A Perspective On The Million Man March, Written 15 Years Ago: Has Anything Changed?

Why I Won't Be in Washington on Monday

Frederick Douglass once said, "A man who will not labor to gain his rights is a man who would not, if he had them, prize and defend them."

This is why I should be on a plane, train, bus, moped, skateboard or pogo stick to Washington, where Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is calling on 1 million black men to gather for a "holy day of atonement and reconciliation."

On Monday (October 16, 1995), brothers will be exhorted to reclaim their lives, atone for their mistreatment of one another and of black women, come to terms with their abandonment of family and accept their failure to put God first.

Historically, black men were too proud to be controlled by the dominant society. Lynched for even daring to dream, many simply gave up. And yet others took a stand and ultimately moved the world. It is these men, men whom I aspire to emulate, who have persuaded me that I, like millions of other African American men, have no reason to atone for anything.

I attended a black college, hosted a black radio talk show and ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. Married to a black woman and working to curb gang and youth violence, I challenge this litmus test, the notion of taking a day off from my job simply to draw attention to the problems facing black men in this country.

And that's not to disparage the march or the personalities involved. I rejoined the NAACP under Ben Chavis and have heard Farrakhan speak on several occasions. I found both men's views compelling and vexing.

But I cannot march just for the sake of marching. The assertion that this is a unique opportunity to "reconcile with our Creator and unite for the betterment of all African Americans" is nebulous and unpersuasive. "I know there's no real agenda for the march, no platform and no clearly defined plan for the future," one minister said, "but there is a need for black men to come and stand together in each other's presence. Hopefully, something will come of it."

Hopefully?

Even those supporting the march seem unclear about the ultimate outcome. What happens Tuesday? What happens in 1996? What happens the next century?

While some feel their manhood is based on making babies, destroying their own people with drugs and killing to gain a warped sense of respect, many black men who feel otherwise unfortunately are no longer willing to be their brothers' keepers.

With one in three of our boys having some connection with the legal system, few African Americans actually believe that descending on our nation's capital will restore what centuries of racism, discrimination and inequality have created.

Thus the disenchantment of those not attending speaks more to the day-to-day accountability that goes unaddressed rather than to the march itself. Some argue that money being raised to bus men to Washington should go instead toward formula for the babies these men have created.

Instead of heading east, a few need to march south (as in South-Central) and spend time with sons and daughters they've never met. Men don't have to travel to Washington to respect black women. They just need to keep their hands off of them in Los Angeles.

When we start accepting responsibility, stop dealing crack and stop paying tribute to the "gangsta" mentality, that's when we'll see real atonement. Ralph Ellison said, "When I discover who I am, I'll be free." If this march, this sacred ceremony of declaration, can teach one black boy the true meaning of this and this alone, then I would concede that it was worth it.

But for now, I'll be at work on Monday. To Chavis and others, respectfully: I like what I'm doing more than what you're not.

October 13, 1995| Los Angeles Times | Kevin A. Ross is a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles

Hello Ladies: 'Old Spice' Brother Isaiah Mustafa Is Back, Big Time!

Jailed Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Facing New Charges, Possibly Decades in Prison

Kwame Kilpatrick illegally used the nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund like a piggy bank to pay for crisis consultants, a Cadillac, trips -- even summer camp for his kids -- a federal grand jury said Wednesday, charging the former mayor with 19 counts of fraud and tax evasion.

The indictment comes seven years after Internal Revenue Service and FBI agents began looking into the fund in the wake of a Free Press report that a homeless shelter operator gave the fund $50,000 during Kilpatrick's first run for mayor in 2001. The newspaper reported that Kilpatrick then wrote a letter recommending the shelter receive a multimillion-dollar public contract.

Perhaps if Kilpatrick had more of a "Babyface" look, he would not be in all this mess.

Despite Kilpatrick's repeated claims to the contrary, the indictment says he used fund money for campaign and personal expenses, ranging from polling to yoga and golf lessons to college tuition for relatives.

Prosecutors contend he failed to report more than $640,000 in taxable income while mayor that he received in the form of cash, flights on private jets and perks paid for out of the civic fund.

"This indictment sends a clear message that those who make up their own rules based on fraud and deceit will be prosecuted," said Maurice Aouate, head of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Detroit.

Wednesday's 19-count indictment against Kilpatrick could keep him behind bars for decades. But the charges said nothing about whether Kilpatrick took bribes or kickbacks -- classic political corruption charges that federal authorities have been seeking to pin on Kilpatrick for years.

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Black Men Are Going Retro With The 80's Hairstyles!

Rico London is a stylist at Levels Unisex in East Harlem. More Photos »

By Guy Trebay (NY Times)

IN the evolution of black barbering according to Kamal Nuru, the list of begats begins with the Fade (which some folks refer to as the Jersey).

