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Kobe Bryant, the 18-time All-Star who won five NBA championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career with the Lakers, died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020. He was 41. Also killed in the crash was Bryant's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others who were on board the aircraft.
Bryant became one of the NBA's most popular players and the face of the Lakers during his career. Winning a record four NBA All-Star Game MVP awards, he was the overall league MVP in 2008, a two-time NBA scoring champion and 12 All-Defensive selections. He teamed with Shaquille O'Neal in a combustible partnership to lead the Lakers to NBA titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He later teamed with Pau Gasol to win two more titles in 2009 and 2010. A two-time Olympic gold medalist with the dominant U.S. team, Bryant retired in 2016 after scoring 60 points in his final NBA game. In December 2017, the Lakers hung banners retiring his No. 8 and No. 24 jerseys in the Staples Center rafters in an unprecedented double honor. Vanessa Bryant, in a statement, thanked everyone for their outpouring of support and announced the formation of a fund to help the other affected families. Kobe and Gianna were buried on Feb. 7 in a cemetery near the family's Southern California home. Additionally, the Lakers set a public memorial service for Kobe and Gianna on Feb. 24. Here's a complete look at all of our coverage of Bryant's untimely passing.
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Features

Memorial Service at Staples Center

Lakers' tribute

TNT memorial

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On-court tributes
Some teams in the NBA opened their first game in the wake of Bryant's death with voluntary backcourt violations (in honor of Bryant's No. 8) and shot clock violations (in honor of Bryant's No. 24) as a way to pay tribute to Bryant's career.
Kobe Bryant's career

All-Star 2020

Reactions to Bryant's passing

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Kobe Bryant, the 18-time All-Star who won five NBA championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career with the Lakers, died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020. He was 41. Also killed in the crash was Bryant's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others who were on board the aircraft.

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JACKIE ROBINSON BIOGRAPHY Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in [...]

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Mary McLeod Bethune." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. " Mary McLeod Bethune." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune.

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Pioneering educator and college founder Mary McLeod Bethune set educational standards for today's Black colleges and served as an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Discover more about her on womenshistory.org.

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Who Was Tupac Shakur?

Tupac Shakur was an American rapper and actor who came to embody the 1990s gangsta-rap aesthetic, and who in death became an icon symbolizing noble struggle. He has sold 75 million albums to date, making him one of the top-selling artists of all time.

A sensitive, precociously talented and troubled soul, Tupac was gunned down in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 and died six days later. His murder has never been solved.

Tupac began his music career as a rebel with a cause to articulate the travails and injustices endured by many African Americans. His skill in doing so made him a spokesperson not just for his own generation but for subsequent ones who continue to face the same struggle for equality.

In life, his biggest battle was sometimes with himself. As fate drove him towards the nihilism of gangsta rap, and into the arms of the controversial Death Row Records impresario Suge Knight, the boundaries between Shakur's art and his life became increasingly blurred - with tragic consequences.

Early Life

Tupac was born on June 16, 1971, in Harlem, New York. His mother, Afeni, was raising two children on her own and struggled for money. The family moved homes often, sometimes staying in shelters.

They moved to Baltimore, where Tupac enrolled at the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts, at which he felt "the freest I ever felt."

Tupac's Mom, Father and Sister

Tupac was named Lesane Parish Crooks at birth. After joining the Black Panther party, his mother changed his first name to Tupac Amaru, a Peruvian revolutionary who was killed by the Spanish. Tupac later took his surname from his sister's Sekiya's father, another Panther called Mutulu Shakur.

Tupac's mother, Alice Faye Williams, was the daughter of a North Carolina maid and a high-school dropout. She became pregnant with Tupac in 1970 while on bail after being charged with conspiring to set off a race war. Afeni was acquitted the following year after successfully defending herself in court, displaying a gift for oration that her son would inherit.

She changed her name to Afeni Shakur after becoming actively involved with the Black Panther Party. Afeni died in May 2016 at the age of 69.

Tupac's father, Billy Garland, was also a Panther but lost contact with Afeni when Tupac was five years old. The rapper would not see his father again until he was 23. "I thought my father was dead all my life," he told the writer Kevin Powell during an interview with Vibe magazine in 1996. "I felt I needed a daddy to show me the ropes and I didn't have one."

Afeni gave birth to a daughter, Sekiya, two years after Tupac. However, Sekiya's father, Mutulu Shakur, did not stick around, either.

Jada Pinkett Smith and Tupac's Friendship

Tupac met actress Jada Pinkett-Smith in high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland. She had a cameo in his music video for 'Strictly 4 My Niggaz.'

Pinkett-Smith was featured in the 2017 movie on Tupac All Eyez on Me. She later told reporters that she was a drug dealer when she met Tupac and that she found the "reimagining" of their relationship in the film "very hurtful."

"It wasn't just about, oh, you have this cute girl, and this cool guy, they must have been in this - nah, it wasn't that at all. It was about survival, and it had always been about survival between us," she said.

Move to California and Rise to Fame

Tupac's Baltimore neighborhood was riven by crime, so the family moved to Marin City, California. It turned out to be a "mean little ghetto," according to Robert Sam Anison's comprehensive posthumous feature on Tupac for Vanity Fair in 1997. It was in Marin City that Afeni succumbed to crack addiction - a drug her son, Tupac, would sell on the same streets where his mother bought her supply.

Tupac's love for hip hop would steer him away from a life of crime (for a while, at least). At 17, in the spring of 1989, he met an older white woman, Leila Steinberg, in a park. They struck up a conversation about Winnie Mandela. Steinberg would later recall "a young man with fan-like eyelashes, overflowing charisma, and the most infectious laugh."

By the time they met, Tupac was obsessively writing poetry and convinced Steinberg, who had no music-industry experience, to become his manager.

Steinberg was eventually able to get Tupac in front of music manager Atron Gregory, who secured a gig for him in 1990 as a roadie and dancer for the hip hop group Digital Underground. He soon stepped up to the mic, making his recording debut in 1991 on Same Song, which soundtracked the Dan Aykroyd comedy Nothing but Trouble. Tupac also appeared on Digital Underground's album Sons of the P in October that year.

After the band's manager, Gregory, took over from Steinberg, he landed Tupac a deal with Interscope Records. A month after Sons of the P hit the stores came 2Pacalypse Now, Tupac's debut album as a solo artist.

Tupac often complained that he was misunderstood. "Everything in life is not all beautiful," he told journalist Chuck Phillips. "There is lots of killing and drugs. To me a perfect album talks about the hard stuff and the fun and caring stuff. ... The thing that bothers me is that it seems like a lot of the sensitive stuff I write just goes unnoticed."

Legal Drama and Serving Jail Time

In August 1992, Tupac was attacked by jealous youths in Marin City. He drew his pistol but dropped it in the melee. Someone picked it up, the gun fired, and a 6-year-old bystander, Qa'id Walker-Teal, fell down dead.

While Tupac was not charged for Walker-Teal's death, he was reportedly inconsolable. (In 1995, Walker-Teal's family brought a civil case against Tupac, but settled out of court after an unnamed record company - thought to have been Death Row - offered compensation of between $300,000 to $500,000.)

In October 1993, Tupac shot and wounded two white off-duty cops in Atlanta - one in the abdomen and one in the buttocks - after an altercation. However, the charges were dropped after it emerged in court that the policemen had been drinking, had initiated the incident and that one of the officers had threatened Tupac with a stolen gun.

The case illustrated the misrepresentation of African American males, and the attitude of some police toward them, which Tupac had been talking about in his music. What was portrayed as gun-toting "gangster" behavior by a lawless individual turned out to be an act of self-defense by a young man in fear of his life. All the while, Tupac's star continued to rise.

Tupac did go to jail for 15 days in 1994 for assaulting the director Allen Hughes, who had fired him from the set of the movie Menace II Society for being disruptive.

Tupac vs. Biggie Smalls (aka The Notorious B.I.G.)

Before Tupac released his third album, there was more trouble. In November 1994, he was shot multiple times in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio, Quad, by two young Black men.

Tupac believed his rap rival Biggie Smalls was behind the shooting, for which nobody has ever been charged. (Smalls always denied he knew anything; in 2011 Dexter Isaac, a New York prisoner serving a life sentence for an unrelated crime, claimed he was paid to steal from Tupac by the artist manager and mogul James "Henchman" Rosemond, and shot the rapper during the robbery).

In June 1996, Tupac released a diss track, "Hit 'Em Up," aimed at Biggie Smalls and his label boss at Bad Boy Records, Sean "Diddy" Combs - ratcheting up the tension between East and West Coast rap. Their rivalry was fast becoming hip hop's most famous - and ugliest - beef. Within three months, Tupac was murdered.
READ MORE: How Biggie and Tupac Went From Friends to Music's Biggest Rivals
Rape Charges Against Tupac

In February 1995, Tupac was sentenced to between one and a half and four and a half years of jail time for sexually abusing a female fan. The case related to an incident that had taken place in Tupac's suite in the New York Parker Meridien hotel in November 1993.

Tupac maintained that he had not raped the girl, although he confessed to the Vibe magazine journalist Kevin Powell that he could have prevented others who were present in the suite at the time from doing so. "I had a job [to protect her]," he said, expressing his sorrow, "and I never showed up."

Joining Death Row Records

While Tupac was in prison on rape charges, he was visited by Suge Knight, the notorious label boss of Death Row records. Knight offered to post the $1.3 million dollar bail Tupac needed to be released pending his appeal. The condition was that Tupac sign on to Death Row. Tupac duly signed. He was released from the high-security Dannemora facility in New York in October 1995.

At the same time as he was glorifying an outlaw lifestyle for Death Row, Tupac was financing an at-risk youth center, bankrolling South Central sports teams, setting up a telephone helpline for young people with problems - all noted in Robert Sam Anson's Vanity Fair article, published after Tupac's death.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S TUPAC SHAKUR FACT CARD

Songs and Albums

Tupac has released a total of 11 platinum albums: four during his career, with seven more released posthumously. To date, Tupac has sold more than 75 million records worldwide.

As of September 2017, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) listed Tupac as the 44th top-selling artist of all time by album sales and streaming figures.

'2Pacalypse Now'

Tupac's first album as a solo artist was 2Pacalypse Now. Although it did not yield any hits, it sold a respectable 500,000 copies and established Tupac as an uncompromising social commentator on songs such as "Brenda's Got a Baby" - which narrates an underaged mother's fall into destitution - and "Soulja's Story," which controversially spoke of "blasting" a police officer and "droppin' the cop."

The song was cited as a motivation for a real-life cop killing by a teenage car thief called Ronald Ray Howard and was condemned by the then-U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle. "There is absolutely no reason for a record like this to be published," Quayle said. "It has no place in our society." With those words, Tupac's notoriety was guaranteed.

'Strictly 4 My Niggaz'

Tupac's second album, Strictly 4 My Niggaz, dropped in February 1993. It continued in the same socially conscious vein as his debut. On the gold-certified single "Keep Ya Head Up," he empathized with "my sisters on the welfare," encouraging them to "please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up."

The album featured contributions from Tupac's stepbrother, Mopreme. Mopreme became a member of the hip-hop group Thug Life, which Tupac started and which released the album Thug Life: Volume 1 in 1994.

'Me Against the World'

When Tupac's third solo album came out on March 14, 1995, he was in jail. Its title, Me Against the World, could not have been more apt. It reached No. 1 in the Billboard 200 chart and is considered by many to be his magnum opus - "by and large a work of pain, anger and burning desperation" wrote Cheo H. Coker at Rolling Stone.

But there was vulnerability, too - lead single, "Dear Mama," was a tear-jerking tribute to his mother, Afeni, that hit number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1995.

'All Eyez on Me'

Tupac's debut for Death Row, the double-length album All Eyez on Me, came out in February 1996. With his new hip-hop group Outlawz debuting on the album, All Eyez on Me was an unapologetic celebration of the thug lifestyle, eschewing socially conscious lyrics in favor of gangsta-funk hedonism and menace.

Dr. Dre, who had pioneered g-funk with NWA, produced the album's first single, "California Love" - which went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains Tupac's best-known song. The third single from the album, "How Do You Want It," also reached No. 1. Within two months of its release, All Eyez on Me had been certified five-times double-platinum. It would eventually become diamond certified.

'How Do U Want It'

Released as a single in June 1996, "How Do You Want It" was more famous for its B track, "Hit 'Em Up," which aired Tupac's West Coast feud with East Coast Bad Boy rivals. On the inflammatory song, Tupac spat venom at artists including Biggie Smalls, Lil Kim, Junior M.A.F.I.A. and Prodigy of Mobb Deep. The track seemed to chillingly presage Tupac's death and the ensuing conspiracy theories:

"Grab ya Glocks, when you see Tupac; Call the cops, when you see Tupac, uh; Who shot me, but ya punks didn't finish; Now ya bout to feel the wrath of a menace," he rapped.

'Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory'

Tupac's fifth album, Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory, was released in November 1996, just eight weeks after his death. It also reached No. 1 on the charts. Tupac recorded a total of six studio albums released posthumously, up to and including Pac's Life in 2006.

Poems and Book

Before Tupac became a rapper, he wrote poetry. "The world moves fast and it would rather pass u by / than 2 stop and c what makes you cry," is one verse he wrote as a teenager that would eventually be published in the 2000 book, The Rose that Grew from Concrete.

