academy even though he already had three years of college behind him. His time at the academy was marked by more incidents of racial discrimination. Reason focused on the fast friendships he formed and the extracurricular activities he enjoyed, such as working as a sports announcer. He was commissioned as ensign (an entry-level officer in the Navy) in June 1965. Reason served until September as operations officer aboard the destroyer escort USS J. Douglas Blackwood. Rises to a Challenge After graduation, Reason set his sights on continuing his military education by trying to enter the nuclear propulsion program. The nuclear propulsion program represented the cutting edge of American naval studies at the time. Admissions standards were very high. Reason set up a meeting with Vice Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900–86). Rickover was known as the “father of the nuclear Navy.” He had developed the nuclear submarine and the Navy’s new nuclear strategic doctrine. He was also known for his outspoken personality and fiery temper. Reason found himself under intense scrutiny during the meeting. Rickover told him that with his educational background he should have achieved a much higher class ranking. Furthermore, Rickover told Reason that he would only allow him into the nuclear program if he improved his class standing. Reason refused this offer. He pointed out that it was an impossible goal, since it depended not only on his own academic performance but also the performance of the students ahead of him.

Rickover threw Reason out of his office. That could have been the end of Reason’s dream of joining the program. However, an aide told Reason to hang around. Reason waited for several hours in a side office. Another aide brought Reason a contract that had been drawn up by Rickover. The contract required Reason to agree to Rickover’s initial offer. Instead, Reason stuck to his position and crossed out Rickover’s offer. He wrote instead that he would only swear to get all A’s by the end of the year. 596


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The aide tore up the amended contract and came back with a second copy of the contract. Again Reason refused to sign. He was thrown out of Rickover’s office again.

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It thus came as a surprise to Reason when, the next day, he saw his name third on the list of candidates accepted to the nuclear program. He had clearly impressed Rickover. Indeed, Rickover would continue to track Reason’s early career from behind the scenes. For example, when Reason was given a poor evaluation on a fitness report after a string of excellent evaluations, Rickover put in a call to inquire as to why. Reason’s evaluations quickly returned to their previously excellent status. Thrives in the Navy Reason had married Dianne Fowler three days after graduating from the Naval Academy. He had known Fowler since their childhood days in Washington, D.C. The new bride knew what she was getting into in marrying a military man. Her father had been a colonel in the Army. Despite the frequent deployments and relocations that came with a career in the Navy, the Reasons’ marriage was strong and happy. He and his wife had two children, a daughter and a son. In later years, Reason would credit his wife’s unfailing support as crucial to his own success.

Reason completed his nuclear training in 1968. He then transferred to the USS Truxton, a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser. He was immediately deployed to Southeast Asia. Reason’s deployment came during the height of the Vietnam War. The Truxton was involved in responding to an international incident while en route to Vietnam after the USS Pueblo was seized by North Korea. After completing his tour, Reason earned a master’s degree in computer systems management in 1970. He would continue to champion the integration of computers and technology into shipboard operations through the remainder of his career. In 1971, Reason shipped out to Southeast Asia again. This time he was on board the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. From 1971 to 1973, Reason completed two tours on the Enterprise. He then returned to Washington, D.C., to continue his military education. Back aboard the Truxton, he served as combat systems officer from 1974 to 1976. Eventually he moved on to a post as a naval aide at the White House under President Gerald Ford (1913–2006). In 1977, Ford’s presidency came to a close, but Reason stayed on as an aide to the incoming president Jimmy Carter. Part of Reason’s duties at this time included carrying the “nuclear football.” The nuclear football is the briefcase that contains the top secret launch codes for America’s nuclear arsenal. It is kept close to the president at all times should he need them. African American Eras

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In 1979, Reason shipped out again, serving aboard the USS Mississippi, the USS Coontz, and the USS Bainbridge. Aboard these vessels Reason crisscrossed the globe. He cruised the waters off West Africa as well as the Mediterranean and Black seas. He earned the nickname “Go Fast” along the way. The nickname was a tribute to his standard practice of rarely going below a speed of twenty-five knots, or about twenty-nine miles per hour. Reason Makes History as an Admiral In 1986 Reason was named rear admiral. He was the first member of the Naval Academy class of 1965 to achieve the rank. He was given command of Cruiser-Destroyer Group One. This meant he had responsibility over all naval activities in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. He held the post for two years. During that time he also participated in operations as leader of Battle Group Romeo in the Pacific and Indian oceans and the Persian Gulf. In 1991, Reason was promoted to three-star admiral. He took command of the Naval Surface Force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. In August 1994, he was named deputy of naval operations.

Reason made history in December 1996 when President Bill Clinton nominated him to become the first African American four-star admiral. Upon gaining his fourth star, Reason became commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet. The Atlantic Fleet accounted for half of the U.S. Navy’s total military assets. It was deployed over an area that stretched from the North Pole to the South Pole, from the Caribbean to the Persian Gulf. In total, the Atlantic Fleet comprised (was made up of) 120,000 servicemen, 20,000 civilian personnel, 26 admirals, 195 warships, and 1,357 aircraft. Reason’s duties involved overseeing a five-billion-dollar budget and eighteen major naval bases along America’s East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Iceland. Reason strove to reduce crew sizes and, true to his “Go Fast” nickname, speed up travel and response time. He served during a time of repeated controversies over the sexual harassment of servicewomen in the armed forces. Unlike many other commanding officers, Reason took swift and meaningful action when an accusation of inappropriate behavior was leveled against an officer under his command. When Rear Admiral Robert S. Cole was accused of sexual harassment by female staffers, Reason relieved Cole of his command. Reason’s action did much to help restore the Navy’s reputation. Reason retired from the Navy in 1999. He ended his distinguished career with a host of medals and commendations, the most notable being the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the National 598


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Defense Service Medal. After leaving the military, Reason was recruited by corporate America to put his renowned leadership capabilities to work in the private sector. He served in various capacities with two shipping companies. In 2008, he accepted an appointment to a four-year term on the secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History.


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VIETNAM WAR DISILLUSIONS BLACK SOLDIERS The U.S. involvement in Vietnam, known in America as the Vietnam War (1954–75), was a dark chapter in American military history. The southeast Asian country of Vietnam became involved in a civil war after it won independence from France in 1954. North Vietnam was Communist. South Vietnam was pro-Western and democratic. The United States became involved because it did not want to see the Communist North win the war, which would make all of Vietnam a Communist country. American foreign policy had a goal of stopping the spread of communism throughout the world. American involvement began with the United States just sending military advisors to South Vietnam to help them with military training. By 1965, however, the United States was sending American troops to help with the fighting. As the Vietnam War ramped up after 1965, so too did the need for manpower. Reluctant to inflame the growing antiwar movement, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) authorized Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1916–2009) to implement his so-called Project 100,000 plan, which aimed to boost troop levels by 100,000. Project 100,000 lowered the recruitment standards for the military draft that had been in place since 1948. The new policy targeted draftees from the lower economic classes. It targeted men (women were exempt from the draft) who were too poor,

African Americans were disproportionately drafted during the Vietnam War because their poor economic status prevented them from taking advantages of deferments like enrollment in college. ª Bettmann/Corbis

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uneducated, or both to take advantage of deferments, or exemptions from the draft. One of the most popular ways to gain a deferment was to enroll in college. University students were excused from the draft. Project 100,000 targeted civilians who, for whatever reason, were not able to attend college. Although many could not attend because they were unable to afford higher education, they were dubbed the “Moron Corps” by veteran soldiers. As a result, the new draftees often came as unwilling combatants.

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Project 100,000 had been promoted as a social welfare program. Draftees from poor areas would receive valuable technical training in the military, it was argued. Instead, just 40 percent of African American inductees received any advanced training at all. The other 60 percent, who were mostly the poorest and least educated, were either given the lowstatus assignments or sent into dangerous combat units alongside white soldiers from poor, rural areas. What is more, only 3 percent of the Army’s officer corps and 1 percent of Marine officers were African American. These differences in background, education, and training led to misunderstanding and mistrust between military commanders and their soldiers, which contributed to worsening morale in Vietnam. The attitude of the new inductees reflected the growing divisiveness back home. The antiwar movement gained ground with each passing month. African Americans opposed the fighting in Vietnam in far greater numbers proportionately than their white counterparts. Many of the new crop of African American draftees were influenced by the increasingly

Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other religious leaders and members of the group “Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam” in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery during a silent vigil on February 6, 1968. ª Bettmann/Corbis


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radical side of the civil rights movement—the black power movement, which strongly opposed the draft and the war. In addition, more mainstream civil rights leaders began to speak out against the war and the Johnson administration’s handling of it. This was a significant change. Previously, most civil rights leaders had supported the policies of President Johnson, who was an outspoken champion of civil rights. Most significant among these new dissenters was Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68). King became one of the war’s most vocal opponents in the last years of his life. For example, in a 1967 speech he stated plainly that he believed the United States was wrong to go to war in Vietnam. Morale among African American soldiers serving in Vietnam plummeted. Many black soldiers believed that black men were being forced in disproportionate numbers to fight a white man’s war. Many also argued that the draft was rigged to take “dangerous” black men out of the inner city and send them overseas to die. As evidence, they pointed to the fact that about 60 percent of African American men called up by the draft were sent into the armed forces. By contrast, just 30 percent of whites were sent to serve. Although the percentage of the military that was African Americans was only slightly higher than the percentage of the civilian population that was African American civilians, black soldiers were far more likely to be sent into frontline combat duty. African Americans made up around 13 percent of Army and Marine personnel. Yet 20 to 25 percent of combat units were made up of African Americans. In part, the difference in service rates reflected the racial makeup of local draft boards. Draft boards were the organizations responsible for overseeing the draft in local communities. They made enlistment decisions and were responsible for handing out deferments. Draft boards were overwhelmingly staffed by white men. Even after a sustained drive was launched to put more African Americans on draft boards, by the late 1960s African Americans made up barely 6 percent of draft board members. By the time the United States finally withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, over 350,000 American soldiers had been killed or wounded. The Vietnamese suffered nearly 3.5 million casualties. Two years later, North Vietnam forces overwhelmed South Vietnam, and the country became Communist. It was the first war the United States had ever lost.

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BOXER MUHAMMAD ALI REFUSES THE DRAFT During the 1960s, African American boxer Muhammad Ali (1942– ) rose to become one of the world’s most famous athletes, winning the first of his heavyweight championships in 1964. His brash personality and 602


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Muhammad Ali appears before the Illinois Boxing Commission to explain his protests against being drafted into the Vietnam War in 1966. ª Bettmann/ Corbis

overwhelming confidence in himself made him just as much a celebrity as his ability to win boxing matches. He also became a controversial figure by doing things that were unpopular in the eyes of the majority of the American public. For example, he threw away the gold medal he won in the 1960 Olympics in protest of American racism. After winning the heavyweight championship in 1964, he converted to Islam and changed his name from his birth name of Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. His decision to do so produced a chorus of protest from white boxing fans. Requests Exemption Ali’s greatest controversy involved the military, following his conversion to Islam. The Vietnam War was at its height in the 1960s, and young American men were subject to the draft, or involuntary entry to the military in order to fight in the war. Many African Americans felt that the draft unfairly targeted black men because they were not in the economic position to qualify for deferment as many white men were. A deferment is a valid African American Eras

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oxing champion Muhammad Ali caused a national uproar when he refused to answer the draft in 1967. Ali famously explained his reasons for refusing to serve in the military as follows: Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

reason for someone to not join the Army, which includes college enrollment. Many African Americans complained that the war was racist. Muhammad Ali did not believe that the war was just, and requested exemption from the military draft in 1966 on the basis of his religious beliefs. There were three criteria that had to be met for a potential inductee to be granted “conscientious objector” status. First, he had to be sincere in his objection. Second, his objection had to be based on religious training and beliefs. Third, he had to be opposed to participating in all wars. Ali seemed to meet all three criteria, but his request for an exemption was denied. The Department of Justice (DOJ) successfully argued that Ali was not sincere because his objection to the draft was political and racial, not religious. The DOJ also argued that Ali’s beliefs were a matter of convenience rather than principle and that he was only opposed to certain types of war. In April 1967, in Houston, Texas, Ali attended an induction ceremony for the U.S. Armed Forces. After his name was called, Ali was required to 604


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take one step forward. The step would signify his induction. When the moment came, Ali did not move. He was warned that he faced five years of imprisonment and a ten thousand-dollar fine if he refused induction. His name was called again. Again he remained motionless, indicating his refusal. That same day, Ali’s boxing license was suspended, and he was stripped of his heavyweight title. The following month he was indicted (formally charged with a crime) by a federal grand jury in Houston. Ali was released on bail. He insisted that he was prepared to go to prison if necessary. Ali said that he was only standing up for what he believed.

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Reaction to Ali’s Refusal The sports media were largely against Ali’s decision. Much of the American public also opposed his decision because public opinion had not yet turned against the Vietnam War. In June 1967 Ali was convicted and sentenced to the maximum punishment of five years in prison. While the case was appealed, Ali went on a college lecture tour. He spoke about his views on a range of contemporary social issues to enthusiastic audiences, although there were usually some hecklers in the audience as well. His supporters saw in him a man who had the courage of his convictions. His critics saw him as a coward and a draft-dodger who deserved no sympathy.

In 1968, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Ali’s conviction. Ali continued to appeal. In June 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed his conviction. All criminal charges were dismissed. The Court based its decisions on the fact that the draft appeal board had not indicated the specific reason it had denied Ali’s request for conscientious objector status. By this time, public opinion had adopted a more open-minded attitude towards antiwar protesters such as Ali. The boxer soon found his celebrity status on the rise again. He boxed in three highly publicized fights against the formidable heavyweight champ Joe Frazier (1944– ) that are considered some of the most exciting bouts in boxing history, including “The Fight of the Century” in 1971 (which Ali won by decision) and “The Thrilla in Manila” in 1975 (which Ali won by technical knockout). Arguably his most famous match was his 1974 fight against George Foreman (1949– )—“The Rumble in the Jungle” fought in Kinshasa, Zaire. Foreman was undefeated, younger, in better physical condition than Ali, and heavily favored to win, but Ali outsmarted and outboxed his opponent, winning by a knockout in the eighth round. Ali lost and regained the heavyweight boxing title in front of television audiences of millions. To this day, Muhammad Ali’s face remains one of the most recognized American faces in the world, and he is referred to by fans affectionately as “the champ.” He is unquestionably America’s most African American Eras

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popular Muslim athlete. His antiwar stance now being largely forgiven or even admired by the public, Ali is one of the most revered athletes of all time, named by Sports Illustrated in 1999 as “Sportsman of the Century.”

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RACIAL TENSIONS PROMPT CHANGES IN THE MILITARY The U.S. military is, in many ways, a pioneer in the area of racial equality. The armed services were officially desegregated by presidential order in 1948, long before civilian institutions were desegregated, and the military offered attractive career and educational opportunities for many African Americans. However, by the late 1960s, many in the black community viewed the military as a tool of racial oppression. Black soldiers also had to face racism from their fellow service members. When civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, some white servicemen publicly celebrated his death by flying Confederate flags at two bases in Vietnam. Sailors stationed at the Vietnamese port of Cua Viet paraded around in makeshift Ku Klux Klan robes. This hostile environment had a dramatic impact on reenlistment rates. Reenlistment rates among African American soldiers plummeted from 66.5 percent in 1966 to a mere 12.8 percent by 1970, in part because of the Vietnam War’s growing unpopularity in general, but also because of the atmosphere of racism many African Americans perceived in the military. Racial Violence Reveals Problems in Military By 1970, America had a new president, Richard Nixon (1913–94). Nixon had promised to end the draft and get out of Vietnam. Yet the withdrawal of troops proved a slow and difficult process. President Nixon also found that promising to end the draft and actually ending it were two quite different things. Even politically mainstream Americans began to question their country’s involvement in Vietnam and the costs of the war. At the same time, discipline among the troops fighting in Southeast Asia began to crumble. Racial tensions soon gave way to violence within the ranks.

The first such incident occurred in a stockade, or military prison camp, located in Long Binh, Vietnam. Unruly soldiers convicted of violating military discipline were often sentenced to a short time in a stockade. Increasing clashes among African American soldiers meant that stockades like the one at Long Binh were crowded with black troops. The conditions at Long Binh were terrible. Some “cells” were nothing more than giant metal shipping containers, which became stifling in the heat of Vietnam’s tropical summer. On August 28, 1968, the inmates at Long Binh Jail violently protested the conditions under which they were being held. They rioted, attacked white inmates and staff, and set buildings on fire. The camp was 606


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overrun with rioting prisoners. It took military police eight days to restore order. During the riot more than one hundred inmates and military police officers were injured. One white staffer was killed. Long Binh proved to be just the first of a series of disturbing incidents that showed how poor both race relations and military discipline had become. The violence was not confined to Vietnam. In February 1969, black soldiers who had just returned from Southeast Asia and were awaiting discharge at Fort Benning, Georgia, rioted in protest over being assigned difficult night maneuvers and menial tasks. A similar incident occurred the same year at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. There, a clash erupted between white and black soldiers who were awaiting discharge after serving in Vietnam. The violence in North Carolina ended in the death of a white serviceman. In March 1970, at an Air Force base in Canada, a white airman stabbed an African American in a dispute over white women dancing with African Americans. The stabbing was not fatal, but it triggered a rash of retaliations and random beatings of white servicemen on base. On May 21, 1971, a four-day riot broke out at Travis Air Force Base in California. White-black hostility had been building for some time. It was rooted in everything from accusations of preferential treatment for whites to disputes over music (countrywestern versus soul and funk). There were also repeated incidents of racial conflict on American military bases in Europe. Military Councils Investigate Violence and Provide Education Incidents of interracial violence in the military became so frequent that in September 1970 the Department of Defense dispatched an interracial team to investigate the causes of the violence. The team was headed by an African American, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Render II. This council was the first of several interracial panels charged with investigating racial conflict in the military.

A burnt cross lies outside the home of Hurtis Coleman, an African American barber working at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in 1969. Coleman became a target of the Ku Klux Klan after he made a remark stating that the camp was worse than Mississippi in terms of race relations. Charles H. Phillips/Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

In 1972, another such panel made up of military and civilian members looked into how military justice was administered. The panel came to the conclusion that there was systematic discrimination against black servicemen that was causing deterioration in morale, training, and discipline. African American Eras

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That same year, several serious incidents broke out aboard naval vessels. Over two days, October 12–13, a brawl raged between white and black sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk while it was docked at port in the Philippines. Three days later, the fleet oiler Hassayampa was the scene of random attacks on white crewmen by African American sailors over allegations of theft. It took a boarding detachment of Marines to restore order. The interracial violence that marred the armed forces in the closing years of the Vietnam War was part of a larger pattern of breakdown in military discipline brought on by increasingly low morale among the troops. Drug abuse in the enlisted ranks was rampant by war’s end. In the field, unpopular officers were at risk of “fragging,” or being killed by their own troops. The term “fragging” comes from the method of rolling a live fragmentation grenade into an officer’s tent while the officer was sleeping inside. These broader concerns distracted from the genuine attempts by military officials to come up with a solution to increasing racial tensions. In November 1969, a task force was established under the direction of African American Air Force colonel Lucius D. Theus (1922–2007). The task force’s goal was to develop an educational program on race relations. The courses developed by Theus’s panel were meant to be required programs taught to all new recruits. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird (1922– ) approved the task force’s program in March 1970, but the program then stalled. A similar program devised by the chief of naval operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (1920–2000), met stiff resistance from naval officers and criticism from politicians. Louisiana congressman F. Edward Hebert (1901–79) even went so far as to blame the violent incidents aboard ships like the Kitty Hawk on Zumwalt’s “permissive” policies. The military’s focus was elsewhere. There simply was not enough funding or personal will among senior officials to make the needed reforms and changes. Postwar Military Heals Wounds and Moves Forward Ultimately, it was not educational programs and councils alone but several factors combined that brought an end to racially motivated violence in the military. The national military draft was put on indefinite suspension in 1973. That same year, the last American troops left Vietnam. The Vietnamese War would end two years later with a victory for the Communist forces. The American military attempted to put the difficult Vietnam years behind it and look forward.

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nfortunately, progress toward racial equality and harmony in the military was tainted by some ugly incidents. Several African American servicemen were charged with involvement in cases of sexual harassment and assault that threatened to aggravate old charges of racial injustice. In 1998, Sergeant Gene McKinney, the Army’s highest ranking enlisted man, was court-martialed on charges of sexual harassment and misconduct. Although he was acquitted of those charges, he was found guilty of obstructing justice and forced into early retirement. One year earlier, twelve African American drill instructors had found themselves in the center of a media firestorm. They were accused of rape and sexual harassment of female recruits at Aberdeen Training Grounds in Maryland. The resulting trials caused a great deal of controversy, as several of the women whose testimony prompted the trials later withdrew their accusations. Organizations such as the NAACP accused the Army of unfairly targeting African Americans. Among those found guilty and sentenced were Sergeant Delmar Simpson, who was convicted of multiple counts of rape and given a twenty-five-year sentence.

who received training at the institute faced resistance from senior staff at first. The senior staff were unwilling to do the necessary work to get the new programs off the ground. They were also put off by the enthusiasm and conviction that the younger trainee officers fresh from the Institute often displayed in their commitment to restoring racial harmony to the ranks. Nevertheless, common sense won out in the end. Even the most conservative senior officers could see that a military freed of racial violence was a more effective military. The work of the instructors trained by the Defense Race Relations Institute (renamed the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute in 1979) and public statements of support from senior military and civilian officials also eased racial tension in the military. Once the draft ended, the size of the military shrank to peacetime enlistment levels. In part thanks to declining job opportunities in American industry, the armed forces maintained a high African American enlistment rate after the Vietnam War ended. By 1974, 15 percent of the armed forces were African American, as compared to 11 percent in 1970. As before, black soldiers tended toward African American Eras

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Gerhard Gesell headed a committee to investigate race relations in the U.S. military in the early 1960s. The committee’s findings, released in 1964, resulted in fairer treatment for African Americans in the military. Diana Walker/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

combat positions. Some were attracted by the increased prestige of the assignments. Others were attracted by the increased hazard pay. However, efforts were made to recruit African Americans to technical positions and officer training programs. By the 1990s, the majority of black soldiers were in noncombat positions for the first time. The war had launched the career of many African American officers, and the percentage of black officers continued to rise as the 1970s came to a close. By that time the military had seen the promotion of its first African American four-star general. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. (1920–78) was a fighter pilot serving with the Air Force who had flown combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. Upon his four-star promotion, he took command of NORAD, the organization in charge of nuclear defense for all of North America.

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THE GESELL COMMITTEE ADDRESSES DISCRIMINATION IN THE MILITARY As the Vietnam War was heating up in the mid-1960s, so too were racial tensions in the American military and among American civilians. On the civilian side, the civil rights movement had begun in earnest. The civil rights movement initiated a period of peaceful marches, violent riots, and administrative action aimed at ensuring equal access to constitutional rights for all Americans regardless of race. On the military side, in 1963 a committee headed by future federal judge Gerhard Gesell (1910–93) was charged with evaluating the status of racial relations in the American military since desegregation fifteen years earlier. The study took two years to complete. The Gesell Committee issued its report in 1964. The Gesell Committee saw several problem areas in need of serious attention. Among the committee’s gravest concerns were those related to desegregated military units stationed in still-segregated parts of the country. African American servicemen and women and their families who were stationed in the South were often subject to incidents of racially motivated discrimination by off-base landlords and business owners. In 1965, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara began

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implementing the Gesell Committee’s recommendations to solve this problem. McNamara relied heavily on economic pressure. For example, he ordered the commander of Fort Meade (located in central Florida) to declare off-limits to all troops any rental property that discriminated against African Americans. Businesses and rental properties around Fort Meade and other military bases suddenly faced the prospect of losing business from all service members. Many businesses earned most of their income from military men and women. They were effectively forced to integrate or go out of business. Federal legislation—specifically, 1968’s Fair Housing Act—backed up McNamara’s actions. Of perhaps more direct concern was the Gesell Committee’s findings on the scarcity of black officers in the military. African Americans were underrepresented in the ranks of commanding officers. There were also lingering discriminatory enlistment patterns in certain units, particularly the National Guard. These instances of discrimination left many African American servicemen feeling resentful and misunderstood. In addition, the National Guard played a prominent role in suppressing civil rights


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National Guardsmen block the way of civil rights protesters in 1968. The role the National Guard played in conflict with African American demonstrators during the civil rights movement kept many African Americans from joining the Guard years later. ª Bettmann/ Corbis

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demonstrations throughout the 1960s. As a result, African American enlistment was nonexistent in many units. McNamara and his successor Clark Clifford (1906–98) attempted to address this problem. They enforced policies of equal treatment and opportunities within the military. They also encouraged states to launch aggressive recruitment drives in African American communities. These efforts achieved mixed success. Many African Americans were deeply mistrustful of the National Guard in general, particularly after the role the Guard played in suppressing the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles, the 1967 race riots in Detroit, and the riots that swept through 110 cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968. However, after bottoming out in 1970, African American enlistment rates rebounded sharply in the 1970s and 1980s.

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COLIN POWELL OVERSEES GULF WAR On October 1, 1989, Colin Powell (1937– ) was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The chairman does not hold direct command authority over any combat force. The chairman’s job is to coordinate the four branches of the military and to serve as the president’s military adviser. Accordingly, it is a position of tremendous responsibility and influence. This alone made Powell’s appointment notable. He became the first African American to attain the post. Powell was emblematic of the many black servicemen and women who had started their military careers in the wake of

General Colin Powell holds a press conference at the Pentagon to discuss the status of the Persian Gulf War on January 23, 1991. ª J. L. Atlan/Sygma/Corbis

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desegregation. Powell served with distinction through the turbulent years of the Vietnam War and rose steadily through the ranks in the following years.

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It was during Powell’s time as chairman that America became involved in its first large-scale war since Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War. The Gulf War was instigated by Iraq’s 1990 invasion of the tiny, oil-rich country of Kuwait. The Gulf War was marked by a long period of military build-up, international diplomacy, and economic sanctions targeting Iraq. When these efforts did not force Iraq to leave Kuwait, an international coalition began extensive air strikes against Iraq followed by a brief ground war. The war resulted in a complete rout of the Iraqi army and the liberation of Kuwait. Overall, American casualties were light. However, a large percentage of Americans fighting in the Gulf War were African Americans. Correspondingly, African Americans made up a large percentage of the casualties—17 percent were among black soldiers. The war enjoyed widespread public support. Many Americans saw it as a “just war” to liberate an oppressed country and a chance to heal the wounds of Vietnam. However, there was a vocal element of the population who objected to the U.S. involvement in what was a regional conflict. Among the protesters was Martin Luther King III (1957– ), who echoed his father’s protests against the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, a new black role model emerged in Colin Powell. Powell appeared in televised press briefings during the war and earned acclaim from the media and the public for his calm manner and accessible personality. At the war’s end, there were many whispers of Powell’s potential political future. Powell chose not to follow this course. Instead, he concentrated on charitable and communitybuilding work after his retirement from the military. The close of the Gulf War in 1991 saw an African American general in a position of international recognition and an American military that was fully integrated. During the 1990s, the military continued to be a place of equal opportunity for African Americans. This feature of the American military was notable both domestically and internationally. During Operation Restore Hope (1992–93), a five-month United Nations effort to bring humanitarian aid and stability into war-torn Somalia, the United States fielded the only racially integrated military force out of the two dozen nationalities represented in the UN task force.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION IN THE MILITARY RISES AND FALLS African Americans have long enlisted and served in the military at much higher rates than other segments of the population. During the Vietnam War, more African Americans than ever before served in the African American Eras

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military. Though black people made up 11 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 12.6 percent of the soldiers in Vietnam. However, the perceived racist treatment of black troops, the mounting death toll in Vietnam (more than 58,000 U.S. military personnel were killed in the war), and the growing unpopularity of the war in the United States in general took a toll on African American participation in the military in the late 1960s. In 1970, the reenlistment rate of African American soldiers plummeted to 12.8 percent, down from 66.5 percent in 1966. In the last years of the Vietnam War, several disturbing incidents of racially motivated violence, both among black and white troops and between troops and local communities, highlighted the level of dissatisfaction many African Americans felt in the military. Black Enlistment Rises in the 1970s and 1980s After the United States pulled out of Vietnam, various military task forces and councils worked diligently to improve race relations. Their efforts, combined with the end of the draft and tough economic times that made civilian jobs scarce, prompted a rebound in African American military participation by the mid-1970s. In 1974, the percentage of blacks in the military was up to 15 percent from 11 percent in 1970.

African American military presence continued to rise throughout the 1970s. In 1983, 20 percent of all new enlisted personnel in the armed forces were African American. This was nearly double the percentage of U.S. citizens who were African American. By far the largest concentration remained in the Army, where fully one-third of all soldiers were black. The Marine Corps came in a close second with 22 percent. The Navy and Air Force lagged behind, with black enlistments of 14 and 12 percent, respectively. Almost a decade later, in 1991, African Americans made up fully 25 percent of the American armed forces. In large part, the attractiveness of the military to African Americans is based on the economic and cultural status it offers. Throughout history and in all countries, military service has offered men and women who lack money, education, and family connections a chance for an honorable career. The U.S. military offers education, promotion opportunities, and a decent standard of living to its members, and service members are generally respected by society. The 1980s were relatively peaceful years for the United States military, which made a career in the service even more attractive to African Americans looking for a way to improve their prospects. The numbers of black officers also rose significantly after Vietnam. By the 1980s, 10 percent of Army officers were African American. These numbers were comparable or even greater among African American women: 17 percent of female Army officers and 20 percent of enlisted women in the Army were black. The Marine Corps’ female black enlisted 614


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n 2003, Representative Charles Rangel (1930– ), a Democrat from New York, called for a reinstatement of the draft. His goal was highlight the large percentage of African Americans and whites from poor families serving in the armed forces. Rangel stated that he believed the administration of George W. Bush (1946– ) was too quick to invade Iraq. He argued that the people who served in that administration and members of Congress would have been slower to go to war if they thought that children from their home communities might be put in harm’s way. Furthermore, argued Rangel, although the armed forces are an allvolunteer force, they draw mostly from poor sectors of American society. He contended that a draft would ensure that the burdens of war were shared equally by all classes. Rangel’s first bill to reinstate the draft, introduced in 2003, was defeated in the House 402–3. His second bill, introduced in 2007, widened the scope of the draft to include all men and women between the ages of 18 and 42. The second bill also allowed for fulfillment of service through non-military postings. It never came to a vote.

rate was 23 percent, but only 5 percent of female Marine officers were African American. The Air Force’s female officer corps was 11 percent black, compare with 20 percent of its enlisted ranks. The Navy had numbers comparable to the Marine Corps: 5 percent black female officers, 18 percent black female enlisted ranks. Black Recruitment Declines in Twenty-First Century By 2004, every military branch could boast African American officers among its highest ranks. At the same time, African American enlistment rates were declining quickly for the first time since Vietnam. From 2000 to 2004, the Army saw a decline in African American participation from 31 percent to 24 percent and an overall decline of 40 percent. Every military branch except the Navy has seen a decline among African American enlistment since 2000. To a certain degree, this decline is due to the fact that enlisting in the military is less appealing to many people during times of active conflict. As U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has continued, military recruitment has become more challenging. However, the African American Eras

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steep decline in enlistment among African Americans in particular is also due to strong opposition to the Iraq War in the African American community. A 2004 CBS News poll showed that 84 percent of African Americans opposed the Iraq War as compared to 57 percent of whites. African American dislike of the war is based on the widespread belief that the war was not waged to defend Americans from weapons of mass destruction, but to gain control of Iraq’s vast oil resources for the financial benefit of American energy companies and their executives. The fact that many leading members of President George W. Bush’s administration had strong ties to the oil industry lent support to this belief. Blackmilitaryworld.com founder Gregory Black stated in a 2007 interview that objection to the Iraq War was a key factor in the drop in black enlistment, but that rising educational and career opportunities for blacks in civilian life were also leading many young African Americans to choose college or civilian careers over military service.


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Primary Sources

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 COLIN POWELL MAKES THE CASE FOR WAR IN IRAQ TO

THE UNITED NATIONS (2003) On February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared before the United Nations Security Council and presented the Bush administration’s case for war with Iraq. Excerpted here are the Introduction and Conclusion of Powell’s speech, which respectively lay out and summarize the content of the secretary’s argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, that these weapons posed a real and immediate threat to the security of the United States and its allies, and that military action against Iraq was therefore justified. When it later became apparent that Iraq was not in possession of weapons of mass destruction, Powell’s credibility was damaged, as was his own confidence in the Bush administration. He resigned his post within days of Bush’s reelection in 2004.

............................ I N T RO D U C T I O N Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished colleagues, I would like to begin by expressing my thanks for the special effort that each of you made to be here today.

Colin Powell presented this satellite image showing trucks shipping out chemical weapons from a rocket testing facility in Iraq as proof that Iraq was attempting to hide material from U.N. weapons inspectors in 2003. U.S. Department of State/Getty Images


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Disarmament Giving up weapons and armed forces Weapons of Mass Destruction Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons Material Breach Failure to comply with, honor, or obey UNMOVIC United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency

This is an important day for us all as we review the situation with respect to Iraq and its disarmament obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441. Last November 8, this council passed Resolution 1441 by a unanimous vote. The purpose of that resolution was to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. Iraq had already been found guilty of material breach of its obligations, stretching back over sixteen previous resolutions and twelve years. Resolution 1441 was not dealing with an innocent party, but a regime this council has repeatedly convicted over the years. Resolution 1441 gave Iraq one last chance, one last chance to come into compliance or to face “serious consequences.” No council member present in voting on that day had any illusions about the nature and intent of the resolution or what “serious consequences” meant if Iraq did not comply. And to assist in its disarmament, we called on Iraq to cooperate with returning inspectors from UNMOVIC and IAEA. We laid down tough standards for Iraq to meet to allow the inspectors to do their job. This council placed the burden on Iraq to comply and disarm and not on the inspectors to find that which Iraq has gone out of its way to conceal for so long. Inspectors are inspectors; they are not detectives. I asked for this session today for two purposes: First, to support the core assessments made by Dr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei. As Dr. Blix reported to this council on January 27th, “Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament which was demanded of it.” And as Dr. ElBaradei reported, Iraq’s declaration of December 7 “did not provide any new information relevant to certain questions that have been outstanding since 1998.” My second purpose today is to provide you with additional information, to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction as well as Iraq’s involvement in terrorism, which is also the subject of Resolution 1441 and other earlier resolutions. I might add at this point that we are providing all relevant information we can to the inspection teams for them to do their work. The material I will present to you comes from a variety of sources. Some are U.S. sources. And some are those of other countries. Some of the sources are technical, such as intercepted telephone conversations and photos taken by satellites. Other sources are people who have risked their lives to let the world know what Saddam Hussein is really up to. I cannot tell you everything that we know. But what I can share with you, when combined with what all of us have learned over the years, is deeply troubling.

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What you will see is an accumulation of facts and disturbing patterns of behavior. The facts on Iraq’s behavior demonstrate that Saddam Hussein and his regime have made no effort—no effort—to disarm as required by the international community.

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Indeed, the facts and Iraq’s behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction. . . .

CONCLUSION As I said at the outset, none of this should come as a surprise to any of us. Terrorism has been a tool used by Saddam for decades. Saddam was a supporter of terrorism long before these terrorist networks had a name. And this support continues. The nexus of poisons and terror is new. The nexus of Iraq and terror is old. The combination is lethal. With this track record, Iraqi denials of supporting terrorism take the place alongside the other Iraqi denials of weapons of mass destruction. It is all a web of lies.

Nexus Connection or link between

When we confront a regime that harbors ambitions for regional domination, hides weapons of mass destruction and provides haven and active support for terrorists, we are not confronting the past, we are confronting the present. And unless we act, we are confronting an even more frightening future. My friends, this has been a long and a detailed presentation. And I thank you for your patience. But there is one more subject that I would like to touch on briefly. And it should be a subject of deep and continuing concern to this council, Saddam Hussein’s violations of human rights. Underlying all that I have said, underlying all the facts and the patterns of behavior that I have identified as Saddam Hussein’s contempt for the will of this council, his contempt for the truth and most damning of all, his utter contempt for human life. Saddam Hussein’s use of mustard and nerve gas against the Kurds in 1988 was one of the twentieth century’s most horrible atrocities; five thousand men, women and children died. His campaign against the Kurds from 1987 to ’89 included mass summary executions, disappearances, arbitrary jailing, ethnic cleansing and the destruction of some two thousand villages. He has also conducted ethnic cleansing against the Shiite Iraqis and the Marsh Arabs whose culture has flourished for more than a millennium. Saddam Hussein’s police state ruthlessly eliminates anyone who dares to dissent. Iraq has more forced disappearance cases than any other country, tens of thousands of people reported missing in the past decade. Nothing points more clearly to Saddam Hussein’s dangerous intentions and the threat he poses to all of us than his calculated cruelty to his own citizens and to his neighbors. Clearly, Saddam Hussein and his regime will stop at nothing until something stops him.

Ethnic Cleansing Killing numerous members of a particular ethnic group specifically because of their membership in that ethnic group

For more than twenty years, by word and by deed Saddam Hussein has pursued his ambition to dominate Iraq and the broader Middle East using the only means he African American Eras

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Grandiose Arrogant and extravagant

knows, intimidation, coercion and annihilation of all those who might stand in his way. For Saddam Hussein, possession of the world’s most deadly weapons is the ultimate trump card, the one he must hold to fulfill his ambition. We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction; he’s determined to make more. Given Saddam Hussein’s history of aggression, given what we know of his grandiose plans, given what we know of his terrorist associations and given his determination to exact revenge on those who oppose him, should we take the risk that he will not someday use these weapons at a time and the place and in the manner of his choosing at a time when the world is in a much weaker position to respond? The United States will not and cannot run that risk to the American people. Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post–September 11th world. My colleagues, over three months ago this council recognized that Iraq continued to pose a threat to international peace and security, and that Iraq had been and remained in material breach of its disarmament obligations. Today Iraq still poses a threat and Iraq still remains in material breach. Indeed, by its failure to seize on its one last opportunity to come clean and disarm, Iraq has put itself in deeper material breach and closer to the day when it will face serious consequences for its continued defiance of this council. My colleagues, we have an obligation to our citizens, we have an obligation to this body to see that our resolutions are complied with. We wrote 1441 not in order to go to war, we wrote 1441 to try to preserve the peace. We wrote 1441 to give Iraq one last chance. Iraq is not so far taking that one last chance. We must not shrink from whatever is ahead of us. We must not fail in our duty and our responsibility to the citizens of the countries that are represented by this body. Thank you, Mr. President.

 CLIFFORD ALEXANDER DEFENDS THE RIGHTS OF GAYS

IN THE MILITARY (2009) The U.S. military has a policy of not allowing homosexuals to serve in the armed forces. Many people have protested that this policy discriminates against homosexuals, because they are excluded from military careers based on their sexual orientation. President Bill Clinton attempted to negotiate a compromise during his administration in the 1993 by creating a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The policy prohibited the military from asking recruits about their sexual orientation, which would allow homosexuals to serve as long as no one knew they were gay. Many people find this an unsatisfactory approach, including former secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander, who

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was the first black man to serve in that position when President Jimmy Carter appointed him in 1976. In the following interview conducted on April 2, 2009, with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on The Rachel Maddow Show, Alexander explains why the Army should repeal its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in the military. He compares the exclusion of homosexuals from the military to the exclusion of African Americans because of their race or women because of their gender.

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1. What kind of strategies for teaching diversity awareness would you develop if you were put in charge of soothing the interracial conflict that afflicted the military towards the end of the Vietnam War? What methods do you think would be most effective? Why? Write a paper explaining which methods you think the military should have used. As you write your paper, it might be helpful to answer this question: Why do you think troops serving in combat were less prone to racial strife than support troops?

2. Write an essay about the history of African American enlistment in the military. Why do you think there was an increase in black military enlistment in the 1970s? Research the economic conditions in America and among black communities at that time. What role did the economy play in the increased enlistment? Why do you think African American enlistment rates have dropped off so sharply in the last ten years? What are some of the factors that may have led to that drop-off? How does the drop in African American enlistment compare to trends in enlistment rates in general over the same period? 3. A major concern among military officers during the Vietnam War was that many young African American draftees were coming into the Army fired up by the rhetoric of black power and black nationalism. Research the ideas that lay behind black power. Why do you think black nationalism would have made military officers nervous and stoked the fires of discontent among young black draftees? Write a report documenting what you find in your research. 4. Colin Powell has left a massive, if mixed, historical legacy. Pretend you are a historian evaluating the good and the bad of Powell’s military and political career. Prepare a speech in which you analyze his actions and achievements from a historical perspective. In your speech, be sure to address these questions: Which is more important, Powell’s time as the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or his term as secretary of state? Considering that Powell played a major role in both Gulf wars, which had a greater impact from a historical point of view? What do you think of his decision to push the agenda of the Bush administration despite his personal misgivings? Is it better for a subordinate to obey his leader no matter what? Why or why not? 5. As of late 2009, the war in Iraq was still under way. Do you agree or disagree with Senator Charles Rangel’s proposal to reinstate the draft? Rangel has stated that the reasons behind his proposal are that Congress would have been reluctant to go to war with Iraq if the congressional 624


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members thought their children were going to be placed in harm’s way. What do you think he meant by this? Research the historical significance of the phrase “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” and apply it to Rangel’s statement. Write a newspaper editorial in which you argue either in favor of or against reinstating the draft.

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6. What do you think the future holds for African Americans in the military? If you were in charge of boosting enlistment rates, how would you go about doing it? Prepare a policy proposal that includes at least three concrete suggestions for ways the military could convince more African Americans to sign up for military service.

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BOOKS

DeYoung, Karen. Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell. New York: Vintage, 2007. Latty, Yvonne, and Ron Tarver. We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, from World War II to the War in Iraq. New York: Amistad, 2005. McGovern, James. Black Eagle: General Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 2002. Terry, Wallace. Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History. New York: Presidio Press, 1985. Westheider, James. Fighting on Two Fronts: African Americans and the Vietnam War. New York: NYU Press, 1999.

PERIODICALS Heilprin, John. “Rep. Rangel Will Seek to Reinstate Draft.” Washington Post (November 19, 2006). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp dyn/content/arti cle/2006/11/19/AR2006111900376 pf.html (accessed October 2, 2009). Mock, Brentin. “Black Doves: Even the most ardently anti war African Americans understand the reluctance of other blacks.” Pittsburgh City Paper (February 9, 2006). http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:27827 (accessed October 2, 2009). Zirin, David. “Revolt of the Black Athlete: The Hidden History of Muhammad Ali.” International Socialist Review 33 (January February 2004). http://www .isreview.org/issues/33/muhammadali.shtml (accessed October 2, 2009).

WEB SITES “African Americans in the U.S. Army.” U.S. Army Center of Military History. http:// www.history.army.mil/html/topics/afam/index.html (accessed on October 2, 2009). African American Eras

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Chronology . . . . . . . . . 628 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 631 Headline Makers . . . . . . 633 Arthur Ashe . . . . . . Barry Bonds . . . . . . James Brown . . . . . . Aretha Franklin . . . . . Jimi Hendrix . . . . . . Michael Jackson . . . . . Michael Jordan . . . . . Kimora Lee Simmons . . . Venus and Serena Williams Stevie Wonder . . . . . Tiger Woods . . . . . .

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Topics in the News . . . . . 658 African Americans Break through in Golf and Tennis . . . . . . . . . . 658 African American Music Goes Mainstream . . . . . 659

Popular Culture Black Power Salute Causes Stir at Olympics . . . . The Afro Hairstyle Makes Bold Statement . . . . Hank Aaron Breaks Home Run Record . . . . . . Funk and Soul Give Way to Disco . . . . . . . The Pop Music Color Barrier Comes Down . . . . . African American Culture Influences Fashion . . . Rap and Hip Hop Become Cultural Phenomena . . Black Coaches Make Progress in Sports . . . . . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1967 May 9 Boxer Muhammad Ali is stripped of his World Heavyweight Champion title after refusing to be drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War on religious grounds. 1968 October 16 Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlo give the “black power salute” during the medal ceremony at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Their protest against American racism would cause them to be stripped of their medals and expelled from the Olympic Village, but they became heroes of the civil rights movement. 1969 August 17 Jimi Hendrix performs his instrumental rendition of “The StarSpangled Banner” before an audience of tens of thousands at the Woodstock Festival in New York. His aggressive, blaring take on the anthem was seen as a strong statement against the war in Vietnam. 1971 March 8 The so-called “Fight of the Century” occurs between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the WBC/WBA Heavyweight Championship, and is won by Frazier. The fight had a purse of $2.5 million per fighter (a record at the time), and pitted two undefeated, but very different, heavyweight boxers against each other. 1973 O. J. Simpson becomes the first player in National Football League history to rush for more than two thousand yards in a single season. He was

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subsequently named 1973’s Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. 1974 April 8 Baseball player Hank Aaron beats Babe Ruth’s record for most career home runs—a record once thought unbreakable—when he hits home run number 715. 1974 October 30 “The Rumble in the Jungle,” a boxing bout in Zaire, takes place between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. After losing his title to Joe Frazier in the “Fight of the Century” in 1971, Ali wins it back from the heavily favored, younger Foreman. 1975 July 5 Arthur Ashe becomes the first—and, to date, only—African American man to win the Wimbledon singles tennis championship, defeating Jimmy Connors. 1975 October 1 The last of Muhammad Ali’s title bouts, the “Thrilla in Manila,” takes place in the Philippines. Ali defeats Joe Frazier by technical knockout after fourteen rounds fought in one-hundred-degree heat. 1979 October The Sugarhill Gang releases the landmark hip-hop single “Rapper’s Delight.” The first hip-hop hit, the single is certified gold and reaches number thirty-six on the U.S. pop charts. 1982 November 30 Michael Jackson releases the album Thriller. The album is

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......................................................................................... the number-one seller in the nation for thirty-seven consecutive weeks and—with an estimated 110 million copies sold worldwide—goes on to become the best-selling album of all time. 1983 February 28 Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy Awards, setting the record for the most Grammys won in a single year. 1984 Carl Lewis makes his Olympic debut in track and field at the Summer Games in Los Angeles. Over the course of the Games, he wins four gold medals, equaling the performance of Jessie Owens at the 1936 Berlin Games. 1984 October 26 Michael Jordan makes his professional basketball debut with the Chicago Bulls. Within a month, he makes the cover of Sports Illustrated. He goes on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award for the 1984–1985 season. 1988 August 8 Rap group N.W.A. releases its second album, Straight Outta Compton, generally regarded as the first gangsta rap recording.

the highest-paid female musical artist in history when she signs a thirtymillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records. 1991 November 7 Basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson, one of the most popular and successful basketball players of all time, announces his immediate retirement from professional sports after testing positive for the HIV virus. Johnson’s announcement helped make the public aware that AIDS (the disease caused by the HIV virus) affects straight and gay people alike. 1992 Hip-hop promoter Russell Simmons founds Phat Farm, a line of urbaninspired clothing. The same year, the hip-hop clothing company FUBU begins operations in Queens, New York. 1992 October 31 “End of the Road” by R&B group Boyz II Men enters its twelfth consecutive week at number one, breaking a record set by Elvis Presley thirty-six years earlier.

1990 June 10 Three members of the rap group 2 Live Crew are arrested on obscenity charges after performing at a nightclub in Hollywood, Florida. They would later be acquitted.

1995 March 18 After a brief stint playing baseball in the minor leagues, Michael Jordan returns to professional basketball with the Chicago Bulls. He would subsequently help his team to another three consecutive championships.

1991 March 11 Janet Jackson, sister of pop legend Michael Jackson, becomes

1996 September 7 Rapper Tupac Shakur is shot four times outside a Las Vegas,


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....................................................................................... Nevada, casino. He dies of his injuries six days later. Though no arrests were made as of 2010, the event came to be seen as a climax to the often violent rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rap artists. 1997 March 9 Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace is shot and killed after a Soul Train Awards after-party. Like the shooting death of Tupac Shakur, to which Wallace was linked, the killing remained unsolved as of 2010. 1998 Sean “Puffy” Combs founds Sean John, his signature line of urban and hip hop–inspired clothing. 2000 July 8 Tennis player Venus Williams wins her first Wimbledon title, becoming the first African American female to do so since Althea Gibson in 1958. 2006 January 22 Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers scores eighty-one points in a single game, the second-highest

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individual points total in professional basketball, behind Wilt Chamberlain’s legendary one-hundred-point game of 1962. 2006 March 5 The Three 6 Mafia becomes the first hip-hop group to win an Academy Award for Best Song for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” The song is featured in the movie Hustle and Flow. 2006 April 15 After fifteen weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart, Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You” becomes the most successful R&B single of all time. 2007 August 7 Surrounded by questions and controversy regarding alleged steroid use, Barry Bonds hits career home run 756, passing Hank Aaron’s record. 2009 June 25 Legendary pop singer Michael Jackson dies of heart failure in Los Angeles, California, at the age of fifty.

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OVERVIEW

In many ways, the examination of African American popular culture since 1965 is also the examination of the evolution of mainstream American popular culture. More than ever before, African American culture has gone from being thought of as a marginal or outside influence to becoming a central, admired social force in its own right. From music to fashion to sports, the essence and experience of African American culture has been broadcast across the country and around the world. Sports, once strictly segregated by race, have come to be dominated by African Americans, many of whom saw athletics as their ticket out of poverty. In 1974, Hank Aaron (1934– ) broke what was at the time the most revered individual record in all of American sports when he surpassed the career record for home runs set by white baseball player Babe Ruth (1895– 1948). Today, African American athletes such as Michael Jordan (1963– ), Muhammad Ali (1942– ), and LeBron James (1984– ) are among the most recognizable and celebrated American celebrities in the world. Tiger Woods (1975– ), Venus and Serena Williams (1980– ; 1981– ), and other AfricanAmerican athletes have found success in golf, tennis, and other sports that were long dominated by white athletes. Yet African Americans still face racism in athletics. There is a persistent lack of opportunity for African Americans in the upper management positions of sports teams. Racist beliefs about the inferior mental capacities and leadership abilities of African American athletes continue to linger. Even so, the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century have been filled with historic milestones and record accomplishments by African American athletes and coaches. The same time period has also witnessed stories that continue to serve as reminders that black athletes, for all their successes, can be all too human in their failings. Former Olympic track and field star Marion Jones (1975– ) and home-run champion Barry Bonds (1964– ) both were accused of using illegal drugs to boost their physical performance. Their tragic downfalls drew significant press coverage and public attention. African American music has also become a global force. In earlier generations, white performers from Al Jolson (1886–1950) to Elvis Presley (1935–77) to Mick Jagger (1943– ) had success using black musical influences in their own music. Today, African American performers represent the majority share of the music industry. The uniquely African American music style known as hip hop has spread across national and ethnic boundaries. Michael Jackson (1958–2009), whose troubled life ended prematurely when he died of heart failure in 2009, remains the most successful pop musician of all time. Other African American performers have African American Eras

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set sales records that come close to Jackson’s high marks in the past two decades. The music that African Americans produced in the 1960s and 1970s—funk, disco, and soul—continues to form the foundation for much of the popular music produced around the world today. Much of the mainstream success enjoyed by African American artists and athletes can be traced to the influence of the so-called black power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. The black power movement was a diverse social movement that emphasized racial pride, a renewed interest in African culture and history, and a sense of political solidarity in the black community. Some activists in the black power movement were called black nationalists. Black nationalists embraced a militancy and aggressiveness in pushing for African American rights that had been frowned on by earlier civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68). Black power leaders, with their fists raised high in a gesture of defiance, made their presence felt in the worlds of sports, music, and fashion. Soul singer James Brown (1933–2006) called on his listeners to “Say it loud— I’m black and I’m proud!” Olympic runners Tommie Smith (1944– ) and John Carlos (1945– ), who won a gold and a bronze medal, respectively, in the 200-meter race at the 1968 Summer Olympics, raised their clenched fists during the playing of the national anthem in silent protest against the racism of their homeland. Black power emphasized reconnecting with African roots. Nowhere was this more physically evident than in the new fashions of the movement. From the “afro” hairstyle to the new West African patterns sewn into clothing, black power fashion made a strong statement. Although the black power movement frightened some white Americans, it inspired black athletes, musicians, and other cultural leaders to new heights.

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ARTHUR ASHE (1943–1993)

Arthur Ashe was the first African American man to make inroads into the white-dominated sport of tennis. Ashe made his mark with his athletic ability, grace, dignity, and cool-headedness, both on and off the court. When Ashe began competing in tennis as an amateur in the early 1960s, many parts of the country were still segregated. Ashe would sometimes find himself mysteriously disqualified from tournaments he would try to enter. Gradually, however, Ashe’s talent became a force that could not be denied. In 1968, he won the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Like his hero Jackie Robinson (1919–72), the first African American to play in baseball’s major leagues, Ashe broke down racial barriers. He eventually became the first black man to win the prestigious Wimbledon tennis championship in 1975. He was also the first African American to gain a number-one international ranking.

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A major heart attack derailed Ashe’s tennis career in 1979. The heart attack prompted Ashe to shift gears. He used his celebrity to advance a variety of causes. He produced a three-volume history of African American sports achievements titled A Hard Road to Glory (1988). Ashe was diagnosed with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in 1988. He had apparently contracted the disease through a blood transfusion carried out during a heart operation in 1983. Ashe only went public with the diagnosis four years later when a newspaper was about to run a story on his condition. Having gone public, Ashe became one of the most outspoken advocates for increased AIDS research. After he died, his body was laid in state in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, at the Virginia governor’s mansion so that mourners could file by and pay their last respects. In 1997, a new stadium at the National Tennis Center in New York City was opened and named Arthur Ashe Stadium in his honor.


Tennis player Arthur Ashe at a children’s benefit in 1992. Manny Millan/Sports

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BARRY BONDS (1964– )

Barry Bonds is one of the most accomplished and most controversial players in Major League Baseball history. On paper, Bonds’s athletic ability and record-breaking achievements would place him among baseball’s alltime greats. However, the slugger who holds the record for most career home runs and most home runs in a single season was dogged by federal indictments and accusations of steroid use.

Baseball player Barry Bonds in 2003.

Bonds Begins a Stellar Career Bonds is the son of major league all-star Bobby Bonds (1946–2003). He is also the godson of Hall-of-Fame ballplayer Willie Mays (1931– ). Always a talented athlete, Bonds seemed destined for greatness from an early age. The San Francisco Giants, his father’s team, tried to sign him straight out of high school. He decided not to sign with San Francisco because he was not happy with the seventy-five-thousand-dollar contract the Giants offered him. Instead, Bonds went to Arizona State University. By his junior year, he was batting .347.

The Pittsburgh Pirates picked Bonds sixth in the first round of the 1986 Major League Baseball. He spent less than two years in the minor leagues before being called up to the majors. Bonds was the top rookie in the National League for home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, and walks at the end of his first year in the majors. By 1990, he had captured his first National League Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. He took MVP again in 1992. Despite his accomplishments, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants at the end of the season. It was during his time as a Pirate that Bonds developed a reputation for being unfriendly and uncooperative with coaches and teammates.

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The San Francisco Giants were not a competitive team in the early 1990s. The Giants acquired Bonds hoping he would get them out of their slump. The move to San Francisco reunited Barry with his father Bobby. Bobby joined the team as a hitting coach as part of Barry’s deal. They worked together until Bobby’s death in 2003. Barry Bonds consistently improved his 634


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game throughout the 1990s. In 1996 he passed the twin milestones of three hundred home runs and three hundred stolen bases. He became only the fourth player to achieve both marks. Sport magazine named him the Player of the Decade in recognition of his skills on the field.

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In 2001, Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s (1963– ) recently set record for most home runs in a single season. He finished the 2001 season with seventy-three homers and a batting average of .328. For his accomplishments that year, he once again earned the MVP award. He also landed a contract renewal with the Giants that brought in ninety million dollars over five years. He earned even more income from endorsements with Wheaties and Kentucky Fried Chicken. So feared was Bonds’s hitting ability that when the Giants played the Anaheim Angels in the 2002 World Series, Bonds was intentionally walked thirteen times. Charges of Steroid Use Surface In 2003 Bonds first publicly faced accusations of using anabolic steroids, a performance-enhancing drug that allows users to develop muscle mass very quickly. Anabolic steroid use is forbidden in Major League Baseball. Bonds repeatedly denied the charges, and it was never proved that he had used any banned substances. As congressional hearings took place to look into how widespread steroid abuse had become in Major League Baseball, Bonds continued hitting home runs. He brought his total closer and closer to baseball legend Hank Aaron’s “unbeatable” record of 755 career home runs.

The 2007 season was widely anticipated by fans and the media to be the season in which Bonds would break Aaron’s record. Yet Bonds was hobbled by chronic knee and leg pain, so the chase dragged out over the summer. Every at bat was anxiously chronicled as the gap narrowed. Finally, on August 7, in front of a jubilant home crowd, Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s record with home run 756. Notably, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig (1934– ) was not in attendance to witness the historic event. The snub may have reflected the mixed feelings of many baseball observers. Bonds, while popular in San Francisco, was openly jeered during road games. Some sports writers and fans continued to suspect Bonds of using performance-enhancing drugs, despite the lack of hard evidence. Many were unhappy to see the historic record of the popular, beloved Aaron surpassed by the brash Bonds. Three months later, on November 15, Bonds was indicted on four counts of lying to a grand jury during the steroid investigation. He was also indicted on one count of obstruction of justice. Bonds left the Giants after the 2007 season with 762 home runs to his name. He held a host of other records as well. Bonds pleaded not guilty to African American Eras

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the charges against him, and his trial began in March 2009. Despite his prediction that his contract would be snatched up, Bonds had yet to play for another team as of 2009.

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JAMES BROWN (1933–2006)

Singer James Brown heavily influenced the development of soul, funk, disco, and rap over the course of a career that stretched from the 1960s into the twenty-first century. He was born on May 3, 1933. He was raised mainly by his father (his mother abandoned the family when he was four), who did odd jobs in and around Augusta, Georgia. As a young child, he learned to sing and play drums, piano, and guitar. He was

Singer James Brown performing in 1966. David Redfern/Redferns

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arrested for stealing at the age of fifteen, and sent to a juvenile detention center.

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While in jail, Brown continued to develop his interest in music, even setting up a gospel quartet with fellow inmates. Brown was paroled after three years, and quickly formed a new musical group which soon became known as the Flames. The group moved to Macon, Georgia; hired an experienced manager (who redubbed them the Famous Flames); and recorded a song called “Please, Please, Please” in 1956. The song was a hit on the rhythm and blues charts, and James Brown’s career was underway. Playing as James Brown and the Famous Flames, the group followed up with another hit in 1958 called “Try Me.” The band’s live performances were marked by great energy and showmanship, but the magic of the live shows was not present in Brown’s standard blues recordings of the 1950s. Brown decided that to give the necessary spark to his albums, he should record a live performance. Using his own money, Brown rented the famous Apollo Theater (a Harlem venue where many famous African American musicians have performed) in 1962 and recorded a live concert. The album, Live at the Apollo, was a hit, and is still regarded as one of the greatest live concert albums of all time. Not content with this success, Brown kept up a grueling touring schedule, playing as many as 350 shows a year—a feat that earned him the nickname (one of many) “the hardest working man in show business.” James Brown and the Flames hit the rhythm and blues and mainstream charts several times in the mid-to-late 1960s with such songs as “Out of Sight” (1964), “I Feel Good (I Got You)” (1965), “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (1965), for which Brown won his first Grammy, and “Cold Sweat” (1967). As the 1960s came to a close, Brown began moving his sound in new directions, pioneering the musical style that would come to be known as funk. Brown developed his distinctive sound on such albums as Sex Machine (1970) and Super Bad (1971). The albums were produced by an all-star band of top musicians. Brown developed a series of powerful dance grooves that would be the bedrock of the hip-hop sound of later decades, and he was hailed as the “Godfather of Soul.” Brown also used his music as a message of social empowerment during the civil rights era. His most notable song in this vein was the single “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1968). His career largely stalled in the late 1970s due to the rising popularity of disco. Nevertheless, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Three years later, Brown led Augusta police on an interstate high-speed car chase, which ended when he drove his truck into a ditch. Police said that at the time of his arrest Brown was incoherent, and it was alleged he was under the African American Eras

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influence of PCP (a powerful, illegal psychoactive drug). After being released on bail, Brown was arrested again the next day for allegedly driving under the influence of PCP. He was acquitted of the PCP charge, but convicted of aggravated assault (a harmful physical attack) and sentenced to six years in prison. Brown claimed his stiff sentence was due to his race. Released after two years, Brown staged a comeback on the strength of the release of Star Time! (1991) a retrospective of his career, and began touring almost nonstop for the next decade. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Brown seventh on its 2004 list, “The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.” Brown died of heart failure brought on by a bout with pneumonia on December 25, 2006.

H Singer Aretha Franklin in concert in 2008. Arnold Turner/WireImage

ARETHA FRANKLIN (1942– )

Aretha Franklin is arguably the most influential female vocalist of the rock-and-roll era. Her style and influence earned her the nickname “the queen of soul.” Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 25, 1942. She was raised in Detroit, Michigan. Her father was a prominent minister, and her mother was a talented gospel singer. Franklin’s father was quick to realize his daughter’s musical talent. He had her accompany him on his traveling gospel shows. By the time she was fourteen years old, her performance of gospel standards (old, well-known songs) such as “Precious Lord” had gained the attention of record executives. By the time she was eighteen, she had a contract with Columbia Records. She also had two children. Her first child was born when Franklin was just fifteen years old. When her contract with Columbia expired, Franklin had little to show for her effort. She leapt at the chance to sign with Atlantic Records. She recorded her first album for the new label in 1967. I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You) was a hit. It included many wellknown songs, including Franklin’s famous cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect.” It marked the beginning of several years of enormous success for Franklin. Remarkably, she brought home Grammy Awards every year between 1969 and 1975. In 1977, she sang at the inauguration of

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President Jimmy Carter (1924– ). The 1970s also saw some changes in Franklin’s personal life. She divorced husband Ted White in 1969. In 1978, she married actor Glynn Turman (1946– ). Eventually, that marriage, too, would end in divorce.

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Franklin’s record sales dwindled in the late 1970s. However, interest in soul music in general and her music in particular was revived by the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. The movie featured Franklin and many other famous soul and blues musicians. In the 1980s, Franklin signed with Arista Records and won three more Grammy awards. Critics complained that her slickly produced singles, including “Freeway of Love,” were not of the same caliber as her earlier work. Nonetheless, Franklin enjoyed tremendous success. In 1987, Aretha Franklin was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1993, she sang at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton (1946– ). She won a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1995, and in 1998, she released a critically acclaimed album called A Rose Is Still a Rose. The album featured tracks produced by rising rap star P. Diddy (1970– ). In 2005, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That same year, she picked up her seventeenth Grammy. In 2009, she sang at the inauguration of yet another president, Barack Obama (1961– ). As her career entered its fifth decade, Aretha Franklin made it clear that the “queen of soul” was still reigning.

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JIMI HENDRIX (1942–1970)

Jimi Hendrix is one of the most respected and talented guitarists of the entire twentieth century. Hendrix enjoyed a sudden explosion of popularity starting in 1967. His newfound popularity looked on the surface like an overnight success story. In reality, the guitarist had been paying his dues for years. He had played in backup bands for well-established acts in Nashville, New York City, and across the country. Nevertheless, Hendrix quickly established himself as a star in his own right. He updated the tradition of the blues showman while pushing forward the art of electric guitar musicianship. He was able to coax previously unheard-of sounds from his instrument. Hendrix combined elements of rock, pop, soul, jazz, blues, country, and folk music. All of his music was seasoned with his trademark mastery of effects and distortion. He was able to produce these sounds both live and in the studio. Tragically, his time in the musical spotlight ended just as suddenly as it began. After a brief four years as rock’s undisputed guitar god, Hendrix died of a drug overdose. His influence continued to loom large into the twenty-first century. African American Eras

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Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix in 1942 in Seattle, Washington. Hendrix and his brother Leon were raised primarily by their father Al. Hendrix came from a background of performers and musicians. His father had been an accomplished jazz dancer in his youth, and Hendrix’s grandparents had been traveling vaudeville performers. Hendrix’s mother was only seventeen when she gave birth to Jimi. She was a mentally unstable alcoholic who was unable to take proper care of her children. Al Hendrix took custody of the Hendrix children after he returned from serving in World War II. Al changed his eldest son’s name to James Marshall Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix playing at his last concert on Sep tember 6, 1970, in Isle of Fehmarn, Germany. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Hendrix developed an early interest in music as he listened to his father’s collection of blues and jazz records. He was particularly drawn to the guitar heroics of such blues masters as B. B. King (1925– ), John Lee Hooker (1917–2001), T. Bone Walker (1910–75), and Muddy Waters (1915–73). He lobbied his father for an instrument of his own. Al could not afford to buy a guitar. He was doing all he could to make ends meet as a landscaper and gardener. Instead, Jimi practiced on a one-stringed ukulele and makeshift instruments. When Hendrix was twelve years old, Al was able to buy his son his first real guitar. It was a guitar built for a right-handed player, but that did not matter. The left-handed Hendrix changed the order of the strings so he could play it upside down. Begins Career in Music Soon, Hendrix joined his first band. The band was a local R&B outfit known as the Rocking Kings. It was during this time that Hendrix also began developing the showmanship skills that would later make him famous. He imitated the stunts of bluesmen like T. Bone Walker by playing the guitar behind his back or between his legs. His devotion to learning the instrument was not matched by his devotion to school work. At the age of seventeen, Hendrix dropped out of high school. He was just a few months short of graduation. Shortly thereafter Hendrix was arrested for a petty crime and received a suspended two-year sentence. His troubles with the law prompted young Jimi to follow in his father’s footsteps and opt for a stint in the Army. Hendrix volunteered for the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles, as a paratrooper.

