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Hello:<br>
<br>
As February comes to a close so does Black History Month - but
awareness and opportunity to explore and learn more about a population
that has and continues to impact our nation - never ceases. We will
be providing several biographies and updates today. Here are the first
three. <br>
<br>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span
style="font-size: 24pt;">BLACK HISTORY MONTH<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span
style="font-size: 24pt;">QUICK FACTS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span
style="font-size: 24pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span
style="font-size: 24pt;">DID YOU KNOW?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><i
style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><i
style=""><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In
1977 * Alex Haley (Alexander Murray Palmer Haley) (1921-1992) </span></i></b><span
style="font-size: 16pt;">became the first black to win a Pulitzer
Prize for <i style="">Roots.</i> When he was six weeks old, Haley
and his mother moved to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Henning</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:State></st1:place>, where they
lived at
her family home.<span style=""> </span>In 1939, after two
years of college, he volunteered in the United States Coast Guard.<span
style=""> </span>Haley devoted much of his free time to
reading, writing letters, and writing adventure stories.<span style="">
</span>The Coast Guard created the position of chief
journalist for him in 1949, and he retired ten years later to become a
full-time writer.<span style=""> </span>In 1962 <i style="">Playboy </i>magazine
retained Hailey to
write a series of interviews, including an interview with Malcolm X,
which in
1964 led him to write <i style="">The Autobiography of
Malcolm X,</i> a bestseller that outsold <i style="">Roots.<span
style=""> </span></i>Haley launched upon a twelve-year venture
to track the ancestry of his mother’s family. His search eventually
took him to
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Gambia</st1:country-region> in <st1:place
w:st="on">West Africa</st1:place>, where his fourth great-grandfather,
Kunte Kinte, had been
born. Blending fiction with fact, Haley wrote Roots:<span style=""> </span><i
style="">The
Saga of an American Family.</i><span style="">
</span>Published in the fall of 1976, the work brought him prompt
renown.<span style=""> </span>Haley received in Pulitzer Prize, a
National
Book Award, and numerous other honors.<span style="">
</span>The book was translated into thirty languages.<span style=""> </span>The
ABC television network telecast of “<i style="">Roots</i>” in an
eight-episode miniseries
was one of the most watched television events ever.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Lorraine</span></i></b></st1:State></st1:place><b
style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> Hansberry
(1930-1965) gained fame for writing </span></i></b><span
style="font-size: 18pt;">“A Raisin in the Sun.”<span style=""> </span>Lorraine
Hansberry was the first black to
win the New York Drama Critics Award, for <i style="">“A
Raisin in the Sun,” </i>in May 1959.<span style=""> </span>The
play was the first on Broadway written by a black woman, and the first
serious
black drama to impact the dominant culture.<span style="">
</span>In 1973 the musical <i style="">Raisin, </i>a
revival of her play, won the Tony Award for best musical.<span style="">
</span>Born in <st1:City w:st="on">Chicago</st1:City>
on May 19, 1930, she studied at the <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:PlaceName> and the Art
Institute in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Chicago</st1:City></st1:place>.<span
style=""> </span>In addition to plays, Hansberry’s works
included poems, articles, and books.<span style="">
</span>Lloyd Richards, who directed Lorraine Hansberry’s “<i style="">A
Raisin in the Sun,” </i>was the first black director of a straight
play on Broadway.<span style=""> </span>He was dean of the
Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991.<span style=""> </span><i
style="">“A Raisin in the Sun”</i> is the story of a
black family living I a white neighborhood.<span style="">
</span>Lorraine Hansberry based the play on her experiences as a child
growing
up in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Chicago</st1:City></st1:place>.
<span style=""> </span>Those experiences also led her to write and
give speeches about civil rights.<span style="">
</span>Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer at the age of 34.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><i
style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Langston
Hughes (1902-1967), was a writer of poems, books, plays and songs.<span
style=""> </span></span></i></b><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Everything
he wrote was about African-Americans…about their joys, their sorrows,
their
achievement and their losses.<span style=""> </span>Most were
done with warmth and humor.<span style=""> </span><i style="">Mullato
</i>was the first play by a black
author to be a long-run Broadway hit.<span style=""> </span>It
opened at the Vanderbilt theatre on October 24, 1935, and played
continuously
until December 9, 1937.<span style=""> </span>The poet and
author was born James Mercer Langston Hughes in <st1:City w:st="on">Joplin</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">Missouri</st1:State>, and graduated from <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Lincoln University</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:State></st1:place>.<span style=""> </span>He
published ten volumes of poetry; more than
sixty short stories; a number of dramas, operas, and anthologies; as
well as
two autobiographies, <i style="">The Big Seas </i>(1940)
and <i style="">I Wonder as I Wander </i>(1956).<span style=""> </span>Hughes
created the black folk character Jesse
B. Simple, and wrote about him in <i style=""><br>
Simple Speaks His Mind </i>(1950), and <i style="">Simple
Stakes a Claim </i>(1957).<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span
style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span
style="font-size: 18pt;">At
the age of 19, he published his first work, <i style="">“The
Negro Speaks of Rivers”</i> and it appeared in the <i style="">“Crisis,”</i>
the NAACP magazine.<span style="">
</span>Langston won the Harmon Award for Literature for his first novel
--- <i style="">“Not Without Laughter.”</i><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span
style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span
style="font-size: 18pt;">In
his lifetime he published 10 volumes of poetry, numerous short stories
and
anthologies, children’s books, song lyrics and plays.<span style=""> </span>As
an established writer, he created theater
groups in Harlem, <st1:City w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:City> and <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chicago</st1:place></st1:City> and
wrote plays
to be performed there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span
style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span
style="font-size: 18pt;">In
1960, the NAACP presented him with the Spingarn Medal and declared him
the
“Poet Laureate of the Negro Race.”<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br>
More articles and information to come.<br>
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