Movies Starring Tupac

Along with his music, Tupac had appeared in several films by the time of his death, among them starring roles alongside Janet Jackson in 1993's Poetic Justice and Mickey Rourke in 1996's Bullet.

Tupac's Wife and Girlfriend

Tupac married Keisha Morris in 1995 while he was still in prison; the couple had met several months earlier at a nightclub when Morris was 20 and Tupac was 21. Their marriage was annulled five months after Tupac was released from jail, in October 1995; the pair remained friends until his death.

Soon after his marriage to Morris ended, Tupac began dating Kidada Jones. They had met at a club when Tupac apologized for insulting her father, Quincy Jones, for only dating white women. Jones was in Las Vegas with Tupac the night he was shot.

Photo: Malcolm Payne/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Death

Tupac died in Las Vegas on September 13, 1996, of gunshot wounds inflicted six days prior. His murder remains unsolved.

On September 7, Tupac was in Las Vegas with Knight to watch a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand hotel. There was a scuffle after the bout between a member of the Crips gang and Tupac.

Knight, who was involved with the rival Bloods gang, and members of his entourage piled in. Later, as a car that Tupac was sharing with Knight stopped at a red light, a man emerged from another car and fired 13 shots, hitting Tupac in the hand, pelvis and chest. He later died at the hospital. His girlfriend Kidada and his mother Afeni were both with him in his final days.

Tupac's body was cremated. Members of his old band, Outlawz, made the controversial claim that they had smoked some of his ashes in honor of him. His mother announced she would scatter her son's ashes in Soweto, South Africa, the "birthplace of his ancestors," on the 10th anniversary of his murder. She later changed the date to June 16, 1997 - Tupac's 26th birthday as well as the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising.

On March 9, 1997, six months after Tupac died, Biggie Smalls was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles; his murder has never been solved, either.

Tupac Conspiracies: Is Tupac Alive?

Tupac died of gunshot wounds in 1996. However, conspiracy theories have raged ever since Tupac was shot, as his murder has never been solved. Fans have speculated that Tupac faked his death. On his album Life Goes On, Tupac rapped about his funeral; his song "I Ain't Mad at Cha" was released two days after he died. There have been several reported potential Tupac "sightings" since his death, including in 2012 by Kim Kardashian.

In September 2017, Knight hinted that Tupac might be alive in an interview. "When I left that hospital me and 'Pac was laughing and joking. I don't see how someone can go from doing well to doing bad," said Knight, adding that "with Pac you never know" if he could be alive and living in secret somewhere.

In early 2018, BET aired an episode of Death Row Chronicles in which former Crips member Duane "Keffe D" Keith Davis admitted that he was riding in the car with the man who killed Tupac; he declined to identify the shooter in the interview, revealing only that the shots "came from the back seat," though he had earlier told federal investigators that the gun was in the hands of his nephew Orlando Anderson (now deceased).

The revelation fueled the launch of a change.org petition that called for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to declare the case "cleared." It also led to rumors that new arrest warrants were pending, but the LVMPD shot down those rumors in July, saying that they were reviewing the details of what "remains an open homicide case."

Tupac's Letter to Madonna

While serving time in prison, Tupac wrote a letter to Madonna, where he ended relations with the pop star because of her race. The letter, dated January 15th, 1995 at 4:30 a.m., was verified to be authentic by news outlets including Rolling Stone. In July 2017, Tupac's letter to Madonna was set to go on auction and was expected to bring in $100,000.

In 2018, Madonna brought a lawsuit against the art consultant and online auction house behind the auction to stop the sale. A judge threw out her suit, citing a release that Madonna signed in 2004. Madonna lost her appeal in appellate court in June 2019. The letter was put on auction in July 2019.

The letter explains why Tupac was ending their relationship. "For you to be seen with a Black man wouldn't in any way jeopardize your career - if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting," he wrote. "But for me, at least in my previous perception, I felt due to my 'image,' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was. I never meant to hurt you."

Tupac also apologized. "Like you said, I haven't been the kind of friend I know I am capable of being," he said, adding that he'd "grown both spiritually and mentally" and was no longer the "young man with limited experience with [an] extremely famous sex symbol."

'Who Killed Tupac?' TV Miniseries

On November 21, 2017, A&E aired the six-part Biography Presents: Who Killed Tupac?, which followed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump on his investigation into key theories behind Tupac's 1996 killing.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

On April 7, 2017, Tupac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of music's highest honors - a worthy inclusion for a rapper hailed by many to have been the greatest of all time.

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Tupac Shakur was an American rapper and actor who came to embody the 1990s gangsta-rap aesthetic, and who in death became an icon symbolizing noble struggle. He has sold 75 million albums to date, making him one of the top-selling artists of all time.

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Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

Quick Facts "What we do is celebrate people. That's all we're about.""[Alvin Ailey] had a big heart and a tremendous love of the dance. His work made an important contribution to American culture."

Alvin Ailey was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York in 1958.

Who Was Alvin Ailey?

Alvin Ailey was a choreographer who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958. It was a hugely popular, multi-racial modern dance ensemble that popularized modern dance around the world thanks to extensive world tours. His most famous dance is Revelations, a celebratory study of religious spirit. Ailey received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1988. A year later, on December 1, 1989, Ailey died of AIDS in New York City.

Early Life

Born on January 5, 1931, in Rogers, Texas, Ailey became one of the leading figures in 20th-century modern dance. His mother was only a teenager when he was born and his father left the family early on. He grew up poor in the small Texas town of Navasota. Ailey later drew inspiration from the Black church services he attended as well as the music he heard at the local dance hall. At the age of 12, he left Texas for Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Ailey proved to be a gifted student in many ways. He excelled at languages and athletics. After seeing the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo perform, Ailey was inspired to pursue dancing. He began studying modern dance with Lester Horton in 1949. He joined Horton's dance company the following year.

Career Highlights: 'Blues Suite' and 'Revelations'

In 1954, Ailey made his Broadway debut in Truman Capote's short-lived musical House of Flowers. The following year, he also appeared in The Carefree Tree. Ailey served as the lead dancer in another Broadway musical, Jamaica, starring Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban in 1957. While in New York, Ailey also had a chance to study dance with Martha Graham and acting with Stella Adler.

Ailey achieved his greatest fame with his own dance company, which he founded in 1958. That same year, he debuted Blues Suite, a piece that drew from his southern roots. Another of his major early works was Revelations, which drew inspiration from the African American music of his youth. The blues, spirituals and gospel songs all informed this dance piece. According to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater website, Revelations came from Ailey's "'blood memories' of his childhood in rural Texas and the Baptist Church."

In the 1960s, Ailey took his company on the road. The U.S. State Department sponsored his tour, which helped create his international reputation. He stopped performing in the mid-1960s, but he continued to choreograph numerous masterpieces. Ailey's Masakela Language, which probed the experience of being Black in South Africa, premiered in 1969. He also formed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center - now called the Ailey School - that same year.

In 1974, Ailey used the music of Duke Ellington as the backdrop for Night Creature. He also expanded his dance company by establishing the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble that same year. During his long career, Ailey choreographed close to 80 ballets.

Final Years and Death

In 1988, Ailey was honored by the Kennedy Center for his contributions to the arts. This prestigious accolade came near the end of his life. Ailey died at the age of 58 on December 1, 1989, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. At the time, The New York Times reported that he had suffered from "terminal blood dyscrasia, a rare disorder that affects the bone marrow and red blood cells." It was later revealed that Ailey had died of AIDS.

The dance world mourned the passing of one of its great pioneers. Ailey "had a big heart and a tremendous love of the dance," dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov told The New York Times, adding, "His work made an important contribution to American culture."

Despite his untimely death, Ailey continues to be an important figure in the arts through the ballets he created and the organizations he founded. The dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have performed for more than 20 million people around the world and countless others have seen their work through numerous television broadcasts.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

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Quick Facts "What we do is celebrate people. That's all we're about." "[Alvin Ailey] had a big heart and a tremendous love of the dance. His work made an important contribution to American culture." Alvin Ailey was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York in 1958.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Ruby Bridges." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Ruby Bridges." National Women's History Museum." 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges.

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Trailblazer Ruby Bridges was only six when she advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South. Learn more about her on womenshistory.org.

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Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor

Patrisse Khan-Cullors is an artist, organizer, and freedom fighter from Los Angeles, CA. Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, and Founder of Dignity and Power Now she is a New York Times Best Selling Author, Fulbright scholar, popular public speaker, and Sydney Peace Prize awardee. Patrisse recently toured her multimedia performance art piece, "POWER: From the Mouths of the Occupied," a gripping performance piece highlighting the impact of mass criminalization and state violence in Black communities across the United States.

Alicia Garza

Alicia Garza is an Oakland-based organizer, writer, public speaker, and freedom dreamer who is currently the Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nation's leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States. Garza, along with Opal Tometi and Patrisse Khan-Cullors, also co-founded Black Lives Matter, a globally recognized organizing project that focuses on combating anti-Black state-sanctioned violence and the oppression of all Black people.

Since the rise of the BLM movement, Garza has become a powerful voice in the media. Her articles and interviews have been featured in Time, Mic, The Guardian, Elle.com, Essence, Democracy Now!, and The New York Times.

In addition, her work has received numerous recognitions, including being named on The Root's 2016 list of 100 African American achievers and influencers, the 2016 Glamour Women of the Year Award, the 2016 Marie Claire New Guard Award, and as a Community Change Agent at the 2016 BET's Black Girls Rock Awards.

Most important, as a queer Black woman, Garza's leadership and work challenge the misconception that only cisgender Black men encounter police and state violence. While the tragic deaths of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown were catalysts for the emergence of the BLM movement, Garza is clear: In order to truly understand how devastating and widespread this type of violence is in Black America, we must view this epidemic through a lens of race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Opal Tometi

Opal Tometi is a New York-based Nigerian-American writer, strategist, and community organizer. Opal is a co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter. The historic political project was launched in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin to explicitly combat implicit bias and anti-Black racism and to protect and affirm the beauty and dignity of all Black lives. Opal is credited with creating the online platforms and initiating the social media strategy during the project's early days. The campaign has grown into a national network of approximately 40 chapters. In 2016, in recognition of their contribution to human rights, Opal Tometi and the #BlackLivesMatter co-founders received an honorary doctorate degree, BET's Black Girls Rock Community Change Agent Award, recognition among the world's fifty greatest leaders by Fortune and POLITICO magazines, and the first ever Social Movement of the Year Award from the Webbys.

Opal is currently at the helm of the country's leading Black organization for immigrant rights, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). Founded in 2006, BAJI is a national organization that educates and advocates to further immigrant rights and racial justice together with African-American, Afro-Latino, African, and Caribbean immigrant communities. As the Executive Director at BAJI, Opal collaborates with staff and communities in Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York, Oakland, Washington DC, and communities throughout the Southern states. The organization helped win family reunification visas for Haitians displaced by the 2010 earthquake. BAJI is an award-winning organization with recognition by leading institutions across the country.

A transnational feminist, Opal supports and helps shape the strategic work of Pan African Network in Defense of Migrant Rights, and the Black Immigration Network (BIN) international and national formations respectively, dedicated to people of African descent. She has presented at the United Nations and participated with the UN's Global Forum on Migration and Commission on the Status of Women.

Opal is being featured in the Smithsonian's new National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) for her historic contributions.

Prior to becoming Executive Director, Opal worked as Co-Director and Communications Director at BAJI. Her contributions include leading organizing efforts for the first ever Black-led rally for immigrant justice and the first Congressional briefing on Black immigrants in Washington DC. Additionally, she coordinated BAJI's work as launch partner with Race Forward's historic Drop the I-Word campaign, working with the campaign to raise awareness about the importance of respectful language and history through the lens of the Great Migration, the Civil Rights Movement and current migration of the Black diaspora.

Opal has been active in social movements for over a decade. She is a student of liberation theology and her practice is in the tradition of Ella Baker, informed by Stuart Hall, bell hooks and Black Feminist thinkers. She has been published in the Oxford Dictionary of African Biographies, was #10 on the 2015 Root 100 list and she was named a "New Civil Rights Leader" by the Los Angeles Times in 2015 and ESSENCE magazine in 2014, for her cutting edge movement building work which bridges immigrant and human rights work to the ever-growing Black liberation movement. She was a lead architect of the Black-Brown Coalition of Arizona and was involved in grassroots organizing against SB 1070 with the Alto Arizona campaign. Opal is a former Case Manager for survivors of domestic violence and still provides community education on the issue.

Opal holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Masters of Arts degree in Communication and Advocacy. The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, she grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. She currently resides in the Republic of Brooklyn, New York where she loves riding her single speed bike and collecting African art.

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Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor Patrisse Khan-Cullors is an artist, organizer, and freedom fighter from Los Angeles, CA. Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, and Founder of Dignity and Power Now she is a New York Times Best Selling Author, Fulbright scholar, popular public speaker, and Sydney Peace Prize awardee.

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MLA - Norwood, Arlisha. "Dorothy Height." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago- Norwood, Arlisha. "Dorothy Height." National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/dorothy-height.

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A leader in the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Dorothy Height served as president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. Find out more at womenshistory.org

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Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Quick Facts "I wasn't really naked, I simply didn't have any clothes on.""Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul, when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood."

