Beatrice Mtetwa, Human Rights Lawyer and Activist

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Beatrice Mtetwa is a Swazi was born 1957^[1] and naturalised Zimbabwean lawyer who has been internationally recognized for her defense of journalists and press freedom. The New York Times described her in 2008 as "Zimbabwe's top human rights lawyer".^[2]

Mtetwa received her LLB from the University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1981 and spent the next two years working as a prosecuting attorney in Swaziland.^[3] In 1983, she moved to Zimbabwe, where she continued working as a prosecutor until 1989.^[3] That year, she went into private practice, and soon began specializing in human rights law.^[3] In one of her more notable cases, she successfully challenged a section of Zimbabwe's Private Voluntary Organizations Act which allowed a government minister the authority to dissolve or replace the board members of non-governmental organizations.^[3] She also challenged the results of 37 districts in the 2000 parliamentary elections.^[3] In a PBS documentary, Mtetwa described her motives for her activism as "not because there is any glory or cash to it and not because I'm trying to antagonize the government... I'm doing it because it's a job that's got to be done".^[4]

Mtetwa is particularly noted for her defense of arrested journalists, both local and international.^[5] In 2003, for example, she won a court order preventing the deportation of Guardian reporter Andrew Meldrum, presenting it to security officials at Harare International Airport only minutes before Meldrum's plane was scheduled to depart.^[6] She also won acquittals for detained reporters Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds from London's Sunday Telegraph, who had been arrested during coverage of the April parliamentary election on charges of working without government accreditation.^[5] In April 2008, she secured the release of New York Times reporter Barry Bearak, who had been imprisoned on similar charges.^[2] She also defended many local journalists arrested in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.^[7] Mtetwa is also a director who sits on Econet board .

Mtetwa and Tawanda Nyambirai founded Mtetwa & Nyambirai Legal Practitioners in 2006 and it has established itself over the past decade as one of Zimbabwe's leading law firms. Mtetwa & Nyambirai's history is punctuated by landmark cases in multiple areas of the law. With Econet Wireless’s the largest telecommunications company in Zimbabwe being the firms most notable clients, the Econet name appears on many of those landmark cases. These include cases such as Econet Wireless v Trustco Mobile, and Derdale v Econet Wireless which is now the seminal case on the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court under the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe.

Mtetwa's firm has been involved with multiple high-profile human rights cases. Notably, we were instrumental in the recovery of abducted activist Jestina Mukoko — who was held incommunicado and tortured for nearly a month in 2008. Mtetwa subsequently handled a string of related legal cases that followed, including securing a stay of prosecution for Ms Mukoko and suing her abductors for damages in their personal capacity. Over the years, the Mtetwa and Nyambirai has grown into a full service law firm with the capacity to handle matters relating to all aspects of Zimbabwean law.^[8]

In 2003, Mtetwa was arrested on allegations of drunk driving. At the police station, she was reportedly beaten and choked before being released three hours later without a formal charge. Though unable to speak for two days after the attack, she returned on the third day with a folder of medical evidence in order to file charges against the police officers who assaulted her.^[5] Police officers reportedly attacked Mtetwa again in 2007, beating her and three colleagues with rubber truncheons during a march protesting harassment of Zimbabwe's lawyers.^[7][9]

In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Mtetwa described her procedure for averting potential attacks:

"I think I confront the danger immediately before it happens. I always make sure that if, for instance, I'm called in the middle of the night to a scene that is potentially dangerous, I make sure that there are as many media practitioners as possible, particularly to record what will happen there. And in the glare of cameras I find that people don't want to do what they would want to do. So in a lot of ways I think I've been lucky, and I haven't received as much harassment as one would have expected, or as much as other human rights defenders have had."^[5]

On 17 March 2013, Mtetwa was arrested while executing her professional duties. She was attending to a client whose home was searched by the police. Mtetwa was placed under arrest after requesting the production of a valid search warrant and an inventory list of items that had already been removed. Her mobile phone, containing privileged attorney-client communication, was confiscated. She was charged with defeating and / or obstructing the course of justice under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, section 184(1)(g).

