Some More 2020 Deaths: Neal, Lowery, Withers

MARCH 2020

FRED "CURLY" NEAL, 77

The dribbling wizard who entertained millions with the Harlem Globetrotters.  March 26.

THE REV. JOSEPH E. LOWERY, 98

A veteran civil rights leader who helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  March 27

BILL WITHERS, 81

He wrote and sang songs in the 1970s including "Lean on Me," "Lovely Day" and "Ain't No Sunshine."  March 30.

We Remember People We Lost in 2020-- Part 6: Brimly, Osmond, Dubois, Lewis, Rogers and Morricone

WILFORD BRIMLEY, 85

Recognized for his thick mustache and down-home drawl and performances in "The China Syndrome," Cocoon," Absence of Malice" and  "The Natural."  Was a real-life cowboy.  Died August 1.

KEN OSMOND (EDDIE HASKELL), 76

If Eddie Haskell doesn't do it, then think "Leave It to Beaver."  Wally's buddy and character indeed.  Died May 18.

JA'NET DUBOIS, 74

Played neighbor Willona Woods on "Good Times" TV show and co-write and sang the theme song to "The Jeffersons."    You know, "Moving On Up."  Okay, stop singing it now.  Died February 17.

REP. JOHN LEWIS, 80

Famed Civil Rights activist and member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  One of the 13 original Freedom Riders and led the "Bloody Sunday" march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.  Died July 17.

KENNY ROGERS, 81

Sang many crossover hits from country to pop like "The Gambler," "Islands in the Stream" and "We've Got Tonight."  First gained fame in the 1960s with the group First Edition and "Just Dropped In (To see What Condition My Condition Was In)."  Died March 20.

ENNIO MORRICONE, 91

Italian composer who orchestrated more than 500 movies including the Spaghetti westerns "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."  Died July 6.

Death of One of the Last Survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 2018: Olivia Hooker (1915-2018)

From the November 29, 2018, Chicago Tribune  by DeNeen L. Brown of the Washington Post.

Olivia Hooker called it "The Catastrophe," the notorious 48 hours of fire and death that leveled "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Oklahoma when she was six-years-old.

The Tulsa Race Massacre erupted on May 31, 1921, when a white lynch mob descended on the courthouse where a young black teenager was being held.

A group of black World War I veterans tried to protect the teen and in the ensuing violence, as many as 300 black people died and thousands more saw their homes and livelihoods destroyed by torch.

Some people were burned alive, and 40 square blocks of businesses and residential property -- valued then at more than $1 million -- were destroyed.

Dr. Hooker later was among the first black women to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard and retired as an associate professor of psychology at Fordham University in New York.  But by the time of her death on Nov,. 21, at the age of 103, she had also become one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

An Amazing Woman.

National Museum African American History-- Part 3: Emmett Rill's Coffin and Lunch Counter Stools

Visitors to the museum will see a 19th century slave cabin and the glass-topped coffin in which the body of 14-year-old Emmett Till was placed after his brutal murder in Mississippi in 1955.  His death became a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement.

There is also a 77-ton Pullman Palace passenger car from the Jim Crow era and  Woolworth's lunch counter stools from Greensboro, N.C. where four black students carried out the 1960 sit-in that helped topple segregation.

Pullman porters were black men and was a big step up to middle class status.

A Lot of History.  --Cooter

Rosa Parks House Alive and Well in Berlin

From the April 13, 2017, Chicago Tribune by Stephanie Kirchner, Washington Post.

And, that is Berlin, as in Germany.  Definitely one of the last places I'd expect to find her house.

"To save the house of civil rights icon Rosa Parks from the wrecking ball, American artist Ryan M

Mendoza shipped it half way across the world.  Now it's on display in the German capital.  When he learned the house she lived in during the late 1950s was to be demolished by Detroit as part of its anti-blight campaign, he launched a rescue plan.

A team of local volunteers took the house apart piece by piece and re-erected it in Berlin a few weeks later.

Between 1957 and 1959, the house was Rosa Parks' temporary shelter from after her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger.

Well-Worth Saving.

Death of Franklin McCain in 2014, One of the Greensboro Four

From the January 10, 2014, WBTV 3 News.

A North Carolina Civil Rights  Attended North Carolina A&T University and was best-known for his involvement at the Greensboro sit-in.

On February 1, 1960, he sat at a whites-only lunch counter at the Woolworth's on Elm Street along with Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeill and David Richmore.  This extremely brave move on their part started a nationwide movement.  The next day they were joined by 25 other A&T and other Greensboro school students.