Josephine Baker was a dancer and singer who became wildly popular in France during the 1920s. She also devoted much of her life to fighting racism.

Who Was Josephine Baker?

Josephine Baker spent her youth in poverty before learning to dance and finding success on Broadway. In the 1920s she moved to France and soon became one of Europe's most popular and highest-paid performers. She worked for the French Resistance during World War II, and during the 1950s and '60s devoted herself to fighting segregation and racism in the United States. After beginning her comeback to the stage in 1973, Baker died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1975, and was buried with military honors.

Early Life

Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother, Carrie McDonald, was a washerwoman who had given up her dreams of becoming a music-hall dancer. Her father, Eddie Carson, was a vaudeville drummer. He abandoned Carrie and Josephine shortly after her birth. Carrie remarried soon thereafter and would have several more children in the coming years.

To help support her growing family, at age eight Josephine cleaned houses and babysat for wealthy white families, often being poorly treated. She briefly returned to school two years later before running away from home at age 13 and finding work as a waitress at a club. While working there, she married a man named Willie Wells, from whom she divorced only weeks later.

Dancing in Paris

It was also around this time that Josephine first took up dancing, honing her skills both in clubs and in street performances, and by 1919 she was touring the United States with the Jones Family Band and the Dixie Steppers performing comedic skits. In 1921, Josephine married a man named Willie Baker, whose name she would keep for the rest of her life despite their divorce years later. In 1923, Baker landed a role in the musical Shuffle Along as a member of the chorus, and the comic touch that she brought to the part made her popular with audiences. Looking to parlay these early successes, Baker moved to New York City and was soon performing in Chocolate Dandies and, along with Ethel Waters, in the floor show of the Plantation Club, where again she quickly became a crowd favorite.

In 1925, at the peak of France's obsession with American jazz and all things exotic, Baker traveled to Paris to perform in La Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She made an immediate impression on French audiences when, with dance partner Joe Alex, she performed the Danse Sauvage, in which she wore only a feather skirt.

Photo: Gaston Paris/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

Baker and the Banana Skirt

However, it was the following year, at the Folies Bergère music hall, one of the most popular of the era, that Baker's career would reach a major turning point. In a performance called La Folie du Jour, Baker danced wearing little more than a skirt made of 16 bananas. The show was wildly popular with Parisian audiences and Baker was soon among the most popular and highest-paid performers in Europe, having the admiration of cultural figures like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and E. E. Cummings and earning herself nicknames like "Black Venus" and "Black Pearl." She also received more than 1,000 marriage proposals.

Capitalizing on this success, Baker sang professionally for the first time in 1930, and several years later landed film roles as a singer in Zou-Zou and Princesse Tam-Tam. The money she earned from her performances soon allowed her to purchase an estate in Castelnaud-Fayrac, in the southwest of France. She named the estate Les Milandes and soon paid to move her family there from St. Louis.

Racism and the French Resistance

In 1936, riding the wave of popularity she was enjoying in France, Baker returned to the United States to perform in the Ziegfeld Follies, hoping to establish herself as a performer in her home country as well. However, she was met with a generally hostile, racist reaction and quickly returned to France, crestfallen at her mistreatment. Upon her return, Baker married French industrialist Jean Lion and obtained citizenship from the country that had embraced her as one of its own.

When World War II erupted later that year, Baker worked for the Red Cross during the occupation of France. As a member of the Free French forces, she also entertained troops in both Africa and the Middle East. Perhaps most importantly, however, Baker did work for the French Resistance, at times smuggling messages hidden in her sheet music and even in her underwear. For these efforts, at the war's end, Baker was awarded both the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour with the rosette of the Resistance, two of France's highest military honors.

Children

Following the war, Baker spent most of her time at Les Milandes with her family. In 1947, she married French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon, and beginning in 1950 began to adopt babies from around the world. She adopted 12 children in all, creating what she referred to as her "rainbow tribe" and her "experiment in brotherhood." She often invited people to the estate to see these children, to demonstrate that people of different races could in fact live together harmoniously.

Return to the U.S., Civil Rights Advocate

During the 1950s, Baker frequently returned to the United States to lend her support to the Civil Rights Movement, participating in demonstrations and boycotting segregated clubs and concert venues. In 1963, Baker participated, alongside Martin Luther King Jr., in the March on Washington, and was among the many notable speakers that day. In honor of her efforts, the NAACP eventually named May 20th "Josephine Baker Day."

After decades of rejection by her countrymen and a lifetime spent dealing with racism, in 1973, Baker performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and was greeted with a standing ovation. She was so moved by her reception that she wept openly before her audience. The show was a huge success and marked Baker's comeback to the stage.

Death

In April 1975, Baker performed at the Bobino Theater in Paris, in the first of a series of performances celebrating the 50th anniversary of her Paris debut. Numerous celebrities were in attendance, including Sophia Loren and Princess Grace of Monaco, who had been a dear friend to Baker for years. Just days later, on April 12, 1975, Baker died in her sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 68.

On the day of her funeral, more than 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris to witness the procession, and the French government honored her with a 21-gun salute, making Baker the first American woman in history to receive French military honors.

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Quick Facts "I wasn't really naked, I simply didn't have any clothes on." "Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul, when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood."

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Harvey Milk, was a visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk's unprecedented loud and unapologetic proclamation of his authenticity as an openly gay candidate for public office, and his subsequent election gave never before experienced hope to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) people everywhere at a time when the community was encountering widespread hostility and discrimination. His remarkable career was tragically cut short when he was assassinated nearly a year after taking office.

Harvey was born May 22, 1930, in Woodmere, New York. Harvey and his one sibling, Robert, worked in the family's department store, "Milks"; his Lithuanian born father, William, served in the U.S. Navy and as did his spirited, independent mother Minerva, also of Lithuanian heritage, who was a "Yeomanette" during World War I. Harvey came from a small middle-class Jewish family that had founded a Jewish synagogue and was well known in the New York "Litvaks" community for their civic engagement. He knew he was gay by the time he attended Bayshore high school, where he was a popular student with wide-ranging interests, from opera to playing football.

While in college at New York State College for Teachers (now State University of New York) in Albany, where he studied math and history, Milk penned a popular weekly student newspaper column where he began questioning issues of diversity with a reflection on the lessons learned from the recently ended World War. He graduated in 1951 and enlisted in the Navy. He attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and subsequently was based in San Diego, where he served as a diving instructor. In 1955, he resigned at the rank of lieutenant junior grade after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation.

Following his time in the Navy, Milk entered the civilian working world in New York, as a public school teacher on Long Island, as a stock analyst in New York City, and as a production associate for Broadway musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair. During the 1960s and early 70s, he became more actively involved in politics and advocacy and he demonstrated against the Vietnam War.

Late 1972, Milk moved to San Francisco, where he opened a camera store on Castro Street, in the heart of the city's growing gay community. It quickly became a neighborhood center. Milk's sense of humor and theatricality made him a popular figure. Little more than a year after his arrival in the city, he declared his candidacy for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He lost that race, but emerged from the campaign as a force to be reckoned with in local politics.

After some area merchants tried to prevent two gay men from opening a store, Milk and a few other business owners founded the Castro Village Association, a first in the nation organizing of predominantly LGBT businesses, with Milk as president. He organized the Castro Street Fair in 1974 to attract more customers to area businesses. Its success made the Castro Village Association an effective power base for gay merchants and a blue print for other LGBT communities in the US.

In 1975, he ran again for the combined San Francisco City/County supervisor seat and narrowly lost. By now, he was established as the leading political spokesman for the Castro's vibrant gay community. His close friend and ally Mayor George Moscone, appointed him to the city's Board of Permit Appeals, making Milk the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States.

Milk soon filed candidacy papers for the state assembly, but lost his race to represent the Sixteenth Assembly District. Realizing that he would have a greater chance of political success if he relied on voters in the Castro, he then worked with with his campaign manager, Anne Kronenberg and Mayor Moscone for the passage of an amendment that would replace at-large elections for the Board of Supervisors with district elections. In 1977, he easily won his third bid, and was inaugurated as a San Francisco City-County Supervisor on January 9, 1978. This was an important and symbolic victory for the LGBT community as well as a personal triumph for Milk. His election made national and international headlines.

A commitment to serving a broad constituency, not just LGBT people, helped make Milk an effective and popular supervisor. His ambitious reform agenda included protecting gay rights-he sponsored an important anti-discrimination bill-as well as establishing day care centers for working mothers, the conversion of military facilities in the city to low-cost housing, reform of the tax code to attract industry to deserted warehouses and factories, and other issues. He was a powerful advocate for strong, safe neighborhoods, and pressured the mayor's administration to improve services for the Castro such as library services, and community policing. In addition, he spoke out on state and national issues of interest to LGBT people, women, racial and ethnic minorities and other marginalized communities

One of these was a California ballot initiative, Proposition 6, which would have mandated the firing of gay teachers in the state's public schools. State Senator John Briggs, seeking to marshal anti-gay sentiment and an agenda of hate and diminishment for political gain, spearheaded the initiative. With strong, effective opposition from Milk and others, it was defeated at a time when other political attacks on gay people were being successfully waged around the US.

Attendance swelled at gay pride marches in San Francisco and Los Angeles as Milk and others campaigned against the Briggs Initiative.

In one of his eloquent speeches, Milk spoke of the American ideal of equality, proclaiming, "Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets. ... We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out."

Many other qualities in addition to his eloquence made Milk a successful politician and leader. He pioneered the building of coalitions between diverse groups-women, asians, hispanics, the disabled-and even brought together the teamsters and gay bar owners-in return for a pledge from the teamsters to hire more gay drivers, Milk asked bar owners to stop selling beer from certain distributors while drivers were striking.

On November 27, 1978, a disgruntled former city Supervisor assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Dan White sneaked into City Hall through a basement window, avoiding the metal detectors at the official entrances, went to Moscone's office, killed him, then walked down the hall to kill Milk. That night, a crowd of thousands spontaneously came together on Castro Street and marched to City Hall in a silent candlelight vigil that has been recognized as one of the most eloquent responses to violence that a community has ever expressed.

Given the hatred directed at gay people in general and Milk in particular-he received daily death threats-he was aware of the likelihood that he may well be assassinated. He recorded several versions of his will, "to be read in the event of my assassination." One of his tapes contained the now-famous statement, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door." His nephew, Stuart Milk, a teenager at the time, and close with his uncle, came out, along with countless others across the nation, on the day his uncle was killed. Shortly after Milk's death, people marching for gay rights in Washington, D.C., chanted "Harvey Milk lives!"

Dan White, Milk's assassin, was acquitted of murder charges and given a mild sentence for manslaughter, partly as a result of what became known as the "twinkie defense." His attorney claimed that White had eaten too much junk food on the day of the killings and thus could not be held accountable for his crimes. He was sentenced to less than eight years in prison on May 21, 1979-the day before what would have been Milk's 49th birthday-igniting what came to be known as the White Night Riots. Enraged citizens stormed City Hall and rows of police cars were set on fire. The city suffered property damage and police officers retaliated by raiding the Castro, vandalizing gay businesses and beating people on the street.

The life and career of Harvey Milk have been the subjects of an opera, books, and films. These include the Shilts's biography, The Mayor of Castro Street (1982); the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk by Robert Epstein(1984); and the Gus Van Sant directed drama Milk (2008). The latter film received eight Academy Award nominations, winning in two categories: Sean Penn was named best actor for his performance in the title role, and Dustin Lance Black won an Oscar for his screenplay.

There are several public schools named after Milk, the Harvey Milk High School in New York City and in his old Castro neighborhood, the elementary school bears his name. In San Francisco, there is a federal building at the US Job Corps Center on Treasure Island named after Milk, as well as a public recreation center, a branch of the public library, and a public plaza. A memorial plaque reads, "His life is an inspiration to all people committed to equal opportunity and an end to bigotry." In 2012, San Diego, California named the street that leads to the doors of that city's LGBT center Harvey Milk Street and the City of Long Beach, California dedicated the Harvey Milk Oceanside Promenade and Park. Abroad, the gay community center in the city of Verona, Italy is named after Milk as is the LGBT center in Anuncion Paraguay. Harvey was included in Time magazine's list of the "100 most important people of the 20th century."

A statue of Milk was unveiled in the center rotunda at San Francisco City Hall in 2008. On August 12, 2009, Harvey's nephew, Stuart Milk accepted the posthumously awarded Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, who praised Milk's "visionary courage and conviction" in fighting discrimination. Stuart Milk also accepted Harvey's induction into the California Hall of Fame in 2009 from then First Lady Maria Kennedy Shriver. A bill designating Milk's birthday, May 22, as an annual "Harvey Milk Day" was introduced by Senator Mark Leno and championed by Harvey's nephew, Stuart Milk and Equality California - the non-fiscal Milk holiday was passed by the California State Legislature in 2009 and signed into law by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Milk's day is observed with events across the nation and around the globe. In 2014, the White House, the United States Postal Service and the Harvey Milk Foundation hosted a historic first day of issuance ceremony at the White House for the USPS Harvey Milk Forever Stamp, marking the first time that an openly LGBT official has joined the limited number of "great and accomplished Americans to grace the corner of an envelope and represent the US to the world".

