Toni Morrison

This year I'm choosing to put many black women of note into the March calendar, where I celebrate Women's History Month.

Angela Davis and novelist Toni Morrison

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 [the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature ]

Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience.

The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.

Thanks Wikipedia

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Toni released her novel ‘Beloved’ in 1987. Based on the true story of a Black enslaved woman, the book was a Bestseller for 25 weeks and won countless awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Whoopi Goldberg

 

"My name is Caryn Elaine Johnson, but everyone knows me as Whoopi Goldberg. I am an EGOT artist (meaning I hold the four most prestigious American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), signifying an actress who has excelled in everything—television, music, film, and theater. They say I have an irresistible charm and an energy so powerful that I could go to the Vatican and ask Pope Francis to act in Sister Act 3, while also celebrating on my American show the tribute paid to me by Fiorello on Italian TV.

I won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Ghost in 1990 (becoming the second African American woman to win after Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy in Gone with the Wind) and was nominated for Best Actress for Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. I have also won two Golden Globes, two Emmys, a Saturn Award, four People's Choice Awards, five Kids' Choice Awards, seven Image Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, and a BAFTA. In 2002, I was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I have directed and produced documentaries, musicals, and films acclaimed by both audiences and critics. I am an activist for human rights, AIDS research, and children's rights. I have appeared in countless American TV shows and series and, among other projects, co-hosted nine seasons of Comic Relief, a charitable television special benefiting the underprivileged, alongside Billy Crystal and Robin Williams. Since 2007, I have been one of the hosts of The View, a popular and progressive ABC program.

At the age of 68, I wrote my autobiography titled Fragments of Memory.

In this memoir, which I also wrote to help me cope with the loss of my mother Emma, I recount my life from my childhood (growing up in New York City’s housing projects, trips to Coney Island, ice skating shows, and museum visits) to my career, successes, and failures. The book is a tribute to the pivotal figures in my life—my mother and my brother Clyde, both of whom passed away in recent years. My mother, proud, practical, and indomitable, instilled in us the love and wisdom needed to succeed in life, always encouraging us to be honest, at least with ourselves."

Whoopi Goldberg

From Facebook Black American History & Soul

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Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg , is an American actor, comedian, author and television personality. A recipient of numerous accolades, she is one of 18 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. In 2001, she received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Her film breakthrough came in 1985 with her role as Celie, a mistreated woman in the Deep South, in Steven Spielberg's period drama film The Color Purple, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. For her role as an eccentric psychic in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a second Golden Globe Award. She starred in the comedy Sister Act (1992) and its sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), becoming the highest-paid actress at the time. She also starred in Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), Clara's Heart (1988), Soapdish (1991), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), and Till (2022). She also is known for voicing roles in The Lion King (1994), and Toy Story 3 (2010).

According to an anecdote told by Nichelle Nichols in Trekkies (1997), a young Goldberg was watching Star Trek, and on seeing Nichols's character Uhura, exclaimed, "Momma! There's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!" This spawned Goldberg's lifelong Star Trek fandom. Goldberg lobbied for — and was eventually cast — in a recurring guest starring role as Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

On television, Goldberg portrayed Guinan in the science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988-1993), and Star Trek: Picard (2022). Since 2007, she has co-hosted and moderated the daytime talk show The View, for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. She has hosted the Academy Awards ceremony four times.

SOURCE: Wikipedia

Poet Phillis Wheatley

 She was called Phillis because that was the name of the ship that brought her and Wheatley which was the name of the merchant who bought her. She was born in Senegal. In Boston the slave Traders put her up for sale: "she's 7-year-old! She will be a good mare!" She was felt,naked by many hands. At 13 she was already writing poems in a language that was not her own .

No one believed that she was the author. At the age of 20 Phillis was questioned by a court of eighteen enlightened men in robes and wigs. She had to recite passages from Virgil and Milton and some verses from the Bible and she also had to vow that the Palms she had composed were not copied. From a chair she underwent her lengthy examination until the court approvd her: she was a woman, she was Black, she was enslved, but she was a poet.

Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American writer to publish a book in the United States.

Sharecroppers

 A Glimpse into the Hardships of Troup County Sharecroppers in 1930

In a photograph taken around 1930, a powerful image captures a family of sharecroppers standing outside their one-room, cabin-style home in Troup County, Georgia. This evocative picture, now preserved in the National Archives, offers a window into the challenging living conditions faced by countless families in the rural South during the throes of the Great Depression. The modest structure, a cabin with simple wooden walls and a small porch, symbolizes the persistence and resilience of a lifestyle forged in hardship.