The movement gained momentum.  By the end of the month there were similar demonstrations in 250 other cities across the country.

Mr. McCain once said:  "One of two things was gonna happen to me.  I was going to jail for a long time or I was gonna have my head split open in a pine box.  That was it, those were the only two options."

It took an incredible amount of heroism to right a horrible wrong, but he did it.

Quite the Hero.

Final Goodbyes Said in 2015-- Part 1: "It Was Like Deja Vu All Over Again"

From the December 31, 2015, Chicago Tribune.

There were many more listed than what I have here, but these are the ones that meant more to me.

Baseball great Ernie Banks, 83   Mr. Cub

Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, 90    I loved the Aflac Duck and him in that commercial.

Civil Rights icon Julian Bond, 75

Filmmaker Wes Craven, 76

"The Beverly Hillbillies" star Donna Douglas, 82   Ellie Mae.  She sure was a fine sight.

Pro Football Hall of Famer and sportscaster Frank Gifford, 84

Singer Lesley Gore, 68  One of the great Girl Singers.  "Its My Party"

Arrest Records of 9 Men in Famed Sit-In to be Erased

From the January 28, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Meg Kinnard, AP

Nine black men arrested for integrating a whites-only South Carolina lunch counter nearly 54 years ago made them heroes in the Civil Rights movement, but the law still considered them guilty of trespassing.

On Wednesday, a Rock Hill, S.C., judge is expected to vacate the arrests and convictions of the men known as the Friendship Nine.

The eight students at Rock Hill's Friendship JuniorCollege:  Willie McCleod, John Gaines, Clarence Graham, W.T. "Dub" Massey, James Wells, David Wiilliamson Jr., Mack Workman and Robert McCullough (who died in 2006) were led by activist Thomas Gaither of the Congress of Racial Equality.

About a year had passed since the better-known lunch counter encounter at the Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C. and they decided to do it in January 1961 at the white's-only lunch counter at McCrory's variety store.

They were arrested and convicted of trespassing and breach of the peace and opted for a month's hard labor rather than post bail.

Although their records are to be cleared, the men hope their nonviolence can be an example to protesters today.  "We still insist that nonviolence is the way to go," said Clarence Graham.  I think MLK would agree as well.

I am glad this happened.  They were very brave to challenge a horrible system intended to keep blacks down.

LBJ Letter to MLK's Widow Up For Auction

From the Feb. 20, 2015, Chicago Tribune "LBJ letter to King's widow up for auction" by Ian Shapira, the Washington Post.

It was written April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee.  And it was sent by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Coretta Scott King to express his condolences and determination to find the murderer.

"We will overcome this calamity," he wrote.  She kept it until 2003 when she gave it to her husband's confidant, singer Harry Belafonte.

But he considered auctioning it in 2008, shortly before Coretta King died and King's three children objected and it wasn't.

But now, it is slated to be auctioned again.  Belafonte gifted the letter to his half-sister and brother-in-law who figured it was a good time to sell it because of all the 50 anniversary of the Civil Rights movement going on these days.  The minimum bid is $60,000.

They seem to be a bit too money-oriented and should have gifted it or sold it for a low price to the Civil Rights museum in  Memphis.

A followup in March in Reuters said it sold for $60,000 to an online bidder, but auctioneers had been expecting twice as much as I am sure Belafonte's relatives were as well.  Too bad, a piece of American history gone.

Ten Things You Might Not Know About College-- Part 5: North Carolina A&T and the LSD Prof

9.  A year before four students were killed at Kent State University in Ohio, a young man at NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY in Greensboro was shot and killed on campus during a Civil Rights protest at the historically black college.

It was never determined who pulled the trigger to kill Willie Grimes in May 1969, but protesters insisted it was the police.

But, what happened next, though, is undisputed.  National Guard soldiers, backed up by a tank and several armored personnel carries, invaded the campus in a pre-dawn assault.  They enjoyed air superiority with a plane and a helicopter dropping tear gas and "nausea gas" as they rounded up hundreds of students, most of whom were rousted from their beds after the locks on their dorm room doors were shot away.

This is horrible.

10.  The UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO has boasted many distinguished graduates and must have thought it had another one when professor John Buettner-Janush became chairman of New York University's anthropology department in 1973.

But, he was convicted of using his NYU lab to manufacture LSD and methaqualone.  After he was paroled, he sent poisoned Valentine's Day chocolates to the judge, whose wife ate the candy and fell ill but survived.  The disgraced prof was convicted again and died in federal custody.