Harvey Milk believed that government should represent individuals, not just downtown interests, and should insure equality for all citizens while providing needed services. He spoke for the participation of LGBT people and other minorities in the political process. The more gay people came out of the closet, he believed, the more their families and friends would support protections for their equal rights. In the years since Milk's assassination, public opinion has shifted on gay marriage, gays in the military, and other issues, and there have been hundreds of openly LGBT public officials in America, yet the work continues. The Harvey Milk Foundation, established by his nephew, Stuart Milk, and Anne Kronenberg, his campaign manager and aide, is dedicated to realizing his vision of equality and authenticity for everyone, everywhere.

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Harvey Milk, was a visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

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Breaking Barriers

Named one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" by LIFE magazine, Billie Jean King's greatest desire is to empower the next generation with the tools to do better than the one before it. An influential visionary who is both highly respected and strikingly innovative, Billie Jean King's legacy is ever-evolving.
BJK Leadership Initiative

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The Official Website of Billie Jean King

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A champion on the court, a crusader for social justice and women's equality in sports, and a visionary whose legacy is ever-evolving, Billie Jean King has secured her place in history.

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On a hot Sunday morning in July 1854, Elizabeth Jennings, a 24-year-old Black schoolteacher on her way to church, boarded a Third Avenue Railroad Company horsecar at Pearl and Chatham Streets in lower Manhattan. Soon after boarding, Jennings was ordered to get off the horsecar and told to wait for a car that served African American passengers.

At the time, all public transportation in New York City was privately owned. Some omnibuses and horsecars displayed signs announcing "Colored Persons Allowed," but these segregated vehicles were few and far between. New York City's Black residents were expected to walk; public transportation was rarely available.

Jennings ignored the conductor's orders and resisted his attempts to remove her physically. Finally, with the aid of a policeman, he succeeded in forcing her off.

The Black community was enraged, and the day after the incident they held a rally at Jennings' church. Just as Rosa Parks would a century later, Jennings took her case to court. She sued the driver, the conductor, and the Third Avenue Railway.

Remarkably, Jennings was represented by a 24-year-old lawyer, Chester A. Arthur. Then just a junior partner at Culver, Parker, and Arthur, he later became the 21st President of the United States.

In 1855 Judge Rockwell of the Brooklyn Circuit Court ruled: "Colored persons if sober, well behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others and could neither be excluded by the rules of the company, nor by force or violence." Jennings won her suit and was awarded damages.

Jennings's victory served as a powerful catalyst in the fight for equality on New York's public transit vehicles, but it didn't end segregation once and for all. It would take nearly twenty years before all New York City streetcars were desegregated.

Within a month of Jennings's victory, a Black man named Peter Porter was refused a ride on an Eighth Avenue Railroad Company car along with his wife and four other women. He sued, too, but settled out of court, and the company agreed to let black people ride in the same cars as whites.

In 1873, the New York State legislature passed the Civil Rights Act, which explicitly outlawed discrimination on public transportation in the city. Thus, more than thirty years before the New York City subway opened, all transit lines in New York City were integrated by law.

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Elizabeth Jennings Graham - New York Transit Museum

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100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, a 24-year-old black New Yorker stood her ground on an omnibus. With courage and perseverance, she won the first recorded legal victory for equal rights on public transportation. Hear her story. Read more ›

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Facts of the case

The Chinese Exclusion Acts denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants. Moreover, by treaty no Chinese subject in the United States could become a naturalized citizen. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco to parents who were both Chinese citizens who resided in the United States at the time. At age 21, he returned to China to visit his parents who had previously resided in the United States for 20 years. When he returned to the United States, Wong was denied entry on the ground that he was not a citizen.

Question

Is a child who was born in the United States to Chinese-citizen parents who are lawful permanent residents of the United States a U.S. citizen under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Conclusion

Because Wong was born in the United States and his parents were not "employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China," the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment automatically makes him a U.S. citizen. Justice Horace Gray authored the opinion on behalf of a 6-2 majority, in which the Court established the parameters of the concept known as jus soli-the citizenship of children born in the United States to non-citizens. Justice Joseph McKenna took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Cite this page

"United States v. Wong Kim Ark." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/169us649. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.

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The Chinese Exclusion Acts denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants. Moreover, by treaty no Chinese subject in the United States could become a naturalized citizen. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco to parents who were both Chinese citizens who resided in the United States at the time.

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Jimmy Cliff, original name James Chambers, (born April 1, 1948, Somerton, Jamaica), Jamaican singer and songwriter who was instrumental in introducing reggae to an international audience, largely through his performance in the landmark film The Harder They Come (1972).

Just into his teens, Cliff began recording soon after moving from the countryside to Kingston, making several singles before topping the Jamaican charts with his own composition, "Hurricane Hattie," one of his earliest efforts for Leslie Kong's Beverly Records. He had several more hits that combined pop and ska influences. After relocating to London in 1965 at the behest of Chris Blackwell of Island Records, Cliff broadened his musical approach to incorporate soul and rhythm and blues as he moved in the direction of reggae. By the late 1960s he was a favourite in South America (having won a prize at a festival in Brazil with his song "Waterfall"), and his album Wonderful World, Beautiful People (1970) was an international hit as well as the record that prompted Paul Simon to investigate reggae. As the star of The Harder They Come -he contributed to its sound track the classics "Many Rivers to Cross," "Sitting in Limbo," and the title song-Cliff became reggae's biggest star.

Although his success in Jamaica, Britain, and the United States was soon eclipsed by that of Bob Marley, Cliff remained extremely popular in Africa and South America, and his 1993 cover of Johnny Nash's pop-reggae hit "I Can See Clearly Now" helped renew his broader popularity. His other recordings include the Grammy Award-winning albums Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012). Cliff was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

John M. Cunningham, Readers Editor.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

born

April 1, 1948 (age 72)
Somerton, Jamaica

awards and honors

related facts and data

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Jimmy Cliff | Jamaican singer and songwriter

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Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican singer and songwriter who was instrumental in introducing reggae to an international audience, largely through his performance in the landmark film The Harder They Come (1972). Just into his teens, Cliff began recording soon after moving from the countryside to Kingston,

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Rapper Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. "He was the last of my four children," Jay-Z's mother, Gloria Carter, later recalled, "the only one who didn't give me any pain when I gave birth to him, and that's how I knew he was a special child." His father, Adnes Reeves, left the family when Jay-Z was only 11 years old. The young rapper was raised by his mother in Brooklyn's drug-infested Marcy Projects.

During a rough adolescence, detailed in many of his autobiographical songs, Carter dealt drugs and flirted with gun violence. He attended multiple high schools, including George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in downtown Brooklyn, where he was a classmate of the soon-to-be-martyred rap legend Notorious B.I.G. As Jay-Z later recalled in one of his songs ("December 4th"): "I went to school, got good grades, could behave when I wanted/But I had demons deep inside that would raise when confronted."

Rise to Hip-Hop Fame

Carter turned to rap at a young age as an escape from the drugs, violence and poverty that surrounded him in the Marcy Projects. In 1989, he joined the rapper Jaz-O-an older performer who served as a kind of mentor-to record a song called "The Originators," which won the pair an appearance on an episode of Yo! MTV Raps. It was at this point that Carter embraced the nickname Jay-Z, which was simultaneously an homage to Jaz-O, a play on Carter's childhood nickname of "Jazzy" and a reference to the J/Z subway station near his Brooklyn home.

Even with a stage name, Jay-Z remained relatively anonymous until he and two friends, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, founded their own record label, Roc-a-Fella Records, in 1996. In June of that year, Jay-Z released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Although the record only reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200, it is now considered a classic hip-hop album, including songs such as "Can't Knock the Hustle," featuring Mary J. Blige, and "Brooklyn's Finest," a collaboration with Notorious B.I.G. Reasonable Doubt established Jay-Z as an emerging star in hip-hop.

Two years later, Jay-Z achieved even broader success with the 1998 album Vol. 2 ... Hard Knock Life. The title track, which famously sampled its chorus from the Broadway musical Annie, became Jay-Z's most popular single to date. He scored a Grammy win for Vol. 2 and another nomination for "Hard Knock Life," marking the beginning of a fruitful period in which Jay-Z would become the biggest name in hip-hop.

During those years, the rapper released a slew of No. 1 albums and hit singles. His most popular songs from this period include "Big Pimpin'," "I Just Wanna Love U," "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "03 Bonnie & Clyde," a duet with future bride Beyoncé Knowles. Jay-Z's most acclaimed album of this period was The Blueprint (2001), which would later pop up on several music critics' lists of the best albums of the decade.

In 2003, Jay-Z shocked the hip-hop world by releasing The Black Album and announcing that it would be his last solo record before retirement. Asked to explain his sudden exit from rap, Jay-Z said that he once derived inspiration from trying to outshine other great MCs, but had simply gotten bored due to a lack of competition. "The game ain't hot," he said. "I love when someone makes a hot album and then you've got to make a hot album. I love that. But it ain't hot."

Rap Comeback

In 2006, Jay-Z ended his retirement from making music, releasing the new album Kingdom Come. He soon released two more albums: American Gangster in 2007 and Blueprint 3 in 2009. This trio of albums marked a significant departure from Jay-Z's earlier sound, incorporating stronger rock and soul influences in their production and offering lyrics that tackled such mature subjects as the response to Hurricane Katrina, Barack Obama's 2008 election and the perils of fame and fortune. Jay-Z noted he was trying to adapt his music to befit his own middle age. "There's not a lot of people who have come of age in rap because it's only 30 years old," he said. "As more people come of age, hopefully the topics get broader and then the audience will stay around longer."

Photo: Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Roc Nation

Jay-Z next teamed up with former Roc-A-Fella protégé Kanye West for 2011's Watch the Throne. The album proved to be a triple hit, topping the rap, R&B and pop charts shortly after its August release. It went on to garner multiple Grammy nominations, winning the Grammy for Best Rap Performance with "Otis," which sampled the late R&B singer Otis Redding.

In July 2013, Jay-Z unveiled his 12th studio album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. The effort earned a mixed reception from critics but otherwise fared well with fans, going on to top the Billboard 200 and achieve double-platinum status. That winter Jay-Z earned a whopping nine Grammy nominations, sharing the win for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Justin Timberlake for the hit single "Holy Grail."

Rocawear, Tidal & Other Business Ventures

During his hiatus from rapping, Jay-Z turned his attention to the business side of music, becoming president of Def Jam Recordings. As president of Def Jam, Jay-Z signed such popular acts as Rihanna and Ne-Yo, and helped West's transition from producer to a best-selling recording artist. But his reign at the venerable hip-hop label wasn't all smooth sailing; Jay-Z resigned as Def Jam's president in 2007, complaining about the company's resistance to change from ineffectual business models. "You have record executives who've been sitting in their office for 20 years because of one act," he lamented.

In 2008, Jay-Z signed a $150 million contract with the concert promotion company Live Nation. This super deal created a joint venture called Roc Nation, an entertainment company that handles nearly all aspects of its artists' careers. Along with Jay-Z, Roc Nation signed such top artists as Rihanna, Shakira and T.I., among many others, to its roster.

Jay-Z's other business ventures include the popular urban clothing line Rocawear and Roc-a-Fella Films. He also owns the 40/40 Club, an upscale sports bar that opened in New York City and later added venues in Atlantic City and Las Vegas (since closed), as well as Atlanta.

A part-owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team since 2004, Jay-Z helped spur the relocation of the franchise to a brand-new home in downtown Brooklyn, the Barclays Center, in 2012. In 2013, he launched a full-service sports management company, Roc Nation Sports, and sold his Brooklyn Nets shares in order to pursue certification as a sports agent. As Jay-Z once rapped about his business empire, "I'm not a businessman / I'm a business, man."

The business of Jay-Z made headlines once again in March 2015, when he and several of his high-powered friends, including Madonna, Nicki Minaj and Jack White, announced the relaunch of Tidal, a streaming music service. The service gained a reasonable stream of followers - a touted 1 million in September 2015 - but also endured a revolving door of top management and legal issues. In early 2017, Jay-Z agreed to sell a 33 percent stake of Tidal to telecommunications giant Sprint.

In June 2019, Forbes named Jay-Z the first billionaire rap artist, citing his ownership stakes in Armand de Brignac champagne and Uber as contributing factors. Shortly afterward, he entered another burgeoning industry by becoming chief brand strategist of the California-based Caliva cannabis company.

'4:44'

On June 15, 2017, Jay-Z became the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He tweeted about the honor: "I remember when rap was said to be a fad. We are now alongside some of the greatest writers in history."

Later that month, on June 30, Jay-Z released his 13th solo album, 4:44, exclusively to Tidal and Sprint subscribers. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America less than a week after its release, solely based on download numbers. The highly personal album, which includes guest artists Beyoncé, Damian Marley and Frank Ocean, was an immediate commercial and critical success, praised for the rapper's candid lyrics and a new level of artistic maturity.

In an interview which aired on iHeartMedia, Jay-Z called the title track, "4:44," "one of the best songs I've ever written."His lyrics appear to address the marital issues and infidelity his wife Beyoncé sang about in her confessional album Lemonade:

"I apologize, often womanize / Took for my child to be born / See through a woman's eyes / Took for these natural twins to believe in miracles / Took me too long for this song / I don't deserve you," he says in the song, referring to the birth of their children.

