-
![eldridge cleaver]()
Flashback Friday: Eldridge Cleaver- From Panther to PTL.
Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver in the early 1970s. (Image Source) I’m currently reading “PTL:”The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire” by John Wigger. Spoiler alert: my next…
-
![summer of love]()
Flashback Friday: The Summer of Love.
(Image Source) The Summer of 1967 was something. Newark had riots. So did Detroit (there’s currently a major motion picture about part of that out in theatres right now). Yet… away from…
-
![noble johnson]()
Flashback Friday: The oh-so Noble Mr. Johnson.
Noble Johnson (Image Source) A few months back, I shared the story of Madame Sul-Te-Wan, the Black actress who got her big Hollywood start in “The Birth of a Nation” in…
-
![FWEP]()
Flashback Friday: That time Flip Wilson and Bobby Darin had prayer with Elvis at the Sahara in Vegas.
Clockwise from top right, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, and Flip Wilson. (Google Images) According to Kevin Cook’s “Flip: The Inside Story of TV’s First Black Superstar”, a biography of comedian Flip…
-
![11290389 standard]()
Flashback Friday: The Newark Riots.
(Image Source: NJ.com) I heard the story countless times growing up. My grandmother had warned my grandfather they shouldn’t go into Newark that Sunday in July of 1967. Not *that* Sunday.…
-
![http 2F2Fa.amz.mshcdn.com2Fwp content2Fuploads2F20152F102Fblackout 31]()
Flashback Friday: The 1977 NYC Blackout.
(Image Source) Forty years ago yesterday, New York City, which supposedly never sleeps, went dark. And then, went mad. From Time: The blackout that hit New York on… July 13, in…
-
![PrincessDi1987]()
Flashback Friday: Princess Diana visits AIDS patients.
Princess Diana was photographed in April 1987 shaking hands, sans gloves, with an AIDS patient, demonstrating that the disease could not be transmitted via casual contact. (Getty Images/ Source) Next month…
-
![sammy devil jr 1413430668780]()
Flashback Friday: When Sammy Davis Jr. got devilish.
(Image Source: Vice) Last week in the Anton La Vey post, I mentioned how Sammy Davis Jr. became a member of The Church of Satan for a while. This struck me…
-
![741c4c2b8bd303effff8033fffffff1]()
Flashback Friday: When Buddy Holly Broke the Color Line- at the Apollo.
Bespectacled Buddy. (Image Source) Before his shocking death at only 22 in 1959, Buddy Holly managed to make major moves. A native of Lubbock, Texas, Holly began playing the guitar as…
-
![SamCooke]()
Flashback Friday: Sam Cooke’s Crossover Pop Success and How It Made Change Come.
Sam Cooke (Image Source) Earlier this spring, when rapper Kendrick Lamar dropped his critically praised album, “DAMN”, it shot up to the top of the Billboard charts. Thing is, it wasn’t…
