Was Heralded Civil Rights Photographer Ernest Withers Actually A FBI Informant?

Turns out Ernest Withers, a revered civil rights photographer who captured iconic images of Martin Luther King Jr. on the night King was shot in Memphis, actually played a different role the day before: FBI informant.

A just completed a two-year investigation reveals how Withers provided the FBI with details about where King was staying and information on his meeting with black militants on April 3, 1968 — the day before the assassination.

Withers' spying, however, extends far beyond the slain civil rights leader.

Apparently Withers collaborated for years with FBI agents monitoring the civil rights movement. Beloved in Memphis, Tennessee, where a namesake museum is scheduled to open next month, it remains to be seen how these new revelations may affect Withers' legacy.

More here...

The Kinsey Collection Comes To The LA Times Festival of Books Event at UCLA April 24-25

Philanthropists Bernard and Shirley Pooler Kinsey continue to spread their message of the importance of Black art, culture and historical document in a new book The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect. Get all the details under the hood.

The 155-page gem is a wonderful coffee table book that showcases the couple's incredible art collection, reflecting a rich cultural and historical heritage that the Kinseys are preserving for future generations. It includes works by African American artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, and Jacob Lawrence, as well as documents and artifacts related to figures such as Frederick Douglas, Phillis Wheatley, Alain Locke, and many others.

As the Kinseys prepare for their showing at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC later this year, they are making personal appearances and autographing their book to throngs of art enthusiasts all over the country. According to Bernard, "It has been nothing but a labor of love."

All proceeds are going to the The Kinsey Foundation, to promote the teaching of African American history through art in education systems across the nation.

Sharing a booth with the Huntington Libray, the book will be available for purchase April 24-25 at UCLA for the annual LA Times Festival of Books event. The booth is #342 on the main quad between Royce Hall and Powell Library.

The Kinsey have developed quite a following on Facebook with hopes that individuals from around the world will be exposed to these phenomenal works.

They both look forward to seeing you there.

America I AM Exhibit Makes The Case About The Importance of Black History And Culture

By Sandy Banks (LA Times)

An exhibit at the California Science Center in Los Angeles marks nearly 500 years of African American contributions to the U.S.

My visit to the California Science Center's black history exhibit this week was intended as rainy day relief; an emotional lift and respite for me from those relentless images of Haitian grief.

I hauled my college daughter along because it seemed a fitting way to celebrate the holiday honoring Martin Luther King. She had just wrapped up a freshman "ethnic studies" course where the historical narrative seemed to be WASPs against the rest of us.

It reminded me that history depends on who's doing the telling. When I was her age, people of color were asterisks, not narrators. Tomorrow's version will depend on today's storytellers.

This exhibit -- "American I AM: The African American Imprint" -- leaves no doubt about its vision: to "celebrate nearly 500 years of African American contributions to the U.S."

So I wasn't surprised by the visitors wending their way through the gallery:

The trio of elderly black women, trading recollections before a display of Jim Crow-era "White Ladies" and "Colored Women" markers. The teenagers in hip-hop gear crowding around a glass case featuring Tupac Shakur's handwritten lyrics. A family of five from Inglewood, wearing designer jeans and Barack Obama T-shirts.

I noticed the slight, bespectacled white man who studied the giant slave trade diagram for 20 minutes before moving on. The silver-haired woman talking in Spanish to her bored young grandson about Rosa Parks. The young Asian woman in a UC Davis hoodie, who listened dutifully at every exhibit to the narrated monologue on her rented headset.

And the pretty blond woman explaining the horrors of the Middle Passage -- the torturous voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic -- to her wide-eyed, auburn-haired daughter.

In Los Angeles, at least, American WE ARE ALL, it seems.

::

The exhibit, created by broadcaster Tavis Smiley, is on its third stop in a 10-city, four-year tour. It opened in Exposition Park in October and runs through April. On Monday, the day I visited, more than 700 people bought tickets to see it.

It has gotten off to a slow start in Los Angeles, where the black population is not as concentrated or politically active as the cities of its previous stops, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

"The challenge here is we crave entertainment . . . but we have a problem appreciating culture," Smiley said.

But the upside of Los Angeles, he told me, is the diversity it offers. "L.A. is truly a microcosm of the world. So there's no better place to introduce Americans to each other."

Field trips from local schools come during the week, while weekend visitors tend to be families, church groups and history buffs, said Tamika Lamison, who coordinates the exhibit's docents.

The journey begins with an explanation of slavery -- complete with artifacts like a slave ship manifest and ancient shackles and chains.

The docents keep a box of tissues on hand, "because some people get pretty worked up about it," Lamison said. "You look at these things, and you can imagine the pain."

"It's not just black people," she said. "The little children are bothered by it. . . . They don't understand, how could people be so mean. And we get a very visceral reaction from Jewish people. They feel a connection to us because of their history; of what's been done to their people."

I understood what she meant as I watched my own daughter wrestling with a new awareness of things she's already learned in school.

The slave trade looks different when, instead of reading a textbook about the Civil War or the importance of the cotton gin, you are staring at a life-size image of Africans shackled and stacked like cordwood on a slave ship.

