LOUIS STOKES, LONGTIME OHIO CONGRESSMAN WHO LOOKED IN ASSASSINATIONS AND SCANDALS
Associated Press Aug. 19, 2015 | 8:33 a.m. EDT
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes, a 15-term congressman from Ohio who took on tough assignments looking into assassinations and scandals, has died. He was 90.
Rep. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, announces in 1998 that he will retire from Congress at the end of the year. Stokes, a 15-term Ohio congressman who took on tough assignments looking into assassinations and scandals, died late Tuesday.
His death, confirmed by a family statement, comes a month after he announced he had brain and lung cancer.
Stokes was elected to the House in 1968, becoming Ohio’s first black member of Congress and one of its most respected and influential. Just a year earlier, his brother, Carl, had been elected mayor of Cleveland — the first black elected mayor of a major U.S. city.
Louis Stokes was the dean of the delegation until he stepped down in 1999.
Stokes headed the House’s Select Committee on Assassinations that investigated the slayings of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the late 1970s and concluded that in both cases, there “probably” had been a conspiracy.
Later, he served on the Iran-Contra investigative committee, where he drew attention with his unflinching interrogation of Lt. Col. Oliver North.
“What we seek to do in covert operations is to mask the role of the United States from other countries, not from our own government,” Stokes told North at a highly publicized hearing in 1987.
He was just as unflinching with his probe of fellow Democrats when he led the ethics committee investigation of a corruption scandal known as ABSCAM, which led to convictions of one senator and six House members. The senator and five of the House members were Democrats.
Stokes was repeatedly called upon to exercise his law training and diplomatic skills. He did two tours of duty as chairman of the ethics committee and stepped in upon request during the investigation of a case involving the private life of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who retired in 2013.
He was one of the Cold War-era chairmen of the House Intelligence Committee, headed the Congressional Black Caucus and was the first black on the House Appropriations Committee — a powerful panel that decides how much each authorized federal project actually gets to spend.
That post gave him a platform for protecting major Cleveland employers, such as NASA Lewis Research Center, and for directing federal dollars toward hometown projects.
He said he was proud to be in a position to put money into programs that he hoped would improve the quality of life of black people and poor people.
His seniority on that panel eventually brought him the chairmanship of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over all federal housing programs, plus the Department of Veterans Affairs, NASA and many other independent agencies.
Stokes’ public demeanor was patient and analytical, but colleagues also knew him as tough, principled and skillful.
He was one of only nine blacks in the 435-member House when he first took the oath of office in 1969 and never forgot his roots as the child of poverty and great-grandson of a slave.
He spoke often of his admiration for his younger brother, who served two terms as Cleveland mayor and was later a broadcaster and judge. Stokes lost some of his zest for politics after his brother died of cancer in 1996.
He also spoke of his mother, Louise C. Stokes, a widow with an eighth-grade education who supported her sons by working as a cleaning woman. She constantly prodded her boys to “get something in your head so you don’t have to work with your hands like I did,” he recalled. When her boys wanted games, she instead bought books.
Stokes served in the Army from 1943 to 1946 in a segregated unit where he said he experienced racism for the first time in his life.
Heading from Cleveland to take his entrance physical in Columbus, he was warned by his mother that “colored people cannot go in restaurants in downtown Columbus.”
Stationed in Mississippi, he and other blacks were sentenced to the guard house for refusing to pick up papers around the white soldiers’ barracks, and once confined, found the guard house had separate toilets for white and black soldiers.
Years later, when an anti-busing amendment was debated on the House floor, Stokes described the humiliation of segregation. “I was forced to ride in the back of the bus wearing the uniform of my country,” he said.
Struggles with racism lasted a lifetime.
In 1991, a Capitol Hill police officer ignored Stokes’ valid parking tag and refused to let the congressman into his own office building; he didn’t believe the black man behind the wheel was a member of Congress.
Stokes leveled his complaint through official channels and did not complain publicly about the demeaning delay at his own office building.
At one point in his career he said he had his eye on the Senate. But long careers by fellow Democrats John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum meant no open seat until Stokes was well entrenched in the House and on his way to becoming one of the powerful appropriations subcommittee chairmen.
In 1992, Stokes ran for president as a favorite son, winning the delegates from his home district and then, in a minor convention drama, refusing to release their votes until the Clinton campaign formally asked.
The G.I. Bill made it possible for Stokes to go to college and law school.
