Friday, February 28, 2014

Freeman Hrabowski III, Educator and Mathematician

Freeman A. Hrabowski III is a prominent American educator, advocate, and mathematician. In May 1992 he began his term as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), one of the twelve public universities comprising the Maryland university system. Hrabowski has transformed a no-name, commuter university into a research institution recognized as one of the most innovative in the country. His administration continues to build a campus that’s first-rate in research and instruction, and that prepares students of all backgrounds for career success. Under his adept leadership, UMBC has been ranked the #1 Up and Coming University in the USA for three consecutive years (2009, 2010, and 2011) by U.S. News and World Report magazine.[1]
Hrabowski is the co-author of the books, Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males (1998), and Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women (2001). His research and many publications focus on science and math education, with a special emphasis on minority participation and performance. His leadership, expertise and vision are integral to programs world-wide in science/technology/engineering/mathematics (STEM), and are used by universities, school systems, and community groups around the country.[2] Hrabowski chaired the prestigious National Academies’ committee that produced the report Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads. In 2012, President Barack Obama appointed Hrabowski to Chair of the newly created President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.;[3] and he was also a candidate for Secretary of Education in his administration.[4] He has been called one of America’s Best Leaders,[5] one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World,[6] and one of America’s 10 Best College Presidents.[7]
In 2011, Hrabowski received the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award, one of the highest honors given to an educator. The award included a $500,000 grant, which he has directed to support and promote a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship, and student success at UMBC.[8]


Early Life and Education[edit]

Hrabowski was born in 1950 in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, the only child of busy, hard-working parents, both of whom were educators.[9] His mother was an English teacher who decided to become a math teacher, and she used the young Hrabowski as a guinea pig at home. His father had been a math teacher and then went to work at a steel mill because, as Hrabowski is quoted as saying, "frankly, he could make more money doing that." Frequently asked about the origin of his unusual surname, Hrabowski explains that he is the great-great-grandson of Eaton Hrabowski, a Polish-American "slave master who lived in rural Alabama”, and his wife Rebecca McCord.[10] In a CBS television interview, Hrabowski recounted that he is the third Freeman Hrabowski; his grandfather was the first Freeman Hrabowski born a free man, as opposed to having to be freed.[11]
When he was 12 years old, in 1963, Hrabowski saw his friends readying for the Children's Crusade march for civil rights. He convinced his parents to let him join in as a youth advocate, but soon into the march he was swept up in a mass arrest. Birmingham's notorious Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor spat in his face,[12] and he was incarcerated for 5 days. The jail guards locked even the youngest freedom marchers in with hardened criminals. Hrabowski spent five terrified days and nights shielding other youngsters and comforting them by reading his Bible aloud or singing songs. After being reunited with the adults, Hrabowski remembers the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King telling them, “What you do this day will have an impact on generations as yet unborn." King's words resonated with Hrabowski, and ultimately rang true as the national outrage at the brutality against Birmingham children helped build the pressure for laws banning racial discrimination. That outcome gave Hrabowski a life mission, and he has since been a staunch and tireless campaigner for equality, education, and excellence.
When he was 19 years old, Hrabowski graduated from Hampton Institute with high honors in mathematics. During his matriculation there he spent a year abroad at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his M.A. in mathematics and four years later his Ph.D. in higher education administration and statistics. Hrabowski focused his education on math and science in part because he was worried that the American economy would suffer if other countries continued to graduate more technology experts than the United States. He wants to ensure smart, dynamic students of all backgrounds continue to be amongst the graduates from STEM programs.

Career[edit]

UMBC was a relatively young school in a Baltimore suburb when Hrabowski arrived in 1987 as Vice Provost, then Executive Vice President, and finally President in 1992. From the very beginning he had big plans to turn the mid-sized, unremarkable campus into a place where "it is cool to be smart." It seems Hrabowski's civil rights and administration experiences, his doctoral studies, and his enthusiastic advocacy for education led him seamlessly to UMBC’s presidency.
Within his first two years at UMBC, he had raised enough money to set up the comprehensive tutoring and financial aid programs of the Meyerhoff Scholars.[13] Initially designed to help smart black males become scientists and engineers, the program he co-founded with Robert Meyerhoff quickly expanded to include students of all races and both genders, "who are interested in the advancement of minorities in the sciences and related fields." The Meyerhoff program has since become a national model for colleges and universities everywhere.
Freeman Hrabowski at the opening of the Performing Arts & Humanities Building at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
It was Hrabowski’s background that empowered him to take several bold administrative actions, such as disbanding an Africana graduate studies program and refusing to field a college football team in favor of funding math undergraduates and a championship chess team. The result was a dramatic increase in the number of technologically advanced graduates of all races and genders. Hrabowski frequently writes about minority participation and high performance in the sciences, math, and engineering fields. He advises President Obama on educational issues and consults for the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the National Academies. Hrabowski is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Hrabowski holds over 20 honorary degrees, including those from Harvard University, Duke University, the University of Illinois, Gallaudet University the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Binghamton University, Princeton University, the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, Haverford College, Harvey Mudd College, and Goucher College. Hrabowski is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and Sigma Pi Phi fraternity. He serves on the boards of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, France-Merrick Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation (Chair), The Urban Institute, McCormick & Company, and the Baltimore Equitable Society. He has served on the boards of the Constellation Energy Group, Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Maryland Humanities Council (member and Chair). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Leadership and Innovation[edit]

Hrabowski is a respected voice in the discussion on innovation in science and engineering, who strives to ensure America's readiness in the arena of global competiviness. Under his dynamic leadership, UMBC has become a powerhouse in higher education and has gained a national reputation as one of the nation’s premier universities. The University honored the 20th anniversary of Hrabowski's presidency as hundreds of supporters and friends, faculty and staff, students and alums gathered for a celebration of his leadership and innovation.[14]
The outpouring of support from people across the state and nation recognizes the tremendous contributions the entire UMBC community has made to the social fabric of the region, to Maryland’s economy, and to public education nationwide. The enthusiasm is palpable for the model UMBC has created for excellence in teaching across the disciplines under President Hrabowski's administration. His work continues with the launch of The Hrabowski Fund for Innovation[15] in honor of his anniversary and his many contributions to the university. UMBC has established the fund to permanently endow the initiatives launched with support of the Carnegie grant the president received in 2011. The Hrabowski Fund for Innovation will enable the President’s Office to invest in faculty, staff, and student initiatives such as course design and redesign; development of unique classroom learning environments that support active learning, team-based learning, and entrepreneurial skill development; lab-and-project-based capstone courses; faculty fellowships; and peer-learning initiatives. This fund will sustain and drive UMBC’s culture of innovation.