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During his time with the 101st, Hendrix met a fellow musician in his unit, a bass player named Billy Cox. The two formed a band with three other musicians and performed for soldiers on the base. After they were both honorably discharged, Cox and Hendrix formed a band called the King Kasuals in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Hendrix spent the next few years playing backup to a variety of soul and R&B acts. He used this time to effectively apprentice as a showman. He was particularly influenced in his playing style by Curtis Mayfield (1942–99). Mayfield combined elements of lead and rhythm guitar in his playing. Hendrix also was influenced in his sense of showmanship by rock-and-roll founding father Little Richard (1932– ). In fact, Little Richard fired Hendrix from his backing band because Hendrix was constantly upstaging him. Hendrix came into his own as a performer in 1964 during his time with the Isley Brothers. The Isley Brothers gave Hendrix room in their set for solos and allowed him to showboat a bit. In 1965, Hendrix made a decision that would come back to haunt him in later years and even beyond his death. For a one-dollar advance, he signed a record contract with manager Ed Chalpin. That same year, he formed a new band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, and moved to New York City. Hendrix played the usual circuit of Harlem nightclubs. He also grew interested in the music scene that was developing in the mostly white neighborhood of Greenwich Village around folk rock and psychedelic rock. Folk musician Bob Dylan (1941– ) inspired Hendrix to begin penning his own lyrics and singing his own songs. Hendrix began playing as many Greenwich Village shows as he could even though the pay was terrible. He mostly played at Cafe Wha?. It was there that he was spotted by Chas Chandler (1938–96). Chandler was the bass player from a successful British group called The Animals. Chandler was looking to get out of The Animals and into managing other music acts. He approached Hendrix with an offer to fly him to England and put a band together around him. Hendrix was initially wary. Eventually he accepted and was on a plane to the United Kingdom. En route, the story goes, Chandler suggested that Jimmy change his first name to a more exotic spelling. So it was that the newly christened Jimi Hendrix landed in England in September 1966. Forms the Jimi Hendrix Experience Chandler held auditions, and Hendrix was partnered with two white British musicians. Noel Redding played the bass, and Mitch Mitchell was on drums. The new group was called the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They wasted no time in scheduling rehearsals and setting up concert dates. They soon played their first gig in Paris. They followed that up with a African American Eras

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record contract. Hendrix also made a splash with the local music scene. He outperformed British guitar heroes such as Eric Clapton (1945– ) and The Who’s Pete Townshend (1945– ). In December 1966 the Experience released their first single, “Hey Joe.” That was quickly followed by their debut album, Are You Experienced?, in May 1967. The following month, the Experience made their U.S. debut at the Monterey Pop Festival. Both in England and America, Hendrix and the Experience were a smash hit. Are You Experienced? catapulted the guitar virtuoso to overnight fame. Are You Experienced? was followed in December 1967 by Axis: Bold as Love. Hendrix’s second album continued the sonic and genre-bending explorations of the first album. For the Experience’s next album, Hendrix took total control. He brought in multiple guest musicians. He racked up millions of dollars in studio rental time as he worked to bring his vision to life. The result was a double album, Electric Ladyland. The album is often hailed as Hendrix’s masterpiece. Hendrix’s stardom was firmly established, and revenue was rolling in. At this point, Hendrix’s earlier, ill-advised contract with Ed Chalpin came back to haunt him. Chalpin filed a lawsuit claiming he was owed a cut of Hendrix’s wealth. The ensuing legal battles kept Hendrix out of the recording studio for months. In the meantime, Hendrix and Chandler elected to begin work on a state-of-the-art music studio that would allow Hendrix free rein for his new projects. It would also give him the opportunity to make some extra money by renting the facilities out to other musicians. The construction of Electric Lady Studios was to cost millions of dollars. The Experience went on the road for a grueling tour schedule in order to raise the necessary funds. Tensions that had existed in the band from the start threatened to tear it apart. In April 1969 Hendrix decided to disband the Experience. The Woodstock Festival promised “four days of peace and music” in August 1969. Thirty-two musical acts and half a million spectators showed up in an unprecedented gathering. Hendrix agreed to perform alongside a new expanded band called Gypsy Love and Rainbows. The band featured Billy Cox on bass, Mitchell on drums, and other musicians on guitar and percussion. Hendrix was set to be the festival’s last performer. He was scheduled to go on Sunday night. Due to technical delays, Hendrix did not play until Monday morning. By that time much of the audience had departed, but the eighty thousand or so people who remained were treated to one of Hendrix’s defining moments. Towards the end of his set, he played an instrumental version of the U.S. national anthem. Hendrix’s anguished, distorted “Star-Spangled Banner” was seen

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by many as a powerful political statement on the unpopular Vietnam War and the general social unrest of the late 1960s.

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Shortly after Woodstock, Hendrix, Cox, and new drummer Buddy Miles (1947–2008) formed the Band of Gypsies. Hendrix had it in mind to take his music in a more soul- and funk-oriented direction. His experiments are captured on the live album Band of Gypsies. That recording contains the last of Hendrix’s great guitar triumphs, the antiwar anthem “Machine Gun.” In “Machine Gun,” Hendrix managed to mimic the sound of a firing machine gun with his guitar. As a settlement of his earlier contract troubles, the rights to Band of Gypsies were handed over to Ed Chalpin. Hendrix was also busy working on a new studio album, First Rays of the New Rising Sun. Surviving recordings indicate Hendrix was taking his sound in completely new directions. He was bridging soul, blues, R&B, jazz, hard rock, and psychedelia. What would have resulted from these experiments will forever remain unknown; Hendrix died in his sleep after accidentally mixing sleeping pills with alcohol on September 18, 1970.

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MICHAEL JACKSON (1958–2009)

Michael Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers of the twentieth century. A talented singer, dancer, and songwriter, he had a remarkably successful career that spanned four decades. He was the first African American entertainer to break through to the very highest levels of fame and success in popular culture. Over the course of his career, he earned thirteen Grammy Awards, had seventeen songs become number-one singles, and sold more than 750 million albums worldwide. Michael Jackson was born in 1958 into a working-class family in the town of Gary, Indiana, which is near Chicago, Illinois. He was one of nine children in an intensely musical family. Jackson’s father, Joe, had played with a local blues band. Joe had an idea for taking his five oldest sons and molding them into a band. For three years, the boys were put through a strict practice regimen to hone their musical abilities and showmanship. Michael, the youngest of the group, was put up front as the group’s lead singer starting at the age of six. Jackson Is a Star from a Young Age The Jackson Five, as they came to be known, formed a cohesive, wellknit group. Michael emerged as a dynamic front man (lead singer). He had a strong stage presence and velvety-smooth dance moves. In time, the band was ready to start playing local shows in Gary and surrounding communities. Local success led to a shot in 1968 at the Apollo Theater’s African American Eras

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amateur night competition. The Apollo Theater, a music hall in Harlem, New York, was a premier venue for African American performers. Its amateur night had become legendary as a launching pad for ambitious musicians who were just starting out. The Jacksons’ ambition paid off. Their performance at the Apollo was spotted by an executive from Motown Records, the legendary Detroit music label. Berry Gordy (1929– ), the label’s owner, signed the Jackson Five. Gordy took a personal interest in the group. He hired instructors to teach the boys how to conduct themselves in public. Michael passed from his father’s strict oversight directly to Gordy’s.

Singer Michael Jackson in concert in 1989. Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

The Jackson Five became a pop phenomenon. The group scored four number-one hits in 1970: “I Want You Back,” “The Love You Save,” “ABC,” and “I’ll Be There.” They appeared on several major television shows and on the covers of such national magazines as Life and Rolling Stone. They also starred in a top-rated television special, Goin’ Back to Indiana (1971). They even had their own Saturday-morning cartoon show from 1971 to 1973. Michael was clearly the stand-out star of the group. He released his first solo recordings in 1972. He scored hit singles with “Ben,” “Rockin’ Robin,” and “Got to Be There.” After a few years the group was looking for new outlets of musical expression. They parted ways with Motown in 1974, minus brother Jermaine (1954– ), who elected to stay with the label. With younger brother Randy (1961– ) joining the ranks, the Jackson Five signed with Epic. A lawsuit by Motown forced them to change their name to simply the Jacksons. The Jacksons continued to record and tour together. They also starred in a CBS variety show in 1976. In 1978, Michael decided to try his hand at acting. He starred with singer Diana Ross (1944– ) in the movie musical The Wiz. The movie was an African American retelling of the screen classic The Wizard of Oz (1939). The film was panned by critics and ignored at the box office. Nonetheless, it was a crucial moment in Jackson’s career. It was on the set of that movie that Jackson met Quincy Jones (1933– ). Jones was working as the arranger of the movie’s musical numbers. Quincy Jones had gotten his start as a jazz musician. He had

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made his greatest mark behind the scenes, working as a successful producer and arranger since the 1960s. Jones saw great potential in young Michael. The two agreed to collaborate on Michael’s next solo project.

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Jackson Launches His Solo Career Jackson’s next solo project turned out to be the 1979 album Off the Wall. The album displayed a mix of musical styles. The styles ranged from dance to pop to rock to ballads. The album was also a huge success. It sold more than seven million copies, turned out four Top 10 singles, and won a Grammy Award. Jackson followed up the success of Off the Wall with 1982’s Thriller. Sales built steadily after Thriller’s release, but its status as the best-selling album of all time would only come about after Jackson proved himself a master of using television to promote his music.

Jackson’s appearance on the 1983 television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever rocketed him to superstardom. Jackson debuted his legendary “moonwalk” dance move on the show. The “moonwalk” made Jackson appear to be walking forward while he was actually moving backwards. Jackson’s sense of style quickly became just as noteworthy as his music. He danced across the stage in a black fedora hat with a single jeweled glove on his left hand. The single white glove would become a stylistic trademark of Jackson. His look would inspire thousands of imitators. Thriller became a global phenomenon. Its popularity was propelled by several sensational television appearances by Jackson and a heavy rotation of music videos on MTV. At its height, Thriller was selling half a million copies per week. Eight of its ten tracks were released as singles. Seven of those reached the Top 10. Jackson was on his way to earning his longtime nickname, “The King of Pop.” As Time magazine said in its March 19, 1984, cover story, Jackson had it all; he was a talented songwriter, phenomenal dancer, and singer with seemingly universal appeal. Jackson became one of the richest entertainers in the world. He used some of his wealth to purchase the copyrights to the Beatles’ song catalog (the Beatles were a popular British rock band of the 1960s), arguably the most profitable collection of musical recordings, for 47.5 million dollars. Jackson also signed an endorsement deal with soft-drink giant Pepsi-Cola. He suffered burns to his scalp when his hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. The burns were fairly severe. It is speculated that it was during his recovery that Jackson became addicted to prescription pain medication, a problem that plagued him for the remainder of his life. Jackson also became very active in charity work. He used the settlement money from his Pepsi accident to establish the Michael Jackson African American Eras

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Burn Center. He also made generous contributions to the United Negro College Fund. In response to widespread famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, in 1985, Jackson collaborated with R&B singer Lionel Richie (1949– ) to write “We Are the World.” The song was recorded by a large group of popular entertainers. It became an international hit and also initiated a fad for “charity rock,” singles recorded and released to support a particular celebrity’s causes. Jackson’s Personal Life Takes Center Stage It was also during this time that Jackson’s private life became as talked about as his music. Much of his lifestyle was simply perplexing to his fans and the public. He used his riches to build a sprawling mansion he called Neverland. The name was a reference to the magical world inhabited by Peter Pan and a group of “lost boys” who never grow up. The property covered 2700 acres. Jackson built a private theme park and a zoo. He surrounded himself with children and unusual pets—most famously Bubbles the chimpanzee and Muscles the boa constrictor. He hosted terminally ill children for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and invited many children to spend weekends at Neverland.

Jackson released Bad, his follow-up to Thriller, in 1987. The album sold more than twenty million copies and produced five number-one singles: “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror,” and “Dirty Diana.” Despite this success, Jackson’s private life was now threatening to completely overshadow his music and his celebrity status. The Michael Jackson staring out from the cover of Bad was nearly unrecognizable compared to the young man featured on the cover of Off the Wall. His skin was much lighter, his nose had become thin and pointed, and his jaw, chin, and cheekbones were all noticeably altered. Critics said that Jackson was ashamed of his African American heritage and had plastic surgery in an effort to look white. Jackson eventually admitted to some cosmetic surgery. However, he maintained that the bulk of his changed appearance was due to a skin condition called vitiligo, which causes a lightening of the skin. British tabloids dubbed the singer “Wacko Jacko.” The details of his personal life regularly appeared in gossip columns and entertainment news. Jackson released his next album, Dangerous, in 1991. Sales were a disappointment compared to those of the album’s predecessors. A media firestorm erupted in 1993 when Jackson was accused of child molestation. Jackson’s supporters said the charges were baseless and that the accuser’s father was only after Jackson’s money. However, the scandal further damaged Jackson’s reputation. Rather than face trial in civil court, Jackson paid a large cash settlement. The settlement and the court costs 646


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put a dent in the singer’s personal fortunes, which were already on the decline alongside his album sales.

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In 1994, Jackson secretly married Lisa Marie Presley (1968– ), daughter of the legendary musician Elvis Presley (1935–77), shortly after he settled the molestation case. There was speculation that the marriage was an attempt at repairing Jackson’s damaged public image. Even so, the prospect of the “king of pop” marrying the daughter of the “king of rock and roll” delighted fans. Unfortunately, it did not last. Presley filed for divorce from Jackson two years later, in January 1996. Jackson got married for a second time later in 1996. This time he married his plastic surgeon’s nurse, Debbie Rowe. The couple would have two children. Prince Michael Jackson, Jr., was born in 1997. Paris Michael Katherine Jackson was born in 1998. Jackson’s marriage to Rowe ended in divorce in 1999. In 2002, Jackson would add a third child to his family, Prince Michael Jackson II. His third child was from an unknown mother. Jackson would court public outrage yet again in 2002 when he dangled young Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, over the side of a highrise hotel balcony to display the baby to a mob of screaming fans below. Jackson would later apologize for this lapse in judgment. Jackson’s Life Comes to a Tragic End Jackson’s musical career, meanwhile, remained stalled. Despite a thirty-million-dollar marketing blitz, his two-disc HIStory: Past, Present, and Future Book I (1995), a combination of greatest hits and new material,

Messages left outside the gates of Michael Jackson’s Los Angeles home following his death in 2009 show the singer’s continued popularity despite his legal and personal issues. Mark Ralston/AFP/ Getty Images


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sold poorly in the United States. Jackson’s 2001 release, Invincible, fared even worse. In 2003, after being granted unprecedented access to Jackson’s personal life for eight months, journalist Martin Bashir (1963– ) aired the television special Living with Michael Jackson. The special contained Jackson’s admission that, despite past molestation charges against him, he continued to invite young boys to sleep in his bedroom during “slumber parties” at Neverland. Jackson also admitted that he even brought some of his guests into his bed with him. Later that year, Jackson’s estate was searched by California law enforcement officials following charges that he had molested a young boy. Jackson was arrested and booked on criminal charges of child molestation. Jackson paid the three-million-dollar bail and began assembling a team of lawyers to fight the charges. The case came to trial in April 2005. It quickly became a media circus. Two months later, Jackson was cleared of all charges, but his reputation was ruined. Jackson retreated to the tiny Arab sultanates of Bahrain and Dubai to recuperate. His once-great financial empire was drastically reduced by the cost of his lengthy court battle. He was forced to sell Neverland Ranch to help pay his debts. In June 2009, Jackson was in the midst of preparing a fifty-concert run at London’s O2 Arena as part of a comeback effort when he died suddenly and unexpectedly of cardiac arrest. His death brought immediate outpourings of grief and remembrance from every corner of the globe. Despite his two decades of slow decline, it became clear at the time of his death that Jackson’s star power was undiminished and his musical legacy was secure. After an investigation by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, Jackson’s death was ruled a homicide. As of September 2009, the police investigation into his death was ongoing.

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MICHAEL JORDAN (1963– )

Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player ever to play the game. He led his team to six championships—two sets of “threepeats”—in eight years and won six Most Valuable Player awards. He also made hundreds of millions of dollars by endorsing companies and products such as Wheaties, Gatorade, McDonald’s, and, most notably, Nike. Jordan’s signature athletic shoe, the Air Jordan, became an instant status symbol upon its release. In 2009, Jordan was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The future did not look nearly so promising when Jordan was younger. He was a short boy who was cut from the high school basketball team two years in a row. Like his father and siblings, Michael Jordan was 648


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a competitor and dedicated to his passions. As he entered his junior year, Jordan grew several inches. He eventually shot up from five feet eleven inches to six feet six inches by the end of his senior year. He made varsity his junior year and never looked back. He was one of the most sought-after high school basketball players in the nation by the time he graduated. Jordan accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina. Jordan got his first taste of national celebrity when he hit the gamewinning shot in the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) championship game his freshman year. He was named Rookie of the Year for the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 1983 and 1984, he was named an All-American. He was named co-captain of the U.S. Olympic basketball team in 1984, and helped lead his team to the gold medal. Jordan decided to enter professional basketball before finishing college. He was picked in the first round (he was the third overall pick) of the NBA (National Basketball Association) draft by the Chicago Bulls in 1984. The Bulls were a lackluster team at the time they picked Jordan. Jordan became Chicago’s great hope for a turnaround. Fan attendance nearly doubled, and not just for home games. When the Bulls were on the road, attendance rose whenever Chicago came to town. People were turning out in droves to see the NBA’s newest sensation. Jordan’s meteoric rise, helped along by his good looks and squeaky clean image, brought him lucrative endorsement deals. Most notable among these deals was the contract Jordan signed with Nike. The shoe company designed a whole new line of shoes dubbed Air Jordan. The shoe was named for Jordan’s seeming ability to suspend himself in midair as he took the ball to the hoop. The line was an immediate success. Jordan was essential to Nike’s becoming a market leader in athletic shoes.

Basketball player Michael Jordan in 2001. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Jordan’s skills alone were not enough to make the Bulls immediately competitive enough to win a championship. It took several more years to build an effective squad around him. Once that happened, the Bulls proved unstoppable. The team won three consecutive NBA championships in 1991, 1992, and 1993. The Bulls were the first team to accomplish such a feat in thirty years. Jordan was the MVP of the NBA Finals all three years, and he also won the regular season MVP award in 1991 and 1992. African American Eras

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In the middle of the Bulls’ historic run of championships, Jordan returned to the Olympics in 1992. As a member of the “Dream Team,” he won his second gold medal in basketball. Yet Jordan was also facing his share of challenges during this time. He was rumored to have a serious gambling problem. He was investigated twice by the NBA (in 1991 and 1993) and cleared both times. Jordan was then dealt a tragic blow when his father was murdered by two teenage criminals in July 1993. The death of his father profoundly affected Jordan. On October 6, 1993, Jordan formally announced his retirement from the sport of basketball. Jordan further surprised sports fans by signing with a minor league baseball team. Career Changes and Retirements His performance on the baseball diamond proved to be less impressive than his performance on the court. A dispute between baseball players and team owners in 1995 gave Jordan the opportunity to return to basketball. He also returned to merchandising his image, starring in the movie Space Jam in 1996. He released his own line of fragrance that year.

Now in his thirties, Jordan adjusted his game to take a more efficient, tactical approach. Although the mid-air heroics of the younger Jordan were gone, the new approach proved to be every bit as effective. Jordan helped lead the Bulls to a record-breaking seventy-two wins and only ten losses in the 1995–1996 season. The Bulls would capture another three consecutive titles under Jordan’s leadership. In January 1999, Jordan announced for a second time that he was retiring. Jordan was still very much committed to basketball and the NBA even after his second retirement. He bought a part-ownership interest in the Washington Wizards in January 2000. The Wizards were a perennially (every year) struggling team. Jordan came out of retirement to help out on the court. Unfortunately, just as had been true with the Bulls in the 1980s, one man was not enough to reverse the fortunes of an ailing team. After two limited seasons, Jordan retired for a third and final time. After leaving the Wizards, Jordan became part-owner and managing member of basketball operations for the Charlotte Bobcats. He continued to serve in that position as of late 2009.

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KIMORA LEE SIMMONS (1975– )

By age 25 Kimora Lee Simmons was the head of the successful urban clothing company Baby Phat. She had already made her mark by modeling clothes designed by others, and was now setting the standard 650


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with her own clothing designs. She expanded her control of the Phat Fashion empire in the twenty-first century in addition to acting and raising her three children. Kimora Lee Simmons was born Kimora Lee Perkins in St. Louis, Missouri, of mixed Asian and African American descent. Raised by her mother, Kimora was the subject of teasing by school bullies, both because of her unusual looks and her above-average height. The features that earned her unwelcome attention at school, however, caught the eye of a representative of Paris Agency Glamour at a modeling search in St. Louis. She traveled to Paris, where she signed a contract with the high-fashion design company Chanel, and began a successful career as a model. She was just thirteen years old at the time. In 1992, while working in New York, Kimora met Russell Simmons (1957– ), a successful rap musician. The two began dating, and Simmons launched the men’s fashion company Phat Farm, which produces “preppie” styles with trendy, urban looks. Kimora married Simmons in 1998, and in 1999 they jointly launched Baby Phat, a line of women’s fashions. The Phat Farm and Baby Phat lines were popular with celebrities, and quickly expanded to include jewelry, underwear, and cosmetics. By 2000, the companies were internationally successful, with both urban African American and suburban white shoppers, and Kimora Lee Simmons was working as Baby Phat’s president and creative director.

Fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons in 2005. Vince Bucci/Getty Images

That same year, Kimora Lee Simmons had her first child. She had a second baby in 2002. She and Russell separated in 2006. When he sold Phat Fashions LLC and stepped down as chief executive officer in 2007, Kimora stepped up from her position at Baby Phat to become president and creative director at Phat Fashions (the company that includes both Phat Farm and Baby Phat). She launched a high-fashion clothing line that same year. In addition to her work at Baby Phat and Phat Fashions, Kimora took on occasional film acting work and had her own reality television show, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, that ran for just over two seasons between 2007 and 2008. She began dating actor Djimon Honsou (1964– ) in 2007. African American Eras

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Kimora divorced Russell Simmons in 2009, and gave birth to a son with Honsou in May 2009. She has numerous humanitarian interests, and takes special interest in youth and education charities.

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VENUS WILLIAMS (1980– ) SERENA WILLIAMS (1981– )

The sisters Venus and Serena Williams are the two best-known African American tennis players since Arthur Ashe. The Williams sisters were born in Michigan. They were raised in the gang-ridden inner city of Compton, California. Growing up, they practiced on public tennis courts that often doubled as meeting places for gang members and drug dealers. Venus and Serena worked under the guidance and coaching of their father Richard. Both sisters developed into tennis players of remarkable promise and potential. By the time the girls entered adolescence, Richard Williams was already fielding offers from companies interested in offering his daughters product endorsements. Richard chose to keep the girls off the junior tennis circuit even though the junior circuit is the usual route to a professional tennis career. Instead, Richard moved his family to Florida so Venus and Serena could spend their time training under respected tennis coach Ric Macci.

Tennis players Venus (left) and Serena Williams at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. ª Ben Radford/Corbis

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Venus became a professional tennis player in 1994. Serena followed suit in 1995. They quickly became celebrities. As they entered adulthood, they began winning Grand Slam tournaments. Grand Slam tournaments are the four most prestigious and competitive tournaments on the professional tennis tour: the Australian Open, the French Open, the U.S. Open, and Wimbledon. Venus won the U.S. Open and Wimbledon in both 2000 and 2001. As of 2009, Venus had won seven Grand Slam singles titles. Serena had won eleven, including two in 2009. They make a fearsome doubles pair, and their rivalry on the singles courts is even more storied.

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The Williams sisters’ activities off the court have been almost as notable as their athletic ability. Venus and Serena see themselves as role models for girls and African Americans. They have authored books on self-esteem and life strategy. They also have been active in a variety of charitable causes. They even starred in a six-part reality television show, Venus and Serena: For Real, that aired in 2005 on the ABC Family channel. Both have shown a great deal of interest in fashion as well. Venus founded her own clothing line and interior design company. Both sisters have landed multimillion-dollar product endorsements. Venus helped spearhead a movement to force the Wimbledon and French Open tournaments to offer equal prize money to male and female entrants. In short, Venus and Serena Williams have been two of the most successful and visible professional tennis players of the early twenty-first century.

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STEVIE WONDER (1950– )

Famed singer and musician Stevie Wonder was born Stevland Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan. He was born prematurely and lost his sight before he left the hospital. The precise cause of his loss of sight is not known. It could have been due to the concentration of oxygen being too high in his incubator. He was left with only dreamlike memories of light and an image of his mother’s face in his mind. The boy who would come to be known as Stevie Wonder felt that he had been born for a reason: making music. He and his five siblings lived in poverty in Detroit even though their single mother did her best to provide for her family. The children’s early experiences with music included singing gospel hymns at the Whitestone Baptist Church. It was through the church that Stevland demonstrated a natural singing ability. He also displayed significant talent on the piano, harmonica, and drums. His abilities were noted by a family friend. The friend called Berry Gordy, founder of Detroit’s Motown record label. Gordy was impressed by Stevland’s raw talent. He signed the boy to his label and placed him African American Eras

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Musician Stevie Wonder performs in 2009. Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

under the direction of Clarence Paul. Gordy’s express intent was to mold a “hit machine.” Paul gave Stevland the stage name of “Little Stevie Wonder.” Wonder quickly lived up to his name. He scored a smash hit in 1963 with a live recording of his song “Fingertips, Pt. 2.” The boisterous enthusiasm and call-and-response chorus of “Fingertips” revealed Wonder’s gospel roots. He followed up his initial success with a series of instant pop-soul classics that remain staples of oldies radio playlists. His list of hits includes songs such as “Uptight,” “I Was Made to Love Her,” and “For Once in My Life.” Within five years, Wonder had turned out enough chart-toppers to warrant a greatest hits album. By that time, he had long since dropped the “Little” from his name. Starting in 1964, he was known simply as Stevie Wonder. He had grown up quickly in the Motown music factory. He recalled in his later years the relentless discipline and drive to get a song “just right” no matter how many takes were required. Wonder continued to produce pop charttoppers, including the million-selling “My Cherie Amour” and “Signed Sealed Delivered (I’m Yours).” Nonetheless, Wonder felt creatively trapped. When he turned twenty-one in 1971, he was due the money he had earned as a minor. Instead of the thirty million dollars owed to him, however, Motown wanted to pay Wonder only one million dollars. Wonder won the ensuing legal battle and gained the musical freedom he had wanted. He founded his own music publishing company and had 654


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total creative control over his music. In 1972, Wonder began one of the greatest runs in pop-music history. He produced a string of five consecutive Top 10 albums: Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fufillingness’ First Finale (1974), and Songs in the Key of Life (1976). Wonder’s focus on his music spelled the end of his brief first marriage to Motown employee and singer Syreeta Wright (1946–2004). Married in 1970, the couple was amicably divorced by 1972.

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Wonder’s “classic period” spawned another series of hit songs. Among his hits were the funky “Superstition” and “Higher Ground.” He also penned the classic love songs “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “Isn’t She Lovely.” The latter was written about Wonder’s infant daughter Aisha, who would go on to a musical career of her own. Wonder also scored a hit with the hook-laden tribute to jazz, “Sir Duke.” His music demonstrated an ever-increasing range of influences and sophistication. It also exhibited a political sensibility that would be reflected in Wonder’s later charitable and political activities. The classic period came to a sudden end with Wonder’s 1979 album, Journey through the Secret Life of Plants. In contrast to his earlier poporiented work, this was a mostly instrumental double album. It stands today as an early example of New Age music. It was reviewed negatively by critics at the time of its release. It has since grown in reputation. Entering the 1980s, Wonder maintained his commercial visibility with several mega-hits. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” His duet with former Beatle Paul McCartney, “Ebony and Ivory,” was also a smash success. In the early 1980s, Wonder also began to intensify his political efforts. He appeared as a spokesman for a variety of causes, including global hunger, gun control, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He also actively protested against South Africa’s government, which at the time followed a racist system known as apartheid. The apartheid system kept political and economic power in the hands of the country’s white minority. In 1986, he received a Grammy award for his album In Square Circle. In 1989 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the 1990s, Wonder’s musical output diminished significantly. However, he refused to accept the label others have bestowed on him as the godfather of contemporary R&B. In 1992, Wonder signed a lifetime contract with Motown and produced movie soundtracks as well as albums of new material. He also produced a critically acclaimed live album, Natural Wonder (1995). Countless musicians from nearly every genre of modern music have cited Wonder as an influence or inspiration. In 2008, he played a set on the last day of the Democratic National Convention when African American Eras

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Barack Obama was nominated for president. After winning the election, President Obama invited Wonder to the White House to present him with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Wonder received this prestigious award for lifetime achievement on February 25, 2009.

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TIGER WOODS (1975– )

Eldrick “Tiger” Woods is regarded by many sports enthusiasts and commentators as the best golfer in history. He is also one of the most financially successful athletes. Golf Digest magazine predicted that by the year 2010 Woods would become the first American athlete ever to surpass one billion dollars in earnings.

Golfer Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters Tournament in August, Georgia. AP Images

Woods was introduced to golf at the age of nine months by his ex– Green Beret father. He took to the sport naturally. Woods was a child prodigy who out-putted comedian Bob Hope (1903–2003) on television and hit a hole-in-one at age six. When he was eleven years old, he played in and won thirty junior tournaments. At the age of fifteen, Tiger Woods became the first African American ever to win golf’s U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. He was also the youngest champion in the event’s history. By the age of twenty, Woods had turned professional. Observers thought it was because he no longer faced any challenges at the amateur level. Tiger Woods, like the champion tennisplaying sisters Venus and Serena Williams, was an African American pioneer in a sport traditionally considered the domain of rich white people. Moreover, he energized the sport of golf like few athletes had before. He attracted record audiences in person and on television. The audiences were rarely disappointed. At the age of twenty-one, Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament, one of the most important, competitive championships in professional golf. He became the youngest player and first African American to win the tournament. What is more, he shot the lowest score and won by the largest margin of victory in Masters history. Woods has been compared to basketball legend Michael Jordan for his celebrity status,

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his domination of his sport, and his ability to bring in millions in endorsement money. African American audiences have held him up as another example of black excellence in sports. However, Woods has shied away from being identified strictly as an African American. He takes pains to remind his fans and the media that he is also part Thai, Chinese, and Indian. In fact, he has checked “Asian” on the ethnicity box of some tournament applications.

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Tiger Woods has maintained his mastery of the game over the entire course of his professional career. Television ratings surge whenever Woods is in a tournament. According to Forbes magazine, at one time he ranked as the world’s second-highest-paid athlete. Woods has also brought in a whole new crowd of golf lovers. While the traditional image of the golf fan has been white and middle-aged, golf’s new fans, drawn in by Woods, are younger people and people of color. Tiger Woods has singlehandedly opened up the sport of golf to a whole new demographic of fans and players. As of the middle of 2009, he had won fourteen so-called major championships (the “majors” are golf’s most prestigious tournaments) and seventy PGA (Professional Golfers Association) tour events. He has shattered golfing records of all types: he set the record for the lowest ever official PGA annual scoring average in 2000 (with a 68.17); the largest margin of victory (eighteen strokes) in an eighteen-hole match in 2006; and the largest margin of victory in a thirty-six-hole match (eight strokes and seven strokes) in 2008. He also held or had tied the record for the lowest score in relation to par for all four major golf championships (the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, the Masters, and the PGA Championship).


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Lee Elder competes in the 1975 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. He was the first black man to compete in the Masters, considered to be one of golf’s most prestigious tournaments. Augusta National/Masters Historic Imagery/Getty Images

AFRICAN AMERICANS BREAK THROUGH IN GOLF AND TENNIS Starting in the 1960s, several talented young African American athletes rose to international prominence in the elite, white-dominated sports of golf and tennis. Both sports had historically been seen as “country club” activities. This means they were played primarily by wealthy, white members of exclusive clubs that had a history of excluding black or other ethnic individuals. As late as 1990, the president of the Shoal Creek Country Club, where the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) championship was being held that year, openly admitted during a television interview that his club did not admit black members. In spite of these obstacles, African American golfers such as Lee Elder (1934– ) in the 1960s and 1970s and Calvin Peete (1943– ) in the 1980s opened new opportunities for African Americans. Born in 1934, Elder started playing golf when he was a teenager. In 1959 he turned professional and joined the United Golf Association (UGA) for black golfers. During the turbulent 1960s, Elder’s rise to prominence in the golfing world aroused opposition from white racists. He received a lot of hate mail. At a tournament in Memphis, Tennessee, Elder had to be accompanied by a police escort after he received hate mail and a threatening telephone call. At the Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida, in 1968, Elder and other black players had to use the parking lot as a dressing room because they were not admitted to the clubhouse. Elder did not allow the racism to stop him and continued to play outstanding golf. In Augusta, Georgia, in 1975, he became the first black man to play at the Masters Tournament, probably the most prestigious tournament in all of golf. Elder would go on to play in five more Masters. He also became the first African American to play in the Ryder Cup, which is a competition between American and European golfers. His career earnings amounted to more than $2.6 million. In the 1980s, the racial climate in the country was different from when Elder began his career. Calvin Peete did not face quite the same obstacles to success. But his career was

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still remarkable. Whereas most top golfers start playing when they are very young, Peete did not begin until he was in his early twenties. Nicknamed “Mr. Accuracy” by some of his peers, Peete won twelve PGA tournaments during his career. Peete scored four wins in 1982, which was then a record for an African American player.

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In 1997, Tiger Woods (1975– ) stunned the golfing world by winning the Masters Tournament by twelve strokes at the age of twenty-one. He was the youngest man ever to win the Masters. He was also the first African American to do so. Woods dominated the sport. He earned more PGA and major tournament wins than any other active golfer. He also became one of the world’s most popular athletes. However, African Americans remain underrepresented at the top levels of golf. Woods was the only African American on the PGA tour in 2009. Like golf, tennis presented few opportunities for African Americans during the first half of the twentieth century. Arthur Ashe (1943–93) helped to change that situation. In 1968, Ashe became the first African American to win the U.S. Open. Seven years later, Ashe became the first black man to win the All-England Wimbledon tournament. Ashe was twice ranked number one in the world. He won respect and admiration from tennis fans not only for his achievements on the court but also for his eloquence and even-tempered demeanor. However, since that time, and with the notable exceptions of sisters Venus and Serena Williams (1980– ; 1981– ), there have been few African American tennis professionals. Hope for the future rests on the fact that in the twenty-first century, there are more African Americans playing tennis and competing at junior-level tournaments than ever before.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC GOES MAINSTREAM African American music has always had a direct, noticeable effect on mainstream American music. In fact, most musical historians assert that the blues and jazz music that sprang up at the turn of the twentieth century was the first truly “American” music—and it was an entirely African American creation. While many black blues and jazz musicians achieved international acclaim from the 1920s to the 1950s, it was generally the toned-down versions of these styles presented by white artists that enjoyed the widest success. Even into the early 1960s, African American music artists generally played for black audiences and had their recordings played on African American radio stations, while music by white artists was played on mainstream radio stations. That began to change in the middle of the 1960s as record producers began to work with many talented African American musicians and bands that would go on to achieve major mainstream success. African American Eras

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The music of Otis Redding (1941–67), Aretha Franklin (1942– ), and other well-known acts such as Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett (1941–2006), and Booker T. and the MGs was recorded on the independent label Atlantic and its subsidiary Stax. Atlantic was one of a whole crop of mostly whiteowned independent labels that had sprung up at the beginning of the 1960s. By the late 1960s, Atlantic had grown to be one of the larger labels by virtue of its impressive list of chart-topping recording artists. Its only real competition came from Detroit’s Motown Records. Founded by Berry Gordy (1929– ), Motown was distinguished both by the fact that it was owned and operated by African Americans and also by its distinctive sound. Among Motown’s best-known acts were the Supremes, Marvin Gaye (1939–84), the Temptations, Gladys Knight (1944– ), and Smokey Robinson (1940– ) and the Miracles. By 1965, these acts had established themselves as consistent mainstream hit makers. They were producing a brand of pop-influenced soul that stood in sharp relief to the grittier, more “southern fried” soul of Atlantic and Stax. Otis Redding Wows Monterey Audience During the weekend of June 16–18, 1967, an important event in the history of pop music occurred at the County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The Monterey Pop Festival was the first large-scale rock-and-roll event ever organized. It was notable for introducing its mostly white audience to a wide variety of musical styles they had not encountered frequently. Perhaps most significant were the performances given by Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix (1942–70), two African American artists who were unknown to mainstream American listeners.

Redding and Hendrix personified the shifting styles of African American music at the time. This shift had been heralded by James Brown (1933–2006), black music’s perennial (persistent and enduring) agent for change throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Brown had long been a popular draw on the “chitlin circuit.” The “chitlin circuit” was a well-known group of musical performance venues in the South that catered to African American musicians (“chitlins” was an inexpensive dish made of pig intestines frequently eaten by African Americans in the South). But in 1965, Brown had scored a major crossover hit with the song “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” The song’s significance and wide appeal was confirmed the following year when Brown won his first Grammy award for best rhythm-and-blues single of 1965. Otis Redding, meanwhile, was one of the leading figures in the burgeoning (arising, spreading) musical style that had come to be known as soul music. Redding had scored a string of hits on the R&B charts starting in 1962. Redding’s sound typified what was often referred to as “that sweet soul 660


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Otis Redding’s appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in Monterey, California, in 1967, was a breakthrough performance for the soul singer. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

music.” It featured gospel influences and impassioned singing that included begging, screaming, or shouting. Redding’s music also placed a heavier emphasis on a single singer rather than the multiple singers performing close harmonies that had been popular during the “doo-wop” era of the 1950s. In many ways, the rise of soul music was tied to the civil rights movement during the early 1960s because it was unapologetically African American in its sound and message. Soul music remained largely an African American trend for many years. It did not break into the mainstream until the mid-1960s. Redding’s appearance at Monterey would quickly become the stuff of legend. Redding appeared onstage well after midnight wearing a lime green African American Eras

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suit. He was backed by his ace studio band, the MGs. Redding proceeded to tear through his set, unleashing his brand of soul music in all its emotional and musical power. He brought the crowd of fifty thousand to its feet. The fans called Redding back to the stage for four encores. Tragically, it would be one of his last major concert appearances. Six months later, Redding and four members of his touring band, the Bar-Kays, died in a plane crash. One month after his death, Redding’s breakthrough smash hit, “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” was released. The song paved the way for the mainstream success of other soul acts, most notably Aretha Franklin. Franklin earned the nickname “Lady Soul” with hits such as “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” (1967) and “Think” (1968). Franklin’s signature song “Respect” (1967) was an Otis Redding composition. Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone Pioneer New Sounds The Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 was also the first American concert appearance made by the newly formed band the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix was introduced at the festival by Brian Jones (1942–69) of the Rolling Stones. He then tore through a set of soon-to-be-classics. He finished with a now-famous rendition of “Wild Thing,” a hit single for a band called the Troggs. Today, the Troggs’ version is completely overshadowed by the Hendrix version. The performance memorably ended with Hendrix setting fire to his guitar. The image of Hendrix kneeling before his flaming guitar became one of the best-known pictures in American rock history.

Following Hendrix’s example as both a brilliant guitarist and leader of an integrated band was Sylvester Stewart (1943– ), better known as Sly Stone. His band, Sly & the Family Stone, was one of the first rock outfits to feature a mix of men and women, both black and white. The sound that the Family Stone produced reflected the blended nature of the band. Their sound was a mix of James Brown’s new funk, psychedelic guitar, soul and R&B, and the Motown sound. The result was a unique and groundbreaking series of recordings. Some critics called the sound “psychedelic soul.” In 1969, Sly & the Family Stone released Stand!, their most successful album, which featured their number-one single “Everyday People.” The band followed up with numerous top-five hits, including “I Want to Take You Higher” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” By the end of the 1960s, the youth of America, both black and white, had made it clear that music by African American musicians was not only appealing, it was an important artistic and cultural influence.

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BLACK POWER SALUTE CAUSES STIR AT OLYMPICS The year 1968 was especially troubled for America and the world. In Europe, there were student uprisings and riots in France. The Soviet Union 662


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invaded Czechoslovakia and violently quashed the country’s efforts at liberal reform. In the United States, the optimism felt by many after the early successes of the civil rights movement had begun to give way to anger and frustration. Many young African Americans were turning toward militancy as a means to press for equal rights. The assassination of beloved civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) on April 4, 1968, followed soon thereafter by the assassination of the pro–civil rights, antiwar presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68) on June 6 further inflamed simmering tensions.

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The Olympic Games have long attempted to separate politics from the event. This has not always been possible. The 1968 Summer Olympic Games had issues with political controversy before they even began. The inclusion of South Africa, a nation which practiced a legally enforced brand of racial segregation known as apartheid, had sparked disagreements during earlier Olympic Games. Despite its majority black population, South Africa’s Olympic teams were invariably all-white. In 1964 South Africa had not been allowed to compete. As the 1968 Olympics approached, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) extended a compromise to South Africa, offering to readmit the nation if it sent a racially integrated team.

American gold medalist Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist John Carlos (right) give the black power salute on the medal stand for the men’s 200 meter final at the 1968 Olympic Games held in Mexico City, Mexico. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman is also shown. Rolls Press/

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This move caused widespread outrage among African American athletes. Harry Edwards (1942– ), a professor at San Jose State University, suggested that all African American athletes boycott the Olympics. Among those who took up his suggestion were basketball players Lew Alcindor (1947– ; a basketball player who would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Elvin Hayes (1945– ), Bob Lanier (1948– ), and Wes Unseld (1946– ). Under intense pressure, the IOC withdrew its offer to South Africa. However, that was not the end of the political controversy. A shift within the African American community had led to the emergence of the black power movement in the 1960s. Black power, as its name suggested, was primarily focused on empowering African Americans through direct action. It also encompassed a growing militancy that frightened many white Americans. Gone, it seemed, were the days of peaceful cooperation. Martin Luther King Jr. had been replaced by African American Eras

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he photograph of Tommie Smith and John Carlos with their gloved fists held high at the 1968 Olympics is familiar to most Americans. The dramatic impact of the gesture is enough to overshadow the third person in the picture, silver medalist Peter Norman. Norman, an Australian, was aware of Smith and Carlos’s protest plans in advance, and fully supported them. Norman himself wore the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) on his chest in a show of further support for his fellow runners. When asked later about his motivations, Norman said simply that he supported equal rights for all humans. Norman’s career and personal life suffered after 1968. He was reprimanded by the Australian Olympic authorities for his actions on the podium, scorned by the Australian public, and never again selected for the Australian Olympic team (despite qualifying times). When Norman died of a heart attack in 2006, Smith and Carlos traveled to Australia to serve as pallbearers, and both spoke at Norman’s funeral in praise of his courage and humanity.

leaders such as Bobby Seale (1936– ) and Huey P. Newton (1942–89), founders of the Black Panther party, whose members wore military-style clothing and often openly carried guns. The symbol for the black power movement was a raised fist. The raised fist was seen as a threatening gesture by many whites. Many African Americans saw it simply as a declaration of empowerment. It was in this context that two African American athletes, Tommie Smith (1944– ) and John Carlos (1945– ), caused one of the greatest Olympic controversies of all time. During the Mexico City Games Smith and Carlos won gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the two-hundred-meter dash. During the medal ceremony later in the day, Smith and Carlos stood on the winners’ platform and accepted their medals. Then, the U.S. national anthem began to play. Rather than placing their hands on their hearts and facing the flag, the two athletes lowered their heads and raised their black-gloved fists in the air for the duration of the anthem. There could be no mistaking that this was a political protest designed to draw attention to American racism. The reaction was immediate outrage. Smith and Carlos were expelled from the Olympic Village. They were also stripped of their medals by the 664


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United States Olympic Committee. The committee thought that the nature and location of the men’s protest unacceptable to the spirit of the Olympics. Upon their return to the United States, Smith and Carlos were hailed by many in the black power movement. However, their actions were considered disgraceful by the majority of Americans at the time. Over time, the image of these two young athletes with their fists raised in silent protest has become a symbol of courage for black athletes and the African American community in general. In the spring of 2009, sports network ESPN aired a special called “Return to Mexico City” commemorating the actions of Smith and Carlos, a sign that American society in general has come to view their once-shocking protest as a highlight of the civil rights era.

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THE AFRO HAIRSTYLE MAKES BOLD STATEMENT During the 1960s, African Americans began to openly celebrate their heritage and their individuality. They did so in politics, in art, and in fashion. One of the most recognizable fashion statements of the 1960s was the hairstyle known as the Afro. The Afro haircut was striking and different. It was long and curly with a full, bushy, rounded look. Many young African Americans considered the Afro to be the ideal way to wear their naturally curly hair. The Afro was an alternative to using chemicals and tools in an attempt to straighten hair. Many African American women had become accustomed to the difficult and time-consuming process of straightening their hair. The Afro held its shape naturally and was easy to maintain. For many African Americans of both genders, the Afro was more than a fashion statement. Like their rebellious long-haired white counterparts, young African Americans who wore Afro hairstyles were rejecting the values of the older generation. They were affirming their independence, their freedom, and their racial identity. Young African Americans who wore Afros were consciously living out the meaning of two popular slogans of the day: “Black Pride” and “Black Is Beautiful.” By wearing the Afro look, young African Americans were honoring their cultural heritage and refusing to conform to standards of beauty dictated by the majority white culture. The Afro was therefore a symbolic statement against racism. It showed a black person’s commitment to radical social change. During the late 1960s and 1970s, many African American political and civil rights activists, including Angela Davis (1944– ), Huey Newton, and Jesse Jackson (1941– ), wore Afros. The Afro was also popular among students and entertainers. The Jackson Five, Diana Ross (1944– ), Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, and Pam Grier (1949– ) all wore Afros. African American Eras

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Beauty and hair product manufacturers heavily promoted the Afro in black magazines such as Ebony. These industries developed grooming, conditioning, and other products, such as Johnson Products’ Afro-Sheen line, designed to maintain the Afro look. The industry also created Afro wigs for women. The industry marketed the wigs to women whose hair was not naturally curly, who wanted to be fashionable without committing permanently to the Afro, or who did not want to make a political statement. Their strategy was to make the Afro a fashion statement rather than a political statement. The industry wanted to present the Afro as just another style choice. By the end of the 1960s the Afro had gained widespread acceptance amongst African Americans. A 1969 Newsweek poll showed that in the northern United States, 75 percent of blacks under the age of thirty approved of the Afro. In the more culturally conservative South, the figure was 40 percent. The number of people who actually adopted the style, especially outside the major cities, was probably much smaller than either of these figures might suggest. In American society as a whole, the Afro hairstyle was controversial. Many white Americans were disturbed by what they saw as a visual symbol of black militancy. The Afro was not generally considered suitable for the mainstream workplace. Some African American women would wear wigs over their Afros to avoid coming into conflict with their employers. In 1971, several black women complained to the Philadelphia Commission on

Many white Americans associated the Afro hairstyle with black militancy, making it a controversial fashion statement. David Fenton/Getty Images

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Human Rights that they had been sent home from work or even fired for their Afro hairstyles.

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By the mid-1970s, Afros became less popular. However, Afros continued to be worn throughout the decade. By the 1980s and 1990s straighter hair had become the fashion for African Americans. In the twenty-first century, the Afro once more became a popular hairstyle, especially in the entertainment industry. However, in the public mind the Afro still retained some of its earlier associations with black militancy. This was demonstrated in the controversial cartoon the New Yorker magazine published on its cover in 2008. The cartoon was meant to satirize rumors that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama (1961– ) and his wife Michelle (1964– ), both African American, secretly held “anti-white” or “black militant” beliefs. The cartoon showed the Obamas in military-style clothing in the White House. Michelle Obama was carrying a machine gun and wearing a spectacular, full-size Afro.

v HANK AARON BREAKS HOME RUN RECORD Henry “Hank” Aaron was born into poverty in Mobile, Alabama, in 1934. He, his parents, and seven siblings lived in a simple cabin with no electricity or running water. Aaron grew up during the Great Depression in the segregated South. He spent most of his time playing baseball in the local park, teaching himself the game. His parents encouraged him in this pursuit. They recognized that baseball was a possible ticket out of poverty for their son.

Hank Aaron hits his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth’s record on April 8, 1974. Herb Scharfman/Sports Imagery/Getty Images

Aaron developed distinctive, self-taught batting and fielding styles from his afternoons in the park. He started in local amateur leagues and then moved up to the Negro Leagues and the minor leagues. Aaron finally landed a spot with the Milwaukee Braves in 1954 at the age of 20. All along, he faced racist taunts, discrimination, and comments from fans. When he became the first African American player to join the all-white Braves team, he also withstood racism from some of his own teammates. These challenges seemed only to inspire Aaron. He quietly began to rack up home run after home run over the course of a two-decade career with the Braves. African American Eras

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n 1965 baseball was still very much America’s game. Basketball and football enjoyed devoted but decidedly smaller followings. They were largely seen as regional, class-based sports. Four decades later, football and basketball reign as America’s most popular sports. Their athletes have been transformed into full-fledged celebrities and multimillionaires. From 1965 to the present, basketball and football have been dominated by African American athletes. The rise of football and basketball in national popularity is largely also the story of the triumph of the black athlete. In the National Football League (NFL), for example, between 65 and 69 percent of the players are African American. That figure reflects a steady rise since the late 1960s, when the figure was 28 percent. During the 2008–2009 season, 82 percent of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) players were black. By contrast, in the early 1960s, just 25 percent of NBA players were African American. Conversely, baseball has maintained its mythic aura as “the national pastime,” but it is not as popular as it once was. This is especially true of African American participation. In the 1970s, African Americans made up more than 28 percent of professional baseball players. Since then there has been a steady decline. As of 2008, only 8 percent of professional baseball players were African American. This is in part due to Major League Baseball’s recruitment of players from abroad. Today, most African Americans’ dreams of sports success and celebrity focus on football and basketball rather than baseball. But this was not always the case, as the story of Hank Aaron shows.

Aaron had an unassuming personality, and the Braves were not usually in the running for the championship. As a result, Aaron did not attract much national media attention until 1970. By that time the Braves had moved south to Atlanta. Aaron had passed the mark of five hundred career home runs. The record for career home runs had been set by Babe Ruth (1895– 1948) at 714. It was a record most baseball fans considered unbreakable. However, by 1973 Aaron was closing in on the supposedly unbeatable record. He ended the season one homer shy of tying Ruth’s record. 668


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Never one to seek or enjoy publicity, Aaron suddenly found himself at the center of it. Endorsement deals came rolling in. So too did nearly a million pieces of mail in 1973 alone. Aaron received many encouraging and congratulatory letters. He also received numerous death threats from fans who did not want to see a black man better a white man’s achievement. In fear for his life, Aaron hired a bodyguard. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uncovered several plots to kill or harm Aaron before he could break the home run record.

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Aaron tied the record on opening day of the following baseball season. On April 8, 1974, he hit home run 715, setting a new record as the hometown crowd screamed themselves hoarse in excitement. Aaron retired two years later with a record 755 home runs and 2,297 runs batted in (RBI). The RBI record still stood as of 2009. The home run record was pronounced by many sports journalists to be unbreakable as well, but Barry Bonds (1964– ) broke it on August 7, 2007.

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FUNK AND SOUL GIVE WAY TO DISCO In the early 1970s, the most popular styles of African American music were soul and funk. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, emerged as the new center of soul at the beginning of the decade. The so-called “Philadelphia Sound” was different from the gospel-inspired soul music of the previous decade. This new “smooth soul” sound was distinguished by lush musical textures and soft singing. The deep, velvety voice of singer Barry White (1944– 2003) earned him the nickname the “Sultan of Smooth Soul.” Another major difference between 1960s soul and “smooth soul” was in lyrical content. The earlier soul songs were about more than love relationships. They seemed particularly concerned with social issues. For example, The Undisputed Truth’s 1971 hit “Smiling Faces Sometimes” warned of “back stabbers” and “smiling faces” that “show no signs of the evil that lurks within.” Even Marvin Gaye, once the face of Motown’s radiofriendly pop-soul, took a more serious turn. In 1971 he produced his masterpiece of social commentary, What’s Going On, which featured the Top-Ten hits “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “Inner City Blues.” When soul singers did address love relationships, it was often in very sexual terms. Soul crooner Al Green (1946– ) built his career on simmering ballads such as 1972’s “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still in Love with You.” Barry White recorded the classics “Never, Never Gonna Give You Up” (1973) and “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” (1974). Funk Music in the 1970s Funk was also well established as a musical style at the beginning of the 1970s. The first pioneering funk recordings had been made by James African American Eras

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Brown. These recordings included “Cold Sweat” (1967), “Mother Popcorn” (1969), and “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine” (1970). Sly & the Family Stone had provided further musical innovations as well. Funk deemphasized (did not stress) what was called the backbeat. The backbeat is a drummed accent on the off (or back) beats in a musical rhythm. The backbeat had been a feature of most African American music up to that point. By contrast, funk put the emphasis on the “groove,” a driving, bass-heavy rhythm. Brown’s brand of funk was often very repetitive. It sometimes featured guitar players “vamping,” playing a single musical phrase

The music group Funkadelic was known for its flamboyant costumes and outrageous stage props during the heyday of funk in the 1970s. Echoes/Redferns

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for the entirety of a song. Brown’s lyrics were often a simple repeated phrase, sometimes shouted rather than sung.

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Funk stripped down and simplified the other aspects of the music so that it could place all its emphasis on the groove produced by the percussion and bass. Some of Brown’s classic funk songs were recorded during a brief period when Brown was recording with a group that was originally called the Pacesetters. The group was renamed the J.B.s when they became Brown’s back-up band. Bassist Bootsy Collins (1951– ), then just twenty years old, chafed under Brown’s famously strict leadership. Collins left the band after only eleven months. In 1972, Bootsy, along with his brother Catfish—also a J.B.s exile—met musician George Clinton (1941– ). Shortly thereafter they joined Clinton’s band Funkadelic. Clinton started Funkadelic in 1968. It evolved from his earlier soul– doo wop group the Parliaments. Clinton took the guitar sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone as his inspiration. He and his band began to work in more funk influences by the early 1970s. They added big horn sections and layered synthesizers. By the middle of the decade, Clinton had also restarted the Parliaments, with the name shortened simply to Parliament. The two bands, which shared personnel and musical ideas freely, became known simply as P-Funk. Parliament-Funkadelic became enormously popular during the mid- to late-1970s. The group toured the country with an elaborate, hours-long stage show. Members of the band dressed in fantastical costumes covered with such decorations as feathers, sequins, and fake jewels. They also employed outrageous stage props, including a full-size spaceship that would come down and land on stage during the climax of the show. The band scored R&B hits with songs such as “Flash Light” and “Aqua Boogie.” Their 1975 album Mothership Connectin was also a hit, and featured the Top-Ten single “Give Up the Funk.” James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic were not the only acts producing funk music in the 1970s. Acts like Kool and the Gang (“Jungle Boogie,” 1973) and Earth, Wind and Fire (“Shining Star,” 1975) scored big hits on the R&B charts and pop charts. Despite some crossover successes, funk music was a musical style mainly enjoyed by African American audiences. Enter Disco Disco, however, was enjoyed by a vast, worldwide audience. Disco was basically a smoother, extremely danceable form of funk popular in the nightclubs of major U.S. cities. The lyrics were often repetitive and tended to steer clear of political or social content. In a country weary of the social African American Eras

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struggles of the 1960s and early 1970s, light-hearted dance music was an instant success. By the end of the decade, disco had turned into a global phenomenon. By 1978 there were over twenty thousand disco nightclubs across the country. That same year, over two hundred radio stations had converted to an all-disco format. Disco will be forever remembered as the domain of the “diva,” or talented female singer. The greatest divas were all African Americans. Notable among them were Gloria Gaynor (1949– ; “I Will Survive”), Anita Ward (1956– ; “Ring My Bell”), and particularly Donna Summer (1948– ). Summer burst onto the disco scene in 1976 with a seventeen-minute ode to passion and lust, “Love to Love You Baby.” She continued to produce hits into the 1980s. Although the divas may have dominated the charts, there was still plenty of room for important contributions from African American bands such as Chic. Chic scored a string of hits such as “Le Freak” (1978) and “Good Times” (1979). But as disco grew in popularity, its African American origins were quickly overshadowed. More and more musicians jumped onto the disco bandwagon. The Australian group the Bee Gees, once hitmakers in the 1960s, staged a comeback on the strength of their disco compositions, most notably their contributions to the Saturday Night Fever movie soundtrack in 1977. Other white or mostly white acts like KC and the Sunshine Band or the Swedish group ABBA also won massive popular success, if not critical acclaim, in disco. By the end of the decade, even established rock acts like Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones were recording disco songs. As the 1970s drew to a close, a massive backlash against disco rose up from the ranks of the white, middle-class rock audience. Social observers noted the racial overtones of the rejection of disco. The chant of “Disco sucks!” could be heard across the country at the dawn of the 1980s. Almost overnight the word “disco” became record company poison. Meanwhile, George Clinton had dissolved Parliament and Funkadelic due to legal disputes. Although the various P-Funk musicians would continue to work together, the great era of funk was seemingly fading along with disco.

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THE POP MUSIC COLOR BARRIER COMES DOWN At the end of the 1970s, musicians both white and black began to move away from the disco style of music and toward a more electronic, synthesized sound. Synthesizers are electronic musical instruments that can mimic most instruments and make an endless variety of nonmusical sounds. Even older musicians were willing to embrace the new sounds made possible by synthesizers. Herbie Hancock’s hit 1983 single, “Rockit,” 672


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for example, used turntable scratching, voice modulation, and allsynthesized instrumentation. Hancock was at the time in his mid-forties and known primarily as a jazz musician.

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As the 1980s began, some black artists who had found little success with disco or funk achieved crossover hits in what is called the “adult contemporary” market. Adult contemporary is a radio industry term that

Singer and musician Prince performs in 1985. Prince, with Michael Jackson, broke the color barrier in pop music in the early 1980s. Frank Micelotta/Getty Images


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describes light popular music designed to appeal to older audiences. During the 1970s, Stevie Wonder (1950– ), a Motown child star of the 1960s, produced feel-good dance and soul hits such as “Superstition” and “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.” But it was not until the 1980s that Wonder hit number one on the pop charts. His first number-one hit was a duet with former Beatle Paul McCartney, “Ebony and Ivory” (1982), an ode to racial harmony. The song was a pop hit, and it spent five weeks at number one on the adult contemporary chart. Former front man of the funk band the Commodores, Lionel Richie (1949– ), also topped both pop and adult contemporary charts in the 1980s with such songs as “Truly” (1982) and “Hello” (1984). Singer Whitney Houston (1963– ) burst onto the scene in 1985 with her Grammy-winning debut album Whitney Houston. The album featured several songs (such as “Greatest Love of All” and “Saving All My Love for You”) that topped pop and adult contemporary charts. Despite these successes, African American artists in general struggled to achieve major crossover appeal. There were, however, two notable exceptions to this trend. Prince Makes It Big with 1999 The first such exception was a young, Minneapolis-born multiinstrumentalist who went by the name of Prince (1958– ). Prince wrote, produced, arranged, and played the instruments for all the songs on his records. He built a solid reputation at the dawn of the 1980s with a string of sexually charged dance-funk R&B albums. Yet it was 1999 (1982), a double album that sold more than three million copies, that enabled Prince to break through to the mainstream.

Prince worked with a backing band called The Revolution, a racially integrated band consisting of both men and women modeled on Sly & the Family Stone. The success of 1999 ushered in a period of creative and commercial success for Prince. That success reached a high point with the release of the movie Purple Rain (1984) and its accompanying soundtrack. Music videos for songs from the soundtrack, such as “When Doves Cry,” played in the regular rotation on MTV, a new cable station catering to young people. The album spent twenty-four weeks at number one on the charts. The film, starring Prince in the lead role, grossed over $70 million at the domestic box office. It also won an Academy Award for best song. Time magazine ranked Purple Rain as the fifteenth best album of all time in 1993, and in 1989 rock magazine Rolling Stone called it the second-best album of the 1980s. Michael Jackson Becomes “King of Pop” At the same time Prince was topping the charts, another African American artist was enjoying unheard-of levels of celebrity and popularity. 674


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That artist was Michael Jackson. His album Thriller (1982) dominated the popular music of the 1980s like no other. Jackson was so successful that he earned the nickname the “King of Pop.”

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Like Stevie Wonder, Jackson had gotten his start as a musical child prodigy singing for Motown in the 1960s and 1970s. Jackson was only eleven years old when his and his brothers’ musical act, the Jackson Five, signed to Motown and recorded their first album. As a result, Jackson got used to living in the bubble of fame and the public eye from a young age. The Jackson Five created a series of smash hits for Motown in the 1970s. Their first four singles each went to number one, a feat that had never been accomplished before. The Jackson Five was arguably the last of the great Motown “hit machines.” The Jackson Five was part of the “teen idol” craze of the 1970s. The group was significant for its cross-racial appeal. The Jackson Five found as much popularity among young white listeners as among young black listeners. Eventually, the Jacksons grew tired of producing mostly dance-oriented “bubblegum” pop. They left Motown and set out on their own in 1976. They also began writing and producing their own material and branching out into solo projects. It was as a solo artist that Michael Jackson found his greatest success. Jackson had released solo recordings early in his career. However, it was not until the late 1970s that he came into his own as a solo artist. Jackson partnered with veteran producer Quincy Jones (1933– ) to create his first solo album, 1979’s Off the Wall. With hit singles such as “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” and “Rock with You” the album was a big success. It reached number three on the Billboard album charts. But Jackson was disappointed. He determined to produce an even bigger hit with his next effort. Thriller constituted that effort in 1982. To say the album was a smash hit would be an understatement. Thriller spent more than a year and a half on the charts and held the number-one position for thirty-seven weeks. It also generated a record-setting seven singles that reached the Top 10, including the mega-hits “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” “Beat It” enjoyed considerable cross-platform airplay thanks to a blistering guest guitar solo courtesy of rocker Eddie Van Halen (1955– ) of the hard rock band Van Halen. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards. As of 2009, Thriller had sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. Despite producing another hit album, 1987’s Bad, Jackson never again attained the heights of pop stardom he had enjoyed with Thriller. Even so, Jackson had left his mark permanently on popular music. He broke through the music industry’s lingering color barriers and showed that an African American performer could be the most popular entertainer in the world. African American Eras

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MTV’s Color Barrier ...................................................................................

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art of Thriller’s success was thanks to the new medium of music television. The first TV station to broadcast music videos was MTV (Music Television), a cable network that went on the air to a limited market in 1981. The concept of making a promotional video to accompany a song was not unknown at that time. However, few artists had done so until there was a market for videos. MTV provided that market, but only for some artists. People magazine reported that in 1983, out of eight hundred artists played on MTV, only sixteen were black. Rick James (1948–2004) had five videos rejected by the network, despite the fact that the album from which the songs were drawn, Street Songs, had sold four million copies. It was this racially exclusive programming that led to the formation of alternative networks like Black Entertainment Television (BET) to provide a platform for excluded African American artists. At first, Michael Jackson’s videos were also snubbed by MTV. In time, Jackson’s popularity grew too great to be ignored. The network gave in to popular demand and began to air his videos for “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” Jackson proved to be a pioneer in the music video form, producing several videos notable for their high production quality and creativity. The most famous of these was Thriller. The full video was directed by Hollywood director John Landis (1950– ) and ran for fourteen minutes, unusually long for a music video. When it premiered in 1983, MTV had to air it twice an hour to meet public demand. Along with Prince and Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson broke through MTV’s self-imposed color barrier. Their pioneering efforts paved the way for other African American performers and, eventually, the rise of hip hop.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE INFLUENCES FASHION Since 1965, African American culture has had an important, visible, and lasting influence on fashion trends and style. Beginning in the 1960s, African Americans developed a wide variety of unique fashions and styles. In the 1980s, African American fashion began to cross over and merge into mainstream American fashion. By the early twenty-first century, African American fashion had become one of the most important components of popular fashion in the United States. 676


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Hip-hop Fashion Emerges in the 1980s and 1990s The many-faceted hip-hop music culture had its origins in New York City in the late 1970s. One of its most notable characteristics was a distinctive style of dress. That style of dress quickly gained popularity. By the 1980s and 1990s, hip-hop fashion had become an international phenomenon. Hip-hop fashion crossed ethnic, cultural, and national boundaries and helped to create a subculture driven by music.

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In the early 1980s, hip-hop fashion was essentially urban fashion. Sneakers and track suits were prominent features of the style. A strong emphasis was placed on brand names such as Adidas and Nike for shoes or Kangol for hats. Hip-hop band Run-DMC even wrote an entire rap about their favorite brand of shoes, “My Adidas” (1986). What particularly distinguished hip-hop fashion was gold jewelry. Gold chains, multiple gold rings, large earrings for women, and bejeweled belt buckles for men were central to the hip-hop look.

The gold jewelry, sports clothing, and hats worn by rap artists such as the group Run DMC were part of the hip hop style that sparked a fashion craze in the 1980s. ª Bettmann/Corbis


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Nike Ascends to the Top of Hip-Hop Fashion ...................................................................................

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or many years Nike was a distant second-place shoe manufacturer behind Reebok. Nike came to dominate the athletic shoe market through targeted selling to hip-hop consumers. In particular, the Air Jordan line of sneakers, marketed by basketball hero Michael Jordan (1963– ), became hip-hop status symbols. In fact, they were so coveted by young African Americans that there were many incidents in which boys were attacked and robbed for their Air Jordans. For example, two tragic incidents took place in 1989. In the first, a fifteen-year-old ninth-grader in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, was murdered by a seventeen-year-old friend who wanted his two-week-old Air Jordans. The boy had purchased them for $115.50. In the second, a sixteen-year-old boy was shot to death in Houston by a seventeen-year-old after he refused to hand over his Air Jordans. These were not the only reported incidents in which young people were killed for fashionable, name-brand sneakers or sportswear.

As hip-hop music grew more diverse in the late 1980s, so too did hiphop fashion. Trendsetters began sporting backward baseball caps, large baggy pants known as parachute pants, and the hi-top fade haircut. The hitop fade is a haircut in which the hair is cut short at the sides but left long on top. These looks spread out of the inner cities and into the suburbs thanks to the success of “pop rappers” such as Will “the Fresh Prince” Smith (1968– ) and MC Hammer (1962– ). Soon, white youths were also sporting hip-hop fashions. While certain aspects of the hip-hop look had become mainstream, a newer, hardcore look evolved along with the emerging gangsta rap sound in the early 1990s. Based on the clothes worn in the inner cities of southcentral Los Angeles and elsewhere, the new look featured baggy pants, loose flannel shirts, and Starter-brand jackets. As the popularity of hip-hop continued to grow in the 1990s, hip-hop fashion became as successful as the music. One of hip-hop fashion’s most distinctive looks features baggy pants worn low, exposing designer boxer shorts. That look came to dominate the wardrobe for men and women alike. Other elements came and went. In 1992, hip-hop fashion mogul Russell Simmons (1957– ) started his Phat Farm line of clothing. This was the same year a small start-up 678


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company in Queens, New York, called FUBU (“For Us, By Us”) began designing and selling clothes out of its founders’ house. FUBU was an entirely black-run business aimed at young African Americans, although many of its loyal customers were white. Along with Phat Farm and FUBU, other specific clothing brands became especially desirable for hip-hop fans. These included the Tommy Hilfiger brand along with a variety of hip hop–specific lines such as Naughty Gear, Pure Playaz, UB Tuff, and the Wu-Tang Clan’s own Wu-Wear. These clothing lines became very popular and successful. For example, in 1998 FUBU earned $350 million in revenue.

