Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton

“”” Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton(October 13, 1922 Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to the Social Security Administration death records, he was born Clifton Nathaniel. Clifton claimed to have been given the “Sweetwater” nickname as a boy because of his love of soft drinks. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he became an outstanding basketball and baseball player at DuSable High School, graduating in 1942. He attended Xavier University of Louisiana and then served with the United States Army for three years, fighting in Europe during World War II.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to the Social Security Administration death records, he was born Clifton Nathaniel. Clifton claimed to have been given the “Sweetwater” nickname as a boy because of his love of soft drinks. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he became an outstanding basketball and baseball player at DuSable High School, graduating in 1942. He attended Xavier University of Louisiana and then served with the United States Army for three years, fighting in Europe during World War II.

After the war, Sweetwater Clifton joined the New York Rens, an all-black professional basketball team that toured throughout the United States. Noted for his large hands, which required a size 14 glove, he was invited to join the Harlem Globetrotters, for whom he played from the summer of 1948 to the spring of 1950. Still a talented baseball first baseman, during the basketball off-season in 1949 Clifton played for the Chicago American Giants in Negro League baseball. By 1950, his performance with the Globetrotters, in particular his exceptional ball-handling ability, led to his signing a contract with an NBA team.

Clifton played his first game for the New York Knicks four days after the debut of Washington Capitols’s Earl Lloyd, the first black player to appear in an NBA game. Already 27 years old when he made his debut, Clifton in his first season helped lead the team to its first-ever appearance in the NBA finals, losing in game seven. During his eight seasons in the NBA, Clifton averaged 10 points and 9 rebounds per game. He was named to the 1957 NBA All-Star team, scoring 8 points in 23 minutes in the game. At age 34, he became the oldest player in NBA history to be named an All-Star. In 1957, Clifton was part of a multi-player trade between the Knicks and the Detroit Pistons, but after one season in Detroit he retired from basketball. In the summer of 1958, he joined the Detroit Clowns baseball team in the Negro Leagues, along with his former Harlem Globetrotters teammate Reece “Goose” Tatum. In 1961, he was coaxed out of retirement by the Chicago Majors of the fledgling American Basketball League (ABL). After the league folded at the end of 1962, the 40-year-old Clifton retired permanently.

Clifton’s contributions to his community during his sporting career and after his playing days have been recognized by the Associated Black Charities of New York City. They have honored him by naming one of the Black History Maker Awards the Nathaniel ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton Award. In 2005, the New York Knicks basketball team re-named their monthly “City Spirit Award” in his honor. The Sweetwater Clifton City Spirit Award is given to a member of the community who goes above and beyond his or her normal duties to make the lives of others in the tri-state area better.

Clifton, who played softball for the Brown Bombers and Capitol Records team of the “Daddy O” Daylie League, was also inducted into Chicago 16 Inch Softball Hall of Fame.On his death in 1990, Sweetwater Clifton was interred in the Restvale Cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip.

Clifton’s contributions to his community during his sporting career and after his playing days have been recognized by the Associated Black Charities of New York City. They have honored him by naming one of the Black History Maker Awards the Nathaniel ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton Award. In 2005, the New York Knicks basketball team re-named their monthly “City Spirit Award” in his honor. The Sweetwater Clifton City Spirit Award is given to a member of the community who goes above and beyond his or her normal duties to make the lives of others in the tri-state area better. Clifton, who played softball for the Brown Bombers and Capitol Records team of the “Daddy O” Daylie League, was also inducted into Chicago 16 Inch Softball Hall of Fame.On his death in 1990, Sweetwater Clifton was interred in the Restvale Cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip. “””

Lynette Woodard

“””Lynette Woodard (born August 12, 1959 in Wichita, Kansas) is a retired American basketball player who made history by becoming the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters and who tasted success abroad before finally reaching, at age 38, her dream of playing in an American women’s professional basketball league. While at Wichita North High School, Woodard won two state basketball titles.

