Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Toni Vaz, Black Stuntwoman Who Founded the NAACP Image Awards

 

Toni Vaz, Stuntwoman and Founder of N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards, Dies at 101

She created a program to honor Black artistic success in the 1960s. But she spent decades trying to get its organizers to recognize her role.

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A studio portrait of her sitting in a wooden chair, her hands clasped about one crossed knee, surrounded by Image Award figurines (a male figure holding up a globe). She has short gray hair and wears sunglasses.
Toni Vaz in 2021. The notion of a Black stunt performer did not really exist when she began her Hollywood career in the 1950s.Credit...Motion Picture & Television Fund

Toni Vaz, who cut a path as one of the first Black stuntwomen in Hollywood, with appearances in more than 50 movies, and then created the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards to recognize the often unsung work of Black writers and performers, died on Oct. 4 in Los Angeles. She was 101.

Cheryl Abbott, her great-niece, said her death, at a retirement home for actors in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, was caused by congestive heart failure.

The notion of a Black stunt performer did not really exist when Ms. Vaz began her career in the 1950s — she and others were officially cast as extras, received no training, and often did not know what dangers they might face on a set until the cameras began to roll.

During the filming of “Porgy and Bess” (1959), Ms. Vaz was instructed to lean out a window to catch a glimpse of two of the film’s stars, Sammy Davis Jr. and Sidney Poitier. Unbeknown to her, a carpenter had purposely weakened the railing; it broke as soon as she leaned on it, sending her falling several feet onto a mattress.

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Shaken, she was handed a shot of brandy to recover.

Throughout her career, Ms. Vaz played a critical part in support of Black actresses like Eartha KittCicely Tyson and Juanita Moore as they began to break out of the racially stereotyped roles that had long been their only options in Hollywood.

But she and other Black stunt performers were typically paid less than their white counterparts for the same work. Standing in for Ms. Moore in a scene for “The Singing Nun” (1966), she and a white stuntwoman were directed to crash a jeep; Ms. Vaz got $40, she told the interviewer Amie Jo Greer in 2010, while the white performer got $350.

Ms. Vaz joined the Hollywood branch of the N.A.A.C.P. in 1962, shortly after it opened. Five years later, she was asked to come up with fund-raising ideas. She suggested an awards show honoring Black artists, similar to the Oscars. She called it the Image Awards.

“In those days, the jobs Black people got were playing maids, hookers, Aunt Jemimas. That upset me,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. “We can play attorneys and doctors. So I thought, why don’t we change that image?”

The first awards were presented in 1967 at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hilton. Originally they went to television shows, not individual performers, as a way of acknowledging those that had broken the color barrier in a meaningful way; among the honorees were “Mission: Impossible,” “I Spy” and “Star Trek.”

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Today the Image Awards are in their 56th year. They honor not just actors and actresses but novelists, poets and musicians as well; at the most recent awards, in March, Colman Domingo was named outstanding actor for his performance in the title role of “Rustin” (2023), about the civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, and Fantasia Barrino was named outstanding actress for the 2023 movie adaptation of the Alice Walker novel “The Color Purple.”

Adella Elitha Antonia Thomas was born on Dec. 11, 1922, in Manhattan. Her parents, Benjamin and Madona Thomas, were immigrants from Barbados, though her father soon returned to the island. A police officer, he was killed when she was 4.

Her mother worked in a factory and raised Toni and her three siblings. She ran a strict household, insisting that the children stay home, in Harlem, unless they were at church or in school.

After high school, Toni began working as a model for Brandford Models, the first agency to focus on Black women. The work was steady, she told Ms. Greer, but as a darker-skinned woman, she found the opportunities limited. In 1951, a friend encouraged her to try Los Angeles. She moved right away.

Her marriages to Francois Vaz and later to Wayne Ono both ended in divorce. Ms. Abbott, her great-niece, is her only survivor.

Ms. Vaz did not find overnight success in Hollywood. But one day a friend asked if she wanted to come with her and her husband to his audition for a part in a Tarzan movie. He didn’t get it, but one of the producers, seeing Ms. Vaz, asked her if she’d like a part.