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As hip-hop music became the most-listened-to music in America in the late 1990s, various hip-hop stars began to turn their attention toward fashion. Sean “Diddy” Combs (1969– ), then known as Puff Daddy, was a hugely successful producer and rapper. He founded his Sean John clothing line in 1998. That same year, Russell Simmons’s wife, Kimora Lee Simmons (1975– ), began to expand upon her husband’s Phat Farm line. She founded her own spin-off brand for women and children, Baby Phat. The success of these lines turned hip-hop fashion into a multimilliondollar industry. By 1999, FUBU reported an annual sales volume of $200 million for its menswear and $150 million for its licensing agreements. Other companies, including Ecko Unlimited, Enyce, Mecca, and Pelle Pelle, also flourished. By the end of the 1990s, the hip-hop fashion industry had estimated revenues of $5 billion a year.

Rap artist Jay Z influenced the fashion industry with his Rocawear line in the twenty first century. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images


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At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the popularity and profitability of hip-hop fashion showed no sign of slowing down. Rappers such as 50 Cent (1976– ), with his G-Unit Clothing line, and Jay-Z (1970– ), with his Rocawear line, entered the fashion industry. As of February 2008, Sean Combs’s Sean John was the fastest-growing line of sportswear in the world.

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RAP AND HIP HOP BECOME CULTURAL PHENOMENA While black recording artists were moving into the chart-topping big leagues during the 1980s, a new underground form of African American music and culture was beginning to grow in popularity. It would in time come to dominate youth culture, both in America and abroad. It even made its influence felt in other musical genres. The new music was called rap, and it was part of a larger cultural movement dubbed hip hop. Hip hop encompassed rap music, a distinctive style of dancing called break dancing, urban fashion, and graffiti art. As the music began to go nationwide, so too did the culture. Important centers of hip-hop culture and music developed in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, and Seattle. New York City in the 1970s was a creative center for music and musical experimentation. It was in New York that rap music was born. Disco had taken over dance clubs in the 1970s. Block parties—large outdoor gatherings at public parks or courtyards—became popular in African American communities as an alternative to what many saw as the bland club scene. At a block party, mobile disc jockeys, or deejays, would set up large sound systems and, using two turntables (record players), play backto-back dance grooves for the enjoyment of all in attendance. African American Deejays Develop Rap The deejays would occasionally speak to the audience over their music. In doing so, they were drawing upon an African American tradition known as “toasting” or “rapping.” This was a distinctive manner of speaking that used street slang (often called jive), rhymes, and metaphor. Rapping had appeared in musical recordings during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Barry White had performed soul-raps, and there were funk-raps by George Clinton on his Parliament recordings.

Deejays developed local fan bases across New York’s African American neighborhoods. Through friendly competition, they inspired each other to introduce new technical innovations to their spinning techniques (the way they played the records together). Deejay Kool Herc, the nickname of Jamaican-born Clive Campbell (1955– ), brought in Jamaican dub influences 680


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to his work. He emphasized specific musical fragments called “break beats” and combined the beats into musical collages. He relied heavily on the hard funk of James Brown and Latin drum rhythms. Another deejay, Grandmaster Flash (1958– ), took Kool Herc’s innovations and added flourishes such as backspinning and phasing to create sound effects over the break beats. Grand Wizard Theodore (1962– ) is generally credited with the innovation known as scratching, or moving the record player’s needle across the vinyl record backwards in a rhythmic fashion. Afrika Bambaataa (1960– ) took the concept of break beats to a new level by freely mixing funk, soul, disco, and even commercial jingles. This helped to break down the artificial divisions between musical genres that had arisen during the 1970s. With these rapid developments, deejays found they no longer had time for rapping. Deejay Kool Herc solved the problem by bringing in two friends, Clark Kent and Jay Cee, to act as emcees. “Emcee” is a nickname for people who speak, derived from “MC,” which is short for “master of ceremonies.” The three men formed the group the Herculords in the process. Bambaataa, too, used emcees. The role of the emcees was to interject themselves when they felt it necessary to build up the enthusiasm of the crowd. They did so with rhyming couplets such as “Hip hop, ya don’t stop.” Like the deejays, emcees tried to outdo each other with new variations and twists. It was Grandmaster Flash’s emcees, the Furious Five, who first started to rap in rhythm to the beat. They did so by doing what they called “trading phrases,” taking turns exchanging phrases or rhymes with each other. These deejays and emcees were now producing a fullfledged musical form. They soon began recording their work.

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DJ Grandmaster Flash (standing second from the left) with his emcees, the Furious Five, in 1980. The Furious Five were the first emcees to start rapping in rhythm to the beat. Ebet Roberts/Rederns

Rap Music Spreads to Mainstream Culture Rap music had been developing largely in isolation during the 1970s. As the decade came to a close it began to garner notice from outsiders. Joe and Sylvia Robinson created an independent label, Sugarhill Records, to record rap artists. In 1979 the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” became the first commercial rap recording. The song featured a prominent sample of Chic’s disco hit “Good Times.” Sampling is the digital reproduction of existing musical phrases and fragments. Sampling would African American Eras

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prove the key to moving rap from a party novelty to a nationwide phenomenon. Rap music quickly captured the imagination of New York’s underground. It found fans among new wave/punk acts such as Blondie and England’s The Clash. Both groups produced songs featuring rap segments. Blondie’s 1981 single “Rapture” was the first single featuring rap to reach number one on the charts. Major record labels, meanwhile, began to take notice of rap music. Initially, major labels such as Mercury, Atlantic, Columbia, and MCA signed few rappers directly. Instead, they mostly operated as distributors for the African American–owned independent labels such as Tommy Boy and Def Jam. But rap began to acquire more crossover appeal, particularly after RunDMC released its cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” in 1986. Major labels became more willing to take a chance on hip hop. “It’s not Michael Jackson/And this is not Thriller” rapped Run-DMC on their song “King of Rock” (1985). “King of Rock” was one of the first rap recordings to sample the hard rock sounds of heavy metal guitars. RunDMC was part of a new generation of rappers. Their music was often called “hardcore” rap, both for its sound and its lyrical content. The lyrics moved away from the good-time party sound of earlier rappers and instead focused on issues concerning African Americans living in the inner cities. The lyrics addressed topics such as urban decay, the epidemic of crack cocaine addiction, and drug-fueled gang warfare. By the late 1980s, hardcore rap was starting to dominate the hip-hop scene. The group Public Enemy redefined both hardcore rap and the sound of hip hop in general with their first two albums. Public Enemy released Yo! Bum Rush the Show in 1987 and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in 1989. Public Enemy’s recordings featured a large number of samples overlaid by wailing sirens and quotations from controversial civil rights leader Malcolm X (1925–65). Malcolm X is best remembered by many for his speeches urging African Americans to assert their rights “by any means necessary.” Chuck D, the lead emcee for Public Enemy, saw his position as a chance to educate his listeners. He wrote lyrics of social activism that seemed to recall the days of the black power movement in the late 1960s. Gangsta Rap Emerges Around the same time, a new form of hip-hop music was emerging from the ghettos of south-central Los Angeles and other inner-city neighborhoods. The music was dubbed “gangsta rap.” It steered clear of social activism in favor of a frank and often disturbing look at the violent, dangerous lifestyles of young African American men living in urban areas. Gangsta rap groups often produced recordings noted for their strong language and explicit subject matter. For example, the group NWA, which

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ichael Jackson broke through on MTV and opened the network up to African American artists and their videos in 1983. Just five years later, in August of 1988, MTV responded to the growth of rap-oriented programming on local TV stations across the country by producing a show called Yo! MTV Raps. The show was initially hosted by rap pioneer Fab 5 Freddy (1959– ). It proved so popular that it was shifted into daily rotation with two additional hosts. A year after its debut, the success of Yo! MTV Raps had prompted the music television network to shift towards devoting half its total airtime to rap videos.

would spawn the solo careers of Ice Cube (1969– ), Dr. Dre (1965– ), and Eazy-E (1963–95), was famous for a song called “F**k the Police” (1988). In spite of this shift in focus, or perhaps because of it, rap music became enormously popular among young, white, suburban listeners. Hip hop was the new sound of rebelliousness for both white and black youths. It soon came under fire for its glorification of violence, materialism, sexism, and bigotry. The Miami-based rap act 2 Live Crew became the center of controversy as a result of their party raps filled with overtly sexual language and profanity. The group was targeted by community groups and faced obscenity charges for their performances. The controversy boosted 2 Live Crew’s record sales. Their 1989 album As Nasty as They Wanna Be sold more than two million copies. Other forms of hip-hop music were rapidly developing even as gangsta rap and hardcore rap drew most of the public attention. Acts such as A Tribe Called Quest produced masterpieces of so-called alternative rap with albums such as 1991’s The Low End Theory, a recording awash with bebop jazz samples and complicated rhymes. After a decade of male dominance, female rap artists emerged at the beginning of the 1990s. Female emcees such as Queen Latifah (1970– ) and MC Lyte (1971– ) and acts such as SaltN-Pepa attained popular success. Rap music also went pop. Performers such as MC Hammer and the white rapper Vanilla Ice (1967– ) sold out stadium tours across the world. In the end, the pop-rap of Hammer and Vanilla Ice proved short-lived. In part this was due to the artists’ willingness to, as hip-hop fans saw it, sacrifice their artistic vision for the sake of financial success. The focus African American Eras

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and heart of hip-hop music remained on “keeping it real.” This focus on authenticity and origins helped make hip hop the only African American musical genre to become ever more Afrocentric as it gained in mainstream popularity. At the same time, hip hop did open up to a few white rappers. The Beastie Boys and Eminem (1972– ) enjoyed popularity equal to the biggest African American acts. Rap Goes Global By the 1990s, hip hop had become a worldwide phenomenon. Rap acts were springing up in Europe, Latin America, and Canada. The sound of gangsta rap came to a head in a socalled feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers and their respective labels (Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records). That feud led to the death of two of hip hop’s greatest talents, Tupac Shakur (1971–96) and the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–97) in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Both men were gunned down in the street. Their murders remained unsolved as of 2009. 50 Cent is part of a new generation of rap artists making their mark. AP Images

In the early twenty-first century, hip-hop artists continued to dominate the charts. The rapper 50 Cent scored both a number-one single and album for 2003’s “In Da Club” and Get Rich or Die Tryin’. He became the first artist to achieve this double feat in more than a decade. The album spent eighteen weeks at number one and earned almost universal critical acclaim. Later, artists such as Lil Wayne (1982– ; Tha Carter III) and Kanye West (1977– ; The College Dropout) made significant strides towards advancing hip hop’s critical reputation. Further evidence of cultural acceptance of hip hop includes the fact that, as of 2009, two hip-hop songs had won an Oscar for Best Original Song: Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Three-6 Mafia’s “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.”

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BLACK COACHES MAKE PROGRESS IN SPORTS African American athletes have long found great success in multiple sports. However, once their playing days are over they have often had little opportunity to move up to managerial or coaching positions. Bill Russell (1934– ) became professional sports’ first African American coach when he landed the position of player-coach of the Boston Celtics in 1966. In 1974, 684


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Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy (right) and Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith stand with the Vince Lombardi Trophy during a press conference before Super Bowl XLI on February 2, 2007, in Miami Beach, Florida. This was the first Super Bowl to have two African American head coaches competing. Jim Rogash/NFL

thirty years after Jackie Robinson (1919–72) integrated baseball, Frank Robinson (1935– ; no relation to Jackie Robinson) became baseball’s first black manager. Since that time, there has been slow, uneven progress in getting African Americans into positions of leadership both on and off the field, in both college and professional sports. It is still rare to see African American athletes in team leadership positions such as quarterback and catcher. In college football in particular, the number of African American head coaches has actually declined in the twenty-first century. According to a 2009 report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, the number of African American head coaches of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football teams reached a fifteen-year low in 2008, down from eight in 1997 to four in 2008. The report also showed that whites accounted for more than 90 percent of all athletics-related leadership positions at Division I schools. The issue was brought to the attention of Congress in 2007 by activist Jesse Jackson and NCAA president Myles Brand. Brand called the situation “unacceptable.” Floyd Keith, president of the Black Coaches Association, said that Title VII lawsuits African American Eras

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might be necessary to force change. Title VII is a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that makes racial discrimination by employers illegal. In 2007, as African Americans struggled to break into college athletics leadership positions, not just one but two African American head coaches of National Football League (NFL) teams led their organizations to the Super Bowl: Tony Dungy (1955– ) of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith (1958– ) of the Chicago Bears faced off in Super Bowl XLI. In the entirety of the NFL at that time, Dungy and Smith were two of only six black head coaches. Their appearance came only five years after the NFL mandated that at least one person of ethnically diverse background be considered in any coaching hiring pool (the so-called “Rooney Rule,” named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney who came up with the idea). After Dungy retired in 2009, he devoted himself to helping break down resistance to hiring black administrators and coaches in college football programs. Professional basketball has had more success at giving African Americans opportunities to reach leadership positions. In 2009, there were eleven African American head coaches in the NBA, by far the highest percentage (40 percent) of African American head coaches in any professional sport. In professional baseball, however, the record on progress for African Americans is mixed. The percentage of African American players in Major League Baseball slipped to a low of about 8 percent in 2006 from a high of 27 percent in 1975. It rose for the first time since 1995 in 2007, to just over 10 percent. However, despite the declining percentage of African American players, in 2008 more than 33 percent of leadership positions in the major leagues were held by minorities (including African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians), and in 2009 there were five African American managers.

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 “SAY IT LOUD—I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD”

BY JAMES BROWN (1968) James Brown was a world-famous singer who earned the nickname “The Godfather of Soul.” In 1968, Brown released what would become one of his most famous songs, “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud.” The song was a monumental statement of black pride. Brown’s black power anthem alienated many white fans at the time it was released. However, its lyrical treatment of racial discrimination and calls for black empowerment made it a huge hit with African American audiences.

............................ Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud! Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud! Some people say we’ve got a lot of malice Some say it’s a lot of nerve But I say we won’t quit moving until we get what we deserve We have been bucked and we have been scorned We have been treated bad, talked about as just bones But just as it takes two eyes to make a pair Brother we can’t quit until we get our share

James Brown’s song “Say It Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud” became a statement of black pride. ª David J. & Janice L. Frent Collection/Corbis

Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud! Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud! Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud! I worked on jobs with my feet and my hand But all the work I did was for the other man Now we demand a chance to do things for ourselves We’re tired of beatin’ our head against the wall And workin’ for someone else Say Say Say Say

it it it it

loud: loud: loud: loud:

I’m I’m I’m I’m

black black black black

and and and and


proud proud proud proud

We’re people, we’re just like the birds and the bees We’d rather die on our feet Than be livin’ on our knees African American Eras

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Say Say Say Say

it it it it

loud: loud: loud: loud:


black black black black

and and and and


proud! proud! proud! proud!

 MUHAMMAD ALI’S PRE-FIGHT COMMENTS (1974)

Muhammad Ali speaking with the media before the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” bout with George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire. Tony Triolo/Sports Illustrated/ Getty Images

Heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali was famous for his outspoken confidence in a career that spanned from 1960 to 1981. Ali expressed his confidence in poems that he would compose prior to his fights and deliver to the press, often mocking his opponents and praising his own skills. Below is the poem he wrote before he fought George Foreman for the heavyweight championship of the world in 1974, known as “The Rumble in the Jungle” because it took place in Africa. Ali’s use of street language and clever rhyming anticipated rapping by several years.

............................ Last night I had a dream, When I got to Africa, I had one hell of a rumble. I had to beat Tarzan’s behind first, For claiming to be King of the Jungle. For this fight, I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning And put thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. I have murdered a rock, I’ve injured a stone, and hospitalized a brick. I’m so bad, I make medicine sick. I’m so fast, man, I can run through a hurricane and don’t get wet. When George Foreman meets me, He’ll pay his debt. I can drown the drink of water, and kill a dead tree. Wait till you see Muhammad Ali.

 “LADIES FIRST” BY QUEEN LATIFAH (1989) When rap became popular in the early 1980s, it was a musical form dominated by African American men. The lyrics to rap songs were frequently criticized for being misogynistic, or negative towards women. At the end of the decade, however, female rappers began to emerge. Queen Latifah was a female rapper who 688


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made her mark by writing raps that expressed her pride in being both black and female. The hit 1989 rap song “Ladies First” from Queen Latifah’s first album All Hail the Queen responds directly to the negative images of women in many rap songs by men. With fellow rapper Monie Love, Queen Latifah used the rap to stress her rapping skills and the power of women in general.

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............................ The ladies will kick it, the rhyme that is wicked Those that don’t know how to be pros get evicted A woman can bear you, break you, take you Now it’s time to rhyme, can you relate to A sister dope enough to make you holler and scream Ayo, let me take it from here, Queen Excuse me but I think I’m about due To get into precisely what I am about to do I’m conversating to the folks that have no whatsoever clue So listen very carefully as I break it down for you Merrily merrily merrily merrily hyper happy overjoyed Pleased with all the beats and rhymes my sisters have employed Slick and smooth throwing down the sound totally a yes Let me state the position: Ladies first, yes? (Yes) (Yeah, there’s going to be some changes in here) Believe me when I say being a woman is great, you see I know all the fellas out there will agree with me Not for being one but for being with one Because when it’s time for loving it’s the woman that gets some Strong, stepping, strutting, moving on Rhyming, cutting, and not forgetting We are the ones that give birth To the new generation of prophets because it’s Ladies First I break into a lyrical freestyle Grab the mic, look into the crowd and see smiles Cause they see a woman standing up on her own two Sloppy slouching is something I won’t do Some think that we can’t flow (can’t flow) Stereotypes, they got to go (got to go) I’m a mess around and flip the scene into reverse (With what?) With a little touch of “Ladies First” Who said the ladies couldn’t make it, you must be blind If you don’t believe, well here, listen to this rhyme Ladies first, there’s no time to rehearse I’m divine and my mind expands throughout the universe A female rapper with the message to send Queen Latifah is a perfect specimen . . . Yo, praise me not for simply being what I am Born in L-O-N-D-O-N and sound American African American Eras

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You dig exactly where I’m coming from You want righteous rhyming, Imma give you some To enable you to aid yourself and get paid And the material that has no meaning I wish to slay Pay me every bit of your attention Like mother, like daughter, I would also like to mention I wish for you to bring me to, bring me to the rhythm Of which is now systematically given Desperately stressing I’m the daughter of a sister Who’s the mother of a brother who’s the brother of another Plus one more; all four Have a job to do, we doing it Respect due, to the mother who’s the root of it . . . Contact and in fact, the style, it gets harder Cooling on the scene with my European partner Laying down track after track, waiting for the climax When I get there, that’s when I tax The next man, or the next woman It doesn’t make a difference, keep the competition coming And I’ll recite the chapter in verse The title of this recital is “Ladies First”

 TOMMIE SMITH REFLECTS ON HIS BLACK POWER SALUTE

AT THE 1968 OLYMPICS (2007) Runner Tommie Smith shocked the world when he raised a clenched, black-gloved fist in the air after winning the gold medal in the 200-meter race in the Summer Olympics of 1968. In this excerpt from his 2007 autobiography Silent Gesture, Smith describes why he made this protest against the treatment of African Americans in the United States, and how he felt as he stood on the winner’s platform.

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1. The clothing worn by hip-hop artists sparked an international fashion trend in the 1980s. In recent years, several hip-hop artists have found additional success marketing lines of hip-hop–inspired clothing and accessories. Prepare a written report about hip hop’s influence on American fashion. Your report should investigate how youth fashion has changed in the last twenty years. Look at old youth-oriented magazines from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Compare the fashions you find in them to how young people dress today. How much has changed? Are there any similarities? What would you say is the amount of influence hip-hop fashion has had over everyday fashion today? Can you identify examples of hip-hop influence in your own wardrobe? 2. Much popular African American music in the 1960s and early 1970s focused on social issues important to the black community. Write song lyrics that talk about something you strongly believe in. Your lyrics can be for a conventional song or a rap song. When you listen to a song, what stands out to you the most: the music or the lyrics? Why do either of these elements of the song attract your attention? How influential do you think political songs are? Can you think of some examples of songs that have had an effect on people because of their message? Make a list of five songs that focus on political beliefs that you think have been particularly influential. 3. In 1974, African American baseball star Hank Aaron set a new home run record, breaking the record set in 1935 by Babe Ruth. Using your library and the Internet, research the public reaction to Hank Aaron’s breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record. You may wish to refer to Hank Aaron’s autobiography, I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (1991). Then, prepare a speech explaining why you think some people wanted to see Aaron dead before he broke Babe Ruth’s record. Your speech should also compare and contrast the public reaction to Hank Aaron’s accomplishments to the public reaction to Barry Bonds’s accomplishments. Did Bonds also receive death threats? What was the public’s primary concern with Bonds’s pursuit of the home run record?

4. The explicit language in many rap and hip-hop lyrics has caused controversy for a generation. Occasionally, parent groups, community leaders, and politicians have championed the censoring of popular music. Have a group discussion with other members of your class about the issue of explicit content in music and music censorship. Should some lyrics be judged obscene and banned from sale? Are “obscene” lyrics dangerous, offensive, or otherwise deserving of being 692


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banned? Why or why not? Who should be put in charge of making that judgment?

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5. Working with a group, come up with a logo and marketing plan for your own line of hip-hop clothing and apparel. Start by coming up with a mission statement for your company—what inspired your company and your designs? Be sure to research the history of hip-hop fashion, past and present. Try to integrate past styles into your designs. Are there any particular African American designers whose style you would try to emulate (imitate or be inspired by) in your own clothing line? Why or why not?

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BOOKS

Ashe, Arthur, Jr. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete. Vols. 1 3. New York: Amistad, 1988. Bass, Amy. Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005. Mayes, Elaine. It Happened in Monterey: Modern Rock’s Defining Moment. Culver City, Calif.: Britannia Press, 2002. Miller, Patrick B., and David K. Wiggins. The Unlevel Playing Field: A Documentary History of the African American Experience in Sport. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Sammons, Jeffrey T. Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Silverman, Chuck, and Allan Slutsky. The Funkmasters The Great James Brown Rhythm Sections. Los Angeles: Warner Bros Publications, 1997. Vincent, Rickey. Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996.

WEB SITES The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. http://www.tidesport.org/ (accessed October 8, 2009). “Presidents’ Forum.” The NCAA News. http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/ ncaa/ncaa/ncaa+news/ncaa+news+online/2007/editorial/presidents +forum + +hiring+in+athletics+ +expect+more+scrutiny+if+diversity+data+don t +improve+ +04 23 07+ncaa+news (accessed October 8, 2009).


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Chronology . . . . . . . . . 696 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 699 Headline Makers . . . . . . 702 Juanita Bynum . . . . James H. Cone . . . . Louis Farrakhan . . . . Wilton Gregory . . . . T. D. Jakes . . . . . . Bernice A. King . . . . Vashti Murphy McKenzie Anna Pauline Murray . . Iyanla Vanzant . . . . Jeremiah Wright . . . .

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Topics in the News . . . . . 725 African American Religious Leaders Impact Politics . . . 725 Black Judaism Remains Diverse . . . . . . . . . . 728

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Nation of Islam Offers Different Approach to Equality . . . . . . . The Civil Rights Movement Sparks Black Theology . The Womanist Theology Emerges . . . . . . . Black Women Take Leadership Roles in the Church . . . . . . African Americans Challenge the Catholic Church . . The Issue of Gay Rights Strains Black Churches . Contemporary Times See Changes in the Black Church. . . . . . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1968 April 4 Prominent African American minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. 1969 Theologian James H. Cone publishes Black Theology and Black Power. This book presents the black theology of liberation, which believes that Jesus was concerned with the liberation of the poor and the weak. 1971 The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1967 draft-dodging conviction of boxer Muhammad Ali. Ali had argued that he should not have to participate in the Vietnam War due to his status as a Nation of Islam minister. 1972 Albert Cleage publishes his book Black Christian Nationalism, which establishes the black Christian nationalist movement. This movement encouraged African American churches to reinterpret the teachings of Christ to fit the economic, social, and political needs of African Americans. 1972 January 27 Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson dies. President Richard Nixon remembers Jackson as “an artist without peers” in a White House statement released after her death. 1972 December 7 United Church of Christ Reverend W. Sterling Cary is the first African American elected president of the National Council of Churches. 1974 Pastor Katie Geneva Cannon becomes the first African American female to

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be ordained in the Presbyterian Church. 1974 April 8 The Reverend C. Shelby Rooks is the first African American to be named president of the Chicago Theological Seminary. 1975 February 25 Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, dies in Chicago at the age of seventy-seven. 1977 Anna Pauline Murray becomes the first African American woman to be ordained, or officially appointed, an Episcopal priest. 1977 March 9 A group of armed black muslims take three hostages and kill one radio reporter in Washington, D.C. The gunmen demanded the release of eight convicted black muslim murderers, including two men who had been convicted of murdering Malcolm X in 1965. The situation ended peacefully after thirty-eight hours when the gunmen released the hostages and surrendered. They were eventually tried and convicted on kidnapping and murder charges. 1978 Louis Farrakhan reestablishes the Nation of Islam under the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. 1983 Wilton D. Gregory, at the age of thirty-five, becomes the youngest Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

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......................................................................................... 1988 March 15 Eugene Antonio Marino is the first African American archbishop ever appointed in the American Roman Catholic Church. 1989 George A. Stallings breaks with the Roman Catholic Church because it has failed to develop rituals in line with the African American culture. He founds the Imani Temple African American Catholic Congregation in Washington, D.C., for former Catholics whose beliefs did not line up with those of the Roman Catholic Church. 1989 September 24 The Reverend Barbara C. Harris becomes the first African American female bishop in the Episcopal Church. 1990 George A. Stallings is excommunicated (officially banished by church officials from the Roman Catholic Church) after announcing that the African American Catholic Congregation would be operating independently from the Roman Catholic Church. Stallings said that his group would allow divorce, abortion, birth control, homosexuality, and women in the priesthood, all of which are forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church. 1993 January 30 Gospel singer Thomas A. Dorsey dies at the age of ninety-three. 1993 August 9 Pope John Paul II publicly apologizes for the Roman Catholic Church’s historical support of slavery.

1995 January 12 Qubilah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested for allegedly plotting the assassination of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. She blames Farrakhan for the death of her father because of incendiary statements (statements meant to inflame bad feelings) he made about Malcolm X shortly before Malcolm X was assassinated. 1995 October 16 Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam host the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. This event was staged to show solidarity among African American men and to encourage black men to cultivate responsibility and self-respect. 1996 More than thirty-five African American churches are burned in an outbreak of racial violence in the American South. 1996 Pastor T. D. Jakes establishes the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas. This multiracial, non-denominational church is one of the best-known mega-churches in the United States. 1996 Bernice A. King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., publishes Hard Questions, Heart Answers, a collection of her speeches and sermons. 1998 Juanita Bynum, a minister, author, and motivational speaker known for preaching strong messages of empowerment to women, delivers her sermon “No More Sheets” to a crowd


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of seventeen thousand people in Dallas, Texas. 2000 Vashti Murphy McKenzie becomes the first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 2000 May Two former Ku Klux Klan members are found guilty for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four African American girls in 1963. The case had been closed in 1968 but reopened in 1997. 2002 Bishop Wilton D. Gregory becomes the first African American president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2005 Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam sponsor the Millions More March in Washington, D.C. This march included men, women, and children

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2008 March 18 Barack Obama delivers his “A More Perfect Union” speech. The speech addresses the controversy over the sermons and statements of his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. (Some people viewed Wright’s message to be anti-white and antiAmerican, and they voiced concern about the nature of his influence with then-presidential candidate Obama.) 2008 September 9 Muslim leader Wallace Dean Muhammad, the son of Elijah Muhammad (who founded the Nation of Islam), dies. Wallace Muhammad was known for his role in shifting the Nation of Islam’s focus on anti-white politics to more racially tolerant, traditionally Islamic beliefs.

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OVERVIEW

The first Africans who arrived in North America in the seventeenth century brought with them a rich and diverse set of religious beliefs and traditions. Many slaves converted to Christianity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but their roots in African culture continued to influence their religious experiences. Slaves and free blacks alike were often denied membership and the right to become ministers in white churches. Therefore, in early 1800s, a number African American churches were created. In the years leading up to the American Civil War (1861–65), these African American churches became important forums for the abolitionist, or anti-slavery, movement. During the Civil War, African American pastors often used analogies or allegories (stories where everyday people and things symbolize other things) to talk about the war and emancipation. After the end of the war, African American church membership soared. Many African American ministers became outspoken participants in the federal and state governments of the Reconstruction era (the period immediately after the Civil War). America was racially segregated for decades after the Civil War. African American ministers often used their churches to protest discrimination. From about 1880 to 1930, a trend known as the social gospel movement redefined Christian ethics. Protestant theologians argued that society must make up for its sins by tending to needy members of the community. Thus, members of the movement used the resources of the church to improve schools, fight poverty, improve working conditions, heal the sick, oppose war, and ease ethnic tension. This movement had an enormous influence on the 1960s civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and his contemporaries. Racism and segregation in America also led many black theologians, or religious thinkers, to endorse a “back to Africa” movement in the late 1800s. This movement would later influence Rastafarians, who believe Ethiopia to be the ultimate homeland for African Americans. It also influenced separatists who believed that a strong black society could and should exist unconnected to white culture. By the mid-twentieth century, the African American religious life was increasingly diverse. Churches remained politically interested and influential. This was particularly true as racial tensions and violence increased in the period leading up to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The worship services of established denominations like the Baptists and Methodists were transformed by the introduction of gospel music. This African American Eras

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OVER VIEW

allowed church members to worship in song using beats and rhythms borrowed from popular jazz and blues music. In the mid-twentieth century, gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson increased churchgoing among African American youth. Church choirs sang for increasingly larger audiences both in churches and in other public places. Black nationalism aided the growth of non-Christian religions for African Americans. These religions rejected Christianity, associating it with the practice of slaveholding and racial oppression. Islamic leaders such as Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, as well as black Jews such as Ben Ammi Ben-Israel, advocated a break with white society. Rastafarians echoed these beliefs. The Rastafarian religion increased in popularity with increased migration from the Caribbean in the mid-twentieth century. Rastafarians believed both Jamaican-born black national Marcus Garvey and Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie were supreme beings. They advocated Garvey’s back-to-Africa philosophy. Throughout the volatile era of the civil rights movement, black churches and church leaders played a vital role. They led protests and frequently were objects of attack and racial hatred. In 1963, for example, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed. The bombing killed four young girls and sparked riots across the American South. As the Vietnam War (1954–75) escalated, discrimination in the military gained public attention. Many notable religious leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., preached pacifism, an anti-war philosophy, often based on religious beliefs. Not all African Americans during the civil rights movement embraced King’s philosophy of nonviolence, pacifism, and integration (the opposite of segregation). These beliefs had their roots in the African American Protestant tradition. By contrast, the black theology movement, which became more popular after King’s assassination in 1968, criticized the virtues of integration and nonviolence. In his Black Theology and Black Power, James H. Cone disagreed with the integrationist view. He called for the African American community to rely on itself and its own resources. Other black theologians such as Albert Cleage argued that Jesus was a black messiah. He argued that black liberation was at the core of the Bible’s teachings. In the 1980s, many female theologians expanded on the works of black theologians. They sympathized with the leaders who criticized Christianity. They created a womanist theology that viewed both gender and race oppression as part of the message of the gospel (the term “womanist” is used instead of “feminist” to draw attention to the unique experiences of black women). The 1990s and early 2000s opened new directions in African American religious life. Pastors such as the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson continued the African American tradition of religious leaders

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also being political leaders. Later, female ministers such as Vashti Murphy McKenzie and Anna Pauline Murray were recognized for carrying on this tradition as well. Wilton D. Gregory was the first African American to preside over the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He encouraged honest discussion about accusations of sexual misconduct by Catholic priests. The controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called for African American empowerment through the organization of the 1995 Million Man March and the 2005 Millions More March.

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O VE RV IE W

Perhaps the largest growing denomination, or religious subgroup, in the African American community is the Pentecostal Church, which focuses on the personal experience of the Holy Spirit. Churches such as T. D. Jakes’s Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, exhibit Pentecostal influences. So-called “mega-churches” such as Potter’s House, which has thirty-five thousand members, offer lively worship services and extensive social ministries. They attract members of widely varying ages and social classes. They also use new forms of media and technology to spread their spiritual message. Popular ministers such as Jakes and Juanita Bynum have used network television, radio, interactive Web pages, and large-scale revivals with great success. They have drawn large audiences for their sermons and services. The political and cultural influence of African American religious life remains strong to this day. For example, in 2008, African American United Church of Christ minister Jeremiah Wright made national news for his controversial sermons. He was the long-time pastor and adviser of Barack Obama, who was then running for president of the United States. Wright sparked a nationwide debate regarding the role of the black church and its views on race. Some critics argued that Wright’s sermons were anti-white and anti-American. Under pressure, Obama outlined his own platform on race and religion. He gave his views in his “A More Perfect Union” speech. Obama called for racial unity and rejected many of Wright’s views. Wright’s involvement in the U.S. political scene is but one example of how the black church has remained entangled with politics since the 1800s. Not all interactions between the two are controversial, however. African American religious institutions today are recognized as a whole for their commitment to easing problems black communities face by providing such services as drug recovery and literacy programs.


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JUANITA BYNUM (1959– )

Juanita Bynum is a minister, author, motivational speaker, and gospel singer known for preaching strong messages of empowerment to women. Her ministry speaks out specifically against the emphasis on sexuality in American culture and encourages men and women to not have sex until they are married. Bynum’s writings and sermons draw heavily from her own life experiences, and she calls upon women of all ages, creeds, and colors to acknowledge their experiences in order to move beyond past difficulties. Bynum grew up in a church-going family in Chicago and showed a keen interest in religion at an early age. She began delivering sermons as a teenager. Her family attended St. Luke Church of God in Christ, where her father was an elder and her mother a faithful participant in church activities. Juanita was an outgoing child who participated in many theatrical productions. Her performances gained the attention of television show agents who wished to cast her for upcoming productions. Her mother disapproved of the content of many television shows and declined

Gospel singer Juanita Bynum performs at the 2008 Essence Music Festival. Johnny Nunez/ WireImage

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the agents’ offers, hoping that her daughter would direct her energy toward more church-related activities.

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In her teenage years, Bynum fulfilled the wishes of her mother. She graduated second in her class at Saints Academy of the Church of God in Christ high school in Lexington, Mississippi. After her graduation she moved to Michigan, where she preached at churches and revivals under the guiding influence of Pastor William T. Nichols. Bynum married at the age of twenty-one against the wishes of her family and friends. The marriage was terribly unhappy. Bynum learned that she could not change her husband, and the two suffered emotional and financial hardships. Her husband left her in 1983, and the two formally divorced in 1985. Following her failed marriage, Bynum faced anorexia nervosa (an eating disorder characterized by self-imposed starvation), poverty, emotional disorders, and loss of religious faith. Soon she found herself on welfare and desperate for work. In 1990, Bynum returned to her native Chicago where, with the help of family and friends, she trained as a hairdresser and managed to support herself without public assistance. After saving her earnings, she moved to New York and became a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines. In New York, Bynum joined a church and began to preach again. In 1996, she met the Pentecostal evangelist T. D. Jakes (1957– ), founder of the Potter’s House, who would prove to be a profound influence on Bynum and her development as a minister. Jakes invited Bynum to a singles conference in Dallas, Texas. The singles conference in Dallas proved to be the turning point in Bynum’s career as a minister and evangelist. She found that her personal experiences of love, loss, and healing inspired others struggling to overcome the pain of past failed relationships. Two years after she attended the conference, Bynum’s role changed from attendee to keynote speaker. In 1998, she delivered a message entitled “No More Sheets” to seventeen thousand people, mostly women, and brought the crowd to its feet. The testimony traced Bynum’s transformation from promiscuity (having many sexual partners) to righteous self-respect. Bynum explained that the term “single” does not mean just “unmarried.” It also means that an individual is free of past relationships. A woman must achieve self-respect and selfawareness, Bynum argued, before God will send her a true mate. Following the enormous success of her “No More Sheets” sermon, Bynum became one of the most sought-after inspirational speakers on the revival circuit. She maintained a close relationship with T. D. Jakes and Potter’s House, while ministering to her own congregation in New York State. In addition, Bynum founded Morning Glory Ministries, which African American Eras

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spread her message through books, video recordings, gospel records, and television programs. Bynum met Bishop Thomas Weeks III (1967– ), the well-known founder of the Global Destiny Church in Washington, D.C., during her cross-country travels on the revival circuit. The two married in 2002. The couple became a major force in the world of evangelism, and their books and CDs were marketed across the country. Their high-profile marriage collapsed in August 2007, however, after Weeks severely beat Bynum in a hotel parking lot in Atlanta. Bynum filed for divorce the following month. In March of 2008, Weeks pleaded guilty to assault charges and was sentenced to two hundred hours of non-church-related community service. After the demise of her marriage, Bynum emerged as an outspoken advocate for survivors of domestic abuse.

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JAMES H. CONE (1938– )

Theologian James H. Cone is perhaps best known for his 1969 book Black Theology and Black Power. This work laid the foundation for black liberation theology, which was born from the civil rights movement in the 1960s. As an author and educator, Cone has outspokenly argued that the God of the Bible champions the poor and the oppressed, meaning that He has chosen to side with African Americans in the United States. His philosophy draws heavily on the work of European theologians but also includes the political beliefs of black power activists such as Malcolm X (1925–65). His theology attempts to create a meaningful interpretation of Christ for blacks who live and worship as oppressed people. He has had an incredibly large influence on both mainstream churches and womanist theologians who use his ideas to address issues of gender and class oppression. (The term “womanist” is used instead of “feminist” to call attention to the unique challenges faced by African American women.) James Cone grew up in the segregated community of Bearden, Arkansas. The experiences of his childhood had a profound impact on his theology. His father, Charlie Cone, cut wood for a living to support his family. He valued education highly and hoped that his two sons would use education as a means of rising above the poverty into which they had been born. Charlie Cone felt that his children would receive a poor education at the local all-black school in Bearden. He took a bold step that put him in danger of possibly violent racial retaliation: he filed a lawsuit against the local school board in an attempt to desegregate Bearden’s public schools. Charlie Cone became a hero to his son for his courage and his stand against racial injustice. 704


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James Cone’s mother, Lucille Cone, also influenced her son and guided his interest in religion. She was a highly respected orator in the African Methodist Episcopal church. She taught him from an early age about scripture and the power of the church in supporting the black community. The nurturing aspect of his church home helped him foster a strong Christian and racial identity, which became important to his later theological writings.

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Cone graduated from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1958. He then enrolled in Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois. Cone was accustomed to racial discrimination in the South, but was dismayed and disheartened to find that a similar policy of prejudice existed even in a Christian institution in the Midwest. During his seminary training, he noticed that black students were often ignored and almost always received lower grades than white students. Cone nevertheless received his degree and moved on to Northwestern University for doctoral studies. There he developed a growing interest in the black power movement that was then being promoted by Nation of Islam activist Malcolm X. Cone did not wish to convert to Islam, but he began to think about how the black separatist ideas of Malcolm X and his contemporaries could be integrated with Christian teachings. (The Nation of Islam called for cultural separation between American whites and African Americans, an idea known as “separatism.”) In 1968, Cone wrote an early manifesto (statement of belief) entitled “Christianity and Power” that established the idea of a black Christianity independent from the religion of white churches. The work led seminary professors and other members of the black clergy to establish what has since been called “black theology.” Cone had been inspired to write the manifesto by the 1967 formation of the National Conference of Black Churchmen, which announced itself as the religious counterpart of the black power movement. It was Cone’s 1969 Black Power and Black Theology, however, that thrust him into the spotlight and made his new black theology the source of debate in churches and seminaries throughout the world. In clear, nonacademic prose, Cone outlined his belief that the life of Jesus Christ was similar to the experiences of African Americans, and that Jesus Christ stands as a symbol for oppressed people across the globe. Cone’s theology, which emerged around the time of the assassination of religious and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, also criticized the nonviolent, Baptist-influenced philosophies of the civil rights movement. They encouraged African Americans to acknowledge their status as a special subculture of the country and to incorporate greater African American Eras

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pride and reliance on the black community’s resources. Later, Cone revisited his earlier views of the political philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. After ten years of research, he published Martin and Malcolm and America (1992), which argues that, toward the end of their lives, both these figures were headed toward a middle ground: Martin Luther King had begun to entertain ideas of more militant activism, whereas Malcolm X had drifted toward less hostile separatism. Cone continues to play an active part in the life of the clergy. His writings have had an enormous influence on Latin American liberation theory, a school of thought among Latin American Catholics who believe that the purpose of the church is to liberate the world’s population from poverty and oppression. Cone’s works continue to be discussed and debated in divinity schools around the world. In 1977 he became the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In recent years, he has dedicated much of his effort to encouraging black churches to combat the threats of poverty, drug use, gang violence, and the spread of AIDS.

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in 2007.

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LOUIS FARRAKHAN (1933– )

Controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has been a member of the nationalist black muslim movement for several decades. Since his earliest days as a young minister for Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), Farrakhan has been a prominent figure in black struggles for power. He is well known for his friendship and ultimate break with Nation of Islam black power advocate Malcolm X. In addition, Farrakhan was a key figure in the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s historic 1984 bid for the presidency of the United States. In the 1990s and 2000s, Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam hosted the Million Man March and the Millions More March (demonstrations meant to call attention to the challenges faced by African American men), during which Farrakhan addressed crowds of thousands in Washington, D.C. Farrakhan continued to wield great influence in religious and political arenas in the twenty-first century, 706


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though he was frequently criticized for comments regarded as anti-Semitic (anti-Jew), anti-white, and anti-Asian.

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An Early Career in Music Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott in 1933. He spent the majority of his childhood in the diverse and often violent neighborhood of Roxbury in Boston. Farrakhan earned a place in one of Boston’s top high schools, where he excelled in both academics and sports. He also became an accomplished classical and calypso violinist. He declined admission to Juilliard, a performing arts school, to attend a teacher’s college in North Carolina. He soon left the college because of the racism he encountered there. Frustrated with the racism of formal institutions, Farrakhan focused on his musical career, putting together a show under the name “Calypso Gene” in which he played guitar and violin while putting political lyrics to Caribbean-style music. This nightclub act caught the eye and ear of black nationalist Malcolm X, who believed the young and talented Farrakhan could be recruited to serve the interest of the black power movement.

While on a music tour in 1956, Farrakhan met Elijah Muhammad, then leader of the Nation of Islam, a religion that blended many of the beliefs of traditional Islam and Christianity with strong black separatist politics. (Black separatism called for a separation of the cultures of black and white America.) Farrakhan quickly rose in the ranks of Nation of Islam leadership, becoming a minister and close associate of Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad. Eventually, Farrakhan abandoned his musical career and began preaching full time for the Nation of Islam. He changed his name to Louis X (the X was meant as a rejection of the European surname he was born with, which he regarded as a legacy of American slavery), and then received the name “Farrakhan” from Elijah Muhammad himself. With his gift for public speaking, Farrakhan was a highly successful activist and soon ran the Boston temple of the Nation of Islam. Fellow Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X oversaw Nation of Islam Temple Number Seven in Harlem, a predominantly African American neighborhood in New York City. In 1960, ethical disagreements caused friction between Farrakhan, Malcolm, and Elijah Muhammad. News about Elijah Muhammad’s numerous affairs with various women who served as his secretaries were exposed when six of his former lovers came forward to claim rights for their children. Malcolm X was appalled by the revelation of Elijah Muhammad’s behavior, feeling it was not in line with Nation of Islam’s teachings. Malcolm X approached Louis Farrakhan about the issue, but was dismayed to find that Farrakhan did not share his African American Eras

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opinion. Malcolm X confronted Elijah Muhammad about his promiscuity, but Muhammad “biblically justified” his behavior. Frustrated and disillusioned, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam. He found out later that Farrakhan had sent messages to Muhammad accusing Malcolm X of purposefully slandering Muhammad. Farrakhan publicly denounced Malcolm X in violent verbal attacks. When Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, some believed that Louis Farrakhan was involved in his death. The Nation of Islam after Muhammad The black separatist movement lost one of its most dynamic leaders in Malcolm X, but the Nation of Islam continued to grow in numbers and power. In 1965, Louis Farrakhan took over management of Temple Number Seven in Harlem. He seemed to be next in line to oversee the Nation after the death of the aging Elijah Muhammad.

Muhammad died of congestive heart failure in 1975, leaving behind a fortune worth more than forty-six million dollars, seventy-six temples throughout the United States, and a membership of between sixty and one hundred thousand people. Upon the prophet’s death, his wishes to pass the Nation of Islam legacy to his son, Wallace—and not to Farrakhan—were made known. Wallace Muhammad, who had traveled to the Middle East and studied traditional forms of Islam, announced plans to lead the group toward traditional Sunni ideology. (Sunni Islam is the most widespread, traditional form of Islam.) Farrakhan split with the younger Muhammad because he wanted to continue with the separatist, militant politics on which the Nation of Islam was based. Wallace renamed his organization World Community of Al-Islam in the West, while Farrakhan retained the title Nation of Islam. In the late 1970s, Farrakhan moved to Chicago where, with little money and few resources, he rebuilt the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan received positive press for his inclusion of women and for his attempts to keep African American youths off the street and out of trouble. Farrakhan once again became the focus of public controversy in the early 1980s. At that time, Farrakhan became associated with the Reverend Jesse Jackson (1941– ), who was then campaigning to become the Democratic nominee in the upcoming presidential election. In 1984, Washington Post reporter Milton Coleman reported that he had heard Jackson privately refer to Jews as “hymies,” a racial slur, and New York City as “Hymietown.” Jackson was forced to publicly apologize. The controversy damaged his presidential hopes beyond repair. The controversy became more intense when Farrakhan himself publicly attacked Milton Coleman, and the media interpreted his words as a death threat against Coleman and his wife. This was not the first—nor would it be the last—controversial statement made 708


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by Farrakhan on the subject of Judaism. Farrakhan’s strong words forced Jackson to distance himself from Farrakhan, removing the Nation of Islam leader from mainstream politics.

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In 1995, Farrakhan was the object of an assassination plot organized by Malcolm X’s daughter, Quibilah Shabazz. He made history in the same year on October 16 with the organization of the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. This event was staged to show solidarity among African American men and to encourage black men to cultivate responsibility and self-respect. Ten years later, on October 15, 2005, Farrakhan led the coalition that organized the Millions More March. This march on Washington included men, women, and children and was attended by prominent African American political leaders. After successfully battling prostate cancer in 1999, Farrakhan continued to speak and write on political subjects such as affirmative action. He is frequently seen on television and heard on radio, and he continued to preach to the Nation of Islam in Chicago as of 2010.

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Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in 2003.

WILTON GREGORY (1947– )

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In 2002, Roman Catholic bishop Wilton D. Gregory became the first African American president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the most important post among Catholic leaders in the United States. The election of Gregory to this post has been considered evidence of the Roman Catholic Church’s desire to increase racial and ethnic diversity in an institution traditionally marked by white hierarchy (rank structure). As soon as he became the national leader of the church, Wilton faced a crisis, as reports of hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by priests over the course of many decades came to light. It became apparent that the church had failed to investigate most of these cases adequately. Gregory and his associates had to accept blame for the church’s past refusal to deal with sex crimes amongst priests and to try to restore people’s faith in the church. Gregory was born in 1947 in Chicago and grew up in a poor neighborhood on the south African American Eras

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side of the city. His parents were Christians but not Catholics. They enrolled their children in Catholic grammar schools, however, fearing that the local public schools would not provide a quality education for their son and daughters. Gregory decided to become a priest at age nine and was baptized a Roman Catholic at age eleven. He continued his religious instruction at a seminary high school and afterward at Loyola University, graduating in 1969. Gregory then entered Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary, becoming one of the first African Americans in the country to attend the school for training to become a Catholic priest. Though he faced racial discrimination, Gregory excelled at his studies and was ordained a priest on May 9, 1973. He returned to Chicago to serve the neighborhood in which he had been raised. He also taught at local seminaries, emphasizing the need for ethnic and racial diversity in the Roman Catholic Church. The Church’s Youngest Bishop In 1983, Gregory became the youngest Roman Catholic bishop in the United States at the age of thirty-five. Gregory used his position to address social and political policies related to the church. From 1991 to 1993, for example, Gregory served as chairman of the bishops’ committee on liturgy (formal prayers and services), where he championed the inclusion of a special rite for African Americans, one which would reflect their ancestry and culture. In addition, he wrote and spoke on the topics of euthanasia, the death penalty, and the U.S. involvement in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Through his columns for the publications The Messenger and What I Have Seen and Heard, Gregory spearheaded such controversial campaigns as changing holy days of obligation. (On Sundays and other holy days of obligation designated by the church, Catholics are required to participate in mass services.) He also advocated adopting an English translation of the sacramentary (Catholic book of prayer), and approving a list of passages for children’s masses.

In 1994, the bishop first experienced on a small scale the impact of sex scandals within the church that he would later face on a national level. While serving as bishop for a diocese (the area under the supervision of a bishop) in southern Illinois, Gregory found that eleven priests in the Belleville area had been investigated for sexual misconduct in the space of two years. Public outcry against the church reached high levels, and attendance to masses plummeted. Gregory responded to the scandal by requiring background checks for all candidates for the priesthood. He also sought to open all lines of communication between church officials and the public. Gregory earned praise for his handling of the crisis and for restoring the public’s faith in the church. 710


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His handling of the Belleville crisis was one reason why Gregory was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1998. This post typically leads to the presidency of the group. One of only thirteen black bishops in America, Gregory was elected the first African American president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002. Essentially, this made Gregory the overall leader of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. In a news conference following the announcement, Gregory said that he regarded his election as confirmation of the Catholic Church’s acceptance of African Americans. Many African American Catholics viewed Gregory’s election as long overdue. Although there are an estimated two to three million African Americans of the sixtytwo million Catholics in the United States, there are only a few hundred African American priests.

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As president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Gregory could be even more outspoken about the church’s role in and reaction to national and international political events and issues. With this freedom, he researched and published papers concerning the church’s position on race, abortion, terrorism, immigration, and education. He reacted to the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan by calling for collaboration with the United Nations, care for refugees, and international peacemaking missions. Gregory made it clear that he would not limit his opinions to just African American issues, but would fight against injustice wherever it might be found. Sexual Abuse Scandals Rock the Church Gregory’s leadership skills were quickly put to the test following his election as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Decades of hidden and mishandled abuse cases against pedophile priests began to emerge across the United States in 2002. More than eighty priests were implicated in the Boston area alone, and settlements cost the church hundreds of millions of dollars. Gregory apologized to those wounded by the scandal in a formal address to the nation. In April 2002, Gregory traveled to the Vatican (the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and a sovereign city-state within Rome, Italy) to meet with Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) to discuss the charges of sexual misconduct in the priesthood. The two men agreed that the church should not tolerate sexual abuse on the part of any Catholic priest.

Gregory ended his three-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on November 15, 2004, but continued to be a powerful influence in the Roman Catholic Church in his native Chicago. He continues to speak and publish works on controversial topics affecting the public image of Roman Catholicism. African American Eras

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T. D. JAKES (1957– )

Pastor and televangelist T. D. Jakes founded the multi-racial, nondenominational mega-church known as the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, in the late 1990s. Jakes’s ministry, which is influenced by his Baptist and Pentecostal roots, focuses on spiritual healing and community outreach. Under Jakes’s leadership, the Potter’s House has founded a wide array of social programs, from drug and alcohol treatment programs to a youth ministry. In addition to his successes in the pulpit, Jakes is the bestselling author of dozens of fiction and nonfiction books. His popular Woman, Thou Art Loosed (1996) was adapted as a gospel play and a film, and has inspired Grammy-nominated musical recordings, a television program, and an annual conference dedicated to women’s empowerment. Jakes’s ministry advocates deep spiritual healing with life-changing effects. He has described himself as a “spiritual physician.” T. D. Jakes in 2006. Barry Brecheisen/WireImage

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Thomas Dexter “T. D.” Jakes was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on June 9, 1957. He told his friends and family that he received the “call” to preach at the young age of seventeen, meaning he felt that God specifically gave him that direction for his life. Jakes grew up in a close-knit African American community, and he and his family members were very active in the Baptist church. Jakes’s parents, Odith and Ernest Jakes, were successful business owners during the 1960s and 1970s. Jakes’s mother was a home-economics teacher who taught all her children to cook, sew, and clean for themselves, and she also started a business selling and delivering fresh produce from her garden. Jakes’s father, Ernest, was a janitor who developed his own cleaning service. His company eventually employed forty-two workers who cleaned buildings—including the West Virginia Capitol—throughout the Charleston area. As a child, Jakes was expected to live up to the work ethic of his parents. He frequently worked for them, sorting produce or cleaning buildings, and he also had such jobs as delivering newspapers. Jakes inherited his parents’ business sense, which influenced the great success he had in the marketing and publicity of his megachurch ministry. African American Eras

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Jakes attended Center Business College and West Virginia State College in the early 1970s and afterward took a job at a Union Carbide chemical plant. During this period, Jakes also worked as a part-time music director at the Baptist church he had attended as a child. He dedicated any spare time he had to street evangelism. When the chemical plant closed in 1982, Jakes decided to devote all of his efforts to the growth of his ministry.

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Jakes’s storefront church, Greater Emanuel Temple of Faith, had only ten members in 1980 but grew quickly under his charismatic leadership. Blending his Baptist roots with Pentecostal beliefs (Pentecostalism is a trend within fundamentalist Protestant faiths toward emotional religious services), Jakes brought together a congregation that crossed the racial lines that traditionally divided the community. In 1993, he moved his Temple of Faith ministry to a renovated bank in Cross Lanes, West Virginia. Here his following grew to more than eleven hundred; approximately 40 percent of the membership was white. In 1994, Jakes established T. D. Jakes Ministries, a nonprofit organization dedicated to marketing and promoting Jakes’s message through television, publishing, and radio. In May 1996, Jakes moved his base of operation to Dallas, Texas, where he founded the Potter’s House, which became one of the best-known mega-churches in the United States. This multiracial, non-denominational church grew from seven thousand worshipers to fourteen thousand in two years. In February 1997, local civic leaders in Dallas presented Jakes with a “Key to the City” in recognition of his contribution to the community. In just one year, T. D. Jakes Ministries had set up various outreach programs for needy people, including the Raven’s Refuge, a homeless ministry; Operation Rahab, an outreach to prostitutes; a G.E.D. tutoring and literacy program; Vessels of Clay and Ladies Choice, mentoring and job-training programs; S.A.L.T., a youth ministry program; and Transformation Ministry, a ministry to drug and alcohol abusers. Aside from his ministry and outreach programs, T. D. Jakes has been known as a bestselling author since the 1990s. As of 2009 he had published twenty-seven nonfiction books and one novel. Together, his books have sold well over one million copies since 1993. His most popular book, Woman, Thou Art Loosed, sold more than eight hundred thousand copies by 1996, making it the third-best-selling religious book in publishing history. Jakes successfully used new technology and media to catapult his ministry to widespread public attention. In addition to the publication of his books, Jakes started a record company for his gospel music, used the Internet to publicize events connected to the Potter’s House, and adapted Woman, Thou Art Loosed to both stage and screen. He also created the Prison Satellite Network, which allows prison inmates to witness live African American Eras

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conferences and receive Bible study and church service from people outside of the prison system. Due to its commercial (money-making) nature, the ministry of T. D. Jakes has not been universally accepted or praised. Many detractors, such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (1954– ), believe that Jakes’s concerns for financial success cause him to ignore the important social and racial issues traditionally addressed by the church. Jakes countered these critics by stating that he sees nothing wrong with being successful.

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BERNICE A. KING (1963– )

Bernice A. King is the youngest daughter of civil rights activists Coretta Scott King (1927–2006) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) and continues her parents’ legacy through her work as a minister, civil rights activist, and public speaker. Bernice King will long be remembered as the mournful five-year-old child pictured with her mother at Martin Luther King’s funeral, a scene captured in a Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph by Moneta Sleet Jr. (1926–96). As an adult, King has used her high profile to advocate for women’s rights, assistance for children in the prison and reform school systems, and other causes. Currently, she writes and speaks on a wide variety of social issues, including racism, gun control, teen pregnancy, and the death penalty.

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., speaks at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. Joe Raedle/ Getty Images

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Bernice King was still a young child at the time of her famous father’s assassination in 1968. She contributed to his legacy by frequently assisting her mother with the platforms and programs promoted by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. As a child, she showed an interest in the law, and she was heavily involved in Baptist church activities. During her teenage years, King suffered from extreme depression and feelings of unworthiness, to the point that she contemplated suicide at the age of sixteen. Like her sister and brothers, she struggled to live up to her parents’ civil rights commitment and the public’s expectations of the King family. She was also confronted with overwhelming feelings of anger at God and the church over the assassination of her father.

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King freely discusses her difficult teenage years, which she refers to as a “dark night of the soul,” stating that her feelings of depression and unworthiness inspired her to launch herself into an in-depth study of her father’s life and work. King also found comfort in prayer and faith. After seriously questioning her life’s purpose, she decided to enter the ministry. King has indicated that the dark period of her adolescence encouraged her to dedicate at least part of her career with the church toward the care and counseling of children. King attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and afterward received a dual degree in law and divinity from Emory University. Throughout her education, King made public speeches on social and civil rights topics such as racism in the American South and apartheid (a legal system of racial separation) in South Africa. She served as a law clerk in the Fulton County Juvenile Court system. Influenced by the womanist theology movement of the 1980s (the term “womanist” is used instead of “feminist” to draw attention to the unique experiences of black women), King frequently integrated her personal experiences into her works and speeches. Beginning in 1988, she served as a pastor at Greater Rising Star Baptist Church in Atlanta. King published a collection of her sermons and speeches, Hard Questions, Heart Answers, to wide acclaim in 1996.

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VASHTI MURPHY MCKENZIE (1947– )

In 2000, Vashti Murphy McKenzie became the first female bishop in the 213-year history of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Prior to being appointed as a bishop, McKenzie had served for ten years as the pastor of Payne Memorial AME Church in her native Baltimore. Under her leadership, the congregation of Payne Memorial tripled in size and implemented community outreach programs for job placement, assistance for families on welfare, youth summer camps, and senior care centers. The African American Eras

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success of Payne Memorial’s social activism made the church a model for other urban congregations. McKenzie has been a popular public speaker and has published nonfiction books documenting her experiences as a female pastor. As bishop, she has raised awareness of women’s roles in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She has served in Africa and encouraged the church’s involvement in helping stop the spread of AIDS, fostering the economic development of struggling African nations, and expanding educational opportunities and church membership.

Vashti Murphy McKenzie at her ordination as the first female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2000. Tom Uhlman/Getty Images

Vashti Murphy McKenzie was born in Baltimore in 1947 to a family with a strong history of social activism. Her great-grandfather, John Murphy, had founded one of the city’s first, and most important, African American newspapers, while her grandmother, Vashti Turley Murphy, was one of the founders of the public service sorority Delta Sigma Theta. McKenzie’s family was involved both in the AME church and in community outreach. As a young woman McKenzie attended Baltimore’s Morgan State University, but she dropped out to marry Stan McKenzie, a professional basketball player. The couple briefly moved to Phoenix after Stan McKenzie was traded to a team there but soon returned to Baltimore, where Vashti McKenzie finished her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland. The couple started a family, and McKenzie found work as a fashion model and journalist. Eventually, she accepted a job at a Christian radio station. Although busy with the demands of work and family life, McKenzie felt that she had a calling that had not been fulfilled. In her late thirties and the mother of three children, McKenzie enrolled in Howard University’s School of Divinity in 1978. She received her Master of Divinity degree at Howard, and later a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. She took a post preaching to small congregations in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, area. McKenzie quickly found herself facing sexual discrimination. The AME Church was historically active in fighting racism, but it did not play much of a role in advancing women’s rights even though the majority of the members in the church were women. McKenzie dedicated herself to correcting this situation and quickly gained support.

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In 1990, McKenzie became the first female pastor of Baltimore’s historic Payne Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was the first woman pastor ever to preach at Payne Memorial. She faced some firm opposition to the idea of a woman in the pulpit, but her energy and enthusiasm soon made her incredibly popular amongst the congregation. Under McKenzie’s leadership, the church grew from 330 to nearly 1,700 members. The church established fifteen new ministries as McKenzie and her church members worked vigorously to erase a longstanding division between church and community. Payne Memorial worked in collaboration with its nonprofit community service agency, Payne Memorial Outreach, Inc., to build many programs, including a summer youth camp, an afterschool program, and a food aid program for the poor. In 1997, the church received a 1.8-million-dollar contract to administer its job-service program, which provides training and job placement for more than one thousand welfare recipients. Payne Memorial has also established an aid center for seniors.

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McKenzie traveled in the late 1980s and early 1990s, sharing her inspirational message with other congregations. She was a keynote speaker at many conferences. She published her book, Not Without a Struggle: Leadership Development for African American Women in Ministry, in 1996. On July 11, 2000, at the age of fifty-three, Vashti Murphy McKenzie made history by becoming the first African American woman to become a bishop of the AME Church. (The United Methodist Church had elected its first female bishop in 1984, and the Episcopal Church had followed suit in 1989.) The AME denomination was the first of three large African American denominations (including AME Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal) to appoint a woman as bishop. McKenzie greeted her elevation in the AME church hierarchy (rank structure) as a personal victory, but she also saw her promotion as the opening of a window of opportunity for other women who aspire to leadership roles in any denomination. AME church policy dictates that if there are no vacancies in districts in the United States, newly elected bishops are assigned to districts in Africa. McKenzie, as a result, was assigned to serve in the eighteenth AME district on the African continent, which is composed of AME churches in Lesotho, Botswana, Mozambique, and Swaziland. She has become an outspoken human rights activist and has dedicated much of her time to bringing attention to the problems of poverty, violence, and the AIDS pandemic (extremely widespread outbreak of a disease) that affect African society. African American Eras

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ANNA PAULINE MURRAY (1910–1985)

Anna Pauline (“Pauli”) Murray spent her life at the forefront of civil rights activism and feminism as a pioneering lawyer, teacher, writer, and priest. She was heavily involved in the labor movement, efforts toward equal opportunity employment, and the work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Organization of Women (NOW). After a long career as a civil rights attorney, Murray entered the General Theological Seminary at the age of sixty-two as its oldest, and only female African American, student. She became the first African American woman in the history of the United States to be ordained as an Episcopal priest on January 8, 1977. Murray used her position as priest to open a frank discussion of sexism in the church in the hopes of elevating the status of women in the Episcopal Church. Murray questioned the male-controlled nature of the Episcopal Church, advocated for the female priests who followed her, and is remembered as one of the most forceful womanist theologians of the twentieth century. (The term “womanist” is used instead of “feminist” to draw attention to the unique experiences of African American women.) Anna Pauline Murray was born in 1910 in Baltimore, the fourth of six children of William Murray, a Baltimore public school teacher and principal, and Agnes Murray, a nurse. When Murray’s mother died unexpectedly of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1914, Murray was sent to live with her aunt and namesake, Pauline Murray, in Durham, North Carolina. Anna Murray disliked the intense racism in her new home state and looked forward to reuniting with her father and her brothers and sisters, who had been sent to live with another relative. Disaster soon struck, however, when her father, who suffered from the lingering effects of a previous bout with typhoid fever, was committed to a state hospital. Her father was allegedly killed by a hospital attendant in 1923, and Pauline stayed on with her aunt in Durham, where she attended high school. In the segregated South, Murray learned to live with complex racial codes while also being encouraged by her aunt and grandparents to take pride in her racial heritage. Religion was a central aspect of life in her upbringing. She attended the Episcopal church and read the Bible with her grandmother. College Activism Murray was mature for her age and enjoyed reading. After graduating from high school with high marks, she refused to attend the segregated schools in the South and opted instead to attend Hunter College in New York City. Murray was active in leftist (liberal or radical) politics as a 718


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college student. The Communist Party attempted to recruit her, but she disapproved of their emphasis on self-determination for African Americans (which she believed to be a disguised form of segregation) and turned her attention toward the labor movement. She participated in the Works Progress Administration’s Workers Education Program, teaching industrial workers at various educational and reading levels. This experience with the labor movement broadened Murray’s views on economic oppression.

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In 1938, Murray decided to further her activist efforts by attempting to break down the segregation of higher education in the South. She applied for admission to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill for graduate studies in sociology. Murray understood that no university in the South accepted blacks, but she was also aware that her application would be a major challenge to the policy. She had graduated with high marks from an outstanding college in the Northeast, so it would be difficult for the University of North Carolina to reject her on academic grounds. Her action became national news. The university did reject her application, prompting Murray to ask the NAACP to take her case. After much deliberation, they rejected it, because they felt they had more chances of losing rather than winning the case. Murray was discouraged by the outcome of her attempts to change the educational policy in the South. Even so, the experience did not stop her from fighting for racial equality throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 1940s, she attended Howard University School of Law, and she participated in many lunch-counter sit-ins in Washington, D.C. (Sit-ins were a form of protest used during the civil rights era. African Americans would go into segregated businesses, such as restaurants, and sit in them peaceably, even after being refused service on account of their race.) During this period, Murray began to focus her human-rights efforts on the quest for sexual as well as racial justice. She contended that all barriers created to stop human beings from obtaining equal opportunity kept them from reaching their full potential. Murray pursued her work with the women’s movement while working on a doctorate at Yale University Law School. In 1961, she was selected to serve on President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women. In June 1966, Murray, Betty Friedan (a noted feminist leader), and other feminist activists created the National Organization of Women. Becomes First Black Female Episcopal Priest The accomplished Murray had settled into a tenured job as a professor at Brandeis University by the 1970s. She soon found herself in growing opposition to an institution with which she had been aligned her entire life: the Episcopal Church. Murray became aware that women were African American Eras

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excluded from the performance of the Eucharist (a religious rite), and she wrote a letter to church officials opposing this policy of discrimination. Incensed by what she saw as the sexism of the church, Murray decided to leave her professorship and become an Episcopal priest. She entered the General Theological Seminary in September 1973. She was the only black woman and the oldest student enrolled. On January 8, 1977, Murray was ordained an Episcopal priest at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. She was the first black woman ordained a priest in the two-hundred-year history of the Protestant Episcopal Church. On February 13, 1977, Murray celebrated her first Holy Eucharist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church, where her grandmother, a slave, had been baptized on December 20, 1854.

