Unlimited Whispers

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was a composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the words of Bob Blumenthal of the Boston Globe “In the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington.”^[1]

A prominent figure in the history of jazz, Ellington’s music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death, the Pulitzer Prize Board bestowing a special posthumous honor in 1999.^[2]

Ellington called his music “American Music” rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as “beyond category”.^[3] These included many of the musicians who were members of his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most well-known jazz orchestral units in the history of jazz. He often composed specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as “Jeep’s Blues” for Johnny Hodges, “Concerto for Cootie” for Cootie Williams, which later became “Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me” with Bob Russell’s lyrics, and “The Mooche” for Tricky Sam Nanton and Bubber Miley. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol’s “Caravan” and “Perdido” which brought the ‘Spanish Tinge’ to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained there for several decades. After 1941, he frequently collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his “writing and arranging companion.”^[4] Ellington recorded for many American record companies, and appeared in several films.

Ellington led his band from 1923 until his death in 1974. His son Mercer Ellington, who had already been handling all administrative aspects of his father’s business for several decades, led the band until his own death in 1996. At that point, the original band dissolved. Paul Ellington, Mercer’s youngest son and executor of the Duke Ellington estate,^[5] kept the Duke Ellington Orchestra going from Mercer’s death onwards.^[6]

Duke Ellington’s work has come to be recognized as a cornerstone of American culture and heritage. He is widely regarded as the most important composer in jazz; he was also a galvanizing bandleader who inspired many of his musicians to produce their best work, whilst himself being a significant exponent of jazz piano. His works have been revisited by artists and musicians around the world both as a source of inspiration and a bedrock of their own performing careers. Ellington’s compositions are now the staple of the repertoire of music conservatories, and even high school band programs that have embraced his music continue to give it life and voice.

His son, Mercer Ellington kept his big band alive after his passing. When Mercer died, Paul Ellington kept the Duke Ellington Orchestra going. It plays in concert halls around the world to this day.

Tributes:

• Sathima Bea Benjamin – the South African vocalist wrote “Gift of Love”, in memory of Duke Ellington, for her 1987 album Love Light.
• Dave Brubeck – dedicated “The Duke” (1954) to Ellington and it became a standard covered by others,^[50] both during Ellington’s Bold textlifetime (such as by Miles Davis on Miles Ahead, 1957) and posthumously (such as George Shearing on I Hear a Rhapsody: Live at the Blue Note, 1992). The album The Real Ambassadors has a vocal version of this piece, You Swing Baby (The Duke), with lyrics by Iola Brubeck, Dave’s wife. It is performed as a duet between Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae. It is also dedicated to Duke Ellington.
• Tony Bennett frequently altered the lyrics to “Lullaby of Broadway” in live performance, to sing, “You rock-a-bye your baby ’round/to Ellington or Basie,” as a personal tribute to the two jazz masters.
• Judy Collins – wrote “Song For Duke” in 1975, and included it on her album Judith.
• Miles Davis – one month after Ellington’s death, created his half-hour dedicated dirge “He Loved Him Madly” (1974) collected on Get Up with It.
• The jazz-influenced band Steely Dan recorded a note-for-note version of an early Ellington standard, “East St. Louis Toodle-oo,” on their album Pretzel Logic, released in 1974, using treated slide guitars to re-create the plunger-muted “jungle sound” of the original Ellington horns.
• Stevie Wonder – wrote the song “Sir Duke” as a tribute to Ellington in 1976.
• Charles Mingus – composed “Open Letter to Duke” and “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love”
• Lorraine Feather – has composed lyrics to many of Ellington’s instrumental compositions,recorded on CD’s including “Dooji Wooji” and “Such Sweet Thunder.”
• The Modern Jazz Quartet composed two original Ellington tributes for their album For Ellington.

There are hundreds of albums dedicated to the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by artists famous and obscure. The more notable artists include Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Claude Bolling, Oscar Peterson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Dick Hyman, Joe Pass, Milt Jackson, Earl Hines, André Previn, World Saxophone Quartet, Ben Webster, Zoot Sims, Kenny Burrell, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Martial Solal, Clark Terry and Randy Weston.

Source: Wikipedia….Make sure you go and check him out.  Wonderful accolades.

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Nicknamed the “Bronze Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, and even the “Créole Goddess” in anglophone nations.

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture and to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, but turned it down),^[3] for assisting the French Resistance during World War II^[4] and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.

After a short while she was the most successful American entertainer working in France. Ernest Hemingway called her “… the most sensational woman anyone ever saw.”^[8][9] In addition to being a musical star, Baker also starred in three films which found success only in Europe: the silent film Siren of the Tropics (1927), Zouzou (1934) and Princesse Tam Tam (1935). Although Baker is often credited as a movie star, her starring roles ended with Princesse Tam Tam in 1935.

Baker costumed for the Danse banane from the Folies Bergère production Un Vent de Folie in Paris in 1927, her most famous banana costume.

At this time she also scored her most successful song, “J’ai deux amours” (1931) and became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers, and sculptors including Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior.

Under the management of Giuseppe Pepito Abatino—a Sicilian former stonemason who passed himself off as a count—Baker’s stage and public persona, as well as her singing voice, went through a significant transformation. In 1934 she took the lead in a revival of Jacques Offenbach’s 1875 opera La créole at the Théâtre Marigny on the Champs-Élysées of Paris, which premiered in December of that year for a six month run. In preparation for her performances she went through months of training with a vocal coach.

In the words of Shirley Bassey, who has cited Baker as her primary influence, “… she went from a ‘petite danseuse sauvage’ with a decent voice to ‘la grande diva magnifique’ … I swear in all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer.”

Despite her popularity in France, she never obtained the same reputation in America. Upon a visit to the United States in 1935-1936, her performances received poor opening reviews for her starring role in the Ziegfeld Follies and she was replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee later in the run.

Baker returned to Paris in 1937, married Frenchman Jean Lion, and became a French citizen.^[10]

Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Baker was so well known and popular with the French that even the Nazis, who occupied France during World War II, were hesitant to cause her harm. Baker’s agent’s older brother approached her about working for the French government as an “honorable correspondent” — if she happened to hear any gossip at parties that might be of use to her adopted country, she could report it. Baker immediately agreed, since she was against the Nazi stand on race not only because she was black but because her husband was Jewish. Her café society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in-the-know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and report back what she heard. She was able to do things such as attend parties at the Italian embassy without any suspicion falling on her and gather information that turned out to be useful. She also helped in the war effort in other ways, such as by sending Christmas presents to French soldiers.

When the Germans invaded France, Baker left Paris and went to the Château des Milandes, her home in the south of France, where she had Belgian refugees living with her and others who were eager to help the Free French effort led by Charles de Gaulle from England. As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations like Portugal, and returning to France. Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music.

She helped mount a production in Marseilles on the south coast of France to give herself and her like-minded friends a reason for being there. She helped quite a lot of people who were in danger from the Nazis get visas and passports to leave France. Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa; the stated reason was Baker’s health (since she really was recovering from another case of pneumonia) but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain and pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search) and made friends with the Pasha of Marrakesh, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several) and emergency hysterectomy she had to go through in 1942. Despite the state of medicine in that time and place, she recovered, and started touring to entertain Allied soldiers in North Africa. She even persuaded Egypt’s King Farouk to make a public appearance at one of her concerts, a subtle indication of which side his officially neutral country leaned toward. Later, she would perform at Buchenwald for the liberated inmates who were too frail to be moved.

After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received the Croix de guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.^[11]

In January 1966, she was invited by Fidel Castro to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba. Her spectacular show in April of that year led to record breaking attendance. In 1973, Baker opened at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. In 1974, she appeared in a Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium.

Civil rights activism

Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting 12 multi-ethnic orphans, who she called the “Rainbow Tribe.”^[12] They were: Akio (Korean son), Jeannot, or Janot (Japanese son), Luis (Colombian son), Jari (Finnish son), Jean-Claude (French son), Moïse (Israeli son), Brahim (Algerian son), Marianne (French daughter), Koffi (Ivorian son), Mara (Venezuelan son), Noël (French son), and Stellina (Moroccan daughter).^[13][14] For some time she lived with all of her children and an enormous staff in a castle, Château de Milandes, in Dordogne, France. Baker bore only one child, stillborn in 1941, an incident that precipitated an emergency hysterectomy.