Other tracks include "Kill Jay-Z," which the rapper told iHeartMedia "is about killing off the ego," and "The Story of OJ," a comment on the culture of success. "'The Story of OJ' is really a song about we as a culture, having a plan, how we're gonna push this forward," he said in the iHeartMedia interview. "We all make money, and then we all lose money, as artists especially. But how, when you have some type of success, to transform that into something bigger."

When the list of the year's Grammy hopefuls was announced November, Jay-Z led the way with eight nominations for his work on 4:44. He wound up getting shut out when the winners were announced the following January, though he did receive the 2018 Salute to Industry Icons Award.

OTR II and 'Everything Is Love'

Soon afterward, the hip-hop king announced that he and Beyoncé were teaming up for the OTR II Tour that summer, an extension of their 2014 effort. The tour kicked off in Cardiff, Wales, on June 6, and 10 days later, the couple gave their fans another reason to get excited with the release of a joint album, Everything Is Love. Initially available for streaming solely on Jay-Z's Tidal, the album was accompanied by a music video for the track "Apes**t," which showed the Carters in their aristocratic element as they sang and rapped among the world-famous art pieces of the Louvre in Paris.

Political and Charitable Work

After staying out of the political arena for much of his career, Jay-Z emerged as a strong supporter of Barack Obama during his first campaign for president in 2008. He appeared at rallies and had only high praise for the African American candidate. During one rally, Jay-Z told the crowd that " Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so that Obama could run. Obama's running so we all can fly."

Jay-Z once again backed Obama for his 2012 re-election bid. That same year, he stepped forward as a supporter of gay marriage. As he told CNN, denying same-sex couples the right to wed "is no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination plain and simple."

In October 2015, Jay-Z held his first annual charity concert called Tidal X: 10/20, starring Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Usher and other top-selling artists. The following February, it was announced that Tidal was donating $1.5 million from concert proceeds to numerous organizations, including Black Lives Matter and Sankofa, a nonprofit started by Harry Belafonte.

NFL Partnership

In August 2019, Jay-Z and the National Football League announced a partnership in which Roc Nation would advise on entertainment selections for NFL promotional spots and events, including the Super Bowl. Additionally, the two sides agreed to work together on social activism efforts through the NFL's Inspire Change initiative.

The announcement was criticized by supporters of Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who hadn't played in the NFL since igniting a national anthem-kneeling controversy in 2016, but the hip-hop mogul expressed a belief that he could affect the social change sought by Kaepernick by working with the powerful sports league."You can either go home, you can pack your bag and sit in the house, or you can choose to take it head-on," Jay-Z said. "And that's pretty much how we operate at Roc Nation. We seek to identify things that we want to be a part of and things that we believe that we can add value to, and we step in and we come with these ideas."

Personal Life

Very protective of his private life, Jay-Z did not publicly discuss his relationship with longtime girlfriend, popular singer and actress Beyoncé, for years. The couple even managed to keep the press away from their small wedding, which was held on April 4, 2008, in New York City. Only about 40 people attended the celebration at Jay-Z's penthouse apartment, including actress Gwyneth Paltrow and former Destiny's Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed their first child, a daughter named Blue Ivy Carter, on January 7, 2012. Concerned about their privacy and safety, Jay-Z and Beyoncé rented part of New York's Lenox Hill Hospital and hired extra guards.

Shortly after the birth of his daughter, Jay-Z released a song in her honor on his site. On "Glory," he expressed his joy of becoming a father and revealed that Beyoncé had previously suffered a miscarriage. Jay-Z and Beyoncé also posted a message along with the song, saying "we are in heaven" and Blue's birth "was the best experience of both of our lives."

In February 2017, Beyoncé announced on Instagram that she and Jay-Z were expecting twins. "We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. The Carters, " she posted.

Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed twins, a boy and a girl, in June 2017. Although the couple didn't immediately confirm the twins' birth or their names, People magazine reported that they had filed trademark documents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the names Sir and Rumi. In the early morning hours of July 14, Beyoncé made it official, posting a photo in which she holds their 1-month-old twins.

In an article published by T: The New York Times Style Magazine in November 2017, Jay-Z opened up about his marital problems, acknowledged his infidelity and discussed how he and his wife were able to rediscover their bond through therapy.

"I grew so much from the experience," he said. "But I think the most important thing I got is that everything is connected. Every emotion is connected and it comes from somewhere. And just being aware of it. Being aware of it in everyday life puts you at such a ... you're at such an advantage."

He echoed many of those sentiments in an interview with CNN's Van Jones in January 2018, acknowledging the difficult patches with Beyoncé and the progress they'd made in repairing their union. "For us, we chose to fight for our love," he said. "For our family. To give our kids a different outcome. To break that cycle for black men and women."

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Rapper Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. "He was the last of my four children," Jay-Z's mother, Gloria Carter, later recalled, "the only one who didn't give me any pain when I gave birth to him, and that's how I knew he was a special child."

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James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1901, in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes's birth year was revised from 1902 to 1901 after new research from 2018 uncovered that he had been born a year earlier. His parents, James Nathaniel Hughes and Carrie Langston Hughes, divorced when he was a young child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his maternal grandmother, Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston, who was nearly seventy when Hughes was born, until he was thirteen. He then moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland. It was in Lincoln that Hughes began writing poetry.

After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Mexico followed by a year at Columbia University. During this time, he worked as an assistant cook, a launderer, and a busboy. He also traveled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, (Knopf, 1926) was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926 with an introduction by Harlem Renaissance arts patron Carl Van Vechten. Criticism of the book from the time varied, with some praising the arrival of a significant new voice in poetry, while others dismissed Hughes's debut collection. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter (Knopf, 1930), won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

Hughes, who cited Paul Laurence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful portrayals of Black life in America from the 1920s to the 1960s. He wrote novels, short stories, plays, and poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in his book-length poem Montage of a Dream Deferred (Holt, 1951). His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike other notable Black poets of the period, such as Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Culle n, Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of Black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including their love of music, laughter, and language, alongside their suffering.

The critic Donald B. Gibson noted in the introduction to Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice Hall, 1973) that Hughes

differed from most of his predecessors among black poets... in that he addressed his poetry to the people, specifically to black people. During the twenties when most American poets were turning inward, writing obscure and esoteric poetry to an ever decreasing audience of readers, Hughes was turning outward, using language and themes, attitudes and ideas familiar to anyone who had the ability simply to read... Until the time of his death, he spread his message humorously-though always seriously-to audiences throughout the country, having read his poetry to more people (possibly) than any other American poet.

In addition to leaving us a large body of poetic work, Hughes wrote eleven plays and countless works of prose, including the well-known "Simple" books: Simple's Uncle Sam (Hill and Wang, 1965); Simple Stakes a Claim (Rinehart, 1957); Simple Takes a Wife (Simon & Schuster, 1953); Simple Speaks His Mind (Simon & Schuster, 1950). He coedited the The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949 (Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1949) with Arna Bontemps, edited The Book of Negro Folklore (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1958), and wrote an acclaimed autobiography, The Big Sea (Knopf, 1940). Hughes also cowrote the play Mule Bone (HarperCollins, 1991) with Zora Neale Hurston.

Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer on May 22, 1967, in New York City. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed "Langston Hughes Place."

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Langston Hughes - A poet, novelist, fiction writer, and playwright, Langston Hughes is known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties and was important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Representing the 5th District of Georgia

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Over fifty years after he burst upon the scene as a gold-medal winner at the 1960 Olympics, in Rome, Muhammad Ali remains a magical figure, known and loved throughout the world.

As a boxer, Muhammad brought unprecedented speed and grace to his sport, while his charm and wit changed forever what the public expected a champion to be. His accomplishments in the ring were the stuff of legend. But there was always far more to Muhammad than what took place in a boxing ring.

Muhammad's life and career played out as much on the front pages of national and international newspapers as on the inside sports pages. His early embrace of the Nation of Islam and his insistence on being called Muhammad Ali instead of his "slave name," Cassius Clay, heralded a new era in black pride. His refusal to be inducted into the United States Army anticipated the growing antiwar movement of the 1960's.

Traveling across continents, he hand-delivered food and medical supplies to such needy sites as the Harapan Kita Hospital for Children in Jakarta, Indonesia; the street children of Morocco; and Sister Beltran's orphanage for Liberian refugees on the Ivory Coast, to name just a few.

At home, he visited countless numbers of soup kitchens and hospitals. He helped such organizations as the Chicago-based adoption agency, The Cradle; the Make-A-Wish-Foundation; the Special Olympics' organization Best Buddies; Herbert E. Birch Services, an organization that runs a school for handicapped children and young adults and a summer camp for children infected with AIDS; and "Fight Night" which generates funds for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center at Barrow Neurological Institute, in Phoenix, Arizona. At the State Capitol in Michigan, he advocated new laws protecting children. In schools across America, he taught children the virtues of tolerance and understanding through his book HEALING. Muhammad perhaps raised more money for American charities than any other living person.

Muhammad was the recipient of countless awards. In addition to being honored by Amnesty International with their "Lifetime Achievement Award," the Secretary-General of the United Nations bestowed him with a citation as "United Nations Messenger of Peace." He was also named the "International Ambassador of Jubilee 2000," a global organization dedicated to relieving debt in developing nations. Former President Jimmy Carter has called Muhammad "Mr. International Friendship" and, in 2005, Muhammad was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Muhammad's dream to share his inspiration with the world is being realized through the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The Ali Center appeals to the heart, spirit, and imagination. It inspires both children and adults to form new commitments in their lives in areas of personal growth, integrity, and respect for others, and it gives them the tools to make these commitments happen. Muhammad Ali passed away on June 3, 2016 at the age of 74.

Confidence

Belief in oneself, one's abilities, and one's future.

Conviction

A firm belief that gives one the courage to stand behind that belief, despite pressure to do otherwise.

Dedication

The act of devoting all of one's energy, effort, and abilities to a certain task.

Giving

To present voluntarily without expecting something in return.

Respect

Esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, oneself and others.

Spirituality

A sense of awe, reverence, and inner peace inspired by a connection to all of creation and/or that which is greater than oneself.

Photo Credit: John Lair

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Muhammad Ali - Muhammad Ali Center | Be Great :: Do Great Things

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Over fifty years after he burst upon the scene as a gold-medal winner at the 1960 Olympics, in Rome, Muhammad Ali remains a magical figure, known and loved throughout the world. As a boxer, Muhammad brought unprecedented speed and grace to his sport, while his charm and wit changed forever what the public expected a champion to be.

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The Official Website of The Toni Morrison Society

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The Toni Morrison Society is a non-profit literary organization that consists of scholars and lay readers of Morrison's works from around the world.

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Booker T. Washington's Parents and Early Life

Booker Taliaferro Washington was born on April 5, 1856 in a hut in Franklin County, Virginia. His mother was a cook for the plantation's owner. His father, a white man, was unknown to Washington. At the close of the Civil War, all the enslaved people owned by James and Elizabeth Burroughs-including 9-year-old Booker, his siblings, and his mother-were freed. Jane moved her family to Malden, West Virginia. Soon after, she married Washington Ferguson, a free Black man.

Booker T. Washington's Education

In Malden, Washington was only allowed to go to school after working from 4-9 AM each morning in a local salt works before class. It was at a second job in a local coalmine where he first heard two fellow workers discuss the Hampton Institute, a school for formerly enslaved people in southeastern Virginia founded in 1868 by Brigadier General Samuel Chapman. Chapman had been a leader of Black troops for the Union during the Civil War and was dedicated to improving educational opportunities for African Americans.

In 1872, Washington walked the 500 miles to Hampton, where he was an excellent student and received high grades. He went on to study at Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C., but had so impressed Chapman that he was invited to return to Hampton as a teacher in 1879. It was Chapman who would refer Washington for a role as principal of a new school for African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama: The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, today's Tuskegee University. Washington assumed the role in 1881 at age 25 and would work at The Tuskegee Institute until his death in 1915.

It was Washington who hired George Washington Carver to teach agriculture at Tuskegee in 1896. Carver would go on to be a celebrated figure in Black history in his own right, making huge advances in botany and farming technology.

Booker T. Washington Beliefs And Rivalry with W.E.B. Du Bois

Life in the post- Reconstruction era South was challenging for Black people. Discrimination was rife in the age of Jim Crow Laws. Exercising the right to vote under the 15 Amendment was dangerous, and access to jobs and education was severely limited. With the dawn of the Ku Klux Klan, the threat of retaliatory violence for advocating for civil rights was real.

In perhaps his most famous speech, given on September 18, 1895, Washington told a majority white audience in Atlanta that the way forward for African Americans was self-improvement through an attempt to "dignify and glorify common labor." He felt it was better to remain separate from whites than to attempt desegregation as long as whites granted their Black countrymen and women access to economic progress, education, and justice under U.S. courts:

"The wisest of my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than to spend a dollar in an opera house."

His speech was sharply criticized by W.E.B. Du Bois, who repudiated what he called "The Atlanta Compromise" in a chapter of his famous 1903 book, "The Souls of Black Folk." Opposition to Washington's views on race inspired the Niagara Movement (1905-1909). Du Bois would go on to found the NAACP in 1909.

Because of Washington's outsized stature in the Black community, dissenting views were strongly squashed. Du Bois and others criticized Washington's harsh treatment of rival Black newspapers and Black thinkers who dared to challenge his opinions and authority.

