#African Champions League

[footballmanageraddict]

Pentagon Pursuit | Part 27 | The Ultimate Revenge

#FM24 #PentagonPursuit Part 27: The Ultimate Revenge. Robaato Rasamu leads @KaizerChiefs to the South African title but has his eyes on a much-bigger prize. And a refereeing catastrophe results in an epic performance from his exciting team. Read here:

The magic touch of Japanese manager Robaato Rasamu was rubbing off on his Kaizer Chiefs side as they looked set to qualify from their African Champions League group and led the way in South Africa’s DStv Premiership. A welcome two-month mid-season break moving into 2035 gave Rasamu and his players a little time to recover, reset and refocus ahead of a huge few months. African Champions League…

[visionsofour-past]

• Black Sox, Albany Twilight League Champions.

Date: 1937

Photographer: The Fellowcrafts Studios, Albany, NY

Medium: Gelatin silver photographic print

[african-international-magazine]

https://theafricaninternational.com/merchant-of-death-unleash-your-greatness/

MERCHANT OF DEATH: UNLEASH YOUR GREATNESS

"One day it will be better", is a wise saying that has never worked for anybody who folds his or her arms. In everyone's life there is an innate desire to achieve purpose. To expect a reward for doing nothing is fraud and until there is a problem you can solve, you are not really needed. A man can be stupid but not a crowd. Where the carcasses are, the eagles gather. No wonder people keep drumming it "follow who knows road". It was Fela Durutoye, a Nigerian motivational speaker and one time presidential candidate who submitted, "Great men are men who have solved problems for the greatest number of people". Competence and excellence are like magnets, attracting people, opportunities and resources. Life of legacy must be lived with the end in mind. That you have money doesn't mean you are impactful/great. How much money did Mother Theresa have? How much money did Mandela have? Money pursues greatness. From the good book (Holy Bible) Mk 9:5, we learn that a great man is a man who serves people. The key to greatness is the mindset/heart of service not the service in particular. The value of your life is not determined by how much you have gotten but how much you have lent to humanity. (Matt 23:11)

The story of Alfred Nobel lives on to highlight the significance of living a life of purpose.

[dreamstz1]

Mamelodi Sundowns FC: South Africa's Footballing Titans

Nestled in the vibrant city of Pretoria, South Africa, Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club stands as a symbol of pride, tradition, and footballing excellence. With a rich history spanning over four decades, Mamelodi Sundowns has solidified its position as one of the most successful and iconic clubs in South African and African football. Today, we’ll delve into the journey, recent triumphs, and…

[kaijuno]

In light of Fall Out Boy’s GARBAGE cover of the song. Let’s learn about the original. Notice how they’re actually in chronological order instead of just random references 😒😒😒😒

1949

Harry Truman was inaugurated as U.S. president after being elected in 1948 to his own term; previously he was sworn in following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He authorized the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II, on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively.

Doris Day enters the public spotlight with the films My Dream Is Yours and It’s a Great Feeling as well as popular songs like “It’s Magic”; divorces her second husband.

Red China: The Communist Party of China wins the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People’s Republic of China.

Johnnie Ray signs his first recording contract with Okeh Records, although he would not become popular for another two years.

South Pacific, the prize-winning musical, opens on Broadway on April 7.

Walter Winchell is an aggressive radio and newspaper journalist credited with inventing the gossip column.

Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees go to the World Series five times in the 1940s, winning four of them.

1950

Joe McCarthy, the US Senator, gains national attention and begins his anti-communist crusade with his Lincoln Day speech.

Richard Nixon is first elected to the United States Senate.

Studebaker, a popular car company, begins its financial downfall.

Television is becoming widespread throughout Europe and North America.

North Korea and South Korea declare war after Northern forces stream south on June 25.

Marilyn Monroe soars in popularity with five new movies, including The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve, and attempts suicide after the death of friend Johnny Hyde who asked to marry her several times, but she refused respectfully. Monroe would later (1954) be married for a brief time to Joe DiMaggio (mentioned in the previous verse).

1951

The Rosenbergs, Ethel and Julius, were convicted on March 29 for espionage.

H-Bomb is in the middle of its development as a nuclear weapon, announced in early 1950 and first tested in late 1952.

Sugar Ray Robinson, a champion welterweight boxer.

Panmunjom, the border village in Korea, is the location of truce talks between the parties of the Korean War.

Marlon Brando is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire.

The King and I, musical, opens on Broadway on March 29.

The Catcher in the Rye, a controversial novel by J. D. Salinger, is published.

1952

Dwight D. Eisenhower is first elected as U.S. president, winning by a landslide margin of 442 to 89 electoral votes.

The vaccine for polio is privately tested by Jonas Salk.

England’s got a new queen: Queen Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne upon the death of her father, George VI, and is crowned the next year.

Rocky Marciano defeats Jersey Joe Walcott, becoming the world Heavyweight champion.

Liberace has a popular 1950s television show for his musical entertainment.

Santayana goodbye: George Santayana, philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist, dies on September 26.

1953

Joseph Stalin dies on March 5, yielding his position as leader of the Soviet Union.

Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Stalin for six months following his death. Malenkov had presided over Stalin’s purges of party “enemies”, but would be spared a similar fate by Nikita Khrushchev mentioned later in verse.

Gamal Abdel Nasser acts as the true power behind the new Egyptian nation as Muhammad Naguib’s minister of the interior.

Sergei Prokofiev, the composer, dies on March 5, the same day as Stalin.

Winthrop Rockefeller and his wife Barbara are involved in a highly publicized divorce, culminating in 1954 with a record-breaking $5.5 million settlement.

Roy Campanella, an African-American baseball catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, receives the National League’s Most Valuable Player award for the second time.

Communist bloc is a group of communist nations dominated by the Soviet Union at this time. Probably a reference to the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.

1954

Roy Cohn resigns as Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel and enters private practice with the fall of McCarthy. He also worked to prosecute the Rosenbergs, mentioned earlier.

Juan Perón spends his last full year as President of Argentina before a September 1955 coup.

Arturo Toscanini is at the height of his fame as a conductor, performing regularly with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on national radio.

Dacron is an early artificial fiber made from the same plastic as polyester.

Dien Bien Phu falls. A village in North Vietnam falls to Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap, leading to the creation of North Vietnam and South Vietnam as separate states.

“Rock Around the Clock” is a hit single released by Bill Haley & His Comets in May, spurring worldwide interest in rock and roll music.

1955

Albert Einstein dies on April 18 at the age of 76.

James Dean achieves success with East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and dies in a car accident on September 30 at the age of 24.

Brooklyn’s got a winning team: The Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series for the only time before their move to Los Angeles.

Davy Crockett is a Disney television miniseries about the legendary frontiersman of the same name. The show was a huge hit with young boys and inspired a short-lived “coonskin cap” craze.

Peter Pan is broadcast on TV live and in color from the 1954 version of the stage musical starring Mary Martin on March 7. Disney released an animated version the previous year.

Elvis Presley signs with RCA Records on November 21, beginning his pop career.

Disneyland opens on July 17, 1955 as Walt Disney’s first theme park.

1956

Brigitte Bardot appears in her first mainstream film And God Created Woman and establishes an international reputation as a French “sex kitten”.

Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and site of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Alabama is the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott which ultimately led to the removal of the last race laws in the USA. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr figure prominently.

Nikita Khrushchev makes his famous Secret Speech denouncing Stalin’s “cult of personality” on February 25.

Princess Grace Kelly releases her last film, High Society, and marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Peyton Place, the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious, is published. Though mild compared to today’s prime time, it shocked the reserved values of the 1950s.

Trouble in the Suez: The Suez Crisis boils as Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal on October 29.

1957

Little Rock, Arkansas is the site of an anti-integration standoff, as Governor Orval Faubus stops the Little Rock Nine from attending Little Rock Central High School and President Dwight D. Eisenhower deploys the 101st Airborne Division to counteract him.