She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States.^[4] Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las Vegas, Nevada^{[citation needed]}.

In 1951, Baker made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley’s Stork Club in New York, where she had been refused service. Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing to never return (and she never did). The two women became close friends after the incident.^[15] Testament to this was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco).

Baker also worked with the NAACP.^[4] In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.^[16] Wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d’honneur, she was the only woman to speak at the rally.^[17] After King’s assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband’s place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were “… too young to lose their mother.”

Death

On April 8, 1975, Baker starred in a retrospective revue at the Bobino in Paris—Joséphine à Bobino 1975, celebrating her 50 years in show business. The revue, financed by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, opened to rave reviews. Demand for seating was such that fold-out chairs had to be added to accommodate spectators. The opening-night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.^[21]

Four days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She was in a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died aged 68 on April 12, 1975.^[21][22] Her funeral was held at L’Église de la Madeleine. The first American woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Josephine Baker locked up the streets of Paris one last time. She was interred at the Cimetière de Monaco in Monte Carlo.^[21]

Legacy

“Place Joséphine Baker” in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was named in her honor. She has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and the Hall of Famous Missourians. Her name has also been incorporated at Paris Plage, a man-made beach along the river Seine “Piscine Joséphine Baker”.

Two of Baker’s sons, Jean-Claude and Jarry (Jari), grew up to go into business together, running the restaurant Chez Josephine on Theatre Row, 42nd Street, New York, which celebrates Baker’s life and works.^[23]

Baker’s iconic performance style has also been influential. Diana Ross, a long-time admirer of Baker, performed in Bob Mackie-designed outfits similar to Baker’s and reenacted similar poses of the latter in many photo sessions. During the 1980s, Ross moved to Paris for one year, to research Baker’s life for a feature film project Ross hoped to mount. Whitney Houston pays tribute to Baker in her “I’m Your Baby Tonight” music video to represent the Harlem Renaissance. Baker’s banana skirt, in particular, has made numerous media appearances. A dancer wore one in Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s 1991 video for “Baby Got Back”.

In 2009, a musical based on Baker’s war experiences was headed for Broadway. The musical has a book by Ellen Weston and Mark Hampton, music by Steve Dorff and lyrics by John Bettis. ^[24] At the time, Deborah Cox was being mentioned as a possibility for the title role, but—as of 2010—the musical has not yet appeared on Broadway.

Shirley Ann Jackson (born August 5, 1946) is an American physicist, and the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She received her Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, becoming the first African American woman to earn a doctorate from MIT.

Jackson was born in Washington D.C. Her parents, Beatrice and George Jackson, strongly valued education and encouraged her in school.^[4] Her father spurred on her interest in science by helping her with projects for her science classes. At Roosevelt High School, Jackson attended accelerated programs in both math and science, and graduated in 1964 as valedictorian.^[4]

Jackson began classes at MIT in 1964, one of fewer than twenty African American students and the only one studying theoretical physics. While a student she did volunteer work at Boston City Hospital and tutored students at the Roxbury YMCA.^[4] She earned her bachelor’s degree in 1968, writing her thesis on solid-state physics.

Although accepted at Brown University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, Jackson elected to stay at MIT for her doctoral work, in part to encourage more African American students to attend the institution.^[4] She worked on elementary particle theory for her Ph.D., which she completed in 1973, the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate degree from MIT. Her research was directed by James Young.^[4]

Career

As a postdoctoral researcher of subatomic particles during the 1970s, Jackson studied and conducted research at a number of prestigious physics laboratories in both the United States and Europe. Her first position was as research associate at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois (known as Fermilab) where she studied hadrons. In 1974 she became visiting scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. There she explored theories of strongly interacting elementary particles. In 1976 and 1977, she both lectured in physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and became a visiting scientist at the Aspen Center for Physics.

At one time her research focused on [Landau-Ginsburg] theories of charge density waves in layered compounds, and has studied two-dimensional Yang-Mills gauge theories and neutrino reactions.

Jackson has described her interests:

“I am interested in the electronic, optical, magnetic, and transport properties of novel semiconductor systems. Of special interest are the behavior of magnetic polarons in semimagnetic and dilute magnetic semiconductors, and the optical response properties of semiconductor quantum-wells and superlattices. My interests also include quantum dots, mesoscopic systems, and the role of antiferromagnetic fluctuations in correlated 2D electron systems.”

Jackson joined the Theoretical Physics Research Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1976, examining the fundamental properties of various materials. In 1978, Dr. Jackson became part of the Scattering and Low Energy Physics Research Department, and in 1988 she moved to the Solid State and Quantum Physics Research Department. At Bell Labs, Dr. Jackson researched the optical and electronic properties of two-dimensional and quasi-two dimensional systems. In her research, Dr. Jackson has made contributions to the knowledge of charged density waves in layered compounds, polaronic aspects of electrons in the surface of liquid helium films, and optical and electronic properties of semiconductor strained-layer superlattices. On these topics and others she has prepared or collaborated on over 100 scientific articles.^[4]

Jackson was faculty at Rutgers University in Piscataway and New Brunswick, New Jersey from 1991 to 1995, in addition to continuing to consult with Bell Labs on semiconductor theory. Her research during this time focused on the electronic and optical properties of two-dimensional systems.

In 1995, President Clinton appointed Jackson to serve as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), becoming the first woman and first African American to hold that position. At the NRC, she had “ultimate authority for all NRC functions pertaining to an emergency involving an NRC licensee.”

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

On July 1, 1999, Jackson became the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was the first woman and first African-American to hold this position. Jackson is leading a strategic initiative called The Rensselaer Plan and much progress has been made towards achieving the Plan’s goals. She has overseen a large capital improvement campaign, including the construction of an Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center and the East Campus Athletic Village. She enjoys the ongoing support of the RPI Board of Trustees. However, on April 26, 2006, the faculty of RPI (including a number of retirees) voted 155 to 149 against a vote of no-confidence in Jackson.^[5] In the Fall of 2007, the Rensselaer Board of Trustees suspended the faculty senate prompting a strong reaction from the Rensselaer community that resulted in various protests including a “teach in.”^[6][7]

Since arriving at RPI, Jackson has been one of the highest paid university presidents in the nation.^[8] Her combined salary and benefits has expanded from $423,150 in 1999-2000 to over $1.3 million in 2006-07.^[9] In 2006-07 it is estimated she received another $1.3 million from board seats at several major corporations.^[9] The announcement of layoffs at RPI in December, 2008 led some in the RPI community to question whether the institute should continue to compensate Jackson at this level, maintain a $450,000 Adirondack residence for her, and continue to support a personal staff of housekeepers, bodyguards and other aides.^[9] In July 2009, the news reported on the construction of a 10,000-square-foot (930 m²) mountain-top home in Bolton, New York overlooking Lake George. A water-quality activist raised concerns about possible environmental hazards from the construction of a driveway, but according to Department of Environmental Conservation officials, the work was in compliance.^[10] In its 2009 review of the decade 1999-2009, McClatchy Newspapers reported Jackson as the highest-paid currently sitting college president in the U.S., with a 2008 salary of approximately $1.6 million.^[11] On December 4-5, 2009 Jackson celebrated her 10th year at RPI with an extravagant “Celebration Weekend”, which featured tribute concerts by Aretha Franklin and Joshua Bell among other events.^[12][13] Following the weekend, the Board of Trustees announced they would support construction of a new guest house on Dr. Jackson’s property, for the purpose of “[enabling] the president to receive and entertain, appropriately, Rensselaer constituents, donors, and other high-level visitors”.^[14] It was later revealed that Dr. Jackson’s current house on Tibbits Ave has 4,884 square feet (453.7 m²) of space, seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, and an estimated value of $1,122,500.^[15] The trustees claimed that “the funds for this new project would not have been available for any other purpose”^[14] William Walker, the school’s vice president of strategic communications and external relations noted “The board sees this very much as a long-term investment … for President Jackson and her successors.”^[15] On February 2, 2010, the Troy Zoning Board of Appeals denied RPI’s request for a zoning variance allowing them to construct the new house at a height of 44 feet (13 m), which would exceed the 25-foot (7.6 m) height restriction on buildings in residential areas. The Zoning Board stated that it is “too big”, and two firefighters believed the property would be difficult to access with emergency vehicles.^[16] A new plan was announced on February 25, describing how the President’s house will be replaced with new two-story high house.^[17] The new house will have “9,600 square feet of livable space, divided approximately equally between living space for the president’s family and rooms for the president to conduct meetings and events.”^[18] In June of 2010, it was discovered that newest plans for the house showed a new size of 19,500 square feet (1,810 m²), causing the city of Troy to issue a Stop Work Order until additional building fees were paid.

