Murder, Mystery and Mayhem Laced with Morality

James Baldwin was born August 2, 1924 and died December 1, 1987. He was an American writer and activist. As a writer, he garnered acclaim across various mediums including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, “Go tell it on the Mountain,” was published in 1953; decades later, Time Magazine included the novel on its list of the hundred best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. His first essay collection, “Notes of a Native Son,” was published in 1955. His works were fictionalized and presented fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures. Themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class intertwined to create integral narratives that ran parallel with many other major political movements during his time. His reputation, even after death has been hugely applauded. Also, some of his works have been adapted for the screen. An unfinished manuscript, as a documentary film, “I am not your your Negro,” which was nominated for best documentary feature at the 89th Academy Awards. One of his novels, “If Beale Street could Talk, “ was adapted into the academy award winning film of the same name in 2018.

Born Everett Leroy Jones October 7, 1934, deceased- January 9, 2014 at age 79. This American writer was a poet actor, teacher, theater director, theater producer, activist. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. He received a PEN/Beyond Margins award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone. His career spanned almost 52 years and his themes ranged from black liberation to white racism. Some of his most famous poems are, “The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues,” “The Book of Monk,” and “New Music, New Poetry.” His work drew on topics from the world of society, music, and literature. Some people criticized him as being edgy and controversial. However, his poetry and writing have been championed as some of the most respected and most widely published of his generation.

Miltred Dolores Jeter was born on July 22, 1939 in Central point, Virginia. She was of African-American, European, and Native American descent. Mildred Loving, who was a reluctant activist in the civil rights movement of the 1960s when she and her husband Richard loving, successfully challenged Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage. In marrying, the couple violated Virginia’s racial integrity act. After they were ordered to leave the state, Mildred contacted them attorney general Robert Kennedy, who suggested she contact the ACLU. Following the case Loving versus Virginia, the Supreme Court struck down the Virginia law in 1967, also ending the remaining ban on interracial marriages in other states. The Lovings lived as a legal married couple in Virginia until Richard’s death in 1975.

Christian was born December 12, 1943 in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and later moved at 15 years of age to Milwaukee Wisconsin to attend Marquette University where she graduated cum laude. She later enrolled at Columbia University. She then went on to become a lecturer at City College of the New York University of New York. There she worked in a program to promote higher education to minority and underprivileged scholars known as (SEEK) search for education, elevation, knowledge. Once she earned her PhD she was promoted to assistant professor where she taught English. The following year she became an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1972 she began work in creating the African-American studies department at the University. She is a trailblazer and assisted with the creation of programs concentrating on African American studies. She passed away on June 25, 2000.

Whitehead was born in New York City on November 6, 1969 and is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work The intuitionist and The Underground Railroad in 2016, for which he won the 2016 national book award for fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for fiction; he won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction again in 2020 for The Nickel boys. He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Genius Grant. After graduating from college, he wrote for the Village Voice. While working at the Voice, he began drafting his first novel. Whitehead’s seventh novel, The Nickel Boys was inspired by the real life story of the Dozier school for Boys (part of the Florida Department of juvenile justice) in Florida where children convicted of minor offenses suffered horrific abuse and many were killed. Many of the murders are still being investigated at the time of this broadcast and it is believed that over 100 bodies were buried on the school grounds. Three times as many black as white students died and were buried at this school.

Author Rachael M. Colby was born and raised in Jamaica, she is an award winning writer and she resides in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She is a wife, artist, work in progress, avid Tweeter-#HealthyFaith Chat Leader, Rachael writes to glorify God, encourage believers, and reach the lost. You can contact Rachael on her website, tattooitonyourheart.com -a place for seekers, followers and writers, and on Twitter, Facebook, and on Instagram.

Maya Angelou, born MarguerIte Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 and passed away May 28, 2014 was an American poet memorist, and civil rights activist. She wrote seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television show spending over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. She is best known for her series of by autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adulthood. The best known book is; “I know why the caged bird sings,” which told her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. She made approximately 80 appearances a year (in the 1990’s) on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her 80s. In 1993, she recited her poem, “On the pulse of the morning” at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton.

Lorraine Hansberry ( May 19, 1930- January 13, 1965) earned a special place in history as the first African-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway. As the daughter of Charles Hansberry, AKA the “kitchenette king”, Hansberry grew up on Chicago’s South Side in an affluent family. Despite her family’s wealth, she experienced racism. Hansberry’s father bought a house in a racially mixed neighborhood when she was eight years old, which prompted vicious attacks from their white neighbors. These attacks had a lasting impact on Hansberry, and she would later capture the essence of her family’s experience in her very successful play, A Raisin in the Sun. Theatergoers enjoyed the universal appeal of Hansberry’s plays, though she also seamlessly forged a connection between her art and hot-button issues which personally affected her—like racial equity, women’s rights, and the gay rights movement—that may have otherwise alienated mainstream audiences. Her skillful approach to making controversial topics accessible to the general public wasn’t limited to the stage. As she rose to fame, she became a regular guest at televised debates and town halls, sharing her ideas with the influencers of the 1960s. She notably participated in a meeting with Robert F. Kennedy, who served as Attorney General at the time, along with James Baldwin and other Black cultural leaders to discuss race relations in the United States. Widely recognized as a brilliant writer and thinker, Hansberry’s promising career was cut short by a quick and brutal battle with pancreatic cancer at 34. She died on the closing night of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, the second of her plays to be performed in her lifetime. Her body of work may be sparse, but her words continue to inspire readers generations after her death.

Notable works: A Raisin in the Sun, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Les Blancs (published posthumously)

Eric Jerome Dickey was born in Memphis Tennessee on July 7 1961 and died January 3 2021. Although best known for his incredible success as an author, he started out as an engineer and software developer.

After moving to LA for a software job, he realized his love for acting and stand-up comedy. As he began writing his own material he found he loved writing and began writing short stories and articles. Many of these became novels. He also wrote a graphic novel including the X-Men.

A few of Dickey’s books became touring plays as well as movies.

Zora Neale Hurston lived from January 7, 1891 to January 28, 1960. She was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the 1900s American south and published research on it. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston was born in Alabama and moved with her family to Florida in 1894. She used Florida as a setting for many of her stories. In her early career she conducted tons of research while attending Barnard College and Columbia University. She had an interest in African American and Caribbean folklore and how these contributed to the black community’s identity.

Read her work and you will find out what a “toe” party was!