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“I said: ‘Work in a movie? Of course!’” she told Ms. Greer. “There was no training, no nothing. I had to learn everything as I went along.”

She was thrown into a shoot immediately. The director told her and a few other women to run, without telling them that a live lion would be behind them.

She was fine — the lion was well trained — and her career took off.

Black men did not have it much better as stunt performers, and in 1967 several of them joined with Ms. Vaz to found the Black Stuntmen’s Association.

Despite her central role in creating the Image Awards, Ms. Vaz found herself pushed aside as the program grew in scope and significance. Other people, often men, received credit instead.

“I was upset with them when I created the Image Awards and they weren’t giving me credit,” she told The Crisis, the magazine of the N.A.A.C.P., in 2021. “I was young at the time, and I was the quiet one, so I canceled out.”

Finally, in 2021, she received the Image Awards’ Founder’s Award, recognizing her as the creator of the program.

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“I was going to write a book called ‘Stolen Dreams,’ but I don’t have to write that anymore,” she told The Crisis. “My dream came true.”

The N.A.A.C.P. isn’t the only organization to give Ms. Vaz late-life honors: In June the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that her name will be added to the Walk of Fame next year.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Hollis Freeman Price (Amherst College Class of 1927), First African American President of LeMoyne College and First African American Moderator (Spiritual Leader) of the United Church of Christ

 


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Hollis Freeman Price

(1904-1982)

Hollis Freeman Price Sr. was born in Virginia in 1904 at the dawn of the Jim Crow era in the American South. Reared by parents who were prominent educators and devout Christians, young Price’s destiny as a future educator and religious leader was being molded well before he reached the shores of the bustling river city of Memphis. After receiving his primary education from the elite Williston Academy in East Hampton, Massachusetts, Price earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College in 1927 and a master’s in economics from Columbia University shortly thereafter. Equipped with a solid education and an intense desire to “uplift” his race, Price moved back South where he could better serve African Americans.

Hollis Price’s first professional opportunity came at the Tuskegee Institute, where he served as professor of economics for nearly sixteen years. At this small Alabama school made famous by its founder, Booker T. Washington, Price began to shape himself as an educational leader, which would eventually pay dividends for a number of African Americans that migrated from the Deep South to the Mid-South during the Great Migration of the early twentieth century. Along the way, Price met and married the future Mrs. Althea Price, who was an educator herself. This union produced one child, Hollis F. Price Jr., who later followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an economist. With the focus of this country primarily on the troops that were serving in World War II, Price shifted his focus north to a small college in Memphis.

History was made in 1943, when Hollis Freeman Price Sr. became the first African American president of LeMoyne College. Quickly, Price cemented himself as a visionary in the Memphis community as he continually garnered financial support for this small black private college, a feat that many Historically Black College and University (HBCU) presidents found difficult during the war years.

With LeMoyne College in good standing, President Price decided to take a leave of absence in 1954 to raise funds for the Urban League. Price’s work as an educational and community leader did not go unnoticed as he received two honorary doctorates, the first from Brandeis University in 1958 and the second from Amherst College in 1962. As a result of his work with educational, religious, and social organizations, Price’s popularity in the Memphis community soared during the early 1960s. Nevertheless, he failed to secure enough votes to earn a seat on the Memphis City Board of Education in 1963.

Following the assassination of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 in Memphis, Price’s leadership was lauded as he calmed his students during this tragic hour. As the Civil Rights movement continued in Memphis, LeMoyne College gained more students by successfully merging with Owen College, a small black junior college. The newly combined school became known as LeMoyne-Owen College. Price ultimately served as first president of this newly combined entity. Although there were no major retaliations from the black community during the spring of 1968, Price eventually faced angry students in the fall of that year. This protest was quickly terminated as the president met with student leaders and listened to their demands. The handling of this protest, the schools’ merger, and his overall educational prowess led the City of Memphis to honor Price as “Educator of the Year” in 1968.

