Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

All Posts By

Whatever Happened to Our Black Neighborhoods?

Something tragic happened to the old black neighborhoods where I grew up in the 60’s. In those days, most of the businesses up and down 31st and 35th Streets, from King Dr. (South Park) to Michigan were owned by our neighbors. There was a drycleaner and a hardware store, both owned by the parents of kids I went to school with. The Griffins owned the funeral home on 33rd Street.

On warm summer mornings, we’d sit on the stomp in front of our house and watch the watermelon man go by on his horsedrawn wagon,

Share this article

Anybody Remember Typewriters?

By Posted on 0 1.3K

My 27 year-old daughter and I had a ball laughing at how my generation had to use manual typewriters for our high school and college term papers. I thrilled her with stories of hundreds of balled up papers tossed on the floor near the trashcan. These papers boasted mistakes, lumpy whited-out corrections, and strikeovers warranting me to have to start all over again. I described all-night typing sessions, pumped up on “No Doze”, while I slaved over a paper that was due the next morning.

Share this article

Diving In

By Posted on 0 1.2K

Do you bake the best cakes or pies in your family? Can you design everything from muu-muus to wedding dresses? Do you write great poems or tell great stories? Can you add up figures in your head faster than anyone else? “Then do the math!” That”s the talent God has given you. How you choose to make it work is up to you.

Share this article

Rosa Parks As Much Malcolm X as Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this Black History day, new book, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” by Jeanne Theoharis, a Brooklyn College professor shows Rosa Parks as much Malcolm X as she was Martin Luther King Jr.

The book, reviewed by New York Times writer, Charles M. Blow is on my list of books to read this month.

In the book, Rosa Parks states in her own words, “I had felt for a long time, that if I was ever told to get up so a white person could sit, I would refuse to do so.”

Share this article

Let’s Deglamorize D’Jango for Black History Month

It’s a cinch that hundreds of thousands of teens have seen D’Jango, the fictionalized account of slavery, and have begun to glamourize Jamie Foxx’s character. Therefore, D’Jango seems like a good place to start the conversation with black children about Black History month. Let’s begin the discussion with, there were no D’Jango actions back then that didn’t go unpunished.

Share this article

The Windy City!

By Posted on 8 3.8K
Finally, Chicago’s winter wind is often called “The Hawk”, a term long popular in the African American community. The first recorded citation of Chicago being dubbed “The Hawk” is from the Chicago defender, October 20, 1936: “And these cold mornings are on us—in other words ‘Hawkins’ has got us.” Lou Rawls’ recording of “Dead End Street” explains “The Hawk” pretty well. I love the line when Lou says, “I had to get fully dressed before I could go to bed.” By the way, Lou Rawls is an alum of my alma mater, Dunbar Vocational High School.

Share this article

Medical Service Providers in Your Home

By Posted on 4 1.8K
Say no to deliverymen’s requests for drinking water, pop, or the restroom. These people aren’t your friends and they are getting paid for what they’re doing. Don’t allow them to call you if they are ahead of schedule and just want to pop in at their convenience. If my mom was watching “Jeopardy” or “Wheel of Fortune”, I wasn’t stopping her pleasure for someone else’s convenience.

Share this article