remembering their contributions

Cicely Tyson, the stage, screen and television actress whose vivid portrayals of strong African-American women shattered racial stereotypes in the dramatic arts of the 1970s, propelling her to stardom and fame as an exemplar for civil rights,

In a remarkable career of seven decades, Ms. Tyson broke ground for serious Black actors by refusing to take parts that demeaned Black people. She urged Black colleagues to do the same, and often went without work. She was critical of films and television programs that cast Black characters as criminal, servile or immoral, and insisted that African-Americans, even if poor or downtrodden, should be portrayed with dignity.

Her chiseled face and willowy frame, striking even in her 90s, became familiar to millions in more than 100 film, television and stage roles, including some that had traditionally been given only to white actors. She won three Emmys and many awards from civil rights and women’s groups, and at 88 became the oldest person to win a Tony, for her 2013 Broadway role in a revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful.”

At 93, she won an honorary Oscar, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2018 and into the Television Hall of Fame in 2020. She also won a career achievement Peabody Award in 2020. Cicely Tyson died January 29, 2021 at age 86.

  (excerpts from Washington Post Black History article) 

“I believed, and still do, that there was a reason why I was chosen to break the record. I feel it’s my task to carry on where Jackie Robinson left off, and I only know one way to go about it.” The life and career of Hank Aaron, a baseball great who became a force for civil rights. | By Post Staff

Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974 and finished his major league career with 755, a mark that stood for 33 years. He stared his professional career at 17 with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. He played 23 years in the majors, starting in 1954 with the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves and retiring in 1976 after two years with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Aaron remains baseball’s career leader in RBI (2,297) extra-base hits (1,477) and total bases (6,856). He was a 25-time all-star.   (excerpts from Washington Post Black History article) 

“I follow my conscience, not my complexion.” John Lewis, a civil rights and congressional leader, died at the age of 80 on July 17. The Georgia Democrat spent three decades in Congress defending the gains he had helped achieve for people of color as a 1960s civil rights leader.  (By Post Staff). In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom.   (excerpts from Washington Post Black History article) 

A great American life 

Lewis was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, and he was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966. Lewis was one of the primary organizers of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the youngest speaker to address the March’s crowd. Two years later, he led the famous 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, Lewis represented Georgia’s 5th District, encompassing much of Atlanta and some of its suburbs, for 17 terms.  In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was a stalwart champion in the on-going struggle to demand respect for the dignity and worth of every human being.  He dedicated his entire life to non-violent activism and was an outspoken advocate in the struggle for equal justice in America.  He will be deeply missed.”

Purpose crosses disciplines. Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history.” Chadwick Boseman, died August 29, 2020 at his home in Los Angeles, he was 43. 

Wakanda Forever

Boseman played T’Challa, also known as the superhero Black Panther and king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the film “Black Panther” his character grappled with the burden of leadership thrust upon him and the decision of whether to keep his nation’s advanced technology secret or share it with an often-hostile world for the benefit of all mankind.

The film was an international box office blockbuster and became a cultural phenomenon, particularly in the United States. Many actors can get lost in the special effects of superhero action movies, but Boseman rose above the clatter to project his character’s strength, dignity, and most importantly—his human vulnerability.

Playing Icons

“It’s the way he carries himself, his stillness—you just have that feeling that you’re around a strong person,” “42” writer/director Brian Helgeland said, describing Boseman, who played in the 2013 film.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Boseman was so good at playing a fictional hero. He was also great at playing real-life heroes and icons. During his career he portrayed Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier; Thurgood Marshall, civil rights lawyer and the first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; as well the groundbreaking Godfather of Soul, James Brown.   

(excerpts from Washington Post Black History article)  

Kobe Bryant, who has died aged 41 in a helicopter crash, was a basketball phenomenon – a transcendent, if enigmatic, superstar whose rare talent bridged the gap between Michael Jordan and LeBron James in America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) and in the global sport basketball has become. Bryant had retired only three years before his death, after a 20-year career in the NBA, all of it with the league’s most glamorous team, the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he signed his first contract when he was only 17.

Five NBA championships and one Most Valuable Player (MVP) award later, he retired with the third-highest total of points in league history, 33,643, the youngest player to cross that 30,000 barrier; his total was overtaken by James on the day before Bryant died.

During his final season with the Lakers, Kobe Bryant wrote a poem called “Dear Basketball,” which amounted to a farewell to the game that made him a household name: “As a six-year-old boy / Deeply in love with you / I never saw the end of the tunnel / I only saw myself / Running out of one.” Remembering Kobe Bryant, a tireless competitor who became a global sports icon. | By Kent Babb .   

(excerpts from Washington Post Black History article)