Synopsis
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in Transkei, South Africa. He became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement and joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1942. For 20 years, he directed a campaign of peaceful, non-violent defiance against the South African government and its racist policies. In 1994 he was inaugurated as the country’s first black president.
Early Life
Born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918 in Transkei, South Africa, in the tiny village of Mvezo on the banks of the Mbashe River in the province of Transkei. “Rolihlahla” in the language of Xhosa literally means “pulling the branch of a tree,” but more commonly means “troublemaker.”
Mandela’s father was destined to be a chief and for years served as a counselor to tribal chiefs. But over a dispute with the local colonial magistrate, he lost his title and his fortune. Rolihlahla was only an infant at the time and the loss of status forced his mother to move the family to Qunu, an even smaller village north of Mvezo. The village was nestled in a narrow grassy valley. There were no roads, only foot paths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. The family lived in huts and ate a local harvest of maize, sorghum, pumpkin, and beans, which was all the family could afford. Water came from springs and streams and cooking was done outdoors. Nelson played the games of young boys, acting out male rights-of -passage scenarios with toys he made himself from the natural materials available, tree branches and clay.
At the suggestion of one of Rolihlahla’s father’s friends, he was baptized into the Methodist church and became the first in his family to attend school. As was the custom at the time, and probably due to the bias of the British educational system in South Africa, his teacher told him that his new first name would be “Nelson.”
Nelson Mandela’s father died of lung disease when Nelson was 9 years old. From that point, his life changed dramatically. He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu people. This gesture was done as a favor to Nelson’s father who, years earlier, had recommended Jongintaba be made chief. Nelson left the carefree life he knew in Qunu, fearing he would never see is village again. He traveled by motorcar to Mqhekezweni, the provincial capital of Thembuland, to the chief’s royal residence. Though he had not forgotten his beloved village of Qunu, he quickly adopted to the new, more sophisticated surroundings of Mqhekezweni.
Mandela was given the same status and responsibilities as the regent’s two other children, son Justice, the oldest and Nomafu, the regent’s daughter. Mandela took classes in a one-room school next to the palace, studying English, Xhosa, history, and geography. It was during this period that Mandela developed his interest in African history from elder chiefs who came to the Great Palace on official business. He heard of how the African people had lived in relative peace until the coming of the white people. Before then, the elders said, the children of southern Africa lived as brothers, but the white man shattered this fellowship. The black man shared the land, the air, and the water with the white man, but the white man took all this for himself.
When Mandela was 16, it was time for him to partake in the circumcision ritual that would carry him into manhood. The ceremony of circumcision was not just a surgical procedure, but an elaborate ritual in preparation for manhood. In the African tradition, an uncircumcised male could not inherit his father’s wealth, marry or officiate at tribal rituals. Mandela participated in the ceremony with 25 other boys. He welcomed the opportunity to partake in his people’s customs and felt ready to make the transition from boyhood to manhood. But during the proceedings, Chief Meligqili, the main speaker at the ceremony, spoke sadly of the young men as a generation enslaved in their own country. Because their land was under the control of the white man, they would never have the power to govern themselves. The chief went on to lament that the promise of the young men would be squandered as they struggled to make a living and perform mindless chores for the white man. Mandela would later say that that the chief’s words didn’t make total sense to him at the time, but they would work on him and would eventually formulate his resolve for an independent South Africa.
From the time Mandela came under the guardianship of the Regent Jongintaba, he was groomed to assume high office, though not as a chief, but as a counselor to one. As Thembu royalty, Nelson attended Wesleyan mission school, Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Wesleyan College. There he found interest and success in his academic studies through “plain hard work.” He also excelled in track and later boxing. At first, he is mocked as a “country boy,” but eventually makes friends with several classmates, including Mathona, his first female friend.
In 1939, Nelson Mandela enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare, the only residential center of higher learning for blacks in South Africa. Fort Hare was considered Africa’s equivalent of Oxford or Harvard, drawing scholars from all parts of sub-Sahara Africa. In his first year, Mandela took the required courses, but focused on Roman Dutch law to prepare for a career in civil service as an interpreter or clerk, the best profession a black man could obtain.
In his second year, he was elected to the Student Representative Council (SRC). For some time students had been dissatisfied with the food and lack of power held by the SRC. During this election, a majority of students voted to boycott unless their demands were met. Mandela aligned with the majority of the students and resigned his position. Seeing this as an act of insubordination, the university’s Dr. Kerr expelled Mandela for the rest of the year, telling him he could come back when he agreed to serve on the SRC. When Mandela returned home, the regent was furious and told him unequivocally he would recant his decision and go back to school in the fall.
Mandela’s Imprisonment
A few weeks after Mandela arrival at home, Regent Jongintaba announced he had arranged a marriage for him. The regent was within his right as tribal custom dictated and wanted to make sure Mandela’s life was set during the regent’s lifetime. Mandela was shocked and felt trapped. Believing he had no other option, he ran away to Johannesburg, where he worked in a variety of jobs, including guard and clerk, while completing his bachelor’s degree via correspondence courses. He then enrolled at the University of Witwatersrand to study law. He became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement and joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1942.
Within the ANC, a small group of young Africans banded together calling themselves the African National Congress Youth League. Their goal was to transform the ANC into a mass grassroots movement, deriving strength from millions of rural peasants and working people who had no voice under the current regime. Specifically, the group believed that the ANC’s old tactics of polite petitioning were ineffective. In 1949, the ANC officially adopted the Youth League’s methods of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-cooperation with policy goals of full citizenship, redistribution of land, trade union rights, and free and compulsory education for all children.
For 20 years, Mandela directed a campaign of peaceful, non-violent defiance against the South African government and its racist policies, including the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He founded the law firm Mandela and Tambo, partnering with Oliver Tambo, a brilliant student he had earlier met at Fort Hare. The law firm provided free and low-cost legal counsel to unrepresented blacks.
In 1956, Mandela and 150 others were arrested and charged with treason for their political advocacy, though they were eventually acquitted. Meanwhile, the ANC was being challenged by the Africanists, a new breed of Black activists who believed that the pacifist method of the ANC was ineffective. By 1959, the ANC lost much of its militant support when the Africanists broke away to form the Pan-Africanist Congress.
