Podcasts about atlanta university

This week, we're talking about WEB DuBois' time in Atlanta, which spans two different periods and a total of 24 years. Arriving first in 1897, he lived here during the death of his son, the lynching of Sam Hose, the 1906 Race Massacre and the publishing of several books and magazines. His second arrival was in 1934, where is once again taught at Atlanta University and published several more books.   Want to support this podcast? Visit here Email: thevictorialemos@gmail.com Facebook | Instagram   

Follow us on social to learn more about "A Dose of Support" from the American Association of Advertising Agencies Danny Robinson's career is a testament to outside-the-box thinking. After all, it's not common to find a chief executive officer, who was previously a chief creative officer, who was previously a chief client officer who never saw himself in any of these roles. Throughout his career, Danny has been both the tone setter for and champion of creativity, As CEO of Martin, he is responsible for the overall health, vision and growth of the agency. Danny's blend of creative and business acumen leads to a big-picture perspective that results in breakthrough ideas. He brought this approach with him in 2004 and has since helped lead the agency to back-to-back Adweek Agency of Year wins in 2020 and 2021, Ad Age's 2023 Agency of the Year, and a spot on Fast Company's Most Innovative List for 2023.Prior to becoming CEO in 2024, Danny was both the first Black chief creative officer in Martin's history and one of the few leading a non-Black-owned agency. Over the course of his three-year tenure, he oversaw work from some of the world's most beloved brands including UPS, GEICO, Walmart, TIAA, DoorDash and OREO.Remember when Oprah gave away 276 Pontiac G6s? So does Danny. He was a big part of that history-making brand integration as the chief creative officer at Vigilante, an ad agency he co-founded. While at Vigilante, Danny was the creative leader and writer behind award-winning campaigns for national brands including Sprint, Major League Baseball, Heineken and Johnnie Walker Black Label.Danny is a Hampton University grad with an MBA from Atlanta University, an accomplished artist, a pop culture aficionado, a former DJ and standup comic, and was even once voted by the Stand Up NY Comedy Club as “one of the funniest men in advertising.”

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

NYU professor Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book, The Reeducation of Race: Jewishness and the Politics of Antiracism in Postcolonial Thought (Stanford UP, 2023), begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word “equality” get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by “educability, plasticity”? She and John sit down to discuss how that switcheroo allowed for a putative anti-racism that nonetheless preserved a sotto voce concept of race. They discuss the founding years of UNESCO and how it came to be that Jews were defined as the most plastic of races, and “Blackness” came to be seen as a stubbornly un-plastic category. The discussion ranges to include entwinement and interconnectedness, and Edward Said's notion of the "contrapuntal" analysis of the mutual implication of seemingly unrelated historical developments. Sonali's "Recallable Book" shines a spotlight on Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism--revised in 1955 to reflect ongoing debates about race and plasticity. Mentioned in the episode: Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister Killjoy (1977) Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education" (1954) in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought ( "the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming" ) Franz Boas, "Commencement Address at Atlanta University," May 31, 1906 (this is where he says the bit about "the line of cleavage" Franz Boas, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, Final Report, immigration COmmission (1911) W.E.B. Du Bois, "Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace," (1945) Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History" Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination IHRA definition of Antisemitism. Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Race and History (1952) Natasha Levinson, "The Paradox of Natality: Teaching in the Midst of Belatedness," in Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our Common World, ed. by Mordechai Gordon (2001) Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (on the contrapuntal) Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 1950 Statement on Race UNESCO, 1951 Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences Gary Wilder, Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World (on the methodological nationalism of postcolonial studies and new approaches that challenge it) Recallable books: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950, 1955 rev. ed.) George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876) Read and Listen to the episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Circle The Earth is a multicultural band that creates modern rock sounds, offering cutting-edge new-wave beats that evoke energy and emotion. Their new single, "Maniac on Mute, will be available on February 21, 2024. Formed by Mike McBay (bass guitar) in 2018, Circle the Earth rounded out their lineup by adding: Kazuki Tokaji from Japan, who lights up the stage on guitar; Sandro Feliciano from Brazil on drums, Sandy Chao from Taiwan on keyboard and Khadia Handon (vocals). Mike and Khadia are from America. Together, the group offers powerful melodic songs. Mike McBay's story is one of grit and determination. A trained medical doctor, he lost his license after succumbing to drug addiction. His parents, who were steeped in academia, shaped his early years. His parents were science department chairs at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Georgia. Mike's youth was marked by his parents' demands to succeed and Mike's dreams of making music. His life led to addiction, which he overcame 13 years ago. "Music was my escape while fighting racism in school and my parents' academic demands," says Mike. Circle the Earth's new single, "Maniac on Mute," will be released via Symphonic Distribution on February 21, 2024."Maniac on Mute" is about refusing to let your past trauma accompany you into your future. "Who you are now is not who you used to be. The deal to silence yourself is an effort to bury the past," says Ms. Christy. The group's forthright attitude on stage and off is about ethnic inclusion, cultural understanding, international cooperation, personal integrity, and spiritual awareness. "Music brings people together. It offers me hope on a daily basis. The group represents life as positive and uplifting as I continue on my journey to stay healthy," says Mike.

