Writing from his ranch at Glen Ellen, California, on September 24, 1916 (less than two months before his death), Jack London signed himself as Virginia Prentiss’s “White Pickaninny.”  [1]  And he addressed Prentiss herself as “Mammy Jennie.”  [2]

“It took him 10 years, but Negro Melvin Van Peebles, San Francisco cable car gripman, finally made it to Nob Hill,” wrote Doris Klein for The Hollywood Reporter in October 1967.  [1]

Besides being “the premier chronicler of mid-century African-American life in San Francisco,” David S. Johnson (b.

“That’s the most relaxed woman I’ve ever seen at being perfect,” philanthropist and entrepreneur Camille Cosby said upon seeing TV newswoman Belva Davis in the late 1960s.  

What Cosby saw others soon experienced when in 1967, Davis became the first black woman TV reporter and anchor west of the Mississippi at KPIX (San Francisco).

The most interesting aspect of Black History Month is not the chronicling and celebration of lion-sized personages and courageous events (whether nonviolent or violent).  Nor is it the capitalistic mining of totems.

How many times has an African-American sought some direction or advice in terms of education, health care, economic development, or mentoring, and how many times has another person (whether African-American or not) responded perfunctorily, even deliberately, by suggesting that the person “in need” contact the local chapter of the 100 Black Men of America, Inc.?

Now is the time of year when some Americans revisit the legacy and “dream” of Martin Luther King Jr.  Though Saturday (January 15) marks the 82nd birthday of the civil rights leader who was slain on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, Monday (January 17) is the national MLK observance.

In Benjamin Franklin’s 1758 essay “The Way to Wealth,” the reader finds a collection of adages and admonitions about work and thrift.  One of the proverbs, entitled “For Want of a Nail,” concisely shows what happens when seemingly small matters are left unatt

After serving 23 months in federal prison for his role in an interstate dogfighting ring, Michael Vick, the overall first selection in the 2001 National Football League draft and presently the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, has become a spokesperson for the National Humane Society of the United States.  Recently, Vick was in New Haven, Connecticut, speaking to middle and