Woodard went on to play college basketball with the University of Kansas (KU) in 1978, playing there until 1981. She was a four-time All-American at KU, and she averaged 26 points per game and scored 3,649 points in total during her four years there, and was the first KU woman to be honored by having her jersey retired. She is major college basketball’s career women’s scoring leader.

In 1981, she was signed by an Italian team, UFO Schio (Vicenza), to participate in their league. In 1984, she was a member of the United States’ women’s basketball team that won the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. In 1985, Woodard made headlines when she became the first woman ever to play with the Globetrotters. The news coverage of this event gave her much attention, and the fact that she travelled to many countries worldwide with the Globetrotters, helped women’s professional teams from many different parts of the world take notice.

Incidentally, Woodard’s cousin, Hubert “Geese” Ausbie, also played for the Globetrotters from 1961 to 1985. In 1989, she was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame. In 1990, she was signed by a Japanese women’s team to play in their Asian country. She played there until 1993. In 1997, she was signed by the Cleveland Rockers of the newly-founded Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The following year, she was selected in an expansion draft by the Detroit Shock. During the WNBA’s off-season, she began working as a stockbroker in New York City.

She retired from playing in 1999, and returned to the University of Kansas serving as the Assistant Coach of the women’s basketball team. In late January 2004, she was named Interim Head Coach filling for the regular coach Marian Washington, who had retired due to medical reasons. She also served as Athletics Director for the Kansas City, Missouri School District from 1992 to 1994. In September 2004, she was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. And in June 2005, she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee.Woodard now works as a financial consultant for A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas.”””

Samuel L. Jackson

“””Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee. After gaining critical acclaim for his role in Jungle Fever in 1991, he appeared in films such as Patriot Games, Amos & Andrew, True Romance and Jurassic Park. In 1994, he was cast as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, and his performance received several award nominations and critical acclaim.

Jackson has since appeared in over 100 films including Die Hard with a Vengeance, The 51st State, Jackie Brown, Unbreakable, The Incredibles, Black Snake Moan, Shaft, Snakes on a Plane, as well as the Star Wars prequel trilogy and small roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Inglourious Basterds.

After the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackson attended the funeral in Atlanta as one of the ushers.Jackson then flew to Memphis to join an equal rights protest march. In a Parade interview Jackson revealed: “I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn’t shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different — not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence.” In 1969, Jackson and several other students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees (including a nearby Martin Luther King, Sr.) hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the school’s curriculum and governance.The college eventually agreed to change its policy, but Jackson was charged with and eventually convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony. Jackson was then suspended for two years for his criminal record and his actions (although he would later return to the college to earn his Bachelor of Arts in Drama in 1972).

“I would like to think because of the things I did, my daughter can do the things that she does. She barely has a recognition that she’s black.”—Jackson reflecting on his actions during the Civil Rights Movement.

While he was suspended, Jackson was employed as a social worker in Los Angeles. Jackson decided to return to Atlanta, where he met with Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and others active in the Black Power movement.Jackson revealed in the same Parade interview that he began to feel empowered with his involvement in the movement, especially when the group began buying guns.However, before Jackson could become involved with any significant armed confrontation, his mother sent him to Los Angeles after the FBI told her that he would die within a year if he remained with the Black Power movement.

He played Nick Fury in Iron Man and Iron Man 2, the first two of a nine-film commitment as the character for the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Jackson’s many roles have made him one of the highest grossing actors at the box office. Jackson has won multiple awards throughout his career and has been portrayed in various forms of media including films, television series, and songs. In 1980, Jackson married LaTanya Richardson, with whom he has one daughter, Zoe.

In October 2011, Jackson surpassed Frank Welker as the highest grossing film actor of all-time.

In 1980, Jackson married actress and sports channel producer LaTanya Richardson, whom he met while attending Morehouse College. The couple have a daughter, Zoe, born in 1982.In 2009, they started their own charitable organization to help support education.Jackson and Richardson live in Los Angeles, California.

