On April 27, 2014, the legendary DJ E-Z Rock died: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOW-CZJWT0 "According to a Facebook post from longtime partner MC Rob Base, DJ E-Z Rock died on Sunday April 27, 2014. While no official cause of death was revealed at that time, On April 27, 2014 Biz Markie announced on Twitter that DJ E-Z Rock had died after suffering from a diabetic seizure. DJ E-Z Rock (born Rodney Bryce) was best known for his dancefloor destroying 1988 hit “It Takes Two,” with Base, who he’d known since fourth grade. The hyped hit, which was produced by new jack swing legend Teddy Riley, featured a sample of Lyn Collin’s 1972 James Brown-produced song “Think (About It).” Read it at MTV. Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EbonycomRssFeed/~3/jKamNOo0KyA/dj-e-z-rock-dead-at-46-405 DJ E-Z Rock Dead at 46 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EbonycomRssFeed/~3/jKamNOo0KyA/dj-e-z-rock-dead-at-46-405…
On March 7, 1965, a Sunday, thousands of singing marchers were leaving Selma on their way to Montgomery, Alabama, the state Capital. These demonstrators were intending to demand of Governor George Wallace the right to vote. However, they never made it that far. On the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the gateway to the town of Selma, the marchers were savagely attacked and beaten by state and local police. A couple of days later Martin Luther King, Jr. led thousands of marchers on to the Edmund Pettus Bridge once again. However, to avoid a repeat confrontation, the marchers knelt and prayed, and turned around - rather than defy a court order. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) succeeded in getting the court order lifted. Then, on March 21, 1965, Dr. King led the marchers on the complete 54…
Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (May 25, 1849 – June 14, 1908) was an African- American musical prodigy on the piano. He had numerous original compositions ... [caption id="attachment_70079" align="aligncenter" width="184"] blind tom[/caption] Blind Tom - an African- American Musical Prodigy Several years ago I encountered the story of Thomas Greene Wiggins in the pages of Oliver Sacks’ wonderful study of unusual neurological case studies, An Anthropologist on Mars. Born a slave in Georgia in 1849, Wiggins was one of the first African-American classical performers and composers, a well-known and widely celebrated cultural phenomenon from 1858 when he first began giving stage recitals on the piano, through the 1870s and 1880s when his popularity waned. Under the stage name “Blind Tom,” he gave mind-blowing “exhibitions” where he performed interpretations of pieces…
Spotlight on Congressman John Conyers Jr First African American Dean of Congress In January 2015, Congressman John Conyers Jr, officially became the first African American Dean of Congress. The retirement of U.S. Rep. John Dingell means that John Conyers Jr. became the Dean of the U.S. House of Representatives after fending off a primary challenge earlier in 2014. Conyers, the U.S. Representative for Michigan's 13th congressional district, has served in Congress since 1965. Over the years the district has changed numbers and some territory due to the decennial US census and redistricting. The district includes the western half of Detroit and nearby suburbs. John Conyers Jr. is considered to be a liberal Democrat. The retirement of Fellow Michigan colleague Dingell makes Conyers the longest-serving incumbent member of the House. Conyers is one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and…
International Human Rights and Humanitarian Treaties establishing basis for Reparations: The right to effective remedy and duty to provide reparation International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 2 1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. 2. Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such laws or…
LDF Applauds Senate Confirmation of First African-American Women on Georgia's Federal Courts On November 18, 2014, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., (LDF) welcomed the historic votes by the U.S. Senate to confirm the first African-American female judges ever to serve on Georgia's federal judiciary. The Senate confirmation of Leslie Abrams to the middle District of Georgia and Eleanor Ross to the Northern District of Georgia had been awaited for some time. Judge Leslie Abrams President Obama had previously nominated two African-American females to the Northern District of Georgia, but the Senate refused to act and the nominations were withdrawn. Georgia had issued a judicial emergency with numerous vacancies and a backlog of cases. FJudges nominated to the federal bench by the President of the United States can't…
Mississippi’s Hinds County Supervisor, Kenny Stokes says he believes former Jackson mayor, Chokwe Lumumba was killed. Two days after Lumumba's death, the county supervisor publicly demanded that doctors carry out a thorough autopsy to determine the cause of his death. Lumumba was an advocate of the creation of an independent black-majority nation in the US South. As a political activist, he also campaigned to pressure US authorities to pay billions of dollars to African Americans as reparations for their ancestors’ enslavement and subsequent subjugation. Considering that Mississippi is the US state with the highest percentage of African Americans in its population, a successful tenure as mayor of the state's largest city could have realistically paved the way for a Lumumba candidacy for Governor of Mississippi. It is within this context that Stokes' call…
Pete's Cheat Sheet® - Flagpole MagazinePete's Cheat Sheet®Flagpole MagazineThis runoff highlights the dual role all commissioners play: They represent their individual districts, but they also govern the city as a whole. So, the voters in District 3 will be electing somebody who will keep an ... She has moreover shown a keen ... http://www.blackpolitics.org/african-ame...