You can find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com.   TRANSCRIPT: Dr Wilmer Leon (00:13): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I am Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode of this podcast, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between the current events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode, we explore the presidential candidacy of Dr. Cornell West. If you go to Cornell West 2020 four.com, it opens with this brother, Cornell West is a living embodiment of the power of an independent mind forever reminding us that greatness is born of the courage to stand apart and speak one's truth. (01:13) To help me connect these dots, let's turn to my guest. He needs no introduction, but I'll say he is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary. He's the former university professor at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his master's and PhD in philosophy at Princeton. He's the first black person to receive a PhD In more detail, let me say, he's written 20 books, edited 13 and has written numerous forwards as we'll talk about in. He's one a sacramental zone and affectionately known to many as Brother West, Dr. Cornell West. Welcome, and let's connect some dots. Dr Cornel West (01:59): I'm with you though, man. We putting smiles on our precious mama's faces. I know mom was there right there in the living room and in the kitchen when you got home and your precious mother had passed. But just think how blessed we are. I think it's very providential as well as significant that we could start this year together. Dr Wilmer Leon (02:20): In fact, I'm glad you mentioned our parents because what would your folks be thinking of their son in these efforts today? Dr Cornel West (02:30): Well, it's hard to say Mom and dad were unpredictable in terms of their judgment and highly predictable in terms of their deep, deep love though, brother, so that they would be loving me to death as they always did up until their death and they loved me now after death on their life. But I think it's hard to say they were such independent thinkers, you know what I mean? Dr Wilmer Leon (02:53): I do. I do know. Lemme put you another way then. What are the two or three most salient points or lessons that you carry forward that your parents instilled in you? Dr Cornel West (03:09): Oh, one is that you want to be in the world but not of it. So that you always recognize as standards bigger than you. You will always fall short of those standards, but never forget what they are. And those standards are always hope. And the greatest of them is love, love of God, love of neighbor, love of especially the least of these love, especially of poor and working people love especially of those friends from on called The Wretched Up the Earth. That's what I learned. West Household, you can see it, my brother Cliff, my sister, Cynthia and Cheryl, and you certainly can see it, Shiloh Baptist Church right on Ninth Avenue at Old Park Brother with Reverend Willie P. Cook and others. So those were the crucial things, not just the values in the abstract sense, but the virtues in the lived concrete sense of ways of being in the world, modes of existing, trying to be forces for good in the language of the great John Coltrane. (04:05) You see his various incarnation in terms of his faces on the albums here in the backdrop of my room. I think my dear wife Vanta for that and buying me this gift. It's a beautiful gift, but I think for them, the question becomes, are you being true to that calling? Are you being true to that vocation? Are you being true to that? Which tries to lure out of you the best who you are given the crack vessel that you are? And I take those insights and those lessons very, very seriously though, brother. So I wake up every morning, I say, Hey, crack vessel, that I am center, that I've always been. I'm going to be a force for good. I'm going to tell some truth. I'm going to bear some witness. I'm going to seek justice and I'm going to do it no matter what costs, no matter what burden, no matter what responsibility it entails, because that's what I'm here to do. And I'm going to do it with fun. Joy. I just finished the biography, brotherly Stone. Thank you. Wow. Letting me be myself. And he talks about Cynthia Robinson, you know, from Sacramento. Yes, beloved sister Anita Robinson. We went to high school together. He talked about Cynthia Robinson when he moved to Sacramento for a while, Sacramento inspirational choir. He had played Shiloh sometimes with Clarence Adams, Bobby Adams, and Brother Clarence. Dr Wilmer Leon (05:33): I didn't know that. Dr Cornel West (05:34): Oh yeah, yeah. I used to see Sylvester on the organ right there. Shiloh man. Dr Wilmer Leon (05:40): I did not. He's Dr Cornel West (05:41): From Vallejo. Dr Wilmer Leon (05:42): Yeah, I know he's from Vallejo, but I didn't know that he had spent time in Sacramento. Dr Cornel West (05:47): Oh Lord. Yes. Dr Wilmer Leon (05:48): It says on your site, even as a young child, you exhibited the remarkable qualities that would define your life's journey and path to the presidency. In the third grade, you fearlessly stood up to your teacher challenging her ideas and defining the conventional norms of your time. And that stands out to me because during the medal ceremony of the Olympics in 1968, Mexico City, as you recall, John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised their black glove fists during the playing of the national anthem. And on October 17th, the day after that, I went to school, raised my fist during the morning pledge of the allegiance, and I got kicked out of school. And I read that on your site and thought about the parallels of our lives. And here we sit today still challenging the dominant narrative and the ideas and defying the conventional norms of our time. And I think is a very good summary of your candidacy. Dr Cornel West (06:59): That's beautiful. But I think that's also an example though, brother, of how your precious mother and my precious mother and precious fathers as well tried to support into us examples of integrity, honesty, and decency. And when you have a flag that's waving, that's not signifying what it ought in terms of it's talking about liberty and justice for all, but you got lynching going on and you've got degradation, discrimination, segregation going on is just decent to have integrity, to have honesty is to call it into question. And when you do that, you're going to be in the world or not of it because you're going to be going against the grain. You're going to be going against what is popular in the name of what ought to have a certain kind of moral substance and spiritual content to it. And here that was how many years ago now? Man, that was 1968 is, Dr Wilmer Leon (08:01): Oh, that was Dr Cornel West (08:02): 50, 52 years. Yeah, that's 56 years. You see, I refuse to salute the flag. My great uncle had been lynched in Texas and they wrapped the flag around his body. So that's what I associated as a young brother. Now that to me, I don't put other people down for salute the flag because some people see that flag and they think of their husband or their uncle or their wife who was killed in the war and they loved, they got right to support their loved ones, and they were fighting for that flag. But that's what goes in their mind. But my mind is the flag wrapped around the body s sw in the southern breeze, that strange fruit that Billie Holiday sing about. So everybody has their right to respond. Same was true with Brother Colin. When Colin saw that flag, he thought all of these young black brothers and sisters being killed, the police, yeah, he gets down. We can understand that somebody else see the flag and they think of their uncle, a great uncle in Hiroshima who's fighting against Japanese fascism. Sure. Everybody's got their lens through which they view the world. We have to be open to that. But most importantly, we got to be true to ourselves. Dr Wilmer Leon (09:15): In talking about your candidacy, you announced your candidacy in the People's Party switched to the Green Party, and now you're running as what you call a truly, truly a people's campaign that is a movement rooted in truth, justice, and love. Why the changes? And where are we with your candidacy today? Dr Cornel West (09:39): Yes, back in June, June 5th, it was the People's party that came forward. It met with myself and Brother Chris Hedges, my dear brother, I have great respect for, great love for. And they were kind enough to make the invitation. When I accepted the invitation, I realized very quickly that there were going to be some very deep challenges. There's going to be some very deep problems there. Chris Hedges and Jill Stein and Jammu Barack and others asked me to meet with the Green Party people and to see whether there's a possibility. We met, we made the shift to the Green Party. We worked very closely for a good while, and I realized that the Green Party had so many different requirements in terms of internal debates with presidential candidates going to different states and state conventions and so forth. And I wanted to go directly to the people because I've been going directly to the folk. (10:33) And I realized that even though the Green Party had 17 states in regard to ballot access, that I could actually get 15 or 16 states rather quickly. And that's precisely what we're doing now. We already got Alaska, we're moving on to Utah by eyes of March 15th. We should have, we hope a good 15 states or so. I would've caught up with the Green Party. But I have a freedom to really not just be myself more fully, but also to go directly to the people rather than spending so much time on inter-party activities that the Green Party requires. And so a lot of people say, well, you got false starts. I say, no, no, I'm a jazz man. That's first take. That's the first take. Dr Wilmer Leon (11:23): Folks can go to your website, Cornell West 2020 four.com, click on the platform tab and they can see a list of general areas such as economic justice, worker justice, environmental justice, and a number of others. And then below each of those, there are the bullet points that articulate your positions on those issues. And I'd like to get to this point, this particular point, because I think it allows us to speak to a number of things that are impacting not only this country but the world, and that is the United States supporting funding and arming genocide in Gaza. How does an American administration, the Biden administration with the backing of Congress, and particularly the Congressional Blackhawk Caucus, which is supposed to be the conscious of the Congress, how can they back this play? Dr Cornel West (12:27): Yeah, that's a wonderful question though, brother. I think we have to first begin by situating my campaign as a moment in a movement that's rooted in a great tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Fannie Lou Haman, rabbi Heschel and Dorothy Day. And what they were about was first there's a moral starting point. You see that a precious Palestinian baby has exactly the same value as your baby and my baby, an Israeli baby, a Haitian baby, an Egyptian baby, a Guatemalan baby, but there's been almost 9,000 babies killed a 50 some days. We can see just the level of baity there. Now, every life, no matter what color agenda for me, has the same value. There's no doubt about that. But you start with on a moral premise, then you got to move to your social analysis. How could it be that the United States, the American Empire, enables not just this genocidal assault that's been going on, but how has it enabled the apartheid regime for so long of Israel vis-a-vis those occupied territories with precious Palestinians have been subjugated and degraded. (13:47) How has it facilitated ethnic cleansing where you're seeing now almost 2 million fellow Palestinians who are pushed out of their land? Well, the same thing happened in 1948 with 750,000 Palestinians. They called Arabs at the time were pushed out. So you start on a moral note, and I begin on a spiritual note, just as a Christian, you know what I mean, that there's certain principles that I'm not going to give up. And there's oppressed peoples no matter where they are, no matter, it can be in cashmere, they can be in Chad, they can be in the south side of Chicago. They could be white brothers and sisters in Kentucky. They could be Latinos in South la. Their lives have exactly the same value as the lives of the rich and wealthy and famous. And when you proceed in that way, you have a set of lens that you're looking at the world that's very different from any of the parties because you see both parties, Republicans and Democratic parties have been so tied to Israel in a critical, Israel's been proceeding with impunity for decades, not just since October 7th for decades. (14:57) They've been able to do and say anything they want. They've been able to get billions and billions of dollars from taxpayers' money to the United States with no accountability whatsoever. And when people try to impose some accountability, be it United Nations or be it progressive Jews, or be it Palestinians or Arabs or other people around the world, Israel acts as if they can still do what they want to do with no answerability and no responsibility. They just proceed and do what they want to do. You say, well, wait a minute. And we've reached the point now where, oh, my brother, you got the invoking of Amalek, the first Samuel 15, and the third verse, what does that say in the Old Testament for Christians and Hebrew scripture from Jewish brothers and sisters, he would to kill every man, every woman, every child, every ox, every sheep. Well, that's genocidal intent. (15:52) And then you got genocidal execution when you got over 22,000. And that's just a modest count because you got so many in the rubble that are not counted, and the 9,000 children is just off the chart. I mean, it's just unimaginable that that could happen to so many precious children. You say, no, what is going on? Well, then you come back to United States and you say, wait a minute. Now we've got a politics where the lobby that is primarily responsible for the money that goes from the US government to Israel is one of the most powerful lobbies, not just in America, but in the history of the country, in the history of the country that owing to the high civic participation rate of Jewish Americans. And we talk about Jewish Americans, you're never talking about a monolith or a homogeneous group. You're talking about a variety of different kinds of Jews because we've seen the Jewish young people and Jewish progressives are as critical of Israel as I am, Dr Wilmer Leon (16:57): Jewish voices for peace, Dr Cornel West (16:59): That Jewish voices for peace. If not now, you've got a whole host of them that have been quite courageous in that regard. So it's not a matter and must never be a matter of anti-Jewish hatred, anti-Jewish sentiment. It's hating occupation, domination, subjugation. In this case, it's Israeli subjugation, Israeli domination, Israeli occupation. Now, the sad thing is, Dr Wilmer Leon (17:27): But wait a minute. It's also understanding the difference between Zionism and Judaism. And as much as the dominant narrative wants to try to equate those two, they are not the same. One is a religious practice, and the other for the most part is a political ideology. Dr Cornel West (17:51): That's exactly right. I mean, what makes it difficult really is that you see Jewish brothers and sisters have been terrorized and traumatized and hated over 2,500 years with different attacks, assaults, pogroms, culminating in the show and the Holocaust with the gangster Hitler and the gangster Nazis and so forth. And they jump out of the burning buildings of Europe and they're looking for a place to go. Zionism is a 19th century movement of nationalism that's looking for a home for Jews, a nation state for Jews, and they land on somebody else's land. It's like the pilgrims landing in the new world and saying, there's no people here. Yes, there are. Now of course, in America, what did they say? There's no human beings. There's just buffaloes and Indians. Hey, wait a minute, Indians are as human as you Europeans, we Africans, anybody else? Well, that's part of the deep white supremacy and racism that's happening. (18:58) What else was happening with Zionism? But they told a lie and they said, we got land with no people. That's not true. You got 750, got almost 1000080% of the population don't act like they don't exist. Oh, in your mind, they might be non-entities, but in God's eyes, in our eyes, they're human just like you and just like me. And so you end up with this ideology that responds to this indescribably vicious treatment of Jews for 2,500 years in the middle of Europe. So-called civilized Europe. Now, of course, Belgium already killed 7,000 Africans in Bellevue, Congo in the Dr Wilmer Leon (19:39): Congo, right? Dr Cornel West (19:40): Not too many Europeans said a mumbling word. Turkey had already killed Armenians with genocidal attacks. Europeans didn't say a mumbling word. Italy had already invaded Ethiopia. Europe didn't say a mumbling word. So you can already see the hypocrisy there. But what makes it difficult in the United States is that our Jewish brothers and sisters who are thoroughgoing Zionists, they use the fact that Jews have been hated for so long as a fundamental foundation of what they do and that they think allows them to rationalize, hating Palestinians, terrorizing Palestinians, traumatizing Palestinians. I'm against traumatizing, hating, terrorizing anybody, anybody. If black folk were terrorizing white folk, I'm going to defend white folk. If Palestinians are terrorizing Jews, I'm going to defend Jews. If Jews are terrorizing Palestinians, I'm going to defend Palestinians. That's morality and spirituality. Now, we live in a moment Dr Wilmer Leon (20:54): And consistency Dr Cornel West (20:55): And a certain kind of moral consistency that you try to hold on now. And I know, man, we live in a moment of such overwhelming baity man, organized greed, institutionalized hatred, routinized, indifference toward the suffering of others, especially the weak. So it's just a matter of the strong just thinking and the rich thinking. They can act and do anything. They like to crush the weak. And what happens now in the Middle East, especially in this situation with Gaza, is that you have Nathan, Yahoo, and others who are using the most reactionary tradition in the history of Zionism, which comes out of Jabotinsky that says that there will be Jewish security only when there's either Jewish domination of Palestinians or Jewish annihilation of Palestinians. That's in the writings of Jabotinsky. Netanyahu's father was an assistant to Jabotinsky that is a deeply, deeply right wing of not outright fascist version of Zionism. Now, there's liberal versions of Zionism that's very different, but even those liberal versions still want to argue that Palestinians would never have equality in their state have equal status in their state. And so we have to be able to put that in historical context. We have the right kind of morality and spirituality for people to understand why people like myself will never ever, ever be silent when it comes to Israeli genocidal attacks on Palestinians when it comes to Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. And when it comes to Israeli apartheid regime, that's why South Africa's taking him to the international court. Dr Wilmer Leon (22:45): How does a president Cornell West intervene, interject and change the trajectory of this ongoing genocide? Dr Cornel West (22:57): It means that the policy is qualitatively different than you get into Biden. It's clear that Biden has no concern for the most part with Palestinian suffering. No, Dr Wilmer Leon (23:07): He has said numerous times that he is a Zionist. Dr Cornel West (23:10): He's a Zionist. He doesn't talk about the numbers, he doesn't talk about the suffering. He doesn't talk about the unbelievable pain of Palestinians, not just now, but during the 40 some years he's been in office. You see? So from the very beginning, he makes it very, very clear that these Palestinian brothers and sisters don't count for me. Their lives don't really matter. Now, of course, we got memories of white supremacists in the United States. These black people don't count. These indigenous peoples don't count. They're just farter for our projects. We step on them like cockroaches. We crush them like they're creatures below. And you say, now, oh no, that's not my tradition. So as presidents especially shoot under a West administration, shoot, I'd be calling for the end of occupation, the end of the siege, a cease fire to sit down and come up with a way in which Jews and Palestinians can live together under conditions of equality, with equality under the law and equality in terms of assets to resources. So it's a qualitatively different way of looking at the world and proceeding in that part of the world. Dr Wilmer Leon (24:32): What about the most recent action of circumventing Congress and sending more arms, weaponry, and military resources to the genocide? What about how does a President Cornell West cut off the spigot of the funding? Dr Cornel West (24:55): Oh one, it is not just for me, just a matter of withdrawing aid and cutting off the spigot, but it's a matter of trying to get the leadership, Israeli leadership, Palestinian leadership, to sit down and come up with ways in which they can create a society in which they live together. And whatever financial support I provide is a financial support that would sustain that kind of egalitarian arrangement. There would not be a penny from a West administration for any apartheid regime, for any ethnic cleansing, and certainly not for any genocidal attack and assault on Palestinians or anybody else. Dr Wilmer Leon (25:40): So how do you negotiate with a Netanyahu who you just so accurately stated, his father was an advisor to Jinky who has compromised his own principles to go further, right, to formulate his government. And so with the Troches and all of those other genocidal maniacs, Dr Cornel West (26:11): That's right. Dr Wilmer Leon (26:13): How can you negotiate with someone who is sworn to the annihilation of an entire group of human beings? Dr Cornel West (26:24): Well, one, in any diplomatic process, you end up sitting down with people you disagree with. But you're absolutely right. It would not so much be a negotiation with the Nathan Yahu. It would be a teasing out of Israeli leadership that was open to egalitarian arrangement with Palestinians and teasing out the Palestinian leadership that's open to an egalitarian arrangement among Jews. So you really talking about trying to lure and to appeal to voices and figures and movements. The combatants for veterans, for example, that has Palestinians and Israelis working together, the Baim de meanies who are part of the Martin Luther King Jr tradition of struggling together Palestinians and Jews together, and even try to tease out some of the best of their labor movements, the trade union movements, Palestinian trade union movement, Israeli trade union movements where you do have some, not enough, but you got some overlap of people recognizing that Jews and Israelis can work together for something bigger than them. So you're right, it's not so much a matter of just negotiation, but it's a matter of withdrawal of funds. It's a matter of a certain kind of rejection. We've got to have some wholesale rejection of fascists. And that's true, not just as it relates to Israel and Nathan Yahoo, but that would be true for fascism in all of its various forms. It could be in Iran, it could be in Chad, it could be in Haiti, it could be anywhere. Fascism raises its ugly face. Dr Wilmer Leon (28:20): Moving this out to a slightly broader context, you have the United States through the US UN ambassador, Linda Thomas Greenfield vetoing the calls for a peace agreement in Gaza. Then you have the Ansara LA or the Houthis reaching a peace agreement or working, coming very, very close to a peace agreement with the Saudis and the United States intervening and saying, we will not accept that. We will not accept a peace agreement that we're going to label the Houthis as a terrorist organization, therefore Saudis will not be able to engage with the Houthis without incurring sanctions. Then you've got the conflict between Venezuela and Guyana, and they agree, I think in St. Croix, they come to an agreement and say, we're going to work on this peaceably. And then the United States gets Britain to send a warship off the coast of God. Point being, these are three within the last 10 days. These are three examples of entities in conflict agreeing to work for peace in the United States, injecting militarism into the negotiation. How does a President Cornell West put a stop to that? Dr Cornel West (29:53): One is my brother. We need exactly what you just did, which means you have to respect the people enough to tell them the truth. So a president also has to play a role of a teacher. See the large numbers of our fellow citizens, they don't really know the truth about the Middle East. They don't really know about the truth of Latin America. They don't really know about the truth of the ways in which the American Empire has been reshaping the whole world in its interest in image, both in Latin America for so long, when Latin America was viewed as a kind of a playground for America and all the various cos and Democratic elections overthrown by Dr Wilmer Leon (30:30): Chile, Argentina, Dr Cornel West (30:32): Chile, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Panama, Grenada. We can go on and on and on. When you look at how the US government has overthrown democratically elected governments when it was not in the interest of the corporate elite to accept those democratic elected democratic elections. But you have to just tell people the truth. But that in and of itself was a major move. That's a major move to tell people the truth. And then beyond that, to intervene and to act and you say, oh, now as president, based on the legacy of Martin King and Fannie Lou Hamer and others, and looking at the world through the lens of the least of these poor and working people, I'm going to be putting forward policies that strike you as so outside of the realm that you are used to because these two parties, Democrats and Republicans have been tied to big militarism abroad. Military adventurism abroad have been tied to overthrowing. Democratic regimes abroad have been tied to 57 cents for every dollar going to them. And oftentimes they get more than they request. But then there's austerity when it comes to education, when it comes to housing, when it comes to jobs with a living wage, when it comes to the healthcare and so forth. That's a very different way of looking at the world. I mean, the very idea of there being a US president who would be an anti-imperialist, and you see, I am a gut bucket. (32:19) And what I mean by that is that I want nations to be nations among nations. We do not need empires that try to get other nations to defer to their imperial dominance, to their imperial domination. The United States has 800 military units around the world over special operations in a hundred countries. China and Russia have hardly 35 or 40 combined. Why do we need 800 military units around the world? Why do we need a ship in every shore? Well, we got corporate interests, you got us geopolitical interests, and you've got elites in Washington who want to do what dominate the world. And that's precisely the thing that needs to be called into question. We can be a decent nation among nations. We can be a dignified nation among nations. We do not need to be an empire. Why? Because like the Roman Empire, like the British Empire, it's not only that they all dissolve, but they all have an arrogance and a hubris. (33:31) And his brother, Martin Luther King used to say, I can hear the God of the universe saying, I'll break your power if you keep crushing these poor people and acting as if you're doing in the name of liberty and equality, and you're really doing it in the name of your own greed, your own wealth and your own power. That's a great tradition, and we need to keep that tradition alive any way we can. I'm just trying to do it because the movement spills over into electoral politics. I'm going to be doing it till the day I die, and I've been doing it prior to being a candidate. Dr Wilmer Leon (34:06): So as you look at the development of the bricks, the new international economic organization that's Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and then I think they've just admitted about another seven countries into the bricks as both President Xi in China as well as President Putin of Russia, have been talking about moving from the unipolar or the unilateral where the United States is in control of everything to a multilateral dynamic. How does a president Cornell West deal with the development of the bricks? Dr Cornel West (34:45): Well, one, you see, I look at the multilateralism through the same lens. I look at the unilateralism, us unilateralism on the one hand and the multi-country multilateralism because you see the multilateralism is still a combination of elite. And many of the countries that you talked about have high levels of repression and domination in their countries. I look at the world through the lens of the poor and the working classes in their respective countries, and I want United States to be in solidarity with the poor and working classes in India, for example, I'm not impressed by Modi. I know Modi is a Trump-like figure. I know Modi is not concerned about the poor. He's not concerned about the dollars, he's not concerned about the working class in India. So even when he, at those bricks meetings, I know he's not speaking on behalf of the masses of Indians. (35:48) He's speaking on behalf of that very ugly Hindu nationalist movement that he's a part. And so even when I look at the bricks, I know that that is a sign that US empire and US power is waning, but it's not as if simply because they're outside of the United States, that they're not subject to the same criticism, the same standards as the United States itself is. They have their own elites. They have their own policies that do not speak to satisfying the needs of their own poor and their own working class or their own women, or those who are outside of the dominant religion. Look at the Muslims in India. I'm concerned about them. No Modi's a Hindu nationalist, very narrow one at that because there's many Hindus who oppose him as well. And the same would be true in the other countries as well, even South Africa, as you know, I have tremendous respect for the legacy of a Nelson Mandela or sister. (36:57) I had a chance to meet both of them when I was in South Africa. But the South African government today, it doesn't speak to the needs of poor and working class South Africans. I'll say that the brother Cyril, I have great respect for Brother Cyril, and I'm so glad he's taking Israel to the court, the International Court of Justice, no doubt about that. And I believe all the nations need to be called into question if they commit war crimes, Hamas itself commits war crimes. But those war crimes are not crimes of genocide. There are war crimes. They're wrong, they're unjust, but there's not an attempt to act as if they're trying to wipe out a people war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide. Three different levels. And it's very important to always distinguish them so that when we talk about bricks, I still don't want us to in any way assume that just because you get an Indian face or a Brazilian face or an African face, that somehow they are concerned about the poor and working classes in their own respective nations. Most of them are not. Most of them are part of their own bourgeoisie. They're part of their own professional classes that look down and do not put the needs of poor and working people at the center of their government. And Nelson Mandela, for example, in some ways turning over in his grave, when you look at the situation of poor people in Soweto and what he was trying to do when he emerged out of that jail cell, Dr Wilmer Leon (38:36): Is there an attack on independent thought and a growing sense of anti-intellectualism in the United States? That we look at the rise of the attacks on social media sites. We look at the attacks on independent journalists, the recent resignation of former Harvard President, Claudine Gay, Harvard's first African-American president and a female, and particularly looking at the manner in which she was done away with accusing her of plagiarism. So not only removing her from her position as president, but doing it in a manner of attacking her very character as a scholar, which seems like they almost want to see to it that she never gets another job. And I in her life, is there an attack on intellectualism and you truly as an intellectual, speak to that, please? Dr Cornel West (39:38): Yeah. Well, one is that United States has always been a deeply anti-intellectual country. The business of America is business. America's always been highly suspicious of those voices. That's why they put a bounty on the head of Ida B. Wells. They put a bounty on the head of Frederick Douglass. That's why they murdered Martin Luther King and Malcolm. That's why they kept Paul Robeson under house arrest at 46 45 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. Why they put Du Bois under House of West A 31 grace place in Brooklyn. It's why Eugene Debbs had to run for president from the sale he ran on the Socialist Park. All he was doing was just giving speeches critical of the war. So America has always had a deep anti-intellectual impulse. It is certainly at work today and certainly is manifest today. And you're right. I'm glad you mentioned Sister Gay because I think it's a very sad situation. It shows what happens when you get a little small group of highly wealthy figures, billionaire figures in this case, primarily Jewish figures, who feel as if they can shape and reshape an institution by either withholding their monies or bringing power and pressure to bear to try to eliminate. Dear Sister Gay, they had these major buses with her picture on it right in front of Harvard Yard, national Disgrace. (41:09) They're organized in front of her house, and she got what she calls racial animus and these threats that she received. It's a very ugly and a vicious thing. But you know, there's an irony there, which is that, as you know, just a few years ago, I was actually pushed out of Harvard. Dr Wilmer Leon (41:30): That's why I'm asking you this Dr Cornel West (41:31): Question. pro-Palestinian stances. I was a faculty advisor to the Palestinian student Group, and they made it very clear that they were not going to have tenured faculties who had strong pro-Palestinian sensibilities, strong pro-Palestinian convictions. Now, at that time, sister Gay was head of the faculty. She was dean of the faculty, which is third in charge after the provost Larry be Kyle, Alan Garber, Claudine gay. And at that time, it was hard for her to come forward and support of me. No, and I didn't want to put her in a position. I know she was new. I know that she's betw and between, but the irony is that her silence at that time about those forces now comes back, or those same forces come back at her. Dr Wilmer Leon (42:34): And what's that adage? When they came for the Jews, I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Jew. When they came for the Christians, I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Christian, blah, blah, blah. By the time they got to me, wasn't nobody left to defend. Dr Cornel West (42:47): Nobody left. Now see, many of us still supported her because it's a matter of principle. It's a deep, deep racism belief because what is happening right now, as you know, when you look at Ackerman, you look at Bloom, you look at Summers, the folk who are very much behind these things, what they're saying is, is that all of the black folk at Harvard, for the most part, do not belong because they didn't get there based on merit and excellence. They got there because of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we're calling all of that into question. You just read the recent piece by Brett Stevens, the New York Times. He's the same brother who says, anybody who calls it genocide must be antisemitic. And yet the next moment Nathan Yahu can call Hamas attack on precious Israelis genocidal. But that's not anti Palestinian. Oh, no, no. See, the double standards, the hypocrisy is so overwhelming that it's hard to even sit still. (43:47) And so now we are in a situation where it's not just the Harvards and University of Pennsylvanias and others, but you've got now these groups that say, we will dictate who your president is. We will dictate what the criteria is of who gangs, assets, and professorships. We will even dictate some of the content of your curriculum because we got all this money. We got our names on the buildings, we will withhold it. Now, it's not exclusively Jewish, but it is disproportionately Jewish because it has to do with the issue of antisemitism. And you and I, we fight antisemitism. We're not going to allow Jewish brothers and sisters to get degraded and demeaned, but we are not going to allow Palestinians to get degraded and demeaned, let alone black folk get degraded and demeaned. And it's very interesting. You see, when they come for us, you don't get a whole lot of defense and concern about free expression cancellation. The same groups that were against cancellation now, not just canceling a president, but forcing a president out. Dr Wilmer Leon (44:57): Where's the Congressional Black Caucus in defending her? Dr Cornel West (44:59): Oh, congressional Black Caucus is about as weak as pre-seed Kool-Aid. They ain't going to do nothing. So much of they money comes out of the big lobby, APEC and so forth. But also we could say naacp Sharpton n Urban League, so much of their money comes out of Jewish elites so that they got a noose around their neck. They can't say anything. They're not free. They're not free. Can you imagine John Coltrane showing up at the club and they got this scarf around his neck where he can't blow what he wants to blow. And they say, we want you to sound like you're playing Mozart. He said, yeah, I can play Mozart, but I feel like playing Love Supreme. I got to be free. We don't have enough free black folk. They locked in. They accommodated. They well adjusted the injustice Dr Wilmer Leon (46:02): On the domestic front as we move towards the 2024 election, and we see that Biden's numbers have, he's hustling backwards. He's around somewhere between 37 and 40% and on the wane, but one of the things that they're going to tout is omics. And what doesn't seem to get articulated in this discussion about omics is the financialized side of the economy is doing great. If you have a 401k, you are as happy as a clam. If you are invested in stock market, you are invested. You are just ecstatic at how well your portfolio has grown. But homelessness is up in America. Oh, yeah. Homelessness has reached a level in this country. The likes we have not seen in years. Dr Cornel West (46:58): That's right. Dr Wilmer Leon (46:58): So how, two things, one, how do the Democrats square that circle of omics doing so well, but I'll just say poverty as a overall blanket term is on the rise in America when in fact, the Democrats canceled the extra monies that were going into the Wix programs and the other child poverty programs during the Covid era, which I think came out of the Trump administration. And then what does a president Cornell West do? Dr Cornel West (47:32): Yes, again, you see, following the legacy of Brother Martin King, I'm an abolitionist when it comes to poverty. I want to abolish poverty. We could abolish poverty nearly overnight if we had a disinvestment from significant sums in the military and reinvestment in jobs with a living wage, basic income support, housing, and free healthcare for all. We could do that. We have spent $5.6 trillion for wars in 20 years. We could abolish poverty with a small percentage of that. Dr Wilmer Leon (48:17): And wait a minute, Dr Cornel West (48:18): And wait a minute. Dr Wilmer Leon (48:18): Wait a minute. Wars that we have started. Yes, we started a conflict in Afghanistan. Dr Cornel West (48:25): That's Dr Wilmer Leon (48:26): True. We started the Ukraine, Russian conflict. Dr Cornel West (48:29): Iraq, yes. Dr Wilmer Leon (48:30): We started, we went in and bombed Iraq. Dr Cornel West (48:33): That's right. Dr Wilmer Leon (48:34): We went in and assassinated Kaddafi. Dr Cornel West (48:37): That's Dr Wilmer Leon (48:37): True. And Kaddafi warned Barack Obama, don't mess with them. Folks in the West, you have no idea who you're dealing with, do not mess with them. And the United States, and we are right now trying our damnedest to start a fight with China. With Dr Cornel West (48:54): China, Dr Wilmer Leon (48:55): So the Lockheed Martins of the world and the Raytheons of the world. That's Dr Cornel West (48:58): Right. Dr Wilmer Leon (49:01): We are, it's a money laundering scheme. We're taking our hard earned tax dollars, starting fights around the world. And then Lockheed Martin comes in saying, oh, I got the solution. Let's sell 'em some more F 30 fives and let's sell 'em some more tomahawk cruise missiles at a million dollars a copy. Dr Cornel West (49:20): That's right. Dr Wilmer Leon (49:22): I interrupted you, sir. Dr Cornel West (49:23): No, but you are absolutely right. And you think about this though. You got 62% of our fellow citizens are living paycheck to paycheck. 50% of our fellow citizens have 2.6% of the wealth. 1% has 40% of the wealth, and of course, three individuals in the country have wealth equivalent to 50% of Americans. That's 160 million. 160 million has wealth equivalent to three individuals. Now, all the omics in the world, the world does not address that kind of grotesque wealth inequality. This is the kind of thing brother Bernie Sanders was rightly talking about. Now, Bernie hasn't been as strong as he ought on the Middle East, hasn't been as strong as ought on a number of different issues. But when it comes to Wall Street greed, when it comes to grotesque wealth inequality, he still hits the nail on the head. And if we're serious, I was just with my dear brother, pastor Q and others down at Skid Row here in la, because you got almost 40,000 precious brothers and sisters in Los Angeles had their own skid row, their own city, 40% of 'em black, 90% of the town is black. Dr Wilmer Leon (50:39): Sounds like Oakland to me. Dr Cornel West (50:41): Well, yeah, Oakland and I Dr Wilmer Leon (50:44): Sounds like Sacramento to me, Dr Cornel West (50:45): Sister. Sound like s though I live in Harlem, sound like Dr Wilmer Leon (50:50): Over there near Cal Expo in Sacramento, along the American River where all those encampments are. Dr Cornel West (50:56): That's exactly right. I mean, it is a crime and a shame that the richest nation in the history of the world and the history of the species still has that kind of poverty. And of course, it goes even beyond that because you've got fossil fuel companies with their greed leading toward ecological catastrophe and the calling and the question, the very possibility of life on the planet if we don't come to terms with the shift from fossil fuel to renewable and regenerative forms of energy. So that, I mean, part of this is the philosophical question, which is to say, how is it that we, human beings are just so downright wretched, what we used to talk about in Shiloh, the hounds of hell, greed, hatred, envy, resentment, fear all used and manipulate it to crush each other. That's so much the history of who we are as a species, but we're also wonderful. We have the capacity to be better, to think, to feel, to love, to organize, to be in solidarity, but those who are suffering to have empathy and compassion and those two sides, the wretchedness and the wonderfulness, Dr Wilmer Leon (52:16): The yin and the yang, Dr Cornel West (52:17): The yin and the yang, the ugliness and the beauty of a smile, a grin, the beauty of a friendship and a love, the beauty of a mama and a daddy. The beauty of people marching, fighting for something bigger than them. The beauty of being in solidarity with Palestinians and Gaza right now, given the indescribable realities that they have to deal with. But same is true with solidarity, with our brothers and sisters in Sudan, with brothers and sisters in India, brothers Jews in Russia, whoever it is who's catching hell, we ought to be open to our solidarity. Why? Because that fights against the greed and the hatred and the fear and the wretchedness manifest in who we are as a species. Dr Wilmer Leon (53:08): As I was trying to figure out how to close this conversation. Well, you know what, before I get to that, let me ask you this. As you are now not only talking to America, but talking to the world, what are the three salient very important things that you want, those that are listening to this podcast, watching this podcast, other than you being brilliant and being from Sacramento and Southland Park Drive like me, what is it that you want the audience to really understand about Dr. Cornell West? Dr Cornel West (53:51): I want them to understand that I come from a great people of black people who after being terrorized, traumatized, and hated for 400 years, have continually dished out love warriors, freedom fighters, joy shares, and wounded healers. And I'm just a small little wave in that grand ocean. And what sits at the center of that great tradition of black folk just like this, John Coltrane I got it could have been, could be Aretha, could be Luther Vandross, could be a whole host of others, could be a Phil Randolph early by Russian. Rusty is courage to think critically and quest for truth, the courage to act compassionately and in pursuing justice. And then also the courage to love and laugh. To laugh at yourself, to know that you a cracked vessel, to know that you try again, fell again and fell better. That nobody's a messiah, nobody's a savior. We're here to make the world just a little better than we found it. As Reverend Cook used to tell us, if the kingdom of God is within us, then everywhere we go, we ought to leave a little heaven behind. Dr Wilmer Leon (55:09): Amen, my brother. Amen. Let me, so I was trying to figure out how to end this conversation, and it dawned on me as I was going from idea to idea. I said, I've got a piece. This is from a book, knowledge, power, and Black Politics by Dr. Mack h Jones, who I think, Dr Cornel West (55:38): Oh, he's a giant. He's a giant, Dr Wilmer Leon (55:40): And I went to this. It's a collection of essays that he's written over the years and chapter 17, Cornell West, the insurgent black intellectual race matters. A critical comment, and this is part of what Mack writes. Cornell West has established himself as one of the leading political thinkers of our time, and it is fitting and appropriate that we pause and reflect on his ideas. When we engage in such an exchange of ideas, we continue a long enduring tradition within the black community that goes to the beginning of our sojourn on these shores in spite of what our detractors want to say. Principled dialogue and debate have always been a part of black cultural life in the United States, and it is alive and well even as we speak. I've been familiar with West Scholarship for quite some time. I've read and studied most of his published works and found them for the most part to be challenging, insightful, and often provocative. (56:53) I've used some of his essays in my classes with good results. They address issues and problems essential to our survival and evolution as a people, and he makes us think more deeply about them. Professor West is a decided asset to us as a people and to the human family in general. And so to that, I ask the audience, or I want to leave the audience with this, I'm not going to be presumptuous enough to try to tell people how they should vote or who they should vote for. I merely ask them to consider this. Do you want a former President Trump, a man who Senator Lindsey Graham called a race baiting, xenophobic bigot, and a jackass? Now, that's not me. That's Lindsey Graham. Or do you want a President Biden, who is in a state of cognitive decline, started a war in Ukraine, trying to start a war with China, is a self-proclaimed Zionist who is backing funding and supporting genocide? Or do you want to consider a man who the brilliant Dr. Mack h Jones says makes us think more deeply about these issues? He is a decided asset to us as a people and to the human family in general. My brother, Dr. Cornell West with that, what you got, man, wow. Dr Cornel West (58:33): You moved me very deeply though. Mac Jones was one of the great giants that he invited me to come to Prairie Review, and he was teaching there, and he and I talked together, wrestled together. I learned so much from him. I really just sat at his feet. He was just so, so kind. Adolf Reed worked with him as well, with Mack Jones there at Atlanta University, but for you to read his words at the beginning of 2024, you don't know what that means to me though, man, because I had such deep love and respect for Mack Jones, and he has such a, it is like Brother Ron at Howard Walters, and he has, he's the Dr Wilmer Leon (59:17): Reason I have a PhD in political science is because of him. Dr Cornel West (59:20): Is that right? Dr Wilmer Leon (59:21): Yeah. I studied under him. I went to Howard and studied on him in Howard. Dr Cornel West (59:24): Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh my God. Because both of those brothers, they were at the peak of academic achievement, but they had such a deep love for the people, the love for black people, a love for oppressed people, a love for people catching hell everywhere in the world, and to see that in the flesh in him meant so much to me, and for you to read those words just fires me up, brother. It fortifies me. I think I'm going run on and see what the end going be. Dr Wilmer Leon (59:59): Well, Dr. Cornell West 2024 candidate for President of the United States, I want to thank you for joining me today. I want to thank you for connecting the dots Dr Cornel West (01:00:11): As a young brother for me. This is 35 years ago, and I'm talking about Mac Jones. You see, it just meant the world to me, and I'd seen it before in other examples, but to be able to see it. Thank you, my brother. Love you. Respect your man, Dr Wilmer Leon (01:00:24): Man, and you know I love you folks. Thank you so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wi Leon, and stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review. Please share the show. Follow us on social media. You can find all the links below because remember that this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge in the show description. Talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a good one. Peace and blessings. I'm out