In June of 2010, it was announced that the Rensselaer Board of Trustees unanimously voted to extend Jackson a ten-year contract renewal, which she accepted.

Honors and distinctions

Jackson has received many fellowships, including the Martin Marietta Aircraft Company Scholarship and Fellowship, the Prince Hall Masons Scholarship, the National Science Foundation Traineeship, and a Ford Foundation Advanced Study Fellowship. She has been elected to numerous special societies, including the American Physical Society and American Philosophical Society.

Her achievements in science and education have been recognized with multiple awards, including the CIBA-GEIGY Exceptional Black Scientist Award. In the early 1990s, Governor James Florio awarded her the Thomas Alva Edison Science Award for her contributions to physics and for the promotion of science. She has also received many honorary doctorate degrees.

She was inducted into National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1998 for “her significant contributions as a distinguished scientist and advocate for education, science, and public policy”. More recently she was named one of the 50 Most Important Women in Science by Discover magazine.

Jackson has also been active in professional associations and in serving society through public scientific commissions. In 1985, Governor Thomas Kean appointed her to the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology. She is an active voice in numerous committees of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Science Foundation. Her continuing aim has been to preserve and strengthen the U.S. national capacity for innovation by increasing support for basic research in science and engineering. This is done in part by attracting talent from abroad and by expanding the domestic talent pool by attracting women and members of under-represented groups into careers in science. In 2004 she became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chaired the AAAS board in 2005.

In spring 2007 she was awarded the Vannevar Bush Award for “a lifetime of achievements in scientific research, education and senior statesman-like contributions to public policy.”

Dr. Jackson continues to be involved in politics and public policy. In 2008 she became the University Vice Chairman of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, a non-for profit group based in Washington, D.C.. In 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Jackson to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a 20 member advisory group dedicated to public policy.

Boards of directors

Jackson serves on the boards of directors of many organizations:^[2]

• New York Stock Exchange
• the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution
• IBM Corporation
• FedEx Corporation
• Marathon Oil Corporation
• Medtronic Inc.
• Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated
• Trustee of the Brookings Institution
• Life Member of the MIT Corporation (MIT Board of Trustees)
• Trustee of Georgetown University
• Former Trustee of the Pingry School
• Board Member Campus Compact

Personal

Shirley Jackson is married to Dr. Morris A. Washington, a physics professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and has one son, Alan, a Dartmouth College alumnus.

Source: Wikepedia

“I am interested in the electronic, optical, magnetic, and transport properties of novel semiconductor systems. Of special interest are the behavior of magnetic polarons in semimagnetic and dilute magnetic semiconductors, and the optical response properties of semiconductor quantum-wells and superlattices. My interests also include quantum dots, mesoscopic systems, and the role of antiferromagnetic fluctuations in correlated 2D electron systems.”

Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era.^[1] Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades.^[2] The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.

In addition to his cultural impact, Robinson had an exceptional baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers’ 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954,^[5] was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 – the first black player so honored.^[6] Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.

Robinson was also known for his pursuits outside the baseball diamond. He was the first black television analyst in Major League Baseball, and the first black vice-president of a major American corporation. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Robinson’s major league debut brought an end to approximately sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line.^[114] After World War II, several other forces were also leading the country toward increased equality for blacks, including their accelerated migration of to the North, where their political clout grew, and President Harry Truman‘s desegregation of the military in 1948.^[166] Robinson’s breaking of the baseball color line and his professional success symbolized these broader changes and demonstrated that the fight for equality was more than simply a political matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was “a legend and a symbol in his own time”, and that he “challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration.”^[167] According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson’s “efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution in America … [His] accomplishments allowed black and white Americans to be more respectful and open to one another and more appreciative of everyone’s abilities.”

Beginning his major league career at the relatively advanced age of twenty-eight, he played only ten seasons, all of them for the Brooklyn Dodgers.^[169] During his career, the Dodgers played in six World Series, and Robinson himself played in six All-Star Games.^[5] In 1999, he was posthumously named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.^[170]

Robinson’s career is generally considered to mark the beginning of the post–”long ball” era in baseball, in which a reliance on raw power-hitting gave way to balanced offensive strategies that used footspeed to create runs through aggressive baserunning.^[171] Robinson exhibited the combination of hitting ability and speed which exemplified the new era. He scored more than 100 runs in six of his ten seasons (averaging more than 110 runs from 1947 to 1953), had a .311 career batting average, a .409 career on-base percentage, a .474 slugging percentage, and substantially more walks than strikeouts (740 to 291).^{[132][169][172]} Robinson was one of only two players during the span of 1947–56 to accumulate at least 125 steals while registering a slugging percentage over .425 (Minnie Miñoso was the other).^[173] He accumulated 197 stolen bases in total,^[132] including 19 steals of home. None of the latter were double steals (in which a player stealing home is assisted by a player stealing another base at the same time).^[174] Robinson has been referred to by author David Falkner as “the father of modern base-stealing.”

Historical statistical analysis indicates Robinson was an outstanding fielder throughout his ten years in the major leagues and at virtually every position he played.^[176] After playing his rookie season at first base,^[81] Robinson spent most of his career as a second baseman.^[177] He led the league in fielding among second basemen in 1950 and 1951.^[178][179] Toward the end of his career, he played about 2,000 innings at third base and about 1,175 innings in the outfield, excelling at both.^[176]

Assessing himself, Robinson said, “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me … all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”^[125] Regarding Robinson’s qualities on the field, Leo Durocher said, “Ya want a guy that comes to play. This guy didn’t just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass.”

After Robinson’s retirement from baseball, his wife, Rachel Robinson, pursued a career in academic nursing – she became an assistant professor at the Yale School of Nursing and director of nursing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center.^[200] She also served on the board of the Freedom National Bank until it closed in 1990.^[201] She and Jackie had three children: Jackie Robinson Jr. (born November 18, 1946), Sharon Robinson (born January 13, 1950), and David Robinson (born May 14, 1952).

Robinson’s family gravesite in Cypress Hills Cemetery. Robinson is buried alongside his mother-in-law Zellee Isum and his son Jackie Robinson, Jr.

Robinson’s eldest son, Jackie Robinson Jr., had emotional trouble during his childhood and entered special education at an early age.^[203] He enrolled in the Army in search of a disciplined environment, served in the Vietnam War, and was wounded in action on November 19, 1965.^[204] After his discharge, he struggled with drug problems. Robinson Jr. eventually completed the treatment program at Daytop Village in Seymour, Connecticut, and became a counselor at the institution.^[205] On June 17, 1971, at the age of 24, he was killed in an automobile accident.^[206][207] The experience with his son’s drug addiction turned Robinson, Sr. into an avid anti-drug crusader toward the end of his life.^[208]

Robinson did not long outlive his son. Complications of heart disease and diabetes weakened Robinson and made him almost blind by middle age. On October 24, 1972, he died of a heart attack at home in Stamford, Connecticut, aged fifty-three.^[81][206] Robinson’s funeral service on October 27, 1972, at New York City’s Riverside Church attracted 2,500 admirers.^[209] Many of his former teammates and other famous black baseball players served as pallbearers, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy.^[209] Tens of thousands of people lined the subsequent procession route to Robinson’s interment site at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where he is buried next to his son Jackie and mother-in-law Zellee Isum.^[209] Jackie Robinson Parkway also runs through the cemetery.^[210]

After Robinson’s death, his widow founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation, of which she remains an officer as of 2009.^[81][211] On April 15, 2008, she announced that in 2010 the foundation will be opening a museum devoted to Jackie in Lower Manhattan.^[212] Robinson’s daughter, Sharon, became a midwife, educator, director of educational programming for MLB, and the author of two books about her father.^[213] His youngest son, David, who has ten children, is a coffee grower and social activist in Tanzania.

