The Black Corps of Engineers and the construction of the Alaska Highway (ALCAN)

African Americans and World War II

by E. Valerie Smith

Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. Temperatures of sixty below zero and dropping. More snow than a southerner or northerner could ever imagine..and the people... where are the people?

So describes the welcome which greeted the black men of the 93rd, 95th, 97th (Regiments) and 388th Battalion (Separate) of the Corps of Engineers assigned to Alaska. "Their 3,695 troops accounted for slightly more than a third of the 10,607 engineers on the highway." These soldiers made a major contribution to the war effort which, until recently, was not recognized.

The building of the ALCAN has been described in the same vein as the building of the Panama Canal, a feat which most people believed couldn't be done. Faced with innumerable odds, the soldiers persevered and accomplished what no others could, build a highway in record time through some of the roughest terrain in the U.S. Known as the ALCAN (Alaska-Canada Highway), once built, this road was to become the only overland route which strategically linked the north to the remainder of the United States and facilitated the construction of airstrips for refueling planes and supply routes. Among the adverse conditions which these courageous men overcame were:

* an extremely harsh climate for many men who had only known the southern U.S. climate and others who had experienced only mildly cold weather;

* insufficient clothing and accommodations, because the men were in the cold for months dressed in warm weather clothing and living in tents. The white soldiers were usually housed in the sturdier quonset huts and on the air bases;

* gross personal insult because of the pervasive belief that African Americans were inferior; the fear of many top Army personnel that the soldiers would harm the civilization of the indigenous population if they had contact with it and; the outspoken offensive posture of Commanding General S.B. Buckner, who feared that African American contacts with locals would produce a "mongrel race" through interbreeding and;

* severe discriminatory policies, segregation and isolation because the facilities, supplies, etc., were inferior, and in most instances camps were established in isolated areas away from towns with cloth tents as living quarters.

Background

The Alaska Highway, evidencing something of the early American pioneer spirit as it cut through ice hills and muskeg swamps in a race against time, captured the American imagination in a way that few other projects did in the early summer of 1942 when so little else involving American forces in an aggressive role on a large scale had yet been made public.

Initially, the possibility that the Japanese might attack Alaska was believed to be unlikely; however with the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, it became clear that the northern U.S. territory was vulnerable. Thus, on December 11, 1941 the Western Defense (which included Alaska) was made a theater of operations. New construction was not to begin. However, existing projects were to be completed and planned projects remained authorized. Among those authorized projects was the construction of the Alaska Highway. The road was critical in the Allied Forces' defense strategy because of the Japanese threat to the Pacific.

On February 6, 1942, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff approved the construction of the Alaska Highway. President Roosevelt authorized the construction of the pioneer road on February 11, 1942. On March 5, Secretary of War Henry Stimson announced the decision to build the Highway, and effective March 11, General DeWitt was assigned sole responsibility for overseeing all military-related real estate and construction in the Alaskan theater of operations. In a formal exchange of notes on March 17-18, 1942, the United States and Canada agreed to cooperate in the construction, maintenance and use of the highway.

The U.S. agreed to make surveys, to build a pioneer road and to have Canadian and American contractors complete the road under the supervision of the Public Roads Administration. For six months after the end of the war the U.S. agreed to maintain the road. The Canadian government agreed to right-of-way and to permit the use of local timber, gravel and rock, to waive import taxes and to exempt Americans employed in Canada from Canadian taxes. Canada had the option of assuming maintenance of the road earlier than the six month post-war deadline. On May 1, General DeWitt made General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. entirely responsible for the execution of the military construction in Alaska. Efforts were made to recruit white civilians and enlisted men to repair and maintain the military buildings.

The War Department determined that the road was to be along the Northwest Staging Route, which consisted of existing airstrips from Edmonton, Alberta Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska. This route was used in the Russian-American Land Lease Program to transport more than 8,000 warplanes from Great Falls, Montana, to Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks. The planes were then flown through Nome and on to Russia.

The pioneer road, stretching 1450 miles, was carved out of a massive wilderness in the phenomenal period of eight months and twelve days. To complete the Highway, the engineers built 133 bridges and 8,000 culverts.(2) The entire length of the ALCAN is 1619 miles.(3) The cost was approximately $110 million.(4) The ALCAN Highway begins in Dawson Creek, Canada and ends at Big Delta (Delta Junction) near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Each regiment and battalion was responsible for the construction of specific sections of the ALCAN. The first military command post was established at Ft. St. John, Canada where Colonel Hoge supervised the construction of the 650 miles of road from Dawson Creek to Watson Lake. The second command post was established by Colonel Hoge at Whitehorse, which would oversee the 850 miles of road from Watson Lake to Big Delta. Because of the distance between the two command posts, they became known as the Southern Sector (Ft. St. John) and the Northern Sector (Whitehorse).

The African American Corps of Engineers

The engineering regiments assigned the task of constructing the Alaska Highway were segregated by race. The original plan of the commander was not to use African Americans to build the roads, but to have them provide services. Three of the seven regiments were black regiments: the 93rd, 95th, 97th. One battalion, the 388th (Separate), worked in Canada on the CANOL Project, and is often included in discussions of black troops in the Northern Territory. They were joined by the white regiments, 18th, 35th, 340th and 341st.

All of the black Regiments were established originally as separate battalions. Initially, Secretary Stimson declared that no black troops would be sent to the northern territory because it was believed that the troops were incapable of functioning in the bitter cold climate. In time, increased need for additional troops in the northern region and the shortage of white troops resulted in Secretary Stimson reversing his position. Many of the soldiers had no idea that they were going to the far north when they were shipped out. In fact, when the white regiments were short of supplies and equipment, those of the black regiments were reallocated to white regiments. In time, need preempted bigotry and the black troops were given assignments traditionally given to white regiments. There evolved the pairing of regiments in many regions of the northern territory in the following way: Carcoss to Whitehorse and Watson Lake - 340th and 93rd; Whitehorse to Big Delta - 18th and 97th; Ft. John to Ft. Nelson - 341 and 95th.

As was the case with the military troops worldwide during World War II, all of the commanding officers of all of the regiments were white. Twichell points out, "...the biggest problem black units faced was the same one that had beset them in World War I: the lack of black leadership and the bigotry of white leaders." He further points out that assignment to black units was an experience to be avoided if the white officers desired career advancement. Thus, if assigned, the officers devoted considerable time and energy attempting to get reassigned. Only black chaplains and doctors were commissioned officers in the Northwest Service Command.

93rd Regiment

The 93rd General Service Regiment arrived at Skagway on April 16, 1942 and worked on the pioneer road from Tagish north, to the McClintock River east, and then southeast to the Teslin River. Under the leadership of Colonel Frank Johnson, one segment of the regiment was to work back from Carcross to Whitehorse and the other cleared a new trail to Watson Lake. The 93rd's primary responsibility was to construct a trail for use by the 340th Engineer Regiment as it built segments of the highway. Because of the lack of heavy equipment, engineers of the 93rd began their work using only hand tools. Later they were able to get heavy equipment.(5)

LINEAGE and ASSIGNMENTS - 93rd REGIMENT

October 1, 1933 Constituted in Regular Army as 52nd Engineer
Battalion (Separate)
January 1, 1938 Redesignated 93rd Engineer Battalion
(Separate)
February 10, 1941 Activated at Camp Livingston, Louisiana
March 27, 1942 Expanded and redesignated as 93rd Engineer
Regiment (General Service)
April 16, 1942 Arrived in Skagway, Canada
August 1, 1942 Redesignated 93rd General Service Regiment
November 17, 1945 Inactivated at Camp Kilmer, NJ
June 30, 1947 Consolidated with 1315th Engineer
Construction Battalion and redesignated
Engineer Construction Battalion
June 11, 1954 Allocated to the Regular Army and
redesignated 93rd Engineer Battalion
July 26, 1954 Activated as 93rd Engineer Battalion
(Construction) at Ft. Bragg, NC
Source: Corp of Engineer Archives

95th Regiment

As the last of the black Regiments to arrive, the 95th, under the command of Colonel David L. Neumann, reached Dawson Creek, British Columbia, between May 29 and June 2, 1942. The 95th was originally organized as a separate battalion at the Engineer Training Center at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. In April 1941, the original members of the 95th had completed thirteen weeks of training and worked on several construction projects at Virginia's Camp A.P. Hill before going through Carolina maneuvers and being sent to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, in early 1942. There they were joined by additional men, and had enough to form another battalion. The Battalions were upgraded to a regiment. After ten more weeks of training, the regiment was shipped to Canada.

The troops were assigned to work on the segment of the Highway between Ft. Nelson and Fort St. John. Their task was to improve the road cut by the 341st from Ft. St. John to Ft. Nelson. The 341st bulldozed the forests to make the pioneer trail and the 95th followed, improving and maintaining the completed trail. Although the soldiers of the 95th were trained in construction, the decision to use them as the back-up force rather than the builders was based on both racism and the shortage of heavy equipment. Those few pieces of equipment which the unit had were reallocated to the 341st. The reallocation of equipment from black units to white units was rather common.

