Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 76

Elmer Calloway

Elmer Calloway (1911-1979)

The name “Calloway” was a huge success. Before Cab, of course, there had been Blanche, the elder sister (born in 1903) who had made her debut with Louis Armstrong before having her own orchestra in 1931. But what few of us know, Is that Cab also had a little brother who also had his orchestra. But to find out more about Elmer Calloway, you have to search and search again. And especially not Cab … Elmer Calloway did not play any instrument, but an “investor” had the idea to take advantage of the fashionable name. Also, as early as 1931, was erected an orchestra in his name in Washington, DC. According to Fred NORMAN (1910-1993), trombone and arranger, it was a good orchestra, mixing musicians even Washington and Baltimore . None of them was known. The orchestra played two seasons at a club in Washington’s Black Quarter, the Prudhomme Club , at the intersection of 11th Avenue and the famous U Street. Everything was made to suggest that it was the Cotton Club of the capital.

The orchestra enjoyed some local fame – even having the Bernie’s Banjo Alabamians as substitutes at the Club Prudhom when they were playing private parties – having their radio show on Mondays and Thursdays on WOL station in December 1931 .

Calloway was invited to play in New York in a battle of the big bands Savoy Club . On the way, the bus that carried everyone stopped, and while the musicians and their leader stretched their legs, Elmer was knocked down by a car. Elmer was taken to the hospital and was forced to give up.

The whole band went to New York. Luckily for him, the Savoy Club was a stone’s throw away from the Cotton Club …

You can imagine the following: Cab replaced his little brother Elmer at the foot of the stage, accompanied by his bassist (probably Al Morgan). They won the battle and left for Washington.

Soon after, the orchestra was dissolved.

Elmer left the music scene and enrolled at Cheyney State College in Pennsylvania (the joke had circulated in the press that Cab would pay school fees to his younger brother if he decided to go home!). A graduate, he left for Atlanta where he became professor in a technical high school where he took his direction.

Elmer died suddenly at age 67 in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 1979.

When he died he left behind his wife Alma and his daughter Carol Baugh.

What is certain is that given his almost absence in the autobiography of Cab, one can easily imagine that the big brother had little esteem for the scenic attempt of his little brother.

Written by Dianne Washington

Cicely Louise Tyson

Cicely Louise Tyson (born December 18, 1924) is an American actress.

She was nominated for the Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for her performance as Rebecca Morgan in Sounder (1972). For this role she also won the NSFC Best Actress and NBR Best Actress Awards. She starred in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), for which she won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for a BAFTA Award. During her career she has been nominated for thirteen Primetime Emmy Awards, winning three.

In 2011, she appeared in the film The Help, for which she received awards for her ensemble work as Constantine from the BFCA and SAG Awards and she has an additional four SAG Award nominations. She starred on Broadway in The Trip to Bountiful as Carrie Watts, for which she won the Tony Award, Outer Critics Award, and Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play. She previously received a Drama Desk Award in 1962 for her Off-Broadway performance in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl.

On November 16, 2016, it was announced that Tyson would be one of 21 new recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

During her career she has been nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, winning three. In 2011, she appeared in the film The Help, for which she received awards for her ensemble work as Constantine from the BFCA and SAG Awards and she has an additional four SAG Award nominations. She starred on Broadway in The Trip to Bountiful as Carrie Watts, for which she won the Tony Award, Outer Critics Award, and Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play. She previously received a Drama Desk Award in 1962 for her Off-Broadway performance in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl.

Tyson was born and raised in Harlem, the daughter of Theodosia, a domestic and William Tyson, who worked as a carpenter, as a painter, and at any other jobs he could find. Her parents were immigrants from Nevis in the West Indies. Her father arrived in New York City at age 21 and was processed at Ellis Island on August 4, 1919.

Tyson was discovered by a photographer for Ebony magazine and became a popular fashion model. Her first acting role was on the NBC series Frontiers of Faith in 1951. Her first film role was in Carib Gold in 1956, but she went on to do more television work, such as the celebrated series East Side/West Side and the soap opera The Guiding Light. In 1961, Tyson appeared in the original cast of French playwright Jean Genet’s The Blacks, the longest running off-Broadway non-musical of the decade, running for 1,408 performances. The original cast also featured James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Louis Gossett, Jr., Godfrey Cambridge, Maya Angelou and Charles Gordone. She appeared with Sammy Davis, Jr. in the film A Man Called Adam (1966) and starred in the film version of Graham Greene’s The Comedians (1967). Tyson had a featured role in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), and appeared in a segment of Roots.

In 1972, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the critically acclaimed Sounder. In 1974, she won two Emmy Awards for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Other acclaimed television roles included Roots; King, in which she portrayed Coretta Scott King, The Marva Collins Story, When No One Would Listen, and The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, for which she received her third Emmy Award. In 1982, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women, who through their endurance and the excellence of their work have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.

In 1991 she appeared in Fried Green Tomatoes as Sipsey. In her 1994–95 television series Sweet Justice, Tyson portrayed a civil rights activist and attorney named Carrie Grace Battle, a character she shaped by reportedly consulting with noted Washington, D.C. civil rights and criminal defense lawyer Dovey Johnson Roundtree. In 2005, Tyson co-starred in Because of Winn-Dixie and Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The same year she was honored at Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball. The Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts, a magnet school in East Orange, New Jersey, was renamed in her honor. She plays an active part in supporting the school, which serves one of New Jersey’s most underprivileged African-American communities. In 2010, Tyson narrated the “Paul Robeson Award”-winning documentary, Up from the Bottoms: The Search for the American Dream. In 2010, she appeared in Why Did I Get Married Too? In 2011, Tyson appeared in her first music video in Willow Smith’s 21st Century Girl. That same year she played Constantine Jefferson in The Help.

At the 67th Tony Awards on June 9, 2013, Tyson won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Miss Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful. She also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for the role.