Boris Pasternak, the Russian author, publishes his famous novel Doctor Zhivago.

Mickey Mantle is in the middle of his career as a famous New York Yankees outfielder and American League All-Star for the sixth year in a row.

Jack Kerouac publishes his first novel in seven years, On the Road.

Sputnik becomes the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, marking the start of the space race.

Chou En-Lai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, survives an assassination attempt on the charter airliner Kashmir Princess.

Bridge on the River Kwai is released as a film adaptation of the 1954 novel and receives seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

1958

Lebanon is engulfed in a political and religious crisis that eventually involves U.S. intervention.

Charles de Gaulle is elected first president of the French Fifth Republic following the Algerian Crisis.

California baseball begins as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California and become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. They are the first major league teams west of Kansas City.

Charles Starkweather Homicide captures the attention of Americans, in which he kills eleven people between January 25 and 29 before being caught in a massive manhunt in Douglas, Wyoming.

Children of Thalidomide: Mothers taking the drug Thalidomide had children born with congenital birth defects caused by the sleeping aid and antiemetic, which was also used at times to treat morning sickness.

1959

Buddy Holly dies in a plane crash on February 3 with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, in a day that had a devastating impact on the country and youth culture. Joel prefaces the lyric with a Holly signature vocal hiccup: “Uh-huh, uh-huh.”

Ben-Hur, a film based around the New Testament starring Charlton Heston, wins eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Space Monkey: Able and Miss Baker return to Earth from space aboard the flight Jupiter AM-18.

The Mafia are the center of attention for the FBI and public attention builds to this organized crime society with a historically Sicilian-American origin.

Hula hoops reach 100 million in sales as the latest toy fad.

Fidel Castro comes to power after a revolution in Cuba and visits the United States later that year on an unofficial twelve-day tour.

Edsel is a no-go: Production of this car marque ends after only three years due to poor sales.

1960

U-2: An American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960.

Syngman Rhee was rescued by the CIA after being forced to resign as leader of South Korea for allegedly fixing an election and embezzling more than US $20 million.

Payola, illegal payments for radio broadcasting of songs, was publicized due to Dick Clark’s testimony before Congress and Alan Freed’s public disgrace.

John F. Kennedy beats Richard Nixon in the November 8 general election.

Chubby Checker popularizes the dance The Twist with his cover of the song of the same name.

Psycho: An Alfred Hitchcock thriller, based on a pulp novel by Robert Bloch and adapted by Joseph Stefano, which becomes a landmark in graphic violence and cinema sensationalism. The screeching violins heard briefly in the background of the song are a trademark of the film’s soundtrack.

Belgians in the Congo: The Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) was declared independent of Belgium on June 30, with Joseph Kasavubu as President and Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister.

1961

Ernest Hemingway commits suicide on July 2 after a long battle with depression.

Adolf Eichmann, a “most wanted” Nazi war criminal, is traced to Argentina and captured by Mossad agents. He is covertly taken to Israel where he is put on trial for crimes against humanityin Germany during World War II, convicted, and hanged.

Stranger in a Strange Land, written by Robert A. Heinlein, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation.

Bob Dylan is signed to Columbia Records after a New York Times review by critic Robert Shelton.

Berlin is separated into West Berlin and East Berlin, and from the rest of East Germany, when the Berlin Wall is erected on August 13 to prevent citizens escaping to the West.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion fails, an attempt by United States-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro.

1962

Lawrence of Arabia: The Academy Award-winning film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence starring Peter O’Toole premieres in America on December 16.

British Beatlemania: The Beatles, a British rock group, gain Ringo Starr as drummer and Brian Epstein as manager, and join the EMI’s Parlophone label. They soon become the world’s most famous rock band, with the word “Beatlemania” adopted by the press for their fans’ unprecedented enthusiasm. It also began the British Invasion in the United States.

Ole’ Miss: James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi

John Glenn: Flew the first American manned orbital mission termed “Friendship 7” on February 20.

Liston beats Patterson: Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight for the world heavyweight championship on September 25, ending in a first-round knockout. This match marked the first time Patterson had ever been knocked out and one of only eight losses in his 20-year professional career.

1963

Pope Paul VI: Cardinal Giovanni Montini is elected to the papacy and takes the papal name of Paul VI.

Malcolm X makes his infamous statement “The chickens have come home to roost” about the Kennedy assassination, thus causing the Nation of Islam to censor him.

British politician sex: The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, has a relationship with a showgirl, and then lies when questioned about it before the House of Commons. When the truth came out, it led to his own resignation and undermined the credibility of the Prime Minister.

JFK blown away: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated on November 22 while riding in an open convertible through Dallas.

1965

Birth control: In the early 1960s, oral contraceptives, popularly known as “the pill”, first go on the market and are extremely popular. Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 challenged a Connecticut law prohibiting contraceptives. In 1968, Pope Paul VI released a papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae which declared artificial birth control a sin.

Ho Chi Minh: A Vietnamese communist, who served as President of Vietnam from 1954–1969. March 2 Operation Rolling Thunder begins bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply line from North Vietnam to the Vietcong rebels in the south. On March 8, the first U.S. combat troops, 3,500 marines, land in South Vietnam.

1968

Richard Nixon back again: Former Vice President Nixon is elected President in 1968.

1969

Moonshot: Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing, successfully lands on the moon.

Woodstock: Famous rock and roll festival of 1969 that came to be the epitome of the counterculture movement.

1974–75

Watergate: Political scandal that began when the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC was broken into. After the break-in, word began to spread that President Richard Nixon (a Republican) may have known about the break-in, and tried to cover it up. The scandal would ultimately result in the resignation of President Nixon, and to date, this remains the only time that anyone has ever resigned the United States Presidency.

Punk rock: The Ramones form, with the Sex Pistols following in 1975, bringing in the punk era.

1976–77

(An item from 1977 comes before three items from 1976 to make the song scan.)

Menachem Begin becomes Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and negotiates the Camp David Accords with Egypt’s president in 1978.

Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, but he first attempted to run for the position in 1976.

Palestine: a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state and to end the Israeli occupation.

Terror on the airline: Numerous aircraft hijackings take place, specifically, the Palestinian hijack of Air France Flight 139 and the subsequent Operation Entebbe in Uganda.

1979

Ayatollah’s in Iran: During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the West-backed and secular Shah is overthrown as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gains power after years in exile and forces Islamic law.

Russians in Afghanistan: Following their move into Afghanistan, Soviet forces fight a ten-year war, from 1979 to 1989.

1983

Wheel of Fortune: A hit television game show which has been TV’s highest-rated syndicated program since 1983.

Sally Ride: In 1983 she becomes the first American woman in space. Ride’s quip from space “Better than an E-ticket”, harkens back to the opening of Disneyland mentioned earlier, with the E-ticket purchase needed for the best rides.

Heavy metal suicide: In the 1980s Ozzy Osbourne and the bands Judas Priest and Metallica were brought to court by parents who accused the musicians of hiding subliminal pro-suicide messages in their music.

Foreign debts: Persistent U.S. trade deficits

Homeless vets: Veterans of the Vietnam War, including many disabled ex-military, are reported to be left homeless and impoverished.

AIDS: A collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is first detected and recognized in the 1980s, and was on its way to becoming a pandemic.

Crack cocaine use surged in the mid-to-late 1980s.

1984

Bernie Goetz: On December 22, Goetz shot four young men who he said were threatening him on a New York City subway. Goetz was charged with attempted murder but was acquitted of the charges, though convicted of carrying an unlicensed gun.

1988

Hypodermics on the shore: Medical waste was found washed up on beaches in New Jersey after being illegally dumped at sea. Before this event, waste dumped in the oceans was an “out of sight, out of mind” affair. This has been cited as one of the crucial turning points in popular opinion on environmentalism.

1989

China’s under martial law: On May 20, China declares martial law, enabling them to use force of arms against protesting students to end the Tiananmen Square protests.

