Coretta Scott King

Julianne Malveaux  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Feb 23 2012

Movies that hark back to stereotypes

I still have not gone to see the movie, “The Help.” I read the book and that was enough for me. I read a book where a White woman fully engaged herself in cultural appropriation, putting 21st-century voices into 1960s throats. Which Black women, in 1960, would have said that Black men left their families like trash by the side of the road? Maybe a 21st-century feminist would have voiced such sentiments, but a ‘60s sister? Hardly.

Terri Schichenmeyer  |   OW Contributor
Jan 12 2012

By Martin Luther King Jr. (foreword by Coretta Scott King, new foreword by Marian Wright Edelman)

It’s amazing how, sometimes, old words have new meaning.

Take, for example, a classic play or novel. Take, for example, a favorite poem that a great-grandfather tucked away in a family Bible, a story set in another era, or a letter written by a long-gone ancestor.

The words inside it might seem quaint and stiff. The format may not be familiar to you at all. You might not have known the writer but though the times are different, verses and thoughts put to paper 100 years—or even three generations—ago still shout their meaning.

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jan 12 2012

Practical Politics

There are those who still say the creation of America’s 10 national holiday in 1983—i.e., the kind that means post offices, banks, schools, and libraries close and federal workers get the day off—was a reparations gift of White guilt for the long years of making Black Americans suffer.

Perhaps.

Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Jan 12 2012

Between the Lines

This week is our annual King dance.

I call it the King dance because it’s the time of year when American society dances around the significance of Martin Luther King Jr. and his contributions to the evolution of American society.

It is really difficult to grapple with the compromising of the King legacy.

King was more than a day off work. King marched for social justice and economic equality. He didn’t march in parades. I never got the parade concept. What are we celebrating? The life of Martin Luther King Jr., you say.

Stanley O. Williford  |   OW Editor
Sep 8 2011

The private firm, 1-800-AUTOPSY, has franchises

If you ask Vidal Herrera what is the most famous autopsy he has done, he’ll remind you that his company can “never be defined by one case.”

“Many times I’m asked if there is one autopsy that really stands out and usually I tell them no. I’ve done so many,” said Herrera, who owns 1-800-AUTOPSY, a private autopsy company founded in 1988 that has franchises in Northern California, Nevada and Florida.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
San Diego college students and volunteers will carry out their sixth home restoration project on Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14. as part of the “Healing our Heroes’ Homes” (H3) program created by the nonprofit Embrace. The five-day effort will take place at the home of medically retired Marine Corps Capt. Sarah Bettencourt. Bettencourt served with many different units across the country during the Global War on Terrorism and developed a rare neurological disorder in 2008. With a focus to restore the homes of disabled veteran homeowners, H3 falls in line with Embrace’s mission to mobilize college-student volunteers and community members to serve less fortunate members of civilian and veteran communities. The project for the Bettencourts’ home includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling, building ADA-compliant disability ramps, widening their driveway to ADA standards, widening doorways and landscaping.
 
District of Columbia
The 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will showcase its five-year community research project on African American identity with the program “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style, and Identity.” This multicity collaboration examines the history and culture of the aesthetics of African Americans. The festival will be held June 26-30 and July 3-7, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. “Whether we realize it or not, we are all dress artists. The way we compose our look is a creative expression of our ideas about who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Diana N’Diaye, program curator. “This program explores the diversity of African American traditions of style, but also teaches young people the importance of documenting their own culture and saving that information for themselves and future generations.”