Tyson has been married once, to legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis on November 26, 1981. The ceremony was conducted by Atlanta mayor Andrew Young at the home of actor Bill Cosby. Tyson and Davis divorced in 1988. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. On May 17, 2009, she received an honorary degree from Morehouse College, an all-male college. In 2010, she was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. On May 21, 2014, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Columbia University.

In 2010, she appeared in Why Did I Get Married Too?, and also narrated the Paul Robeson Award-winning documentary, Up from the Bottoms: The Search for the American Dream. In 2011, Tyson appeared in her first music video in Willow Smith’s 21st Century Girl. That same year she played Constantine Jefferson in the critically acclaimed period drama The Help. At the 67th Tony Awards on June 9, 2013, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Miss Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful. She also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for the role. In 2013, Tyson had a supporting role in the horror film The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia. Since 2014, Tyson has guest starred in How to Get Away with Murder as Ophelia Harkness, the mother of main character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis), a role for which she has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in both 2015 and 2017.

Written by Dianne Washington

Bruce McMarion Wright

Bruce McMarion Wright (born Marion Bruce Wright, December 19, 1917 – March 24, 2005) was an American jurist who served on the New York State Supreme Court. Judge Wright was also the father of Geoffrey D.S. Wright, a New York State Supreme Court Justice, and Keith L.T. Wright, a member of the New York State Assembly.

Wright was born in Baltimore, Maryland, raised in Princeton, New Jersey, and spent the majority of his adult life living in Harlem, New York.

In 1939, Wright was awarded a scholarship to attend Princeton University, but denied admission when he arrived and the university learned that he was black. Wright was denied admission to Notre Dame on the same grounds. He studied at Virginia Union University, and graduated from Lincoln University in 1942.

Wright then served in a U.S. Army segregated medical unit during World War II. He volunteered for combat duty, and was assigned to Company K, 16th Infantry Regiment. After the war, he went AWOL, making his way to Paris, where he was befriended by Senegalese poet Leopold Senghor, who later became his country’s first president.

Wright’s early ambition was to become a poet and was introduced and later became a friend of Langston Hughes. Wright’s first book of poetry, “From the Shaken Tower,” was edited by Hughes and published in 1944. He studied at Fordham University Law School, and obtained his law degree from New York Law School.

New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed Wright as general counsel for the New York City Human Resources Administration in 1967, and named him to the New York City Criminal Court bench in 1970. Judge Wright was soon publicly critical of the judicial system and voiced his belief that race and class all too frequently determined the outcomes of trials. He denounced what he called racism in the criminal justice system, and created a furor by often setting low bail, and sometimes no bail, for poor or minority suspects. In one case, in which bail of $100,000 was requested by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for Joseph Gruttola, who had been accused of shooting a police officer, he set it at $500. After Gruttola posted bail and was released the same day, another judge revoked it and ordered him rearrested. When Grullota was brought into court the next day, Wright again set bail at $500. (Grutolla was eventually acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of assault and robbery.) In another case involving a man named Seymour Popkin, who had been charged in the beating of another man to death in a fistfight in Times Square, Judge Wright released him on his own recognizance after an assistant district attorney declined to release the name of a potential witness, despite Popkin’s criminal record extending back 20 years. (The charge was eventually reduced to simple assault, and Popkin was acquitted at trial.)

Wright was given the nickname “Turn ‘Em Loose Bruce” by the police officer’s unions in New York City because of his bail practices, and it was repeated often in the New York newspapers.

After continued protests by the police officer’s unions, Wright was transferred to New York City Civil Court in 1974 by David Ross, the city’s administrative judge, who said it was just part of the usual rotations of judges and denied that the move had anything to do with his bail policies. Judge Wright then sued in federal court, seeking reinstatement, but in 1978, as hearings on his long-delayed lawsuit were about to begin, he was transferred back to Criminal Court.

The controversy promptly resumed, with the Transit Police union making their first complaint about Judge Wright a week after he returned to the Criminal Court bench. It peaked in April 1979, when Jerome Singleton was charged with slashing the throat of a white decoy officer, Robert Bilodeau. After bail had initially been set at $10,000 cash by another judge, Judge Wright released Singleton on his own recognizance, saying that he had no previous criminal record, strong family and community ties, and that prosecutors had offered no convincing reason to bar Singleton’s release. (Singleton was eventually found guilty of second-degree assault and acquitted of first-degree assault and attempted murder.)

However, while some criticized Wright, others thought he was fair. Despite his outspoken views and practices, Wright was elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 1979.

Throughout his career, Wright held onto his belief that the judicial system, including bail, was stacked against poor and minority defendants. In a lecture at Columbia University Law School in 1979, he said that a more appropriate name for him would have been “Civil” Wright. He retired on December 31, 1994. Several days before his retirement, he said,

“I have never changed my mind about the Eighth Amendment. To say that I would’ve done things differently means to me I would have been a good boy, kept my mouth shut and availed myself of the benefits of the system. I don’t think I can do that. I don’t think I could ever do that.”

Judge Wright spent 25 years on the bench hearing criminal and civil cases, and had a reputation as a scholarly and provocative jurist who sprinkled his opinions with literary quotations. He was the author of a 1987 book, Black Robes, White Justice, about the role of race in the judicial system, which won a 1991 American Book Award. He later authored an autobiography, “Black Justice In A White World.” Sixty-five years after being denied admission to Princeton because of his race, he was made an honorary member of their Class of 2001.

Judge Wright died in his sleep on March 24, 2005, at his home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut at the age of 87.

Written by Dianne Washington

Maurice White of Earth Wind & Fire

Maurice White (December 19, 1941 – February 4, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, and bandleader. He was the founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. He was also the older brother of current Earth, Wind & Fire member Verdine White, and former member Fred White. He served as the band’s main songwriter and record producer, and was co-lead singer along with Philip Bailey.