::

The exhibition starts on a somber note, but it ends with a triumphal tone, chronicling the influence of black culture on this country's politics and pulpits, stages and sports.

Still, it was sobering to me to watch the young people in the gallery struggling to absorb what they heard and saw.

How does a young girl reconcile the promise of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, on exhibit in one glass case, with the receipt in another from the 1776 sale of slaves, $100 for a Negro woman and her child? I understand those parents who -- like me -- try to tie their children to our history, even though we cannot know what images they will remember in this sweep from slavery to the presidency.

The snapshot I choose from my exhibit visit is quintessential Los Angeles:

A rambunctious little boy named Josh, brown curls bouncing as he mimics Michael Jackson.

His African American father leaning against the wall, absently fiddling with his iPhone.

And his young, blond mother explaining to his brown-skinned sister why Rosa Parks refused to stand and Martin Luther King was behind bars.

sandy.banks@latimes.com

Museum Officials, Business Partners, Even Florida Governor Charlie Crist Is Pulling Out All The Stops For Black Art Exhibit

The Sunshine State has spared no effort to promote The Kinsey Collection, what many are claiming will be the most remarkable art and historic exhibit yet in tracing the African-American experience for Tallahassee residents. People are already feeling the impact.

Florida A&M University grads Bernard and Shirley Kinsey still consider Tallahassee a second home, and for six months "The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey" will have residence at the Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science. The exhibit officially opens to the public Friday and will remain here until March 21, 2010.

"I will tell you that we are projecting stronger admissions for the Brogan Museum than ever before," said Chucha Barber, the Brogan's CEO. "We have generated significant sponsorship for this exhibit, even more so than we had for the blockbuster Our Body — The Universe Within."

The list of corporate partners is a business Who's Who: Visit Florida, The Walt Disney Co., Target Stores, Progress Energy, State Farm, Edison Electric, the Anheuser Busch Foundation and AT&T, among others.

Local partner A.M.W.A.T. Moving & Storage volunteered to truck the exhibit here from Los Angeles and will take it to Washington, D.C., for its next venue, the Smithsonian Institution.

Barber said the biggest outreach is a cooperative effort with tourism marketer Visit Florida and American Express, which will promote the exhibit to more than 7.4 million people through the company's communications with its cardholders.

In Florida, the Governor's Office will join in marketing the exhibit with emphasis on February, Black History Month, she said.

Besides Los Angeles, the Kinsey Collection has been on display in Cincinnati, Chicago and in Bernard Kinsey's hometown of West Palm Beach, where it was housed at the Norton Museum of Art.

"We have had about 200,000 people see the collection, 12 to 15 million people have seen it on television, and about 2-plus million will see it at the Smithsonian," Bernard Kinsey said. "But what we're trying to do is a little different."

Continue

Why Did Blacks Cry When Obama Won? This Powerful Piece Answers The Question

Black History Month, Who Needs It If Obama Is President

Should Black History Month itself fade into history? Many have long argued that African-American history should be incorporated into year-round education. Now, claims that Black History Month is outdated are gaining a new potency, as schools diversify their curricula and President Barack Obama's election opens a new chapter in the nation's racial journey.

"If Obama's election means anything, it means that African-American history IS American history and should be remembered and recognized every day of the year," says Stephen Donovan, a 41-year-old lawyer.

Ending "paternalistic" observances like Black History Month, Donovan believes, would lead to "not only a reduction in racism, but whites more ready and willing and able to celebrate our difference, enjoy our traditions, without feeling the stain of guilt that stifles frank dialogue and acceptance across cultures."

Yemesi Oyeniyi, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mother, says that Black History Month feels like it's only for blacks, "and therefore fails to educate the masses of non-blacks."

"I mean, now there is a Hispanic History Month and quite honestly I haven't paid more attention to the history of Spanish-speaking Americans any more now than I have in the past," she says. "I think it all should be taught collectively — every month."

The black historian Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week in 1926, seeking to build self-worth in an oppressed people, preserve a marginalized subject, and prove to a nation steeped in racism that children of Africa played a crucial role in modern civilization.

Woodson chose February because it contained the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass (which belies long-standing jokes about Black History Month being relegated to the shortest month of the year). Woodson's organization, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), expanded the observance to a full month in 1976.

It has now become a fixture in American education and culture — complete with the requisite commercialism — even as the shift in labels from Negro to black to African-American indicates the evolution of attitudes meant to be shaped by the event.

Obama released an official proclamation on Feb. 2 lauding "National African American History Month" and calling upon "public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs that raise awareness and appreciation of African American history."

Daryl Scott, chairman of the history department at Howard University and vice president of programming for ASALH, says Black History Month is still needed to solidify and build upon America's racial gains.
Read more at AP.