Books By Booker T. Washington

Washington, a famed public speaker known for his sense of humor, was also the author of five books:

· "The Story of My Life and Work" (1900)

· "Up From Slavery" (1901)

· "The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery" (1909)

· "My Larger Education" (1911)

· "The Man Farthest Down" (1912)

Booker T. Washington: First African American in the White House

Booker T. Washington became the first African American to be invited to the White House in 1901, when President Theodore Roosevelt invited him to dine with him. It caused a huge uproar among white Americans-especially in the Jim Crow South-and in the press, and came on the heels of the publication of his autobiography, "Up From Slavery." But Roosevelt saw Washington as a brilliant advisor on racial matters, a practice his successor, President William Howard Taft, continued.

Booker T. Washington Death And Legacy

Booker T. Washington's legacy is complex. While he lived through an epic sea change in the lives of African Americans, his public views supporting segregation seem outdated today. His emphasis on economic self-determination over political and civil rights fell out of favor as the views of his largest critic, W.E.B. Du Bois, took root and inspired the civil rights movement. We now know that Washington secretly financed court cases that challenged segregation and wrote letters in code to defend against lynch mobs. His work in the field of education helped give access to new hope for thousands of African Americans.

By 1913, at the dawn of the administration of Woodrow Wilson, Washington had largely fallen out of favor. He remained at the Tuskegee Institute until congestive heart failure ended his life on November 14, 1915. He was 59.

Washington left behind a vastly improved Tuskegee Institute with over 1,500 students, a faculty of 200 and an endowment of nearly $2 million to continue to carry on its work.

Sources

Booker T. Washington. Biography.com
The Debate Between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Frontline.
Jim Crow Stories: Booker T. Washington. Thirteen.org.
Booker T. Washington. Britannica.

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Booker T. Washington - Biography, W.E.B. Dubois & Facts | HISTORY

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Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the late 19th century. In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Institute and later formed the National Negro Business League. Although Washington clashed with black leaders such as W. E. B.

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James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright, novelist and voice of the American civil rights movement known for works including ‘Notes of a Native Son,’ ‘The Fire Next Time’ and ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain.’

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Who Was Maya Angelou?

Maya Angelou was an American author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. Angelou received several honors throughout her career, including two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009.

Early Life

Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Angelou had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their father's mother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas.

As an African American, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas. She also suffered at the hands of a family associate around the age of 7: During a visit with her mother, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. As vengeance for the sexual assault, Angelou's uncles killed the boyfriend.

So traumatized by the experience, Angelou stopped talking. She returned to Arkansas and spent years as a virtual mute.

Education

During World War II, Angelou moved to San Francisco, California. There she won a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School.

Also during this time, Angelou became the first Black female cable car conductor - a job she held only briefly - in San Francisco.

Acting and Singing Career

In the mid-1950s, Angelou's career as a performer began to take off. She landed a role in a touring production of Porgy and Bess, later appearing in the off-Broadway production Calypso Heat Wave (1957) and releasing her first album, Miss Calypso (1957).

A member of the Harlem Writers Guild and a civil rights activist, Angelou organized and starred in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also serving as the SCLC's northern coordinator.

In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett Jr. and Cicely Tyson.

Angelou went on to earn a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away (1973) and an Emmy Award nomination for her work on the television miniseries Roots (1977), among other honors.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S MAYA ANGELOU FACT CARD

Time in Africa

Angelou spent much of the 1960s abroad, living first in Egypt and then in Ghana, working as an editor and a freelance writer. Angelou also held a position at the University of Ghana for a time.

In Ghana, she also joined a community of "Revolutionist Returnees" exploring pan-Africanism and became close with human rights activist and Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. In 1964, upon returning to the United States, Angelou helped Malcolm X set up the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which disbanded after his assassination the following year.

Maya Angelou Poems

'Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie' (1971)

Angelou published several collections of poetry, but her most famous was 1971's collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Other famous collections of Angelou's poetry include:

Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), which includes Angelou's poem "Alone"

And Still I Rise (1978), which features the beloved poem "Phenomenal Woman"

Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983)

I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), featuring the poem "Human Family"; Apple famously used a video of Angelou reading this poem in an advertisement at the 2016 Olympics

Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997)

'On the Pulse of Morning' (1993)

One of her most famous works, Angelou wrote this poem especially for and recited at President Bill Clinton's inaugural ceremony in January 1993. The occasion marked the first inaugural recitation since 1961, when Robert Frost delivered his poem "The Gift Outright" at John F. Kennedy's inauguration.

Angelou went on to win a Grammy Award (best spoken word album) for the audio version of the poem.

Other well-known poems by Angelou include:

"His Day Is Done" (1962), a tribute poem Angelou wrote for Nelson Mandela as he made his secret journey from Africa to London

"Amazing Peace" (2005), written by Angelou for the White House tree-lighting ceremony

Books

'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' (1969)

Friend and fellow writer James Baldwin urged Angelou to write about her life experiences. The resulting work was the enormously successful 1969 memoir about her childhood and young adult years, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

The poignant story made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. The book, which made Angelou an international star, continues to be regarded as her most popular autobiographical work.

In 1995, Angelou was lauded for remaining on The New York Times' paperback nonfiction bestseller list for two years-the longest-running record in the chart's history.

'Gather Together in My Name' (1974)

Angelou's follow-up to A Caged Bird, this memoir covers her life as an unemployed teenage mother in California, when she turned to narcotics and prostitution.

'Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas' (1976)

Angelou wrote this autobiography about her early career as a singer and actress.

'The Heart of a Woman' (1981)

Angelou crafted this memoir about leaving California with her son for New York, where she took part in the civil rights movement.

'All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes' (1986)

A lyrical exploration about what it means to be an African American in Africa, this autobiographical book covers the years Angelou spent living in Ghana.

'Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now' (1994)

This inspirational essay collection features Angelou's insights about spirituality and living well.

'A Song Flung Up to Heaven' (2002)

Another autobiographical work, A Song Flung Up to Heaven explores Angelou's return from Africa to the U.S. and her ensuing struggle to cope with the devastating assassinations of two human rights leaders with whom she worked, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. The book ends when, at the encouragement of her friend Baldwin, Angelou began work on I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

'Letter to My Daughter' (2008)

Dedicated to the daughter Angelou never had, this book of essays features Angelou's advice for young women about living a life of meaning.

'Mom & Me & Mom' (2013)

In this memoir, Angelou discusses her complicated relationship with a mother who abandoned her during childhood.

Cookbooks

Interested in health, Angelou's published cookbooks include Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories With Recipes (2005) and Great Food, All Day Long (2010).

Screenplay Author and Director

After publishing Caged Bird, Angelou broke new ground artistically, educationally and socially with her drama Georgia, Georgia in 1972, which made her the first African American woman to have her screenplay produced.

In 1998, seeking new creative challenges, Angelou made her directorial debut with Down in the Delta, starring Alfre Woodard.

Accomplishments and Awards

Angelou's career has seen numerous accolades, including the Chicago International Film Festival's 1998 Audience Choice Award and a nod from the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999 for Down in the Delta.

She also won two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, for her 2005 cookbook and 2008's Letter to My Daughter.

Famous Friends

Martin Luther King Jr., a close friend of Angelou's, was assassinated on her birthday (April 4) in 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward, and sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, for more than 30 years, until Coretta's death in 2006.

Angelou was also good friends with TV personality Oprah Winfrey, who organized several birthday celebrations for the award-winning author, including a week-long cruise for her 70th birthday in 1998.

Maya Angelou's Son and Husbands

In 1944, a 16-year-old Angelou gave birth to a son, Guy (a short-lived high school relationship led to the pregnancy). After giving birth, she worked a number of jobs to support herself and her child. A poet himself, Angelou's son now goes by the name Guy Johnson.

In 1952, Angelou wed Anastasios Angelopulos, a Greek sailor from whom she took her professional name - a blend of her childhood nickname, "Maya," and a shortened version of his surname. The couple later divorced.

Notoriously secretive about her marriages, Angelou was likely married at least three times, including in 1973 to a carpenter, Paul du Feu.

Maya Angelou Death

After experiencing health issues for a number of years, Angelou died on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The news of her passing spread quickly with many people taking to social media to mourn and remember Angelou. Singer Mary J. Blige and politician Cory Booker were among those who tweeted their favorite quotes by her in tribute.

President Barack Obama also issued a statement about Angelou, calling her "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman." Angelou "had the ability to remind us that we are all God's children; that we all have something to offer," he wrote.

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Maya Angelou was an American author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman.

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Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

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Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother was the National recording secretary for the Marcus Garvey Movement which commanded millions of followers in the 1920s and 30s. His father was a Baptist minister and chapter president of The Universal Negro Improvement Association who appealed to President Hoover that Marcus Garvey was wrongfully arrested.

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In the Massachusetts State Archives is a petition to the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, stating that in the "late Battle at Charlestown," a man from Colonel Frye's Regiment "behaved like and experienced officer" and that in this man "centers a brave and gallant soldier." This document, dated December of 1775, just six months after the Battle of Bunker Hill, is signed by fourteen officers who were present at the battle, including Colonel William Prescott. Of the 2,400 to 4,000 colonists who participated in the battle, no other man is singled out in this manner.

This hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill is Salem Poor of Andover, Massachusetts. Although documents show that Poor, along with his regiment and two others, were sent to Bunker Hill to build a fort and other fortifications on the night of June 16, 1775, we have no details about just what Poor did to earn the praise of these officers. The petition simply states "to set forth the particulars of his conduct would be tedious." Perhaps his heroic deeds were too many to mention.

Few details of this hero's life are available to us. Born a slave in the late 1740s, Poor managed to buy his freedom in 1769 for 27 pounds, which represented a year's salary for the typical working man. He married Nancy, a free African-American woman, and they had a son. Salem Poor left his wife and child behind in May 1775 and fought for the patriot cause at Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Monmouth. We can only speculate about the motives for Poor's sacrifice: was it patriotism, or the prospect of a new and better life? The Battle of Bunker Hill was a daring and provocative act against established authority; all who participated could well have been hanged for treason.

Salem Poor is one of some three dozen African Americans who fought at Bunker Hill. As many as 5,000 African Americans, both freemen and slaves, fought on the patriot side, while many more, perhaps 20 to 30 thousand, aided the British in some way. The hopes of blacks that military service for either side would lead to full equality were dashed. Although revolutionary sentiment led to the abolition of slavery in northern states, slavery persisted in the South, and free blacks everywhere faced discrimination in every aspect of life, notably in education, employment, and housing.

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In the Massachusetts State Archives is a petition to the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, stating that in the "late Battle at Charlestown," a man from Colonel Frye's Regiment "behaved like and experienced officer" and that in this man "centers a brave and gallant soldier."

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Quick Facts
"Remember: you should never want something so badly that you do something you don't believe in to get it. At the same time, don't sweat too much what other folks may think of you.""One can't erase the tremendous burden of apartheid in 10 years, 20 years, I believe, even 30 years. It's going to be a long-term proposition.""Just as the people of these countries are not going to allow their lives to be hijacked by a dictator, they're not going to allow an extremist mob to hijack their future and their freedom.""I would rather be alone and a loud voice for action than be silent.""I've found in the course of my experience that you get farther by dealing directly with people than leading them astray.""Blunt and straight are not the same thing. Straight means honest, direct, and forthright. It doesn't mean being hard or difficult, necessarily.""I don't throw elbows for the sake of throwing elbows, but if somebody throws one at me and it's necessary to respond in kind, I suppose I can if I have to.""We will consistently stand up for the universal rights of every man, woman, and child in every country around the world, and we've been very very clear and consistent in that regard.""If you want change, you have to make it. If we want progress, we have to drive it.""We cannot afford to live in contempt of each others' welfare. It's not just wrong. It's dangerous.""South African society cannot succeed unless with political change comes economic change as well, and change that benefits the majority population."

Name

Susan Rice

Birth Date

November 17, 1964 (age 55)

Education

National Cathedral School, Stanford University, University of Oxford in Oxfordshire

Place of Birth

Washington, D.C.

AKA

Susan E. Rice

Full Name

Susan Elizabeth Rice

Zodiac Sign

Scorpio

Who Is Susan Rice?

U.N. Ambassador and foreign policy adviser Susan Rice studied at Stanford University and the University of Oxford in Oxfordshire with a focus on international affairs. She worked with President Bill Clinton as part of the National Security Council and oversaw African affairs, later working at the Brookings Institution. In 2009, Rice joined President Barack Obama's Cabinet, receiving Senate confirmation to be the U.N. ambassador. Later, she served as the national security adviser for the second term of the Obama administration.

Early Life

Susan Elizabeth Rice was born in Washington, D.C., on November 17, 1964, to parents Lois Dickson Fitt and Emmett J. Rice. Rice's family is well known among the Washington elite; father is a Cornell University economics professor and former governor of the Federal Reserve System, while her mother is an education policy researcher and guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Growing up, Rice's family often spoke of politics and foreign policy at the dinner table. Her mother's job also brought notable figures through the house, including Madeleine Albright, with whom Rice's mother served on a local school board. Albright would later become a pivotal figure in Rice's personal and professional life.

Rice attended the National Cathedral School, a prep academy in Washington, D.C. She excelled in academics, becoming her class valedictorian, and showed her aptitude in the political realm as president of the student council. She also loved athletics, competing in three different sports, and became a star point guard on the basketball team.

