Tributes

Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition

November 23, 2006

“He [President George W. Bush] lied to the people of this nation, distorted the truth, declared war on a nation who had not attacked us . . . put America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way . . . and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of [Iraqi] women and children who had nothing […]

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John Henrik Clarke: A Scholar for All Seasons

January 28, 2006

Though I had been reading his works for many years, my relationship with Dr. Clarke began back in the 1960s when he was editor of Freedomways, a liberation magazine I read and admired. In 1968 when the New York Times considered me as an editor of a Black History reprint series, it was Dr. Clarke […]

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Paul Robeson, Spain and the Anti-fascist Crusade

January 28, 2006

By 1937 Paul Robeson had become world famous as a concert singer, stage and movie performer, and he was still under forty. That year fast-moving global events forced him to face what he called “a major turning point in my life” and make a decision that forever altered his life. Fascist forces had begun their […]

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John Brown: A White Role Model

January 21, 2006

This year marks the bicentennial of John Brown, born in 1800, and he was executed by the state of Virginia 141 years ago, on December 2, 1859. This year a PBS documentary film continued an effort that began even before his execution to sully his reputation. Why? He was a white man who gave his […]

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Samori Marksman: A Recollection and Appreciation

January 21, 2006

It is so hard to believe that my friend Samori with his rich storehouse of rare knowledge, wry sense of humor, and warm tone, is gone. So enthusiastically alive, so dedicated to getting out the truth, so needed today—how could he have left us as the Amadou Diallo protests escalated into the largest civil rights […]

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