By Lee A. Daniels
No one came to my father’s funeral service in late July, 1993. Well, not no one. But very few people besides me and my brother, our two sisters, and the six grandchildren. Beyond those of us gathered in sadness at the front of the spacious room of the funeral parlor in Chicago, there were only a few close family friends and aged former colleagues of his. The rest of the room was empty.

By John Whittington Franklin
John Hope and Aurelia were extraordinary people, a marvelous couple and a powerful team. I benefited from having them as parents. My mother taught me how to observe everything around me, how to be independent, and develop my own style. She taught me the teamwork that cooking together requires. My father corrected my papers and grammar. (laughter) …

By The Editors
Our call for writings on fathers and fatherhood yielded wise, wonderful and genuinely moving tributes to some of the most thought-provoking and moving facets of having, and sometimes being, a dad.

By Ashkea Herron McAllister and Caren E. Short
Sunday, June 21, 2009, marks the 45th anniversary of the infamous murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi-James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24. They had joined the “Freedom Summer” initiative of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register blacks in the state to vote. Chaney himself was a black Mississippian. Schwerner and Goodman were Jewish volunteers from New York.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, notable African-American painter and artist, was born in Pittsburgh, PA

The US Supreme Court reversed a decision of a lower court which had confirmed a $100,000 contempt fine imposed by Alabama on the NAACP for refusing to divulge its membership.

Singer and actress Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn, NY.

Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr. was chosen as the first black astronaut. He was killed during a training flight on December 8.

Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr. and Edward Boykin were shot and killed during church services at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Photographer James Van der Zee was born.