Source: Wikepedia

Angela Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party. Prisoner rights have been among her continuing interests; she is the founder of “Critical Resistance”, an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex. She is presently a retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is the former director of the university’s Feminist Studies department.^[2] Her research interests are in feminism, African American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music and social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons.^[3]

Her membership in the Communist Party led to Ronald Reagan’s request in 1969 to have her barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. She was tried and acquitted of suspected involvement in the Soledad brothers’ August 1970 abduction and murder of Judge Harold Haley in Marin County, California.

She was twice a candidate for Vice President on the Communist Party USA ticket during the 1980s. In the early 1990s she moved from party communism to other forms of political commitment, and she has identified herself as a democratic socialist.

Early life

Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father, Frank Davis, was a graduate of St. Augustine’s College, a traditionally black college in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was briefly a high school history teacher. Her father later owned and operated a service station in the black section of Birmingham. Her mother, Sallye Davis, a graduate of Miles College in Birmingham, was an elementary school teacher.

The family lived in the “Dynamite Hill” neighborhood, which was marked by racial conflict. Davis was occasionally able to spend time on her uncle’s farm and with friends in New York City.^[4] Her brother, Ben Davis, played defensive back for the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Davis also has another brother, Reginald Davis, and sister, Fania Davis Jordan.^[5]

Davis attended Carrie A. Tuggle School, a black elementary school; later she attended Parker Annex, a middle-school branch of Parker High School in Birmingham. By her junior year, she had applied to and was accepted at an American Friends Service Committee program that placed black students from the South in integrated schools in the North. She chose Elisabeth Irwin High School in Greenwich Village in New York City. There she was introduced to socialism and communism and was recruited by a Communist youth group, Advance. She also met children of some of the leaders of the Communist Party USA, including her lifelong friend, Bettina Aptheker.

Angela Davis as honorary guest of an East German Youth Festival in 1973

Activism

Davis ran for Vice President on the Communist Party ticket in 1980 and 1984, along with the veteran party leader, Gus Hall, as the lead candidate. She also won the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union for her civil rights activism.

Davis has continued a career of activism, and has written several books. A principal focus of her current activism is the state of prisons within the United States. She considers herself an abolitionist, not a “prison reformer,” and has referred to the United States prison system as the “prison-industrial complex”.^[22] Davis suggested focusing social efforts on education and building “engaged communities” to solve various social problems now handled through state punishment.^[2] Davis was one of the primary founders of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement to abolish the prison system.

She has lectured at San Francisco State University, Stanford University, Bryn Mawr College, Brown University, Syracuse University, and other schools.^[2] She states that in her teaching, which is mostly at the graduate level, she concentrates more on posing questions that encourage development of critical thinking than on imparting knowledge.^[2] In 1997, she declared herself to be a lesbian in Out magazine.^[23]

Davis spoke out against the 1995 Million Man March, arguing that the exclusion of women from this event necessarily promoted male chauvinism and that the organizers, including Louis Farrakhan, preferred women to take subordinate roles in society. Together with Kimberlé Crenshaw and others, she formed the African American Agenda 2000, an alliance of Black feminists.^[24]

Davis is no longer a member of the Communist Party, leaving it to help found the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which broke from the Communist Party USA because of the latter’s support of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and the Communist parties of the Warsaw Pact.^[25] She remains on the Advisory Board of the Committees.^[26]

Davis at the University of Alberta, March 28, 2006.

Davis has continued to speak out against the death penalty. At the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), she participated in a 2004 panel concerning Kevin Cooper. She also spoke in defense of Stanley “Tookie” Williams on another panel in 2005,^[27] and 2009.^[28]

In addition to being the commencement speaker at Grinnell College in 2007, in October of that year, Davis was the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Practical Activism Conference at UC Santa Cruz.^[29]

On February 8, 2008, Davis spoke on the campus of Howard University at the invitation of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. On February 24, 2008, she was featured as the closing keynote speaker for the 2008 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference. On April 14, 2008, she spoke at the College of Charleston as a guest of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. On January 23, 2009, she was the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Commemorative Celebration on the campus of Louisiana State University.^[30]

On April 16, 2009, she was the keynote speaker at the University of Virginia Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies symposium on The Problem of Punishment: Race, Inequity, and Justice.^[31] On January 20, 2010, Davis was the keynote speaker in San Antonio, Texas, at Trinity University’s MLK Day Celebration held in Laurie Auditorium. On January 21, 2011, Davis was the keynote speaker (opened by Good Sista, Bad Sista) in Salem, OR at Willamette University’s MLK Week Celebration held in Smith Auditorium where she declared that her biggest goal for the coming years is to shutdown prisons. At the lecture she also stated that while she supports some of Obama’s work she feels that he is too conservative. On January 27, 2011, Davis was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration speaker at Georgia Southern University’s Performing Arts Center (PAC) in Statesboro, Georgia.

Source: Wikipedia – Go there to check out Angela’s impressive educational accomplishments

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 – August 27, 1963) was an African American inventor who originated a respiratory protective hood (similar to the modern gas masks), credited with having a patent for a type of traffic signal, and invented a hair-straightening preparation. He is renowned for a heroic rescue in which he used his hood to save workers trapped in a tunnel system filled with fumes. He is credited as the first African-American in Cleveland to own an automobile.

At the age of fourteen, Morgan moved north to Cincinnati, Ohio, in search of employment. Most of his teenage years were spent working as a handyman for a wealthy Cincinnati landowner. Like many African-Americans of his day, Morgan had to quit school at a young age in order to work. However, the teen-aged Morgan was able to hire his own tutor and continued his studies while living in Cincinnati. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked repairing sewing machines for a clothing manufacturer. He married Madge Nelson in 1896, but the marriage ended in divorce. Word of his skill at fixing things and experimenting spread quickly throughout Cleveland, opening up various opportunities for him.

In 1907, Morgan opened his own sewing machine and shoe repair shop. It was the first of several businesses he would own. In 1908, Morgan helped found the Cleveland Association of Colored Men. That same year, he married Mary Anne Hassek, and together they had three sons. In 1909, he expanded his business to include a tailoring shop. The company made coats, suits, dresses, and other clothing. Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish and prevented the needle from scorching fabric as it sewed. Accidentally, Morgan discovered that this liquid not only straightened fabric but also hair. He made the liquid into a cream and began the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company. Morgan also made a black hair oil dye and a curved-tooth iron comb in 1910, to straighten hair.