Nothing to be proud of Here.  --DaCoot

2015 Anniversaries-- Part 2

50TH-- MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S FIRST MARCH AT SELMA, March 7:  It would take three attempts before the marchers finally made it from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, during a year full of Civil Rights milestones.  Retrospective coverage will also likely focus on the assassination of Malcolm X on February 21 in New York City.

50TH--  FILM PREMIER OF "THE SOUND OF MUSIC", March 2:  Julie Andrews as Maria was a revelation, Time wrote.  "Nearly all of the requirements for what moviemakers tout as wholesome family entertainment" were met.

75TH--    McDONALD'S OPENING, May 15:  Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first restaurant to bear their name in San Bernardino, California.  Ray Kroc later took the franchise global; today, there are more than 35,000 locations worldwide.

150TH--  END OF THE CIVIL WAR, April 9th:  The sesquicentennial of the U.S.'s bloodiest conflict is about to draw to a close as the date arrives on which Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant.  And April 14th marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Remember Any of These?  --DaCoot

Fifty Years Ago This Week-- Part 4: Selma Civil Rights Marches

"It was more dangerous for African-Americans to march in Alabama on March 7 [1951] than it was for Marines to land on a beach in South Vietnam.  State troopers, under orders from Alabama Gov. George Wallace, reacted violently to the right-to-vote demonstration, firing tear gas into the crowd and clubbing people with nightsticks.

"After "'Bloody Sunday,' Selma became ground zero in the civil rights movement.  King led a second, largely peaceful march of more than 2,500 protesters March 9.  Later that day, five men attacked three out-of-town white ministers.  The Rev. James Reeb was beaten so badly he would die two days later.

"On March 21, tens of thousands of marchers, led by King and protected by hundreds of soldiers, began a successful three-day trek to the state capital.  President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law less than five months later.

--DaCoot

Fifty Years Ago This Week-- Part 1 "A Remarkable Confluence of Events"

From the March 8, 2015, Chicago Tribune "Chicago Flashback: Hitting Rewind of Historic Week" by Stephan Benzkofer.

"This week 50 years ago saw a remarkable confluence of events that in striking ways echoes in 2015.  In March 1865, the United States took a huge step to escalate its role in Vietnam; a former Illinois governor was on trial for tax evasion; the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led the historic march from Selma, Alabama,;  and a Cook County judge's ruling that police mishandles the arrest of two Latino men exploded into a major controversy.

"A half century later, U.S. war planes bomb Islamic State flighters; the effect of money on campaigns and candidates remains as issue; the movie "Selma" recreates MLK's landmark walk and sparks its own controversy; and the U.S. department of Justice declares that Ferguson, Mo., police regularly violated the civil rights of African-American residents."

And, Mr. Benzkofer goes further to say that recently the Grateful Dead sold out multiple Soldier Field concerts this summer.  The band formed in 1965.

Also of interest, the cost of a Tribune 50 years ago was 10 cents weekdays and 25 cents on Sundays.  Today it is $1.50 on weekdays and $3 on Sundays.

Only a Deadhead.  --Cooter

The Lincoln Memorial's Role in History

From the May 25, 2014, Chicago Tribune by William Hagerman.

"It would ne hard to visit the Lincoln Memorial and not be moved.  Few locations, in the nation's capital, or anywhere else, are as evocative."

The Memorial has been a backdrop for events in American history, especially to the blacks in America.  Songer Marian Anderson was banned fro  performing in Constitution Hall because she was black and instead sang at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939.  Of course, there was the  famous Dr. Martin Luther King speech in 1963.

Jay Sacher has a new book out called "Lincoln Memorial: The Story and Design of an American Monument," where he looks into its history.

He covers the big events as mentioned, but also obscure ones like the fight to get it built, the partnership between architect Henry Bacon and sculptor Daniel Chester French.

I wrote about Henry Bacon's father, Henry Bacon, Sr., who engineered "The Rocks" at Wilmington, N.C. as well as the Swash Defense Dam at the same place in my Running the Blockade blog.

