Actor-Director Esposito to Keynote ISU Black History Cultural Dinner

Award-winning actor, director, and education advocate Giancarlo Esposito will be the guest speaker at the Black History Cultural Dinner at 5 p.m. Wednesday, February 24, in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center.

Tickets for the dinner are available online. Tickets are $20, or one swipe of a meal plan for Illinois State students. Tickets are available online only, and will not be sold at the door.

During the dinner, Esposito will share his journey as an actor and an artist with a will to succeed despite the hurdles many people of color face while trying to break into “the industry.”

The event is sponsored by Illinois State’s University Housing Services, Campus Dining Services, the Association of Residence Halls, Hewett-Manchester Student Association, East Campus Diversity Coalition, and MECCPAC, a Dean of Students’ Diversity Initiative.

Esposito is a celebrated television, film, and stage actor, whose career spans decades and includes more than 60 films. Television audiences know him best for his iconic portrayal of drug kingpin Gustavo “Gus” Fring in AMC’s award-winning series Breaking Bad, for which he won the 2012 Critics Choice Award and earned a 2012 Emmy nomination. Other notable roles include Spike Lee films such as School Daze and Do The Right Thing, as well as Rabbit Hole, The Usual Suspects, Smoke, and The Last Holiday.

In 2007, through his production company, Quiet Hand Productions, Esposito made his feature directorial debut with the film Gospel Hill. He also co-starred with Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Julia Stiles, Taylor Kitsch, and Samuel L. Jackson. Quiet Hand Productions aspires to make “conscious content” films that focus on the inspirational.

For additional information, contact Michelle Halpin at 309-438-8611.

Black History Month 2: Righting the Rails

Camille Taylor

 Emanuel Hurst Sr., Art Taylor's grandfather and a Pullman porter, 1942-1968.

How are unions, black history, and the current debate over state workers and labor rights related?

Both my husband Art and I had grandfathers who worked for the railroad. My husband’s grandfather was a Pullman porter from 1942 to 1968. All Pullman porters were black, referred to as “George,” (after founder George Pullman), and worked as personal attendants for passengers in the Pullman sleeper cars. My grandfather was a Sky Cap, carrying passengers’ luggage for the Illinois Central Railroad.

Asa Phillip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. It took 12 years, an amended Railroad Labor Act from President Franklin Roosevelt, and gaining membership in the American Federation of Labor, before the Pullman Company would negotiate the first contract with the porters. During those 12 years, the company used its power and money to perpetrate fear by firings and violence to deter organizing efforts. Their union fought to get a fair wage, benefits, and better working conditions.

As a result of the contract, wages for porters increased, their work week was shortened, and they got overtime pay. The lives of our parents improved due to increased wages for our grandfathers. Education and the value of hard work was stressed, and this was passed on to me and my husband.

A. Phillip Randolph was the mastermind behind the March on Washington Movement in the 1940’s that sought to end discrimination in the military, war industries, government agencies, and in labor unions. He also organized the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 where Dr. Martin Luther King made his “I Have a Dream" speech.

Camille Taylor, for many years an educational leader in Bloomington, serves on the Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal steering committee, with her husband Art, who works with State Farm.

The A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum is a 501(c)3 institution. Our mission is to promote, honor and celebrate the legacy of A. Philip Randolph and contributions made by African-Americans to America's labor history. At our facility this celebration begins with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, as we educate the public about their legacy and contributions.

For a history of the Pullman porters and their struggle, watch this video on The A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, whose mission is to promote, honor and celebrate the legacy of A. Philip Randolph and contributions made by African-Americans to America's labor history. Visit the museum at 104th & Maryland Ave., Chicago, and find out more at http://www.aphiliprandolphmuseum.com/.

ISU Speaker: Katrina Culmination of a Whirlwind of Forces

The devastation that occurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was due to more than Mother Nature, says Cedric Johnson, associate professor of African American studies and political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In honor of Black History Month, Johnson will address the politics that enabled the chaos that followed Katrina with his talk titled  The City that Care Forgot:  New Orleans and the Future of American Urbanism at 7 p.m. Tuesday, February 17, in the Prairie Room of the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University.

The event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Department of History and the Office of the President, the talk is part of the Speaker Series at Illinois State University.

Johnson is editor of a collection of essays titled The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalist Culture and the Remaking of New Orleans. The book examines the root causes of the disaster of Katrina, and places blame squarely in neoliberal restructuring. The book's contributors argue that "human agency" and public policy choices were more at fault for the destruction and social misery experienced than were sheer forces of nature. 