Seeing It In My Lifetime: A Brother My Kids And I Can Call Commander-In-Chief

Obama Steps into History as 44th President
Obama's Address: Great Expectations
Crowds of 1 to 2 Million Expected at Inauguration
Black Americans Ride the Buses to Witness History
Nobel Winner Tutu Calls Inauguration a 'Mandela Moment'
Complete List of Inauguration Events Scheduled on TV

Letters to Michelle Obama Collected into a Book
Stars, Regular Folks Heed Obama's Call to Service
Jay-Z Joins Young Jeezy Onstage in D.C. for 'My President'
Rev. Jesse Jackson Opens Up About Historic Moment
Most Blacks Say MLK's Vision Fulfilled, Poll Finds
Quincy Jones Urges National Culture Secretary to Cabinet

At 114, African American Gertrude Baines Is The Oldest Living Person In The World

Daughter Of Slaves Voted For Barack, Loves Jerry Springer

On her first day as the oldest person on Earth, 114-year-old Gertrude Baines of Los Angeles, spent Saturday resting under the covers in her pajamas -- unfazed and most likely unaware of her new world status.

"She has a little cold," said her social worker, Linda Bell, after making her morning rounds at Western Convalescent Hospital west of USC. "I don't think anyone has told her the news, and she hasn't mentioned it all day."

Baines awoke to her usual breakfast gripe: her bacon wasn't crispy enough. Her TV cast a glow inside her room as she rested.

Outside, the Internet was abuzz, announcing the news from Hawaii to Hong Kong. The death of 115-year-old Maria de Jesus in Portugal on Friday made Baines the oldest, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which validates claims of extreme old age.

By 10 a.m., the convalescent hospital staff had turned away nearly a dozen calls from reporters requesting interviews with Baines.But workers proudly discussed their most distinguished resident.

"We are very happy she has lived this long," Bell said. "She's a very nice, sweet lady. And sometimes, just like you and me, she doesn't want to be bothered."

Although the milestone splashed her name across the globe, inside the senior home, fellow centenarians and soon-to-be centenarians weren't always as quick to praise.

"They know she's the oldest so there's some jealousy there," Bell said. "If someone gives her attention, they'll ask, 'Why are they doing that for?' "

Two months ago, Baines made national headlines as the oldest African American to cast a ballot in the U.S. election. A video shows the daughter of former slaves sitting in her wheelchair wearing a red bonnet and a fuzzy scarf as she voted for Sen. Barack Obama for president.

"That's the first one I know to be in there," she told the Los Angeles Times of her preferred candidate. "Everybody's glad for colored men to be in there some time."

At the time, Baines was the third-oldest person in the world; Edna Parker of Indiana, who was 115, was in the top spot, followed by De Jesus. De Jesus, who had outlived three of her six children, died quietly after breakfast.

Four months shy of blowing out her next batch of birthday candles, Baines has outlived everyone in her family, including her daughter, who died of typhoid at 18.

She lived alone with the help of a caretaker until she turned 107. When asked in April how she had made it so far, she said: "Ask the Lord. I depend on him."

The native of Atlanta was born in 1894, when Grover Cleveland was president, and the U.S. flag had 44 stars.

Baines' weak eyesight doesn't make it easy to keep up with the images on television, but from time to time, she enjoys "The Price Is Right" and "The Jerry Springer Show."

Today, Baines is expected to get up and attend church services in the hospital's dining room.

By LA Times Writer Esmeralda Bermudez

Before Michelle Obama, There Was LA's First Lady Ethel Bradley

Her husband was a man of several political firsts and they had two girls. But there last name was not Obama. It was The Bradleys, and Ethel Bradley, who was the longest-reigning first lady of Los Angeles as the wife of the city's first black mayor, Tom Bradley, has died. She was 89.

Bradley, whose husband held office from 1973 to 1993, died Tuesday at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Ethel Bradley "a woman of grace" who served the city "with dignity and class."

While her husband oversaw Los Angeles, she avoided the political spotlight that made him thrive. She held teas, rooted for the Dodgers from her permanent seat behind home plate at Dodger Stadium and took pride in cultivating a garden showcase at the mayoral mansion in Windsor Square.

Asked by a Times reporter in 1992 about his wife's low profile, the mayor responded: "Her feeling is she has given her husband to public service. That doesn't mean that she now has to give herself."

Family and friends portrayed her as the reclusive, yet honest and direct, woman behind a man known for working 17-hour days.

"Without her stability and her willingness to shoulder the burden on the home front, Tom would not have been able to give as he has given," Melanie Lomax, the late former president of the Los Angeles Police Commission and the Bradleys' goddaughter, said in a 2000 Times article.

Lorraine Bradley, one of the couple's two daughters, told The Times in 1993: "How can a mayor do that much work and not have to worry about anything else unless he has someone like her behind him?"

The mayor acknowledged that political ambition left him little time to be home. He set aside three nights a year for his wife: "Her birthday, my birthday, the Academy Awards. Those are absolutely inviolate dates," he told The Times in 1988.

The couple had moved from their six-room house in Leimert Park to Getty House, a 6,000-square-foot mansion, at the beginning of Bradley's second term in 1977. Getty Oil had donated the home to the city in 1975 and it became the mayor's official residence.

From the day Ethel Bradley moved in, she took seriously a first lady's duty to keep the mansion in order -- even though there was no budget or staff -- and to throw a party that guests would talk about the next morning.

"Nobody could be a caretaker for this house like I've been, seven days a week, 24 hours a day," Ethel Bradley told The Times just before moving out in 1993. "I think I did a beautiful job and left things better than when I first came."

There was plenty of room to house her collections: More than 100 hats (she rarely went out without one), racks of evening gowns, heirloom crystal and her prized possession -- a glass case filled with autographed baseballs. Yet the mansion's three floors and 19 rooms had always felt a bit like a prison to the 5-foot-2 1/2 -inch Bradley, and she could not wait to escape.

"It's been 30 years of my life I've given up. It's time for me to have a life of my own," she said.

In addition to his 20 years as mayor, Tom Bradley had spent another decade as a city councilman. From 1940 to 1961, he had served with the Los Angeles Police Department.

When her husband narrowly lost a bid for governor in 1982, Ethel Bradley saw an upside: She had planned to be in Los Angeles during baseball season anyway.

She was 74 when they left Getty House for a 1940s two-story home in the View Park area of Los Angeles.

Away from the limelight, the Bradleys had five more years together. He suffered a stroke in 1996 that left him unable to speak clearly and died two years later.

In 2006, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored her upon the opening of the Ethel Bradley Early Education and Health Career Center in South Los Angeles. The idea for the center had originated with the Black Women's Forum, which Ethel Bradley co-founded in 1978 to help motivate black women to become community leaders.

Ethel Mae Arnold was born in Texas on Feb. 2, 1919, one of eight children of Benjamin and Lucille Arnold. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1930.

At age 15, she graduated from Jefferson High School and attended Los Angeles City College for two years.

Her father was a painting contractor who introduced her to baseball and set her up as the owner of a beauty salon at 54th Street and Central Avenue. She catered to leading figures in black society in 1941, the year she gave up the shop to marry Bradley, The Times reported in 1983.

He had first seen her when they were teenagers singing in the choir at New Hope Baptist Church. The newlyweds lived next door to her parents in Los Angeles and had two daughters by 1945.

The Bradleys needed a white intermediary in 1950 to sidestep racial covenants when they bought their first house on Welland Avenue in Leimert Park in the city's Crenshaw District. The couple also encountered other examples of the racism of the era and were refused entrance to hotels and restaurants, according to a 1998 Times article.

It was an idyllic time for the family, her daughter Lorraine said in a 1983 Times interview: "We had a ball in those days. Daddy used to love being at home and mother loved to bake. Talk about your hostess extraordinaire! They'd have card parties once a week -- bridge, that kind of stuff."

Ethel Bradley concurred, telling The Times in 1988, "I didn't realize it, but I guess the best years of my life were the years we spent together before he was an elected official."

Years later, when her daughter Phyllis struggled with drug addiction as an adult during much of her father's time as mayor, he said, "It is hard to say what went wrong there," according to the 1986 biography "Tom Bradley: The Dream."

Over a 10-year period, Phyllis Bradley was arrested several times on shoplifting and drug charges and served a six-month sentence in county jail. After the incidents, the usually gregarious Ethel Bradley would become reclusive, blaming herself and her husband for Phyllis' problems, the biography recounted.

Just before leaving Getty House, Ethel Bradley said she talked to her daughters almost every day and was looking forward to being able to entertain friends "any day of the week."

She certainly had larger-than-life memories to share: She had traveled the world, met Pope John Paul II and hosted South Africa's Nelson Mandela and the king of Spain. The queen of England entertained her three times. She rode on the Dodgers' team jet. And at the ballpark, she was known as "Mrs. B."

Survivors include her daughters, Lorraine and Phyllis.

Services were pending. Source.

ELECTION DAY AT 3BAAS: OUR VERY FIRST POST WAS ABOUT BARACK OBAMA!

By Kevin Ross

It was March 20, 2007 and we still had not figured out how to enlarge photos or add embedded video. But we knew Barack Obama would forever change the face of politics. 3BAAS Media Group has been through a lot over the last 21 months. Yet the one constant has been that each of us was hoping and praying and truly believing in this biracial brother from Illinois.

After just seeing Barack and his wife Michelle vote, I couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia today. So under the hood, read the very first stories we posted on our site. And more importantly, VOTE! Not for Obama, but for the spiritual journey that our ancestors have taken in this place called America. We honor them today, and the tomorrow our children are racing towards!

By Bill Schechner

(CBS 5) OAKLAND Illinois Senator Barack Obama is closing in on Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. One poll shows Obama trailing Clinton by just five points.With a tight eight-piece funk band establishing the mood, national and local press covering the event, the Senator from Illinois got set to deliver his speech at an appearance in Oakland on Saturday."All right…

This is a good looking crowd, too," Obama said to the crowd.When the history of the campaign is written, March 2007 will be the month Barack Obama undid, at least for the moment, the inevitability of the Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee despite her organization."She has the support of the most popular president in modern history, and it's still not enough at this point to make Obama be three paragraph's down in the news story instead of being right next to her in the same paragraph," said CBS 5 Political Analyst Joe Tuman.

Obama has overcome several obstacles. He is of mixed race, which some say therefore not a genuinely African-American candidate.The appearance of old-line national black political leader and now Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums at the Obama rally helped quiet that discussion, so does 10,000 people."His appearance in Oakland was one of the kinds of things he needs to do to shore up African-American voters as a block for him," Tuman said.The creepy and nasty attack ad now on YouTube, using an old apple ad, to portray Clinton as a controlling politician, while disavowed by Obama could have backfired.