After graduation, Rice attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. In college, she pushed herself to excel. She not only earned Departmental Honors and University Distinction, but also became a Harry S. Truman scholar, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes scholarship. She turned the heads of top administrators when she created a fund that withheld alumni donations until the university either stopped their investments in companies doing business in South Africa, or the country ended apartheid.

Interest in Diplomacy

After receiving her bachelor's degree in history in 1986, Rice went on to attend the University of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. She earned her M.Phil and D.Phil in international relations and wrote a dissertation that examined Rhodesia's transition from white rule. Her paper won the Royal Commonwealth Society's Walter Frewen Lord Prize for outstanding research in the field of Commonwealth History, as well as the Chatham House-British International Studies Association Prize for the most distinguished doctoral dissertation in the United Kingdom in the field of International Relations.

She finished her schooling in 1990 and started work as an international management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Toronto, Ontario. On September 12, 1992, she married her Ian Cameron, who was working as a television producer in Toronto for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The couple lived in Canada until 1993, when Rice took a job with the National Security Council in Washington, D.C., under President Bill Clinton.

Rice began work as the director of international organizations and peacekeeping for the NSC, where she had what she calls her "most searing experience" when she visited Rwanda during what was later classified as a genocide. "I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of decomposing corpses outside and inside a church," she said. "It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. It makes you mad. It makes you determined. It makes you know that even if you're the last lone voice and you believe you're right, it is worth every bit of energy you can throw into it." She took the lessons learned from her peacekeeping position to a new post as a special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs in 1995.

Government Appointments

She quickly advanced ahead of her peers and veteran officials when her friend and mentor, Albright, recommended Rice for the post of assistant secretary for African affairs in 1997. With her appointment, she became one of the youngest assistant secretaries of state ever. Many elder politicians disagreed with placing a young woman in the position, arguing that she would be unable to deal with older, male leaders. But Rice developed a reputation for her direct, plainspoken opinions, and an ability to bring people to her side of the table. "They have no choice but to deal with me on professional terms. I represent the United States of America," she says. "Yeah, they may do a double take, but then they have to listen to what you say, how you say it and what you do about what you say."

During her tenure in this post, she also became well acquainted with the actions of the extremist group Al Qaeda; she was the top diplomat for African issues during the 1998 terrorist bombings of embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Her involvement and rise into politics mirrored that of Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state under President George W. Bush. The two are both female, African American and foreign policy experts who have ties to Stanford University. However, the two are not related. The mix-up has happened so often that Democrats have a saying about the confusion: "They've got their Rice, and we've got ours."

Brookings Fellow and U.N. Ambassador

Rice left the public sector in 2002 to become a senior fellow in foreign policy for the Brookings Institute, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to conduct independent research and provide recommendations to the government based on their findings. As a fellow, Rice specialized in research on U.S. foreign policy, weak and failing states, as well as the implications of global poverty and transnational security threats.

Rice took leave from Brookings in 2008, to become the senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. After Obama's successful election in November 2008, Rice was nominated to be the U.N. ambassador for the United States. On January 22, 2009, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, making her the first African American woman to be the United States' ambassador to the U.N.

Often adopting an interventionist stance, Rice was successful in efforts to garner U.N. approval for sanctions against Iran and North Korea and military action in Libya. However, she also drew criticism following a September 2012 attack on two American facilities in Benghazi, Libya; Rice initially said it grew out of a protest against an offensive internet video, though it was later revealed to be the work of an extremist group.

National Security Adviser

In June 2013, Rice was named national security adviser by President Obama, succeeding former adviser Tom Donilon. "I'm deeply honored and humbled to serve our country as your national security adviser," Rice stated during an event held in Washington, D.C., to announce her new role, according to NBC News.

Soon after the announcement was made, President Obama expressed his excitement to work with the newest adviser in a statement: "I am absolutely thrilled that she'll be back at my side leading my national security team in my second term," he said.

In her role, Rice oversaw the coordination of intelligence and military efforts during a period marked by an ongoing battle with ISIS in the Middle East; the continuation of a civil war in Syria; increased aggression from Russia through its annexation of Crimea and involvement in Syria; and the emergence of China as a superpower. Reported to wield strong influence within the administration, she shared the president's view of withholding large-scale troop deployment to the Middle East, with a focus on issues like containment of a nuclear Iran.

Leaking Controversy and Donald Trump

Although her tenure as national security adviser concluded in early 2017, Rice was swept back into the news as a result of ongoing investigations into Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

In April, after levying accusations of 'wire tapping' by the Obama administration, President Donald Trump unloaded on Rice for leaking the identities of Americans caught up in electronic surveillance of foreign officials.

Rice vehemently denied those accusations, and while she refused to confirm or deny whether she had sought the identities of those Americans, she insisted that doing so was entirely within the jurisdiction of the national security adviser. "The allegation is that somehow the Obama administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes," she said in an MSNBC interview. "That's absolutely false."

Netflix Board

In March 2018, streaming giant Netflix announced that Rice would be joining its board of directors. "We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Rice to the Netflix board," said CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings. "For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom."

The announcement came a few weeks after news that the former president and first lady were in discussions for producing original content for Netflix.

Personal Life

Rice and her husband have two children and currently reside in Washington, D.C.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

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"Remember: you should never want something so badly that you do something you don't believe in to get it. At the same time, don't sweat too much what other folks may think of you." "One can't erase the tremendous burden of apartheid in 10 years, 20 years, I believe, even 30 years.

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For over fifty years, General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret) has devoted his life to public service. Having held senior military and diplomatic positions across four presidential administrations, Powell's deep commitment to democratic values and freedom has been felt throughout the world.

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was born in Harlem in April 1937 and was raised in the South Bronx. He was educated in the New York City public schools and after graduating from Morris High School attended the City College of New York where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology. It was not until he joined the Army ROTC program at CCNY that he discovered his calling and launched his military career. He received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in 1958 and went on to serve in the United States Army for 35 years, rising to the rank of Four-Star General.

From 1987 - 1989 Powell served as President Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor. He served from 1989 - 1993 as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for both President George H.W. Bush and for President Bill Clinton, and was not only the youngest officer and first ROTC graduate to ever serve in the position but also was the first African American to do so. During his time as Chairman, he oversaw 28 crises to include the Panama intervention of 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in the victorious 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Under President George W. Bush, Powell was appointed the 65th Secretary of State and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As Secretary of State, he led the State Department in major efforts to address and solve regional and civil conflicts. He used the power of diplomacy to build trust, forge alliances and then help transform these unstable regions into areas where societies and cultures have the potential to prosper. He also worked at the forefront of American efforts to advance economic and social development worldwide.

Among the many U.S. Military awards and decorations Powell has received are the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters), the Army Distinguished Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Soldier's Medal, Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

Powell is the Chair of the Board of Visitors of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at his alma mater, the City College of New York (CCNY). The Powell School was inaugurated May of 2013 and stands alongside CCNY's other premiere named schools. He is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the America's Promise Alliance, dedicated to forging strong and effective partnership alliance committed to seeing that children have the fundamental resources they need to succeed.

Powell is a Strategic Advisor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He serves on the Board of Directors of Bloom Energy, an alternative energy company that provides unique on-site power generation systems utilizing an innovative new fuel cell technology. In March of 2014, he joined the Board of Directors of Salesforce.com, the world's largest provider of Cloud-based customer relationship management software.

Powell serves on the Museum Council of the Smithsonian Institute's African American Museum of History and Culture. He is also Chairman of the Eisenhower Fellowships, a cross-cultural program for emerging international leaders.

His autobiography, My American Journey, was a best seller and has been published in more than a dozen different languages. Powell's second book, It Worked for Me (May, 2012), was an instant New York Times best seller and reveals the lessons that shaped his life and career.

Powell is married to the former Alma Vivian Johnson of Birmingham, Alabama. They live in McLean, Virginia and have three children and four grandchildren.

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For over fifty years, General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret) has devoted his life to public service. Having held senior military and diplomatic positions across four presidential administrations, Powell's deep commitment to democratic values and freedom has been felt throughout the world.

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As President Obama has said, the change we seek will take longer than one term or one presidency. Real change-big change-takes many years and requires each generation to embrace the obligations and opportunities that come with the title of Citizen.

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Cesar's career in community organizing began in 1952 when he was recruited and trained by Fred Ross, a legendary community organizer who was forming the San Jose chapter of the Community Service Organization, the most prominent Latino civil rights group of its time. Cesar spent 10 years with the CSO, coordinating voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, leading campaigns against racial and economic discrimination and organizing new CSO chapters across California.

Yet Cesar's dream was to organize a union that would protect and serve the farm workers whose poverty and powerlessness he had shared. He knew the history of farm worker organizing was one sad story after another of broken unions and strikes crushed by violence. He knew that for 100 years many others with much better educations and more resources than he possessed had tried, and failed, to organize farm workers. He knew the experts said organizing farm workers was impossible.

On his birthday, March 31, in 1962, Cesar resigned from the CSO, leaving the first decent-paying job he had ever had with the security of a regular paycheck. The Chavez family moved to Delano, California, a dusty farm town in California's Central Valley. With $1,200 in life savings he founded the National Farm Workers Association with 10 members - Cesar, his wife and their eight young children. The NFWA later became the United Farm Workers of America. Under Cesar, the UFW achieved unprecedented gains for farm workers, establishing it as the first successful farm workers union in American history.

In 1962, President Kennedy offered to make Cesar head of the Peace Corps for part of Latin America. It would have meant a big house with servants and all the advantages for his children. Instead, Cesar turned down the job in exchange for a life of self-imposed poverty.

Starting in the 1960s, Cesar and others in the movement made $5 a week, plus room and board. Cesar embraced a life of voluntary poverty, as did other movement leaders and staff until the late 1990s. He never earned more than $6,000 a year, never owned a house, and when he died at the age of 66 in 1993, left no money behind for his family.

When Cesar Chavez began building the farm worker movement, he knew it would take a strong union to remedy the economic injustices workers suffer at the workplace. He also realized it would require a movement to overcome the burdens of poverty, discrimination and powerlessness people endured in the community. Cesar began a burial program, the first credit union for farm workers, health clinics, daycare centers and job-training programs. With the help of the movement, Cesar built affordable housing - starting with a retirement home for the elderly and displaced Filipino American farm workers and later, multi-family and homeownership communities for farm workers and other low-income working families and seniors. He established two educational-style Spanish-language farm worker radio stations, the beginning of what is now the 13-station Radio Campesina network. He also established the Fred Ross Education Institute which trained negotiators, contract administrators and union organizers.

Cesar adopted historic strategies and tactics that were novel to organized labor. He demanded farm workers strictly adhere to a pledge of nonviolence. In 1968, Cesar's insistence on nonviolence drew dissent from some union staff and young male strikers who were frustrated by slow progress during the grape strike and anxious to retaliate against abusive growers. Some strikers and staff left the union during Cesar's 25-day fast for nonviolence, but he prevailed. Sen. Robert Kennedy came to Delano as the fast ended, calling Cesar "one of the heroic figures of our time."

Cesar had his second 25-day fast in 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona, over the enactment of the state's punitive law making it impossible for farm workers to organize. His last and longest public fast, at 36 days, was in Delano when he was 61 years old, and focused public attention on the pesticide poisoning of farm workers and their children.

Despite skepticism from some labor leaders, Cesar was the first to apply boycotts to major labor-management disputes. Millions of people across North America rallied to La Causa, the farm workers' cause, by boycotting grapes and other products, forcing growers to bargain union contracts and agree to California's pioneering farm labor law in 1975.

Because of Cesar and millions of Americans who supported farm workers by boycotting grapes and other products, under Gov. Jerry Brown, California passed the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. This was the nation's first and still the only law guaranteeing farm workers the right to organize, choose their own union representative and negotiate with their employers.

Cesar came out against Vietnam War in the 1960s and was an early and outspoken supporter of gay rights in the 1970s. The UFW opposed penalizing employers for hiring undocumented workers and championed immigration reform as early as 1973.

The significance of Cesar's life transcends any one cause or struggle. He was a unique and humble leader, as well as a great humanitarian and communicator who influenced and inspired millions of Americans from all walks of life. Cesar forged a national and extraordinarily diverse coalition for farm worker boycotts, which included students, middle class consumers, trade unionists, religious activists and minorities. Cesar liked to say that his job as an organizer was helping ordinary people do extraordinary things.

Cesar passed away peacefully in his sleep on April 23, 1993 in the small farm worker town of San Luis, Arizona, not far from where he was born 66 years earlier. More than 50,000 people attended his funeral services in Delano, the same community in which he had planted the seeds of social justice decades before.

Cesar's motto, "Si se puede!" ("Yes, it can be done!"), embodies the uncommon legacy he left for people around the world. Since his death, hundreds of communities across the nation have named schools, parks, streets, libraries, and other public facilities, as well as awards and scholarships in his honor. His birthday, March 31st, is an official holiday in 10 states. In 1994, President Clinton posthumously awarded Cesar the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The U.S. Navy named a ship after him in 2011.

As a common man with an uncommon vision, Cesar Chavez stood for equality, justice and dignity for all Americans. His universal principals remain as relevant and inspiring today as they were when he first began his movement.