According to Twichell, "[t]he decision to beef up the 341st at the expense of the 95th was defensible, given the assignments of the two regiments."(6) The argument was made that the 341st had been in the field for a longer period of time, thus they would be more experienced with the environment. The problem with that argument, however, was that the 95th soldiers were much better trained and experienced in construction. The morale of the black troops was very low, because of this and other discriminatory decisions. The state of their morale, however was of little significance to the "top brass" who considered the implications of the alternative reallocation. After all, "How would this white regiment have reacted to the humiliation of being taken out of the lead and given a supporting role behind a black outfit?"(7)

LINEAGE and ASSIGNMENTS - 95th REGIMENT

October 1, 1933 54th redesignated as 95th Engineer
Battalion (Separate)
April 23, 1941 Activated at Ft. Belvoir
October 1, 1941 Trained in Carolina Maneuver Area
December 7, 1941 Returned to Ft. Belvoir
March 6, 1942 Training at Ft. Bragg, NC
April 26, 1942 Depart Dawson Creek
May 29-June 1, 1942 Arrived at Dawson Creek
May 1, 1943 Returned to continental U.S.; assigned to
Ft. Claiborne, LA
December 16, 1946 Deactivated at Ft. Lewis, WA
Source: Corp of Engineer Archives

The 97th Regiment

On April 29, when the 97th landed, several feet of snow covered the ground, a strange new sight for most of the regiment's 1,100 enlisted men, recently drafted African Americans from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Adding to their woes was the arrival of the 97th's battered fleet of dump trucks, which had been classified as unserviceable and turned in for salvage at the port of embarkation in Seattle.(8)

The northern Alaska section of the ALCAN Highway was built by the 97th General Services Regiment. Commanded by Colonel Stephen C. Whipple, the 97th disembarked at Valdez, AK, which was the southern terminus of the Richardson Highway. This Regiment was faced with the arduous task of working in the harshest conditions of any of the regiments. The Alaskan interior (northern region) has the most bitter cold, the largest amount of snow and the most drastic temperature variation (-80 F to +90 F). While other regiments/battalions were able to complete many miles in a brief period, the 97th sometimes could complete only a few miles. Without recognizing the severe difficulties caused by the climate, it was easier for the commander and top management to assess the performance of the 97th as inferior to that of white regiments.

The regiment was given the preliminary mission of opening an access road from Slana, 200 miles north of Valdez, over the Mentasta Mountain Pass and down to the vicinity of the upper Tanana Valley village of Tok. Units in the 97th operated the terminals for trucks on the "Fairbanks Freight," the truck supply line over the highway. Company C was stationed at Cathedral Rapids, and was responsible for "glacial control," chopping the glaciers away by hand. They built bypass roads to get around the glaciers when the situation warrnated such extreme measures. Company A, under Captain Walter E. Mason, built 295 miles of road from Slana, across the Tanana River and south into Canada. Eighty-five of the miles were corduroy road, sometimes five layers deep to counteract the permafrost.

According to Mason, they made about five miles a day and had to move camp every two or three days. The 97th was to meet the 18th Regiment coming up from Canada at the Alaska-Canada border. As a testimony to their commitment to the project, when the 97th reached the designated meeting point and the 18th wasn't there, they continued to build until they did meet the 18th approximately 20 miles east of the border. On October 24, 1942, the 97th and 18th Regiments met at Beaver Creek. As Colonel Mason explained, all of the men of the 97th climbed in the bulldozer and crossed over to meet with the 18th.(9) Being such a historic and personally gratifying moment, everyone wanted to experience it. The kindred spirit of a team who had worked against the odds exuded. When the bulldozers of Technician 5 Refines Sims, Jr. of the 97th and Private Alfred Jalufka, lead driver of the 18th finally broke through to close the last gap in the road on October 25, 1942, the meeting between white and black drivers symbolized a kind of unity and cooperation that was difficult to achieve in the continental United States.

The final segment which would connect the northern and southern segments was not a pioneer road but a winter trail. The winter season was quickly approaching and there was the fear that the inclement weather might prevent completion of a road. Still to be done was the building of a bridge over White River. That was completed on November 20th, and in a ceremony the ALCAN Highway from Dawson Creek to Big Delta was officially opened.

After the completion of the pioneer road, the 97th Regiment continued to build another road to connect Delta Junction with Fairbanks, and other units built spurs off of the Highway. The 97th Regiment served in Alaska until March 1944 and, after a short tour in the United States, was shipped to the Pacific Theater. It served in this theater until the end of World War II.

LINEAGE and ASSIGNMENTS - 97th REGIMENT

October 1, 1933 Organized as 56th Engineer Battalion
(Separate)
January 1, 1938 Redesignated as the 97th Engineer Battalion
June 1, 1941 Activated at Camp Blanding, FL
March 1, 1942 Battalion reorganized and redesignated the
97th Engineer Battalion (General Service)
April, 1942 Departed the continental U.S. for duty in
Alaska to work on Alaska Highway
April 29, 1942 Arrived to Valdex, AK
August 1, 1943 Redesignated as 97th Engineer General
Service Regiment
March 1944 Regiment returned to U.S. but was soon
shipped to the Pacific Theater where it
remained until the end of WW II
June 30, 1946 Reorganized and redesignated as 97th General
Service Battalion
March 15, 1948 Regiment was inactivated in Manila,
Philippine Islands
September 11, 1950 Regiment activated at Ft. Leonard, Wood, MO
November 1951 Arrived in France
December 7, 1953 Redesignated as 97th Engineer Battalion
March 1967 Battalion moved to USAREUR
December 1967 Notified of its redeployment to Ft. Riley,
KS
Source: Corp of Engineer Archives

The 388th Engineer Batallion (Separate)

The 388th Battalion (Separate) was activated on January 10, 1942 at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. It was comprised of black enlisted personnel, many who had been reassigned to this battalion from others. To help form the 388th Battalion (separate), the 93rd, for example, had to give up several dozen officers and NCOs. It followed the 93rd up to Canada to work on the CANOL Project which built pipelines needed to ensure a continuous supply of oil in the event that the Japanese blocked other supply routes. Needed for the Project were camps for troops and civilian construction of landing strips.

The 388th was responsible for improving transportation from the Waterways to Norman Wells. The regiment arrived during the first two weeks in June. Its first job was to build living quarters, unload supplies arriving from Edmonton, and cut and stock firewood for steamboats in the waterways. They lived in "pup" tents. The battalion moved to Norman Wells, Northwestern Territories, Canada, in June 1942. On January 1, 1943, the battalion was expanded into a general service regiment and redesigned as the 388th Engineer General Service Regiment. The regiment was returned to the United States at Camp Sutton, NC, and remained there in training until March 1944. It was sent from Boston to England, arriving in England on April 3, 1944. The Regiment moved to France two months later and participated in the Normandy and Northern France campaign, engaged in construction work.

The 388th is the least recognized and publicized battalion. In Lee's book (classic history of black military activities) for example, it is not mentioned in the context of the ALCAN, but only when speaking of troops in Europe.

LINEAGE and ASSIGNMENTS - 388th REGIMENT

January 10, 1942 Activated at Camp Claiborne, LA as 388th
Battalion (separate)
June 1942 Moved to Norman Wells, Northwestern
Territories, Canada to work on the CANOL
oil-producing Project
January 1, 1943 Battalion expanded to 388th Engineer General
Service Regiment
September 1943 Regiment returned to U.S. by ship and was
stationed at Camp Sutton, NC
March 1944 Departed from Boston to England
April 3, 1944 Arrived in England
July 5, 1944 Moved to France
July 24, 1945 Departed from Marseilles, France
August 31, 1945 Arrived in the Philippines Islands
December 18, 1945 Inactivated
1954 Headquarters, Headquarters and Service
Company and Companies A,B,C, redesig-
nated as the 588th Engineer Battalion
June 30, 1954 Activated at Ft. Belvoir, VA as an engineer
construction battalion
March 1963 Reorganized as engineer combat battalion
May 1963 Moved to Ft. Lee, VA and served until
October, 1965
November 2, 1965 Arrived to Vietnam
November 16, 1970 Returned to U.S. and inactivated at Ft.
Lewis, WA
June 21, 1976 Activated at Ft. Polk, Louisiana
Source: Corp of Engineer Archives

Physical Conditions

Many soldiers were experiencing their first time away from their home state, and in some instances, away from the place in which they were reared. The men in the black regiments were from the northeast and southern regions of the United States. For many it was their first time in cold weather and for all it was the first time in such severely cold weather and "strange" summer. This meant that the experiences of the black troops were even more traumatic than those for other troops.

The soldiers lived in harsh and extreme climates ranging from a winter with 80 degrees below zero to a summer with temperatures at 90 degrees and a sun that barely sets. A confidential report noted during a field inspection at 63 below [that] the clothing of Delta's Black regiment was found to be in abominable condition. The report described the "pathetically ill equipped 97th" as doing nothing else but hibernating at present and stated it was of great importance to note that those men were not freezing in unusual numbers.(10) The report further indicated that unpredictable weather resulted in the temperature soaring to 80 degrees and frozen earth turned to sticky mud very rapidly. Periodically the troops ran into patches of muskeg. When it was not deep, it was possible for the men to dig out the shallow patches and fill it with gravel; when not possible, the route was detoured around them. The deeper ones were corduroyed.

The completion of the ALCAN did not reduce the amount of work they had to do. Regiments in the southern sector had to build a number of community roads from the highway. Additionally, they had to continue to work to keep the road during the winter. Snow, ice and cold weather were the major obstacles. In the northern sector, underground springs flowed into ditches and froze into mounds of ice. A glacier blocked 1/2 mile of the road and the road had to be detoured around it. Diesel fuel solidified and gas lines froze at sub-zero temperatures. Engines had to have torches under them to prevent freezing and engines were left running all night to ensure that they would start.

The many rivers of Alaska presented problems for the construction crews. The equipment and supplies had to be moved. When possible, the truck drivers "braved the rivers" and attempted crossings. Periodically, the trucks would get stuck and extra efforts were required to dislodge them. When crossing without bridges was not possible, two Pontoon companies helped the construction crew, and equipment was forded across the rivers. If not possible, pontoon bridges were formed when equipment was sufficient; when not sufficient, pontoon rafts were formed by tying pontoons together and decking them with timbers.

The virtual 24 hour sunlight during the summer made it possible for the troops to work two or three shifts straight. The crews cleared an average of three to four miles per day.