Jackson campaigned during the 2008 Democratic Primary for then Illinois Senator Barack Obama in Texarkana, Texas. He said “Barack Obama represents everything I was told I could be growing up. I am a child of segregation. When I grew up and people told me I could be president, I knew it was a lie. But now we have a representative… the American Dream is a reality. Anyone can grow up to be a president.””””

Alice Coachman

“””Alice Marie Coachman (born November 9, 1923 in Albany, Georgia) is an American former athlete. She specialized in high jump, and was the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. In 2002 she was designated a Women’s History Month Honoree by the National Women’s History Project^.

Coachman dominated the AAU outdoor high jump championship from 1939 through 1948, but was unable to compete in the Olympic Games as they were cancelled in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II.

In the high jump finals of the 1948 Summer Olympics, Coachman leaped 1.68 m (5 ft 6⅛ in) on her first try. Her nearest rival, Great Britain’s Dorothy Tyler, matched Coachman’s jump, but only on her second try. Coachman was the only American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics in 1948.

Coachman also excelled in the indoor and outdoor 50 m dash and the outdoor 100 m dash. Representing Tuskegee Institute, Coachman also ran on the national champion 4 x 100-meter relay team in 1941 and 1942. Coachman is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, inducted in 1998 during the sorority’s international conference.”””

David Dinkins

“””David Norman Dinkins (born July 10, 1927) is a former politician from New York City. He was the Mayor of New York City from 1990 through 1993; he was the firstand is, to date, the only African American to hold that office.

Dinkins was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and raised by his father, his parents having separated when he was six years old.He moved to Harlem as a child but returned to Trenton and attended Trenton Central High School, where he graduated in 1945 in the top 10 percent of his class. After graduation, he attempted to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, but was told that a racial quota had been filled. He served in the Marine Corps from 1945 through 1946.

Dinkins graduated magna cum laude from Howard University with a degree in mathematics. He later graduated from Brooklyn Law School. Dinkins rose through the Democratic Party organization in Harlem and became part of an influential group of African-American politicians that included Denny Farrell, Percy Sutton, Basil Paterson, and Charles Rangel; the latter three together with Dinkins were known as the “Gang of Four”. As an investor, Dinkins was one of fifty African American investors who helped Percy Sutton found Inner City Broadcasting Corporation in 1971. He served briefly in the New York State Legislature.

Dinkins was named Deputy Mayor by Mayor Abraham D. Beame but was ultimately not appointed. He served as President of the Board of Elections from 1972 to 1973, and City Clerk from 1975 to 1985.He was elected Manhattan Borough President in 1985 on his third run for that office. Dinkins was elected Mayor of New York City on November 7, 1989, defeating three-term incumbent Mayor Ed Koch and two others in the Democratic primary and Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani in the general election.

Dinkins was elected in the wake of a corruption scandal that involved several Democratic leaders in New York City. Mayor Koch, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was politically damaged by the corruption in his administration and his handling of racial issues, and among the candidates Dinkins was his greatest challenger. Additionally, the fact that Dinkins is African-American helped him avoid criticism he was ignoring the black vote by campaigning to whites. A large turnout of African-American voters was vital to his election and he campaigned throughout the city.

In 1990, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Dinkins was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Dinkins sits on the Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America.Dinkins also sits on the Honorary Founders Board, having worked with the Jazz Foundation to save the homes and the lives of America’s elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina, since its inception.”””

Tyra Banks

“””Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973) is an American model, media personality, actress, occasional singer, author and businesswoman. She first became famous as a model, appearing twice on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and working for Victoria’s Secret as one of their original Angels. Banks is the creator and host of the UPN/The CW reality television show America’s Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Banks began modeling in the 11th grade. She later went to Paris, France to do some runway modeling. Banks was the first African American woman on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.In 1997, she received the VH1 award for Supermodel of the Year.That same year, she became the first-ever African American chosen for the cover of the Victoria’s Secret catalog. She is one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angels. Tyra Banks launched in March 2011 her fashion and beauty website typeF.com, which she co-created with Demand Media. typeF.com features articles, images, product recommendations and videos featuring Tyra and fashion and beauty experts.