Spiritual leader Iyanla Vanzant in 2006. Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Murray used her position in the pulpit to preach a feminist theology based on racial and sexual equality and the end of patriarchy in the clergy. She also established “ecumenical sisterhoods,” which served as support networks for women in the church. On July 1, 1985, Pauli Murray died of cancer at her home in Pittsburgh. Funeral rites were held on July 5 in Washington, D.C., at the National Cathedral, where she had been ordained.

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IYANLA VANZANT (1953– )

Iyanla Vanzant overcame enormous hardships during her childhood and young adulthood in New York City to become one of America’s most prominent female African American spiritual leaders. As a lawyer, talk-show host, bestselling author, and Yoruba priestess, Vanzant has encouraged African American women—particularly those struggling in urban settings—to liberate themselves from hardship through education and self-reliance. Emerge magazine has praised her dynamic speaking abilities. In 1992, Tom Bradley (1917–98), then mayor of Los Angeles, deemed her an inspiration to women, especially young urban African American women. Struggles as a Single Parent Vanzant was born Rhonda Harris in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. She was the illegitimate child of Horace Harris, a dry-cleaning presser, 720


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and Sarah Harris Jefferson, a railroad-car cleaner. Her upbringing was marked by confusion and hardship. Her mother died from leukemia and breast cancer when Vanzant was two years old, and afterward Vanzant and her brother Ray went to live with her paternal grandmother. Vanzant’s grandmother resented being burdened with the children, and she abused them both emotionally and physically. After several severe beatings, Vanzant was sent to live with her father and stepmother. This home was also unstable. Vanzant’s father was frequently in jail, and her stepmother was unable to provide for the family. At the age of nine, Vanzant was sent to live with other relatives, but after the family discovered that Vanzant had been raped by one of her uncles, she was returned to her stepmother’s house. Problems at home continued, and soon Vanzant took to spending most of her time on the street, where she experimented with drugs and sex. At the age of thirteen, Vanzant became pregnant. The baby was given up for adoption but died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome soon afterward, sending Vanzant into a dark depression. Three years later, she became pregnant again. She did not want to marry, so she pursued the difficult route of being a single parent. The next year, she married a soldier in the U.S. Army, but the marriage lasted only seven months. In the meantime, Vanzant had become pregnant for a third time.

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Vanzant decided to get her life sorted out by going to drug-abuse counseling. She met counselor Charles Vanzant at her therapy sessions; they married in 1977. Unfortunately, she again found herself in an abusive relationship. Even after she became pregnant with her husband’s child, Charles Vanzant continued to beat his wife to the point where she needed medical attention. Scared and desperate, Vanzant finally left her husband in 1980 and fled to a friend’s house. She was twenty-three years old, had three children, and no job. Friends and family advised Vanzant to find work, but she decided to pursue an education instead. She enrolled in Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. She struggled to balance family life with her studies but graduated valedictorian of her college class. Vanzant had difficulty finding work even with a college degree, and she was forced to put her family on welfare to survive. She worked at several jobs while attending City University of New York Law School. She received a law degree in 1988. She found work as a public defender in Philadelphia, and she moved her family there. While working and attending school in New York, Vanzant had also pursued an interest in Yoruba culture, an ancient Nigerian culture with a belief system that includes a single divine creator and hundreds of lesser gods. Rhonda Vanzant changed her name to “Iyanla” (which means “Great African American Eras

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Mother” in Yoruba culture) Vanzant. Vanzant’s interest in the culture grew, and eventually she was ordained a Yoruba priestess after becoming familiar with the customs, rites, and ceremonies of Yoruba tradition. These beliefs would heavily influence her later works on spirituality and empowerment. “Tapping the Power Within” In 1990, Vanzant left the public defender’s office in Philadelphia and took a job counseling women on welfare. To prepare for her weekly meetings with welfare clients, she compiled a pamphlet of spiritual, legal, and practical advice entitled Tapping the Power Within. The pamphlet proved to be so helpful and inspiring to women on welfare that Vanzant was encouraged by friends and her superiors to expand the thirty-two-page pamphlet to a seventy-page book. The work caught the attention of Writers and Readers, a small, black-owned publishing house based in New York. The first fifteen thousand copies of the book sold out in two months, and more copies were printed. Published during a time when almost no self-help books were directed specifically toward African American women, Tapping the Power Within became a bestseller and catapulted Vanzant to fame. She followed Tapping the Power Within with her 1993 book Acts of Faith, tripling her readership. She became a sought-after keynote speaker and a favorite guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She established Inner Visions Worldwide, Inc., a ministry that organizes workshops and community outreach, particularly for victims of domestic abuse. Although busy with public appearances, Vanzant continued to publish books that top the self-help bestseller lists. Her 1998 book In the Meantime, for example, has over one million copies in print, and it spent four weeks as number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

In 1998, Vanzant founded Inner Visions Institute of Spiritual Development in Silver Spring, Maryland, a multi-cultural organization that offers a two-year certification program in spiritual counseling and life coaching. She has been named one of the country’s most influential African Americans by Ebony magazine (2004) and one of America’s 100 Most Influential Women by Women’s Day magazine (2003). Vanzant appeared as a life coach on the NBC daytime television show, Starting Over (2004–06), sharing her message about personal growth and empowerment. She also served as CEO of what has grown into Inner Visions Worldwide, Inc. Spiritual Life Maintenance Center.

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JEREMIAH WRIGHT (1941– )

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright became one of the most widely known black preachers in the country as the leader of the largest United Church of Christ congregation in the United States. He began his work in 1972 as 722


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Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Barack Obama, speaking to the National Press Club in 2008. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

the pastor of a small congregation in inner-city Chicago. During his years in the pulpit, membership in his church grew to ten thousand. He is known as a dynamic, compelling minister who does not shy away from addressing social issues. Throughout his life, Wright has had deep connections with both religion and social activism. Born in Philadelphia in 1941, Wright was the son of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Sr., who was one of the first African Americans to receive a degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Jeremiah Wright Sr. served as the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia for sixty-two years, where he worked to instill the black community with deep religious faith and a positive image of African American culture. Wright attended public school in Philadelphia during the 1950s. He enrolled in Virginia Union University in Richmond in 1959 but left in 1961 to join the military. He served in the Second Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1961 to 1963, and from 1964 to 1967 he served as a cardiopulmonary technician at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. During 1965 and 1966, he received three Presidential Commendations from President Lyndon B. Johnson in recognition of his medical assistance when Johnson underwent gallbladder surgery. After being discharged from the military, he entered Howard University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1968 and a master’s degree in 1969. He then entered University of Chicago Divinity School, where he received a degree in 1975. While pursuing these studies, Wright preached at a African American Eras

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variety of churches until he was hired in 1972 as the pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The charismatic Wright adopted the motto “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian” for his church. The church increased its membership dramatically under his leadership. He established multiple outreach ministries that provide adult education, literacy, computer skills, child care, and education for unemployed people and low-income families. For Wright, religion and political activism went hand in hand. He vocally opposed the U.S. involvement in Iraq beginning in 2003 and has used the pulpit to tackle such previously taboo issues as AIDS. He is a sought-after lecturer and the author of numerous books. Although he has long been a highly visible power in the black religious community, Wright gained an even higher profile through his association with Illinois politician Barack Obama, who was a member of Wright’s Chicago congregation. Wright served not only as Obama’s minister but also frequently as a political advisor. In March 2008, he became embroiled in national controversy when ABC News aired excerpts from his past sermons entitled “Confusing God and Government” and “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” Many viewers deemed Wright’s message to be anti-white and anti-American, and they voiced concern about the nature of his influence with then-presidential candidate Obama. Wright refused to apologize for his statements and argued that he was the victim of character assassination at the hands of the media. In a well-received speech, Obama tried to place Wright’s comments within the context of the broader history of race relations in the United States. However, the minister continued to spark controversy, and Obama eventually distanced himself from Wright by resigning his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ and removing Wright from his campaign’s African American Religious Leadership Committee.

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AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS IMPACT POLITICS From the 1960s to the present day, African American churches, religious movements, and theologians have had a profound impact on African Americans’ quest for civil rights and social justice. The civil rights movement in the 1960s was led by the Baptist pastor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., working with many other Protestant church leaders. These religious leaders used their influential positions as the heads of black churches to bring worldwide attention to black America’s protest against institutional racism (any form of racism that exists within organizations such as government, universities, and corporations). The line between religion and politics had become blurred. With the civil rights movement in full swing, there was ongoing disagreement about the role of African American religious institutions in politics. Some people were of the opinion that the church had no place in government affairs. Others believed that the leadership and resources of the church could be one of the most effective tools in the fight for civil rights. This second group reasoned that social or political progress for the African American community could not be attained without involvement from black churches. Some members of black churches believed that their leaders were prophets chosen by God to speak the truth about political and social issues in order to affect changes. African American churches of the 1960s set a precedent for the involvement of religion in political and social matters in the years to come. In addition to being at the forefront of nonviolent protest for civil rights, black churches were involved in other national issues. For example, many African American religious leaders spoke out in opposition to the Vietnam War during the 1970s. In addition, the black church has helped teach African Americans citizenship skills essential in a democratic society. Active church members learn about organizing groups, chairing committees and meetings, and voting on proposals. These skills are important in the world of politics. Political candidates and parties recognize the difference African Americans can make in their success, and they turn to black churches to find voters and campaign workers.

The Jackson and Sharpton Candidacies Reverend Jesse Jackson (1941– ), one of the nation’s foremost religious, political, and civil rights leaders, made history with his 1984 bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He ran again in 1988. Both times, Reverend Jackson called on the help of African American Christian volunteers and relied on donations from black religious organizations to run his campaign. He used the resources of African American churches, African American Eras

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such as member contact lists, to gain the support of African American voters. He was able to gain the trust of the African American community with his rhetorical style, which reflected his training as a Southern preacher. Reverend Jackson was an early advocate for public policy concerning national healthcare, peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, and ending apartheid in South Africa. He has traveled the world, speaking in churches and political forums. In 1997, President Bill Clinton (1946– ) appointed Reverend Jackson Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa, showing how powerful a religious leader can be in the political realm. African American religious leaders and institutions have continued to play a vital, vibrant role in the realm of national politics from the late 1990s to the present time. The Baptist minister Al Sharpton (1954– ) has been elevated to celebrity status due to his highly visible participation in the politics of New York City. He frequently leads protests and makes public statements about civil rights, homosexuality, and racially-charged incidents involving African Americans as well as African immigrants. On several occasions he has accused the Republican Party of manipulating the black church, which he says is the oldest, most influential institution in America. Reverend Sharpton ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate (as a representative from New York) in 1988, 1992, and 1994. He ran for mayor of New York City in 1997 and announced that he was running for president of the United States as a member of the Democratic Party in 2004. A number of commentators viewed his presidential election campaign as a protest

Hillary Clinton speaks at a National Action Network meeting in 2000. The Reverend Al Sharpton, who stands behind her, started the civil rights organization, which addresses such political issues as voter registration and police misconduct. ª James Leynse/Corbis

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The Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, led by its pastor Jeremiah Wright, was once the home church of Barack Obama. Obama left the church after Wright’s sermons caused a national controversy. Saul Loeb/AFP/ Getty Images

campaign, meaning that he did not intend to win, but wanted to draw attention to the issues he felt were plaguing the nation. He did not win any of these offices. Nevertheless, Sharpton continues to be a vocal presence in both the religious and political arenas. The Jeremiah Wright Controversy One of the most significant contemporary events that demonstrates the entanglement of religion and politics was the Jeremiah Wright (1941– ) controversy that clouded the presidential campaign of Barack Obama (1961– ) in 2008. Obama, a member of Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, had received the church’s backing in his bid for the presidency. Trinity United is a prominent Chicago church with a large, mostly African American congregation. When Reverend Wright became minister at the church in 1972, the church had fewer than ninety members. Under Wright’s leadership, that number swelled to 8,500 by 2008. The church established more than seventy ministries addressing such community needs as quality day care, literacy, and job assistance. In March 2008, however, ABC News aired controversial clips from two of Wright’s past sermons that many viewers found to be anti-white and antiAmerican. In one sermon, Wright was responding to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States saying that “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” Critics said Wright was blaming America for the terrorist attacks; however, Wright was actually quoting Edward Peck, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq. In a clip from another sermon, Wright repeatedly used the phrase “God damn America,” which many viewed as plainly anti-American. Again, however, in the context of African American Eras

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his sermon, Wright’s words had a more complex meaning. He was arguing that the American government had sinned in a biblical sense by killing (in various wars) and mistreating many of its citizens (specifically, African Americans), and for this the country risked God’s condemnation. Few people watched Wright’s sermons in their entirety, however, and the short clips were aired repeatedly on all major news networks. Wright’s comments sparked a media blitz centered on Obama’s association with Wright. Obama tried to settle the issue in March 2008 by delivering a wellreceived speech on the role of race in America. He and other political and religious leaders attempted to explain Wright’s words in the context of black Christianity in general. Eventually, Obama removed Wright from his post on the campaign’s African American Religious Leadership Committee and quit the Trinity United Church. Wright defended his statements and refused to apologize. The incident created yet another lively debate over the role of religion within black communities and politics.

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BLACK JUDAISM REMAINS DIVERSE Black Judaism emerged during the 1800s when many African American preachers began to compare the plight of black people in the United States to that of the Jews of the Old Testament based on a common understanding of suffering between the two groups. African American slaves identified with the stories of the Jews in Israel, who were also kept in bondage and had faith that God would lead them out of slavery. The majority of the followers of Black Judaism in the United States believe that blacks in the western hemisphere are descendents of the original tribe of Hebrews. Often, services in African American Jewish temples incorporate traditional African dress, music, and rites. Black Jews generally preach that African Americans are of the same race as Hebrew ancestors Abraham and David, and, as the “real” Jews, they should embrace their racial and cultural identity. Many African American Jews believe that they are God’s chosen people and, as such, are the rightful heirs of the Holy Land of Israel. To some, Judaism is the “proper” religion for African Americans, whereas Christianity is the religion of whites. Prominent Sects of Black Judaism There are many sects of Black Judaism in the United States, meaning that there are many groups with differing belief systems within Black Judaism. These congregations have made Judaism their own, even when doing so has caused a break in tradition from the customary practices of the religion. These sects include the Commandment Keepers, the Law Keepers, and the House of Judah. More well-known Black Judaism organizations in 728


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he religion known as Rastafarianism, which came to prominence among African Americans in the late 1960s and 1970s, traces its roots to Jamaica. In the early 1930s, Jamaican Leonard Howell, generally considered the “father” of all Rastas, began preaching a religion based on the political philosophies of Jamaican-born black nationalist Marcus Garvey. Garvey advocated Pan-Africanism, a philosophy based on the belief that African people and people descended from Africans share common bonds and must come together as one. Garvey supported the Back-toAfrica movement, which focused on uniting the African diaspora (those people of African descent living outside of Africa) and building strong, allblack communities. Garvey believed that men and women of African descent should not integrate themselves into white-dominated cultures. Instead, they should separate from white societies by returning to Africa to build independent, all-black communities.

A Rastafarian man. ª Tom Nebbia/Corbis

Rastafarianism flourished in the United States, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s, as the civil rights movement reestablished interest in Garvey’s philosophies. The spread of Rastafarianism was also influenced by an increase in Caribbean immigration and the enormous popularity of Jamaican Rasta and reggae musician Bob Marley (1945–81). Marley’s wife, Rita Marley, converted to the Rastafarian faith when she met Haile Selassie (1892–1975), the emperor of Ethiopia who was believed to be the Rasta messiah, during a visit to Jamaica. Bob Marley also developed an interest in Rastafarianism, as well as music dedicated to the promotion of peace, harmony, and the ease of racial tensions. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Marley and his band the Wailers promoted black unity and Rastafarian beliefs through their music. Marley became a hero to poor and oppressed people throughout the world.

Specific dogma differs among the Rastas of today, but generally they worship one God (“Jah”) and believe that their homeland “Zion” (Africa) has been corrupted and oppressed by the forces of “Babylon” (the West). They preach peace, love, and reconciliation between races, but champion the future day when blacks worldwide will be liberated from oppression. They do not vote, are often vegetarian, and are noted for wearing their hair in dreadlocks, believing that the hair, as part of the body’s essential spirit, cannot be cut or combed.


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the United States include the Nation of Yahweh, which believes that the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and God himself are all black. They praise the group’s founder, Yahweh Ben Yahweh (formerly Hulon Mitchell), as the son of God. They refer to whites as “white devils” and consider them to be nonbelievers. Some people call the Nation of Yahweh a black supremacist group. After its founding in Miami in 1979, the group was at the center of controversy for violence in controlling its followers and its hatred of white society. Another sect of Black Judaism is the Church of God and Saints of Christ, which has over two hundred temples. Established in 1896, the Church of God and Saints of Christ is the oldest African American congregation in the United States that adheres to the beliefs of Judaism. The church’s founder, William Saunders Crowdy (1847–1908), combined elements of Judaism with those of Christianity. For example, the Church of God and Saints of Christ believes that Jesus was a prophet. They acknowledge that Jesus lived an exemplary life, and they choose to embrace his teachings. Crowdy sought to align his church with the will of God and teach the truth about God’s relationship to African Americans. He also developed rituals unique to the church, including Re-establishment Day, a celebration to honor Crowdy and recount the history of the church. The church boasts that the Ten Commandments form the foundation of its ethical beliefs even in modernday society. The Church of God and Saints is headquartered in Suffolk, Virginia, and has tabernacles throughout the United States and Africa. In the twenty-first century, Black Judaism in America had between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand followers of both radical and mainstream orthodox sects. In 1995 in Chicago, the Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr. (1952– ), leader of Chicago’s Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, joined with filmmaker and journalist Robin Washington (1956– ) and human rights scholar Michelle Stein-Evers to organize the first meeting of the Alliance of Black Jews. They hoped this group would unite the widely differing sects of Black Judaism in the United States. Prominent African American leaders of various Black Jewish temples attended the meeting of the Alliance of Black Jews, but the group suffered difficulties due to the varying beliefs held by the different religious groups involved. As of 2009, the alliance was no longer active, and most sects of Black Judaism function according to their own individual creeds and beliefs. Hebrew Israelite Community Established in Israel The Hebrew Israelites (also known as the Black Hebrew Israelite Nation, the African American Israelites, the Original African American Israelite Nation of Jerusalem, and the World African Hebrew Israelite Community) has been the largest and most influential black Jewish institution since its

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establishment in 1966 in Chicago. The group originally flourished in the poorer black areas of Chicago, where residents were experiencing a cultural renaissance during the civil rights era. The Hebrew Israelites based their preaching on black pride and African repatriation (returning to one’s homeland). The group soon had hundreds of converts and began buying land in Africa for the church’s relocation. Like followers of the Rastafarian religion, they referred to the countries of the West, particularly the United States, as “Babylon,” regarding it as a land of social and economic captivity. Ben Ammi (“Ammi” means “son of my people”) Ben-Israel (born Ben Carter) founded the Hebrew Israelites. The former Chicago bus driver claimed that he was visited by an angel in 1966. The angel informed him that he had been chosen to lead his followers back to the promised land of Africa. Ben-Israel immediately began to preach in support of the idea of repatriation. Soon, he had convinced 350 members of his temple to quit their jobs, sell their possessions, and join him for the journey to Africa. In July 1967, this group of Hebrew Israelites from Chicago arrived in Monrovia, Liberia. They believed that the United States would soon be punished for its mistreatment of the African American race. They felt they had been called to establish an all-black community in Liberia to prepare for the wave of black immigrants who would return to Africa from Western nations. Members of the group—most of them having been raised in urban Chicago— found that the harsh living conditions in Liberia dampened their enthusiasm for establishing the colony. The heavy rains of the Liberian summer slowed farming and housing efforts, and the community soon found itself threatened by tropical diseases. In addition, many of the male members of the group decided to follow the example of the Old Testament figures of the Bible by marrying more than one wife, which sparked outrage and revolt among the female Hebrew Israelites. Eventually, nearly half of the original members moved back to the United States, and the remaining Hebrew Israelites were forced to find housing and employment in the city of Monrovia.

Students learn Hebrew at a Black Hebrew school in Israel, 1993. ª Ricki Rosen/ Corbis SABA

Ben-Israel still believed in the group’s vision, despite the lack of money and resources. He wanted to move the group to the Holy Land of Israel. In African American Eras

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1969, Ben-Israel led the remaining members of his colony to Tel Aviv in Israel. Immigration officials questioned whether the Hebrew Israelites were truly Jews, but they allowed the group to enter the country. Ben-Israel and his followers established themselves in the southern Negev Desert town of Dimona, where they found jobs, set up schools, and built temples. Many of the Hebrew Israelites let their temporary visas with the Israeli government expire, and they sought to renounce their U.S. citizenship so that they could remain in Israel. After their arrival, the Hebrew Israelites had a frequently troubled relationship with Israeli state officials. The Israeli government often attempted to send them back to the United States. The government of Israel refused to regard the African American newcomers as “real” Jews, even though they practiced traditional Jewish rituals and celebrated Jewish holidays. Hebrew Israelites also allow polygamy (black Hebrew males are allowed to take up to seven wives), a practice forbidden by Israeli law. In 1979, the government of Israel labeled the Hebrew Israelite congregation a cult (a group in which the leadership tends to manipulate, exploit, and control the members) because of the group’s endorsement of polygamy and the strict control of Ben-Israel over his followers. Their status as non-Jews meant that the Hebrew Israelites were also denied rights covered under Israel’s Law of Return, a post–World War II law declaring that any member of the Jewish diaspora could return to Israel and receive full citizenship. Israeli officials attempted to expel Hebrew Israelites from the country and refused entry to new members of the group. Unable to come to any compromise with Israeli state officials, BenIsrael asked U.S. government officials to negotiate with Israeli political leaders. Eventually, American Hebrew Israelites received longer terms for visas and limited rights of citizenship. Throughout the 1980s, relations improved between the Hebrew Israelites and their Israeli neighbors, and the Hebrew Israelites began to fully integrate themselves into the Dimona community. In 1994, the Israeli government offered the Hebrew Israelites permanent-resident status, allowing them such benefits as state educational opportunities, pensions, health care, work permits, disability payments, and childcare subsidies. As of 2009, the number of Ben-Israel’s followers in Israel was greater than fifteen hundred. Hebrew Israelites continue to endorse the practice of polygamy, and they encourage mothers to stay at home with their children. They wear African-style clothing, including turbans, and shun all popular culture, arguing that strict religious principles are the best safeguard against the corrupting influence of American media. The communities of Hebrew Israelites that exist in major U.S. cities such as Chicago follow the same principles as Hebrew Israelites in Israel.

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NATION OF ISLAM OFFERS DIFFERENT APPROACH TO EQUALITY The Nation of Islam, founded in the 1930s by Wallace Fard Muhammad (c. 1877–1934), became a powerful and controversial presence in the African American community during the civil rights era. Early in its history, the Nation of Islam preached a message of empowerment to blacks suffering from the social hardships of segregation and the economic hardships of the Great Depression. Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam after the mysterious disappearance of Wallace Fard in 1934, believed that blacks were the superior race on earth and that all whites were bent on the destruction of the black race. Drawing from traditional Islamic scripture and beliefs, Muhammad advocated the personal ethics of self-reliance, self-respect, hard work, and pride in community. These were the very values that would give momentum to the civil rights movement. The Nation of Islam provided African Americans with an alternative to the Christian-influenced, nonviolent activism of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the fight for civil rights in the 1960s. King’s movement focused on gaining rights for African Americans in a peaceful way so that blacks and whites could work and live together in American society. The Nation of


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Service at a Nation of Islam mosque in Chicago. ª Daniel Lainé/Corbis

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Islam disagreed with this approach. Its members sided with segregationists who believed that African Americans should live in a society separate from whites. The Nation of Islam, which did not rule out violence in dealing with racism, inspired many black nationalist radicals (a group of militant blacks who advocate separatism from whites and the formation of self-governing black communities). These radicals, who included Malcolm X, leader of the Nation of Islam in New York, were impatient with the seemingly slow progress of the civil rights movement. Leaders of the Nation of Islam argued that legal equality would not necessarily ensure social and economic equality, and they encouraged alternative means for black empowerment. The militant stance of the Nation of Islam resulted in constant FBI surveillance of the leaders of the group, who were frequently arrested and imprisoned. Members of the Nation of Islam began fighting among themselves, both over the focus of the Nation of Islam and power within the organization. Malcolm X split from the group after becoming disillusioned by what he saw as the moral failings of Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm was assassinated in 1965 by Nation of Islam members. His murder sparked controversy and speculation as to whether Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan (1933– ), who had been trained as a church leader by Malcolm X, had ordered him killed. Nation of Islam Divides Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, and passed on leadership of the Nation of Islam to his son Wallace Muhammad (1933–2008), who became Imam Warith Deen Muhammad in 1980. The younger Muhammad sought to bring the group toward more orthodox Islamic beliefs, renaming it the World Community of Al-Islam in the West, allowing whites to become members, and abandoning militant teachings. The name was changed again in 1982, this time to the American Muslim Mission. Warith said that American Islam does not have to be merely an extension of the Middle East because different immigrant Islam communities do not agree on all issues. For African American Muslims, this means that they can practice their religion within their own black community as well as belong to the greater Islamic world.

Louis Farrakhan found the changes incorporated by the World Community of Islam in the West unacceptable. He split from Warith Muhammad in 1978 and reestablished the Nation of Islam based on the original separatist teachings of Elijah Muhammad. While remaining as true as possible to the traditional teachings of the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan has adapted its system of beliefs to fit the social situation of African Americans in the twenty-first century. The group has worked to improve its public image and present itself as a religious community that can 734


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contribute to the betterment of life in America. In 1995, Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam hosted the Million Man March, during which several hundred thousand African American men marched in Washington, D.C., as a sign of black unity and empowerment. In 2005, Farrakhan and a broad coalition of African American leaders celebrated the tenth anniversary of the march with the Millions More March in Washington.

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The U.S. Muslim Population in the 21st Century Estimates of the size of the Muslim population in the United States vary widely—from two million to seven million. According to a 2008 Pew Research report on religion in the United States, African Americans make up 20 percent of the Muslim population in America. Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam claim between fifty thousand and seventy thousand followers, although these demographics are often in dispute. Most of the African Americans practicing Islam in the United States today are converts, although the growing number of Muslim immigrants from such countries as Nigeria and Ghana is also increasing the number of black American Muslims. Also, conversion to traditional Islam is a flourishing phenomenon among African American prison inmates, with an estimated ten percent of prison inmates converting to traditional Sunni Islam. Most of these converts are African American.

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THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT SPARKS BLACK THEOLOGY Christianity played a significant role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the civil rights leaders, including the most visible leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68), were Christian ministers, and African American churches played a significant role in gathering and organizing people in the cause of the movement. As the civil rights movement gained momentum, many African Americans used religion more directly as a way to fight for changes in American society. Black Episcopalian clergy members such as Quinland Gordon sought to bring the message of the Christian faith into the struggle for civil rights. This school of thought grew into the black theology movement. Black theology held the belief that being committed to Christianity meant being committed to ending racism. Any aggression in the fight for civil rights was justifiable and in keeping with the teachings of Christ. Gordon joined other members of the clergy in bringing the basic principles of black theology to the Episcopal Church. They presented “A Declaration by Priests Who Are Negros” to both the church and the media in 1967. It demanded that African Americans be treated fairly in the church and called for power to be transferred from those who head the church to those who had been oppressed by the institution. African American Eras

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hroughout the civil rights era in the 1960s (and even in the 1950s), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) authorized the close surveillance of African American political and religious leaders. The immensely influential FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972) authorized the agency to closely monitor and document the movements of such leaders as Martin Luther King Jr., Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X. Hoover maintained that these black religious and political leaders not only posed a threat to national security and civilian peace, but also had ties to the Communist Party. Martin Luther King was monitored around the clock, but bugs planted by the FBI never detected any evidence that King was a Communist. (A bug is a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone that can be hidden to listen in on conversations.) Nevertheless, Hoover received permission to wiretap the phones and plant bugs in the offices, home, and hotels where King stayed and worked. The transcripts of the tapings were to be strictly confidential, for use in the interest of national security, and not released to the public. In 1966, however, President Lyndon B. Johnson was pressured to pass the Freedom of Information Act by groups who believed that the FBI’s surveillance measures constituted harassment and violated King’s right to privacy as an American citizen. This act allowed people access to FBI memos, files, transcripts, and recordings. This legislation was further enhanced by the Privacy Act of 1974. During the 1970s, the FBI released more than 70,000 pages from its King files. This was but a fraction of the documentation kept on King. The

Cone Publishes Black Theology and Black Power Drawing from the political views of Malcolm X (1925–65) and other advocates of black power in the civil rights era, theologian James H. Cone (1938– ) published his groundbreaking work Black Theology and Black Power in 1969. The book links the biblical stories of Christian liberation and a study of the life of Jesus Christ to the condition of African Americans in a racist society. Cone linked the position of blacks in America to the condition of the poor and oppressed around the globe. Cone’s work was instrumental in giving the black theology movement an audience throughout the country. 736


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.................................................................................... information contained in the records outlines Hoover’s attempts to put an end to King’s civil rights efforts. The government recognized King as the “most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country” after his “I Have a Dream” speech. Hoover’s notes reveal his personal hatred of King. He wrote scathing comments on stories kept in the surveillance files about King’s recognition by the Catholic Church: “this is disgusting” and “I am amazed that the Pope gave an audience to such a degenerate” (immoral person). The FBI circulated documentation that revealed King’s extramarital affairs to journalists and church leaders in order to “prove” he was immoral. The files contained copies of letters that were sent to King anonymously from government representatives, letters that called him a fraud and compared him to a satanic beast. In 1976, a congressional investigation called the FBI’s campaign against King one of the most abusive operations the agency had ever conducted. Most of the information about King’s private life was sealed by a federal judge until 2027, when his family members will be less likely to be directly affected by the details of his personal life. The files that were released were often incomplete. Censors from the FBI had blacked out words and sentences and deleted entire pages of material that were considered too secret. Even so, the archive of files from the FBI have proven to be an invaluable, intimate resource for studying the day-by-day progression of political events during the 1960s and 1970s.

Cone and his contemporaries viewed Jesus as a social revolutionary. Black theologians described Jesus as a man who fought for the rights of the poor and the outcast and was oppressed and tormented by an all-powerful and discriminatory government (the Roman Empire). Black theologians viewed Jesus’s sufferings at the hands of the Romans as parallel to the suffering of African Americans under the rule of whites. Cone acknowledged that many of the teachings of the New Testament focus on nonviolence and peace, which were emphasized by Martin Luther King Jr. However, he believed that modern African American religion should support an aggressive agenda of liberation and radical political action in order to counteract the racism in American society. African American Eras

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According to Cone and other black theologians, African Americans needed to create a theology that addressed their needs as a distinct culture within Christian culture. Doing so would help blacks avoid being an overlooked minority in traditionally white churches.

Black theologians consider the suffering of Jesus to be symbolic of the suffering of black people. ª HIP/Art Resource, NY

The black theology movement shaped itself as a critique of the Christian theology associated with the civil rights movement. This became increasingly true in the turbulent years following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Cone wrote in his essay “Black Theology as Liberation Theology” (1970) that white domination of African Americans was more complex than Martin Luther King Jr. had led his followers to believe. Achieving equality, said Cone, would require more than peaceful marches and appeals to Christian ideals. Cone and other leaders of the black theology movement expressed impatience with the slow progress of the peaceful course toward racial justice, and they called for African Americans to be forceful in cultivating black pride, self-reliance, and an interest in their own communities. Black Theology’s Offshoots Cone faced a great deal of criticism for his opposition to the nonviolent Christian principles of Martin Luther King’s civil rights protests, particularly after King’s assassination. Still, Cone remained a steadfast supporter of the central principles of the black theology movement through the middle of the 1970s. By the late 1970s, he cultivated a more universal, inclusive view of humanity. In 1991, Cone published one of his most controversial books, Martin and Malcolm and America. This work argued that toward the end of their lives, both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were compromising their beliefs by beginning to seek a middle ground that would bring forth the greatest amount of reform. Martin Luther King was leaning toward a policy of protest that might endorse Malcolm X’s call for blacks to free themselves from oppression “by any means necessary,” while Malcolm X was drifting toward less militant political beliefs. In the book, Cone himself embraced a middle path for solving social problems.

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his 1972 book Black Christian Nationalism: New Directions for the Black Church, Albert Cleage (1911–2000) argued that Jesus was a black messiah, God is black, and that the Bible focuses solely on black liberation. In 1970, Cleage established the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church in Detroit, and later opened new churches in Atlanta and Houston. Cleage maintained a commitment to black separatism throughout his life.

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The philosophy of black theology also inspired many ministers and priests in different denominations to lobby for increased awareness of African American needs, issues, and concerns within their churches. In addition, the black theology movement had vitally influenced the development of feminist and womanist philosophies in the 1970s and 1980s. (The term “womanist” is used instead of “feminist” to draw attention to the unique experiences of African American women.) Most notably, Delores Williams, Katie Cannon, and Jacquelyn Grant studied the ideas of black theology. Though they endorsed many of the ideals of the black theology movement, they also argued that most leaders in the black theology movement wrongly assumed the experiences of African American women to be the same as those of African American men. Williams in particular criticized Cone’s books and comments as sexist.

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THE WOMANIST THEOLOGY EMERGES During the 1960s, the civil rights movement primarily focused on achieving racial equality in American society. African American women felt that the issue of equal rights for women did not have as high a priority within the movement, particularly because the majority of the movement’s leaders were men. The decades after the civil rights era were years when women of all races began to demand equal rights in what was known as the feminist movement. Black feminists, however, also felt wary of the overall aims of the feminist movement, which was largely dominated by middle-class white women who did not share the same concerns of African American females. In the context of the church, female religious leaders often felt themselves discriminated against both in terms of race and sex. Black female ministers and theologians, such as Katie Cannon, Delores Williams, and Jacquelyn Grant, developed a movement that came to be known as womanist theology. Inspired by the ideas of black theologists such as James H. Cone and Albert Cleage, these female thinkers characterized Jesus as a “divine co-sufferer” who symbolized the oppression felt by contemporary African American women. Feminism is a belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. The historic women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s was a show of solidarity by women who wanted to be treated as men’s equals. A feminist, black or white, sought self-empowerment and challenged sexist African American Eras

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stereotypes. The writer Alice Walker (1944– ) coined the term “womanist” to draw attention to the fact that the concerns of African American women are different from those of white women and therefore should be referred to by a term other than “feminist.” In her 1983 essay collection In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, Walker acknowledges black women’s kinship with white women. However, womanist theology is different from feminism because it takes into account the experiences and suffering particular to African American women.

Author Alice Walker coined the term “womanist” as a separate category from “feminist” to represent the unique issues of African American women. Jemal Countess/WireImage

The womanist theological movement benefited from committed and active leadership. African Methodist Episcopal minister and theologian Jacquelyn Grant (1948– ), for example, published numerous texts on womanist concerns and spearheaded the movement to include womanist courses in seminaries. Katie Cannon (1950– ), the first black woman to be ordained a Presbyterian minister, has consistently spoken out against race and gender discrimination, particularly in her home state of North Carolina. Delores Williams, the author of many books and articles on theological issues, has been vocal in her view that the contemporary church needs to do a better job of including women of color, gays, and all minority communities. Williams, a civil rights activist in the 1960s, became the leading voice of womanism in the 1980s as she struggled against discrimination in her own Presbyterian denomination. In her academic work, Williams argued that the invisibility of women in the church can be linked to the fact that women were not allowed important leadership positions in the civil rights era. As a writer and speaker, Williams often uses scriptural texts, but she warns that literal readings of the Bible are often misleading, especially for women. She illustrates many of her points by using examples taken from her own life or by citing the examples of female activists and role models such as abolitionists Harriet Tubman (1822– 1913) or Sojourner Truth (1797–1883).

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BLACK WOMEN TAKE LEADERSHIP ROLES IN THE CHURCH Since 1970, female African American religious leaders have played important roles in expanding the social activism and community outreach programs of the churches they serve. Some traditionally African American churches, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, have 740


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Central Texts of Womanist Theology ...................................................................................

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he following are books of the womanist theological movement that have inspired conversation and debate about issues of race and sex in modern African American churches: • In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983) by Alice Walker. Walker’s first book of nonfiction, published in 1983, defines the term “womanism” and discusses the day-to-day experience of being black in America. • Sister in the Wilderness (1993) by Delores Williams. Using simple, readable prose, Williams argues that addressing womanist concerns is crucial to the survival of the African American church and family life in the African American community. • Perspectives on Womanist Theology (1995) by Jacquelyn Grant. Grant discusses the oppression of race, sex, and class in this text of womanist theory.

ordained female ministers since the late nineteenth century. Other traditionally white denominations, such as the Baptist Church, have been slow to allow black women to serve as pastors. African American females have perhaps seen the most resistance among conservative Pentecostal churches. The Church of God in Christ, for example—the largest black Pentecostal denomination—has kept a firm policy against the full ordination of women. Pauli Murray and the Philadelphia Ordination Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several ecumenical (furthering the unity of the Christian church) “sisterhoods” were formed to encourage discussion about sexism in the clergy. One of the most outspoken champions in the fight against sexism was Anna “Pauli” Murray, the first African American woman to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. Murray helped organize one of the movement’s most successful protests, known as the “Philadelphia Ordination,” in July 1974. On this day, more than two thousand people attended the ordination of eleven women (the “Philadelphia Eleven”) by three retired Episcopalian bishops. Although the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church later declared the ordination invalid, activists considered the day a moral victory in the cause for gender equality. After being ordained herself in 1977, Murray used her leadership African American Eras

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roles and the pulpit to challenge male dominance and racism in the church and society. In her sermon “Male and Female He Created Them,” she stated that a male-dominated society, especially the sexist system within the church, is a deep-rooted form of human oppression.

Barbara Harris blesses the crowd after becoming the first female bishop in the Episcopal Church on February 11, 1989. ª Reuters/Corbis

Barbara Harris and the Fight Against Discrimination The issue of African American women fulfilling leadership roles in the church came to further widespread public attention in 1989 when Barbara Harris, a longtime advocate of the rights of women to enter the clergy, became a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Harris had marched with Martin Luther King Jr., taken her ministry to prisons, and, throughout her priesthood, raised awareness about social issues relating to women and the poor. Conservative members of the clergy opposed her liberal viewpoints and raised the issue that Harris had no college degree nor formal seminary training. Despite the protests of her critics, Harris accepted the post as bishop and used her position to broaden the outreach of the church and support women in the clergy. In 1999, speaking to the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Harris urged females in the church to unite in their fight against racism, sexism, and homophobia in the church by insisting that their male counterparts back their words of support with actions.

Despite the success of Harris and Murray, black women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in black churches in general. Although women outnumber men by two to one in most congregations, they generally oversee church social functions instead of filling more influential positions.

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AFRICAN AMERICANS CHALLENGE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH The Roman Catholic Church in America does not have a large number of African American members compared to many Protestant churches. Even so, African Americans have played a role in the changes the institution has undergone since the beginning of the 1960s. The 1960s saw an increase in the number of black Roman Catholics in America, largely due to increased 742


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immigration from predominantly Catholic nations in the Caribbean. Inspired by the civil rights movement and the leadership of John F. Kennedy (1917–63), the first Catholic president of the United States, African Americans actively sought to rid the Catholic Church of discrimination. (Catholic schools, for example, were slow to integrate and often did so under protest.) In 1968, African American religious leaders organized the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, a group dedicated to supporting the spiritual and educational growth of the Catholic Church’s underserved African American members. They wanted the church to acknowledge that the African American experience had relevance to the religion they followed. Some African American priests who were members of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus began to incorporate black Christ and Virgin Mary images in their churches. In 1968, the National Black Sisters’ Conference, a national organization representing black Catholics in America, was founded with the mission of working tirelessly for the liberation of African Americans. The National Association of Black Catholic Administrators was founded in 1976 to provide a forum for African American Catholic administrators to discuss and share their collective resources to address the spiritual needs and concerns facing the black community.

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In 1989, George A. Stallings (1948– ), a longtime priest in some of Washington, D.C.’s poorest African American neighborhoods, made headlines by announcing that he would leave his diocese and establish a separate congregation called the Imani Temple (the African American Catholic Congregation). For many years, Stallings had spoken out against the racial insensitivity of the conservative Catholic Church. He argued that the institution as a whole did not meet the cultural, social, or spiritual needs of its black members. Stallings had attempted to make the Catholic Church friendlier to African Americans in the past. He had incorporated jazz and gospel music into the mass when he was a priest at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Washington, D.C. He had also added readings by celebrated African Americans into the liturgy (a ritual that commemorates the Last Supper). He faced criticism for these changes, and he decided to leave the church. The church excommunicated (officially banished by church officials from the Roman Catholic Church) him in 1990. By 2009, the Imani Temple had grown to include thirteen churches. Part of its popularity rests on a liberal belief system that supports birth control, divorce, and gay rights. It allows women to serve as priests and all priests to marry. As of 2009 it had between three and four thousand members. Since the departure of Stallings, the Roman Catholic Church has attempted to better meet the needs of its African American members. These efforts were led largely by Wilton D. Gregory (1947– ), who was elected as the first African American president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic African American Eras

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George Stallings leads service at Imani Temple, which temporarily met at the Howard University Law School after Stallings broke away from the Catholic Church in 1989. ª Bettmann/Corbis

Bishops in 2002. Gregory played a central role in handling the sexual abuse cases involving priests, which were brought to the public’s attention in the 1990s and early 2000s, and he advocated the cause of racial and ethnic diversity and harmony within the church.

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THE ISSUE OF GAY RIGHTS STRAINS BLACK CHURCHES Black churches have been of central importance in pushing the agenda of the civil rights movement since the 1950s. They have provided support for countless demonstrations, social outreach programs, and publicity campaigns in the cause of justice for African Americans. In the 1970s, as the issue of gay rights emerged, tensions flared within many black churches. Some black church leaders were angry when gay rights activists (both black and white) adopted the strategies and vocabulary of the civil rights movement to advance their own goals. Many believed that homosexuality is a sin, and therefore not compatible with the mission of the church. They became offended that gay rights activists seemed to equate their struggle with the long struggle for equality endured by African Americans. This put many black churches uncomfortably at odds with 744


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a movement that sought equal rights for an oppressed minority. Many prominent black church leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright, have openly supported the gay rights cause, and African American gay rights activists continue to push for fair treatment by religious groups.

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Gay Rights Activist Challenges the Religious Right Activist Mandy Carter (1948– ) is often noted for her charisma and dedication to wiping out social injustices. She was involved in the civil rights movement in San Francisco in the 1960s, protested the war in Vietnam in the 1970s, and launched a large-scale campaign to remove the radical conservative Republican Jesse Helms (1921–2008) from his Senate seat in her native North Carolina in the 1980s and 1990s. Carter’s battle against discrimination also involved fighting the attempts of right-wing Christian groups to promote anti-gay sentiments in the black church. As a leader of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, Carter worked to defy conservative fundamentalist ministers who tell their black congregations that white gay men are taking over the African American civil rights struggle in order to gain power and privilege for themselves. Discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation, she argues, is no more moral that discriminating against people because of their gender or skin color.

Carter’s most persistent and outspoken opponent was the Reverend Lou Sheldon (1934– ) of the Traditional Values Coalition. In response to the efforts of Carter and the Human Rights Campaign Fund to eradicate homophobia from right-wing churches, Sheldon launched a “There Is No Comparison” campaign, circulating anti-gay videos and insisting that the black struggle for civil rights and the gay struggle for equal protection under the law have nothing in common. Carter continued to battle against Sheldon and conservative churches, arguing that religious right discrimination against gays and lesbians will lead to increasing inequality and hatred. Jesse Jackson, a prominent black church leader since the beginning of the civil rights era, has also been a vocal and visible supporter of gay rights since the 1980s. During his second presidential campaign in 1987, Jackson participated in gay rights marches and spoke at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In 2004, he said he opposed any amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban gay marriage. Jeremiah Wright, longtime minister at the prominent Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, also supported gay rights, both within his church and through community outreach. African American Eras

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Proposition 8 Reveals African American Unease Despite the support of such prominent leaders, gay rights remained a deeply divisive issue in the African American church community as recently as 2008. In that year, a California ballot initiative called Proposition 8 came up for a vote. The proposition would make same-sex marriage illegal in California. Gay rights activists declared the measure homophobic. Supporters of the proposition mainly backed their decision on religious grounds, saying that marriage is a holy institution designed by God, and that it can only exist between a man and a woman. The measure passed with large support from African American voters, particularly churchgoing African American voters. Polls showed that African Americans favored the ban on same-sex marriage by a 70 percent to 30 percent margin. African Americans were certainly not the only supporters of the ban. The Mormon Church also made a major push to get the ban passed. Still, the media focused mainly on the African American vote, pointing out that Proposition 8 supporters worked closely with black churches to spread their message.

Analysts were quick to claim that the anti-gay sentiment in the African American community stemmed from its traditionally close relationship with black churches. In a keynote speech at the Human Rights Ecumenical Service at Atlanta’s Tabernacle Baptist Church, renowned civil rights leader Al Sharpton took black churches to task after the passage of Proposition 8. He accused black church leaders of twisted priorities for remaining silent on issues such as homelessness and poverty, but moving into action in opposition to gay rights. Many black church leaders in California actively campaigned against Proposition 8, and some observers claim that the impact of African American support for the measure was exaggerated. The vote did highlight, however, an ongoing struggle within the black church community over the issue of gay rights.

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CONTEMPORARY TIMES SEE CHANGES IN THE BLACK CHURCH Black churches remain a thriving, vital part of modern-day African American life. The 2008 Yearbook of Canadian and American Churches, produced by the National Council of Churches, shows that historically African American churches represent six of the top fifteen largest churches in the United States. The largest denomination among black churches continued to be the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., though its membership numbers had remained approximately the same for the past several years. With around 2.5 million members each, three African American churches tied for the number eleven spot on the yearbook’s list: the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive 746


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National Baptist Convention, Inc., and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

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The small, traditional black churches of years past have become less a presence in the spiritual lives of African Americans in the twenty-first century. African Americans in the 2000s have been increasingly drawn to megachurches. A megachurch is a church, typically nondenominational (not restricted to a particular religious group), that has around 2,000 or more regular attendants for services. Black megachurches are usually located in large African American suburban areas. They are concentrated in southern cities such as Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta, though they are also found in cities such as Chicago, Oakland, and Philadelphia. Megachurches have affected the African American religious community in a number of ways. These churches have attracted thousands of African Americans who were not regular churchgoers back to religion. They also attract a younger generation that has not been exposed to organized religion. Whereas black churches have always emphasized social outreach programs, megachurches, because of their size, have more resources for the economic and social development of disadvantaged African American populations. A general criticism of all megachurches is that the institutions are more focused on entertainment than religion. Critics of African American megachurches argue that the leaders of these churches preach messages of “prosperity gospel,” a belief that links God’s mission for his followers with their individual financial gains. For example, members of the church who regularly tithe (contribute a percentage—typically ten percent—of one’s income to the church) and uphold a belief in God will be rewarded by God with financial gains, including high incomes and nice homes and cars. Traditional black preachers at smaller churches accuse megachurches of a lack of commitment to the ongoing civil rights struggle in America, which has been at the center of black churches for decades. There is no doubt that the African American religious force in the United States—whether based in megachurches, traditional black churches, temples, mosques, and any of the other places of worship—will maintain its position within both the black community and the whole of American society.


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 ............................................................... Primary Sources

 “GO DOWN, MOSES” LYRICS (DATE UNKNOWN) The vital part the black church plays in the lives of African Americans today stretches far back in U.S. history. Slaves were denied education and freedom, but were allowed to practice the Christian religion by their masters in the belief that the Christian message of love, meekness, and forgiveness would keep the slaves passive. Instead, the Christian religion became a powerful community builder and way for the slaves to express their frustration with their condition. Religious songs known as “spirituals,” in particular, often contained “coded” messages about slavery that escaped the masters’ notice because they were seemingly about events and people from the Bible. “Go Down, Moses” is an African American spiritual drawn from Old Testament scripture. For African American slaves, the situation of the Jews in Egypt paralleled their lives: both groups were held in captivity, beaten, and forced into hard labor. In the Old Testament, God commands Moses to demand that the pharaoh in Egypt free the Israelite slaves. Exodus 5:1 reads: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me.” The words “Let my people go” in “Go Down, Moses” were an African American slave’s call for freedom. Spirituals did not fade out with the end of slavery, but continued to be used by African Americans struggling under segregation. Today spirituals are sung in black churches

Gospel music is an important part of the African American religious experience, stretching back to times of slavery. ª Allen T. Jules/Corbis

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as a powerful reminder of the oppression African Americans have overcome. Like many spirituals, no one knows who wrote “Go Down, Moses” or when it was first written.

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............................ Go down, Moses, Way down in Egyptland, Tell old Pharaoh To let my people go. When Israel was in Egyptland, Let my people go, Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let my people go. Go down, Moses, Way down in Egyptland, Tell old Pharaoh, Let my people go. Thus saith the Lord, bold Moses said Let my people go If not I’ll smite your first-born dead. Let my people go. Go down, Moses, Way down in Egyptland, Tell old Pharaoh, Let my people go!

 THE NATION OF ISLAM RESPONDS TO THE SEPTEMBER

11TH TERRORIST ATTACKS (2001) On September 11, 2001, terrorists working for the ultra-Islamist group al-Qaeda launched coordinated suicide attacks on the United States. Several men hijacked commercial passenger jets, and attempted to crash them into specific targets. Two airplanes were crashed into the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone aboard the airplanes and almost three thousand people in the buildings. Another airplane was crashed into the Pentagon building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, just outside of Washington, D.C. Everyone aboard the airplane and 125 people in the building were killed. A fourth airplane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers aboard the plane attempted to regain control of the aircraft. The attacks prompted a backlash against Muslims and Islamic groups, especially those who historically had African American Eras

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been openly critical of the United States. Because Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan had often sharply criticized the U.S. government and the white majority population, the public was interested in how Farrakhan would respond to the violence of September 11. In this September 15, 2001, speech, Farrakhan acknowledges the horror of the attacks and strongly condemns them. He praises the rescue efforts of the New York City police and fire departments, and the heroic actions of the medical community in New York. He also notes, however, that many people around the world are angry at the United States because they believe the U.S. government has stood in the way of justice for their people. While he agrees that the desire for revenge will be strong, he appeals to the U.S. government to forgo military retaliation.

............................ Words are inadequate to express the pain, the sadness, the anguish that has moved my spirit to come before you today to speak from my heart to your hearts, and beyond this room to the hearts of a nation grieved, angry, and in mourning. And beyond this nation to the nations of the world who have been and will be affected by this tragedy that has come to the United States of America. I, like millions of people around this earth, watched in amazement, shock, and horror, the events of September 11, and the unfolding of the ripple effect of this terrible tragedy. I have listened with great care to the leaders of this nation, political and spiritual. I have read the condolences of leaders from around the world who stand with the United States of America in this hour of her greatest national tragedy. I have listened and watched the President of the United States with his eyes filled with tears, feeling the pain of the countless numbers of Americans affected by the tragedy of events on the morning of September 11. I, on behalf of all the members of the Nation of Islam and on behalf of many millions of Muslims here in America and throughout the world, lift our voices to condemn this vicious and atrocious attack on the United States. In this very dark hour in American and world history, the greatest need for us and for the leadership of this nation is Divine Guidance. . . . The loss of nearly 300 firemen and nearly 100 policemen is not easy to replace, but I am confident that New York will rebuild. We commend Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Governor George Pataki and all the city and state agencies that worked so well to minimize the effect of this tragedy, not only in New York City but in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. The doctors, the nurses, the hospital personnel, the rescue teams and workers, and the many people who gave blood and did whatever they could to ease the pain created by this tragedy have shown the true spirit of the human being. Tragic events like this manifest the worst and the best in the human spirit. Our thanks to the news media, who worked through the night and day to bring to us the 750


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horror of this tragedy and to share with America and the world the pain and the hurt of those who lost their loved ones. Tragedy, however, can be turned into triumph. Sometimes, a wise, loving, and merciful God permits tragedy in our lives to encourage us to turn tragedy into triumph. . . .

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I saw on ABC television, Peter Jennings addressing little children and young adults, and they were raising very good questions and giving very interesting answers and statements, but one of the most important questions that I heard from the children and from the lips of the American people was, “Why do these people hate us so?” President Bush answered, saying, they hate us because we’re the beacon light of freedom. They hate us because we’re good. They hate us because we are the land of opportunity. And others say they hate us because they envy us because of the way we live and the wealth that we have. Pastors and preachers and Reverend Franklin Graham said that they hate us because we’re Christians and they want us all to be Muslims. With all due respect to our President and to these esteemed religious leaders, that is not the best answer to that question. I can speak on behalf of Muslims, and I must say that no Muslim hates a Christian because he’s a Christian and believes in Jesus Christ. This is a mosque, and there are thousands of mosques in America and millions of mosques across the globe. There are 1,250,000,000 (one billion two hundred and fifty million) Muslims, and every one of us believe in Jesus. This book Qur’an refers to Jesus in the same language that Christians refer to him as Jesus the son of Mary, the Messiah. To say we hate Christians because you’re Christians is wrong. These are, at best, surface answers to what produced this tragedy. If the perpetrators hated us because we’re Christians, they did not kill just Christians. According to the figures that I heard, 1,400 Muslims work in the World Trade Center and are missing or dead. The perpetrators killed Black and White, Asian and Hispanic, Jews and Christians, Agnostics, Hindus and Buddhists. This is why it was a crime against humanity. The wise of this world know that there is a law of cause and effect. Why are we angry today? Why are we mourning today? Why is America in the spirit that she’s in today? This is the effect, but the cause was on the 11th of September. But what is it that caused 19 so-called human beings to run planes into buildings, killing themselves and others, without a care for who they were killing— men, women, and children. Why do they hate America as they do? This is a valid question that demands from our president and our leaders a better answer. Those who perpetrated this horrendous act have lost their humanity and had become like wild beasts with only one thought in mind, to devour their prey. These persons, so depraved, only wanted to bring death and destruction because of their hatred for the United States of America. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught me that our universe is constructed on what the Qur’an calls the mizan, or a balance. That balance is justice. That is why the symbol of justice is a woman blindfolded with a scale African American Eras

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in one hand and a sword in the other. Justice is what balances the human mind. Whenever any human being is deprived of justice, the mind becomes imbalanced. The greater the injustice, the greater the imbalance. In a democratic society and in a civilized nation, institutions are established for the redress of grievances, and it is the success of granting to those who seek the redress of their grievance and having it done that returns balance to the human mind. The Palestinians believe they have sustained injustice since 1948. Whether you agree or disagree, from their point of view, they have not had justice. They have cried out in every forum for the redress of their grievances and justice has not come. They live in refugee camps, are scattered throughout the world and every day they live with the horror of what they suffer. So more and more minds become imbalanced to the degree that life has no more meaning, for there is no joy in being free if there is no justice. Joy is the result of justice. Out of despair and hopelessness and waking up every day without the joy of justice, this is what causes children to strap themselves with bombs. They care nothing for their lives, and they care nothing for the lives of others. They want others to feel the pain of what they live with everyday. Some Palestinians danced in the streets, not because they have no feeling for American life. They danced because they wanted America to feel what they feel, what they have lived with. They are only a tiny minority. The majority of the world grieved with us. We stand with President Bush, the government and the people of the United States, in their desire to hunt down those responsible for this heinous crime against humanity, but we caution the most powerful nation on this earth, that has the power to inflict pain on any nation beyond imagination, that counsel from the highest spiritual sources must be sought by President Bush and the administration before they undertake this war. . . . Mr. President, I plead with you that this war that you intend could trigger that war that all the scientists of religion and of war have desired to escape, the war that would end all wars, the War of Armageddon. The scriptures teach that, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, this is a sign of the end of this present system of things. A horrible and escalating violence in the Middle East is a potential trigger of Armageddon; and this is why the world must be interested in peace in that area. But, there can be no peace in that area without justice and it seems as though the political people cannot bring it about, so those that are religious scientists must rise to the occasion. The children of Abraham—Muslims, Christians, and Jews—pooling the best of our knowledge of scripture, can help to solve that problem. We must be allowed to do it, lest it cause something that causes most of humanity to perish. . . . Our hearts, in an hour like this, must be humble enough that, through our tears and anger and extraordinary pain, that we reach for the unequalled Guidance of God. America as a beacon light of freedom has called many nationalities, many races, many ethnic groups to these shores. Among these are Arabs and Asians, many of whom are Muslims who have come to this country, not to destroy it, but they’ve come to this

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country and they rejoice in the freedom that they enjoy to use their skills to make a better life for themselves and their children. . . .

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Beloved people of America, there is nothing of consequence that is not attained by the shedding of blood. That same World Trade Center, many workmen died building it. Every bridge in New York that connects the boroughs to each other, someone died to build those bridges. Every tunnel in America, someone died to build that tunnel. Death must serve the cause of life, freedom, justice, equality and righteousness. Let this terrible tragedy lead to a rebuilding of spiritual values that connect the children of Abraham—Muslim, Christian, and Jew—in a rebirth of moral and spiritual values that could lead to the making of a new world, a world that ultimately will beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, not just for the cultivation of the earth, but for the cultivation of every living human being on this earth, so that never again will men be so depraved that they will do what was done on September 11, 2001. May God bless the citizens of America. May God guide the leadership of America in this very dark and troubling hour, as I greet you with peace, As Salaam Alaikum (Peace Be Unto You).


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1. Many believe that the delivery, or performance, of sermons is a skill that African American ministers have raised to the level of art. Common delivery styles include “call and response” (a style of singing/preaching in which the words or melody sung by a preacher are responded to or echoed by the congregation) and the repetition of key phrases. The speaking styles in different churches vary greatly. Locate recordings of the sermons of Bernice A. King (a Baptist minister) and T. D. Jakes (a leader with Pentecostal roots). An example of each can be found on the American Rhetoric Web site (www.americanrhetoric.com). Analyze the speaking and performance styles of each speaker. How do these styles differ? How do they reflect the religious beliefs of each leader? What techniques do you feel are most effective? How do you think gender affects each person’s style, content, and delivery? 2. African American ministers have a long tradition of preaching not only about religion but also about important issues of their time. Many black ministers have been vocal critics of social injustice, from slavery to poverty to segregation. Choose a social issue that is important to you and prepare a speech about it. Try to pick an issue based on current events. Write a speech to persuade your audience that action needs to be taken to address this problem. If you want, you can try to link the issue to your own personal beliefs about religion. When you write, think about your audience. What are some effective techniques you could use to connect with your audience? What are some effective ways that you could deliver the speech? Get someone—a family member, a friend, or a classmate—to be the “audience” for your speech. Experiment with different speaking techniques for the delivery of your speech. Try speaking more loudly or more softly. Try emphasizing particular words or repeating key phrases. Ask your audience which techniques were most effective. 3. Jeremiah Wright’s 2003 sermon, “Confusing God and Government,” caused a national controversy. Locate a transcript of this speech online and read it. Then, using the Internet or your local library, find news stories about Wright’s sermon from 2008. What were the main criticisms of Wright’s speech? Do you agree? Next, locate a copy of President Barack Obama’s speech on race, “A More Perfect Union.” How does Obama respond to Reverend Wright’s ideas? Who do you think is more persuasive? How does each speech reflect a different view of race and religion? 754


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4. Research some of the protest songs that were sung as part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. What are the connections between African American spirituals and these songs of protest? Did the protest songs of the 1960s have more of an impact because of spirituals? Are either of these types of songs relevant in American society today? Write an essay comparing some of these songs and discussing their role in the modern history of African Americans.

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5. How are the struggles African American women have faced in gaining equality and independence in the church similar to the struggles African Americans have had in overcoming oppression? Have white women faced the same kinds of challenges as African American women in regard to religious independence and their position in the church? Some people have argued that the repression of African American women in the church is a deliberate political strategy practiced by African American male religious leaders. What does this mean? Do you agree with this view?

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For More Information

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BOOKS

Battle, Michael. The Black Church in America: African American Christian Spirituality. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2006. Costen, Melva Wilson. In Spirit and In Truth: The Music of African American Worship. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004. Curtis, Edward E., IV. Islam in Black America: Identity, Liberation, and Difference in African American Islamic Thought. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. Darden, Bob. People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music. New York: Continuum, 2004. Floyd Thomas, Stacey, ed. Black Church Studies: An Introduction. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2007. Gardell, Mattias. In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Atlanta, Ga.: Clarity Press, 2005. Gomez, Michael Angelo. Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Howard Pitney, David. The African American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America. Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 2005. Landing, James E. Black Judaism: Story of an American Movement. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2002. LaRue, Cleophus J., ed. This is My Story: Testimonies and Sermons of Black Women in Ministry. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. African American Eras

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Mitchell, Henry H. Black Church Beginnings: The Long Hidden Realities of the First Years. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2004. Murphy, Larry G. Down by the Riverside: Readings in African American Religion. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Pinn, Anne H. Fortress Introduction to Black Church History. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2002. Pinn, Anthony B. The Black Church in the Post Civil Rights Era. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2002. Pollard, Deborah Smith. When the Church Becomes Your Party: Contemporary Gospel Music. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 2008. Ross, Rosetta E. Witnessing and Testifying: Black Women, Religion, and Civil Rights. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2003. Savage, Barbara Dianne. Your Spirit Walks Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2008. Smith, R. Drew. Long March Ahead: African American Churches and Public Policy in Post Civil Rights America. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004. Walker, Dennis. Islam and the Search for African American Nationhood: Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam. Atlanta, Ga.: Clarity Press, 2005. Williams, Juan, and Quinton Dixie. This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience. New York: William Morrow, 2003.

WEB SITES BlackPast.org http://www.blackpast.org (accessed June 25, 2009). History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web. http://historymatters.gmu .edu (accessed June 25, 2009). National Visionary Leadership Project: African American History. http://www .visionaryproject.com (accessed June 25, 2009).

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Chronology . . . . . . . . . 758 Overview . . . . . . . . . . 761 Headline Makers . . . . . . 763 Guion “Guy” Bluford . George R. Carruthers . Christine Darden . . Philip Emeagwali . . Shirley Ann Jackson . Mae Jemison . . . .

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Inventions by African Americans Improve Lives African Americans Suffer Knowledge Gap in Information Age . . . . Black Scientists Promote Science Education for Minorities . . . . . . African Americans Shape the Age of Information Technology . . . . . .

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Chronology ......................................................................................... 1965 Mathematician David Blackwell becomes the first African American named to the National Academy of Sciences. 1966 Biologist Samuel Milton Nabrit becomes the first African American member of the Atomic Energy Commission when President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints him to the agency. 1969 Clarence Ellis is the first African American to earn a PhD in computer science, graduating from the University of Illinois. 1969 December 2 African American inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown patents a home security system that uses television surveillance. 1970 July 14 Inventor Rufus Stokes patents an air pollution control device, known as the “Clean Air Machine,” that reduces gas and ash emissions of furnace and power plant smokestacks. 1972 Willie Hobbs Moore is the first African American woman to receive a PhD in physics when she graduates from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 1972 April 21 Astrophysicist George R. Carruthers invents the ultraviolet camera/spectrograph. The device is placed on the surface of the moon and records more than two hundred ultraviolet pictures of Earth’s atmosphere, newly discovered stars, and the Milky Way galaxy.

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1974 Mathematician J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. is elected president of the American Nuclear Society, a professional organization that promotes the awareness and understanding of the application of nuclear science and technology. 1975 Bertram O. Fraser-Reid, a chemist and chemistry professor, develops a process for making non-carbohydrate compounds from sugars. These noncarbohydrate compounds can be used to make paints, plastics, and medicines. 1976 Professors James Donaldson and J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. establish the first doctoral program in mathematics at a historically black college and university (HBCU) when they start the program at Howard University. 1980 Physicist John B. Slaughter is named the first African American director of the National Science Foundation. 1980 June Virginia K. Newell writes Black Mathematicians and their Works, the first book about African American mathematicians. 1980 October 21 NASA scientist Valerie Thomas receives a patent for her Illusion Transmitter, which uses a concave mirror to produce optical illusion images, a technology used by NASA.

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......................................................................................... 1983 August 30 Guion “Guy” S. Bluford becomes the first African American astronaut in space. 1985 April 29 Astronaut Frederick D. Gregory becomes the first African American to pilot a space shuttle. 1985 August 9 African American inventor Mark Dean collaborates with Dennis Moeller to create a microcomputer system that paved the way for devices such as keyboards, monitors, and printers to be plugged into the computer and work together at high speeds. 1986 January 28 Astronaut Ronald E. McNair is killed when the space shuttle Challenger explodes seventy-three seconds after takeoff. 1987 June 4 Mae C. Jemison becomes the first African American woman ever admitted into NASA’s astronaut training program. 1988 February 24 Aerospace engineer Lonnie Johnson unveils an airpowered water gun soon marketed as the highly popular Super Soaker, the first water gun of its type. 1991 Physicist Walter Eugene Massey becomes director of the National Science Foundation, the second African American to hold that position. Before this appointment, he had served as the first African American president of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science. 1992 W. Lincoln Hawkins receives a National Medal of Technology for his technical achievements at Bell Laboratories, including the design of a lab test using infrared spectroscopy to predict the durability of a plastic surface and the development of techniques for recycling plastics. 1993 Chemist James King Jr. receives the Technologist of the Year Award presented by the National Technical Association. His work includes directing NASA’s space shuttle environment program, which studied the effects of gases generated by the space shuttle on the atmosphere. 1994 January 16 Donald J. Campbell, a planetary scientist, is named the first African American director of NASA’s John H. Glen Research Center. 1995 February 2 Physician and astronaut Bernard Harris becomes the first African American to walk in space. 1995 July The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) report Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide finds that African American households have the lowest percentage of personal computers. 1999 Cheryl Shavers, a chemist and engineer, is appointed under


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....................................................................................... secretary of commerce for technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce by President Bill Clinton. 2000 March 28 Computer scientist Jesse Eugene Russell patents a network server platform for the Internet, Java servers, and video application servers. 2000 April 17 Gustavus McLeod becomes the first person to fly over the North Pole in an open-cockpit biplane. The expedition is filmed and partially funded by the National Geographic Society. 2001 Robotics engineer Ayanna Howard receives NASA’s Lew Allen Award for Excellence in Research for her work in the space program’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory robotics group. 2007 December 25 Inventor Ralph Garner is granted a patent for a retail theft deterrent system that uses specialized merchandise tags to help prevent fraudulent returns and refunds.