•James Earle Hines was born in Atlanta, GA in 1916 where he attended Atlanta public schools and was heavily involved in musical activities in his church.  He also contributed his musical talents around the city, in the Atlanta area colleges and Universities such as Atlanta University, Spelman, Morehouse, Clark and Morris Brown colleges. •In the 1930's J. Earle was recruited by the president of the National Baptist Convention, Dr. L.K. Williams to sing in a male quartet which Lucie Campbell and E.W.W Isaac were putting together to travel around to churches promoting the National Baptist Convention.  During the same time he formed the Goodwill Singers who travelled around singing following the National Convention. •1946 J. Earle Hines was hired as director at St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles, CA by Rev. John L. Branham.  J. Earle as choir director and Gwendolyn Cooper-Lightner formed The Echos of Eden choir which grew to over 100 voices.  The church and choir had weekly radio broadcasts on KFWB which reached over 17 states. •James Earle Hines has a library of records and recordings over his life span and at the time was compared to musician Kenneth Morris. •Please send me an email sharing your thoughts about this show segment also if you have any suggestions of future guests you would like to hear on the show. Send an email to letstalk2gmg@gmail.com •You may also “like” and share the podcast episode; or you may Subscribe to be alerted when the newest show is published. •NEW RADIO SHOW ON INTERNET RADIO STATION WMRM-DB SATURDAY MORNING 9:00 AM CST / 10:00 AM EST •The Podcast and Radio show may be heard anywhere in the World! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/letstalk2gmg-ansonia/message

After nearly 20 years of attempts by Black entrepreneurs to purchase a radio station, Jesse Blayton Sr. opened the first Black-owned station, WERD, on October 3, 1949, in Atlanta. It wasn't Blayton's first time making history. In 1928, he became Georgia's first African-American certified public accountant. A few years earlier, he and a group of Black businessmen founded the Mutual Federal Savings and Loan Association, for which he served as president. He also taught at Atlanta University. When Blayton bought the 1,000-watt radio station, he hired his son Jesse Jr. as station manager. From sunrise to sunset, it featured a mix of musical genres, from gospel to rhythm and blues, spun by "Jockey Jack" Gibson, one of the nation's most famous Black radio announcers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Construction is starting on a new crisis center in downtown Macon for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; City and national officials broke ground on new affordable rentals in the Atlanta University center; Georgia's workforce training program is preparing workers for new careers in the electric vehicle industry.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Henry Ossian Flipper--born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia on March 21, 1856--did not learn to read and write until just before the end of the Civil War. Once the war had ended, Flipper attended several schools showing a great aptitude for knowledge. During his freshman year at Atlanta University he applied for admittance to the United States National Military Academy at West Point. He was appointed to the academy in 1873 along with a fellow African American, John W. Williams. Cadet Williams was later dismissed for academic deficiencies.Flipper and Williams were not the first African Americans to attend West Point, however. Two others came before them: James Webster Smith in July of 1870, and Henry Alonzo Napier in 1871. Cadets Napier and Smith were eventually dismissed for academic deficiencies.In 1876, Johnson Chestnut Whittaker another African American, was admitted to the academy. But one day he was discovered beaten, bound and unconscious in his room. An investigation was conducted by a lengthy courts martial; however, this proceeding--tainted by racism--determined that Whittaker's injuries were "self-inflicted" and that he had tied himself up. Secretary of War, Robert Todd Lincoln, later declared the court martial invalid, but this did nothing to save Cadet Whittaker's career as he was preemptively dismissed from the academy because of academic deficiencies.Henry Ossian Flipper graduated from West Point as a Second Lieutenant in June of 1877 earning his place in history as the first African American to do so. No other men of color would accomplish the same for another decade. His first permanent duty assignment was to the famed 10th Calvalry Regiment.Since the academy's founding on March 16, 1802, it had been known for the “rigorous hazing” which all cadets had to endure. But certainly no cadet ever had to endure the open hostility and brutality experienced by those first African Americans to join the Corp of Cadets. The pain, humiliation and sacrifices that Flipper and others suffered then made the burden just a little easier for subsequent generations. (Introduction by James K. White) *Reader's Note: The text, found at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2448, is divided into a preface and Chapters I through XVII with Chapter XVI omitted. As much as can be determined, this is a typographical error only and no text is missing from the document. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/librivox1/support

In 1894, Mary P. Evans, wrote in the Woman's Era, a Black women's magazine, that exercise: “enables you to keep in the best condition for work with the hands or with the brain… It prepares you to meet disappointment, sorrow, ill treatment, and great suffering as the strong, courageous and splendid woman meets them. It is a great aid to clear, quick, and right thinking.” She wasn't the only Black woman of the day encouraging Black women and girls to exercise as a way of improving not just themselves but also the whole race. Despite the lack of facilities and obstacles in their way, Black women and girls aspired to physical fitness. In 2010, Michelle Obama, the first Black First Lady of the United States echoed Mary P. Evans, encouraging everyone to pursue physical fitness with the “Let's Move” campaign.  Joining me in this episode is Dr. Ava Purkiss, assistant professor of women's and gender studies and American culture at the University of Michigan and author of Fit Citizens: A History of Black Women's Exercise from Post-Reconstruction to Postwar America. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is Sunburst Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Nesrality from Pixabay and is used via the Pixabay Content License.The episode image is “Atlanta University, Founder's Day Drill,” from The Harmon Foundation Collection: Kenneth Space Photographs of the Activities of Southern Black Americans and available in the public domain via the National Archives (NAID: 26174852; Local ID: H-HS-2-214). Additional Sources: “First Lady Michelle Obama Launches Let's Move: America's Move to Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids,” White House Press Release, February 9, 2010. “African Americans and the YMCA (Archives and Special Collections),” University of Minnesota LIbraries. “A Brief History Of Diversity And Inclusion At The Y,” The YMCA of San Diego County, July 27, 2017. “Our History,” Boston University College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College. “Olivia A. Davidson (1854-1889),” by Nana Lawson Bush, BlackPast, January 19, 2007. “Physical Education Pioneer Maryrose Reeves Allen Dies,” The Washington Post, January 17, 1992. “The 'Hidden Figures' of Physical Education: Black Women Who Paved the Way in PE,” by Tara B. Blackshear and Brian Culp, Momentum magazine, co-authors, February 15, 2022. “Addressing Racism In The Fitness Industry Requires Understanding Its Roots,” by Rodney J. Morris and Pamela Kufahl, Club Industry, October 6, 2020. “A healthful legacy: Michelle Obama looks to the future of ‘Let's Move,'” by Krissah Thompson and Tim Carman, The Washington Post, May 3, 2015. Tweet by Michele Obama as First Lady, May 19, 2015.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Christine McPhail is an accomplished academic leader and the current President of Saint Augustine's University (SAU). Prior to assuming the presidency at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh, North Carolina, she served as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee. She has also held academic leadership positions at several other institutions, including Tennessee State University and Clark Atlanta University. Dr. McPhail's educational background includes a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Social Work from Clark Atlanta University, a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Atlanta University, and a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) from Tennessee State University. She is deeply committed to empowering and educating students, particularly those from underserved communities, and has a passion for creating transformative educational experiences. Under her leadership, Saint Augustine's University continues to strive for academic excellence, student success, and community engagement. Dr. McPhail's vision and dedication contribute to the university's mission of preparing students for leadership, service, and lifelong learning.Join The Bros on this story telling journey about one of the oldest HBCUS in the country. Join The Bros on this story telling journey about one of the oldest HBCU in the country. 9191-714-9905 www.brocodetvproductions.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebrocodeshow/message

Inspired by the Greensboro, NC sit-ins of February 1960, the Atlanta Student Movement, led by the young men and women of Morehouse, Atlanta University, Clark College,  Interdenominational Theological Center, Morris Brown College and Spelman College, brought sit-ins, kneel-ins and boycotts to Atlanta. This ushered in the transition between Atlanta's “old guard” civil rights leaders and the younger, more progressive student leaders. It was inspiring to learn how the students of the Atlanta University Center organized and executed their plans and affected change and how the movement influenced the presidential race between Kennedy and Nixon.   Want to support this podcast? Visit here Email: thevictorialemos@gmail.com Facebook | Instagram | Twitter  

Georgia voters are turning out in record numbers and LGBTQ voters are becoming a powerful voting block. WABE's Susanna Capelouto, Rahul Bali,and Sam Gringlas are joined by Emma Hurt with Axios Atlanta in this episode where they also welcome WABE digital editor Patrick Saunders, who just published a 3-part series on LGBTQ voters in the state. We also hear about the latest allegations against Senate candidate Hershel Walker and have details about our live event November 2nd at the Woodruff Library on the Atlanta University campus. More info for that event is at WABE.org/events.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gregory K. Spearman is a native of Glenwood, GA, and received his B. S. Degree from Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia, a Master's Degree from Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his M.P.H. degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX. He worked for the Houston- Galveston Area Council of Governments as a Healthcare Consultant and then as a Purchasing Planner for the Agency's Cooperative Purchasing Program where he served as Program Administrator for the Cooperative Purchasing Program for four years. He served as Director of Purchasing for the City of Savannah, Georgia from 1986 to 1991. In the latter part of 1991, he became the Director of Purchasing for the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Purchasing Department, a consolidated City-County Purchasing operation. In 2000, he went to work in the private sector for Onvia, a company that produces Web-Based Purchasing Software for public agencies. He helped to develop purchasing solutions for agencies needing to improve their purchasing process via automation. Mr. Spearman is a Certified Public Purchasing Officer (CPPO) and has been active in the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) for a number of years as a seminar presenter, instructor, member of the Talent Council, and mentor. He is currently Director of Purchasing for the City of Tampa where he manages a staff of 29 and is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the acquisition of $420M of various goods and services, disposal of surplus property, and Inventory Management for the City. He is an active member of the Tampa Bay Chapter of NIGP and served as Chair of the Planning and Development Committee on the Community Action Board of Hillsborough County for thirteen (13) years, a Community Action Agency whose mission is to help low-income citizens to become self-sufficient. He also is a member of the City's Emergency Management Steering Committee. He is an active member of the Carmel Friendship Church where he serves in the Prayer Ministry, Pandemic Response Task Force, Men's Ministry, and Growth Track Facilitator. He is married and has three adult children and one granddaughter. Learn more about DCAA and the work they do: https://www.tampa.gov/purchasing LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-spearman-nigp-cpp-cppo-30060b1a/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/support

Gregory K. Spearman is a native of Glenwood, GA, and received his B. S. Degree from Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia, a Master's Degree from Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his M.P.H. degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX. He worked for the Houston- Galveston Area Council of Governments as a Healthcare Consultant and then as a Purchasing Planner for the Agency's Cooperative Purchasing Program where he served as Program Administrator for the Cooperative Purchasing Program for four years. He served as Director of Purchasing for the City of Savannah, Georgia from 1986 to 1991. In the latter part of 1991, he became the Director of Purchasing for the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Purchasing Department, a consolidated City-County Purchasing operation. In 2000, he went to work in the private sector for Onvia, a company that produces Web-Based Purchasing Software for public agencies. He helped to develop purchasing solutions for agencies needing to improve their purchasing process via automation. Mr. Spearman is a Certified Public Purchasing Officer (CPPO) and has been active in the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) for a number of years as a seminar presenter, instructor, member of the Talent Council, and mentor. He is currently Director of Purchasing for the City of Tampa where he manages a staff of 29 and is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the acquisition of $420M of various goods and services, disposal of surplus property, and Inventory Management for the City. He is an active member of the Tampa Bay Chapter of NIGP and served as Chair of the Planning and Development Committee on the Community Action Board of Hillsborough County for thirteen (13) years, a Community Action Agency whose mission is to help low-income citizens to become self-sufficient. He also is a member of the City's Emergency Management Steering Committee. He is an active member of the Carmel Friendship Church where he serves in the Prayer Ministry, Pandemic Response Task Force, Men's Ministry, and Growth Track Facilitator. He is married and has three adult children and one granddaughter. Learn more about DCAA and the work they do: https://www.tampa.gov/purchasing LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-spearman-nigp-cpp-cppo-30060b1a/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/governmentcoins/support

Introducing RE(ADS): a new segment of the ADS podcast in which we take a single passage from a work that has influenced our journey over the last 25 years, and discuss it. In this first installment, John chooses a passage from W.E.B. Du Bois' classic work, "The Souls of Black Folk." Published in 1903, much of it was written during Du Bois' first stint in Atlanta as a professor at Atlanta University. The passage for today, taken from Chapter Four, "On the Wings of Atalanta," arises out of Du Bois' experience of Atlanta as the model city of the New South, and offers a prophetic and still timely critique of the dangers of "Mammonism."

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 15.Henry Ossian Flipper became the first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point.He was born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, the eldest of five brothers. His mother, Isabelle Flipper, and his father, Festus Flipper, a shoemaker, and carriage-trimmer were owned by Ephraim G. Ponder, a wealthy slave dealer.Flipper attended Atlanta University during Reconstruction. There, as a freshman, Representative James C. Freeman appointed him to attend West Point, where four other black cadets were already attending. The small group had a difficult time at the academy, where they were rejected by white students.Nevertheless, Flipper persevered, and in 1877, became the first of the group to graduate, earning a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army cavalry.He was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, one of the four all-black "buffalo soldier" regiments in the Army, and became the first black officer to command regular troops in the U.S. Army.In 1881, while serving at Fort Davis, Flipper's commanding officer accused him of embezzling $3,791.77 from commissary funds.. A court-martial found him not guilty of embezzlement but convicted him of conduct unbecoming an officer and ordered him dismissed from the Army.In 1976, the Army granted him an honorable discharge, and in 1999, President Bill Clinton issued him a full pardon.After his discharge was changed, a bust of Flipper was unveiled at West Point. Since then, an annual Henry O. Flipper Award has been granted to graduating cadets at the academy who exhibit "leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties.Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

What you'll learn in this episode:   Why jewelers from the Pacific Northwest have a singular style, and how Laurie draws inspiration from her environment How Laurie and other artists in the Northwest School of Jewelers incorporate found objects, humor and wordplay into their work What inspired Susan to focus on American jewelry How Susan sorted through Laurie's 30-year archive, and what it was like to write “North by Northwest: The Jewelry of Laurie Hall”   About Susan Cummins   Born in 1946 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but raised primarily in Atherton, California, Susan Cummins specializes in contemporary art jewelry and spent many years as a gallerist in Mill Valley, California. In 1983, Cummins took over Horizon Gallery in Mill Valley, re-naming it the Susan Cummins Gallery. Noting a lack of representation, Cummins settled on American jewelry as a primary focus for her gallery. Eventually, Cummins relocated to a larger space in Mill Valley and became known for representing painters and jewelers in the same gallery space, blurring the rigid distinction between fine art and craft. Cummins maintained the gallery until 2002. In 1997, Cummins helped found Art Jewelry Forum, a nonprofit tasked with connecting people working across the field of contemporary jewelry and educating new audiences. She continues to be a frequent contributor and is currently serving as the board chair. Cummins has also served on boards for arts organizations such as the American Craft Council and the Headlands Center for the Arts. Her primary focus in recent years has been her work as director of the Rotasa Foundation, a family foundation that supports exhibitions and publications featuring contemporary art jewelers. Susan Cummins was elected a 2018 Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council.         About Laurie Hall   Laurie Hall, along with Ron Ho, Kiff Slemmons, Ramona Solberg, and Nancy Worden, is part of what has been called the Northwest School of Jewelers, an influential jewelry art movement centered around an eclectic style of narrative and composition. Laurie Hall is a long-time artist and educator from the Pacific Northwest, whose work has exhibited internationally. In 2016, her work was featured in Craft in America's exhibition Politically Speaking: New American Ideals in Contemporary Jewelry. Laurie's work is part of numerous private and public collections including The Museum of Art and Design in NYC, The Tacoma Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Additional Resources: Photos Available on TheJewelryJourney.com: Coney Island Express 1983 Carved polychromed wood, bronze, sterling silver, string, and found cocktail umbrella  1 1/2 x 1 1/4 x 16 inches Private collection  Photo: Roger Schreiber   Stumped 1988 Yew wood, sterling silver (oxidized), and antique compass 13 x 1/4 x 3/8 inches The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Helen Williams Drutt Collection, museum purchase funded by the Morgan Foundation in honor of Catherine Asher Morgan, 2002.3793   Cubist Café 1987 Sterling silver (oxidized) 6 1/2 x 12 3/4 x 1/2 inches Tacoma Art Museum, gift of Mia McEldowney Photo: Doug Yaple   Wrapped Up in the Times 1987 Sterling silver (oxidized), aluminum sheet, and decoy fish eye 6 x 4 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches Sandy and Lou Grotta collection Photo: Richard Nichol     The Royal Brou Ha Ha 1996 Sterling silver (stamped), stainless-steel fine mesh, hematite beads, and sterling silver foxtail chain 10 x 10 x 1 1/2 inches Tacoma Art Museum, gift of Sharon Campbell Photo: Richard Nichol   One Screw 2009 Bronze screw and sterling silver 1 x 1 x 1/4 inches Curtis Steiner collection Photo: Curtis Steiner   No. 2, Please! 1988 Bronze, found No.2 pencils, basswood, and color core 16 x 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Helen Williams Drutt Collection, museum purchase funded by the Morgan Foundation in honor of Catherine Asher Morgan, 2002.3791   Behind the Eight-Ball 2008 Fabricated marriage of metal ball (copper, sterling silver, nickel silver, bronze), copper frame, found printing plate and stencil, and sterling silver 2 3/4 x 3 x 1/2 inches Marcia Doctor collection Photo: Roger Schreiber   Transcript:   Although her work has been shown internationally, Laurie Hall's jewelry is undoubtedly rooted in the Pacific Northwest. As a member of the influential Northwest School of Jewelers, Laurie's eclectic, often humorous work has drawn the attention of numerous gallerists and collectors, including Art Jewelry Forum co-founder Susan Cummins. Susan recently captured Laurie's career in the new book, “North by Northwest: The Jewelry of Laurie Hall.” Laurie and Susan joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the influences behind the Northwest School; where Laurie draws her inspiration from; and what they learned from each other while writing the book. Read the episode transcript here.    Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is a two-part Jewelry Journey Podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week.     Today my guests are Susan Cummins and Laurie Hall. Susan has co-authored with Damian Skinner a new book, “North by Northwest: The Jewelry of Laurie Hall” For 20+ years, she was the driving force behind Art Jewelry Forum, which advocates for contemporary art jewelry. Laurie is an arts educator and jeweler from the Pacific Northwest whose jewelry has been exhibited internationally. She's a key figure in the Northwest School of Jewelry, an influential jewelry art movement centered around an eclectic style of narrative and composition. We'll hear more about Susan's and Laurie's jewelry journey today. Susan and Laurie, welcome to the program.   Susan: Thank you, wonderful to be here.   Sharon: So glad to have each of you. Susan we'll start with you. Can you tell us about your jewelry journey?   Susan: My jewelry journey did not start until I was running a gallery in Mill Valley. I showed a lot of crafts in the gallery, and that introduced me to some American jewelers who were part of that craft movement in the 80s and 90s. I started to show those American jewelers in the gallery and after a while, I began to realize how smart and how very skilled they were, and how wonderful it was to work with them. There were no other galleries that just showed American jewelers in the United States at that time. All the other galleries that existed showed a lot of European work. So, I thought, “O.K., this is going to be my specialty.” That's mainly what I did and what I showed, and I became very infatuated with jewelry at that moment in time.   Sharon: Is that when you started Art Jewelry Forum?   Susan: I started Art Jewelry Forum in 1997, and the gallery I had in the 80s and 90s. So, it was a while before that came to be, but yes, within that period of time.   Sharon: Laurie, what's your jewelry journey?   Laurie: As a kid, I started doing art right away. My parents observed me drawing horses on the wall and my mother said, “Bill, I think we have an artist here.” I was given their stamp of approval from the very beginning. Did I think about being a jeweler? No, it's always been about art and making things like accessories, costumes, that kind of thing. I just wanted to be an artist, whether it was a visual artist or making things. I liked making compositions that were about something.   Sharon: Did you first meet Susan when she had the gallery? How did you two first meet?   Laurie: I met Susan at the gallery in Mill Valley. She requested to show my work, so of course you respond; you don't hesitate on that. I knew Susan's reputation already and I was thrilled. As usual, it was a bit of a hot potato because I taught full time and it was hard to get the pieces done. I think I squeaked in at the last minute, but I did get there.   Susan: Laurie is famous for being late, especially delivering work to every show she was ever in, but I have to say doing this book, she was right on time with everything. It was a miracle. She really, really performed in this case.   Sharon: There are some beautiful photos, so I can imagine pulling them all together must have been such a task.    Laurie: It was, but it was fun.   Susan: She kept very good records and we had access to all of those. For years she'd been taking photographs. Unless an artist does that throughout their career, it going to be hard to even put together a monograph of their work.   Sharon: I bet it would be, if you had to go back and start pulling things from 30 years ago. Laurie, in the book, “North by Northwest,” it talks about the influence that Ramona Solberg had on you. Can you tell us who she was, what happened and how she influenced you?   Laurie: I came to Seattle to teach. I taught a couple of years on Vashon, and then I was recruited to go to Mercer Island, which was—I didn't know at the time—the best school district in Seattle in terms of kids and the economics of it and everything. It was a public high school. I went to a conference down in Tacoma, and Ramona was there. It was an art education conference. I walked in, and she had this whole table of ethnic jewelry, which was the rage, and I liked it. Everybody liked it. It really put things on display, and she had her own work right next to it.    I think her aesthetic was something I always had to begin with, in some ways. I like making compositions; I like collage and printmaking; I like painting; I like sculpture; I liked all of that, and there it was in some ways. All of her pieces were made with found objects. A lot of people do found objects, but they don't remove them from looking found. Hers were integrated into the composition, somewhat of a cubistic-looking composition.    Her persona, she was a big gal, but she always wore polka dots and stripes and bright colors. She was cheerful looking, and she would wear a bandana around her neck. Everybody loved her and I could see why. She reminded me a little bit of my mom. My mom was a version of Ramona and her sense of humor. Ramona would call it like it is. She didn't ever try to make it up. She wasn't charming for the sake of being charming; she was matter of fact, right on. She called it, and you stood there at attention. I just liked her no-nonsense approach, and her jewelry to me was art. I was looking for something I could devote myself to. I had painted. I had done printmaking. I had done everything in college, and everybody was impressed with what I made. I sold everything, but I was looking for something I could wrap my mind around and my physical self around. It seemed like it was the thing, and it certainly was.   Sharon: What was it that moved you so much? Was it the fact that the found objects were integrated so they became part of a piece? What was it that opened your mind to that?   Laurie: Graphically her pieces were—you wanted to own them. You wanted to put them on. They were pendants and things like that, but they were very appealing to me. It harkens back to me going to a house dance down in Salem at Atlanta University, and there being this barn and this guy collaged all this barn stuff all over the wall. I thought it was beautiful. There was a collage like that that Ramona was making, but it wasn't just Ramona; it was the wholeness of Ramona. She not only had these collections, but she could talk about objects. She had traveled a lot. She had been in the Army, and she had been over in Europe. She had had adventures and was part of the world. She was really a beacon for me.   Sharon: Susan, you knew her too, because I think the first time I ever heard the name was from you.   Susan: I did know her. I think we should also bring in here that the point in time Laurie is talking was during the 60s and 70s, when there was a strong feeling of interest in objects and aesthetics from other cultures. People were wearing beads and bright-colored clothing, and all the things Laurie's talking about that were in Ramona's purview were part of what was happening then. Ramona just did it with a particularly great style and attitude. So, I think there was a proclivity at the time for somebody like Laurie, an impressionable young thing, to be intrigued by Ramona.   Laurie: And then the Pencil Brothers and all the things that were going on in Seattle. Seattle was ripe for craftspeople.   Sharon: The Pencil Brothers?   Laurie: The Pencil Brothers, yeah.   Sharon: Who were they?   Laurie: If you read Susan's book, “In Flux,” you will see—help me out here, Susan.   Susan: It was Ken Cory and Les LePere who were from eastern Washington. They used to show in a gallery called Margolis Gallery in Seattle. Other people from that eastern part did a lot of what Laurie's calling funk jewelry. We talked about of this in the book “In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture.” Those kinds of things were circulating around at the time in the 60s and 70s in Seattle. The Northwest was very strong in that regard.   Sharon: Laurie, you're described as being part of the School of Northwest Jewelry. What is that?   Laurie: The Pencil Brothers are part of it, Ken Cory being one of them, and the other one is Les LePere. Ramona is part of that. Merrily Tompkins and Don Tompkins, who were—Merrily was one of Ken Cory's students. They were all over in Ellensberg. That scene was going on, and then in Seattle there was Ramona. It started with Ramona, but I was paying attention to what I saw.    Susan: Ron Ho.   Laurie: Yeah, Ron Ho.   Susan: Kiff Slemmons   Laurie: Kiff Slemmons, yes, absolutely.   Sharon: What was it, a belief? What made them a part of it?   Laurie: I think a lot of us liked the same kinds of images in terms of the found objects. They were using pencils. Number two pencils; Ramona used those. Ken Cory used them obviously, but I can't remember if he got the idea from Ramona or he got the idea himself. I saved pencils when I was in college. It was just something you did. I liked them. I like carpenter's pencils. I'm not explaining this too well, I don't think.   Susan: Let me give it a try. The Northwest Group, which is mainly Kiff Slemmons, Laurie, Ron Ho and Ramona—those are the major players—they were all doing work that had some familiarity with each other. They were using found objects as part of it, but they also often were making statements or telling funny stories or representing something more dynamic, like traveling the world and collecting bits and pieces from things. Ron Ho was a gay man who was Chinese. The other three were all students of Ramona, and they all did work that was similar to hers, but also very distinctively different. They all had something to say about different topics, and they all saw each other and saw each other's work. I think there was a strong difference between what they did and what everybody else was doing in the United States at the time. I was interested in showing it in the gallery because I thought it was particularly interesting in that it had something to say and was saying it with objects you could understand, like the pencils Laurie was describing.   Laurie: And the rulers and the compasses. Ramona used dominos. I remember going to New York for my show at the Elements, and I knew were really doing something different than the East Coast. They were into slick things and production jewelry and titanium and all that stuff. I'd seen that in London when I went there. Ramona did a study abroad program, and I went on it with Ron Ho. We saw Caroline Broadhead and Catherine Mannheim and Wendy Ramshaw and all those people. We went to see Wendy Ramshaw, and I realized we were doing something different. It's what I felt comfortable with: liking antiques, liking the Asian influence in the Northwest, liking the colors. To make things and put rivets in was very exciting. It was a formative way of making jewelry, put a rivet into something and rivet the whole thing together. How exciting.   Susan: And how simple and how direct.   Laurie: And how hard, oh my gosh! You can't believe once you start putting something together. You're not in charge; it's in charge. It's on the table. It's flat. You've got to make it so it can go onto somebody, and you don't know how it's going to get there. You tape it together; you string it together; you do anything you can to make it look like you could put it on. You put it on and say to somebody, “How do you think this is working?” “Well, I think it's good.”    I remember the café necklace, when I made that, I worked on it Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I have to say I skipped school, not Thursday, but Friday and then Monday I think I skipped school too. I never would skip school, but it was very important to me. It was going to Susan. Anyhow, did I know it was going to work? No, that's half the reason you do it. The way I work, that's why I do it. I have an idea or I have something I've seen, and suddenly you'll come down to your worktable and everything's been rearranged. You look down and see an idea right there on the table. It's very creative. It's about the piece dictating to you what to do next, and you just keep working.   Sharon: With found objects, do you have a box? Do you collect them on the beach and put them in a box, and you look at it one day and it says, “Make me into this”? How does that work?    Laurie: I don't always use found objects. Ramona thought it was funny; I said I make found objects, and that's the truth. I think so much of this jewelry that was made with found objects, people didn't really make it into a conversation. They just plunk them down. Do I go out to garage sales and all that kind of stuff? No, I've got too much stuff to begin with.    I find things incidentally. There's a ring in the book that's a one-screw ring. I found that screw on the floor in my school workshop. I asked the guy I worked with if he knew who it belonged to and he didn't know, so I thought, “O.K., it's mine.” The eight ball, I found that on the floor in Multnomah Arts Center where I was teaching here in Portland. You just see things. Sometimes it's a fragment that nobody could even identify, but it makes you have juices in your eyes. You're really excited. Do I know what I'm going to do with it? Not necessarily.   Sharon: How about when you saw the screw? Did the screw talk to you and say, “Make me into this”?   Laurie: Yeah, I thought that could be a ring because I'd already made a two-screw ring with the flange that I found in the same workshop. I thought it was kind of dirty and funny, which is the juvenile part of me, and that's why he bought it.    Sharon: How did you segue? You said in school you studied printmaking and all kinds of different arts, but how did you come to jewelry? Did you just keep doing more jewelry?   Laurie: I took a jewelry class from a visiting professor at my university. It wasn't Ramona, and the guy didn't know what he was doing, so I had to learn by myself. That didn't bother me. I'd seen Calder's work, so I wanted to make jewelry. My first work doesn't look like Calder exactly. It was of that time period, and Calder had a huge influence on all of us. It was that forging of metal and changing it from one thing to another. Susan, you have a picture of you wearing that wonderful piece—it might be Dorothea Prühl —that looks like great, big paperclips, the steel piece.   Susan: Probably Dorothea, yeah.    Laurie: Yeah, I love her work. There's this essence of originality that some pieces have, and if you can get in touch with that in your own soul, that's the best kind of art that can be made because it's original. I knew right away because I had a fantastic art history professor at Atlanta University. I knew what monumental was; I knew what original was; I knew you had to have a style. It wasn't that it scared me; it excited me that I could express myself and it could be mine, not anybody else's. It wouldn't look like everybody else's.   Sharon: So, that's what brought you to jewelry.   Laurie: Yes.    Sharon: How do you describe your jewelry to people when they say, “What do you do?” If you say you make jewelry, they think gems and gold.   Laurie: I always tell them I don't make jewelry. Sometimes it can be worn. It sometimes goes on the wall in a frame. It is wearable, but forget the word jewelry. It's a composition that I'm making with different materials.   Sharon: Do people usually get that? Do they understand what you're saying?   Laurie: Not necessarily. Most people think of jewelry as a category and they can't escape it. It's too bad, because more of the exciting pieces are being made with Legos and pieces of wood and recycled stuff. Maria Phillips is shredding a cup, and she'll put it together with popsicle sticks or whatever. Everything can become a beautiful or interesting piece to look at that ignites another thought. That's what you want to do. You want to put something out that ignites a thought.    When the piece is in charge, it says what it wants to say. I'm separate from it. It's like giving birth to child, I suppose. You've got to let it free, let it go out there and walk. You put it on somebody, and that's where the ethnic jewelry—it was on parade. People were wearing it and it was colorful. It had funny things in it that they had never seen before, but you adopted it and you liked wearing it. It fit your style and people were dressing in really fun ways.