In 1999, Tyra Banks established the TZONE program, which aimed at leadership and life skills development.Banks acts as the patron for TZONE, a leadership program created by Banks for young girls that according to the organization, “reinforces core values of trust and support, challenges teen girls to resist negative social pressures, and enhances self-empowerment—inspiring girls to become confident leaders in their communities.” She has also established the Tyra Banks Scholarship, a fund aimed at providing African-American girls the opportunity to attend her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School. In 2005, TZONE transformed from a camp into a public charity, the Tyra Banks TZONE Foundation.

In 2010, Banks re-signed with her former modeling agency IMG Models. Banks is now a contributor of Vogue Italia’s website. In 2011, Banks enrolled in the Owner/President Management Program (OPM) at the Harvard Business School. Banks graduated from Harvard in February 2012.”””

Carl Brashear

“””Carl Maxie Brashear (January 19, 1931 – July 25, 2006) was the first African American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diverin 1970. From Tonieville, Kentucky, the sixth of eight children to sharecroppers McDonald and Gonzella Brashear. In 1935, the family settled on a farm in Sonora, Kentucky. Brashear attended Sonora Grade School from 1937 to 1946. Brashear enlisted in the United States Navy on February 25, 1948, shortly after the Navy had desegregated. He graduated from the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first African-American to attend and graduate from the Diving & Salvage School and the first African-American U.S. Navy Diver. Brashear was also the first African-American U.S. Navy Master Diver and the first amputee diver to be certified or re-certified as a U.S. Navy diver.

In January 1966, in an accident now known as the Palomares incident, a B28 nuclear bomb was lost off the coast of Palomares, Spain after two United States Air Force aircraft of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), a B-52G Stratofortress bomber and a KC-135A Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft, collided during aerial refueling. Brashear was serving aboard the USS Hoist (ARS-40) when it was called in to find and recover the missing bomb for the Air Force. The warhead was found after two and a half months of searching.During recovery operations on March 23, 1966, a line used for towing broke loose, causing a pipe to strike Brashear’s left leg below the knee, nearly shearing it off.He was evacuated to Torrejon Air Base in Spain, then to the USAF Hospital at Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany; and finally to the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. Beset with persistent infection and necrosis, and faced with years of recovery and rehabilitation, Brashear convinced his doctors to amputate the lower portion of his leg.

Brashear remained at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth from May 1966 until March 1967 recovering and rehabilitating from the amputation. From March 1967 to March 1968, Brashear was assigned to the Harbor Clearance Unit Two, Diving School, preparing for return to full active duty and diving. In April 1968, after a long struggle, he became the first amputee to be certified as a diver. In 1970, he became the first African-American U.S. Navy Master Diver, and served ten more years beyond that, achieving the rank of Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate in 1971.Brashear was motivated by his beliefs that “It’s not a sin to get knocked down; it’s a sin to stay down” and “I ain’t going to let nobody steal my dream”.”””

Tina Turner

“””Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of hits including “River Deep, Mountain High” and the 1971 hit “Proud Mary”. With the publication of her autobiography I, Tina (1986), Turner revealed severe instances of spousal abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. After virtually disappearing from the music scene for several years following her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with the single “Let’s Stay Together” and the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer.

Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film’s theme, “We Don’t Need Another Hero”, was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.

One of the world’s most popular entertainers, Turner has been called the most successful female rock artist and was named “one of the greatest singers of all time” by Rolling Stone. Her combined album and single sales total approximately 180 million copies worldwide.She has sold more concert tickets than any other solo music performer in history. She is known for her energetic stage presence,powerful vocals, career longevity, and widespread appeal. In 2008, Turner left semi-retirement to embark on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. Turner’s tour became one of the highest selling ticketed shows of 2008–2009.Turner was raised a Baptist, but converted to Buddhism and credits the spiritual chants with giving her the strength that she needed to get through the rough times. Rolling Stone ranked her at 63 on their 100 greatest artists of all time and considers her the “Queen of Rock and Roll”.”””