Rock-and-roller cola wars: Soft drink giants Coke and Pepsi each run marketing campaigns using rock & roll and popular music stars to reach the teenage and young adult demographic.

Short summaries of all 119 references mentioned in the song, you’re welcome.

[mimi-0007]

𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗔 𝗝𝗨𝗟𝗜𝗔 𝗛𝗔𝗬𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗥 (1858-1964)

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. Born into bôndage in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was the daughter of an enslaved woman, Hannah Stanley, and her owner, George Washington Haywood.

In 1867, two years after the end of the Civil Wàr, Anna began her formal education at Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a coeducational facility built for former slàves. There she received the equivalent of a high school education.

Anna Haywood married George A.G. Cooper, a teacher of theology at Saint Augustine’s, in 1877. When her husband died in 1879, Cooper decided to pursue a college degree. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio on a tuition scholarship, earning a BA in 1884 and a Masters in Mathematics in 1887. After graduation Cooper worked at Wilberforce University and Saint Augustine’s before moving to Washington, D.C. to teach at Washington Colored High School. She met another teacher, Mary Church (Terrell), who, along with Cooper, boarded at the home of Alexander Crummell, a prominent clergyman, intellectual, and proponent of African American emigration to Liberia.

Cooper published her first book, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, in 1892. In addition to calling for equal education for women, A Voice from the South advanced Cooper’s assertion that educated African American women were necessary for uplifting the entire black race. The book of essays gained national attention, and Cooper began lecturing across the country on topics such as education, civil rights, and the status of black women. In 1902, Cooper began a controversial stint as principal of M Street High School (formerly Washington Colored High). The white Washington, D.C. school board disagreed with her educational approach for black students, which focused on college preparation, and she resigned in 1906.

In addition to working to advance African American educational opportunities, Cooper also established and co-founded several organizations to promote black civil rights causes. She helped found the Colored Women’s League in 1892, and she joined the executive committee of the first Pan-African Conference in 1900. Since the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) did not accept African American members, she created “colored” branches to provide support for young black migrants moving from the South into Washington, D.C.

Cooper resumed graduate study in 1911 at Columbia University in New York City, New York. After the death of her brother in 1915, however, she postponed pursuing her doctorate in order to raise his five grandchildren. She returned to school in 1924 when she enrolled at the University of Paris in France. In 1925, at the age of 67, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to obtain a Doctorate of Philosophy.

In 1930, Cooper retired from teaching to assume the presidency of Frelinghuysen University, a school for black adults. She served as the school’s registrar after it was reorganized into the Frelinghuysen Group of Schools for Colored People. Cooper remained in that position until the school closed in the 1950s.

Anna Julia Cooper dièd in 1964 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 105.

[pedripics]

Pedri: The island boy with the world at his feet

(via The Athletic - December 2020)

“It is very easy to say it now but the people who know me know that it’s true,” Ruben Delgado tells The Athletic. “When Pedri was nine years old, he reminded me of Iniesta. I always say that the first time I saw him, I knew he had something special."

“His way of playing — everything very simple but very important at the same time. He was not looking to nutmeg people or do lots of stepovers: just the simple thing and the right thing. He was just different: the way he saw football, understood the game, found spaces nobody else could, the maturity he had compared to his team-mates. That is very difficult to find in the world of football but he does it. And it does remind you of Iniesta; looking for the simple thing. It’s a gift. Not very common in football.”

Delgado is a youth football coach with the team in Tegueste, a village on the island of Tenerife. When Pedro Gonzalez Lopez, known then as now as Pedri, turned nine, Andres Iniesta had scored Spain’s winning goal in the World Cup final the year before and later that season won the third of his eventual four Champions League trophies with Barcelona.

Iniesta was also then maybe the most popular footballer in Spain, winning over team-mates, opponents and neutrals with a becoming mix of quiet good manners off the pitch and unshowy genius as he decided games for club and country.

So it was quite something to say that this shy young kid was like Iniesta, but Delgado has not changed his mind over the eight years since he first started coaching a shy, unassuming boy with the gift for playing simple but special football who has settled naturally into the Barcelona midfield since his arrival last summer.

“Pedri just transmitted something different than the other kids of his age,” he says. “Not just how he played with the ball but the respect he showed to his teammates, rival players, the coaches, everyone. One game he scored a super goal, dribbling (past) many players and finishing it perfectly. All of us on the sideline — our fans, and the opposition too — all just had to applaud. At the end of the game, I asked him, ‘Pedri, how did you do that?’ and he just looked at me and said, ‘I don’t know. it just came out naturally’. And I told him, ‘No, no, Pedri — that is not natural’.”

Pedri was born in November 2002 — just a few weeks after Iniesta made his Barcelona first-team debut — in Tegueste, a small town in the northwest of Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands.

He was also born into Barcelona — given that, eight years previously, his grandfather Fernando Rodriguez had established the Peña Barcelonista de Tenerife-Tegueste, one of the first official Barcelona supporters clubs in the Canary Islands. Pedri’s father, also Fernando, still runs it, along with family friend Oscar Ledesma.

“Tegueste is a small town of around 10,000 people, with a healthy rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid supporters, and the Rodriguez family were always known as ‘the Catalans’ as they were all Barca fans,” Ledesma tells The Athletic. “His grandfather was president of the town’s football club (Union Deportiva Tegueste) for many years and also president of the ‘Lucha Canaria’ club (a local form of wrestling developed by the Guanches, the earliest known natives of the archipelago off the north west African coast). His father was a goalkeeper for many years and had some trials with Tenerife, although he never played for them. The family has a restaurant here in Tegueste, which was established by his grandfather. His grandmother worked there, now his parents, his uncles; they all work together.”

Naturally, Pedri and his older brother Fernando (the third generation) began to play for Tegueste’s youth teams, where Delgado was their coach. Although two years younger than his brother, Pedri’s displays soon started to draw attention in their hometown and elsewhere on the island.

“There were people who came to our games just to watch Pedri,” Delgado says. “There was admiration from the parents of the other kids, from the opposition teams. He did not stand out just for the way he played: his dribbling or finishing, like some kids of this age do. With him, it was his maturity and way of understanding football, knowing very quickly to take the correct decision in every moment. You do not see that very often in a kid of nine or ten years old. People could see the potential that he had but also how humble he was, how normal. Tegueste is a small place where everybody knows their neighbours and it’s a family club which transmits those values — respect for referees and opponents, friendliness, to enjoy yourself.”

Tenerife-born Pedro was an important player in Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona team of that time, while the Spain side which won Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 had David Silva, from the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria. Lionel Messi was by now the favourite player of most Barcelona-supporting kids the world over. However, the young Pedri and his father had a clear idea of who his model players should be.

“Pedri always says that Iniesta was his hero and his reference from when he used to go to the peña (supporters’ club) to watch the games with his father and grandfather,” says Ledesma. “He also spoke a lot about (Michael) Laudrup, even though he moved to Madrid and he never saw him play for Barca. His father used to show him videos.”

When the family realised that Pedri needed to be challenged more on the pitch, the two brothers joined Juventud Laguna, a bigger club in San Cristobal de La Laguna, still just a 10-minute drive from home.

“Pedri was the smallest on the team but every coach he had could see that they had a special talent,” Ledesma says. “He did not want to leave at first for Laguna as he was happy playing with his friends and there were also offers from stronger clubs, like Tenerife. The first time he made his debut on the Laguna juveniles (the under-18s, when he was 14), the senior side immediately called him and wanted him to play with them. His dad was worried that he would get broken up, with those little sticks of legs he had, but he just went with them and did amazing things. He is very special.”

By now, Pedri had also started to play for the Canary Islands’ representative side and scouts from some (but not all) Primera Division clubs had taken notice. Although there was still a reluctance to move and leave his friends and family behind, Las Palmas’ academy director Manuel Rodriguez made a persuasive case for him to move to another of the Canary Island clubs to progress his career.

