Andre “Mr. Rhythm” Williams, a rhythm and blues singer, died in Chicago on March 17, after suffering from colon cancer that spread to other parts of his body. Mr. Williams was 82.
Obituaries
Kenneth Gibson, former mayor of Newark, New Jersey
Kenneth Gibson, the first black mayor of Newark, New Jersey, died March 29 in a rehabilitation center from an undisclosed illness. He was 89. Voters elected Gibson, a structural engineer, mayor in 1970, defeating incumbent Mayor Hugh Addonizio, who resorted to scare tactics to frighten white into not voting to elect Gibson. Addonizio was on trial for corruption toward the[Read More…]
Albert Finney
Albert Finney, one of the great actors of all time, has died. He was 82, and he suffered from kidney cancer. His death was announced on Friday, February 8th. Finney’s first major role was in 1960 in the film “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” one of the early British dramas about angry young men. In 1968, I believe Finney reached[Read More…]
Frank Robinson
Frank Robinson, the first African-American manager of a major league baseball team, died Thursday in Los Angeles after a long illness, Major League Baseball announced Thursday. He was 83. Mr. Robinson walked into MLB’s history books on April 8, 1975, when he gave the lineup card to the home plate umpire as player-manager of the Cleveland Indians in front of[Read More…]
Tuskegee Airman dies
Wilfred Defour, an aircraft technician for the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War 2, was recently found dead in his Harlem, New York, home. A home health care worker found Mr. Defour’s body in the bathroom. He was 100 years old. Foul play was not involved. While in the service, Mr. Defour painted the tails of the aircraft from[Read More…]
Advocate for the early release of elderly prisoners dies
When Bill Cosby, the 81-year-old comedian, was sentenced to prison in September after a jury convicted him of three counts of sexual assault, he joined a growing number of inmates housed in state and federal prisons across the country who are elderly and infirm and who are very expensive to house and care for because of their health challenges[Read More…]
Phillip Jackson, former chief of staff for the Chicago Public Schools and founder of the Black Star Project, has died
By Frederick H. Lowe BlackmansStreet.Today Phillip Jackson, chief of staff for the Chicago Public Schools under Paul Vallas and Gery Chico and chairman and founder of the Black Star Project, died Sunday after a long bout with cancer. He died while in care at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. Mr. Jackson, who was 68, also suffered from vitiligo,[Read More…]
Recent deaths
Congressman Ron Dellums Congressman Ron Dellums, who along with 13 others, established the Congressional Black Caucus more than 45 years ago, has died. Dellums, a native of Oakland, California, served in Congress 27 years. Dellums died Monday at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 82 and he died of cancer. An anti-war activist, Dellums was elected mayor of Oakland[Read More…]
Winnie Mandela has died
By Frederick H. Lowe Winifred Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, died Monday, Al Jazeera and several other news outlets are reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, near where she lived. Winifred Mandela was 81 years old. “She died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of the hospital since the start of the year,” Victor Diamini,[Read More…]
Linda Brown, named plaintiff in landmark school desegregation case, has died
By Frederick H. Lowe Linda Brown, the named plaintiff in the 1954 landmark civil rights case “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka” in which the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the nation’s public schools to desegregate, has died. Ms. Brown died Sunday, March 25, in Topeka, Kansas, where she was born on February 20, 1942. She was 76 and[Read More…]