0:00 -Sad Little Man 14:24 - Dan & Amy ask listeners what they would questions they would have for Fauci and Wolensky at the yesterday's senate hearing 33:18 - Dan & Amy respond to Biden's speech at Atlanta University pushing federalization of elections: Jefferson Davis or Lincoln, MLK or Bull Connor? 52:22 - Dan & Amy turn their attention to the Senate Judiciary hearing on 1/6 and ask “who is Ray Epps?” 01:04:52 - Editor at Large of the Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker:  Biden Has Met the Enemy, and He Is Us. Follow Mr. Baker on twitter - @gerardtbaker 01:24:24 - Economist Stephen Moore tells Fed Chair Powell “I told you so”.  Follow Steve on twitter - @StephenMoore 01:37:16 -Saralyn Mark, MD, American Medical Women's Association's COVID-19 lead and a former Senior Medical and Policy advisor to the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and NASA: This year in COVID, expect a long, cold winter and a hopeful spring 01:55:37 - Thomas W. Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the author, Heather MacDonald, discusses blue city crime,  Insurrections and Double Standards. Check out Heather's most recent books The War on Cops and The Diversity Delusion See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The late 19th Century ushered in an evolution in women's fashion from the Victorian “True Woman” whose femininity was displayed in wide skirts and petticoats, the “New Woman” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was modern and youthful in a shirtwaist and bell-shaped skirt. Earlier fashion experimentation by feminists in the mid-19th Century had failed to catch on and had interfered with their ability to inspire change as they were labeled radical for their sartorial choices. Feminists in the late 19th Century chose a different path, using the popular fashions of the day to appear respectable as they pushed for rights for women. The mass availability of the shirtwaist also helped to democratize fashion so that working class, immigrant, and African-American women were all able to adopt the costume of the day as they made their demands for better working conditions and increased rights and access. In this episode I'm joined by Dr. Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, author of the upcoming book, Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism, as we discuss the uses of fashion by feminists at the turn of the 20th Century. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. Episode image is: “Four African American women seated on steps of building at Atlanta University, Georgia.“ Atlanta, Georgia, ca. 1899. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/95507126. Additional sources and links: “Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney Calls for 'Equal Rights for Women' with Suffragette-Themed Met Gala Dress” by Virginia Chamlee, People Magazine, September 14, 2021. “Schools enforce dress codes all the time. So why not masks?” by By Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, The Washington Post, August 30, 2021. Beyond the Gibson Girl: Reimagining the American New Woman, 1895-1915 by Martha H. Patterson, 2005. “The Gibson Girl's America: Drawings by Charles Dana Gibson,” Library of Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abdul Alkalimat writes on a multimedia project that explores the work of Saladin Muhamad that “our movements for social transformation have often fallen victim to the tendency to oversimplify the struggle. Moreover, there is far too little self-criticism to learn from our “right” and “left” errors. This is particularly dangerous as we are at the beginning of a new generational awakening. We need to think about the past few decades of struggle by listening to those who have marched on and maintained a revolutionary perspective.” Labor, whether force or extracted through coercion has been a consistent cause of struggle for African/a peoples, globally. James Boggs, in a speech given at a Political Science Seminar in Atlanta University on February 17, 1974, argued that “we must be ready to recognize that as reality changes, our ideas have to change so that we can project new, more advanced aspirations worth striving for. This is the only way to avoid becoming prisoners of ideas which were once progressive but have become reactionary, i.e., have been turned into their opposite. The only struggles worth pursuing are those which advance the whole society and enable all human beings to evolve to a new and higher stage of their human potential”. Expanding this assertion, Boggs goes on to suggest that “knowledge must move from perception to conception; in other words, knowledge and struggle begin by perceiving your own reality. But it must have the aim of developing beyond what you yourself or your own group can perceive, to wider conceptions that are based upon the experiences of the whole history of Mankind. The only way that anyone can take this big step of moving beyond perception to conception is by recognizing and struggling against your own internal contradictions and weaknesses. Of these weaknesses, the most fundamental and most difficult to overcome, as a result of the specific history of United States society [and I will add the evolution of the global racial capitalist system], is the tendency not to think at all but simply to react in terms of individual or ethnic self-interest” [Boggs, 1974]. Reflecting more on the praxis of Saladin Muhammad, Abdul Alkalimat asserts that “there are many theoretical and practical issues involved in the experiences covered by the life of Saladin Muhammad and his experiences in struggle. Saladin is a proletarian cadre of the revolutionary movement. He served as chairperson of the Black Workers for Justice for over 20 years. While being retired from full time union organizing, he remains active on many battle fronts including the Southern Workers Assembly.” This is Part I of our recent conversation with Baba Saladin Muhammad. Saladin Muhammad is an organizer, theoretician, writer. He published a number of articles that explore issues ranging from exposing the structural and systemic racism in labor to ways to understand the interdependence of human rights and Black internationalism. Saladin Muhammad is the co-founder and national chair of Black Workers for Justice and until his retirement, he was an international representative for the United Electrical Workers [UEW]. His praxis has been forged in Black freedom work for than three decades. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; and Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people. Listen intently. Think deeply. Act accordingly. Black Liberation and Social Revolution: The Life and Legacy of Saladin Muhammadhttp://theblm.net/saladin/