A criminal lawyer for two decades before running for Congress, he argued a landmark “stop and frisk” case before the Supreme Court and worked on the NAACP lawsuit that forced Ohio to redraw the lines of what would become the state’s first black-majority congressional district.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
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DOUDOU N’DIAYE ROSE, SENEGALESE DRUMMER AND ‘HUMAN TREASURE’
Master percussionist collaborated with Miles Davis and the Rolling Stones and was named a ‘living human treasure’ by Unesco in 2006
Senegalese drummer and band leader Doudou N’diaye Rose, who was named a “living human treasure” by Unesco, has died at the age of 85.
The musician, whose real name was Mamadou N’diaye, died in a Dakar hospital after being taken ill on Wednesday morning.
The so-called “mathematician of rhythm” was a master of the sabar drum and led the Drummers of West Africa orchestra, made up of his children and grandchildren, in mind-bogglingly complex beat medleys. He also conducted his daughters and granddaughters in the the all-female group, Les Rosettes.
“Today we lost our father, our friend, a great man,” his nephew Doudou N’diaye Mbengue told Agence France-Presse.
Born in 1930 into Senegal’s griot caste of musicians and storytellers, N’diaye revealed in a 2010 interview that his accountant father did not want his son to be a musician and that they went for seven years without shaking hands when he defied him.
He was mentored by Senegal’s then drum-major Mada Seck, who “knew all the secrets of percussion” and eventually passed on his instruments to N’diaye, who travelled deep into the west African countryside to develop his talent. Once N’diaye had learned “more than 100 different rhythms”, elders named him the new chief drum-major.
He first caught the wider world’s attention when, in 1959, US singer and dancer Josephine Baker invited N’diaye to perform with her shortly before Senegalese independence. He has since collaborated with musicians including Miles Davis, the Rolling Stones and Peter Gabriel, and toured Africa, Japan, France and the US.
Unesco’s “living human treasure” title was bestowed in 2006 to honour N’diaye’s custodianship of Senegalese culture and his work in passing on that knowledge to younger generations.
Continuing to play until his death, N’diaye told reporters he was at peace having transferred his skills to his children and grandchildren to carry on the tradition. His son Moustapha teaches percussion at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
“I thank the good lord,” he said. “My children have learned the language of percussion well.”
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YVONNE CRAIG, FIRST ACTRESS TO PLAY BATGIRL IN ’60S TV SERIES ‘BATMAN’
The actress who gave the world its first portrayal of Batgirl died of complications from breast cancer Monday.Yvonne Craig, 78, died surrounded by loved ones at her home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., her family announced Tuesday in a statement.
20th Century Fox Film Corp.
Yvonne Craig joined the third and final season of the ’60s TV series ‘Batman,’ becoming the first actress to play Batgirl.
“She felt that she lived a wonderful life and was blessed in many ways,” the statement said.
“She was able to travel the world and see many places. Yvonne spent quality time with those that she loved and was able to accomplish many goals and ambitions that she set for herself. “
Craig was born in Taylorville, Ill. She started her performing career in the ‘50s as the youngest member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and soon started appearing on screen, acting in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.”
By the time of her death, she had scored more than 80 film and TV credits, most recently in the Nickelodeon cartoon series “Olivia.”
But Batgirl was her best known role. She joined Adam West and Burt Ward in the final season of the ‘60s series, and that legacy lasted a lifetime.
“I hear from women that I was their role model,” she told CNN last year. She said fans would tell her: “When I was a little girl, I realized that girls could kick butt just like guys.”
ABC Photo Archives
Yvonne West joined Burt Ward (as Robin) and Adam West (Batman) on the show.
Those heroic lessons reemerged online as fans mourned Craig’s death.
“Yvonne Craig is the reason I became a comic writer,” Gail Simone, a DC Comics Batgirl writer, said on Twitter.
“Most of the joy in my current life can be traced back in some way to seeing Yvonne Craig be amazing as Batgirl, my first real life hero.
After “Batman,” the woman wonder appeared in “Starsky and Hutch,” two Elvis Presley films and “Star Trek,” as a green-skinned Orion slave girl who tries killing Captain Kirk.
Craig eventually stepped away from acting to enter the real estate business, but continued visiting comic conventions to greet new generations of fans. Earlier this year, she canceled several scheduled appearances because of health problems, writing on her website her doctor advised her to “recuperate properly, and also stay out of crowds.”
Bobby Bank/WireImage
Yvonne Craig, 78, appeared in more than 80 film and TV roles before her death Monday.
Craig published a memoir of her career, “From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond,” in 2000.