He won seven Grammys, and was nominated for a total of twenty Grammys. White was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as a member of Earth, Wind & Fire, and was also inducted individually into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Also known by his nickname “Reece”, he worked with several famous recording artists, including Deniece Williams, the Emotions, Barbra Streisand, and Neil Diamond. White was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the late 1980s, which led him eventually to stop touring with Earth, Wind & Fire in 1994. He retained executive control of the band, and remained active in the music business until his death.

White was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 19, 1941. He grew up in South Memphis, where he lived with his grandmother in the Foote Homes Projects and was a childhood friend of Booker T Jones, with whom he formed a “cookin’ little band” while attending Booker T. Washington High School. He made frequent trips to Chicago to visit his mother, Edna, and stepfather, Verdine Adams, who was a doctor and occasional saxophonist. In his teenage years, he moved to Chicago and studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, and played drums in local nightclubs. By the mid-1960s he found work as a session drummer for Chess Records. While at Chess, he played on the records of artists such as Etta James, Ramsey Lewis, Sonny Stitt, Muddy Waters, the Impressions, the Dells, Betty Everett, Sugar Pie DeSanto and Buddy Guy. White also played the drums on Fontella Bass’s “Rescue Me” and Billy Stewart’s “Summertime”. In 1962, along with other studio musicians at Chess, he was a member of the Jazzmen, who later became the Pharaohs.

By 1966, he joined the Ramsey Lewis Trio, replacing Isaac “Red” Holt as the drummer. Holt and bassist Eldee Young left and formed Young-Holt Unlimited with pianist Hysear Don Walker. Young was replaced by Cleveland Eaton. As a member of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Maurice played on nine of the group’s albums, including Wade in the Water (1966), from which the track “Hold It Right There” won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal or Instrumental in 1966. White featured on other Ramsey Lewis albums including: The Movie Album (1966), Goin’ Latin (1967), Dancing in the Street (1967), Up Pops Ramsey Lewis (1967) and The Piano Player (1969). While in the Trio he was introduced in a Chicago drum store to the African thumb piano or kalimba and on the Trio’s 1969 album Another Voyage’s track “Uhuru” was featured the first recording of White playing the kalimba.

In 1969, White left the Trio and joined his two friends, Wade Flemons and Don Whitehead, to form a songwriting team who wrote songs for commercials in the Chicago area. The three friends got a recording contract with Capitol Records and called themselves the Salty Peppers. They had a moderate hit in the Midwest area with their single “La La Time”, but their second single, “Uh Huh Yeah”, was not as successful. White then moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, and altered the name of the band to Earth, Wind & Fire, the band’s new name reflecting the elements in his astrological chart.

With Maurice as the bandleader and producer of most of the band’s albums, EWF earned legendary status winning six Grammy Awards out of a staggering 14 nominations, a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame, and four American Music Awards. The group’s albums have sold over 90 million copies worldwide. Other honors bestowed upon Maurice as a member of the band included inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, The Songwriters Hall of Fame and The NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame.

White brought the kalimba into mainstream use by incorporating its sound into the music of Earth, Wind & Fire. He was also responsible for expanding the group to include a full horn section – the Earth, Wind & Fire Horns, later known as the Phenix Horns. White began showing signs of the Parkinson’s disease in 1987, and was finally forced to retire from Earth Wind & Fire in 1994. He retained executive control of the band and was still very active in the music business, producing and recording with the band and other artists. Messages of encouragement from celebrities including: Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Boyz II Men, Smokey Robinson, Isaac Hayes, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine were published for White.

From time to time, after his retirement, he appeared on stage with Earth, Wind & Fire at events such as the 2004 Grammy Awards Tribute to Funk, and alongside Alicia Keys at Clive Davis’s 2004 pre-Grammy awards party where they performed the band’s 1978 hit “September”.

Maurice’s younger brother, Verdine, an original member of Earth, Wind & Fire, still tours with the band as its bassist and a backing vocalist. Additionally, their brother Fred joined the band in 1974, when the band recorded “Devotion”. Maurice was a married father of three and owned two homes in California; one in Carmel Valley, and the other, a four-level condominium in Los Angeles. As recorded in his obituary, his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Verdine Adams, Sr., MD, had a total of ten children, and Maurice White was the oldest. He was affectionately called Reese by many of his brothers and sisters, according to his obituary which was distributed at his Memorial Service held at Agape International Spiritual Center March 22, 2016 in California.

White died in his sleep from the effects of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Los Angeles, California, on the morning of February 4, 2016, at the age of 74. He was survived by his wife, Marilyn White, sons Kahbran and Eden, daughter Hamia (nicknamed MiMi on his obituary) and brothers Verdine and Fred. As written in his obituary, he was the eldest of nine siblings.

Written by Dianne Washington

Esther Phillips

Esther Phillips (born Esther Mae Jones; December 23, 1935 – August 7, 1984) was an American singer, best known for her R&B vocals. She was a versatile singer and also performed pop, country, jazz, blues and soul music.

Born Esther Mae Jones in Galveston, Texas, she began singing in church as a young child. When her parents divorced, she divided her time between her father in Houston and her mother in the Watts area of Los Angeles. She was brought up singing in church and was reluctant to enter a talent contest at a local blues club, but her sister insisted. A mature singer at the age of 14, she won the amateur talent contest in 1949 at the Barrelhouse Club, owned by Johnny Otis. Otis was so impressed that he recorded her for Modern Records and added her to his traveling revue, the California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, billed as Little Esther. She later took the surname Phillips, reportedly inspired by a sign at a gas station.

Billed as Little Esther, she scored her first success when she was teamed with the vocal quartet the Robins (who later evolved into the Coasters) on the hit single “Double Crossin’ Blues.” It topped the R&B charts in early 1950 and paved the way for “Mistrustin’ Blues,” “Misery,” “Cupid Boogie,” and “Deceivin’ Blues.” In 1951, Little Esther and Otis had a falling out, reportedly over money, which led to her departure from his show.