--  Cooter

First Civil Rights Sit-In in Chicago, Not Greensboro

From the February 23, 2014, Chicago Tribune "Chicago Flashback: Birth of the sit-in" by Ron Grossman. //// It took place in May 1842, when a group of young Chicagoans, both black and white refused to take no when they went into the Jack Spratt Coffee House on East 47th Street. This place was wwell-known for its refusal to serve blacks policy. //// At the time, the United States was deeply involved in fighting World War II to save democracy abroad, all the while when blacks were denied equal rights at home by Southern laws and Northern customs. //// James Farmer was an organizer of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and 27 others decided to test their pacifist commitment at Jack Spratt's. Sure enough, the whites were served, but the blacks weren't. //// The management offered to let the blacks eat in the basement. When the police arrived, they refused to arrest the blacks, saying they hadn't broken any Illinois laws. //// Jack Spratt quietly dropped its anti-black policies after that. //// It was 18 years later that the group of college students in Greensboro, NC, had their much more famous sit-in. //// But, the First Was in Chicago.

Deaths: Civil Rights Pioneers

From the Jan. 19th and 26th, 2014, Chicago Tribune. //// JOHN W. ROGERS SR., 95. Member of the Tiskegee Airmen in World War II who became an attorney and Cook County (Chicago) Juvenile Court Judge. Died Jan. 21st. //// FRANKLIN McCAIN, 73. Died Jan. 9th. Civil Rights trailblazer and part of the "Greensboro Four" whose sit-in with friends at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, spread across the South. //// Both these men withstood all sorts of hardships to further the lives of blacks in the United States. //// True Heroes.

In Memory of Martin Luther King Jr-- Part 4

10.  THE MISSING PRESIDENT.  Although Johnson declared a national day of mourning, he didn't attend the funeral.  Because of the controversy surrounding the Vietnam War, he made few public appearances in 1968.  Vice President Hubert Humphrey went in his place.


11.  THE MOTEL-TURNED-MUSEUM  The Lorraine Motel is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.  Visitors can see the room preserved behind glass where King was staying along with the balcony where he was shot and the courtyard.


12.  THE FINAL WISHES  During the first funeral, mourners heard a recording of the last sermon King delivered in his church.  He spoke about how he would like to be remembered at his funeral:  "I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. ...I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity."

A Great Man.

In Memory of Martin Luther King Jr.-- Part 2

4.  THE MYSTERIOUS "RAOUL":  James Earl Ray, King's killer, implicated a man named "Raoul" in the assassination, claiming to have been framed by him.  "Raoul" was never found.


5.  THE FUNERALS:  On April 9th, thousands of mourners followed a mule-drawn wooden wagon carrying King's coffin through the streets of Atlanta after the first funeral, at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King was once minister.

The second service was a public one at Morehouse College, King's alma mater.


6.  THE RECORD-SETTING INVESTIGATION:  The investigation that led to James Earl Ray's arrest was the largest at the time in FBI history.  Agents and Memphis police found that Ray, a 40-year-old escaped convict, had registered April 4th at a boarding house with a view of the Lorraine Motel.

In Memory of Martin Luther King Jr.-- Part 1

From the April 4, 2013, Chicago Tribune "In memory of a civil rights icon."

King was killed April 4, 1968, 45 years ago.  Here are 12 details about his death and aftermath from Stanford University's Martin Luther King Jr. research and Education Institute.

1.  THE CITY:  King, 39, was in Memphis preparing for a march in support of striking sanitation workers.  In February, two garbage collectors were crushed by a malfunctioning truck, which caused the strike.


2.  THE LAST TO SEE HIM:  The evening of April 4th, King planned to have dinner with ministers Samuel Billy Kyles and Ralph Abernathy.  They were at the Lorraine Motel when King was shot and remained at his side at the hospital where he died.


3.  THE DAY OF MOURNING:  President Lyndon Johnson ordered a national day of mourning April 7th.  museums, business schools closed and the 40th Annual Academy Awards was rescheduled to April 10th.

Deaths: Civil Rights-- The Man-- Manager

JAMES HOOD, 70

Died Jan. 17th.  And I just wrote about him in the Fiftieth Anniversary of 1963 entries last week in this blog.  One of two black students whose attempt to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963 led to Gov. George Wallace's segregationist "stand in the schoolhouse door."

The courage exemplified by this young man was something, leading to greater educational opportunities for blacks.


STAN MUSIAL, 92

Died Jan. 19th.  Hall of Fame slugger for the St. Louis Cardinals.  I've always heard of Stan "The Man" Musial, but his last year playing was 1963 and I didn't get interested in baseball until the following year.


EARL WEAVER, 82

Died Jan. 18th.  Hall of Fame manager who led the Baltimore Orioles to four American League pennants and the 1970 World Series title over 17 years.  As a White Sox fan, I sure hated to have to play this guy.  He'd beat you nine ways to Wednesday.