1. On this day in 1925, Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska.
2. On this day in 1930, Lorraine Hansberry, was born in Chicago. Her only two plays, "A Raisin in the Sun" and "The Sign in Sidney Burstein's Window," became famous.
The language of the internal party memo was stark and brutally honest. Sent out by Republican congressman Tom Davis last week after a stunning congressional by-election loss in the Deep South, it warned colleagues of a potential disaster ahead.
The result, in which the Democratic party won a Mississippi House of Representatives seat that had voted 62 per cent for President Bush in 2004, was a sign of a 'toxic' political environment for Republicans, Davis wrote. He went on to point out the loss was the Republicans' third defeat in a row in special elections - the equivalent of a by-election in Britain - this year alone. Davis's memo dubbed the defeats 'canaries in the coalmine' for the survival of the Republican party.
Read more: guardian.co.uk
WHEN a group of New York schools published their latest test results for reading and maths, Cynthia Baptiste had 218 reasons to celebrate. After working hard throughout the year, the 13-year-old Brooklyn student had earned $218 (£111) from an incentive programme that is helping to transform the anguished debate about racial difference in America.
Baptiste’s class at the predominantly black Family academy in Brooklyn is part of an intriguing project aimed at encouraging African-American and other disadvantaged students to try harder at school. Its broader goal is to narrow the notorious gap between black and white education in America, where the average 17-year-old black student has the academic skills of a 14-year-old white pupil.
Read more: The Sunday Times
FOX has released the first photo for the upcoming Family Guy spinoff 'The Cleveland Show' which will come to FOX in Spring 2009.
THE CLEVELAND SHOW (working title) (Sundays, 9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT): Many years ago, CLEVELAND BROWN (voiced by Mike Henry) was a high school student madly in love with a beautiful girl named DONNA. Much to his dismay, his love went unrequited, and Donna wound up marrying another man. Cleveland once told Donna he would always love her, and if this man ever done her wrong, he'd be there when she called. Well, this man done her wrong. Donna's husband skipped town with another woman, leaving Donna with a daughter and a baby. Now she's come to Cleveland and offered him another chance at love. Unattached after the Loretta-Quagmire debacle and true to his word, Cleveland joyously accepts and he and CLEVELAND JR. move to Stoolbend, VA, to join their new family. Once in Stoolbend, Cleveland has a few surprises in store for him, including a flirtatious new stepdaughter, a 5-year-old stepson who loves the ladies, as well as a collection of neighbors that includes a loudmouth redneck couple, a British family seemingly stuck in the Victorian era and a family of bears living at the end of the block. FAMILY GUY was only the beginning. Get ready for THE CLEVELAND SHOW (working title)!
Read more: The Spill.com
On this day in 1990, Sammy Davis Jr., actor, dancer, singer and world class entertainer dies in Beverly Hills, California at age 64. Davis, born in Harlem, was a member of the popular and notorious Hollywood Rat Pack. He also held starring roles in a host of Broadway musicals and motion pictures.
On this day in 1946, Camilla Williams, the first African American woman to sign a contract with a major American opera company appears in the title role of Madama Butterfly with the New York City Opera.
In the factory town of Muncie, Ind., in the days before the state's primary, Danielle Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Barack Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into "a horrible response," as Ross put it — anti-black sentiment that none of them had anticipated.
"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,'" recalled Ross, a onetime university student who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."
For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed and unreported.
Read more: courant.com
John Edwards gave his long-awaited endorsement to Senator Barack Obama on Wednesday, bolstering Mr. Obama’s efforts to rally the Democratic Party around his candidacy and offering potential help in his efforts to win over working class white voters in the general election.
“The Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I,” Mr. Edwards told a roaring crowd of more than 12,000 people here in the Van Andel Arena, on a day when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was trying to capitalize on her victory on Tuesday in West Virginia and convince superdelegates and contributors that she still has a chance to capture the Democratic nomination.
“There is one man who knows in his heart that we have to build one America — not two — and that man is Barack Obama,” Mr. Edwards said at an event that resembled the closing night of a party convention, with the two men standing arm in arm and waving as the crowd chanted “Yes we can!”
Read more: The New York Times
"Oprah's Big Give" is no more.
The media queen has cancelled "Oprah's Big Give" and ABC allegedly is upset with the news.
The 'Big Give' raised millions of dollars with guest appearances by Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, and John Travolta.
ABC was allegedly "desperate" to sign Oprah for a second season, but Oprah says she's done with the show.
ABC chief Steven McPherson told the New York Post, "We loved that show and absolutely would have loved to bring it back. But it was something Oprah didn't want to do."
Source: Monsters and Critics.com
1. On this day in 1885, Erskine Henderson, an African American jockey, wins the Kentucky Derby on a horse trained by African American trainer Alex Perry.
2. On this day in 1963, 22 year old Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to make the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.