Quotes by Freeman Hrabowski[edit]

  • “It's hard work that makes the difference. I don't care how smart you are or how smart you think you are. Smart simply means you're ready to learn.”
  • "The more we expect from children, the more they can do."
  • "I guarantee the people who study are going to be successful. Nothing can replace hard work."[16]
  • “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they form your character. Watch your character because it shapes your destiny.”[17]
  • "Success is never final.".[9]

Awards and Honors[edit]

President Hrabowski has received numerous awards recognizing his prowess in leadership, education, innovation, science, and engineering, some of which are listed below:
  • TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence
  • Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award
  • Top American Leaders by The Washington Post and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership.
  • McGraw Prize in Education
  • U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring
  • Columbia University Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service
  • GE African American Forum ICON Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Marylander of the Year
  • Heinz Award in the Human Condition category
  • Fast Company magazine’s first Fast 50 Champions of Innovation in Business and Technology
  • Technology Council of Maryland’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • Inaugural inductee into the STEM Solutions Leadership Hall of Fame.
  • William D. Carey Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science’s named a
  • Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) by the BEYA STEM Global Competitiveness Conference
  • Educator of the Year by the World Affairs Council of Washington, DC

Selected Media Appearances[edit]

As president of UMBC, Hrabowski is a frequent feature in various media venues[18] such as:
  • President Hrabowski Discusses Workforce Competitiveness on NBC News’ Education Nation (10/8/13)
  • “UMBC Carving a Singular Niche in Cyber, STEM Education” – Q&A in the Baltimore Business Journal (9/27/13)
  • “Ideas for Improving Science Education” in the NY Times (9/2/13)
  • “Oral Histories: Freeman Hrabowski,” C-Span’s American History TV
  • President Hrabowski Discusses the Importance of a Liberal Arts Education on NPR’s Tell Me More (6/6/12)
  • Five universities that really are up-and-comers in the Washington Post (3/21/12)
  • Andrea Mitchell Reports, MSNBC (1/27/12)
  • “Freeman Hrabowski on Job Creation” on WBAL (12/9/11)
  • News Coverage from White House Meeting on Higher Education (12/5/11)
  • Talk of the Nation (12/5/11)
  • 60 Minutes (11/13/11)
  • WBAL Editorial on President Hrabowski and Academic Leadership
  • President Hrabowski in Diverse Issues in Higher Education (pdf) (11/13/11)
  • President Hrabowski in the Chronicle of Higher Education (7/11)
  • President Hrabowski, and Anthony Johnson and Elaine Lalanne of CASPR, in Physics Today(3/11)
  • President Hrabowski on Midday with Dan Rodericks, WYPR (12/9/10)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski and Richard Forno, Cybersecurity programs, in the Gazette of Politics and Business (11/5/10)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski on C-SPAN: The College Board Forum on College Completion (10/28/10)
  • President Hrabowski in the Chronicle of Higher Education (10/10/10)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski in Diverse Issues in Higher Ed (10/1/1)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski on C-SPAN: The College Board Forum on College Completion (10/28/10) (Archive not available)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports (10/1/10)
  • President Hrabowski on WYPR’s Maryland Morning (9/28/10)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski on NPR’s Tell Me More (9/15/10)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski in Black Enterprise (8/24/10)
  • President Freeman Hrabowski in U.S. News and World Report (pdf) (8/10)*
  • President Hrabowski in U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology Magazine(Fall/Winter 2009)
  • President Hrabowski on the Today Show (9/09)
  • President Hrabowski on PBS “Charlie Rose” Show (6/7/06)
  • President Hrabowski Interviewed by “Kids of America” (3/14/05)
  • President Hrabowski on “The Today Show” (8/02)
  • Hrabowski discusses changes to the SAT on PBS’ “Newshour with Jim Lehrer (video) (7/02) (video not available)
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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Jackie Ormes, First African American Woman Cartoonist

Just listened to a report on Marketplace about the first African American woman cartoonist. It can be found at:
Then I looked her up on Wikipedia and read the following:
Jackie Ormes (August 1, 1911 – December 26, 1985) is known as the first African-American woman cartoonist, known for her strips Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger.
Jackie Ormes was born Zelda Mavin Jackson in the Pittsburgh area town of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. Ormes started in journalism as a proofreader for the Pittsburgh Courier, a weekly African American newspaper that came out every Saturday. Her 1937-38 Courier comic strip, Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem, starring Torchy Brown, was a humorous depiction of a Mississippi teen who found fame and fortune singing and dancing in the Cotton Club.
Ormes moved to Chicago in 1942, and soon began writing occasional articles and, briefly, a social column for the Chicago Defender, one of the nation's leading black newspapers, a weekly at that time. For a few months at the end of the war, her single panel cartoon, Candy, about an attractive and wisecracking housemaid, appeared in the Defender.
By August 1945, Ormes's work was back in the Courier, with the advent of Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, a single-panel cartoon which ran for 11 years. It featured a big sister-little sister set-up, with the precocious, insightful and socially/politically-aware child as the only speaker and the beautiful adult woman as a sometime pin-up figure and fashion mannequin.
Ormes contracted with the Terri Lee doll company in 1947 to produce a play doll based on her little girl cartoon character. The Patty-Jo doll was on the shelves in time for Christmas and was the first American black doll to have an extensive upscale wardrobe. As in the cartoon, the doll represented a real child, in contrast to the majority of dolls that were mammy and Topsy-type dolls. In December 1949, Ormes's contract with the Terri Lee company was not renewed, and production ended. Patty-Jo dolls are now highly sought collectors' items.
In 1950, the Courier began an eight-page color comics insert, where Ormes re-invented her Torchy character in a new comic strip, Torchy in Heartbeats. This Torchy was a beautiful, independent woman who finds adventure while seeking true love. Ormes expressed her talent for fashion design as well as her vision of a beautiful black female body in the accompanying Torchy Togs paper doll cut outs. The strip is probably best known for its last episode in 1954, when Torchy and her doctor boyfriend confront racism and environmental pollution. Torchy presented an image of a black woman who, in contrast to the contemporary stereotypical media portrayals, was confident, intelligent, and brave.
Jackie Ormes enjoyed a happy, 45-year marriage to Earl Clark Ormes. She retired from cartooning in 1956, although she continued to create art, including murals, still lifes and portraits. She contributed to her South Side Chicago community by volunteering to produce fundraiser fashion shows and entertainments. She was also on the founding board of directors for the DuSable Museum of African American History.
Ormes was a passionate doll collector, with 150 antique and modern dolls in her collection, and she was active in Guys and Gals Funtastique Doll Club, a United Federation of Doll Clubs chapter in Chicago.
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Monday, February 10, 2014

Inez Andrews, Gospel Singer

Inez Andrews (April 14, 1929 – December 19, 2012) was an American gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist. Her soaring, wide-ranging voice — from contralto croon to soul-wrenching wail — made her a pillar of gospel music. The Chicago Tribune stated that "Andrews' throaty contralto made her low notes thunder, while the enormous range of her instrument enabled her to reach stratospheric pitches without falsetto" and that "her dramatic delivery made her a charismatic presence in church and on stage."

