GM – FBF – Today’s story is about a person was an American film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and civil activist.

He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death in 2005.

He and his wife were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame; were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994. Enjoy!

Remember – “College ain’t so much where you been as how you talk when you get back.” – Ossie Davis

Today in our History – December 18, 1917 – Ossie Davis was born.

Ossie Davis was a twentieth century renowned African-American film and television artist and Broadway actor. Besides that, he was also known for his work as a playwright, poet and author. Being an actor and author, Davis had a sensitive side which made him conscious of social problems faced by his race which he tried to bring to light as a social activist.

Davis was named Raiford Chatman Davis on his birth. He was born on December 18, 1917, in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia. He came to known as Ossie when a country clerk mistaken R. C for Ossie upon his birth. As it was a regular occupation for white people to threaten and bully the blacks, Davis family was no less a victim of this cruelty. His father was threatened to be shot for occupying such a major work post for a black man. Despite facing the extreme racism, Davis had been able to attend school and was later sent to Howard University. However, he dropped out in 1939 in order to follow his dream career of acting but not before he finished a course at Columbia University School of General Studies.

1939 was the year when he first embarked upon his eight decade long journey of his acting career. He had to face the similar problems as all the black community did when they made any meaningful career choice, such as strong resistance from white. They were allowed to play only stereotypical and low-profile characters. Nevertheless, Davis had different plans as he wanted to play something significant following the example of Sidney Poitier. The struggle for a major role was inevitable for a beginner like himself so he was offered roles like that of a butler or porter. In order to make a difference, he took on whatever small roles came his way very seriously and made them non-stereotypical.

After experiencing career as an actor, he aspired to become a director. Eventually, Ossie Davis became one of the stellar directors of his time along with Melvin Van Peebles, and Gordon Parks. He is credited with directing some notable films including the famous action film Cotton Comes to Harlem, Black Girl and Gordon’s Work. He was one of the few African American actors who found commercial success in such a cut-throat competitive industry as Hollywood. He acted along with Sean Conner in the 1965 movie The Hill and in other films including, The Scalphunters and The Cardinal. He was successful but his success didn’t exceed to massive commercial and critical fame that his contemporaries Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier savored.

In addition to acting and directing, Davis also wrote plays for theater. His Paul Robeson: All-American was often performed in various theaters and enjoyed by the youth. It was not until his late acting career that he received recognition by working in films such as Jungle Fever, Do The Right Thing and She Hate Me. Moreover, he worked as a voice-over artist in the early 1990s CBS sitcom, Evening Shade. Having a unique personality, Davis was requested to host the annual National Memorial Day Concert from Washington, DC. His final acting project included numerous guest roles. One that stands out amongst others was the Showtime drama series The L Word. Ossie Davis passed away on February 9, 2005, in Florida. Research more about this great American talent and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Our story for today centers on this upcoming Tuesday’s runoff elections that will be held in many states for positions that will impact you a lot closer than Washington, D.C. Please go out and vote for the race is not over yet unless you stay home. Back in the days of reconstruction in the State of South Carolina many people of color came out to vote and did something that the no one expected. Enjoy!

Remember – “I had the opportunity to hear a lot of cases and tried to help as many of our colored people as I could but like in all things everything must change nothing remains the same” – Justice Jonathan Jasper Wright, S.C.

Today in our History – December 1, 1877 – Jonathan Jasper Wright was the first Black state Supreme Court justice. He resigned on this day from the state supreme court in South Carolina after the overthrow of the Reconstruction government.

Jonathan Jasper Wright, the first African American to serve on a state Supreme Court, was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania and grew up in nearby Susquehanna County in the northeastern corner of the state. In 1858, Wright traveled to Ithaca, New York where he enrolled in the Lancasterian Academy, a school where older students helped teach younger ones. He graduated in 1860 and for the next five years taught school and read law in Pennsylvania.

Wright’s first known political activity came in October 1864 when he was a delegate to the National Convention of Colored Men meeting in Syracuse. The convention, chaired by Frederick Douglass, passed resolutions calling for a nationwide ban on slavery, racial equality under the law and universal suffrage for adult males. When Wright applied for admission to the Pennsylvania bar, however, he was refused because of his race.

