Some great progress has been made at Umoja.com and a new version is coming in the next month!

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010), Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn, New York and died May 9, 2010, at the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

Lena Horne hailed from a family of the so-called “talented tenth” as W.E.B. DuBois had termed them — with historical family members on both paternal and maternal sides.  In fact, DuBois recites a lunch room encounter with Cora Calhoun in one of his books — I forget which.  More importantly, unlike so many black actors actresses and entertainers, Horne also dedicated her life to Civil Rights Activism even to the detriment of her career.

• She refused to preform to segregated audiences
• She preformed and aided the NAACP, SNCC, and NCNW
• She also worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws.

Time magazine has come out with their annual 100 “people who most affect our world.” The Time Magazine list is always interesting because it helps to reflect how the media views who influences their thinking; however, I do not view the list as any indication of the people who actually affect the majority of the world. For instance, the list tends to skew heavily towards people who captivate the imagination of a section of the media as opposed to those who actually affect real policy, politics, economics, or scientific discoveries that are known in their field but not the popular media at large.

Anyway, I take the list with a grain of salt… but I did try to pick out African-Americans on the Time 100 list.

1.) Barack Obama (naturally), written up by DAVID REMNICK.

2.) Serena Williams By BILLIE JEAN KING

3.) Oprah Winfrey By PHIL DONAHUE

4.) Prince By USHER

This list may not be exhaustive, but it is definitely interesting. I think the most interesting part of the Time Magazine list, is that the words are supposedly penned by peers.

Interestingly enough, Glenn Beck’s write-up was penned by Sarah Palin…

“Don’t even get me started,” says the 60-year-old Johnson, who has since divorced and remarried (charmingly enough, to the Virginia circuit court judge who presided over her divorce). “I don’t watch it. I suggest to my kids [a twentysomething daughter and a college-age son] that they don’t watch it… I’m ashamed of it, if you want to know the truth.”

“When we started BET, it was going to be the Ebony magazine on television,” Johnson tells [Lloyd Grove]. “We had public affairs programming. We had news… I had a show called Teen Summit, we had a large variety of programming, but the problem is that then the video revolution started up… “

Dorothy Irene Height  legendary figure in the 1960′s  civil rights movement died in Howard University hosptial She was 98 years old. Born in Richmond Virgina in March 24,1912. She was an extremely brilliant woman who earned her BA and MA at New York University in 4years.

Height dedicated her life to service of the people and still some of us have failed to realize is just how her life shaped the direction and forward motion of our  own. Her leadership skills were  key in heading several organizations through out her life.UYCM ( United Youth Christian Movement)  NCNW( National Council of Negro Women for 40years, YWCA to name a few – one of her more infamous movements “Wednesday in Mississippi”consisted of women from different races and faiths from all around the globe. Her founding organization assisted Freedom schools and voter registration drives. And perhaps most important she made her presence well known to many of her male counterparts of her time such as, Philip Randolph Whitney H. Young and Martin Luther King Jr She was there to ensure black women’s rights were addressed.   Dr Height proved essential when it came to important legacies  such as “ The Bethune Council House” a national historic site which contains national archives for black woman’s history. She received 40 honorary doctorates from educational insitutions  Spell man College, Princeton University and of course NewYork University.Height was the winner of many awards Congressional Gold Medal,  inducted into National Woman’s Hall Of Fame.Her memoir “Open Wide the Gates” later became a well known stage musical “If This Hat Could Talk”Im grateful this woman lived I would not be where I am today as a black woman in North America if it had’nt been for her tireless efforts. Perhaps her birthday should be a National holiday?   source: thegrio.com

Columbia Journalism Review has an interesting feature article, “An Icon Fades” by Don Terry, that conducts a bit of analysis on the failure of Johnson Publications to transition from print publications of their flagship Ebony and Jet magazines into a strong position on the Internet.  Mr. Terry leads into his analysis of the African American icon with a brief bit of history.

Born November 1, 1945, Ebony showed off her glamour and vitality for decades. But she is tired now, debt-ridden and seriously ill, her once crystalline voice a raspy whisper. The black celebrities who once courted her now have other media suitors, thanks in no small part to the trail Ebony blazed. Too many readers and advertisers have followed them. “An Icon Fades” by  Don Terry.

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National Urban League partners with NBC owned theGriot.com, calls campaign “I am empowered.”

Yikes.

It is great to see a new media campaign by an historic black organization, somehow I feel we are right back debating about the mythical “black agenda,” and how relevant it is in the 21st century United States.  While the National Urban League deserves credit for trying to stay relevant and promote actual policy-based solutions to improve the lives of Black Americans.  I’m not sure whether I should laugh or cry at the ineptitude of launching a campaign to empower Black men and Women on a GE and Comcast owned NBC property.   Now, the National Urban League could be receiving a significant amount of in-kind contributions from NBC/ General Electric / Comcast, it is hard to know unless the National Urban League decides to be completely transparent about the advertising campaign.

Fair enough.
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Hat tip StarkReports.com

Here’s StarkReports preview of the video –

“He’s of the belief that blacks are “more devastated” today than they were under slavery because of the rate of abortion in the black community. It sounds an awful lot to me like the Congressman is suggesting that blacks were better off as slaves.” StarkReports.com

“he tries to be respectful” according to him …

Direct Quote:

Rep. Trent Frank: (R-AZ) In this country, we had slavery for God knows how long. And now we look back on it and we say “How brave were they? What was the matter with them? You know, I can’t believe, you know, four million slaves. This is incredible.” And we’re right, we’re right. We should look back on that with criticism. It is a crushing mark on America’s soul. And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery. And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up? (video)

Also “He believes all [his] insanity.”

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