In 2002, I interviewed Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach (CLICK to view TBJ Show #2519 — THE EVOLUTION OF BLACK STUDIES) and he and I discussed the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa that he founded. Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday, nor is it meant to replace Christmas. At…
Circumstances surrounding the trial, the assassination itself, accounts in the Press and subsequent official actions were peculiar, and to this day, the question of who killed Malcolm is still with us. Then and Now: My 1981 Conversation with Talmadge Hayer. Concise. Personal. Malcolm X was killed on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in…
Decades before Hollywood discovered this Academy Award winner, his 1982 performance on Tony Brown’s Journal as Malcolm X (the physical resemblance is stunning) marked the striving-actor young Denzel Washington’s place in history. It was his first performance before a national audience, thanks to stage producer Woodie King, Jr. The New York Off-Broadway play produced by…
“A REAL TOUGH GUY” GEN. FRANK E. PETERSEN: Tony Brown sits down and talks one-on-one with the US Marines’ 1st Black general – General Frank E. Petersen. In a 2016 ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, DDG 121, will be named…
Red Tails and Black Aces: As a result of the “Tuskegee Experiment” being a proven success and used as a basis to demonstrate that Blacks could perform with excellence and in air combat and leadership roles, President Harry Truman, in 1948, signed the executive order to integrate the entire military. The mere decision to go…
The Tuskegee Airmen — Part 3 – Jim Crow’s Graveyard. Shooting down German airplanes, rather than effectively carrying out the assigned duties of close ground support and bomber escort, emerged as the criterion for the judgment of combat performance for the 99th. Ironically, at the height of the controversy stateside, the 99th received a reassignment…
Criticism of the 99th’s overseas combat record was instantaneous and virulent. After only a few months in combat, the Commander of the 12th Air Support Command assailed the performance of the Black pilots. “Officers of all professions,” he said, felt that “the Negro type has not the proper reflexes to make a first-class fighter pilot.”…
The Tuskegee Airmen — “America’s Black Air Force” in WWII The pilots of America’s WWII armed forces were highly skilled flyers who became the stars of war stories and the ingredients of legends. These Black pilots were and are the first line of defense, the protectors of our fleets and the rulers of the skies…
“JAZZ LEGEND: DONALD BYRD” Guest Donald Byrd shares his jazz career with Tony Brown and a live studio audience. As a sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while remaining a jazz artist. As…
“The hunt for ancestral talent or character that might explain the birth of a genius is usually futile. In the case of Benjamin Banneker, however, it has intriguing aspects that refuse to be ignored,” writes Charles A. Cerami in “Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot.” Banneker’s maternal grandmother, Molly Welsh, was originally identified as a…