Garrett Morgan patented a rudimentary safety hood and smoke protector after hearing about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. He was able to sell his invention around the country, although in many instances, he would have a white partner take credit as the inventor in order to further sell his product.^{[citation needed]}. When he displayed it himself, he became “Big Chief Mason”, a full-blooded Indian from the Walpole Island Indian Reservation in Canada.”^[2] His invention became known nationally when he and three other men used it to save two men from a 1916 tunnel explosion under Lake Erie. Morgan was awarded a gold Medal of Bravery by prominent citizens of Cleveland, but his nomination for the Carnegie Medal was denied, in large part because of his race.^{[citation needed]}. Efforts by Morgan and his supporters over the years to correct this supposed injustice were not successful. Nevertheless, Morgan won gold medals for bravery from the International Association of Fire Chiefs

Safety hood

Newspaper photograph of Garrett Morgan’s rescue in 1916

Garrett Morgan patented a rudimentary safety hood and smoke protector after hearing about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. He was able to sell his invention around the country, although in many instances, he would have a white partner take credit as the inventor in order to further sell his product.^{[citation needed]}. When he displayed it himself, he became “Big Chief Mason”, a full-blooded Indian from the Walpole Island Indian Reservation in Canada.”^[2] His invention became known nationally when he and three other men used it to save two men from a 1916 tunnel explosion under Lake Erie. Morgan was awarded a gold Medal of Bravery by prominent citizens of Cleveland, but his nomination for the Carnegie Medal was denied, in large part because of his race.^{[citation needed]}. Efforts by Morgan and his supporters over the years to correct this supposed injustice were not successful. Nevertheless, Morgan won gold medals for bravery from the International Association of Fire Chiefs

Traffic signal

See also: Traffic signal#History

Patent drawing of Morgan’s signal

The first American-made automobiles were introduced to consumers just before the turn of the 20th Century, and pedestrians, bicycles, animal-drawn wagons and motor vehicles all had to share the same roads. Between 1913 and 1921, many different versions of electric traffic signals were invented and installed throughout the U.S.A. In 1923, Garrett Morgan patented his own version. The Morgan traffic signal was a non-electric, T-shaped pole unit that featured three hand-cranked positions: Stop, in all -directional stop position. This third position halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely. It was never put into production. Its one advantage over other semaphore types was the ability to operate it from a distance using a mechanical linkage, though there were already dozens of automatic systems patented and in use by 1923.^{[citation needed]}

Awards and recognitions

Grave of Garrett A. Morgan

At the Emancipation Centennial Celebration in Chicago, Illinois in August 1963, Morgan was nationally recognized. Although in ill-health, and nearly blind, he continued to work on his inventions; one of his last was a self-extinguishing cigarette, which employed a small plastic pellet filled with water, placed just before the filter. Shortly before his death, in 1963, Morgan was awarded a citation for his traffic signal by the United States Government.^[3]

In Prince George’s County, Maryland, the Prince George’s County Board renamed Summerfield Boulevard to Garrett A. Morgan Boulevard in his honor. The adjacent Washington Metro’s Morgan Boulevard Station was going to be named Summerfield, but was consequently renamed as well. Also named in his honor is the Garrett A. Morgan Cleveland School of Science in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Morgan on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[4]

Morgan was a Prince Hall Freemason and an honorary member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African Americans.

Morgan died on July 27, 1963, at the age of 86, and is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

Source: Wikepedia

Check out this post of Garrett Morgan by Pat Galbincea, The Plain Dealer

Sadly, while doing this post I  noticed that Mr. Stokes Wikipedia had been vandalized.  Therefore, I didn’t use it as my  main source. SMH

Carl Burton Stokes (June 21, 1927–April 3, 1996) was an American politician of the Democratic party who served as the 51st mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Elected on November 7, 1967, but took office on Jan 1, 1968, he was the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city. Fellow Ohioan Robert C. Henry was the first African American mayor of any U.S. city (Springfield, elected 1966).

Born of a poor black family in Cleveland on June 21, 1927, Carl Stokes was raised by a hardworking mother (his father died when Carl was 3) who constantly stressed the value of education. After receiving his discharge from the Army, he attended West Virginia College and the Cleveland College of Western Reserve. He received a BS degree from the University of Minnesota Law School (1954) and the JD degree from the Cleveland-Marshall Law School (1956). He passed the bar examination in 1957.

In 1962 Stokes resigned as Cleveland’s assistant prosecutor and with his brother founded the law firm of Stokes and Stokes. Stokes was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1962 and was twice reelected. In the House he served on committees of judiciary, industry and labor, and public welfare. While urging civil rights and welfare bills, he sponsored a measure empowering the governor to send in national guard troops to defuse a potential riot.

In 1965 Stokes lost the Cleveland mayoral election by a small margin. Deciding to run again in 1967, Stokes worked hard to win the white vote by showing that he was a moderate who was concerned with the welfare of all Cleveland citizens regardless of race. By winning the primary, Stokes became a symbol not for Cleveland alone but for the United States; several national news magazines and Ohio newspapers made this point. The Cleveland Plain Dealer said, “By electing Carl Stokes in the primary we have shown the nation, indeed the world that Cleveland is today the most mature and politically sophisticated city on the face of the earth.”

Stokes next faced Republican Seth C. Taft, scion of the famous family, in the mayoral election. Stokes refused to make race an issue in the campaign and based his candidacy on his abilities as a politician. In television debates between the candidates, Stokes showed his expertise concerning urban problems. Cleveland’s leading industrialist and its leading banker supported Stokes, while economically disadvantaged blacks raised $25,000 for his campaign. The election was close, with Stokes winning with 20 percent of the white vote and 96 percent of the black vote.

As mayor, Stokes addressed a number of immediate problems typical in urban America. He made a special effort to reduce crime by using more policemen but insisting that the police treat all citizens with courtesy and respect. He won praise for his handling of a disturbance which followed the ambush of a white policeman by black nationalists in 1968. He fired an administrative assistant because of her interest in an illegal liquor establishment, saying that maximum integrity was “imperative” for all members of his administration.

As mayor, Stokes opened city hall jobs to blacks and women. Though he was not known as a strong administrator, he was remembered for his vision and motivation. Stokes feuded with City Council and the Police Department for most of his tenure. He also initiated Cleveland: Now!, a public and private funding program aimed at the revitalization of Cleveland neighborhoods. When the Glenville Shootout occurred under Stokes, it was discovered that Fred (Ahmed) Evans, one of major characters in the conflict had received some $6,000 in funds from the program. As a result, donations began to sink. However, Stokes pulled through and was reelected in 1969.

Stokes’s reelection in 1969 revealed that he again received practically all of the black vote and the majority of votes in 8 of the 11 all-white wards. His administration continued to battle problems such as pollution, housing, urban renewal, and federal assistance to state education. In 1970, the National League of Cities, comprised of mayors and county officials from across the country, voted Stokes as its first black president-elect. However, Stokes did not run for mayor in 1971, and in 1972 made a major switch in careers. He became the first black anchorman to appear daily on a New York City television outlet, WNBC, NBC’s flagship station. He was with WNBC for eight years, serving as urban affairs editor and foreign correspondent to Africa.

After his mayoral administration, Stokes lectured to colleges around the country. In 1972 he became the first black anchorman in New York City when he took a job with television station WNBC-TV. While at WNBC New York, Stokes won a New York State Regional Emmy for excellence in craft, for a piece about the opening of the Paul Robeson play, starring James Earl Jones on Broadway. After accusing NBC of failing to promote him to a national brief, he returned to Cleveland in 1980 and began serving as general legal counsel for the United Auto Workers. From 1983 to 1994 he served as municipal judge in Cleveland where he developed a reputation as a fair judge with a common sense approach to the law. President Bill Clinton then appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles. He was awarded 12 honorary degrees, numerous civic awards, and represented the United States on numerous goodwill trips abroad by request of the White House. In 1970, the National League of Cities voted him its first black president-elect.

Stokes returned to Cleveland and became the first black lawyer to serve as general counsel to a major American labor union, the United Auto Workers. He jumped back into the political arena, being elected as a judge in Cleveland’s Municipal Court. With that election, he completed service in all three branches of government – legislative, executive and judicial.

In 1994, Stokes served in the Clinton Administration as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles, a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. He served in that post until he was forced to take a medical leave of absence, suffering from cancer of the esophagus. He died in Cleveland on April 3, 1996  at the Cleveland Clinic. His funeral was held at Cleveland Music Hall, presided over by the Rev. Otis Moss. The funeral was carried on WERE radio. Stokes was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.^[3]

In November 2006, the Western Reserve Historical Society opened an exhibit titled Carl and Louis Stokes: from Projects to Politics. The exhibit focuses on the brothers’ early life at the Outhwaite projects, service in World War II, and eventual rise to politics. The exhibit ran through September 2008.

Further Reading

Kenneth G. Weinberg, Black Victory: Carl Stokes and the Winning of Cleveland (1968), is good. Information on Stokes’s election is also in Leonard I. Ruchelman, ed., Big City Mayors (1969). A good background study is Chuck Stone, Black Political Power in America (1968). Stokes’s administration is analyzed in “Carl Stokes,” a chapter by James F. Barnes in Seven on Black: Reflections on the Negro Experience in America, edited by William G. Shade and Roy C. Henenkohl (1969).

Carl Stokes Federal Building and US Courthouse

The US Federal Courthouse Tower in downtown Cleveland, completed in 2002, was named the Carl B. Stokes Federal Court House Building. There are many other buildings, monuments and a street named for his memory within the City of Cleveland including the CMHA Carl Stokes Center, Stokes Boulevard, and the eponymous Carl Stokes Brigade club. Members of the Brigade celebrate his birthday every year at Lakeview Cemetery with gravesite services.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Carl Stokes and O.M. Hoover

Make sure you check out the cultural references.  I’m sure that list will continue to grow.  Gone, but not forgotten.

Griffith was born in Los Angeles and raised in the Jordan Downs public housing complex. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field due to her record-setting performances and flashy personal style. She was the wife of triple jumper Al Joyner and the sister-in-law of heptathlete and long jumper Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Griffith finished fourth in the 200 m at the inaugural World Championship in 1983. The following year she gained much more attention, though mostly because of her extremely long and colorful fingernails rather than her silver medal in the Los Angeles Olympics 200 m. In 1985, she won the final of the Grand Prix with 11.00 seconds. After these Olympics she spent less time running, and married the 1984 Olympic triple jump champion Al Joyner in 1987.

Returning at the 1987 World Championships, she finished again second in the 200 m. She stunned the world when — known as a 200 m runner — she ran a 100 m World Record of 10.49 in the quarter-finals of the US Olympic Trials. Several sources indicate that this time was very likely wind-assisted. Although at the time of the race the wind meter at the event measured 0.0, indicating no wind, observers noted evidence of significant wind, and wind speeds up to 7 meters/second were noted at other times during the event. Since 1997 the International Athletics Annual of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians has listed this performance as “probably strongly wind assisted, but recognised as a world record”.^[2] Griffith-Joyner’s coach later stated that he believed the 10.49 run had been aided by wind^{[citation needed]}. Outside this race, Griffith-Joyner’s fastest time without wind assistance was 10.61 seconds, which would give her the world record anyway.

By now known to the world as “Flo-Jo”, Griffith-Joyner was the big favorite for the titles in the sprint events at the 1988 Summer Olympics. In the 100 m final, she ran a wind-assisted 10.54, beating her nearest rival Evelyn Ashford by 0.3 seconds. In the 200 m quarter-final, she set a world record and then broke that record again winning the final by 0.4 seconds with a time of 21.34. She also ran in the 4 x 100 m and 4 x 400 m relay teams. She won a gold medal in the former event, and a silver in the latter (which is still the second fastest time in history behind the winner of that race), her first international 4 x 400 m relay. Her effort in the 100 m was ranked 98th in British TV Channel 4′s 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002. She was the 1988 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Griffith-Joyner retired from competitive sports shortly afterwards.

Among the things she did away from the track was design the basketball uniforms for the Indiana Pacers in 1989.^[3]

On September 21, 1998, Griffith-Joyner died in her sleep at the age of 38. The unexpected death was investigated by the sheriff-coroner’s office, which announced on October 22 that the cause of death was suffocation during a severe epileptic seizure.^[4] She was also found to have had a cavernous angioma, a congenital brain abnormality that made Joyner subject to seizures.^[5] According to a family attorney, she had suffered a grand mal seizure in 1990, and had also been treated for seizures in 1993 and 1994.

Aside from whether her 1988 Olympic trial world record was wind-aided, Griffith-Joyner was dogged by rumors of drug use.

In 1988, Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian gold medalist in the 800 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics claimed that her times could only have been the result of using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, that her physique had changed dramatically in 1988 (showing marked gains in muscle mass and definition), and that her performance had improved dramatically over a short period of time.^[6] Before the 1988 season, Griffith Joyner’s best 100 meter time was 10.96 seconds. In 1988 she improved that by 0.47 seconds (or 0.35 sec for the non-wind aided time). Similarly, her pre-1988 best at 200 meters was 21.96. In 1988 she improved that by 0.62 seconds to 21.34, another time which has not been approached. Griffith-Joyner attributed the change in her physique to new health programs.^[7]

She retired from competitive track and field after her 1988 Olympic triumph. Griffith-Joyner was tested during competition and did not fail any drug tests.^[8] Track athletes commonly retired in their late 20s, and her husband stated that Griffith-Joyner was never interested in being a career sprinter, found the early nights and no-junk-food diet restrictive, and wanted to start a family as well as pursue interests in fashion design and crafts.^[9]

Joyner’s supporters claimed that the autopsy cleared her of allegations that she used performance-enhancing drugs. The coroner noted that the autopsy records showed that she did not die from drugs or banned substances. Her husband had requested that Joyner’s body specifically be tested for steroids, but was informed that there was not enough urine in her bladder and that the test could not accurately be performed on other biological samples.^[10]

Cultural references

• Griffith-Joyner is mentioned in the rap song “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot. “You can have them bimbos, I keep my women like FloJo”^[11]
• Ludacris included her in the rap song “Number One Spot” “Stay on the track, hit the ground running like FloJo.”
• DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince pay homage to Joyner in the rap song Numero Uno “Fast like Flo Jo crazy like Cujo”
• Hi-Tek makes reference to Griffith-Joyner in his collaboration with The Blast on the album Train of Thought. “It’s Hi-Tek (body), on the track like Flo-Jo, bet you ain’t know I had flow though.”
• Flo-Jo is mentioned in an episode of Family Guy. Peter is being stalked by Death and attempts to run away. Death responds by saying “I caught Flo Jo, you don’t think I can catch you?”
• Del the Funkee Homosapien mentions Griffith Joyner in his debut album I Wish My Brother George Was Here by rapping “might sound odd to the average Joe Schmoe, the new school passed ya like Flo Jo”
• In an episode of “The Nanny,” Fran Drescher’s character confesses that she elaborated about her accomplishments in life in a letter to a pen-pal by claiming to be the fastest woman alive; it then segues into a fantasy scene where Fran is standing in the gold-medal position on an Olympic pedestal, and she turns to Flo-Jo and remarks, “Oh, cheer up, Flo. Silver goes with everything!”
• Flo-Jo appeared on the Tom Bergeron version of Hollywood Squares. The first episode of her week actually aired on September 21, 1998, the day she died. Center square Whoopi Goldberg introduced the week’s episodes with a prerecorded message stating that the episode was taped prior to Flo-Jo’s death and that the entire week of episodes were dedicated in her memory.
• British rock band Queen references Flo-Jo in their 1989 song “Rain Must Fall”.
• In the first episode of Gilmore Girls Lorelai says to Rory “You’re going to have to into frickin’ Flo-Jo to get away from me.”^[12]
• In the first episode of Veronica Mars Wallace says to Veronica “Hey, FloJo, slow your ass down.”
• In Season 3 Episode 13 of Everybody Hates Chris FloJo is mentioned when young Chris is trying to chase a girl and narrator Chris says “there was catch a girl kiss a girl… she ran faster than FloJo.”
• In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Episode “Werewolf” the riff “That’ll teach me to have sex with Flo-Jo” is made when one of the main characters is shown with large scratches on his back.

In 1997, Flo-Jo appeared as herself in the Season 3 Episode 13 of Pacific Blue.

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, known for his dazzling oratory^[2] and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments (see this example) that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.^[3] He became a major speaker for the cause of abolition.

In addition to his oratory, Douglass wrote several autobiographies, eloquently describing his life as a slave, and his struggles to be free. His first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, was published in 1845 and was his best-known work, influential in gaining support for abolition. He wrote two more autobiographies, with his last, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, published in 1881 and covering events through and after the Civil War.

After the Civil War, Douglass remained very active in America’s struggle to reach its potential as a “land of the free”. Douglass actively supported women’s suffrage. Following the war, he worked on behalf of equal rights for freedmen, and held multiple public offices.

Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”

Life as a Slave

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who later became known as Frederick Douglass, was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland, between Hillsboro^[5] and Cordova, probably in his grandmother’s shack east of Tappers Corner and west of Tuckahoe Creek.^[6] He was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infant and lived with his maternal grandmother Betty Bailey. His mother died when Douglass was about seven.

The identity of his father is obscure. Douglass originally stated that he was told his father was a white man, perhaps his master Aaron Anthony. Later he said he knew nothing of his father’s identity. At age seven, Douglass was separated from his grandmother and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Anthony worked as overseer.^[7] When Anthony died, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld. She sent Douglass to serve Thomas’ brother Hugh Auld in Baltimore.

When Douglass was about twelve years old, Hugh Auld’s wife Sophia started teaching him the alphabet despite the fact that it was against the law to teach slaves to read. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated Douglass like one human being ought to treat another. When Hugh Auld discovered her activity, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this statement as the “first decidedly antislavery lecture” he had ever heard.^[8] As detailed in his autobiography, Douglass succeeded in learning to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing the writings of men with whom he worked. Mrs. Auld one day saw Douglass reading a newspaper; she ran over to him and snatched it from him, with a face that said education and slavery were incompatible with each other.

He continued, secretly, to teach himself how to read and write. Douglass is noted as saying that “knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom.”^[9] As Douglass learned and began to read newspapers, political materials, and books of every description, he was exposed to a new realm of thought that led him to question and then condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator, which he discovered at about age twelve, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights.

When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly Sunday school. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that in any week, more than 40 slaves would attend lessons. For about six months, their study went relatively unnoticed. While Freeland was complacent about their activities, other plantation owners became incensed that their slaves were being educated. One Sunday they burst in on the gathering, armed with clubs and stones, to disperse the congregation permanently.

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh after a dispute (“[A]s a means of punishing Hugh,” Douglass wrote). Dissatisfied with Douglass, Thomas Auld sent him to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a “slave-breaker.” There Douglass was whipped regularly. The sixteen-year-old Douglass was indeed nearly broken psychologically by his ordeal under Covey, but he finally rebelled against the beatings and fought back. After losing a confrontation with Douglass, Covey never tried to beat him again.

In 1837, Douglass met Anna Murray, a free black in Baltimore. They married soon after he obtained his freedom.

From slavery to freedom

Douglass first unsuccessfully tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him out from his owner Colonel Lloyd. In 1836, he tried to escape from his new owner Covey, but failed again.

On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Dressed in a sailor’s uniform, he carried identification papers provided by a free black seaman. He crossed the Susquehanna River by ferry at Havre de Grace, then continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware. From there he went by steamboat to “Quaker City” (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and continued to New York; the whole journey took less than 24 hours.

Frederick Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York City:

I have often been asked, how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the ‘quick round of blood,’ I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said: ‘I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions.’ Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.

Abolitionist activities

The home and meetinghouse of the Johnsons, where Douglass lived in New Bedford

Douglass settled in New Bedford, where he joined several organizations, including a black church, and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison’s weekly journal The Liberator, and in 1841 heard Garrison speak at a meeting of the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society. At one of these meetings, Douglass was unexpectedly asked to speak.

After he told his story, he was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. Douglass was inspired by Garrison and later stated that “no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments [of the hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison.” Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass and wrote of him in The Liberator. Several days later, Douglass delivered his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s annual convention in Nantucket. Then 23 years old, Douglass conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his rough life as a slave.

In 1843, Douglass participated in the American Anti-Slavery Society’s Hundred Conventions project, a six-month tour of meeting halls throughout the Eastern and Midwestern United States.

Women’s Rights

Frederick Douglass stood up to speak in favor of women’s right to vote.

In 1848, Douglass attended the first women’s rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention, as the only African American. Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked the assembly to pass a resolution asking for women’s suffrage. Many of those present opposed the idea, including influential Quakers James and Lucretia Mott. Douglass stood and spoke eloquently in favor; he said that he could not accept the right to vote himself as a black man if woman could not also claim that right. Douglass projected that the world would be a better place if women were involved in the political sphere. “In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of the government of the world.” Douglass’s powerful words rang true with enough attendees that the resolution passed.

Douglass refines his ideology

In 1851, Douglass merged the North Star with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty Party Paper to form Frederick Douglass’ Paper, which was published until 1860. Douglass came to agree with Smith and Lysander Spooner that the United States Constitution was an anti-slavery document. This reversed his earlier agreement with William Lloyd Garrison that it was pro-slavery. Garrison had publicly expressed his opinion by burning copies of the document. Further contributing to their growing separation, Garrison was worried that the North Star competed with his own National Anti-Slavery Standard and Marius Robinson’s Anti-Slavery Bugle.

On July 5, 1852, Douglass delivered an address to the Ladies of the Rochester Anti Slavery Sewing Society, which eventually became known as “What to the slave is the 4th of July?” It was a blistering attack on the hypocrisy of the United States in general and the Christian church in particular.

Douglass’ change of position on the Constitution was one of the most notable incidents of the division in the abolitionist movement after the publication of Spooner’s book The Unconstitutionality of Slavery in 1846. This shift in opinion, and other political differences, created a rift between Douglass and Garrison. Douglass further angered Garrison by saying that the Constitution could and should be used as an instrument in the fight against slavery.

Frederick Douglass in 1856

Douglass believed that education was key for African Americans to improve their lives. For this reason, he was an early advocate for desegregation of schools. In the 1850s, he was especially outspoken in New York. While the ratio of African American to white students there was 1 to 40, African Americans received education funding at a ratio of only 1 to 1,600. This meant that the facilities and instruction for African-American children were vastly inferior. Douglass criticized the situation and called for court action to open all schools to all children. He stated that inclusion within the educational system was a more pressing need for African Americans than political issues such as suffrage.

Douglass was acquainted with the radical abolitionist John Brown but disapproved of Brown’s plan to start an armed slave rebellion in the South. Brown visited Douglass’ home two months before he led the raid on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry. After the raid, Douglass fled for a time to Canada, fearing guilt by association and arrest as a co-conspirator. Douglass believed that the attack on federal property would enrage the American public. Douglass later shared a stage at a speaking engagement in Harpers Ferry with Andrew Hunter, the prosecutor who successfully convicted Brown.

In March 1860, Douglass’ youngest daughter Annie died in Rochester, New York, while he was still in England. Douglass returned from England the following month. He took a route through Canada to avoid detection.

Civil War years

Before the Civil War

By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country, known for his orations on the condition of the black race and on other issues such as women’s rights. His eloquence gathered crowds at every location. His reception by leaders in England and Ireland added to his stature.

Fight for emancipation

Douglass and the abolitionists argued that because the aim of the Civil War was to end slavery, African Americans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass publicized this view in his newspapers and several speeches. Douglass conferred with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 on the treatment of black soldiers, and with President Andrew Johnson on the subject of black suffrage.

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. (Slaves in Union-held areas and Northern states would become freed with the adoption of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865.) Douglass described the spirit of those awaiting the proclamation: “We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky … we were watching … by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day … we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries.”

With the North no longer obliged to return slaves to their owners in the South, Douglass fought for equality for his people. He made plans with Lincoln to move the liberated slaves out of the South. During the war, Douglass helped the Union by serving as a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. His son Frederick Douglass Jr. also served as a recruiter and his other son, Lewis Douglass, fought for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment at the Battle of Fort Wagner.

Slavery everywhere in the United States was outlawed by the post-war (1865) ratification of the 13th Amendment. The 14th Amendment provided for citizenship and equal protection under the law. The 15th Amendment protected all citizens from being discriminated against in voting because of race. Douglass’s support for the 15th Amendment, which failed to give women the vote, led to a temporary estrangement between him and the women’s rights movement.

Lincoln’s death

At the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington’s Lincoln Park, Douglass was the keynote speaker. In his speech, Douglass spoke frankly about Lincoln, balancing the good and the bad in his account. He called Lincoln “the white man’s president” and cited his tardiness in joining the cause of emancipation. He noted that Lincoln initially opposed the expansion of slavery but did not support its elimination. But Douglass also asked, “Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followed the first day of January 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word?”

The crowd, roused by his speech, gave him a standing ovation. A long-told anecdote claims that the widow Mary Lincoln gave Lincoln’s favorite walking stick to Douglass in appreciation. Lincoln’s walking stick still rests in Douglass’ house known as Cedar Hill. It is both a testimony and a tribute to the effect of Douglass’ powerful oratory.

Family life

Douglass and Anna had five children: Rosetta Douglass, Lewis Henry Douglass, Frederick Douglass, Jr., Charles Remond Douglass, and Annie Douglass (died at the age of ten). Charles and Rossetta helped produce his newspapers.

In 1877, Douglass bought their final home in Washington D.C., on a hill above the Anacostia River. He and Anna named it Cedar Hill (also spelled CedarHill). They expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms, and included a china closet. One year later, Douglass purchased adjoining lots and expanded the property to 15 acres (61,000 m²). The home has been designated the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

His wife, Anna Murray Douglass, died in 1882, leaving him with a sense of great loss and depressed for a time. He found new meaning from working with activist Ida B. Wells.

Frederick Douglass with his second wife Helen Pitts Douglass (sitting). The woman standing is her sister Eva Pitts.

In 1884, Douglass married again, to Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York. Pitts was the daughter of Gideon Pitts, Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), she worked on a radical feminist publication named Alpha while living in Washington, D.C. The couple faced a storm of controversy with their marriage, since Pitts was both white and nearly 20 years younger than Douglass. Her family stopped speaking to her; his was bruised, as his children felt his marriage was a repudiation of their mother. But feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the couple. The new couple traveled to England, France, Italy, Egypt and Greece from 1886 to 1887.

After Reconstruction

As white Democrats regained power in the state legislatures of the South after Reconstruction, they began to impose new laws that disfranchised blacks and to create labor and criminal laws limiting their freedom. Many African Americans, called Exodusters, moved to Kansas to form all-black towns where they could be free. Douglass spoke out against the movement, urging blacks to stick it out. He had become out of step with his audiences, who condemned and booed him for this position.

In 1877, Douglass was appointed a United States Marshal. In 1881, he was appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia.

At the 1888 Republican National Convention, Douglass became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States in a major party’s roll call vote.

He was appointed minister-resident and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti (1889–1891). In 1892 the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner to the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. He spoke for Irish Home Rule and the efforts of leader Charles Stewart Parnell in Ireland. He briefly revisited Ireland in 1886.

Also in 1892, Douglass constructed rental housing for blacks, now known as Douglass Place, in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003^.

Death

Gravestone of Frederick Douglass located in Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York

On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and given a standing ovation by the audience. Shortly after he returned home, Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart attack or stroke in Washington, D.C. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.

Source: Wikepedia

Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player to be inducted from the Negro leagues.

Paige was a right-handed pitcher and was the oldest rookie to play Major League Baseball at the age of 42. He played with the St. Louis Browns until age 47, and represented them in the Major League All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953. Paige began his professional career in 1926 with the Chattanooga White Sox of the Negro Southern League, and played his last professional game on June 21, 1966, for the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League.

Personal Life

On October 26, 1934, Paige married his longtime sweetheart Janet Howard. After a few years they separated and she had him served with divorce papers while he was walking onto the field during a game at Wrigley Field. At his court date, on August 4, 1943, Paige’s divorce was finalized with him paying a one time payment of $1,500 plus $300 for attorney’s fees to Janet.

On October 12, 1947 in Hays, Kansas, Paige married his longtime girlfriend Lahoma Brown in a civil ceremony. They started a family and had seven children.

Home Going

During a power failure on June 8, 1982, Paige died of a heart attack at his home in Kansas City, a month before his 76th birthday. He is buried on Paige Island in the Forest Hill Memorial Park Cemetery in Kansas City.

His Legacy

Satchel was born Leroy Robert Page to John Page, a gardener, and Lula Page (née Coleman), a domestic worker, in a section of Mobile, Alabama, known as Down the Bay.^[5] Lula and her children changed the spelling of their name from Page to Paige in the mid-1920s, just before the start of Satchel’s baseball career. Lula said, “Page looked too much like a page in a book,” whereas Satchel explained, “My folks started out by spelling their name ‘Page’ and later stuck in the ‘i’ to make themselves sound more high-tone.” The introduction of the new spelling coincided with the death of Satchel’s father, and may have suggested a desire for a new start.^[6]

According to Paige, his nickname originated from childhood work toting bags at the train station. He said he wasn’t making enough money at a dime a bag, so he used a pole and rope to build a contraption that allowed him to cart up to four bags at once. Another kid supposedly yelled, “You look like a walking satchel tree.”^[7] A different story was told by boyhood friend and neighbor, Wilber Hines, who said he gave Paige the nickname after he was caught trying to steal a bag.^[8]

In 2010, Sportswriter Joe Posnanski, writing for Sports Illustrated, named Satchel Paige as the hardest thrower in the history of baseball. He based this, in part, on the fact that: “Joe DiMaggio would say that Paige was the best he ever faced. Bob Feller would say that Paige was the best he ever saw. Hack Wilson would say that the ball looked like a marble when it crossed the plate. Dizzy Dean would say that Paige’s fastball made his own look like a changeup.”^[124] Posnanksi further noted that: “for most of his career Satchel Paige threw nothing but fastballs. Nothing. Oh, he named them different names — Bat Dodger, Midnight Rider, Midnight Creeper, Jump Ball, Trouble Ball — but essentially they were all fastballs. And he was still unhittable for the better part of 15 years. One pitch. It’s a lot like Mariano Rivera, except he wasn’t doing it for one inning at a time. He was pitching complete games day after day. That had to be some kind of incredible fastball…. [he was] perhaps the most precise pitcher in baseball history — he threw ludicrously hard. And he also threw hundreds and hundreds of innings.”^[124]

In an article in Esquire magazine in 1976, sportswriter Harry Stein published an article called the “All Time All-Star Argument Starter”, a list of five ethnic baseball teams. Paige, a choice Stein meant more out of sentiment than anything else, was the relief pitcher on his black team.

On May 31, 1981, a made-for-television movie titled Don’t Look Back, starring Louis Gossett Jr. as Paige and Beverly Todd as Lahoma, aired. Paige was paid $10,000 for his story and technical advice. In the spring of 1981, Paige was made vice president of the Triple-A Springfield Redbirds of the American Association, but this was in title only. In August, with great difficulty because of health problems, he attended a reunion of Negro League players held in Ashland, Kentucky that paid special tribute to himself and Cool Papa Bell. Attending the reunion were Willie Mays, Buck Leonard, Monte Irvin, Judy Johnson, Chet Brewer, Gene Benson, Bob Feller and Happy Chandler.

Ronan Farrow, originally Satchel Farrow, was named after Satchel Paige; Ronan Farrow was born in 1987.^[125]

Buck O’Neil, a former teammate and longtime friend of Paige, claimed in the 1994 documentary Baseball that Babe Ruth batted against Paige once. According to O’Neil’s story, the two men opposed each other in a barnstorming game after the Babe’s retirement, and that Ruth hit a 500 foot home run off Paige. O’Neil said that Paige was so awestruck by the shot that he met Ruth at the plate to shake his hand, and later had Ruth sign the ball. However, Paige stated in the 1948 book, Pitchin’ Man by Hal Lebovitz, that one of his greatest disappointments was, “I never pitched to Babe Ruth.” While the Babe Ruth All-Stars did play exhibition games against Negro leagues teams, there is no documented evidence that Paige and Ruth ever faced each other. In addition, there is no mention of this claim in any of the biographies on Ruth, which would surely have been worth discussing.

In 1996, Paige was played by Delroy Lindo in the made-for-cable film Soul of the Game, which also starred Mykelti Williamson as Josh Gibson, Blair Underwood as Jackie Robinson, Harvey Williams of Kansas City, as “Cat” Mays, the father of Willie Mays, Edward Herrmann as Branch Rickey and Jerry Hardin as Commissioner Happy Chandler.

In 1999, he ranked Number 19 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

On July 28, 2006, a statue of Satchel Paige was unveiled in Cooper Park, Cooperstown, New York commemorating the contributions of the Negro Leagues to baseball.

Paige (left) and Jackie Robinson in the uniform of the Kansas City Monarchs, 1945