Black Men Monday

Ossie Davis
Actor  Playwright  Director  Social Activist
1917 - 2005

“I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.”

-Ossie Davis

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Recommended Watching:

• Malcolm X's Eulogy 
• "Louis Armstrong" 
• Ossie Davis reading Frederick Douglass
• Interview for The Great Depression
• Living Black Manhood
• Discussion on Motivation
• African American Legends
• University of North Florida Interview
• Family's Experience with the KKK
• Do The Right Thing
• Slaves
• King
• Freedom Road
• School Daze
• Jungle Fever
• Malcolm X
• Lincoln
• The Stand
• 12 Angry Men

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Recommended Reading:

• With Ossie and Ruby by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee
• Just Like Martin by Ossie Davis
• Escape to Freedom by Ossie Davis

Black Men Monday

Jesse Williams
Actor 
1981 - 

"We often grow up being told that we can do this or that, but if you don't see anybody that looks like you doing it, you don't believe you can do it. But I had great teachers, and I wanted to be a great teacher."

-Jesse Williams

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Recommended Watching:

• Grey's Anatomy
• Lee Daniels' The Butler
• The Cabin in the Woods
• Jesse Williams Talk Trayvon Martin
• Jesse Williams on The Chew
• Jesse Williams on Sesame Street
• NBA Finals
• Importance of History
• Jesse Williams on The Butler  

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Recommended Reading:

• Django, in chains

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“Feeling threatened is not the same thing as being threatened.” 

-Jesse Williams

Black Men Monday

Bayard Rustin
Civil Rights Leader  Activist  Organizer for the 1963 March on Washington
1912 - 1987

“When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” 

-Bayard Rustin

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Recommended Watching:

• Brother Outsider
• The Legacy of Bayard Rustin
• Bayard Rustin Remembered for Role Played in Civil Rights Movement
• The Bayard Rustin Papers
• Bayard Rustin Coalition LGBT Rights Rally
• Gay Man in the Civil Rights Movement
• Lost Histories: Bayard Rustin

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Recommended Reading:

• A Closer Look at Bayard Rustin by Walter Neagle 
• Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
• I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters
• This Black, Gay, Badass Pacifist Mastermind of the March on Washington Is Finally Getting His Due

 

Black Men Monday

Cory Booker
1969 - 
Unites States Senator

"In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as in how you choose to live and give."

-Cory Booker

Recommended Watching:

• Brick City
• Stanford University Commencement Address 2012
• Yale Class Day 2013
• Fireside Chat with Cory Booker
• Yeshiva University

Recommended Reading:

• Cory Booker on the War on Drugs
• Historic Opportunity
• Cory Booker's Huffington Post Articles