Black History- Thurgood Marshall

This is the Thurgood Marshall building. Marshall was the first African-American to be on the Supreme Court. He was born in Baltimore, MD and attended Howard University in DC. There is also an airport in Baltimore named for him. As an attorney he argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and and won 29 of those.
http://www.oyez.org/justices/thurgood_marshall/

Black History- Howard University

Howard University is a historically black university named for General Oliver Otis Howard. It is located in Washington, DC.

http://www.howard.edu/

Black History- March on Washington

This march on August 28, 1963 was the largest of its kind. 200,000 blacks and 50,000 whites were responsible for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the National Voting Rights act of 1965. It was at this march that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Todd assisted with the editing of this piece.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

So basically I am too sick to go out dancing in the cold so I went out to a few sites taped them and put them together with some material that Todd and I taped a few weeks ago. Todd saw some art exhibit with blue lights and wanted me to dance there so we went out one night. He put a wireless mic on me so you can hear me breathing a lot. My black history site is the Martin Luther King Memorial Library in downtown Washington.

Black History- Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was our greatest president in my opinion. He turned the tide of the most vile injustice of slavery and started the long journey to equality for African-Americans.

David Morneau says: "what i chose to do was examine the
reinterpretation of black culture in america. all american popular music
is ultimately rooted in african-american forms, particularly the blues.
this piece takes a piano composition i wrote a while ago in a blues
style, and remixes it to something less vernacular. it's my way of
honoring the countless black musicians and artists whose creative spirit
still resounds in our culture today."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln

Black History- John A Wilson

Click to Play

The John A Wilson building houses the District of Columbia Government and the Office of the Mayor. Wilson was a former city council Chairman.

Black History- Walter Washington

Walter Washington was the first Mayor of Washington DC. The Convention Center behind me is named after him. I am encoding this file and all future files at a higher resolution so you will notice that the video is much larger than previous ones.

Black History- Freedom Plaza

Click to Play

Freedom Plaza was named in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Camera Troubles

It is a challenge to find the time to record new dances every week, edit them and post them daily. However that difficulty is made easier with a working camera, a working computer, a working internet connection and software that also works. The time I can find.

Now my camera is not working. I can see a loose part inside the camera and now the tapes will not load so there is no way to record anything. In my freak out moment, I went to best buy as I did when my hard drive failed a few weeks ago and bought a back up camera for $300.

My nice camera will cost $511 to get fixed so that will take some time. I have to send it off to Sony and they will send it back.

If I open the box and use the camera I know that I will get a less quality image that the one I am used to and the camera is not a quality camera but in some ways it may be better for a web based project although I do have dreams of exhibiting the dances in a gallery someday.

In many ways the videos for this month are easy because I have a very clear goal. Dance in front of black history sites around Washington. I have 75 days to go before I complete a years worth of videos or I could stop now and say enough. What do you think I should do?

Black History- Industrial Bank

Industrial Savings Bank was a black owned bank started by John Whitelaw Lewis.

Black History- Whitelaw Hotel

The Whitelaw was a luxury hotel for blacks in the Jim Crow era. It was built by John Whitelaw Lewis who also founded Industral Bank.

http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/info...

http://www.nps.gov/history/40th/DC.htm

Black History- 1968 Riots

On 14th Street in DC riots took place after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This happened 6 months after I was born and now 40 years later the place where the riots began in DC now has people supporting a Black candidate for President of the United States. 14th Street has recovered from the riots and new buildings now line its streets. The area has been revived but it is a lot less black. David Morneau composed a score to my video using the voice of MLK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Was...,_D.C._riots

http://60x365,com/

Black History- Club Bali

When I came to DC this place, Club Bali, was home to Living Stage, a theater company. I had no idea it was a club where the likes of Louis Armstrong and Sarah Vaughn performed. If it was the 1940's I might take my baby to this club for a nice Valentines day dinner. Or maybe we would go to the Whitelaw Hotel and take a stroll down U Street to show off a little and have a late night snack.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

http://www.gwu.edu/~jazz/venuesb.html

Black History- Ben's Chili Bowl

Opened in 1958 as a place where blacks could go and eat without feeling like second class citizens Ben's Chili Bowl is a DC landmark. It is the place to go when you want a half-smoke.

Black History- Lincoln Theater

In its early days from the 20's to the 50's the Lincoln Theater was the place where black people went to see performances and movies. Today's dance takes place in front of the recently restored theater in the recently revived neighborhood.

http://www.thelincolntheatre.org/index.asp

Black History- Sweet Daddy Grace

Charles "Sweet Daddy" Grace offered am alternative to traditional Christianity. He founded the United House Of Prayer for All People in 1927. Today's dance takes place in front of his house on Logan Circle.

Black History- Charles Sumner School

This school was named after Charles Sumner a US Senator and abolitionist. Its primary function was the education of black children. The first high school class graduated in 1877.

Black History- Howard Theater

This dance takes place in front of the Howard Theater near U Street also called the Black Broadway. The Howard was a Black owned theater which opened in 1910 and as you can imagine many prominent Black artist performed there. One of those artists was Charles Mingus who recorded an album there in 1948 with Lionel Hampton. David Morneau uses the sound of Mingus for this week's collaboration. The Howard Theater is supposedly returning to operation this summer.

http://www.gwu.edu/~jazz/venuesh.html

Black History- Mary McLeod Bethune

This dance takes place in front of the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune did so many things in her lifetime and I am astonished by all she accomplished as an educator and presidential adviser and civil rights leader. There is a statue of Bethune in Lincoln Park and I taped some stuff there this summer and I was going to use it in today's video but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I will have to go back and tape some new material.

Black History- Blanche Kelso Bruce

Blanche Kelso Bruce was the first African-American to serve a full term as a US Senator. His house is around the corner from where I live. The first African-American to serve in the Senate was Hiram Rhodes Revels who was born in the same town that I was, Fayetteville, NC. I just learned that, how sad. I dance in front of Bruce's house. The first photo is of Bruce and his wife Josephine.

Black History- Alley Dwellings

After the Civil War blacks flooded into Washington DC and as a result there was a housing shortage. Families began to live in the large alleys in makeshift shacks. Today's dance takes place in Blagden Alley.

Black History- Benjamin Banneker

Benjamin Banneker assisted Andrew Elicott with the surveying the District of Columbia. He was also a publisher and a clock maker. This park at the end of L'Enfant plaza is named for him.

Sir Ken Robinson

This is amazing!

Black History- Woodson Park

The Carter G. Woodson house is in bad shape but the park is at least supposed to be getting 2.5 million for repairs. I found several blogs about the Shaw neighborhood that deal with the issue. We need to do a better job of maintaining these historic monuments to our great leaders and not allow them to be neglected. Check out the following blogs about the park.

Godspeed
http://goodspeedupdate.com/2008/2180

Black History- Carter G. Woodson

The founder of Black History month was a Harvard PhD named Carter G. Woodson. In 1926 Dr. Woodson began Black History Week. Around the corner from where I live is Dr. Woodson's home which is run by the National Park Service. It is in an unfortunate state surrounded by abandoned buildings and itself abandoned save for a few signs one of which reads "no trespassing."