Instead, it has brought nearly half-a-million showings.People in Oakland brightened a bit when asked about Obama. They said they thought he understood, and it was time for him. Outside a church on 14th Street, CBS 5 talked to Roshawna Tibbs, a 22-year-old registered voter."We need a black president. There are black secretaries. Black people working in the white house. Why not have a black president?" Tibbs said. "Is it a pride thing? I wouldn't call it that. I'd call it a fair thing." But Tibbs also said many people in her neighborhood said the system would never let it happen.



LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

By Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The most liberal member of Congress running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination isn't Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

It's Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

And the Republican candidate who's grown less conservative over his years in Congress? Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Those are among the interesting findings in a recent analysis of votes by all the members of Congress who are running for president. They cut to the heart of debates going on among activists in both major parties: Can a liberal Democrat win a general election? Which Republican is ideologically pure enough to win support from conservatives?

The study, released this month by the National Journal, a respected inside-the-Beltway research report, will help voters cut through the spin and hype of TV sound bites in coming months and judge these candidates for themselves.

Unlike TV commercials that focus on a single vote, these rankings are based on comprehensive voting records. The 2006 scores, for example, were based on as many as 95 votes on such issues as federal spending, tax cuts, the war in Iraq, embryonic stem-cell research and border security.
On the Democratic side, the analysis of "lifetime" voting records shows Obama as the most liberal with a score of 84.3 after two full years in the Senate. The most liberal score possible was 99.

The lifetime liberal scores for the other Democrats:

-Kucinich, 79.4

-Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, 79.2

-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, 78.8

-Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, 76.8

The rankings differ if you look only at their 2006 scores. That year Kucinich edged Obama by one point as the most liberal, and Clinton was the least liberal, as she sought re-election and prepared to launch her presidential campaign.

Their ideological purity also varies by issue areas.

Obama, for example, is more liberal on economic and foreign policy issues and slightly less liberal on social policies. Clinton and Dodd are most liberal on social policy questions, less so on economic and foreign policy votes.

Biden is most liberal on economics, much less so on foreign policy.

The most conservative member of Congress seeking the Republican nomination - based on lifetime voting records - is Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, with a score of 82.5. The most conservative score possible was 99.

Lifetime scores for the other Republicans:

-Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, 81

-Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, 75.9

-Sen. John McCain of Arizona, 71.8

-Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, 71.5

-Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 51.7

The year-to-year scores can reveal consistency or change. McCain, for example, grew increasingly less conservative in recent years. He started with annual conservative scores consistently in the 80s when he first went to the Senate in 1987, dipped to the 70s during the mid-1990s, into the 60s in the late 1990s and into the 50s starting in 2004.

The GOP candidates' votes also reveal big differences issue to issue.

Brownback, for example, got a score of 53 on social issues for his 2006 votes and a 92 for votes on economic issues.

Hagel, too, got lower conservative marks for social issues and higher conservative scores for economic and foreign policy votes.

McCain got a 46 for social issues - left of center - and more conservative grades for economic and foreign policy issues.

For more on the National Journal scorecard, http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/

California Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Post Slavery Black Township Known As Allensworth

In 1908, Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, a charismatic ex-slave and retired military man, set out to build an all-black community on a hardscrabble patch of land 40 miles north of Bakersfield. This visionary and other former slaves turned the desert wasteland into a thriving pioneer town, making a strong statement about black self-determination.

This weekend, the centennial of his long-shuttered town will be honored by thousands of Californians trooping to the site, now known as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.

Though it thrived for less than a decade, the town strikes a special chord among many, who see it as a pioneering effort in black self-determination.

"That group in the first 50 years after emancipation was probably the most dynamic group we've had," said Rick Moss, chief curator of the African American Library & Museum at Oakland. "Allensworth is a real testimony to their drive, their dignity, their willpower -- it's all right there."

Moss is among the speakers at the two-day celebration. So is Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History. The Crenshaw High School Elite Choir and actor William Allen Young will be among the entertainers making appearances.

Amtrak is establishing special bus and train routes to the park from Los Angeles, Inglewood, Sacramento, Oakland and elsewhere. (Details are available at www.parks.ca.gov/). About 5,000 visitors are expected -- far more than the couple of hundred residents who lived in Allensworth at its height.

Visitors will tour the town's three remaining original buildings and 19 that have been reconstructed. The hamlet boasted a hotel, a school, a library, a church, a general store -- the basic municipal amenities that its settlers had found wanting.

A state historic park since 1974, Allensworth was recently the focus of a battle over plans for a 12,000-cow dairy on adjacent land. After concerted protests from black community groups, the state last year paid the landowner $3.5 million to give up his rights for any kind of livestock operation.

Funded by donations, Saturday and Sunday's event is sponsored by the state's Legislative Black Caucus, the California State Parks Foundation and the state parks department.

"We're honoring the vision of these people from 100 years ago," said state parks director Ruth Coleman. "At a time when white supremacy was so rampant, they created this town to demonstrate their self-sufficiency, to prove that blacks could do everything whites could do."