Andrews started singing in the church as a child and performed gospel music on the road in various gospel groups from the 1940s before joining The Caravans in 1957. Fellow member from The Caravans in the 1950s, Shirley Caesar, once dubbed Andrews “The High Priestess” for her ability to hit high notes, and, in 2013, stated, "there never was and never will be another voice like Inez Andrews." Another early member of the The Caravans, Albertina Walker often said, "nothing ever worked for the Caravans until Inez started whistling” — hitting the high notes. She sang lead on The Caravans first breakthrough hit, "Mary Don't You Weep", and also had hits as a solo artist with crossover recordings such as "Lord Don't Move That Mountain." She was referred to in 2012 by the New York Times as "the last great female vocalist of gospel’s golden age,” ranking among the likes of other music legends from the "Golden Era" of Black Gospel (1945-1960) - Mahalia Jackson, Marion Williams, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Clara Ward. 

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 14, 1929, Andrews traveled a tough road to gospel stardom. She began singing as a child in church and began songwriting as a young mother in Birmingham. Andrews was working six days a week, ten hours a day for eighteen dollars a week, while "washing, ironing, cooking, keep up with the kids." With her busy life in her youth, she felt that life had to have more to offer her. As she pondered that prayerfully, she picked up "a pencil and a brown paper bag" and began to write. Thus began her songwriting career. Andrews began her singing career in the 1940s with two groups in Birmingham, Alabama; Carter’s Choral Ensemble and the Original Gospel Harmonettes. By the mid-1950s, the Harmonettes were one of the nation’s top gospel groups, with Andrews the understudy for the group’s lead singer, Dorothy Love Coates. Coates recommended Andrews to the Caravans, and she eventually moved north to Chicago to became widely known as that group's first successful singer, leading them to the high of their popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s.  In the 1960s, Andrews solo work and songwriting further ensconced her in the gospel pantheon. Her songs were recorded by many artists, including The Mighty Clouds of Joy and Aretha Franklin.  Andrews became one of the major stars of gospel's golden age, The Caravans songs such as "Lord Keep Me Day By Day", "Remember Me", "I Won't Be Back" and several other hits in which Andrews was lead vocalist, including "Mary Don't You Weep", "I'm Not Tired Yet", "Make It In", "He Won't Deny Me" and "I'm Willing".
In 2006, she released a reunion album with The Caravans, Albertina Walker, Dorothy Norwood, and original soprano Delores Washington, entitled Paved the Way.  
After a stellar career with the Caravans, she left the group in 1962 and had huge success with her crossover hit, "Lord Don't Move the Mountain". Andrews recorded on many labels after the 1950s and had many albums and hit songs to her credit, some of which she composed herself.

Andrews was a dedicated Christian and family person and raised seven children during her career in gospel music. She died on December19, 2012 at the age of 83.She had been diagnosed with cancer months earlier.  Andrews is survived by seven children, 19 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.

In 2002, Andrews was inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame. It was announced prior to her death that Andrews would be honored with the Ambassador Dr. Bobby Jones Legend Award at the 2013 Stellar Awards.  The award ended up being presented posthumously.

The discography of Inez Andrews includes the following:

Studio Albums
  • 1963 - The Need Of Prayer
  • 1964 - Letter To Jesus
  • 1972 - Lord Don't Move That Mountain
  • 1975 - This Is Not The First Time I've Been Last
  • 1979 - Chapter 5
  • 1981 - I Made A Step
  • 1982 - My Testimony
  • 1984 - Lord Lift Us Up
  • 1986 - Jehovah Is His Name
  • 1987 - The Two Sides Of Inez Andrews
  • 1988 - If Jesus Came To Your Town Today
  • 198? - Close To Thee
  • 1990 - A Sinner's Prayer
  • 1990 - Lord Lift Us Up
  • 1990 - My Testimony
  • 1990 - I Made A Step In The Right Direction
  • 1990 - Inez Andrews
  • 1991 - Raise Up A Nation
  • 1991 - Shine On Me

Live Albums
  • 1974 - Live At The Munich Gospel Festival

Compilation Albums
  • 1999 - Headline News
  • 2005 - Most Requested Songs

Singles
  • 1972 - I'm Free / Lord Don't Move The Mountain
  • 1975 - Help Me / God's Humble Servant
  • 1980 - I'm Free / Lord Don't Move The Mountain (re-release)
  • 19?? - Close To Thee
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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

William Clarke, Reggae Singer

William Clarke, Reggae Singer, Dies at 65
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

William Clarke, the husky-voiced lead singer of the long-running reggae band Third World, died on Sunday at his home in Orlando, Fla. He was 65.
The cause was leukemia, said his friend and former bandmate Colin Leslie.
Mr. Clarke, known professionally as Bunny Rugs, joined Third World in 1976 after working with the band Inner Circle and the reggae producer Lee Scratch Perry. The group released “96 Degrees in the Shade,” one of its most popular albums, the next year and went on to have several international hits, most notably its 1978 version of the 1973 O’Jays hit “Now That We Found Love,” which reached the Top 10 in Britain and the Top 50 in the United States.
Mr. Clarke was on all of Third World’s albums except the first, and was still with the group when he died.
Stevie Wonder, who performed with the band at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in Jamaica in 1981, wrote and produced Third World’s 1982 hit “Try Jah Love.” “Bunny had a great voice, something even Stevie Wonder admired,” Mr. Leslie said.
Mr. Clarke is survived by his wife and eight children.
Third World was known for fusing reggae with soul and pop music, and the group was occasionally criticized for that by reggae purists. In a 1992 interview with Billboard magazine, Mr. Clarke described the band’s identity: “Strictly a reggae band, no. Definitely a reggae band, yes.”

