In the mid-1980s, the streets of Compton, Calif., were some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up there into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation. The movie—“N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton”—tells the astonishing story of how these young men revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the ’hood; they ignited a cultural war.
Author Archives: William Covington
Posted inCovers
Martin Luther King Jr.’s European Odyssey
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
—Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
Posted inCovers
Martin Luther King Jr.’s European Odyssey
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
—Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
Posted inCovers
The funkiest UFO in the galaxy
I was first introduced to the term “Mothership” in the summer of 1968. During that time, it was very common to find African American male youth hanging out in the inner city, enjoying the simple pleasures of summer vacation. There were no trips to Disneyland or summer camp. Just treks to our neighborhood public swimming pool at South Park, bikes, skates, balls, and the large magnolia tree (which we would congregate under, if there was no money to pay for swimming), and Brother Eddie Grayson, a member of Mosque No. 27 of the Nation of Islam Los Angeles, who all the neighborhood boys knew as the recruiter.
Posted inCovers
‘In the war on drugs, which side is the CIA on?’
The Hollywood film industry has churned out two movies this month covering the crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged Black communities in the 1980s. One, a docu-drama produced for the big screen called “Kill the Messenger,” and the other is a documentary titled “Freeway: Crack in the System.”
Posted inCovers
African American serial killers
Author’s note: As a fourth grader, wanting to be accepted by older guys as “cool” is an important milestone in any culture. In my old neighborhood, a small part of socially fitting-in with the older teenagers was the ability to endure scary stories.
Posted inCovers
The Ebola epidemic: no end in sight
Authors Note: I was first introduced to the Ebola virus in 1978 while attending California State University Long Beach. At that time, Ebola was just two years old and known in the scientific community as a Marburg-like virus (a virus first discovered in Marburg, Germany, in 1967. Since then the virus has hit Africa seven times.)
Posted inCovers
The Ebola epidemic: no end in sight
Authors Note: I was first introduced to the Ebola virus in 1978 while attending California State University Long Beach. At that time, Ebola was just two years old and known in the scientific community as a Marburg-like virus (a virus first discovered in Marburg, Germany, in 1967. Since then the virus has hit Africa seven times.)
Posted inFeature
Shot in fear
At a National Black Peace Officer conference held last week in Los Angeles, officers spoke on the recent series of shootings involving African American men. Officers were polled and felt, in most cases, incidents like these are based on fear—the fear of the African American male.
Posted inCovers
Nigerian unrest due to unequal distribution of resources
Three months after 276 young girls were stolen from the “safety” of the private Chibok School in Northern Nigeria by armed insurgents of Boko Haram, one native of the region with a deep understanding of the history and geopolitical dynamics, said the real story has not been told by the mainstream media. According to Ebuna Naka, a successful businessman who made millions importing hair relaxer into his homeland during the jheri curl fad, and whose family served in politics, medicine and owned two hospitals, there is a back story that underlies the kidnapping.