During this period, sharecropping dominated the agricultural landscape of the American South. Under this system, landowners provided land, tools, and seeds to farmers, who, in return, agreed to cultivate the fields and share a portion of their harvest as payment. For many families like the one captured in this image, life was a constant balancing act. They were tied to land they did not own, eking out an existence on thin margins, and often finding themselves in cycles of debt and dependency.

The expressions of the family members in this photograph are a study in strength and stoicism. Their clothing, simple and well-worn, and their postures speak of long days spent laboring under the Georgia sun. Yet, amidst the signs of weariness, there is a distinct air of determination and pride in their faces. Despite the hardships they faced, the family exudes a quiet dignity that underscores the perseverance required to navigate such trying circumstances.

The one-room cabin that looms behind them, small yet sturdy, provides a glimpse of what home meant for sharecropping families. These homes, often hastily built and minimally equipped, were a far cry from comfort. Still, they served as a refuge and symbol of family solidarity, a place where life continued against all odds.

Photographs like this one do more than merely document history; they tell the stories of the individuals who experienced it. The image of the Troup County family is a stark and vivid reminder of the impact the Great Depression had on rural communities. Beyond the statistics of economic downturns and market crashes lies the reality of everyday lives spent in quiet struggle and perseverance.

James Earl Jones

The historic Cort Theatre has been renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre, honoring the legendary actor’s 64-year Broadway career. Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958 and remains celebrated in theater, film, and television. The $47 million renovation marks a significant tribute to his ...?

James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931 – September 9, 2024) was an American actor. A pioneer for black actors in the entertainment industry, he is known for his extensive and acclaimed roles on stage and screen. Jones is one of the few performers to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).^[1][2][3][4] He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985, and was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009, and the Academy Honorary Award in 2011.^[5][6]

Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi during the Jim Crow era, Jones overcame a childhood stutter. A pre-med major in college, he served as an officer in the U.S. Army during the Korean War before pursuing a career in acting. His deep voice was praised as a "stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas" to his projects.^[7][8] Jones made his Broadway debut in the play Sunrise at Campobello (1957) and gained notoriety starring in several productions with Shakespeare in the Park including Othello (1964), Coriolanus (1965), Hamlet (1972), and King Lear (1973).^[9]

For his roles on Broadway, Jones won two Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play for playing a boxer in the Howard Sackler play The Great White Hope (1968) and a working class father in August Wilson's Fences (1987). He was a Tony-nominated for his roles as part of an elderly couple in On Golden Pond (2005) and a former President in The Best Man (2012). He also acted in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), Driving Miss Daisy (2010–2011), You Can't Take It with You (2014), and The Gin Game (2015). He received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.^[10][11]

On film, Jones made his acting debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964). He reprised his role as a boxer in the film adaptation of The Great White Hope (1970), earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He gained international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise. He also acted in The Man (1972), Claudine (1974), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Sneakers (1992), The Sandlot (1993), The Lion King (1994), and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995).

Lest we forget - Roberta Flack - and the airmen

 

Tuskegee Airmen in front of their P-40.

Just remembering some more important black people for black history month, which is the shortest month of the year. But that doesn't mean just 28 people should be honored each year. The work and acclaim of many black people continues year round.

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This week we lost a golden voice, a woman of song, Roberta Flack.

Roberta Flack was born here in Black Mountain NC (though she was raised elsewhere.) Love her two winning songs.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

NPR posted this:

Flack's superstardom didn't always translate to critical praise. NPR's Ann Powers points out that she was winning over audiences at a time when songwriters were getting most of the attention. "The idea that you had to write your own material was was held up as the gold standard," says Powers. "For much longer interpreters were the greats, and Roberta Flack stands with Sinatra, with Ella Fitzgerald, with so many great interpreters of the 20th century, as someone who made every song she approached original."

In the mid-'70s, Flack's pace in the studio slowed slightly as she scored for film and TV, worked in music publishing and record producing and engaged in graduate-level coursework in education and linguistics. She returned with Blue Lights in the Basement in 1977, and continued releasing albums from the late '70s through the early '00s, including another album featuring Hathaway, a duet album with Peabo Bryson and a Christmas album. Flack continued performing around the world, though she suffered some health setbacks in the 2010s.

In 2022, Flack announced that she had ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), popularly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The following year, she came out with The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music, a children's book about the time her father restored an old piano so that little Roberta could practice at home, co-written with Tonya Bolden.

Throughout her career, Flack built a musical legacy by working outside the confines of genre. She was known for helping to shape and define "quiet storm" R&B, and laid the groundwork for the rise of neo-soul. But her celebrated work as an interpreter of songs included elements of rock, folk, jazz, classical, Latin and more, continually challenging racialized conventions about popular music and influencing generations of artists.