“Offers kept coming and Las Palmas have a very good reputation in the Canaries for their youth system, and very good residences for the boys to live in,” Ledesma says. “It was tough for his parents to accept. He was moving to another island but they assured him about his studies too and they convinced the whole family with their ideas: where he would play, how they would help him to progress. He was very happy there.”

Delgado says that each step of the way, Pedri had help in keeping his career progressing forward at just the right pace.

“Good players always need new challenges and to move up,” he says. “The process has been ideal. He has overcome every challenge that came along each step of the way. He had various offers at different moments but they have known how to choose the right option. Not everybody has that good fortune and it has gone well for him. His father, his brother, his uncles, his friends; they have all kept his feet on the ground. They did not let him grow further than was best in every moment. That has helped him to get to where he is now.”

It was summer 2018 when Pedri moved into the Casa Amarilla youth academy of Las Palmas. After one year as the youngest player among the club’s under-18s, he was ready to move up the levels again.

Then-Las Palmas technical secretary Toni Otero picks up the story.

“I first saw him playing aged 15 and we decided to bring him up to the first team,” Otero tells The Athletic. “We just could not believe what we were seeing, that a player at that age could do what he was doing. We knew he had a lot of potential, could reach the very top. We were afraid that he was still too young but once we saw him train and then play for the first team, we realised he was an extraordinary player.”

Otero signed Pedri to his first professional contract in July last year but was still unsure whether the slight 16-year-old was ready to be pitched into a first team playing in Spain’s second tier.

“The only fear we had was that, physically, he was not ready for professional football with grown men, as he is not a big kid,” he says. “But from the first training session with the first team, we could see he would adapt very well. His first game with us was a pre-season friendly in Marbella against Almeria, after just two weeks of pre-season training with the first team — and he was the best player on the pitch. He did whatever he wanted: played comfortably, passed the ball, ran the game, dribbled past players. He was showing that, ‘I’m here now. I don’t care who you are but I am a proper football player’. That game told us that this kid has everything to reach the top.”

Las Palmas’ coach Pepe Mel was also convinced and Pedri started the first game of the season, doing well even though his team were beaten 1-0 by Huesca. A week later, he got the assist on veteran striker Ruben Castro’s goal in a 1-1 draw away to Malaga. The following month, his first goal in senior football brought Las Palmas’ first win of the season, at home to Sporting Gijon.

Except when called up for Spain’s age-group teams, including to play at the Under-17 World Cup in Brazil, Pedri played each week for Las Palmas. Opponents quickly realised their main creative threat was the tiny kid in midfield but he still finished last season with four goals and seven assists in 36 league games. Otero says that everyone in the dressing room automatically took to this quiet teenager who did his talking on the pitch.

“He was a young kid; skinny, very shy,” Otero says, “so the other players did not know what to expect, but that also helped them to take him into the dressing room. At Barcelona now, from Leo Messi to the groundsman, everyone naturally wants to look after him. And at Las Palmas, it was the same. We had to go along learning with him. I always think age is not important in football — some players of 40 seem like kids, others of 16 are already like men.”

Otero agrees with Ledesma and Delgado that Pedri had good people around him, including his agents Leaderbrock Sports, who also represent other younger Spanish talents including Manchester City’s Ferran Torres and Athletic Bilbao’s Unai Nunez.

“Pedri is very close to his family and they protect him,” Otero says. “His agents look after many young players and know how to protect these kids. Everything related to football and outside of football was looked after. He was playing in the Las Palmas first team and living in the residence at the training ground. We had to take the basketball hoop down as he just wanted to play it all the time, but he was not going out at night. He is not a party kid."

“He likes his PlayStation, his friends, going to the park. He is just such a quiet kid, which is helping him at the moment. It is very important that he is kept away from the parts of football which are not good.”

Given the family connection to Barcelona, it might have seemed obvious that Pedri would end up at the Nou Camp at some point but things could easily have turned out differently.

“Pedri was very close to joining Real Madrid,” says Ledesma. “When he was still playing for Laguna, and began to draw attention, various clubs came here — Deportivo La Coruna, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal and also Real Madrid. The Barca scout here did not rate him. At that moment, they did not think he was an interesting player."

“Madrid took him for a trial. He was there for a week but there was tremendous snow, so he could only do a couple of training sessions. They told him they would be in touch but nothing came of it. It is very funny, as he said he did not recognise himself wearing a Madrid jersey when he was there on trial. All of us here in the peña, including myself, tried to make contact with Barcelona in some way to tell them that this kid is going on trial at Madrid, and he’s Barca to the core — but nobody took any notice.”

Barcelona then had another stroke of luck. Otero had spent two years working as a scout at the Camp Nou and personally knew those running their youth structures, including the club’s former midfielder Jose Mari Bakero.

“When I saw this player, after just 10 minutes, I called Barcelona to talk to Jose Mari and tell him to come and look at this kid,” Otero says, “as he is a Barca player — not 100 per cent but 1,000 per cent. ‘You have to come here, even though he is just 16 years old, but if you take him now, it will be a lot easier than if you wait another year as by then, he will already be a ‘crack’.’ And Jose Mari took me at my word, came here and he could see it too after just 10 minutes.”

So, in early September last year, when he had still only played three senior games for Las Palmas, it was agreed that Pedri would join Barcelona this past summer for an initial fee of €5 million plus add-ons, including 15 per cent of the profit in any future sale. The deal did not make huge headlines at the time but, more recently, Barcelona figures including current sporting director Ramon Planes and former club president Josep Maria Bartomeu have taken credit for their supposed foresight.

“I imagine that many people want to put medals on their chests as now we can see Pedri is going to be a world-class player,” Otero says. “I made the first call, to Jose Mari Barkero, as I had worked at Barca and I knew perfectly well what was the best to do.”

Ledesma says Pedri and his family also received offers from other big clubs at that time. However, the connection with Barcelona was too strong to consider going anywhere else.

“When he was at Las Palmas, the offers started to come, and Barca got involved then,” says Ledesma. “There were various offers on the table but he told his father that if it were possible, he only wanted to join Barca. I believe there were better offers from other teams but both he and his father were clear they wanted Barca.”

After completing the season with Las Palmas, Pedri formally arrived at Barcelona to start pre-season in early August — just as most of his new team-mates were in Lisbon, about to crash out of the Champions League with an 8-2 quarter-final loss to Bayern Munich.

When Ronald Koeman took over as coach a few weeks later, he spoke publicly about Pedri needing to be sent on loan as he was too young to be considered for the first team.

Koeman has a reputation for showing confidence in youth but had also spoken a lot about giving a chance to Philippe Coutinho, who was returning from a season on loan at Bayern. The competition for places in attacking midfield roles also included World Cup 2018 winner Antoine Griezmann, €130 million France international Ousmane Dembele, €30 million Portugal international Francisco Trincao, homegrown fan favourite Riqui Puig and a certain guy called Messi.

However, Pedri’s performances in training, and in the first few friendlies before all the senior players had returned to full fitness after their brief close-season break having played on into August, led to a quick change of plans.

“I imagine Koeman had the same experience we did,” Otero says. “I was fully sure that if he did pre-season with Barca, then he would stay (rather than being loaned out) — no doubts at all — because Koeman would have seen that he was ready. Even though he looks small, he is physically strong and he is just a Barca player. After seeing him train for 10 minutes, Koeman realised that he had a player who was going to be one of the best in the world, for sure.”

Ledesma says that even those closest to Pedri thought it most likely he would spend another year gaining experience and playing time on loan somewhere else, possibly in Germany.

“We thought that he would go and do pre-season at Barcelona but we were sure they would loan him to another team where he would be able to play every week,” Ledesma says. “He could not go to Barca B. That was in his contract. There were many teams interested, including Borussia Dortmund, and we thought he could be loaned back to Las Palmas. He was prepared for that but the circumstances at Barca, the time of transition there, have helped for younger players to get opportunities. And he has taken it, and settled in there, playing a lot more than we expected.”