The era would have been around 1982. The Fade was a popular haircut dating to the golden age of hip-hop, one in which the sides were cropped close and the puffy hair on top was kept low, an effect achieved using clippers fitted with No. 1 and No. 2 blades.

“A No. 1 is pretty close, so you can still see the scalp,” Mr. Nuru said last week from behind the Dutch doors to an office that also serves as the coat closet at Levels Unisex, his bustling barbershop on Lexington Avenue in East Harlem.

“A zero,” Mr. Nuru added, referring to clipper gauge, “would be bald.”

Stepped up and set back from the street, Levels is an oasis of calm and tonsorial focus in a part of the city where an awful lot of agitated people can be seen bustling around. There is a homeless shelter across Lexington Avenue. There is a drug treatment facility around the corner. A more-or-less permanent cluster of transvestite prostitutes plies the corners of nearby 125th Street, clad in summery ensembles of Daisy Dukes and tube tops, accessorized with clutch purses that seem awfully tiny until one considers the modest dimensions of the tools of their trade.

The Fade cut eventually begat the Hi-Top Fade, as popularized by rappers like Doug E. Fresh and Schoolly D. When an angled cut was worked into the longer hair at the top of the head, the Flat-Top (a k a the Box) became the Slope (a k a the Gumby), and then the Slope or the Gumby, or whatever you called it, eventually begat another ridged haircut named for a math geek character played by the actor Kadeem Hardison in the “Cosby” spinoff, “A Different World.”

The Dwayne Wayne, Mr. Nuru explained, “had a little swoop-up like a ramp” and was immensely popular at about the time that Mr. Nuru got into the barbering game in 1987. By lucky chance, that happened to be at the precise moment when many African-Americans fastened onto the idea of having their coiffures shaved into complex patterns and topiary designs.

“The late ’80s and early ’90s were a really great time” for African-American hairstyling, said Mr. Nuru, who is 39. Gazing around at the 11 chairs in the shop, one of three he owns in as many boroughs, he remarked with satisfaction that, like much else from the ’80s, the glorious hairstyles of that long ago era had cycled around again.

“The Mohawk came back heavy in the last year,” he said. “And people started playing with their hair again.”

They started having their hair shaped and shaved and cut into fanciful patterns. They began adding Chinese-made black coloring to already dark hair to achieve a blue-black “Beijing” dye job, an effect that lends the wearer a curious resemblance to an action figurine.

They resumed — and with greater brio than was ever seen in the 1980s, when the rigid machismo of early hip-hop culture put a crimp in playfulness — having fun with how they look.

“I used to cut Mickey Mouse into people’s hair, Yankees symbols, any logo or abstract symbol or caricature they could think of,” said Mr. Nuru, whose Islamicized name, he claimed, means “perfecting God’s light.”

Lately, he said, the so-called retro kids are going back to the styles of the ’80s, this time adding more intricate patterns than were ever seen then, more startling neon colors and patterns that are limited only by the imagination of barbers like Rico London, who commands the first chair at Levels, the one by the window, and who is without any question the star of the show.

“Rico is an artist, straight up,” Gonzalo Venegas, one of the three members of the rap group Rebel Diaz, said one recent Friday as Mr. London shaved an asymmetrical pattern of what he referred to as “futuristic arrows” into one side of Mr. Venegas’s scalp.

Roughly once every 10 days when he is not touring, Mr. Venegas, known as G1, stops into Levels to have a new motif styled into his hair. The cuts are a fraction of the cost of an average styling at Frédéric Fekkai SoHo, depending on the level of complexity involved. Mr. Venegas never knows and seldom even inquires in advance what Mr. London has planned.

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Two African American Brothers, Both Distinguished Judges, Honored In Pittsburgh

The occasion was a ceremony recognizing brothers Livingstone and Justin Johnson's induction into Wilkinsburg High School's Wall of Fame. But then the conversation quickly switched to the changes seen in the Pittsburgh area over the years, especially for the Black community.

The other members of this first class of inductees at Wilkinsburg are his elder brother, Judge Livingstone Johnson, 82; Wilkinsburg Mayor John Thompson; Carnegie Mellon University music professor Thomas Douglas; Valerie McDonald Roberts, manager of Allegheny County's Department of Real Estate; and James Richard, Wilkinsburg's tax collector from 1954 to 1986.

Judge Justin Johnson, 76, served on Pennsylvania Superior Court from 1980 to 2007. He received his doctorate from the University of Chicago and achieved the rank of major during his service in the U.S. Air Force, from 1956 to 1959 and 1963 to 1973. He graduated from Wilkinsburg High in 1951.

Back then, he was one of only three black students in the school; when Livingstone Johnson graduated in 1945, he was the only black student.

Livingstone Johnson, who served on the Court of Common Pleas from 1982 to 2007, said his parents, Oliver Livingstone and Irene Marsh Johnson, had to use a third-party buyer, or "straw man," to purchase their home on Ross Avenue in Wilkinsburg.

