Frazier was 67.

“We The Family of … Smokin’ Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing,” the statement said. “He transitioned from this life as ‘One of God’s Men,’ on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

He fought fellow boxing legend Muhammad Ali three times, including the famous “Thrilla in Manila” fight in 1975.

The Thrilla in Manila Video

Joe Frazier: A Life in Pictures

“The world has lost a great champion,” Ali said in a statement early Tuesday. “I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones.”

Star boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather offered to pay for Frazier’s funeral.

“My Condolences go out to the family of the late great Joe Frazier,” read a post on Mayweather’s official Twitter feed. “#TheMoneyTeam will pay for his Funeral services.”

Frazier, nicknamed “Smokin’ Joe,” used his devastating left hook with impunity during his professional career, retiring in 1976 with a 32-4-1 record and staging one last comeback fight in 1981.

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On January 18, 1958, hockey player Willie O’Ree of the Boston Bruins takes to the ice for a game against the Montreal Canadiens, becoming the first black to play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Born in 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, O’Ree was the son of a civil engineer, in one of Fredericton’s only two black families. He began skating at the age of three, and joined a nearby hockey league when he was only five. During five years playing with his older brother on teams in Fredericton, O’Ree became known as one of the best players in New Brunswick. After one season with the Quebec Frontenacs of the Quebec Junior Hockey League, he joined the Kitchener Canucks of the Ontario Hockey Association Junior “A” Hockey League, setting a career-high mark of 30 goals during the 1955-56 season. That year, a puck struck O’Ree in the right eye during a game, robbing him of 95 percent of the vision in that eye.

O’Ree managed to conceal the injury and continue his hockey career, joining the Quebec Aces of the prestigious Quebec Hockey League in 1956. During his second season with Quebec, the Boston Bruins of the NHL called up the 22-year-old O’Ree to replace an injured player. On January 18, 1958, the Bruins were playing the two-time Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens at Quebec’s Montreal Forum. O’Ree took to the ice as a forward with the Bruins’ third line, as the Bruins pulled off an upset 3-0 victory. He didn’t score, or record a penalty, and the historic event took place amid little fanfare.

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VIA:  ICDC.Com

THE FBI’S COVERT ACTION PROGRAM TO DESTROY THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

INTRODUCTION

In August 1967, the FBI initiated a covert action program — COINTELPRO — to disrupt and “neutralize” organizations which the Bureau characterized as “Black Nationalist Hate Groups.” 1 The FBI memorandum expanding the program described its goals as:

1. Prevent a coalition of militant black nationalist groups….

2. Prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant nationalist movement … Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position….

3. Prevent violence on the part of black nationalist groups….

4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them….

5. . . . prevent the long-range growth of militant black nationalist organizations, especially among youth. 2

The targets of this nationwide program to disrupt “militant black nationalist organizations” included groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), and the Nation of Islam (NOI). It was expressly directed against such leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokley Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Maxwell Stanford, and Elijah Muhammad.

The Black Panther Party (BPP) was not among the original “Black Nationalist” targets. In September 1968, however, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Panthers as:

“the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.

“Schooled in the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the teaching of Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung, its members have perpetrated numerous assaults on police officers and have engaged in violent confrontations with police throughout the country. Leaders and representatives of the Black Panther Party travel extensively all over the, United States preaching their gospel of hate and violence not only to ghetto residents, but to students in colleges, universities and high schools is well.” 3

By July 1969, the Black Panthers had become the primary focus of the program, and was ultimately the target of 233 of the total authorized “Black Nationalist” COINTELPRO actions. 4

Although the claimed purpose of the Bureau’s COINTELPRO tactics was to prevent violence, some of the FBI’s tactics against the BPP were clearly intended to foster violence, and many others could reasonably have been expected to cause violence. For example, the FBI’s efforts to “intensify the degree of animosity” between the BPP and the Blackstone Rangers, a Chicago street gang, included sending an anonymous letter to the gang’s leader falsely informing him that the the Chicago Panthers had “a hit out” on him. 5 The stated intent of the letter was to induce the Ranger leader to “take reprisals against” the Panther leadership. 6

To read more click here…

Check out this video of the 1968 Senate hearing on the Black Panther Party:

VIA:  JackieRobinson.Com

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers. His mother, Mallie Robinson, single-handedly raised Jackie and her four other children. They were the only black family on their block, and the prejudice they encountered only strengthened their bond. From this humble beginning would grow the first baseball player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier that segregated the sport for more than 50 years.