In 1961, Mandela, who was formerly committed to non-violent protest, began to believe that armed struggle was the only way to achieve change. He co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, also known as MK, an armed offshoot of the ANC dedicated to sabotage and guerilla war tactics to end apartheid. He orchestrated a three-day national workers strike in 1961 for which he was arrested in 1962. He was sentenced to five years in prison for the strike, and then brought to trial again in 1963. This time, he and 10 other ANC leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment for political offenses, including sabotage.
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island for 18 of his 27 years in prison. As a black political prisoner, he received the lowest level of treatment. However, he was able to earn a Bachelor of Law degree through a University of London correspondence program while incarcerated. A 1981 memoir by South African intelligence agent Gordon Winter described a plot by the South African government to arrange for Mandela’s escape so as to shoot him during the recapture. The plot, was foiled by British intelligence,
Mandela continued to be such a potent symbol of black resistance that a coordinated international campaign for his release was launched. This international groundswell of support exemplified the power and esteem Mandela had in the global political community.
In 1982, Mandela and other ANC leaders were moved to Pollsmoor Prison, allegedly to enable contact between them and the South African government. In 1985, President P.W. Botha offered Mandela’s release in exchange for renouncing armed struggle; the prisoner flatly rejected the offer. With increasing local and international pressure for his release, the government participated in several talks with Mandela over the years, but no deal was made. It wasn’t until Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced by Frederik Willem de Klerk that Mandela’s release was announced in February 1990. De Klerk unbanned the ANC, removed restrictions on political groups, and suspended executions.
Prison Release and Presidency
Upon his release, Mandela immediately urged foreign powers not to reduce their pressure on the South African government for constitutional reform. While he stated his commitment to work toward peace, he declared that the ANC’s armed struggle would continue until the black majority received the right to vote.
Mandela was elected president of the African National Congress in 1991 with lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, serving as National Chairperson. Mandela continued to negotiate with President F.W. de Klerk toward the country’s first multi-racial elections. White South Africans were willing to share power, but many black South Africans wanted a complete transfer of power. The negotiations were often strained and news of violent eruptions, including the assassination of ANC leader Chris Hani, continued throughout the country. Mandela had to keep a delicate balance of political pressure and intense negotiations amid the demonstrations and armed resistance.
Negotiation prevailed, however, and on April 27, 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections. At age 77, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the country’s first black president on May 10, 1994, with de Klerk as his first deputy. In 1993, Mandela shared the Nobel Prize for Peace with de Klerk for their work towards dismantling apartheid and in 1995 he was awarded the Order of Merit. In 1994, Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, much of which he had secretly written while in prison.
From 1994 until June 1999, Mandela worked to bring about the transition from minority rule and apartheid to black majority rule. He used the nation’s enthusiasm for sports as a pivot point to promote reconciliation between whites and blacks, encouraging black South Africans to support the once hated South African national rugby team. In 1995, South Africa came on the world stage by hosting the Rugby World Cup, which brought further recognition and prestige to the young republic.
During his presidency, Mandela also worked to protect South Africa’s economy from collapse and was officially launched South Africa’s government. Through his Reconstruction and Development Plan, he had the government funding the creation of jobs, housing, and basic health care. In 1996, he signed into law the new South African constitution, which established a strong central government based on majority rule and guaranteed rights of minorities and freedom of expression.
Retirement and Later Career
Mandela retired from active politics at the 1999 general election but maintained a busy schedule, raising money for his Mandela Foundation to build schools and clinics in South Africa’s rural heartland and serving as a mediator in Burundi’s civil war. He also published a number of books on his life and struggle, among them,No Easy Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela: The Struggle is my Life, and Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales. He was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in 2001 and in June 2004, at age 85, he announced his formal retirement from public life and returned to his native village of Qunu.
On July 18, 2007, Mandela convened a group of world leaders, including Graca Machel, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Mary Robinson andMuhammad Yunus to address the world’s toughest issues. Named “The Elders,” the group is committed to working publicly and privately to find solutions to problems around the globe. Since its inception, “The Elders” has made an impact in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa promoting peace, women’s equality, demanding an end to atrocities, and supporting initiatives to address humanitarian crises and promote democracy. Mandela is also committed to the fight against AIDS, a disease that killed his son, Makgatho Mandela, in 2005.
Mandela was married three times: to Evelyn Ntoko Mase from until 1944-1957, they had four children; to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela(1958-1996), they had two daughters; and to Graça Machel in 1998.
Synopsis
The 44th and current president of the United States, Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was a civil rights lawyer before pursuing a political career, first as Illinois State Senator, and later as the first African-American president of the United States. President Obama continues to enact policy changes in response to the issues of health care and economic crisis.
Early Life
President of the United States. Born Barack Hussein Obama on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham’s father, Stanley, enlisted in the service and marched across Europe in Patton’s army. Dunham’s mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, landed in Hawaii.
Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. The elder Obama grew up herding goats in Africa, eventually earning a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of college in Hawaii. While studying at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Obama, Sr. met fellow student, Ann Dunham. They married on February 2, 1961. Barack was born six months later.
Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old, later divorcing. Obama, Sr. went on to Harvard to pursue Ph.D. studies, and then returned to Kenya in 1965. In 1966, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, another East–West Center student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro Ng was born. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son’s safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them.
Excelling in School
While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou Academy, excelling in basketball and graduating with academic honors in 1979. As one of only three black students at the school, Obama became conscious of racism and what it meant to be African-American. He later described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage with his own sense of self. “I began to notice there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog…and that Santa was a white man,” he said. “I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking the way I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me.”
Obama also struggled with the absence of his father, who he saw only once more after his parents divorced, in a brief 1971 visit. “[My father] had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact,” he later reflected. “They couldn’t describe what it might have been like had he stayed.” Obama, Sr. eventually lost his legs in an automobile accident, also losing his job as a result. In 1982, he died in yet another car accident while traveling in Nairobi. Obama, Jr. was 22 years old when he received the news of his father’s passing. “At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me,” Obama said, “both more and less than a man.”
After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science. After working in the business sector for two years, Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he worked on the South Side as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities.
Law Career
It was during this time that Obama, who said he “was not raised in a religious household,” joined the Trinity United Church of Christ. He also visited relatives in Kenya, which included an emotional visit to the graves of his biological father and paternal grandfather. “For a long time I sat between the two graves and wept,” Obama said. “I saw that my life in America—the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I’d witnessed in Chicago—all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away.”
