What People Are Saying This Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The legacy of slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. is always in flux. This summer he was immortalized as the first African American and non-president to get a monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The statue (which is a lot more impressive in person than in photographs), was almost as heavily debated as who King was and how we speak of him. While some feel its important to look at what King accomplished while also acknowledging he was human, with all the good, bad, compliations, issues and flaws that come with humanity, others prefer a lionization of his image, and to some extent, a complete sanitization. Leading to what scholar Cornel West once famously called the "Santa Clausification" of Martin Luther King Jr. 

Click to read more ...

SCLC co-founder Fred Shuttlesworth Dies At 89

Image via CNNRev. Fred Shuttlesworth, co-founder of the civil rights group the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and fearless activist, died Wednesday at 89, leaving behind a bare-knuckle legacy of fighting for human rights. Shuttlesworth survived attacks on him and his family by the Ku Klux Klan in his effort to integrate Alabama's buses and survived beatings by mobs to integrate schools. But in the effort to silence him, Shuttlesworth only grew more resolute in his mission. The once whiskey still runner turned preacher famously said: "God made me dynamite-proof." (The Root)

Martin Luther King Jr. On the Washington Mall (Photos)

Photo by Danielle Belton

A month before the monument opened, The Snob got the chance to check out a preview of the statue dedicated last week to slain Civil Rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. King is the first American who was not a former president to be honored with a monument on the mall. Inspired by line in a King speech, the monument consists of a "mountain of despair" with King emerging from "the stone of hope." As a history nerd, I was pretty moved. (It honestly doesn't take much for me. I sometimes get emotional over seeing the Capitol building at night.) Have you had a chance to check out the monument yet? It opened to the public for the first time -- amidst a freak earthquake, and later, a hurricane -- last week.

Photo slideshow after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Melissa Harris Perry Hates Her Some "Help"

Prof. Melissa Harris PerryRecently academic and author Melissa Harris Perry took one for the team and watched Hollywood's latest offering in mainstream cinema about nice white people saving unfortunate black people (it's their favorite kind), aka, the new Viola Davis film "The Help."

Prof. Harris Perry was able to stave off a head-explosion of irony and focus on everything she absolutely hated about the film -- from the "feel-good" premise of black maids being given their voice by some perky young white woman to how the film took an ounce of history and turned it into a "cat fight" about the "Real Housewives of Jackson, Mississippi."

Click to read more ...

History Collided When Ruby Bridges Met Barack Obama (Video)

President Barack Obama met the woman who was once one of the smallest Civil Rights warriors, Ruby Bridges, when she visited the Oval Office on July 15. The White House recently released videos and photos of their meeting, where Bridges visited the famous Norman Rockwell painting that immortalized Bridges' school integration saga on the cover of Look Magazine. Bridges was only six-years-old when she attended the William Franz Public School in New Orleans, six years after Brown V. The Board of Education made state-sanctioned racial segregation illegal. Obama, who is a little bit of a living historical figure himself, credited Bridges for blazing a trail followed by many.

Click to read more ...

Rep. James Clyburn Pushes Back Against Critics of Dems, CBC

Rep. James Clyburn addresses black bloggers about the midterm elections on Thursday.And he did it with a history lesson.

In a fiery presser on Capitol Hill Thursday where he at times seemed visibly frustrated, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn blasted members of the Democratic base who were withdrawing support, money during the Midterm elections. He said those Liberal and progressive critics who get stuck on things like the health care bill not being exactly what they wanted lose sight of the long battle.

"I don't understand this notion that if I can't get everything right now then there's no tomorrow," Clyburn said.

More after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Eddie Long Is A Symptom of A Much Worse Disease

A cellphone picture of himself that Bishop Eddie Long is accused of sending to young men.Megachurch prosperity gospel preacher, Bishop Eddie Long was recently slapped with charges that he pressured young men into sexual relationships with him. Since the news dropped there have been comparisons to the Catholic Church and its many scandals involving child molesting priests and other sex related controversies. There have also been a lot of jokes (sometimes tempered with cries that sexual coercions is not funny ... and, honestly, it isn't). But the underlying theme in the jokes and the comparisons is the feeling that something isn't quite right in some black churches.

More after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Glenn Beck Is Coming To Washington, D.C.! Hide Your Sanity!

It could get lost.

Yahoo! News was so sweet to put together a handy guide about Glenn Beck's "Rally of Divine Providence that will lead to him making more money" going on in Washington, D.C. tomorrow. A lot of people are mad because ... well, no matter what he says, the whole she-bang sounds like a fancy advertisement for that cult he's busy working on. Also, the whole thing just happens to happen on the same day when slain Civil Rights Activist, fan of social justice, Martin Luther King Jr. had his "I Have A Dream" speech back in 1963. And it's happening in the same place -- the Lincoln Memorial.

More after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Legendary Singer, Actress Lena Horne Dead at 92

"I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked." -- Lena Horne

Lena Horne, ground-breaking performer and star of film and stage, was one of the most popular vocalists of her era. In the 1940s she was among the first black performers to integrate the popular Copacobana night club. While she was featured in many films, her parts (usually as a lounge singer) were often cut out when shown in the South. She is probably best known for her featured roles in "Stormy Weather" and "Cabin in the Sky."

More after the jump.

Click to read more ...