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Friday, November 28, 2014

Today's Little Known Black History Fact



There are a lot of faces in black media (both in print and airwaves) that our society does not recognize; they may have seen the person in a short role somewhere, but they really don’t know who the person is. Then there are the faces that we see on so many different shows, but always in a supporting role. We know who the characters they play are, and we’re always talking about how good “the person who plays that character” is, but we can never seem to remember ‘that person’s’ name…
Well, today’s Little Known Black History fact falls into the latter category.  She has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Obie, and four NAACP Image Awards. She has also received two Tony Award nominations. (Wikipedia)
She is most well-known for her 16 year run as Lt. Van Buren on the long-running Law & Order series. Born November 28, 1952 in Saginaw, Michigan, she has played in 27 different television series, made for TV movies, and movies for the big screen from 1986 to 2014.
Epatha Merkerson
She has earned many accolades over the years, including playing the longest-running African-American character in the history of primetime television. 
Her name is S. Epatha Merkerson. (The S. was for Sharon.)  She legally had her first name changed to S. although she prefers to be called Epatha.
In 2012, Merkerson became the host of the show Find Our Missing which highlights the search for missing people of color. Each episode tells the story of the missing person or persons, beginning with the day they vanished. Find Our Missing provides insight into these victims’ lives–their hopes and dreams, what makes them tick, and how they have touched those around them—from the people who know them best.  (Wikipedia)

Happy Birthday to one of the best female character actors I’ve seen…
Epatha Merkerson!





Monday, November 24, 2014

Something a Little Different (Video)



I've seen a few of this type of video, and I always find myself getting so angry at 
society.I'm disappointed in human-kind and amazed because the attitudes displayed 
here actually  exist in this day and age. 

Then I wonder, what would I do? Would I say anything? Would I get angry at the person doing the discriminating? 
Would I stand up for the rights of the person being discriminated against?

It brings me to tears to see how grateful these women are. These are women born in the 
USA, women who (rightfully) expect to be treated just like anyone else in the store, but 
who are instead singled out for harsh verbal abuse which they have done nothing to 
warrant. 

This was a set-up, an experiment to see how people would react to someone else 
displaying such bigotry, but sadly it actually does happen in this country. For a country 
that is supposed to be so progressive and forward thinking, there are certainly some very 
closed-minded people displaying some cruel beliefs. How would those same bigots feel 
if they went to another country and were treated the same way on a daily basis that 
Blacks, Muslims, Hispanics,  Ethiopians, Asians, and all those of a different 
race/culture/sexual identity are treated here? 

It is sad that in a country which has made so much progress, a country which has been 
soadmired by other countries the world over that now, when we should be more united 
than ever before, we are instead headed right back to where we were in the days of slavery....




This article is the opinion of the author only, and is not representative of Blogspot.






Monday, November 17, 2014


We’re Baaack!!


After a hiatus, Little Known Black History Facts is back; hopefully you will learn some things about Black History that you didn't know before, or be reminded of some things that you learned long ago. Either way, I hope that you will share this site with friends, family, FB, Google+ Circles, Twitter; with everyone you know!

On This Day in Black History…

     Between September 5 and October 22, 2002, the country was rocked by a series of shootings which took place in the DC/MD/VA area. These shootings were seemingly
entirely random, subject to no pattern which the police were able to discern. Added to the panic was the fact that there was no evidence left, and no witnesses to help
discover who the perpetrator or perpetrators were. A total of 13 shootings occurred in this area during the “Beltway Sniper attacks”; 10 of these resulted in death. Before
John Allen Muhammad
the Beltway Sniper attacks there were 12 shootings which occurred in other areas; 6 of those were fatal. The victims were just as random as everything else about the shootings seemed to be; they ranged in age from 13 to 72; they were Black, white, Pakistani, Hispanic, and Asian. The killer(s) made no distinction between male and female, the only thing all the victims seemed to have in common was that in some manner, in the course of their day, they encountered the sniper.
     Through a series of mistakes on the part of the killer(s), and intensive police work, John Allen Mohammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were captured in October 2002, and in October the following year John Allen Muhammad was put on trial. He was convicted in Virginia of murder, and on November 10, 2009, at 9:11 pm, John Allen Muhammad aka ‘the Beltway Sniper’ was pronounced dead by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia.



     His co-hort in the killings, Lee Boyd Malvo (who was a minor at the time) is serving life in prison without possibility of parole in Virginia. As of June 2013 he was still appealing his sentences, claiming that as the Supreme Court had declared that people who were minors at the time of their offense could not be given mandatory sentences of life without parole, his sentence is a violation of his civil rights. To date, the courts have not agreed.