PBS kicks off its Black History Month programming this week with the premiere of “Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock.”

The name Daisy Bates doesn’t ring a bell? The filmmaker, too, had no idea who she was when she first came across Bates’ story in the portrait book, “I Dream a World.” Published in the 1990s, the coffee table tome featured profiles of 75 outstanding African American women.

“It’s a fantastic book, but Daisy’s story is the one that I really connected to, and it jumped out at me because I didn’t know her story,” says Sharon La Cruise, the documentary’s director.

Daisy Bates was, in fact, the engine that drove the “Little Rock Nine.” The native of Huttig, Arkansas played a leading role in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957, and her involvement came with as much pride as it did controversy.

Bates, who regularly wrote about violations of the Supreme Court’s desegregation laws in her husband’s newspaper, became the chief guide and adviser to the nine black students attempting to enroll at the all-white school.  But, as their story attracted more media interest, Bates found herself the de facto spokesperson for the effort on an international scale – which caused some folks in town to believe she was getting “too big for her britches,” as one person in the film put it.

PBS kicks off its Black History Month programming this week with the premiere of “Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock.”

The name Daisy Bates doesn’t ring a bell? The filmmaker, too, had no idea who she was when she first came across Bates’ story in the portrait book, “I Dream a World.” Published in the 1990s, the coffee table tome featured profiles of 75 outstanding African American women.

“It’s a fantastic book, but Daisy’s story is the one that I really connected to, and it jumped out at me because I didn’t know her story,” says Sharon La Cruise, the documentary’s director.

Daisy Bates was, in fact, the engine that drove the “Little Rock Nine.” The native of Huttig, Arkansas played a leading role in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957, and her involvement came with as much pride as it did controversy.

Bates, who regularly wrote about violations of the Supreme Court’s desegregation laws in her husband’s newspaper, became the chief guide and adviser to the nine black students attempting to enroll at the all-white school.  But, as their story attracted more media interest, Bates found herself the de facto spokesperson for the effort on an international scale – which caused some folks in town to believe she was getting “too big for her britches,” as one person in the film put it.

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article courtesy of Eurweb.com

Tony Cornelius, who worked alongside his father Don Cornelius on “Soul Train” and other shows, said his father placed a call to him on the day he died, reports CBS News.

Tony did not elaborate on the conversation, but said, “It was a call of urgency, and I came to his home immediately.”

Cornelius said his father was a private person and was “unhappy about some things” in his life. His father’s health, also, he said, was failing.

“My father was extremely private and unfortunately, when you’re a private person, you keep things inside,” Cornelius told Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” “You know, it’s hard to imagine that you would — how you feel. You have to be in a person’s shoes really to understand. Obviously, me being extremely close to him, I could tell that he was uncomfortable. But our family could never know that he would — how uncomfortable he really was.”

Cornelius said his father would want to be remembered as someone who worked hard at being a professional.

Tony Cornelius, who worked alongside his father Don Cornelius on “Soul Train” and other shows, said his father placed a call to him on the day he died, reports CBS News.

Tony did not elaborate on the conversation, but said, “It was a call of urgency, and I came to his home immediately.”

Cornelius said his father was a private person and was “unhappy about some things” in his life. His father’s health, also, he said, was failing.

“My father was extremely private and unfortunately, when you’re a private person, you keep things inside,” Cornelius told Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” “You know, it’s hard to imagine that you would — how you feel. You have to be in a person’s shoes really to understand. Obviously, me being extremely close to him, I could tell that he was uncomfortable. But our family could never know that he would — how uncomfortable he really was.”

Cornelius said his father would want to be remembered as someone who worked hard at being a professional.

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article courtesy of Eurweb.com

http://youtu.be/Wr5vQG0O45A

At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama gave a speech where he described how his faith as a Christian informs his thinking as a leader.

And he talked about the importance of our shared set of values as Americans:

We can’t leave our values at the door. If we leave our values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries, and allowed us to become somewhat more perfect a union. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Abraham Heschel — the majority of great reformers in American history did their work not just because it was sound policy, or they had done good analysis, or understood how to exercise good politics, but because their faith and their values dictated it, and called for bold action — sometimes in the face of indifference, sometimes in the face of resistance.

This is no different today for millions of Americans, and it’s certainly not for me.

article courtesy of TheWhiteHouse.org

We want to reach a time when there won’t be Black History Month, when black history will be so integrated into American history that we study it along with every other history,” she said in an interview from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Wednesday. “That’s the hope, and we have to continue to work until that is true, until that becomes a fact.” In the meantime, she said, she will continue to put the history out there.

Angelou is hosting an hour-long syndicated radio special on the civil rights era that will air throughout this month on about 200 public radio stations across the country. Her special features Grammy award-winning singer Mary J. Blige, Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, economist and Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux, and professor Nikky Finney, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for poetry.

Angelou, 83, said she hopes the program sends a message that “the work of making our country more than it is today” is unfinished.

“Our work still remains and we have to do the best we can do,” she said. “The young people have a charge to keep, they have responsibility and some don’t know that, or maybe some have heard it but don’t recognize it.”

The program details Lewis’ work as a Freedom Rider, Finney’s tribute to late civil rights activist Rosa Parks, Young’s rise from small-town pastor to ambassador and Malveaux’s involvement with the Black Panther movement in her youth.

The work and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. are also discussed in detail. Angelou, who vocally denounced a truncated inscription of a King quote at his new memorial in Washington as taking the slain leader’s words out of context, said she was pleased to hear it will be changed by the National Park Service.

That decision, she said, showed that the park service had “the courage to say, `Hmm, thank you for correcting me.’”

