On August 1, 1974, twenty-six-year-old Ron LeFlore made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut for the Detroit Tigers. Thirteen months earlier, LeFlore was serving a five-to-fifteen-year sentence for armed robbery. LeFlore’s remarkable trajectory began when he was born in Detroit, Michigan, on June 16, 1948, … Read MoreRonald LeFlore (1948- )
The Wire was a popular television series which aired for five seasons on the HBO network, from June 2, 2002, to March 9, 2008. The show, set in Baltimore, Maryland, was created by former police reporter David Simon and based on his experiences and those … Read MoreThe Wire (2002-2008)
Little Willie John, born William Edward John on November 15th, 1937, was one of ten children born in Cullendale, Arkansas to Mertis John and mother Lillie John. His family migrated north to Detroit, Michigan in the 1940s so his father could find work. Little Willie John was a musically gifted child who performed … Read MoreLittle Willie John (1937-1968)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Historians rarely compare the mostly working-class and poor Korean population in Japan and African Americans seeking economic justice in the United States. Japanese scholar Kazuyo Tsuchiya of Kanagawa University takes on that task in her new book, Reinventing Citizenship: Black Los … Read MoreThe TransPacific Struggle over Citizenship: Seeking Welfare Rights in Kawasaki City, Japan and Los Angeles, California,1962-1982
Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt was a high ranking Black Panther Party (BPP) leader in Los Angeles who was targeted by the United States federal government’s domestic surveillance COINTELPRO program. He was accused and convicted of a murder and spent twenty-seven years in prison but the conviction … Read MoreGeronimo Pratt (1947-2011)
Author George Jackson is best known for his memoir Soledad Brother, containing the letters that he wrote from prison between 1964 and 1970. George Lester Jackson was born on September 23, 1941, on the west side of Chicago, Illinois. The second of five children, Jackson’s … Read MoreGeorge Jackson (1941-1971)
Charles McArthur Taylor, born on January 28, 1948, in Arthington, Liberia, served as the president of Liberia from August 2, 1997, to August 11, 2003. Born to Nelson and Bernice Taylor, his mother was part of the Gola tribe, and his father was claimed to … Read MoreCharles M. Taylor (1948- )
Marion Barry Jr., a civil rights activist and later three term mayor of Washington, D.C., was born on March 6, 1936, in Itta Bena, Mississippi. His parents, Marion Barry and Mattie Barry, were sharecroppers; the family lived in relative poverty. When Marion was eight years … Read MoreMarion Barry, Jr. (1936-2014)
Billie Holiday is considered by many critics and fans to have been one of the most important jazz vocalists of the twentieth century. Her difficult life of poverty, abusive relationships, and drug abuse helped give her voice a deep, raw emotion that was expressed in … Read MoreBillie Holiday (1915-1959)