Delgado says that Pedri himself was always convinced that if given a chance, he could show he was ready to play in Barcelona’s first team.

“I am only surprised by how fast it is happening; that he has earned his place in the XI at Barcelona so quickly,” Delgado says. “We all expected it to happen but to take a bit more time. I remember talking to him in the summer and he was convinced he wanted to stay at Barca this season, and when this kid decides to do something, he usually does it.”

Most new players who have come to Barcelona in recent years have needed time to adapt, including many who were much older and with a lot more experience than Pedri, with Coutinho and Griezmann being obvious examples. This year could have been extra difficult, given all the turmoil around the club, including Messi’s attempt to leave last summer and Bartomeu’s resignation as president in October. However, those around Pedri say he has settled in remarkably easily.

“He speaks wonderfully about the atmosphere in the dressing room: above all, about the older players who have taken to him and to the other younger players, like Trincao and Ansu Fati,” says Ledesma. “Even at the start, when the mood was a bit strange and the president resigned, and all that, he felt very comfortable. He has that character — that people warm to him quickly. He speaks very well about everybody: (Sergio) Busquets, (Gerard) Pique, Messi and all of them.”

Pedri came off the bench in the first three La Liga games of the season, then was given a first start at Getafe in week four, with Coutinho dropping out. Barcelona lost 1-0 but the 17-year-old was one of their best players, with a strong run and clever pass that was key to a move which saw Messi hit a post from the visitors’ best chance to equalise.

“Since the start, Koeman has treated him with a lot of care, given him lots of advice,” says Ledesma. “Above all, he has given him confidence. When he trains and plays, he keeps telling him he is doing very well, to keep going like this, to use his imagination and not be afraid to try things, to do what he knows he can do — and for a kid so young, that gives you a lot of confidence.”

Four days later, he came off the bench to make his Champions League debut and marked the occasion with his first Barcelona goal in a 5-1 victory over Ferencvaros  He was back in the XI for October’s Clasico at home to Real Madrid but did not have his best game and was taken off early in a 3-1 defeat. Koeman kept faith, though, and started him again four days later at Juventus — and Pedri produced a phenomenal performance, regularly skipping away from Juan Cuadrado and frustrating the Colombian by stealing the ball from him, too. A few weeks later came his first La Liga goal, another confident finish in a 5-2 victory over Real Betis.

“As a 17-year-old, you have to understand there will be ups and downs, and better and worse games,” Otero says. “Maybe he did not stand out so much against Madrid but then, a few days later, everybody saw what he did against Juventus. But if the coach keeps putting him in the team, it is because he is happy with his performances.”

While Pedri’s season has been progressing as well as anyone could have hoped, his team have stumbled along and mixed some decent performances with other horror-show displays. Many local pundits say it is no coincidence that they have been playing better in recent weeks because Pedri has more responsibility in the team, and €155 million Brazil international Coutinho is featuring less. Koeman has also been experimenting with the team’s shape, and Pedri played a deeper role in the recent 2-1 win over Real Sociedad, when he drew even more admiration for a brave last-ditch Javier Mascherano-style challenge on Alexander Isak which prevented an almost certain late equaliser.

“Pedri is a player who understands football,” Otero says. “It is not that he is focused on playing in one position or another, or that the coach has told him he must do this or that. No. He understands what he has to do before a coach or anybody can tell him. He has the game in his head and knows perfectly well what he needs to do. It is something great that he has.”

The most difficult challenge for many new Barcelona players is to get on the same wavelength as Messi, something neither Griezmann nor Coutinho have managed to do yet. However, Pedri has quickly struck up an understanding with the Argentinian. Against Real Sociedad, 10 of the 31 passes Pedri completed were to Messi, while Barca’s No 10 found him nine times in return. Their connection was again clear in the 3-0 win at Real Valladolid just before Christmas, especially with the back-heel assist from Pedri for Messi’s strike and the joyous goal celebration between the pair.

“At Las Palmas, the players who he connected best with on the pitch were the most technical: Jonathan Viera and Ruben Castro,” says Ledesma. “When Viera arrived on loan, he told Pedri, ‘You look for me on the pitch and you and me, we are going to understand each other’. Maybe with Messi, it is not the exact same words but something similar has happened."

“Messi knows that if you give him the ball, you will get it back in a better position, and that is important when you play with these technical players. Pedri is also bursting with pride that Messi talks with him, gives him advice, having been his hero almost since he was born. That, for him, is something incredible. Messi speaks more in the dressing room than in front of the cameras. From what I hear, he is more a leader inside the dressing room than it might seem from outside. He lifts the others, he supports them, and that is helping Pedri a lot.”

Otero says Pedri has not had to change anything about his personality or his style of play to fit in at Barcelona — and has not tried to show off with any special tricks or unnecessary demonstrations of skill, instead just continuing to play the same simple way he always has.

“He has that humility and simplicity and naturalness,” Otero says. “With this kid, everything he does is so natural. He just has that talent inside him. That is what talent is: knowing what to do in each moment and being able to do it. Not just heading off on a dribble to show off. Messi has that, and Pedri too. It is all natural talent. He was born with it. He is too young to have learned to play like this. I am convinced he will be a world-class star and mark an era in Spanish football.”

While the Clasico was maybe his quietest game for Barcelona so far, little seems to have fazed the teenager so far. He has even played some of his better games when the team were struggling: such as in that first start at Getafe or in the 1-1 draw at Alaves when far more experienced colleagues let their team down.

After their title hopes took a huge blow in the 1-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid on November 21, he did the post-match Spanish TV interview, admitting that Barcelona had not played well and would have to look at their mistakes and improve — all this from a supposedly shy kid, just four days before his 18th birthday, and only a few months after moving to Catalonia.

“He is a little bit introverted or shy when he does not know the people he is with,” says Ledesma. “But afterwards, when he gets to know you and feels confident, he loves to joke around. It is true that on the pitch he changes, and he always has. When he was playing, he always took it seriously. Every game was very important; even just a kickaround with his friends, he always wanted to win."

“He has a sense of calm, even when Pepe Mel called him to the Las Palmas first team just past his 16th birthday. They all said he had the character, a security in himself that it seemed he had always played there. We were all confident that if Barca gave him a sniff of a chance, he was going to take advantage of it. He gets nervous sometimes, like everyone, but he does not show it. And once he is playing, even in front of fans, he puts everything else to the side.”

Recent months have also seen Pedri make his debut for Spain Under-21s while it would be no surprise if senior side coach Luis Enrique takes both he and close friend Ansu Fati to next summer’s European Championship.

Meanwhile, he has just been getting on with his normal life. He lives in Barcelona with his big brother Fernando, who cooks and looks after the apartment. They play a lot of FIFA in the afternoons while Pedri is also a fan of strategy board game Catan. Their parents have visited when possible amid the pandemic and their own work commitments. The only headlines he has made so far off the pitch have been for using a simple supermarket plastic bag to bring his personal effects to the stadium instead of the designer gear favoured by most of his team-mates, and using taxis to get to and from training and games.

“Pedri will keep his feet on the ground. He is very well supported by his family,” says Ledesma. “His parents still have the restaurant — the mother runs the kitchen and his father runs the dining room — but they go there when they can. With the character he has, it would be strange if he changed.

“He was surprised at all the noise made about him taking a taxi or bringing his things in the plastic bag. He says everyone has a bag like that for their clothes, due to COVID. The only thing is he did not then put it inside a Dolce & Gabbana bag, he just carried it in his hand. And if he does not have a driving licence, and his brother also does not have it yet, then he needs to get a taxi. He just gets on with things. He is a very normal kid.”

Back on Tenerife, the locals have recovered from the strangeness of supporting usual rivals Las Palmas last season and the Pena Barcelonista de Tenerife-Tegueste is packed for each Barcelona game.