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2008 January The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and seven other historically black colleges and universities join seven research universities in a project to promote computer science and robotics education for African Americans. The project is funded with a grant from the National Science Foundation and the Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact Alliance. 2009 February 12 Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, a member of the House Committee on Science and Technology, introduces a resolution “honoring the achievement of educational parity among African American students in computer science.” 2009 July 17 Major General Charles Frank Bolden Jr., a veteran of four shuttle missions, becomes the first African American administrator of NASA.

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Throughout the history of the United States, African American scientists, engineers, inventors, and mathematicians have been essential in enhancing the quality of people’s daily lives with advancements in all branches of science, including physics, chemistry, and biology, and in all areas of technology. Racism often caused the achievements of African Americans to be suppressed or overlooked in decades past. Today’s African American experts experience the same general obscurity as their white colleagues. Modern scientists rarely become household names. One of the main reasons for this lack of recognition is the nature of research and development in the twentyfirst century. Individual efforts have been overshadowed by government and corporate entities that most often encourage, or even require, scientists and engineers to work in teams. Furthermore, government agencies and large businesses typically require research and development employees to sign contracts in which they give up all patent rights. Even though it is likely that their accomplishments may never win them fame or even individual recognition, African Americans who have careers in engineering, technology, and the sciences are dedicated to their professions and continue to make important contributions to the nation’s scientific and technological progress as a global superpower.

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OVERVIEW

African American inventors, engineers, and scientists in particular have the added responsibility of serving as role models for the African American community. Most of these professionals have welcomed that opportunity, making enormous strides in opening doors for other minority groups that remain underrepresented in the sciences, mathematics, and technology. Many African Americans in these fields generously devote their time to mentoring and motivational speaking. For instance, Christine Darden, former NASA aerospace engineer, speaks to students about the importance of taking math and science classes and how such knowledge will provide them with numerous career possibilities. Darden joins other female African American scientists such as Shirley Ann Jackson and Mae Jemison as an advocate for programs that encourage more racial minorities and women to enter professions in engineering, physics, and the aerospace industry. The “Information Revolution” is a phrase that refers to the dramatic explosion of information in contemporary society resulting from rapid advances in computer technologies and telecommunications networks. Certainly, improvements in technology and science have placed immense amounts of knowledge within the hands of everyone—everyone who has access to the necessary resources, that is. Studies have shown that, as a whole, African Americans lack the science, math, and computer skills of African American Eras

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whites. The division is obvious: whites are more likely to have access to the Internet from home than African Americans have from any location, a phenomenon referred to as the “digital divide.” In the mid-1990s, the federal government attempted to close this gap with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In addition to addressing issues of industry deregulation, the act called for U.S. schools to take measures ensuring that all students have equal and universal access to the information superhighway. As a result, classrooms and libraries throughout the country were expected to be equipped with computers and the appropriate software for using them. Nevertheless, critics of public school systems argue that the schools are failing African American students, as well as other minorities, by not encouraging them to take advanced math, technology, and science classes. A 2008 study documented by the Education Trust showed that only 7 percent of professional engineers are African American, while more than 75 percent are white. Many educators contend that a lack of African American role models in the sciences is a major obstacle to African American enrollment in science and math classes. The need for a strong African American presence in engineering, technology, and the sciences is more crucial in the twenty-first century than ever before in American society. In an age of fast-paced, ever-evolving scientific and technological advancements, the country is faced with the challenge of remaining competitive in the global market. The ability to use technology has become increasingly important in the workplace. There are fewer jobs that do not require some knowledge of the computer, and those that remain are typically low paying. Furthermore, African Americans who lack exposure to scientific knowledge and computer skills will not be able to assume leadership positions in business and industry. The nation’s leaders recognize this problem, and President Barack Obama (1961– ) urged the federal government to address the lack of an African American presence in science and technology by funding a number of educational and job training programs. In a speech to the National Academy of Sciences in April 2009, Obama pledged to double the budgets of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Obama also pledged to triple the number of National Science Foundation’s graduate research fellowships from 1,000 to 3,000, with the aim of increasing the presence of women and minorities in science and technology-related fields.

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GUION “GUY” BLUFORD (1942– )

Guion “Guy” Bluford was the first African American astronaut to travel in space when he launched with the Challenger space shuttle in 1983. Bluford logged over 688 hours in space as a mission specialist on the Challenger and Discovery space shuttles during his fourteen years with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Despite his milestones as an African American in the field of aeronautics, Bluford was reluctant for his accomplishments to be recognized in the context of his race; rather, he preferred that his achievements stand on their own merit. Bluford grew up in a racially diverse, middle-class neighborhood in Philadelphia as the oldest of three sons. His mother was a special-education teacher in a public school. His father was a mechanical engineer until he had to retire early because of health problems. Bluford was interested in both aviation and engineering even as a child. He spent much of his free time building model airplanes. Although his grades in science and math courses were average at best, Bluford had decided by the time he entered high school that he wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. He graduated from Overbrook Senior High School in 1960, and enrolled at Pennsylvania State University. He was the only African American student in the school of engineering, and joined the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Astronaut Guion “Guy” Bluford. U.S. National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA)

Bluford graduated from the university in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. He joined the U.S. Air Force that same year. He attended pilot training at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona and received his pilot’s wings in 1966, which showed that he had passed his training to be an Air Force pilot. He attended advanced combat training in Arizona and Florida, after which he joined the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cam Ram Bay in Vietnam (where the United States was at war). He flew 144 combat missions in the Vietnam War, 65 of which were over North Vietnam (enemy territory). He returned home a lieutenant African American Eras

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colonel. Bluford received numerous medals for his service overseas, including the Vietnam Campaign Medal (1967), the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm (1967), the Vietnam Service Medal (1967), and an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (1967). Following his service in the war, Bluford received assignment to Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas in 1967. There he logged 1,300 hours as a supersonic T-38 flight instructor and served as an assistant flight commander. In addition, he was a standardization/evaluation officer, a position that included testing new Air Force equipment. In 1971, Bluford attended Squadron Officers School and became an executive support officer to the deputy commander of operations at Sheppard Air Force Base. In August 1972, Bluford was one of only a few candidates selected to attend the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. There, he worked as a staff development engineer at the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory, eventually working his way to the position of deputy for advanced concepts in the Aeromechanics Division and branch chief of the Aerodynamics and Airframe Branch for the laboratory. In 1974, he earned his master’s degree. Four years later, Bluford received a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering, with a minor in laser physics. Throughout these years, he continued to be honored for his work within the military. He even received a German Air Force Aviation Badge from the Federal Republic of West Germany in 1969. Bluford’s leadership and knowledge resulted in his promotion to major. Bluford applied to NASA’s space program, joining around eight thousand other military personnel trying to get into one of thirty-five openings. In 1979, Bluford was chosen for training, along with two other African American men and the program’s first woman. Bluford and the other minorities who were selected found themselves in the spotlight of widespread attention from the media, which made Bluford uncomfortable. He considered himself to be an astronaut like any other. That publicity only increased when he was selected to fly in NASA’s eighth space shuttle mission, making him the first African American astronaut in space. He was not the first black man, however, as a black Cuban had previously flown in the Soviet Union’s space program. Bluford went through years of intense training before he became a crew member on the Challenger. The space shuttle launched on August 30, 1983, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the first time NASA launched and landed a shuttle at night. The week-long mission conducted a number of experiments that would lead to the success of future shuttle expeditions. The experiments also contributed to advancements in the fields of science and medicine, including measurements

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showing the effects of space flight on the human body. Bluford played a key role in deploying the shuttle’s main payload, a satellite for India, and operating a Remote Manipulator System (RMS). He was well on his way to becoming one of NASA’s foremost technical experts.



When the shuttle returned, Bluford received a number of honors, including an Image Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Pennsylvania State University Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Ebony Black Achievement Award. Once again, Bluford attempted to play down his role as the first African American in space by emphasizing the outstanding work of the entire Challenger team in accomplishing the mission. He accepted speaking engagements all over the country, using his status as a national celebrity as an opportunity to encourage the youth of America to pursue their dreams. On October 30, 1985, Bluford joined seven other astronauts—the largest crew ever to fly in space—aboard the Challenger for the German D-1 Spacelab mission. The payload of this mission was the German-built Spacelab, a craft that served as the laboratory for more than seventy-six experiments dealing with physics, medicine, life science, and navigation. The crew completed 111 orbits of Earth before landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California on November 6, 1985. Following this flight, Bluford was named the Astronaut Office’s specialist on all matters involving Spacelab missions and space shuttle pallet and payload experiments. When not at work, Bluford attended the University of Houston, Clear Lake, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration in 1987. On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded seventythree seconds after lift-off. Among those who died in the explosion was the second African American astronaut in space, Ronald E. McNair (1950–86). NASA did not allow the disaster to stop its space shuttle program. Bluford resumed space flight on April 28, 1991, on the Discovery for a military shuttle mission. This time, the crew conducted several Strategic Defense Initiative experiments on ballistic-missile tracking. Along with these duties, Bluford and the other members of his team were responsible for the deployment of a Department of Defense satellite. Bluford’s final flight was another military mission aboard the Discovery, during which the crew launched another satellite and conducted further experiments for both the Department of Defense and NASA. Upon his return, Bluford served as the head astronaut of NASA’s Space Station Operations Group. Bluford retired from the Air Force and left NASA in July 1993. He then accepted a position as vice president and general manager of the African American Eras

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Engineering Services Division of NYMA, Inc., an engineering and computer software company. The company was later renamed Logicon Federal Data Corporation (FDC). In 1997, Bluford became vice president of the Aerospace Sector of FDC, where he was responsible for overseeing FDC’s aerospace engineering and research programs. FDC provided services to NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense, so Bluford was able to stay involved in national space travel. He was, for instance, the program manager of NASA’s Glenn Research Center Microgravity Research, Development, and Operations Contract in Cleveland, Ohio. In this position, Bluford supervised the design, development, and support of the NASA Fluids and Combustion Facility and managed equipment for space-flight experiments for the International Space Station. In 2000, Bluford was named the vice president of Microgravity R&D and Operations for the Northrop Grumman Corporation. In addition, he served as a board member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the largest professional aerospace engineering organization in the world. Also in 2000, Bluford joined the Board of the Space Foundation, a society committed to promoting not only space travel but also advancements in engineering education. He founded the Aerospace Technology Group, an aerospace technology and business consulting firm that specializes in the development, analysis, and marketing of aviation and space technology. Throughout his career, Bluford has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors from both the military and the public sector. In addition to three Department of Defense Meritorious Service Medals (1986, 1992, and 1993) and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1994), Bluford has been recognized by such organizations as the New York City Urban League and Who’s Who in America. He has been granted honorary doctorates from colleges and universities all over the United States. He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1997. Bluford became more at ease with the heroic role he played in the history of African Americans and humbly acknowledged the fact that he helped pave the way for minority scientists and aviators who want to be part of the nation’s space programs. He was quick to point out that once the door to the astronaut program was opened, African Americans, women, and other minorities quickly became an important part of aeronautic engineering and travel. As of 2009, Bluford toured the country speaking to audiences at seminars, conferences, schools, and corporate meetings, sharing his stories of wonder and inspiration to young and old alike.

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GEORGE R. CARRUTHERS (1939– )

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George R. Carruthers is a pioneer in ultraviolet astrophysics, having invented a device that expanded modern science’s ability to explore the universe. Along with colleague William Conway, he developed the farultraviolet camera/spectrograph, a device that was placed on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972 to capture never-before-seen images of stars and Earth’s atmosphere. Over the course of his career, Carruthers was a major influence in astrophysics research and science education.


Carruthers was born the oldest of four children on October 1, 1939, in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a child, Carruthers showed an interest in space exploration and astronomy. He spent much of his time building model rockets and reading science fiction and comic books, particularly the

UV camera image of the Earth’s geocorona, taken during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. African American scientist George Carruthers helped invent the camera that made this image possible. ª Bettmann/Corbis


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Buck Rogers series. His father was a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Air Corps who supported his son’s interests. He provided Carruthers with math and science books that helped enrich his learning outside of school. By the age of ten, Carruthers had built his own telescope using cardboard tubing and mail-order lenses with money he had earned working as a delivery boy. When Carruthers was twelve years old, his father died. His mother moved the family to the south side of Chicago, Illinois. Living there allowed Carruthers to become a regular visitor at the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Adler Planetarium. Carruthers was encouraged by his science teachers to participate in science fairs, even though they were typically held at predominantly white schools. He won three awards at such events, including first prize for a telescope he designed and built himself. Carruthers graduated from Englewood High School in 1957, and entered the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. With the space age in its early stages, Carruthers was already thinking about how telescopes could be mounted on satellites so that views of space would be unobstructed (not blocked) by Earth’s atmosphere. He received a bachelor’s degree with honors in aerospace engineering in 1961 from the University of Illinois. He followed that with a master’s degree in nuclear engineering in 1962 and a PhD in aeronautics and astronautical engineering in 1964, also from the University of Illinois. As a graduate student, Carruthers was once again building model rockets, this time for research purposes. He experimented with plasma rocket engines and how helium gas could be heated so that the helium molecules would separate, expelling the super-hot gas, or plasma, and thereby driving the rocket engine. Carruthers also began to investigate one of the most significant problems of space flight: the prospect of serious damage to a spacecraft from the plasma formed by the friction between atmospheric gases and the outer covering of a spacecraft as the craft reenters Earth’s atmosphere. In 1964, Carruthers was the recipient of a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in rocket astronomy at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. He had followed the institution’s early space developments since high school. Two years later, Carruthers became a research physicist at the NRL’s E. O. Hulburt Center for Space Research and began the work that would revolutionize space imaging. He focused on ultraviolet (UV) imaging and spectroscopy, or the use of the color spectrum of substances to determine their composition. Carruthers explored ways that far-UV images could be used by scientists to detect and measure such elements as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and

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nitrogen. Applying this concept to space exploration, Carruthers saw its potential for providing information about solid particles in space, as well as more accurate measurements of the energy given off by stars. Two publications—one discussing the possibility that concentrated molecular hydrogen could exist in interstellar space and the other about far-UV spectroscopy and imaging of stars—established his reputation as a brilliant scientist early in his career.



On November 11, 1969, Carruthers received a patent for an image converter that detects electromagnetic radiation. Because they are outside of Earth’s UV-absorbing atmosphere, UV spectrographs and cameras used in space are able to capture more information than those used on Earth. In the case of hydrogen, for example, which has spectral lines in the farUV that do not penetrate Earth’s atmosphere, its molecules must be illuminated by a distant star before the spectrum can be recorded. Using this information along with his invention, Carruthers provided the first proof of the existence of molecular hydrogen in space during a 1970 sounding-rocket flight. The instrument Carruthers developed for this expedition had to withstand the stresses of Earth’s magnetic field, cosmic rays, and the sudden vacuum of space. In addition, its electronically sensitive camera system had to find and track the star chosen as the source of illumination within the five-minute flight. Carruthers took his design even farther when he developed the far-UV camera/spectrograph, a device that could examine both Earth’s atmosphere and deep space from a location that would avoid the distortions created by Earth. Working with colleague William Conway and a team of engineers to adapt the camera for a lunar mission, Carruthers constructed a fifty-pound UV camera mounted on a tripod to be carried on Apollo 16. On April 21, 1972, astronauts placed the camera, which was gold-plated to protect it from overheating, on the surface of the moon, thereby establishing the world’s first moon-based observatory. The camera took more than two hundred ultraviolet light pictures of eleven selected targets, including new far-UV images of more than 550 stars, nebulae, and galaxies. The device captured the world’s first images of the ultraviolet bands that surround Earth and reflect radio waves. The UV camera also provided the first full view of Earth’s geocorona—the solar far-UV light reflected off the cloud of neutral hydrogen atoms that surrounds Earth—extending thousands of miles into the far outer atmosphere. Other images taken by the camera allowed scientists to examine large areas of Earth’s atmosphere for concentrations of pollution. The film was removed from the UV camera, and the camera was left on the moon at the end of the Apollo 16 mission. Another version of the African American Eras

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camera was used on Skylab 4 to observe the Comet Kohoutek in 1973– 1974. For his work on the Apollo project, Carruthers was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1972. Carruthers has participated in many NASA and Department of Defense projects concerning space research instrumentation. Far-UV cameras developed by Carruthers have been included on a number of sounding rocket flights and space shuttle missions to perform such tasks as measuring Earth’s ozone layer and upper atmosphere for environmental studies and transmitting far-UV images of distant planets and stars for study. In 1986, one of Carruthers’s cameras captured a UV image of the highly-publicized Halley’s Comet. A year later, Carruthers was named Black Engineer of the Year–Technical Contribution. Carruthers has been a pioneer in the development of electronic telescopes used on satellites launched into orbit by NASA. These telescopes use electronics to increase the intensity of light emitted by planets and distant stars. They then transform light into electrical signals and send the images back to Earth, where they can be displayed on a monitor. In turn, scientists can use these images to form a theory of how new stars and planets are formed from interstellar dust and gases. In 1997, Carruthers joined the Independent Scientific Review, a committee that advises the Hubble Space Telescope Project. Carruthers has designed and tested instruments for the Air Force Space Test Program’s Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS), including its Global Imaging Monitor of the Ionosphere. This instrument contains two far-UV cameras that collect images of Earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Other ARGOS projects that draw from Carruthers’s vast knowledge of ultraviolet astrophysics are high-resolution airglow/aurora spectroscopy and the extreme ultraviolet imaging photometer. A 1999 ARGOS mission used these technologies to capture an image of a meteor as it entered Earth’s atmosphere, marking the first time a meteor had been imaged in the far-UV spectrum from a camera in space. Throughout his career, Carruthers was involved in scholarly work, publishing scientific reports and editing such periodicals as the Journal of the National Technical Association, which promotes career development for minority scientists. He was also an instructor at several institutions, including the University of Illinois, where he taught a beginning course in astrophysics as a graduate student, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, again teaching astrophysics. Sponsored by a NASA Aerospace Workforce Development Grant, Carruthers taught a course in Earth and Space Science at Howard University beginning in 2002. One of the few African American astrophysicists in the United States, he is a member of

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numerous professional organizations, including the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.



Carruthers is an advocate for education in the areas of science and technology. He was an active member of Science, Mathematics, Aerospace, Research, and Technology Inc., an organization that encourages African American teachers and students alike to implement science and technologyrelated programs in their schools. In addition, Carruthers helped found the Science and Engineering Apprentice Program (SEAP) for high school students. SEAP inspires students to pursue science and engineering degrees by allowing them to participate in research conducted by Department of Navy laboratories. Carruthers has also participated in the development of a video series about Earth and space science for high school students. In the 2000s Carruthers continued to give frequent lectures to various audiences, both formal and informal. His lectures emphasized the contributions of space missions to the world’s understanding of the origins of stars, planets, and life in the universe. For example, he has spoken about his research, the Next Generation Space Telescope, and current and planned missions to Mars. As part of the Smithsonian Institution Lemelson Center’s “Innovative Lives” series, Carruthers has shared his experiences in space exploration with groups of middle school students. In May 2003, Carruthers was recognized for his invention of the far-UV camera at his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. On February 12, 2009, Carruthers was honored as a Distinguished Lecturer at the Office of Naval Research for his achievements in the field of space science.

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CHRISTINE DARDEN (1942– )

Christine Darden has been recognized in the aeronautical world as an expert on sonic boom prediction, sonic boom minimization, and supersonic wing design. As such, she has been instrumental in the development of new air technologies. Darden faced both sexism and racism from her colleagues at NASA as an African American female, but her passion for mathematics and engineering gave her the strength to overcome such discrimination. As a leader in the field of supersonic air travel, Darden has paved the way for African American women who are interested in aerospace engineering, a field once closed to women of all races. Darden was born on September 10, 1942, in Monroe, North Carolina. She was the youngest of Noah and Desma Darden’s five children. Her African American Eras

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father was a teacher for several years before becoming an insurance salesman. Her mother taught first through fourth grades at a two-room school located across the street from their family home. Darden began going to school with her mother when she was only three years old, initially playing in the back of the classroom. By the time she was four, she had joined the students in their studies. As a result, she was two academic years ahead of other children her age. Darden was interested in knowing how things worked even as a child, and her father was more than willing to teach her. He bought her a set of tools, and encouraged his daughter to help him change tires and work on their car. On her own, she fixed her bicycle and took apart her only doll to see what was inside. Because Darden was ahead two grades in school, she was two years younger than her classmates. Her mother began to worry about Darden’s social development and how she would react to the peer pressure of older students as Darden entered her teenage years. Darden’s parents sent her to Allen High School, a Methodist boarding school for girls in Asheville, North Carolina, for her last two years of high school. At the age of fifteen, she graduated at the top of her class, but not before falling in love with mathematics, particularly geometry. Upon graduation, Darden received a scholarship to the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. She considered going into medicine, but was more interested in the science of mathematics. She chose to major in math with a minor in physics. Hampton Institute offered two tracks of study: teaching and general studies. The general studies program would give Darden access to more math classes, but Darden’s father insisted that she take the teaching track for job security because few industries were hiring African American mathematicians at the time. Darden followed her father’s advice and obtained a teaching certificate, but she still managed to take as her electives every advanced mathematics class the school offered. She also was involved in such extracurricular activities as field hockey, the student Christian association, and civil rights activism. Darden graduated from the Hampton Institute with a bachelor of science degree in mathematics in 1962. She then taught junior high and high school math until 1965, when she taught one year of college mathematics. During this time, she continued her own education by taking classes in mathematics offered to teachers at Virginia State College. The year she began teaching, she married middle-school science teacher Walter Darden. Walter received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study at Virginia State College in 1966, so the Dardens moved to Petersburg, Virginia. Christine was unable to find a teaching job in the area. Instead, she became a research assistant in the physics

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department at the college, working on a project in aerosol physics that studied how powerful beams of light can detect gases and other particles in the atmosphere. She used this experience to write her master’s thesis in applied mathematics, earning a Master of Science (MS) degree in 1967.



Darden began searching for a job after receiving her master’s degree. She applied at the Hampton Institute, at Norfolk State, and at NASA, which had been recruiting at Virginia State. She received offers from all three institutions, but chose NASA. Her first few years with the agency, she found herself facing sexism from men who did not believe a woman could understand the complex physics and mathematics required of NASA engineers. She was hired as a mathematician at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, so she expected to be called upon to perform complicated calculations. Instead, she was assigned to the “computer pool,” an all-female support staff for engineers that used simple computers, little more than calculators, to solve uncomplicated parts of math problems for engineers. Darden was unhappy with the low level of work and decided to enroll in engineering classes offered by George Washington University at NASA. Darden’s supervisor thought that sending a woman to engineering classes would simply be a waste of time and refused to allow her to take these classes. Darden appealed to higher authorities to get the permission she needed to pursue her education in engineering. In addition to being the only female in the classes, Darden was the only African American student; as such, she was not accepted by either her classmates or her instructors until she proved that she was just as intelligent and capable as they were. Soon, Darden decided to work toward a PhD in engineering. Darden successfully completed her PhD in mechanical engineering from George Washington University in 1983. Even so, she still faced discrimination from her colleagues at NASA. She was also overqualified for the computer pool and bored with the work she was required to do there. She requested a transfer to an engineering group so that she could work with other people who had the level of education and mathematical skills she did. Again, she met with resistance from individuals who believed that no woman belonged on an all-male engineering team. Eventually, Darden’s request was granted, and she was assigned to NASA’s sonic boom group. The task of the sonic boom division was to discover how to introduce supersonic airplanes into commercial air travel while avoiding the negative environmental effects of doing so. When airplanes travel faster than the speed of sound, they create a wave of pressure in the air that becomes a very loud booming noise when it reaches the ground. Sonic African American Eras

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booms can be strong enough to shatter glass and damage buildings, so the United States limits supersonic travel to military crafts flying at high altitudes. One of Darden’s assignments in the sonic boom group was to write a computer program that would reproduce the effects of a sonic boom. When the results from Darden’s program matched the results from tests done with real aircraft, NASA knew that they had a faster, less expensive way to perform sonic boom tests: Darden’s computer program. The U.S. government determined that commercial sonic travel would be too expensive, and cut funding to the sonic boom group around 1979. Darden continued studying the environmental effects of sonic booms, such as damage to the ozone layer, but also began working on wing and nose-cone designs for aircraft. She helped develop technology that, combined with stronger, lightweight materials, allows U.S. Air Force planes to fly faster than the speed of sound without causing sonic booms of destructive force. She was the leader of the sonic boom group by 1989, and collaborated with Russian aerospace engineers on projects to develop supersonic transportation. Through the years, the focus of Darden’s work shifted from research and engineering to administration, although she still served as a technical consultant on major projects. She received a Senior Executive Career Development fellowship in 1994, and left the sonic boom group to complete a year of training in program management and executive leadership at Simmons College in Boston. Returning to the Langley Research Center after her studies, Darden served as a manager of NASA’s High Speed Research Program Office, a program created to develop technology for building a supersonic airplane by 2015. In 1999, she became the director of the Aero Performing Center Program Management Office, where her responsibilities included supervising air traffic management and overseeing the development of ultra-efficient airplane engines. After more than forty-one years of government service, Darden retired from NASA in April 2007. During the course of her career, Darden received many awards and honors for her work in aerospace engineering, including the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government and several NASA medals for outstanding performance and achievement. Even as she acknowledged her position as a role model for African Americans and women, Darden noted the importance of encouraging students of all races to get involved in math and science. She often spoke to students not only about pursuing careers in science, mathematics, and technology, but also about being prepared as much as possible in those areas for the future no matter what career they choose.

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PHILIP EMEAGWALI (1954– )


Philip Emeagwali is a mathematician, computer scientist, and engineer who has had a profound impact on technologies ranging from supercomputing and petroleum engineering to weather forecasting and global warming. In 1989, he earned global recognition when he programmed the world’s fastest computation of 3.1 billion calculations per second using parallel programming. His work demonstrating how multiple processors could be linked to form one supercomputer makes him a major contributor to the creation of the Internet.


Emeagwali was born in 1954 to a poor Igbo (a Nigerian ethnic group) family in the town of Akure in southeastern Nigeria. The oldest of nine children, he was responsible for a number of household chores and typically awoke at 4:00 AM to begin his work. Emeagwali’s father was a nursing assistant and noticed his young son’s talent for mathematics. He cut back on the nineyear-old’s chores so that he could have more time to improve his math skills. Every day, Emeagwali did math drills that included solving one hundred problems in his head, exercises that helped him become a math whiz. He took a high school entrance exam at the age of ten and received a perfect score on the math section. School officials disqualified him, however, because they thought that he had cheated on the exam. By the time he began attending a British-run Catholic high school, Emeagwali had earned the nickname “Calculus” from his classmates. Among his studies at the school were English, French, Latin, geography, biology, geometry and algebra; not surprisingly, Emeagwali’s favorite subject was math of any kind. In 1967, the eastern region of Nigeria, populated primarily by people of Igbo ethnicity, broke away from Nigeria to form the independent Republic of Biafra. This began a Nigerian-Biafra civil war that lasted for three years. Twelve-year-old Emeagwali was just a little over a year into his high school education when he had to flee the area with his family due to the fighting. Thousands of Igbo tribe members were killed during the war, and Emeagwali’s family was among many who had to live in different refugee camps and abandoned buildings to survive. When he turned fourteen, Emeagwali was drafted into the Biafran army, serving as a cook until the end of the war in 1970. When the war was over, Emeagwali enrolled at a school in Onitsha, walking two hours to and from school every day. He had to drop out after completing the eighth grade because his family was too poor to pay his school fees. Emeagwali continued his education on his own, studying at the local library. He learned advanced math, physics, and chemistry. At the age of seventeen, he was awarded a general certificate of education from the African American Eras

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University of London. In 1974, he received a scholarship to attend Oregon State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977. From there, Emeagwali went to Howard University to study civil engineering and then to George Washington University, where he received two engineering degrees, one in ocean and marine engineering, the other in environmental engineering, in 1981. He then moved on to the University of Maryland, College Park, earning a master’s degree in applied mathematics in 1986. During his early college years, Emeagwali was interested in the concept of parallel processing, in which computers are linked together. He had once read a 1922 science fiction story about using sixty-four thousand mathematicians located throughout the world to forecast the entire Earth’s weather. Emeagwali began developing a theoretical plan for using sixty-four thousand computers located all over the globe. Emeagwali called his design the “HyperBall” international network of computers. Mathematicians and computer scientists dismissed his idea as impossible, but Emeagwali carried on with his research and theories for over ten years. He produced a onethousand-page paper containing details about how parallel processing could outperform even the best supercomputers of the day. In the 1970s and 1980s, not many people understood the science behind supercomputer programming. This lack of knowledge allowed Emeagwali access to a supercomputer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory called the Connection Machine, which had been virtually abandoned because scientists could not figure out how to program it to simulate nuclear explosions. Seeking ways to use their machine, the lab issued a call for proposals from the academic public. When the possibility of using the Connection Machine became available to him, Emeagwali set out to make his theories about parallel processing a reality. Emeagwali worked on the Connection Machine in Los Alamos, New Mexico, from Michigan through the National Science Foundation Network, the predecessor of today’s Internet. He remotely programmed the Connection Machine to utilize 65,536 processors to process 3.1 billion calculations per second, a speed that far exceeded what any existing supercomputer had been able to accomplish. In setting the world’s fastest computational record in 1989, Emeagwali proved that users could connect to smaller, less expensive computers, which had the ability to communicate with each other, instead of connecting to one supercomputer to access information or solve complex computations. Emeagwali’s findings showed other computer scientists both the possibility and the practicality of linking computers to communicate all over the world. Emeagwali was awarded the prestigious Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers’ Gordon Bell Prize in 1989 for his discovery and was

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later acclaimed as one of the fathers of the Internet. Such computer companies as IBM and Apple adopted his microprocessor technology and began to build laptop computers that perform at high speeds. In addition, corporations also began building supercomputers that integrate thousands of microprocessors in their functioning.



From 1987 through 1991, Emeagwali studied under a doctoral fellowship in scientific computing at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. When he submitted his dissertation, however, a committee composed of people from within the University of Michigan system, as well as a few external academics, determined that his work was not worthy of a PhD. In 1996, Emeagwali filed suit against the university, alleging that the school had discriminated against him because of his race. When the court challenge was dismissed, he appealed the decision in 1999. The Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal. Nevertheless, Emeagwali persevered in his field. Emeagwali used his computational skills and the technology from his experimentation with the Connection Machine to help solve one of the petroleum industry’s greatest engineering challenges: how to simulate the detection of underground oil flows and reservoirs using a supercomputer. By designing a petroleum reservoir model on a huge parallel computer, or supercomputer, Emeagwali showed petroleum engineers a more accurate way of computing how oil flows underground. As a result, more oil and gas could be captured from any reserve, thereby increasing oil revenues. After the Gordon Bell Prize, Emeagwali received more than one hundred awards and honors for his work, including being named one of the “50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science” for 2004 by Science Spectrum magazine and US Black Engineer & Information Technology. In the twenty-first century, Emeagwali has continued to speculate about the applications of next-generation supercomputers that scientists and engineers can use in such areas of research as global warming, meteorology, and energy sources. For six years, he was a lecturer at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery. In addition to being a private consultant, Emeagwali and his wife, Dale, a microbiologist who has won the National Technical Association’s Scientist of the Year Award, frequently visited schools to speak about the importance of education in people’s lives. In addition to his professional achievements, Emeagwali is proud of the example he has set not only for minorities who want to study engineering and computer science but also for those who are in danger of being left behind in the information revolution. African American Eras

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SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON (1946– )

Theoretical physicist Shirley Ann Jackson is one of the most distinguished scientists in America. She is esteemed both for a lifetime of contributions to scientific research as the author of more than one hundred scientific papers, as well as for her roles in public policy and education. Throughout her career, Jackson has repeatedly broken barriers of race and gender: she is the first African American woman to receive a PhD in any subject from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; both the first woman and the first African American to head the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the first African American woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering; and the first African American woman to lead a major research university. Jackson was born on August 5, 1946, in Washington, D.C. She grew up as the middle of three daughters in the city’s northwest district. She was a gifted child who was always wondering about how things worked. Jackson’s parents encouraged her to develop her interest in science, especially her father, a U.S. Postal Service supervisor. He helped all of his girls build their own toys, such as soapbox derby racers. When Jackson entered school science fairs, her father did not hesitate to get involved, no matter what project his daughter had chosen. Once, for instance, when Jackson was studying how different foods affected the health of mice, her father assisted her in building cages. The schools in Washington, D.C., were segregated during Jackson’s childhood. She lived only three blocks away from Barnard Elementary School, an excellent public school, but she was not permitted to go there because it was a school for white children. Instead, she and her sisters had to ride across town to an African American elementary school. That changed in 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation was unconstitutional. Jackson was allowed to enroll at Barnard, where her teachers quickly determined that she was an exceptional math and science student. She took Latin in order to learn the scientific names for animals and plants while she was in junior high, and was a regular participant in area science fairs, often winning top honors. By the time she reached high school, Jackson was well prepared for the accelerated programs in math and science that were offered. She was valedictorian of her 1964 graduating class, and received a full scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jackson was one of forty-five female students in a freshman class of around nine hundred students. She was also one of approximately twenty

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African American undergraduates at the institute and the only female African American undergraduate in the school’s physics program. Unfortunately, being a unique student also made Jackson somewhat of an outcast. White students, even females, did not want to work with her in study groups, and many of them refused to sit at the same cafeteria table as she did. Jackson found support when she joined an African American sorority, an organization that inspired female African American students in their academic pursuits by connecting them with accomplished MIT graduates who had been members of the sorority when they were in college. As part of the sorority’s community service projects, Jackson tutored local high school students, mostly African American, and volunteered at Boston City Hospital. In her senior year, she was elected president of the sorority.



In the meantime, Jackson had begun research on superconductors. A superconductor is a special material that conducts electricity without resistance when cooled to very low temperatures, provided the temperature is kept constant. This phenomenon is important because resistance results in a loss of the energy that flows through a material. Once it is set in motion at the appropriate temperature, an electrical current will flow for a very long time in an enclosed circle of superconducting material. Jackson’s research focused on finding materials that could become superconductors at higher temperatures. Jackson graduated from MIT in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in physics. She received a fellowship from the National Science Foundation to do more research. Jackson chose to remain at MIT to do this research even though she had been accepted at Harvard University, Brown University, and the University of Chicago, in part because she wanted to encourage other African Americans to attend the school. For her doctoral research, Jackson concentrated on a specific branch of physics: theoretical elementary particle physics, which uses theories and mathematics to predict the existence of subatomic particles and the forces that bind them together. Unstable and transitory, subatomic particles can be studied by using a particle accelerator, a machine that accelerates atoms at high speeds and forces them to collide with a target to separate them into subatomic particles. Another method for studying subatomic particles is to expose them to specific non-conducting solids so that the crystal lattice structure of the atoms is distorted, leaving marks or tracks that can be seen with an electron microscope. By examining these marks, Jackson was able to determine mathematical calculations that could make predictions about what kinds of particles caused them. Jackson conducted her doctoral work under Dr. James Young, the first African American to become a tenured professor in MIT’s physics department. She was African American Eras

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awarded a PhD in 1973, becoming the first African American woman in the history of MIT to receive a doctorate. Jackson spent the next several years doing postdoctoral research on subatomic particles. She conducted studies in several respected physics laboratories in the United States and abroad. She first worked as a research associate at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, where she studied medium- to large-sized subatomic particles known as hadrons. From there, she went to the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, as a visiting scientist in the facility’s accelerator lab. In the year she was at CERN, Jackson began to establish herself as an expert in the field when she demonstrated that her theoretical calculations of subatomic forces were both accurate and applicable to the observations and results being recorded during actual experiments in the lab. She returned to Fermilab for a brief time before serving as a lecturer in physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and a visiting scientist at the Aspen Center for Physics. In 1976, Jackson accepted a position in the Theoretical Physics Lab of AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. She was responsible for examining the properties of different materials by studying the properties of their smallest parts at this facility. The purpose of this work was to discover useful applications for these materials in products ranging from film to digital watches to semiconductors. In 1978, she transferred to the Scattering and Low Energy Physics Research Department, where she carried out experiments to determine whether ceramic materials could be used as superconductors. After ten years in that department, Jackson moved to the Solid State and Quantum Physics Research Department, where her studies involved theoretical physics, solid state physics, and optical physics. Her focus eventually narrowed to the optical and electronic properties of various types of layered semiconductor materials. During her time at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Jackson entered into public affairs. In 1985, New Jersey governor Thomas Kean appointed Jackson to the State Commission on Science and Technology. This commission served a number of purposes, such as facilitating communications between private industrial groups and state colleges and universities. The commission also addressed concerns related to industry, such as methods of manufacturing and how to dispose of hazardous materials safely. Corporations began to solicit her involvement, and she joined the boards of several major companies in the New Jersey area. Even when she herself was an undergraduate at MIT, Jackson was an advocate for women in the sciences. She had worked with the Black

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Student Union to convince school administrators of the importance of increasing minority enrollment. As her professional reputation grew during the 1980s, she continued to urge colleges and corporations to recruit and retain minorities. She accepted membership into the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Foundation, and she was invited to be part of research committees of the National Academy of Sciences and the Advisory Council of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. In a preview of her future role in American government, Jackson served on an advisory panel to the secretary of energy examining the Department of Energy’s national laboratories.



In 1991, Jackson left AT&T Bell Laboratories to become a physics professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses as she conducted her own research. Four years after Jackson assumed her university post, President Bill Clinton (1946– ) appointed her chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The mission of the NRC is to ensure that the public’s health and safety are not endangered by the use of nuclear energy. The agency, located in Rockville, Maryland, presented Jackson not only with three thousand employees and an annual budget of five hundred million dollars to manage, but also with several serious issues to consider. Jackson was in charge of regulating the safety of the nation’s aging nuclear power plants, totaling 110 at that

Shirley Ann Jackson, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, shakes hands with Yasumasa Togo, chairman of the Japan Nuclear Safety Commission, after signing U.S. Japan agreements on cooperation in nuclear safety at the Science and Technology Agency in Tokyo on October 23, 1997. AP Images


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time. Jackson had to deal with the political controversy involved in extending licenses for the continued operation of those plants. Additionally, she faced the problem of ever-increasing amounts of nuclear waste with decreasing storage space in which to contain it. Another problem Jackson faced was the American public’s negative perception of nuclear power plants. Nine year earlier, Russia had suffered the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a catastrophe at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl that continued to show devastating radiation effects on the populace for years afterward. In 1995 alone, statistics from the World Health Organization showed that thyroid cancer in children had increased 100 percent in areas that had been exposed to fallout (radioactive particles from a nuclear explosion) from Chernobyl. Current events in the United States reflected the fears people still had about nuclear power. In the same year Jackson assumed leadership of the NRC, environmentalists protested the site of a proposed nuclear waste dump in the Mojave Desert, arguing that it endangered Southern California’s water supply. Another wellpublicized event occurred after South Carolina governor David Beasley reopened Barnwell County’s nuclear dump site, drawing attention to the fact that southern states had refused for fifteen years to join a federal compact for the disposal of nuclear waste. Ten months after Jackson’s appointment, the NRC came under fire when George Galatis and George Betancourt, engineers for Northeast Utilities’ nuclear division, revealed that the company’s five nuclear power plants in New England were knowingly violating NRC regulations—and had been for years. The cover story of Time magazine’s March 4, 1996, issue bore the headline “Blowing the Whistle on Nuclear Safety: How a Showdown at a Power Plant Exposed the Federal Government’s Failure to Enforce Its Own Rules.” In the story, Galatis and Betancourt disclosed information regarding the safety of maintenance and disposal procedures at the Millstone Unit 1 in Waterford, Connecticut. In an effort to save both time and money, Millstone’s administrators had been allowing used fuel rods, which were still radioactive, to be cooled all at once instead of cooled a few at a time, as specified by NRC law. Time magazine’s investigation uncovered reports documenting that the NRC, aware of the Millstone situation, had been granting Northeast Utilities waivers for more than twenty years, allowing the facility to get around the law. Over the years, the NRC had been criticized for not enforcing its own safety regulations; however, the Northeast Utilities scandal prompted Jackson to make immediate changes in the NRC’s administration and operations. She closed all three plants in Waterford and put stricter rules in place for nuclear plants, while also establishing more accountability measures for the

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NRC itself. Those NRC officials who had looked the other way as violations occurred were forced to resign or retire. Inspections of all nuclear power plants were more frequent and more exacting with the objective of detecting problems early. Although the general public was outraged by the NRC’s incompetence and irresponsibility when the Time story was published, people were impressed by Jackson’s quick administrative action and the fact that she did not attempt to make excuses for the agency’s mistakes. She simply corrected them as efficiently and safely as possible.



In 1999, Jackson left the NRC to become the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, the oldest technology university in the United States. She was the first African American woman to be president of a major research institution. Jackson proved to be a successful leader in areas ranging from fundraising to curriculum and research innovations to founding the school’s new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. One of her primary goals at Rensselaer was to increase the school’s minority populations, particularly African Americans, Hispanics, and women. Another way she tried to encourage African American interest in studying the sciences was by actively recruiting African American faculty members.

Shirley Ann Jackson was made president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in 1999. Rensselaer is the oldest engineering school in the country. AP Images


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Jackson’s intelligence, determination, and diplomatic talents have made her a valued member of various professional associations, government commissions, corporate boards, and educational organizations. In April 2009, President Barack Obama (1961– ) selected Jackson to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, an advisory group of the nation’s leading engineers and scientists. Working with this committee gave Jackson a voice in the formulation of policies pertaining to the influence of science and technology on the lives of Americans. Highly respected and admired, Jackson has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, among them forty-five honorary doctoral degrees. Other recognitions include the following: • Ralph Coats Roe Medal—American Society of Mechanical Engineers

(2008) • L’Oreal USA for Women in Science Role Model Award (2008) • Vannevar Bush Award—National Science Foundation (2007) • President’s Award—American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2006) • Named one of seven fellows of the Association for Women in Science

(2004) • Named one of the “Top 50 Women in Science” by Discover magazine

(2002) • Named one of “R&D Stars to Watch” (2002) • Richtmyer

Memorial Lecture Award—American Association of Physics Teachers (2001)

• Black Engineer of the Year Award—US Black Engineer & Information

Technology magazine (2001) • Golden Torch Award for Lifetime Achievement in Academia—

National Society of Black Engineers (2000) • New Jersey Governor’s Award in Science (the “Thomas Alva Edison

Award”) (1993)

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MAE JEMISON (1956– )

Astronaut Mae Jemison made history as the first African American woman in space when the space shuttle Endeavor launched on September 12, 1992. Jemison is quick to point out that society should recognize how much women and minorities can contribute to the world if they are given 784


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the opportunity to do so. In addition to being an advocate for African Americans and women, she also uses her position as a public figure to speak out about the importance of science education in today’s modern world of global scientific and technological advancement. Jemison was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, the youngest of three children. Her family moved to Chicago when she was three, which offered more educational opportunities for Jemison and her siblings. She and her father, a carpenter, spent time together fishing and hunting, and she often went with him to work, where she picked up carpentry skills that would later enable her to construct school science projects. Jemison was always interested in science. She was a frequent visitor of her school’s library, reading about all types of science, especially astronomy. She decided to pursue a career in biomedical engineering while she was still in high school. When she graduated with honors from Chicago’s Morgan Park High School in 1973, Jemison received a National Achievement Scholarship, allowing her to attend Stanford University in California.

Astronaut Mae Jemison in 1992. U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Jemison participated in dance and theater productions at Stanford in addition to her regular studies. She also served as head of the university’s Black Student Union, an organization that promotes awareness of African American issues on campus. Jemison double-majored in chemical engineering, earning a bachelor of science degree, and African American studies, earning a bachelor of arts degree, in 1977. From Stanford, Jemison went to Cornell University in New York, where she obtained a medical degree in 1981. Jemison traveled to Kenya, Cuba, and a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand while she was in medical school, providing medical care for the underprivileged in those countries. She completed her internship at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center a year after receiving her medical degree. Jemison worked as a doctor in Los Angeles for a short time before joining the Peace Corps. She served as the Area Peace Corps Medical Officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. There, she directed medical services for U.S. embassy personnel, as well as Peace Corps volunteers. She also supervised laboratory and pharmacy staff in addition African American Eras

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to teaching. At the same time, Jemison did research for the Center for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health in an attempt to create vaccines for rabies, hepatitis B, and schistosomiasis, a widespread disease that affects the liver, bladder, lungs, and central nervous system. Jemison worked with the Peace Corps for two years before returning to the United States and working as a doctor in Los Angeles. In October 1985, Jemison applied for admission into NASA’s space program. Three months later, however, NASA postponed the application process when the space shuttle Challenger exploded less than two minutes after takeoff, killing all seven crew members, including Ronald McNair, one of America’s three African American astronauts. Jemison reapplied the following year. On June 4, 1987, she and fourteen other applicants were selected from a field of around two thousand applicants. She completed astronaut training in 1988, becoming the first African American female astronaut in the history of NASA, as well as the fifth African American astronaut in the program. For her accomplishments, she received the 1988 Essence Science and Technology Award. Jemison trained as a science-mission specialist, the team member responsible for conducting crew-related scientific experiments on the space shuttle. While she waited for a shuttle flight, she worked as a liaison between the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. On September 12, 1992, Jemison became the first African American woman in space when she and six other astronauts were launched into space aboard the shuttle Endeavor. It was the first major joint mission between the United States and Japan. The purpose of the mission was to conduct experiments in life sciences and materials processing. One of Jemison’s primary jobs was to study the effects of weightlessness and motion sickness on crew members. Jemison observed the effects of weightlessness on the human body through an experiment she designed that allowed her to monitor the loss of calcium in the crew members’ bones, a significant problem for astronauts on long missions. Conducting an experiment using frogs’ eggs that had been fertilized in space without gravity, Jemison studied the development of the eggs into tadpoles. The tadpoles developed appropriately and turned into frogs after the shuttle returned to Earth. As a crew member, she also played a role in launching satellites and performing duties on space walks located outside of the shuttle. After the shuttle flight, Jemison was greeted with honors and awards from various organizations, including the Ebony Black Achievement Award in 1992. In Detroit, a science and technology public school was named after her: the Mae C. Jemison Academy. Jemison continued her

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committment to social responsibility by sitting on the board of directors of the World Sickle Cell Foundation. She has held memberships in the American Chemical Society, the American Medical Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also been an honorary board member of the Center for the Prevention of Childhood Malnutrition.



In March 1993, Jemison left NASA and accepted a Montgomery fellowship from Dartmouth College, where she served as a professor of environmental studies until 2002. Also in 1993, Jemison founded The Jemison Group, Inc., a group that researches, develops, and markets advanced technologies, with an emphasis on social equality. Projects of the organization include a satellite communications system that allows for the set-up of health-care procedures in developing countries. Another project is The Earth We Share, an annual international space camp promoting minority interest in the sciences. The month-long camp is free to qualified applicants and focuses on developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students who are twelve to sixteen years old. As a vocal supporter of science education for children, Jemison has been the National School Literary Advocate for the Bayer Corporation’s “Making Science Make Sense” program. In 2001, Jemison published Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life, an autobiography targeted to students in grades seven through twelve, illustrating through events in Jemison’s life and career the importance of setting goals and then striving to make them come true, no matter what obstacles might arise. In 1999, Jemison established BioSentient Corp., a company that has permission from NASA to use its technology, much of it based on Jemison’s studies about motion sickness during her Endeavor mission. The corporation seeks to manufacture a portable machine that can be used to monitor a person’s involuntary nervous system. BioSentient is trying to determine whether using biofeedback measures, which allow patients to monitor and control their physical reactions to things, can be used as a treatment for anxiety and other stress-related disorders. Jemison became a professor-at-large at Cornell University and a dynamic public speaker. She makes frequent appearances at charity events and in public venues to promote science and technology education in schools by sharing her life story. She also takes advantage of her position as a speaker to address such issues as the large differences in quality health care between the United States and third-world countries. In March 2009, Jemison joined First Lady Michelle Obama (1964– ) in a forum held for gifted girls from Washington, D.C.’s, public schools.


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AIRLINE INDUSTRY EMPLOYS AFRICAN AMERICANS The U.S. government integrated the Air Force along with the rest of the military in 1949, opening up opportunities for the training of black pilots. But this integration did not extend to civilian airlines until several years later. Civilian aviation did not produce a licensed African American pilot until 1957, when eighteen U.S. airlines pledged not to allow racial prejudice to affect their hiring procedures. The pledge did not extend to pilots, however. The only African American pilot hired that year was Perry H. Young (1919–98), a former aviation instructor. His assignment was to fly helicopters, not airplanes, for New York Airways. African Americans did not begin to make headway in commercial aviation until military pilot Marlon Green challenged the airline industry’s discriminatory hiring practices. Marlon D. Green was an African American pilot who had flown B-26 aircraft in the Air Force. He decided to leave the military for civilian flying in 1957 because commercial airlines paid pilots more. He hoped that the airlines’ pledge to not discriminate against minorities would open up the doors for him. He applied to Pan American, Eastern, United, and Western, with no results. Green then sent Continental Airlines an application on which he left the box indicating race unchecked. He was granted an interview and made it to the final round of six applicants, all of whom were

Patrice Washington Clark became the first African American female commercial airline pilot to reach “captain” status in 1994. Patrick Murphy Racey/ Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

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he Negro Airmen International (NAI) is the nation’s oldest African American pilots’ organization. It was founded in New York in 1967 by Edward Gibbs, a flight instructor in the U.S. Aviation Cadet Program at the Army Air Corps at Tuskegee, Alabama. The NAI is dedicated to educating African Americans about the field of aviation and inspiring them to pursue careers in aviation, both civilian and military. It also celebrates the accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen, a World War II fighter group that has the distinction of being the only group never to have lost a bomber to enemy fire while its members were flying as escorts. NAI helps encourage African Americans to challenge the racial barriers that persist in the airline industry. In addition to a variety of projects, programs, and educational activities to support professional and personal opportunities for African Americans in aviation, NAI received a grant in 2004 that allowed the organization to provide flight training to young adults from inner-city communities who do not have the money to attend private flight schools. NAI has spawned the formation of other African American aviation associations, such as the Organization of Black Airline Pilots (1976) and the Black Pilots of America (1997).

white except for Green. He was one of two men not hired by Continental, even though he had two thousand hours more experience flying multiengine aircraft than any of the other applicants. Green registered a complaint with Continental’s anti-discrimination commission in Colorado, which had passed a law against discriminatory hiring practices earlier in the year. Concluding that the only reason Green had not been hired was his race, the commission ordered Continental to enroll him in its next pilot training class. When the airline refused, Green filed suit against the company, beginning a lengthy court battle. The court case ended in 1963 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Green’s favor. Green worked for Continental Airlines from 1965 to 1978. Green’s victory in court allowed for increasing numbers of African Americans to begin working in various positions within the airline industry, from piloting to baggage handling to working as customer service agents. In 1970, Otis B. Young Jr. made African American aviation history when he took to the air as the first African American pilot of a jumbo jet. By 1976, the number of African American airline pilots had grown to approximately eight African American Eras

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men. African American female pilots, however, would not make their mark on the commercial aviation industry until 1987. Jill Brown, who was the first African American female pilot to serve in the Navy, was rejected by United Airlines three times (in 1977, 1979, and 1987). She filed charges of discrimination against the airline, claiming that United Airlines used discriminatory screening procedures to reject minority applicants despite their qualifications. Brown became the first African American female pilot to fly for any American commercial airline when she was hired by United Airlines in 1987. By the mid-2000s, there were hundreds of African American pilots flying for commercial airlines, which is still a small percentage of the tens of thousands of pilots working in the aviation industry.

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NASA IS INTEGRATED As longstanding segregation laws came under fire at the beginning of the 1960s, the administration of President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) initiated measures to integrate government programs, agencies, and institutions. The U.S. Department of Defense revealed that it had no African Americans in the Aerospace Research Test Pilots’ School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The agency was immediately given the responsibility of finding a qualified African American pilot who could be trained as an astronaut. Little Progress in the 1960s In 1961, Edward J. Dwight (1933– ), an Air Force captain with a degree in aeronautics and more than two thousand hours of jet-flying time, received a letter from President Kennedy informing him that he had been selected for astronaut training. Dwight was in the midst of training for spaceflight when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, just two years later. Without support from the president, Dwight was soon overlooked by NASA, and he responded to what he perceived as racial discrimination by writing a fifteen-page letter to the Department of Defense describing the prejudice he faced as NASA’s only African American astronaut. Ultimately, Dwight’s complaints undermined his career, and he was never selected to travel in space. After experiencing further discrimination from the U.S. Air Force, he resigned his commission in 1966.

A year later, Robert H. Lawrence (1935–67), a major in the Air Force and a doctor of nuclear chemistry, qualified for the Air Force’s Manned Orbital Laboratory program, thereby becoming the space program’s first African American astronaut appointee, as well as the program’s first participant to hold a doctorate. Unfortunately, Lawrence was killed in a plane crash in 1967, only six months after his selection by NASA. Eleven years passed and no African Americans had been chosen to join the 790


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astronaut space training program. The United States was accused of racism by the Soviet Union, which had launched the world’s first woman, Colonel Valentina Tereshkova (1937– ), into space in 1963. The Soviet Union would send Cuba’s Colonel Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez into space in 1980, earning him the distinction of being the world’s first black man in space.



African Americans in Ground Operations African Americans would not resume their presence in the astronaut training program until the space-shuttle era of space exploration began in the 1980s. Nevertheless, they were involved in NASA’s ground operations from the agency’s beginnings in 1958. In 1953, for instance, Katherine G. Johnson (1918– ) was hired by the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, NASA’s predecessor, in an accounting capacity. She filled in for a co-worker at the Flight Research Division, where administrators recognized her skill at data interpretation. Johnson soon earned a position as an aerospace technologist. In this capacity, she contributed to the development of prototype spacecrafts, calculated trajectories for the Apollo moon-landing mission, and developed emergency navigational methods for astronauts before she retired in 1986.

Several key inventions by African Americans have been vital to the success of many NASA missions. For example, Naval Research Laboratory astrophysicist George Carruthers (1939– ) co-invented the far ultraviolet camera/spectrograph (UVC), a device that used ultraviolet light to capture never-before-seen images of Earth’s atmosphere as well as stars in far outer space. The UVC, also known as the lunar surface ultraviolet camera, was placed on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972. Aeronautical test engineer Robert E. Shurney created products for both astronauts and spacecraft during his career at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1968 to 1990. Shurney developed human waste disposal units that stored solids at the bottom and liquid in tubes to prevent the waste from floating freely in a weightless rocket cabin. These disposal units were used during the Apollo program and on the Skylab space station, as well as on the first space shuttle flights. Also among Shurney’s contributions were lightweight aluminum tires for the lunar rover. Many other African American scientists have been influential in the ground operations of the U.S. space program, including the individuals listed below: • George E. Alcorn (1940– ): Alcorn is a physicist who joined NASA in 1978. He invented an imaging x-ray spectrometer that is used to obtain information about objects in the solar system, including the sun. Alcorn refined his design by discovering a way that laser drilling could improve the x-ray spectrometer’s efficiency. Besides African American Eras

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significant number of African American scientists receive recognition for the work they do in aerospace and astronautics, which most commonly employ the services of physicists, engineers, and mathematicians. Indeed, NASA is almost continuously in the public eye. Other groups of scientists who get attention are those working in medicine and medical research because their findings are frequently the subject of media attention. Often overlooked are the African American scientists who work behind the scenes in such diverse fields as biology, Earth science, and chemistry. • Evan B. Forde (1952– ): Forde, a researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was the first African American oceanographer to participate in dives made by submersible exploration vehicles. Forde has also studied methods for detecting hurricanes early in their formation. • Mack Gipson Jr. (1931–95): Gipson, a geologist, worked for Zoologist Lisa Stevens speaks the Exxon oil company. He conducted tests that simulated at a press conference prior to a preview of the new giant earthquakes and measured the depth of rock formations to panda cub, Tai Shan, at the locate oil fields. Smithsonian National Zoolo • Betty Harris (1940– ): As a nuclear chemist at the Los Alamos gical Park in Washington, D.C., in 2005. Chip Somodevilla/ National Lab in New Mexico, Harris worked in the areas of Getty Images hazardous waste disposal and the environmental restoration of facilities that had been contaminated with active gun propellants and explosives. As a result of her studies, she became a preeminent authority in the chemistry of explosives. She received a

developing instruments for use in space, he worked on classified missile projects for NASA. • Emmett Chappell: Chappell was a biochemist at the Research Center for Space Exploration. He worked with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in 1966 to create equipment that provides a safe oxygen supply for astronauts. • John B. Christian: Christian, a U.S. Air Force materials research engineer, invented new lubricants that are functional in an extreme 792


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patent in 1986 for her invention of a spot test for detecting explosives in a field environment. Walter Andrew Hill (1946– ): Hill was educated as a chemist, but his career has focused on agronomy, the science and technology of using plants for human food, fibers, oils, livestock and poultry feed, and industrial products. Hill combined his knowledge of botany, chemistry, and genetics to explore the uses and sustainability of sweet potatoes on long-term space missions. He obtained a patent for his method of growing a root crop in a water tank. Reatha Belle Clark King (1938– ): King’s long career in science has included being a research chemist, an educator, and an administrator. Much of King’s work was in thermochemistry, which is the study of the energy changes that occur when a chemical reaction takes place. Her study of fluoride compounds provided NASA with the technology to develop a substance that could protect containers from oxygen difluoride, a highly corrosive compound used for space flight. Waverly Person (1927– ): This geophysicist served as head of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, from 1977 to 2006. Lisa Stevens (1955– ): Beginning in 1978, Stevens, a zoologist, worked at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. She took charge of its giant panda program in 1987. As the zoo’s curator (person in charge of exhibits), Stevens made several television appearances in 2005 when panda cub Tai Shan was born.

range of temperatures. These lubricants have been used in the fourwheel-drive system of the moon-buggy. They have also been used for astronaut backpack life-support systems during NASA space missions. • Patricia Cowlings: Cowlings served as director of psychophysiology research at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the late 1970s. There, she taught astronauts autogenic feedback, or methods to control their physiological responses to stressors in space. Cowlings was African American Eras

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also the first woman of any race in the history of NASA to receive astronaut training. Julian Earls: Earls, hired in 1965, was the first African American radiation physicist to work for NASA. He was responsible for building technology and systems-development programs for space communications, aeronautical propulsions, and combustion and fluid physics. Isaac Thomas Gillam IV (1932– ): Gillam helped develop one of the most dependable launch vehicles ever used in the NASA space program. He also directed the first flight tests of the space shuttle as manager of NASA’s Delta rocket program in 1978. Vance Marchbanks (1905–88): Marchbanks, an Air Force flight surgeon, conducted experiments showing that adrenaline levels could affect the exhaustion levels of flight crews. NASA recruited him as a medical observer for Project Mercury. Stationed in Nigeria, Marchbanks was responsible for helping monitor the vital signs of astronaut John Glenn as he orbited Earth. Marchbanks participated in the designing of the space suit and life-support systems used in the 1969 Apollo moon mission. Valerie L. Thomas-Richardson: Thomas-Richardson joined NASA as a mathematician and data analyst in 1964. She later became manager of NASA’s image-processing systems for Landsat, the first satellite to transmit images from outer space. In 1980, she patented the illusion transmitter, an apparatus that transforms one-dimensional images viewed on a screen into three-dimensional images that appear to float in the air.

Pioneers in Space Partly a result of NASA’s initiative to increase its ethnic diversity, the agency accepted three African American men into its astronaut training program in 1978: Guion “Guy” S. Bluford (1942– ), Ronald E. McNair (1950–86), and Frederick D. Gregory (1941– ). (Their class also consisted of the program’s first female astronaut candidates, the most famous of whom was Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space.) Bluford was selected after five years of training to be the first African American in space on the eighth mission of the space shuttle Challenger. The shuttle was launched on August 30, 1983, in front of an audience that included more than 250 African American political leaders, educators, and entertainers eager to celebrate this moment in history. Bluford was a mission specialist responsible for deploying the shuttle’s main payload, a satellite for India, and operating a Remote Manipulator System (RMS). During his career with NASA, Bluford completed four missions and logged more than 688 hours in space on the Challenger and Discovery shuttles. 794


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Frederick Gregory became the first African American to pilot an American spacecraft aboard the Challenger in 1985. Gregory was the commander, the position of highest responsibility on a shuttle, in his two subsequent missions on the shuttle Discovery. After working in mission control for several other spacecraft launches, he became the first African American to hold the post of associate administrator for NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance in 1992. Gregory was working in mission control on January 28, 1986, when he witnessed the death of classmate Ronald McNair as the space shuttle Challenger exploded seventy-three seconds after liftoff. McNair, who had become the second African American in space when he participated in a 1984 Challenger mission, was also the first African American astronaut to lose his life as part of the space shuttle program. McNair was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied the use of lasers for satellite-to-satellite communication. McNair, like Bluford, was responsible for operating the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System. McNair’s assignment on the Challenger also called for him to test solar cells and monitor space gases. African American Eras

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The first three African Americans admitted to NASA’s astronaut training program were (from left to right) Guion “Guy” Bluford, Ronald McNair, and Frederick Gregory. Also shown is astronaut Charles F. Bolden Jr. U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

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he Ames Autogenic Feedback Training System (AAFTS) is a method developed in the 1970s by Dr. Patricia Cowlings, NASA’s director of psychophysiology, to help astronauts overcome Space Adaptation Syndrome, or space motion sickness. The absence of gravity in space causes considerable physiological and biological changes in the body. Cowlings’s studies early in her career with NASA revealed some of the effects of a weightless environment on a person. These include the redistribution of bodily fluids, a reduction in musculoskeletal (relating to the muscles and skeleton) strength, an alteration in cardiac function, and a loss of sensory motor control. Cowlings wanted to know how and why these changes occurred. She knew that these physical health changes can be devastating not only to the individual but also to the success of the mission. In fact, human errors that are caused by space motion sickness have been documented by both NASA and the Russian space program. Although Space Adaptation Syndrome typically strikes early in a mission, its effects are evident even after the astronauts’ return to Earth. Cowlings monitored post-flight astronauts and found that physical responses to the syndrome include low blood pressure and orthostatic intolerance (a condition characterized by lightheadedness and dizziness), headaches, fatigue, visual disturbances, weakness, and palpitations. Cowlings first successfully tested the AAFTS technique on two astronauts during a 1985 space shuttle mission. Cowlings’s method teaches astronauts to recognize and control their physiological responses to a variety of environmental stressors, a “mind over matter” approach to dealing with physical effects of zero gravity. For example, an astronaut can intentionally lower his or her heart rate by using deep-breathing exercises developed by Cowlings. This helps lessen people’s negative emotional responses, as well as their physical reactions. Cowlings reports that AAFTS has definite advantages over medication used to help motion sickness. Astronauts who use Cowlings’s method do not suffer such drug-induced side effects as sleepiness, blurred vision, or short-term memory loss, all of which can be dangerous on a mission. After training hundreds of astronauts and pilots, Cowlings realized that even though she never got to fly on a mission, her work on the AAFTS technique was one of the most important contributions to America’s space program.

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Only one year later, Mae C. Jemison (1956– ) became the first African American woman to join NASA’s astronaut training program. She became the first African American female in space on September 13, 1992, aboard the shuttle Endeavor. Her duties on that mission focused mainly on the effects of weightlessness and motion sickness on astronauts. Jemison resigned from NASA shortly after her flight to pursue her own scientific interests. Her colleague Bernard A. Harris (1956– ) continued to study how the health of astronauts could be sustained while they were in space and, as part of the NASA Exercise Countermeasures Project, assisted in the development of exercises to help prevent the loss of physical strength and conditioning during spaceflight. In March 1993, Harris traveled on the Columbia shuttle, where he facilitated the first medical conference from space with doctors at the Mayo Clinic.



Fourteen African Americans had become astronauts or astronaut trainees by 2005. Among these is Charles F. Bolden Jr. (1946– ), who was part of the crew that launched the Hubble telescope from the space shuttle Discovery in 1992. Two years later, Bolden was commander of the newly commissioned Atlantis. Another notable African American astronaut is Robert L. Curbeam Jr. (1962– ), a member of the six-person crew that installed a laboratory on the International Space Station. In 2003, astronaut Michael Anderson (1959–2003) was killed when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere sixteen minutes from its scheduled landing. Other space shuttle missions in the twenty-first century have carried African American astronauts Leland D. Melvin and Joan E. Higgenbotham.