***

Bunny Rugs

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Bunny Rugs
BunnyRugs.jpg
Pictured in 2009
Background information
Birth nameWilliam Clarke
Also known asBunny Scott
Born(1948-02-06)6 February 1948
Mandeville, Jamaica
OriginKingston, Jamaica
Died2 February 2014(2014-02-02) (aged 65)
Orlando, Florida, United States
GenresReggae
Years activeMid-1960s–2014
Associated actsCharlie Hackett and the Souvenirs
Inner Circle
Hugh Hendricks and the Buccaneers
The Bluegrass Experience
Bunny & Ricky
Third World
William "Bunny Rugs" Clarke (6 February 1948 – 2 February 2014), also known as Bunny Scott, was the lead singer of Jamaican reggae band Third World as well as recording as a solo artist. He began his career in the mid-1960s and was also at one time a member of Inner Circle and half of the duo Bunny & Ricky.


Biography[edit]

Born in Mandeville and raised on John's Lane in Kingston, Clarke's father was an Anglican preacher.[1] He joined Charlie Hackett and the Souvenirs, the resident band at the Kitty Club on Maxfield Avenue, in the mid-1960s before leading the early lineup of Inner Circle in 1969. A spell living in New York City followed from 1971 where he was a member of the dance band Hugh Hendricks and the Buccaneers, and later the Bluegrass Experience with Glen Adams, Eric Frater and Sparrow Martin.[1][2] He returned to Jamaica in 1974 and recorded with Lee "Scratch" Perry at the Black Ark, initially as a backing singer, then with Leslie Kong's nephew Ricky Grant as the duo Bunny & Ricky, releasing singles such as "Freedom Fighter" and "Bushweed Corntrash", and also recording the solo album To Love Somebody (1975, credited as Bunny Scott).[1] He was also a member of The Wild Bunch before returning to New York and taking over as lead singer of Third World from Milton "Prilly" Hamilton in 1976.[2] With Third World he recorded the successful 96° in the Shade album, and was with the band until his death in early 2014[2] He returned to the Black Ark in 1977, contributing backing vocals (with Earl 16) to Yabby You's "Chant Down Babylon Kingdom".[1]
As well as performing and recording with Third World, he continued to record as a solo artist, releasing the Jack Scorpio-produced Talking to You album in 1995, with guest contributions from Papa San, Cobra and General Trees.[2][3]
His planned 2008 album Thinking Bout You was due to be released on 6 February, to coincide with Bob Marley Day celebrations, the date also being Clarke's birthday.[4] He contributed to the Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band album in 2009, contributing a version of "Lovely Rita" recorded with U-Roy.
In 2012 he released the single "Land We Love", with profits going to the charities the Jamaican Children's Heart Fund (the charity for which he was a spokesman) and Chain of Hope.[5] The single was taken from the album Time, released in September 2012.[5][6] Later that year he received a Caribbean American Heritage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Reggae.[7]
Health problems forced him to miss some of the shows on Third World's fortieth anniversary tour in 2013, and he confirmed that he had been diagnosed with cancer.[8] In early 2014 he was hospitalized in Orlando, Florida, whre he was treated for leukaemia, and died on 2 February at the age of 65.[8][9][10]
Clarke explained that his 'Bunny Rugs' nickname came from his grandmother calling him 'Bunny' as a child because he would "jump around the house like a rabbit" and from a member of the Third World road crew calling him 'Rugs' because of his liking for sleeping on the floor.[11]

Discography[edit]

See also Third World (band)

Albums[edit]

  • To Love Somebody (1975), Klik - as Bunny Scott
  • Talking to You (1995), Greensleeves/Shanachie
  • Bunny Rugs On Soul (2000), DFP Music
  • What a World (2006), Elite Music Group
  • I'm Sure (2007), CED
  • Time (2012), VPAL
Compilations
  • Timeless Classics (2011)

Singles[edit]

  • "Let Love Touch Us Now"/"I Am I Said" (1982), Black Ark International - 12-inch, credited as 'Bunny Rags'
  • "Be Thank Full" (19??), Belleville International
  • "War, War, War" (198?), Black Scorpio
  • "Bridges Instead" (1990), Two Friends - 12-inch, Shabba Ranks featuring Bunny Rugs
  • "Here Comes Rudie" (1991), Exterminator - Gregory Isaacs & Bunny Rugs
  • "Rude Boy" (1991), Xterminator - Tony Rebel, Gregory Isaacs, and Bunny Rugs
  • "If I Follow My Heart" (1993), Tuff Gong
  • "I'm The Ghetto" (1993), Leggo
  • "Stand By Me" (1994), Shanachie - Bunny Rugs & Papa San
  • "Stand By Me" (1994), Black Scorpio - Papa San & Bunny Rugs, B-side of Papa San's "Girls Every Day"
  • "Now That We've Found Love" (1995), Greensleeves - 12-inch
  • "Now That We Found Love" (1995), Black Scorpio - featuring Sean Paul
  • "Now That We Found Love" (1995), Shanachie
  • "Apartheid No!"
  • "I'll Be There" (2002), Joe Frasier
  • "What a World" (2004), Raw Edge
  • "Marcus Garvey" (2004), Mister Tipsy
  • "Writings on the Wall" (2005), Elogic Music Group - Wayne Marshall & Bunny Rugs
  • "Now That We've Found Love" (2006), CED - CD maxi single
  • "World Today" (2007), Hyper-Active Entertainment
  • "Down in the Ghetto" (2007), Taxi - Bounty Killer & Bunny Rugs
  • "Satamassagana" (20??), Coptic Lion - featuring Tappa Zukie
  • Excerpts from the album Time EP (2011)
  • "Big May" (2012), Black Swan/Trojan
  • "Land We Love" (2012)
With Bunny & Ricky
  • "Freedom Fighter" (1974), Black Art
  • "Bushweed Corntrash" (1975), Black Art
***
William "Bunny Rugs" Clarke (6 February 1948 – 2 February 2014), also known as Bunny Scott, was the lead singer of Jamaican reggae band Third World as well as recording as a solo artist. He began his career in the mid-1960s and was also at one time a member of Inner Circle and half of the duo Bunny & Ricky.
The discography of William "Bunny Rugs" Clarke include the following:
Albums
  • To Love Somebody (1975), Klik - as Bunny Scott
  • Talking to You (1995), Greensleeves/Shanachie
  • Bunny Rugs On Soul (2000), DFP Music
  • What a World (2006), Elite Music Group
  • I'm Sure (2007), CED
  • Time (2012), VPAL
Compilations
  • Timeless Classics (2011)
Singles
  • "Let Love Touch Us Now"/"I Am I Said" (1982), Black Ark International - 12-inch, credited as 'Bunny Rags'
  • "Be Thank Full" (19??), Belleville International
  • "War, War, War" (198?), Black Scorpio
  • "Bridges Instead" (1990), Two Friends - 12-inch, Shabba Ranks featuring Bunny Rugs
  • "Here Comes Rudie" (1991), Exterminator - Gregory Isaacs & Bunny Rugs
  • "Rude Boy" (1991), Xterminator - Tony Rebel, Gregory Isaacs, and Bunny Rugs
  • "If I Follow My Heart" (1993), Tuff Gong
  • "I'm The Ghetto" (1993), Leggo
  • "Stand By Me" (1994), Shanachie - Bunny Rugs & Papa San
  • "Stand By Me" (1994), Black Scorpio - Papa San & Bunny Rugs, B-side of Papa San's "Girls Every Day"
  • "Now That We've Found Love" (1995), Greensleeves - 12-inch
  • "Now That We Found Love" (1995), Black Scorpio - featuring Sean Paul
  • "Now That We Found Love" (1995), Shanachie
  • "Apartheid No!"
  • "I'll Be There" (2002), Joe Frasier
  • "What a World" (2004), Raw Edge
  • "Marcus Garvey" (2004), Mister Tipsy
  • "Writings on the Wall" (2005), Elogic Music Group - Wayne Marshall & Bunny Rugs
  • "Now That We've Found Love" (2006), CED - CD maxi single
  • "World Today" (2007), Hyper-Active Entertainment
  • "Down in the Ghetto" (2007), Taxi - Bounty Killer & Bunny Rugs
  • "Satamassagana" (20??), Coptic Lion - featuring Tappa Zukie
  • Excerpts from the album Time EP (2011)
  • "Big May" (2012), Black Swan/Trojan
  • "Land We Love" (2012)
With Bunny & Ricky
  • "Freedom Fighter" (1974), Black Art
  • "Bushweed Corntrash" (1975), Black Art