“I don’t know what he can achieve. I can only say that if he aims for something, he will get it,” Delgado says. “I just hope he keeps going, keeps enjoying this moment and what is to come. I am convinced he will go very, very far. He is still the same kid I coached at nine years old, with the same friends and loved ones. He responds to your messages, shows respect, does not dominate the conversation, asks about you and your family. I am super proud to be able to say that.”

Nobody who knows Pedri thinks that he will plateau now and not aim to keep developing his game and become an even more important player for Barcelona over the next decade or more.

“He says that he wants to improve in everything,” says Ledesma. “Often, he speaks about scoring more goals, his finishing, shots from long range. He scored more for Las Palmas as he took more shots but he always says that he is happier to give an assist than score a goal. But he knows he is learning things every day, being with the best players in the world. It is an incredible opportunity for as long as it lasts at Barca, and I hope he retires there, to keep learning and improving.”

Such a strong confidence in one’s own ability, despite appearing shy and unassuming at first, also brings back the comparison with Pedri’s childhood hero.

“Hopefully they are similar in how they play, although Pedri still has a long way to go — achieving half of what Iniesta has would be marvellous,” says Ledesma. “Although he admires Iniesta a lot, he does not really like the comparisons. He knows he is Pedri and needs to play like Pedri.”

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Earlene Dennis Brown

Earlene Dennis Brown, a three-time Olympian, was the first African American woman to win a medal in the shot put. Throughout her life Brown excelled in a variety of sports, gaining attention, recognition, and honors. She is the only shot-putter to compete in three consecutive Olympics (1956, 1960, 1964). Brown won Olympic bronze for Women’s shot put in 1960; was Amateur Athletic Union Champion in shot put (1956-62, 1964); won Amateur Athletic Union Championship, discus (1958-59, 1961); won gold medal in shot put, silver medal in discus, USA-USSR dual meet (1958); was shot put and discus champion, Pan-American Games (1959); and placed 12th in shot put, Tokyo Olympics (1964).

Earlene Dennis, born July 11, 1935, in Latexo, Texas to Espenola Tillis Dennis, a domestic servant, and Willie Dennis, a semipro baseball player with the Negro League in Texas. When her parents separated in 1938, Dennis remained with her mother and they moved to Los Angeles in 1945. Dennis’s mother married Julius Walker in 1946. Dennis attended Jordan High School in South Central Los Angeles, where she excelled in track and field. Her athletic ability was noticed by many, including Adeline Valdez, Dennis’s high school gym teacher, Josephine Spearman, and Coach Clarence Mackey, who tried to get her to compete in the Helsinki Olympics (in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland). Valdez is credited with putting the first discus in Dennis’ hands while her history teacher taught her to shot put. Before competing in shot put and discus, Dennis anchored the relay team.

In 1956, Brown finished in the top ten in the shot put and the discus. In 1958 Brown received the #1 world ranking and became the first American to break the 50-foot barrier. Brown won gold medals in the shot put as well as discus events at the Pan American Games in 1959. At the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 Brown placed 12th in the shot put.

Brown retired from the shot put competition in 1965. The same year she took up another sport, roller derby. Brown’s career in skating began as a blocker for the New York Bombers.

In 1975, Brown retired from all athletic ventures and worked as a beautician to provide for herself and family. On May 1, 1983, Earlene Dennis Brown passed away in Compton, California at the age of 47. On December 1, 2005, Earlene Brown was posthumously inducted in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame by the USA Track and Field (USATF) Association during the Jesse Owens Awards and the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Jacksonville, Florida.

[ask-the-boxing-family]

MEET THE FAMILY!

Mackenzie “Mac” Reyes

17 yrs old

Italian-American

The Bronx, New York

“The ex-champion of Branch A in the WVBA, and the youngest champion to date of the boxing league, came back from retirement after the events of Punch-Out!! 2009 and is now living a double life as a boxer and an engineering student. In the ring, Mac is a force to be reckoned with: he uses his small stature to his advantage with an evasive style of boxing and a high amount of stamina, countering all that comes his way. And of course, he still knows how to use the Star Punch learnt from his coach. He comes across as fierce and stoic, not allowing anyone to get under his skin and putting everything he has into a match. However, outside of the boxing gig, Mac is a kind of rowdy yet sweet boy. Though he might still be trying to appear tough, he’s undoubtedly quite the dork. Unfortunately, Mac does have a problem with his temperament: he’s easily wound up, and is more prone to getting annoyed or irritated than most. Though, he tries to keep his temper in check. He is best friends/has a brotherly relationship with Birdie and has a father-son relationship with Doc. Go ahead and ask the boy wonder himself all your burning questions!”

Pietro “Birdie” Rodriguez

19 yrs old

Italian-Hispanic

Staten Island, New York

“The current champion of Branch B’s Special Circuit. He earned the nickname ‘Birdie’ thanks to his bright blonde hair. The only son of the legendary Peter Perfect, one of Branch B’s past champions, he took the challenge of conquering Branch B to honor his father after his passing. After becoming the champion, he decided to shed the name Peter Punch and took on the role of Canary Carnage, his current boxing persona which he feels a more lively connection to. Birdie is a laid-back guy who goes with the flow of life, not easily bothered or angered. And though he is impulsive and fairly dim-witted, he has a good heart and always wants to do what’s right for himself and the people around him. Him and Mac are practically attached at the hip and love spending whatever time they can together, both being the only individuals that can really bring out a playful side of each other. If ya got questions for him, go ahead and ask!”

Oswald “Sandman” Evans

31 yrs old

Philidelphian

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“Having regained his World Circuit title after losing it to Mac, and a short break from boxing, he’s back in the game and better than ever. Sandman is straightforward and honest, never afraid to speak his mind on whatever needs speaking on. He’s also rather stern and puts his foot down when he feels it necessary, but otherwise is rational and kind of witty at times. And though he can be downright terrifying in the ring with a fairly villainous persona, it’s really just for the crowd. He’s the eldest brotherly figure to both Mac and Birdie, keeping them in check whenever he’s around, which isn’t often thanks to his champion status. Unfortunately, Sandman does have the habit of not being too humble. Seemingly being a natural prodigy at most activities he does, he may be a bit of a sore loser when faced with loss. But, don’t worry, he’s not unreasonable. It should also be noted that Sandman does suffer from an incurable respiratory disease known as Dreamdust Syndrome that he’s consistently medicated for. Worry not, it’s not fatal, but it is liable to act up at any time. If you ever wanted to ask Sandman anything about his boxing or personal life, now’s your chance.”

Jerome “Doc” Louis

58 yrs old

African-American

???

“The coach and fatherly figure of the boys, and close friend of Mr. Sandman. Doc is an old-fashioned fellow, still having a lot of boxing paraphernalia from back in his hay day. He’s a nurturing and witty older man, quite street smart and brimming with advice just waiting to be shared. Though Doc is a fairly busy bee when it comes to working for the WVBA, he tries to make time for his boys to spend time with them and check on how they’re doing. Though a kind fatherly figure, he makes sure to keep them in line and get stern when he needs to, but he doesn’t do too well with scolding. Doc does also have a couple of health problems that come with time, namely low blood sugar, which is precisely why Doc always has so many chocolate bars on him. If ya got anythin’ for this ol’ Doc, go ahead and ask away!”

RULES:

- No NSFW whatsoever. C’mon y’all, let’s keep it clean.

- Certain asks may take time depending on what they are so please be patient! Thanks!

With that outta the way, the ask blog is OPEN!

[moneeb0930]

𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗔 𝗝𝗨𝗟𝗜𝗔 𝗛𝗔𝗬𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗥 (1858-1964)

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. Born into bôndage in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was the daughter of an enslaved woman, Hannah Stanley, and her owner, George Washington Haywood.

In 1867, two years after the end of the Civil Wàr, Anna began her formal education at Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a coeducational facility built for former slàves. There, she received the equivalent of a high school education.