Her first hit record was “Double Crossing Blues”, with the Johnny Otis Quintette and the Robins (a vocal group), released in 1950 by Savoy Records, which reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. She made several hit records for Savoy with the Johnny Otis Orchestra, including “Mistrusting Blues” (a duet with Mel Walker) and “Cupid’s Boogie”, both of which also went to number 1 that year. Four more of her records made the Top 10 in the same year: “Misery” (number 9), “Deceivin’ Blues” (number 4), “Wedding Boogie” (number 6), and “Far Away Blues (Xmas Blues)” (number 6). Few female artists performing in any genre had such success in their debut year.

Phillips left Otis and the Savoy label at the end of 1950 and signed with Federal Records. But just as quickly as the hits had started, they stopped. She recorded more than thirty sides for Federal, but only one, “Ring-a-Ding-Doo”, made the charts, reaching number 8 in 1952. Not working with Otis was part of her problem; the other part was her deepening dependence on heroin, to which she was addicted by the middle of the decade. Being in the same room when Johnny Ace shot himself (accidentally) on Christmas Day, 1954, while in-between shows in Houston, presumably did not help matters.

In 1954, she returned to Houston to live with her father and recuperate. Short on money, she worked in small nightclubs around the South, punctuated by periodic hospital stays in Lexington, Kentucky, to treat her addiction. In 1962, Kenny Rogers discovered her singing at a Houston club and helped her get a contract with Lenox Records, owned by his brother Lelan.

In 1954, she returned to Houston to live with her father, having experimented with hard drugs, developing an addiction to heroin. Short on money, Little Esther worked in small nightclubs around the South, punctuated by periodic hospital stays in Lexington, Kentucky, stemming from her addiction.

In 1962, Kenny Rogers got her signed to his brother’s Lenox label, rediscovering her while singing at a Houston club. She re-christened herself Esther Phillips, choosing her last name from a nearby Phillips gas station. Phillips recorded a country-soul rendition of the soon-to-be standard “Release Me,” which was a smash, topping the R&B charts and hitting the Top Ten on both the pop and country charts. Back in the public eye, Phillips recorded a country-soul album of the same name, but Lenox went bankrupt in 1963. Thanks to her recent success, Phillips was able to catch on with R&B giant Atlantic.

Her remake of the Beatles song “And I Love Him” (naturally, with the gender changed) nearly made the R&B Top Ten in 1965 and the Beatles flew her to the U.K. for her first overseas performances. Encouraged, Atlantic pushed her into even jazzier territory for her next album, but none of the resulting singles really caught on and the label dropped her in late 1967.

With her addiction worsening, Phillips checked into a rehab facility; while undergoing treatment, she cut some sides for Roulette in 1969 and upon her release, she moved to Los Angeles and re-signed with Atlantic.

In 1971, she signed with producer Creed Taylor’s Kudu label, a subsidiary of his hugely successful jazz-fusion imprint CTI. Her label debut, “From a Whisper to a Scream,” was released in 1972 to strong sales and highly positive reviews, particularly for her performance of Gil Scott-Heron’s wrenching heroin-addiction tale, “Home Is Where the Hatred Is.” Phillips recorded several more albums for Kudu over the next few years and enjoyed some of the most prolonged popularity of her career, performing in high-profile venues and numerous international jazz festivals.

In 1975, she scored her biggest hit single since “Release Me” with “What a Difference a Day Makes” (Top Ten R&B, Top 20 pop), and the accompanying album of the same name became her biggest seller yet. In 1977, Phillips left Kudu for Mercury, but none matched the commercial success of her Kudu output and after 1981’s “A Good Black Is Hard to Crack,” she found herself without a record deal.

Esther Phillips was perhaps too versatile for her own good; her voice had an idiosyncratic, nasal quality that often earned comparisons to Nina Simone, although she herself counted Dinah Washington as a chief inspiration.

Phillips died at UCLA Medical Center in Carson, California, in 1984, at the age of 48, from liver and kidney failure due to long-term drug abuse. Her funeral services were conducted by Johnny Otis. Originally buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave at Lincoln Memorial Park in Compton, she was reinterred in 1985 in the Morning Light section at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, in Los Angeles. A bronze marker recognizes her career achievements and quotes a Bible passage: “In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions” (John 14:2).

Written by Dianne Washington

Marshall Thompson

Marshall Thompson grew up on Chicago’s South Side. As a child, he played his snare drum on the corner of 47th Street and St. Lawrence Avenue, thus beginning a lifelong love of music.

Growing up, Thompson would try to sneak into the Regal Theater only to be thrown out. He persisted, landing a job in 1960 as the house drummer for the Regal Theater and even performing as backup for Gladys Knight in 1967. In 1960, he and other musicians formed the Chi-Lites. Initially, the group’s name was the Hi-Lites. They soon achieved notoriety with half a dozen singles issued on the local Dakar and Ja-Wes labels. Because their name conflicted with that of another local group, they changed their name, aligning themselves with Chicago.

The group’s greatest fame came during the early 1970s. They were one of the few groups of the period to have not come from Memphis or Philadelphia. They were led by Eugene Record, and scored eleven Top Ten R&B hits from 1969 to 1974.

The group was formed at Hyde Park High School in Chicago in the late 1950s as the Chanteurs (Eugene Record, Robert “Squirrel” Lester, and Clarence Johnson). They later teamed up with Marshall Thompson and Creadel “Red” Jones of the Desideros to form the Hi-lites. Noting that the name Hi-lites was already in use, and wishing to add a tribute to their home town of Chicago, they changed their name to “The Chi-Lites” in 1964. Clarence Johnson left later that year, and their name was subsequently shortened to the Chi-Lites. Eugene Record was the musical group’s primary songwriter and lead singer, though he frequently collaborated with others, including Barbara Acklin.

