You Think What?

“We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open. The chances of your becoming a Jerry Rice or a Magic Johnson are so slim as to be negligible. Black kids must learn to distribute their energies in a way that’s going to make them productive, contributing citizens in an increasingly high-technology society.”
~ Harry Edwards, author and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley as quoted in Time Magazine March 6, 1989.

Sociologist, scholar and author Harry Edwards, born 1942, is from East St. Louis, Illinois; he received his doctorate in sociology from Cornell University.

Harry Edwards stated desire is to be a role model of “the promising athlete who gave up the possibility of a career in professional sports to become a scholar instead.” (more…)

“If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.” Tommie Smith U.S. Track and Field Olympian Mexico City, 1968

It was October 16, 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico City where John Carlos and Tommie Smith, along with white Australian Silver medalist Peter Norman, who wore a human rights badge on the podium in solidarity of the Americans’ protest, made headlines around the world. (more…)

“…As an active worker for civil rights, she has been a steady and forceful advocate on the national, state, and municipal scene, reminding people everywhere that freedoms are won not only by idealism but by persistence and will over a long time…”
~Excerpt from citation the University Of Pennsylvania honorary degree of Doctor of Laws conferred in 1974 upon Dr. Sadie T.M. Alexander

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, a Philadelphian born in 1898 was a trailblazing female scholar and lawyer. Named Sarah at birth she was known as Sadie throughout her life.

She was born into a family of accomplished individuals. Her maternal grandfather, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Sadie’s father, Aaron Albert Mossell, was a graduate of Lincoln University and the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1888. (more…)

Our favorite political cartoonist, Mark Fiore has his say about the relief efforts for the survivors of last month’s Haitian earthquake disaster. Take a look and be sure to help….

If you are one of those who uses Twitter to tell the whole entire planet what you are doing every minute of the day, where you are, who you are with, when you are home and when you are not- we have a word of caution for you and a web site you have got to see.

The word of warning is DON’T! Do Not share everything about your life on the Internet…as fascinating as you may find it, or you believe others may find it so, some nefarious individuals may find it even more so…

We advise what is private must remain private.

It is said a word to the wise is sufficient and if you happen to be unwise then a picture is worth at least a thousand words…

Nina Simone the High Priestess of Soul, composer of more than 500 songs, the creator of a musical narrative for a generation for an era of Civil Rights demonstrations, is the featured artist celebrant  in Clark Dark’s Black History Month Entertainment Spotlight.

Celebrate Black History Month 2010

Eunice Walker Johnson had been since 1961 the producer and director of America’s most well known fashion show The Ebony Fashion Fair. (more…)

“We use the ability to lower the armrests as the gauge, as the armrests are truly the definitive boundary between each seat.”

Blanche Africa Reilly Dark has her say about Southwest Airlines and movie director Kevin Smith.

Over the past weekend the Internet was all a buzz with news a young fat movie director was ejected in a manner he considers inappropriate whether he is a well known fat dude flying the people’s airline or just one of the unknown people who fly affordable air transportation. I should add right here I agree with Smith. The disrespect and humiliation demonstrated toward him was absolutely unacceptable! It’s unsatisfactory to be rude to any paying customer in any industry. (more…)

“There’s a choice we’re making.
We’re saving our own lives…”-Lionel Richie

Nearly twenty-five years after the initial recording of the song created by the late Michael Jackson with lyrics by Lionel Richie, a new generation of Hollywood celebrities, singers, actors, models and people just known for being known, gathered to record a remake of the song that raised in 1985 more than $30 million for the charity USA For Africa.

This new crop of celebrities met on February 1, 2010, almost 25 years after the first gathering headed by music producer Quincy Jones, to record the cover to raise money for the survivors of the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti.

We’ve decided to revisit the original recording from 1985: (more…)

“You have to think about yourself, because no one wakes up in the moring with you on their mind.”~Attorney Allie Latimer

Allie Latimer is a living American shero who counts among her many educational, civic and professional  achievements, the fact she is the founder of the national organization Federally Employed Women (FEW).

FEW is an advocacy group established in 1968 to improve the status of women employed by the Federal government and by the District of Columbia government. (more…)