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Sunday, February 2, 2014

Bert Andrews, Photographer of Black Theatre

Bert Andrews (March 21, 1929–January 25, 1993) was an American photographer, who chronicled black theatre in New York City. In a career that spanned over three decades he photographed many of the leading African American actors of the stage and screen including James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Diana Sands, Louis Gossett, Jr., Billy Dee Williams, Morgan Freeman, Alfre Woodard, Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson.

Bert J. Andrews was born in Chicago on March 21, 1929, the son of John and Frieda Andrews. At a young age, he moved to Harlem, where he grew up. His career began in the entertainment industry as a songwriter, singer and a dancer. In the early 1950s, while serving in the army, Andrews began studying photography. 

In 1953, soon after his discharge from the army, Andrews began his work as an apprentice for Chuck Stewart, who was well known for his photography of jazz musicians. He served in that capacity until 1957, when he branched out on his own, photographing among other things, stills for black theatre productions in New York City.

One of his first assignments as a freelance photographer was the 1957 production of the play, Dark of the Moon, which was produced by the YMCA Drama Guild at the Little Theatre. This production was staged by Vinnette Carroll and featured among the cast Cicely Tyson, Roscoe Lee Browne and Clarence Williams III. 

Throughout his long career, Andrews would photograph numerous productions of important plays including The Blacks  (1961), The Blood Knot (1964),To Be Young, Gifted and Black (1969), The River Niger (1972), Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976), A Soldier's Play (1982) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984).

His photographs have also appeared in numerous major publications, such as Time, Life, Ebony, Newsweek and the New York Times. 

On January 29, 1985, a fire destroyed his studio at 750 Eighth Avenue at the corner of 46th Street in New York City. Somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 images were lost, spanning roughly thirty years of work. However, through the help of various theatre companies, Andrews was able to obtain prints of a significant number of his photographs including approximately 2,000 from the Negro Ensemble Company. 

In 1988, the Bert Andrews Photographic Collection of Blacks in the Theatre was established at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The following year, a collection of these photographs were published in the book In the Shadow of the Great White Way: Images from the Black Theatre (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989).

Andrews died of cancer at the Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan on January 25, 1993 at the age of 63.

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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Morrie Turner, Creator of "Wee Pals" Comic Strip



Morrie Turner Dies at 90; Broke Race Barriers in Comics

By 






    “Wee Pals,” with its racially and ethnically diverse characters, rose in popularity after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Morrie Turner, via Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco

    Morrie Turner, a cartoonist who broke the color barrier twice — as the first African-American comic strip artist whose work was widely syndicated in mainstream newspapers, and as the creator of the first syndicated strip with a racially and ethnically mixed cast of characters — died on Saturday in Sacramento. He was 90.
    The cause was complications of kidney disease, said David Bellard, a family spokesman.
    Mr. Turner’s comic strip “Wee Pals,” featuring childhood playmates who were white, black, Asian, Hispanic and Jewish (joined in later years by a girl in a wheelchair and a deaf girl), was considered subversive in 1965, when a major syndicate first offered it to newspapers.
    Only two or three of the hundreds of newspapers in the syndicate picked it up. By early 1968, there were five. But of the many changes that occurred after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that April and the urban uprisings it started, some of the first appeared in the nation’s funny papers.





    Morrie Turner at his home in Berkeley, Calif., in 2005. Kat Wade/The Chronicle

    Thirty newspapers began subscribing to Mr. Turner’s comic strip in the first 30 days after the assassination; within a few months the number had swelled to 100. “Suddenly everybody was interested in me,” he told a public access television interviewer in 2010.
    Later in 1968, the black artist Brumsic Brandon Jr. created his comic strip “Luther,” about a 9-year-old boy growing up in the ghetto. It, too, found a wide audience in newspaper syndication.
    “You can imagine how I felt,” Mr. Turner said, referring to his newfound popularity. “I mean, I’m benefiting from the assassination of Dr. King, one of my heroes. It was kind of a bittersweet experience.”
    Morris Nolten Turner was born in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 11, 1923, the youngest of four children of James and Nora Spears Turner. His father, a Pullman porter, was often away on cross-country railroad trips, and Morris was raised mainly by his mother, a nurse.
    She encouraged him to pursue his artistic talent and instilled in him a reverence for a pantheon of black historical figures, including “people most folks never heard of,” he said. (Black women were notably among them, including Naomi Anderson, a suffragist; Mary Elizabeth Bowser, a freed slave who became a Union spy; and Mary McLeod Bethune, an educator and adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.)
    Mr. Turner served in the Army Air Corps during World War II as a staff clerk, journalist and illustrator on the newspaper of the 332nd Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, while working as a clerk for the Oakland police, Mr. Turner sold illustrations and cartoons to industrial publications and national magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Ebony and The Negro Digest.
    Charles M. Schulz, the creator of “Peanuts” and a Northern California resident, met Mr. Turner in the early 1960s and became a friend and mentor, said Andrew Farago, curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.
    “They were the same age, they both were in the war — they just clicked,” said Mr. Farago, who has curated shows of both men’s work. In a conversation one day, Mr. Turner lamented the lack of black characters in newspaper comics, and Schulz suggested he try to do one. He also offered to share his contacts in the syndication business.

