Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 4, 2001, edition 1 / Page 52
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Marion Motley of the Cleveland Browns was the first black to lead the leasue in rushing in 1950, and Joe Perry of the San Francisco 49ers was the first to record a 1,000-yard season running the ball. Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns became perhaps the greatest run ner ever after joining the league in 1957, leading the league in rushing 8 of the 9 years he played However, civil rights struggles did not end with breakdown of the color line For years, pro teams resisted putting African-Americans in prominent deci sion-making positions like quarterback, center or line backer. Even today most quarterbacks are white. But where would the NFL be today without the performances of Randy Moss, Terrell Davis, Emmitt Smith, Deion Sanders or Warren Sapp? That's Entertainment Even though many singers and dancers initially per- 0 formed under segregated conditions, African-American artists have had profound effects on American culture. From blues to jazz to rap, black music has always found wide audiences and has had great influence on white musicians And some of today's biggest music stars are African American. Boyz II Men is one of the most popular acts around. Michael Jackson has set recording records throughout his career. Locked out of white entertainment, African Americans developed their own vaudeville chains and movie theatres in the early years of this century. Black concert halls like the Cotton Club and Apollo in New York and the Uptown in Philadelphia became attractions for both ? black and white audiences. Josephine Baker was a world wide star in the 1920s While performins at the Folies Bergere in Paris, she received 40,000 love letters and 2,000 offers of marriase! She later starred In films, worked as a spy asainst the Nazis during World War II and won the French Legion of Honor award for her effort. Jelly Roll Morton was the first great jazz composer in the early 1900s and Scott Joplin wrote the first ragtime opera. Trumpet great and singer Louis Armstrong intro duced scat singing to wide audiences in 1926. Lena Home was the first African-American singer to perform with a white orchestra, joining Charlie Bamet's band in 1936. Marian Anderson was the first black opera singer to break the color line at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1955. Charley Pride was the first African-American to become a country music star, breaking into the mostly white field in 1960. Aretha Franklin, the soul singer, made music history in 1987, when she became the first female singer inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. The development of television as home entertainment opened new opportunities for African-American per formers. In the early years, as in other fields, the opportu nities were limited because of race barriers. But today black actors and actresses, singers and dancers, comedians and talk show hosts, are the key players in television programming. __ - * Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful performers in all of entertainment, with wealth totalins more than $675 million at the end of 1998. Sinser Nat Kins Cole, whose daushter Natalie Cole became a sinsins star herself, was the first African-American to host a network television show, in 1956. Ethel Waters was the first black actress to star in a television series. The show was a cdotedy called "Beulah" in 1950. Diahann Carroll was the first African-American mmmmm ?? nHiM - ~ actress to have a long-running TV show, the successful "Julia" in the late 1960s. Sinser/actor Harry Belafonte was the first black to win an Emmy, for his 1960 variety special "A Night With Belafonte." Today, the schedules of the television networks are rich in African-American talent?from "Oprah" to "The Wayans Brothers" to "Jamie Foxx." TAKE A What about it? Jesse Owens was the first athlete to win four Sold medals in one Olympic sames?at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Owens tied the world record in the 100 meter dash, set Olympic records in the broad jump and 200 meter dash and helped his team to a gold medal in the 440-medal relay, setting another world record. His accomplishments took on world wide importance because Germany was the host and its leader, Adolf Hitler, was intent on proving Germans were the world's "master race." America was thrilled Owens had put down Hitler. But what message should his perfor mance have given America in 1936? Write three things taught by his performance, then and now. 1 2 ,--ci ? 3. 1 \CHECK OUT f \ THE PAPER! 1 Look through the television listings of your newspaper for a week. List all the regular shows that feature African American families. Then list all the shows that feature white families. Compare the numbers. Then compare how each type of family is presented. Do the shows accurately present how people live? 2 Many sports seem dominated by one race or another. The best pro basketball players are mostly African-American. There are few African-American swimmers, golfers or tennis players. Look through the sports section and pick a sport that is written about. What things determine what sports people of dif ferent races play? See how many things you can list. Stretch your thinking. 1 OAn President Eisenhower signs the CMI Rights Act of 1960, giving federal government responsibility in civil rights issues I* Homes of Civil Rights activists in Nashville, TN, are damaged In a bombing. 1961 Th,rteen Freedom Riders begin bus trip through South to force desegre gation of terminals. The bus is bombed and passengers attacked 4 0?3 NAACP p'c,d Secretary Medgar Evers is killed outside his home in Jackson, MS. In 1994 his killer is finally convicted. More than 250,000 civil rights demon strators march on Washington, D C , | where Martin Luther King delivers ' his "I Have a Dream" speech. <f OAA 24th Amendment, which outlaws the poll tax requirement, is ratified and added to U.S. Constitution. U.S. Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination in public places, schools, lodging, federal programs and employment. Martin Luther King Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize. I 4 965 King leads 200 marchers from Selma to Montgomery, AL to protest racial discrimination. | Malcolm X Is assassinated Riots breakout In the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles after a clash between black resi dents and white police 4 966 r'3hts act:'v'st James Meredith is # wounded by a sniper durins a voter 4 registration march. The next day, nearly m 4,000 blacks register to vote. I Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts Selected first black U.S. senator since Reconstruction. O W Barbara Jordan becomes first X. black to serve in Texas state sen ate since 1883. She later serves 1 ^ in U.S. Congress before death in X ^ January 1996. j ?1967 1,1 Newark' NJ' <fel?S?tes at the Black Power Conference call for partitioning the U.S. Into ? two Independent nations, one for whites and one for blacks
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Jan. 4, 2001, edition 1
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