WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday reflected on her own family’s rise from slavery to the White House as she helped to unveil a statue of abolitionist Sojourner Truth — the first black woman to be so honored at the Capitol.
Odetta, the singer whose deep voice wove together the strongest songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She was 77.
- Associated Press - Comedian Wanda Sykes says the passage of a same-sex marriage ban in California has led to her be more outspoken about being gay.
AMY GOODMAN: In just over two months, this country will have its first African American First Lady. Since the start of the presidential campaign, Michelle Obama has been more scrutinized than the spouse of any presidential candidate.
But most accounts have either focused on her sense of fashion or tried to portray her as a caricature, as scant attention has been paid to Michelle Obama’s personal history. Her ancestors were slaves. Her grandfather was part of the Great Migration, out of the South, north. She herself grew up in the South Side of Chicago in the midst of the civil rights era, was closely involved in community organizing work.
One day after Barack Obama’s first visit to the White House as President-elect, we speak to the Pulitzer-winning novelist Alice Walker. In a recent open letter to Obama, Walker writes, “Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.â€
With reactions from author Eduardo Galeano, Dr. Vincent Harding, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Relevant links: theroot.com, democracynow.org, prisonradio.org.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for 30 years under apartheid, died after a concert in Italy. She was 76. In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world: Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon and for JFK.
I saw her perform back in the early 90s with Hugh Masekela and
during her performance she called out American woman for not having a
Women’s Day celebration that year even though women all over the world had
organized one in their countries, even in countries where women were
persecuted much more harshly than here. She showed why they called her
Mama Africa!
Obama introduced the world to a woman who “was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.”
“Tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can,” he said.
Cooper first registered to vote on Sept. 1, 1941. Though she was friends with elite black Atlantans like W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and Benjamin E. Mays, because of her status as a black woman in a segregated and sexist society, she didn’t exercise her right to vote for years.
…you have to continue to prepare yourself, continue to build yourself, continue to elevate yourself and be a benefit, be a blessing rather than a curse, and things will get better. And they have, so when I think of Dr. King and Malcolm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, I also think of Chief Albert Luthuli, one of the first Africans to earn the Nobel Prize.I mean that after Chief Luthuli, apartheid was so rigid, unbreakable that men had to carry their IDs on plastic cards that were too large for any suit, so they flapped, reminding them constantly who they were. It was my blessing to meet Nelson Mandela before he went into prison and I’ve seen him many times since. He knew this day would come, and to be able to stay in prison for 27 years, knowing that the day would come.
Highlights:
Tavis: When you think of Dr. King now and having lost him 40 years ago - let me ask it a different way. How often do you think of him in your work now, 35 years later, and what do you think?
Edelman:Â …He would be very pleased to see that we’ve got a possibility of a Black president of the United States and all the Black middle class folk and all the folk who are sitting up in Fortune 500s and in the cabinet. But he would not be pleased to see all the poor children and the big bottom that has grown in America, and the fact that we’ve got the largest gap between rich and poor we’ve ever had since we began to keep this data.
And he warned us about buying into the valleys of a burning house. And he would not be pleased that a lot of folk who are presiding over the policies that are hurting Black and poor people and that are militaristic are Black folk and we threw out our spiritual baby in the bathwater of American materialism…
Tavis:Â …what do you make of these prima fascia comparisons between Obama and King and the t-shirts and the hats and all that? What do you make of that in this moment?
Edelman: Well, I think we’re all standing on Dr. King’s shoulders, okay? And I think that I try to take these as an affirmation that there was a great prophet that came and set the stage for all of us, that some parts of his dreams are being fulfilled. And I think that he would be very proud of Barack Obama.
Now the issue is, how do we build the citizens, though? Because a President Obama or a President McCain - none of these are going to be able to do what we need to have done in our country in resetting our moral compass and in resetting our priorities without a citizen’s movement and without accountability, so that our job is not only get out and vote and make sure that we get the best person who we could get out of our choices today, but then we’ve got to make sure that we put forth Dr. King’s dream, which is ending poverty in America..
See entire interview here.
An impassioned speech on racial politics from last week’s New Yorker festival.
According to the Department of Defense, 41 of the 99 U.S. military women who have been killed in Iraq died in “noncombat-related incidents.” Of the 99 U.S. military women killed in the Iraq theater, 41 were women of color (21 African-Americans, 16 Latinas, three of Asian-Pacific descent and one Native American).
Michelle Obama gives an inspiring and intimate introduction to her family’s all-American success story. And: Ted Kennedy passes the torch.
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said.
DemocracyNow! reports:
And Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones has died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was fifty-eight years old. In 1998 she became the first African American woman to represent Ohio in Congress. She was a leader in the fight against predatory lending practices and advocated for broadening healthcare coverage for low- and middle-income people. In January 2005, she led the fight in the House against certification of President Bush’s re-election, citing voting irregularities in Ohio.
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones: “I’m duty-bound to follow the law and apply to the law to the facts as I find them, and it is on behalf of those millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote, that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing to stand at polls for countless hours in the rain, as many did in Ohio, then I should surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress. This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning the victory of the President, but it is a necessary, timely and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy. I raise this objection neither to put the nation in the turmoil of a proposed overturned election, nor to provide cannon fodder or partisan demagoguery for my fellow members of Congress. I raise this objection because I am convinced that we, as a body, must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. I raise this objection to debate the process and protect the integrity of the true will of the people.â€
Click for L.A. Times Story
The shootings occurred within the past two months. On Monday, Rep. Maxine Waters, supported by a group of protesters from the community, announced she is seeking a federal investigation.
“I don’t trust any police department to investigate itself,” Waters said Monday.
The Green Party made history last week when it nominated the first all-women-of-color presidential ticket in US history. Former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who was the first African American woman elected to Congress in Georgia, won the Green Party’s nomination last Monday. She named longtime community organizer, journalist and former director of the Hip Hop Caucus, Rosa Clemente, as her running mate earlier this month. They both join us for a wide-ranging discussion on the 2008 race, the media, the impact of the hip hop generation and more. [includes rush transcript]
Wild Roots Media
