Blacks United States History

In 1974, Joe Gilliam Jr. was a rarity: an African American quarterback who actually had an opportunity to play the position in the National Football League. When he died of a heart attack on Christmas night, Gilliam was watching "Monday Night Football," a game with two African American starting quarterbacks: Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans and Anthony Wright of the Dallas Cowboys.

The United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) approved a resolution Monday supporting a federal commission to study reparations for slavery. The resolution, adopted at a joint convention of the two predominantly white churches, asked members to meet congressional representatives about forming a reparations commission and issuing a formal apology for slavery.

The centuries-old stench of mold and human waste still rises in the small cell with a narrow, barred door that opens to the harbor--the last spot where African slaves touched the continent before being shipped to the Americas. Eugene Vickerson, a 53-year-old retired real estate salesman from Atlanta, peered into the gloomy dungeon lit only by a narrow ray of sunlight slanting through the notorious Door of No Return.

It was the old people who kept John Snowden's name alive, passing it down like a fragile heirloom. The tale they told was as distant as rumor, shorn of detail but always retrieved when a new injustice flared. Someday, Annapolis' aging blacks said, "the lynching" would get its proper account. Someday finally came. Hanged 82 years ago in the Annapolis city jail for the rape and murder of a white woman--despite nagging evidence that suggested his innocence--Snowden has won a posthumous pardon.

Growing up in the small central Texas town of Bryan in the 1950s and '60s, writer Sunny Nash lived in the segregated neighborhood of Candy Hill--a far-from-sweet maze of dusty, unpaved roads, mosquito-infested drainage ditches, three-room "shotgun houses" with outdoor toilets, and corner taverns where the beer flowed day and night.

They say they can win a reparation lawsuit. But first they must figure out a few details: Whom to sue. On whose behalf. In what court. And on what legal theory. Nine top class-action and civil-rights lawyers--including men who have won huge settlements against the tobacco industry and the maker of the fen-phen diet drugs--have met several times over the last few months to plot strategy. They face several challenges. First, there's the statute of limitations. Slavery ended 135 years ago.

What do civil rights, peanut butter, automatic traffic lights and open heart surgery have in common? They are just a few of the valuable contributions African Americans such as Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington Carver, Garrett A. Morgan and Daniel Hale Williams have made to our daily lives. Explore the many achievements by African Americans through the direct links on the Times Launch Point Web site: http://www.latimes.com/launchpoint.

For the first time, archeologists have unearthed what they believe to be a cemetery of slaves owned by Thomas Jefferson and buried outside the home of the third president. The burial plots were found on the grounds of Monticello, said Daniel Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and manages the 5,000-acre estate. "It's been a long-standing goal . . . to determine where slaves were buried, and we believe we have now found one such location," Jordan said Tuesday.

It is not unusual for theatrical works to revisit the turbulent lives of talented and controversial musicians. Paul Robeson was the subject of "Robeson," a one-actor play in the late 1970s. Maria Callas received her diva's due in Terrence McNally's "Master Class," August Wilson probed the blues in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and Mozart had his turn on the boards in "Amadeus." Marian Anderson, one of the great singers of the 20th Century, would seem a less likely candidate for dramatization.

Growing up in the small central Texas town of Bryan in the 1950s and '60s, writer Sunny Nash lived in the segregated neighborhood of Candy Hill--a far-from-sweet maze of dusty, unpaved roads, mosquito-infested drainage ditches, three-room "shotgun houses" with outdoor toilets, and corner taverns where the beer flowed day and night.

It is not unusual for theatrical works to revisit the turbulent lives of talented and controversial musicians. Paul Robeson was the subject of "Robeson," a one-actor play in the late 1970s. Maria Callas received her diva's due in Terrence McNally's "Master Class," August Wilson probed the blues in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and Mozart had his turn on the boards in "Amadeus." Marian Anderson, one of the great singers of the 20th Century, would seem a less likely candidate for dramatization.

For the first time, archeologists have unearthed what they believe to be a cemetery of slaves owned by Thomas Jefferson and buried outside the home of the third president. The burial plots were found on the grounds of Monticello, said Daniel Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and manages the 5,000-acre estate. "It's been a long-standing goal . . . to determine where slaves were buried, and we believe we have now found one such location," Jordan said Tuesday.

The sweetest compliment Robert H. Cataliotti ever received came from Shannon Powell, a popular New Orleans session drummer. The "cat's got some ears," Powell told his buddies. "He can hear all around the corner." He's not a musician, but he is a good listener, a gift that has enabled Cataliotti to compile and annotate a new Smithsonian Folkways release, "Every Tone a Testimony," an aural history of the African American experience.

In 1974, Joe Gilliam Jr. was a rarity: an African American quarterback who actually had an opportunity to play the position in the National Football League. When he died of a heart attack on Christmas night, Gilliam was watching "Monday Night Football," a game with two African American starting quarterbacks: Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans and Anthony Wright of the Dallas Cowboys.

They say they can win a reparation lawsuit. But first they must figure out a few details: Whom to sue. On whose behalf. In what court. And on what legal theory. Nine top class-action and civil-rights lawyers--including men who have won huge settlements against the tobacco industry and the maker of the fen-phen diet drugs--have met several times over the last few months to plot strategy. They face several challenges. First, there's the statute of limitations. Slavery ended 135 years ago.

The centuries-old stench of mold and human waste still rises in the small cell with a narrow, barred door that opens to the harbor--the last spot where African slaves touched the continent before being shipped to the Americas. Eugene Vickerson, a 53-year-old retired real estate salesman from Atlanta, peered into the gloomy dungeon lit only by a narrow ray of sunlight slanting through the notorious Door of No Return.

One hated sitting on the dock of the bay. The other hated sitting in the back of the bus. So it was an unexpected moment Friday when Otis Redding met Rosa Parks before a crowd of surprised schoolchildren in Torrance. The biggest shock for the 1,200 youngsters gathered at El Camino College was that the legendary 1960s rhythm and blues singer and the pace-setting 1950s civil rights pioneer were the subjects of ballets.

One hated sitting on the dock of the bay. The other hated sitting in the back of the bus. So it was an unexpected moment Friday when Otis Redding met Rosa Parks before a crowd of surprised schoolchildren in Torrance. The biggest shock for the 1,200 youngsters gathered at El Camino College was that the legendary 1960s rhythm and blues singer and the pace-setting 1950s civil rights pioneer were the subjects of ballets.