"The KKK had marches in front of the house when they found out," he said, adding that a group of his father's friends would stand armed guard on the ground floor so that his parents could get some sleep.

Livingstone Johnson graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1957 and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying 58 combat missions over Korea.

He noted that when his father became Allegheny County's first black district attorney in 1942, he also became its first black prosecuting attorney, a distinction that was important at that time.

"It was thought unseemly for a black man to be permitted to go into court and prosecute both black and white," Livingstone Johnson said, adding that some people were uncomfortable with a black man questioning white women on the stand, especially in cases involving sexual assault.

Livingstone Johnson pointed out that his father, who graduated from Braddock High School in 1916, attended Harvard Law School but was drafted to fight in World War I and finished his law degree at the University of Pittsburgh. He died in 1971.

Livingstone Johnson said he will always remember what one of his history teachers once told his class.

"He said that black people ought to be grateful for slavery, since they were fed and supported all that time," he said. "When I told my mother what he'd said, she said he was wrong, that I couldn't listen to things like that."

In the six decades since the brothers attended Wilkinsburg High, they agree that a lot has changed.

The story continues...

When Talking About Sexy Men, It Don't Matter If It's Black & White!

Fairly new to the modeling game, 6ft tall Michael Reid is a former military guy who is very physically fit.

Maybe because the 27 year-old North Carolina native is also a personal trainer.

So ladies, are we ready to sign up?

South LA Barber Elvie Lewis Still Hookin' Brothers Up... At 94!

Local Black-Owned Shop Has Quite A History

Past the iron-mesh security door and the empty, 20-foot-long vinyl waiting bench, Elvie Lewis gives his ancient barber's chair a slap with a striped towel to dust off the last stray wisps of hair from the customer he has just finished.

With a weary grin, Lewis plops down in the ornate chair and tugs a lever to make it recline. With his head back and his feet up, he closes his eyes.

"It isn't like it used to be. You couldn't even sit down, it was so busy. We kept this place full when I was in my prime," he says softly.

If business is a bit slow, Lewis has earned a break. He has been cutting hair for 62 years. At the age of 94, he likes to call himself Los Angeles' oldest barber.

These days, he still has a steady hand -- and an even steadier clientele. Longtime customers trickle in Tuesdays through Thursdays; a steady stream comes Fridays and Saturdays.

His regulars travel from as far as Palmdale to the three-chair shop on South Normandie Avenue that Lewis has operated since 1952. He started cutting hair in 1947.

Longtime customers praise his $15 haircuts and his upbeat attitude.

Through the years, Lewis mastered each new style that came along. There was the buzz cut of the 1950s, the bushy Afro of the '60s, the dreadlocks and cornrows of the '70s, the 1980s' mullet, the high-top fade of the '90s and today's high-and-tight.

"My favorite style is what they ask for," he says with a grin. In his zip-up barber's smock, the short, cheerful-looking Lewis favors his own receding gray hairline cropped short.

Customers say it's his smile and encouraging outlook on life -- just as much as the haircut he gives -- that keeps them coming back.

"He started doing this the same year that Jackie Robinson broke into the majors," says Derrick Blakey, 50, who has frequented the shop for 22 years.

For much of that time, Lewis has allowed Blakey to sell T-shirts embossed with uplifting sayings such as "Wealth Is Good Health" and "Think Positive" in the shop. "Mr. Lewis is more than a hairstylist. He's an artist," Blakey says. "And he's an encourager. He's supported everything I've done."

Luvert Pineset, a 73-year-old retired high-rise maintenance worker who travels from Palmdale for his trims, appreciates Lewis' old-school, gentlemanly manner. "He's a nice man," Pineset explains.

"He's still got a steady hand," adds Robert Hunter, 76, a former steelworker from South Los Angeles who has been going to Lewis for more than a decade.

Lewis puts in a 7 a.m.-to-5 p.m workday Tuesdays through Saturdays. He's on his feet whenever he's cutting hair, despite the aches and pains that come from living nine decades.

He walks with a cane now, and four years ago he turned in his driver's license, swapping it for a simple ID card from the state.

Why didn't he retire 30 years ago?

"Everybody I know who retires goes out and gets another job. I already have a job," he says. "I'm not a 'honey do' man, you know, 'Honey do this, honey do that.' If I'm going to work at home, I may as well be working here."

Lewis' wife of 56 years, Mary, drives him to and from the shop from their home on West 66th Street, about a mile away.

"About the only places I go are to church, this barbershop and the VA hospital," he says. "For 45 years, I went on vacation all over the United States and to places like the Bahamas. Now my favorite place is here."

The story continues...