In 1865 the American Missionary Association sent Wright to Beaufort, South Carolina to organize schools for the freedpeople. Wright taught and gave legal advice to the ex-slaves. In 1866 he returned to Pennsylvania and was now, with the backing of a new Federal civil rights law, accepted into the bar as the state’s first African American attorney.

Wright returned to Beaufort in January 1867 and worked as a legal advisor for the Freedman’s Bureau. He soon became active in Republican politics and was chosen as a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention that met in Charleston in January 1868. Later that year he was elected to the South Carolina state senate representing Beaufort. In 1870 the Republican-dominated legislature in Columbia named him a justice of the state supreme court even though he was 30 and had little courtroom experience. He joined two white Democrats on the bench.

By 1876 white conservatives, using fraud, intimidation and violence, managed to gain control over South Carolina’s government. However, it was Wright’s concurrence in a February 1877 decision confirming the authority of a Democratic claimant to the governor’s chair, Wade Hampton, which ended Republican rule, reconstruction in South Carolina and Wright’s tenure as a state Supreme Court Justice. When the new Democrat-controlled legislature attempted to impeach Wright for corruption and malfeasance he at first denied the charges and vowed to defend his name and record. By August 1877, however, realizing he would not win, Wright submitted his resignation.

Wright moved to Charleston where he practiced law, then to Orangeburg where he established the law department at Claflin College. Jonathan Wright died of tuberculosis in Orangeburg in 1885. He was 45 at the time of his death. Research more about Black justices and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – I know that many of you may have seen the movie The Express: The Ernie Davis Story, if you haven’t please see it. Today’s story is about that man, who came from humble beginnings in Elmira, NY. He was an American football player, a halfback who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961 and was its first African-American recipient.

He played college football for Syracuse University and was the first pick in the 1962 NFL Draft. Selected by the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) in December 1961, he was then almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns and issued number 45.

He was diagnosed with leukemia in the summer of 1962, and died less than a year later at age 23, without ever playing in a professional game. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979. Enjoy!

Remember – “Someplace along the line you have to come to an understanding with yourself, and I had reached mine a long time before, when I was still in the hospital. Either you fight or you give up.” – Ernie Davis

Today in our History – November 28, 1961 – Ernie Davis became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963)

ERNIE DAVIS A MAN OF COURAGE – When all his now-fabulous records are broken, as they surely will be someday, when the story of his personal tragedy is no more than an occasional recollection in the mind of an aging generation, Ernie Davis will still be remembered as the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. This award is given annually by New York’s Downtown Athletic Club to the best college football player. Of all such tributes it has come to be regarded as the most important. Sportswriters and broadcasters across the country select the winner, and the award implies something more than just ability on the playing field. It suggests character, too, a quality that Ernie Davis owned in abundance.

Ernie Davis was only 23 when he died in the Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland. During his short lifetime he had not had time to accomplish anything outside of sport; in fact, he had not even had time to fulfill his prime ambition in sport. From the time of his early athletic successes in high school, Ernie had set his heart and mind on being the best professional football player anywhere. He was a shy and quiet young man, and through football he could articulate his pride and the longing for respect and success that burned inside him like a roaring furnace.

Although every college that covets championship football would like to have had Ernie for a student, he chose Syracuse. “I wanted to play in the big time,” he explained, “and a lot of people including Jim Brown persuaded me that I’d have better opportunities there.” When Ernie took over Brown’s old position as the Syracuse halfback, he proudly wore Brown’s No. 44 jersey and during the next three years proceeded to break most of Brown’s records for ground gaining and point scoring.

Ernie followed Jim Brown to the Cleveland Browns as a pro, and, after the financial arrangements had been made, everyone thought that the pairing of these two strong, swift and elusive runners would return the Browns to their former eminence in the National Football League. There was to be a delay, however. Just as that season was about to begin, Ernie Davis was hospitalized with “a blood disorder.” It turned out to be acute monocytic leukemia, the most virulent form of blood cancer.

Davis was treated with a drug known as 6-MP, and within weeks his illness was in a state of total remission. No one knew if it would recur.

Wherever he went in Cleveland that fall, Ernie Davis was as much of a celebrity as if he had been scoring touchdowns for the team. “Hi ya, Ern,” “Hi, Ernie,” “How ya feeling, Ernie?” the fans would shout at him as he hurried, head down, through the stadium on the way to the team’s dressing room. A flicker of a smile would cross Ernie’s usually solemn face as he acknowledged a greeting or reluctantly paused to sign an autograph. He often sat on the bench with the team, one of them in all but uniform. “This is when it’s really frustrating,” he said one afternoon during the Browns’ game with the St. Louis Cardinals. “I’m in real good shape now. But it’s too late in the season to take the time during practice to work me into the setup.”

After the game Ernie went back to the dressing room to congratulate his victorious teammates, and many of the happy players slapped him on the back as if he had been a part of the triumph. Art Modell, the youthful president of the Browns, came up to Davis and said, “Ernie, why don’t you take the Thanksgiving weekend off? You could go spend some time with Helen.” Modeil winked at this reference to Ernie’s girl, Helen Gott, a Syracuse University senior from East Orange, New Jersey.

Later Davis talked about the future in his diffident way, as if every hesitant word were being pulled from within him by the greatest effort. “Starting next year,” he said, “I expect to play 10 or 11 years and then go into business. I’d like to get into purchasing or marketing, something like that where I could use what I learned in college.” Jimmy Brown got Ernie started before the winter was over, helping him land a job with Pepsi-Cola. In his spare time, Ernie played basketball to stay in shape.

Later that week Ernie Davis paid a call on Art Modell at the Browns’ office and said that he had to go into the hospital briefly for some additional treatment. They talked about the future of the football team and how Ernie believed this would be the year the Browns would regain the championship. Ernie apologized, as he often had, for the expense that his medical care was causing the Browns. He entered the hospital on Thursday May 16th and went into a coma on Friday, May 17th.

Early the next morning, Saturday, May 18th he died in his sleep and the news of his death shocked everyone who admires courage and sportsmanship and the many other good, human qualities that Ernie Davis brought to his surroundings. Research more about this great American hero and share with your babies. I will be in executive meetings all day and will not be able to respond to any posts. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s story most people would not know the answer to if asked who as a black person won a PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) contest. Enjoy this story!

Remember – “I hope that with my win more blacks will try to shoot for this title” – George Branham

Today in our History – November 22, 1986: – George Branham from Detroit won the PBA Championship (Pro Bowling).

George Branham III is best known as the first African American to win a major Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) title and one of the very few men of color in professional bowling. Branham was born on November 21, 1962 in Detroit Michigan. His father, George Branham Jr., was an avid bowler who began teaching his son the sport in 1968.

In 1977 Branham’s family moved to San Fernando Valley, California where he attended Polytechnic High School. Although a multisport high school athlete, Branham determined that bowling would be his major sport. After high school Branham chose to hone his bowling skills through working in bowling alleys and playing in bowling leagues. In 1983 he won Southern California’s Junior Bowler of the Year and two years later he turned pro at the age of 23.

Branham professional bowling career got off to a quick start as he achieved eight consecutive tournament wins between 1985 and 1987 including the Brunswick Memorial World Open in 1986 where he became the first African American to win a major PBA event.

His career stalled until 1993 when he moved to Indianapolis and soon afterwards won the Baltimore Open. This win qualified Branham to participate in the Tournament of Champions, the PBA’s premiere event of the season.

Branham bowled an average of 238 in eight games and ultimately beat his opponent Parker Bohn III in the tournament’s final round. His victory earned him $65,000 and the title “King of the Hill.”

In 1996 Branham won the Cleveland Open which was his last major PBA victory. He continued to compete professionally until his retirement in 2003. Over his eighteen year career George Branham won five major PBA titles and scored 23,300 game points making him one of the most successful bowlers in modern history.

In 1993 Branham married Jacquelyn Phend. The couple had one daughter, Hadley. After his retirement, he remained devoted to bowling and opened a bowling alley in Indianapolis. Research more about blacks and PBA bowling and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!