News
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth (1922-2011)
American Legacy mourns the loss of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a leader of the civil rights movement who was at the forefront of the battle against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Calmly, doggedly, and at great risk to his life, he chipped away at the implacable system that was Jim Crow until it was dismantled. Below is a Fall 2006 article on his struggle, and eventual victory. ON ONE SIDE WAS THE SQUAT, PUGNACIOUS EUGENE “BULL” CONNOR, a white former radio baseball announcer who made segregation his issue in Birmingham, Alabama....
read moreAll Gone Home
Back in December 2008, prompted by the death of the folk music queen Odetta, I began to prepare an entry about all of the musical lights the world has lost since our 2008 Music issue. The plan was to post it here during Black Music month. But it seemed that every time I started to work on it, another name had to be added. Already on my list was Bo Diddley, who brought American music his timeless rhythm, and Isaac Hayes, funk king extraordinaire, both of whom died in the summer of 2008. In the fall we lost Levi Stubbs, lead singer of The Four...
read moreOn the Mall/Tuskegee Airmen
In the run up to the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C. on August 28, smaller stories bubble to the surface. One that caught our notice was an NPR report about the Tuskegee Airmen—America’s first black military pilots—and their 70th anniversary, celebrated at their national convention last week. The veterans, numbering some 100 (more than 1,000 men trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama beginning July 1941) got a special preview of the MLK monument. Perhaps as exciting for the...
read moreThrowback Soundtrack: Black Orpheus (1959)
The truly perfect film Black Orpehus is 52 years old and it still fascinates. I’ve been to Brazil since the first time I saw the movie at least 20 years ago, and darned if the energy and music and beauty in Salvador da Bahia in 2005 wasn’t like that in Rio in 1959. A synopsis from Gene Seymour in an article for the Fall 2005 issue of American Legacy “The ill-starred ancient Greek romance of Eurydice (played by the luminous Marpessa Dawn, who was actually African-American and Filipino from Pittsburgh) and Orpheus (Breno...
read moreWhat We’re Listening to: Etta James
We’re determined not to let our most recent memory of Etta James be about the non-feud that jumped off between James and Beyonce Knowles around the song “At Last” at the inaugural ball. It was silly, and we can’t always let the media tell us who to be mad at. Can you imagine if there had been social media and viral video back in the day picking up conversations and utterances best left unseen? Just imagine how many of our superstars would be in trouble today. All of this is to say there is room for all of our...
read moreThrowback Soundtracks: Claudine (1974)
It is 1974. Claudine Price (Diahann Carroll) is a single mother of six who works as a domestic and collects welfare so she can raise her kids in a crowded apartment (seven people squeezed into a space for two or three) in Harlem. Rupert P. Marshall, played by James Earl Jones is a garbage collector who asks her out and is turned down, but after a bit of convincing (Roop, as she later calls him, stands up to “the man”, in this case her employer) Claudine decides to take Rupert up on his offer. The date finds them in bed, they become...
read moreListen to the Library! Pt. 1
BLACK MUSIC MONTH is upon us, so for the next couple of weeks or so we’ll be offering you some historical musical treats as well as a shortlist of books, films, and albums we think will further enrich our American music archives. We’ll begin with one of our biggest and most important archives. Every year for the past nine the Library of Congress has added a new list of songs to its National Recording Registry. The purpose? To make sure that our recorded national songbook—which begins as early as the mid nineteenth century— is...
read moreWhat We’re Watching/Freedom Riders
In Fall 2008 American Legacy featured a story about the Freedom Riders—a courageous group of more than 400 black and white Americans who, in 1961 risked their lives to travel to the Deep South on buses and trains. Together. They were testing Jim Crow laws and facing virulent racism and mob violence along the way. For more than a few, the practice of nonviolence was an extremely difficult one. For all it was an experience that shaped the rest of their lives. This month PBS’s American Experience will debut Freedom Riders, a film by...
read moreApology Not Accepted
Back in the Fall of 2009, Congressman Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) claimed, in a formal apology, that his emotions got the better of him when he shouted out “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s address to Congress. I didn’t believe for a minute that it was about Wilson’s objection to the president’s remarks about healthcare. I believe it was the fact and fear of a black president that sent Wilson over the edge. Although there were people who behaved worse toward Obama during the presidential campaign, and others who catcalled and...
read moreManning Marable/1950-2011
By now you have heard of the passing of the brilliant Manning Marable. His loss is so profound to scholarship, activism, society, He was the best of who we are as a race. He was the best of who we are as Americans. He was the best of who we are as people. What I’ve been hearing over again, from Michael Eric Dyson, from Bill Fletcher, from so many, is that he inspired, he was a mentor to each and every person who came to him. Many have spoken of his vast contributions to American and world history and culture and have said it better...
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