"My main interest is in telling my story through a song — whether mine or someone else's," Flack told NPR's Ann Powers in 2020. "Tell the truth with clarity and honesty so that the listener can feel their story."

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St Augustine Movement 1963-4

 

When she joined a "swim-in" in St. Augustine, Florida on June 18, 1964, then 17-year-old Mamie Nell Ford had little idea that her picture would soon be seen around the world -- and help spur the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. On that day, seven civil rights activists, including Ford, jumped into the segregated pool at the Monson Motor Lodge to protest its 'whites-only' policy. As journalists looked on, the motel owner's James Brock responded by dumping acid into the pool in an effort to drive them out. Ford recalls that her immediate reaction was "I couldn't breathe," and a photo of her with an alarmed expression as Brock pours acid nearby appeared in newspapers around the world. When people learn about the incident today, Ford says, "I'm often asked, ‘How could you have so much courage?’ Courage for me is not ‘the absence of fear,’ but what you do in the face of fear.”

The campaign to challenge segregation in St. Augustine in 1963 and 1964, known as the St. Augustine Movement, is considered one of the bloodiest of the Civil Rights Movement. Students staging "wade-ins" to challenge segregation on the beaches were violently beaten and, after several black children were admitted into white schools due to the Supreme Court's decision outlawing school segregation, several of the children's homes were burnt to the ground by local segregationists. Martin Luther King, Jr. was even arrested on the steps of this same motel only a week prior to the pool "swim-in," after being charged with trespassing when he attempted to dine at the "whites-only" Monson Restaurant.

Prior to the pool "swim-in", Ford was already an experienced civil rights activist in her hometown of Albany, Georgia. When Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference came to Albany to recruit activists to support the movement in St. Augustine, she immediately signed up. “When they asked for volunteers to participate in the swim-in demonstration, I said, yes, because, despite segregation, I knew how to swim,” she says. While they knew it was likely they would be arrested, no one expected the owner to pour acid into the pool. "It is as fresh in my mind as the morning dew, because when the acid was poured in the pool, the water began to bubble up," Ford recalls. Although the group was arrested shortly thereafter, their protest had the intended effect: as it made headlines worldwide, President Johnson said in a recorded phone conservation: "Our whole foreign policy will go to hell over this!" Within 24 hours, the civil rights bill that had been introduced a year before and had been stalled in the Senate won approval, leading directly to the passage of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.

After being released from serving jail time for the swim-in, Ford made a powerful statement urging the people of St. Augustine to keep fighting: “Don't lose heart now because you're the ones on whom this movement rests. People will come and go because they live somewhere else, but you live here and you make this thing happen.” She returned home and went on to join five other black girls to lead the desegregation of the formerly all-white Albany High School, where she graduated with honors in 1965. Ford, who later changed her name to Mimi Jones, then went to college in Boston where she spent her career working in the Department of Education.

Although less well known than school segregation, the long legacy of segregation in swimming pools still lives on today. After legal challenges and actions like this one in St. Augustine forced the end of segregated pools, in many towns, especially in the South, 'white flight' from public pools to private clubs often led to their closure. The impact of first segregation and later pool closures over generations has led to a major gap between white and black Americans in swimming ability, with whites being twice as likely to know how to swim as blacks. This difference is also reflected in the CDC finding that black children are three times more likely die from drowning than white children. For these reasons and the long legacy of racism at swimming pools, Simone Manuel's victory at the last Olympic Games took on special meaning for many African Americans -- a significance the young swimmer alluded to after she became the first African-American woman to ever win an individual Olympic gold in swimming: “The gold medal wasn't just for me," she said. "It's for a lot of people who came before me.”

To read more about Mamie Nell Ford's incredible story on NBC News, visit http://nbcnews.to/2ke7U6W -- she is also one of the subjects of a new documentary about the St. Augustine Movement, “Passage at St. Augustine,” at http://bit.ly/2kl4tjL

For an excellent novel about the fight over a segregated pool in one girl's Mississippi town, we highly recommend "Glory Be" for ages 8 and up at http://www.amightygirl.com/glory-be

For more books for children and teens about the courageous girls and women who helped lead the fight for equality, check out our new blog post, "40 Inspiring Books on Girls & Women of the Civil Rights Movement," at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11177

Teen and adult readers can learn about more courageous activists in the fascinating book "She Takes A Stand: 16 Fearless Activists Who Have Changed The World," for ages 12 and up, at http://www.amightygirl.com/she-takes-a-stand

For an insightful book about the history of social change and swimming pools, check out "Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America" at http://amzn.to/2lDsQJY

And, to introduce your children to the true stories of women who fought for their rights and the rights of others, visit our "Activist Biographies" section at http://amgrl.co/1R6cGAu