Their major hits came in 1971 and 1972, “Have You Seen Her” and “Oh Girl”, the latter becoming a #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 on 27 May 1972. Each sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. Other transatlantic chart hits followed, although their output became more fragmented as the group’s personnel came and went. Bass singer Jones left in 1973, and was replaced in quick succession by Stanley Anderson, Willie Kensey, and then Doc Roberson. Shortly thereafter, Eugene Record left, and David Scott and Danny Johnson entered. More personnel changes ensued, when Johnson was replaced by Vandy Hampton in 1977. The Chi-lites cut some tracks for the Inphasion label in 1979, which appeared on an obscure album for the Excello label.

In 1980, the mid-1960s quartet of Record, Thompson, Jones, and Lester re-formed the Chi-lites. Creadel Jones left for a second time in 1982, and the group would remain a trio. In 1983, the group released the critically acclaimed Bottoms Up album and achieved notable club and R&B chart success with the title track and “Changing For You.” Released on LARC Records, the album was also released in the UK on the R&B label under the distribution wing of PRT. “Changing For You” album version was released in the UK as a 12″ single which became popular in London clubs including Flicks in Dartford and The Goldmine in Canvey Island. “Changing For You” also remained on the Caister Weekender playlist for two years. “Changing For You” and the title track “Bottoms Up” were heavily played and promoted by UK Jazz Funk Soul DJ Robbie Vincent. An edited version of “Changing For You” entered the UK Charts and reached #61. Record left again in 1988, and new lead Frank Reed joined to replace him. Singer Anthony Reynard Watson replaced Reed later that year and the duty of lead vocals would alternate between Reed and Watson over the course of the next decade. (Lester took over singing lead on “Oh Girl”, while Watson led on their other songs).

In 1997, while returning home from a concert in Pennsylvania, the Chi-Lites were involved in a serious car crash which resulted in both Reed and Thompson’s wife Constance being ejected from the vehicle. Constance died from her injuries and Reed had to have a metal plate inserted in his back. “Hold On to Your Dreams” was included on the Help Wanted (Heroes are in Short Supply) album in Constance’s honor. Reed was subsequently replaced once again by Watson until Watson’s permanent departure in 2002.

The group was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 2000 and Record appeared with the group on stage to perform and accept the award. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005, and were honored with an induction into the R&B Music Hall of Fame on August 17, 2013 at the Waetejen Auditorium in Cleveland.

Today, as the lone survivor, Marshall Thompson continues the group’s legacy.

Written by Dianne Washington

Fredericka Carolyn “Fredi” Washington

Fredericka Carolyn “Fredi” Washington (December 23, 1903 – June 28, 1994) was an American dramatic film actress, one of the first to gain recognition for her work in film and on stage. She was active during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s). She is best known for her role as “Peola” in the 1934 version of the film Imitation of Life, in which she plays a young light-skinned black woman who decides to pass as white. Her last film role was in One Mile from Heaven (1937), after which she left Hollywood and returned to New York to work in theatre and civil rights.

Fredi Washington was born in 1903 in Savannah, Georgia to Robert T. Washington, a postal worker, and Harriet Walker Ward, a former dancer. Both were of African-American and European ancestry. Fredi was the second of their five children. Her mother, Hattie, died when Fredi was eleven years old. As the oldest girl in her family, Fredi helped raise her younger siblings, Isabel, Rosebud and Robert, with the help of their grandmother, whom the family called “Big Mama.” After their mother’s death, Fredi was sent to the St. Elizabeth’s Convent School for colored girls in Cornwells Heights, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her sister, Isabel, soon followed her. At some point her father, Robert T. Washington, remarried. His second wife died while pregnant. He later married a third time and had four children with his last wife. Fredi had a total of eight siblings from her father’s two families.

While Fredi was still in school in Philadelphia, her family moved North to Harlem, New York in the Great Migration for work and opportunity in the industrial North. Fredi followed her family to Harlem, where she graduated from Julia Richman High School in New York City. Washington’s career began dancing in nightclubs. From 1922 to 1926, she toured with Sissle and Blake’s Shuffle Along.

Fredi’s performing career began in 1921, when she got a chance to work in New York City, where she was living with her grandmother and aunt. She was a chorus girl in the hit Broadway musical Shuffle Along. She was hired by dancer Josephine Baker as a member of the “Happy Honeysuckles,” a cabaret group. Baker also became a friend and mentor to her. Washington’s friendship with Baker, as well as her talent as a performer, led to her being discovered by producer Lee Shubert. In 1926, Washington was recommended for a co-starring role on the Broadway stage with Paul Robeson in Black Boy. She was very attractive, as well as a talented entertainer, and she easily moved up to become a popular featured dancer. She toured internationally with her dancing partner Al Moiret; they were especially popular in London.

Assuming the stage name Edith Warren, she was cast as the lead in Black Boy with Paul Robeson in 1926. With work hard to find in America she toured Europe, some of her engagements included Gaumount Palace and Chateau Madrid (Paris), Casino Nice, Green Park Hotel (London), Trocadero and Floria Palast (Berlin). Washington was cast in Sweet Chariot (1930) in New York, Singin’ the Blues (1931, and Run, Little Chillun (1933).

Her film career began concurrently with performances in Black and Tan Fantasy (1929), The Old Man and the Mountain, and The Emperor Jones (1933); she married Lawrence Brown of the Duke Ellington Band later that year. One of Washington’s primary concerns was the relationship between black and white women. She brought to the medium a new conception of African-American women in general and no where was this better displayed than her role in the film Imitation of Life (1934). So convincing was Washington’s portrayal of the tragic Mulatto, that many felt she was (in real life) anti-black.

Friends like Bobby Short and her sister’s husband, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell said that she never hid behind the lightness of her complexion. Washington’s commitment to civil rights was just as strong as her professionalism in the theater and cinema arts. She was one of the founders of the Negro Actors Guild and from 1937 to 1938 was the organization’s secretary. She was administrative secretary for the Joint Actors Equity-Theater League Committee on Hotel Accommodations for Negro Actors throughout the United States.