Obama returned from Kenya with a sense of renewal, entering Harvard Law School in 1988. The next year, he met Michelle Robinson, an associate at Sidley & Austin law firm in Chicago. She was assigned to be Obama’s adviser during a summer internship at the firm, and soon the couple began dating. In February 1990, Obama was elected the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, and he graduated magna cum laude in 1991.
After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also taught at the University of Chicago Law School, and helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. On October 3, 1992, he and Michelle were married. They moved to Kenwood, on Chicago’s South Side, and welcomed two daughters: Malia (born 1998) and Sasha (born 2001).
Entry into Illinois Politics
Obama published his autobiography in 1995 Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. The work received high praise from literary figures such as Toni Morrison and has since been printed in 10 languages, including Chinese, Swedish and Hebrew. The book had a second printing in 2004, and is currently being adapted into a children’s version. The 2006 audiobook version of Dreams, which was narrated by Obama, received a Grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album.
Obama’s advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat. He won election in 1996. During these years, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics, expanded health care services, and early childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor. Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee as well, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, he worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.
In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U. S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush. Undeterred, Obama created a campaign committee in 2002, and began raising funds to run in the 2004 U.S. Senate Race. With the help of political consultant David Axelrod, Obama began assessing his prospects of a Senate win.
Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Bush’s push to war with Iraq. Obama was still a state senator when he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq during a rally at Chicago’s Federal Plaza in October 2002. “I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars,” he said. “What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.” Despite his protests, the war with Iraq began in 2003.
U.S. Senate Career
Obama, encouraged by poll numbers, decided to run for the U.S. Senate open seat vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. In the 2004 Democratic primary, he won 52 percent of the vote, defeating multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes. That summer, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized the importance of unity, and made veiled jabs at the Bush administration and the diversionary use of wedge issues.
After the convention, Obama returned to his U.S. Senate bid in Illinois. His opponent in the general election was supposed to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, a wealthy former investment banker. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004, following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual deviancy allegations by Ryan’s ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan.
In August 2004, diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. In three televised debates, Obama and Keyes expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers and tax cuts. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70 percent of the vote to Keyes’ 27 percent, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. With his win, Barack Obama became only the third African-American elected to the U.S. Senate since the Reconstruction.
Sworn into office January 4, 2005, Obama partnered with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. Then, with Republican Senator Tom Corburn of Oklahoma, he created a website that tracks all federal spending. Obama also spoke out for victims of Hurricane Katrina; pushed for alternative energy development; and championed improved veterans’ benefits.
His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in October 2006. The work discussed Obama’s visions for the future of America, many of which became talking points for his eventual presidential campaign. Shortly after its release, it hit No. 1 on both the New York Times and Amazon.com bestsellers lists.
2008 Presidential Election
In February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and then-U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton. On June 3, 2008, however, Obama became the presumptive nominee for the Democratic party, and Senator Clinton delivered her full support to Obama for the duration of his campaign. On November 4th, 2008, Barack Obama defeated Republican presidential nomineeJohn McCain for the position of U.S. President, 52.9 percent to 45.7 percent. On January 20, 2009, Obama became the 44th president of the United States—and the first African-American to hold this office.
When Obama took office, he inherited a global economic recession; two on-going foreign wars; and the lowest international favorability rating for the United States ever. He campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial reform, alternative energy, and reinventing education and health care—all while bringing down the national debt. Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously. During his inauguration speech, Obama summarized the situation by saying, “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.”
First 100 Days
Between Inauguration Day and April 29, the Obama administration took to the field on many fronts. Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking equal pay. A $787 billion stimulus bill was passed to promote short-term economic growth. Housing and credit markets were put on life-support, with a market-based plan to buy U.S. banks’ toxic assets. Loans were made to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall Street. He also cut taxes for working families, small businesses and first-time home buyers. The president also loosened the ban on embryonic stem cell research and moved ahead with a $3.5 trillion budget plan.
During his first 100 days, President Obama also undertook a complete overhaul of America’s foreign policy. He reached out to improve relations with Europe, China, Russia and open dialogue with Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. He lobbied allies to support a global economic stimulus package. He committed an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan and set an August 2010 date for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In more dramatic incidents, he took on pirates off the coast of Somalia and prepared the nation for an attack of the Swine Flu. For his efforts, he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
2010 State of the Union
On January 27, 2010, President Obama delivered his first State of the Union speech. During his oration, Obama addressed the challenges of the economy, proposing a fee for larger banks, announcing a possible freeze on government spending in 2010, and speaking against the Supreme Court’s reversal of a law capping campaign finance spending. He also challenged politicians to stop thinking of re-election and start making positive changes, critisizing Republicans for their refusal to support any legislation, and chastizing Democrats for not pushing hard enough to get legislation passed. He also insisted that, despite current obstacles, he was determined to help American citizens through the nation’s current domestic difficulties. “We don’t quit. I don’t quit,” he said. “Let’s sieze this moment to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and strengthen our union once more.”
Synopsis
Abraham Lincoln is one of America’s greatest heroes because of his unique appeal. His is a remarkable story of the rise from humble beginnings to achieve the highest office in the land; then, a sudden and tragic death at a time when his country needed him most to complete the great task remaining before the nation. His distinctively human and humane personality and historical role as savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves creates a legacy that endures. His eloquence of democracy, and his insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve.
Childhood
Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Thomas was a strong and determined pioneer who found a moderate level of prosperity and was well respected in the community. The couple had two other children: Abraham’s older sister Sarah and younger brother Thomas, who died in infancy. Due to a land dispute, the Lincolns were forced to move from Kentucky to Perry County, Indiana in 1817, where the family “squatted” on public land to scrap out a living in a crude shelter, hunting game and farming a small plot. Thomas was eventually able to buy the land.
When young Abraham was nine years old his mother died of tremetol (milk sickness) at age 34 and the event was devastating on him. The nine-year-old Abraham grew more alienated from his father and quietly resented the hard work placed on him at an early age. A few months after Nancy’s death, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow with three children of her own. She was a strong and affectionate woman with whom Abraham quickly bonded. Though both his parents were most likely illiterate, Sarah encouraged Abraham to read. It was while growing into manhood that he received his formal education—an estimated total of 18 months—a few days or weeks at a time. Reading material was in short supply in the Indiana wilderness. Neighbors recalled how Abraham would walk for miles to borrow a book. He undoubtedly read the family Bible and probably other popular books at that time such as Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrims Progress and Aesop’s Fables.
Law Career
In March, 1830, the family again migrated, this time to Macon County, Illinois. When his father moved the family again to Coles County, 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln struck out on this own, making a living in manual labor. At six feet four inches tall, Lincoln was rawboned and lanky, but muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his skill in wielding an ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing. Young Lincoln eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was here that Lincoln, working with the public, acquired social skills and honed story-telling talent that made him popular with the locals. When theBlack Hawk War broke out in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. He saw no combat during this time, save for “a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes,” but was able to make several important political connections.
After the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature in 1834 as a member of the Whig Party. He supported the Whig politics of government-sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs. This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery, not so much as a moral wrong, but as an impediment to economic development. It was around this time he decided to become a lawyer, teaching himself the law by reading Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield,
Illinois and began to practice in the John T. Stuart law firm.
It was soon after this that he purportedly met and became romantically involved with Anne Rutledge. Before they had a chance to be engaged, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem and Anne died at age 22. Her death was said to have left Lincoln severely depressed. However, several historians disagree on the extent of Lincoln’s relationship with Rutledge and his level of sorrow at her death may be more the makings of legend.
In 1844, Abraham Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in the practice of law. Though the two had different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship. Lincoln made a good living in his early years as a lawyer, but found that Springfield alone didn’t offer enough work, so to supplement his income, he followed the court as it made its rounds on the circuit to the various county seats in Illinois.
Entering Politics
Abraham Lincoln served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847-1849. His foray into national politics seems to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from the state of Illinois, showing party loyalty, but finding few political allies. He used his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of the war made him unpopular back home and he decided not to run for second term, but instead returned Springfield to practice law.
By the 1850s, the railroad industry was moving west and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for various companies. Abraham Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company attorney. Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well—banks, insurance companies and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also did some criminal trials. In one case, a witness claimed that he could identify Lincoln’s client who was accused of murder, because of the intense light from a full moon. Lincoln referred to an almanac and proved that the night in question had been too dark for the witness to see anything clearly. His client was acquitted.
About a year after the death of Anne Rutledge, Lincoln courted Mary Owens. The two saw each other for a few months and marriage was considered. But in time Lincoln called off the match. In 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, a high spirited, well educated woman from a distinguished Kentucky family. In the beginning, many of the couple’s friends and family couldn’t understand Mary’s attraction, and at times Lincoln questioned it himself. However, in 1841, the engagement was suddenly broken off, most likely at Lincoln’s initiative. They met later, at a social function and eventually married on November 4, 1842. The couple had four children, of which only one, Robert, survived to adulthood.
Elected President
In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, and allowed individual states and territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The law provoked violent opposition in Kansas and Illinois. And it gave rise to the Republican Party. This awakened Abraham Lincoln’ political zeal once again and his views on slavery moved more toward moral indignation. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856.
In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial decision Scott v. Sanford, declaring African Americans were not citizens and had no inherent rights. Though Abraham Lincoln felt African Americans were not equal to whites, he believed the America’s founders intended that all men were created with certain inalienable rights. Lincoln decided to challenge sitting U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas for his seat. In his nomination acceptance speech, he criticized Douglas, the Supreme Court, and President Buchanan for promoting slavery and declared “a house divided cannot stand.” The 1858 Senate campaign featured seven debates held in different cities all over Illinois. The two candidates didn’t disappoint the public, giving stirring debates on issues ranging from states’ rights to western expansion, but the central issue in all the debates was slavery. Newspapers intensely covered the debates, often times with partisan editing and interpretation. In the end, the state legislature elected Douglas, but the exposure vaulted Lincoln into national politics.
In 1860, political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Lincoln for the presidency. On May 18th at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln surpassed better known candidates such as William Seward of New York andSalmon P. Chase of Ohio. Lincoln’s nomination was due in part to his moderate views on slavery, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and the protective tariff. In the general election, Lincoln faced is friend and rival, Stephan Douglas, this time besting him in a four-way race that included John C. Breckinridge of the Northern Democrats and John Bell of the Constitution Party. Lincoln received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote, but carried 180 of 303 Electoral votes.
Abraham Lincoln selected a strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates and Edwin Stanton. Formed out the adage “Hold your friends close and your enemies closer”, Lincoln’s Cabinet became one of his strongest assets in his first term in office… and he would need them. Before his inauguration in March, 1861, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union and by April the U.S. military installation Fort Sumter, was under siege in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, the guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the fort signaling the start of America’s costliest and most deadly conflict.
Civil War
Abraham Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other present before him. He distributed $2,000,000 from the Treasury for war materiel without an appropriation from Congress; he called for 75,000 volunteers into military service without a declaration of war; and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, arresting and imprisoning suspected Confederate sympathizers without a warrant. Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, with its preceding decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance. He was often at odds with his generals, his Cabinet, his party, and a majority of the American people.
The Union Army’s first year and a half of battlefield defeats made it especially difficult to keep morale up and support strong for a reunification the nation. With the hopeful, but by no means conclusive Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, Abraham felt confident enough to reshape the cause of the war from “union” to abolishing slavery. Gradually, the war effort improved for the North, though more by attrition then by brilliant military victories. But by 1864, the Confederacy had hunkered down to a guerilla war and Lincoln was convinced he’d be a one-term president. His nemesis, George B. McClellan, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but the contest wasn’t even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 243 Electoral votes. On March 28, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Virginia, surrendered his forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the war for all intents and purposes was over.
Assassination
Reconstruction began during the war as early as 1863 in areas firmly under Union military control. Abraham Lincoln favored a policy of quick reunification with a minimum of retribution. But he was confronted by a radical group of Republicans in the Senate and House that wanted complete allegiance and repentance from former Confederates. Before a political battle had a chance to firmly develop, Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was taken from the theater to a Petersen House across the street and laid in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning. His body lay in state at the Capitol before a funeral train took him back to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.
Synopsis
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947, near Graz, Austria. He rose to fame as the world’s top bodybuilder, launching a career that would make him a giant Hollywood star. After years of blockbuster movie roles, Schwarzenegger went into politics, becoming governor of California in 2003.
Early Years
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947, near Graz, Austria. Schwarzenegger’s childhood was far from ideal. His father, Gustav, was an alcoholic police chief and one-time member of the Nazi Party, who clearly favored Arnold’s brother over his gangly, seemingly less athletic younger son.
Gustav is reported to have beaten and intimidated Arnold and, when he could, pitted his two boys against one another. He also ridiculed Schwarzenegger’s early dreams of becoming a body builder. “It was a very uptight feeling at home,” Schwarzenegger later recalled. So uptight and uncomfortable, in fact, that Schwarzenegger would later refuse to attend the funeral of his father, who died in 1972, or his brother, who was killed in a car crash in 1971.
As an escape, Arnold turned to the movies, in particular Reg Parker, a body builder and star in B-level Hercules movies. The films also helped propel Schwarzenegger’s own obsession with America, and the future he felt awaited him there. Getting to his new country was the issue. Schwarzenegger found his answer in Joe Weider, the man behind the International Federation of Body Building, an organization that sponsored contests such Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia.
Weider loved Schwarzenegger’s bravado, sense of humor, and the potential he saw in the young body builder. Weider’s instincts couldn’t have been more dead-on. In all, Schwarzenegger would win an unprecedented five Mr. Universe titles and six Mr. Olympia crowns during his bodybuilding career.
Equally significant, Schwarzenegger, who had immigrated to the United States in 1968, helped propel the sport into the mainstream, culminating in the 1977 documentary, Pumping Iron, which tells the tale of Schwarzenegger’s defense of his Mr. Olympia crown.
Making it in Hollywood
Since his first foray to the local movie house in his hometown of Graz, Arnold had dreamed of making it big in Hollywood. With his ascension to the top of the bodybuilding world, it was only a matter of time before he’d move over to the big screen.
After acting in a few small parts, Schwarzenegger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Newcomer for his performance in Stay Hungry (1976). With his intense physical strength and size, Schwarzenegger was a natural for action films. He became a leading figure in several popular 1980s action movies, including Conan the Barbarian (1982). Schwarzenegger also starred as a deadly machine from the future in The Terminator (1984). The science-fiction drama spawned two sequels—Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).
Off-screen he continued his remarkable story, marrying into the Kennedy family by tying the knot with Maria Owings Shriver, daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her husband R. Sargent Shriver.
Schwarzenegger’s American story sounded improbable, except to those who knew him. “This is a man of bottomless ambition,” said George Butler, producer and director of Pumping Iron, in a 2003 interview.
“It’s always been there … He sees himself as mystically sent to America.”
The Governator
In 2003, Schwarzenegger again showed his resolve to succeed when he threw his hat into the ring for the California governor’s race and won a seat in a special election. In a state that was mired in severe budget woes, the newly elected Republican governor promised to bring economic stability to his adopted state.
As expected, Schwarzenegger brought his own unique brand of confidence to his new job. “If they don’t have the guts, I call them ‘girlie-men,’” he said of Democrats, early in his first term. “They should go back to the table and fix the budget.”
Still, as governor, he worked to improve the state’s financial situation, promote new businesses, and protect the environment. In 2006, Schwarzenegger won easily won his bid for re-election.
His second term in office did not run as smoothly, however. Schwarzenegger struggled to help the state through difficult financial times. After leaving office in January 2011, he sought to revive his career in the entertainment industry. In March of that year, Schwarzenegger announced plans to work with famed comic book creator Stan Lee on a new animated series inspired by his time in office.
Only a few months after leaving office, Schwarzenegger made another announcement. He and Maria Shriver made their decision to separate public in May. The news followed Schwarzenegger’s acknowledgement that he’d fathered a baby with a member of the family’s household staff. Schwarzenegger and Shriver have four children: Katherine, Christina, Patrick, and Christopher.
Synopsis
Merv Griffin was an American television host and business magnate. From a love of puzzles and games, he built an empire. His game shows, talk show, hotels, and other media commodities made him one of the richest men in the world. He first conceived the showJeopardy! in 1964, then Wheel of Fortune in ’75. He purchased the Beverly Hilton Hotel in the 1980s. Griffin died of prostate cancer in 2007.
Early life and career
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr., was born July 6, 1925, in the San Francisco, California, suburb of San Mateo. He learned how to play piano from an aunt was soon playing the pipe organ and singing in churches.
At age 19, Griffin abandoned his college studies for show business, singing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at radio station KFRC. Freddy Martin, a fan of the show, asked Griffin to tour with his big band orchestra, which he did for four years.
He earned enough to form his own record label, Panda Records. His self-released album Songs by Merv Griffin (1946) was the first U.S. album to be mastered on magnetic tape. Griffin’s fame soared when he struck gold in 1950 with “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” which sold over three million copies.
During one of his nightclub performances, Griffin was discovered by Doris Day, who arranged for a screen test at Warner Bros. Studios. He appeared in a number of hit movies before turning his focus to television. One of his films, So This Is Love (1953), featured the first open-mouthed kiss shown in theaters.
Griffin started appearing regularly on television shows as The Arthur Murray Dance Party and The Jack Paar Show. He hosted a game show, Play Your Hunch from 1958 to 1962.
Griffin became a substitute host for Jack Paar on The Jack Paar Tonight Show and scored some of the show’s highest ratings. As a result, NBC gave him his own daytime talk show, which debuted on the same day Johnny Carson first hosted The Tonight Show on October 1, 1962.
The program was canceled after its first season, but The Merv Griffin Show returned as a syndicated program in 1965. He then received an offer to host a new game show, Word for Word, in 1963, which he produced as well. An avid fan of puzzles since childhood, this led him to conceive the idea for and produceJeopardy! (1964), one of the most successful game shows in television history.
Television Career
In 1965, Griffin launched a syndicated talk show for Group W Westinghouse Broadcasting. The Merv Griffin Show featured an eclectic mix of guests. As host, he is noted for putting his subjects at ease, but while he was not regarded as a tough or penetrating interviewer, Griffin was not shy about tackling controversial subjects, including the Vietnam War.
In 1969, CBS hired Griffin to directly compete with Johnny Carson. But he began to be harassed by CBS executives who objected to the antiwar statements of his guests and who had wanted to fire his long-term sidekick and mentor, Arthur Treacher, because he was too old.
The CBS show was canceled in 1972 and Griffin returned to syndication, via Metromedia for the next fourteen years.
In 1975, when NBC canceled Jeopardy!, he was allowed to produce the show’s successor, Wheel of Fortune. A modest hit on daytime television, it became a phenomenon in 1983 in the syndication market with Pat Sajak and Vanna White. A revival of Jeopardy! in 1984 was also a huge success, making Griffin an extremely wealthy man.