Deluge also examines how pro-market reforms are reshaping life, politics and economy in New Orleans. The book won the W.E.B. DuBois Outstanding Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Johnson is also the author of Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics.

Johnson earned a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland-College Park, and was awarded a post-doctoral Fellowship at the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies at the University of Rochester. His scholarly work has been published in journals such as Souls and the Journal of Developing Societies.

The Speaker Series of Illinois State University seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process. 

Black History Month Pt. 1: Santa and Civil Rights

History highlights the monumental deeds of giant men, but it also documents the great small steps of ordinary but courageous citizens and the events that moved the wheel of social progress, if even an inch. Over national Black History Month beginning next week, we will examine the lives, deeds, and struggles of McLean County African-Americans who made a difference. Here's one unusual but significant episode in the community's history.

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In November 1966, the Twin Cities tasted a yuletide sampling of the social discontent that was continuing to mount across the nation, as city fathers decreed there was only one Santa Claus -- and he wasn't black.

Merlin Kennedy challenged that assumption, as he had for much of his adult life. Kennedy later challenged State Farm, spurring new corporate opportunities for African-Americans, and in 1977, he was honored for his efforts on behalf of his community with a local Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Adult Human Relations Award.

Kennedy was born in Decatur and drafted into the Navy right after high school graduation in 1945. He was discharged a year later, and spent several years in Detroit, moving to Bloomington in 1958 for better employment opportunities. He soon became involved with the local chapter of the NAACP and civil rights issues. He also served as chairman of the Bloomington Human Relations Commission.

Kennedy in 2010

In 1966, the annual Chamber of Commerce Christmas parade featured a float with a white Santa Claus; another float, with Kennedy, a black man also portraying Santa Claus, was not allowed. The NAACP float arrived at Franklin Park as promised, with Merlin Kennedy in his Santa Claus costume in a sleigh, but according to the Nov. 20, 1966, Pantagraph, the float was blocked at Main Street. Kennedy, then NAACP president, and three other companions climbed down from the float and led a protest on the Bloomington courthouse square before Kennedy was told by a Bloomington policeman he was under arrest for disturbing the peace."

He reported also being "pushed around" by a policeman and "a couple other strong arm boys." The quartet was detained temporarily, but Kennedy ultimately was not arrested, and the incident gained some national attention.

It wouldn't be the first time Kennedy shook local sensibilities in the interest of social equality. Kennedy “got on State Farm’s case” about not hiring minorities and convinced the corporate giant to hold night classes to improve minorities’ skills. The company began hiring minorities, and at the prompting of Kennedy, also approached the colleges to find minority students.

His wife, Beulah Jones Kennedy, was his partner in the struggle. Mrs. Kennedy was born and grew up in Bloomington, attending Bloomington public schools through high school, and Illinois State University for 1 1/2 years.

She worked at St. Joseph's Hospital and was active in the local NAACP, where she was a firsthand witness to Bloomington-Normal's employment and housing situations.

Activist-Journalist Keynotes Black History Month Dinner

University Housing Services is pleased to welcome activist, journalist, and television personality Dr. Marc Lamont Hill for the Black History Month Cultural Dinner Monday, February 2 at 5 p.m. in the Brown Ballroom at the Bone Student Center. His keynote will address college affordability, with a focus on the impact of the African-American community

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country: He covers topics in culture, politics, and education. Many have seen him provide commentary for CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, in addition to his hosting responsibilities on HuffPost Live and BET News. An award-winning writer, Dr. Hill is also a columnist and editor-at-large for the Philadelphia Daily News.

His interest in social justice led him to help organize My5th, a nonprofit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. Dr. Hill also started a literacy project that uses hip-hop culture to increase school engagement and reading skills among high school students.

When he is not giving insights through media or organizing a new project, Dr. Hill teaches at Morehouse College as a Distinguished Professor of African-American Studies. He has also published several books, including his newest, The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations of Black Life in America.

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Entertainment for the night will come from DeShawn Williams, a singer with smooth baritone vocals and music influenced by the sounds of Michael Jackson and Earth Wind & Fire.

Tickets are $20 and  can be purchased online at Housing.IllinoisState.edu from January 5-28. Tickets will not be available at the door. For more information, contact (309) 438-5399.

This event is sponsored by University Housing Services and co-sponsored by Illinois State Campus Dining Services, Association of Residence Halls, Hewett-Manchester Student Association, East Campus Diversity Coalition and MECCPAC (A Dean of StudentsDiversity Initiative).

For special accommodations to fully participate in this event, please contact University Housing Services at (309) 438-5399. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.