Tennessee Governor Buford Ellington appointed Hollis Price to the Tennessee Education Council in 1969. After twenty-seven years of service to LeMoyne-Owen College, Hollis Freeman Price Sr. retired in 1970. Although retired as college president, Price began working as a producer and executive director of community affairs for WMC-TV, Channel 5 in Memphis. On November 6, 1982, Hollis Freeman Price Sr. died at his home at the age of seventy-eight. He is remembered as a man of wisdom, pride, and humility.

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Hollis Freeman Price Sr. (1904-1982) was a distinguished African American educator and community leader. Born in Virginia, he was raised by parents who were prominent educators. Price earned his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a master’s in economics from Columbia University1.

He began his career at the Tuskegee Institute and later became the first African American president of LeMoyne College in Memphis in 1943. Under his leadership, the college merged with Owen College to become LeMoyne-Owen College1Price was known for his dedication to education and his community, receiving several honorary doctorates and awards throughout his career1.

Hollis F. Price Sr. passed away on November 6, 1982, at the age of 781. He is remembered for his wisdom, pride, and humility.

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Hollis Freeman Price, Sr.

1904-1982

 
 
Hollis Freeman Price, Sr. Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Steve Masler, May 28, 2015
1. Hollis Freeman Price, Sr. Marker

Inscription.   Hollis Price was the first African-American president of LeMoyne College. In 1968, he guided the college's merger with Owen Junior College. Price was the president of the college for 27 years and upon his retirement became president emeritus. He was the first African-American national moderator of the United Church of Christ, the denomination's highest lay position. In 1975, Price was the first Black to receive the Brotherhood Award from the Memphis National Conference of Christians and Jews. He was among the first three Blacks inducted into the Memphis Rotary Club.
 
Erected by Tennessee Historical Commission. (Marker Number 4E 141.)
 

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Hugh Price (Amherst College Class of 1963), President of the National Urban League (1994-2003)

 

Hugh Price (1941 – )

Hugh Price at March in Columbia, SC protesting Confederate Flag flying at State Capitol, 2000
Courtesy National Urban Leagues Archives, Fair use image

Hugh Bernard Price, civil rights activist and president of the National Urban League, was born on November 22, 1941 in Washington, DC.  Raised in a middle-class home by his parents, Charlotte Schuster and Kline Price,  Price became aware of racial struggles and the importance of activism as a child.  He began his schooling in a segregated elementary school and graduated from an integrated high school.  His parents were involved in the early litigation which would lead to Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

Price graduated with a BA from Amherst College in 1963 and married Marilyn Lloyd that same year.  He entered law school at Yale in New Haven, graduating in 1966. New Haven became Price’s home, as he became an attorney with the New Haven Legal Assistance Association in 1966, and then with Cogen, Holt and Associates in 1970.  In both positions Price focused on supporting low-income clients.  Although never directly involved with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Price spent much of his life working to improve the lives of impoverished urban blacks.

In 1977, Price moved to New York City, where he was hired as an editorial writer for the New York Times.  His editorials focused primarily on issues concerning race and poverty.  In 1982, Price became the senior vice president and director of the production for WNET-TV in New York City. Six years later, in 1988, he became vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which funded projects to better communities and lives of disadvantaged people.  Price worked heavily with the Special Initiatives and Explorations grant fund to improve the welfare of people of color through school reform and equal opportunity projects.  His experience at the Rockefeller Foundation led the National Urban League to recruit him as president.

In 1994, when Price became president and CEO of the National Urban League, the 84-year-old organization was on the decline.  Price played a crucial role in reviving the League, making it, once again, a leading organization in social justice activism.  Up until Price’s presidency, the League had focused primarily on preparing rural African Americans for life in the cities.  Recognizing that the great migration of southern blacks to northern cities was over, Price reoriented the goals of the organization. He focused on three principle initiatives: education and youth development programs, economic empowerment, and inclusionary programs. These initiatives, in turn, promoted the League’s new priority, addressing intergenerational urban poverty and the growing urban underclass.  While at the League, Price also created related programs, most notably the Campaign for African American Achievement and the Institute of Opportunity and Equality.  Hugh Price left the National Urban League in 2003 and retired in 2005. Price is a member of Sigma Pi Phi and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternities.