died
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Former Tuskegee Airman Roscoe C. Brown Jr. Dies at 94
Roscoe C. Brown Jr., one of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen who flew in World War II, died Saturday at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. He was 94. According to NBC 4 New York, Brown, who held a doctorate in education, became critically ill toward the end of 2015. In May he had a pacemaker…
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Lee Wesley Gibson, the Oldest Pullman Porter, Dies at 106
Lee Wesley Gibson, believed to have been the oldest living Pullman porter, died Saturday at his home, surrounded by family. He was 106 years old. “He had just celebrated his birthday five weeks earlier and he thanked everyone,” family friend Rosalind Stevenson told the Los Angeles Times. Gibson started working as a coach attendant with…
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Michael Jackson Died 7 Years Ago and His Legacy Still Eludes Us; Maybe That's How He Wanted It
Seven years after his death, Michael Jackson continues to elude and astonish us. But we now know this was how he intended it. Spike Lee’s recent documentary about Jackson’s early years features a letter Jackson wrote in 1979, at age 21. He had just released Off the Wall and was on the Destiny tour with…
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Cedric Robinson, Author of Black Marxism, Died This Month to Little Fanfare, but Not Before He Changed My Life
I know that many are given to hyperbole upon learning that a person they revere has gone to be with the ancestors, but it is not an overstatement to say that Cedric Robinson, who passed away on June 5, truly changed my life. I was a graduate student in 2006 when I came across a…
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Kimbo Slice and the Inglorious Path of Fleeting Glory
Kimbo Slice’s story was bound to end this way because America has always boxed with black men while wearing loaded gloves. Even when you’re bigger, faster, stronger and punching twice as hard, there’s always the risk of your Dickensian rise from poverty ending in tragedy because the American design, for many black people, is filled…
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I'm Buggin' Out: RIP To The Five Foot Assassin, Phife Dawg, My Favorite Underdog
“Yo, microphone check, 1, 2, what is this…” As the story goes, I was in my 9th grade English class, taught by Mrs. Sproul, and asleep. Which never happened: I’ve always been an astute student, sitting at the front of the class and being the first to raise my hand to answer questions posed to…