After she fought breast cancer for the past two years, it metastasized and went to her liver, the family said. She is survived by her husband, sister and nephews.
Her family said one of Craig’s dying wishes was “that no one waste a moment of their time in mourning for her loss in sadness but instead celebrate the awesome life she had been fortunate enough to live.”
Craig’s death came one day after a Maryland man who dressed up as Batman to visit sick children in hospitals was killed in an accident involving his custom-made Batmobile.
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TONY GLEATON, WHO CREATED A LEGACY IN PICTURES OF AFRICANS LIVING IN THE AMERICAS
August 19, 2015
Tony Gleaton, a professional photographer that transformed his back on an occupation in New york city style as well as started a travelling creative mission, recording the lives of black cowboys as well as producing pictures of the African diaspora in Latin The u.s.a, passed away on Friday in Palo Alto, Calif.
He was 67. The reason was dental cancer cells, his spouse, Lisa,
stated. Mr. Gleaton made his photos in the American West as well as Southwest, then, most plainly, in Mexico, where he lived amongst little-acknowledged neighborhoods of blacks– offspring of African servants gave the New Globe centuries previously by the Spanish– in towns on the seaside levels of Oaxaca, southern of Acapulco.
An exhibit of those pictures, “Africa’s Legacy in Mexico,” which showed up in galleries around the nation for greater than a years start in the 1990s, was sponsored by the Smithsonian Organization.
Tony Gleaton in a 1998 photo. His profession started in the fashion business however swiftly took a sharp turn.
Bruce Talamon, All Civil liberty Reserved
Mr. Gleaton focused on black-and-white pictures, their topics– kids as well as grownups|grownups as well as kids, alone or in teams– usually in direct interaction with the video camera as well as typically in limited frameworks that recommend however do not check out a particular setup, like an office or a barroom|a barroom or an office. In a meeting with The L.a Times in 2007, he called his pictures “abstractions from life,” stating “they might look all-natural however they are very crafted, extremely determined.”
“This is not journalism,” he included. “I am making fine art.”
The pictures he caught– or, much better, produced– could not be called intimate even certainly brilliant, as if Mr. Gleaton were assisting individuals arise from obscurity, enabling them to reveal their really presence. Undoubtedly, this was his mentioned function.
| This was his mentioned function.
“These are lovely photos of individuals that are not usually depicted in a gorgeous method,” he stated.
Leo Antony Gleaton was birthed in Detroit on Aug. 4, 1948. His dad, Leo, was a policeman; his mom, the previous Geraldine Woodson, showed institution. In the late 1950s the household transferred to L.a, where Tony finished from secondary school.
He employed in the Militaries as well as offered in Vietnam; when he returned, in the very early 1970s, he registered at the College of The golden state, L.a, where his passion in digital photography was stimulated. He likewise went to the Fine art Facility University of Style in Pasadena as well as the College of The golden state, Berkeley, though he never ever made a bachelor’s level.
He invested 3 years in New york city, functioning as a professional photographer’s aide in the fashion business as well as taking pictures for Information as well as various other publications prior to choosing that there was much more significant job somewhere else.
He remained in his very early 30s, as well as he started bumming a ride, winding up in Nevada, where he took photos of Indigenous American cattle ranch hands as well as black rodeo bikers.
Plumbing system the society of nonwhite cowboys, he took a trip to Texas, Colorado, Idaho as well as Kansas; his program “Cowboys: Rebuilding an American Misconception” showed up in galleries in Oklahoma, Nevada as well as The golden state. His years of taking a trip as well as photographing|photographing as well as taking a trip in Mexico started with a passion in Mexican rodeo.
“Among the intriguing aspects of Tony was that he might do much more with much less,” Bruce Talamon, the administrator of the Tony Gleaton Photo Depend on, stated in an e-mail. “By that I indicate as we reside in a time of celeb professional photographers with huge budget plans, as well as unknown varieties of aides as well as stylists|stylists as well as aides, Tony would certainly have a little bag with one medium-format cam, one lens, $ 5 in his pocket, as well as a couple of rolls of Tri-X movie.
“He constantly fired in offered light. He might discover stunning light all over he went.”
For his journeys to Mexico as well as Latin The u.s.a, Mr. Talamon stated, Mr. Gleaton “would certainly get a one-way ticket on a Greyhound bus.”
“These were self-financed journeys. As well as since he got on a budget plan, he had actually found out that there was constantly an extra bed at the town church, which benefited a minimum of 5 days. He would certainly provide to help dishes then, based upon the clergyman’s intros, he would certainly begin to photo, remaining for a couple of weeks, then he would certainly return house with magic.”