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INVENTIONS BY AFRICAN AMERICANS IMPROVE LIVES Throughout the history of the United States, African American inventors have improved the lives of all Americans. African American slaves in the nineteenth century created devices or developed techniques to help their masters’ affairs run more smoothly. They rarely received recognition for their inventiveness. A federal law passed in 1858 prohibited slaves from applying for patents or in any other way claiming ownership of their inventions. Benjamin Bradley, a slave during the 1840s, worked at the Annapolis Naval Academy, where he designed a steam engine for use on a warship. He was not permitted to patent his work, but he was able to sell his design and buy his freedom with the money he received from the sale. In 1870, five years after the end of the Civil War, U.S. patent laws were changed to allow anyone, regardless of gender or race, to hold a patent. From that point on, African American inventors finally began to be recognized for their impact on American society. African American Eras

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Many inventions by African Americans have changed the world by giving scientists and physicians important new tools. Other inventors have improved daily life for young and old alike. Others still have simply provided people with new kinds of entertainment. Fun and Fantasy African American engineers and computer experts have been the brains behind many of the inventions used for entertainment purposes. Lonnie G. Johnson (1949– ), for instance, is an aerospace engineer who touched the youth of the United States in a way he would never have expected. In 1982, Johnson was working as a member of a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, when he decided to conduct an experiment at home with a heat pump that used water instead of Freon. As Johnson worked with vinyl tubing and a nozzle he had constructed himself, a jet stream of water shot across his bathroom. The soaking he received gave him an idea that would eventually become the Super Soaker Water Blaster gun. The Hasbro toy company began to sell the toy in 1989. The Super Soaker gun line used patented air-pressure technology that caused the gun to shoot larger quantities of water farther than any other water gun on the market. The water gun was the top-selling toy in the United States in 1991 and 1992, and new models debuted after that into the 2000s. Hasbro re-released the original Super Soaker 50 in 2009 to commemorate the Super Soaker’s twentieth anniversary. Johnson, who has

Aerospace engineer Lonnie Johnson with his invention the Super Soaker and a patent for the pump action water gun in 1992. Thomas S. England/Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

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been featured in such publications as Time magazine and Inventor’s Digest, went on to found Johnson Research and Development Co., which specializes in technology development.



Marc Hannah (1956– ) is another inventor who was a major contributor to the entertainment of millions of people in the 1980s and 1990s. Hannah, a specialist in three-dimensional (3-D) computer graphics, built his career at Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI), a company renowned for its innovations in computer graphics. As the principal engineer of SGI, Hannah designed the computer equipment that special-effects artists used in such movies as Field of Dreams (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Jurassic Park (1993). The 3-D technology developed by SGI was also used by engineering companies to design airplanes and by medical research facilities to analyze gene sequences. Consumer Goods Chemist James C. Letton (1933– ) is an inventor who has affected the lives of most everyone in the country. He worked for Procter & Gamble, one of the world’s largest corporations, starting in 1970. Procter & Gamble is the distributor of such consumer goods as shampoo, razors, diapers, and toothpaste. Early in his career with the company, Letton created and received a patent for biodegradable soap agents, which allow soaps to dissolve naturally so that they are not harmful to the environment. He soon received a second patent, this time for an enzyme stabilization technique he developed for Era, a laundry detergent. In 1996, Procter & Gamble debuted potato chips cooked with Olestra, a fat substitute that had originally been invented at the company in 1968. Twenty years later, Letton and a team of other chemists began to study the potential of the substance for public consumption. Letton received several patents as a result of his work with Olestra, which is marketed by Procter & Gamble as Olean. Computers and Communications The innovations of Rodney Adkins (1958– ), a computer scientist, have revolutionized the world of video gaming. He is responsible for the development and manufacturing of silicon chips and microprocessors that are used by the Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation, and Nintendo Wii video game systems. His technology expertise has also improved people’s everyday lives. Adkins, as senior vice president of Development & Manufacturing for IBM’s Systems & Technology Group, was part of the team that developed IBM’s ThinkPad notebook computers. He also oversaw the development of hardware and software systems for such commonplace activities as booking airline reservations online and using automated teller machines (ATMs). African American Eras

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Adkins is joined by Shirley Ann Jackson (1946– ), a theoretical physicist. She was the first African American female to head the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an entity responsible for ensuring that the health and safety of the public are not endangered by the use of nuclear energy as a power source. Jackson began her career at AT&T Bell Laboratories. There, her work included telecommunications technology that helped make such inventions as the portable fax, the touchtone telephone, caller ID, and call waiting realities in people’s everyday lives. Home Security For many Americans, a house is their most valuable possession. Thanks to African American inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown, people can rely on security systems to help protect their homes. Brown, along with partner Albert Brown, applied for a patent for a closed-circuit television security system that could be used as a home surveillance system in 1966. The security system consisted of four peep holes and a motorized camera that could slide up and down to “look” out of each hole. Any images the camera captured would appear on a monitor. Another feature of the Browns’ invention was an electrical switch that allowed the occupant of the home to unlock the door with a remote control, which in itself was a relatively new invention. The patent was granted in 1969, and decades of advancements in home security systems have followed.

Sydney Jacoby is another inventor who focused on the safety of homeowners. He patented a combination smoke and heat detector alarm in 1976 that could be used in office buildings as well as houses. Although many different types of fire alarm systems exist today, Jacoby’s is distinctive because it is responsive to either the presence of smoke or the presence of heat in a residence or building. Each component works independently with two sounding alarms. The combination smoke- and heat-detector alarm has proven effective for commercial and residential use as a device for early detection of fire-related dangers.

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AFRICAN AMERICANS SUFFER KNOWLEDGE GAP IN INFORMATION AGE The term “information revolution” refers to the dramatic changes that took place in the U.S. economy around the beginning of the 1990s. Goodsproducing jobs (jobs that make an actual product such as farming, mining, construction, and manufacturing, for example) began to be replaced by service-producing jobs (jobs that provide information, assistance, or knowledge such as sales, education, administration, and healthcare). This shift in the economic makeup of America affected a large sector of the African American population. Individuals who worked in factories, for 800


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instance, began to see their jobs replaced by robotic or automated machines. Service-producing jobs generally require more advanced job skills than goods-producing ones. Those skills increasingly involved computer literacy, or a basic understanding of computer technology.



The roots of the information revolution can be traced to the 1970s, when computers were used chiefly by large companies. Relatively few people understood how they worked or how they could be used in their everyday lives. Personal computers became more common in homes and workplaces throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the mid-1990s, the Internet changed dramatically the way people communicated for work and personal reasons. In 1997, the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking Internet use by Americans. It reported that in 1997, about half of U.S. adults used computers. This was a dramatic increase from 18 percent in 1984. In 1997, about one in five Americans had used the Internet. By 2007, more than 60 percent of U.S. households had computers with Internet connections. Computer scientists and educators were faced with the issue of preparing the public for a future that would require at least a basic familiarity with computer technology. “Digital Divide” Identified The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a report titled Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the “Have Nots” in Rural and Urban America in July 1995. This report coined the term “digital divide” to describe the gap that exists between those who have access to and benefit from information and communication technologies (ICTs) and those who do not. NTIA found the lowest percentage of personal computer ownership among African American households. In July 1998, the NTIA issued another report: Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide. This report showed that the digital divide had widened between 1995 and 1998. It provided statistics illustrating the differences in technology access and use between whites and minority groups. For example, this second study reported that 37.7 percent of whites used the Internet between 1995 and 1998; only 19 percent of African Americans used the Internet during that same period of time. Also, African Americans and Hispanics were less connected to the Internet everywhere—home, school, library, or other places for free public access—than whites were at home.

A great deal of research on how the digital divide affects the lives of African Americans has focused on the physical access this population has to computers and the Internet. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2007 about 45 percent of African American homes had a computer with an Internet connection (compared with 64 percent of white homes). Those without computers and Internet connections at home must go to public libraries or other facilities that have computers available for public use in African American Eras

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order to gain access to such technology. Studies also show that African Americans are less likely to have the technical skills to operate computers. They often lack the information-literacy skills necessary to take full advantage of what computers and the Internet have to offer. Researchers worry the technology skills gap will worsen the differences that already exist between whites and blacks in educational achievement and income. Since the 1990s, computer literacy and Internet access have become essential job skills. Even low-paying jobs, such as cashier in a fastfood restaurant, require basic data entry abilities. A lack of access to information technology during their school years prevents many African Americans from developing skills they need in order to succeed in the workforce. A lack of access to information technology for African American adults denies them use of a wealth of information, such as local, national, and international news. Progress Made Toward Greater Technological Literacy Some sociologists praise the Internet as a driving force of African American technology skills development due to the popularity of social networking sites. Such sites include Facebook (which is aimed toward all audiences) and BlackPlanet (the largest black online community). Social networking sites can help African Americans do anything from finding a mate to reconnecting with old classmates. Other popular methods of connecting socially through the Internet include blogs, message boards, discussion forums, and email. These kinds of services have proven attractive enough to draw increasing numbers of African Americans, especially young people. In 2009, a market research survey of urban African American and Hispanic teens and young adults revealed very high percentages of Internet use: 96 percent used the Internet at work, school, or home. The most cited reasons for using the Internet were to email, use social networking sites, download music, or visit Internet chat rooms.

As computer usage became more prevalent in society, civil rights leaders, national policy makers, and educators have warned about the dangers of the digital divide, maintaining that people who are not part of the information revolution will suffer a loss of educational and employment opportunities. The good news is that African Americans are steadily closing the digital divide. While household income is still a factor in whether one has access to the Internet, even poor African Americans are finding ways to use information technology. Factors that have helped close the gap are the falling prices of laptop and personal computers, cell phones and hand-held devices that have Internet connectivity, and greater numbers of computers in schools and public libraries. In fact, a 2009 report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that Internet connections via cellular 802


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Bill Clinton announces a proposal to help close the digital divide in 2000. Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images

telephones were widespread among the African American population, and that African Americans were much more likely than whites to access the Internet via a mobile device (such as a telephone) rather than a computer. The Pew research found that if mobile Internet use was figured into statistics on Internet access, the “digital divide” nearly disappeared. In 2009, according to the Pew report, 61 percent of whites used the Internet every day, as did 54 percent of African Americans.

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BLACK SCIENTISTS PROMOTE SCIENCE EDUCATION FOR MINORITIES For the most part, African American scientists in the mid-twentieth century worked as teachers in historically black colleges and universities African American Eras

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(HBCUs). With only a few exceptions, they did not influence the larger scientific community. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, opened new doors for African American scientists beyond academia. Career opportunities in science, engineering and technology were available to African Americans as never before. During the years following the Civil Rights Act, universities and scientific organizations became more willing to embrace diversity. This allowed African Americans to take leadership positions that had previously been held by white scientists. In 1988, for example, physicist Walter E. Massey (1938– ) became the first African American president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also became the second African American director of the National Science Foundation in 1991. Despite the strong representation of African Americans in scientific and technological areas, there are some modern scholars who say that the scientific community has remained hostile to those scientists who are neither white nor male. African Americans continue to be underrepresented in the disciplines of science, engineering, and technology in the twenty-first century. Lack of Opportunity for African Americans at All Educational Levels Educators have long argued that African American students lack the educational foundation for advanced scientific study given to other student populations. The reason is largely socioeconomic (based on social and financial causes): public schools are funded by property taxes, and schools in poorer neighborhoods are not as well funded as schools in richer neighborhoods. African Americans, in general, earn less than whites, and so are more likely to live in those poorer neighborhoods. African American children are therefore more likely to attend lowerperforming schools.

Schools with large minority populations, many of which are urban schools, offer few hands-on science education opportunities for students because they lack the financial resources to purchase or maintain lab equipment. This problem extends beyond elementary and secondary education, affecting HBCUs as well. Advocates for African American education assert that HBCUs cannot offer African American students the same quality of education as predominantly white colleges and universities because of a lack of funding that prevents them from having the resources and facilities necessary to prepare their students for the technological demands of the twenty-first century. In addition, a lack of scholarships, financial aid, and teaching fellowships for African Americans in the sciences has led some of the students with the most potential for careers in science, engineering, and technology to enter other fields that are more likely to generate wealth, such as business. 804


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Even when African American students do have access to high-quality science education, science curriculum programs in many schools are frequently centered on textbooks that focus on the discoveries and inventions of white men. This leaves African Americans with little knowledge or awareness of the contributions African American scientists, inventors, and engineers have made in their fields. Without role models or reinforcement, some African American students have been led to believe that they have no place in the scientific community. Science educators have sought to address this problem by creating programs of study that are more comprehensive and that accommodate different learning styles. Nevertheless, the results of such improvements have been slow to develop, prompting leaders in the African American community to predict that the increasingly technological society of the twenty-first century will leave many young African Americans behind. They worry that existing income and standard-of-living differences between the white and black communities will persist because whites will gain the necessary science and technology skills to compete, but African Americans will not.



Successful Scientists Encourage African American Youth Reflecting on the importance of education for African Americans, Walter Massey commented that science and technology will become even more important in people’s jobs and daily lives. Those who are uneducated in these areas will not be able to contribute to society to the extent of those who understand scientific and technological advances. Massey is one of many African American scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who dedicate their efforts to promoting more opportunities for minorities and encouraging African American students to pursue the science and technology disciplines in school.

Astronomer and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958– ) uses frequent television appearances to emphasize how taking math and science classes gives students career options they might otherwise never have had. Christine Darden (1942– ), a former aerospace engineer at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), speaks to African American female students about pursuing their interests in science, even if others attempt to thwart their dreams. One of the most vocal advocates of science and technology literacy for African Americans is the high-profile physicist Shirley Ann Jackson, who served as the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the Clinton administration. Jackson has used her position in both the scientific community and the federal government to champion the value of science education, along with public policy relating to the sciences. African American astronauts have proven to be among the most influential promoters of science and technology education. Before his African American Eras

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Former NASA astronaut Bernard Harris interacts with participants in his summer science camp, hosted by Howard University, in 2009. Harris started the camp to encourage middle school students who have limited opportunities to learn more about science. ª Hyungwon Kang/ Reuters/Corbis

untimely death in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion, Ronald McNair traveled the country speaking to young people about the importance of remaining in school and urging officials to hire experienced, highly qualified teachers for inner-city schools. Although Guion “Guy” S. Bluford prefers to be recognized as a competent aerospace engineer who just happens to be African American, he acknowledges the fact that his space-shuttle flights were a giant step forward for the entire African American community. Bluford has been a guest at various venues throughout the United States, sharing his message that black youngsters can take advantage of opportunities through hard work. After leaving NASA in 1993, Mae Jemison established the Jemison Group, Inc., a private organization that founded an international science camp to promote science education for students who are twelve through sixteen years old. In 2001, she published an autobiography for young adults titled Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life to demonstrate, through her own life and career, how minorities can achieve whatever goals they desire so long as they are dedicated to working hard.

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Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Agency, and the Department of Commerce. The Clinton administration (1993– 2001) promoted universal access (access for all Americans, regardless of race or socioeconomic status) to available new information and communication technologies. African Americans have been key players in ensuring equal access to information technology. African American business leaders and engineers have also played diverse roles in contributing to the changing of American society through technology. Some of these black leaders are computer scientists, while others are CEOs of technology companies. Many are communications experts or developers of cyberspace communities. All have influenced their fields of expertise and have helped establish an African American presence in the information technology of the new millennium.



The Telecommunications Act of 1996 The first African American U.S. secretary of commerce, Ron Brown (1941–96), led representatives from the private sector and other government agencies in developing the policies that eventually became the groundbreaking Telecommunications Act of 1996. This legislation marked the beginning of a new era in telecommunications, not only in the United States, but also all over the world. Congressman Bobby L. Rush (1946– ) was a member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet who sponsored legislation ensuring that African Americans and other minorities would benefit from the rapidly increasing technological advances sweeping the

Ron Brown, shown in a press briefing in 1995, helped pave the way for important telecommunications legislation as commerce secretary in the administration of President Bill Clinton. Diana Walker/Time & Pictures/Getty Images


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nation. Rush also backed successful policies that would result in more technology-related employment opportunities for African Americans. William E. Kennard (1957– ) was appointed by President Bill Clinton (1946– ) to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) only one year after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 went into effect. The FCC is the agency in charge of regulating telephone, telegraph, and cable television services, along with television and radio broadcasts, wireless and cellular services, and satellite communications. Kennard was the first African American to chair the FCC. He had previously worked for the National Association of Broadcasters and specialized in communications law at a private practice. Kennard worked to develop policies that helped bridge the digital divide in America (the gap in technology access experienced by minorities) by making information technologies, such as the Internet, available to a greater number of schools, libraries, low-income families, and people with disabilities. One of his key roles at the FCC was overseeing the multibillion-dollar mergers of industry giants in communications: AOL with Time Warner (2000), Bell Atlantic and GTE (2000), and CBS and Viacom (1999), for example. Congressman Towns Supports HBCUs Congressman Edolphus Towns (1934– ) was another politician who supported technology access and education for African Americans. He championed the cause of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) by supporting H.R. 2183, the Minority Serving Institution Digital and Wireless Technology Opportunity Act in 2003. This legislation would provide 250 million dollars annually for grants to help HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to acquire digital and wireless technology, including the infrastructure (the hardware used to connect users and computers) needed to provide services that used the technology. In addition, the grants could be used to purchase new equipment and software upgrades and to provide technology training.

All committee members and witnesses in attendance acknowledged the importance of addressing the digital divide when H.R. 2183 was presented to the Research Subcommittee of the House Science Committee on July 9, 2003. However, Nick Smith (1934– ), the chairman of the subcommittee, expressed concerns about its funding. He stated that financial assistance from the federal government should be based on a school’s financial need, not on the race or ethnicity of its students. He emphasized that not all MSIs are poor, and that hundreds of other smaller colleges lack the money to provide their students with access to the technologies necessary to bridge the digital divide. Smith argued that giving 250 million dollars each year only to MSIs does not support the nation’s goal to encourage achievement 808


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in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education for all students.


Towns testified that members of MSIs should have the authority to recommend to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the agency that would be in control of the funds, what schools should receive the grant money provided by H.R. 2183. He did not want those decisions to be left to representatives who did not have any familiarity with the MSI community. In response, NFS director Rita Colwell (1934– ) said that the legislation as presented conflicted with NSF’s standard operating procedures. It would put too many constraints on NSF’s management of the program and would require NSF to fund every eligible proposed program regardless of its merit.


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The subcommittee decided at the time that H.R. 2183 could not be supported without amendments addressing the concerns raised by members of the committee. It did not come up for debate for the next session. However, the bill was reintroduced by Towns in January 2007 as H.R. 694, Minority Serving Institution Digital and Wireless Technology Opportunity Act of 2007. It passed in the House of Representatives on September 4, 2007. African Americans Play Central Roles in Information Revolution A number of African American computer scientists and engineers set the information revolution in motion in the 1980s. One of the earliest pioneers of the information age was Clarence A. Ellis (1943– ), the first African American to receive a PhD in computer science (in 1969). Ellis was part of a team at the Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in Silicon Valley, California, that was assigned the mission of inventing the “office of the future.” Besides Ellis, the PARC team included sociologists, psychologists, and other computer scientists who sought ways to make daily tasks easier for office workers. In 1973, the group built Alto, the world’s first personal computer (PC), which changed computing—and office work—forever. Ellis and his colleagues also developed software for the computer during the 1970s. The Alto included menus and icons, but these innovations were not used until Apple Computers, Inc., began incorporating the technology into its machines in the early 1980s.

The Alto PC technology laid the foundation for future PCs. In the 1980s, Mark Dean (1957– ), a computer engineer at the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, helped advance the world of personal computers. Dean was a member of the IBM development team that produced the 286-AT personal computer. This computer, which was the first PC model to be mass-marketed to consumers, revolutionized home and small-business computing. Dean and colleague Dennis Moeller developed the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a driver device African American Eras

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that allows desktop computers to communicate with printers and other devices, such as speakers, external disk drives, modems, and scanners. Dean was the chief engineer for its development, and holds three of the original nine patents issued for the IBM PC that was introduced in 1984. While Dean was determining how a PC could communicate with external devices, Philip Emeagwali (1956– ) was calculating how a large number of computers could communicate with each other all at once. The Internet, part of most people’s lives, owes much of its existence to Emeagwali. He demonstrated that smaller, less expensive computers that were connected could communicate directly with each other, instead of through a supercomputer, to solve complex computations or access information. Emeagwali remotely programmed a computer to utilize 65,536 processors to process 3.1 billion calculations per second, a speed that far exceeded what any existing supercomputer had been able to accomplish at the time. This speed set the world’s fastest computational record in 1989. Emeagwali’s findings demonstrated both the possibility and the practicality of linking computers to communicate all over the world. IBM and Apple adopted Emeagwali’s microprocessor technology and began to build laptop computers with the capability of performing at high speeds in the 1990s. This technology revolutionized the production of laptop computers at the time. Smaller and more powerful models began to be debuted throughout the decade. In 1998, it was again an African American computer scientist who enhanced laptop computer engineering. Dean, by then director of IBM’s Austin Research Lab, led the design team that built the first one-gigahertz computer processor chip. The chip was capable of doing one billion calculations per second, a rate three times faster than the standard for the time. The computer industry has continued to improve the speed and capacity of both PCs and laptops well into the twenty-first century thanks to Dean’s computer chip technology. In the late 1980s, cyberspace was difficult to navigate despite improvements in technology. The Internet had no World Wide Web, which meant that there was no single way for users to access information from the Internet. Even so, technology consultant Art McGee was researching and compiling information about Africans and African Americans. He compiled the information into an online directory he dubbed the Pan African Resource Guide. This directory helped users find information about African Americans by organizing it all together. McGee’s Pan African Resource Guide was instrumental in influencing the creation of later virtual communities that focused on African American culture. In 1995, for instance, computer entrepreneur E. David Ellington (1960– ) co-founded NetNoir Online. This site billed itself as the

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“Cybergateway to Afrocentric Culture” when it was launched. NetNoir was named one of Fortune magazine’s “25 Cool Companies of the Year” in 1995. As of 2010, there were thousands of black-oriented Internet Web sites offering countless resources and information.



Even as African American computer scientists were exploring new frontiers in computer hardware in the 1980s, John Henry Thompson was using his skills as a computer scientist and a visual artist to invent Lingo programming. Lingo is a computer scripting language that helps form visuals in programs. From 1987 to 2004, Thompson used Lingo to develop Adobe’s Macromedia Director and Shockwave. Such multimedia authoring software allows users to integrate different graphic file formats (JPEG and QuickTime files, for example) in creating interactive games, simulations, animation, and virtual learning courses. Thompson is highly regarded as a master of digital multimedia. He was also involved in the development of many other products, including the VideoWorks Accelerator, VideoWorks II, MediaMaker, and Action. All of Thompson’s programs have advanced the computer graphics industry. Another noteworthy software developer is Janet Emerson Bashen. Bashen made history when she became the first African American woman to be issued a patent for a software invention. Bashen created LinkLine, an automated, Web-based program that is used for processing and managing equal-employment-opportunity (EEO) claims. (People file EEO claims when they believe they have been discriminated against in the workplace.) She used her LinkLine software to establish her own business. She became the founder and CEO of the Bashen Corporation, a human-resources consulting firm that manages paperwork for EEO claims. Since 1994, Bashen Corporation’s long list of customers has included General Motors, Verizon, Goodyear, and Compaq, as well as federal government agencies. Many other African American entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the business opportunities presented by the computer industry. John W. Thompson (1949– ) is one of the most successful. In 1999, Thompson became president and CEO of Symantec Corporation, a software company based in Silicon Valley. (Silicon Valley is south of San Francisco, California, and is home to a large number of software corporations, microchip manufacturers, and Internet startup companies.) Thompson received a great deal of attention as the first African American to hold the position of CEO at a prominent technology firm. He disregarded the attention. He wanted the public to believe he was the best man for the job, regardless of his race. With more and more business being conducted online, Thompson saw an opportunity to focus Symantec’s research and development goals on African American Eras

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John W. Thompson, CEO of the Internet security company Symantec, speaking at a conference in 2007. Gabriel Bouys/AFP/ Getty Images

Internet security technology. Thompson’s vision and marketing savvy caused Symantec to grow from a consumer utility software company to a global leader in the Internet security market. In the early 2000s, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies all over the world used Symantec products and services. At the time Thompson retired in April 2009, he was still the only African American to lead a major technology company.

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 SENATE TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM H. GRAY ON THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

AND MINORITY-SERVING INSTITUTIONS (2002) On February 27, 2002, William H. Gray III, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), addressed the U.S. Senate to present UNCF’s recommendations for the “NTIA Digital Network Program Act S. 414, Digital Divide and Minority Serving Institutions.” Gray joined a group of other supporters of the legislation in an effort to obtain federal funding for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Gray testified that UNCF’s goal in addressing the digital divide (the gap between those who have access to the Internet and other information and communication technologies) between students in HBCUs and students in predominantly white colleges was to ensure that African American faculty and students at HBCUs have computers and know how to use them. He explained why HBCUs in particular need government aid to adequately prepare African American students for the age of technology.

William Gray (right) and the United Negro College Fund received a $25 million software grant from Microsoft founder Bill Gates (left) to increase minority access to technology in 2002. Jeff Christensen/WireImage


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After testimony from other educational and political representatives, the Senate Commerce Committee in 2002 approved S. 414, and HBCUs were granted millions of dollars in federal funding for technology growth.

............................ Aspirations Hopes Vestiges Traces

Bulwark Defensive barrier

While we have not yet conquered the chasm that separates the college aspirations and opportunities for all of America’s minority youth from their majority counterparts—we are faced with a simultaneous and equally daunting challenge. The “digital divide” threatens to deny minority students, our professors, and our institutions the competitive skills they need to overcome the remaining vestiges imposed by race and economic segregation in America. The Department of Commerce’s July 1999 report “Falling Through the Net—A Report on the Telecommunications and Information Technology Gap in America” first highlighted the economic and racial divide in the access of Americans to telephones, computers and the Internet. As then Secretary of Commerce Daley pointed out, “(E)nsuring access to the fundamental tools of the digital economy is one of the most significant investments our nation can make.” As important as these tools are at home and in our elementary and secondary schools, America’s colleges and universities represent the last bulwark of the nation’s defense against technological illiteracy. We can ill-afford to produce college graduates who enter the workforce without mastering basic computer skills and understanding how information technology applies to their work or profession.

T H E N E E D F O R E N A C T M E N T OF S . 4 1 4

Confluence Coming together

Endowment Fund used for running an institution Alumni Graduates 814

First, UNCF member institutions and other HBCUs enroll large numbers of poor students, whose parents are unable to help pay college costs. In fact, 50 percent of all UNCF students come from families with incomes less than $35,000. Almost ninety percent of all UNCF students receive some form of federal financial assistance, and sixty percent of UNCF students are first-generation college students. It is clear, then, that the confluence of these demographic factors make virtually certain that many UNCF students will have their first exposure to computers and to the Internet when they arrive on the college campus. Second, for many institutions that enroll large numbers of minorities, making up the digital deficits at home and at school constitutes a real financial challenge. The inability of institutions to finance the acquisition of needed technology infrastructure creates another digital divide. Compared to other colleges, private black colleges have very small endowments and cannot fall back on sizeable numbers of wealthy alumni. The average endowment of UNCF schools for the 1998–1999 academic year was $22.29 million. Larger, well-financed institutions have greater access to the funding necessary to purchase technology than do smaller, private colleges with fewer resources. HBCUs, then, face a dual digital challenge—they enroll a large number of students who are admitted to college with the least pre-enrollment exposure and African American Eras

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knowledge of technology and the Internet, and the institutions that admit them face certain financial challenges in overcoming these digital deficits.


UNCF schools illustrate the challenges we face as a nation. In August 2000, UNCF’s testimony to the Web-based Commission, which I submit for the record, called attention to the plight of our students and member colleges:


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• Only 15 percent of the 55,000 students attending UNCF member-colleges and universities own computers; • College students nationally were more than twice as likely to have access to a college-owned computer than their private, HBCU counterparts—one computer for every 2.6 students in higher education institutions nationally compared to one for every 6 students at UNCF colleges and universities; • Seventy-one percent of faculty nationwide owned computers as compared to less than one-half of UNCF faculty; • The number of network servers at UNCF colleges per 1,000 students is approximately one-half that of all colleges and universities nationally; • Seventy-five percent of these servers, hubs, routers, and printers were obsolete or nearly obsolete and in need of replacement; and • The rural and relatively isolated areas, in which many of these institutions are located, place an additional Internet access burden on those institutions. ...

T H E F E D E R A L R O L E IN C L O S IN G T H E D I G I T A L D I V I D E Technology is no longer the wave of the future—it is the way of the present. Every student who lacks access to current technology risks falling further behind. We believe S. 414, and its companion House bill, H.R. 1034, provide a crucial and necessary vehicle for directing federal resources to the solution of an urgent problem. S. 414 provides direct grants to eligible institutions, or consortia of eligible institutions: (1) to acquire hardware and software; (2) to build technology infrastructure, i.e. wiring, platforms and networks; and (3) to train institutional personnel to use both the software and hardware and to plan for the future use of technology. . . . [W]hat our institutions need more than anything is the funding to purchase the instrumentation and to prepare students and institutional personnel for its usage. S. 414 will help provide those resources.

 CHARLES BOLDEN’S CONFIRMATION HEARING TESTIMONY

FOR NASA APPOINTMENT (2009) On July 8, 2009, Major General Charles Bolden, nominee for administrator of NASA, addressed the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation at his confirmation hearing. He was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama and became the first African American ever to serve as NASA’s top administrator when he was sworn in African American Eras

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on July 17, 2009. In his testimony, Bolden outlines plans for NASA’s future, which includes inspiring the next generation of scientists. Bolden praises the initiative President Lyndon B. Johnson took in recruiting African American and Hispanic students to join the military; it was through Johnson’s efforts that Bolden decided to pursue a career that eventually led to his flying in four space shuttle missions. Bolden’s appointment as administrator of NASA is considered a giant step for all African Americans and an inspiration for African American youth to realize that achievement in the sciences and engineering is within their reach.

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Consummate Perfect

Impunity Exemption from punishment

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I was born and raised in Columbia, SC in the segregated south—the older of two sons of Charles and Ethel Bolden, public school teachers who, despite very long hours and lower wages than their white counterparts, loved every day of their work and made the hard choice to remain in public education and to inspire thousands of Black students to take their places in national, state, and local leadership. With them as the consummate role models, I overcame the refusal of my Senators and Congressmen to appoint a Black to the Naval Academy by appealing to President Lyndon B. Johnson for assistance. President Johnson had taken the initiative to send a retired federal judge around the country to visit with Black and Hispanic high schools to recruit young, qualified minorities for entry to the three major service academies. I expressed interest in the Naval Academy during his visit to my high school and this led to my subsequently receiving an appointment to Annapolis from Congressman William Dawson of Chicago, IL. Inspired by my Plebe Year company officer, Major John Riley Love, a Marine Corps Viet Nam veteran and mentor reminiscent of my father, I chose to become a United States Marine upon graduation. Much like my father, Major Love was very tough and demanding, but incredibly fair and just in dealing with everyone. For more than 34 years as an active duty Marine, I witnessed the power of teams of diverse military men and women responding to worldwide crises of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, such as the small 16 to 20 person teams of Marines and Navy corpsmen sent from my command into Djibouti in the Horn of Africa to help drill fresh water wells and to assist the villagers in building rudimentary medical centers. The engagement and compassion exhibited by these Marines and sailors gained us a level of respect by the local tribe members that allows us to operate with impunity in this region even today. As a NASA astronaut I flew four times on the Space Shuttle as a member of international teams of dedicated engineering and science professionals. Floating in the windows of the Shuttle, speeding across its great desert at 4–5 miles per second, I saw the beauty of the Middle East, appearing peaceful and serene in spite of the Earthly reality of violence in the region. From my window perch, I viewed with sadness the majestic Amazon Rain Forest, considered by many to be the model of serenity and peace, yet devastated by deforestation, leaving the area and its people facing some of African American Eras

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the greatest environmental challenges of our day. I now dream of a day when any American can launch into the vastness of outer space and see the magnificence and grandeur of our home planet, Earth, as I have been blessed to do. I’m convinced this will inspire them to be more concerned for our environment and to strive to put an end to man’s inhumanity to man.



When I reflect on the violent days of the 1960’s civil rights movement; war in Viet Nam and anti-war demonstrations on our streets; turmoil and division in our nation not seen since the Civil War—I am inspired by the power of a shared national vision articulated by President John F. Kennedy to put men on the Moon; uniting the world in celebrating this achievement; and assuming uncontested technological leadership. NASA and its contractors produced what is a marvel of the modern age—the Space Shuttle followed by the International Space Station (ISS). With the common goal of making life better for humans here on Earth and improving understanding of our universe, NASA provided the leadership to our scientists, industry, and international partners to launch probes to distant planets; change human understanding of the universe in which we live with the Great Observatories—the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Chandra X-Ray Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), and the Spitzer Space Telescope—and develop biomedical research that contributed to innovation of the CATScan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the Debakey Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) or heart pump, and even a prospective salmonella vaccine. All this we accomplished in times equally as difficult as today, if not more so because, beginning in 1961, a young president and a bold Congress inspired the American people to have the courage to take action in areas previously unthinkable. Can we do any less today? I think not. Dr. Shirley Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, warns—“There is a quiet crisis building in the United States—a crisis that could jeopardize the nation’s pre-eminence and well-being. The crisis has been mounting gradually, but inexorably, over several decades. If permitted to continue unmitigated, it could reverse the global leadership Americans currently enjoy. The crisis stems from the gap between the nation’s growing need for scientists, engineers, and other technically skilled workers, and its production of them. . . . Our government, universities, and industry must act now to develop the intellectual capital of the future.”

Inexorably Relentlessly Unmitigated Not lessened in severity

Today we have to choose. Either we can invest in building upon our hard earned world technological leadership or we can abandon this commitment, ceding it to others who are working vigilantly to push the frontiers of space. If we choose to lead, we must earn that leadership by committing to confront the following challenges: • Build upon our investment in the ISS, a unique national laboratory, and a bridge to human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, as we safely and efficiently bring the shuttle era to a close. African American Eras

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• Accelerate with a sense of urgency the development of a next generation launch system and human carrier to enable America and other space-faring nations of the world to execute the mission of expanding our human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. • Enhance NASA’s capability and organic expertise to provide credible scientific, technological, and engineering leadership to help us better understand our Earth environment. • Inspire the rising generation of boys and girls to become men and women committed to increasing knowledge in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by making NASA and its programs relevant to the American public. Today we face a crisis of opportunity. We can either confront the aforementioned challenges of technological leadership that ensure our nation’s safety and security or cede that leadership and prestige to other nations. I ask each of you to help NASA turn these challenges into opportunities. I ask each of you on this Committee as well as your colleagues in the Congress to help us ensure that safety and mission success are the preeminent principles in our continuation and extension of human exploration. And I ask all of you to help NASA ensure that our nation remains the leader in the world in aeronautics, technology, science, and the care of our environment. Together we can find innovative ways to enhance our nation’s educational, scientific and technological capacity or we can sit by and watch other nations assume our long-held and recognized leadership role. Together we can find innovative ways to enhance needed basic research and development in aeronautics, science and technology or we can sit by and watch other nations move ahead in these fields. Together we can find innovative ways to advance space exploration, reduce the costs of access to space and further push the boundaries of what we can achieve as a nation. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before this committee. I am excited and energized about the possibility of taking on these challenges, if confirmed, and I look forward to responding to your questions.

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1. Nobel Prizes are annual monetary awards given to people who have helped humankind through their contributions in chemistry, economics, physics, technology, medicine, literature, and peace advocacy. These prestigious awards are funded by the Nobel Foundation, which was formed after the death of Swedish engineer and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel. Access the Nobel Prize Web site at http://nobelprize .org/nobel prizes/lists/all/. From the list of past prize winners, select a couple of recipients in any branch of science and read the speeches of introduction given about those individuals during the awards ceremony. Then, read the acceptance speeches the prize winners themselves gave when they received their awards. Now choose a modern African American scientist whom you feel is deserving of winning a Nobel Prize but who has not yet won. Research that person’s life and career. Following the examples you have read and including all relevant information about the scientist you have chosen, write a speech introducing him or her as a Nobel Prize winner. Next, assume the persona of that scientist and write his or her acceptance speech, again following the examples you have read on the Nobel Prize Web site.



2. Investigate inventions created by African Americans from 1965 to the present. What invention most captures your interest? Using the method of your choice, create a three-fold, front-and-back brochure for that invention. Make sure you have included important information about the item, along with illustrations showing how the invention works. In addition, include information about the inventor, such as biographical information, details about his or her career, how he or she came up with the idea, etc. 3. Browse through a current edition of an American history textbook and see if African American scientists Marc Hannah or Mark Dean are discussed. If these individuals do not appear in the textbook, write a letter to the publisher of the book explaining why each of them should be included in the book. Make sure your argument for inclusion is backed by specific evidence of each person’s achievements. 4. Research some items or products that have been invented by an African American in the past two decades. Choose three inventions that have improved the quality of your life and write an essay explaining in what ways each one has affected you. In your essay, also discuss what your everyday life would be like if you did not have these particular inventions.


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5. Select an African American astronaut and research his or her life and career with NASA. Write a children’s book at least ten pages in length based on that astronaut’s biography. You book should include a cover, illustrations, and a title page.

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BOOKS

Barber, John T. The Black Digital Elite: African American Leaders of the Information Revolution. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006. Gubert, Betty Kaplan, Miriam Sawyer, and Caroline M. Fannin. Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 2001. Hardesty, Von. Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African Americans in Aviation and Space History. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 2008.

PERIODICALS Croal, N’wGai. “Africana Goes Dot Com: A Scholar Puts W. E. B. Du Bois, and More, Online.” Newsweek (June 10, 2000): p. 48. Dreyfuss, Joel. “Valley of Denial: It’s Time for Silicon Valley to Pull Its Head Out of the Microchips on the Issue of Diversity.” Fortune (July 19, 1999): pp. 60 61. Young, Jeffrey R. “Black Colleges Band Together to Get a Jump on Technology.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 45 (March 26, 1999): pp. 31 32.

WEB SITES African American Astronauts: Former, Current and Candidate. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. http://quest.nasa.gov/qchats/special/ mlk00/afam astronauts.html (accessed on June 28, 2009). African American Inventors. Southern California Edison. http://www.sce.com/ Inventors (accessed on June 20, 2009). “A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age.” National Telecommunications and Information Administration (September 2004). http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ reports/anol/index.html (accessed October 29, 2009). “Computer and Internet Use in the United States.” U.S. Census Bureau (October 2007). http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer/2007.html (accessed October 29, 2009). “Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the ‘Have Nots’ in Rural and Urban America.” National Telecommunications and Information Administration (July 1995). http:// www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru.html (accessed October 29, 2009). “Wireless Internet Use.” Pew Internet and American Life Project (July 2009). http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12 Wireless Internet Use.aspx?r=1 (accessed on October 29, 2009). 820


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 Where to Learn More BOOKS Aaron, Hank. I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story. New York: HarperTorch, 1992. Ali, Muhammad, and Hana Yasmeen Ali. Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Angelou, Maya. The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. New York: Random House, 1994. Baraka, Amiri. The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader. New York: Basic Books, 1999. Botham, Fay. Almighty God Created the Races: Christianity, Interracial Marriage, and American Law. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. Cosby, Bill, and Alvin F. Poussaint. Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 2007. Dyson, Michael Eric. Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? New York: Perseus Book Group, 2006. Farley, Reynolds. Detroit Divided. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Cornel West. The Future of the Race. New York: Vintage, 1997. Giovanni, Nikki. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968 1998. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classic, 2007. Hendrix, Janie, and John McDermott. Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience. New York: Atria, 2007. Hoffer, Richard. Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. New York: Free Press, 2009. xxxiii

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Horne, Jed. Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City. New York: Random House, 2006. Jemison, Mae. Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life. New York: Scholastic, 2001. Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. New York: Vintage, 1992. Levenson, Jacob. The Secret Epidemic: The Story of AIDS and Black America. New York: Pantheon, 2004. Morrison, Toni. What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction. Jackson, Miss.: University of Mississippi Press, 2008. Newton, Huey. Revolutionary Suicide. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973. Perry, Theresa. The Real Ebonics Debate. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. Sims, Yvonne. Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2006. Story, Rosalyn M. And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1990. Terry, Wallace. Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History. New York: Ballantine, 1985.

WEB SITES “African American Odyssey: The Civil Rights Era.” The Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html (accessed on November 18, 2009). “African American Studies Graduate School Programs.” GradSchools.com. http:// www.gradschools.com/Subject/African American Studies/11.html (accessed on November 18, 2009). “Barack Obama’s Road to the White House.” ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/ Politics/fullpage?id=5197404 (accessed on November 18, 2009). The Congressional Black Caucus. http://www.thecongressionalblackcaucus.com/ (accessed on November 18, 2009). “Racial Profiling.” American Civil Liberties Union. http://www.aclu.org/racial justice/racial profiling (accessed on November 18, 2009). Tuskegee Airmen. http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/ (accessed on November 18, 2009). U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm (accessed on November 18, 2009).

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 Index Boldface type indicates entries; Italic type indicates volume; (ill.) indicates illustrations.

A Aaron, Hank, 4: 631, 635, 667 69, 667 (ill.) Abacha, Sani, 3: 396 Abdul Jabbar, Kareem, 4: 663 abolitionist movement, 4: 699 abortion public health officials and, 3: 465 Roe v. Wade (1973), 3: 551 teen pregnancy, 2: 296 Absence (dance), 1: 88, 89 absentee fathers, 2: 295. See also single mother families academics (people). See college and university faculty; intellectuals Academy Award winners acting, 1: 150; 2: 202, 231, 243, 245, 248, 248 (ill.) music, 2: 241; 4: 655, 674, 684 student awards, 2: 218 accountability, schools. See No Child Left Behind Act (2001)

ACT*1 Personnel Services, 1: 151, 152 53, 170 71, 178 activism and reform (chapter) chronology, 1: 2 4 headline makers, 1: 8 33 overview, 1: 5 7 primary sources, 1: 64 70 topics in the news, 1: 34 63 actors and actresses, 2: 202, 203, 239, 248, 254 Sean Combs, 1: 150 51 Bill Cosby, 2: 202, 211 13, 212 (ill.), 243 44, 250, 252 53, 253 (ill.) Whoopi Goldberg, 2: 245 Eddie Murphy, 2: 245 musicians/rappers as, 2: 203, 227 28, 242 43, 246, 254; 4: 644 Richard Pryor, 2: 244 45 Will Smith, 2: 227 28, 227 (ill.), 242 43, 254 Denzel Washington, 2: 229 31, 230 (ill.) Oprah Winfrey, 1: 162, 164 Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena (1995), 1: 169; 3: 542, 543 Adkins, Rodney, 4: 799 xxxv

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adoption, and teen pregnancy, 2: 296 adult contemporary music, 4: 673 74 aerospace engineers, 4: 771 74, 790, 791 92, 794, 798 Aeschylus, 1: 67 affirmative action. See also DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974); Gratz v. Bollinger (2003); Grutter v. Bollinger (2003); Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978); reverse discrimination backlash, 1: 34 35, 142, 168 70 conservatives’ opposition, 1: 31, 169; 3: 532 33, 534, 550, 564 67 Executive Order 10925, 1: 34, 142, 166, 167 Executive Order 11246, 1: 34, 166 67, 189 91; 3: 508 overviews, 1: 6, 34 36, 141 42, 166 70, 181; 3: 507, 508, 540 44 states cessation, 1: 169 70; 3: 508, 511 Afghanistan U.S. involvement, 2001 , 3: 425, 427; 4: 576 video activism in society, 1: 53 Africa Action, 3: 414 Africa Channel, 2: 255, 256 African American businesses. See black businesses African American Jews, 4: 700, 728, 730 32, 731 (ill.) African American literature, study, 2: 333 34, 335 37. See also specific writers and genres African American National Biography (reference work), 2: 337 African American studies. See also historically black colleges and universities achievements in, 2: 344 46 critical works, 2: 323 24 criticisms, 2: 344 45 department expansions, 2: 333 34, 335, 344, 345 46 African American Eras

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department formations, 1: 78; 2: 315 16, 323, 343 44, 344 (ill.) pioneers, 2: 322 23 African American Vernacular English, 2: 336, 352 54 African American voters. See black voters, influence African art, 1: 100, 101; 2: 326 African dance, 1: 110 11 African diaspora, 2: 322; 4: 729 African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, 4: 715, 716, 717, 740 41 Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, 2: 336 African centered schools, 2: 351, 355 AfricanDNA, 2: 337 AfriCobra, 1: 119 afro hairstyle, 4: 665 67, 666 (ill.) Afro American studies. See African American studies Afro Caribbean Americans, 2: 303 afrocentricity, 2: 351 agronomists, 4: 793 AIDS epidemic. See HIV/AIDS epidemic Ain’t I a Woman: Looking Back (hooks), 2: 278 79 Air Force. See U.S. Air Force, personnel Air Force Space Test Program’s Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS), 4: 770 Air Jordans (Nike), 4: 648, 649, 678 airline industry, 4: 788 90, 788 (ill.) Akil, Mara Brock, 2: 205 6, 205 (ill.) alarm systems, 4: 800 Alcindor, Lew, 4: 663 Alcorn, George E., 4: 791 92 Alexander, Clifford, 4: 577 80, 577 (ill.), 620 23 Alexander, Elizabeth, 1: 124 25; 4: 580 Algeria, 1: 17, 19, 39 Ali (film), 2: 228, 243 Ali, Muhammad, 4: 602 6, 603 (ill.), 631, 688, 688 (ill.)

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Alito, Samuel, 3: 512 All American Women: Lines That Divide, Ties That Bind (Cole), 2: 321 22, 323 24 All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (Angelou), 1: 82 All in the Family (television program), 2: 250 All Things Considered (radio program), 2: 221 Allaire, Paul, 1: 144 Alliance of Black Jews, 4: 730 Alvin Ailey Dance Group, 1: 111 Amalgamated Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza (1968), 3: 523 ambassadors, 1: 129; 3: 396 AME Church. See African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church American Association for the Advancement of Science, 4: 804 American Bandstand (television program), 2: 210, 211 American Bar Association, 3: 534, 550 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) death penalty reports, 3: 559 Loving v. Virginia case, 2: 282, 293 police brutality monitoring, 1: 54 American Civil Rights Institute, 1: 169 American Dance Asylum, 1: 88 89 American Express, 1: 145 48, 172 American Film Institute, 2: 219, 244 American flag, in art, 1: 119 20 American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, 3: 445 46 American Legacy (magazine), 2: 203, 234 American Muslim Mission, 4: 734 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009), 1: 186 American Urban Radio Networks, 2: 236 America’s Promise, 4: 593 (ill.), 594 Ames Autogenic Feedback Training System, 4: 796 Amistad (opera), 1: 129 30 Amnesty International, 1: 12 Anderson, Marian, 1: 128 29

Anderson, Michael, 4: 797 Angelou, Maya, 1: 79, 80 83, 80 (ill.), 108, 110, 123 24, 124 (ill.), 128 animated television series, 2: 212, 213, 243, 251; 4: 644 The Answer (screenplay), 2: 218 anthropologists, 2: 321 23, 325 26 antimiscegenation laws, 2: 280, 281, 282, 293, 304 6. See also interracial marriage; Loving v. Virginia (1967) antisemitism, 1: 46, 56, 125; 3: 389, 414; 4: 707, 708 9 antiwar protests/protesters Afghanistan and Iraq invasions (2001/2003), 4: 576 Iraq War, 2003 , 1: 105 Persian Gulf War, 4: 613 Vietnam War, 1: 9, 16, 61 62; 2: 345; 4: 575, 584, 601 2, 601 (ill.), 700 AOL (America Online), 1: 157, 159, 172 (ill.); 4: 808 apartheid opponents Americans, 1: 32 33; 2: 332; 3: 413, 532; 4: 655, 663, 726 Olympic Games policy, 4: 663 Apollo 16 mission (1972), 4: 767, 769 70, 791 Apollo Theater, 4: 637, 643 44 apparel lines. See fashion lines Appiah, Anthony, 2: 344 Archer, Dennis, 2: 361 62; 3: 415 16 Are You Experienced? (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), 4: 642 Arista Records, 1: 149 Arkansas, health issues, 3: 463 65 armed forces integration, 4: 575, 582 83 Army. See U.S. Army The Arsenio Hall Show (television program), 2: 254 art and artists. See choreographers; dance and dancers; musicians; visual art and artists Art Ensemble of Chicago, 1: 117, 117 (ill.) art teachers, 1: 100


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the arts (chapter) chronology, 1: 76 77 headline makers, 1: 80 105 overview, 1: 78 79 primary sources, 1: 131 33 topics in the news, 1: 106 30 Asante, Molefi Kete, 2: 344, 351 Ashe, Arthur, 4: 633, 633 (ill.), 659 Asian American populations, 2: 285 assassination attempts/plots Louis Farrakhan, 4: 709 Al Sharpton, 1: 30 31 assassinations Robert F. Kennedy, 1: 67; 2: 214; 4: 663 Martin Luther King, Jr., 1: 5, 38, 42 44, 44 (ill.), 66 68; 2: 327; 3: 409 10; 4: 612, 663, 715 Malcolm X, 1: 82, 106; 4: 708, 734 Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), 1: 116 Association of American Medical Colleges, 3: 441 astronauts, 4: 763 66, 763 (ill.), 784 87, 785 (ill.), 790 91, 794 97, 795 (ill.), 805 6, 815 18 astrophysicists, 4: 767 71 athletes, 4: 631, 632, 668, 686. See also specific athletes; specific sports academic study and perspectives, 2: 330, 332 33 political action, 2: 330, 331 32; 4: 602 6, 603 (ill.), 632, 663 65, 690 91 Atlanta Franchise Development Company, 1: 177 Atlanta, Georgia, 2: 302, 303, 307 (ill.) Atlantic Records, 4: 660 attorneys general, 3: 517 19 The Audacity of Hope (Obama), 3: 398 Australian Olympic team, 4: 663 (ill.), 664 autobiographical literature, 1: 108 Maya Angelou, 1: 80, 81, 82, 83, 108, 124 Eldridge Cleaver, 1: 14, 16 17 Hannah Crafts, 2: 337 Malcolm X, 1: 108; 3: 388 Barack Obama, 2: 296; 3: 397 98 African American Eras

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1: 108; 3: 388 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (television movie), 2: 252 automatic implantable defibrillator, 3: 467, 469 70 automation, industry trends, 4: 800 801 automotive industry, 1: 142, 183 86, 187, 188; 2: 301, 301 (ill.) Axis: Bold as Love (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), 4: 642

B Baby Phat clothing, 4: 650, 651, 679 back to Africa movement, 4: 700, 729 Bad Boy Records, 1: 149, 151; 4: 684 Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group, 1: 148, 149 Bad (Jackson), 4: 646, 675 bailouts auto industry, 1: 185 financial sector, 1: 148 Bakke, Allan, 1: 35 36, 168, 191 94, 191 (ill.); 3: 540 41, 562 (ill.). See also Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) Baldwin, James associates, 1: 83, 97 as icon, 2: 297 study, 2: 343 Balkans conflict, 4: 593 Baltimore Afro American (newspaper), 2: 203, 232, 233 BAM. See black arts movement Bambaataa, Afrika, 4: 681 Band of Gypsies, 4: 643 bank executives, 1: 158 59, 171 Baptist Church, 4: 741, 746 47 Baraka, Amiri, 1: 56, 100, 106, 107, 112 13, 113 (ill.), 123, 125 barbeque, 1: 174, 175 Barker, Justin, 1: 59 Barry, Marion, 1: 55; 2: 288, 288 (ill.); 3: 410 11 baseball players, 4: 668, 686

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Hank Aaron, 4: 631, 635, 667 69, 667 (ill.) Barry Bonds, 4: 631, 634 36, 634 (ill.) Jackie Robinson, 4: 633 Bashen, Janet Emerson, 4: 811 basketball players, 4: 631, 668 Magic Johnson, 3: 484, 485 Michael Jordan, 4: 648 50, 649 (ill.) Olympic teams, 4: 650, 663 player coaches, 4: 684 Basquiat, Jean-Michel, 1: 79, 83 85, 84 (ill.), 121, 131 32 Bassett, Angela, 2: 203 Bath, Patricia, 3: 442 48 Battle, Kathleen, 1: 129 Bazile, Leon M., 2: 282, 304, 304 (ill.) Beard, Jesse Ray, 1: 59 Beastie Boys, 1: 160; 4: 684 The Beatles, 4: 645 Beatty, Christine, 3: 417 Beck, Glenn, 1: 52 Beck, Sherman, 1: 119 Belafonte, Harry, 2: 239, 242, 244 Bell, Mychal, 1: 59 60, 61 Beloved (Morrison), 1: 95 96, 127, 133 Beltway Sniper investigation, 2002, 3: 524, 525 (ill.), 526 Ben Yahweh, Yahweh, 4: 730 Ben Israel, Ben Ammi, 4: 700, 731 32 Bennett College for Women, 2: 325, 326, 366 Bernard, Robert O., 3: 443 Berry, Halle, 1: 150; 2: 203, 248 (ill.) Berry, Shawn Allen, 3: 553 54 BET (Black Entertainment Television), 1: 155 57, 160, 171; 2: 203, 226, 255 56, 256 (ill.); 4: 676 BET Tonight (television program), 2: 226 Betancourt, George, 4: 782 Bethune Cookman University, 2: 364 Biafra, 4: 775 bias in media. See media portrayals, stereotypes Bible, interpretations, 1: 48 Biden, Jill, 3: 426 (ill.)

Biden, Joe, 3: 424, 426 (ill.), 519 Big Willie Style (Smith), 2: 228 Bijani, Ladan and Laleh, 3: 458 The Bill Cosby Show (television program), 2: 212, 251. See also The Cosby Show (television program) Binder, Patrick and Benjamin, 3: 454, 457 Bing, Dave, 2: 363; 3: 417 bioethics commissions, 3: 458, 495 96 The Birth of a Nation (film), 2: 218 bishops, 4: 701, 709 11, 709 (ill.), 715 17, 716 (ill.), 742 (ill.) Bittker, Boris I., 1: 50 The Black Aesthetic (Fuller), 1: 107 Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC), 1: 18 “Black Art” (Baraka), 1: 107 black arts movement dance scene, 1: 110 drama scene, 1: 112 15 Kwanzaa legacy, 1: 111 overviews/literature, 1: 78, 106 10, 123, 125, 126 visual art scene, 1: 100, 118 21 Black Arts Repertory Theater/School (BARTS), 1: 112 13 black arts workshops, 1: 109, 113, 118 black businesses, 2: 300. See also entrepreneurs black arts movement, 1: 78 government support requests/full employment, 1: 64; 3: 413 Operation Breadbasket support, 1: 29, 44 45 Rainbow/PUSH Coalition support, 1: 44, 47 Black Career Women (BCW), 1: 142 43, 178 79, 180 Black Coaches Association, 4: 685 86 “Black Cultural Nationalism” (Karenga), 1: 107 Black Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights (1972 Democratic National Convention), 3: 413 Black Economic Development Conference, 1: 49 50


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Black Enterprise (magazine), 1: 152, 158, 170, 171, 172, 176; 2: 202, 213, 214 15, 234, 235 Black Entertainment Television (BET). See BET (Black Entertainment Television) Black Feeling, Black Talk (Giovanni), 1: 107, 109 (ill.), 123 Black, Gregory, 4: 616 Black History Month, 2: 316 Black House, 1: 16, 114 Black, Keith L., 3: 448 50, 448 (ill.) Black Leadership Forum, 3: 418 19, 418 (ill.) black literary criticism, 1: 78 black Muslims. See Ellison, Keith M.; Nation of Islam black nationalist movement, 1: 78; 4: 632. See also separatism philosophy religion, 4: 700, 729, 734, 738 39 Black Panther Party, 1: 5, 36 42, 40 (ill.). See also Black Power movement founding, 1: 38 39, 64 members, 1: 14, 16, 17, 20, 37, 38, 41 42, 114; 3: 529, 532 reparations support, 1: 49, 64 ten point platform/program, 1: 39, 64 66 Black Periodical Literature Project (Gates), 2: 335, 336 The Black Population: 2000 (census brief ), 2: 306, 307 (ill.) Black Power movement, 1: 5 6, 37 38; 3: 529. See also Black Panther Party academic arena, 2: 343 black arts movement influence, 1: 106, 110, 114, 118 pop culture influence, 4: 632, 637, 687 88 supporters, 1: 14, 16 symbolism and salute, 1: 37 (ill.); 2: 332; 4: 662 65, 663 (ill.), 690 91 theology, 1: 48 on Vietnam War, 1: 65; 4: 602 women leaders, 1: 18 19 African American Eras

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Black Press of America, 2: 233 black separatist movement. See separatism philosophy black studies. See African American studies Black Terror (Wesley), 1: 114 Black Theology and Black Power (Cone), 1: 48; 4: 700, 704, 705, 736 black theology movement, 1: 32, 48; 4: 700, 704, 705 6, 735 39 black voters, influence, 3: 383, 407 9, 411, 414 Black World (periodical), 1: 108, 109; 2: 234 Blackenstein (film), 2: 241 blackplanet.com, 2: 204, 238, 239; 4: 802 Blacula (film), 2: 241 Blair, Jayson, 2: 206 7, 206 (ill.) Blakey, Art, 1: 91 blaxploitation films, 2: 203, 239 41, 240 (ill.), 244, 245 46 Blayton, J. B., 2: 202 Blazing Saddles (film), 2: 244 Blier, Suzanne, 2: 344 Blige, Mary J., 1: 149 blindness, 3: 444, 445 46; 4: 653 Bling (Kennedy), 1: 128 Blitzer, Wolf, 3: 389 Blix, Hans, 4: 618 blogs Pop+Politics, 2: 204, 209, 238 writers’, 1: 105 Blondie, 4: 682 blood brain barrier, 3: 450, 457 blues artists, 4: 640 The Bluest Eye (Morrison), 1: 94 95, 97, 110, 126 Bluford, Guion “Guy,” 4: 763 66, 763 (ill.), 794, 795, 795 (ill.), 806 Board of Education of Oklahoma v. Dowell (1991), 2: 352 Bobb, Robert, 2: 362 (ill.), 363 body mass index (BMI), 3: 487, 488 Bohannan, Paul James, 2: 323 Bolden, Charles F., Jr., 4: 795 (ill.), 797, 815 18

Contemporary Times

Bolden v. Mobile (1980), 3: 539 Bonds, Barry, 4: 631, 634 36, 634 (ill.), 669 Bonds, Bobby, 4: 634 The Bondwoman’s Narrative (Crafts), 2: 337 bone marrow transplants, 3: 489 91 Bontemps, Arna, 2: 322 Booker, Cory, 3: 383 Boozer, Melvin, 1: 61, 62 born again Christians, 1: 17 18 Boston Independent School District, 2: 348 49 Boston, Massachusetts, schools, 2: 348 50, 356 Bow Wow, 2: 243 boxers, 4: 602 6, 603 (ill.), 631, 688, 688 (ill.) Boyz n the Hood (film), 2: 243, 247 Bradford, Walter, 1: 109 Bradley, Benjamin, 4: 797 Bradley, Ed, 2: 202, 207 8, 207 (ill.) brain tumors, 3: 448, 449 50, 456 Brand, Myles, 4: 685 Brawley, Benjamin, 2: 343 Brawley, Tawana, 1: 30 The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (Ifill), 2: 216 breast cancer, 4: 475, 476, 478 82 Brennan, William, 2: 369 71 Brewer, Lawrence Russell, 3: 553 54 Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk, 1: 79, 86, 87 Broadside Press, 1: 108 Broadway shows and plays, 1: 79, 86, 87, 104, 105, 114, 126, 150 51 Brodsky, Robert, 3: 491 Brooke, Edward, 4: 412 Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1: 107; 2: 277 Brooks, Mel, 2: 244 Brooks, Pauline C., 1: 179 Brown, Albert, 4: 800 Brown, Claude, 1: 108 Brown, Clifford, 1: 90 Brown, Elaine, 1: 42 Brown, James, 4: 632, 636 38, 636 (ill.), 660, 669 71

radio station ownership, 1: 26; 2: 236 “Say It Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud” lyrics, 4: 687 88 Sharpton relationship, 1: 29 Brown, Janice Rogers, 3: 510 12, 510 (ill.) Brown, Jill, 4: 790 Brown, Marie Van Brittan, 4: 800 Brown, Ron, 4: 807, 807 (ill.) Brown II (1955), 2: 346, 369 71 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954), 2: 271, 315, 346, 369; 3: 522 influence, Green v. School Board of New Kent County (1968), 2: 369 71 influence, society, 1: 21, 103, 180 81; 2: 297 98 NAACP, 3: 522, 528 Bullins, Ed, 1: 113 14 Bundy, McGeorge, 4: 578 Burma, 1: 53 Burning Down My Master’s House: My Life at the New York Times (Blair), 2: 207 Burns, Ursula, 1: 144 45, 172 Bush, George H. W., 4: 593 (ill.) affirmative action policy, 1: 36 debates, 2: 225 education policy, 2: 365 foreign affairs staff, 3: 401 judicial nominations, 3: 516, 524, 530, 534, 549 50, 552 military policy, 3: 393; 4: 592, 612 13 Bush, George W. administration staff, 3: 399, 401 2 black voters and, 3: 408 civil rights policy, 3: 389 domestic program cuts, 1: 24 economic policy, 3: 425 education policy, 2: 316 17, 338, 341 42, 354, 356, 360, 371 74, 371 (ill.) elections, 3: 419 hate crimes policy, 3: 555 health policy, 3: 458, 491


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Hurricane Katrina response, 1: 7, 57, 58; 3: 394 Iraq War policy, 3: 401 2, 422; 4: 594, 595, 615, 616 judicial nominees, 3: 511 12 NAACP and, 1: 28 September 11 attacks, 3: 394; 4: 594, 751, 752 business and industry (chapter) chronology, 1: 138 40 headline makers, 1: 144 65 overview, 1: 141 43 primary sources, 1: 189 94 topics in the news, 1: 166 88 business periodicals. See Black Enterprise (magazine) busing, 2: 301, 347 (ill.) alternatives, 2: 351, 352 Supreme Court cases, 2: 272, 315, 346 50, 352 Butler, Octavia, 1: 85 Bynum, Juanita, 4: 701, 702 4, 702 (ill.) Byrd, James, Jr., 3: 509, 553 54, 553 (ill.), 555 Byrne, Jane, 3: 421

C cable networks, 1: 155 57, 165, 171; 2: 203, 224 25, 226, 254 57. See also HBO (Home Box Office) programming Cable News Network (CNN), 2: 224 25 California Supreme Court, 3: 510, 511 Callender, Clive, 3: 450 54 Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 4: 607, 607 (ill.) Campbell, Clive, 4: 680 81 cancer rates, 3: 475, 476, 478 82; 4: 782 Cannon, Katie, 1: 48; 4: 739, 740 cardiac arrhythmia, 3: 470 cardiologists, 3: 467 71 Carrey, Jim, 2: 254 Caribbean & African Restaurant Association (CARR), 1: 177 xlii


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Carlos, John, 2: 332; 4: 632, 663 (ill.), 664 65 Carlucci, Frank, 4: 590 91, 592 Carmichael, Stokely, 1: 5, 37 38, 41, 43 Carolina Peacemaker (newspaper), 2: 203, 233 Carruthers, George R., 4: 767 71, 791 Carson, Benjamin, 3: 454 60, 457 (ill.), 460 (ill.) Carson Scholars Fund, 3: 459, 460 Carter, Jimmy affirmative action policy, 1: 168 69 Detroit funding, 3: 415 education policy, 2: 365 military appointments, 4: 577 (ill.), 579, 591 President’s Summit for America’s Future, 4: 593 Carter, Mandy, 1: 8 10, 8 (ill.), 61, 62 63; 4: 745 cartoon programs. See animated television series Casserly, Michael, 2: 353 Castro, Fidel, 1: 17 cataracts, 3: 446 47 Catholic Church history and challenges, 4: 742 44 liberation theory, 4: 706 priests and bishops, 4: 701, 709 11 sexual abuse scandal, 4: 701, 709, 710 11 Caver, Keith A., 1: 173 Cedars Sinai Medical Center, 3: 450 cell phones, 4: 802 3 Census Bureau information black population concentrations, 2: 302, 306, 307 (ill.) Census 2000, 2: 271, 284 85, 294, 298, 306, 307 (ill.) future predictions, 2: 285 health information, 3: 477, 478 history, 2: 271, 284 Internet access/use, 4: 801 2 wage gap, 1: 182; 2: 273, 284, 284 (ill.), 285; 3: 477

Contemporary Times

Center for Creative Leadership, 1: 173 CEOs. See executives chain imagery, in art, 1: 120, 120 (ill.) Challenger space shuttle, 4: 763, 764 65, 786, 794, 795, 806 Chalpin, Ed, 4: 641, 642, 643 Chandler, Chas, 4: 641, 642 Chandler, Dana, 1: 119 Chappell, Emmett, 4: 792 Chappelle, Dave, 2: 256 57 Chappelle’s Show (television program), 2: 256 57 character education, 2: 355, 356 57 charity giving. See philanthropy Charlestown High (Boston, MA), 2: 350 Charlotte Bobcats, 4: 650 Charlotte Hornets, 1: 155 charter schools, 2: 354 58 administration, 2: 340 African centric, 2: 351, 355 criticisms, 2: 357 58 Chartwell Education Group, 2: 342 Chavis, Benjamin, 1: 10 14, 11 (ill.), 27, 55 chemists, 4: 792 93, 799 Chenault, Kenneth I., 1: 145 48, 146 (ill.), 172 Chernobyl disaster, 1986, 4: 782 Cheyney University, 2: 363 Chic, 4: 672, 681 Chicago Bulls, 4: 648, 649 50 Chicago Defender (newspaper), 2: 203, 232, 233 “chick lit,” 1: 127 28 chicken and waffles, 1: 176 Chideya, Farai, 2: 203, 204, 208 9, 238 children of divorce, 2: 295 Children’s Defense Fund, 1: 21, 23 24 children’s rights activists, 1: 21, 23 24, 164 children’s writers, 1: 102, 104 Childress, Alice, 1: 126 China, 1: 39 Chisholm, Shirley, 1: 47; 3: 385 87, 385 (ill.) choreographers, 1: 88 89

choreopoetry, 1: 102 3, 104, 114 The Chris Rock Show (television program), 2: 256, 257 Christian churches and faiths, 4: 699 700, 735. See also black theology movement; specific Christian churches Christian, John B., 4: 792 93 chronologies activism and reform, 1: 2 4 the arts, 1: 76 77 business and industry, 1: 138 40, 142 communications and media, 2: 200 201 demographics, 2: 268 70 education, 2: 312 14 government and politics, 3: 380 82 health and medicine, 3: 436 38 law and justice, 3: 504 6 military, 4: 572 74 popular culture, 4: 628 30 religion, 4: 696 98 science and technology, 4: 758 60 Chrysler Corporation, 1: 185, 188 Chuck D, 4: 682 Church of God and Saints of Christ, 4: 730 churches changes, modern times, 4: 746 47 history and leadership, 4: 699, 700, 701, 725 28, 735 social activism examples, 4: 701, 706, 712, 713, 715 16, 725, 734, 735 Citigroup, 1: 157, 159 citizen activism, 1: 53 city contracts and corruption, 3: 415 City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co. (1989), 3: 541 42, 543 Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), 4: 581 82 Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1: 34, 141, 166, 171, 191; 2: 271, 297; 3: 507, 544 Civil Rights Act of 1991, 3: 507 8, 545 46


