Looking back at the age of 80, Ms. Horne said: “My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free. I no longer have to be a ‘credit.’ I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”
There was only one Lena Horne.
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Photograph © Carol Friedman
The one and only Lena Horne turned 90 years old on June 30. Happy Birthday and God bless you Ms. Horne!
The Fiery Elegance of Lena Horne via 55 Secret Street.
Lena Horne Turns 90 via NPR's Tell Me More - Donald Bogle talks to Michel Martin about Ms. Horne's legendary career as a singer and an actress.
Lena Horne Turns 90 via NPR's All Things Considered - A tribute to Ms. Horne with her music.
Hey Nichelle, How's the book coming along?
Writers Like Me by Martha Southgate via The New York Times (Times Select). So what’s holding us up? Sometimes it’s just the ordinary difficulty of juggling family, writing and earning a living. But African-American writers also speak of a larger problem of what I’d call internal or cultural permission. It’s just plain harder to decide to be a writer if you don’t have a financial cushion or a long cultural tradition of people going out on that bohemian limb. Consider the case of Edward P. Jones. He published his first book, “Lost in the City,” in 1992 (he was 41 at the time) to much critical acclaim and a number of significant honors, if not huge sales. He returned to his day job at Tax Notes magazine, where he remained until he was laid off 10 years later. He then wrote “The Known World” in about six months — though he told me he’d been thinking about it nearly those whole 10 years. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize.
African-American Writers: A Reading List by Martha Southgate (connected to the above article). Some of her selections are favorites for me too, especially Erasure by Percival Everett and Elbow Room, the Pulitzer Prize-winning story collection by James Alan McPherson.
The Unstoppable Rise of the Afropolitan
Some black Americans returning to Africa via MSNBC - Marcus Manns is among a growing number of black Americans trading potentially lucrative careers and relative comfort back home for a new life in Africa, where the former slave-trading hub of Ghana is wooing Americans with some of the easiest immigration rules on the continent. That includes a "right of abode" for qualifying American members of the African diaspora, echoing Israel's offer of automatic citizenship for Jews.
Mayor Cory A. Booker is not really black. One of his top aides moonlights as a cocaine dealer.
The city is about to lay off African-American crossing guards and replace them with low-wage immigrants.
“From what I hear, Cory Booker doesn’t even live here,” Esta Williams, 75, said during a raucous Municipal Council meeting last month where dozens of residents called for his removal from office. “I hear he lives in a fancy house in the suburbs.”
In the year since his inauguration, Mr. Booker has enjoyed national celebrity as a rising black political star, but here at home, he and his chief aides find themselves at war with an amorphous enemy of innuendo that preys on this city’s deep-seated mistrust of outsiders and fear of change.
Key words: "fear of change." Throw in a little intimidation of light skin and education along with garden variety 'hatin' and that will give you an idea of many of Cory Booker's opponents. Legitimate constructive criticism of his administration is often mixed in with this foolishness. And that's not to mention that he is only one person and he has been in office for exactly one year! What do people expect? One year is not enough time to undo several decades of corruption and cronyism.
Another key is the jarring generational and cultural shift. There is a minister quoted in this article that was "offended" that Mayor Booker told him that the best way to reach him was via text messaging.
Dr. James described Mr. Booker, who has a degree from Oxford, as “an academic freak” and “multimillionaire,” and said he felt particularly bruised by the mayor’s refusal to make him City Hall’s official liaison to Newark’s clergy. He said he used to reach the former mayor with one phone call, and was offended when Mr. Booker suggested that the best way to communicate with him was text messaging.
For his part, Mr. Booker, in an interview in his office a few days later, rattled off a list of things he had done for Newark’s black residents: renovating two recreation centers, creating 1,300 summer jobs for teenagers and establishing a $2 million college scholarship fund. Dr. James, the mayor said, was simply upset that he had not been given a job. Mr. Booker said that text messaging is how even his closest friends get in touch.
Welcome to the 21st century Pastor. We're into text messaging.
His remarks remind me of Ron Rice Sr.'s remark during the mayoral race (he lost to Booker) "I don't know nothing about no "blueberry" or "Blackberry."
Sad.
Color of Cabinet Has Fenty on the Defensive via The Washington Post - Since taking office six months ago, Fenty (D) has replaced African Americans with non-black people in four of the city's highest-profile jobs: city administrator, police chief, fire chief and schools chief. 
Among those who hold arguably the 10 most influential positions, five are white, three are of Asian descent and one is Latino. Only one -- Neil O. Albert, the deputy mayor for planning and economic development -- is black. In a city that is 57 percent black and has a predominantly black government workforce, the mayor's choices have not escaped criticism.
As to the racial makeup of his inner circle, Fenty points out that he has appointed black directors to lead critical city agencies, including transportation, public works and the sports commission. Of 48 appointees, 21 are black.
"I look at my entire Cabinet and I absolutely see people who are African American. I see Asians. I see Latinos, Indian Americans, Caucasians," Fenty said. "I think that's what people would want to see in cabinets. They want to see themselves in it. I've tried very hard to do so."
Inching Into The Public Eye: Michelle Fenty looks for ways to 'Make a Contribution' via The Washington Post - Michelle Fenty, however, is an enigma, not easily locatable in the 
District's political landscape. She is an inconspicuous lawyer in a downtown firm. She is seen about town on the mayor's tuxedoed arm at official dinners and galas, but her thoughts on D.C. affairs are little known. In public, she has the elegant reserve of her British upbringing, but close friends see the down-home bonhomie of her Jamaican ancestry. She is not invisible like her immediate predecessor, Diane Williams, nor as politically active as her predecessor, Cora Masters Barry. Fenty is a private person married to arguably the most public District resident.
Michelle Obama at the New York Historical Society by David Patrick Columbia via New York Social Diary -
A very hot late June Tuesday in New York. At noontime I went over to the New-York Historical Society for their annual Strawberry Festival luncheon. This originally started as a Ladies Lunch in the 19th century, and it was at the beginning of the strawberry season, and strawberries were a great treat, almost a luxury. Strawberries and cream, strawberry shortcake. Ahh, the simple things. Today's speaker was Michelle Obama, the wife of the Presidential candidate. She was introduced by a friend from Chicago, Judith Byrd-Blaylock, a businesswoman and political activist who has been close to the Obamas for a number of years.
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