Here's To Kappa Alpha Psi, The Nation's Most Celebrated Black Fraternity

Kappa Alpha Psi (KAΨ) is a collegiate African American Greek-letter fraternity. Founded on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, today the distingished organization with a focus on achievement celebrates its 99th anniversary!

Kappa has has over 150,000 members with 700 undergraduate and alumni chapters in every state of the US, and international chapters in the UK, Germany, Korea, Japan, the Caribbean, Saint Thomas, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Nigeria, and South Africa.

The fraternity has many notable members recognized as leaders in the arts, athletics, business, civil rights, education, government, and science sectors at the local, national and international level.

Kappa sponsors programs providing community service, social welfare and academic scholarship through the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation and is a supporter of the United Negro College Fund and Habitat for Humanity. Kappa Alpha Psi is a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) and the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC).

The fraternity is the first predominantly African American Greek-letter society founded west of the Appalachian Mountains still in existence, and is known for its "cane stepping" in organized step shows.

Are Negroes in Oakland Overeacting Or Does A Post-Obama America Still Have Issues With Black Men???

Another Black Male Doesn't Live To See Barack Make History

Oscar Grant, 22, was killed New Years Day at a crowded train station in a shooting at a subway in California's Bay Area. And the protests erupted immediately after the young brother was laid to rest in Oakland on Wednesday night. This is deja vu folks, and it's getting really old.

The Oakland Police Department made 105 arrests, including a mass arrest of about 80 people for CNN is reporting are charges ranging from rioting, vandalism to assaults on a police officers and unlawful assembly.

Some protesters lay on their stomachs, saying they were showing solidarity with Grant, who was shot in the back as he was face-down on the floor at a train station. Watch angry protesters in Oakland »

It didn't help that Officer Johannes Mehserle, who is implicated in the shooting, had turned in his resignation and has refused to talk with investigators.

Attorney Christopher Miller released a statement confirming his client's resignation, effective Wednesday. "Officer Mehserle's resignation should allow BART to get back to the business of managing regional transportation and allow the Alameda County district attorney to take primary responsibility for reviewing this matter," the statement said.

Oakland police tried to keep protesters at bay Wednesday night as they smashed car windshields and storefront windows. KTVU footage shows one protester jumping up and down on a police car hood, while another demonstrator pushes a flaming Dumpster up against it.

"We live a life of fear, and we want them to be afraid tonight," an unnamed female protester said. iReport.com: BART protests turn violent

While protests began peacefully with about 500 people gathering at the Fruitvale station where the shooting occurred, soon, a group of about 150 protesters surrounded a police officer. That's when, "the decision was made to use chemical agents to protect that police officer."

The crowd finally dispersed about 11 p.m. after police hemmed in a crowd of rowdy protesters at the downtown intersection of 20th Street and Broadway. There, police cuffed 80 protesters, Thomason said.

David Chai, chief of staff for Oakland African American Mayor Ron Dellums, said Dellums was "out and about" in the streets Wednesday, urging protesters to exercise their frustration productively. Dellums also announced that the Oakland Police Department was conducting its own investigation into the matter.

He said Oakland residents also were "rightfully" frustrated that the investigation has gone on for a week with little development.

The Grant family attorney, John Burris, is pushing Orloff to press criminal charges against Mehserle. Burris has also filed a $25 million claim with BART, alleging wrongful death.

"Without so much as flinching the Officer Mehserle stood over Grant and mercilessly fired his weapon, mortally wounding Mr. Grant with a single gunshot wound to the back," the claim alleges.

BART has until late February to respond.

Burris said that the young men had been celebrating the new year at a popular waterfront tourist spot, The Embarcadero. They were heading home when police pulled them from the train car about 2 a.m.

Witness videos show Grant and two other men sitting against a wall in the Fruitvale station after being pulled off the train. BART reported that they had received a report of an altercation on the train.

Police are seen putting Grant face-down on the ground. Grant appears to struggle. One of the officers kneels on Grant as another officer stands, tugs at his gun, unholsters it and fires a shot into Grant's back.

There have been unconfirmed reports that Mehserle may have mistook his gun for a Taser, but Burris is not swayed. "My view is, this is criminal conduct, period," he said.

Looks like it time the Afrosphere got to work to find out what's really going on here!

Source

Things In Oakland Tense After BART Officer's Killing of Black Man

Officer In Oakland Shooting Quits/ Rioting Follows Anger

Democratic Opposition to Seating Burris Cracks
Black Support for Prop. 8 Called Exaggeration
Michael Vick Wants to Sell Georgia Home at Auction
Richard Parsons May Be Considered for Commerce Secretary
Obama's Wheels: Secret Service to Unveil New Presidential Limo

Jennifer Hudson Will Not Sing for Obama Inauguration
Obama's Kenyan Stepgrandmother to Attend Ball
Hughes Brothers' Pimp Drama Under Fire by City of Oakland
Congressional Black Caucus Assesses Its Role
Black Men Helped Shape Washington D.C.
Blacks Lead Both Houses in Colorado, a First for Nation

Black Men Can Shake Their Pom Poms With The Best of Them

The New Sexy: Clean Cut Black Men Who Look Like They Have Some Sense!

