McDaniel and McQueen, in their own voices

An item in The Hollywood Reporter, July 31, 2012, noted that "a 1938 copy of Gone With the Wind signed by nearly the entire cast of the film sold for $135,300 ($110,000 plus $25,300 buyer's premium) ...."

Signatures of Hattie McDaniel who played "Mammy" in the movie, and Thelma "Butterfly McQueen," who played, "Prissy," are pictured below.

Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar in 1940 for best supporting actress in Gone With the Wind, which was released in theaters in 1939.  Ms. McDaniel was the first African American actor to win an Oscar. Her acceptance speech was the epitome of dignity and self-possession. Hattie McDaniel's acceptance speech

In 1989, Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen was interviewed about "Prissy," the controversial maidservant she portrayed in Gone With the Wind. In the video, McQueen talks with dignity and frankness about her battle to overcome the toll that Hollywood stereotyping of Black women took on her career and personal life.

Documentary on Frantz Fanon

Uploaded by Natturner187 on Mar 15, 2011

Well worth viewing...

Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved on this day in 1988

The Community Healing Network, an organization that promotes healing from the psychological legacy of enslavement, posted this note on Facebook today:

On this day in 1988, Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved, a haunting tale which, in part, examined the psychological impact of slavery. In a lecture, she discussed why we should never forget

Toni Morrison on Remembering Slavery

Maya Angelou awarded the Medal of Freedom

Charles Dharapak/AP

Fitting tribute to Maya Angelou for her contributions to letters, uplift of Black culture and the human spirit. For millions of her readers, including me, Ms. Angelou's biographies and poetry represent the power that words have to change our lives.
2011 is also the 40th anniversary of the publication of Ms. Angelou's first book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie.

Charlotte news video clip of the Medal of Freedom award presentation to Maya Angelou from President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday, February 15, 2011.

http://charlotte.news14.com/content/local_news/triangle/636774/n-c--s-maya-angelou-receives-medal-of-freedom

Video: Diversity in Children's and Young Adult Publishing

The world of children's literature is the territory where values regarding race, class, citizenship rights and privileges, among others, are sown. The lack of books dedicated to children of color, and people of color generally, tells all children that Black people are not important, not an integral part of American society, not necessary to consider in the global community.

This discussion on Diversity in Children's and Young Adult Publishing at the Harlem Book Fair (C-Span) last summer, 2010, addresses issues related to representing children of color in literature, as well as the woefully underrepresented number of Black editors, writers, and publishers actively working in the publishing industry, and what to do about it.
(Image: Cheryl Hudson, (left) and Wade Hudson (right), founders of Just Us Books)

Panel includes Cheryl Hudson, Publisher, Just Us Books; Jerry Kraft, Cartoonist, Mama's Boyz; Zetta Elliott, author; Vanesse J. Lloyd-Sgambati, African American Children's Project, Founder and Director; Nick Burd, author, The Fields of Ordinary; Wade Hudson, Publisher, Just Us Books and panel moderator.

C-Span: Harlem Book Fair, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Langston Hughes Auditorium, July 17, 2010

Author Brook Stephenson talks about books and writing

NEW AMERICAN CLASSIC from Marc Gunn on Vimeo.
Brook Stephenson is an experienced journalist (XXL, The Source, and others), a world traveler and self-described "searcher" of the universal human experience in every culture he encounters. Recently, he has taken up his pen to write fiction. Check out this Brook Stephenson interview by Marc Gunn on Vimeo.