Social Conditions

Entrenched in the Alaskan experience was the pervasive view held by military officials and the majority of the U.S. society that African Americans were intellectually inferior, physically limited, and generally incapable of being competitive and performing at the level of their counterparts. It was believed that black soldiers could not operate the equipment and could not perform tasks which required any type of technological sophistication or skills. On U.S. military bases the troops were subjected to horrible treatment by their white colleagues, as illustrated with the situation of the 94rd, based at Camp Livingston, Louisiana. "To go out the camp's gate on pass was to risk harassment, humiliation, and even physical harm in the nearby towns; individual African Americans were not much safer wandering through Camp Livingston's white cantonment areas."(11) The service club and movie theater were segregated. The discrimination and limitations of movement and access continued in Alaska.

There was no secret that the Army, and especially the commander of the Alaskan troops, did not want the black troops in the territory. On April 2, 1942, Brigadier General C.L. Sturdevant, Assistant Chief of Engineers, wrote a letter to General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., Commander of the Alaska Defense Command, empathizing with his objection to having black troops in Alaska; however, he also pointed out the urgency of the situation and the severe shortage of troops. In an apologetic tone, Sturdevant wrote,

I have heard that you object to having colored troops in Alaska and we have attempted to avoid sending them, we however have been forced to use two colored regiments and it seems unwise for diplomatic reasons to send them both in Canada since the Canadians also prefer whites. I hope, therefore that you will not protest this action since I believe it would only cause delay with no different result because the urgency of the project prevents reduction of the force and all remaining regiments are assigned to task forces.(12)

Further in the letter Sturdevant assured the General that the two regiments would be working "... in two reliefs on a 20 hour schedules in out-of the way places" and observed, "and I cannot see how they can cause any great trouble." Buckner, (the son of the Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner, who surrendered to Grant), responded,

I appreciate your consideration of my views concerning negro troops in Alaska. The thing which I have opposed principally has been their establishment as port troops for the unloading of transports at our docks. The very high wages offered to unskilled labor here would attract a large number of them and cause them to remain and settle after the war, with the natural result that they would be interbred with the Indians and Eskimos and produce an astonishing objectionable race of mongrels which would be a problem here from now on.(13)

He noted that he had no objections to employing them on the roads "...if they are kept far away from the settlements and kept busy and then sent home soon as possible."(14) The racist attitudes were not limited to the military personnel. Some of the locals had the same stereotypical attitudes about African Americans being incapable of anything above unskilled tasks and genetically inferior (closer to animals) with tails.(15)

It was the creativity of the soldiers coupled with the positive relationship which existed between the indigenous peoples and some locals which ensured the survival of the soldiers. The white officers in the black regiments had better accommodations than the troops, often living in quonset huts rather than tents. The black troops were requred to live in cloth tents. The soldiers discovered that the stoves in the tents produced condensation outside the tents which, when frozen, served as insulation and kept them heated.

They often had to improvise with their clothing. Winter clothing included serveral pairs of socks and plastic bags over the shoes to keep out dampness and insulate for warmth. The indigenous population taught the men a number of survival techniqes and introduced them to additional ways to make clothing and keep the tents warm. In a region where everything "looks the same" and areas were unmapped with few trails and no towns, it was not hard to lose direction and underestimate distances. In rare occasions when a few soldiers got lost, the indigenous scouts located them. There was only one soldier who froze to death.

Because of the segregation, discriminatory policies, inequitable treatment and the practice of keeping the soldiers away from populated areas, the newly built air bases were off limits. Thus, they could not enjoy the warm accommodations and conveniences of the base. In many towns, the African Americans were refused admission to shops and in some instances denied the right to walk on the streets of the town.(16)

Despite the regulations forbidding local people from interacting with the black soldiers, there were a few locals who risked the reprisals and attempted to make their stay in Alaska a bit more palatable. In Delta Junction, Mrs. Irene Mead, recalled that her parents, Bert and Mary Hansen owned, Rika's Roadhouse Restaurant. It functioned both as a restaurant and as a telephone relay station. Her parents clandestinely brought various soldiers to the Roadhouse and gave them coffee and warm food to keep them nourished and warm. Had the military officials discovered that, the telephone relay station could have been shut down and the Roadhouse declared off limits for the white soldiers. That would have resulted in the forced closure of the Roadhouse since it would not have been able to survive without the business from the base.

Despite the harsh conditions, the soldiers were expected to perform at the optimal level and they did. Relative to the conditions to which they were exposed, there were only a few instances of resistance or rebellion. One group of soldiers was court martialed for refusing to sit in the back of an open truck to ride miles in temperatures well below zero. Had they complied, they ran the risk of freezing to death or having permanent physical damage from frostbite.

The diverse backgrounds caused a variety of interactions to develop, e.g., mentor-mentee arrangements and close relationships which lasted fifty years. The social and educational background of the soldiers spanned the total range from lower class and limited education to upper class with college education. One of the admirable aspects of the experience of the soldiers was the willingness of the more educated soldiers to help the less educated by tutoring them and serving as mentors. There were some coflicts, particularly among different geographic groups. Some of the soldiers from Louisiana experienced communication problems because their accents were so different that some of the other soldiers refused to make the effort to listen closely to understand and chose, instead, to tease them.

It was not uncommon for the men to go for long periods without leave, mail or fresh food. For leisure, among other things, the men played billiards and cards, listened to music, sang popular and religious songs, told jokes and stories and adopted animals such as dogs and bears as mascots. They fished sometimes, using the rifle as the pole and telephone wire as the string.

The ALCAN assignment offered the unprecedented opportunity to earn pay and benefits equal to those of the white soldiers. As noted above, this was a particular "thorn in the side" of General Buckner, Jr.

Although there were war correspondents sent to all regions where military activities occurred, as was the case with most Negro troops, few war correspondents visited the Negro segments of the ALCAN Highway. Additionally, "for national security purposes," the mail was censored. Thus, African Americans and others at home were not aware of the achievements and hardships of the black soldiers. Some letters did filter through to people back home when carried by returning soldiers. The effect on the soldiers was a lowered morale.(17) Despite the general lack of public recognition of the contributions of the black troops to the victory in World War II, the performance of the various regiments resulted in commendations from their commanders. For example, Commander Colonel Albert L. Lane, in a letter to the Commanding General, Northwest Service Command (Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada) on April 26, 1943 writes,

For a period of four months this Regiment provided the bulk of the labor necessary to the establishment and operation of this Post and its numerous utility installations. Their effort reflected a continual efficient performance of duty and a spirit of mutual cooperation that set a high standard by which other units could pattern their own activities. They exhibited an admirable ability to adapt and to create. Good morale was abundantly in evidence.

Conclusion

At about -15 degrees at Soldiers' Summit (ten miles from Slim's River) on November 20, 1942, the ALCAN Highway was officially opened. The dedication of the men during their ordeal in Alaska was phenomenal. In effect, these men were pioneers. They had to adapt to a totally new way of life in an unfriendly and relatively isolated climate. There was no challenge which was not accepted by the soldiers. Members of the 95th at Sikanni Chief River, for example, bet that they could build a bridge in record time and offered their paychecks as the wager. They were successful and built the bridge in eighty-four hours, approximately one-half the usual time necessary to build a bridge. The respective regiments received campaign streamers for the Aleutian Islands; New Guinea; Luzon; the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and were decorated with the Meritorious Unit Streamer embroidered ALCAN Highway. When the soldiers left Alaska, many were sent to Europe, Burma and/or the South Pacific and continued to perform superbly, thus negating the argument that African Americans were unfit for battle. The 93rd and 97th Regiments were sent to the Pacific while the 95th Regiment was sent to Europe.

A surprising number of the veterans are not bitter about the systematic discriminatory and exclusionary posture assumed, until very recently, by the Army. When asked about the obvious exclusion of their contributions to World War II in literature and the awarding of honors, many expressed a sense of personal satisfaction and believed that they contributed to the subsequent integration of the military regardless of whether it is recognized or not. Quite a number of lasting friendships have evolved as a result of the camaraderie which developed.

One of the interesting aspects of the story of the men of the 93rd, 95th, 97th and 388th is what happened to them after the war. Among those veterans located thus far, there are

Bishop Edward Carroll (95th), the first black Bishop of the United Methodist Church of New England; Dr. George Owens (93rd), a former president of Jackson State University; Mr. Nehemiah Atkinson (97th), the senior circuit national tennis champion, is a tennis instructor for the New Orleans Parks Department and the namesake of a tennis scholarship, "The Nehemiah Atkinson Tennis Scholarship;" Mr. Hayward Oubre (97th), an artist with exhibits throughout the United States, was one of the first Art faculty members at Florida A&M University and was the founder of the Art Department of Alabama State University; Mr. Joseph Prejean (93rd). who, trained as a cook while in Alaska, became a renowned Louisiana chef after separating from the service.

For fifty years, no public recognition of the ALCAN veterans was given. In 1992, however, things changed. Under the leadership of Mr. James Eaton (founder and curator of the Black Archives of Florida A&M University), assisted by Dr. E. Valerie Smith, the A&M University), assisted by Dr. E. Valerie Smith, the first reunion of the Black Corps of Engineers was organized at Florida A&M University in January 1992. Thirteen veterans and members of their families attended.

Concurrent with, but independent, of the reunion, an exhibit consisting of vintage photos collected from personal collections of some veterans and various archives and contemporary reunion photos taken by Mr. White entitled "Miles and Miles," was developed jointly by Ms. Lael Morgan and Mr. Cal White of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in January 1992. During July 4th celebrations, the veterans were honored in Alaska and a number of them participated in the parade. A few days later they visited for the first time since its completion the highway they built.

As a result of the initiatives and leadership of Dr. E. Valerie Smith, the ALCAN veterans were honored at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 1993. The ceremony was followed by the opening of an exhibit entitled "Miles and Miles."

In 1992, throughout Alaska, the celebration of the completion of the ALCAN Highway occurred. Initial publications and publicity omitted the involvement of the African Americans. There were, however, some recognition which did occur. In more recent publications, there is varying discussion of the role, level of involvement and high quality of performance of the black soldiers. On March 26, 1993, the State of Alaska passed House Bill 98 which renamed the bridge over Gestle River the "Black Veterans Recognition Bridge. The bill was signed by Governor Hickel.