As a youth, Allensworth was sold in the slave markets three times -- once for daring to learn how to read. In a remarkable career, he fought on Navy gunboats in the Civil War and served as an Army chaplain in the Philippines, attaining the highest military rank any black man had held. He also became a Baptist minister before founding the town that bears his name.

At its dedication, he reminded his followers of their purpose in separating from their former, mostly white communities.

"If we expect to be given due credit for our efforts and achievements, they must be made where they will stand out distinctively and alone," he said, exhorting the residents to "settle upon the bare desert and cause it to blossom as a rose."

The colonel, who recruited many settlers from the ranks of his old Army comrades, was "not shy" about promoting the cause, said his granddaughter, Josephine Blodgett Smith of Los Angeles.

The 94-year-old former teacher recalled chugging over hair-raising roads in a model-T to visit relatives in Allensworth.

"When you think of where they began and what they accomplished, these were remarkable people," she said. "The state gave them one teacher and they actually taxed themselves so they could have two."

Just three months after her birth, her grandfather was fatally struck by a motorcyclist.

Beset by water problems and hurt by the closure of its railroad depot, the town withered in just a few years. But, as the only privately financed black community in the U.S., it had already made its mark.

"Even though it didn't 'succeed', it was a tremendous effort," said Moss.

By Steve Chawkins, LA Times Staff Writer (steve.chawkins@latimes.com)

Michelle Robinson Obama: I Come Here As A Sister... With Nails Done And My Hair Looking Fierce!!!

For The Girl from South Chicago, The American Dream Endures

Okay, the older white women in the audience with all the tears at the Denver Democratic National Convention were killing me. And the two cute daughters Sasha and Malia made America face the reality of what's happening in this country. As the group Klymaxx sang back in the day, "There's a Meeting In The Ladies Room."

And the verdict? Black folks are just like everyone else. We deserve that big White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue just like every other family who has occupied it, and Michelle and Barack Obama are the real deal. And I'm a Republican!

Speech excerpts:

Barack and I were raised similar. We were taught that your word is your bond, treat people with dignity and respect. Barack and I set to build our lives under these set of principles.

We understand that ordinary folks are trying to get by paycheck to paycheck. They're not asking for a handout. We believed that you could make it in America if you try.

Barack Obama feels that we should see the world not as it is but as it should be. Barack Obama reminds us of what the world should look like, because we need to find the strength within ourselves.

Other people have marched, refusing to settle all the while. Because of their will and courage, we celebrate 88 years of a women's right to vote, and the 40 year anniversary of King's dream.

Michelle Obama, Fashion Icon?

I honestly feel we are standing at the cross-current of history. Despite my political differences with Barack, I can not check any box other than that which says Obama. This is not about partisan politics. This is about history, about hope, about changing perceptions, about my two sons who will only understand what this moment truly means when they are fathers.

Sure folks are ticked about Hillary. And Michelle addressed that with grace. That comment about Clinton making 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling who helped little girls and boys see that the future is bright said it all.

We are alike more than you think. The thread that connects us is our children's future and the willingness to work together.

In the end, BO is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago.

Listening to hopes and dreams, instead of fears Michelle Obama nailed it. The dress, the jewelry, the poise, the delivery. Outstanding!

What a tribute to her father's past and her daughters future. You the man Barack. And your women makes you look good black man.

BLACK WRITERS KNOWN AS THE “DENVER 7” MAKE HISTORIC DEBUT COVERING DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

Independent, Tech-Savvy Trailblazers Demonstrate That Minorities Have Officially Crossed the “Digital Divide”

Seven African-American bloggers representing varying views of the “Afrosphere” are gearing up for what promises to be an experience of a lifetime. But they’re not traveling to Colorado with an entourage of producers or company vehicles filled with expensive equipment.

Dubbed “The Denver 7”, these pioneers, armed only with their laptops, Blackberrys and other electronic gadgets that can fit inside a single carry-on, are preparing to become the first group of black independent “credentialed journalist” bloggers to cover a major political party’s national convention.

While Black writers and reporters from Newsweek, CNN, or even minority media powerhouses such as Ebony or Black Entertainment Television will be present, what makes Pamela Spaulding, Baratunde Thurston, Oliver Willis, Gina McCauley, L.N. Rock, Liza Sabater and Shawn P. Williams different is they represent a new breed of “black media” that will be attending the 2008 Democratic National Convention August 25-28.

Last year, as reported by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), newsrooms suffered through the biggest loss of jobs in three decades, while doing little to increase their percentage of minorities. Daily newsrooms shrank by 2,400 journalists in the past year, and there were nearly 300 fewer journalists of color working in those newsrooms. Blacks made up only 5.3 percent of the workforce, according to the National Association of Black Journalists.

And that’s why blogs such as Oliver Willis and Jack and Jill Politics, recently featured in the New York Times Magazine article “Is Barack Obama the End of Black Politics” by Matt Bai, are thriving. As Bai correctly pointed out in the piece, “after lagging for a time, college-educated African-Americans are now organizing online in the same way as their mostly white counterparts at Daily Kos and MoveOn.org started doing several years ago.”

