Why did newspapers fail to boost circulations in light of the election of the first African American to become President of the United States?

All over the USA, folks have been lamenting about the lack of local papers.  The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, etc.  All gone in the early hours of November 5th from newsstands.

Some papers, like the New York Times, are now prepared to publish collector’s editions.  A few will be charging higher prices to get their paper into your hands.

At the expense of the print editions, 2008 will be remembered as the year the online press favorably embraced the rush for information about a USA favorite son from Hawaii who would win the White House and shock the world.

Construction is expected to begin on the four-acre memorial in November, 2008.

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Arthur W. Mitchell, (1886-1968), was the first black Democrat elected to the U.S. Congress (1934 - 1943).

Mitchell studied under Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.  The Congressman, representing the First Congressional District of Illinois, received his law school instruction at Columbia and Harvard.

Clarence Mitchell, (1911-1984), earned the nickname the “101st. Senator,” thanks to his effective lobbying efforts for civil rights.

His influence helped pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Mitchell helped extend a ban against voting literacy tests in 1970.

He was instrumental in gaining enforcement powers for the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) in 1972.  President Jimmy Carter awarded Mitchell the Medal of Freedom in 1980 for his lifetime battle for civil rights.

Parren Mitchell was the first African American to be elected to Congress from Maryland’s 7th District in 1970.  He became Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1976.

In 1950, he challenged the University of Maryland in the courts to become the school’s first black graduate student.

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Jones swam the 3rd leg of the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay in Beijing to help the US team win the 2008 gold.

Take another look at Cullen Jones, the first African American to hold a swimming world record.

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1. Award winning Olympic athlete Willye White is the only American woman to participate in five different Olympiads and finish in the top 12 in her events.
   
   She competed at age 16 in Melbourne Australia in 1956 when she won a silver medal in the long jump.  White was on the Olympic team in Rome in 1960.
   
   She won a silver medal in the 400 meter relay in Tokyo in 1964.  White was also successful competing in 1968 (Mexico City), and 1972 (Munich, Germany).
   
   

2. Muhammad Ali won an Olympic gold medal in Rome as a light heavyweight boxer in 1960.

3. “Smokin’” Joe Frazier won the gold medal for boxing at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.

4. Ralph Metcalfe was a standout in track at the 1932 and 1936 Olympic games.

5. In 1936, Jesse Owens made history in Berlin, Germany.  A member of the U.S. Olympic track team, Owens became the first American to win four gold medals.

6. Tennessee State University’s Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome (100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, and relay team).

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For more about Thurgood Marshall, check out our feature: 20 black history attorneys take the law into their own hands.

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This 2008 production begins in 1960 as it traces the young boxer known as Cassius Clay through his training at Miami, Florida’s Fifth Street Gym.

The release of the one hour documentary is timed to coincide with the August 8 - August 24 Summer Olympics in Beijing, although many PBS stations will repeat the program this Fall.

Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee talks about the role Miami played in launching the boxing great.

Historian Manning Marable, journalist David Remnick, and Ali biographer Thomas Hauser offer commentary and insight during the program.

Ali’s Miami neighbors and friends also weigh-in with their recollections.

Watch for Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami in the coming months.

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Through newspaper articles, she wrote about discrimination she experienced and observed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Historian Paula Giddings has captured the essence of the life of Wells in Ida: A Sword Among Lions, a new 2008 publication.

Giddings, a Smith College professor, has written two previous books: In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement, and When and Where I Enter: The Impact Of Black Women On Race and Sex In America.

Her Wells biography is accurately documented as it rolls back the curtain on the fascinating odyssey of an American woman who fought for civil rights and justice.

Highly recommended.

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She studied at the Grand Chaumiere in Paris after receiving a Rosenwald grant in 1929.  Savage also received a prestigious Carnegie Foundation grant.

Her works have been exhibited at...

• The 1939 New York World’s Fair
• New York’s Anderson Galleries
• The New Jersey State Museum
• New York’s Schomburg Collection
• The Societe Des Artistes Francais Beaux Arts in Paris

Our 10 black history artists hold the distinction of crafting great collections in the USA and around the world...

1. Augusta Savage - sculptor
2. Charles Alston - muralist, sculptor, and artist
3. Dr. Margaret Burroughs - painter, sculptor
4. Elizabeth Catlett - sculptor and artist
5. Adele Chilton - Painter and artist
6. Richard Hunt - sculptor
7. Lois Mailou Jones - artist
8. Dr. Samella Sanders Lewis – painter, graphic artist
9. James A. Porter - painter
10. William E. Scott - murals and portraits

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Here are 2 video tributes we created using a couple of albums, now out of print, that salute the Martin Luther King Jr. legacy.

Here’s more background about this 1973 Martin Luther King Jr. Classic Soul Dream Concert.

Read the notes from playwright Tommy Butler about the Martin Luther King Jr. Selma Musical.

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