“…the community was just fraught with music. You could walk down the street; You heard people singing; you heard people playin’. Duke Ellington says a wonderful thing about a Harlem airshaft. An airshaft was a dumbwaiter. You open...
‘Bury me where the grasses grow Below the weeping willow trees To let their branches shed upon me Leaves of varied greens. Then, as I lie there, I shall hear The grasses sigh a soft behest ‘Sleep, beloved one, sleep and rest...
“I met him in the 11th grade in Detroit,” he (Byrd) said. “I skipped school one day to see Dizzy Gillespie, and that’s where I met Coltrane. Coltrane and Jimmy Heath just joined the band, and I brought my trumpet, and he was sitti...
As 2013 comes to a close, The Burton Wire brings you our top news stories from the African Diaspora in 2013. While it was very difficult to figure out what to include, we settled on these six stories that inspired protest, complia...
“Negro life is not only establishing new contacts and founding new centers, it is finding a new soul. There is a fresh spiritual and cultural focusing. We have, as the heralding sign, an unusual outburst of creative expressi...
“Intellect, whether of civilized or uncivilized humanity, as you know, sir, is elastic in quality. That is, primitive man when transplanted to civilization not only becomes civilized, but sometimes excels some of those whose...
“[W]e have been cheated out of our rights for two centuries, and . . . I want to fix them in the Constitution in such a way that no lawyer, however cunning or astute, can possibly misinterpret the meaning. If we do not do so, we d...
“…Rock and Roll music was simply rhythm and blues music played by white performers.” Louis Jordan Born on July 8, 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, Louis Jordan was a pioneering jazz, blues, R&B musician, songwriter and ...
“…black people in this country [should] unite, recognize their heritage, and build a sense of community.” – Stokley Carmichael Kwame Ture born Stokley Carmichael On June 17, 1966, Stokley Carmichael of the Student Nonv...
“…young people — who all too often are not heard in our society– young people at risk and young people in care. These are some of the most vulnerable young people in our society. They do not have much of a chance becau...