Findings of Case Study The Impact of Race In U.S. Court Cases; Beyond The Trayvon Martin Case Denver, Colorado (PRWEB) July 25, 2013 A Just Cause, an advocate for the wrongfully convicted, released findings from it study on race and justice in the United Sates. The study includes a review of the IRP-6 case and the impact that race may have played in their case involving allegations of wrongdoing at IRP Solutions Corporation. IRP Solutions is an African American owned company in Colorado that developed software for law enforcement. The case of the IRP6 (Kendrick Barnes, Gary L. Walker, Demetrius K. Harper, Clinton A. Stewart, David A. Zirpolo and David A. Banks) is currently under appeal in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The men were convicted in 2011 and have…
[wzslider autoplay="true" transition="'slide'" lightbox="true"] African American Politics: A History of Struggle In the year 2008, tens of millions of African Americans turned out in historic numbers to propel Barak Obama to the US Democratic Party nomination and, ultimately, the Presidency of the United States. The turnout in that election was the culmination of a massive upswing in Black voting which began with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. By the time of Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, numerous states across the US had taken steps to adopt laws which would severely restrict voting rights. Many of these laws were targeted at African American voters. For African American voters, this attempt to roll back voting rights was like Deja Vu, all over again. As far back as the…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 2012 election should have been a good one for Democrats running for Congress in North Carolina. They received a total of 2.2 million votes — about 81,000 more than their Republican opponents. But when those votes were divvied up among the state's 13 House districts, Democrats came up short. Way short. Republicans won nine seats and Democrats only four. How did Republicans pull off this unlikely feat? State lawmakers set the stage when they redrew the boundaries of congressional districts following the 2010 Census. Before redistricting, North Carolina's congressional delegation was closely divided. Democrats held seven seats and Republicans held six. In any given election, three or four races could be competitive. But the 2010 election was historic for Republicans in North Carolina, and the ramifications…
The history of African Americans is a history rich with political struggle. Whether we study the early slave rebellions, the Civil War, #reconstruction, Post-Reconstruction, the Garvey Movement, the 1960s Civil Rights and Black Power movements, or the rise of Black elected officials up to, and including, the election of Barak Obama, African Americans have engaged in deliberate political action to advance their quality of life within the United States. In 2008, tens of millions of African Americans turned out in historic numbers to propel Barak Obama to the Democratic Party nomination and, ultimately, the Presidency of the United States. The turnout in that election was the culmination of a massive upswing in Black voting which began with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. By the time of Obama's re-election campaign…
[caption id="attachment_70233" align="aligncenter" width="253"] Freedmen's Bureau[/caption] [caption id="attachment_70234" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Freedmen's Bureau Reconstruction[/caption] Reconstruction Era 1860 to 1880 In many respects, the Reconstruction period in American history was the most promising for African Americans. Understanding the political achievements of African Americans in the Reconstruction period between 1860 and 1880, and the subsequent backlash which wiped all of those achievements (Post-Reconstruction) away, is crucial to the understanding of the movements which came later. African American History – The Struggle Continues Post Reconstruction Black Codes State laws that restricted the newly won freedoms of African Americans became known as the "Black Codes". These "Black Codes" played an important role in institutionalizing Post -Reconstruction, The laws in many Southern states that still deny hundreds of thousands of African Americans the right to vote on…