    In the imaginary world Mr. Turner created, a diminutive African-American boy named Nipper, who wears a Confederate cap that always masks the top half of his face, leads a small gaggle of friends, including Jerry, a freckle-faced Jewish boy; Diz, a black child permanently arrayed in dashiki and sunglasses; and Ralph, a white boy who parrots the racist beliefs he hears at home and accepts his friends’ reproofs more or less good-naturedly. Nipper has a dog named General Lee. Mr. Turner told interviewers that while the strip broke racial barriers, he was rarely conscious of the racial identities of his characters. “I just tried to make them say things that kids say to each other,” he said.
    His survivors include a son, Morrie Jr., and four grandchildren. His wife, Leatha, died in 1994.
    Mr. Turner, who also wrote and illustrated a series of children’s books and appeared as an occasional guest on the television show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” received the National Cartoonists Society’s lifetime achievement award in 2003.
    Soon after his strip began appearing widely in newspapers, Mr. Turner received an angry letter from a reader about Nipper and his Confederate hat. “No self-respecting black person would wear such a hat,” the reader said, suggesting that Mr. Turner “get to know some black people.”
    “I wrote back and told the person that I happen to know two black people — my mother and my father,” he said in the 2010 interview.
    After a good chuckle, the interviewer followed up: “But what was the deal with the Confederate hat?”
    Mr. Turner paused, considering the question, then replied, “Forgiveness.”
    ***
    Morris "Morrie" Turner (December 11, 1923 – January 25, 2014) was a black-American syndicated cartoonist, creator of the strip Wee Pals. Turner was the first nationally syndicated African-American cartoonist.[1]

    Biography[edit]

    Raised in Oakland, California, Turner grew up in West Oakland and attended McClymonds High School; in his senior year, he moved to Berkeley to finish his high school years at Berkeley High School.
    Turner got his first training in cartooning via the Art Instruction, Inc. home study correspondence course.[citation needed] During World War II his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper.[2]
    When Turner began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame, suggested he create one[3] In 1965, the strip Wee Pals became the first comic strip syndicated in the United States to have a cast of diverse ethnicity. Although the strip was only originally carried by five newspapers, after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, it was picked up by more than 100 papers.[4] By the early 1970s, Turner's "integrated" comic strip "Wee Pals" was followed on a daily basis by nearly 25,000,000 readers.
    In 1970 Turner became a co-chairman of the 1970 White House Conference on Youth.
    Turner appeared as a guest on the May 14, 1973, episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, where he showed the host pictures he had drawn of several of his neighbors, as well as presented a clip from his Kid Power animated series, which was airing Saturday mornings on ABC at the time.
    During the 1972-73 television season, the monolithic and monoethnic nature of American television began to change, and Morrie Turner and his artistic talent were instrumental in this change. Turner's comic strip became televised in two different ways. The show Kid Power became a popular Saturday morning cartoon that aired throughout the United States. All of Turner's characters were featured, and they were united through the coalition the characters themselves dubbed as "Rainbow Power". During the same season, Wee Pals on the Go was aired by ABC's owned-and-operated station in San Francisco, KGO-TV. This Sunday morning show featured child actors who portrayed the main characters of Turner's comic strip: Nipper, Randy, Sybil, Connie and Oliver. With and through the kids, Turner explored all kinds of venues and activities that were of interest to child viewers of the time, from a candy factory to a train locomotive. After a successful pilot, this project was filmed and aired for an entire television season (also 1972-73). This exposure helped increase Turner's popularity exponentially.[citation needed]
    As the comic strip's popularity grew, Turner added characters. He included children of more and more ethnicities, as well as a child with a physical disability. The all-inclusive nature of the comic strip and the relevance to everyday people were part of Turner's formula for success.
    During the Vietnam War, Turner and five other members of the National Cartoonist Society traveled to Vietnam, where they spent a month drawing more than 3,000 caricatures of service people.[4]
    Turner was impressively knowledgeable about African American history and combined his artistic talent with historical facts to publish books, calendars and other materials that were educational, esthetically pleasing and humorous.
    He had the original copy of the book Wee Pals, which was burned in a fire at his home in Berkeley in the late 1980s.[citation needed] The house was later rebuilt.
    Turner preferred being called "Morrie" and contributed his talents to concerts by the Bay Area Little Symphony of Oakland, California. He drew pictures to the music and of children in the audience.
    On May 25, 2009, Turner visited Westlake Middle School in Oakland to give a lesson to the OASES Comic Book Preachers Class of drawing. Turner collaborated with the class's students to create the book Wee the Kids from Oakland, which gave a chance for students to express their challenges, successes, and pride as youth in Oakland.
    Turner died on January 25, 2014, at age 90.[5]

    Personal life[edit]

    Turner married Letha Mae Harvey on April 6, 1946; they collaborated on the strip Soul Corner.[2] Morrie and Letha had one son, Morrie Jr;[6] Letha died in 1994. Late in life, Turner's companion was Karol Trachtenburg of Sacramento.[4]
    Turner was an active member of the Center for Spiritual Awareness, a Science of Mind church in West Sacramento, California.

