Have Your Design Displayed on the Next Uhuru T-Shirt

UHURU T-SHIRT CONTEST
Put your name out there.
Create the next design to go on Uhuru’s fall T-shirt and sign your name on it.

Guidelines
Send designs to kentuhuru@gmail.com.
Your file must be sent as PDF. We want to be able to see your work in any computer. Include your complete name, e-mail and phone number in the body of the e-mail. We must be able to reach you if you are the winner.
Use either one or two colors in your design and keep in mind it will be printed on a white T-shirt.
We are looking for good design, so avoid using too many words. It is cliche but a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Also, make sure to use appropriate language and images.
Be creative with your design and be certain you are representing Uhuru and the people who read it.
Pay attention on the deadlines. You have until the very last second of October 8 to submit your design. The winner will be announced on October 11, 2010.

Can a White Woman Tell Black Women how to be Beautiful?

Left to Right: Essence editor-in-chief Angela Burt Murray, Michaela Angela Davis, Elliana Plancas

By Akilah Porter
Readers and former employees of Essence magazine were outraged when the decision was made to promote a white woman to the position of fashion and beauty editor.
Although diversity is ideal in business, I think when it comes to this position for this particular magazine, only a woman of African dispora can tell other women in that group how to be beautiful and black. We can go to magazines like Elle, Cosmo or Lucky to get beauty tips for white women by white women, but now the magazine we once called our own is no longer ours only.
Former Essence writer Michaela Angela Davis has been speaking out against the decision since July. Hundreds of her Facebook supporters have taken her side on the issue by commenting on her page supporting her distaste in hiring Ellianna Plancas as the new fashion and beauty editor.
Davis insists that this is not reverse racism. She is concerned for the black women who will not have the opportunity to hold an editorial position because of incidences like this.

"Essence was the first magazine that says in their brand that it is for black women and their motto when I worked there was 'where black women come first,'" Davis said on CNN. "This is not about being racist, this is about wanting a place where black women can grow and flourish and go out and help diversify.”

Essence Editor-in-Chief Angela Burt Murray stands by her decision to hire Plancas and wants readers to stay loyal to the brand:

"I understand that this issue has struck an emotional chord with our audience...however I selected Ellianna, who has been contributing to the magazine on a freelance basis for the last six months, because of her creativity, vision, the positive reader response to her work and her enthusiasm and respect for the audience and our brand. We remain committed to celebrating the unique beauty and style of African-American women in Essence magazine and online at Essence.com."

Plancas previously worked at O: The Oprah Magazine and US Weekly.

And the People Mourned

By Kyle Roerink

Dallas Kinney was the first person to photograph the body of Dr. Martin Luther King after the Civil Rights leader’s death in Memphis on April 4, 1968. When he went back home to Iowa after covering the tragedy, he “cried for three days.” Forty-two years later, the short and stocky 73 year old with a white beard and rosy cheeks was barely able to hold in his tears while speaking about the assassination.

“I wasn’t seeing a situation or racial rights,” he said. “I saw a people who were facing a great loss.”

Before the high-caliber bullet tore through his neck, Dr. King gave his last speech at the Mason Temple on April 3 in Memphis to help achieve equity for black sanitation employees who wanted to improve their working conditions and eliminate discrimination at their place of work.

“Every black person in Memphis heard that speech the night before.” Kinney said. “And the next day the unthinkable happened.”

While speaking to those who gathered at the temple, it seemed as if Dr. King had a revelation. In this famous address, he said, “ … In the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that He’s allowed me to be in Memphis.”

The next time the nation would see the Civil Rights leader would be in a bronze casket on April 5.

Kinney, who later in his career would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize, received a call on the day of the assassination from his managing editor at the Debuque Telegraph Herald located in Debuque, Iowa.

“King has been killed,” he said to Kinney.

This was managing editor James Gelades’ way of assigning Kinney to the story.

“What do you want to see,” he asked Gelades.

“If it’s going to look like Life, Time and UPI don’t do it,” Gelades said.

After arriving in Memphis on April 4, Kinney spent the remainder of the day and the first part of April 5 in the newsroom of the local paper, The Commercial Appeal, until word spread of a press conference at the Lorraine Motel. The tables were directly below the balcony where Dr. King lay with blood gushing out of a gaping hole in his neck only hours before.

“It was a press conference held by black leaders from residential Memphis,” Kinney said. “But it was more style than substance—there was nothing going on.”

Afterwards, the rest of the media members went back to their hotels and newsrooms to wait for the funeral, which was to be held in Atlanta. Kinney, remembering the words of Gelades, didn’t follow the pack.

After taking a photo of an elderly black man standing near the street outside of the motel, Kinney had a conversation with him.

“What’s going on,” the man asked Kinney.

“I really don’t know,” Kinney replied.

“I am going down to see the body,” the man said.

“Do you care if I walk along with you,” Kinney asked.

“It’s your white ass,” the man said.

At that point in time no news organizations knew where or when Dr. King’s Memphis viewing would be.

“I guarantee that was local knowledge,” Kinney said. “That did not come out of the press conference nor was it broadcast at all.”

Riots in parts of Memphis erupted after the announcement of Dr. King’s death, closing many of the city’s main roads to motor vehicles. Kinney knew he was taking a chance walking through the streets of a city that had been torn apart due to prejudice, but it was the only way he could get to the R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home. He said handling a situation like that is “all attitude.”