Jimi Hendrix

“””James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942– September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in musical history, and one of the most influential musicians of his era across a range of genre.

After initial success in Europe with his group The Jimi Hendrix Experience, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. He often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback

Hendrix, as well as his friend Eric Clapton, popularized use of the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock which he often used to deliver an exaggerated sense of pitch in his solos, particularly with high bends, complex guitar playing, and use of legato. As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic phasing effects for rock recording.

Hendrix was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King and Elmore James, rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper, and the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Hendrix (who was then known as ‘Maurice James’) began dressing and wearing a moustache like Little Richard when he performed and recorded in his band from March 1, 1964 through to the spring of 1965.In 1966, Hendrix stated, “I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice”.

Hendrix won many of the most prestigious rock music awards in his lifetime, and has been posthumously awarded many more, including being inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. An English Heritage blue plaque was erected in his name on his former residence at Brook Street, London, in September 1997. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6627 Hollywood Blvd.) was dedicated in 1994. In 2006, his debut US album, Are You Experienced, was inducted into the United States National Recording Registry, and Rolling Stone named Hendrix the top guitarist on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all-time in 2003.”””

Roxanne Shanté

“”” Roxanne Shanté (born Lolita Shanté Gooden on November 9, 1969) is an American hip-hop pioneer. Born and raised in the Queensbridge Projects of Queens, NYC, Shanté first gained attention through the Roxanne Wars and her association with the Juice Crew. It was reported by Blender in 2008 and more extensively in a New York Daily News account in 2009, that Shanté earned her bachelor’s degree from Marymount Manhattan College and her Master’s and Ph.D in psychology from Cornell University, and that a quirk in her recording contract obligated Warner Music to fund her college education. This was not a new claim by Shanté; she spoke of it in length on the Beef II documentary, which was released in 2004.

Shanté’s career began at the age of fourteen when she entered the influential world of record producer Marley Marl, radio DJ Mr. Magic, and Tyrone Williams, who were talking about how UTFO had canceled its appearance at a show that it was promoting. Shanté offered to record an answer to UTFO’s recent hit “Roxanne, Roxanne,” which was about a woman who rejects the members of the group. The men agreed and the result was “Roxanne’s Revenge,” a confrontational and profane song in which Shanté assumed the role of Roxanne, dissing UTFO over a Marley Marl-produced instrumental (The official UTFO response to its own song was “The Real Roxanne,” with artists Elease Jacks and later Adelaida Martinez assuming the role of Roxanne and eventually recording under the same stage name as the song title). Shanté’s version and the Real Roxanne’s version sparked the Roxanne Wars and made Shanté a hip-hop star in the process. The single would go on to sell over 250,000 copies in the New York area alone. One of the founding members of the Juice Crew, most of her tracks would be produced by Marley Marl, with the exception of several songs on Shanté’s last album, 1992’s The Bitch Is Back.

As an MC, Shanté was renowned for her ability to freestyle (improvise) entire songs. “Roxanne’s Revenge” was an example, reportedly written as it was recorded—in one take. However, the original version of the song was rerecorded after UTFO sued over the usage of its original backing track; the new version featured slightly different music with less profanity. People are most familiar with this version, which appears on the original 12-inch single released in 1984, with the original on the reverse side. In 1988, Shanté and Rick James had a hit with “Loosey’s Rap.”

By the age of 25, Shanté was largely retired from the recording industry. She continued to make occasional guest appearances and live performances, as well as mentor young female hip-hop artists. She did the latter by making a cameo appearance on VH1’s hip hop reality show Ms. Rap Supreme and gave rap-battle strategies to the finalists of that show. She also took part in a series of Sprite commercials during the late 1990s. She returned to performing, and in 2008, her song “Roxanne’s Revenge” was ranked number 42 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs; she re-recorded the song the following year.””””