A huge guy– he was more than 6 feet high as well as evaluated greater than 300 extra pounds– Mr. Gleaton was referred to as a charmer, particularly with his topics as well as with pupils of digital photography. He was separated 3 times prior to he wed Lisa Ellerbee, an instructor, in 2005. She is his only instant survivor. They resided in San Mateo, Calif.
. Mr. Gleaton, that was light-skinned with eco-friendly eyes, stated he frequently needed to clarify to individuals that both his father and mothers were black which he was not biracial, which the prejudgments individuals had of him discovered their method right into his job.
He would certainly not explain his topics as Afro-Mexican, a tag put on them by outsiders; race, he stated, is “a social construct, not a bio-empirical truth.”
In the last few years Mr. Gleaton broadened his job to consist of various other countries in Central as well as South The u.s.a.
“Exactly what is essential regarding these photos is that they provided a face to something that no one had actually truly considered previously,” he stated in 2007 regarding his Mexican photos. “As well as it’s a location to start the conversation regarding exactly what we mean Mexico to be.
“We have a stereotyped sight of exactly what Mexico is, as well as Mexico is numerous points. You could have blemishes as well as red hair as well as be Mexican– as well as you could have extremely black skin as well as be Mexican.”
| Mr. Gleaton specialized in black-and-white pictures, their topics– kids as well as grownups|grownups as well as kids, alone or in teams– nearly constantly in direct interaction with the video camera as well as typically in limited frameworks that recommend however do not check out a particular setup, like an office or a barroom|a barroom or an office. The pictures he caught– or, much better, produced– could not be called intimate so a lot as certainly vibrant, as if Mr. Gleaton were assisting individuals arise from obscurity, enabling them to reveal their extremely presence.”One of the intriguing points regarding Tony was that he might do much more with much less,” Bruce Talamon, the administrator of the Tony Gleaton Photo Depend on, stated in an e-mail.
Tony Gleaton in a 1998 photo. Mr. Gleaton specialized in black-and-white pictures, their topics– kids as well as grownups|grownups as well as kids, alone or in teams– nearly constantly in direct interaction with the cam as well as normally in snug frameworks that recommend however do not check out a particular setup, like an office or a barroom|a barroom or an office. The pictures he caught– or, much better, produced– could not be called intimate so a lot as certainly vibrant, as if Mr. Gleaton were assisting individuals arise from obscurity, enabling them to reveal their extremely presence.”One of the fascinating points regarding Tony was that he can do much more with much less,” Bruce Talamon, the administrator of the Tony Gleaton Photo Count on, stated in an e-mail. A huge guy– he was well over 6 feet high as well as evaluated even more compared to 300 extra pounds– Mr. Gleaton was understood as a charmer, particularly with his topics as well as with pupils of digital photography.
NYTIMES PHOTO GALLERY:
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FROM THE ARCHIVES
Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor of Telephone, Dies at 75
(Aug. 2, 1922)
Warren G. Harding, 29th President, Dies at 57
(Aug. 2, 1923)
Marilyn Monroe, Golden Girl of the Movies, Dies at 36
(Aug. 5, 1962)
Richard Burton, Rakish Star, Dies at 58
(Aug. 5, 1984)
Pope Paul VI, Leader in Era of Change, Dies at 80
(Aug. 6, 1978)
Edith Wharton, Pulitzer-Winning Author, Dies at 75
(Aug. 11, 1937)
William Shockley, Creator of Transistor, Dies at 79
(Aug. 12, 1989)
John Milton Cage, Prolific Composer, Dies at 79
(Aug. 12, 1992)
Florence Nightingale, Famous Nurse, Dies at 90
(Aug. 13, 1910)
Babe Ruth, Baseball Great, Dies at 53
(Aug. 16, 1948)
Margaret Mitchell, Author of ‘Gone With the Wind,’ Dies at 49
(Aug. 16, 1949)
Gregory Pincus, Developer of Birth-Control Pill, Dies at 64
(Aug. 22, 1967)
Truman Capote, Stylish Novelist, Dies at 59
(Aug. 25, 1984)
Charles A. Lindbergh, Who Made Historic Flight, Dies at 72
(Aug. 26, 1974)
Haile Selassie, Last Ethiopian Emperor, Dies at 83
(Aug. 26, 1975)
W.E.B. DuBois, Philosopher and Writer, Dies at 95
(Aug. 27, 1963)
Ann
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 