Super hot Jason Taylor, the star new defensive end for the Washington Redskins and former contestant on Dancing with the Stars, glams it up for the cover of Capitol File.

Earlier this week it was all about what sexy football players are not wearing in the locker room. Now some previews of what some sexy ballers are wearing off the field.

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Ahmad Ali Lewis Is More Than A Black, Washed-Up, Hip Hop Artist: He's Going For His Phd at Stanford

The Rapper Become The Scholar

Ahmad Ali Lewis made a deal with his mother back when he was a student at Palisades High School: He would go to college unless he got a recording contract for his upbeat rap music.

It was a big if. But Lewis, 17, an honors student and top football player, skipped the college entrance exams and signed with Giant Records. "I said, 'S.A.T. -- whatever. I want to R.A.P.,' " he recalls.

Ahmad Ali LewisHis 1994 album, immodestly called "Ahmad," included a hit single, "Back in the Day," a nostalgic riff on his South Los Angeles childhood. In it, he rapped:

I miss those days, and so I pout like a grown jerk

Wishin all I had to do now, was finish homework.

It's true you don't realize

really what you got

til it's gone

And I'm not gonna sing

another sad song, but

Sometimes I do sit and

reminisce then

Think about the years I was raised, back in the days.

Looking back, Lewis said he does not regret his teenage decision, even though his early success was followed by struggles in a music industry he criticized as promoting violence in the African American community. Now 32 and the father of a 4-year-old son, he is still recording songs, but he also is finishing homework.

Ahmad the first-name-only rapper has become Ahmad Ali Lewis the Stanford-bound scholar.

Lewis enrolled two years ago at Long Beach City College and graduated in May as valedictorian, with a 4.0 grade point average. He was accepted as a transfer student by several universities for this fall and chose Stanford.

CHECK HIM OUT ON VIDEO

"When I stepped on campus, something in my gut said, 'Dude, this is where you belong,' " said Lewis, who plans to pursue bachelor's degrees in sociology and African American studies. He said he is "going to be Dr. Ahmad Ali Lewis, the first rapper with a PhD." He quickly conceded, "Maybe someone else has done it, I don't know." No matter, he said, since he expects to get a doctorate in social work and become a professor.

"I love teaching," said Lewis, who recently tutored at an elementary school. "Rapping and teaching are not that far apart. You're rapping, you're talking. You're a professor, you're talking."
Compact but broad-shouldered at 5 feet 7 and 155 pounds, Lewis still has the build of the running back he was in high school. His head is shaven and he has two tattoos: on his left shoulder, a map of Africa containing a woman's face, and on his right forearm, "4th Avenue Jones," the name of the soul-rock-rap band he cofounded with his former wife, singer Tena Jones. When he talks, he waves his hands in the open-fingered style of rap performance.

He speaks of his Christian faith and academic ambitions with enthusiasm, humor and what he jokingly concedes is the "egomania" of a well-loved child. His mother, Paulette Holt, inspired him by starting college when she was a divorced mother of three and also "brainwashed me," he said.
"I always thought I was better than average, that I was handsome, smart and talented. It was a trick," he said. "Being black in America, from the ghetto, you need that extra little bit of confidence. So that's kind of my mission, to give other kids that kind of confidence."

The odds were against him at Stanford, which accepted just 20 of this year's 1,200 transfer applicants. But Lewis was admitted and offered a financial aid package that will cover his tuition and room and board, which total more than $47,000 this school year. He'll also receive funds for books and living costs each year through a highly competitive grant program that the Virginia-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation offers to community college students transferring to four-year schools.

Ahmad Ali Lewis"Ahmad was really a standout in all the areas," said Vance Lancaster, a Cooke Foundation spokesman. "He is truly a scholar and a humanitarian who just happens to be a chart-topping rapper."

Lewis grew up mainly near 76th and Hoover streets, on a block with a crack house and gangs. His mother arranged for him to be bused out of the neighborhood to honors classes, and eventually to take the hourlong ride to Palisades High.He was both a football jock and a bookworm, with a singing voice that won him attention in church. His Muslim father, John, was a musician as well but Lewis didn't see him much after his parents divorced. When young Ahmad became consumed with rap, his mother panicked.

"I feared him getting involved in drugs, feared him getting involved in a lot of stuff that could have been devastating to him," said Holt, who earned a masters' degree in social work from USC in 2002 and is a therapist for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

"I told him, 'if you are going to rap, at least don't use bad language and don't talk down about women.' And he said, 'Mom, that's not me anyway, I don't do that.' So I was able to hear his music. It wasn't church music but it certainly was a positive message."