    Tributes[edit]

    The Family Circus character of Morrie, a playmate of Billy — and the only recurring black character in the strip — is based on Turner. Family Circus creator Bil Keane created the character in 1967 as a tribute to his close friend.[7]

    Awards[edit]

    In 2003, the National Cartoonists Society recognized Turner for his work on Wee Pals and others with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.
    Throughout his career, Turner was showered with awards and community distinctions. For example, he received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Inter-Group Relations Award from theAnti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith. In 1971, he received the Alameda County (California) Education Association Layman's Annual Award.[8]
    In 2000, the Cartoon Art Museum presented Turner with the Sparky Award, named in honor of Charles Schulz.[4]
    Turner was honored a number of times at the San Diego Comic-Con: in 1981, he was given an Inkpot Award; and in 2012 he was given the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

    Bibliography[edit]

    Wee Pals collections[edit]

    • Wee Pals That "Kid Power" Gang in Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1968) ASIN B002T6NAOG
    • Wee Pals (Signet Books, 1969) ASIN B003ZUKTLW — introduction by Charles M. Schulz
    • Kid Power (Signet Books, 1970), ASIN B001IKPRM2
    • Nipper (Westminster Press, 1971), ASIN B002IY2XOM
    • Nipper's Secret Power (Westminster Press, 1971) ISBN 0-664-32498-3-0325
    • Wee Pals: Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1973) ASIN B000M8UYII
    • Wee Pals: Doing Their Thing (Signet Books, 1973) ASIN B00129HWKO
    • Wee Pals' Nipper and Nipper's Secret Power (Signet Books, 1974) ASIN B001M5GOOS
    • Wee Pals: Book of Knowledge (Signet Books, 1974) ISBN 0451058003
    • Wee Pals: Staying Cool (Signet Books, 1974) ISBN 0451060768
    • Wee Pals: Funky Tales (New American Library, 1975) ASIN B00072KLVE
    • Wee Pals: Welcome to the Club (Rainbow Power Club Books, 1978) ASIN B003VC7JQW
    • Choosing a Health Career: Featuring Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang (Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration, 1979), ASIN B0006XCLLC
    • Wee Pals: A Full-Length Musical Comedy for Children or Young Teenagers (The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1981) ASIN B0006XW1I0
    • Wee Pals Make Friends with Music and Musical Instruments: Coloring Book (Stockton Symphony Association, 1982) ASIN B00072YGD8
    • Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang: Thinking Well (Ingham County Health Department, 1983) ASIN B0007259DY
    • Wee Pals Doing the Right Thing Coloring Book (Oakland Police Department, 1991) ASIN B0006R4G98
    • Explore Black History with Wee Pals (Just us Books, 1998) ISBN 0940975793
    • The Kid Power Gang Salutes African-Americans in the Military Past and Present (Conway B. Jones, Jr., 2000), ASIN B0006RSDC4

    Willis and his Friends[edit]

    • Ser un Hombre (Lear Siegler/Fearon Publishers, 1972) ISBN 0822474271
    • Prejudice (Fearon, 1972) ASIN B00071EIOG
    • The Vandals (Fearon, 1974) ASIN B0006WJ9JU

    Other books[edit]

    • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Freedom (Ross Simmons, 1967) ASIN B0007HK27W
    • Black and White Coloring Book (Troubadour Press, 1969) — written with Letha Turner
    • Right On (Signet Books, 1969)
    • Getting It All Together (Signet Books, 1972)
    • Where's Herbie? A Sickle Cell Anemia Story and Coloring Book (Sickle Cell Anemia Workshop, 1972) ASIN B00BKQ85LE
    • Famous Black Americans (Judson Press, 1973) ISBN 0817005919
    • Happy Birthday America (Signet Book, 1975) ASIN B000RB1SGM
    • All God's Chillun Got Soul (Judson Press, 1980) ISBN 0817008926
    • Thinking Well (Wisconsin Clearing House, 1983), ASIN B00072F9E8
    • Black History Trivia: Quiz and Game Book (News America Syndicate, 1986) ASIN B000727N5Q
    • What About Gangs? Just Say No! (Oakland Police Department, 1994) ASIN B0006R58TA
    • Babcock (Scholastic, 1996) — by John Cottonwood and Morrie Turner, ISBN 059022221X
    • Mom Come Quick (Wright Pub Co., 1997) — by Joy Crawford and Morrie Turner, ISBN 0965236838
    • Super Sistahs: Featuring the Accomplishments of African-American Women Past and Present (Bye Publishing Services, 2005), ISBN 0965673952

    *****

    Morrie Turner, an Oakland, Calif., native, was the youngest of four children. His father, a Pullman porter, and mother, a devout Christian, instilled in him the faith -- faith in himself, faith in others, faith in his ability to be a comic strip artist. He began drawing cartoons in the fifth grade.
    As a young man, he served a stint in the service during World War II, where he drew strips for military newspapers. Following his discharge, he juggled his comic strips with legal publications and work as a police clerk. Finally, in 1964, he wholeheartedly pursued his cartoon aspirations full-time, once again relying on his faith.
    One life-changing honor was during the Vietnam War, when Turner was one of six cartoonist asked by the National Cartoonist Society to go Vietnam. Morrie spent 27 days on the front lines and in hospitals, drawing more than 3,000 caricatures of service people.
    In 1965, he created the Wee Pals comic strip. It was Morrie's intention to portray a world without prejudice, a world in which people's differences -- race, religion, gender, and physical and mental ability -- are cherished, not scorned.
    When Wee Pals was first created, bringing black characters to the comics' pages was by no means an easy task. In 1965, only five major newspapers published the strip. It was not until 1968 -- and the tragic assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. -- that Wee Pals achieved nationwide acceptance. Within three months of King's death, the strip was appearing in over 100 newspapers nationwide.
    Since that time, Morrie has written and illustrated many books for children and has received the Anti-Defamation League's Humanitarian award. In 2000, he won the prestigious "Sparky Award," named after famed cartoonist Charles Schultz, creator of "Peanuts." Morrie has received numerous other awards for his comic strip, including the awards from the American Red Cross and the NAACP, the Boys and Girls Club Image Award, the B'Nai Brith Humanitarian Award and California Educators Award.
    Morrie was recently the subject of a 30-minute documentary on his life, "Keeping the Faith with Morrie." Produced by Angel Harper, Heaven Sent Productions Inc., the production won Best Direction in the 2001 Christian Film Festival and most recently won Best Documentary in the 2002 Hollywood Black Film Festival.
    Today, Morrie continues to work with children in small cartooning programs in the inner city. He was a guest lecturer at numerous California schools, universities and libraries, and continued to reach approximately 25 million readers with his Wee Pals characters. 

    *****

    Morris "Morrie" Turner (December 11, 1923 – January 25, 2014) was an African-American syndicated cartoonist, and the creator of the comic strip Wee Pals. Turner was the first nationally syndicated African-American cartoonist.

    Raised in Oakland, California. Turner grew up in West Oakland and attended McClymonds High School. However, in his senior year, he moved to Berkeley to finish his high school years at Berkeley High School. 

    Turner received his first training in cartooning via the Art Instruction, Inc. home study correspondence course. During World War II, his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes.  After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper.