The sale of Merv Griffin Productions to Columbia Pictures (then-owned by Coca-Cola) in 1986 netted him $250 million. He also became a real estate mogul, purchasing the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and a ranch near Carmel, California,where he raises thoroughbred racing horses.
In March 2001, the Gold Label released his new CD, It’s Like a Dream, for which he composed the title song.
Griffin received a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award in 2005.
Griffin was married to Julann Elizabeth Wright in 1958 (divorced in 1976).They had a son, Tony, in 1959, and two grandchildren.
Griffin, who escorted actress Eva Gabor of “Green Acres” for nine years before her 1995 death, refrained from discussing his personal relationships in detail. In 1991, he was sued for $200 million by a former male employee, Brent Plott, on palimony charges, and for $11.5 million by former Dance Fever host Deney Terrio for sexual harassment. Both suits were ultimately dismissed.
In July 2007, he was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a recurrence of the prostate cancer he had battled in 1996 was found during a routine examination. Merv Griffin, big band-era crooner, talk-show host and entertainment mogul, died of prostate cancer on August 12, 2007. He was 82.
Synopsis
Born in 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, Clive Davis started out as a lawyer. He landed a job at Columbia Records and eventually became its president. While there, Davis signed Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, and others to the label. In 1974, he started Arista Records. He mentored such performers asBarry Manilow and Whitney Houston. Davis created J Records in 2000 and now serves as the chief creative officer for Sony Music.
Early Life
Sometimes known as the Man with the Golden Ears, Clive Davis didn’t start out with the intention of becoming one of music’s most influential executives. His intense dedication and work ethic emerged early on, as he applied himself to his studies. After losing both of his parents as a teenager, Davis found himself on his own. He worked hard to earn top grades, which helped him win scholarships to New York University and Harvard Law School.
After completing Harvard Law in 1956, Davis joined a law firm that worked with Columbia Records. He moved over to Columbia a few years later as a part of their legal department. Davis then worked his way up in the organization, eventually becoming president of the label in 1967. That same year, he began his rise as a musical tastemaker.
Davis attended the famous Monterey Pop Festival, where he saw such rock acts as the Janis Joplin-fronted Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane. Davis was especially impressed by Joplin, and signed her to his label. Eventually selling more than 25 million records, Joplin became Davis’ first great success story. He went on to sign such diverse acts as Earth, Wind & Fire, Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith.
Arista Records
In 1973, Davis was fired for using corporate funds for personal expenses, including paying for his son’s bar mitzvah. He has disputed this charge, claiming the company wanted to get rid of him. Whatever the case, Davis didn’t take long to find a new home. He founded Arista Records the following year, and soon returned to his hit-making ways. One of his early discoveries was Barry Manilow, who scored the label’s first No. 1 hit with 1975′s “Mandy.”
Not just focused on pop music, Davis continued to find new rock talent. He signed punk legend Patti Smith and released one of her most acclaimed albums Horses in 1975. Davis was also instrumental in launching the careers of British rockers in the band, The Kinks.
In addition to finding new talent, Davis showed great skill at reviving the careers of several performers. He worked with Dionne Warwickto bring her back to the charts in 1979 with “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” off her album Dionne. With his guidance, Davis helped Warwick become popular and critically acclaimed once more. He also helped the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin win over a new generation of fans in the early 1980s.
Around this time, Davis made one of his most famous discoveries. He saw a teenage Whitney Houston perform, and quickly signed her to his label. In 1985, Houston’s first album, Whitney, came out and spawned several No. 1 hits, starting with “Saving All My Love.” Houston became one of the top acts of the 1980s and 1990s, and Davis remained her mentor and supporter throughout her career.
In late 1990s, Davis took a hands-on approach to bringing Carlos Santana back into the popular music scene. He worked on finding collaborators and songs with hit potential for this legendary rock guitarist. The pairing of singer Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty and Santana on “Smooth” hit the top of the charts and led to strong sales of the album Supernatural. Supernatural brought Davis his first Grammy win as a producer.
Davis is also good at spotting talent behind the scenes. During his time at Arista, he worked on a number of business ventures. Davis helped L.A. Reid and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds launch LaFace Records as a division of Arista. He also mentored rapper-entrepreneurSean “Puffy” Combs who formed Bad Boy Records.
Later Projects
Davis stepped down as president of Arista in 2000. That same year, he launched J Records. His new label featured such established and emerging stars as Luther Vandross and Alicia Keys. That same year, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Patti Smith for his contributions to the industry.
In 2002, Davis became the president and CEO of RCA Music Group, which included his J Records label. He continued to be active in his work with new artists, serving as a producer for twoAmerican Idol sensations, Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson. Mergers and restructuring led to another job change for Davis in 2008. He became the chief creative officer for Sony BMG, now called Sony Music Entertainment.
Davis has remained a loyal supporter of many of the acts he discovered over the years. In 2009, he helped Whitney Houston with her comeback album I Look To You, which reached the top of the charts. Only a few years later, Davis lost his longtime protégée. Houston’s death occurred just a day before the Grammy Awards in 2012. At his annual pre-Grammy party, he told those gathered that “I am personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years. Whitney was so full of life.”
Now approaching his eighth decade, Davis shows no signs of slowing down. He remains an influential force in the music world. Davis is also active in a number of charitable and educational endeavors. In 2005, he gave $5 million to New York University to Department of Recorded Music and serves as an advisor to the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music there.
This father of four is also dedicated to his family. He gathers once a week with his children and grandchildren and takes several trips with them each year. “I don’t want to be loving strangers. We want to be able to grow through life together meaningfully,” Davis once told Esquire magazine.
Synopsis
Gladys Knight began singing with her siblings at age 8, calling themselves “The Pips.” The group opened for R&B legends in the 1950s. Then they headed to Motown and crossed over to pop music. As Gladys Knight and the Pips, they recorded their signature song, “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Knight left the Pips behind in 1989, and continued to perform and record as a solo artist.
Profile
Singer, actress. Born May 28, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia. Knight made her solo singing debut at the age of four in the Mount Mariah Baptist Church in Atlanta. In 1952, shortly after winning a prize for her performance on the televised Ted Mack Amateur Hour, eight-year-old Knight formed the Pips with her brother and sister, Merald (‘Bubba’) and Brenda, and two cousins, Elenor and William Guest (another cousin, Edward Patten, and Langston George later joined the group, after Brenda and Elenor left to get married; George left by 1960). With young Gladys supplying the throaty vocals and the Pips providing impressive harmonies and inspired dance routines, the group soon earned a following on the so-called ‘Chitlin Circuit’ in the South, opening for popular acts such as Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke.