Approximately fifty years after the building of the ALCAN, members of the Black Corps of Engineers have finally been recognized.

Endnotes

(1.)Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, p. 609.

(2.)Morgan, "Miles and Miles Brochure."

(3.)Twichell, Northwest Epic, p. 214.

(4.)Newberry, "Party Planned for Blacks Who Built Alaska Highway."

(5.)Twichell, p. 120.

(6.)Twichell, p. 131.

(7.)Ibid.

(8.)Twichell, p. 213.

(9.)Interview with Mason, 1992.

(10.)Morgan.

(11.)Twichell, p. 142.

(12.)Sturdevant, Letter of April 2, 1942.

(13.)Buckner letter.

(14.)Ibid.

(15.)Interview with Roberts, 1993.

(16.)Lee, p. 438.

(17.)Lee, p. 387.

Sources

Buckner, Simon B. Letter, no date given.

Carroll, Edward G., Bishop. Interview, January 18, 1992, Tallahassee, FL

Coates, Ken. North to Alaska. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 1992.

France, Albert. Interview, January 18, 1992, Tallahassee, FL; Interview, October 24, 1992, Cooksville, MD

Guiterrez, Peter. "Black Soldiers' Role in Alcan Chronicled." All Alaska Weekly,. p. 15.

Lee, Ulysses. The Employment of Negro Troops. Wash. DC: U.S. Office of the Chief of Military History, 1982 (reprinted from 1966 issue).

Lee, Ulysses. Citation from "The Alaska Highway," A Report Complied for the CG ASF (May, 1945) II. OCMH, p. 609.

Lane, Albert L., Colonel, C.E. Commanding. Letter of Commendation, Headquarters, Dawson Creek, British Columbia. April 26, 1943.

Mason, Walter E. Roundtable of veterans on June 13, 1992. Washington, DC.

Morgan, Lael. "Miles and Miles" brochure for the exhibit February 1-March 15, 1992.

Newberry, Robert C. "Party planned for blacks who built Alaska Highway." Houston Post, September 19, 1990, p. 21.

Nolan, Donald. Interviews, January 18-19, 1992, Tallahassee, FL

Oubre, Hayward. Phone Interviews, May 15-22, 1993; Interview, Roundtable of veterans on June 13-14, 1993.

Overstreet, Louis. Black on a Background of White: A Chronicle of Afro-Americans' Involvement in America's Last Frontier! Alaska. Anchorage, AK: Alaska Black Caucus, 1988.

Roberts, Henry. Interviews, April 10, 1993; July 18, 1993, Washington, DC

Smith, E., Valerie. "Background Paper." Press release paper for "Miles and Miles" Pentagon Exhibition. June 5, 1993.

Sturdevant, C.L., Letter dated April 2, 1942.

Twichell, Heath. Northwest Epic. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

Special thanks to veterans H. Oubre, D. Nolan, A. France, E. Long, J. Prejean and I. Smith for providing interviews; veteran S. Land for sharing his personal documents and photos; Bishop E. Carroll and H. Roberts for the interviews and for sharing personal photos; veterans R. Beverly and L. Freeman for providing photos; and to all of the veterans of the ALCAN Highway. Thanks also to my close colleagues in this research project - Cal White, Andrew Malloy of HQDA, Dr. C. Hendricks of Archives, Corps of Engineers, and Ambassador R. Palmer for assisting this researcher in locating materials and many veterans.

Asa Hilliard

I am a teacher, a psychologist and a historian. As such, I am interested in the aims, the methods and the content of the socialization processes that we ought to have in place to create wholeness among our people.—Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III

Atlanta, GA (8-14, 2007) Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard, III, world renowned Pan-Africanist educator, historian, and psychologist, passed from this life on August 13, 2007 in Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Hilliard was in Egypt to deliver a keynote lecture at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization (ASCAC), an organization he helped found. He was also lecturing for a study trip led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago. The cause of death is attributed to complications from malaria. “Dr. Hilliard was in his favorite place, with his favorite person – our mother, when he died,” said his daughter, Robi Hilliard Herron.

Dr. Hilliard was married for nearly 50 years to the Honorable Patsy Jo Hilliard, former mayor of East Point, GA and former school board member for the South San Francisco Unified School District.

Born in Galveston, TX on August 22, 1933 to Asa G. Hilliard II and Dr. Lois O. Williams. Dr. Hilliard graduated from Manual High School (1951) in Denver, CO. He received a B.A. from the University of Denver (1955) and taught in the Denver Public Schools before joining the U.S. Army, where he served as a First Lieutenant, platoon leader, and battalion executive officer in the Third Armored Infantry (1955-1957). He later received his M.A. in Counseling (1961) and Ed.D. in Educational Psychology (1963) from the University of Denver. In pursuit of his education, Dr. Hilliard worked in many occupations including as a teacher in the Denver Public Schools, as a railroad maintenance worker, and as a bartender, waiter and cook.

The professional career of Dr. Hilliard spans the globe. He was on the faculty at San Francisco State University; consultant to the Peace Corp in Liberia, West Africa; superintendent of schools in Monrovia, Liberia; and returned to San Francisco State as department chair and Dean of Education. At the time of his death, Dr. Hilliard was the Fuller E. Calloway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta where he held joint appointments in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education.

Dr. Hilliard was a Board Certified Forensic Examiner and Diplomate of both the American Board of Forensic Examiners and the American Board of Forensic Medicine. He served as lead expert witness in several landmark federal cases on test validity and bias, including Larry P. v. Wilson Riles in California, Mattie T. v. Holliday in Mississippi, Deborah P. v. Turlington in Florida, and also in two Supreme Court cases, Ayers v. Fordice in Mississippi, and Marino v. Ortiz in New York City. Dr. Hilliard has lectured at leading universities and other institutions throughout the world, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Geographic Society.

As a distinguished consultant, Dr. Hilliard has worked with many of the leading school districts, publishers, public advocacy organizations, universities, government agencies and private corporations on valid assessment, African content in curriculum, teacher training, and public policy. Several of his programs in pluralistic curriculum, assessment, and valid teaching have become national models. Dr. Hilliard designed the approach and selected the essays that appeared in The Portland Baseline Essays (Portland, OR) which represent the first time that a comprehensive global and longitudinal view of people of African ancestry has been presented in a curriculum.

In 2001, Dr. Hilliard was enstooled as Development Chief for Mankranso, Ghana and given the name Nana Baffour Amankwatia, II, which means “generous one.” Dr. Hilliard spent more than thirty years leading study groups to Egypt and Ghana, as part of his mission of teaching the truth about the history of Africa and the African Diaspora. He co-chaired the First National Conference on the Infusion of African and African- American Content in the School Curriculum in Atlanta. Dr. Hilliard was a founding member and First Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and a founding member of the National Black Child Development Institute. Dr. Hilliard was also a key advisor for the African Education for Every African Child Conference, held in Mali and sponsored by the government of Mali.

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Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu

Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu was born in Chicago, Illinois June 15, 1953. He was raised in a two-parent home. His father was born in Texas and gave him high expectations. His mother was born in Ohio and loved him unconditionally. Kunjufu has one sister who is an officer with a Chicago Utility company.

Dr. Kunjufu was an honor roll elementary student at Burnside and was promoted from sixth to eighth grade. He never missed a day of school. He attended Harlan H.S. and was a track star. He graduated in 1970 and attended Illinois State University majoring in Economics and Business Administration. His speaking career literally began when he joined the debate team, where he won numerous awards.

Dr. Kunjufu always wanted to attend a Black college and in 1973 during his junior year he enrolled in the exchange program and attended Morgan State University. He immersed himself in Africentricity, legally changed his name, became a vegetarian, and resided in a juvenile delinquent center where he mentored Black boys. He returned to Illinois State in 1974 and graduated. He founded Unity, a Black cultural organization.

He taught in an Africentric school from 1974-1980. Kunjufu then founded African American Images, Inc. He enrolled in Union Graduate School and earned his doctorate in 1984. He has written approximately 30 books, spoken at most universities, and has been blessed to preach in hundreds of pulpits.

Kunjufu is happily married to his best friend and business partner, has two adult sons and a wonderful grandson. He is an avid tennis player and has yet to miss a day of work. He is a born again Christian and a faithful member of Living Word Christian Center. He mentors boys in the Community of Men organization he started many years ago.

James Brown

Early life

Brown was born in the small town of Barnwell in Depression-era South Carolina as James Joseph Brown, Jr. As an adult, Brown would legally change his name to remove the "Jr." designation.[2] Brown's family eventually moved to nearby Augusta, Georgia. During his childhood, Brown helped support his family by picking cotton in the nearby fields and shining shoes downtown. In his spare time, Brown variously spent time either practicing his skills in Augusta-area halls, or committing petty crimes. At the age of sixteen, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center upstate in Toccoa from 1948.

While in prison, Brown later made the acquaintance of Bobby Byrd, whose family helped Brown secure an early release after serving only three years of his sentence, under the condition that he not return to Augusta or Richmond County and that he would try to get a job. After brief stints as a boxer and baseball pitcher (a career move ended by a leg injury) Brown turned his energy toward music.

Beginnings of the Famous Flames

Brown and Bobby Byrd's sister Sarah performed in a gospel group called "The Gospel Starlighters" from 1955. Eventually, Brown joined Bobby Byrd's group the Avons, and Byrd turned the group's sound towards secular rhythm and blues. Now called The Famous Flames, Brown and Byrd's band toured the Southern "chitlin' circuit", and eventually signed a deal with the Cincinnati, Ohio-based King Records, presided over by Syd Nathan.