The Zimbabwean police defied an emergency high court ruling ordering the release of Mtetwa and continued to hold her on charges of obstructing justice. After more than a week in jail, Mtetwa was released on Monday 25 March 2013 after a high court judge overruled a lower court's decision that she be held without bail on a charge of obstruction of justice.

On November 26, 2013, Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa said Mtetwa had no case to answer to. Magistrate Mugwagwa found that there was no evidence to suggest that Mtetwa caused the police to fail to perform their duties.^[10]

In 2005, she won the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists.^[5] The award citation stated that "in a country where the law is used as a weapon against independent journalists, Mtetwa has defended journalists and argued for press freedom, all at great personal risk."^[5] She also won the group's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.^[7]

Mtetwa was also received several awards from legal organizations. In 2009, the European Bar Human Rights Institute awarded her the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize ("The award given by lawyers to a lawyer"), reserved each year to a lawyer who throughout his or her career has illustrated, by activity or suffering, the defence of human rights in the world.^[11] Mtetwa also won the 2010 International Human Rights award of the American Bar Association.^[3] In 2011, she was awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize by Case Western Reserve University in the US.^[12] In 2014 she was a recipient of the International Women of Courage Award.^[13]

St. Francis Xavier University, located in Nova Scotia, Canada, was the first university to celebrate Mtetwa's many achievements by presenting her with an honorary degree in May 2013.

In December 2013 Mtetwa was awarded with an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Bath in the United Kingdom in recognition of her work.^[14]

In April 2016, Mtetwa was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree by Rhodes University in South Africa in recognition of her achievements in the promotion and protection of human rights in Zimbabwe.

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Beatrice Mtetwa is a Zimbabwean lawyer who has been internationally recognized for her defense of journalists and press freedom.  The New York Times described her in 2008 as "Zimbabwe's top human rights lawyer".

Mtetwa received her LLB from the University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1981 and spent the next two years working as a prosecuting attorney in Swaziland. In 1983, she moved to Zimbabwe, where she continued working as a prosecutor until 1989. That year, she went into private practice, and soon began specializing in human rights law. In one of her more notable cases, she successfully challenged a section of Zimbabwe's Private Voluntary Organizations Act which allowed a government minister the authority to dissolve or replace the board members of non-governmental organizations. She also challenged the results of 37 districts in the 2000 parliamentary elections. In a PBS documentary, Mtetwa described her motives for her activism as "not because there is any glory or cash to it and not because I'm trying to antagonize the government... I'm doing it because it's a job that's got to be done".

Mtetwa is particularly noted for her defense of arrested journalists, both local and international. In 2003, for example, she won a court order preventing the deportation of Guardian reporter Andrew Meldrum, presenting it to security officials at Harare International Airport only minutes before Meldrum's plane was scheduled to depart. She also won acquittals for detained reporters Toby Hamden and Julian Simmonds from London's Sunday Telegraph, who had been arrested during coverage of the April parliamentary election on charges of working without government accreditation. In April 2008, she secured the release of New York Times reporter Barry Bearak, who had been imprisoned on similar charges. She also defended many local journalists arrested in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.

In 2003, Mtetwa was arrested on allegations of drunk driving.  At the police station, she was reportedly beaten and choked before being released three hours later without a formal charge. Though unable to speak for two days after the attack, she returned on the third day with a folder of medical evidence in order to file charges against the police officers who assaulted her. Police officers reportedly attacked Mtetwa again in 2007, beating her and three colleagues with rubber truncheons during a march protesting harassment of Zimbabwe's lawyers.

In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Mtetwa described her procedure for averting potential attacks:

"I think I confront the danger immediately before it happens. I always make sure that if, for instance, I'm called in the middle of the night to a scene that is potentially dangerous, I make sure that there are as many media practitioners as possible, particularly to record what will happen there. And in the glare of cameras I find that people don't want to do what they would want to do. So in a lot of ways I think I've been lucky, and I haven't received as much harassment as one would have expected, or as much as other human rights defenders have had."

In 2005, she won the Interantional Press Freedom Award of the Committed to Protect Journalists.  The award citation stated that "in a country where the law is used as a weapon against independent journalists, Mtetwa has defended journalists and argued for press freedom, all at great personal risk."  She also won the group's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.