While their first single, “Whistle My Love”, was released by Brunswick in 1957, the Pips didn’t score a bona fide hit until they began recording with Motown Records in the 1960s, where they were teamed with songwriter/producer Norman Whitfield. In 1967, the Pips’ version of Whitfield’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” – later a huge hit for Marvin Gaye - crossed over from the rhythm & blues charts to the pop charts. Their popularity increased with the success of singles like “Nitty Gritty”, “Friendship Train”, and “If I Were Your Woman”, combined with touring performances with the Motown Revue and numerous TV appearances. Knight and the Pips left Motown in 1973 for Buddah Records, a subsidiary of Arista (the group later took Motown to court for unpaid royalties). Ironically, their last Motown single, “Neither One of Us Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye”, became the Pips’ first No. 1 crossover hit and a Grammy winner for Best Pop Vocal Performance in 1973.
The group – now known officially as Gladys Knight and the Pips – was riding higher than ever during the mid-1970s with a smoother, more accessible sound, a hit album, Imagination (1973) and three gold singles: “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination”, “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”, and the Grammy-winning No. 1 hit “Midnight Train to Georgia” (Best R&B Vocal Performance). In 1974, the group recorded the soundtrack for the film Claudine, with songs written by Curtis Mayfield; the soundtrack album spawned the hit single “On and On”. Their next album, I Feel a Song (1975), included Knight’s hit version of Marvin Hamlisch’s “The Way We Were”, also popularized by Barbra Streisand; the album’s title track became a No. 1 soul hit.
Knight and the Pips hosted their own TV special in the summer of 1975, and in 1976, Knight made an appearance in the film Pipe Dreams, for which she and the Pips also recorded the soundtrack album. She later costarred opposite comedian Flip Wilson on the 1985-86 sitcomCharlie & Co. Due to legal problems with Buddah, Knight and the Pips were forced to record separately in the last years of the 1970s, although they continued performing together in live gigs. After signing a new contract with Columbia,
the group released three reunion albums during the early 1980s,About Love (1980), Touch(1982), and Visions (1983), scoring hits with such singles as “Landlord” (produced by the ace songwriting team Ashford and Simpson), “Save the Overtime for Me”, and “You’re Number One”.
Moving to MCA in 1988, Knight and the Pips released their final album together, All Our Love, which included the Grammy-winning single “Love Overboard”. The next year, Knight left the Pips to launch a solo career, recording the title song for the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989) and an album, A Good Woman (1990), that featured guest stars Dionne Warwick and Patti Labelle.
Throughout the 1990s, Knight continued to tour and record, producing the successful 1994 album Just For You and earning acclaim for her consistently strong vocals and hard-working performance style. In addition to her musical career, she also acted in a recurring role on the 1994 TV series New York Undercover.
Knight married her first husband, an Atlanta musician named Jimmy Newman, at age 16. The marriage produced two children, James and Kenya, before Newman, a drug addict, abandoned the family and died only a few years later. Her second marriage, to Barry Hankerson, ended acrimoniously in 1979 after five years in a prolonged custody battle over their son, Shanga. Knight married author and motivational speaker Les Brown in 1995; that marriage ended in 1997.
In addition to a tumultuous love life, Knight suffered through a serious gambling problem that lasted more than a decade. In the late 1980s, after losing $45,000 in one night at the baccarat table, Knight joined Gamblers Anonymous, which helped her quit the habit.
Since 1978, Knight has lived in Las Vegas, close to her mother, Elizabeth, and two of her children and their families. She continues to perform frequently in Las Vegas and beyond and published a memoir, Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story, in 1997. With the Pips, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation in 1998.
In April 2001, Knight married William McDowell, a corporate consultant whom she reportedly met 10 years before but had only begun dating the previous January.
Synopsis
After a troubled childhood, Ella Fitzgerald turned to singing and debuted at the Apollo Theater in 1934. Discovered in an amateur contest, she became the top female jazz singer for over 50 years. Her multi-volume “songbooks” on Verve are among the treasures of American song. Her voice quality, with lucid intonation and a broad range, won her 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
Profile
Singer. Born Ella Jane Fitzgerald on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia. After a troubled childhood, including the death of her mother in 1932, Fitzgerald turned to singing and debuted at the Apollo Theater in 1934 at age 17. She was discovered in an amateur contest in Harlem and joined Chick Webb’s band and recorded several hits, notably “A-tisket A-tasket” (1938).
After Webb died in 1939, his band was renamed Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra. Two years later, she began her solo career and by the mid-1950s, she had become the first African-American to perform at the Mocambo. Her lucid intonation and broad range made her a top jazz singer. Her series of recordings for Verve (1955-9) in multi-volume “songbooks” are among the treasures of American popular song. Fitzgerald is known as “The First Lady of Song,” and was the most popular American female jazz singer for over fifty years. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
With the exception of Jazz at Santa Monica Civic ’72, her latter recordings marked a decline in her voice due to complications from diabetes. The disease left her blind, and she had both legs amputated in 1994. She made her last recording in 1989 and her last public performance in 1991 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Ella Fitzgerald died on June 15, 1996 in her Beverly Hills home.
Fitzgerald was briefly married to Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and hustler, in 1941. She was married to bass player Ray Brown from 1947 to 1952; they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald’s half-sister whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. Fitzgerald.
Synopsis
Actress and singer Lena Horne was born June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, NY. She left school at age 16 to help support her ailing mother and became a dancer at the Cotton Club in Harlem. She later sang at Carnegie Hall and then appeared in such films as The Wiz and Stormy Weather. She was also known for her work with civil rights groups, and refused to play roles that stereotyped African American women.
Profile
(born June 30, 1917, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S. died May 9, 2010, New York City) American singer and actress who first came to fame in the 1940s.