“I’m a black lesbian living in the South, blogging since 2004, about political and social issues who now gets to represent the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender community at my party’s convention. It’s pretty heady stuff,” said Pam Spaulding, an I.T. manager whose blog Pam’s House Blend is one of the most successful Black sites on the Internet. Currently, Spaulding’s site ranks 2129 out of the millions of blogs all over the world, according to tracking website Technorati.

Competing with some 400 applicants, each of these bloggers were required to submit daily audience information and provide examples of posts that made their blogs stand out as an effective online organizing tool or agent of change.

One of only a handful of black bloggers who actually ventured down to Jena, Louisiana for the Jena 6 controversy, Shawn P. Williams of Dallas South Blog remembers the process well. “We had to demonstrate both the reach and impact our blog has had and continues to have on the 2008 election. It’s incredible that I’ve gone from being a local pharmaceutical sales representative posting my personal musings on a blog, to becoming a credentialed media journalist covering this incredible moment.”

Another Texas native, Gina McCauley of the popular blogs What About Our Daughters and Michelle Obama Watch, has seen her talent recognized by being named as one of Essence Magazine’s “25 Most Influential African Americans of 2007” The civil attorney turned woman’s advocate was also instrumental in organizing a successful Blogging While Brown Conference recently held in Atlanta.

“None of us started doing this for fortune or fame,” said Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen, a married mother of two who is part Latina. “We just wanted to have our voices heard. And now, look where we are.”

The DNCC previously announced an expansion of the credentialed blogger pool from past Conventions and the addition of a state blogger credentialing program. As part of the new DemConvention State Blogger Corps, designed for bloggers covering state and local politics, bloggers will receive unparalleled access to state delegations and the floor of the Convention hall.

"The Internet has played a critical role in connecting Americans to elected officials and candidates seeking office. The DemConvention State Blogger Corps will continue to foster this dialogue - in all 50 of our states and our territories too - as we head towards this year's historic election and elect a Democrat to the White House," said DNC Chairman Howard Dean.

This election year, both the Democratic and Republican parties have come to recognize the exponential growth of blogs and the permanent role the Internet now plays in American politics.

Like the others, Baratunde Thurston – “Jack” of Jack and Jill Politics - is not averse to sponsors and contributors providing financial and in-kind assistance. "Having resources available just makes it easier for all of us to do what we do.”

L.N. Rock of African American Political Pundit agrees. “I think it might take a few years before folks truly understand that we were at the forefront of what a fellow black blogger has coined the Digital Renaissance Movement. I’m just glad to be living in this moment and time doing what it is I do.”

Highlights from these blogs will be featured on the party’s website in the lead up to and during the Convention. For a complete list of selected bloggers, go to DemConvention.com.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU'VE COME FROM, YOU WON'T KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING!

NEVER FORGET

We the People — the beginning of the preamble of the constitution of the United States. When that document was completed on September 17, 1787, I was not included.

It was not until the end of the Civil War, on September 22, 1862, that President Abraham Lincoln historically declared the freedom of all slaves in ANY state of the Confederate States of American that did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. This was memorialized through Lincoln's signing of “The Emancipation Proclamation”.

Technically, I was officially included. Two and a half years later on June 19th Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Thus the birth of Juneteenth!

One hundred eighty-five years after this news I was born. Free and innocent to the misdeeds of my country against a people that I was now apart of. Free to take the advantages of the opportunities paid for by the struggles, trails, death, but advancements of countless people. Ironically during that time our country was involved in the resolution of other misdeeds of the time. I offer these as example: the Vietnam War, Watergate, Abortion legislation and School Desegregation to name a few.

We the People – we the people of America of all races, colors, cultures and creeds have come such a great distance in our social interactions, morals and philosophy. It hasn’t been pretty or easy, and we have not “stepped into the promise land” as of yet. But we’re on the right road.

Continue with Tim Valentine's "My Celebration of Juneteenth"

David Paterson To Become The Latest African American To Become Governor As Eliot Spitzer Faces Impeachment Unless He Resigns

Black History Spills Into March With Our (Soon-to-be) Four Governors

Now that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is in talks with Lt. Governor David Paterson to transfer gubernatorial power to the legally blind, former Harlem state senator, we thought it was odd that the media kept saying that Paterson would be the fourth African American governor to serve.

We knew of Virginia's Douglas Wilder and Massachusetts' Deval Patrick, but who else was left?

Well, meet the first to serve with this distinctive title, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback.

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (May 10, 1837 – December 21, 1921) was the first African American to become governor of a U.S. state. He was also the first non-white (biracial) governor of Louisiana. Pinchback, a Republican, served as the governor of Louisiana for thirty-five days, from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873.

Nicholas Lemann, in Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, described Pinchback as "an outsized figure: newspaper publisher, gambler, orator, speculator, dandy, mountebank -- served for a few months as the state's governor and claimed seats in both houses of Congress following disputed elections but could not persuade the members of either to seat him."[1]

Pinchback was born in Macon, Georgia (Bibb County), to a white planter (William Pinchback) and his former slave, Eliza Stewart. Known as "Pinckney Benton Stewart," he was educated at the Gilmore High School in Cincinnati. After his father died in 1848, he left Cincinnati because he feared that his paternal relatives might try to force him into slavery. He worked as a hotel porter and barber in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In 1860, while in Indiana, Pinchback, 23, married then 16-year-old Nina Emily. They had two daughters and four sons.

