theblackbottom

DETROIT (AP) — Willie Horton Day is being celebrated in Michigan for the eighth consecutive year.
The Tigers great is being honored Thursday, as he has since former Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed House Bill 5200 into law in 2006 that permanently decrees Oct. 18 “Willie Horton Day.”
It coincides with the seven-time All-Star’s birthday.
Horton was a Tiger [...]

By: Kimberly Bryant

When I was first introduced to computer programming, as a freshman in Electrical Engineering, Fortran and Pascal were the popular languages for newbies in computing and the Apple Macintosh was the new kid on the block. I remember being excited by the prospects, and looked forward to embarking on a rich and rewarding [...]

Interview by ANDREW GOLDMAN
Published: September 21, 2012
You once wrote that Michael Jackson stopped working with you because he felt threatened by the credit you were getting for his music. Considering he was never able to repeat the success he had with “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” how much credit do you deserve?
Well, What [...]

NPR
When NPR Books invited audience members to nominate and vote for their favorite Young Adult novels, more than 75,000 responded. The extraordinary outpouring speaks of the passion connecting the books section and its followers.
But in that response also lie the seeds of a defect, for lack of a better term, in the poll. The resulting [...]

Michigan Radio
By KATE WELLS
They called it the “Black Eden.”
From the 1920’s to 60’s, tens of thousands of African Americans poured into the resort town of Idlewild, Michigan. They came to escape steaming summers in segregated cities, and to see some of the greatest musicians of the age.

As Idlewild’s centennial summer comes to a close, 90-year-old [...]

Back in May I traveled to London to attend Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race that was graciously hosted by the Birkbeck College of the University of London.
The conference was a critical inquiry into race viewed through the lens of religion. Can we understand “race” through the religious claims of universality among women and men. [...]

The Root.com
By: Hillary Crosley
The Huffington Post reports that thanks to donations from fans, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee may have a documentary chronicling their lives soon. Promoting the project — called Life’s Essentials With Ruby Dee — through the fundraising website Kickstarter, Dee’s family will have a hand in telling the story of her and [...]

By MICHAEL TORTORELLO
Published: June 13, 2012

DONALDSONVILLE, La.

ENSLAVED Africans did not win their freedom in order to starve. Kathe Hambrick-Jackson knew that much from her work as the founder and executive director of the River Road African American Museum here in this town, 60-odd miles up the Mississippi from New Orleans.
But Ms. Hambrick-Jackson, 54, likes to [...]

The whole world opened to me when I learned to read~Mary McCleod Bethune
Once you learn how to read, you will be forever free!~Frederick Douglass

REVIEW
Randal Maurice Jelks is an Associate Professor of American Studies with a joint appointment in African and African American Studies. He is co-editor of the journal American Studies and a co-founder and [...]

Source: NY Times
The Rev. H. H. Brookins, a retired bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church whose role as a civil rights leader and a political kingmaker was clouded by accusations of financial chicanery, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86.
Michael Ellison-Lewis, a spokesman for the church, [...]