The group's first recording and single, credited to "James Brown with the Famous Flames", was "Please, Please, Please" (1956). It was a #5 R&B hit and a million-selling single. However, their subsequent records failed to live up to the success of "Please, Please, Please". After nine failed singles, King was ready to drop Brown and the Flames. Nearly all of the group's releases were written or co-written by Brown, who assumed primary control of the band from Byrd and eventually began billing himself as a solo act with The Famous Flames as his backup.

Many of Brown's early recordings were fairly straightforward gospel-inspired R&B compositions, heavily inspired by the work of contemporary musicians such as Little Richard and Ray Charles. Yet the songs were already marked by a rhythmic acuity and vocal attack that would later become even more pronounced, contributing to the developing style that would eventually be called "funk". Brown, in fact, called Little Richard his idol, and credited Little Richard's saxophone-studded mid-1950s road band The Upsetters as the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat. [3]

Little Richard continued to play a role in Brown's rise to the top. In 1957, when Little Richard bolted from pop music to become a preacher, Brown honored Richard's remaining tour dates in his place. Consequently, former members of Little Richard's backup band became Famous Flames. A year later, the group released "Try Me," which would become Brown's first No. 1 hit.[4]

Brown's arrangements and instrumentation, initially standardized, began to give way to more improvisational and rhythm-heavy tracks such as 1961's #5 R&B hit "Night Train", arguably the first single to showcase the beginnings of what today is considered the "James Brown sound". Except for declamatory ad-libs by Brown, "Night Train" is completely instrumental, featuring prominent horn charts and a fast, highly accented rhythm track.





"Papa gets a brand new bag"

While Brown's early singles were major hits in the southern United States and regularly became R&B Top Ten hits, he and the Flames were not nationally successful until his self-financed live show was captured on the LP Live at the Apollo in 1962, released without the consent of his label King Records.

Brown followed this success with a string of singles that, along with the work of Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, essentially defined funk music. 1964's "Out of Sight" was, even more than "Night Train" had been, a harbinger of the new James Brown sound. Its arrangement was raw and unornamented, the horns and the drums took center stage in the mix, and Brown's vocals had taken on an even more intensely rhythmic feel. However, Brown violated his contract with King again by recording "Out of Sight" for Smash Records; the ensuing legal battle resulted in a one year ban on the release of his vocal recordings.[5]

The mid-1960s was the period of Brown's greatest popular success. Two of his signature tunes, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)," both from 1965, were Brown's first Top 10 pop hits as well as major #1 R&B hits, remaining the top-selling single in black venues for over a month apiece. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording in 1966 (an award last given in 1968). His national profile was further boosted that year by appearances in the films Ski Party and the concert film The T.A.M.I. Show, in which he upstaged The Rolling Stones. In his concert repertoire and on record, Brown mingled his innovative rhythmic essays with ballads such as "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1965), and even Broadway show tunes.

Brown continued to develop the new funk idiom. "Cold Sweat" (1967), a song with only one chord change, was considered a departure even compared to Brown's other recent innovations. Critics have since come to see it as a high-water mark in the dance music of the 1960s; it is sometimes called the first "true" funk recording.

Brown would often make creative adjustments to his songs for greater appeal. He sped up the released version of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" to make it even more intense and commercial. He also began spinning off new compositions from the grooves of earlier ones by continual revision of their arrangements. For example, the hit "There Was a Time" emerged out of the chord progression and rhythm arrangements of the 1967 song "Let Yourself Go."[6]

The late 1960s: "Ain't It Funky Now"

Brown employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition. He was noted for his ability as a bandleader and songwriter to blend the simplicity and drive of R&B with the rhythmic complexity and precision of jazz. Trumpeter Lewis Hamlin and saxophonist/keyboardist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (the successor to previous bandleader Nat Jones) led the band; guitarist Jimmy Nolen provided percussive, deceptively simple riffs for each song; Maceo Parker's prominent saxophone solos provided a focal point for many performances. Other members of Brown's band included stalwart singer and sideman Bobby Byrd; drummers John "Jabo" Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, and Melvin Parker (Maceo's brother); saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney; trombonist Fred Wesley; guitarist Alphonso "Country" Kellum; and bassist Bernard Odum.

As the 1960s came to a close, Brown refined his funk style even further with "I Got the Feelin'" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (both recorded in 1968), and "Funky Drummer" (recorded in 1969). By this time Brown's "singing" increasingly took the form of a kind of rhythmic declamation that only intermittently featured traces of pitch or melody. His vocals, not quite sung but not quite spoken, would be a major influence on the technique of rapping, which would come to maturity along with hip hop music in the coming decades. Supporting his vocals were instrumental arrangements that featured a more refined and developed version of Brown's mid-1960s style. The horn section, guitars, bass, and drums all meshed together in strong rhythms based around various repeating riffs, usually with at least one musical "break".

Brown's recordings influenced musicians across the industry, most notably Sly and his Family Stone, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and soul shouters like Edwin Starr, Temptations David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards, and a then-prepubescent Michael Jackson, who took Brown's shouts and dancing into the pop mainstream as the lead singer of Motown's The Jackson 5. Those same tracks would later be resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the 1970s on; in fact, James Brown remains the world's most sampled recording artist, and "Funky Drummer" has itself been counted as the most sampled individual piece of music. [7]

The content of Brown's songs was now developing along with their delivery. Socio-political commentary on the black person's position in society and lyrics praising motivation and ambition filled songs like "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968) and "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door I'll Get It Myself)" (1970). However, while this change gained him an even greater position in the black community, it lost him much of his white audience who could no longer relate to his lyrics.





By 1970, most of the members of James Brown's classic 1960s band had quit his act for other opportunities. He and Bobby Byrd employed a new band that included future funk greats such as bassist Bootsy Collins, Collins' guitarist brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins, and trombonist/musical director Fred Wesley. This new backing band was dubbed "The JB's", and made their debut on Brown's 1970 single "Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like a) Sex Machine". Although it would go through several lineup changes (the first in 1971), The JB's remain Brown's most familiar backing band.

As Brown's musical empire grew (he bought radio stations in the late 1960s, including Augusta's WRDW, where he had shined shoes as a boy), his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. In 1971, he began recording for Polydor Records; among his first Polydor releases was the #1 R&B hit "Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants)". Many of his sidemen and supporting players, such as Fred Wesley & the JB's, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Myra Barnes, and Hank Ballard, released records on Brown's subsidiary label, People, which was created as part of Brown's Polydor contract. These recordings are as much a part of Brown's legacy as those released under his own name, and most are noted examples of what might be termed James Brown's "house" style. The early 1970s marked the first real awareness, outside the African-American community, of Brown's achievements. Miles Davis and other jazz musicians began to cite Brown as a major influence on their styles, and Brown provided the score for the 1973 blaxploitation film Black Caesar.

In 1974, Brown performed in Zaire as part of the build up to the The Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

His 1970s Polydor recordings were a summation of all the innovation of the last twenty years, and while some critics maintain that he declined artistically during this period, compositions like "The Payback" (1973); "Papa Don't Take No Mess" and "Stoned to the Bone" (1974); "Funky President (People It's Bad)" (1975); and "Get Up Offa That Thing" (1976) are still considered among his best.

Into the late-1970s and 1980s

By the mid-1970s, Brown's star-status was on the wane, and key musicians such as Bootsy Collins had begun to depart to form their own groups. The disco movement, which Brown anticipated, and some say originated, found relatively little room for Brown; his 1976 albums Get Up Offa That Thing and Bodyheat were his first flirtations with "disco-fied" rhythms incorporated into his funky repertoire. While 1977's Mutha's Nature and 1978's Jam 1980s generated no charted hits, 1979's The Original Disco Man LP is a notable late addition to his oeuvre. It contained the song "It's Too Funky in Here," which was his last top R&B hit of the decade. Ironically, the song was not produced by Brown himself but rather by producer Brad Shapiro.

Brown experienced something of a resurgence in the 1980s, effectively crossing over to a broader, more mainstream audience. He made cameo appearances in the feature films The Blues Brothers, Doctor Detroit, and Rocky IV, as well as being a guest star in the Miami Vice episode "Missing Hours" in 1988. He also released Gravity, a modestly popular crossover album, and the hit 1985 single "Living in America". "Living in America" won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 1987. Acknowledging his influence on modern hip-hop and R&B music, Brown collaborated with hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa on the single "Unity", and worked with the group Full Force on a #5 R&B hit single, 1988's "Static," from the hip-hop influenced album I'm Real. The drum break to his 1969 song "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" became so popular at hip hop dance parties (especially for breakdance) in the late 1970s and early 1980s that hip hop founding father Kurtis Blow calls the song "the national anthem of hip hop."[8]

In spite of his return to the limelight, by the late 1980s, Brown met with a series of legal and financial setbacks. In 1988, he was arrested following a high-speed car chase down Interstate 20 in Augusta. He was imprisoned for threatening pedestrians with firearms and abuse of PCP, as well as for the repercussions of his flight. Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he was eventually released in 1991 after having only served three. A new album called Love Overdue was released that same year, with the new single "Move On".

During the 1990s and 2000s, Brown was repeatedly arrested for drug possession and domestic abuse. However, he continued to perform regularly and even record, and made appearances in television shows and films such as Blues Brothers 2000. The 1991 four-CD box set Star Time spanned his four-decade career. Nearly all his earlier LPs were re-released on CD, often with additional tracks and commentary by experts on Brown's music. In 1993, James Brown released a new album called Universal James, which spawned the singles "Can't Get Any Harder", "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina". In 1995, the live album Live At The Apollo 1995 was released, featuring a new track recorded in the studio called "Respect Me". It was released as a single that same year. A megamix called "Hooked on Brown" was released as a single in 1996. And in 1998, James Brown released a new studio album, I'm Back, featuring the single "Funk On Ah Roll". In 2002, James Brown released the album The Next Step, which features the single "Killing is Out, School is In." In 2003 he participated in the PBS American Masters television documentary James Brown: Soul Survivor, directed by Jeremy Marre.