Horne left school at age 16 to help support her ailing mother and became a dancer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City. In two years at the Cotton Club she appeared with such entertainers asCab Calloway and eventually starred in her own shows. In 1935 she joined the Noble Sissle orchestra under the name Helena Horne. Horne was married from 1937 to 1944 to Louis J. Jones. In the early 1940s she was hired to sing for Charlie Barnet’s orchestra. She was discovered by producer John Hammond, and soon after she performed in a solo show at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
In 1942 Horne moved to Los Angeles, after which she appeared in such movies as Cabin in the Sky (1943), Meet Me in Las Vegas(1956), and The Wiz (1978). Her role in the film Stormy Weather(1943) included her rendition of the title song, which became her trademark. A remarkably charismatic entertainer, Horne was one of the most popular singers of her time. One of her albums, Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria (1957), was a longtime best seller, and her first featured performance on Broadway—in the musicalJamaica (1957)—won her a New York Drama Critics’ Poll Award in 1958.
Though primarily known as an entertainer, Horne also was noted for her work with civil rights and political organizations; as an actress, she refused to play roles that stereotyped African American women. She was married to Lennie Hayton from 1947 until his death in 1971. Her one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music(1981), garnered many awards, including a Drama Critics’ Circle Award and a special achievement Tony Award. In 1984 Horne received a Kennedy Center honour for lifetime contribution to the arts, and in 1989 she was given a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
Synopsis
Born in Boston in 1969, singer Bobby Brown became famous in the 1980s and early 1990s for hits including “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Humpin’ Around.” His musical fame, however, became eclipsed in the late 1990s by his troubled marriage to pop star Whitney Houston, who he eventually divorced in 2007.
Early Life
Robert Brown was born on February 5, 1969, in the hardscrabble Orchard Park projects in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. He was the second youngest of eight children born to Herbert Brown, a construction worker, and Carol Brown, an elementary school teacher. Brown endured a very rough childhood marred by poverty and gang violence. Knowing that his parents could not afford to buy him the various things he coveted as a child, Brown and his friends turned to stealing. “I didn’t want to ask my mother or my father because they didn’t have a lot of money,” Brown remembered. “I’d just go to the store and take it. If I wanted a sweat suit or a pair of shoes, I’d just go pick them up.” Brown also got caught up in Roxbury’s gang wars. At the age of 10, he was shot in the knee when a skirmish broke out between rival gangs at a block party. A year later, Brown got into an altercation with an acquaintance who pulled a knife and slashed his shoulder. The turning point in Brown’s childhood came shortly after, when his close friend James Flint was stabbed to death at a party at the age of 11. “When his friend passed, you could see Bobby taking his career, his schooling, his whole life more seriously,” Brown’s brother Tommy recalled. “As kids, everyone had their dreams, but his loss made him more determined.”
Forming New Edition
Brown had dreamed of becoming a singer ever since he saw James Brown perform at the age of 3. He started out singing in church choir, where he distinguished himself with his beautiful and passionate voice. At the age of 12, he formed a group with his friends Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe. Calling themselves New Edition, they rehearsed with a focus and discipline very rare for a group of pre-teen boys. After winning several talent shows, New Edition was discovered by producer and talent scout Maurice Starr, who landed them a recording contract with a small label called Streetwise in 1983. That year they released their debut album, Candy Girl, a sugary sweet collection of songs that made the group an overnight sensation. The title track, “Candy Girl,” was highly reminiscent of The Jackson 5′s “ABC.”
In 1984, New Edition switched to MCA Records and released a self-titled follow-up album that eclipsed the success of Candy Girl with hit singles such as “Cool It Now” and “Mr. Telephone Man.” However, despite the enormous success of their music, the members of New Edition still only received the small salary stipulated in their exploitative contract with MCA. “The most I saw for all the tours and all of the records we sold was $500 and a VCR,” Brown said. Believing that they were being treated “like little slaves by people who were only interested in money and power, and not the welfare of New Edition,” Brown left the group in 1986 to pursue a solo career.
Solo Career
In December 1986, Brown released his first solo album, King of Stage. While the album sold modestly and scored one major hit with the ballad “Girlfriend,” it failed to generate the level of excitement and acclaim for which Brown had hoped. Seeking to reinvent himself as an adult artist, Brown spent the next two years working closely with the acclaimed R&B songwriters and producers Teddy Riley, L.A. Reid and Babyface. The result of their collaboration, released in the summer of 1988, was a radically new R&B album called Don’t Be Cruel that took the music world by storm, selling seven million copies on the way to becoming the bestselling album of the year. Brown’s high-powered, sexually charged music and live performances earned him comparisons to his childhood idol Michael Jackson. In 1990, Brown recorded “On Our Own,” the smash-hit theme song for the movie Ghostbusters II, and in 1992 he released his third album, Bobby, featuring the singles “Humpin’ Around” and “Good Enough.”
Personal Life
However, just as Brown reached the summit of his popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, his personal life began to spiral out of control. Tabloids reported obsessively on Brown’s hard-partying lifestyle—his heavy drinking, womanizing and drug abuse. In the summer of 1992, Brown married fellow pop star Whitney Houstonin one of the most highly publicized celebrity weddings in history. However, theirs was a tumultuous relationship from the start. They both drank heavily and became addicted to marijuana and cocaine. Brown was arrested several times throughout the 1990s for drug use and drunk driving, and rumors of marital infidelity and domestic violence became a ubiquitous presence in the tabloids for years on end. During his 15 years of marriage to Houston, Brown produced only one album, 1997′s Forever, which was preformed poorly commercially, and eventually Brown became more famous as Whitney Houston’s abusive husband than as an artist in his own right. Brown and Houston divorced in 2007. Soon after, Brown began dating a woman named Alicia Etheridge. They have been engaged since 2010, and they have a child together, a son named Cassius.
In many respects, Bobby Brown’s life reads like a classic cautionary tale about the perils of fame and fortune. For several years from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, he was one of the most popular entertainers alive, a young man many hailed as the second coming ofMichael Jackson. Nevertheless, today Brown’s name may be more closely associated with drugs and his troubled relationship with Whitney Houston than with his music. Brown’s life may yet become a tale of redemption, however; drug-free after years of therapy, he released a single, “Get Out the Way,” in early 2011. “I’m doing wonderful,” Brown said. “I’m just moving forward with my life and trying to stay positive at all times.”
That summer, Brown reunited with the other members of New Edition to play the Essence Music Festival. He also performed solo at the Gathering of Juggalos, a music festival organized by the band Insane Clown Posse. Brown, however, soon faced some personal challenges. That December, he lost his father after a battle with cancer. Brown was also reportedly deeply upset by the death of his ex-wife Whitney Houston in February 2012.
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