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civil rights movement academic arena, 2: 331 32 activists and legacies, 1: 5, 9, 36 37, 42, 44 45, 56 artists’ involvement, 1: 82 83, 105 churches/religious arena, 4: 699, 700, 725, 735 39, 747 economic outcomes, 1: 141, 142, 166, 171; 2: 297 99 gay rights struggle within, 1: 61 62; 4: 744 45 journalism and, 2: 232, 234 legal cases, 1: 12; 3: 521, 522, 528 military arena, 4: 575, 610, 611 12, 611 (ill.) political opposition, 1: 9 10 terrorist incidents, 1: 19; 4: 700 Civil Rights Restoration Act (1988), 3: 507, 544 45 civil service jobs/contracts. See government contracts, and equal employment/affirmative action; government jobs Clark, Joe, 2: 318 21, 318 (ill.) Clark, Joseph, 1: 23 Clark, Patrice Washington, 4: 788 (ill.) The Clash, 4: 682 class action lawsuits. See lawsuits classical musicians, 1: 89, 91. See also opera Cleage, Albert, 4: 700, 739 Cleaver, Eldridge, 1: 14 18, 14 (ill.), 41, 42 Cleopatra Jones (film), 2: 241 clergy. See bishops; ministers; priests Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, 4: 601 (ill.) Clifford, Clark, 4: 612 Clinton, Bill advisers, 1: 11, 13 affirmative action policy, 1: 169 ambassador and envoy appointments, 3: 396; 4: 726 arts policy, 1: 79, 83, 124, 124 (ill.) black voters, relationships, 3: 407 8 African American Eras

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child health and development policy, 1: 24, 164 crime policy, 3: 418 19, 555 education policy, 2: 354 energy policy, 4: 781 82 Guinier nomination, 1: 169; 3: 512, 514 15 health policy, 3: 460, 464, 465 66 judicial appointments, 3: 518 military policy, 4: 593, 598, 620 23 philanthropy, 2: 325 science and technology policy, 4: 762, 803 (ill.), 807 8, 807 (ill.) telecommunications policy, 2: 204, 236 37, 260 61; 4: 762, 807 8, 807 (ill.) Tuskegee syphilis study apology, 3: 473, 494 96, 494 (ill.) youth assistance programs, 4: 593 94, 593 (ill.) Clinton, George, 4: 671, 672, 680 Clinton, Hillary Rodham child health and development policy, 1: 24 National Action Network involvement, 4: 726 (ill.) 2008 election campaign, 3: 399, 422 24 Clockers (film), 2: 203 Closing the Achievement Gap: The Impact of Standards Based Education Reform on Student Performance (report), 2: 373 74 clothing lines. See fashion lines Clyburn, James E., 3: 418 (ill.) CNN (Cable News Network), 2: 224 25 coaches, 2: 338 39; 4: 631, 684 86, 685 (ill.) COBRA (Coalition of Black Revolutionary Artists), 1: 119 cocaine (crack) epidemic, 2: 286 87, 286 (ill.), 289; 3: 561 Cochran, Johnnie, 1: 51 Cockrel, Ken, Jr., 3: 417 Coffy (film), 2: 241

Contemporary Times

Cohen, Bernard S., 2: 282 Cold War, 3: 400, 401 Cole, Johnnetta B., 2: 321 26, 322 (ill.) Cole, Nat “King,” 2: 202 Cole, Robert S., 4: 598 Coleman, Hurtis, 4: 607 (ill.) Coleman, J. Marshall, 3: 405 Coleman, Milton, 4: 708 Coleman, Ornette, 1: 116 college and university faculty, 2: 293 Shirley Chisholm, 3: 387 Johnnetta B. Cole, 2: 321 26 Harry Edwards, 2: 330, 331 33 Roland G. Fryer, 2: 274 76 Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2: 333 37 Shirley Ann Jackson, 4: 781, 783, 783 (ill.) minority faculty recruitment, 2: 336, 344, 366 67; 3: 470 71 Rod Paige, 2: 339 Cornel West, 1: 31, 31 (ill.), 32 33 Clifton R. Wharton Jr., 2: 345 college enrollment and graduation. See also African American studies; historically black colleges and universities gender differences, 2: 292 history and demographic trends, 1: 182; 2: 273, 285, 293, 298; 3: 477 medical schools, 3: 441, 467, 469 military deferment, 4: 575, 600 (ill.), 601, 602, 604 colleges, segregation, 3: 521, 528 Collins, Bootsy, 4: 671 The Color Purple (Walker), 1: 104, 105, 126, 164; 2: 245 Coltrane, John, 1: 116 Columbia space shuttle, 4: 797 Columbus Green, Carol, 1: 180 Colwell, Rita, 4: 809 Combs, Sean, 1: 148 51, 148 (ill.), 177 fashion, 1: 148, 150, 151; 4: 679, 680 production, 1: 148, 149; 4: 639

comedians, 2: 243 45. See also Cosby, Bill; Joyner, Tom Comedy Central, 2: 256 57 Commandment Keepers, 4: 728 Commission for Racial Justice, 1: 12 The Commodores, 2: 216 communications and media (chapter) chronology, 4: 200 201 headline makers, 4: 205 31 overview, 4: 202 4 primary sources, 4: 258 62 topics in the news, 4: 232 57 communism, support and affiliation, 1: 17, 18 19, 19 20, 21, 39 The Communist Manifesto (Marx), 1: 20 Communist Parties (international), 1: 39 Communist Party members, 1: 18 19, 20, 21 community murals, 1: 118 19 community ophthalmology, 3: 442, 444 45 composers jazz, 1: 89, 92 opera, 1: 129 30 computer graphics engineering, 4: 799, 811 computer scientists, 4: 775 77, 799, 809 11 computers in schools, 4: 762, 801, 808, 813 15, 813 (ill.). See also personal computers condom distribution, and sex ed, 3: 464, 465 Condon, Bill, 2: 248 Cone, James H., 1: 32, 48; 4: 700, 704 6, 736 38, 739 Congress. See Congressional Black Caucus; House of Representatives; Senate Congressional Black Caucus, 3: 411 14 and Black Leadership Forum, 3: 418 formation, 3: 383, 411 12 on judicial nominations, 3: 514 15 members, 1: 27; 3: 383, 387, 412


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NAACP and, 1: 25, 28 welfare reform debate, 3: 408, 413 conjoined twins, 3: 454, 457, 457 (ill.), 458, 459 60 Connerly, Wardell, 1: 169 70 conscientious objector status, 4: 604, 605 consolidation, television/radio stations. See media ownership and diversity Constitution of the United States, 3: 390, 392, 428 30, 507, 528, 536, 544 Continental Airlines, 4: 788 89 continuity of medical care, 3: 439, 498 contraception, and sex ed, 3: 464 65 Conversations: Straight Talk with America’s Sister President (Cole), 2: 325 Conway, William, 4: 767, 769 Conyers, John, 1: 50 51, 60, 68; 3: 383, 419 Cook, Toni, 2: 352 corneal transplants, 4: 445, 446 Cornelius, Don, 2: 210 11, 210 (ill.) Cosby, Bill, 2: 202, 203, 211 13, 212 (ill.), 243 44, 250, 251, 252 53, 253 (ill.) social criticism, 2: 213, 353 The Cosby Show (television program), 2: 203, 211, 213, 252 53, 253 (ill.), 254, 299 Council of Independent Black Institutions, 2: 351, 351 (ill.) Cowlings, Patricia, 4: 793 94, 796 Cox, Billy, 4: 641, 642, 643 crack cocaine epidemic, 2: 286 87, 286 (ill.), 289; 3: 561 Crafts, Hannah, 2: 337 Creative Construction Company, 1: 117 credit card industry, 1: 145 48 crime profiling, 3: 556. See also racial profiling crime rates decreases in, 2: 290 drug related, 2: 286 87 gang related, 2: 289 criminal justice reforms, 3: 561 Crocker, Frankie, 2: 236 African American Eras

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Crooklyn (film), 2: 249 cross burning, 4: 607 (ill.) Crowdy, William Saunders, 4: 730 Cuba, 1: 17, 39 Cullen, Countee, 2: 297 Curbeam, Robert L., Jr., 4: 797 The CW (television network), 2: 205 6

D Daily Blossom, 1: 179 80 dance and dancers, 1: 78, 79, 81 82, 86 87, 88 89, 110 12; 4: 643, 645 Dance Theatre of Harlem, 1: 78, 110 12 Dandridge, Dorothy, 2: 223, 239 Dangerous (Jackson), 4: 646 Darden, Christine, 4: 761, 771 74, 805 Darfur, Sudan, 3: 414 Dash, Julie, 2: 249 Davis, Angela, 1: 18 21, 18 (ill.), 56; 3: 529; 4: 665 Davis, Anthony, 1: 129 30 Davis, Miles, 1: 91, 92 Davis, Ossie, 2: 239, 260 Davis, Sammy, Jr., 1: 86 87 Days, Drew S., 3: 513 14 Dean, Mark, 4: 809 10 Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Parks), 1: 98 death penalty, 3: 554, 559 death rates, 3: 439, 475, 493. See also disease rates and race Death Row Records, 4: 684 debates, political moderators, 2: 216, 225 2008 election, 3: 423, 424 (ill.), 426 27 Dee, Ruby, 2: 239, 260 Def Comedy Jam, 1: 160 Def Jam Recordings, 1: 159 60, 171; 4: 682 Def Poetry Jam, 1: 160 Defense Race Relations Institute, 4: 608 9 deferments, military, 4: 575, 600 (ill.), 601, 602, 603 4

Contemporary Times

DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974), 1: 35, 168 Democratic Select Committee. See Congressional Black Caucus demographic information, 2000 Census, 2: 271, 284 85, 294, 298, 306, 307 (ill.) demographics (chapter) chronology, 2: 268 70 headline makers, 2: 274 83 overview, 2: 271 73 primary sources, 2: 304 7 topics in the news, 2: 284 303 demographics, religious affiliations, 4: 701, 735, 742 43, 746 47 Denny, Reginald, 1: 53; 3: 548 Denver, Colorado, 2: 347 48 desegregation in education. See Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954); busing; “freedom of choice” education plans; integration; Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971) designers. See fashion designers Detroit, Michigan. See also automotive industry failing schools, state takeover, 2: 360 63 mayors, and city crises, 3: 414 17 Milliken v. Bradley (1974) (busing/ desegregation case), 2: 352 riots, 1967, 2: 327; 4: 612 diabetes rates, 3: 463, 476, 487 Diallo, Amadou, 3: 509, 546, 548 49 Diary of a Mad Black Woman (Perry), 1: 115 Diaz, Al, 1: 84, 121, 131 diet, health issues, 3: 480, 487 A Different World (television program), 2: 253 Diff’rent Strokes (television program), 2: 252 Diggs, Charles, 3: 411, 413; 4: 596 digital divide, 2: 237 38, 238 (ill.), 262; 4: 761 62, 801 3 federal technology support, historically black colleges, 4: 808 9, 813 15, 813 (ill.)

Dime Savings Bank/Bancorp, 1: 158 59, 171 Dinkins, David, 1: 31, 158 directors. See film directors disaster relief, 1: 6 7 disco music, 4: 632, 637, 671 72, 680 lead up to, 4: 669 71 sampling, 4: 681 Discovery space shuttle, 4: 763, 765, 794, 795 discrimination in the military, 4: 595, 610 12 discrimination remedies. See affirmative action; discrimination in the military; employment discrimination disease rates and race, 3: 439 40, 471, 475, 479 86, 487, 488, 492 93 disenfranchisement, 1: 28; 3: 507, 536, 538, 539 disparate impact lawsuits, 1: 36, 141 dissents, Supreme Court cases, 3: 524 Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), 3: 564 67 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), 3: 562 64 District of Columbia. See Washington, D.C. diversity, television, 1: 27; 2: 202; 4: 579. See also BET (Black Entertainment Television); cable networks; media ownership and diversity divorce, 2: 294 95 DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, 2: 227, 242 DJs, radio. See radio personalities DJs (turntable/hip hop), 4: 680 81 DMX, 2: 243 Do the Right Thing (film), 2: 203, 218, 219, 246, 247 Ebert review, 2: 258 60 poster, 2: 259 (ill.) Dobson, Tamara, 2: 241 doctoral degrees, science, 1: 183 doctors. See physicians; surgeons


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documentaries, 2: 219 20, 246, 249, 336 37 Dodd, Christopher, 1: 24 Dolemite (film), 2: 241 Donaldson, Jeff, 1: 118, 119 Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans (Chideya), 2: 209 Douglass, Frederick, 1: 108 quotations, 3: 567 study, 2: 343 Dove, Rita, 1: 79, 124 Dowell, Denzil, 1: 40 Dr. Dre, 4: 683 draft Muhammad Ali’s refusal, 4: 602 6, 603 (ill.) new draft ideas, 4: 615 Vietnam War, 4: 575, 579, 600 601, 600 (ill.), 602, 606, 608, 613 14 draft boards, 4: 602 drama and dramatists, 1: 78, 79, 97 98, 102 4, 112 16 Dream the Boldest Dreams: And Other Lessons of Life (Cole), 2: 325 Dreamgirls (film), 2: 243, 243 (ill.) Dreams from My Father (Obama), 2: 296; 3: 397 98 “driving while black,” 3: 556 57 drop outs, high school, 2: 295, 359 drug crime, and profiling, 3: 556 drug deaths, 1: 85; 4: 639, 643 drug sentencing, 2: 287, 290, 291; 3: 560 61 drug treatment programs, churches, 4: 701, 712, 713 drug addicted babies, 2: 287 drugs, as community blight, 2: 285 91, 358; 3: 560 61 Du Bois, W. E. B. academic goals, 2: 336 study, 2: 343 Dukakis, Michael, 1: 46; 2: 225 Duncan, Arne, 2: 362 Dungy, Tony, 4: 685 (ill.), 686 Dunye, Cheryl, 2: 249 Dutchman (Baraka), 1: 112 African American Eras

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Dwight, Edward J., 4: 790 Dylan, Bob, 4: 641 Dyson, Michael Eric, 2: 326 30, 327 (ill.)

E Earls, Julian, 4: 794 early assessment programs education, 2: 291 health, 3: 464 Earth, Wind and Fire, 4: 671 Eastside High School (Paterson, NJ), 2: 318 20 Eazy E, 4: 683 Ebert, Roger, 2: 258 60 Ebonics, 2: 352 54 Ebony (magazine), 2: 234, 234 (ill.), 235; 4: 666 economic downturns anticipated census data, 2: 285 black vulnerability, 1: 182, 187; 2: 299 300 effects on health coverage, 3: 478 effects on historically black colleges, 2: 367 68 effects on media, 2: 232 global, 1: 143, 182, 185, 186 88 2008 election issue, 3: 425 26 economics, public school systems, 2: 291, 316, 352, 358 59, 359 (ill.); 4: 804 economists, 2: 274 76 economy, evolution, 1: 186 87; 4: 800 801 Eda, Eugene, 1: 118 Edelman, Marian Wright, 1: 21 24, 22 (ill.) editors. See journalists; magazine editors education administrators, 2: 338 42. See also college and university faculty education, and health care quality, 3: 477, 497, 498 education (chapter) chronology, 2: 312 14 headline makers, 2: 318 42

Contemporary Times

overview, 2: 315 17 primary sources, 2: 369 74 topics in the news, 2: 343 68 education desegregation. See Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954); busing; integration; Marshall, Thurgood; Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971) educational attainment. See college enrollment and graduation; high school graduation rates educational opportunities. See also college enrollment and graduation; high school graduation rates affirmative action and cases, 1: 34 36, 142, 166, 181 science and math divide, 4: 761 62, 780 81 through athletics, 2: 330 31 educational success, and gender, 2: 291, 292 educational test scores. See standardized tests and scores Edwards, Harry, 2: 330 33; 4: 663 Edwards, John, 3: 423 Edwards, Melvin, 1: 120 21, 120 (ill.) EEOC. See Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ElBaradei, Mohamed, 4: 618 Elder, Lee, 4: 658, 658 (ill.) Elders, Joycelyn, 3: 460 67, 461 (ill.), 467 (ill.) elected officials, growth trends, 3: 383 84, 537 Electric Lady Studios, 4: 642 Electric Ladyland (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), 4: 642 elementary multicultural education, 2: 316, 317 Ellington, E. David, 4: 810 Ellis, Clarence A., 4: 809 Ellison, Keith M., 3: 387 90, 388 (ill.) embryonic stem cell research, 3: 491, 492 Emeagwali, Philip, 4: 775 77, 810 Eminem, 4: 684

Emmy Award winners documentaries, 2: 219 20, 249 dramas, 2: 202, 212, 250 journalism, 2: 208, 222 miniseries, 2: 252 talk shows, 2: 256 Emory University, 2: 325 employment agencies, 1: 151, 152 53, 170 71, 178 employment discrimination. See also Civil Rights Act of 1964; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) airline industry, 4: 788 90 claims processing software, 4: 811 corporations investigations, 4: 579 impact discrimination, 3: 545 46 newspaper industry, 2: 203, 233 employment statistics affirmative action, 1: 34, 142, 166, 181 civil rights era and onward, 1: 141, 142 unemployment, 1: 186, 188; 2: 285; 3: 477, 478, 559 Encarta Africana (reference work), 2: 336 Endeavor space shuttle, 4: 784, 786, 787, 797 endocrinologists, 3: 460, 463 engineers, 4: 761, 762, 771 74, 775 77, 792 93 Engler, John, 2: 361 entrepreneurs Sean Combs, 1: 148 51, 148 (ill.) foods businesses, 1: 173 77 Earl G. Graves, Sr., 1: 170; 2: 203, 213 15, 214 (ill.) growing ranks, 1: 141, 142 43, 178, 179 80 Janice Bryant Howroyd, 1: 151 53, 151 (ill.), 170 71, 178 Daymond John, 1: 153 55, 153 (ill.) David L. Steward, 1: 161 62 environmental racism and justice, 1: 11, 12 13; 3: 480 81 environmental safety, nuclear issues, 4: 481 83


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Episcopal Church, 4: 718, 719 20, 735, 741, 742, 742 (ill.) Equal Credit Opportunity Law, 1: 27 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claims processing software, 4: 811 formation, 1: 141, 166, 171 policy questions, 1: 168 staff members, 3: 516, 530, 533 34, 549, 551; 4: 578 79 Esposito, Giancarlo, 2: 260 Essence (magazine), 2: 202, 228, 229, 234 The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought (West), 1: 32 Ethiopia, 4: 699, 700 ethnic cleansing, 4: 619 eugenics, 2: 281 Eurocentricity, 2: 351 European colonialism, 1: 19 evangelists, 4: 703 4, 712 14 Executive Order 9981 (armed forces integration), 4: 575 Executive Order 10925 (affirmative action), 1: 34, 142, 166, 167 Executive Order 11246 (affirmative action), 1: 34, 166 67, 189 91; 3: 508 executives. See also entrepreneurs Ursula Burns, 1: 144 45 Kenneth I. Chenault, 1: 145 48, 146 (ill.), 172 Sean Combs, 1: 148 51, 148 (ill.) growing ranks, 1: 141, 143, 170 73, 179 80 Janice Bryant Howroyd, 1: 151 53, 151 (ill.), 170 71 Robert L. Johnson, 1: 155 57, 155 (ill.), 171; 2: 255 Richard Parsons, 1: 157 59, 157 (ill.), 172 (ill.) David L. Steward, 1: 161 62, 171 John W. Thompson, 4: 811 12, 812 (ill.) Oprah Winfrey, 1: 162 65, 163 (ill.), 171; 2: 203 exiles, 1: 17 eye doctors and diseases, 3: 442 48, 469 African American Eras

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F Fab 5 Freddy, 4: 683 fabric art, 1: 99, 99 (ill.), 101 2, 120 factory jobs, 1: 142, 183 85, 186, 187, 188; 2: 301, 301 (ill.); 4: 800 801 failing schools, takeovers, 2: 358 63 Fair Housing Act (1968), 2: 271 Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the “Have Nots” in Rural and Urban America (report), 2: 237; 4: 801, 814 family life, changes, 2: 291 300, 294 (ill.), 298 (ill.), 299 (ill.) Family Matters (television program), 2: 254 The Famous Flames, 4: 637 Fannie Mae, 1: 171 Fanon, Frantz, 1: 19, 39 Farmer, James, 3: 386 Farrakhan, Louis, 4: 706 9, 706 (ill.), 734 35 Congressional Black Caucus and, 3: 413 14 Jesse Jackson and, 1: 46, 55; 4: 708 9 Malcolm X and, 4: 706, 707 8, 734 Million Man March, 1: 13, 54 56; 4: 701, 706, 709, 735 as political campaign issue, 1: 46; 3: 389; 4: 708 response, September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 4: 750 53 far UV camera/spectrograph, 4: 767, 767 (ill.), 769 70, 771, 791 fashion black culture, 4: 631, 676 black power/pride, 4: 632, 665 67, 666 (ill.) hip hop culture, 4: 677 80, 677 (ill.) shoes, 4: 648, 649, 677, 678 fashion designers Sean Combs, 1: 148, 148 (ill.), 150, 151; 4: 679 Daymond John, 1: 153 55, 153 (ill.); 4: 678 79 Kimora Lee Simmons, 4: 650 52, 651 (ill.), 679

Contemporary Times

fashion lines Baby Phat, 4: 650, 651, 679 FUBU, 1: 153 55; 4: 678 79 G Unit, 4: 680 Phat Farm, 1: 160; 4: 651, 678 Rocawear, 4: 679 (ill.), 680 Sean John/Sean by Sean Combs, 1: 148, 150, 151; 4: 679, 680 Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (television show), 2: 212, 213, 243, 251 federal and state jobs. See government jobs federal appeals courts and judges, 3: 510, 511 12, 522 23, 534, 549, 550 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Coleman Young investigation, 3: 415 Hank Aaron threat investigations, 4: 669 Black Panther Party investigation, 1: 16, 41 42 Martin Luther King investigation, 1: 61; 4: 736 37 Nation of Islam investigation, 4: 734, 736 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appointees, 4: 808 cable television, 2: 255 Telecommunications Act (1996) and deregulation, 2: 204, 236 37, 260 62 Telecommunications Act (1996) and information access/ education, 4: 806 8 federal contracts. See government contracts, and equal employment/ affirmative action Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 1: 58 Federal National Mortgage Association, 1: 171 feminist movement, 1: 6; 4: 739 40. See also womanist movement National Organization of Women, 1: 47; 3: 387; 4: 719

racial divide, 1: 10, 47 48; 2: 278 79; 4: 739, 740 visual artists, 1: 100, 101 writers, 1: 47, 48, 61, 103 4; 2: 276 80 feminist theology, 1: 48; 4: 715, 718, 719 20 Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (hooks), 2: 279 Feminista (Kennedy), 1: 128 Fences (Wilson), 1: 116 Fermilab, 4: 780 fiction writers. See drama and dramatists; novelists; science fiction writers Fifteenth Amendment, 3: 507, 536, 544 50 Cent, 4: 680, 684, 684 (ill.) film directors, 2: 203, 245 50 Spike Lee, 2: 203, 218 20, 218 (ill.), 246 47, 247 (ill.), 249 Gordon Parks Jr., 2: 240 41 Gordon Parks Sr., 2: 240 41 John Singleton, 2: 203, 247, 250 Mario Van Peebles, 2: 203, 247, 249 50 Melvin Van Peebles, 2: 239 40 The Final Call (newspaper), 2: 232 (ill.) fire alarm systems, 4: 800 First Amendment related cases, 3: 523, 554 55 “first generation rights,” 2: 315 First Great Migration, 1: 183; 2: 271 72, 300 302, 306, 348 flag imagery in art, 1: 119 20 Fledgling (Butler), 1: 85 The Flip Wilson Show (television program), 2: 243, 251 52 flooding, Hurricane Katrina, 1: 57 58, 57 (ill.) Florida populations, 2: 302, 303 2000 presidential election, 1: 28 Florida A&M, 2: 367 Folami, Alika N., 2: 260 62 folk art. See graffiti art; quilts folklorists, 1: 105 food traditions, 1: 173 77


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football players, 4: 668 academic aspects, 2: 331, 338 college stars, 3: 403 psychological aspects, 2: 333 For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (Shange), 1: 102 (ill.), 103 4, 110, 114 forced busing. See busing Ford, Gerald, 1: 158 Ford Motor Co., 1: 184, 185 Forde, Evan B., 4: 792 foreclosures crisis, 2: 300 Foreman, George, 4: 605, 688, 688 (ill.) Forman, James, 1: 49 50, 49 (ill.) Fortune 500 executives, 1: 144 45, 145 48, 171 72; 2: 345 “forty acres and a mule,” 1: 49, 50, 64 four star admirals, 4: 595, 595 (ill.), 598 four star generals, 4: 576, 580 81, 581 (ill.), 585 86 Fourteenth Amendment, 3: 544 Foxx, Jamie, 2: 248, 254 Foxx, Red, 2: 243, 251 fragging, 4: 608 France, 1: 17; 4: 662 Francisco, Maranda, 3: 456 Franklin, Aretha, 4: 638 39, 638 (ill.), 660, 662, 665 Franklin, John Hope, 2: 343 Frazier, Joe, 4: 605 Frazier, Skipper Lee, 2: 235 Free D.C. movement, 2: 288 free jazz, 1: 116 17, 118 free trade agreements, 1: 187 “freedom of choice” education plans, 2: 315, 346, 369 71 Freedom of Information Act (1966), 4: 736 Freeman, Al, Jr., 2: 239 Freeman, Morgan, 2: 203, 248 Fresh Prince. See Smith, Will The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (television program), 2: 227, 242, 254 Friedan, Betty, 2: 279; 4: 719 Frost, Robert, 1: 124 African American Eras

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Fryer, Roland G., 2: 274 76, 274 (ill.) FUBU clothing, 1: 153 55; 4: 678 79 Fudge, Ann, 1: 172 full employment, desires/calls, 1: 64; 3: 413 Fuller, Charles, 1: 115; 2: 231 Fuller, Hoyt, 1: 107, 109 fundraising education/colleges, 2: 344, 365 66, 368; 4: 814 election campaigns, 2: 422 funk music, 4: 632, 637, 669 71, 670 (ill.) Funkadelic, 4: 670 (ill.), 671, 672 Funnye, Capers C., Jr., 4: 730 Furious Five, 4: 681, 681 (ill.)

G Gaines, Ernest J., 2: 252 Galatis, George, 4: 782 The Game (television program), 2: 205 6, 254 gang violence community blight, 2: 289, 290 (ill.), 358 crime statistics, 2: 289 drug trade and, 2: 286 87, 289 movie portrayals, 2: 219, 240, 248, 249 gangsta rap, 4: 682 83. See also hip hop music cultural criticism, 2: 329 30 fashions, 4: 678 media consolidation and airplay, 2: 261 62 Gantt, Harvey, 1: 9 10 Garner, Margaret, 1: 95 96 Garvey, Marcus, 4: 700, 729 Gates, Bill, 4: 813 (ill.) Gates, Daryl, 1: 54 Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 2: 333 37, 334 (ill.), 344 Cambridge police incident, 2009, 3: 530 collaborations, 1: 33; 2: 276, 336 Gather Together in My Name (Angelou), 1: 81

Contemporary Times

gay and lesbian activists, 1: 6, 8 10, 61 63; 4: 744 45 gay and lesbian rights, 2: 297 Black Panthers support, 1: 39, 62 challenges, black churches, 4: 744 47 marriage rights, 2: 283, 297 overviews, 1: 6, 61 63 womanist support, 1: 48 49; 4: 740 gay couples/families, 2: 291, 297 gay marriage debate, 4: 745, 746 Gaye, Marvin, 4: 660, 669 Gaynor, Gloria, 4: 672 gays in the military, 1: 63; 4: 580, 620 23 gender, and educational success, 2: 291, 292 genealogical research, 2: 337 General Motors, 1: 185, 188; 3: 534 genetics studies, breast cancer, 3: 481 82 genocide, 2: 281; 3: 414 gentrification, 2: 348 geologists, 4: 792 Germany, Holocaust, 1: 49, 64 Gershwin, George, 1: 128 Gesell Committee, 4: 610 12, 610 (ill.) Gesell, Gerhard, 4: 610, 610 (ill.) Ghost (film), 2: 245 Gibbs, Edward, 4: 789 Gibson, Kenneth, 3: 383 Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (Carson), 3: 454 55, 459 Gillam, Isaac Thomas, IV, 4: 794 Giovanni, Nikki, 1: 107, 109 (ill.), 123, 125 Gipson, Mack, Jr., 4: 792 Girlfriends (television program), 2: 205, 254 Giuliani, Rudy, 1: 158; 4: 750 glaucoma, 3: 444, 445 global economic downturns. See economic downturns globalization, 1: 186 87 Glover, Savion, 1: 79, 86 87, 86 (ill.), 116

“Go Down, Moses” (spiritual), 4: 748 49 Goetz, Bernhard, 1: 29 30 Goldberg, Whoopi, 2: 245 golfers, 4: 631, 656 57, 656 (ill.), 658 59, 658 (ill.) Golub, Harvey, 1: 147 gonorrhea rates, 3: 486 Good Times (television show), 2: 203, 250 51, 299 Gooding, Cuba, Jr., 2: 248 goodwill ambassadors, 1: 129 Gorbachev, Mikhail, 3: 401; 4: 592 Gordon, Quinland, 4: 735 Gordone, Charles, 1: 78, 115 Gordy, Berry, 4: 644, 653 54, 660 gospel music, 4: 699 700, 748 49, 748 (ill.) gospel singers, 4: 702 4, 702 (ill.) Gossett, Louis, Jr., 2: 248 government and politics (chapter) chronology, 3: 380 82 headline makers, 3: 385 406 overview, 3: 383 84 primary sources, 3: 428 32 topics in the news, 3: 407 27 government bailouts, 1: 148, 185 government contracts, and equal employment/affirmative action Executive Orders, 1: 34, 141 42, 166 67, 189 91; 3: 508 ruled unconstitutional, 3: 541 42 “set asides,” 1: 36, 168, 169, 169 (ill.) government jobs. See also government contracts, and equal employment/ affirmative action affirmative action bans, state level, 1: 169 70; 3: 508, 511 U.S. attorneys, 3: 518 governors elections history, 3: 384 L. Douglas Wilder, 3: 404 6, 404 (ill.) Grady (television program), 2: 252 graffiti art, 1: 79, 84, 84 (ill.), 85, 121 23, 122 (ill.), 131 32 Grammy Award winners


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James Brown, 4: 637, 660 Aretha Franklin, 4: 638, 639 Michael Jackson, 4: 643, 645, 675 Wynton Marsalis, 1: 91 opera singers, 1: 129 Stevie Wonder, 4: 655 Grand Wizard Theodore, 4: 681 Grandmaster Flash, 1: 149; 4: 681, 681 (ill.) Granholm, Jennifer, 3: 417 Grant, Jacquelyn, 1: 48; 4: 739, 740, 741 Gratz v. Bollinger (2003), 3: 508, 543 Graves, Denyce, 1: 129, 129 (ill.) Graves, Earl G., Sr., 1: 170; 2: 202, 203, 213 15, 214 (ill.), 234 Gray, F. Gary, 2: 249 Gray, Fred, 3: 510 Gray, William H., III, 4: 813 15, 813 (ill.) Great Migration, 1: 183; 2: 271 72, 300 302, 306, 348 Green, Al, 4: 669 Green, Marlon D., 4: 788 89 Green Party, 3: 395 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968), 2: 346, 369 71 Greene, Ralph “Petey,” 2: 202, 235 Gregory, Frederick D., 4: 794, 795, 795 (ill.) Gregory, Wilton, 4: 701, 709 11, 709 (ill.), 743 44 Grey’s Anatomy (television program), 2: 222, 223, 254 Grier, David Alan, 2: 254, 257 Grier, Pam, 2: 240, 241; 4: 665 Griffith, Michael, 1: 30 Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), 1: 141 Grove City College v. Bell (1984), 3: 545 Grutter, Barbara, 3: 542 (ill.) Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), 3: 508, 535, 542 (ill.), 543, 564 67, 564 (ill.) Guevara, Ernesto “Che,” 1: 39 Guinier, Lani, 1: 169; 3: 512 15, 512 (ill.) African American Eras

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guitarists, 4: 639 43, 640 (ill.), 673 (ill.), 674 Gulf War, 1991, 2: 225; 4: 592, 612 13, 612 (ill.) G Unit Clothing, 4: 680 Gunn, Sakia, 1: 63 Guy Sheftall, Beverly, 2: 325 26

H hairstyles, 4: 665 67, 666 (ill.), 678 Haiti, 3: 414; 4: 593 Haley, Alex, 1: 108; 2: 252 Hall, Arsenio, 2: 254 Halley’s Comet, 4: 770 Hamer, Fannie Lou, 1: 47 Hammons, David, 1: 120, 121 Hancock, Herbie, 1: 91; 4: 672 73 Hannah, Marc, 4: 799 hardcore rap, 4: 682. See also gangsta rap; hip hop music Haring, Keith, 1: 121, 122 Harlem Hospital, 3: 444, 444 (ill.), 445 Harlem Renaissance, 1: 78, 105, 106, 125 Harpo Productions, Inc., 1: 164, 171 Harris, Barbara, 1: 48; 4: 742, 742 (ill.) Harris, Bernard A., 4: 797, 806 (ill.) Harris, Betty, 4: 792 93 Harvard Law Review, 3: 398 Harvard Law School faculty, 3: 513, 515, 529 30 Harvard University and faculty African American studies dept., 1: 33; 2: 333, 336, 344 Roland G. Fryer, 2: 274, 275 76 Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2: 333, 335, 336, 344 Cornel West, 1: 32, 33; 2: 336, 344 hat designers, 1: 150, 153 54 Hatcher, Richard, 3: 383 hate crimes, 3: 509, 553 55, 553 (ill.) busing and integration related, 2: 349, 350 James Byrd Jr. murder, 3: 509, 553 54, 553 (ill.) cross burning, 4: 607 (ill.) homosexuality related, 1: 63

Contemporary Times

Jena Six case, 2006, 1: 59 61 laws, 3: 553, 554 55 political activism, 1: 30, 63 Supreme Court on, 3: 554 55 Hawkins, La Van, 1: 177 Hawkins, Yusuf, 1: 30 31 Hayes, Elvin, 4: 663 Hayes, Isaac, 2: 241 HBCUs. See historically black colleges and universities HBO (Home Box Office) programming, 2: 219 20, 223, 249, 255, 256 Head Start program, 2: 291 cuts to, 1: 24 founders, 1: 21, 23, 24 Health and Equity and Accountability Act (2009 bill), 3: 441 health and medicine (chapter) chronology, 3: 436 38 headline makers, 3: 442 71 overview, 3: 439 41 primary sources, 3: 494 99 topics in the news, 3: 472 93 health care equality. See also disease rates and race advocates, 1: 21, 23; 3: 444 46, 460, 467 68, 471, 492 93 economists’ studies, 2: 275 history and disparities, 3: 439 41, 474 78, 496 99 2008 election issue, 3: 425 health care reform, 3: 493, 496 99 health insurance, 3: 476, 477 (ill.), 478, 480, 493, 498 health literacy, 3: 477, 497, 498 heart disease obesity risks, 3: 487, 488 rates and demographics, 3: 439, 476 research, 3: 467, 468, 471 The Heart of a Woman (Angelou), 1: 82 heart surgery, 3: 467, 469 70 Heavy D, 1: 150 Hebrew Israelites, 4: 730 32 Heller, Jean, 3: 472 Helms, Jesse campaigns against, 1: 8, 9 10; 4: 745

Martin Luther King holiday opposition, 3: 420 Hemsley, Sherman, 2: 250, 251 (ill.) Henderson, Felicia D., 2: 205 Henderson, Napoleon, 1: 119 Hendricks, Barbara, 1: 129 Hendricks, Jon, 1: 120 Hendrix, Jimi, 4: 639 43, 640 (ill.), 660, 662, 665 Herbert, F. Edward, 4: 608 A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich (Childress), 1: 126 Herskovits, Melville Jean, 2: 322 23 Heyward, DuBose, 1: 128 Higgenbotham, Joan E., 4: 797 high school graduation rates drop outs, 2: 295, 359 history and demographic trends, 2: 273, 285, 298 school inequalities’ effects, 2: 359 Higher Education Act (1965), 2: 364 Hill, Anita, 3: 515 17, 515 (ill.), 530, 534, 549, 551 53 Hill, Walter Andrew, 4: 793 Hines, Gregory, 1: 86 87, 116 hip hop culture clothing lines, 1: 148, 150, 153 55, 160; 4: 677, 678 80 fashion, 4: 677 80, 677 (ill.) graffiti art, 1: 121 22 television, 1: 160 hip hop music. See also specific artists artists as actors, 2: 203, 227 28, 242 43, 246, 254 industry figures, 1: 148 51, 159 60, 171 media consolidation’s effects, 2: 260 62 pioneers and history, 1: 149, 159; 4: 631, 680 84 Hip Hop Summit/Action Network, 1: 14, 160; 3: 407 (ill.) Hirschkop, Phillip J., 2: 282 Hispanic American populations, 2: 285, 294; 3: 474 75 historians, 2: 326, 328 30 historical drama, 1: 98


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historically black colleges and universities, 2: 322, 363 68 challenges, 2: 365 68 faculty and administrators, 2: 293, 321 22, 324 26, 324 (ill.), 366 67; 4: 803 4 funding aid, 2: 217 18, 365 66, 367 68; 4: 814 graduates and earning power, 1: 182; 2: 364 health information technology, 3: 441 history, 2: 363 64, 365, 366 medical schools, 3: 443, 450, 451, 452 science education, 4: 803 4, 808 9 Supreme Court cases, 3: 535 technology support/digital divide, 4: 808 9, 813 15, 813 (ill.) HIStory: Past, Present, and Future Book I (Jackson), 4: 647 48 Hitler, Adolf, 2: 281 HIV/AIDS epidemic activism, 1: 62; 4: 633 art relating to, 1: 88, 89 black community conspiracy theories, 3: 474 black community, rates, 1: 6; 3: 440, 475, 482 86, 558 59 church involvement in combating, 4: 706, 716, 717, 724 deaths from, 4: 633 history, 3: 482 prevention, 3: 464, 474 prison populations, 3: 558 59 Rainbow/PUSH concern, 1: 47 Holder, Eric, 3: 517 19, 517 (ill.) Holliday, George, 1: 52, 53; 3: 547 Hollywood Shuffle (film), 2: 246 47 Holocaust, 1: 49, 64; 2: 281 home ownership rates economic downturns, 2: 299 300 single women, 2: 295 home rule, Washington D.C., 2: 288; 3: 409, 410 home security, 4: 800 homophobia African American Eras

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activism to fight, 1: 8, 9, 10, 62 63; 4: 745 in black community, 2: 297; 3: 486; 4: 744, 745, 746 homosexual rights. See gay and lesbian activists; gay and lesbian rights Honsou, Djimon, 4: 651, 652 Hooker, John Lee, 4: 640 hooks, bell, 1: 33; 2: 276 80, 277 (ill.) Hoover, J. Edgar, 1: 41; 3: 410; 4: 736 37 Hopwood v. Texas (1996), 3: 542 43 hormone replacement therapy, 3: 481 Horne, Lena, 2: 242 Hoskins, Michele, 1: 176 hospital desegregation, 3: 439 House of Judah, 4: 728 House of Representatives. See also Congressional Black Caucus Shirley Chisholm, 3: 385, 385 (ill.), 386 87 John Conyers, 1: 50 51, 60, 68; 3: 383, 419 Keith Ellison, 3: 387, 388 (ill.), 389 90 growth trends, black elected officials, 3: 383, 538 Barbara Jordan, 3: 390 92, 390 (ill.) Judiciary Committee, 3: 383, 390, 390 (ill.), 392, 428 30 John Lewis, 3: 539 (ill.) Cynthia McKinney, 3: 392 95, 393 (ill.) Kweisi Mfume, 1: 25, 25 (ill.), 26 27; 3: 413 14 Adam Clayton Powell Jr., 1: 29, 61 Charles Rangel, 3: 383, 413, 428; 4: 615 Edolphus Towns, 4: 808, 809 J. C. Watts Jr., 3: 402 4, 402 (ill.) Ways and Means Committee, 3: 383, 497 House Party (film), 2: 243, 246, 247 House Resolution 40 (reparations), 1: 50 51, 68 70 housing crisis, 2: 300 housing fairness legislation, 2: 271

Contemporary Times

Houston, Charles, 3: 521, 522 Houston (TX) Independent School District, 2: 339 41 Houston, Whitney, 4: 674 How Stella Got Her Groove Back (McMillan), 1: 127 (ill.), 128 Howard University, 2: 364, 364 (ill.), 367 hospital and medical school, 3: 443, 450, 451, 452 science camps, 4: 806 (ill.) Howell, Leonard, 4: 729 Howroyd, Janice Bryant, 1: 151 53, 151 (ill.), 170 71 Hudlin, Warrington, 2: 246 Hudson, Herb, 1: 176 Hudson, Jennifer, 2: 243, 243 (ill.), 248 human medical experimentation, 3: 472 74 Humphrey, Hubert, 1: 167 68 Hunter, Frank O. D., 4: 582 The Huntley Brinkley Report (television program), 2: 215 Hurricane Katrina, 2005, 1: 56 59, 57 (ill.) celebrity relief efforts, 1: 93 criticisms of federal response, 1: 6 7, 58; 3: 394 documentaries, 2: 219 20, 249 Hurston, Zora Neale, 1: 125 adaptations, 1: 98 rediscovery, 1: 104, 105 Hussein, Saddam, 3: 401; 4: 576, 592, 618 20 Hutton, Bobby, 1: 17, 41 42

I I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou), 1: 80, 81, 83, 110, 124 I Spy (television program), 2: 202, 212, 250 IBM, 4: 799, 809 10 Ice Cube, 2: 203, 243; 4: 683 Ice T, 2: 203, 243 Ifill, Gwen, 2: 203, 215 16, 215 (ill.), 233

Igbo Nigerians, 4: 775 I’m Just a DJ but . . . It Makes Sense to Me (Joyner), 2: 218 Image Award winners, 2: 223, 226 27, 231, 330 Imani Temple, 4: 743, 744 (ill.) immigration demographic trends, 2: 285, 303 NAFTA and, 1: 187 impact discrimination, 3: 545 46 impeachment hearings, Richard M. Nixon, 3: 390, 390 (ill.), 391 92, 428 30 Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (Parks), 1: 98 imprisonment rates. See prisoners In Living Color (television program), 2: 254 In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (Walker), 1: 47; 4: 740, 741 income inequalities, 1: 141, 142, 180 82, 187; 2: 273, 285 and health care, 3: 476 77 improvements, 2: 284, 284 (ill.) Independence Day (film), 2: 228, 243 infant mortality rates, 3: 464, 475, 476, 478, 493, 563 information revolution, 4: 761 62, 800 801, 809 12 information technology industry, 1: 157, 159, 161 62, 171; 4: 776 77, 799, 809 12 Ink Newspaper, 2: 233 Inner City Foods Corporation, 1: 177 Inner Visions Worldwide, Inc., 4: 722 Inside Man (film), 2: 219, 231, 249 Inside Politics (television program), 2: 109 Institute for Journalism Education, 2: 220 21 institutional racism, 1: 34, 182; 2: 297; 4: 725. See also affirmative action; Civil Rights Act of 1964 insurance, health, 3: 476, 477 (ill.), 478, 480, 493, 498 integration demographic history, 2: 271 72


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education, 2: 272, 315, 346 52, 358; 3: 543 44 military history, 4: 575, 582 83, 587, 606, 610 11 intellectuals Michael Eric Dyson, 2: 326 30 Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2: 333 37 bell hooks, 2: 276 80 Cornell West, 1: 31 33 internalized racism, 1: 95 International Space Station, 4: 766, 797, 817 International Women in Medicine Hall of Fame, 3: 448 Internet. See also blogs; digital divide; information technology industry; Web sites access and usage, 2: 204, 237 38, 238 (ill.), 262; 4: 761 62, 801 3, 814 mobile devices, 4: 802 3 news sources/sites, 2: 204, 209, 232, 233 34 technology lead up, 4: 775, 776 77, 801, 810 internment camps, 3: 521 interracial marriage divorce and politics, 1: 106 growth trends, 2: 291, 293 94, 294 (ill.), 300 Loving v. Virginia (1967), 2: 271, 280, 280 (ill.), 281 82, 283, 293, 304 6 Obama family history, 3: 397 state precedents, 1: 105 television portrayals, 2: 250 The Interruption of Everything (McMillan), 1: 128 intravenous drug use, 3: 484 85 Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (film), 2: 223 inventors and inventions, 4: 761, 797 800, 805 George E. Alcorn, 4: 791 92 Patricia Bath, 3: 442, 446 47 George R. Carruthers, 4: 767, 769 70, 771, 791 Robert E. Shurney, 4: 791 African American Eras

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investments and investing, 2: 300 Invincible (Jackson), 4: 648 Iowa caucuses, 2008 election, 3: 384, 423 Iran, elections and video activism, 1: 53 Iran hostage crisis (1979 80), 4: 591 Iran Contra scandal, 4: 591 92 Iraq War (1991). See Persian Gulf War, 1991 Iraq War (2003 ) Bush administration policy, 3: 401 2; 4: 576, 594, 616, 617 20 draft ideas, 4: 615 opposition, African Americans, 4: 576, 616 opposition, politicians, 3: 389, 394, 402, 422 2008 election issue, 3: 422, 425, 427 Irving, Julius “Dr. J,” 1: 177 Islam. See Nation of Islam; Sunni Islam Isley Brothers, 4: 641 Israel, 4: 731 32

J Jackson Five, 4: 643 44, 665, 675 Jackson, Jesse, 1: 44 47; 4: 665 contemporaries and influence, 1: 29, 31, 44 45, 55, 59 60 election campaigns, 1: 46; 3: 384, 387, 418; 4: 708, 725 26 Louis Farrakhan and, 1: 46, 55; 4: 708 9 gay rights support, 4: 745 Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) decision support, 3: 564 (ill.) as pastor, 4: 700 701, 714, 726 Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, 1: 44, 45 46, 46 (ill.), 47; 2: 246 Jackson, Joe, 4: 643 Jackson, Mahalia, 4: 700 Jackson, Michael, 4: 631 32, 643 48, 644 (ill.), 647 (ill.), 674 75 acting career, 2: 242; 4: 644 MTV airplay, 4: 645, 676, 683

Contemporary Times

political partnerships, 1: 29 Jackson, Shirley Ann, 4: 761, 778 84, 781 (ill.), 783 (ill.), 800, 805, 817 The Jacksons, 4: 644 Jacoby, Sydney, 4: 800 Jagger, Mick, 4: 631 Jakes, T. D., 4: 701, 703, 712 14, 712 (ill.) jam bands, 1: 118 Jamaica, 4: 729 James, Daniel “Chappie,” Jr., 4: 576, 580 86, 581 (ill.), 585 (ill.) James, LeBron, 4: 631 James, Rick, 4: 676 Japanese American internment, 3: 521 Jarrell, Jae, 1: 119 Jarrell, Wadsworth, 1: 119 Jay Z, 4: 679 (ill.), 680 jazz, 1: 79, 89 93, 116 18; 4: 659 Jazz Messengers, 1: 91 Jazz (Morrison), 1: 96, 127, 133 jazz operas, 1: 81, 92, 128 jazz poetry, 1: 107, 123 The Jeffersons (television program), 2: 250, 251 (ill.) Jelly’s Last Jam (Wolfe), 1: 87, 116 Jemison, Mae, 4: 761, 784 87, 785 (ill.), 797, 806 Jena Six case, 2006, 1: 59 61, 60 (ill.) Jesus Christ, 1: 48; 4: 700, 705, 730, 736, 737, 738 (ill.), 739, 751 Jet (magazine), 2: 234, 235 Jeter, Mildred. See Loving, Mildred Jews. See also antisemitism African American, 4: 700, 728, 730 32, 731 (ill.) Old Testament, 4: 728, 748 49 The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 4: 641 42, 662 Jodeci, 1: 149 Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Wilson), 1: 79 Joe’s Bed Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (Lee), 2: 218, 246 John, Daymond, 1: 153 55, 153 (ill.); 4: 678 79 Johns Hopkins University

Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, 3: 471 medical school admissions, 3: 467, 468, 469 neurosurgery, 3: 456, 457 Johnson, Hazel, 4: 580, 586 88, 587 (ill.) Johnson, John H., 2: 234 Johnson, Katherine G., 4: 791 Johnson, Lonnie G., 4: 798 99, 798 (ill.) Johnson, Lyndon B. See also Voting Rights Act (1965) affirmative action policy, 1: 34, 166 68, 189 91; 3: 508 campaigning, 3: 391 civil rights policy, 1: 141; 3: 407, 536 37; 4: 578 Freedom of Information Act (1966), 4: 736 judicial nominations, 3: 522 23, 527 (ill.), 528 King assassination and, 1: 43 media policy, 2: 232 military policy, 4: 600 601, 602, 816 staff, 4: 578 Washington D.C. administration, 3: 409 Johnson, Magic, 3: 484, 485 Johnson, Michelle T., 1: 173 Johnson Publishing Company, 2: 234 Johnson, Robert L., 1: 155 57, 155 (ill.), 171; 2: 255 Johnson’s Luncheonette, 1: 174 75 Joint Chiefs of Staff, chairman position, 4: 576, 588, 589 (ill.), 612 Jolson, Al, 4: 631 Jones, Barbara B., 1: 119 Jones, Bill T., 1: 88 89, 88 (ill.) Jones, Edward, 1: 79 Jones, James Earl, 2: 239 Jones, LeRoi. See Baraka, Amiri Jones, Marion, 4: 631 Jones, Quincy, 1: 164; 4: 644 45, 675 Jordan, Barbara, 2: 297; 3: 390 92, 390 (ill.)


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Nixon impeachment hearings, 3: 390, 390 (ill.), 391 92, 428 30 Jordan, Michael, 1: 177; 4: 631, 648 50, 649 (ill.), 678 journalists, 2: 202, 203. See also political journalism Jayson Blair, 2: 206 7, 206 (ill.) Ed Bradley, 2: 202, 207 8, 207 (ill.) Farai Chideya, 2: 203, 204, 208 9 Michael Eric Dyson, 2: 328 hiring trends, 2: 232 33 Gwen Ifill, 2: 203, 215 16, 215 (ill.) Internet sites and activity, 2: 204, 209, 238 Robert C. Maynard, 2: 220 21, 220 (ill.) Bernard Shaw, 2: 224 25, 224 (ill.) Tavis Smiley, 2: 225 27, 226 (ill.) journalists’ associations, 2: 202, 220 21, 222, 233 journals. See periodicals Joyner, Tom, 2: 216 18, 217 (ill.) Judaism, 4: 700, 728, 730 32 judges Janice Rogers Brown, 3: 510 12, 510 (ill.) Eric Holder, 3: 517 (ill.), 518 Thurgood Marshall, 3: 519 24, 520 (ill.) Constance Baker Motley, 3: 526 28, 527 (ill.) Clarence Thomas, 3: 531 35, 531 (ill.), 535 (ill.) Juilliard School of Music, 1: 91 Jungle Fever (film), 2: 203, 219, 249 juries Amadou Diallo shooting case, 3: 549 call for similar racial backgrounds, 1: 65 employment discrimination cases, 3: 546 Jena Six case, 1: 59 Rodney King beating case, 1: 52, 54; 3: 509, 547 48 African American Eras

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Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’Fore I Die (Angelou), 1: 123 24 juvenile detention centers, 2: 321 juvenile diabetes, 3: 463. See also diabetes rates juvenile offenders, tried as adults, 1: 59 60, 61

K Karenga, Ron, 1: 107, 111 Keating, Edward M., 1: 15 16 Keith, Floyd, 4: 685 86 Kemp, Herb, 1: 173 Kennard, William E., 4: 808 Kennedy, Adrienne, 1: 114 Kennedy, Edward, 1: 24 Kennedy, Erica, 1: 128 Kennedy, Flo, 1: 47 Kennedy, John F. affirmative action policy, 1: 34, 142, 166, 167, 189 arts policy, 1: 124 campaigning, 3: 391 civil rights policy, 1: 141; 3: 407; 4: 578 judicial nominations, 3: 522 religion, 4: 743 space program, 4: 790, 817 staff, 4: 578 Kennedy, Megorah, 1: 6, 62 Kennedy, Robert F. assassination, 1: 67; 2: 214; 4: 663 King assassination speech, 1: 66 68 Loving v. Virginia case, 2: 282 poverty issues, 1: 23 staff members, 2: 214 Kent, Herb, 2: 235 Kent State shootings, 1970, 2: 345 Kerner Commission, 2: 232 Kid ’n Play, 2: 243, 246 kidney transplants, 3: 440, 452, 453 Kidwell, Earl, Jr., 3: 469 Kilpatrick, Kwame, 3: 416 17, 416 (ill.) Kindred (Butler), 1: 85 King, B. B., 4: 640

Contemporary Times

King, Bernice A., 4: 714 15, 714 (ill.) King, Coretta Scott, 1: 48 (ill.); 3: 419 (ill.), 471; 4: 715 King, Dexter, 3: 419 (ill.) King, Don, 1: 29 King, John, 3: 553 54 King, Martin Luther, III, 1: 60; 4: 613 King, Martin Luther, Jr. advisers, 1: 61 62 assassination, 1: 5, 38, 42 44, 44 (ill.), 66 68; 2: 327; 3: 409 10; 4: 612, 663, 715 civil rights movement leadership, 1: 5, 9, 29, 36 37, 42, 44; 4: 700, 706, 725, 738 FBI surveillance, 1: 61; 4: 736 37 holiday, 1: 9; 3: 413, 419 20, 419 (ill.) as minister, 1: 5; 4: 699, 700 nonviolent methods questioned, 1: 5, 16, 37 38; 4: 663 64, 700 Poor People’s Campaign, 1: 23, 42; 3: 443 speeches, 1: 42, 43; 2: 327 on Vietnam War, 4: 575, 601 (ill.), 602 “King of Rock” (Run DMC), 4: 682 King, Reatha Belle Clark, 4: 793 King, Rodney beating, 1991, 3: 546, 547 48, 547 (ill.) post incident and riots commentaries, 1: 33 post incident riots, 1: 15, 53; 3: 509, 548 verdict reactions, 1: 52 54 Knight, Gladys, 4: 660 Knowles, Beyoncé, 2: 243, 243 (ill.) The Known World ( Jones), 1: 79 Koch, Ed, 1: 30 Kool and the Gang, 4: 671 Kool Herc (deejay), 4: 680 81 Korean War veterans, 4: 583, 587 KRS One, 1: 149 Ku Klux Klan, terrorism, 1: 19; 4: 607 (ill.), 700 Kuwait. See Persian Gulf War, 1991 Kwanzaa, 1: 111, 111 (ill.)

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labor statistics. See employment statistics “Ladies First” (Queen Latifah), 4: 688 90 Lady Sings the Blues (film), 2: 242 Laird, Melvin, 4: 608 Lama, Omar, 1: 119 Lanier, Bob, 4: 663 laser surgery techniques/devices, 3: 442, 446 47, 467, 470 LaShane, Joanna, 2: 234 (ill.) law and justice (chapter) chronology, 3: 504 6 headline makers, 3: 510 35 overview, 3: 507 9 primary sources, 3: 562 67 topics in the news, 3: 536 61 Law, Bob, 2: 236 Law Keepers, 4: 728 Law of Return, Israel, 4: 732 Law schools, and affirmative action. See Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) Lawrence, Carolyn M., 1: 119 Lawrence, Robert H., 4: 790 Lawrence v. Texas (2003), 2: 297 lawsuits affirmative action, 1: 35 36 desegregation, 1: 11 election injustices, 1: 28 employment discrimination, 3: 545, 546; 4: 788 89 NAACP, 1: 11, 25, 27, 28 reparations, 1: 51 52 sports leadership diversity, 4: 685 86 television diversity, 1: 27 Tuskegee syphilis study, 3: 473 lawyers Clifford Alexander, 4: 579 Lani Guinier, 3: 512 15, 512 (ill.) Anita Hill, 3: 515 17, 515 (ill.) Eric Holder, 3: 517 19, 517 (ill.) Thurgood Marshall, 3: 519, 520 (ill.), 521 22 Constance Baker Motley, 3: 526 28, 527 (ill.)


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Charles J. Ogletree Jr., 3: 528 30, 529 (ill.) Laying Down the Law (Clark), 2: 321 Leading in Black and White: Working across the Racial Divide in Corporate America (Livers and Caver), 1: 173 League for Spiritual Discovery, 1: 8 Lean on Me (film), 2: 318 Lear, Norman, 2: 250, 251 Leary, Timothy, 1: 8 Lee, Barbara, 3: 414, 418 (ill.) Lee, Don L. See Madhubuti, Haki Lee, Spike, 2: 203, 218 20, 218 (ill.), 231, 246 47, 247 (ill.), 248, 249 acting roles, 2: 219, 259, 259 (ill.) Do the Right Thing movie review, 2: 258 60 Leffall, LaSalle D., Jr., 3: 443 legal errors, court cases, 1: 12 legalization of drugs, 3: 465, 466 legislative redistricting, 3: 383, 391, 393, 394, 405, 411 12, 421 Lemmons, Kasi, 2: 248, 249 lesbian activists. See gay and lesbian activists Letton, James C., 4: 799 Leventhal, Melvyn, 1: 105 Levi, Edward H., 1: 168 Levitt, Steven D., 2: 276 Lewis, Charles, 3: 410 11 Lewis, John, 3: 539 (ill.) Lewis, Margie, 1: 179 Lewis Kemp, Jacqueline, 1: 180 liberation theology, 1: 6, 48; 4: 704, 706, 736 38. See also black theology movement Liberia, 4: 731 life coaches, 4: 722 life expectancies, 3: 439, 475, 563 Lil Wayne, 4: 684 Lilith’s Brood (Butler), 1: 85 Lincoln, Abraham, 2: 337 Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, 1: 92, 157 Lincoln Review (journal), 3: 533 Lingo (programming language), 4: 811 linguistics and Ebonics, 2: 352 54 LinkLine, 4: 811 African American Eras

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literacy tests (disenfranchisement), 3: 536, 538 Little Bill series (book and television series), 2: 213 Little, Cleavon, 2: 244 Little Jezebel Plantation, 1: 177 Little Richard, 4: 641 Live at the Apollo (Brown), 4: 637 Livers, Ancella B., 1: 173 Livingston Award winners, 2: 222 LL Cool J, 1: 153, 154, 160 lobbyists, 3: 404 local area networks, 1: 161 Long Binh, Vietnam, 4: 606 7 Lopez, Jennifer, 2: 254 Lorde, Audre, 1: 123 Los Angeles Police Department, 1: 33, 52 53, 53 54; 3: 547 48, 547 (ill.), 556 (ill.) Los Angeles riots. See King, Rodney; Watts, Los Angeles riots, 1965 Lotus Press, 1: 108 Louisiana Superdome, 1: 58 Love, Monie, 4: 689 90 Loving, Mildred, 2: 280 83, 280 (ill.), 293, 297, 304 5 Loving, Richard, 2: 280, 280 (ill.), 281 83, 293, 304 5 Loving v. Virginia (1967), 2: 271, 280, 280 (ill.), 281 82, 283, 293, 297, 304 6 LSAT scores, 3: 565, 566 Ludacris, 2: 243 Lynch Fragments series (Edwards), 1: 120, 120 (ill.) lynching, 1: 50 (ill.), 59

M Mabley, Jackie “Moms,” 2: 243 MacArthur Foundation genius grant recipients, 1: 85, 98; 2: 336 Mack, Craig, 1: 149 Madea series (Perry), 1: 115 Madhubuti, Haki, 1: 107, 109 Madison, Joe, 2: 237 magazine editors, 2: 202, 228 29, 234 magazines. See periodicals

Contemporary Times

Magnificent Montague (DJ), 2: 235 Mahogany (film), 2: 242 Majette, Denise, 3: 394 Make, Vusumzi, 1: 82 Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X (Dyson), 2: 329 malaria, 3: 489 Malcolm X assassination, 1: 82, 106; 4: 708, 734 autobiography of, 1: 108; 3: 388 cultural criticism, 2: 329 Louis Farrakhan and, 4: 706, 707 8, 734 operas about, 1: 129 rap music and, 4: 682 religion and separatism, 1: 39; 4: 700, 705, 706, 734, 736, 738 study, 2: 329, 343 supporters, 1: 15, 16 Malcolm X (film), 2: 203, 218, 219, 231, 249 mammograms, 3: 479 (ill.), 480 Management Technology Inc., 1: 179 manufacturing industry. See automotive industry; factory jobs Marchbanks, Vance, 4: 794 Marines. See U.S. Marine Corps, personnel Market Women: Black Women Entrepreneurs Past, Present, and Future (Smith), 1: 173 Marley, Bob, 4: 729 marriage law. See gay marriage debate; Loving v. Virginia (1967) Marsalis, Branford, 1: 90, 91 Marsalis, Ellis, 1: 90 Marsalis, Wynton, 1: 79, 89 93, 90 (ill.), 117 18 Marshall, Thurgood, 3: 519 24, 520 (ill.) dissent, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), 3: 562 64 retirement and replacement, 3: 534, 549 Martin and Malcolm in America (Cone), 4: 706, 738

Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, 4: 715 Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, 1: 9; 3: 413, 419 20, 419 (ill.) Marvin X, 1: 114 Marxist philosophy, 1: 19 20, 32, 39 masks, 1: 101 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 4: 778 80 Massey, Walter E., 4: 804, 805 mass market fiction, 1: 127 28 Master P, 2: 256 Masters Tournament, 4: 657, 658, 658 (ill.), 659 masturbation, 3: 466 math and science education, 4: 761 62, 771, 787, 803 6, 805 (ill.) mathematicians, 4: 761, 775 77, 794 matriarchal families, 2: 291, 292, 296 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), 3: 555 Mauffrey, J. P., 1: 60 61 Mayfield, Curtis, 2: 241; 4: 641 Maynard, Nancy, 2: 220 21, 233 Maynard, Robert C., 2: 203, 220 21, 220 (ill.), 233 mayors Chicago: Harold Washington, 3: 420 21 Detroit, and city crises, 3: 414 17 election growth trends, 3: 383, 414 Washington D.C.: Walter Washington and Marion Barry, 1: 55; 2: 288, 288 (ill.); 3: 409 11 L. Douglas Wilder, 3: 406 Mays, Willie, 4: 634 Maytag Corporation, 1: 171 72 MC Hammer, 4: 678, 683 MC Lyte, 4: 683 McCain, John, 3: 399, 408 9, 424 27, 424 (ill.), 512; 4: 595 McCartney, Paul, 4: 655, 674 McCoy, Sid, 2: 235 McDaniel, Hattie, 2: 248 McGee, Art, 4: 810


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McGovern, George, 3: 385 (ill.), 386 McGwire, Mark, 4: 635 McKenzie, Vashti Murphy, 1: 48; 4: 701, 715 17, 716 (ill.) McKinney, Cynthia, 3: 392 95, 393 (ill.) McKinney, Gene, 4: 609 McMillan, Terry, 1: 127 (ill.), 128 McNair, Ronald E., 4: 765, 786, 794, 795, 795 (ill.), 805 6 McNamara, Robert, 4: 600 601, 610 11, 612 McPhail, Sharon, 3: 416 MCs, 4: 681 Medeski Martin & Wood, 1: 118 media ownership and diversity, 1: 27; 2: 204, 232 33, 235, 236 37, 260 62 media portrayals, stereotypes film, 2: 202, 203, 240, 241, 246, 248 journalism, 2: 209, 232, 233 television, 2: 203, 213, 250 51, 252, 255 medical care. See health care equality; minority health care reform medical devices and technologies automatic implantable defibrillator, 3: 467, 469 70 Laserphaco Probe (cataract surgery), 3: 442, 446 47 telemedicine, 3: 447 (ill.), 448 medical experimentation, humans, 3: 472 74 medical schools, enrollment and graduation, 3: 441, 467, 469 Medicare Act (1965), 3: 439 Medicare services, 3: 498 megachurches, 4: 701, 712, 713, 747 Melvin, Leland D., 4: 797 Men in Black (film), 2: 228, 243 mentorship programs, 1: 180; 2: 229, 324, 355 A Mercy (Morrison), 1: 97 Meredith v. Fair (1962), 3: 528 Meridian (Walker), 1: 110, 126 Merrill Lynch, 1: 172 African American Eras

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Mexico City Olympic Games, 1968, 2: 330, 332; 4: 663 65, 663 (ill.), 690 91 Mfume, Kweisi, 1: 24 28, 25 (ill.); 3: 413 14 The Michael Eric Dyson Show (radio program), 2: 330 Michele Foods, 1: 176 Michigan State University, 2: 345 microprocessing, 4: 776 77, 810 Microsoft, 4: 813 (ill.) middle class, 2: 297 300, 298 (ill.) Middle East conflict, 4: 752 migration north south, 2: 272, 300, 302 3 south north, 1: 183; 2: 271 72, 300 302, 306, 348 Miles, Buddy, 4: 643 militancy philosophies, 1: 5, 15, 16, 37 39; 4: 664, 734 military and homosexuality, 1: 63; 4: 580, 620 23 military and racial tensions, 4: 575, 582, 601, 602, 606 9, 610, 614 military bases, 2: 303; 4: 582, 607 the military (chapter) chronology, 4: 572 74 headline makers, 4: 577 99 overview, 4: 575 76 primary sources, 4: 617 23 topics in the news, 4: 600 616 military councils, 4: 590, 607 8 military personnel, 4: 575 76, 609 10, 614 Clifford Alexander, 4: 577 80, 577 (ill.) Daniel “Chappie” James Jr., 4: 576, 580 86, 581 (ill.), 585 (ill.) Hazel Johnson, 4: 580, 586 88, 587 (ill.) Colin Powell, 4: 576, 588 95, 589 (ill.), 593 (ill.), 612 13 J. Paul Reason, 4: 576, 595 99 military recruitment, 4: 600, 610, 612, 615 16, 816 Miller, Pepper, 1: 173 Milliken II (1977), 2: 352

Contemporary Times

Milliken v. Bradley (1974), 2: 352 Million Family March, 1: 11, 14, 56 Million Man March, 1: 55 (ill.) organization, 1: 11, 13, 54 56; 3: 388, 389; 4: 701, 706, 709, 735 participants, 1: 33 Millions More March, 1: 11, 56; 4: 701, 706, 709, 735 Milwaukee Braves, 4: 667 69 Mingus, Charles, 1: 116 ministers Juanita Bynum, 4: 701, 702 4, 702 (ill.) Katie Cannon, 1: 48; 4: 739, 740 Michael Eric Dyson, 2: 328 Louis Farrakhan, 4: 707 9 Jacquelyn Grant, 1: 48; 4: 739, 740 history, 4: 699, 700 701, 735 T. D. Jakes, 4: 701, 712 14 Bernice A. King, 4: 714 15, 714 (ill.) Martin Luther King Jr., 1: 5; 4: 699, 700 Vashti Murphy McKenzie, 4: 701, 715 17, 716 (ill.) Al Sharpton, 1: 29; 4: 700 701, 726 27 J. C. Watts Jr., 3: 403 Jeremiah Wright, 4: 701, 722 24, 723 (ill.) minority health care reform, 3: 493, 496 99 Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP), 3: 453 Minority Serving Institution Digital and Wireless Technology Opportunity Act (2003/2007), 4: 808 9. See also National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Mirowski, Michel, 3: 470 miscegenation, 2: 280, 281, 283, 285, 293, 301, 304, 305 Mitchell, Arthur, 1: 111 12 Mitchell, Mitch, 4: 641 42 Mitchell, Parren, 1: 169 (ill.)

