VOLUME 97 - NUMBER 9
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2018
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Chadwick Boseman stars in “Black Panther.” (Marvel)
Film Review: Marvel’s “Black
Panther” Is Near Perfect
By Dwight Brown (NNPA Newswire Film Critic)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
The Black Panther character was first introduced into the Marvel Studios pantheon back in 1966. The
launch took place in the comic book “Fantastic Four Vol.1” issue 52. So why did it take 52 years for that
character to make its solo debut on the silver screen? Well, apparently it takes five decades to make a
populous-loving, near-perfect Black Marvel film. And it is worth the wait.
Audiences got a taste for the newest incarnation of the character when T’Challa/Black Panther debuted
in Captain America: Civil War, the saga in- which Avenger characters battled against each other. With
filmmaker Ryan Coogler (“Creed,“Fruitvale Station”) as its director and spiritual guide and a script he
co-wrote with Joe Robert Cole, this Marvel chapter is decidedly and unapologetically Afrocentric—it’s
all about the motherland and bit about urban America.
Upon the death of his father, the king ofWakanda, T’Challa, (Chadwick Boseman, “Get on Up,” “42”),
the prince, comes home to the mythical and modern, high-tech metropolis hidden somewhere in Africa.
To ascend to the throne, the heir must take on challengers in a public ritual, witnessed by his people. He
does. As the new king, vested with superhuman powers, Black Panther is the protector of his nation.
In short time, he is pulled out of his comfort zone when he is asked to track down Ulysses Klaue
(Andy Serkis), a South African illegal arms dealer, who is involved with dastardly American mercenary
Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). The two have a precious Wakandan artifact, made of “Vibranium,”
a powerful, mystical, precious metal that empowers the kingdom and was the foundation material for
Captain America’s shield. The crooks intend to sell the relic to a CIA Agent (Martin Freeman). For some
reason, Erik has an unbridled anger for T’Challa and his deceased father. He seeks their throne, which he
feels is rightfully his.
The king is led into a dangerous Korean casino where the artifact purchase will go down. His guides
are his love interest Nakia (Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years A Slave”) who is a Wakandan
international spy and Okoye (Danai Gurira, “The Walking Dead”), the fearless head of Dora Milaje, the
Wakanda Special Forces. The success or failure of their mission holds a key to Wakanda’s future.
Coogler’s rich and dense script features a plethora of characters who have varied relations with the
king: There’s W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”), head of security for the Border Tribe; Shuri (Letitia
Wright, “Urban Hymn”), T’Challa’s tech wiz sister, who is also a scientist and inventor who supplies
her brother with weapons and gadgets; M’Baku (Winston Duke, TV’s “Person of Interest”) leader of the
Jabari Tribe, who once challenged T’Challa; and the Queen Mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett).
Once the plot and characters are set in place, the storyline winds its way through various countries,
highlighting strong rivalries, a touch of romance and some comic moments. What’s different about this
Marvel episode is that there are also themes that debate whether wealthy African countries should stay
self-contained or become an active part of the diaspora and advocate for social and economic justice in
other places. That’s not the kind of subplot or character motivation audiences will find in a Thor, Iron
Man or a Captain America movie. Kudos to Coogler for being a courageous filmmaker able to handle
social issues, as well as cartoon characters. Also, the dialogue can be very royal and serious or completely
cheeky, like when Shuri off-handedly refers to the CIA agent as a “colonizer.” It’s a joke, but it’s not a
joke.
Billy Graham played
complicated role in US
race relations
By Jay Reeves
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - The Rev. Billy Graham was single-minded when he preached about
God, prefacing sermon points with the phrase “The Bible says ...” Yet he had a complicated role in race
relations, particularly when confronting segregation in his native South.
Tn Alabama for one of his evangelistic crusades in 1965, just months after passage of the Civil Rights
Act, Graham talked about the Confederate flag flying “proudly” atop the state Capitol and the fact that
both of his grandfathers served as rebel soldiers, according to a recording available on his ministry’s
website. He didn’t address the evils of segregation directly, talking instead about God’s unique power to
change people and communities.
But Graham also drew scorn from segregationists for speaking to racially mixed crowds and allowing
blacks and whites to mingle during the trademark altar call that ended each service. The Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. was an ally, and King publicly credited Graham with helping the cause of civil rights.
As a white moderate who spoke with a Southern drawl, Graham helped ease the region’s transition
away from legalized segregation, said Steven P. Miller, a scholar who has written about Graham. Graham
had a “huge base” of white support in the Bible Belt, Miller said, and those people listened to him.
“He could reach that audience as a native Southerner, but also because he spoke a familiar evangelical
language - and because he was obviously not an activist,” said Miller, author of the book “Billy Graham
and the Rise of the Republican South.”
“Ultimately, what Graham put forth was what we might now call a colorblind gospel,” Miller said via
email. “In this sense, he provided a familiarly Christian path for some white Southerners to back away
from Jim Crow.”
A current civil rights leader from Graham’s native North Carolina, the Rev. William J. Barber II,
credited Graham with meeting with King and agreeing to challenge segregation, an act Graham pursued
overdue
through preaching reconciliation and peace rather than marching.
“Billy Graham inherited a faith in the American South that had accommodated itself to white
supremacy, but he demonstrated a willingness to change and turn toward the truth,” Barber said in a
Facebook post after Graham’s death. “He helped to tear down walls of segregation, not build them up.”
Still, Graham had regrets. In an interview with The Associated Press in 2005, when he held his final
crusade, Graham said he wished he had fought for civil rights more forcefully. In particular, Graham
lamented not joining King and other pastors at voting rights marches in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
“I think I made a mistake when I didn’t go to Selma,” Graham said. “I would like to have done more.”
Graham also apologized for making anti-Semitic remarks that were captured on the White House
taping system installed by President Richard Nixon, who relied on Graham for both spiritual needs and
political cover. The relationship between the two men helped turn the South into the solidly Republican
territory it is today, Miller argues in his book.
Born in 1918 on the family farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, Graham grew up in a South strictly
divided by race. In an act that sounds mundane now but was perilous at the time, he demanded the
removal of ropes separating black and white audience members at a crusade in the South in the early
1950s. . .
Graham was an internationally known preacher traveling the world by 1955, when King first gained
notice by leading a bus boycott against segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Graham embraced King’s
work, and the two appeared on stage together during a Graham crusade at New York’s Madison Square
Garden in 1957. Graham paid the jail bond following King’s arrest during demonstrations in Albany,
Georgia, in 1962.
Following the racial violence of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma in 1965 and partly at the suggestion of
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Graham toured Alabama, speaking to racially mixed crowds. It was during
that trip that he recorded the message in which he spoke wistfully of his Confederate roots and God’s
ability to heal.
MLK f s daughter
supports students,
says gun changes
By Jonathan Landrum Jr.
ATLANTA (AP) - As the 50th anniversary of her father’s assas
sination approaches, the daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther
King Jr. said Feb. 22 that limiting access to guns is long overdue.
The Rev. Bernice King, speaking at The King Center in Atlanta,
offered condolences to the families of the 17 people fatally shot Feb.
14 at a Florida high school and commended survivors for their activ
ism to change gun laws.
She said she hopes people can “look toward solutions as these
young people are forcing us to have the conversations, bipartisan
conversations.” She also plans to join them for the “March for Our
Lives” in Washington next month.
“I thought about the fact that 50 years ago my father was taken
away from us with a rifle,” she said. “A few years after, my grand
mother was slain. ... It is long past due in this society that we do
something about the access to guns and the type of guns.”
Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968, while
standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Starting April 4, The King Center will hold a series of events
during a six-day span to commemorate the anniversary. The center
will launch a cross-cultural act of kindness campaign, a peace prize
award ceremony and a global bell ringing starting at the National
Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and the King Center in Atlanta.
King said she wants to focus on peace instead violence.
“Daddy gave the vision,” King said. “He outlined philosophy and
methodology. But it was the people who embraced it. I’m hoping it
will revolutionize our society to come back to it. I hope we don’t miss
this moment. Daddy said we still have a choice: nonviolent coexis
tence or violent annihilation. For me, it’s recommitting to my father’s
nonviolent philosophy and methodology as we move forward.”
King said the planning for the anniversary was an opportunity for
“deep healing.”
Online: http://www. mlk5Oforward. org/
Associated Press writer Alex Sanz in Atlanta contributed to this
report.
Talk-show
host sues PBS
for breach of
contract after
firing
WASHINGTON (AP)
- Talk-show host Tavis
Smiley is suing his former
employer, the Public
Broadcasting Service, for
breach of contract after
he was fired over sexual
harassment allegations.
The Washington Post
reports that the lawsuit
was filed Feb. 20 in
D.C. Superior Court
against PBS, based in the
Washington suburb of
Arlington, Virginia.
PBS fired Smiley in
December after it said it
received multiple, credible
allegations of workplace
misconduct by Smiley on
his eponymous late-night
interview show.
Smiley has
acknowledged having
romantic relationships
with colleagues over his
career, but says they were
consensual.
PBS called Smiley’s
lawsuit meritless and an
effort to distract the public
from his misconduct.
Smiley, who is African-
American, contends in
the lawsuit that racial bias
contributed to his dismissal.