Forty Two

It has been 42 years since Robert Kennedy was killed in Los Angeles. He was 42 years old. So much has been written about that night and his subsequent death that there is little to add.

I was 13 and a half when Kennedy was shot. Coming, as it did, on the heels of Martin Luther King's murder, 8 weeks earlier, it was one of those events that leaves you changed in some measure. There is a loss of confidence and security in all that surrounds you.

In the years between 1962, when I received my first transistor radio, and the end of the decade, I got most of my news and music through a flesh colored apparatus known then as the "earphone." They came with the radio. And every night when I went to bed I put the radio beneath my pillow and the "earphone" in my ear. With the lights out and the music on I traveled far and wide in search of that indefineable "something." And sometimes I'd get it. The night of June 4th was one of those nights.

Just past 3 AM in the early morning hours of June 5th, I was listening to WMCA Radio 56 (560 on the AM dial) when the news broke that Robert Kennedy had been shot at the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. No one was awake. Even back then I was a lousy sleeper, frequently keeping the radio turned on beneath my pillow all night, waking at intervals to check on the news, or search for a favorite song.

Roaming the dial from one end to the next at nighttime brought in some extraordinary places. I would jot down the names of the cities and the names of the stations. Addressing the postcards to the stations in such faraway places as Colorado, I would inform them that I had received their signals in New York City and at what time. I usually got back a postcard thanking me for listening. I had dozens of these and considered myself somewhat akin to the early radio listeners and the crystal headsets they wore.

But this event was so astounding, so mesmerizing. In the dark everything is magnified, senses are enlarged and the mind's eye gives sharp focus to the words being spoken. It was that way this night as I lay there listening to the reports coming in.

All through the next day I watched and waited with the rest of the world to see if Robert Kennedy would pull through. There was no way I was going to sleep that next night. This was a drama that had to be seen through until the end. And that end came sometime around 4:30 AM when Joeseph Mankiewicz tearfully announced the death of Robert Kennedy. The rest is history.

The world has changed in dramatic ways since those days. The ways in which we receive our news 24/7 has brought the world closer in some measure. But I will always remember, and even long for, the days when I got my news through the "office" beneath my pillow, flesh colored "earphones" in place, searching for the next "big thing."

"This Day In Civil Rights History" by Horace Randall Williams and Ben Beard

This book is a real treasure. Composed of 365 pages, each one chronicles a significant event in the history of African-Americans and the country in which they live. Turn to any page and you learn someting new. Even if you know the story being told on any particular day, this book serves as a reinforcement of the lessons learned through several centuries of racial strife and adjustment.

This is one of those perfect books for the times when you don't have the time, or inclination, to read something longer. Filled with facts and insights, this book will lead you to dig more deeply into some of the events recounted here. This is also an excellent resource book for teachers, as well as anyone who deals with kids. The day by day accounts give the subject a relevance which is sometimes lacking in todays teaching of the Civil Rights Movement. So much is now taken for granted, it's almost as if the door has been closed on the subject. This book is the key to re-open that door.

Movie Review: Talk To Me with Don Cheadle

This is one of those movies based on real life events that we often take for granted.

AM Radio was king in the early 1960's. With fast paced DJ's rapping between songs and commercials often done by the DJ's themselves there was something more intimate about radio back then. But as the Nation changed so did the expectations of the average listener. They wanted something more relevant to what was happening in the community. At Radio Station WOL- 1460 AM in Washington D.C. this was apparent in the falling ratings.

Into this vacumn comes former Inmate Petey Greene. A chance meeting with the Program Director of WOL during the latters' visit to a relative in prison leads Greene to believe that he has a job waiting for him at WOL when he gets out. He has been doing "broadcasts" inside the Correctional Facility and fancies himself to be a top notch DJ.

When he is released after a very comical situation he heads straight back to D.C. and his old girlfriend (played by Taraji P. Henson and you gotta love her in this role!) Together they invade WOL to claim His job.

WOL is a Black Soul station run by a stuffed shirt white guy, played by Martin Sheen. The black Program Director, Dewey Hughes,is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor.He
promises,and then manages to deliver,the job as DJ. The repurcussions of this dramatic change are worth seeing.

The lead DJ at the station, "The Hawk",is played with great effect by Cedric the Entertainer. His story could provide a whole other movie! And his potrayal of the "Nighthawk" is right on the money. He has issues with the new DJ that ultimatley get worked out to everyones satisfaction.

With the racial divisions of the 1960's as a backdrop and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Greene rises quickly to fame. He is changing the way radio is done. He is the precursor to Richard Pryor, Howard Stern, even George Carlin.

But the forces of commercialism and profit propel Greene on a stairway to stardom that he neither wants nor is looking for. It all comes apart when he appears, unwillingly, on The Tonite Show and realizes that he has nothing to say to white America. So he fades away at the height of his popularity.

But he left his mark forever on the media in the form of the freedoms we take for granted today. The movie is very fast paced and with a tremendous soundtrack of Motown and Soul Music this movie is worth the time. First released in 2004 I don't know how I missed this one!