    When Turner began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame, suggested he create one.  In 1965, the strip Wee Pals became the first comic strip syndicated in the United States to have a cast of diverse ethnicity. Although the strip was only originally carried by five newspapers, after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, it was picked up by more than 100 papers. By the early 1970s, Turner's "integrated" comic strip "Wee Pals" was followed on a daily basis by nearly 25,000,000 readers.

    In 1970 Turner became a co-chairman of the 1970 White House Conference on Youth.

    Turner appeared as a guest on the May 14, 1973 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, where he showed the host pictures he had drawn of several of his neighbors, as well as presented a clip from his Kid Power animated series, which was airing Saturday mornings on ABC at the time.

    During the 1972-73 television season, the monolithic and monoethnic nature of American television began to change, and Morrie Turner and his artistic talent were instrumental in this change. Turner's comic strip became televised in two different ways. The show Kid Power became a popular Saturday morning cartoon that aired throughout the United States. All of Turner's characters were featured, and they were united through the coalition the characters themselves dubbed as "Rainbow Power". During the same season, Wee Pals on the Go was aired by ABC's owned and operated station in San Francisco, KGO-TV.  This Sunday morning show featured child actors who portrayed the main characters of Turner's comic strip: Nipper, Randy, Sybil, Connie and Oliver. With and through the kids, Turner explored all kinds of venues and activities that were of interest to child viewers of the time, from a candy factory to a train locomotive. After a successful pilot, this project was filmed and aired for an entire television season (also 1972-73). This exposure helped increase Turner's popularity.

    As the Wee Pals comic strip's popularity grew, Turner added characters. He included children of more and more ethnicities, as well as a child with a physical disability. The all-inclusive nature of the comic strip and the relevance to everyday people were part of Turner's formula for success.

    During the Vietnam War, Turner and five other members of the National Cartoonist Society traveled to Vietnam, where they spent a month drawing more than 3,000 caricatures of service people.

    Turner was impressively knowledgeable about African American history and combined his artistic talent with historical facts to publish books, calendars and other materials that were educational, esthetically pleasing and humorous.

    He had the original copy of the book Wee Pals, which was burned in a fire at his home in Berkeley in the late 1980s.  The house was later rebuilt.

    Turner preferred being called "Morrie" and contributed his talents to concerts by the Bay Area Little Symphony of Oakland, California. He drew pictures to the music and of the children in the audience.

    On May 25, 2009, Turner visited Westlake Middle School in Oakland to give a lesson to the OASES Comic Book Preachers Class of drawing. Turner collaborated with the class's students to create the book Wee the Kids from Oakland, which gave a chance for students to express their challenges, successes, and pride as youth in Oakland.

    Turner married Letha Mae Harvey on April 6, 1946.  They collaborated on the strip Soul Corner.  Morrie and Letha had one son, Morrie Jr. Letha died in 1994. Late in life, Turner's companion was Karol Trachtenburg of Sacramento.

    Turner was an active member of the Center for Spiritual Awareness, a Science of Mind church in West Sacramento, California. 

    The Family Circus character of Morrie, a playmate of Billy — and the only recurring black character in the strip — is based on Turner. Family Circus creator Bil Keane created the character in 1967 as a tribute to his close friend.

    In 2003, the National Cartoonists Society recognized Turner for his work on Wee Pals and others with the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.

    Throughout his career, Turner was showered with awards and community distinctions. For example, he received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Inter-Group Relations Award from the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith. In 1971, he received the Alameda County (California) Education Association Layman's Annual Award.

    In 2000, the Cartoon Art Museum presented Turner with the Sparky Award, named in honor of Charles Schulz. 

    Turner was honored a number of times at the San Diego Comic-Con.  In 1981, he was given an Inkpot Award.  In 2012, he was given the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

    Turner died on January 25, 2014, at age 90.

    The works of Morrie Turner include:

    Wee Pals collections

    • Wee Pals That "Kid Power" Gang in Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1968) 
    • Wee Pals (Signet Books, 1969)  — introduction by Charles M. Schulz
    • Kid Power (Signet Books, 1970)
    • Nipper (Westminster Press, 1971)
    • Nipper's Secret Power (Westminster Press, 1971)
    • Wee Pals: Rainbow Power (Signet Books, 1973) 
    • Wee Pals: Doing Their Thing (Signet Books, 1973)
    • Wee Pals' Nipper and Nipper's Secret Power (Signet Books, 1974)
    • Wee Pals: Book of Knowledge (Signet Books, 1974)
    • Wee Pals: Staying Cool (Signet Books, 1974)
    • Wee Pals: Funky Tales (New American Library, 1975)
    • Wee Pals: Welcome to the Club (Rainbow Power Club Books, 1978)
    • Choosing a Health Career: Featuring Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang (Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration, 1979)
    • Wee Pals: A Full-Length Musical Comedy for Children or Young Teenagers (The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1981)
    • Wee Pals Make Friends with Music and Musical Instruments: Coloring Book (Stockton Symphony Association, 1982) 
    • Wee Pals, the Kid Power Gang: Thinking Well (Ingham County Health Department, 1983)
    • Wee Pals Doing the Right Thing Coloring Book (Oakland Police Department, 1991)
    • Explore Black History with Wee Pals (Just us Books, 1998)
    • The Kid Power Gang Salutes African-Americans in the Military Past and Present (Conway B. Jones, Jr., 2000)

    Willis and his Friends

    • Ser un Hombre (Lear Siegler/Fearon Publishers, 1972) 
    • Prejudice (Fearon, 1972) 
    • The Vandals (Fearon, 1974) 

    Other books


    • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Freedom (Ross Simmons, 1967) 
    • Black and White Coloring Book (Troubadour Press, 1969) — written with Letha Turner
    • Right On (Signet Books, 1969)
    • Getting It All Together (Signet Books, 1972)
    • Where's Herbie? A Sickle Cell Anemia Story and Coloring Book (Sickle Cell Anemia Workshop, 1972)
    • Famous Black Americans (Judson Press, 1973)
    • Happy Birthday America (Signet Book, 1975)
    • All God's Chillun Got Soul (Judson Press, 1980)
    • Thinking Well (Wisconsin Clearing House, 1983)
    • Black History Trivia: Quiz and Game Book (News America Syndicate, 1986)
    • What About Gangs? Just Say No! (Oakland Police Department, 1994) 
    • Babcock (Scholastic, 1996) — by John Cottonwood and Morrie Turner
    • Mom Come Quick (Wright Pub Co., 1997) — by Joy Crawford and Morrie Turner
    • Super Sistahs: Featuring the Accomplishments of African-American Women Past and Present (Bye Publishing Services, 2005)



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