Freedom Facts and Firsts. Jessie Carney Smith
in 1965, when he played alongside a white actor as his equal in the television series I Spy. Cosby’s career in the entertainment field has supported a perspective of black Americans that lends itself to an equal share in the social and political opportunities open to all Americans. This idea is most poignant in his 1984 television show The Cosby Show, which broke many stereotypes about black Americans by allowing America to enter into the everyday lives of a middle-class black family. The similarities of experiences kept America watching this show from 1984 to 1992.
Cosby’s commitment to education, which was a key factor in the struggle for civil rights, set the tone for his philanthropy, which supported many black colleges. He gave substantial contributions to Historic Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Fisk University, Howard University, and Morehouse College, among others. He also gave to the United Negro College Fund, the NAACP and Operation PUSH. Cosby’s view of life as presented through his work offers a more equal perspective of rights and opportunities that should be afforded all Americans regardless of race.
Lean’tin L. Bracks
Goldberg, Whoopi (1949–)
Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson on November 13, 1949 (some sources say 1950 or 1955) in New York City. Her life experiences and work in the theater have been varied and met with various degrees of success. She has experienced and survived poverty, drug addiction, single parenthood, and welfare. These experiences have made it possible for her to see a side of life that needs to be explored and eradicated. She has been able to convert these issues into social commentary through comic entertainment and satire. Her one-woman performance The Spook Show is a satirical production in which she plays several characters. Her outspoken observations in this comedy and other venues have made her a controversial figure. This has in no way silenced her, however; no subject or personality is off limits. Her work reflects her memory of her history, and she often pays tribute to legendary entertainers such as Moms Mabley. Goldberg has performed on numerous occasions at the annual Comic Relief shows on the Home Box Office television network, which raises money to assist the homeless. She received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation Vanguard Award for her work. In 2003 she became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, with a focus on HIV/AIDS.
Helen R. Houston
Gregory, Dick (1932–)
Richard Claxton “Dick” Gregory overcame poverty to find early success in athletics and entertainment. He was born and reared in St. Louis, Missouri, began using comedy to relate to others, and worked odd jobs as a child to help support his family. In high school he won the state championship for the mile run in 1951 and 1952, and he received an athletic scholarship to Southern Illinois University, where he was named Outstanding Athlete in 1953. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1954, won a talent show, and transferred to the Special Services entertainment division. After his discharge in 1956, Gregory performed in Chicago, where he met and married Lillian Smith. They eventually became the parents of ten children. His first success was at the Chicago Playboy Club in 1961, but his activism hindered his entertainment career. Gregory also became politically active, running for mayor of Chicago in 1967 and for president in 1968 as a candidate of the U.S. Freedom and Peace party. He lectured widely, wrote several books, began advocating healthier lifestyles via his dieting, fasting, nutrition programs and products, and stopped performing in venues that allowed smoking and alcohol use. Respected as an elder statesman of the Civil Rights Movement, Gregory has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates in recognition of his service to humanity.
Dick Gregory (Fisk University).
Fletcher F. Moon
Filmmakers
Grant, Joanne (1930–2005)
An important voice in the Civil Rights Movement, Joanne Rabinowitz Grant documented grass-roots efforts in the movement through her books, award-winning films, and articles in the National Guardian. She documented civil rights demonstrations and the work of organizations in rural southern towns that other publications ignored. While serving as a reporter for the National Guardian, her work took her to these towns to document the demonstrations that were taking place. She was a former assistant to W.E.B. Du Bois, a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and an organizer of benefits for social and political causes. “She was an important voice in the early writing on the civil rights movement,” said Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham in the New York Times. In the same source, Julian Bond said that “she exposed and explained the Civil Rights Movement in ways that the daily press either couldn’t or wouldn’t.” Some called her the “movement’s publicist,” who saw herself as a journalist and a civil rights advocate. Her works include Black Protest (1968), one of the first books to trace the Civil Rights Movement and its origin; Confrontation on Campus (1969), an account of the sit-in movement at Columbia University and elsewhere; and Ella Baker, Freedom Bound (1998), a biography of an unsung matriarch of the Civil Rights Movement. Her award-winning documentary film Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker (1981) was broadcast nationally on PBS.
Jessie Carney Smith
Lee, Spike (1957–)
Prominent American filmmaker Spike Lee is also widely recognized for his activism, work as an actor in commercials and his own films, and frequent media exposure as a devoted fan of the New York Knickerbockers. His success in the film industry created numerous opportunities for other African Americans behind and in front of the camera; he has inspired an entire generation of young filmmakers and media artists. Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the eldest of five children. His father was jazz bassist and composer William “Bill” Lee, and his mother, Jacqueline Shelton Lee, was an art teacher who nicknamed him “Spike” as a toddler. In 1959 the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up and graduated from John Dewey High School. Spike followed his grandfather and father in attending Morehouse College. He graduated in 1979, before entering film school at New York University. His film successes include She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo’ Better Blues (1990), and Jungle Fever (1991), but Lee is most noted for his epic film biography, Malcolm X (1992). He married attorney Tonya Lewis in 1993, and became the father of two children. Lee explored multiple phases of African American life in his commercial film productions, as well as documentaries on civil/human rights events, including the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, the Million Man March in 1995, and 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
Spike Lee (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill).
Fletcher F. Moon
Films
Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Birth of a Nation was first released on February 8, 1915. The film’s depiction of African Americans as idle and brutish sparked a massive wave of protests from thousands of blacks. It was based on Thomas Dixon’s 1905 melodramatic staged play, The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, the second volume in a trilogy that includes The Leopard’s Spots: A Romance of the White Man’s Burden, 1865–1900 and The Traitor. Directed by D.W. Griffith, the film set off an explosive controversy that revealed Hollywood’s power to reflect and shape public attitudes about race. It set the stage for a decades-long struggle to improve the portrayal of blacks on film and served as a stimulus for the birth of the black film movement. The subject matter of the film elicited immediate criticism from the NAACP for its racist portrayal of American blacks, its miscegenation, its pro-Ku Klux Klan stance, and its endorsement of slavery.
Riots