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article courtesy of BCNN1.com

February is Black History Month, and his year’s theme, “Black Women in American Culture and History,” honors African American women and the many roles they’ve played in the shaping of our nation.  

And in an interview with More magazine, First Lady Michelle Obama talks candidly about one of the roles that matters most to her, one that has been a part of her life since she was in high school, one that can have a crucial influence in shaping the next generation of American women and one she urges others to embrace: Mentor.

Mrs. Obama discusses the impact mentors have had in her life, and also what being a mentor has meant to her (one of the first people she mentored as a lawyer in Chicago was a fellow graduate of Harvard Law School named Barack Obama: “I made sure that he met the partners that he was working with; I had to take him out to lunch a couple of times” she tells the magazine).

And for the first time, the First Lady discusses a program she launched shortly after moving into the White House, a mentoring program she designed “to open a secret door for others that hadn’t been opened for me,” by pairing disadvantaged girls with some of the powerful women in the land. She tells the magazine:

“I wanted [the students] to experience this notion that if you can walk [through] the doors of the White House once a month and sit down with the first lady and her chief of staff and some other senior officials, and they’re talking to you and you get used to hearing your voice in the space, then it becomes not a big deal.”

article courtesy of TheWhiteHouse.org

Michelle Obama’s west coast swing rolled through “Ellen” on Wednesday, where she danced her way to the stage, touted her healthy eating and fitness program … and accepted a push-up challenge from host Ellen DeGeneres.

Yes, the first lady got down and did 25 in front of the studio audience Wednesday, beating Ellen in the process. The episode airs today (Feb. 2).

The challenge started off with Ellen innocently asking, “How many push up can you do? I like to do a push up.”

Says Michelle Obama, “I don’t know. I can do some. Can you?”

Replies Ellen, “I can do some. I’m just wondering if you could do more push ups than I can do?”

“It depends on how your back is,” says Mrs. O. “I know that you have these back issues.”

Ellen says, “No, no.” And the two stand up, take off their jackets and start doing push-ups.

Afterward, Ellen says, ”That was amazing…How many was that for her?”

“25″ responds the audience

“I thought it wouldn’t be good to show off the first lady so I stopped,” quipped DeGeneres after quitting. “I thought this looks bad that I’m going to beat her. I’m 54 and you’re 48.”

article courtesy of Eurweb.com/Ellen.com

Denzel Washington was mildly injured while filming a car stunt for the new film, Safe House.

According to the Oscar winner, he was in a car that was being operated by someone outside the vehicle. Denzel was handcuffed and reaching over the driver’s seat to attack co-star Ryan Reynolds.

“Just as I was reaching forward, Ryan’s head was whipping back, and my ey just closed shut and went black,” Denzel told “Access Hollywood.”

Although he’s had to perform stunts in several other action movies, such as Ricochet and Unstoppable, Denzel said it was his first time sustaining an injury that a lot of people experience as teens.

“I got my first black eye ever in my life in this film,” he said. “I tried to make [Ryan] feel as bad as I possibly could,” Denzel joked.

While Denzel got hurt during the filming, his character is the one hurting people in the movie.

“My character is a sociopath who’s a traitor. He’s giving up on his country. He’ll do whatever it takes to win,” he said.

Although there’s a lot of action in the movie, Denzel isn’t quite sure that Safe House should be categorized

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article courtesy of sister2sister.com

Don Cornelius was found dead in his California home around 4am this morning from a gunshot wound that appears to be self-inflicted. The family has been notified.

Love, peace, and soul. Rest in Peace.

Don Cornelius – who famously created “Soul Train” was found dead in his Sherman Oaks, CA home this morning … and law enforcement sources tell us it appears he committed suicide.

We’re told cops discovered the body at around 4 AM PT.  Law enforcement sources tell us … Cornelius died from a gunshot wound to the head and officials believe the wound was self-inflicted.

We’re told Cornelius was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“Soul Train” changed the landscape of television when it debuted in 1971 and ran until 2006.

Officials have notified Don’s family.

Cornelius was 75.

During Don’s bitter divorce proceedings in 2009, he told an L.A. judge he was suffering from “significant health issues” and wanted to “finalize this divorce before I die.”

The divorce was granted later that year.

Story developing…

via TheWordEyeHeard

Whenever he was asked about the impact of his race on the 2008 election, President Obama would often say that he presumed his race would cost him some votes, and maybe gain him some votes too just like a lot of other characteristics over which he had little control such as how he looked and where he was from. Of course as we all later learned there was another trait President Obama also had little control over that had, and continues to have, the potential to cost him and other candidates even more votes than race: perceived religious beliefs. The fact that 1 in 5 Americans believe President Obama is not a Christian and view that as a justification for questioning his leadership and patriotism represents a political land mine for the President, and increasingly for his 2012 GOP opponent as well.

Make sure to read more here.

Keep up with Elev8 on twitter and facebook during this important election year.

Publisher John H. Johnson, who created Ebony and Jet magazines, will be honored on this year’s Black Heritage stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

A Tuesday ceremony is planned in Johnson’s hometown of Arkansas City, where he lived until moving to Chicago with his family at age 15.

Activists Call for Mass Bank Withdrawals

Johnson founded Johnson Publishing Co. on a $500 loan using his mother’s furniture as collateral. At the time, he was working as a clerk at a black-owned life insurance company.

He created Ebony in 1945 with a press run of 25,000 copies. Its circulation topped 1.6 million at the time of Johnson’s death in 2005 at the age of 87. Johnson also founded the newsweekly Jet in 1951.

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article courtesy of TheGrio.com