In December 2004 Brown was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was successfully treated with surgery. He appeared at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert, on July 6, 2005, where he did a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag." He also did a duet with another British pop star, Joss Stone, a week earlier on the UK chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Before his death, he was scheduled to perform a duet with singer Annie Lennox on the song "Vengeance" on her new album Venus, scheduled for release in early 2007.

In 2006, Brown continued his "Seven Decades Of Funk World Tour", to be his last, performing all over the world. His latest shows were still greeted with positive reviews. One of his final concert performances was at the Irish Oxegen festival in Punchestown in 2006 to a record crowd of 80,000.

Death

Brown was admitted to the Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on December 24, 2006 after a dentist visit where he was found to have severe pneumonia.[9] Brown died the next day on December 25, 2006, Christmas Day, at around 1:45 a.m. (06:45 UTC) aged 73. [10] The cause of death was heart failure, according to his agent. [1] James was quoted saying "I'm going away tonight" sometime before he passed away. He then took three long, quiet breaths, and closed his eyes.[1] Brown's body rested on the stage of legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, the site of his debut. A private ceremony was held in Brown's hometown of Augusta, Georgia and another public ceremony was officiated by Rev. Al Sharpton, a day later at the James Brown Arena there.

Musicianship

Despite his prowess as a musical performer, Brown never learned to read music. Like Duke Ellington, he developed his repertoire in close association with the members of his band, who were predominantly jazz-trained musicians with a working knowledge of music theory. As his former bandleader Fred Wesley recalled,

it would have been impossible for James Brown to put his show together without the assistance of someone like Pee Wee [Ellis], who understood chord changes, time signatures, scales, notes, and basic music theory. Simple things like knowing the key would be a big problem for James . . . The whole James Brown Show depended on having someone with musical knowledge remember the show, the individual parts, and the individual songs, then relay these verbally or in print to the other musicians. Brown could not do it himself. He spoke in grunts, groans, and la-di-das, and he needed musicians to translate that language into music and actual songs in order to create an actual show.[11]

Personal life

Brown was married four times. He and his last wife, Tommie Raye Hynie (also cited as Tomi Rae Hynie), were married in 2001, but whether either marriage was legal is disputed. Tommie's prior 'husband' was a polygamist and thus her 3-day marriage to him should have never counted (i.e., since he cannot legally marry someone when he is already married). Based on this reasoning, the 2001 marriage is legal and she would be Mr Brown's wife. They had one child together, but according to Brown's attorney, the two never remarried. Brown also had two children by his first wife, Velma Warren, and three more by his second, Deidre Jenkins. His eldest son Teddy died in a car crash in 1973.

Brown's personal life was marked by several brushes with the law. At the age of 16, was arrested for theft and served 3 years in prison. Adrienne Rodriegues, his third wife, had him arrested four times on charges of assault between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Brown also served 2 years of a 6 year jail sentence after he led police on a car chase across the Georgia-South Carolina border in 1988. He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer, along with various drug-related and driving offenses.

At the end of his life James Brown lived in a riverfront home in Beech Island, South Carolina, directly across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia.





Obituary

When James Brown styled himself Soul Brother Number One, for once, this was no idle show-business exaggeration. His influence on popular music was, quite simply, enormous.

He transformed gospel music into rhythm and blues, and soul music into his own creation - funk - with its driving rhythms and insistent beat.

His performances remain unsurpassed for their urgency of expression and raw physicality, influencing later white rockers like Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop.

Born James Joe Brown Junior in 1933 in a one-room shack in the backwoods of South Carolina, by the age of seven he was boarding at a brothel in Augusta, Georgia.

Delighted and outraged audiences

He helped to pay the rent by shining shoes and tap-dancing in the streets.

Nine years later he was harshly punished for trying to steal a car. Sent to prison for between eight and 16 years, he eventually served only three years and a day.

On his release, he joined a gospel group. While pursuing a promising but ultimately abortive career as a semi-professional boxer, he rose to become the leader of the James Brown Revue.

Audiences were delighted and outraged by the group's tight R&B sound, fronted by the charismatic Brown, whose stage antics caused him to shed up to seven pounds a night.

In 1956, Brown wrote the song Please, Please, Please. It sold one million copies and propelled the singer to stardom.

Other hits followed as Brown worked up to 350 nights a year, earning himself another reputation, as the hardest-working man in show-business.

Mold-breaking show

Though the financial returns were scant - Brown and his band members earned a derisory $150 each for Please Please Please - he refused to compromise on the quality of his performances.

His reason was simple: "When you're on stage, the people who paid money to get in are the boss, even if it cost them only a quarter. You're working for them."

He treated his band like an army, imposing fines for lateness, scruffy costumes and poor playing. By the early 1960s his growing reputation saw him play to packed crowds at the Mecca of black music, Harlem's Apollo Theater.

In 1961, realizing that the essence of his music could only be captured live, Brown personally financed the recording of an album at the theater.

The result, the mold-breaking James Brown Show Live at the Apollo, was a sensation. Establishing his reputation throughout the United States, it remains one of the most critically-acclaimed live albums ever recorded.

His status was enhanced by a succession of worldwide hits like Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, I Got You (I Feel Good) and Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine).

Presidential thanks

Artistically, James Brown was breaking new ground with a whole new musical form, funk.

Songs like Cold Sweat, where the brass section and guitars drove the rhythm, exemplified the stylistic change which Brown wrought.

Success brought great wealth. James Brown owned radio stations, fast food restaurants and a private jet.

He embraced "black capitalism" even before the phrase was coined, urging his fellow country people to live the American Dream.

He gave back, too, sponsoring food stamps for the poor and giving money and land to those in need, especially in Africa.

Some radicals, though, criticized him for his patriotism and he received death threats after playing to US troops in Vietnam.

Such was James Brown's influence that when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, the order went out to broadcast Brown's show in Boston live across the United States.

Punctuated by his pleas for calm, the show helped to stem the tide of anger and Brown earned the personal thanks of President Lyndon Johnson.

Living in America

The 1970s were bad times for James Brown. His son Teddy died in a car accident, he himself was beset by tax problems and disco music threatened to eclipse his career.

Sheer hard work on the club circuit brought him back from the brink. A cameo role as a singing preacher in the cult 1980 film The Blues Brothers brought his music to another generation.

His song Living in America, a paean to the American Dream, was chosen as the theme music to Rocky IV and James Brown was among the first group of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But James Brown's capacity for self-destruction was a constant danger. In 1988 an incident with a shotgun led to a high-speed police chase and he spent two-and-a-half years in jail.

His release coincided with a huge upswell in rap and hip-hop music, both of which borrowed freely from Brown's work. His role as a pivotal musical innovator was recognized as never before.

Even with his faults, James Brown was an important role model to a whole generation of African Americans.

Triumphing over poverty and racism, his outlook is best summed up by the title of one of his greatest hits - Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/386563.stm

Published: 2006/12/25 08:19:55 GMT

Bebe Moore Campbell

Bebe Moore Campbell (February 18, 1950- November 27, 2006) was the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, and What You Owe Me, which was also a Los Angeles Times "Best Book of 2001." Her other works include the novel Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Literature; her memoir, Sweet Summer, Growing Up With and Without My Dad; and her first nonfiction book, Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage. Her essays, articles, and excerpts appear in many anthologies.

Ms. Campbell's interest in mental health was the catalyst for her first children's book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, which was published in September 2003. This book won the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) Outstanding Literature Award for 2003. The book tells the story of how a little girl copes with being reared by her mentally ill mother. Ms. Campbell is a member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and a founding member of NAMI-Inglewood. Her latest book, 72 Hour Hold, also deals with mental illness.

Ms. Campbell's first play, "Even with the Madness," debuted in New York in June 2003. This work revisited the theme of mental illness and the family.

As a journalist Ms. Campbell wrote articles for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Essence, Ebony, Black Enterprise, as well as other publications. She was a regular commentator for Morning Edition a program on National Public Radio.

Ms. Campbell was born and reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in elementary education from the University of Pittsburgh. She lived in Los Angeles, California with her husband, Ellis Gordon Jr. and had a son and a daughter, actress Maia Campbell. She was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorported.

November 28, 2006
Bebe Moore Campbell, Novelist of Black Lives, Dies at 56
By MARGALIT FOX

Bebe Moore Campbell, a best-selling novelist known for her empathetic treatment of the difficult, intertwined and occasionally surprising relationship between the races, died yesterday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 56.

The cause was complications of brain cancer, said Linda Wharton-Boyd, a longtime friend.

Along with writers like Terry McMillan, Ms. Campbell was part of the first wave of black novelists who made the lives of upwardly mobile black people a routine subject for popular fiction. Straddling the divide between literary and mass-market novels, Ms. Campbell’s work explored not only the turbulent dance between blacks and whites but also the equally fraught relationship between men and women.

Throughout her work, Ms. Campbell sought to counter prevailing stereotypes of black people as socially and economically marginal. Though critics occasionally faulted her characters as two-dimensional, her novels were known for their crossover appeal, read by blacks and whites alike.

Often called on by the news media to discuss race relations, Ms. Campbell was for years a familiar presence on television and radio. With the publication of her most recent novel, “72 Hour Hold” (Knopf, 2005), she also became a visible spokeswoman on mental-health issues. The novel, about bipolar disorder, was inspired by the experience of a family member, Ms. Campbell said.

Originally a schoolteacher and later a journalist, Ms. Campbell made her mark as a writer of fiction with her first novel, “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine” (Putnam), published in 1992. Rooted in the story of Emmett Till, the book tells of a black Chicago youth killed by a white man in Mississippi in 1955. After the murderer is acquitted at trial, the narrative follows his increasing dissolution.

“I wanted to give racism a face,” Ms. Campbell said in an interview with The New York Times Book Review in 1992. “African-Americans know about racism, but I don’t think we really know the causes. I decided it’s first of all a family problem.”