Growing up in a large, single-parent family, Jackie excelled early at all sports and learned to make his own way in life. At UCLA, Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track. In 1941, he was named to the All-American football team. Due to financial difficulties, he was forced to leave college, and eventually decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. After two years in the army, he had progressed to second lieutenant. Jackie’s army career was cut short when he was court-martialed in relation to his objections with incidents of racial discrimination. In the end, Jackie left the Army with an honorable discharge.

In 1945, Jackie played one season in the Negro Baseball League, traveling all over the Midwest with the Kansas City Monarchs. But greater challenges and achievements were in store for him. In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey approached Jackie about joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Major Leagues had not had an African-American player since 1889, when baseball became segregated. When Jackie first donned a Brooklyn Dodger uniform, he pioneered the integration of professional athletics in America. By breaking the color barrier in baseball, the nation’s preeminent sport, he courageously challenged the deeply rooted custom of racial segregation in both the North and the South.

Click here to read more on Jackie Robinson…

Check out these highlights from Jackie Robinson’s Career:

VIA:  TheKennedyCenter.Org

(singer; born February 27, 1897, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Most Americans best remember Marian Anderson for her conscience-grabbing concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939 after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall, an arena that, from 1935 to 1952, opened its doors to white artists only. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, appalled at the Hall’s racist action, opened the Lincoln Memorial for Anderson’s concert. As Abraham Lincoln’s statue watched over her from behind, Anderson gave an extraordinary performance that will go down in history as one of the most dramatic civil-rights spectacles ever.

Growing up in Philadelphia’s “Negro quarter” in a single rented room with her parents and two sisters, Anderson overcame racial and economical boundaries to become a highly acclaimed contralto. At the age of six, Anderson sang in the choir of the Union Baptist Church, where she became known as “baby contralto.” Despite her sporadic musical education, the unique sound and extraordinary range of her voice continued to impress listeners by the time she turned sixteen. In fact, her neighbors were so impressed that they raised enough money for her to study under Guisepe Boghetti, a well-known voice teacher.

While studying under Boghetti, Anderson won the opportunity to sing at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York by entering a contest held by the New York Philharmonic Society. She also received a Julius Rosenwald scholarship allowing her to train abroad in England, France, Belgium, Holland, the former Soviet Union, and Scandinavia. In 1935 her performance at the Salzburg festival earned her worldwide recognition and a compliment from Italian conductor, Arturo Toscanini, who told her, “a voice like yours is heard only once in a hundred years.”

Click here to read more on Marian Anderson…

Footage from Marian Anderson’s performance on the Lincoln Memorial Steps:

VIA:  RedHotJazz.Com

Mamie Smith was the first to record blues songs in 1920 with her versions of Perry Bradford’s “Crazy Blues”, and “It’ s Right Here for You” on Okeh Records. The record was a wild success, selling over a million copies in less than a year, and finally ending up selling over two million copies.

After this it dawned on record companies that there was a lot of money to be made selling what was then called “race records” to various minority groups in big cities. The success of “Crazy Blues” prompted other record companies to also try to find other female blues singers that could match the sales of “Crazy Blues”.

Crazy Blues was a very important record, because it opened the doors of the recording industry to African-Americans, whether they were Blues, Jazz or popular singers or musicians.