Anna Haywood married George A.G. Cooper, a teacher of theology at Saint Augustine’s, in 1877. When her husband died in 1879, Cooper decided to pursue a college degree. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio on a tuition scholarship, earning a BA in 1884 and a Masters in mathematics in 1887. After graduation, Cooper worked at Wilberforce University and Saint Augustine’s before moving to Washington, D.C. to teach at Washington Colored High School. She met another teacher, Mary Church (Terrell), who, along with Cooper, boarded at the home of Alexander Crummell, a prominent clergyman, intellectual, and proponent of African American emigration to Liberia.

Cooper published her first book, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, in 1892. In addition to calling for equal education for women, A Voice from the South advanced Cooper’s assertion that educated African American women were necessary for uplifting the entire black race. The book of essays gained national attention, and Cooper began lecturing across the country on topics such as education, civil rights, and the status of black women. In 1902, Cooper began a controversial stint as principal of M Street High School (formerly Washington Colored High). The white Washington, D.C. school board disagreed with her educational approach for black students, which focused on college preparation, and she resigned in 1906.

In addition to working to advance African American educational opportunities, Cooper also established and co-founded several organizations to promote black civil rights causes. She helped found the Colored Women’s League in 1892, and she joined the executive committee of the first Pan-African Conference in 1900. Since the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) did not accept African American members, she created “colored” branches to provide support for young black migrants moving from the South into Washington, D.C.

Cooper resumed graduate study in 1911 at Columbia University in New York City, New York. After the death of her brother in 1915, however, she postponed pursuing her doctorate in order to raise his five grandchildren. She returned to school in 1924 when she enrolled at the University of Paris in France. In 1925, at the age of 67, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to obtain a Doctorate of Philosophy.

In 1930, Cooper retired from teaching to assume the presidency of Frelinghuysen University, a school for Black adults. She served as the school’s registrar after it was reorganized into the Frelinghuysen Group of Schools for Colored People. Cooper remained in that position until the school closed in the 1950s.

Anna Julia Cooper dièd in 1964 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 105.

[nakuuro1994]

The Legion of Justice (DC Comics AU)

(List of Main Team Members):

~ (Alexander “Lex” Luther): When the future genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Alexander “Lex” Luther discovers a mysterious green rock from outer space one day while tending to his family’s small farm in Smallville, Kansas, as a young boy, he soon uses it to power up his most greatest invention, an heavily armored suit that granted him superhuman powers and abilities that were far superior of that of anyone else on Earth, as he soon utilizes this mysterious power to ultimately create one of the most wealthy, powerful and influential corporations on the planet to ultimately prepare humanity for a better tomorrow as well as to stop alien invasions by intergalactic conquerors like General Zod, Brainiac and Darkseid.

~ Panthera (Dr. Barbara Minerva): When the young, wealthy & spoiled Black British billionaire heiress socialite Barbara Minerva soon discovers the forgotten mythical island of Themyscira after miraculously surviving a traumatic plane crash during her world-renowned historian/archaeologist parent’s latest archaeological expedition within the Aegean Sea, she soon finds herself being captured and slowly integrated into the lost Amazonian society as she’s soon trained/raised by them to ultimately become one of their most elite warriors after passing all of their long and grueling tests as she then later drinks the potion of the Greco-Egyptian cat goddess Ailuros that granted her vast superhuman powers and abilities that combined with her amazonian armor and wepons to make her the ultimate warrior.

~ Black Caesar (David Hyde): When the former war veteran turned pirate David Hyde’s ship sank during a massive storm at sea, he was saved and taken to lost underwater Kingdom of Atlantis where he soon falls in love with the Atlantian Queen Atlanna as they even have a daughter together who eventually becomes the Silver Siren, but under Atlantian law they weren’t allowed to marry since David Hyde is human outsider as well as a pirate, but he then decides to stay and protect Atlantis regardless with the help of a specialized diving suit that allows him to both survive deep underwater and to control all forms of sea life like manta rays, but the Queen’s first child The Sea King doesn’t approve it and wants to get rid of him.

~ The Jester (Jack Napier): When Thomas Wayne Sr.’s illegitimate 10 year-old son Jack Napier witnesses the tragic deaths of the entire Wayne family by the hands of the lone gunman Joe Chill within Gotham City’s notorious “Crime Ally”, he soon went insane while also developing a particularly severe case of Dissociative Identity Disorder (a.k.a. “Split-Personality Disorder”) as he’s soon sent to Arkham Asylum for treatment where he is soon treated by the loving, caring and supportive & somewhat motherly child psychiatrist Dr. Harleen Quinzel, as he soon convinces her to become vigilantes together with a rather strange sence of justice, as he won’t rest until he gets his revenge and to save the dark and bloodied streets of Gotham City from itself.

So essentially these four superhuman individuals would eventually form a league of their own alongside the likes of: Emerald Knight (a.k.a. “Thaal Sinestro of Space Sector 1417”), General Grodd (a.k.a. “The Super Genius of Gorilla City”) & The Black Marvel (a.k.a. “The Pharaoh Teth-Adam”.)

~ (List of Main Young Legion Members):

* Lena Luther (The Genetically Cloned Daughter of Lex Luther & The Rebel Leader of The Young Legion) ♀️

* Panthera II/Priscilla Rich (The British Indian Multi-Millionaire Heiress Socialite & The Personal Protégé of Dr. Barbara Anne Minerva/Panthera)♀️

* Silver Siren/Jacquline Hyde (The Half-Atlantian Daughter of Black Caesar & The Rightful Ruler of Atlantis)♀️

* Gorilla Grimm/Gregg Simeon (The Metalhead Son of General Grodd & Champion of Gorilla City)♂️

* Thunderbolt/Malik Adam White (The African American Medical Student & The Modern Day Descendant of Teth-Adam/The Black Marvel)♂️

* Punchline/Charolette “Charlie” Quinn (The Orphaned & Psychic Daughter of Dr. Harley Quinn & The Ever-Loyal Sidekick to The Jester)♀️

* Emerald Knight II/Korg Sinestro (The Half-Human Preteen Son of Thaal Sinestro & The “Official” Emerald Knight of Space Sector 2814)♂️

~ (List of Main Villains/Antagonists):

(The Crime Syndicate of America):

* Ultraman (Kal-El/Clark Kent)

* Owlman (Thomas Wayne Jr.)

* Superwoman (Donna Troy)

* Johnny Quick (Jonathan Chambers)

* Power Ring (Harold Jordan)

* Death-Storm (Dr. Martin Stein)

* Atomica (Dr. Rhonda Pineda)

[lydiamaya]

Imagine this for a moment :

You have this nation from Africa that very few people were interested in watching at the world cup. A team that this very year had their players rejecting playing for the national team because of a coach that would disrespect them left and right, so much so that many of the players decided to retire very young. But then a new man comes in right before the world cup starts, no one believed that he could do something with this African team. But his players believed him in, many of them came back, some of them even from retirement, just because they trusted this man. So many laughed at them, for even daring to dream about getting out from the group stage. "So what?" many of them said, "Just because they have a new coach and few good players, doesn't mean they'll magically do well". Very few believed in them.

So what happened next? Well, this team played their first match, against last time's runners up and they held up their heads high, they drew but they were hungry for more, eager to prove everyone wrong. They beat 2018 world cup's 3rd place team, they won their last match to top the group against all odds, against everything everyone said about them. And then? Well, many still doubted them. Then came the judgment day. So many expected Spain to the waltz through it, but oh how wrong these people were proved to be. A goalkeeper born in Montreal, playing for Sevilla, who opted to play for the country of his parents, the country where he was raised— made two penalty saves. This gave hope. Then came another man, born and raised in Madrid, who opted to play for the nation that had his heart. He did the unthinkable, he took the winning penenka and took this African nation to the quarter final for the first time in their history.