Reviewing the novel in The Book Review, Clyde Edgerton wrote: “By showing lives lived, and not explaining ideas, Ms. Campbell does what good storytellers do — she puts in by leaving out.”

Ms. Campbell’s other novels, all published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, are “Brothers and Sisters” (1994), written in the wake of the Los Angeles riots of 1992; “Singing in the Comeback Choir” (1998), about a black television producer feeling cut off from her roots; and “What You Owe Me” (2001), about the friendship between two women, one African-American, the other a Jewish Holocaust survivor, in the 1940’s.

Elizabeth Bebe Moore was born in Philadelphia on Feb. 18, 1950, to parents who divorced when she was very young. Bebe spent each school year in Philadelphia with her mother, grandmother and aunt — strong, upright women she collectively called “the Bosoms” — who set her on a course of study, discipline and staunch middle-class respectability.

She spent summers in North Carolina with her father, who had been paralyzed in an automobile accident. There, she was enveloped in a heady world of beer, laughter and cigar smoke. She documented her contrasting lives in her memoir, “Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad” (Putnam, 1989).

After earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971, Ms. Campbell taught school in Atlanta for several years before embarking on a career as a freelance journalist. Her first book was a work of nonfiction, “Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage” (Random House, 1986).

She also wrote two picture books for children, “Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry” (Putnam, 2003; illustrated by E. B. Lewis); and “Stompin’ at the Savoy” (Philomel, 2006; illustrated by Richard Yarde).

Ms. Campbell’s first marriage, to Tiko Campbell, ended in divorce. She is survived by her husband, Ellis Gordon Jr., whom she married in 1984; her mother, Doris Moore of Los Angeles; a daughter from her first marriage, Maia Campbell of Los Angeles; a stepson, Ellis Gordon III of Mitchellville, Md.; and two grandchildren.

Despite the subject matter of her books, Ms. Campbell expressed hope about the future of American race relations. In an interview with The New York Times in 1995, she described her motivation for writing “Brothers and Sisters,” the story of the friendship between a black banker and her white colleague.

“It was my attempt to bridge a racial gap,” Ms. Campbell said. “That’s the story that never gets told: how many of us really like each other, respect each other.”

You can read one of her interviews here.

Octavia Butler

Octavia Estelle Butler was born June 22, 1947 in Pasadena, California. Her father died when she was still a baby, and her mother raised her on her own, working as a maid. She attended Pasadena City College, where she received an A.A. in 1968. In 1969, she went to Cal State - L.A, and also took a class from Harlan Ellison as part of the Screen Writers' Guild Open Door Program.

Her first story, "Crossover", appeared in the 1971 Clarion anthology, but she only had one other sale in the next five years. After working at a number of blue-collar jobs to support herself, she began her notable career with two in the "Patternist" SF series: Patternmaster (1976), and Mind of My Mind (1977). After standalones Survivor (1978) and Kindred (1979), she returned to the series with Wild Seed (1980). Clay's Ark (1984) was another standalone. "Xenogenesis" books Dawn (1987), Adulthood Rites (1988), and Imago (1989) came next. Much of Butler's shorter fiction was collected in Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995). She won the 1984 Hugo for short story "Speech Sounds", and 1985 Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for novelette "Bloodchild". In 1995, she received a $295,000 MacArthur Foundation ''Genius'' award – the first SF writer to do so.

She is currently developing the "Parable" series dealing with mankind's reaching out to the stars, its origins chronicled in Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998).

"Devil Girl From Mars is the movie that got me writing science fiction, when I was 12 years old. I had already been writing for two years. I began with horse stories, because I was crazy over horses, even though I never got near one. At 11, I was writing romances, and I'm happy to say I didn't know any more about romance than I did about horses. When I was 12, I had this big brown three-ring binder notebook that somebody had thrown away, and I was watching this godawful movie on television. (I wasn't allowed to go to the movies, because movies were wicked and sinful, but somehow when they came to the television they were OK.) It was one of those where the beautiful Martian arrives on Earth and announces that all the men on Mars have died and they need more men. None of the Earthmen want to go! And I thought, 'Geez, I can write a better story than that.' I got busy writing what I thought of as science fiction."

*

"When I was in college, I began Kindred, and that was the first [novel] that I began, knowing what I wanted to do. The others, I was really too young to think about them in terms of 'What do you have to say in this novel?' I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell. But when I did Kindred, I really had had this experience in college that I talk about all the time, of this Black guy saying, 'I wish I could kill all these old Black people that have been holding us back for so long, but I can't because I have to start with my own parents.' That was a friend of mine. And I realized that, even though he knew a lot more than I did about Black history, it was all cerebral. He wasn't feeling any of it. He was the kind that would have killed and died, as opposed to surviving and hanging on and hoping and working for change. And I thought about my mother, because she used to take me to work with her when she couldn't get a baby sitter and I was too young to be left alone, and I saw her going in the back door, and I saw people saying things to her that she didn't like but couldn't respond to. I heard people say in her hearing, 'Well, I don't really like colored people.' And she kept working, and she put me through school, she bought her house – all the stuff she did. I realized that he didn't understand what heroism was. That's what I want to write about: when you are aware of what it means to be an adult and what choices you have to make, the fact that maybe you're afraid, but you still have to act."

*

"In Xenogenesis, I bring in the aliens, but in the 'Parable' books I wanted to keep everything as realistic as I could. I didn't want any powers, any kind of magic or fantastical elements. Even the empathy is not real – it's delusional. I wanted to have human beings in that one book find their own way clear. And I used religion because it seems to me it's something we can never get away from. I've met science fiction people who say, 'Oh well, we're going to outgrow it,' and I don't believe that for one moment. It seems that religion has kept us focused and helped us to do any number of very difficult things, from building pyramids and cathedrals to holding together countries, in some instances. I'm not saying it's a force for good – it's just a force. So why not use it to get ourselves to the stars?

"It seems to me we're not going to do that for any logical reason. It's not going to happen because it's profitable – it may not be. The going certainly won't be. The people who work on it will probably not live to see whether or not they've been successful. It's not like, 'In ten years, we'll go to the moon' – which, unfortunately for us, we did. It might have been better if we had almost made it, but then the Russians did ahead of us. If we had lost the race to the Russians, we would be farther along in space travel. One of the reasons going to the moon was a big thing to do was Sputnik. The Russians were sending up their satellites, and ours were crashing and burning. I was a kid with her eyes glued to the television set back then in the '50s.

"In the 'Parable' books, we have one person who decides this is what religion should be doing, and she uses religion to get us into interstellar space. Sower and Talents were the fictional autobiography of Lauren Olamina, though Talents turned out to be a mother/daughter story. There are no more books about her, but I am working on a book (which may or may not come off, and may be called Parable of the Trickster) about people who go, who do fulfill that destiny and go to this other world."

*

"I've talked to high school kids who are thinking about trying to become a writer and asking 'What should I major in?', and I tell them, 'History. Anthropology. Something where you get to know the human species a little better, as opposed to something where you learn to arrange words.' I don't know whether that's good advice or not, but it feels right to me. You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence. It's just so easy to give up!"

*

"There are a number of myths we live by. For instance, the myth of 'away,' as in 'I'll throw it away.' Where's that? There's no such place. It's going somewhere. Or the myth of 'my little bit won't hurt,' or the obvious myths of 'bigger is better' and 'more is better.' We have all these myths, and we believe in them without even recognizing that they're there. We just act on them – and that's liable to be our downfall."

*

"I don't think of religion as nasty. Religion kept some of my relatives alive, because it was all they had. If they hadn't had some hope of heaven, some companionship in Jesus, they probably would have committed suicide, their lives were so hellish. But they could go to church and have that exuberance together, and that was good, the community of it. When they were in pain, when they had to go to work even though they were in terrible pain, they had God to fall back on, and I think that's what religion does for the majority of the people. I don't think most people intellectualize about religion. They use it to keep themselves alive. I'm not talking about most Americans. We don't need it that way, most of us, now. But there was certainly a time when many of us did, maybe most of us.

"The religion in the 'Parable' books would probably change over time to make it a more comforting religion. For instance, Lauren doesn't believe in life after death, but that's one of the hopes people have. They know they're going to die, so they have to believe, a lot of them, that there's something else. An interviewer I mentioned this to said she didn't feel she needed her religion to be comforting, and I said, 'Well, that's because you're already comfortable.' It's those people who have so little, and who suffer so much, who need at least for religion to comfort them. Nothing else is. Once you grow past Mommy and Daddy coming running when you're hurt, you're really on your own. You're alone, and there's no one to help you.

"I used to despise religion. I have not become religious, but I think I've become more understanding of religion. And I'm glad I was raised as a Baptist, because I got my conscience installed early. I've been around people who don't have one, and they're damned scary. And I think a lot of them are out there running major corporations! How can you do some of the things these people do if you have a conscience? So I think it might be better if there were a little more religion, in that sense. My mother didn't just say, 'Go to church, go to Sunday school.' I did all that, but I could see her struggling to live according to the religion she believed in. My mother worked every day, sometimes on Sundays, and I didn't have a father, and she still managed to install all this."

*

"Parable of the Trickster – if that's what the next one ends up being called – will be the Seattle novel, because I have removed myself to a place that is different from where I've spent most of my life. I remember saying to Vonda McIntyre, 'Part of this move is research,' and it is – it's just that Seattle is where I've wanted to move since I visited there the first time in 1976. I really like the city, but it is not yet home. As they tell writers to do, I'll take any small example of something and build it into a larger example. I've moved to Seattle; my characters have moved to Alpha Centauri, or whatever. (That was not literal.) But they suffer and learn about the situation there a little bit because of what I learn about from my move to Seattle. Writers use everything. If it doesn't kill you, you probably wind up using it in your writing."

Gregory Hines

Gregory Hines, a Tony-winning tap dancer, died on a Saturday in Los Angeles.

He was best known for his roles in films such as The Cotton Club (1984), based around the seminal 1920s New York jazz club, in which he played Sandman Williams.