The few curse words in his songs were mild compared with the obscenity-filled lyrics of other rappers. A 1994 Times review called his first album "mostly upbeat, always insightful and sometimes very funny." One of the album's cuts offered a cautionary tale about a wannabe gangbanger who tries to impress his crew by planning to rob and shoot a shop owner:

"But I didn't do it quick enough, or he thought

of it first

Cause he blasted to the chest, and now I'm restin yellin, "Nurse!"

And holdin on to life, or at least tryin to hold on

In a jailward wearin cuffs

Cause I had to be rough

Cause you gotta be tough"

Lewis admits he wasn't an angel. He smoked pot, drank and partied during his concert tours. He earned enough to buy a car and a house in Long Beach.

But he was also denouncing "gangsta" rap's influence on black children. "We're destroying ourselves, teaching our kids low self-esteem," he said in an interview with The Times when he was 18. And he tangled with music executives who wanted a tougher edge to his unreleased second album and rejected its religious overtones, he said.

The subsequent 4th Avenue Jones group had some success, opening shows for big names such as Sheryl Crow and the Black Eyed Peas. The group then had contract troubles and Lewis became disillusioned with life on the road.

"I got to the point: 'What's this all about? Am I really having a significant impact on people's lives, just showing up in a city for an hour and doing a show and then leaving?" Lewis recalls. "I thought stardom and fame would bring me a kind of a joy. When I attained that, it was empty."

The big money was gone and the house had to be sold. After nine years of marriage, Lewis and Jones divorced, sharing custody of their son, Yeshuwa. The personal crisis led Lewis to community college.

Byron Clift Breland, Long Beach City College's dean of student affairs, interviewed Lewis during valedictorian selection and learned how he had joined a trip to help orphans in Zimbabwe, but had no idea about his music career. Later, Breland's wife realized that Lewis was the author of "Back in the Day," a song she liked so much that she had it included on their wedding video.

"I was shocked and excited," Breland said of learning Lewis' identity. "To see Ahmad break down a lot of stereotypes of folks who go into the music industry in general, let alone hip-hop or rap, and then return to higher education and go to Stanford is a remarkable story."

Next month, Lewis will start spending weekdays at Stanford and weekends in Los Angeles with his son. Music, however, is not out of Lewis' life.

Ahmad Ali LewisHe is writing lyrics for a new album he hopes to sell to a music label. He lives with his mother and stepfather in Carson and composes at a Salvation Army recreation center in Compton where he draws inspiration from its diverse patrons.

In a small office overlooking the noisy gym, Lewis reviews the lines he has written in an old-fashioned notebook. Swaying in his chair, he sings into a laptop over prerecorded musical tracks from collaborators. The autobiographical album, titled "The Death of Me," is meant to be celebratory, he said. In one number, "Smile," he raps:

"Back to college on the low like a panther

Finished as valedict' then went to Stanford

And I ain't paying for it

But I'm gon' pay it forward

Who gets the glory?

You know I gotta say

the Lord."

SOURCE

Police Critic Najee Ali Takes Plea Deal, Gets Four Years for Attempted Bribery

Activist Najee Ali, known as an outspoken critic of law enforcement, was sentenced to four years in state prison today after pleading no contest to trying to bribe a witness in his daughter's criminal case. Yes, we know that Najee can be a lot to deal with at times, but he has been a voice in Black LA that many people appreciate, us included!

According to the Los Angeles Times, Ali, 45, was arrested and charged on March 11 with attempting to intimidate a witness and attempting to bribe a witness. The former gang member, now a community activist, allegedly tried to tamper with a witness outside his daughter's preliminary hearing at Alhambra Superior Court earlier this year, said Sandi Gibbons, a district attorney's spokeswoman.

The charges against Ali's daughter -- two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of leaving the scene of an accident -- stem from an incident involving her vehicle and a group of motorcyclists on the San Bernardino Freeway, Gibbons said.

Superior Court Judge Frederick R. Rotenberg sentenced Ali after the activist pleaded no contest to attempting to bribe a witness at the Alhambra courthouse. Prosecutors dismissed a count of witness intimidation. Immediately after the sentencing, he was taken into custody and placed in isolated detention at the downtown jail because of his notoriety, officials said.

Ali, born Ronald Todd Eskew, spent two years in prison for armed robbery before catapulting to prominence in 1998 when he helped mobilize public outrage over the case of Sherrice Iverson, a 7-year-old who was murdered at a Nevada casino.
Since then, he has emerged as an activist who transcends convention, protesting pornography in a Snoop Dogg video, urging blacks to work with police and speaking out on behalf of crime victims of every race.



Ali would have received two years in prison but "because he has a prior robbery conviction in 1992, it doubled in time to four years," Gibbons said. The judge also found that Ali violated his probation in a 2004 felony hit-and-run and perjury conviction and was sentenced to four years to run concurrently with the attempted bribery sentence.