Washington was on radio in the Jewish immigrant comedy The Goldbergs, and performed specials for the National Urban League on CBS radio. Other films include Drums of the Jungle (1935) and One Mile From Heaven (1937). She also appeared in the stage production of Lysistra (1946), A Long Way From Home (1948) and How Long Till Summer (1949). In 1952, she married Anthony Bell, a dentist, and was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975.

Throughout her life, Washington was often asked if she ever wanted to “pass” for white. Washington, a proud black woman, answered conclusively, “No.” She said this repeatedly, “I don’t want to pass because I can’t stand insincerities and shams. I am just as much Negro as any of the others identified with the race.”

“I have never tried to pass for white and never had any desire, I am proud of my race. In ‘Imitation of Life’, I was showing how a girl might feel under the circumstances but I am not showing how I felt.”

“I am an American citizen and by God, we all have inalienable rights and wherever those rights are tampered with, there is nothing left to do but fight…and I fight. How many people do you think there are in this country who do not have mixed blood, there’s very few if any, what makes us who we are, are our culture and experience. No matter how white I look, on the inside I feel black. There are many whites who are mixed blood, but still go by white, why such a big deal if I go as Negro, because people can’t believe that I am proud to be a Negro and not white. To prove I don’t buy white superiority I chose to be a Negro.”

Fredi Washington died on June 28, 1994 at the age of 91.

Written by Dianne Washington

Mildred “Candi” Thorpe

Mildred “Candi” Thorpe, tap dancer who was a member of the famed duet duo Candi and Pepper, was one of four children (two boys and two girls) born to William Thomas Thorpe, of African American and Native American heritage who migrated to Philadelphia in 1905 in the midst of the Great Migration; and Laura Decker Thorpe, of Pennsylvanian Dutch and African-American heritage. Young Thorpe attended Saint Peter Claver’s Parochial school and Auden Reed Junior High School, dropping out of school when she was in the ninth grade to pursue her dance career. Though she never went to dancing school, she saw performances at the Lincoln Theatre, a black vaudeville theater in Philadelphia, where she learned tap dance steps from such legendary hoofers as Bill Bailey, Derby Wilson, and Charles “Honi” Coles. After learning a step from Coles, he remarked, “I liked the way you did it better.” Around 1935 when she was sixteen, she joined a traveling troupe of eight tap dancers who performed in a carnival and billed as “Tally’s Minstrels”; the troupe performed songs and dances in blackface in a one-hour show held in a tent and part of the larger carnival tent show. In Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the owners deserted the carnival and ran off with the money, leaving Thorpe to return to Philadelphia to work as a solo performer in local nightclubs.

In 1939, while working at the Congo Club, Thorpe met her first dance partner, Jewel “Pepper” Welch; they performed their first engagement at Simm’s Paradise in Philadelphia as the tap dance team “Candi and Pepper.” In short time, their manager, Reiss DuPree, booked them at New York’s Apollo Theater, home to thousands of African-American performers. The Apollo was known for its fierce competitive spirit; an audience had the power to make or break careers. “Candi and Pepper” made their debut at the Apollo in 1941 as the opening act, on the same bill as Fats Waller and his band and comedy singers “Apus and Estrellita.” The master of ceremonies announced them: “Ladies and Gentlemen, we got two girls who are going to dance for you out of Philadelphia. Candi is sweet, Pepper is hot; come on girls show me what you’ve got.” As Thorpe remembered “We tore ‘em up. We tore ‘em up!” They were called back onstage for so many encores they ran out of routines. After their first performance they replaced “Stump and Stumpy” (who regularly closed the show) as the closing act, thereby gaining the highest billing. The Apollo success helped launch the team into an active performing career as they toured the East coast and Mid-West as featured performers with such musical stars as Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Erkstine Hawkins.

Candi and Pepper began their act with a jazz song, such as “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” to which they added some dance movement. Then Thorpe performed her rhythm tap dance solo to “I’ve Got Rhythm,” played in stop-time, allowing her to perform her rhythmic breaks without musical accompaniment. An improvisational dancer in the tradition of Baby Laurence, Teddy Hale, and Eddie Brown, she was comfortable expressing herself rhythmically, adding slides, wings, and trenches while dancing. “I’m an innovator,” she explained. “What I think is no particular sound or music that goes with it. I could just go out there and dance without music. It swings. It’s just a mover and a shaker.” “Pepper” Welch followed Thorpe with her expressive style of flash dancing. Tall, and with a beautiful style of moving, Welch added quick turns to her dancing, her jacket flowing around her body. “I played to the audience,” Welch recalled. “I looked to make each person think I was dancing for them.” They closed their act to “One O’Clock Jump,” performing trench steps and straddle splits jumps, in which they touched their toes, and their version of Russian-styled kazotsky kicks.

Thorpe was often complimented by predominantly male African-American tap dancers as being “that girl who could dance her ass off”: in the 1930s and 40s, that was considered the highest compliment a female dancer could receive, as it meant that this dancer’s skills incorporated swinging rhythmic phrases, some elements of surprise (flash, acrobatics, eccentric), and personal style. When the Candi and Pepper team broke apart in the early 1940s, 1944 to be exact. Thorpe remained in Chicago for a few years and thereafter retired from show business.

Written by Dianne Washington

John Henry Murphy

John Henry Murphy, Sr. was an African-American newspaper publisher, best known as founder of the Baltimore Afro-American (also known as The Afro), published by the Afro-American Newspaper Company of Baltimore, Inc. This newspaper is one of the oldest remaining family-owned newspapers in the U.S.

According to the 1860 United States Federal Census, Murphy was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Benjamin and Susan Murphy (nee Colby). He is popularly believed to have been enslaved until mustering into United States Colored Infantry’s 30th Regiment in Camp Stanton, Maryland in February 1864. He served as a non-commissioned officer.

In 1868 he married Martha Elizabeth Howard, a daughter of the well-to-do African-American landowner, Enoch George Howard of Montgomery County, Maryland. Murphy and his wife had 11 children in all, 10 of whom survived to adulthood. After his death, several of his descendants led the paper over the course of several generations, including his grandson, John H. Murphy, III.