Mitchell, Todd, 3: 555 mixed race marriage. See interracial marriage Mo’ Better Blues (film), 2: 219, 231, 249 mobile Internet, 4: 802 3 Moeller, Dennis, 4: 809 10 Moesha (television program), 2: 205 Montague, Nathaniel, 2: 235 Monterey International Pop Festival (1967), 4: 642, 660, 661 (ill.), 662 Montgomery, Edward, 1: 186 Moody, Anne, 1: 108 Moore, Rudy Ray, 2: 241 Moose, Charles, 3: 524 26, 525 (ill.) morale, military, 4: 601, 602, 607 8 “A More Perfect Union” (speech), 4: 701, 728 Morehouse College, 2: 367 Morgan v. Hennigan (1972), 2: 348 49 Morial, Marc, 3: 418 (ill.) Mormons, 1: 18; 4: 746 Morning Glory Ministries, 4: 703 4 Morrison, Toni, 1: 78 79, 93 97, 93 (ill.), 110, 126 27 collaborative writings, 1: 33 education, 1: 94; 2: 364 Nobel Prize, 1: 78 79, 93, 96, 127, 132 33 womanist writings, 1: 48 mortgage crisis, 2: 300 Mos Def, 2: 243 Moseley-Braun, Carol, 3: 395 96, 395 (ill.) Moses, Bob, 1: 22 Motley, Constance Baker, 3: 526 28, 527 (ill.) Motown Records, 4: 644, 653 54, 655, 675 movie directors. See film directors MTV color barrier and Michael Jackson, 4: 645, 676, 683 news, 2: 209 Yo! MTV Raps, 2: 255; 4: 683 Muhammad, Chavis. See Chavis, Benjamin


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Muhammad, Elijah, 1: 5, 15, 16, 49; 4: 700, 706, 707 8, 733, 734. See also Nation of Islam Muhammad, John Allen, 3: 526 Muhammad, Wallace D., 4: 708, 734 Muhammad, Wallace Fard, 4: 733 Mulcahy, Anne, 1: 145 multicultural education. See also African American studies; historically black colleges and universities African centered schools, 2: 351, 355 introduction, 2: 316 multimedia art, 1: 101 murals, 1: 118 19 Murphy, Eddie, 2: 245 Murray, Anna Pauline, 1: 47, 48; 4: 701, 718 20, 741 42 music producers Sean Combs, 1: 148, 149; 4: 639 Quincy Jones, 4: 644 45, 675 Russell Simmons, 1: 159 60 music videos, 1: 150, 155; 2: 255; 4: 676, 683 musicians as actors, 2: 203, 227 28, 242 43, 246, 254; 4: 644 black influence, 4: 631, 659 62 James Brown, 4: 636 38, 636 (ill.) Sean Combs, 1: 148, 150, 151 Aretha Franklin, 4: 638 39, 638 (ill.) Jimi Hendrix, 4: 639 43, 640 (ill.), 660, 662 Michael Jackson, 4: 643 48, 644 (ill.), 674 75 Wynton Marsalis, 1: 79, 89 93, 90 (ill.), 116 18 pop music color barrier, 4: 645, 672 76 Prince, 2: 242; 4: 673 (ill.), 674 Will Smith, 2: 227, 228 Stevie Wonder, 4: 653 56, 654 (ill.) Muslim American politicians, 3: 387 90, 388 (ill.) Mutual Black Network, 2: 202, 235 36 African American Eras



My Grandfather’s Son (Thomas), 3: 531, 535, 552 53 My Lai Massacre (Vietnam War), 4: 590 Myanmar, 1: 53 Myers, Dwight, 1: 150

N NAACP. See National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), 1: 187 Nagin, Ray, 1: 57, 58 names, 2: 271 NASA. See National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Nation of Islam, 4: 707, 708 9, 733 35, 733 (ill.). See also Farrakhan, Louis The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1: 108 Congressional Black Caucus and, 3: 413 14 conversions, 1: 13 14, 15 Million Man March, 1: 13, 54 56; 3: 388, 389; 4: 701, 709 newspaper, 2: 232 (ill.) recruitment, 1: 5; 4: 707 separatist philosophy, 1: 39, 49; 4: 705, 734 September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks response, 4: 749 53 Nation of Yahweh, 4: 730 National Action Network, 4: 726 (ill.) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 4: 763, 764 66, 770, 773 74, 790 97, 805 6, 815 18 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2: 291 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) affirmative action, 1: 169 and Black Leadership Forum, 3: 418

Contemporary Times

Clarence Thomas investigation and non support, 3: 530, 534, 550 executive directors/presidents, 1: 11, 13, 24 25, 27 28 Image Award winners, 2: 223, 226 27, 231, 330 Legal Defense Fund and legal support, 1: 22 23; 3: 514, 521, 522, 527 28 membership, 1: 25 police brutality concern, 1: 54 sports leadership, and diversity, 4: 685 television/media criticism, and diversity, 1: 27; 2: 202, 239 volunteers, 1: 21; 3: 407 (ill.) voter registration, 3: 407 (ill.), 408 National Association of Black Journalists, 2: 202, 222, 233, 328 National Bank of Arkansas, 3: 466 National Basketball Association (NBA). See also basketball players clothing, 1: 154 coaches, 4: 684, 686 players ratios, 4: 668 team owners, 1: 155; 4: 650 National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, 4: 743 National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, 1: 10, 62; 4: 745 National Black Network, 2: 202, 235 36 National Black Women’s Health Imperative, 3: 475, 478, 492 93 National Body of the Black Men’s and Women’s Exchange, 1: 62 National Book Award winners, 1: 96, 126 National Child Protection Act (1993), 1: 164 National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, 1: 62; 2: 297 National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA), 1: 50

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), team leadership, 4: 685 86 National Conference of Black Churchmen, 4: 705. See also black theology movement National Dental Association, 3: 441 National Football League (NFL), 4: 668, 686 National Guard civil rights protests and, 4: 611 12, 611 (ill.) national disasters, deployments, 1: 58 recruitment, 4: 612 riots and, 1: 43, 53; 3: 409 10, 548 National Organization for Women (NOW), 1: 47; 3: 387; 4: 719 National Political Congress of Black Women, 3: 387 National Public Radio (NPR), journalists, 2: 221 22, 226 National Rainbow Coalition, 1: 44, 47. See also Rainbow/PUSH Coalition National Science Foundation, 1: 183; 4: 762, 804, 809 national security advisors, 3: 401; 4: 576 National Security Council (NSC), 4: 591 92 National Society for Black Engineers, 2: 316 National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), 2: 237; 4: 801, 807, 813 15 National Urban League, 1: 184 National Youth Gang Center, 2: 289 National Youth Movement, 1: 29 nationalism. See black nationalist movement Native American populations, 2: 294 Navy. See U.S. Navy Naylor, Gloria, 1: 126 NCLB. See No Child Left Behind Act (2001) Neal, Larry, 1: 107 needle drug use, 3: 484 85 negative political campaigns, 1: 26


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Negro Airmen International, 4: 789 Nelson, Willie, 1: 93 NetNoir Online, 4: 810 11 neurosurgeons, 3: 448 50, 454 60 Neverland Ranch, 4: 646, 648 The New Bill Cosby Show (television program), 2: 251 New Black Panther Party, 1: 42 New Great Migration, 2: 272, 300, 302 3 New Hampshire primary, 2008 election, 3: 423 New Orleans, Louisiana. See Hurricane Katrina, 2005 New York Age (newspaper), 2: 220 New York Daily News (newspaper), 2: 203, 233 New York Times (newspaper), 2: 206, 207 Newman v. Piggy Park Enterprises (1968), 1: 175 newspapers, black owned/black interest, 2: 202, 203, 220 21, 232 34, 232 (ill.) Newsweek (magazine), 2: 209 Newton, Huey, 1: 5, 14, 16, 39, 41, 42, 62, 64, 114; 4: 664, 665 documentaries, 2: 249 Newton, Pamela, 3: 490 91 Nicaragua, and Iran Contra scandal, 4: 591 92 Nigeria, 3: 396, 451; 4: 721 22, 775 Nike, 4: 648, 649, 678 9/11 attacks. See September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks 1999 (Prince), 4: 674 Nineteenth Amendment, 3: 507 Nixon, Richard affirmative action policy, 1: 168 civil rights policy, 3: 407 Congressional Black Caucus and, 3: 412 13 domestic policy, 1: 23; 2: 350; 3: 560 impeachment hearings, 3: 390, 390 (ill.), 391 92, 428 30 judicial nominations, 3: 523 military policy, 4: 606 African American Eras

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Watergate scandal, 3: 428, 429 30 No Child Left Behind Act (2001), 2: 316 17, 338, 341 42, 356, 371 (ill.) reports, effects, 2: 373 74 and school takeovers, 2: 360 Statement of Purpose, 2: 371 73 No Place to Be Somebody (Gordone), 1: 78, 115 No Way Out (Puff Daddy & the Family), 1: 150 Nobel Peace Prize nominees/winners, 1: 10; 3: 443 Nobel Prize winners, literature, 1: 78 79, 93, 96, 127, 132 33; 2: 335 non integration. See separatism philosophy nonviolent protest methods and philosophy, 1: 5, 9, 36 37, 42 Norman, Jessye, 1: 129 Norman, Peter, 4: 663 (ill.), 664 Norris, Michele, 2: 221 22, 221 (ill.), 233 North American Air Defense (NORAD), 4: 585 86 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 1: 187 North Korea, 3: 402 Northeast Utilities, 4: 782 83 north south migration, 2: 272, 300, 302 3 Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder (2009), 3: 539 40 Notorious B.I.G., 4: 684 Nottage, Lynn, 1: 116 novelists, 1: 78 79, 94 97, 104 5, 126 28; 2: 209, 335, 337 NPR (National Public Radio) journalists, 2: 221 22, 226 NSC. See National Security Council (NSC) nuclear accidents, 4: 782 nuclear chemists, 4: 792 93 nuclear disarmament, 1: 21; 3: 402 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 4: 781 83, 781 (ill.), 800 Nunn, Bill, 2: 260

Contemporary Times

Nunn, Sam, 4: 593 nurses, 4: 586 88 Nutter, Michael, 3: 383 NWA, 4: 682 83

O O, The Oprah Magazine, 1: 165; 2: 234 35 Oakland Tribune (newspaper), 2: 203, 221, 233 Oakland Unified School District, 2: 352 53, 354 Obama, Barack, 3: 397 99, 397 (ill.) advisers, 1: 159; 4: 580 auto industry and, 1: 185, 186 campaign support, 1: 10; 3: 422, 423, 519; 4: 595 drug policy, 2: 287, 291 education, 3: 397 98, 530 education policy, 2: 368; 4: 762 family, 2: 296, 296 (ill.); 3: 397, 398 hate crimes policy, 3: 555 health policy, 3: 493 inauguration poetry and music, 1: 125; 4: 580, 639 media coverage, 2: 216, 235; 4: 667 Million Man March, 1995, 1: 55 reparations opposition, 1: 52 science and technology policy, 4: 762, 784, 815 16 2008 presidential election, 3: 384, 397, 399, 408 9, 422 27, 424 (ill.), 426 (ill.) victory, as precedent, 1: 45, 143; 2: 272 73; 3: 384, 397, 399, 422, 427 victory speech, 2008 election, 3: 427, 430 32 Jeremiah Wright and, 4: 701, 723 (ill.), 724, 727 28, 727 (ill.) Obama, Michelle, 3: 398, 426 (ill.), 530; 4: 667 obesity in African Americans, 3: 486 88, 486 (ill.)

and breast cancer, 3: 480 Obie Award winners, 1: 98, 104, 112; 2: 231 oceanographers, 4: 792 O’Connor, Carroll, 2: 250 O’Connor, Sandra Day, 1: 169; 3: 512 O’Connor, Vince, 1: 9 Off the Wall (Jackson), 4: 645, 675 Office of Minority Health, 3: 474, 476 officers, military, 4: 576, 582, 601, 610, 611. See also specific biographies Ogletree, Charles J., Jr., 1: 51; 3: 528 30, 529 (ill.), 556 57 Olds, Robin, 4: 583, 584 Olympic Games, and activism, 2: 330, 332; 4: 603, 632, 663 65, 663 (ill.), 690 91 Olympic Project for Human Rights, 2: 332; 4: 664, 690 91 “On the Pulse of Morning” (Angelou), 1: 79, 83, 124 (ill.) O’Neal, Stanley, 1: 172 open enrollment, colleges, 2: 367 opera classical, 1: 128 30, 129 (ill.) jazz, 1: 81, 92, 128 Operation Breadbasket, 1: 29, 44 45 Operation Desert Shield/Storm, 2: 225; 4: 592, 612 13, 612 (ill.) Operation Restore Hope (Somalia), 4: 613 ophthalmologists, 3: 442 48, 469 The Oprah Winfrey Show, 1: 162, 163 64; 2: 203, 253 54 Oprah’s Angel Network, 1: 165 Oprah’s Book Club, 1: 96 97, 164 Oregon v. Mitchell (1970), 3: 538 organ donation, attitudes, 4: 452 53, 494, 495 96 organ transplants, 3: 440, 450 51, 452 53 Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), 1: 109, 118 21 Oscar winners. See Academy Award winners Our Nig (Wilson), 2: 335 overviews activism and reform, 1: 5 7


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the arts, 1: 78 79 business and industry, 1: 141 43 communications and media, 2: 202 4 demographics, 2: 271 73 education, 2: 315 17 government and politics, 3: 383 84 health and medicine, 3: 439 41 law and justice, 3: 507 9 military, 4: 575 76 popular culture, 4: 631 32 religion, 4: 699 701 science and technology, 4: 761 62 Oxygen (cable channel), 1: 165

P P. Diddy. See Combs, Sean Pagones, Steven, 1: 30 Paige, Rod, 2: 338 42, 339 (ill.), 342 (ill.), 364 Palestine, 4: 752 Palin, Sarah, 3: 424 25 Pan African Resource Guide (online directory), 4: 810 pan African studies. See African American studies pan Africanism, 1: 41, 116; 4: 729 Parallax, 1: 179 parallel processing, 4: 776 pardons, 3: 518 parenting. See family life, changes; single mother families Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007), 3: 543 44 Parker, Linda Bates, 1: 178 79, 180 Parker, Patricia Sue, 1: 173 Parks, Gordon, Jr., 2: 240 41 Parks, Gordon, Sr., 2: 240 41 Parks, Saundra, 1: 179 80 Parks, Suzan-Lori, 1: 79, 97 98, 98 (ill.), 116 Parliament Funkadelic, 4: 670 (ill.), 671, 672 Parsons, Richard, 1: 157 59, 157 (ill.), 171, 172 (ill.) particle physics, 4: 779 80 lxx


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pastors. See ministers; priests Pataki, George, 4: 750 patent laws, 4: 797. See also inventors and inventions Paterson, David, 3: 384 Patrick Air Force Base, 4: 608 9 Patrick, Deval, 3: 384 Patternist series (Butler), 1: 85 Paul, Clarence, 4: 654 Payne Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church (Baltimore), 4: 715 16, 717 PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) documentary series, 2: 336 37 news programs, 2: 216, 226 Peabody Award winners, 2: 208, 222 Peace and Freedom Party, 1: 17, 39 peaceful protest methods and philosophy, 1: 5, 9, 36 37, 42 Peete, Calvin, 4: 658 59 Pelosi, Nancy, 3: 387, 418 (ill.) penicillin, 3: 472 73 Pentecostal Church, 4: 701, 712, 713, 741 People United to Save Humanity (PUSH), 1: 44, 45 46, 46 (ill.), 47; 2: 246 “The People’s Flag Show” (art exhibit), 1: 120 periodical literature, study, 2: 335, 336 periodicals black magazines, 1: 156, 170, 171, 172; 2: 202, 203, 213, 214 15, 228, 229, 232, 234 35 industry and economy, 2: 232, 235 literary journals, 1: 15 16, 108 9, 123 O, The Oprah Magazine, 1: 165; 2: 234 35 Perry, Tyler, 1: 115, 115 (ill.) Persian Gulf War, 1991, 2: 225; 4: 592, 612 13, 612 (ill.) Person, Waverly, 4: 793 personal computers, 4: 777, 799, 801, 802, 809 10. See also computers in schools P Funk, 4: 670 (ill.), 671, 672

Contemporary Times

PGA championships, 4: 656, 656 (ill.), 657, 658, 658 (ill.) Phat Farm (clothing line), 1: 160; 4: 651, 678 Philadelphia public schools, 2: 363 “Philadelphia Sound,” 4: 669 Philadelphia Tribune (newspaper), 2: 233 34 philanthropy Benjamin Carson, 3: 459 Bill Clinton, 2: 325 Bill Cosby, 2: 213, 324 Earl G. Graves, Sr., 2: 215 Michael Jackson, 4: 645 46 Tom Joyner, 2: 217 18 Tavis Smiley, 2: 226 David L. Steward, 1: 162 Denzel Washington, 2: 231 Oprah Winfrey, 1: 165; 2: 325 Phish, 1: 118 physicians, 3: 439, 441, 498 Patricia Bath, 3: 442 48 Keith L. Black, 3: 448 50 Clive Callender, 3: 450 54 Benjamin Carson, 3: 454 60 Joycelyn Elders, 3: 460 67 Levi Watkins Jr., 3: 467 71 physicists, 4: 778 84, 791 92, 793, 800 The Piano Lesson (Wilson), 1: 116 Pickett, Wilson, 4: 660 pilots. See airline industry; U.S. Air Force, personnel Pittsburgh Pirates, 4: 634 plagiarism, 2: 206 7 plays. See drama and dramatists Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), 3: 522, 566 67 poetry and poets, 1: 79, 123 25 Maya Angelou, 1: 80, 81, 83 black arts movement, 1: 106 9, 123, 125 bell hooks, 2: 277 Ntozake Shange, 1: 103 4 Poitier, Sidney, 1: 150; 2: 202, 239, 244, 248 police brutality/violence, 3: 508 9, 546 49

Amadou Diallo shooting, 3: 509, 546, 548 49 Black Panthers opposition, 1: 5, 14, 16, 39 41, 64, 65 Rodney King beating and trials, 1: 52 54; 3: 509, 546, 547 48, 547 (ill.) Sharpton/National Youth Movement opposition, 1: 29 30 voter registration, 1: 23 police departments, reforms, 1: 54; 3: 415, 526 police officers and chiefs, 3: 524 26 political journalism, 2: 203, 204, 208, 209, 215 16, 220, 224 25, 226 political literature. See protest literature; protest theater political prisoners, 1: 12, 20 politicians. See elected officials, growth trends; governors; House of Representatives; mayors; presidential candidates; presidential primary candidates; secretaries of state; Senate; Speakers of the House; state legislators; specific politicians politics of the oppressed, 1: 19, 39. See also liberation theology poll taxes, 3: 536 pollution, minority areas. See environmental racism and justice polygamy, 4: 732 Poor People’s Campaign, 1: 23, 42; 3: 443 pop music, 4: 631 32, 643, 645, 672 76. See also adult contemporary music; disco music; funk music; hip hop music; soul music Pope John Paul II, 4: 711 popular culture, academic study, 2: 326, 328 30 popular culture blogs, 2: 204, 209, 238 popular culture (chapter) chronology, 4: 628 30 headline makers, 4: 633 57 overview, 4: 631 32 primary sources, 4: 687 91 topics in the news, 4: 658 86 popular fiction, 1: 127 28


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lxxii

population information. See Census Bureau information; demographics; migration Porgy and Bess (Gershwin and Heyward), 1: 81, 128 “post racial” era, 2: 272 73; 3: 384 Potter’s House church, 4: 701, 703, 712, 713 poverty and health care disparities, 3: 440, 474 78, 483 84, 497 imprisonment link, 2: 290; 3: 560 program advocacy, 1: 23, 42; 3: 443 Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr., 1: 29, 61 Powell, Colin, 4: 588 95, 589 (ill.) America’s Promise, 4: 593 (ill.), 594 Persian Gulf War, 4: 592, 612 13, 612 (ill.) as secretary of state, 3: 384; 4: 588, 594 95 WMDs presentation, United Nations, 4: 594, 617 20, 617 (ill.) Powell, Lewis, 1: 191 93 “Praise Song for the Day” (Alexander), 1: 125; 4: 580 prenatal care, 3: 464, 476, 493, 493 (ill.) presidential candidates. See also presidential primary candidates Green Party (McKinney), 3: 395 Barack Obama, 1: 45; 3: 384, 399, 408 9, 422 27, 424 (ill.); 4: 727 28 Peace and Freedom Party (Cleaver), 1: 17 presidential debates journalism and moderation, 2: 216, 225 2008 election, 3: 423, 424 (ill.), 426 27 presidential elections 2000, NAACP involvement, 1: 28 2008, 3: 408 9, 422 27 Presidential Medal of Arts recipients, 1: 83 African American Eras

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Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, 1: 24; 3: 460, 460 (ill.); 4: 639 presidential pardons, 3: 518 presidential primary candidates Shirley Chisholm, 3: 385, 386 Jesse Jackson, 1: 46; 3: 384, 387, 418; 4: 708 9, 725 26 Carol Moseley Braun, 3: 396 Al Sharpton, 1: 31; 4: 726 27 L. Douglas Wilder, 3: 406 President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. See Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) President’s Council on Bioethics, 3: 458 President’s National Commission on AIDS Research, 3: 485 Presley, Elvis, 4: 631 Presley, Lisa Marie, 4: 647 preventive health care, 3: 439, 476 77, 480, 492 93 Price, Leontyne, 1: 128 priests, 4: 701, 709 11, 718 22, 741 primary candidates. See presidential primary candidates primary care physician relationships, 3: 439, 498 primary source documents activism and reform, 1: 64 70 the arts, 1: 131 33 business and industry, 1: 189 94 communications and media, 2: 258 62 demographics, 2: 304 7 education, 2: 369 74 government and politics, 3: 428 32 health and medicine, 3: 494 99 law and justice, 3: 562 67 military, 4: 617 23 popular culture, 4: 687 91 religion, 4: 748 53 science and technology, 4: 813 18 Prince, 2: 242; 4: 673 (ill.), 674 Prince George’s County, Maryland, 2: 302

Contemporary Times

Prince Bythewood, Gina, 2: 205 Princeton University and faculty Toni Morrison, 1: 96, 132 Cornel West, 1: 31, 32, 33 Prison Satellite Network, 4: 713 14 prisoners advocates, 1: 20, 47, 65 death penalty, 3: 554, 559 literary portrayals, 1: 14, 95 96 prison experiences, 1: 15, 17 18 rates, black men, 1: 182; 2: 289 91, 359; 3: 508, 557, 558, 558 (ill.), 559, 560 rates, black women, 2: 290; 3: 508 sentencing, drug crimes, 2: 287, 290, 291; 3: 560, 561 wrongfully imprisoned, 1: 10 11, 11 12, 19 Privacy Act (1974), 4: 736 Procter & Gamble, 4: 799 producers. See music producers Project 3000 by 2000, 3: 441 Project 100,000 (Vietnam War), 4: 600 601 Proposition 8 (California), 4: 746 Proposition 209 (California), 1: 169 70; 3: 511 “prosperity gospel,” 4: 747 protest literature, 1: 105, 107 protest theater, 1: 113 14 Protestant theology, 4: 699 protests, campus anti busing, 2: 349, 350 anti war, 2: 345 black studies needs, 2: 343, 344 (ill.) protests, domestic civil rights, and violence/ intimidation, 3: 546; 4: 611 12, 611 (ill.) civil rights marches and sit ins, 1: 42, 61; 4: 719 gay rights, 1: 9, 62; 4: 745 Persian Gulf War, 3: 613 Poor People’s Campaign, 1: 42; 3: 443 racial profiling, 3: 556 (ill.)

Vietnam War, 2: 345; 4: 575, 601 2, 601 (ill.) protests, international stage, 2: 330, 332; 4: 632, 663 65, 663 (ill.), 690 91 Pryor, Richard, 2: 244 45, 244 (ill.) psychologists, 2: 330 33 psychophysiology, 4: 793, 796 Public Broadcasting Service. See PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) public defenders, 3: 528, 529 Public Enemy, 1: 160; 4: 682 public health education and programs, 3: 464 65 public schools. See Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954); busing; school systems, and economics publishing sources. See also periodicals black readership magazines, 1: 158, 170, 171, 172; 2: 202, 203, 213, 214 15, 228, 229, 234 35 black readership/ownership, newspapers, 2: 202, 203, 220 21, 232 34, 232 (ill.) magazine presses, 2: 234 poetry presses, 1: 108, 123 Puff Daddy. See Combs, Sean Pulitzer Prize winners drama, 1: 78, 79, 97, 115, 116 fiction, 1: 79, 93, 96, 105, 127 music, 1: 92 poetry, 1: 124; 2: 277 Purple Rain (film and soundtrack album), 2: 242; 4: 674 PUSH Coalition, 1: 44, 45 46, 46 (ill.), 47; 2: 246

Index ........................................................

Q Qaddafi, Muammar al , 4: 584 Qaeda, al , 4: 576, 749 Queen Latifah, 2: 243; 4: 683, 688 90 quilts, 1: 99, 99 (ill.), 101 2, 120 quotas. See also affirmative action “set asides” examples, 1: 36, 168, 169, 191; 3: 540 41, 562


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Index ........................................................

Supreme Court cases, 1: 35 36, 191; 3: 508, 540 41, 562 Qur’an, 3: 389; 4: 751

R Race, Gender, and Leadership (Parker), 1: 173 race riots. See riots Racial Integrity Act (Virginia, 1924), 2: 281, 282 racial profiling, 3: 509, 525, 526, 556 58 racial violence, Vietnam War/era, 4: 606 9, 614 racially motivated crimes. See hate crimes radio comedies, 2: 202, 211 12 Radio One, 2: 237, 239 radio ownership, networks, and stations, 1: 26; 2: 202, 204, 235, 236 37, 260 62 radio personalities, 2: 202, 235, 236, 236 (ill.), 237 Ed Bradley, 2: 208 Tom Joyner, 2: 216 18, 217 (ill.) Kweisi Mfume, 1: 26 Michele Norris, 2: 221 22, 221 (ill.) Tavis Smiley, 2: 225 27, 226 (ill.) Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, 1: 44, 46, 46 (ill.), 47 Raines, Franklin, 1: 171 Raleigh, North Carolina, 2: 302 Ramparts (magazine), 1: 15 16 Rangel, Charles, 3: 383, 413, 428; 4: 615 rap. See gangsta rap; hip hop culture; hip hop music Rap City (television program), 2: 255 rape Eldridge Cleaver crime, 1: 15 Maya Angelou experience, 1: 81 Tawana Brawley trial, 1: 30 “Rapper’s Delight” (Sugarhill Gang), 4: 681 Rapping with Petey Greene (radio show), 2: 202, 235 lxxiv


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Rashad, Phylicia, 1: 150 51; 2: 213, 252, 253 (ill.) Rastafarianism, 4: 699, 700, 729, 729 (ill.) Ray, James Earl, 1: 43 Reagan Democrats, 4: 591 Reagan, Ronald affirmative action policy, 1: 36, 169; 3: 534 civil rights policy, 3: 407 conservative staff, 3: 533 critics, 1: 46 education policy, 2: 318, 320, 365 foreign policy, 4: 592 judicial appointments, 3: 518 Martin Luther King holiday, 3: 419 (ill.), 420 military policy, 4: 591 92 President’s Summit for America’s Future, 4: 593 supporters, 1: 18 war on drugs, 2: 287; 3: 560 Reason, J. Paul, 4: 576, 595 99, 595 (ill.) recessions. See economic downturns Reconstruction era, 4: 699 record label originators, 1: 149, 151, 159 60, 171; 4: 644, 653 54, 660, 681 Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, 1: 186 recruitment, military, 4: 600, 610, 612, 615 16, 816 Red Guard, 1: 39 Redding, Noel, 4: 641 42 Redding, Otis, 4: 660 62, 661 (ill.) redistricting, political, 3: 383, 391, 393, 394, 405, 411 12, 421 Redman, John, 2: 337 Reed, Ishmael, 1: 109 10 reference works, African American history/culture, 2: 336 37; 4: 810 Reflecting Black: African American Cultural Criticism (Dyson), 2: 328 29 reform and activism. See activism and reform (chapter)

Contemporary Times

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), 1: 35 36, 168; 3: 508, 540 41, 543 dissenting opinion, 3: 562 64 majority opinion, 1: 191 94 religion (chapter) chronology, 4: 696 98 headline makers, 4: 702 24 overview, 4: 699 701 primary sources, 4: 748 53 topics in the news, 4: 725 47 Render, Frank, II, 4: 607 reparations Black Panthers support, 1: 49, 64 overviews, 1: 6, 49 52, 68 Resolution 40, 1: 50 51, 68 70 Reparations Coordinating Committee, 1: 51 52 Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), 4: 589 Resolution 1441 (United Nations), 4: 618, 620 restaurants and owners, 1: 150, 173 77, 174 (ill.), 180 reverse discrimination, 1: 34 36, 35 (ill.), 142, 168, 169; 3: 540 41 Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), 1: 53 Rhimes, Shonda, 2: 222 23, 222 (ill.), 254 Riccardi, Michael, 1: 30 31 Ricci v. DiStefano (2009), 1: 36 Rice, Condoleezza, 3: 384, 399 402, 400 (ill.); 4: 594 Rich, Marc, 3: 518 19 Rich, Matty, 2: 247 Richards, Ann, 3: 392 Richie, Lionel, 2: 216; 4: 646, 674 Rickover, Hyman, 4: 596 97 Ride, Sally K., 4: 794 right to fair trial, 1: 65; 3: 528, 547, 549. See also juries; prisoners Ringgold, Faith, 1: 78, 99 102, 99 (ill.), 120 riots, 2: 272, 302 busing and integration related, 2: 349

Detroit, 1967, 2: 327; 4: 612 newspaper coverage/controversies, 2: 232 post King assassination, 1968, 1: 5, 17, 43; 3: 409 10; 4: 612 post Rodney King beating, Los Angeles, 1992, 1: 15, 33, 53; 3: 509, 548 Watts, Los Angeles, 1965, 1: 14 15, 82; 2: 235; 4: 612 Wilmington Ten case, 1: 10 11, 11 12 Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, 2: 220 21 Robert Wood Johnson Minority Faculty Development Program, 3: 470 71 Robinson, Bill “Bojangles,” 1: 86, 87 Robinson, Frank, 4: 684 85 Robinson, Jackie, 4: 633 Robinson, Smokey, 4: 660 Robinson, T. J., 1: 180 Rocawear (clothing line), 4: 679 (ill.), 680 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, 4: 637, 639, 655 Rock, Chris, 2: 256 Rockefeller, Nelson, 1: 157 58 rocketry, 4: 768 Roe v. Wade (1973), 3: 551 Roman Catholicism. See Catholic Church Rooney, Dan, 4: 686 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 4: 582 Roots (miniseries), 2: 252 Roscoe’s House of Chicken ’n Waffles, 1: 176 Ross, Diana, 2: 242; 4: 644, 665 ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps), 4: 589 Roundtree, Richard, 2: 240, 240 (ill.), 241 Rowe, Debbie, 4: 647 Rubin, Rick, 1: 159 Ruined (Nottage), 1: 116 Rumsfeld, Donald, 4: 594 Run DMC, 1: 149, 153, 159, 160; 4: 677, 677 (ill.), 682


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Index ........................................................

RuPaul, 2: 297 Rush Artist Management, 1: 159 Rush, Bobby L., 4: 807 8 Russell, Bill, 4: 684 Russell Simmons Music, 1: 160 Rustin, Bayard, 1: 9, 61 62 Ruth, Babe, 4: 631, 667 (ill.), 668 69

S Salt N Pepa, 1: 153; 4: 683 same sex marriage debate, 4: 745, 746 sampling, 4: 681 82 San Antonio Express News (newspaper), 2: 207 San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973), 3: 524 San Francisco Giants, 4: 634 35 San Francisco State College, 2: 343, 344 (ill.) Sanchez, Sonia, 1: 107, 114 Sanford and Son (television show), 2: 203, 243, 251, 299 Satel, Sally, 3: 496 99 Saturday Night Live (television program), 2: 245 savings, personal, 2: 300 “Say It Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud” (Brown), 4: 632, 637, 687 88, 687 (ill.) school choice African centered schools, 2: 351 charter schools, 2: 354, 357 (ill.) unhelpful for desegregation, 2: 315, 346, 369 71 School Daze (film), 2: 219, 246 school desegregation. See Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954); busing; integration; Marshall, Thurgood; Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971) school systems, and economics, 2: 291, 316, 352, 358 59, 359 (ill.); 4: 804 school takeovers, 2: 358 63 school violence anti integration related, 2: 348 50 charter schools, 2: 356 lxxvi


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Eastside High School, and Joe Clark, 2: 319 urban schools, 2: 358 school voucher plans, 2: 341, 351 Schweitzer, Albert, 3: 443 Science and Engineering Apprentice Program (SEAP), 4: 771 science and math education, 4: 761 62, 771, 787, 803 6, 805 (ill.) science and technology (chapter) chronology, 4: 758 60 headline makers, 4: 763 87 overview, 4: 761 62 primary sources, 4: 813 18 topics in the news, 4: 788 812 science degrees, 1: 183; 2: 316; 4: 771 science fiction writers, 1: 85 scientists, 4: 761, 803 4, 805 6. See also astrophysicists; chemists; computer scientists; engineers; inventors and inventions; mathematicians; physicists Scott, Bobby, 3: 418 (ill.) Scott, Roland, 3: 440 Scott, Tony, 2: 248 Scowcroft, Brent, 3: 401 screenwriters, 2: 218 19, 223, 244 Seale, Bobby, 1: 5, 14, 16, 39, 41, 42, 64; 4: 664 Sean John/Sean by Sean Combs (fashion lines), 1: 148, 150, 151; 4: 679, 680 search engines, 2: 238 “second generation rights,” 2: 315 16 Second Great Migration, 1: 183; 2: 301 Second Morrill Land Grant Act (1890), 2: 363 secondary education, and multicultural awareness, 2: 316, 317. See also high school graduation rates secretaries of state, 3: 384, 399, 400 (ill.), 402; 4: 588, 594 95, 617 security systems, 4: 800 segregation. See also Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954); Supreme Court colleges examples, 3: 521, 528

Contemporary Times

military, 4: 582, 610 11 political platforms, 1: 9 Selassie, Haile, 4: 700, 729 self defense, 1: 5, 16, 30, 37, 39 41, 64, 65, 106. See also Black Panther Party self help books, 4: 722 self improvement, 1: 106 Selfridge Field air base, 4: 582 Selig, Bud, 4: 635 Senate Judiciary Committee, confirmations and hearings, 3: 515 (ill.), 516, 522, 523, 530, 534 35, 550 (ill.), 551 52 Carol Moseley Braun, 3: 395 96 Barack Obama, 3: 398 99, 422 sentencing, drug crimes laws/policies, 2: 287, 290, 291; 3: 560, 561 prison populations, 2: 289 90; 3: 560, 561 “separate but equal” precedent, 3: 522; 4: 582 separatism philosophy, 1: 5 6, 32, 39, 49, 78 black arts movement, 1: 106, 107, 111 religions, 1: 32, 48, 49; 4: 699, 700, 705, 707, 729, 734, 739 September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 4: 576 American Express assistance, 1: 147 Bush administration opinions, 3: 401 Cynthia McKinney commentary, 3: 394 Jeremiah Wright commentary, 4: 727 Nation of Islam response, 4: 749 53 reportage, 2: 208, 222 “set asides” (quotas), 1: 36, 168, 169, 169 (ill.), 191; 3: 540 41, 562 Set It Off (film), 2: 249 settlements for slavery. See reparations sex educators, 3: 464 65

sexual abuse scandal, Catholic Church, 4: 701, 709, 710 11 sexual harassment Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, 3: 515 17, 530, 534, 549, 551, 552 military cases, 4: 598, 609 sexually transmitted diseases, 3: 440, 464, 485 86. See also HIV/AIDS epidemic; Tuskegee syphilis study Shabazz, Quibilah, 4: 709 Shaft (film), 2: 240 41, 240 (ill.), 249 Shakur, Tupac, 2: 329; 4: 684 Shalala, Donna, 4: 495 96 Shange, Ntozake, 1: 102 4, 102 (ill.), 110, 114 Sharpton, Al, 1: 28 31, 28 (ill.); 4: 726 Amadou Diallo case, 3: 548 49 Jena Six case, 1: 59 60, 60 (ill.) as pastor, 4: 700 701, 714, 746 Shaw, Bernard, 2: 224 25, 224 (ill.) Shaw, Herman, 3: 495, 496 Sheldon, Lou, 1: 10; 4: 745 Shepard, Matthew, 3: 555 Sheridan Broadcasting Network. See Mutual Black Network Sherman, William Tecumseh, 1: 49 She’s Gotta Have It (film), 2: 203, 218, 219, 246 Shurney, Robert E., 4: 791 sickle cell anemia, 3: 440 41, 488 89, 489 (ill.) awareness, 3: 490 cure hopes and research, 3: 489 92 Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act (1972), 3: 440 The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro American Literature (Gates), 2: 336 Silent Gesture (Smith), 4: 690 91 Silicon Graphics Incorporated, 4: 799 Silver Streak (film), 2: 244 Simmons, Kimora Lee, 1: 160; 4: 650 52, 651 (ill.), 679 Simmons Jewelry Co., 1: 160 Simmons, Russell, 1: 14, 159 60, 159 (ill.), 171; 4: 651, 652, 678


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Simpson, Delmar, 4: 609 Sims, Naomi, 1: 178 Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (Angelou), 1: 82 single mother families, 2: 291, 292, 295, 296; 3: 559 60 single parent families, 2: 294 95 Singleton, John, 2: 203, 247, 248, 250 sitcoms, 2: 203, 250 51, 252 53, 254. See also specific sitcoms Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, 1963, 1: 19; 4: 700 60 Minutes (television program), 2: 207, 208 slang, 2: 336 slavery, 1: 38, 68 69; 3: 546. See also reparations affirmative action relevance, 3: 562 63 census data, 2: 271, 284 economic effects on blacks, 1: 141, 180 inventions, 4: 797 literary themes and portrayals, 1: 95 96, 97, 98, 125, 127 outlawed, 3: 544 related foods/recipes, 1: 174, 176 religion, 4: 699, 728, 748 study, 1: 51, 68, 69 70 Sly & the Family Stone, 4: 662, 670 Smalls, Biggie, 1: 149, 150 The Smiley Report (radio program), 2: 226 Smiley, Tavis, 2: 225 27, 226 (ill.) Smith, Bev, 2: 237 Smith, Cheryl A., 1: 173 Smith, Lovie, 4: 685 (ill.), 686 Smith, Nick, 4: 808 9 Smith, Tommie, 2: 332; 4: 632, 663 (ill.), 664 65, 690 91 Smith, Will, 2: 203, 227 28, 227 (ill.), 242 43, 254; 4: 678 Snipes, Wesley, 1: 177 social criticism Bill Cosby, 2: 213, 353 Michael Eric Dyson, 2: 328 30 social gospel movement, 4: 699 African American Eras

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social networking sites, 2: 204, 238, 239; 4: 802 social theorists, 2: 274, 275 76, 276 80 A Soldier’s Play (Fuller), 1: 115; 2: 231 Soledad Brothers, 1: 20 21 Somalia, 4: 593, 613 “Somebody Blew Up America” (Baraka), 1: 125 Song of Solomon (Morrison), 1: 95, 96 97, 126 27, 133 sonic boom research, 4: 771, 773 74 Sotomayor, Sonia, 1: 36 soul food, 1: 174 75, 177 soul music, 4: 632, 636 37, 638 39, 641, 660 62, 669 Soul on Ice (Cleaver), 1: 14, 16 17 Soul Train (television program), 2: 209 10 South African apartheid American opponents, 1: 32 33; 2: 332; 3: 413, 532; 4: 655, 663, 726 Olympic Games and, 4: 663 South Boston High School, 2: 349, 349 (ill.) South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966), 3: 537 South Central (television program), 2: 205 Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 1: 5, 42 and Black Leadership Forum, 3: 418 members, 1: 29, 44 45, 82 south north migration, 1: 183; 2: 271 72, 300 302, 306, 348 Soviet Union, 3: 401; 4: 662 63 Soyinka, Wole, 2: 335 space exploration. See astronauts; astrophysicists; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space photography, 4: 767, 767 (ill.), 769 70, 771, 791 Speakers of the House, 3: 387 special education, 2: 340 41 special effects engineering, 4: 799

Contemporary Times

Spelman College, 2: 324, 364 National Women’s Health Imperative, 3: 492 presidents, 2: 321 22, 324 26, 324 (ill.) spinning (records), 4: 680 81 spirituals, 4: 748 49, 748 (ill.) sports and activism, 2: 330 33; 4: 602 6, 603 (ill.), 632, 663 65, 663 (ill.), 690 91 sports management and owners, 1: 155; 4: 631, 650. See also coaches sportswear. See fashion lines St. Louis American (newspaper), 2: 233 34 Stallings, George, 4: 743, 744 (ill.) Stand! (Sly & the Family Stone), 4: 662 Standard English Proficiency (SEP) program, 2: 353 standardized tests and scores charter schools, 2: 355 college entrance, historically black colleges, 2: 367 improvement plans/proposals, 2: 352 53 as learning/accountability measure, 2: 340, 341 racial achievement gap, 2: 291, 316 stand up comedians, 2: 212, 244, 244 (ill.), 245 Stanley v. Georgia (1969), 3: 523 state and federal jobs. See government contracts, and equal employment/ affirmative action; government jobs state legislators, 3: 384 Shirley Chisholm, 3: 386 Keith Ellison, 3: 389 Barbara Jordan, 3: 391 Carol Moseley Braun, 3: 395 Constance Baker Motley, 3: 526, 528 Barack Obama, 3: 398, 422 Harold Washington, 3: 420 J. C. Watts Jr., 3: 403 L. Douglas Wilder, 3: 405 state takeovers, failing schools, 2: 358 63

State University of New York, 2: 345 Stax Records, 4: 660 STDs. See sexually transmitted diseases Stein Evers, Michelle, 4: 730 stem cell research, 3: 491 92 stereotypes gender and education, 2: 292 gender and sexuality, 2: 297 racial profiling, 3: 509, 557 58 stereotypes, media portrayals film, 2: 202, 203, 240, 241, 246, 248 journalism, 2: 209, 232, 233 television, 2: 203, 213, 250 51, 252, 255 steroid use, 4: 631, 634, 635 Stevens, Lisa, 4: 792 (ill.), 793 Stevens, Nelson, 1: 119 Steward, David L., 1: 161 62, 171 Still Here (dance), 1: 89 stockades, military, 4: 606 7 Stokes, Carl, 3: 383 Stone, Sly, 2: 202, 235; 4: 662, 670 story quilts, 1: 99, 99 (ill.), 101 2, 120 Straight Out of Brooklyn (film), 2: 247 stroke rates and risks, 3: 475, 476, 487, 488, 492 student activism, 2: 331 32, 343 44, 344 (ill.), 345 student athletes, 2: 330 31 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1: 5 members, 1: 20, 22, 37; 2: 288 and reparations, 1: 49 50 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), 1: 39 style. See fashion subatomic particle research, 4: 779 80 subprime mortgage crisis, 2: 300 suburban life. See urban vs. suburban life Sudan, 3: 414 Sugarhill Gang, 4: 681 Sugarhill Records, 4: 681 Sula (Morrison), 1: 95, 97 Summer, Donna, 4: 672 Summers, Larry, 1: 33 Sun Belt populations, 2: 302 3


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Index ........................................................

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Index ........................................................

lxxx

Sun Ra, 1: 113, 116 Sunni Islam, 4: 708, 735 Super Fly (film), 2: 241 Super Soaker water gun, 4: 798 99 supercomputing, 4: 776 77, 810 superconductors, 4: 779 superdelegates, 3: 424 supersonic research, 4: 771, 773 74 Supreme Court affirmative action, cases, 1: 6, 35 36, 168, 169, 170 (ill.), 191 94; 3: 508, 535, 540 44, 562 67 African American justices, 3: 519 24, 520 (ill.), 531 35, 531 (ill.), 535 (ill.) busing/integration, cases and influence, 2: 272, 315, 346 50, 352 Civil Rights Acts and, 3: 544, 545 46 confirmation hearings, 1: 36; 3: 515 17, 515 (ill.), 530, 534 35, 549 53, 550 (ill.) desegregation, cases (business), 1: 175 desegregation, cases (education), 1: 180 81; 2: 271, 315, 346, 369 71; 3: 522, 528 employment discrimination, cases, 1: 141 First Amendment related cases, 3: 523, 555 Fourteenth Amendment coverage ruling, 3: 544 hate crimes laws, 3: 509 historically black colleges and universities cases, 3: 535 homosexuality, cases, 2: 297 interracial marriage constitutionality, cases, 2: 271, 280, 280 (ill.), 282, 283, 293, 297, 304 6 redistricting decisions, 3: 394 voting rights cases, 3: 537, 538, 539 40 surgeons eye surgery, 3: 442, 445, 446 48 African American Eras



heart surgery, 3: 467, 469 70 neurosurgery, 3: 448 50, 454 60 surgeons general, 3: 460, 465 66 surveillance. See Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), 2: 272, 315, 346 47, 347 (ill.) Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (film), 2: 239 40 Sykes, Wanda, 2: 257, 364 Sylvia’s Restaurant, 1: 174 75, 174 (ill.) Symantec Corporation, 4: 811 12, 812 (ill.) syndicated radio programs, 2: 217 syphilis rates, 3: 486. See also Tuskegee syphilis study syrup, 1: 176

T T. D. Jakes Ministries, 4: 713 14 tagging. See graffiti art takeovers, failing schools, 2: 358 63 talk shows radio, 1: 26; 2: 202, 235, 237, 330 television, 1: 162, 163 64; 2: 202, 203, 215, 226, 253 54, 256 TALKERS (magazine), 2: 237 Tamayo Mendez, Arnaldo, 4: 764, 791 tap dancers, 1: 86 87 Tapping the Power Within (Vanzant), 4: 722 Tavis Smiley Foundation, 2: 226 Tavis Smiley (television program), 2: 226 taxes busing costs, 2: 350 prison system usage, 2: 291 schools support, 2: 357; 3: 524; 4: 804 2008 election issue, 3: 425 Taylor, Susan L., 2: 202, 228 29, 228 (ill.), 234 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA CREF), 1: 171

Contemporary Times

technology and society, 4: 762, 800 803. See also digital divide; information technology industry teen pregnancy blacks vs. non blacks, 2: 291, 295; 3: 440 economic struggles, 2: 295 96 medical providers’ observations/ care, 3: 463 64 prevention, 1: 23, 24; 3: 440 Telecommunications Act (1996) deregulation and media consolidation, 2: 204, 236 37, 260 62 information access and education, 4: 762, 806 8 telemedicine, 3: 447 (ill.), 448 television journalists, 2: 202, 207 8, 209, 216, 222, 224 25 television networks, diversity issues, 1: 27; 2: 202; 4: 579. See also BET (Black Entertainment Television); cable networks; media ownership and diversity television programs, 2: 203, 250 54, 256 57. See also specific programs television writers, 2: 205 6, 222 23, 253 Temple University, 2: 344 tennis players, 4: 631, 633, 633 (ill.), 652 53, 652 (ill.), 658, 659 Tereshkova, Valentina, 4: 791 terrorism. See also September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks civil liberties issues and, 3: 389 domestic incidents, anti civil rights movement, 1: 19; 4: 700 Iraq fears and accusations, 4: 576, 594, 617 20 test scores, educational. See standardized tests and scores Texas, Lawrence v. (2003), 2: 297 Texas State University, 2: 339 textile arts, 1: 99, 99 (ill.), 101 2, 120 theoretical physicists, 4: 778 84, 800 Theus, Lucius D., 4: 608 Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence (Carson), 3: 459

Third World Press, 1: 108 third party presidential candidates, 1: 17; 3: 395 Thirteenth Amendment, 3: 544 Thomas and Beulah (Dove), 1: 124 Thomas, Clarence, 3, 524, 531 35, 531 (ill.), 535 (ill.) affirmative action opposition, 1: 31; 3: 532 33, 534, 550, 564 67 confirmation hearings and Anita Hill, 3: 515 17, 515 (ill.), 530, 534 35, 549 53, 550 (ill.) dissent, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), 3: 564 67 NAACP investigation, 3: 530, 534, 550 Thomas, Rufus, 2: 236 (ill.) Thomas Richardson, Valerie L., 4: 794 Thompson, John Henry, 4: 811 Thompson, John W., 4: 811 12, 812 (ill.) Thriller (Jackson), 4: 645, 675, 676 TIAA CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund), 1: 171 Till, Emmett, 1: 15 Time Warner, 1: 157, 158 59, 172 (ill.); 4: 808 timelines. See chronologies Toche, Jean, 1: 120 Tolan, Robbie, 3: 557 Tom Joyner Foundation, 2: 217 18 The Tom Joyner Morning Show (radio program), 2: 216, 217, 226 The Tom Joyner Show (television program), 2: 218 Tommy Boy Records, 4: 682 The Tonight Show (television program), 2: 212 Tony Award winners, 1: 89, 150 51 Topdog/Underdog (Parks), 1: 98, 116 Touré, Askia M., 1: 107 “Toward a Black Aesthetic” (Fuller), 1: 107 Townes, Jeffrey, 2: 227 Towns, Edolphus, 4: 808, 809 Townsend, Robert, 2: 246


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Index ........................................................

traditional foods, and restaurants, 1: 173 77 traditional jazz, 1: 79, 91, 117 18 Traditional Values Coalition, 1: 10; 4: 745 Transportation Auditing Services, 1: 161 Transportation Business Services, 1: 161 transportation challenges, 1: 187 88 Travis Air Force Base, 4: 607 A Tribe Called Quest, 4: 683 Trinity United Church of Christ, 4: 701, 722, 724, 727, 727 (ill.), 728, 745 Truman, Harry, 4: 575 Truth, Sojourner, 1: 49 turntable spinning, 4: 680 81 Tuskegee Airmen, 4: 582 83, 789 Tuskegee Institute, 3: 472, 495; 4: 581 Tuskegee syphilis study, 3: 472 74, 494 apology, 3: 473, 494 96, 494 (ill.) TV One, 2: 255, 256 2 Live Crew, 2: 336; 4: 683 Tyson, Neil deGrasse, 4: 805

U ultraviolet astrophysics, 4: 767, 767 (ill.), 768 69, 770, 791 unemployment rates, 1: 186, 188; 2: 285; 3: 477 ex convicts, 3: 559 United Airlines, 4: 790 United Black Students for Action (USBA), 2: 331 32 United Church of Christ, 4: 701, 722 United Nations, 1: 25 Security Council presentation, Colin Powell, 4: 594, 617 20, 617 (ill.) Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 2: 315 United Negro College Fund, 2: 368 digital divide testimony, 4: 813 15 lxxxii


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historically black colleges and universities support, 2: 366; 4: 813 15 Michael Jackson giving, 4: 646 students, 4: 814, 815 Unity Fellowship Church Movement, 1: 62 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), 2: 315 universities. See college and university faculty; college enrollment and graduation; colleges, segregation University of California, affirmative action case (Bakke), 1: 35 36, 168, 191 94; 3: 508, 540 41, 543, 563 64 University of Michigan, affirmative action cases (Grutter; Gratz), 1: 35 (ill.); 3: 508, 535, 542 (ill.), 543, 564 67, 564 (ill.) University of Mississippi, desegregation cases, 3: 528 University of Texas, affirmative action cases, 3: 542 43 University of Washington, affirmative action cases, 1: 35, 168 Unseld, Wes, 4: 663 Uptown Records, 1: 149, 150 urban contemporary radio, 2: 236 urban decay, 2: 272, 348, 358, 360 urban fashion. See fashion lines urban vs. suburban life blacks transition to suburbs, 2: 301 census data, 2: 284 85 job locations and transportation, 1: 187 88; 2: 272 school choice and busing, 2: 352 school systems, economic differences, 2: 316, 352, 358 59, 359 (ill.); 4: 804 white flight, 1: 43 44; 2: 239, 272, 348, 352 U.S. Air Force, personnel, 4: 580, 581 (ill.), 582 86, 585 (ill.), 608, 614, 615, 763 64, 788, 790, 794 U.S. Army, 4: 614 integration, 4: 575

Contemporary Times

officials, 4: 577, 579 80, 588, 589 92, 589 (ill.), 620 23 U.S. attorneys, 3: 518, 522 23 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, reports, 2: 373 74 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 4: 709, 711, 743 44 U.S. Constitution, 3: 390, 392, 428 30, 507, 536, 544 U.S. Department of Education, officials, 2: 338, 339 (ill.), 341 42, 342 (ill.), 362 U.S. Marine Corps, personnel, 4: 614 15, 816 U.S. Navy, personnel, 4: 576, 595 99, 595 (ill.), 614, 615 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 4: 781 83, 781 (ill.), 800 U.S. Postal Service, 1: 187 U.S. Public Health Service, 3: 472, 494 U.S. v. Fordice (1992), 3: 535

V vaccination rates, 3: 446, 464, 475 Van Peebles, Mario, 2: 203, 239, 247, 248, 249 50 Van Peebles, Melvin, 2: 239 40 Vanilla Ice, 4: 683 Vanzant, Iyanla, 4: 720 22, 720 (ill.) The Venus Hottentot (Alexander), 1: 124 25 Viacom, 1: 155, 157; 2: 226, 255; 4: 808 Vick, Michael, 2: 333; 3: 519 video activism, 1: 53 video game inventors, 4: 799 videotape evidence, 1: 52 53; 3: 547, 547 (ill.) Vietnam, 1: 39; 2: 208 Vietnam War, 4: 600 draft, and black participation ratios, 4: 575, 600 602, 600 (ill.), 606, 608, 613 14 draft refusals, 4: 602 6, 603 (ill.) military personnel/veterans, 1: 63; 4: 583 84, 590, 602, 763 64 politicians’ stances, 3: 386, 413

protests and protesters, 1: 9, 16, 61 62; 2: 345; 4: 575, 584, 601 2, 601 (ill.), 700 racial violence, 4: 606 9, 614 reporters, 2: 208 violence in schools. See school violence Virginia, Loving v. (1967), 2: 271, 280, 280 (ill.), 281 82, 283, 293, 297, 304 6 Virginia Tech University, 1: 125 visual art and artists, 1: 78, 79, 83 85, 99 102, 118 23, 131 32 voter intimidation, 3: 507, 536, 538 voter registration workers Black Leadership Forum, 3: 418, 419 legal support, 1: 22 23 Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, 1: 47 voters. See black voters, influence Voting Rights Act (1965), 3: 383, 407, 411, 507, 536 40 legal challenges, 3: 537, 538 40 voting increases, 3: 537 38, 537 (ill.) voting rights, practical history, 3: 507, 536 40, 537 (ill.) vouchers, education, 2: 341, 351

Index ........................................................

W wage gap, 1: 141, 142, 180 82, 187; 2: 273, 285 and health care, 3: 476 77, 497 improvements, 2: 284, 284 (ill.) Waiting to Exhale (McMillan), 1: 128 Walker, Alice life and career, 1: 78, 104 5, 126, 164 womanism, 1: 47, 48, 61, 126; 4: 740, 740 (ill.), 741 Walker, Bill, 1: 118, 119 Walker, Jimmy, 2: 250 51 Walker, T. Bone, 4: 640 Wall of Respect, 1: 118 19 war on drugs, 2: 287; 3: 560 61 war on terror, 3: 394 War Resisters League, 1: 9, 61 62 Ward, Anita, 4: 672


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Contemporary Times

lxxxiii

Index ........................................................

lxxxiv

Ward, Lloyd, 1: 171 72 Ware, Lincoln, 2: 237 Warhol, Andy, 1: 85 Warren Court, 3: 523 Warren, Earl, 2: 304 6; 3: 523, 538 Washington, D.C. Beltway Sniper case, 2002, 3: 524, 525 (ill.), 526 D.C. Circuit Court, 3: 510, 511 12, 534, 549 King assassination and, 1: 43 44; 3: 409 10 mayors, 2: 288; 3: 409 11 populations, 2: 302 voting rights and self government history, 2: 288; 3: 409, 410 Washington, Denzel, 1: 177; 2: 203, 219, 229 31, 230 (ill.), 248, 248 (ill.) Washington, Harold, 3: 420 21 Washington Post (newspaper), 2: 216, 220, 221 22 Washington, Robin, 4: 730 Washington, Walter, 1: 43; 3: 409 10, 409 (ill.) Washington Week (television program), 2: 216 Washington Wizards, 4: 650 Watergate scandal, 3: 428, 429 30 Waters, Maxine, 1: 160 Waters, Muddy, 4: 640 Watkins, Levi, Jr., 3: 467 71 Watkins, Perry, 1: 61, 63 Watts, J. C., Jr., 3: 402 4, 402 (ill.) Watts, Los Angeles riots, 1965, 1: 14 15, 82; 2: 235; 4: 612 Wayans, Keenen Ivory, 2: 254 We a BaddDDD People (Sanchez), 1: 107 “We Are the World” (song), 4: 646 weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), 2: 402; 4: 576, 594, 616, 617 20 Web sites, 2: 238 39; 4: 811 Black Career Women, 1: 180 Black Enterprise, 2: 215 NetNoir, 4: 810 11 social networking, 2: 204, 238, 239; 4: 802 African American Eras



TheRoot.com, 2: 337 360hiphop.com, 1: 160 Oprah Winfrey, 1: 164; 2: 203 Webster (television program), 2: 252 Weeks, Thomas, III, 4: 704 Weinberger, Caspar, 4: 590, 591 welfare reform, 3: 408, 413, 418, 478 Wesley, Richard, 1: 114 West Africa, disease links breast cancer, 3: 481 82 sickle cell anemia, 3: 489 West, Cornel, 1: 31 33, 31 (ill.) collaborations, 1: 33; 2: 336, 344 West, Kanye, 4: 684 Wharton, Clifton R., Jr., 1: 171; 2: 345 What’s Black about It? Insights to Increase Your Share of a Changing African American Market (Miller and Kemp), 1: 173 What’s Happening!! (television program), 2: 252 Wheatley, Phillis, 1: 125 Wheelus Air Force Base (Libya), 4: 584, 585 (ill.) When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Lee documentary), 2: 219 20, 249 Whitaker, Forest, 2: 248 White, Barry, 4: 669, 680 white flight, 1: 43 44; 2: 239, 272, 348, 352 White, Jaleel, 2: 254 white supremacist crime and terrorism, 1: 19; 3: 554; 4: 607 (ill.), 700 Wilder, Gene, 2: 244 Wilder, L. Douglas, 3: 384, 404 6, 404 (ill.) Williams, Delores, 1: 48; 4: 739, 740, 741 Williams, Gerald, 1: 119 Williams, Lindsey, 1: 177 Williams, Robert F., 1: 39 Williams, Robert L., 2: 352 Williams, Serena, 4: 631, 652 53, 652 (ill.), 659 Williams, Venus, 4: 631, 652 53, 652 (ill.), 659 Williams, Willie, 1: 54

Contemporary Times

Williamson, Fred, 2: 240 Wilmington Ten, 1: 10 11, 11 12 Wilson, August, 1: 79, 116 Wilson, Flip, 2: 243, 251 52 Wilson, Harriet E., 2: 335 Wilson, Pete, 1: 169 70; 3: 510 Wilson, William Julius, 2: 344 Wimbledon Championships, 4: 633, 652 (ill.), 653, 659 Winfrey, Oprah, 1: 162 65, 163 (ill.), 171, 180; 2: 292 artist championing, 1: 83, 96 97, 164 O, The Oprah Magazine, 1: 165; 2: 234 35 The Oprah Winfrey Show, 1: 162, 163 64; 2: 203, 253 54 wealth, 1: 164, 165; 2: 292 Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993), 3: 555 The Wiz (film), 2: 242; 4: 644 Wolfe, George, 1: 87, 116 Woman, Thou Art Loosed (Jakes), 4: 712, 713 womanist movement, 1: 47 49; 4: 740 (ill.) activists, 1: 8, 10 central texts, 1: 126; 4: 741 political lead up, 1: 6, 48; 4: 704 religious arena/womanist theology, 1: 48; 4: 700, 704, 715, 718, 739 42 women filmmakers, 2: 249 women in business. See also entrepreneurs; executives Black Career Women (BCW), 1: 142 43, 178 79, 180 increasing entrepreneurship, 1: 142 43, 178, 179 80 women military personnel, 4: 580, 586 88, 614 15 The Women of Brewster Place (Naylor), 1: 126 women presidential candidates, 3: 385, 386, 395, 396 women religious leaders, 1: 48; 4: 701, 702 4, 714 22, 739 42 women writers, 1: 78 79, 125 28; 2: 335. See also children’s writers;

drama and dramatists; novelists; poetry and poets; specific writers women’s health issues, 3: 475, 478, 481, 492 93 Wonder, Stevie, 2: 236; 4: 653 56, 654 (ill.), 674 The Wonders of the African World (documentary miniseries), 2: 336 37 Woods, Sylvia, 1: 174 75, 174 (ill.), 177 Woods, Tiger, 4: 631, 656 57, 656 (ill.), 659 Woodstock Festival (1969), 4: 642 Working While Black: The Black Person’s Guide to Success in the White Workplace (Johnson), 1: 173 workplace discrimination. See employment discrimination workshops, arts, 1: 109, 113, 118 workshops, business, 1: 178 79 World Community of Al Islam in the West, 4: 708, 734 World War II Holocaust, 1: 49, 64; 2: 281 troops integration, 4: 575 Tuskegee Airmen, 4: 582 83, 789 World Wide Technology, 1: 161 62, 171 Wright, Jeremiah, 4: 701, 722 24, 723 (ill.), 727 28, 727 (ill.), 745 writers. See autobiographical literature; children’s writers; drama and dramatists; journalists; novelists; poetry and poets; science fiction writers; screenwriters; social theorists; television writers writing workshops, 1: 109

Index ........................................................

X X (opera), 1: 129 Xenogenesis trilogy (Butler), 1: 85 Xerox Corporation, 1: 144 45, 172; 4: 809 x ray spectrometer, 4: 791 92


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Contemporary Times

lxxxv

Index ........................................................

lxxxvi

Y

Z

Yo! MTV Raps (television program), 2: 255; 4: 683 Yoruba priests, 4: 720, 721 22 Young & Rubicam Brands, 1: 172 Young, Coleman, 3: 414 15 Young, Larry, 2: 237 Young, Otis B., Jr., 4: 789 Young, Perry H., 4: 788

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Lorde), 1: 123 Zane, Arnie, 1: 88 89 zoologists, 4: 792 (ill.), 793 Zumwalt, Elmo, 4: 608




Contemporary Times

African American Eras Library

American Eras: The Revolutionary Era 1754-1783 (American Eras)

American Eras: Development of a Nation 1783-1815 (American Eras)

African American Women Chemists

African American Quotations

Early African-American classics

African American Literacies

African-American Religious Leaders

African-American Political Leaders

Dance (African-American Arts)

African American Folk Healing

African-American athletes

African American Quotations

Famous African-American Women

The African American Predicament

The African-American Travel Guide (African American Travel Guide)

African American voices: African American health educators speak out

Integrating African American Literature in the Library and Classroom

African-American Religion (Religion in American Life)

African American legislators in the American states

Landmarks of African American History (American Landmarks)

African-American Faith in America

Benjamin Hooks (African-American Leaders)

Encyclopedia of African-American Education

African American Quiltmaking in Michigan

African-American Writers (Multicultural Voices)

African American Literature (Masterplots II)

White Scholars African American Texts

African American Millionaires (Black Stars)

African-American Writers, Revised Edition

African American Eras Library

American Eras: The Revolutionary Era 1754-1783 (American Eras)

American Eras: Development of a Nation 1783-1815 (American Eras)

African American Women Chemists

African American Quotations

Early African-American classics

African American Literacies

African-American Religious Leaders

African-American Political Leaders

Dance (African-American Arts)

African American Folk Healing

African-American athletes

African American Quotations

Famous African-American Women

The African American Predicament

The African-American Travel Guide (African American Travel Guide)

African American voices: African American health educators speak out

Integrating African American Literature in the Library and Classroom

African-American Religion (Religion in American Life)

African American legislators in the American states

Landmarks of African American History (American Landmarks)

African-American Faith in America

Benjamin Hooks (African-American Leaders)

Encyclopedia of African-American Education

African American Quiltmaking in Michigan

African-American Writers (Multicultural Voices)

African American Literature (Masterplots II)

White Scholars African American Texts

African American Millionaires (Black Stars)

African-American Writers, Revised Edition

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