"Mr. Ali has still not paid $29,240 in restitution in that case," Gibbons said.

In 2004, Ali was sentenced to five years probation and 1,000 hours of community service after he left the scene of a car accident. His vehicle had collided with another at Crenshaw and Martin Luther King boulevards, and he then ran into a nearby theater.

At the time, Ali was free on bail on charges of purchasing identity documents to apply for and receive two driver's licenses. Ali, who initially fought the charges, said he pleaded no contest because he couldn't afford attorney fees.

"I'm remorseful, but I don't think my actions were criminal," Ali said at the time. "If I'm guilty of anything, it's using poor judgment."

Ali was an outspoken critic of the LAPD following the televised beating of car chase suspect Stanley Miller in 2004, prompting a sharp rebuke from LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton.

During a CNN appearance, Bratton called Ali "one of the biggest nitwits in Los Angeles," while scolding the CNN interviewer, whom he told, "You need to check out the credentials ... of some of these people that you choose."

Bratton later apologized for the remarks. That same day, then-Mayor James K. Hahn named Ali to a citizens' commission formed to examine the beating case.

Ali promptly resigned after city officials expressed doubts about whether he should serve because he was awaiting trial on charges in connection to the hit-and-run case.

Ali splits his time between an apartment in Baldwin Hills and a home in Chicago, where he lives with his wife, the granddaughter of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. Ali's organization, Project Islamic Hope, is funded by private benefactors, he says. He has no car, and gets around on the bus or by hitching rides with friends.

He also feuded with other activists and civic leaders. Ali in 2006 got a Superior Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), accusing the congresswoman of threatening him.

Then Waters, not to be outdone, accused Ali of stalking her and got her own temporary restraining order against him. Ali also accused bodyguards for Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad of beating him after a news conference in which activists called for clemency for death row inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Ali told police that he called Muhammad "a liar" after which one guard "cold-cocked" him in the face.

Nevermind John Edwards' Infidelity, What About All The Brothers Missing In Action???

Rich Dad, No Dad!

Did Barack Obama have a point about absentee fathers in the African American community? Previously, Writer Erin Aubry Kaplan and Fox News Contributor Juan Williams discussed the racial significance of Obama's candidacy and the leadership and themes of the modern civil rights movement.

Now, here comes some straight talk about black men.

Point: Erin Aubry Kaplan

Of course Barack Obama had a point about absentee fathers. Nobody supports fathers, black or otherwise, going AWOL or shirking their paternal duties. Everybody knows that single-mother households are disproportionately concentrated in black communities and add to the chaos that has beset those communities since Africans first came to this country as slaves.

Nobody likes this situation.

With the possible exception of prison guard unions, people across every imaginable demographic -- black, white, poor, middle class, Democrat, Republican, Green -- would love for this problem to go away tomorrow. We'd all be better off, starting with all the kids living without their dads.

But the reason we're nowhere near solving the problem is that the whole issue of absentee black fathers and what it speaks to have been hopelessly politicized.

The right has dominated the conversation for years and put it in a moral, individualistic framework; this is where the right tends to put a lot of things, especially ones with racial implications (race and morality are very closely linked in the minds of many Americans).

Black fathers are therefore in a hell of their own making. The solution? Pull your pants up, stay away from gangs, look harder for a job, graduate from high school, pursue a college degree and take those chips off your shoulder (and take those tattoos off while you're at it).

To be fair, this isn't just what the right believes; it's what lots of ordinary black folks who are registered Democrats believe too. It's certainly not all of what they believe, but it is an expression of a larger desire to improve their community in any way that makes sense. Yet this is not a political view as much as it is a social one -- for black people, "conservative" often has little to do with party affiliation.

It's just one of the many nuances lost in the pundit-driven, polarizing non-discussion of blacks and fatherhood.Speaking of nuance, Obama's tough-love remarks about absentee black fathers, which he made in a church during his Father's Day speech, were taken out of context somewhat. The media zeroed in on his line, "Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father." But if you look at the whole speech, Obama also talked about the role the government can and should play in bettering black people's lives.

For example, after detailing the responsibilities of black fathers, Obama went on to say, "It's a responsibility that also extends to Washington. Because if fathers are doing their part ... then our government should meet them halfway."

It was the kind of ideological compromise at which Obama has gotten very good, maybe too good. But the fact that these sentiments went virtually unreported is evidence of how narrowly we see the black father "debate" and how strongly we resist broadening that view into something even slightly more empathetic.

To read Juan Williams counterpoint, click here.

Erin Aubry Kaplan is a freelance writer and contributing editor to Opinion. She is a former weekly columnist for The Times and a former LA Weekly staff writer. She blogs at threebrothersandasister.blogspot.com

African American Newsweek Editor Replaces Tim Russert At NBC

Mark Whitaker Becomes The HNIC

A black man has been named NBC's new Washington bureau chief.