When Kinney arrived at the funeral home he immediately approached the funeral director and said, “This is what we need to do. The first person to see Dr. King’s body has got to be recorded.”

He assured the director that if his photography intruded upon the privacy of those who came to see the body all he had to do was “raise one finger” and Kinney would leave.

The layout for the viewing was in a proscenium arch style. The photos may seem like he was positioned right over casket, but because of his lenses he was able to make pictures without hovering over Dr. King’s body.

“I was visible, but I did not stand out,” he said.”

Kinney positioned himself and waited to capture the first onlooker. When the procession began he saw an elderly woman making her way to the bronze casket to look at Dr. King. She was holding a bagged lunch. Kinney said the look on her face and all of the others in attendance at the viewing was a different emotion than he had “ever encountered.”

The enormity of the situation was not conveyed only with sorrow. Kinney said the morale of the community expressed “authentic grief bathed in shock.”

“I saw that first woman and I knew that I knew it was a monumental moment of what I was privileged to be part of,” he said.

After a while, a well-dressed woman approached the casket to see for herself what had become of Dr. King. Kinney clicked his camera’s shutter.

“She looked through then lens of my 85mm and gave me a look like ‘how dare you,’” he said. “I stopped photographing after that because the photo captured something that intruded upon her grief.”

He informed the woman that no one would ever see the picture. After 22 hours in Memphis with no sleep and the first images of the martyred Civil Rights hero laid to rest, Kinney went back home to Iowa.

Having the opportunity to photograph the tragedy gave Kinney the credentials to photograph the riots that proceeded the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Robert F. Kennedy, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning images of migrant workers in Florida.

He says that photographing Dr. King is monumental because he captured a situation where people lost a part of their souls.

“He had a dream,” Kinney said. “They lost the dream. Not for a moment. Not for a week. Not for a month—For a lifetime.”

See a slideshow of photos from King's funeral here

Greeks give fun back to the community

Story and video by Martina Nwoga
Richard Brantley, Programming Director of the King Kennedy Center, brought some of the children to Kent State to eat, play games, play games, win prizes and enjoy spending time with college students.
They attended Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.'s Turkey Jam in Oscar Ritchie.
The Turkey Jam is an annual event that Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. has hosted for the past three years. The King Kennedy Center has been participating in bringing its kids every year.
Ryan Brown, Jr. nursing major, said that his fraternity continues to host the event because they enjoy giving back to the community.
The Turkey Jam meant a lot to senior general technology major Tramaine Jackson.
“I never had anyone give back to me when I was a little kid,” Jackson said.
The event was full of laughter and enjoyment.
Nine-year-old Sidny White said she really liked playing the games and winning prizes.
15-year-old Naomi Bush also said she enjoyed herself and plans on coming back again next year.
The event was open to the public so other college students could participate in community service.

Question to our readers:
Do you think it is important to give back to the community? Why?

Futuristic Movement gives students at MLK High School a motto to pass OGT

Members of Fresh Vibe Dance.


Video and story by Dwayne Yates
Photos by Kyle Roerink (Click to enlarge)
UHURU Magazine

Music with a message is not always taken seriously by younger generations, but Futuristic Movement has figured something out.

Rapper and co-founder of Futuristic Movement Oatz changed the lyrics to his song "Aint I Doe" to go "I'm gon' pass my OGT 'doe. Aint I 'doe?" Students repeated it back to him in their school's gymnasium during a pep rally.

Futuristic Movement is a group comprised of promoters, dancers and musicians. Its members come from different areas in northeast Ohio like Aurora, Akron, Canton and Cleveland.

Oatz said if someone wants to become a member he or she needs to have a talent they are willing to work on.

Vernon Jeffery, the other co-founder of Futuristic Movement, said this is something young promoters can join to learn how to get paid for the work that they do instead of accepting free admission into the events they promote. He also said the members receive financial education like learning how to do percentages and read contracts.

“You got a lot of kids who want to do music and promote, but they don’t know how to get into it,” Jeffery said. “We giveProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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hem that step forward to get them into everything.”

Members are expected to keep their grades up. Jeffery said there is a probation system, and if a member’s grades slip he or she is not allowed to attend Futuristic Movement events until they have shown improvement.

There is also a $10 fee each member pays per month. This money goes toward group outings and its events.

Right now, Futuristic Movement has 75 members. The group was just formed in this past June.

“Kids follow suit,” Jeffery said. “They see something they’re interested in that their friend is doing and they follow.”

People interested in joining should send an email to joinfuturisticmovement@gmail.com with their name and talent included.





Members of the Bookbag Bandits perform.



Founders of Futuristic Movement, Oatz, Latif Hughes and Vernon Jeffery, pose.



The Futuristic Movement executive board.



Members of Bookbag Bandits pose for a picture.



The Outsiders were one of Futuristic Movement's first acts. Here, they are pictured above.



Members of Fresh Vibe.



Futuristic Movement assembled a group of backup dancers to perform behind Oatz. Here they are.



Pictured here are all the members of Futuristic Movement who performed at Martin Luther King High School.



This is a picture of some members of Futuristic Movement posing for a picture with students and staff of Martin Luther King High School, including principle William Davis.