Mtetwa was also received several awards from legal organizations. In 2009, the European Bar Human Rights Institute awarded her the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize ("The award given by lawyers to a lawyer"), reserved each year to a lawyer who throughout his or her career has illustrated, by activity or suffering, the defense of human rights in the world.  Mtetwa also won the 2010 International Human Rights award of the American Bar Association.  In 2011, she was awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize by Case Western Reserve University in the United States.  And, most recently (2014), she was named a recipient of the International Women of Courage Award that is annually given out by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially for better promotion of women's rights.  

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A00042 - Unity Dow, Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists

 Unity Dow (b. April 23, 1959, Botswana) was a Motswana judge, human rights activist and writer currently serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.  She came from a rural background that tended toward traditional values. She successfully challenged the law that argued that citizenship was inherited by children from the fathers and not from their mothers. She also went to court to argue that a gay rights group was legal and not unconstitutional in the law of Botswana.

Dow studied law at the University of Botswana and Swaziland (LLB 1983), which included two years spent studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  Her Western education caused a mixture of respect and suspicion.

In 1991, Unity Dow co-founded the private Baobab Primary School in Gaborone and she co-founded the first AIDS-specific NGO in the country, "AIDS ACTION TRUST."

Dow earned her acclaim as a lawyer particularly through her stances on women's rights. She was the plaintiff in a case that allowed the children of women with Botswana citizenship by foreign national fathers to be considered citizens of Botswana (Attorney General of Botswana v. Unity Dow (1992).  Before this case, according to tradition and prior precedent, nationality only descended from the father. She later became Botswana's first female High Court judge. She was also co-founder of the first all-female law practice Dow, Malakaila, and was one of the founding members of the women's organization Emang Basadi.

As a novelist, Dow published five books. These books often deal with issues concerning the struggle between Western and traditional values and also involve her interest in gender issues and her nation's poverty.  Dow contributed to the book Schicksal Afrika (Destiny Africa) by the former German President Horst Koehler in 2009. In May 2010, she published her book, Saturday is for Funerals, which describes the AIDS problem in Africa.  

In 2005, Unity Dow became a member of a United Nations mission to Sierra Leone to review the domestic application of international women's human rights. On December 13, 2006, she was one of three judges who ruled on the acclaimed Kgalagadi (San, Bushmen or Basarwa) court decision, concerning the rights of the San to return to their ancestral lands.

In 2007, Unity Dow became a Member of a special mission at the invitation of the Rwandan Government and United Nations special court for Rwanda. The purpose of this mission was to review the Rwandan Judiciaries preparedness to take over the hearing of the 1994 genocide cases.

Dow was a visiting professor of Law at the Columbia University School of Law in New York, during the fall semester 2009, and at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, 2009, and University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2009.

After retiring from the High Court Botswana in 2009, after 11 years of service, she opened the legal firm "Dow & Associates" in Botswana in February 2010. Dow was also sworn in as Justice of the IICDRC (Interim Independent Constitutional Dispute Resolution Court) of Kenya by the Kenyan President to help implement the new constitution of Kenya.

On July 14, 2010, Dow was awarded the Medal of the Legion d'honneur de France by representatives of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy for her human rights activities.

At the Women of the World Summit in March 2011 and 2012 in New York, Unity Dow was mentioned as one of 150 women who shake the world.

Unity Dow also served as Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists. She was first elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2009. In 2006 she was also elected to the Executive Committee and subsequently re-elected in 2008. In March 2011 she was elected the Chairperson of the Executive Committee, succeeding Dr. Rajeev Dhayan, of India, effective from June 2011 to June 2012.

Unity Dow is the only motswana listed under the world recognized feminists for her advocacy for women rights from the period of 1940 to present.

On 6 July 2012 Dow was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as one of three independent experts to conduct a fact-finding mission on how Israel's West Bank settlements affect Palestinians. A preliminary version of the report was published on January 31, 2013.

In 2013, Dow decided to enter politics. On October 28, 2014. Dow was nominated by former President Ian Khama of Botswana as "special elected member of parliament" and confirmed by the new 11th Parliament of Botswana. Dow was also appointed Assistant Minister of Education in the Government of Botswana, responsible for Higher / Tertiary Education and Skills Development.

On November 14, 2014, Dow was successful in representing LEGABIBO, the Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals of Botswana in a trial versus the State of Botswana to register LEGABIBO as an organization in Botswana. Previously the State had refused the registration on arguments it would be unconstitutional. On March 1, 2015, Dow was appointed Minister of Education and Skills Development in the Government of Botswana.

After the inauguration of the fifth President of Botswana Mokgweetsi E. Masisi on April 1, 2018, Unity Dow took over as Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development in the Government of Botswana. On June 20, 2018, in a cabinet reshuffle, she was named Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation. After re-election of Dr. Mokgweetsi E. Masisi on November 1, 2019 as President of Botswana, Unity Dow was reconfirmed as Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation by the 12th parliament of Botswana.

A00041 - Lorraine Hansberry, Author of "A Raisin in the Sun"

*Playwright Lorraine Hansberry, the author of A Raisin in the Sun, was born in Chicago (May 19),

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (b. May 19, 1930, Chicago, Illinois – d. January 12, 1965, New York City, New York) was an American playwright and writer. Hansberry inspired Nina Simone's song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black". 

She was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun,  highlights the lives of African Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee.  The title of her most famous play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"

After she moved to New York City, Hansberry worked at the Pan-Africanist newspaper Freedom, where she dealt with intellectuals such as Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois.  Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggle for liberation and their impact on the world. Hansberry has been identified as a lesbian, and sexual freedom is an important topic in several of her works. She died of cancer at the age of 34.

Lorraine Hansberry was born in a comfortable, middle-class family in Chicago, and was educated at the University of Wisconsisn  and Roosevelt University.  She first appeared in print in Paul Robeson's Freedom, a monthly newspaper, during the early 1950's.  In 1959, A Raisin in the Sun, her first play, was produced on Broadway.  It was among the first full-length African American plays to be taken seriously by a European American audience.  

The success of A Raisin in the Sun catapulted Hansberry to an early fame.  She was expected to be a spokesperson for the African American poor, when in fact she was more attuned to the aspirations of the African American bourgeoisie.  Hansberry was very militant about integration and not supportive of black nationalist or separatist movements.

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee. The title of the play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"

At the young age of 29, Hansberry won the New York's Drama Critic's Circle Award — making her the first black dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so.

After she moved to New York City, Hansberry worked at the Pan-Africanist newspaper Freedom, where she dealt with intellectuals such as Paul Robeson and W. E. B. DuBois. Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggle for liberation and their impact on the world. Hansberry has been identified as a lesbian, and sexual freedom is an important topic in several of her works. She died of cancer at the age of 34. Hansberry inspired Nina Simone's song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black".

Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest of four children born to Carl Augustus Hansberry, a successful real-estate broker, and Nannie Louise (born Perry) a driving school teacher and ward committeewoman. In 1938, her father bought a house in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago, incurring the wrath of their white neighbors. The latter's legal efforts to force the Hansberry family out culminated in the United States Supreme Court's decision in Hansberry v. Lee. The restrictive covenant was ruled contestable, though not inherently invalid. Carl Hansberry was also a supporter of the Urban League and NAACP in Chicago. Both Hansberrys were active in the Chicago Republican Party. Carl died in 1946, when Lorraine was fifteen years old; "American racism helped kill him," she later said.

The Hansberrys were routinely visited by prominent Black intellectuals, including W. E. B. DuBois and Paul Robeson. Carl Hansberry's brother, William Leo Hansberry, founded the African Civilization section of the history department at Howard University. Lorraine was taught: ‘‘Above all, there were two things which were never to be betrayed: the family and the race.’’

Hansberry became the godmother to Nina Simone's daughter Lisa—now Simone.

Hansberry graduated from Betsy Ross Elementary in 1944 and from Englewood High School in 1948. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she immediately became politically active and integrated a dormitory.

She worked on Henry A. Wallace's presidential campaign in 1948, despite her mother's disapproval. She spent the summer of 1949 in Mexico, studying painting at the University of Guadalajara.

She decided in 1950 to leave Madison and pursue her career as a writer in New York City, where she attended The New School. She moved to Harlem in 1951 and became involved in activist struggles such as the fight against evictions.

In 1951, she joined the staff of the black newspaper Freedom, edited by Louis E. Burnham and published by Paul Robeson.  At Freedom, she worked with W. E. B. Du Bois, whose office was in the same building, and other Black Pan-Africanists. At the newspaper, she worked as subscription clerk, receptionist, typist and editorial assistant in addition to writing news articles and editorials.

One of her first reports covered the Sojourners for Truth and Justice convened in Washington, D.C., by Mary Church Terrell.  She traveled to Georgia to cover the case of Willie McGee, and was inspired to write the poem "Lynchsong" about his case.

She worked not only on the United States civil rights movement, but also on global struggles against colonialism and imperialism. Hansberry wrote in support of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya, criticizing the mainstream press for its biased coverage.

Hansberry often clarified these global struggles by explaining them in terms of female participants. She was particularly interested in the situation of Egypt, "the traditional Islamic 'cradle of civilization,' where women had led one of the most important fights anywhere for the equality of their sex."

In 1952, Hansberry attended a peace conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, in place of Paul Robeson, who had been denied travel rights by the State Department.

On June 20, 1953, Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish publisher, songwriter and political activist. Hansberry and Nemiroff moved to Greenwich Village, the setting of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.  Success of the song "Cindy, Oh Cindy", co-authored by Nemiroff, enabled Hansberry to start writing full-time. On the night before their wedding in 1953, Nemiroff and Hansberry protested the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in NYC.

It is widely believed that Hansberry was a closeted lesbian, a theory supported by her secret writings in letters and personal notebooks. She was an activist for gay rights and wrote about feminism and homophobia, joining the Daughters of Bilitis and contributing two letters to their magazine, The Ladder, in 1957 under her initials "LHN." She separated from her husband at this time, but they continued to work together.

A Raisin in the Sun was written at this time and completed in 1957.

Opening on March 11, 1959, A Raisin in the Sun became the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.  The 29-year-old author became the youngest American playwright and only the fifth woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Over the next two years, Raisin was translated into 35 languages and was being performed all over the world.

Hansberry wrote two screenplays of Raisin, both of which were rejected as controversial by Columbia Pictures. Commissioned by NBC in 1960 to create a television program about slavery, Hansberry wrote The Drinking Gourd. This script was also rejected.

In 1960, during Delta Sigma Theta's 26th national convention in Chicago, Hansberry was made an honorary member.

In 1961, Hansberry was set to replace Vinnette Carroll as the director of the musical Kicks and Co, after its try-out at Chicago's McCormick Place. It was written by Oscar Brown, Jr. and featured an interracial cast including Lonnie Sattin, Nichelle Nichols, Vi Velasco, Al Freeman, Jr., Zabeth Wilde and Burgess Meredith in the title role of Mr. Kicks. A satire involving miscegenation, the $400,000 production was co-produced by her husband Robert Nemiroff. Despite a warm reception in Chicago, the show never made it to Broadway.

In 1963, Hansberry participated in a meeting with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, set up by James Baldwin. 

Also in 1963, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She underwent two operations, on June 24 and August 2. Neither was successful in removing the cancer.

On March 10, 1964, Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced but continued to work together.

While many of her other writings were published in her lifetime—essays, articles, and the text for the SNCC book The Movement — the only other play given a contemporary production was The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window ran for 101 performances on Broadway and closed the night she died.

Hansberry was an atheist.

Hansberry believed that gaining civil rights in the United States and obtaining independence in colonial Africa were two sides of the same coin that presented similar challenges for Africans on both sides of the Atlantic. In response to the independence of Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, Hansberry wrote: "The promise of the future of Ghana is that of all the colored peoples of the world; it is the promise of freedom."

Regarding tactics, Hansberry said Blacks "must concern themselves with every single means of struggle: legal, illegal, passive, active, violent and non-violent.... They must harass, debate, petition, give money to court struggles, sit-in, lie-down, strike, boycott, sing hymns, pray on steps—and shoot from their windows when the racists come cruising through their communities."

In a Town Hall debate on June 15, 1964, Hansberry criticized white liberals who could not accept civil disobedience, expressing a need "to encourage the white liberal to stop being a liberal and become an American radical." At the same time, she said, "some of the first people who have died so far in this struggle have been white men."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation began surveillance of Hansberry when she prepared to go to the Montevideo peace conference. The Washington, D.C. office searched her passport files "in an effort to obtain all available background material on the subject, any derogatory information contained therein, and a photograph and complete description," while officers in Milwaukee and Chicago examined her life history. Later, an FBI reviewer of Raisin in the Sun highlighted its Pan-Africanist themes as dangerous.

Hansberry, a heavy smoker her whole life, died of pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965, aged 34. James Baldwin believed "it is not at all farfetched to suspect that what she saw contributed to the strain which killed her, for the effort to which Lorraine was dedicated is more than enough to kill a man."

Hansberry's funeral was held in Harlem on January 15, 1965. Paul Robeson and SNCC organizer James Forman gave eulogies. The presiding minister, Eugene Callender, recited messages from Baldwin and the Martin Luther King, Jr. which read: "Her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn." The 15th was also Dr. King's birthday. Hansberry was buried at Asbury United Methodist Church Cemetery in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. 

Hansberry's ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, became the executor for several unfinished manuscripts. He added minor changes to complete the play Les Blancs, and he adapted many of her writings into the play To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which was the longest-running Off Broadway play of the 1968–69 season. It appeared in book form the following year under the title To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. She left behind an unfinished novel and several other plays, including The Drinking Gourd and What Use Are Flowers?, with a range of content, from slavery to a post-apocalyptic future.

Raisin, a musical based on A Raisin in the Sun,  opened in New York in 1973, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, with the book by Nemiroff, music by Judd Woldin, and lyrics by Robert Britten. A Raisin in the Sun was revived on Broadway in 2004 and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival of a Play. The cast included Sean Combs ("P Diddy") as Walter Lee Younger Jr., Phylicia Rashad (Tony Award-winner for Best Actress) and Audra McDonald (Tony Award-winner for Best Featured Actress).  It was produced for television in 2008 with the same cast, garnering two NAACP Image Awards.

Nina Simone first released a song about Hansberry in 1969 called "To Be Young, Gifted and Black".  The title of the song refers to the title of Hansberry's autobiography, which Hansberry first coined when speaking to the winners of a creative writing conference on May 1, 1964, "though it be a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic — to be young, gifted and black." Simone wrote the song with a poet named Weldon Irvine and told him that she wanted lyrics that would "make black children all over the world feel good about themselves forever." When Irvine read the lyrics after it was finished, he thought, "I didn't write this. God wrote it through me." In a recorded introduction to the song, Simone explained the difficulty of losing a close friend and talented artist.

Patricia and Frederick McKissack wrote a children's biography of Hansberry, Young, Black, and Determined, in 1998.

In 1999, Hansberry was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Hansberry as one of his 100 Greatest African Americans.

The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre of San Francisco, which specializes in original stagings and revivals of African-American theatre, is named in her honor. Singer and pianist Nina Simone,  who was a close friend of Hansberry, used the title of her unfinished play to write a civil rights-themed song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" together with Weldon Irvine. The single reached the top 10 on the R&B charts. A studio recording by Simone was released as a single and the first live recording on October 26, 1969, was captured on Black Gold (1970).

In 2013 Hansberry was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display which celebrates LGBT history and people. 

In 2013, Lorraine Hansberry was posthumously inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

A00040 - Ferdinand Christopher Smith, International Labor Activist

Jamaican-born Ferdinand Christopher Smith (1894-1961) became a prominent twentieth century international labor activist and leader.  At an early age, Smith left Jamaica’s poor economic conditions in search of work as a migrant laborer.  He spent five years in Panama, where he worked as a hotel steward and a salesman.  After World War I he moved to Cuba and by 1920 was working as a ship’s steward.

In the 1920s, impressed by their commitment to racial issues, Smith joined the Communist-led Marine Workers Industrial Union.  Although maritime workers faced oppressive working conditions including high rates of disease, low wages, poor rations, and unventilated quarters, they had virtually no union representation aboard ships.  This began to change as part of the New Deal’s support of labor unions. In 1936, Smith supported the strike against West Coast shippers.  When maritime strikes spread to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Smith became one of the nine members of the national strike Strategy Committee.

Smith was a founding member of the communist-backed National Maritime Union (NMU) and was elected to the position of Secretary Treasurer at its first convention held in 1937.  This was the second highest position in the union and the highest union office held by any African American labor leader at the time.  The NMU grew quickly in the late 1930s, and by 1944 represented approximately 90,000 maritime workers.

The NMU was a Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) union, and like many leaders involved in the CIO, Smith wanted a union that welcomed all maritime workers regardless of race, class, craft, or ethnicity.  As NMU’s Secretary Treasurer, he promoted labor rights and civil rights.  Smith guided the passage of a non-discrimination plank in the union’s constitution.  The NMU’s 1944 contract, accepted by over 100 ship companies, contained a pledge of non-discrimination.  He furthered the cause of civil rights by participating in the National Negro Congress and the Negro Labor Victory Committee.

The Red Scare that swept the country after 1945 soon led to Smith’s expulsion from the NMU.  After World War II, Smith critiqued the United States government’s crackdown on labor unions.  Since Smith had never become a citizen he was easily labeled an “Alien Red.”   Joseph Curran, president of the NMU, under pressure from the federal government, expelled a number of communists from the NMU, including Smith in 1948.  Smith’s expulsion is a stark example of the decline of union power in the face of anti-communism. Smith, who had been under government surveillance for years, was detained by the federal government beginning in February 1948 and was deported in 1951.

Thereafter, Smith briefly worked for the World Federation of Trade Unions in Vienna before returning to Jamaica in 1952. In Jamaica, Smith organized sugar workers and led a union federation.  These efforts failed to bear fruit when the government refused to recognize the union.

Ferdinand Christopher Smith died in August 1961 in Jamaica.

A00039 - Don Redman, First African American Orchestra Leader

Don (Donald Matthew) Redman (1900-1964), a jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and arranger, was the first African American orchestra leader to have a sponsored radio series.  He was a pioneer jazz arranger-composer and contributed significantly to the development of the big-band sound of the 1920s and 1930s.  A child prodigy, Redman was born in Piedmont, West Virginia, and studied at music conservatories in Boston and Detroit.

A00038 - Ben Causey, Sole Survivor of Otis Redding Plane Crash

Ben Cauley (October 3, 1947 – September 21, 2015) was an American trumpet player, vocalist, songwriter, and founding member of the Stax recording group, the Bar-Kays. He was the sole survivor of the 1967 plane crash that claimed the lives of soul singer Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays.

Cauley was born in South Memphis, Tennessee. He learned to play trumpet when at school, and formed a band with guitarist Jimmy King, saxophonist Phalon Jones, drummer Carl Cunningham, keyboardist Ronnie Caldwell, and bassist James Alexander. The group was originally named the Imperials, and later changed to the Bar-Kays in the mid-1960s. Cauley started attending LeMoyne College in 1965, before becoming a professional musician.

The Bar-Kays joined the Stax studio by 1966, and were signed on to Stax's subsidiary Volt Records in the beginning of 1967. According to James Alexander, Cauley was the best dressed of the group, always known to wear a suit, no matter the occasion.

Al Jackson, Jr. the drummer with Booker T & the MGs, took a particular interest in the young members of the Bar-Kays and groomed them to become the second house band for Stax after Booker T and the MGs. As such they appeared as the backing band on numerous recordings for Stax artists such as Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, and Sam and Dave. In fact, Otis Redding took such a liking to the band that he chose them to be his touring back-up band in the summer of 1967.

On December 8, 1967, Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays flew in Redding's twin engine Beechcraft plane to Nashville, Tennessee for three weekend gigs and used that city as a base to commute to additional gigs. The following day, December 9, they took the Beechcraft to Cleveland where they appeared on Don Webster's 'Upbeat' TV show with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Later that same evening they played at a popular Cleveland club, Leo's Casino. It was on December 10, on their commute to Madison, Wisconsin, that the men would meet their fate.

At 3:28 in the afternoon, the plane carrying Otis Redding, his valet, and the majority of the Bar-Kays crashed into the icy waters of the Squaw Bay area of Lake Monona, just outside of Madison. Bar-Kays bassist James Alexander had taken a different flight as there was not enough room left on Redding's plane. Cauley, who was sitting directly behind Otis Redding in the co-pilot's seat, had fallen asleep on the flight clutching his seat cushion. He awoke when he realized he could not breathe. He said that he then saw band mate Phalon Jones look out of a window and say "Oh, no!"

Cauley then unbuckled his safety belt which ultimately allowed him to separate himself from the wreckage. Other victims, including Redding, were found still attached to their seats. As the impact tore a wing off the small Beechcraft, the fuselage was torn open and Cauley was able to bob to the surface as he clutched his seat cushion.

While bobbing and trying to swim to his band mates who weren't able to free themselves from the fuselage, Cauley witnessed their cries for help before they were pulled under the frigid water. A nearby resident of Lake Monona heard the crash and called the authorities who responded quickly with a police boat. Approximately 20 minutes after the crash, Cauley was pulled into the police boat, suffering from hypothermia and shock. According to Jet magazine, which interviewed Cauley and the authorities who assisted in the rescue attempt, the rescue divers could not be in the water for more than 15 minutes at a time due to the freezing temperature of the water. Madison Police Inspector John Harrington was quoted as saying that a person without insulated SCUBA gear "wouldn't live longer than 20 or so minutes" in the icy water. When asked why he survived, Cauley told Jet, "I guess God was with me." Cauley claimed to suffer from nightmares about the accident until his death.

After the accident, Ben Cauley and James Alexander reformed the Bar-Kays and went on to record with Stax artists such as Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, and the Staple Singers, as well as appear at Wattstax, "The Black Woodstock". However, the band made little money, as they did not have much work outside of being a house band for Stax, and frequently needed to tour with the artists they backed. Cauley had two young daughters to support, so he left the group in 1971, allowing him to continue performing on his own while being able to remain home with his family.

Cauley suffered a debilitating stroke in 1989, but eventually recovered fully, aside from occasional problems with slightly slurred speech.

Into the 2000s, Cauley could be heard backing up Liz Lottmann, jazz and blues singer, or performing live at the Memphis club, Rum Boogie, located downtown on Beale Street. He also directed the choir of Calvary Longview United Methodist Church, attended by him and his wife Shirley.

On September 9, 2008, Attorney B.J. Wade donated $100,000 to Stax Records that would be used to create the Ben Cauley scholarship, in his honor and to shed light on his accomplishments. On September 12, 2008, the scholarship was founded. On June 6, 2015 Cauley was on hand to be inducted into the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in Clarksdale, Mississippi, along with other Bar-Kays.

He died on September 21, 2015 at the age of 67.

A00037 - Moses Malone, 76ers' "Chairman of the Boards"

Moses Malone, in full Moses Eugene Malone   (b. March 23, 1955, Petersburg, Virginia — d. September 13, 2015, Norfolk, Virginia), was an American professional basketball player, who was the dominating center and premier offensive rebounder in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the 1980s. He led the Philadelphia 76ers to a championship in 1983.

Malone, who led Petersburg High School to 50 consecutive victories and two state championships, was one of the most sought-after college basketball prospects in history. He chose to bypass college, however, and sign with the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1974, thereby becoming the first player to enter professional basketball directly from high school. When the ABA dissolved in 1976, he was acquired by the NBA’s Buffalo Braves, who traded him to the Houston Rockets two games into the 1976–77 season.

Quick and tenacious, Malone, who stood 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), was noted for his all-around play. An outstanding offensive rebounder with an accurate shooting eye from the floor and free-throw line, he was named the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1979 and 1982. He signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1982, teaming with Julius Erving and the following year winning the NBA championship. Malone was named MVP of the championship series and of the league in 1983. For six of the seven seasons from 1978 to 1985, he led the NBA in rebounds.

Malone was a member of eight NBA teams, including the Washington Bullets and the Atlanta Hawks.  During his 18 years in the league, he set records for most free throws made (8,531; since broken by Karl Malone) and most offensive rebounds (6,731). He retired in 1994, having scored 27,409 points and collected 16,212 rebounds, which ranked him among the NBA’s all-time top 10 in both categories. In 1997 the NBA named him one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, and in 2001 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.