BGBS 071: Maurice Cherry | Creative Strategist | The Restorative Power of Play Maurice Cherry is the creative strategist for CodeSandbox, an online code editor tailored for web applications. Prior to this, he served principal and creative director at Lunch, an award-winning multidisciplinary studio he created in 2008 that helps creative brands craft messages and tell stories for their targeted audiences, including fostering relationships with underrepresented communities. Past clients and collaborators included Facebook, Mailchimp, Vox Media, NIKE, Mediabistro, Site5, SitePoint, and The City of Atlanta. Maurice is a pioneering digital creator who is most well-known for Revision Path™, an award-winning podcast which is the first podcast to be added to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Other projects of Maurice's include the Black Weblog Awards, 28 Days of the Web, The Year of Tea, and the design anthology RECOGNIZE. Maurice's projects and overall design work and advocacy have been recognized by Apple, Adobe, NPR, Lifehacker, Design Observer, Entrepreneur, AIGA, the Columbia Journalism Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and many other print and digital outlets. Maurice is also an educator, and has built curricula and taught courses on web design, web development, email marketing, WordPress, and podcasting for thousands of students over the past ten years. Maurice is the 2018 recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, Creative Loafing Atlanta's 2018 Influentials in the fields of business and technology, was named as one of GDUSA's “People to Watch” in 2018, and was included in the 2018 edition of The Root 100 (#60), their annual list of the most influential African-Americans ages 25 to 45. In previous years, Maurice was awarded as one of Atlanta's “Power 30 Under 30″ in the field of Science and Technology by the Apex Society. He was also selected as one of HP's “50 Tech Tastemakers” in conjunction with Black Web 2.0, and was profiled by Atlanta Tribune as one of 2014's Young Professionals. He is also a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Maurice holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Morehouse College and a Master's degree in telecommunications management from Keller Graduate School of Management. In this episode, you'll learn... As a creative on the web, it's beneficial to stay fluid and agile enough to go where the market goes. It's detrimental to focus on only one specialty because the industry changes so quickly that it may become obsolete. When done correctly, brands can put forth an image that is discordant with people's initial perception of them, through storytelling in marketing. This can draw in an entirely new audience based on the brand's "personality." Podcasting is not as easy as it looks. Everything is deliberate, and a lot of care goes into each episode. Quotes [8:10] It almost is a detriment to be kind of a specialist, because your specialty may end up getting absorbed or may become obsolescent or something like that. So you kind of have to stay fluid and kind of see where different trends are going and see how you can fit in there. [12:45] Brands may try to put forth an image of who they are or who they want to be. And that may not even mesh with how people are thinking about them…but it makes people remember them in a way that perhaps people may not think of, and so they may gain a whole new level of audience just based off of that kind of storytelling and interaction that draws them in to who they are as a brand and what they sort of represent in terms of company values. [1:00:43] I think people will look at the 400 episodes of revision path and just see a monolithic set of people. But I mean, there's so much diversity within the people that I have interviewed, whether it's age diversity, whether it's what they do in the industry, years of experience, there's men, there's women, there's trans folk, there's folks in the US and the Caribbean, throughout Europe, throughout Africa, throughout Asia and Australia. They're everywhere. The thing that sort of ties them all together is they're practicing designers, or they're practicing techies, or they're doing something creative on the web that is worthy of kind of falling into line with everything that I'm doing with revision paths. [1:04:53] I just turned 40 this year. And there's still a lot of things about myself that I feel like I've managed to still keep a very playful spirit and still be able to kind of tap into the restorative power of play, even into the work that I do. I mean, even what I'm doing with creative strategy, it's kind of playing at work a little bit. I get to really dive into myself and come up with inspiring things that we can do and fantastic campaigns that we can execute. Resources Podcast: Revision Path LinkedIn: Maurice Cherry Twitter: @mauricecherry Have a Brand Problem? We can help. Book your no-obligation, 15-minute Wildstory Brand Clarity Call now.  Learn about our Brand Audit and Strategy process Identify if you need a new logo or just a refresh Determine if your business has a branding problem See examples of our work and get relevant case studies See if branding is holding your business back and can help you get to the next level Book Your FREE Brand Clarity Call   Podcast Transcript Maurice Cherry 0:02 And I started doing these long form interviews, maybe about 1500 to 2000 words or so. But it just took so long to put together. I was doing it by myself. And it was someone that actually was a reader of revision path, who one day wrote me and said that she was a fan of revision path as you would really like to be on revision path, but wanted to record a podcast because she had a podcast that she was doing in Chicago. At the time. I'm like, yeah, we can record that's fine. thinking to myself, I have no recording equipment. So we ended up recording our interview, the very first episode of revision path on my mobile phone in a restaurant. Terrible quality. I still keep the episode out. I mean, it's somewhat listable, I guess, I don't know. But that was kind of where the genesis of the podcast started. Marc Gutman 0:54 podcasting from Boulder, Colorado. This is the Baby Got Back story Podcast, where we dive into the story behind the story of today's most inspiring storytellers, creators and entrepreneurs. I like backstories and I cannot lie. I am your host, Marc Gutman, Marc Gutman, and on today's episode of Baby got backstory, we are talking with Maurice cherry, the award winning podcaster, creative strategist, and designer. And before we get into this episode, I feel so lucky that I get to talk to people. And I get to talk to people on this show. And I get to talk to people on this show, and share it with you, the audience. I truly, truly, truly thank you and appreciate you. If you like this show, and want to show your like an appreciation for me or the show, please head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give us a five star review and rating. Ratings really do matter. Apple and Spotify use these ratings as part of the algorithm that determines ratings on third charts. And we're human. We like likes and follows and ratings too. So thank you for your reviews. I do appreciate it. Today's guest is Maurice cherri, creative strategist, designer and host of the award winning podcast revision path. past clients and collaborators included Facebook, MailChimp, Vox media nyck Media Bistro site five sitepoint in the city of Atlanta. Maria is a pioneering digital creator, who is most well known for revision path and award winning podcast, which is the first podcast to be added to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Other projects of maurices include the black weblog awards 28 days of the web, the year of t in the design anthology recognize Murray says projects and overall design work and advocacy have been recognized by Apple, Adobe NPR, life hacker design observer entrepreneur, the AI GA, the Columbia Journalism Review, Forbes Fast Company in many other print and digital outlets. He says the 2018 recipient of the Steven Heller prize for cultural commentary from the AI GA, creative loafing Atlanta's 2018 influentials in the fields of business and technology was named one of GED USA people to watch in 2018. It was included in the 2018 edition of the route 100. He was number 60 and their annual list of the most influential African Americans ages 25 to 45. In previous years, Maurice was awarded one of Atlanta's power 30 under 30 in the field of science and technology by the apex society. He was also selected as one of HPS 50 tech tastemakers in conjunction with black web to Dotto. It was profiled by Atlanta Tribune is one of 2014 young professionals. He is also a member of the International Academy of digital arts and sciences. And this is his story. I am here with Maurice cherry who is a creative strategist, designer and podcaster. You may know him from his very popular podcast revision path, and that's because they just recorded their 400th episode which is a major, major milestone Marie's Welcome to the baby. Got back History podcast. Maurice Cherry 5:01 Thank you so much for having me, Mark, this is great. Marc Gutman 5:04 That's so great to have you here. Why don't we just hop right into it? I mean, you, you have this varied what I'd call a hybrid background of creative strategist designer podcaster. Like, how did that come to be like, like, how do you make that all work in today's environment? Maurice Cherry 5:24 You know, I'm kind of still trying to figure that out myself. I'm lucky to be able to kind of remain a bit fluid and hybrid in some sorts as it relates to my skill set, which allows me to kind of go where the market goes, but I mean, my background, I have a undergraduate degree in mathematics. my graduate degree is in telecommunications, management's. I've worked in media, I've worked in web, I've worked with nonprofits, I've worked with tech startups, I've had my own business for nine years. So I've done a little bit of everything and a lot of different places. And I've had the opportunity to work with everyone from, you know, startup founders and entrepreneurs to like, captains of industry at fortune 100 companies. So I've kind of been a little all over the place. And like I said, being able to remain fluid has helped me as things have changed in the market. I mean, I started off working for companies here, I'm in Atlanta, Georgia, I started off working for companies here and then quit the last place I was working out, which was at&t and working as a senior web designer, started my own studio did that for nine years, sort of wound that down and then jump back into working for places design working for tech startups. And just kind of going from there. Yeah, and Marc Gutman 6:40 you use that word, fluid and fluidity. And you know, the old way of doing things used to be very specialized used to be very siloed not not bouncing between disciplines. Why do you think it's important to to be fluid in in your skill set in your career? What advantage is that given you, Maurice Cherry 7:01 um, for me, the advantage that it's given is being able to have the perspective to see where commonalities lie, as the market, or as you really the industry sort of changes. I mean, when I first came about on the web, you were either a web designer, a web developer, or a webmaster, like those are kind of the three particular titles that you had. And now you've got all different types of product designers and UX designers and things like that, despite the fact that there are new titles and the way that things have changed. There's still some sort of common threads between a lot of these different types of titles. And even as companies have come along and introduced new types of technology into the world, which therefore mean that there are new types of people that work on these things. Like, there's conversation designers, there's mixed reality designers like you know, a couple of weeks ago, I was first introduced to the metaverse, which sounds like something you'd hear in like a 90s sci fi afternoon kids show her something. So there's so many Tell that to say that the market and the industry changes so much, it almost is a detriment to be kind of a specialist, because your specialty may end up getting, you know, absorbed or may become obsolescent or something like that. So you kind of have to stay fluid and kind of see where different trends are going and see how you can fit in there. Marc Gutman 8:29 Yeah, and I want to be a part of the metaverse like that sounds awesome. I don't even know what that is. But I want to like tell people that I am part of the metaverse or that I work in the metaverse, that'd be great. And it's really interesting because the person that introduced us, Douglas Davis, who is appeared on this show, he was talking about something really, really similar in his conversation, his interview, which was a lot of what we're doing today hasn't been invented yet. Right? And we're kind of in this next wave of, of that. And so he gave the example back when he was starting out, like no one had really invented, like how to build web pages and websites. And so it was real time, right? And then we started to grow up in no one had invented how to be an expert on Twitter when Twitter first came out, we all just kind of did it, you know. And now you know, what I'm hearing you say is that business is again, moving technology is moving so fast. And it's you know, they're intertwined, right Business and Technology and it's moving so quickly, that you have to be fluid that you have to be nimble, and you have to be kind of you can't be an expert at anything, if anything because it's moving so fast, but what you probably can be is a really good thinker and a really good strategist in order to bring all these disciplines together. Did I didn't get that right. Maurice Cherry 9:52 Yeah, that's pretty accurate. I mean, the the beauty of my particular title of being a creative strategist Is that no matter what business that I'm put in, I'm still able to kind of function because what I do, but one of the top one of the things that I'm sort of tasked to do is kind of be a company's in house creative experts. So I'm working across teams to discover opportunities for storytelling. I'm working maybe with a marketing team on campaigns, I'm working with a sales team on ways that they can reach new audiences. So I can kind of be very flexible, you know, no matter what sort of business that I'm putting in, which is pretty good. Marc Gutman 10:31 Yeah. And that sounds like awesome, like, I hear you talk. And I'm like, wow, I want to be a creative strategist, you know, how, you know? How does that show up in business? are more and more businesses recognizing the need for it? And what really is the the, the impetus for bringing on a creative strategist? Like why? Why do they say like, hey, Maria, we need you to come in and help us out. Maurice Cherry 10:55 In my experience has mostly been when it's boiled down to needing help with storytelling, or with some sort of brand awareness or brand campaign strategy tends to be tied. In my experience, that strategy has tended to be tied to branding fairly easily. So say, at the past few places that I've worked at, I've done a lot of sort of brand centric work with what they're doing in order to take the story of what their business is, and what it is that they're trying to sort of put forth to their customers. And then really kind of, I don't know, tell that in a way that their audience would find compelling or that potential audiences may find compelling. And that could be video, that could be a podcast, that could be a really well done marketing campaign. It could be a drip campaign of newsletters, it could be a series of white papers, it can really sort of manifest in a number of different ways, depending on who we're trying to reach and what the story is that we're trying to tell. Marc Gutman 11:51 Yeah. And so as I think about it, I mean, I get excited about this idea of creative strategist and working at a brand level across departments, because that's typically where we run into problems, right, is that this type of initiative is siloed, into the marketing department into the creative department. And so having that influence across departments is really, you know, what I see is the magic of this type of work. But when you were, in your experience, when you look at this, what do brands that get this right? Like, what do they do? What are you seeing them do to get this this type of work? Right? Maurice Cherry 12:31 One thing I'm seeing is that they're doing a lot of listening, they're listening to their audience there, whether that's through social media, or through any sort of, you know, other channel or back channel, they're listening to what their audience is telling them. Oftentimes, brands may try to put forth an image of who they are or who they want to be. And then that may not even mesh with how, you know, people are thinking about them. Sometimes that works to a brand's advantage. Sometimes it doesn't. I think we've mostly seen this on social media, where you see brands like, Oh, God, what's a good brand that that's kind of subversive stay comes. The stake of his brand, for example, is weirdly stoic and philosophic. On Twitter, which you would not associate with a brand of like frozen meat products, like, why are they so deep right now, I don't understand this. But it makes people remember them in a way that perhaps, you know, people may not think of steak gums. And so they may gain a whole new level of audience just based off of that kind of storytelling and interaction that draws them in to like, who they are as a brand, and what they sort of represent in terms of company values. And such, I certainly thinks that as social media has grown as that and and as more people have tapped into social media, they're kind of starting to hold brands accountable a lot for the causes that they find the people that they hire, a number of companies get taken the task for these sorts of things that have nothing to do with their actual product at all. But if you're hiring someone who might be unknown abuser, for example, that's going to look bad on the brand. Or if you know your your company is funding a politician that might be taken away, or might be funding voting rights or something well taken away voting rights or something like that. These are the kinds of things that people are now keyed into. And they're looking at brands to kind of be these while they're there. They're wanting to make sure that the brands that they support with their dollars are also kind of, you know, in accordance with their values as well. Marc Gutman 14:37 Absolutely. And it's, it's crazy and amazing at the same time to me, I mean, I love the amount of power that consumers have on brands at the same time. Everybody has a voice right? And so how can brands even navigate all this? pressure and criticism to be something Different, right? You can't You can't please everybody all of the time, like, where do you see the challenges for brands in this new landscape? Maurice Cherry 15:09 I mean, I think the biggest challenge that happens is just making sure that you are being consistent with your voice. Often times I've seen brands try to like adopt a certain kind of you know, cheeky haha Twitter voice or whatever, that may be completely discordant with how they treat employees or, or you know how they treat customers or something like that. This is particularly the case I've seen with a lot of tech startups that try to like get in on certain little you know, punny things that are happening. But then something hits the verge where they mistreated a number of employees or something like that. And it's like, oh, you can't be you can't be cheeky and sarcastic on Twitter, and then you're treating your employees like crap, you know, behind the scenes. So I think love just trying to be consistent throughout everything that you're doing is one thing that that companies should think about as they kind of navigate the space, I would, I would also say, you know, it helps to just be agile and nimble, because sometimes these you know, if a certain catastrophe befalls a brand, sometimes it happens completely out of the blue for something they don't even know about. So, for example, say, a company has a particular actor or actress as a spokesperson. And this actor or actress did something on Instagram. Well, the first thing people are going to do, yes, they're going to take that particular actor or actress to task, but then they're also going to take the company to task and think, Oh, well, is this the kind of person that you want speaking for your product? And now it's like, oh, now we have to kind of go into crisis mode, and figure out how do we either distance ourselves from this? Or say, Yes, we are a part of what it is that this actor actress is about, here's what we're doing, as a company or as a brand to support them. So it's, it's tricky, but you have to kind of be, you know, pretty nimble to these sorts of things, because they can happen really out of the blue. Marc Gutman 17:08 Yeah, and there's a lot going on. And so, you know, it really lays out the, you know, the the framework for why a company might need a creative strategist. Yeah, there. It's not just this omni directional unit, or is it? I mean, I guess it'd be one directional conversation. It's not a one way conversation, right, this massive dialogue, and there's comments and insights and, and opinions, ping pong all over from every direction, and to really have someone at a higher level thinking like, how are we going to manage this conversation as something that is no longer a luxury for brands, but really a necessity? Maurice Cherry 17:44 Yeah, there's a lot of thought that has to go into so many things, the imagery that you use the hashtags that you use, the colors that you're using, all of that ends up sort of falling under the purview, usually of creative strategist. And I will say, you know, a lot of advertising firms employ creative strategist as well. So they know fully kind of what it means to have someone that's really thinking about the brand from like this 360 view, but also from this bird's eye view of being able to zoom out and really see all parts of where a particular campaign or something may touch, and realize those sort of points where something may go wrong, or maybe misconstrued and try to figure out a way to kind of circumvent that or fix that issue, you know, so it doesn't occur. Marc Gutman 18:29 Yeah. And so switching gears a little bit, you mentioned that you're in Atlanta. Now. Is that where you grew up? Maurice Cherry 18:35 No, I grew up originally in Selma, Alabama. But I've been here in Atlanta now for a little over 20 years. Now. I came here in 1999. So I've been here for what that's 21 years or something like that. I've been here longer than I've been in Alabama. Marc Gutman 18:56 Well, looking back to Alabama, assuming that you were there when you know, Murray was a young Murray's, like eight years old and you're hanging out. And were you there in Selma when you were eight? Maurice Cherry 19:06 Yeah, yeah, I grew up there. went to elementary, middle and high school there. Cool. Cool. So Marc Gutman 19:11 eight year old Morrison, did he think he was going to be a creative strategist? Maurice Cherry 19:18 I'm pretty sure eight year old Mario had no idea what a creative strategist was. I think eight year old Mario is probably either wanted to be a firefighter. I have an uncle, that's a fire chief. Or probably a writer. Probably one of those two is when I probably wanted to be at that age. Marc Gutman 19:37 Then I was gonna ask, but a writer might fill in this answer. So did you have a tendency towards either creativity or strategy or both? or What were you into at that age and as you started to matriculate through through the years and sama Maurice Cherry 19:54 Oh my god, eight years old. I really was into writing. I mean, that sounds like such an old hobby for a kid but I had been writing probably since around, let's see eight years old. What's that like, second grade, second, third grade, something like that. I have been writing since first grade like stories and also drawing along with them. I have an older brother, he's four years older. And he's really like, the super visual creative in the family, he paints he draws he sculpts. I mean, he's, he's a fantastic artist. And I remember growing up wanting to be like him, but I could not draw, I could do like little stick figures or whatever. I would say my work was very abstract at that age when I look back on it now. But I would draw that I would write these stories that would correspond with the drawings. And I remember, my teachers would give us this sheet of paper where it's like, blank on top, and then there's ruled lines on the bottom. And so you draw whatever top the picture or what have you. And then you write your story. Down below, I remember doing a lot of those, I have a whole, like binder full of those in my storage unit from when I was a kid, like just doing a ton of writing and drawing and exploring, I guess, I mean, trying to explore my creativity in that rather limited space. I mean, Soma is a is a very small town in South Central Alabama, most people know about it from the civil rights movement. I can tell you growing up there as a kid, I mean, it's the country, it's not super fun. Like, there's not, there's no, you know, big amusement parks, or movie theaters and things like that, that you would, you know, kind of hang out and do stuff with as a kid. So it was very much, you having to kind of find your own entertainment, maybe you're hanging out with other kids, maybe you're at home. A lot of people would be in church, because almost a big church town is like 100 plus churches there. So that's usually kind of what you were doing. You were trying to find something to do. Maybe watch TV, let's see eight years old that I haven't intended. I probably had an intent though back then also. So I was most likely playing Super Mario Brothers or pro wrestling. Probably pro wrestling, I was probably star man in pro wrestling back then. Marc Gutman 22:17 Good, good hobby, good hobby. And you mentioned that you know, you were creative with words, your brother visually creative. Were your parents creative? Did they instill this in your Where'd that come from? Maurice Cherry 22:32 Um, no, they're not creative at all. Let me let me take them. I mean, I think you know, as I think parents have to be creative to some capacity, just dealing with children, but they weren't in particularly creative fields. My dad at the time, was an engineer at GE, working on plastics. And my mom was working at the local community college as a lab assistant in the biology department. So they were very much like in the sciences kind of feel. So not a lot of, you know, creativity there, I would imagine, but I did have the opportunity at times to maybe go like with my dad to work or maybe go up my mom to work and like, see where they work and like, see the machines and see the lab equipment and all that sort of stuff, at least get interested in it like, like, know that this is like a possibility for me, perhaps but no one say anything creative. Like we don't think like someone doesn't have any, at least not to my recollection, any art museums or, or anything like that, where you would go and like be overwhelmed with visual creative inspiration. At that age, maybe probably when I was a little older, I certainly remember getting a lot of visual and creative inspiration from magazines. So I think probably when I was maybe about 10, or 11 or so I remember us getting maybe I had to be old enough that maybe I was a teenager at this point. But we would get subscriptions to like zillions magazine, which was Consumer Reports. They had this like kids vertical that they called zillions. And I remember we would get vive magazine and source the source magazine and stuff like that. So I'm gonna get visual inspiration from magazines a lot. Growing up, Marc Gutman 24:18 what an awesome like, sub brand for kids zillions like Maurice Cherry 24:23 yeah, I don't know, if they do that anymore. It was it was like they were teaching kids how to be like, responsible consumers. So they would like for example, talk about fruit juice and say how most fruit juice is not made of actual juice. If you check the labels, it's actually more you know, it's actually water and sugar and all this sort of stuff. So they were kind of like teaching you how to, you know, be a good consumer as a kid. It was like, it was like a kid's magazine about money, which was very interesting. Marc Gutman 24:52 That's so cool. I love it. And as you got older and as you got into high school was this creative like writing And in this creative outlet, was that still coming out of you? Or what were your interests at that time? Maurice Cherry 25:06 It was, I mean, I was all over the place for people that knew me in high school, I was all over the place I was writing. Let's see, I think I was in eighth grade or so. And I started taking college English courses in writing. So I was like, always writing something writing poems and like, getting published and stuff. But also right around seventh or eighth grade, I discovered music. And I discovered why once I discovered music, we had a band in middle school. And I wanted to join the band because the band could get out of sixth and seventh period. And I'm like, Well, I want to get out of 67 period. How do I make that happen? And they had like this open session where you, you know, go to the band room and you choose the instrument like, I remember going in and the band director, Mr. Ruffin would say, like, you know, you choose the instrument and turn the instrument will choose you like you just pick the one that you think you'll do best on it. I really wanted to play trumpet. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna play trumpet, but the mouthpiece was just too small. I just couldn't get the right on the shore. And then my band director switched me over to trombone. And that was like a match made in heaven. That was perfect. So I played music, from seventh grade all the way through high school, all the way through college, all throughout my 20s. I played trombone, in marching bands, and jazz bands and like, house bands, at clubs and all sorts of stuff. So in high school, I was doing music, I was writing. Also just doing class, I was kept in the math club. I was sort of all over the place in high school, doing a lot of different things. I was really though getting more into music, because I'm with the marching band. My band director also allowed me to kind of try my hand at composing. So I would like listen to songs like mostly songs from video games, I would listen to songs like say the fanfare from Final Fantasy when you beat an enemy. And I would say, Okay, how can I turn this into like four parts for trombone. So that means me sitting down on my keyboard, and like, dissecting out each part, and then go into my section, and then we practice it. And then we take it to the game, and we play it at the game and stuff like that. So I got a chance to really sort of cut my teeth with doing a bit of like arranging and composing there. And then my band director also introduced me to so much good music, mostly, like Earth, Wind and Fire. And he was a big Earth Wind and Fire fan. So he introduced me to like their whole catalogue at the time. And we were also playing some popular songs from off the radio. See, this was 95. So we were playing. Like, this is how we do it. For montell Jordan, water runs dry boys to man that might have been 96. But like, we were playing like radio hits, but then also playing like these, you know, well known songs from like the 70s and 80s from Earth, Wind and Fire and stuff. So I was I was all over the place in high school. I really was like, I was always doing something different mostly with the band, though. I think most people knew me for that. But also, I was just like, in class and making A's and you know, it was I, I really enjoyed high school. I enjoy high school a lot. Marc Gutman 28:23 Yeah, and are you still skilled and playing the trombone. Maurice Cherry 28:29 I haven't played the trombone and over 10 years, so I don't know, I would imagine, it's probably just like picking up, you know, like riding a bike, I would suppose because the trombone, unlike other brass instruments has no keys. And so it's just one long, interconnected tube. And it's there's only seven positions to the trombone are not marked either. So you have to know them just by memory. And you have to get the note right really by ear. So like this a lot of like active listening as you're playing. And because you're sort of like varying the length of air in this long tube as you're playing. You don't have a lot of room for error. But you also have a lot of room for improvisation, because you can easily slide in between notes without having to exactly know, the right fingering to get there, you can just get there based on how it sounds. And so like even doing something as simple as the chromatic scale, which you know, takes into account all the flats and sharps, you're just going up and down the slide. And so if you hit an F, then you know, if I need to get down to a flat, I just keep sliding down until I get there. So you sort of in your mind, you know, kind of the connective tissue between the notes that you have to reach. So I say like trombone is easy to pick up but hard to master. Because you have to be thinking about all of that while you're playing. So sad. Marc Gutman 29:49 I thought you would be the first guest that we would have on the Baby Got Back story podcast that would break out the trombone and it doesn't sound like you have one within arm's reach right now. I'll give you I'll give you a pass on that. But Maurice Cherry 30:02 I saw I saw my trombone when I was 30. Because I was like, I'm gonna hang it up because I really wanted to focus on, like, at the time, like, focus on my career and on tech and stuff, and I couldn't be playing, you know, like pickup songs and stuff like that, like I was a session musician for a while about 20s. Like, it's it's fun until it's not, you know, like, it's just not stable. And I don't know, I wonder what I wonder who I would have been if I kept up with it, though. Yeah, I still have kind of in the back of my mind. Like when all this tech stuff is said and done. To start my own Afro Cuban jazz, big bands. That may still happen. Like when I turned 50 maybe I'll I'll make that happen. I don't know. But it's in the cards. Marc Gutman 30:49 The future vision and you know, who knows, maybe we can get a crowdfunding campaign going for Murray's here to get them a new trombone? It's Yeah, seems like you should, you should be playing the trumpet, trombone, and you shouldn't be, shouldn't be selling your trombone. But as you were growing up in so many getting into high school, what do you think you were going to do? I mean, I see that you went to Morehouse, and I'm sure your parents were very proud. Where are they? What were their hopes and dreams for you? And what did you think you were going to do with your life as you were starting to get a little older, and, you know, into high school and looking into college? Maurice Cherry 31:24 So I, this is so interesting, and I don't know if this will make your viewers angry or not, or jealous, I don't know. But like, I was not thinking about, the only thing I was really thinking about at that age was getting out of Selma. That was like, my number one. Main imperative is like, get out of this town. This is a small town, I mean, to kind of give you some context with this. I mean, I came about in the generation right after, like civil rights movement, Bloody Sunday, all that sort of stuff. And so the city itself already has this, like, deep, like, just ghost of history about it everywhere that you go. I mean, Selma itself is a very haunted town, like there's a number of haunted houses and things of that nature, but like to live that close to history, and then also be so detached from the rest of the world is a very eerie feeling. I think about that, in hindsight, you know, growing up, like I really did not know, much of the world outside of Selma, until I left. And I think about well, who would I have been if I stayed there? Like I probably would have, you know, I don't know that a pastor or something. I don't know, who knows. But it's such a small, insular type of community. And it's very easy to like stay in that and never change and never go anywhere and never experienced anything new. For me, the main thing I wanted to do was just get out of Selma. So the reason I say this is because I didn't really have a plan as to what I wanted to do. My plan was just how do I get out of here? What what way do I make that happen? I don't care what the way is, it just has to happen. And so in seventh grade, I remember being part of the, I think it was called the Duke talent identification program, or tip for short. And what they will do is they will take like, high achieving middle schoolers, and you would spend a weekend at Duke University. And then they would also give you an opportunity to take one of the like, standardized tests early being the LSAT, or the a CT. So seventh grade, I took the a CT, and I scored a 30 on it. Now, I think the AC T goes up to a 36. So 30 out of 36 was very good that I think that's like analog to maybe like a high 1400 or low 1500. On the SSAT like it's pretty good. So when I took that in seventh grade, that pretty much wrote my ticket to any school that I wanted to go to. I didn't think at all about like, Oh, I'm really want to go to these colleges, so I have to apply or I really wanted colleges were coming to me. I didn't have to do it. And I don't mean to sound like a bragging sort of way. But I mean, you know, my mom wanted she tell you to like colleges, were contacting us left and right, sending us all sorts of materials. And I was really for me to just think, Oh, well, where do I want to go. And I didn't want to stay in Alabama. Because again, my thing was like I wanted to get out of Selma, but really, I just wanted to get out of like the state and experience something new. But my mom was very much like you know, wherever you go, I'm not getting on a plane. So you have to go somewhere close. Like you have to be still in the south because I'm not getting on a plane. I'm not taking a bus anywhere. It has to be fairly close. And Morehouse ended up being the choice because they came to me on my senior awards day and presented me with two full scholarships, which was more than any other The school had presented me with at the time and I mean, like every major school in Alabama and presented it was like a full ride or something. But I didn't want to go to like, no, no shade to the University of Alabama. I don't want to go to the University of Alabama. I didn't want to go to Auburn. I didn't want to go to Alabama State, no snow shade. The Alabama State. I didn't want to go there. But Morehouse came and Morehouse has this big reputation. And people are like, Oh, well, Martin Luther King went to Morehouse. And, you know, I should go to Morehouse. And I'm like, you know what, I should go to Morehouse. I want to go to Morehouse. And part of the reason of going was one, I knew that was a quick ticket out of out of Selma, but that also, and I think anyone who grew up in the south, probably in the 80s, and 90s, that wasn't near a big city, came to Atlanta at some point, like, there was a field trip to Six Flags, it was all your your class, they were on sa t we're going to Six Flags like everything was going to Six Flags. So there were always all these trips to Atlanta. And Atlanta was always sort of the destination, I think for a lot of us because it was the nearest really big city. Plus around that time. I mean, Atlanta in the 90s was a magical place. I mean, yes, you have the Olympics, but you also had freakness. So you've got like this combination of all this electricity happening in the city. And it was just the place like Atlanta was just the place to be. And so I'm thinking, well, if I can go to Atlanta, and it's a free ride, and I don't have to pay it, my parents will have to pay. Yeah, we'll do it. Let's do Atlanta. And so Morehouse ended up being the choice for me. I didn't even apply to Morehouse, they came to me. And, and the rest is history. Marc Gutman 36:44 A common question I get all the time is Mark, can you help me with our brand? Yes, we help companies solve branding problems. And the first step would be to schedule a no obligation brand clarity call, we'll link to that in the show notes, or head over to wildstorm comm and send us an email, we'll get you booked right away. So whether you're just getting started with a new business, or whether you've done some work and need a refresh, or whether you're a brand that's high performing and wants to stay there, we can help. After you book, your brand clarity call, you'll learn about our brand audit strategy process will identify if you need a new logo or just a refresh, will determine if your business has a branding problem. And you'll see examples of our work and get relevant case studies. We'll also see if branding is holding your business back and can help you get to the next level. So what are you waiting for, build the brand you've always dreamed of. Again, we'll link to that in the show notes. or head over to wildstorm comm and send us an email. Now back to the show. All I could think about when you were talking about music in Atlanta in the 90s was salt and pepper. So that's what it triggered for me. But so you went to Morehouse and sounds like you know, first and foremost, you're like a lot of young people. You're like, I just want to go someplace, I just want to change my life. I just want to start my life, you know, and kind of figure things out. When you got to Morehouse, what did you think you were going to do with with yourself? Maurice Cherry 38:30 Oh, my goodness, you know, I'm gonna be completely honest with you, Mark, I had no plans in college. I'm telling you that back then I didn't plan anything. I was such a easy going go with the flow kind of person to kind of give you a sense of that. I graduated from high school in late May of 1999. And then two weeks later, I packed up moved everything and went somewhere else because the the program that I was a part of for my scholarship, had a summer program is called project space. So I was at Morehouse in June of 99. Like, it was such a magical feeling. I'm like I'm in this big city, by myself. No one can tell me what to do. I could do whatever I want. But of course, it's still like within the confines of college and you have to kind of be, you know, aware of your surroundings. Morehouse is in that it's not in the best neighborhood. I mean, certainly back then it was it was not that great. It's probably better now. But back then it was a pretty rough neighborhood that the school was in so they really wanted to make sure that we stayed on campus where it was safe and not venture out into the neighborhood. But we could easily like catch a bus to the train station and like, go to all parts of the city where the train would go and so you know, the city kind of ended up being like our oyster but when I got there, I mean, I had no plans. I was in the summer program. And we were taking oh my goodness, we were taking like calculus two courses and we were taking care computer programming courses and Spelman, the program that we had on the head of cohort at Spelman College, which is the all female college that's across the street from Morehouse, which is all male college. And so we will take classes together with the girls from Spelman, we would hang out together. But mostly everything we did was kind of in and around. And on campus, like there wasn't a lot of off campus kind of stuff. Except for the people who were from Atlanta who could, you know, like, they could like get in their car, like take us somewhere, like take it to the grocery store or something like that. But they were they really highly discouraged us from going out and about in the city. And then once the school year started proper, I mean, I was just trying everything that I could like I was meeting new people that were into different things that was sort of my first real deep introduction to like anime, and trans music. Was that Morehouse, I was, like I mentioned, I was also still playing trombone. Just like discovering different things and different people, honestly, I mean, I'm just coming from Alabama, just being like this country bumpkin. Like now I'm all of a sudden, meeting all these people from the Caribbean, and from other parts of the country, and like, you know, them being really proud of where they're from, and their culture and everything like that. And so, just getting introduced to so many different things at once made it really, really hard to like, focus, like, I'll be honest, I almost almost flunked out. Freshman year, like first semester was, I was lost in the sauce. As I was going out to the clubs, I was hanging out late. I was getting back to the dorm room 234 in the morning for and then like sleeping for a few hours and then have an eight o'clock, Cal three class like I was reckless. I was so reckless freshman year, and it caught up to me to the point where I ended up getting evicted from my dorm. I was homeless for a slight bit like about a week or two, and then ended up getting placed into another dorm. And then that ended up being like a weird kind of situation, because the rd was kind of a creepy, like kind of a creepy guy, and got moved to another dorm. And then that was weird because my roommate in that dorm clearly had been suffering physical abuse from his roommate, and was very like, I don't know, very jumpy, like, anytime I will come around. And he's like, oh, like, don't you know, don't look at me that way, don't you know or something like that. So freshman year was a lot, at least the first half of freshman year was a lot. During that time. One thing I would say that was like, the stabilizing force outside of my classes was that I had joined a website and started working for them. So there was a website called college club calm. I don't know if people remember college club. And it was sort of like a precursor to Facebook. And basically, every college had their own campus on college club. And you could upload pictures. Every person had like a college club email, and they had this number that you could call that would read your email to you over the phone. There was live chat. I mean, comms club was lit. I mean, they ended up going bankrupt. for good reason. I think at one point, they were giving away like $10,000 a week to people, they were really just like that early, calm money was coming in. But I worked for college club as a campus representative first at Morehouse, and then for the entire Atlanta University Center. So I had three or four other people under me. And we had devised the system. Why am I telling this might be illegal actually know what comes out of the system? Well, that's fine. So we had devised a system where we basically would get paid from college club for every account that was created after every photo that we uploaded. So one of my good friends, good good friends, Chris wrote this macro that would allow us to basically just like dump a bunch of photos into a folder, and they would automatically get uploaded to college club. And so we would get, you know, money for that. And then he also came up with this other macro that will automatically create accounts. So we had these cameras, we have these huge Sony mavica cameras that actually were so big, you had to put a floppy disk in it for storage, like three and a quarter floppy disk. And we would go and take pictures and swap out the disk. And then at the end of the night, we would dump everything into this Network Folder. We run the macro, the macro would upload the stuff from the Network Folder, we would literally be making money while we slept. I mean I was making at that point. roughly about $4,000 a month. Marc Gutman 44:46 Pretty good for a college kid. Maurice Cherry 44:48 This is this is my This was my, like second half of freshman year and I mean, we did not know how to act with that with that much money we were just doing just spending money on just the dumbest stupid shit just like, go to Linux and like, you know, buy a whole bunch of people's stuff in the food court or just buying like extravagant clothes. And so I mean, in hindsight, just dumb, dumb stuff. But at the time, you know, you're 19 was 19 then trying to think now I was 18 and I was 18 then, and just like have money hand over fist. It was it was ridiculous. Um, eventually college club ended up going bankrupt. And so that job didn't last too long. But for the time that we had it, it was great. And so yeah, I didn't really have ambition. My freshman year, I was too busy having fun. Like, we would go out to the strip and take pictures and like, and then I mean, I guess I kind of have to set the scene here. I mean, so the Atlanta University Center is six colleges. It's Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark, Atlanta University, Morris Brown College, they entered the interdenominational theological center and Morehouse School of Medicine. So like six schools, all together and like this one huge meta campus. And now the schools kind of have their own like, sort of divisions like Spellman, for example, has a huge wall around and it's basically like fort Spellman. But the other colleges, you can easily walk between and through and everything like that. And so the connective kind of tissue between the main colleges is this long brick thoroughfare called the strip. And it's basically just for walking. So like, you know, cars were coming up and down, it was just, you could walk, there were benches, there were booths, all sort of stuff. So you could hang out all day on the strip, and like, people watch, then walk down to seagulls and like, get some wings and then go sit on the bench and listen to some music and then go to the bookstore, go to the library, like everything was just connected in this big, almost like a marketplace. And then on Fridays, at the very end of the strip at Spelman, they would open their gates and you could go into Spelman to their lower courtyard that they called lower manly, and they had market Friday, and they would be DJs. there and dance. I mean, it was so much fun, that you didn't think about class, like class was almost like, why would I go to class, but I could just hang out on the strip all day, you know. So that was very easy. That first year as a freshman and you have money to it was very easy to just get completely sidetracked. And I completely fell deep into all of that. Well, Marc Gutman 47:37 and as we know, Time marches on. And it sounds like you know, had a very similar experience. I went crazy my freshman year and pulled it together primarily because my parents told me I had no choice. It was gonna be big trouble if I didn't. But Time marches on, and you get through Morehouse and like, how did you start a career in creativity and strategy Maurice Cherry 48:00 that really kind of came about almost as a almost as circumstance. So and I'll try to fast forward through, like past like post college on but so I graduated from Morehouse, I didn't have anything lined up like I'm to be completely honest. When I graduated, I had no plans whatsoever, partially because our scholarship program, they pulled the funding from it in 2001, because of 911. So they pulled funding from that and funding went to which was then created the Homeland Security Department. So we didn't have funding to kind of continue out what we thought the end result of our internships and stuff was going to be so with my scholarship program, basically, I would intern for two years for NASA. And then after that, we would get placed at a NASA facility. So in my mind, I'm like, as long as I keep Baba 3.0 I got a job at NASA. So that's all I have to do. jr came along and completely dashed all of that. And so by the time I graduated, I had nothing lined up. I was working at the Woodruff Arts Center, selling tickets to the symphony, and to the art museum into the theater, just like you know, selling old patriots tickets and stuff like that. And they took away the calculator at my station because I had a math degree, which was kind of degrading but whatever. Did that for a little while, left that job, worked at autotrader. Like, as a dealer concierge is basically just like a glorified customer service rep. Did that for a while, quit that job. And then on a whim, I found in the back of our local weekly newspaper, creative loafing. I found a listing to become an electronic media specialist for the state of Georgia, applied for it on a whim, got the job. I worked for there for about a year and a half left went to at&t as a junior designer. What worked my way up to being a senior designer left there in 2008. After Obama got elected, I started my own studio. I did my studio for nine years. And I would say that was kind of the genesis of this whole creative strategy career. Because even though I had my studio where I was doing web design and graphic design and email marketing and stuff like that, I really was able to branch out and do a lot of other creative stuff like I was able to do. Like DNI consulting for tech companies, like I did that for Vox media. For a while I did that with Netflix for a short period of time, did a lot of writing still, like I was still writing during that time. So I wrote four sight points. And for psych five, and I wrote for media B's show for a while I taught classes at the Bri and at Savannah College of Art and Design, I did a lot of different stuff in the studio. And so because I was doing all these different things, like I was gaining all this knowledge and other parts of the, you know, the business and the really in other parts of the industry, and was able to really kind of bring it all together. So by the time I Wow, my studio down in 2017, I knew that there was more that I wanted to do that I couldn't accomplish and sort of the current state that the studio was in. Also the market was changing, like, bespoke web design was sort of going out as more people started to use kind of drag and drop options like a Squarespace or Wix or something like that. So it made more sense for me to kind of phase out of that market and get more into the actual like, strategy portion of it. Because now there are these tools that allow me that allow people to do the things they would pay a designer to do. But the tools don't really give you the strategy behind why you would use certain things or something like that. And so I tried to kind of brand myself more in this strategy route. As I wind my studio down, um, at the end of 2017, I started at a tech startup, or there's a tech company at that time called Fog Creek software as starting, they're just kind of doing content marketing and getting a sense of the business and what they were doing. As I stayed there, they switched over to become the startup called glitch. And then as they were growing, and they look, we're looking to me, as someone that sort of had this thought leadership that was built up to this point, I was able to then kind of come in on a strategy aspect, and then help out with, you know, bizdev opportunities or partnerships or, you know, things of that nature. And so that really kind of set the stage for me to take all of the cumulative knowledge that I gained throughout my studio time and even the time prior to that working for companies and use that to kind of be this this sort of creative thought leadership at a company that needed it at the time. Marc Gutman 52:44 And when did revision path come about? Like how did you get into podcasting? Because it 400 episodes, I'm guessing you were a bit of an early adopter? Maurice Cherry 52:55 Yeah. So I started podcasting, initially in 2005. So I have old shows that will never see the light of day. I have old old shows from back then. And Atlanta, to its credit actually had a very vibrant podcasting. Community back then we had this thing called the Georgia Podcast Network that was put on by this couple rusty and Amber. And I mean, that was big for maybe about five or six years, there were meetups and things of that nature. And it was mostly Georgia, but also included like South Carolina, Tennessee, kind of like that tri state area. So I have been doing podcasting for a while but never really looked at it as a viable thing, then it was sort of this first wave of podcasting. Because, really, it wasn't something that caught on then like people were more so starting to latch on to video. During that time, it wasn't about, oh, we're gonna listen to this podcast. And even then what podcast were normally was just stuff that was on the radio that they didn't put out as an mp3. So like, The New York Times, NPR, etc, would have these little shows. And that's how you sort of picked up on like maybe a radio show that you've missed, you can subscribe to the podcast, which is really just that day is episode that they downloaded and made into an mp3 or whatever. I first started doing revision path in 2013. And at that time, it wasn't a podcast, it was gonna be just an online magazine. I wanted to do something which showcased what black designers and developers were doing in the field like peers of mine, etc. to kind of counteract what I wasn't seeing in design media. And I started doing these long form interviews, maybe about 1500 to 2000 words or so. But it just took so long to put together I was doing it by myself. And it was someone that actually was a reader of revision path is woman named Raquel Rodriguez, who one day wrote me and said that she was a fan of revision paths. She would really like to be on revision path, but wanted to record a podcast. Because she had a podcast that she was doing in Chicago, and at the time, I'm like, yeah, we can record that's fine thinking to myself, I have no recording equipment. So we ended up recording our interview, the very first episode of revision path on my mobile phone, in a restaurant. Terrible quality. I still keep the episode out. I mean, it's somewhat listable, I guess, I don't know. But, uh, that was kind of where the genesis of the podcast started. And then as I continue to keep doing revision path throughout 2013, I would give guests the option to either record, or we could do like the long form interview. So I sort of alternated. And then when 2014 came around, and it was a full year of revision path, I just decided it's just easier to do the podcast, so switched over to becoming a podcast in March of 2014, officially, but when we launched, we still had about, I say, about 15 episodes prior that we had done. So we launched with a pretty big catalog already. So technically, we launched that like, Episode 16. But we have been recording since episode one. Back in June of 2013. Marc Gutman 56:11 Yeah, and as you mentioned, you just recorded your 400th episode, you've been doing this for a while. I'm terrible at math, but it sounds like about eight years or something like that, which is a long time. Like I'm, I think you're gonna be Episode 71 for the baby backstory podcast, and I can tell you, I mean, it's been difficult it you know, sometimes I hear, I hear 71. And I'm like, Ah, that's not that much. But there is a lot of energy, a lot of effort and a lot of time that's gone into it, like 400 episodes, do you ever think like, enough's enough? Are you just gonna keep keep recording? Maurice Cherry 56:48 I mean, at this point, I'm going to keep recording. As we're talking, I've already got episodes recorded through 405. And then I've got five more in the queue. So we're up to like, 409, I think, technically, I, you know, I'll be honest, there's really no shortage of people for me to have on the show, I've got a running potential guests list in the 1000s of people that I could have on the show. And then, of course, folks recommend others, I've started to bring back old guests on the show, just to kind of see what their, their updates have been since they first came on the show, you know, like, so it's been fun to kind of chart that journey, in some ways. And then honestly, as the industry has changed, what the show has really allowed me to do is keep up. Because I mean, at this point, I'm not really a practicing designer anymore. Like I'm not, you know, in Photoshop, or sketch or figma, or whatever. But being able to talk to so many practitioners still keeps me up to date with what's going on, and what are the new technologies? And what are folks talking about? What are folks passionate about? It keeps me up to date with, with that sort of stuff. And also just being able to introduce design still to a whole new generation of people that may not have known that there were people in design who looked like them. People who think like, Oh, I'm just alone in this by myself, and then they can look and see no, you're not, there's like 400 other people here that you're in this thing with? So I don't I personally don't see it stopping anytime soon. I mean, we're still, you know, you know, knock on wood, getting funding and able to keep things going. So I'll keep it going for as long as the industry will have me. Marc Gutman 58:34 Yeah, let's talk about that really quickly. You know, you mentioned that revision path is really this outlet to showcase those those folks who typically aren't showcased and to show people that, hey, there's other people like them out there. Like when you think about revision path, like what's the one thing you want people to know, like, really now about what you're doing with this podcast? Hmm, Maurice Cherry 59:00 that's a good question. I mean, I think, off the top of my head, I would want people to know that this is not easy. And I think people will look at what I'm doing and think that it's pretty easy. And it's not, I mean, I think that might be the case for most podcasters. But for me, in particular, like I've had to continually work and try new things to get to a system that I know works with me and my team, like and it's bulletproof. It's a time to get there, that wasn't just something that I was able to kind of pull out from, you know, from scratch, and it was something I had to build myself. I had to find the right tools to pull in to make sure all of this work. So it's really about that. I would say for any podcast, it's really about building systems that allow you to be able to do this work. I don't necessarily want to say at scale because I think honestly, the the production level that we're doing is not really changed that much over the years. But it's refined to the point where I can take long breaks between interviews and not get burned out from this. And I'd say yeah, like, it's not easy. People will look at me and will look at me and look at the show and think that it's easy like oh, is, it just seems so easy for you to get people to come on the show. I'm like, no, it's still, it. Honestly, it's still a challenge sometimes to get people to come on the show. Just making sure that everything sort of flows regularly. Like, even though we have our system down, that could still be one thing and that system that could cause it all to, you know, tumble like a house of cards or something. So definitely, that it's it's not easy that it's a lot of thought that goes into it. I think people will look at the 400 episodes of revision path and just see like a monolithic set of people. But I mean, there's so much diversity within the people that I have interviewed, whether it's age diversity, whether it's what they do in the industry, years of experience, as men, there's women, there's trans folk, there's folks in the US and the Caribbean, throughout Europe, throughout Africa, throughout Asia and Australia. Like they're, they're everywhere, the thing that sort of ties them all together, is you know, they're practicing designers, or they're practicing techies, or they're doing something creative on the web that is worthy of kind of falling into line with everything that I'm doing with revision paths. So yeah, I would say that's probably the the main thing I think now as the show has started to, I don't want to say become mainstream, I'd say the older that the show gets. I've seen the more people maybe not understand what it is. And I tell people right off the bat, that revision path is a design podcast granted, I do have developers on the show, I have had software engineers on the show. Just lately, like I was talking