During the Civil War, Pinchback traveled to Louisiana and became captain of the Union Army's Company A, 1st Louisiana Native Guards (later reformed as the 74th U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment).

After the war, he became active in the Republican Party and participated in Reconstruction state conventions. In 1868, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club in New Orleans. That same year, he was elected as a Louisiana state senator, where he became the state Senate president pro tempore. In 1871 he became acting lieutenant governor upon the death of Oscar Dunn, the first elected African American lieutenant governor of a U.S. state.

In 1872, the incumbent Republican governor Henry Clay Warmoth, was impeached and convicted, removing him from office. Pinchback, as lieutenant governor, succeeded as governor on December 9.

Also in 1872, at a national convention of African-American politicians, Pinchbank had a public disagreement with Jeremiah Haralson of Alabama. James T. Rapier (also of Alabama) submitted a motion that the convention condemn all Republicans who had opposed President Grant in that year's election.[2] Haralson supported the motion, but Pinchback opposed it because it would include Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, a lifelong anti-slavery fighter whom Pinchback felt African-Americans should laud.

After his brief governorship, Pinchback remained active in politics and public service. He was elected to both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, but both elections were contested, and his Democratic opponents were seated instead. Pinchback served on the Louisiana State Board of Education and was instrumental in establishing the predominantly black Southern University in New Orleans in 1880 (later relocated to Baton Rouge in 1914). He was a member of Southern University's board of trustees.

In 1882, Republican President Chester Alan Arthur named Pinchback as surveyor of customs in New Orleans. In 1885, he studied law at Straight University, (which was closed in 1934) in New Orleans. He was admitted to the bar in 1886, and later moved to New York City where he was a federal marshal, and then to Washington, D.C. where he practiced law.

Pinchback died in Washington in 1921 and was interred in Metairie Cemetery near New Orleans even though the cemetery at the time was segregated and deemed to be exclusively for whites.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH'S LAST DAY WITH MASTER P AND ROMEO

BLACK WOMAN MAKES HISTORY! KAREN BASS BECOMES SECOND FEMALE SPEAKER OF THE CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY!

This Sistah Is One Class Act!

Second only to the governor in power and prestige in California government, Los Angeles Assemblywoman Karen Bass has secured the votes to become the next speaker of the California Assembly. Why is this a big deal? Because an African American woman is being elevated to the post for the first time in California history.

Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat representing the predominantly African American 47th District, was one of 10 Assembly Democrats who were openly competing for the speakership, a political job considered by many as second only to the governor in power and prestige in California government. Her predecessor, Herb Wesson, also served as speaker during his tenure in the assembly. The African American politico is currently serving on the Los Angeles City Council.

Bass, 54, has been a top lieutenant to the current speaker, fellow Los Angeles Democrat Fabian Núñez who has served as leader since 2004.

But Núñez will be forced from office by term limits at the end of 2008. The end of Latino LA lawmaker's reign as speaker, the longest of the term limits era, was sealed after a Feb. 5 ballot measure to extend his term in office failed.

The scramble to put together the votes to become speaker began in earnest the next day, with nearly a dozen Democrats expressing interest in the powerful post. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat who vied for the speakership herself, said Wednesday evening that Bass "does have the votes."

There are 48 Democratic members of the state Assembly and Bass needs at least 25 votes to become speaker. An official vote was planned for March 11, but several Democratic members said the vote could as early as today.

The first female speaker was Doris J. Allen, who served in the assembly from 1982 t0 1995. As Speaker of that body from June 5 to September 14, 1995, she would later be recalled from office by her irate Republican constituents who recognized that she was only given power to keep longtime Democratic Speaker Willie Brown's hold on power.
As the first African American speaker in California, Brown would go on to accomplish another feat -- becoming the first Black mayor of San Francisco. Doris Allen would later die of stomach and colon cancer in 1999 at the age of 63.

Bass was first elected in 2004, but will have to leave the Assembly no later than 2010 under term limits. With former assemblymember Laura Richardson now serving in Congress, looks like the sistahs are really start to flex their political muscle. And hey, we ain't mad at them! [LA Times]

Let's Keep It Real, Are You SERIOUSLY Into Black History Month???

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. -Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Today I was disturbed because my 2nd grade students didn't know that February is Black History Month. Furthermore, when I asked them to tell me who were some black people who made an impact on the world, the only person they could name was Martin Luther King.

And when I asked them to tell me about Dr. King all they could say is that he had a dream. What's wrong with this picture? To make a long story short, I gave them a basic lesson on African American history and told them about some black people who contributed to American history. But I left feeling disturbed. We are raising a generation of children who have no connection to the past, no knowledge or respect for history...

Tasha is just getting started. Check out What is the Significance of Black History Month?

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Martin Luther King Against The War? America Are You Listening?

President Johnson tires of King, and King tires of the War.
We absolutely must learn form history.