Smith herself really wasn’t that much of a Blues singer. She was more of a vaudeville performer, although she included Blues and Jazz numbers as part of her act. She got her start as a dancer at age ten in the vaudeville act the Four Dancing Mitchells and later toured with them as part of the Salem Tutt Whitney and Homer Tutt’s show, “The Smart Set”.

Mamie moved to New York in 1913 with “The Smart Set” and decided that she wanted to stay and quit the show. She strated performing as a singer in Harlem at venues such as Baron Wilkin’s Little Savoy Club, Leroy’s, Edmunds, Percy Brown’s and Banks’ Place. Her first recordings were made in early 1920. They were a couple of pop songs “That Thing Called Love” and “You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down”.

Click here to read more on Mamie Smith…

VIA:  NAACP.Org

The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. Appalled at the violence that was committed against blacks, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln’s birth.

Click here to read more on the founding of the NAACP…

I just finished reading Flowers for Algernon. The story’s about a reasonably happy retarded man named Charlie Gordon that undergoes experimental surgery because he wants to become smarter. Once the surgery’s a success and he does become smarter, Charlie is suddenly outraged to discover not only that the people he had always thought of as friends had actually, all along, been making fun of him, but also that the doctors that performed his surgery take credit for making him a human being, which suggests, of course, that he wasn’t really a human being before the surgery.

James Baldwin once wrote, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” Now imagine being a particularly intelligent ‘Negro’ (and some of you don’t have to imagine.) You’d pick up on every racist slight and you’d catch every joke that was intended to go over your head. You’d be, in a sense, a living piñata, being beaten by people who never even realized that you were alive.

And that would just be when dealing with white people! The less-than-intelligent among your own people (who, for some reason, tend to think that they’re the ‘real’ Black people) would probably drive you mad (literally)! It would be impossible for you to reconcile how they’d allowed themselves to become who they found themselves as. And they, prideful in their ignorance, would be suspicious and contemptuous of you.

Surely, all of us know some very brilliant Black people that are rotting in jail, that are junkies, or that are pining away at some under performing job.

Similarly, there are also some none-too-clever Blacks that are doing quite well in life due to dogged determination or completely single-minded focus.

You, the intelligent Black, would seemingly have two options—both of them bad.

1. You could try to prove your intelligence to white people. This sucks for two reasons: the first is that it presupposes that every white person has an intellect that is worthy of your proving equal to. Second, it puts whites in the position of using their respect for your intellect as a sort of ‘carrot on a stick’ whereas no matter how smart you prove yourself, you could never possibly be smart enough.
2. You could take the Lincoln Perry route, disguise your intelligence, rename yourself something like Stepin Fetchit, and make money giving the stereotype believers what they want. Perry, a literate, thoughtful, educated and intelligent man, played a complete buffoon onscreen and made millions. That route’s gonna take a toll on your soul, though. Look what it did to Stepin Fetchit.

So what do you do (no, I’m literally asking intelligent Black folks; what do YOU do)? I’d love to get some feedback from some of ya’ll on this topic. That is, if ya’ll weren’t all so thoroughly outraged by the topic that you couldn’t even bother to open this blog and read it.

By RK Byers – www.newsone.com

VIA:  EncyclopediaOfChicago.Org

Oscar DePriest was born in Florence, Alabama, to ex-slaves. He arrived in Chicago in 1889. DePriest worked as a painter and decorator, reportedly on occasion passing for white to get a job. He developed his own contracting business and began participating in community affairs. He began his political career as a precinct secretary, but by 1904 was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

In 1928 he became the first African American congressman elected to the House of Representatives from a northern state and a national symbol for racial pride. He fought for civil rights but took conservative positions on economic issues and lost his seat to a New Deal Democrat in 1934. He served one more term in the city council at the end of the following decade. De Priest devoted the rest of his years to his real-estate business.

July 2nd, 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.  The signing of this act was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since reconstruction.  The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion or national origin.  See President Johnson’s remarks on the signing of this bill: