A00015 - Jean-Claude Duvalier, President of Haiti

Jean-Claude Duvalier, byname Baby Doc, French Bébé Doc   (born July 3, 1951, Port-au-Prince, Haiti—died October 4, 2014, Port-au-Prince), president of Haiti from 1971 to 1986.

The only son of Francois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier, Jean-Claude succeeded his father as president for life in April 1971, becoming at age 19 the youngest president in the world. Partly because of pressure from the United States to moderate the tyrannical and corrupt practices of his father’s regime, Duvalier instituted budgetary and judicial reforms, replaced a few older cabinet members with younger men, released some political prisoners, and eased press censorship, professing a policy of “gradual democratization of institutions.”

Nevertheless, no sharp changes from previous policies occurred. No political opposition was tolerated, and all important political officials and judges were still appointed by the president. Under Duvalier, Haiti continued a semi-isolationist approach to foreign relations, although the government actively solicited foreign aid to stimulate the economy. 

Duvalier graduated from secondary school in Port-au-Prince and briefly attended law school at the University of Haiti. In 1980 he married Michèle Bennett, who later supplanted Duvalier’s hard-line mother, Simone, in Haitian politics. In the face of increasing social unrest, however, Duvalier and his wife left the country in February 1986, and a military council headed the country for several years. From 1986 Duvalier resided in France, despite the urging of Haitian authorities that he be extradited to stand trial for human rights abuses. 

Duvalier returned to Haiti in January 2011, one year after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Two days later, Duvalier was taken into custody by authorities for questioning regarding alleged corruption and embezzlement during his rule; he was subsequently released. He remained in Haiti but refused several times to appear for hearings on human rights violations he was alleged to have committed while president. In late February 2013, Duvalier was taken before a pretrial hearing to face questioning on those charges.

Duvalier died in his home of a heart attack on October 4, 2014.

A00014 - Caldwell Jones, Philadelphia 76er Star

Caldwell "Pops" Jones (August 4, 1950 – September 21, 2014) was an American professional basketball player.  Jones played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and three in the American Basketball Association (ABA). 

Jones was drafted from Albany State College (Georgia) by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 14th pick in the 1973 NBA Draft. He played 3 seasons in the American Basketball Association before joining the 76ers.  Jones then spent six seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers before being traded to the Houston Rockets for Moses Malone.

Jones led the ABA in blocked shots in the 1973-74 season, and played in the 1975 ABA All-Star Game. He shares (with Julius Keye) the ABA's all-time record for blocked shots in a game with 12.

He spent six seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers before being traded to the Houston Rockets for Moses Malone.

Jones made the 1975 ABA All-Star Game, and he spent six seasons with the Sixers starting in 1976. He was sent to the Houston Rockets in 1982, then played for the Portland Trail Blazers from 1985 to 1989. Jones finished his playing career with the San Antonio Spurs in 1989-1990, where he served as a mentor for David Robinson. His three brothers, Charles Jones, Wil Jones and Major Jones, also played in the NBA. All of the Jones brothers attended Albany State University.

Caldwell Jones, a standout veteran NBA and ABA center, died on Sunday, September 21, 2014 after suffering a heart attack while playing golf. He was 64.

A00013 - Marvin Barnes, "Bad News" Basketball Player

Marvin Jerome Barnes (July 27, 1952 – September 8, 2014) was an American professional basketball player. As a 6'8" forward, Barnes played at Providence College. In 1973, he became the first player to score 10 times on 10 field goal attempts in the NCAA playoffs, and remains tied for second behind Kenny Walker, who went 11-for-11 in 1986. He led the nation in rebounding in 1973-74. On December 15, 1973, Barnes scored 52 points against Austin Peay, breaking the single-game school record. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the second overall pick in the first round of the 1974 NBA Draft and by the Spirits of St. Louis in the 1974 ABA Draft. Barnes opted for the ABA and played for the Spirits in the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1974 to 1976 before playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1976 to 1980. He had his greatest success in the ABA, where he starred for the Spirits and was named Rookie of the Year for the 1974–75 season. He also shares the ABA record for most two-point field goals in a game, with 27. In 2005, the ABA 2000, the second incarnation of the ABA, named one of their divisions after him.

Barnes' nickname, "Bad News," came from his frequent off-court problems, which began when he was a senior at Central High School.  He was part of a gang that attempted to rob a bus. He was quickly identified as he was wearing his state championship jacket with his name embroidered on it. His case was handled by the juvenile justice system. In 1972, while playing center for Providence College, he attacked a teammate with a tire iron. He later pled guilty to assault, paid the victim $10,000 and was placed on probation. He violated probation in October 1976 when an unloaded gun was found in his bag at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and served 152 days in Rhode Island state prison. Upon release he returned to the Detroit Pistons.  He was arrested for burglary, drug possession, and trespassing. Because of his drug use, his NBA career was cut short and he wound up homeless in San Diego, California, in the early 1980s. After multiple rehab programs, he started reaching out to youth in South Providence, where he grew up, urging them not to make the same mistakes he had.

In March 2008, Providence College retired his jersey, honoring him along with Ernie DiGregorio and Jimmy Walker. He co-held (with MarShon Brooks) the school single-game scoring record of 52 points. On September 8, 2014, Barnes died at the age of 62.

A00012 - Ahmed Seif, Egyptian Human Rights Lawyer

Seif, Ahmed
Ahmed Seif , also written as Ahmad Saif (el-Islam Hamad Abd el-Fattah) (January 9, 1951 - August 27, 2014), was an Egyptian journalist and human rights lawyer.

In the 1980s, Seif served a five-year prison sentence for activism. Afterwards, he was still several times imprisoned for political reasons, including during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. In 1999, he was one of the founders of the Hisham Mubarak Center for Law. In 2011, he was also leader of the political movement Kefaya. 

Seif was the father of two prominent activists during the Egyptian Revolution, Mona Seif and Alaa Abd El Fattah.  Seif married to Laila Soueif, a professor of mathematics at the University of Cairo. 

Because of Seif's involvement in the socialist movement, he was arrested in 1983 and tortured by agents of the Egyptian security forces. For five years, he was in prison. After his release, Seif focused on the fight against torture in Egypt.  In 1989, shortly after his release, he took on one of the most important human rights issues in the country itself.  Because of his struggle against torture and injustice he grew over the years into a central figure in several successful Egyptian human rights cases. 

In 1999, he was one of the founders of the Centre Hisham Mubarak for Law in Cairo, a center named for Hisham Mubarak, a lawyer who had focused on human rights and the granting of legal assistance to victims of violations of human rights laws. 

Seif was one of the attorneys in the case against fifteen defendants after the bombing in Taba and other places in the Sinai in October 2004.  Seif argued strongly against the wave of bombings while. on the other hand, arguing that the defendants in no way tortured of engaged in violations of human rights. Nevertheless, all fifteen defendants were convicted on the basis of confessions obtained during their torture.  

Other high-profile cases with other lawyers were the Queen Boat case in 2001, in which 52 men were tried on the basis of their sexual orientation, and the defense of 49 textile workers because they had participated in protests on April 6, 2008 in Mahalla.

In 2006, Seif took on the defense of Karim Amer, the first blogger who was indicted for a crime because of his criticism, on the Internet, of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Islam.  Amer was sentenced to four years imprisonment. 

Seif died on August 27, 2014 at the age of 63 during open-heart surgery.

A00011 - Frankie Knuckles, "Godfather of House Music"

Francis Nicholls, better known by his stage name Frankie Knuckles (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), was an American disc jockey (DJ) and record producer.

Knuckles was born January 18, 1955 in the Bronx, New York.  He later moved to Chicago. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the 1980s, when the genre was in its infancy. Due to his importance in the development of the genre, Knuckles was often known as "The Godfather of House Music." The city of Chicago named a stretch of street and a day after Knuckles in 2004 for this role. His accomplishments earned him a Grammy Award in 1997. Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition for his achievements.

A00010 - Zeituni Onyango, Obama's Aunt

Zeituni Onyango, Obama’s Aunt From Kenya, Dies at 61

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEAPRIL 8, 2014

Photo

Zeituni Onyango CreditJosh Reynolds/Associated Press

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BOSTON — Zeituni Onyango, President Obama’s Kenyan-born aunt, who received asylum in the United States in 2010 after years of living illegally in Boston, died on Tuesday in a rehabilitation home here. She was 61.

Her death was confirmed by Margaret Wong, a Cleveland lawyer who represented Ms. Onyango in her immigration case. She said that Ms. Onyango had cancer and respiratory problems.

Ms. Onyango was the half-sister of Mr. Obama’s father.

Mr. Obama wrote about his aunt in his 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” She served as his guide in Kenya — and his guide to some painful family history — during his visit there in 1988. She said that Mr. Obama’s father, who died in a car crash in 1982, had taken her in when her husband became abusive and she had no money.

But there was little or no contact between Mr. Obama and his aunt while she fought to immigrate. She attended his inauguration in 2009, but the two apparently did not see each other.

Ms. Onyango moved to South Boston on a valid visa in 2000 and sought political asylum in 2002. It was denied in 2004, and she was ordered to leave the country, but she refused.

She was living in relative anonymity in Boston until just before the 2008 presidential election, when her illegal status was reported by The Associated Press. The Times of London found her in what it described as “run-down public housing.”

At the time, aides to Mr. Obama said that he had not known that she was in the United States illegally and that “any and all appropriate laws” covering her situation should be followed. The aides said that he would not intervene in her case and that the two had had no contact.

To escape media scrutiny, Ms. Onyango moved to Cleveland, where the Kenyan community took her in, said Ms. Wong, who helped her obtain a green card.

In seeking asylum for Ms. Onyango, Ms. Wong argued that if she were forced to return to Kenya she would face undue attention and perhaps danger because of her nephew’s fame. To be granted asylum, people must show that they would face persecution in their home countries.

In Boston, Judge Leonard Shapiro granted Ms. Onyango asylum in 2010. She died before being granted citizenship.

Ms. Onyango was born in Kenya on May 29, 1952, under a mango tree, and delivered by a midwife in the absence of medical care, Ms. Wong said. She raised a family in Kenya and worked in the computer department at Kenya Breweries, where she managed a staff of 25.

Her memoir, “Tears of Abuse,” was published in 2012. In it she wrote, “The Obama clan is like the Baobab tree; the strength lies in its roots.”

*****

Zeituni Onyango (May 29, 1952 – April 7, 2014) was the half-aunt of United States President Barack Obama.  Onyango was the half-sister of Obama's late father Barack Obama, Sr. She is referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father. 

In 2000, Onyango, a native of Kenya, came to the United States illegally and in 2002 sought political asylum in the United States citing violence: Kenya and East Africa have seen an escalation in violence in the 2000s.  Her case was denied in 2004 but she remained in South Boston, Massachusetts, and retained legal representation. Her case was leaked in the final days of the 2008 United States presidential election in which Obama was the Democratic candidate.

Her case became the subject of international media attention highlighting "the hot-button topic of illegal immigration into a race that has largely avoided it" and the contradictory rules governing public housing in Massachusetts. It also sparked an investigation by the Department of Health Services as to how her case was leaked and added heightened administrative review on asylum deportations until after the 2008 general election. Onyango's case is often cited in light of immigration reform efforts of the Obama administration. 

A00009 - Josephine Odumakin, Nigerian Women's Rights Activist

Josephine "Joe" Obiajulu Okei-Odumakin is a Nigerian women's rights activist. She is the president of the rights groups Women Arise for Change Initiative and the Campaign for Democracy. 

Odumakin was born in Zaria, Kaduna, on July 4, 1966.  She grew up in a Roman Catholic household. She received a bachelor's degree in English Education in 1987, followed by a master's in Guidance and Counseling and a doctorate in History and Policy of Education from the University of Ilorin.  She has frequently been arrested for her activism, especially during the military rule of Ibrahim Babangida, and she met her future husband, Yinak Odumakin, while in prison.

In 2013, Odumakin was presented an International Women of Courage Award from the United States Department of State.