Using proceeds from a land sale by his wife, Murphy was able to acquire from Rev. Harry Bragg, Sr. the publication, The Afro-American, in 1892 and merge it with his pre-existing publications, The Sunday School Helper and The Ledger.

Little is known about Murphy before his service in the American Civil War, among the over 8,000 United States Colored Troops who mustered into regiments throughout the State of Maryland.

After the war, Murphy returned home and worked as a whitewasher, a trade he learned from his father. The development of wallpaper at prices available to the middle class made whitewashing obsolete. Murphy was appointed to the federal civil service in the postal service. He later worked in various jobs: as a porter, janitor, manager of a feed store, and manager of the printing department of the Afro-American,published by Rev. Harry Bragg Sr. for his church.

During these years, Murphy became active with Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, founded in Philadelphia in the early 19th century as the first black denomination in the United States. After being appointed as a District Sunday School Superintendent, Murphy used a manual printing press to produce a weekly church publication, the Sunday School Helper, to make copies of materials for students. In 1897 Murphy purchased the printing presses of the Afro-American at auction with $200 borrowed from his wife, who had sold land inherited from her father. He merged the Sunday School Helper with the Afro. In 1900, he acquired another newspaper, The Ledger, and renamed his paper as The Afro-American Ledger.

Murphy helped build the African-American community in Baltimore by sharing its news, pressing for civil rights, and reporting on abuses. At first his family worked unpaid for the paper. Later he had up to 100 employees. “He crusaded for racial justice while exposing racism in education, jobs, housing, and public accommodations. In 1913, he was elected president of the National Negro Press Association.”

Due to the economic and political power of blacks in Baltimore, who comprised a large community, and the activism of people like Murphy, the Maryland state legislature did not follow the example of other southern states and disenfranchise black voters at the turn of the century. African Americans struggled with discrimination in the city but maintained more freedom and political power than blacks in most other southern states.

His son Carl Murphy, by then having a doctorate from the University of Jena in Germany and serving as head of the German department at Howard University, returned to Baltimore in 1918 to work on the paper in his father’s last years. In 1922, after his father’s death, Carl J. Murphy was named as editor and publisher of the paper.

After John Henry Murphy’s death on April 5, 1922, his descendants led the newspaper over the course of the next generations, including son Carl J. Murphy for 45 years, and John’s grandson and namesake, John H. Murphy, III.

Written by Dianne Washington

African American

The term is celebrated on this date.

In August of 2005, an Ethiopian-born activist named Abdulaziz Kamus seemed to melt into the crowd; a sea of black professors, health experts and community leaders considering how to educate blacks about the dangers of prostate cancer. But when he piped up to suggest focusing some attention on African immigrants, the dividing lines were quickly and pointedly drawn.

The focus of the campaign, the activist, Kamus, was told, would be strictly on African-Americans. “He said, ‘but I am African and I am an American citizen; am I not African-American?’ ““They said ‘No, no, no, not you.’ “The census is claiming me as an African-American,” said Kamus, who has lived in this country for 20 years.” If I walk down the streets, white people see me as an African-American. Yet African-Americans are saying, ‘You are not one of us.’ So I ask myself, in this country, how do I define myself?”

That thorny question is increasingly being raised as the growing number of foreign-born blacks in America inspires a quiet debate over who can claim the term “African-American,” which has rapidly replaced “black” in much of the nation’s political and cultural discourse. The demographic shifts, which gained strength in the 1960’s after changes in federal immigration law led to increased migration from Africa and Latin America, have been accompanied in some places by fears that newcomers might eclipse native-born blacks. And they have touched off delicate musings about ethnic labels, identity and the often unspoken differences among people who share the same skin color.

In the 1990’s, the number of blacks with recent roots in sub-Saharan Africa nearly tripled while the number of blacks with origins in the Caribbean grew by more than 60 percent, according to demographers at the State University of New York at Albany. By 2000, foreign-born blacks make up 30 percent of the blacks in New York City, 28 percent of the blacks in Boston and about a quarter in Montgomery County, Md. Recently, black immigrants and their children have become more visible in universities, the workplace and in politics, with Colin L. Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, serving as secretary of state, and Barack Obama, born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, a United States Senator from Illinois and emerging as a rising star in the Democratic Party.

During the campaign, the debate spilled into public view when Alan Keyes, the black Republican challenger for the Senate seat in Illinois, questioned whether Mr. Obama, the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, should claim an African-American identity. “Barack Obama claims an African-American heritage,” Keyes said on the ABC program “This Week”. “Barack Obama and I have the same race that is, physical characteristics. We are not from the same heritage.” “My ancestors toiled in slavery in this country,” Mr. Keyes said. “My consciousness, who I am as a person, has been shaped by my struggle, deeply emotional and deeply painful, with the reality of that heritage.”

Some black Americans argue that black immigrants, like Kamus, and the children of immigrants, like Mr. Obama and Mr. Powell, are most certainly African-American. (Mr. Obama and Mr. Powell often use that term when describing themselves.) Yet some immigrants and their children prefer to be called African or Nigerian-American or Jamaican-American, depending on their countries of origin. Other people prefer the term black, which seems to include everyone, regardless of nationality. Keyes’s comments reflect the views of a number of black Americans, including those who challenged Kamus at the meeting on prostate cancer.

Many argued that the term African-American should refer to the descendants of slaves brought to the United States centuries ago, not to newcomers who have not inherited the legacy of bondage, segregation and legal discrimination. Dr. Bobby Austin, an administrator at the University of the District of Columbia understood why some blacks were offended when Mr. Kamus claimed an African-American identity. Dr. Austin said some people feared that black immigrants and their children would snatch up the hard-won opportunities made possible by the civil rights movement.

Several studies suggest that black immigrants and their children are already achieving at higher levels than native-born blacks. A study based on 2000 census data conducted by John R. Logan and Glenn Deane at SUNY Albany found that African immigrants typically had more education and higher middle incomes than native-born blacks. Officials at Harvard pointed out that the majority of their black students perhaps as many two-thirds — were African and Caribbean immigrants or their children, or to a lesser extent, children of biracial couples. Sociologists say foreign-born blacks from majority-black countries are less psychologically handicapped by the stigma of race. Many arrive with higher levels of education and professional experience. And sociologists say they often encounter less discrimination.

“We’ve suffered so much that we’re a bit weary and immigration seems like one more hurdle we will have to climb,” said Dr. Austin, who traces his ancestors back to slavery. “People are asking: ‘Will I have to climb over these immigrants to get to my dream? Will my children have to climb?’ “These are very aggressive people who are coming here,” said Dr. Austin, who is calling for a frank dialog between native-born and foreign-born blacks. “I don’t berate immigrants for that; they have given up a lot to get here. But we’re going to be in competition with them. We have to be honest about it. That is one of the dividing lines.”

Obama said such arguments do not reflect the views of black Americans who have joined forces over the years with Africans and people from the Caribbean to fight colonialism and poverty. He said black descendants of slaves share more similarities than differences with black immigrants and their children. Obama says his grandfather worked as a servant in Kenya and was called a “house boy” by whites even when he was a middle-aged man. Obama also said, “Some of the patterns of struggle and degradation that blacks here in the United States experienced aren’t that different from the colonial experience in the Caribbean or the African continent,” “For me the term African-American really does fit,” said Obama. “I’m African, I trace half of my heritage to Africa directly and I’m American.”

Shifting ethnic labels have long inspired fierce debates and discussions among blacks in this country, reflecting changes in socioeconomic circumstances, political strategies and evolving views of identity since Africans were first brought here as slaves. Michael Thornton, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin who has studied the issue said the term “African” was used sporadically during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 1800’s, “colored” started gaining popularity because it was viewed as more inclusive referring to those of mixed-race as well as full African heritage. In the 1890 census, for instance, blacks were asked to choose among four ethnic labels: black, mulatto, quadroon and octoroon, depending upon the degree of white blood in their ancestry.

In the 20th century, many black Americans shifted from colored to Negro to black and, most recently, to African-American, sometimes within one generation. “I’ve had to check several different boxes in my lifetime,” said Donna Brazile, former Democratic campaign manager in the 2000 presidential race. “In my birth certificate I’m identified as a Negro. Then I was black. Now I readily check African-American. I have a group of friends and we call ourselves the colored girls sometimes, to remind ourselves that we aren’t too far from that, either.” The term African-American has crept steadily into the nation’s vocabulary since 1988, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson held a news conference to urge Americans to use it to refer to blacks. “It puts us in our proper historical context,” Jackson said then, adding in a recent interview that he still favored the term. “Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base. African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.”

Polls show the number of blacks using the term has steadily increased. In a survey that year conducted by ABC and The Washington Post, 66 percent said they preferred the term black, 22 preferred African-American, 10 percent liked both terms and 2 percent had no opinion. In 2000, the Census Bureau for the first time allowed respondents to check a box that carried the heading African-American next to the term black. In 2003, a poll by the same news organizations found that 48 percent of blacks preferred the term African-American, 35 percent favored black and 17 percent liked both terms. The term has become such a fixture in the political dictionary that many white politicians, including President Bush and Senator John Kerry, his Democratic rival in 2004, favored it in their political speeches. Yet Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who is white, has referred to herself on occasion as an African-American. She was born to Portuguese parents in Mozambique.

Many whites use the term for all blacks. But among blacks there is much less agreement, particularly in places like Maryland where Africans, Haitians and Dominicans mingle in the town’s coffee shops, nightclubs and beauty salons, or in neighboring Washington, where the City Council voted this year to include the Ethiopian language Amharic as an official language to accommodate the growing Ethiopian community. Even adherents of African-American acknowledge that shifting demographics have made the term’s meaning more unclear. “It’s a comfortable term for me personally and for people like me who are of African descent and have been in this nation for a long time,” said Michael Lomax, the president of the United Negro College Fund, which raises money for 38 historically black colleges. “But it gets more confusing when you recognize that this nation is full of all kinds of people of African descent.” “It’s a much richer and more complex variety than when we started asserting that we were African-American,” said Lomax, who argues that recent black immigrants from the Caribbean and elsewhere should feel free to use the term.

Foreign-born blacks are also divided. Angelique Shofar, the Liberian-born host of a weekly radio program in Washington called “Africa Meets Africa,” prefers to call herself an African, even though she has lived in the United States for 28 of her 39 years. Phillip J. Brutus, the first Haitian-born state legislator in Florida, favors the term black because it includes foreign-born immigrants and black Americans. Brutus lives in Miami, where more than a third of the blacks are foreign born. “African-American has become the politically correct term to use, but I still say black,” Brutus said. “I say I’m black and American. That’s what’s most accurate. I think, by and large, black is more encompassing.”

Additionally, younger Africans and African Americans are not bonding as well as group elders would want many years after immigration. The African American Registry views these issues as preconceived stereotypes from both groups towards each other. Also many African American youths do not respect the daily religious beliefs and practices that Africans bring with them. In Maryland, Mr. Kamus is still searching for the right label. He says he would like to be described simply as a universal man, but he knows that the United States, like many countries, has a long history of categorizing its people. And he would like to find a way of stitching his twin identities, one Ethiopian, one American into a whole.

With that in mind, Mr. Kamus and some of his Ethiopian-born friends plan to sit down with Dr. Austin and his American-born friends over a meal of savory meats and Ethiopian bread. They want to start a dialog about their similarities, their differences and issues of identity at a time of demographic change. “We are in a critical stage of defining ourselves, who we are as Americans,” Mr. Kamus said of African immigrants and their children here. “But one thing is clear. We are here and we are not going home. This is our home now. That is the reality.”

Written by Dianne Washington