Mark Whitaker, who served as editor of Newsweek from 1998 to 2006 and oversaw the growth of Newsweek's web site, will also have oversight of 'Meet the Press,' election coverage.

Meet the press and this historic election just hasn't been the same for me since Tim Russert's death in June at the age of 58. Seeing an exceptional brother in the position, however, is just a further indication of this movement that will forever change what it truly means to be Black in America.

Whitaker had recently been serving as senior vice president of NBC News in New York.

His day-to-day responsibilities will include executive oversight of "Meet the Press" and the network's election and political coverage.

NBC also said Whitaker will make occasional appearances as an on-air analyst. Additionally, he will continue on with his senior vice president duties.

"Mark's got all of the components that will assure his success — a commitment to journalistic integrity, political savvy, a keen eye for the future and a management style that is inclusive and fair," NBC News President Steve Capus said in a statement. "He is exactly what the bureau needs."

Prior to joining NBC News, Whitaker served as editor of Newsweek from 1998 to 2006. He also oversaw the growth of Newsweek's web site, which is partnered with msnbc.com.

"I am honored and humbled to succeed Tim, whose commitment to journalism without fear or favor is a beacon for us all," said Whitaker in a statement. "And I am thrilled to get to work with our unparalleled team of NBC reporters and producers in Washington."

From 2006 until 2007, Whitaker served as vice president and editor-in-chief of new ventures at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, creating online projects for Newsweek's parent, The Washington Post Co.

Whitaker will manage the Washington bureau's daily operations, working closely with Wendy Wilkinson and Brady Daniels, who serve as deputy chiefs.

He will also work alongside Chuck Todd, NBC's political director.

Whitaker assumes his duties immediately. Source.

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Obama Shifts Focus From Foreign Policy to Economy

Obama Considers GOP Running Mate

Uncle Luke Finally Takes a Bride
US Assistance to Horn of Africa Over $797M
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Black Real Estate Pros Cautiously Optimistic

Albinos Being Targeted in Tanzanian Witchcraft Killings
Trina in Accident in Belize; Issues Statement

Did A Prominent Black Doctor In L.A. Sexually Assault A 15-Year-Old & Other Patients?

Held in jail on a $4-million bail, Dr. Kevin Brown's arrest came after several women contacted authorities and accused Brown of sexually battering or raping them during medical examinations. Son of the premier in Bermuda, Brown faces 19 felony counts, including a lewd act on a 15-year-old, rape, sexual battery by fraud and sexual exploitation.

The alleged assaults occurred between Nov. 6, 2006, and May 31, 2008. If convicted, the 37-year prominent physician faces 27 years in state prison.

At the time of his arrest Monday, Brown was free on bail for a previous sexual assault arrest. Brown also operates the Urban Health Institute of Los Angeles. The charity, which is run out of the same building as Brown's practice, seeks to provide disaster relief in the United States, South America and throughout Africa.

Founded by Brown, the institute has held fundraisers at the Playboy mansion. The events have featured celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian, Don Cheadle, Shannon Elizabeth and Hugh Hefner. Newspapers in Bermuda have reported that its tourism board provided free vacations to the charity. The trips were given as prizes for donors to the charity.

Brown is also being investigated in a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud probe by the state. As for the new allegations, at least three cases are being prepared against Brown, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Marie Wise said in court, and four other patients have come forward and will be interviewed by investigators.

Regarding the eight cases in which Brown has already been charged, at least one of the incidents occurred outside Brown's medical office when he went to the home of a female patient in Alhambra and allegedly raped her, Wise said.

The California Medical Board also has filed a motion with the court to suspend or revoke Brown's medical license, she said.

The doctor's attorneys, Keith Bowman and Blair Berk, portrayed Brown as a physician arrested for touching patients and said that detectives went to the media to appeal for more victims.

Brown allegedly molested eight patients over a two-year period. He is also being investigated by the state for "multiple healthcare fraud schemes and over prescription of Oxycodone," according to court documents. He has not been charged in connection with that inquiry. Source

Usher Being A Father To His Son: Now That's Sexy!!!

Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, came alive last night when music and fashion industry icons from across the world kicked off the THISDAY Music and Fashion Festival with their scintillating stage performance.

R&B/Pop crooner and ladies idol, Usher had the audience eating from the palm of his hand with his popular hits and incredible footwork as he danced on the stage tirelessly.

As he sang his new single hit from his latest album, ‘Love in the Club’, the audience went wild singing and dancing along to his performance. All modesty was thrown to the wind as everyone reveled in the moment.

Why Black Women Love Black Men: Guess The Lady Slayer???

So who's the brother that has us swooning? No Cream No Sugar's got the anwser!