A player of that team decided to dedicate the win to few people. Some people didn't like that. "Portugal will teach them a lesson", they said, "they'll get what's coming for them", those people said.

Then the second judgment day came. And they weren't to be messed with. For a second time, but this time with the thought and prayer of half of the globe, this team stunned everyone. They did it, they won; they won against Nation's league champion and European champion to go the semi final. The first African and Arab nation to do so.

Do you know who this story is about? This is about Morocco. A team coached by Walid Regragui, a man who prior to the match against Portugal had only managed Morocco for 7 exact match. The goalkeeper hero? Yassine Bounou. The penenka hero? Achraf Hakimi. They have bested Belgium, Spain and Portugal to be here. They didn't get here through luck, they are here through hard work and believe.

The only team from African confederation still in the tournament, the first African nation to reach the semi final in the world cup, the only Arab nation to get this far, the history makers, the chain breakers, the expectation shatterers, the Atlas Lions — Morocco.

This is the story of Morocco. Quite beautiful, isn't it?

[lboogie1906]

Congressman Dwight Evans (born May 16, 1954). He was born in Philadelphia. He attended Germantown High School, and the Community College of Philadelphia, graduating, and graduated with his BA from Lasalle University. He worked as an employment counselor, a job developer, and a community organizer for the Urban League of Philadelphia, before becoming a teacher in the Philadelphia Public School System.

In 1980, he was elected State Representative from the 203rd Legislative District. He was re-elected twelve times against only token Republican opposition and made history in 1990 when he was named the first African American to Chair the House Appropriations Committee in the state legislature. He held the position for the next two decades when Democrats were the majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

He championed the Philadelphia Fresh Food Financing Initiative, which brought together public and private funds to expand and build grocery stores and food cabinets in designated “food desert areas” across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Initiative created over 5,000 jobs and nearly 100 grocery stores while bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to underserved areas across Pennsylvania. The program became a model for the entire nation.

He was instrumental in the efforts to build a new Convention Center in Philadelphia. He ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania in 1986 and became the first African American candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1994. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of Philadelphia in 1999 and 2007.

In November 2015 he announced he would run in the Democratic Primary for the 2nd District seat. He won an upset victory in the Democratic Primary in April 2016 and won both the regular election and a special election to fill the two months left in the term. He now represents Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District.

He sits as a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus. He is a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He released his book Making Ideas Matter: My Life as a Policy Entrepreneur. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Lie #4: Diversity is our strength.

Nope, sorry, uniformity is our strength.  A team that’s chosen based on merit alone, and who plays according to one set of values and with a single goal in mind, always wins.  But don’t take my word for it; ask any recent champions of the almost three-quarters African-American NBA.  If diversity is strength, then the NBA is arguably one of the weakest b-ball leagues on the planet.

Yes, because ethnic diversity is the same as having shared values and goals.

Right, Sherlock?

Wtf are you on about? You follow me just to bitch at me and think to yourself "ha ha he must be so angry and I'm so smart". You're a dishonest shit. I'll be deleting any asks you post going forward. But collectivism is a crock of shit. I've made that pretty clear on all my stances. If you're a communist fuck right off. Because you live in a fake reality if so.

[mogai-sunflowers]

MOGAI BHM- Belated Day 21!

happy BHM! today i’m going to be talking about some famous ‘black firsts’!

Black Firsts in Science-

In 1965, David Harold Blackwell became the first Black member of the National Academy of Sciences

Robert H. Lawrence was the first Black astronaut; Mae Jemison was the first Black female astronaut, and Guion Bluford was the first Black astronaut to actually travel in space

Thomas Jennings was the first Black patent holder in the U.S, and Judy Reed was the first Black woman patent holder in the U.S

Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful heart surgery

James Smith was the first officially trained Black American doctor

Robert Freeman was the first Black American dentist

Black Firsts in Politics-

Macon Allen was the first Black American admitted to a law school, and Charlotte Ray was the first Black woman admitted to a law school.

William Henry Hastie was the first Black federal Judge, and Constance Motley was the first Black female federal Judge

Thurgood Marshall was the first Black SCOTUS Justice

Alexander Lucius Twilight was the first Black state-elected official

Pierre Landry was the first Black city mayor, and Carl Stokes was the first Black mayor of a major US city

Jonathan Wright was the first Black state supreme court justice

Hiram Revels was the first appointed Black US Senator, and Edward Brooke was the first elected Black US Senator

P.B.S Pinchback was the first appointed Black state governor

Crystal Fauset was the first Black female legislator in the US

Shirley Chisholm was the first Black female U.S representative

Carol Braun was the first Black female U.S Senator

Joseph Rainey was the first Black person to serve in the US House of Representatives

Joseph Jenkins Roberts was the first African-American president of any nation (Liberia)

Black Firsts in Education-

Theodore Wright was the first Black graduate of an Ivy League School

Lucy Stanton was the first Black woman to graduate college in America

Charles Reason was the first Black college professor

Daniel Payne was the first Black college president

Dr. David Peck was the first Black person to graduate from medical school

Alexander Lucius Twilight was the first Black person to receive a degree from an American college

Mary Patterson was the first Black American woman to earn a B.A

Fanny Coplin was the first Black woman to become principal of a school

Richard Greener was the first Black Harvard graduate

Black Firsts in the Arts-

Lucy Terry was the first Black American poet and Phillis Wheatley was the first published Black American poet

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first Black Pulitzer Prize winner

William Brown was the first Black American novelist, and Harriett Wilson was the first Black female American novelist

Toni Morrison was the first Black winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Francis Johnson was the first published Black American musical composer

Marian Anderson was the first Black member of the Metropolitan Opera

Harry Swan was the first Black American to found a record label, Black Swan Records

Count Basie was the first Black person to win a Grammy, and Ella Fitzgerald was the first Black woman to win a Grammy

William Lane was the first nationally famous Black dancer, and Arthur Mitchell was the first Black principal dancer in a major dance company

Oscar Micheaux was the first Black film director

Hattie McDaniel was the first Black person to win an Oscar, and Juanita Hall was the first Black person to win a Tony

William Still was the first Black American to both direct a major orchestra and have their composition performed by a major orchestra

Black Firsts in Sports-

Oliver Lewis was the first Black jockey to Win Kentucky Derby

Moses Walker was the first Black professional baseball player

John Shippen Jr. was the first Black professional Golfer

Marshall “Major” Taylor was the first Black world cycling champion

George Poage was the first Black Olympic medalist at the Summer games, and John Taylor was the first Black Olympic gold medalist at the Summer games

Jackie Robinson was the first 20th century Black MLB player

Rajo Jack de Soto was the first Black professional race car driver

Willie Thrower was the first Black NFL quarterback

Willie O’Ree was the first Black NHL player

Alice Coachman was the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal at the summer olympic games

tagging @metalheadsforblacklivesmatter @bfpnola @intersexfairy 

[mimi-0007]

1904Robert Wells Marshall (March 12, 1880 – August 27, 1958) was an American sportsman. He was best known for playing football; however, Marshall also competed in baseball, track, boxing, ice hockey and wrestling. When Marshall played baseball for Minneapolis Central High School, he played first base for three years. Central was the champion of the Twin Cities High Schools for Marshall's junior and senior years, of 1900 and 1901.

When he played baseball for the University of Minnesota, he also played first base for two years, 1904 and 1905, helping the university to win the Western Conference Championship in 1905.[4]

Marshall played end for the football team of the University of Minnesota from 1904 to 1906. In 1906, Marshall kicked a 48-yard field goal to beat the University of Chicago 4-2 (field goals counted as four points). He was the first African American to play football in the Western Conference (later the Big Ten). He graduated in 1907 and played with Minneapolis pro teams, the Deans and the Marines. From 1920 through 1924, he played in the National Football League (NFL) with the Rock Island Independents, the Minneapolis Marines, and the Duluth Kelleys. Along with Fritz Pollard, he was one of the two first African Americans to play in the NFL.