Torrance T. Stephens, originally from Memphis, Tennessee attended Morehouse College where he studied, psychology, biology and chemistry. He received a master's degree in Educational Psychology and Measurement from Atlanta University and a Ph.D. in Counseling from Clark Atlanta University. We discuss his most recent article “Protest and Demonstrations are Not Synonymous with Rioting and Looting,” his thoughts on MLB moving the All-Star game out of GA, BLM, and how this all boils down to money and power.

The Tennessee World Affairs Council in association with Belmont University Center for International Business, Tennessee Technological University Department of Foreign Languages, Middle Tennessee State University and Lipscomb University and the Peoria Area World Affairs Council International Careers & Jobs Panel A Conversation On Working in the World of Diplomacy The United States Foreign Service and the U.S. State Department Featuring Foreign Service Officer Allen O. DuBose Diplomat in Residence Hosted By Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Ryan President, Tennessee World Affairs Council March 25, 2021 5:30 PM CT Allen DuBose Allen DuBose is a management career track Foreign Service Generalist with more than 14 years of experience at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, DuBose enjoyed a 20 year career that included positions in finance at corporations like IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation. He also rose to the position of regional director of operations for North America at satellite telecommunications provider, Iridium LLC. Since joining the Foreign Service, DuBose served overseas as a Vice Consul in Hermosillo, Mexico; General Services Officer in Guayaquil, Ecuador; and Management Officer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He has also served as an Area Manager for Latin America with the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations; in human resources with the Executive Office of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs – South Central Asian Affairs; and as a Post Management Officer with the Executive Office of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs – International Organizations Affairs. DuBose graduated from The College of William and Mary with a B.A in economics, and Atlanta University with an M.B.A. and concentration in finance. Since he travels frequently, the fastest way to contact him is via his email address, DuBoseA@state.gov. Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Ryan, USN (Ret) Patrick Ryan is a native of New York City. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and volunteered for submarine duty. He served aboard nuclear fast attack and ballistic missile boats during the Cold War, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. In 1982 he was commissioned and served aboard a cruiser in the Western Pacific before becoming a Navy Intelligence Officer. Ryan served aboard the carrier Constellation in the Pacific, the Joint Staff Intelligence Directorate in the Pentagon, the Center for Naval Analysis, and the Intelligence Directorate of U.S. Central Command. Ryan retired from the Navy in 1998 and worked as a consultant on Intelligence Community projects and as the VP/COO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Ryan ran a newsletter publishing business on international affairs from 1999-2016. He founded the Tennessee World Affairs Council in 2007.

Amira Adawe interviewed Dr. Ronald E. Hall on the issue of colorism and how that is impacting many communities of color in the US and globally as well as his lived experience of colorism.  Bio:  Dr. Ronald E. Hall's professional career began as a clinical social worker. He received a BA degree in Psychology from Shaw College, an MA/MCS degree in Correctional Science from the University of Detroit, an MSW degree from the University of Michigan, and a PhD from Atlanta University. In 1990, Dr. Hall testified as an expert witness in America's first skin-color discrimination court case between African Americans: Morrow vs. IRS. Dr. Hall later devised the Bleaching Syndrome, to explain discrimination among people of color, and Identity Across the Lifespan, as an alternative biracial identity model. In 2007, Dr. Hall was invited to Washington D.C., by Congressman Bobby Rush, to lecture on skin color at the Washington Convention Center. Also in 2007, Dr. Hall was an invited lecturer at the Oxford University Roundtable (UK). In November of 2010, Dr. Hall was Keynote speaker the 2nd Surinam/Dutch Conference on Tropical Dermatology in South America. More recently, Dr. Hall helped organized and participated in the first of its kind academic conference on global skin color issues at Washington University Law in St. Louis, MO. In 2014, Dr. Hall launched his own company called HallMarked.

In this episode we sit down Dr. Patricia Davidson MD, FACP.  Dr. Davidson is a medical Internist and Cardiologist, who has a private practice in Washington, DC.Dr. Davidson attended the University of Michigan, receiving a B.S. degree in Psychology in 1972,and a Masters degree in Chemistry from Atlanta University in 1974. She graduated as the third woman of color in 100 years from the University of Louisville Medical School in 1978. Dr. Davidson is a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Davidson served on the faculty of the University of Maryland Medical School as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hypertension and Cardiology from 1985-1988. She was an Instructorof Medicine at the Howard University Medical School from 1982-1983. She served as a MasterFaculty member for Women and Heart Disease for the American Medical Women's Association(AMWA).Dr. Davidson is regularly interviewed on radio, television and print media on health and heartdisease. She was featured on Working Women on WRC Channel 4, Tony Brown's Journal, CNN,BET and all local and national television networks. She is a very popular speaker among national and local organizations on the topic of her greatest passion, heart disease in women, AfricanAmericans and other ethnic populations.

Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the accomplishments of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Atlanta University, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, and Howard University. Black Sociology is a concept that weaponizes the discipline for that which is “right and good" and prioritizes scholar-activist inspired research directed at impacting real world conditions of African Americans. Guided by this approach, this book debunks the idea that the sociology practiced by early African Americans does not exemplify scholarly excellence. Instead, Earl Wright II demonstrates that Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington, established the first applied program of rural sociology. Fisk University, first under the guidance of George Edmund Haynes then Charles S. Johnson, developed one of the earliest and most impactful programs of applied urban sociology. Wright extends our understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois's Atlanta Sociological Laboratory with an articulation of the contributions of women to the first American school of sociology.  Jim Crow Sociology forces contemporary scholars to grapple with who are and who are not included in the disciplinary canon. Specifically, this book forces us to ask why early African American sociologists and HBCUs are not canonized. What makes this book most consequential is that it provides evidence supporting the proposition that sociology began in earnest in the United States as a Black and southern enterprise. C.J. Valasek is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology & Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the accomplishments of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Atlanta University, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, and Howard University. Black Sociology is a concept that weaponizes the discipline for that which is “right and good" and prioritizes scholar-activist inspired research directed at impacting real world conditions of African Americans. Guided by this approach, this book debunks the idea that the sociology practiced by early African Americans does not exemplify scholarly excellence. Instead, Earl Wright II demonstrates that Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington, established the first applied program of rural sociology. Fisk University, first under the guidance of George Edmund Haynes then Charles S. Johnson, developed one of the earliest and most impactful programs of applied urban sociology. Wright extends our understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois's Atlanta Sociological Laboratory with an articulation of the contributions of women to the first American school of sociology.  Jim Crow Sociology forces contemporary scholars to grapple with who are and who are not included in the disciplinary canon. Specifically, this book forces us to ask why early African American sociologists and HBCUs are not canonized. What makes this book most consequential is that it provides evidence supporting the proposition that sociology began in earnest in the United States as a Black and southern enterprise. C.J. Valasek is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology & Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the accomplishments of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Atlanta University, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, and Howard University. Black Sociology is a concept that weaponizes the discipline for that which is “right and good" and prioritizes scholar-activist inspired research directed at impacting real world conditions of African Americans. Guided by this approach, this book debunks the idea that the sociology practiced by early African Americans does not exemplify scholarly excellence. Instead, Earl Wright II demonstrates that Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington, established the first applied program of rural sociology. Fisk University, first under the guidance of George Edmund Haynes then Charles S. Johnson, developed one of the earliest and most impactful programs of applied urban sociology. Wright extends our understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois's Atlanta Sociological Laboratory with an articulation of the contributions of women to the first American school of sociology.  Jim Crow Sociology forces contemporary scholars to grapple with who are and who are not included in the disciplinary canon. Specifically, this book forces us to ask why early African American sociologists and HBCUs are not canonized. What makes this book most consequential is that it provides evidence supporting the proposition that sociology began in earnest in the United States as a Black and southern enterprise. C.J. Valasek is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology & Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the accomplishments of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Atlanta University, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, and Howard University. Black Sociology is a concept that weaponizes the discipline for that which is “right and good" and prioritizes scholar-activist inspired research directed at impacting real world conditions of African Americans. Guided by this approach, this book debunks the idea that the sociology practiced by early African Americans does not exemplify scholarly excellence. Instead, Earl Wright II demonstrates that Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington, established the first applied program of rural sociology. Fisk University, first under the guidance of George Edmund Haynes then Charles S. Johnson, developed one of the earliest and most impactful programs of applied urban sociology. Wright extends our understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois's Atlanta Sociological Laboratory with an articulation of the contributions of women to the first American school of sociology.  Jim Crow Sociology forces contemporary scholars to grapple with who are and who are not included in the disciplinary canon. Specifically, this book forces us to ask why early African American sociologists and HBCUs are not canonized. What makes this book most consequential is that it provides evidence supporting the proposition that sociology began in earnest in the United States as a Black and southern enterprise. C.J. Valasek is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology & Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the accomplishments of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Atlanta University, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, and Howard University. Black Sociology is a concept that weaponizes the discipline for that which is “right and good" and prioritizes scholar-activist inspired research directed at impacting real world conditions of African Americans. Guided by this approach, this book debunks the idea that the sociology practiced by early African Americans does not exemplify scholarly excellence. Instead, Earl Wright II demonstrates that Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington, established the first applied program of rural sociology. Fisk University, first under the guidance of George Edmund Haynes then Charles S. Johnson, developed one of the earliest and most impactful programs of applied urban sociology. Wright extends our understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois's Atlanta Sociological Laboratory with an articulation of the contributions of women to the first American school of sociology.  Jim Crow Sociology forces contemporary scholars to grapple with who are and who are not included in the disciplinary canon. Specifically, this book forces us to ask why early African American sociologists and HBCUs are not canonized. What makes this book most consequential is that it provides evidence supporting the proposition that sociology began in earnest in the United States as a Black and southern enterprise. C.J. Valasek is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology & Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the accomplishments of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Atlanta University, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, and Howard University. Black Sociology is a concept that weaponizes the discipline for that which is “right and good" and prioritizes scholar-activist inspired research directed at impacting real world conditions of African Americans. Guided by this approach, this book debunks the idea that the sociology practiced by early African Americans does not exemplify scholarly excellence. Instead, Earl Wright II demonstrates that Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington, established the first applied program of rural sociology. Fisk University, first under the guidance of George Edmund Haynes then Charles S. Johnson, developed one of the earliest and most impactful programs of applied urban sociology. Wright extends our understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois's Atlanta Sociological Laboratory with an articulation of the contributions of women to the first American school of sociology.  Jim Crow Sociology forces contemporary scholars to grapple with who are and who are not included in the disciplinary canon. Specifically, this book forces us to ask why early African American sociologists and HBCUs are not canonized. What makes this book most consequential is that it provides evidence supporting the proposition that sociology began in earnest in the United States as a Black and southern enterprise. C.J. Valasek is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology & Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the accomplishments of early African American sociologists at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Atlanta University, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University, and Howard University. Black Sociology is a concept that weaponizes the discipline for that which is “right and good" and prioritizes scholar-activist inspired research directed at impacting real world conditions of African Americans. Guided by this approach, this book debunks the idea that the sociology practiced by early African Americans does not exemplify scholarly excellence. Instead, Earl Wright II demonstrates that Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Booker T. Washington, established the first applied program of rural sociology. Fisk University, first under the guidance of George Edmund Haynes then Charles S. Johnson, developed one of the earliest and most impactful programs of applied urban sociology. Wright extends our understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois's Atlanta Sociological Laboratory with an articulation of the contributions of women to the first American school of sociology.  Jim Crow Sociology forces contemporary scholars to grapple with who are and who are not included in the disciplinary canon. Specifically, this book forces us to ask why early African American sociologists and HBCUs are not canonized. What makes this book most consequential is that it provides evidence supporting the proposition that sociology began in earnest in the United States as a Black and southern enterprise. C.J. Valasek is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology & Science Studies at the University of California San Diego.

Thursday, January 28, 2021, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Bonus Episode Welcome to a bonus episode on how local courts are facing and solving their many complex issues. As mentioned in last week’s episode, these local suburban and rural jurisdictions are very often the representative of the judicial branch in much of America. We are continuing our conversation with clerks of court and court administrators from one and two judge courts around the country. We are chatting about the current issues facing local courts including automated case management systems, teleconferencing, telework, and training in smaller jurisdictions. How are these courts managing those issues, and what advice they have for the rest of us? About Our Speaker Panelists Angie Van Schoick is the Court Administrator for the Municipal Court in the Town of Breckenridge, Colorado. It is a position she has held since 2013. Angie is a licensed macro level social worker in the State of Colorado and Michigan, receiving her MSW from the University of Michigan in 2007. Saundra Berry is the Clerk of Court for the Municipal Court in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Saundra earned a master’s degree in business administration from Atlanta University and a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Central State University. Kelly S. Elliott is the Court Administrator for the Municipal Court in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Kelly has more than 39 years of experience in the court and legal field. Kelly completed her Certified Court Administrator certificate in 2015 and received her Advanced Certified Court Administrator in 2019 through the Missouri Association for Court Administration. Lindsey Forshee is the Superior Court Administrator for the Tifton Judicial Circuit in Georgia. Lindsey graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality Management in May 2018. Danielle Trujillo is the Court Administrator for the Municipal Court in Littleton, Colorado. Danielle is an innovative public safety professional with an exceptional ability to research and analyze complex issues and provide actionable conclusions. Through problem solving and critical thinking she utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to bridge gaps in information and processes. DanielIe started her career in restorative justice and love the ability to directly serve my community through local government.

Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast: January 2021 Episode When we talk about the challenges confronting America’s judicial branch, we often focus on the concerns and accomplishments of large metropolitan courts. After all, they are often the ones that have more money and more resources to throw at a problem. However, a survey conducted several years ago, revealed that almost 65% of all courts in the United States had benches of fewer than four judges. In a large portion of our country, these local suburban and often rural jurisdictions, these local courts are the representative of the judicial branch. How are these local courts solving their problems? How are they coping with the issues of the day with less staff, less money, often shared facilities, and frequently government entities that are somewhat less respectful of the court as being a separate branch of government? This month we have invited clerks of court and court administrators of one and two judge courts around the country to chat about their current issues, about how they are managing those issues, and what advice they have for the rest of us. About Our Speaker Panelists Angie Van Schoick is the Court Administrator for the Municipal Court in the Town of Breckenridge, Colorado. It is a position she has held since 2013. Angie is a licensed macro level social worker in the State of Colorado and Michigan, receiving her MSW from the University of Michigan in 2007. Saundra Berry is the Clerk of Court for the Municipal Court in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Saundra earned a master’s degree in business administration from Atlanta University and a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Central State University. Kelly S. Elliott is the Court Administrator for the Municipal Court in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Kelly has more than 39 years of experience in the court and legal field. Kelly completed her Certified Court Administrator certificate in 2015 and received her Advanced Certified Court Administrator in 2019 through the Missouri Association for Court Administration. Lindsey Forshee is the Superior Court Administrator for the Tifton Judicial Circuit in Georgia. Lindsey graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality Management in May 2018. Danielle Trujillo is the Court Administrator for the Municipal Court in Littleton, Colorado. Danielle is an innovative public safety professional with an exceptional ability to research and analyze complex issues and provide actionable conclusions. Through problem solving and critical thinking she utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to bridge gaps in information and processes. DanielIe started her career in restorative justice and love the ability to directly serve my community through local government.

Guest host Walter Mosley is joined by W. Paul Coates on episode 149 of The Quarantine Tapes. Paul is a publisher and the founder of Black Classic Press.Walter opens the conversation with a question about what hope Paul is finding in this moment. This leads into a deep and generative discussion about the definition of hope. They discuss Paul’s history with the Black Panthers, Medgar Evers, and Walter’s writing in their attempts to parse the difference between each of their understandings of hope, struggle, and optimism.W. Paul Coates is the founder of Black Classic Press and BCP Digital Printing. Black Classic Press, founded in 1978, specializes in republishing obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent. BCP Digital Printing was founded in 1996 as a parallel entity of the Press. The printing company uses state of the art digital technology to produce books and documents On Demand. The acquisition of digital printing technology distinguishes the press from other small publishing companies and places Black Classic Press on the cutting edge of 21st century technology.As a former African American Studies reference and acquisition librarian at Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Mr.. Coates was responsible for collection development of African American books and related materials. His responsibilities included the selection and purchase of rare and non-rare items.Mr. Coates is a graduate of Atlanta University's School of Library and Information Studies (1980) and SDC/Antioch University (1979). He is an active Black bibliophile and collector of cultural artifacts. Mr. Coates is co-editor of Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History (1990, Howard Univ. Press). He is a founding member and chair of the National Association of Black Book Publishers. In addition, he served as adjunct instructor of African American Studies at Sojourner-Douglass College, Baltimore, MD. He formerly owned and operated The Black Book (1972-1978), a Baltimore-based bookstore. His experience with the purchase, sale, and collection of books by and about Blacks is a love affair that has continued more than two and one half decades.Walter Mosley is one of the most versatile and admired writers in America. He is the author of more than 60 critically-acclaimed books including the just released Elements of Fiction, a nonfiction book about the art of writing fiction; the novel John Woman,Down the River and Unto the Sea (which won an Edgar Award for “Best Novel”) and the bestselling mystery series featuring “Easy Rawlins.” His work has been translated into 25 languages and includes literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs, and a young adult novel. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times and The Nation, among other publications. He is also a writer and an executive producer on the John Singleton FX show, “Snowfall.”In 2013 he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, The Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a Grammy®, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Humble beginnings and a kind demeanor have made him a great public servant, including work as an elected county official and college president. It also has led him to foster a deep friendship with legendary John Lewis. Jabari Simama’s story has many different chapters. He grew up in Columbia, Mo., and attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., through a football scholarship. During a college Christian fellowship, Simama travelled to Connecticut, where he found kinship and a job the following summer. The experience led him to transfer to the University of Bridgeport, where Simama earned his bachelor’s degree. Afterwards, he found his way down to Atlanta, Ga., where he eventually earned two graduate degrees, a master’s from Atlanta University and his Ph.D. from Emory University. At this point in his life, Simama entered public service and served two terms on the Atlanta City Council, then worked as deputy chief operating officer and chief of staff for DeKalb County and later became the president of Georgia Piedmont Technical College. Despite the challenges, he has always found inspiration through his own childhood and his family’s humble beginnings. “All of my life, I felt this tremendous kinship and commitment with lifting up ‘the least of these.’ And it's probably because at one point I was part of ‘the least of these,’” he explains. Jabari Simama’s commitment to helping others has also come from the great support he has received from others throughout his life. A friend from the Christian fellowship organization Young Life, helped Simama travel outside of Missouri for the first time. That same friend introduced him to Jack Carpenter who headed Young Life in Connecticut and offered him the summer job. After college, a woman named Lillian introduced him to his first job in Atlanta and to her husband, the late Congressman John Lewis. Jabari Simama and John Lewis met in 1973 and maintained a close friendship. Simama recounts how it was good to know the human side of John Lewis and to see his loving and humble nature  even when their wives were conspiring on the phone about the lunches at their children’s shared preschool. “I could hear John in the background saying ‘Lillian, remember we're non-violent, we don't talk like that, we're not violent,’” Simama says. “So even in his personal life, something that didn't exactly have anything to do with civil rights, the spirit of non-violence was the way he lived.” Listen to the latest “In The Arena” episode to hear more about Jabari Simama’s friendship with the late John Lewis, the tenderness of his heart and the racial discrimination of hand dryers. Learn more and subscribe for free to In The Arena at www.governing.com/ITA

Earl Wright II is a Professor of Sociology at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Born and raised in Memphis, he graduated with a diploma from Trezevant High School in 1989 and later that year entered Kentucky State University (K-State) on a football scholarship. After a successful two year stint as the team’s starting wide receiver, he was ‘compelled’ to leave Frankfort because of the low-grade point average (0.7) he earned while pursuing a major in “football” and minor in “partying.” It is provident that he left K-State since it is likely that he would not have graduated had he remained. Upon his return to Memphis, he began to take college seriously and eventually earned the BA (1994) in History and MA (1997) in Sociology from the University of Memphis. In 2000 Earl took the doctorate in Sociology at the University of Nebraska, where he founded a chapter of the Black Graduate Student Association. Later that year he joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Central Florida and over his career has been on faculty at Fisk University, Texas Southern University (as chairperson of the Department of Sociology) at the University of Cincinnati and, now, at Rhodes College. Dr. Wright has authored numerous books and articles on the contributions of Blacks and HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) to the discipline of sociology. He is is the nation’s leading authority on W. E. B. Du Bois and the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory – the moniker bestowed on scholars engaged in sociological inquiry at Atlanta University (now called Clark Atlanta University) between 1895 and 1917. His groundbreaking research has altered our understanding of the discipline’s formative years in this nation. Specifically, some of his groundbreaking research findings include the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory’s (1895-1924) status as the first American school of sociology, not the University of Chicago (1915-1930), and that this school was the first American sociological unit to 1) institutionalize the use of insider researchers; 2) institutionalize the public acknowledgment of the limitations of one’s research; 3) institutionalize method triangulation (or mixed methods); and 4) institutionalize a “methods” section in its research papers. It is because of his excellence in “research on race and the South” that he was awarded the Charles S. Johnson Award by the Southern Sociological Society in 2016. Dr. Wright’s greatest academic pleasure is bringing to this nation’s attention the contributions of early and unknown/little known Black sociologists and social scientists who contributed to the development of one of the greatest tools for social advancement in the world – sociology! #Subscribe #Downloand #itunes #Spotify #SoundClound

We're going to our first house in Georgia in this episode! The Herndon Home was the dream house of a pretty spectacular power couple, Alonzo, who was born into slavery but rose up to be a self-made millionaire, and his wife Adrienne, a talented actress and one of the first African American women faculty members at Atlanta University. If that piques your interest, take a listen-- we talk about customized murals! Jalousies! And how many roles can one woman possibly do in a one-woman show!

Social justice is both a political and philosophical concept that says that everyone should have equal access to health, wealth, well-being, justice, and opportunity. Everyone has the right to live, enjoy things, and be who they are without being infringed upon. We're joined today by Rev. Dr. Constance Simon to discuss social justice, education, and how these two topics relate directly to our menopause journeys. Rev. Dr. Simon has been an educator for over 40 years. She has a Master's in Supervision and Curriculum from the University of Ohio and a Doctorate in Administration and Supervision from Atlanta University. She has worked as a college dean in both the public and private sectors. She has also earned her Masters of Divinity, and now, she's currently a Jeremiah A. Wright Scholar for the McCormick Theological Seminary.  Rev. Dr. Simon believes that education is a liberating force for all people. In this episode, she discusses her menopause journey, the importance of community in menopause, and our identities as we age. Make sure that you listen to this episode, as we learn and understand more about having a community of support in our menopausal years, one of my main reasons for creating this podcast. Let's go through the discussion points of this episode:   (02:16) What is social justice? (02:54) Rev. Dr. Simon talks about what menopause was like for her as she experienced it. (04:27) The biggest challenge that she went through (05:47) Taking supplements to deal with the manifesting symptoms of menopause (07:11) One significant challenge was finding the right people to talk to. Most women are engulfed in so many concerns about others that they tend to put their personal needs on the back burner. (08:58) Menopause forces women to stop and take a look at their lives. (10:23) Women and heart disease (11:54) The importance of reaching for help during menopause   (12:59) The Menopause Workshop is a community that helps educate women and men about how to approach menopause. (14:20) Ageism and the fear of ageing (15:11) What is life like right now for Rev. Dr. Simon after going through menopause for 20 years Going through menopause is not the end of your life. On the contrary, it can change your worldview and thought process for the better. That's it for today's episode. I hope that you have a lot of takeaways from Rev. Dr. Constance Simon's menopause experience and how important it is to have the right support system.  For more help and guidance on healthy living in your menopause years, check my website.  Join our Facebook community at Menopause Movement With Dr. Michelle Gordon. Follow me on Facebook at Dr. Michelle Gordon. Thanks a lot for tuning in, and see you in the next episode! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we shine a spotlight on Hale Woodruff, an Atlanta University professor who established the Atlanta Annuals, an exhibition that provided one of the earliest opportunities for black artists to showcase their work on a national stage

Today we shine a spotlight on Hale Woodruff, an Atlanta University professor who established the Atlanta Annuals, an exhibition that provided one of the earliest opportunities for black artists to showcase their work on a national stage

Georgia Stewart McDade, a Louisiana native who has lived in Seattle more than half her life, loves reading and writing. As a youngster she wrote and produced plays for her siblings and neighbors and collaborated with church youth to write plays for special occasions. Earning a Bachelor of Arts from Southern University, Master of Arts from Atlanta University, and Ph. D. from University of Washington, the English major spent more than thirty years teaching at Tacoma Community College but also found time to teach at Seattle University, the University of Washington, Lakeside School, Renton Technical College, and Zion Preparatory Academy. As a charter member of the African-American Writers' Alliance (AAWA), McDade began reading her stories in public in 1991. She credits AAWA with making her regularly write poetry. For a number of years she has written poems inspired by art at such sites as Gallery 110, Seattle Art Museum, and Columbia City Gallery. She wrote for Pacific Newspapers, especially the South District Journal. Convinced all of us can learn to write well, McDade conducts and participates in a variety of writing workshops. “Good writing can force us to think and think critically; we can theorize, organize, analyze, and synthesize better,” says she. A prolific writer, she has works in AAWA anthologies I Wonder as I Wander, Gifted Voices, Words? Words! Words, and Threads. Her works include Travel Tips for Dream Trips, questions and answers about her six-month, solo trip around the world; Outside the Cave, a collection of poetry; and numerous essays, stories, and poems. This year a second collection of poems and a collection of stories and essays will be published. She volunteers at community radio station KBCS (91.3 FM) and Boys and Girls Club. Among her several writing projects are the biography of her high school principal and journals kept during her travels.

In this special Valentine's Day/Black History Month Episode of the Cite Black Women podcast, we feature a conversation between collective member Dr. Erica Williams and the world renowned Black feminist scholar Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Listen to them discuss their #love for Black women's work, their passion for writing, the importance of friendship in the academy and collaborative research, and why Cite Black Women is a project that we need right now. Enjoy. Dr. ERICA LORRAINE WILLIAMS is Associate Professor and Department Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology department at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Stanford University, and a B.A. in Anthropology and Africana Studies from New York University. She is the author of Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements (2013), which won the National Women’s Studies Association/University of Illinois Press First Book Prize in 2011. She is also a co-editor of The Second Generation of African American Pioneers in Anthropology, along with Ira Harrison and Deborah Johnson-Simon(University of Illinois Press, 2018). She is Contributing Editor to the Handbook of Latin American Studies (Sociology: Brazil section), and has published in Feminist Studies, Gender, Place, and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography,the Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbook on Gender: Love, Transatlantic Feminisms: Women and Gender Studies in Africa and the Diaspora (2015), Policing Pleasure: Global Reflections on Sex Work and Public Policy(2011); and Taking Risks: Feminist Stories of Social Justice Research in the Americas(2014). She is currently working on a project on Afro-Brazilian feminist activism in Bahia, Brazil. Dr. BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL is founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies at Spelman College, adjunct professor at Emory University’s Institute for Women’s Studies and past President of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA). At the age of sixteen, Dr. Guy-Sheftall entered Spelman College where she majored in English and minored in secondary education. After graduating with honors, she attended Wellesley College for a fifth year of study in English, and then went on to Atlanta University to pursue a master’s degree in English. Her thesis was entitled, “Faulkner’s Treatment of Women in His Major Novels.” A year later Dr. Guy-Sheftall began her first teaching job in the Department of English at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1971 she returned to her alma mater, Spelman College, and joined the English Department. Dr. Guy-Sheftall has a long history of researching and writing about African American Women’s intellectual contributions. She co-edited the first anthology on Black women’s literature, Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature, with Roseann P. Bell and Bettye Parker Smith in 1979. In 1983 she became founding editor of Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women which was devoted exclusively to the experiences of women of African descent, which was published from 1983-1996. In 1991 she published her dissertation Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920, and of course in 1995 she published her groundbreaking anthology, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought.

Gaines Hall is one of the oldest buildings in Atlanta. Built as part of Atlanta University in 1869, it's a monument to the founder’s vision of a biracial society and their commitment to basic human and civil rights, which their students sought to advance here and elsewhere in the United States. The building has been gutted by fire and it left open to the elements. Learn how you can help share it's story and #savegaineshall. Reading List: https://www.amazon.com/Social-Reform-Making-Middle-Class/dp/0742535452 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093SSZFC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 https://saportareport.com/historic-gaines-hall-continues-to-crumble-while-invest-atlanta-tries-to-stabilize-building/ North Hall/Stone Hall/South Hall: Gaines Hall: Furber Cottage: Fountain Hall: Asa Ware:  

Last Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Joyce E. Taylor and Jeffrey Bashir, two of the grandchildren of Samuel Walker Houston. Born around 1871, Samuel Walker Houston was the son of Joshua and Sylvester Houston, two former slaves who worked for General Sam Houston in Huntsville, Texas. During the 1880s and 90s, Samuel Walker Houston attended the nation's leading black schools, including Atlanta University in Georgia and Howard University in Washington, D.C. At the turn of the century, he returned to Huntsville and founded a training school in the little community of Galilee. Houston's school was one of the first county training schools for African Americans in Texas. It enrolled students at every level, from first grade through high school, and provided a well-rounded education that included courses in literature, music, construction, and agriculture. By the time Houston's school merged with the Huntsville Independent School District in 1930, it boasted a dozen teachers and more than 400 students. Based on his remarkable record of achievement, Houston was selected as principal for the new African American high school in Huntsville, which was later named in his honor.In April 1915, Samuel Walker Houston married Hope G. Harville, one of the teachers at his school. Ms. Harville was a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, the outstanding African American college run by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. On August 25, 1917, the Houston family welcomed their second child and first daughter, Helen Hope, into the world. She later attended Wiley College, Talladega College, and graduated from Virginia State University, before enrolling to work for the IRS and teaching as a substitute teacher in New York. She spent the bulk of her career as a supervisor in the Data Processing Department at IBM, but also worked in California for the Naval Supply Center. Joyce E. Taylor and Jeffrey Bashir are the children of Helen Hope Houston. They both grew up and lived their adult lives in California. Their story is fascinating because it ties the Samuel Walker Houston family to the developments of the post-World War II era, including the Black Power Movement, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panthers.

If you're like most business owners, you may just be getting around to getting all of your tax documentation and records to your accountant .  This is an important time of the year, so whether you've filed your taxes already, are just in the process, or just want to know how you can be better prepared next year, this short presentation with Dr. Ravonna Mitchell could help you save thousands of dollars that you can invest back in your business.  So join the conversation with our special guest: Dr. Revonna Mitchell Tax Tips and Strategies That Saves you Money Dr. Revonna Mitchell was born in Philadelphia but moved to West Palm Beach after nine years.  She lived in West Palm Beach for several years before leaving for college at Clark, Atlanta University. There she majored in Accounting and received her Undergraduate degree in Marketing and Finance and her PH.D in Finance. Dr. Mitchell is married with two kids, and balances family life with her entrepreneurial career as well.  She is a real estate broker but is also CEO and President of MTG Consultants. Inc., Xpress Taxes and Peach Realty, with offices in Atlanta and Riveria Beach, FL.  Their business is to keep you in business and help you maintain excellent records for the health and growth of your business enterprise.

Welcome back to rememberinghistory.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it. We’re here for another Wiki history lecture featuring the great and groundbreaking podcast series on African Americans in the United States military.   November is the month that Americans remember and honor its veterans—the brave men and women who fought for freedom and liberty both within the country and around the world. Did you know that there are nearly 20 million veterans living in the United States. Of that number, more than 2 million veterans are African American.   African Americans have fought in every U.S. war beginning with the Revolutionary War.   Civil War: 200,000 African Americans served, mostly but not all for the Union war effort. Did you know that Harriet Tubman served as a nurse and spy for the Union Army? World War I: 375,000 African Americans served, mostly as labor: cooking, cleaning and building roads. There was also the Harlem Hellfighters—if you haven’t heard about these incredible guys, you can find their story on one of my podcasts. World War II: 1 million African Americans who fought the Nazis. The Tuskegee Airmen were displayed their bravery and skill during this great war. Most roles for African Americans though were still limited to labor.   I won’t continue through all the wars but I’m sure that you send the trend! African Americans distinguished themselves and served with honor in every U.S. war.         Indeed, the African American presence in the military was always strong and is continuing to grow stronger. There were difficulties, particularly racial discrimination, there were victories and triumphs, there have been heroes (lots of heroes!) and yes, there have been defeats. The history is long and varied so I think that we should get started discussing this fascinating but often forgotten history, this forgotten contribution made by African Americans.   This is African American history at its finest! But you might be asking yourself: what can I learn from it?   Great question.   Here’s the answer: Courage. Determination. Honor.   Great qualities! Everyone can benefit from these qualities—whether military or civilian, male or female, rich or poor, Black or white. These are great qualities for everyone.   And these stories about African Americans in the military--their courage to face obstacles like racism, their determination to fight for their country and their freedom, their courage under fire whether it came from Nazis in 1944, from the Vietcong in 1969 or from other Americans, their honor in saving lives in their country and around the world—these stories will inspire you to transcend any hardships that might be in your own life.   Since this is a wiki history lecture, we will not discuss the African American presence every U.S. war—that would take a very long time—so we will focus on discussing a few special people who distinguished themselves in the military. Remember that my belief—and the approach that we take at rememberinghistory.com—is that history is made by individuals. History is the story of how people lived, how they contributed to their world, what they dreamed of, what they fought for and what they died for. History is made by individuals. So I am absolutely going to tell the stories of a few special individuals who have served their country with honor and distinction. These people have not only helped to serve and protect us, they have also given us a path to follow. Just like the great explorers that we discussed in last month’s podcast series, these people are also role models that we can learn from. Some have distinguished themselves in combat, some by their mere presence in the military, others in unique and controversial ways. All are important. All have contributed to our freedom. And at rememberinghistory.com, we thank them all.   We will discuss two such heroes in the first episode of this series on Blacks in the military. In the second podcast show in the series, we will examine the stories of Blacks in the military as shown on the big screen. That’s right, we’ll discuss movies that show various aspects of the African American experience in the military. I love movies and I’ll mention some of my favorites. If you have favorites, I would love to hear about them. So please leave comments at the rememberinghistory.com website or at the Remembering History Facebook page. If we have time, and I know that we’re bumping up against Thanksgiving (if you are in the United States), we will have one final show that will take special note of the contributions of African Americans currently serving in the U.S. armed forces. You will definitely find this important and inspirational information on the website and Facebook page. And you might also find it on podcast. Send me a message and let me know what you would like.       Speaking about that, I hope that you remember the website and Facebook pages are places where you can find a great group of fun and friendly historians where you can participate in discussions, ask questions, make comments or just talk about anything that interests you. We’re open to all viewpoints and we welcome all interested people. Please also visit the Books & Stuff store where you can find books, DVDs (like the ones that I’ll mention in this podcast series) and lots of other educational and fun tools about African American history. Everything has been personally vetted by me so you can trust it all. Or you can send me your criticisms. I take full responsibility for everything on this website. Not many places where you can find personal responsibility but you can find it here.   Without further ado, let’s open our great and groundbreaking podcast show about Blacks in the Military with a unique and interesting person who was determined to serve her country. Yes, that’s right. We’re opening this great and groundbreaking show with a discussion about a woman who served in the armed forces. Women in the military is very common today, which is great. But her story began more than 100 years ago—and things were different then. Oh, but I’m jumping ahead (or rather jumping back) too much. Let me tell her story properly.   Cathay Williams might be a familiar name to you. But it’s not in many history books. And it’s not in the army enlistment registers either. However, in the army register, you might find the name William Cathay. In fact, I know that you will because I’ve seen it myself. William Cathay. 5 feet 9 inches in height, black eyes, black hair and a black complexion. But William Cathay did not exist. This is not a description for William Cathay enlisting in the armed forces. This is the description for Cathay William. That’s right. Cathay William. And this is her story. This is the story of an African American woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist in the army, the Buffalo soldiers to be exact. And she is the first known African American woman to enlist in the United States army and the only African American woman documented to serve in the United States army in the 19th century.   Cathay William was born into slavery in 1844 in Independence, Missouri. When she was 17 years old, in 1861, she was captured and “freed” by Union troops (remember this was at the start of the Civil War). Although she was “freed”, captured slaves were considered contraband and were usually forced to work for the Union soldiers. Cathay William was no exception and she worked as a cook and laundress for the remainder of the war.   After the American Civil War ended in 1865, employment opportunities were scarce for African Americans. Cathay William always wanted to support herself. She was determined not to be a burden on any family members or friends. She applied for jobs but found nothing beyond cooking and sewing. Many African Americans looked to military service where they could have steady pay but also get an education, health care and a pension. But these positions were open only to men. A male cousin of Cathay William enlisted and received all these benefits. She decided that she would also enlist—as a man. She switched her first and last names (enter William Cathay), took the medical exam and enlisted. Yes, she actually passed a medical examination as a man! She was declared fit for duty on November 15, 1866 and was assigned to the 38th Infantry Unit. This was one of the six units known as the Buffalo Soldiers.       Cathay Williams was as strong as any man in the regiment and she was, in fact, the tallest of the unit. But her career in the military was short-lived. Unfortunately, she contracted smallpox shortly after enlisting the army in Missouri. Still, she marched 536 miles from Fort Harker in Kansas to Fort Cummings in New Mexico. Along the way, she had to be hospitalized 3 times. As a result of the smallpox, she suffered deafness and rheumatism. She also had 10 toes amputated because of diabetes, which caused her to use crutches to walk. In 1868 at the age of 47, she was discharged because of medical disability. No one (except her cousin and perhaps a few others in the regiment) ever knew that she was a woman.   After her discharge, she worked as a cook, laundress, seamstress and nurse in towns throughout Colorado. However, she could not continue to work because of the illnesses she contracted during her military service. So she applied for a military pension and this is when the problems began. Despite her disabilities, the army surgeon declared her to be in “overall good health” and “able to work.” During this time, it was discovered that she was a woman. (The exact means of discovery are not clear.) She was denied the pension. She had to continue working as a cook, laundress and seamstress to support herself. It is not entirely clear what year Cathay William died but it is estimated that it was as early as 1892 or as late as 1900. What is known is that the denial of her pension contributed to her death because she was forced to do physical labor despite her weakened condition.   Cathay Williams was a strong, brave and determined woman in an age when opportunities for women, particularly African American women, were limited.     She is quoted as saying, “The regiment I joined wore the Zouave uniform and only two persons, a cousin and particular friend, who were members of the regiment knew that I was a woman. They never ‘blowed’ on me. They were partly the cause of my joining the army. Another reason was I wanted to make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends.”   She wanted to be independent. And she served her country with honor.   Courage. Determination. Honor.   Just a note that many women posed as men to enlist in the American Civil War. Some report list hundreds of women posing as men to serve in the army. Some were discovered because of hospital treatments. Others were not discovered during their service but only “confessed” afterwards.   Cathay William is one of the few women (and the only Black woman) whose service is documented. She just wanted to make a living. But she was also making history!   Wow, what an amazing woman! Too bad that she contracted smallpox so early in her career. Still she tried to persist through the debilitating symptoms. Remember she did complete that 500-mile walk. Also, it was too bad that the military did not support her after she could no longer serve. But still she was a strong woman (physically and mentally) and she remained independent throughout her life.   She’s an example and role model to us all!           If you want to learn more about Cathay William—and I really hope that you do—I recommend a great book called Cathay William: From Slave to Buffalo Soldier by Phillip Thomas Tucker. You’ll learn a lot more about this amazing woman and yes there is much more to learn about her. The story will inspire you. Guaranteed!   Now let’s turn to another African American (this time a man) who is also great role model. In fact, he is such a great role model and a true officer and gentleman that the Military Academy at West Point gives an award EVERY YEAR in his name. Do you know his name? I hope so. But I’m gonna tell you anyway.   He is Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper and he has an amazing story.   Born into slavery in 1856, Henry Flipper was the eldest of 5 brothers. He was born and lived until his freedom in Thomasville, Georgia. At great risk to everyone, another slave on the plantation taught Henry to read and this would, as expected, play an important role throughout his life.   When the American Civil War ended in 1865, Henry (because he could read and write) attended Atlanta University. He displayed a strong aptitude for math and engineering so he was sent to the Military Academy at West Point. He was not the first African American to attend the academy. In fact, there were 6 other Black men already studying there. They all experienced racial discrimination as well as physical and mental abuse. At the time, there was 1 Black cadet who had been savagely attacked by several white cadets. The cadet (not Henry Flipper) survived the attack but was later expelled for making false charges against the white cadets who had attacked him. Now this did not happen to Henry but it shows the environment in which he was suddenly cast. And Henry did experience a lot of racism and abuse from the white officers and cadets at the academy. Henry Flipper graduated from West Point in 1877. Although he wasn’t the first African American to attend the academy, he did become the first African American cadet to graduate (or be commissioned) from it.   He was then appointed as a second lieutenant in the army cavalry. His first commission was to lead the 10th army cavalry regiment. Perhaps you know them as the Buffalo Soldiers. Lieutenant Henry Flipper became the first nonwhite officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers!   His first assignment was to Fort Sill in Oklahoma where he showed his skills as a master engineer. He began with engineering a ditch to drain the malaria-infested swamp. That ditch is still known today as “Flipper’s Ditch.” He also supervised the construction of roads and telegraph lines. From there, he was moved to Fort Concho in west Texas and two years later to Fort Davis, also in Texas. Unfortunately, Fort Davis is where Lieutenant Flipper would encounter the racism that would ultimately end his military career. This would be initiated by First Lieutenant William Shafter—Lieutenant Flipper’s commanding officer.   Lieutenant Shafter was brought to Fort Davis, Texas to command the 24th infantry, another Buffalo Soldiers unit. While Lieutenant Shafter accepted Black troops as soldiers, he was absolutely opposed to them as officers. This placed him in direct conflict with Lieutenant Flipper. Lieutenant Shafter (later known as Pecos Bill) brought charges of embezzling government funds (based on falsified evidence) against Lieutenant Flipper, which led to court martial proceedings. It was the ultimate frame up. Fortunately, the court martial found Lieutenant Flipper innocent of the embezzlement charge. However, he was found guilty of “conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman”. This was based on Lieutenant Flipper’s relationship with the white daughter of a former commanding officer. (In fact, they used the letters between the Lieutenant Flipper and the C/O’s daughter as evidence against him.) Lieutenant Flipper was received a dishonorable discharge in 1882. He would spend the remainder of his life fighting the conviction and attempting to regain his commission. (By the way, Lieutenant Shafter would later be promoted and awarded the Medal of Honor.) But Lieutenant Flipper’s story is not over yet.   Henry Flipper returned to El Paso, Texas where he worked as a civil engineer. He also worked in Mexico and returned to the United States to work as an advisor on revolutionary politics for Senator Albert Fall. In 1923, Henry Flipper moved to Venezuela to work as a civil engineer in the petroleum industry. In 1931, he retired in Atlanta, Georgia where he died in 1940. But, no, the story still is not over.   In 1976, Henry Flipper’s descendants and supporters applied to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records to overturn Flipper’s conviction and sentence. The board, after stating it did not have the authority to overturn his court-martial conviction, concluded the conviction and punishment were "unduly harsh and unjust" and recommended that Flipper's dismissal be changed to a good conduct discharge. In 1999, President Bill Clinton issued a full pardon to Lieutenant Henry Flipper.   After his discharge was changed, a bust of Lieutenant Flipper was unveiled at West Point. Since then, an annual Henry O. Flipper Award has been granted to graduating cadets at the academy who exhibit "leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties.” This is the award that I mentioned earlier and no one is more deserving of such an honor as Lieutenant Henry Flipper.       Throughout his life, Henry Flipper was a prolific author, writing about scientific topics, the history of the Southwest, and his own experiences. In his book, The Colored Cadet at West Point (1878) he describes his experiences at the military academy. In the posthumously published book, Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper (1963), he describes his life in Texas and Arizona after his discharge from the Army. You can find these books and others in the store on the rememberinghistory.com website. I also like the DVD called Held in Trust about Lieutenant Flipper. But I admit that nothing beats a book that is written by the person who has actually faced the situations. So, remember that you can find all these great resources on the website. You can decide which is best for you.   Courage. Determination. Honor.   Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper.   So, this concludes the two stories of African American women and men who served the country with honor and distinction. You might have noticed that I chose people who had been born into slavery. People who, upon gaining their freedom when slavery ended, chose to serve their country in the armed forces. Both Cathay William and Lieutenant Henry Flipper had different stories but also similar experiences of racism, discrimination and hardship. But they also had stories of courage, determination and honor. Their stories need to be told because we all can learn from them. We can aim for these high qualities.   Courage. Determination. Honor.   I hope that you noticed that both of today’s history makers also had a connection with the Buffalo Soldiers. If you want more information about the Buffalo Soldiers, I have a fantastic podcast about them (which also includes a discussion about the Harlem Hellfighters) that you can find on the website. I won’t go into detail about either legendary group right now, but I really encourage you to listen to my podcast about them. They were great history makers and they deserve recognition for their service.   In the next podcast show, we will examine a few of the best movies about African Americans in the military.   Let’s remember our veterans this month and every month. Let’s never forget their commitment and sacrifices so that we all could be free and safe. Not all were heroes. Not all were patriots. And not all came home. But their memory endures.   Because of my appreciation for their great service, I am dedicating these wiki history podcasts about Blacks in the military to a Black veterans organization called the National Association of Black Veterans or nabvets. They are an excellent resource for Black veterans and their families. They provide assistance with filing claims, have lots of information for veterans, and provide chaplain services. They have offices around the United States. Or you can visit their website at www.nabvets.org. For every person who listens to this (or any of my November wiki history podcasts), I will donate $1 to the National Association of Black Veterans Association. It is an honor and privilege to support this organization and I hope that you will too. They also have incredible volunteer opportunities so there’s another way to contribute. Remember www.nabvets.org.   Remember our veterans: Honor. Courage. Determination. Great goals for us all. And please visit rememberinghistory.com. Leave your questions or comments. And I would love to hear from our veterans or women and men who are currently serving in the military. You are a great inspiration. And thank you for your service.   Honor. Courage. Determination. See you next time at rememberinghistory.com where are remembering history and we’re making it. Bye for now!                    

Educator, administrator, writer, consultant, motivational speaker, and community leader, Dr. Anne Wimbush Watts served in various roles for a number of years at Morehouse College; including, Vice Provost, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Class Dean, and tenured Professor of English. She has also been Honors Lecturer at Talladega College and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Spelman College. More recently, she served as Interim Dean of the Metropolitan College and Visiting Professor at Johnson C. Smith University, where she continues to engage in consultant work. Dr. Watts’ education includes a bachelor’s degree in English from Grambling State University, (Valedictorian); master’s degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin; master’s degree in French Language and Literature from Atlanta University; Ph.D. degree in English Language and Literature from Georgia State University, and further study at Harvard University. Dr. Watts is president of Powerful Presentations, Inc., a consulting firm. She has conducted Report Writing Skills Development training in four states for over 200 managers of offices in the United States Department of labor; At the behest of Ambassador Andrew Young, she coordinated training in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution for a delegation of young South African former Freedom Fighters; provided Communication Skills training for employees at the Atlanta Job Corps, for attendees at the USPS National A-Plus Convention (2011), and for athletes from all of the CIAA institutions (IMAGE), 2012. In her presentation, Dr. Watts will identify and illuminate several factors and practices related to exemplary leadership.

Randolph Scott was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He received a B.A. in History from Norfolk State University before accepting a teaching position at Central High School in Heathsville, Virginia, which was a predominantly African American school. Dr. Scott was teaching during the integration of the school system and eventually moved to Northumberland High School, which was a predominantly white school. He accepted a position the Job Corps program, working in a variety of locations, and then the National Park Service. His last assignment was with the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the first African American Superintendent. Dr. Scott earned an M.S. in Sociology from Atlanta University and in 1990 retired from the park service. He attended the Andersonville Baptist Seminary in Andersonville, Georgia, earning a Ph.D. in Theology. Since that time he has served as the Associate Minister at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. Geraldine Scott has served as the Assistant Secretary for the Cobb County Branch of the NAACP, participating in community activities, including voter registration and membership drives. ID:ksu-45-05-001-03023 Rights:To request permission to publish, reproduce, publicly display, broadcast, or distribute this material in any format, you must contact the Archives, Rare Books and Records Management.

Randolph Scott was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He received a B.A. in History from Norfolk State University before accepting a teaching position at Central High School in Heathsville, Virginia, which was a predominantly African American school. Dr. Scott was teaching during the integration of the school system and eventually moved to Northumberland High School, which was a predominantly white school. He accepted a position the Job Corps program, working in a variety of locations, and then the National Park Service. His last assignment was with the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the first African American Superintendent. Dr. Scott earned an M.S. in Sociology from Atlanta University and in 1990 retired from the park service. He attended the Andersonville Baptist Seminary in Andersonville, Georgia, earning a Ph.D. in Theology. Since that time he has served as the Associate Minister at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. Geraldine Scott has served as the Assistant Secretary for the Cobb County Branch of the NAACP, participating in community activities, including voter registration and membership drives. Use Restrictions: To request permission to publish, reproduce, publicly display, broadcast, or distribute this material in any format, you must contact the Archives, Rare Books and Records Management.

Reconstruction in Alabama examines the post Civil War period in Alabama and addresses the role of the new Alabama Republican Party in creating a new Alabama. This dramatic period witnessed many changes in Alabama, including the emergence of black officeholders, black schools and churches, universal public education, and enlarged rights for women. Born in Montgomery, Richard Bailey holds degrees from Alabama State University and the Atlanta University, and received the Doctor of Philosophy degree in American History from Kansas State University. He has traveled and studied in Europe and Africa through a joint fellowship from Cleveland (Ohio) State University, the University of Massachusetts, and the American Forum for International Travel and Study. His columns have appeared in newspapers across the state and he is the author of They Too Call Alabama Home: African American Profiles, 1800-1999 (1999). The fifth edition of his book Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders during the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867-1878 is forthcoming in 2009. This ArchiTreats presentation is made possible by the Friends of the Alabama Archives and a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The public is invited to bring a sack lunch and enjoy a bit of Alabama history. Coffee and tea will be provided by the Friends of the Alabama Archives. For more information, call (334) 353-4712.