Cesar's voice empowered a movement. He was a powerful communicator with the ability to invoke relatable thinking amongst large groups of people from various backgrounds. His experience and perspective with the plight of the farmworkers provided deep insight for others to consider ways to help them overcome the injustices they faced on a daily basis. Regardless of who he was speaking to, his points were made clear through the messaging he delivered in each of his speeches and writings. He spoke with the conviction that ordinary people could achieve extraordinary things.

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About Cesar Chavez - Cesar Chavez Foundation

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Cesar's career in community organizing began in 1952 when he was recruited and trained by Fred Ross, a legendary community organizer who was forming the San Jose chapter of the Community Service Organization, the most prominent Latino civil rights group of its time.

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Who Is Gloria Estefan?

Singer Gloria Estefan was born September 1, 1957, in Havana, Cuba. As a toddler Estefan fled Cuba with her family. In 1975 she met keyboardist Emilio Estefan, her future husband, who led a band called the Miami Latin Boys. Estefan became the lead singer and the band was renamed the Miami Sound Machine, before going on to score several Top 10 hits in the 1980s and 1990s. Estefan and her husband later produced a Broadway musical, On Your Feet!, which featured the Miami Sound Machine's popular songs.

Early Life

Singer. Born Gloria Fajardo on September 1, 1957, in Havana, Cuba. As a toddler Estefan fled Cuba with her family when Communist dictator Fidel Castro rose to power. Her father, Jose Manuel Fajardo, had been a Cuban soldier and bodyguard of President Fulgencio Batista.

After coming to the United States, the elder Fajardo was recruited into the 2506 Brigade, a CIA-funded band of Cuban refugees that was involved in the unsuccessful 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. After President John F. Kennedy negotiated the release of the captured soldiers, Fajardo rejoined his family. He eventually joined the U.S. Army and served for two years in Vietnam.

As a child Estefan liked to write poetry, and though she took classical guitar lessons, she found them tedious. She had no inkling that she would someday become a popular music star, but music played a very important role for her as a teenager.

After her father's return from Vietnam, he was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis, possibly as a result of having been exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange while serving in the Army. Estefan's mother, who had been a teacher in Cuba, worked to support the family during the day and attended school at night. Young Gloria was left to take care of her father and younger sister. She had little social life, and because she felt the weight of such responsibilities she turned to music as a release.

"When my father was ill, music was my escape," Estefan told Washington Post reporter Richard Harrington. "I would lock myself up in my room for hours and just sing. I wouldn't cry-I refused to cry. ... Music was the only way I had to just let go, so I sang for fun and for emotional catharsis."

Meeting Emilio Estefan

In 1975 Gloria met keyboardist Emilio Estefan, a sales manager for the rum dealer Bacardi who also led a band called the Miami Latin Boys. The band played popular Latin music, but because there was no lead singer, the quartet members took turns singing. A mutual friend asked Emilio to advise Gloria and some friends about organizing a band for a special event. Emilio heard Gloria sing, and when he met her again at a wedding at which the Miami Latin Boys were entertaining, he asked her to sit in with the band. A few weeks later Emilio asked Gloria to perform as lead singer with the band, and she accepted.

At first Gloria sang only on weekends, because she was still attending the University of Miami. A year and a half after Gloria joined the group, by then renamed the Miami Sound Machine, the band recorded its first album for a local label. Renacer was a collection of disco pop and original ballads sung in Spanish. Although Estefan was a little heavier and very shy when she joined the band, she slimmed down with a rigorous exercise program and worked to overcome her natural reticence.

After several months on a professional level, Emilio and Gloria's professional relationship turned personal, and in September 1978, they were married. Their son Nayib was born two years later, about the time that Emilio quit his job at Bacardi to work full-time with the band, then made up of bassist Marcos Avila, drummer Kiki Garcia, keyboardist, arranger, and saxophonist Raul Murciano, keyboardist Emilio and soprano Gloria.

Miami Sound Machine

By 1980 the group had signed a contract with Discos CBS International, the Miami-based Hispanic division of CBS Records. Between 1981 and 1983 the Miami Sound Machine recorded four Spanish-language albums made up of ballads, disco, pop, and sambas. The Miami Sound Machine first met with success in Spanish-speaking countries. The group had dozens of hit songs around the world-particularly in Venezuela, Peru, Panama, and Honduras-but enjoyed little recognition in the United States.

The Miami Sound Machine's first North American hit was from the band's first English album, Eyes of Innocence (1984). The disco single "Dr. Beat" went to the top of the European dance charts. The song's popularity prompted CBS to move the group to Epic, a parent label, and inspired group members to write songs in English. The rousing dance number "Conga" became the first single to crack Billboard's pop, dance, black and Latin charts simultaneously.

Crossover Pop Star

In 1985 the album Primitive Love, the band's first recording entirely in English, set off a string of hit singles. "Bad Boys" and "Words Get in the Way" made their way onto Billboard's Top 10 pop chart. Behind the scenes was the work of the trio known as the "Three Jerks": producer/drummer Joe Galdo and his partners, Rafael Vigil and Lawrence Dermer, who wrote, arranged and performed the majority of the music on Primitive Love and the follow-up album, Let It Loose (1987).

As a band, the Miami Sound Machine developed a split personality. In the studio the Three Jerks and session players made records, and for concerts the road band, which included Garcia and Avila, performed. Estefan was the common denominator. Extensive tours, concerts in 40,000-seat stadiums and music videos on MTV and VH-1 made the Miami Sound Machine a leading U.S. band.

Estefan gradually became the star attraction, and the act came to be billed as Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine or sometimes simply Gloria Estefan. Some commentators on the popular music scene called Estefan a demure, Hispanic version of Madonna.

After the Let It Loose album, Galdo and friends quit working with the Miami Sound Machine, so the band was on its own creatively. Early in its evolution, the band's biggest hits were rousing dance numbers, but by the end of the 1980s it was Estefan's ballads that engendered its success. From the Let It Loose album the singles "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," "Betcha Say That," and "1-2-3" made it to Billboard's Top 10 list, but it was the ballad "Anything For You" that topped the charts.

Despite the group's popularity with English-speaking listeners, the Estefans never forgot their roots. The title of their 1989 album Cuts Both Ways attested to their intention to live up to their international reputation. Estefan contributed to Cuts Both Ways in more capacities than as just the lead singer. She was involved in its planning and production, composed some of the music and wrote lyrics to most of the songs. The rollicking salsa finale "Oye Mi Canto" ("Hear My Song") rivaled "Conga" for its appeal.

Personal Life and Accident

Emilio Estefan relinquished his position as keyboardist with the Miami Sound Machine after the birth of son, Nayib. He then devoted his considerable energy and managerial talent to promoting the band and the other enterprises that were to eventually make the Estefans producers of their own and others' records. While Gloria Estefan toured with the band, her husband ensured that Nayib would have at least one parent at home. A close family, the Estefans would arrange to meet as often as possible during tours.

While traveling together on March 20, 1990, the band's bus was involved in an accident with a tractor-trailer on snowy Interstate 380 near the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Nayib suffered a fractured shoulder and Emilio received minor head and hand injuries, while Gloria suffered a broken vertebra in her back. In a four-hour operation several days later, surgeons realigned Estefan's spine and implanted steel rods to buttress the fracture. With a prognosis for complete recovery doubtful, Estefan retired to her home on Star Island, near Miami, to begin her long recovery.

Comeback

Thanks to extensive physical therapy, intense determination and the support of her family and fans, Gloria Estefan made what many consider a miraculous comeback. She marked her return to performing with an appearance on television's American Music Awards in January of 1991, and beginning in March, she launched a year-long tour to tout her comeback album Into the Light.

During the next four years Gloria released four albums and embarked on a world tour. The albums alternated in style from Latin to pop. After recording the platinum album Destiny in 1996, Gloria began a high-tech world tour called Evolution. Each show commenced with a suspended globe moving above the audience from which Gloria emerged. The $14 million in receipts from the North American leg placed it as the 24th highest grossing tour of 1996.

In 1998 Gloria continued to combine pop, dance and Latin rhythms in her 12th album, gloria!. She also performed on the VH-1 concert special, Divas Live along with Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Shania Twain and others. The concert raised money to fund music education in elementary schools. Inclusion in this event affirmed her position among the top female singers in the music industry.

Recent Projects

In recent years, Gloria Estefan has found another outlet for her creative talents. She wrote two picture books for children: The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog (2005) and Noelle's Treasure Tale (2006).

On September 18, 2007, Estefan released 90 Millas, a tribute to the music of her native Cuba, which featured a collaboration with musician Carlos Santana. It was her 29th album overall, her 11th studio solo album and her fourth in Spanish. The album landed Estefan at No. 11 on the Latin Female Artist of the Year chart in 2007.

In 2008, Estefan made a cameo appearance on the television competition American Idol with fellow musician Sheila E. That same year, Gloria and her husband collaborated on the cookbook Estefan Kitchen, which featured traditional Cuban recipes. She also embarked on an extensive American and European tour, which concluded in late 2009.

Even as pop music continues to churn out new stars and sounds, Estefan has displayed few signs of slowing down. She teamed with producer Pharrell Williams to create Miss Little Havana in 2011, and delivered her version of several American classics for The Standards in 2013. The singer and her husband also worked on bringing an autobiographical musical to life, with O n Your Feet! debuting on Broadway in 2015.

That year, Estefan and her husband were both honored for their trailblazing contributions to music and Latin American culture with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2017, Estefan enjoyed additional recognition as one of five artists named a Kennedy Center honoree that year.

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Singer Gloria Estefan was born September 1, 1957, in Havana, Cuba. As a toddler Estefan fled Cuba with her family. In 1975 she met keyboardist Emilio Estefan, her future husband, who led a band called the Miami Latin Boys.

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor

SONIA SOTOMAYOR, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was born in Bronx, New York, on June 25, 1954. She earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the university's highest academic honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office from 1979-1984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner from 1984-1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992-1998. She served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998-2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role on August 8, 2009.
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor SONIA SOTOMAYOR, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was born in Bronx, New York, on June 25, 1954. She earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the university's highest academic honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale...

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Before becoming a founding member of NAACP, W.E.B. Du Bois was already well known as one of the foremost Black intellectuals of his era. The first Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard University, Du Bois published widely before becoming NAACP's director of publicity and research and starting the organization's official journal, The Crisis, in 1910.

Leading Intellectual

Du Bois, a scholar at the historically Black Atlanta University, established himself as a leading thinker on race and the plight of Black Americans. He challenged the position held by Booker T. Washington, another contemporary prominent intellectual, that Southern Blacks should compromise their basic rights in exchange for education and legal justice. He also spoke out against the notion popularized by abolitionist Frederick Douglass that Black Americans should integrate with white society. In an essay published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1897, "Strivings of the Negro People," Du Bois wrote that Black Americans should instead embrace their African heritage even as they worked and lived in the United States.

Du Bois published his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk in 1903. In this collection of essays, Du Bois described the predicament of Black Americans as one of "double consciousness": "One ever feels his twoness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, who dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." The term "double consciousness" has come to be widely used as a theoretical framework to apply to other dynamics of inequality.

Editor of The Crisis, NAACP's monthly journal

Du Bois became the editor of the organization's monthly magazine, , using his perch to draw attention to the still widespread practice of lynching, pushing for nationwide legislation that would outlaw the cruel extrajudicial killings. A 1915 article in the journal gave a year-by-year list of more than 2,700 lynchings over the previous three decades.

Du Bois, who considered himself a socialist, also published articles in favor of unionized labor, although he called out union leaders for barring Black membership. Under Du Bois's guidance, the journal attracted a wide readership, reaching 100,000 in 1920, and drew many new supporters to NAACP. With Du Bois as its mouthpiece, NAACP came to be known as the leading protest organization for Black Americans.
"One ever feels his twoness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, who dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."
Du Bois served as editor of The Crisis until 1934, when he resigned following a rift with NAACP leadership over his controversial stance on segregation. He viewed the "separate but equal" status as an acceptable position for Blacks. Du Bois also resigned from the NAACP board and returned to Atlanta University.

Global citizen

After a ten-year hiatus, Du Bois came back to NAACP as the director of special research from 1944 to 1948. In this role, he attended the founding convention for the United Nations, channeling his energies toward lobbying the global body to acknowledge the suffering of Black Americans. He wrote the famous NAACP publication, "An Appeal to the World," a precursor to a report charging the United States with genocide for its ugly history of state-sanctioned lynchings. Du Bois also turned a spotlight onto the injustices of colonialism, urging the United Nations to use its influence to take a stand against such exploitative regimes.

Throughout his life, Du Bois was active in the Pan-Africanism movement, attending the First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900. He later organized a series of Pan-African Congress meetings around the world in 1919, 1921, 1923, and 1927, bringing together intellectuals from Africa, the West Indies, and the United States.

At the end of his life, Du Bois embarked on an ambitious project to create a new encyclopedia on the African diaspora, funded by the government of Ghana. A citizen of the world until the end, the 93-year-old Du Bois moved to Ghana to manage the project, acquiring citizenship of the African country in 1961. Du Bois died in Ghana on Aug. 27, 1963, the day before the historic March on Washington.

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Before becoming a founding member of NAACP, W.E.B. Du Bois was already well known as one of the foremost Black intellectuals of his era. The first Black American to earn a PhD from Harvard University, Du Bois published widely before becoming NAACP's director of publicity and research and starting the organization's official journal, The Crisis, in 1910.

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Citations (APA) for research sources used.

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Citations (APA) for research sources used.