He was also cast alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov in the thriller White Nights (1985), and alongside Billy Crystal in the comic cop thriller Running Scared (1986).


When I realised I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance
Gregory Hines

Hines was an accomplished dancer whose roles in 1980s films often featured his dancing. He was also a respected choreographer.

In 1992 he won a Tony, US theatre's equivalents of the Oscars, for his part in the musical Jelly's Last Jam.

Hines began his entertainment career in the tap dancing act Hines, Hines and Dad, alongside his brother Maurice and his father.

Star at six

Born in New York in 1946, his mother had urged him to become a tap dancer as a way of getting out of poverty. He started tap as a toddler, learning the dance moves his older brother had been taught in dance class.

At the age of six, he was performing at the Apollo Theatre for two weeks with Maurice.

"I don't remember not dancing," Hines said in a 2001 interview. "When I realised I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance."

The two brothers danced in the musical revue Eubie! in 1978. The brothers later performed together in Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies, and then in The Cotton Club. Dozens of film and TV roles followed.

He had his own TV show, The Gregory Hines Show, in 1997, and was also a regular guest star on comedy Will and Grace.

Ed Bradley

"Be prepared, work hard, and hope for a little luck. Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more luck you might have."
- Ed Bradley

The 1999-00 season marks Co-Editor Ed Bradley's 19th on 60 Minutes. He joined the broadcast as co-editor during the 1981-82 season.

Bradley also reports for primetime specials. His report for 60 Minutes II, "Unsafe Haven" (April 1999), made headlines for exposing unsafe restraining methods and poorly trained workers inside the nation's largest chain of psychiatric hospitals. Another primetime report, "Town Under Siege" (December 1997), about a small town battling the oil industry over toxic waste, was hailed as one of the Ten Best Television Programs of 1997 by Time magazine.

Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Bradley had been a principal correspondent for CBS Reports (1978-81), after serving as CBS News White House correspondent (1976-78). He was also anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News (November 1976-May 1981) and of the CBS News magazine "Street Stories" (January 1992-August 1993).

Bradley was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award grand prize and television first prize for "CBS Reports: In the Killing Fields of America" (January 1995), a three-hour documentary about violence in America, which he co-anchored and reported.

His 60 Minutes work has gained much recognition, including his most recent award, a George Foster Peabody last year for "Big Man, Big Voice" (November 1997), the uplifting story of a German singer who becomes successful despite his birth defects.

In 1995, he won his 11th Emmy Award for a 60 Minutes report on the cruel effects of nuclear testing in the town of Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, a report that also won him an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 1994. That same year, he was honored with an Overseas Press Club Award for two 60 Minutes reports that took viewers inside sensitive military installations in Russia and the United States.

In 1985, he received an Emmy Award for "Schizophrenia," a 60 Minutes report on that misunderstood brain disorder. In 1983, two of Bradley's reports for 60 Minutes won Emmy Awards: "In the Belly of the Beast," an interview with Jack Henry Abbott, a convicted murderer and author, and "Lena," a profile of singer Lena Horne.

He received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton and a 1991 Emmy Award for his 60 Minutes report "Made in China," a look at Chinese forced-labor camps. He received another Emmy for the report "Caitlin's Story" (November 1992), an examination of the controversy between the parents of a deaf child and a deaf association.

In addition to "In the Killing Fields," his work for CBS Reports has included: "Enter the Jury Room" (April 1997), an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award winner that revealed the jury deliberation process for the first time in front of network cameras; "The Boat People" (January 1979), which won Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University, Emmy and Overseas Press Club Awards; "The Boston Goes to China" (April 1979), a report on the historic China visit by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which won Emmy, George Foster Peabody and Ohio State Awards; "Blacks in America: With All Deliberate Speed?" (July 1979), which won Emmy and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards; "Return of the CIA" (June 1980); "Miami: The Trial That Sparked the Riots" (August 1980); "The Saudis" (October 1980) and "Embassy" (January 1981).

Bradley's coverage of the plight of Cambodian refugees, broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and CBS News Sunday Morning, won a George Polk Award in journalism. He also received a duPont citation for a segment on the Cambodian situation broadcast on CBS News' Magazine series.

He covered the presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter during Campaign '76 and served as a floor correspondent for CBS News' coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions from 1976 through 1996.

In addition, Bradley contributed reports to two significant CBS News specials, "48 Hours on Crack Street" (1986), the broadcast from which the CBS News magazine 48 Hours evolved, and "The Soviet Union--Seven Days in May" (1987).

Bradley joined CBS News as a stringer in its Paris bureau in September 1971. A year later, he was transferred to the Saigon bureau, where he remained until he was assigned to the CBS News Washington bureau in June 1974.

He was named a CBS News correspondent in April 1973 and, shortly thereafter, was wounded while on assignment in Cambodia. In March 1975, he volunteered to return to Indochina and covered the fall of Cambodia and Vietnam.

Prior to joining CBS News, Bradley was a reporter for WCBS Radio, the CBS owned station in New York (August 1967-July 1971). He had previously been a reporter for WDAS Radio in Philadelphia (1963-67).

Bradley was born June 22, 1941 in Philadelphia. He was graduated from Cheyney (Pa.) State College in 1964 with a B.S. in education.

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Nov. 9, 2006 — Ed Bradley, one of television's most prominent African-American journalists, died of complications from leukemia Thursday. He was 65 years old.

A longtime correspondent for CBS News' "60 Minutes," Bradley's probing questions and salt-and-pepper beard distinguished him for millions of TV viewers. He died this morning at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City.

Bradley was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago but was in remission. He apparently took a turn for the worse two weeks ago, contracting pneumonia and succumbing to the disease.

Colleagues and fans remembered him fondly. "He was the equal of all the celebrities he interviewed, which is why he got so much rich material out of them … because they knew he understood them," said ABC's "Nightline" correspondent Vicki Mabrey, who worked with Bradley at CBS. "I used to call him Mr. Cool."

Bradley, who first joined "60 Minutes" in 1981, won 19 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Paul White Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association for his reports. The Philadelphia native started out as a DJ, making $1.50 an hour spinning Miles Davis and Billie Holiday records.

Bradley's last "60 Minutes" story — interviews with suspects and witnesses in the Duke rape case — made headlines. During his long career, Bradley interviewed a panoply of personalities — Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson. Bradley got the only TV interview that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, granted to television.

Some of Bradley's other memorable reports included China's forced labor camps, the devastating effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on a town in Kazakhstan, the impact of schizophrenia, and an unprecedented look at how juries deliberate.

While reporting for CBS in Vietnam, Bradley was once injured in a mortar attack, narrowly escaping death. "The guy who was standing 2 feet from where I had been standing was killed," he told Communicator magazine. "I got some shrapnel in my back, and it blew a hole through my arm. It just sliced through my arm, so I was lucky. I was lucky."

Although one of the first African-American reporters on national TV, Bradley refused to be pigeonholed by his race and doesn't remember letting racism intimidate him. "I probably was too naive to be afraid [when I started out]; that's because there was no one really ahead of me as a trailblazer," Bradley told USA Weekend. "I mean, I had nuns in school who always said to me, from the fourth grade on, 'You can be whatever you want to be.' I guess I believed them."

Bradley was known for his love of jazz, which first touched his heart when he heard "Teach Me Tonight" from Errol Garner's "Concert by the Sea." He frequently attended the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and often sat in with the musicians. Bradley was lured back into DJ work when he recently hosted the "Jazz at Lincoln Center" radio show.

Accordingly, Bradley has said that his most memorable interview was with jazz legend Lena Horne. The intimate portrait, in which he alternated Horne's performances with his questions, became a "textbook example of what a great television interview can be," wrote TV Guide. "Lena" earned Bradley his first Emmy.

A lifelong sports fan, Bradley was a fixture at New York Knicks basketball games and the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Bradley was married to the artist Patricia Blanchett and had homes in Woody Creek, Colo., and New York City.

taken from Top Blacks

Willard Wigan

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Willard Wigan was born in Birmingham, England in 1957 and is the creator of the smallest works of art on earth. From being a traumatised and unrecognised dyslexic child, he is now emerging as the most globally celebrated micro-miniaturist of all time and is literally capable of turning a spec of dust into a vision of true beauty.

Even he is sometimes at a loss for an explanation as to exactly how he is able to create such treasures. He just gratefully acknowledges that he's been blessed with a God-given talent.

"Peace, appreciation and gratitude are the keys to real achievement and lasting happiness"

Willard can create a masterpiece within the eye of a tiny sewing needle, on the head of a pin, the tip of an eyelash or a grain of sand. Some are many times smaller than the fullstop at the end of this sentence.

"In order to bring it into reality (the physical plane) it is necessary during creation to constantly visualise the work as being successfully completed"

Many are even smaller still, with some being completely invisible to the naked eye yet, when viewed through high power magnification, the effect on the viewer is truly mesmerising. Willard, who is completely self-taught has baffled medical science and been the subject of discussions among micro-surgeons, nano-technologists and at universities worldwide. His work is ground-breaking - partly because of the astounding beauty of vision which challenges the belief system of the mind and partly because it demonstrates that if one person can create the impossible, we all have the potential to transcend our own limiting beliefs about what we are capable of.

He works in total solitude at a quiet retreat in Jersey mainly at night when there is a greater sense of peace in the world and less static electricity to interfere with the immeasurable precision and tolerances required to create the pieces.

The smallest sculptures can only be measured in thousandths of an inch which is why they can sit, very delicately, on a human hair three thousandths of an inch thick. When working on this scale he slows his heartbeat and his breathing dramatically through meditation and attempts to harmonise his mind, body and soul with the Creator. He then sculpts or paints at the centrepoint between heartbeats for total stillness of hand. He likens this process to "trying to pass a pin through a bubble without bursting it." His concentration is intense when working like this and he feels mentally and physically drained at the end of it.