Andrew Caldwell became a viral sensation when a video surfaced of him declaring,”I’m not gay no more! I’m delivered! I don’t like mens no more!” at a Church of God in Christ conference in St. Louis. He recently reached out to a Richmond, Virginia TV station to discuss what has happened to him. When asked if he was performing some type of comedy routine, Caldwell says, “I was serious. I…
April V. Taylor Police in Baltimore are under fire after assaulting and tasing 36-year-old Kianga Mwamba while she was filming officers who were making an arrest. Mwamba began filming officers after she witnessed them kicking a suspect who was on the ground. After officers yelled at her, Mwamba advised police that her father was an officer and that she knew she had a right to film. Officers then demanded that…
Londrelle Hall and Ray Mills set off on a 550 mile journey from Atlanta, Georgia to Ferguson, Missouri on November 3, running an average of 35 miles a day for almost three weeks as they ran what they named the Run for Justice, in honor of Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager who was gunned down in August. Hall and Mills report that they not only wanted to bring attention to…
Aaron McGruder is perhaps one of the most controversial writers in history because of his comic strip The Boondocks, which was later turned into an animated TV series that he served as creator, executive producer, and head writer for. McGruder was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1974 but moved to Columbia, Maryland at the age of 6 when his father accepted a job there. The neighborhood his family lived in was…
Morgan Freeman is an actor, director and narrator who was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1937. He was the youngest of five children and grew up in Chicago and Greenwood, Mississippi. He grew up looking up to such actors as Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier. Freeman’s interest in acting was the result of being forced to participate in his junior high school’s drama competition after pulling a chair…
Ferguson, Missouri erupted in demonstrations after unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown was gunned down by white police officer Darren Wilson. Brown’s body was left laying in the hot summer sun for four and a half hours after Wilson took less than 90 seconds to kill him after stopping him for jaywalking. People quickly took to the streets to express their anger, not just about Michael Brown’s death but about the…
A local CBS-affiliated network in San Francisco reported that a study conducted by Harvard doctors and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention finds that nearly 30 percent of youth in inner-cities are affected by “hood disease.” The term is used to describe a complex form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that affects young people who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods where they are repeatedly exposed to trauma. A…
Muhammad Ali is known by many as the greatest heavyweight and one of the greatest athletes in boxing history. Besides being a boxer, he is also a social activist and philanthropist. He was born January 17, 1942 in Louisville, KY as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. Ali first discovered his talent for boxing at the age of 12. His bike had been stolen, and when Ali told police officer Joe Martin…
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were an iconic power couple who both worked as activists and actors. Dee was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1923 and began her acting career with her Broadway debut in 1946. Davis was born in Cogdell, Georgia in 1917, and after serving in World War II, he also began his acting career on Broadway. The couple married in 1948 and spent much of their lives…
Dr. Maya Angelou is known for inspiring generations through the wisdom of her words and the way she carried herself through life’s ups and downs. Born Marguerite Johnson on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, she came from humble beginnings. Growing up in Stamps, Arkansas exposed her to the deep racial prejudices and brutality of the Jim Crow South. Her experiences with racial discrimination and prejudice became part…
Dr. Umar Johnson is a 37-year old Doctor of Clinical Psychology, Nationally Certified School Psychologist, Certified K-12 School Principal, activist, orator and political scientist. He practices psychology privately in Pennsylvania and also serves as a special education evaluator. He specializes in working with children who are suicidal, depressed and/or violent. Johnson also trains educators and mental health technicians in a variety of psycho-educational topics that include Attention Deficit Disorder and…
Kanye West is a rapper, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer who began his career as a producer with Roc-A-Fella Records. He first gained fame for his contributions to Jay-Z’s The Blueprint album in 2001 as well as his work on hit singles for such artists as Alicia Keys, Ludacris and Janet Jackson. West was born in Atlanta, Georgia but moved to Chicago with his mother after his parents divorced. West’s…
Many people have spoken out about the killing of Black unarmed teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, but not many have tied to the larger context of the treatment of Black youth in the United States. Minister Louis Farrakhan is one who does. In the days immediately after Brown’s death, people poured into the streets of Ferguson demanding justice for Brown and an end…
Clint Smith is a young poet, activist and educator from New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Davidson College with an English degree in 2010. While at Davidson, he founded FreeWord, the school’s first slam poetry team. Smith helped lead the team to a top ten finish at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. Using his skills as a spoken word artist and poet, Smith spent time living in Soweto, South…
Michael Eric Dyson is an American public intellectual who speaks out on issues that impact black people and their community. He is a professor, commentator and the author of more than a dozen books on race, politics, and the African-American experience. Dyson draws on his experience and journey from being a former Detroit gang member, factory worker and unwed father to become an ordained minister and earn his master’s and…