2006 Census
The following is a listing of just a few prominent
Blacks who passed in the year 2006. They will remain
an inspiration for generations to come.
Share these with the young, the older and the adult. For
we are all the children of HISTORY!
If you and your family lost someone last year or
recently, share their story.
LEARN & ENJOY!!
Bradley's 60 MINUTES
interview with
condemned Oklahoma
City bomber Timothy
McVeigh (March 2000)
was the only television
interview ever given by
the man guilty of one of
the worst terrorist acts
on American soil.
Won an emmy for
his hour on 60
MINUTES II about
sexual abuse in the
Catholic Church,
"The Catholic
Church on Trial"
(June 2002).
Ed Bradley
Journalist
June 22, 1941 Philadelphia, PA
November 9, 2006 New York, NY
"Death by Denial"
(June 2000) won a
Peabody Award for
focusing on the
plight of Africans
dying of AIDS and
helped convince
drug companies to
donate and
discount AIDS
drugs;
Reported the
reopening of the
50-year-old racial
murder case of
Emmett Till.
He was born in Philadelphia. He grew up in a single parent household and learned the value of
hard work from his mother. He attended Cheyney State College graduating in 1964 with a
degree in Education. His first job was teaching sixth grade. While he was teaching he
moonlighted at KDAS in Philadelphia working for free and later minimum wage. He
programmed music, read news and covered basketball games.
His introduction to news reporting came during the riots in Philadelphia in the 1960's. In 1967
he landed a full-time job at the CBS-owned New York radio station WCBS in 1967. His
distinctive body of work have been recognized with numerous awards, including 19 Emmys
Carl Maxie Brashear
January 19, 1931 Tonieville, KY
July 25, 2006 Portsmouth Naval Medical Center,
Portsmouth, VA
The first African American to become a U.S. Navy
Master Diver in the early 1950’s. In 2000,
Brashear’s military service was portrayed by
Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the film Men of Honor.
James Joe Brown, Jr.
Singer
Dec 25, 2006
May 3, 1933 – Dec 25, 2006
Barnswell, South Carolina
Ruth Brown
R&B Singer
Nov
17 12, 1928 Portsmith, Virginia
January
November 17, 2006 Henderson, NV
Octavia Estelle Butler
Science Fiction Author
(June 22, 1947 — February 24, 2006)
Her father was a shoeshine man who died when she
was a child, her mother was a maid who brought her
along on jobs, yet Octavia Butler rose from these
humble beginnings to become one of the country's
leading writers - an African American FEMALE pioneer
in the white-male domain of science fiction.
1913 -
James Cameron - June 13, 2006
Lynching Survivor/Author
Founder/Director
America's Black Holocaust Museum, Inc.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
August 7, 1930.
The night James Cameron's life changed forever. A day before, he
and two other young Black men were arrested for the robbery, rape
and assault of a White couple in Marion, Indiana. James is in a cell
in the Grant County Jail. There is a lynch mob outside numbering
into the thousands. James is sixteen years old.
The mob comes into the jail and grabs one of men accused, with
James, of the crime. He is beaten unconscious, dragged outside and
lynched. The second man is then given the same treatment. The
bodies of these two men, Tom Shipp, 18, and Abraham Smith, 19,
hanging from a tree is depicted in a famous and disturbing
photograph to the right. The mob now comes for James. He is beaten
and dragged out to the tree where his friends now hang and the rope
is placed around his neck. It is at this moment that James remembers
hearing what he describes as an angelic voice above the crowd say
"Take this boy back, he had nothing to do with any killing or rape."
Suddenly the hands that were beating him are now helping him. The
rope is taken from around his neck and the crowd clears a path for
him to walk back to the jail. In interviews he later conducted with
people who were in the crowd, no one remembers hearing any voice.
Their reason for why the crowd did not lynch James: "You were
lucky that night." Though James never admitted any guilt in the
assault (he admits that he was there), he served 4 years in prison.
The female victim later changed her story and confirmed that James
had no part in the assault.
Elizabeth Bebe Moore Campbell Gordon
February 18, 1950 – November 27, 2006
Bebe Moore Campbell is a bestselling author and a journalist. Her nonfiction work has appeared in The New
York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Ms., Essence, Black Enterprise, Ebony,
Working Mother, USA Weekend, and Adweek, among other publications. She was a regular contributor to
National Public Radio.
Bebe Moore Campbell is the author of BROTHERS AND SISTERS, SINGING IN THE COMEBACK CHOIR, YOUR
BLUES AIN'T LIKE MINE, and WHAT YOU OWE ME.
Campbell was born and grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where she
earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education. She taught elementary and middle school for five
years. She is survived by her husband, Ellis Gordon, Jr., her daughter, the actress Maia Campbell, and a
son, Ellis Gordon III.
Tamara Dobson
Model/Actress
Oct 2
May 14, 1947 Baltimore, MD - October 2, 2006 Baltimore, MD
Coretta Scott King
Civil Rights Activist
April 27, 1927 Heiberger (Near Marion), AL
January 30, 2006 Playas de Rosarito, Mexico
Gerald Levert
Singer
July 13, 1966 Cleveland, OH
November 10, 2006
“Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now”
w/John Whitehead
McFadden and Whitehead also wrote
hits such as "Back Stabbers" and the
much-sampled "For the Love of
Money" for the O'Jays, as well as
"Wake Up Everybody”, "Bad Luck"
and "Where Are All My Friends" for
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
"Don't Let Love Get You Down" for
Archie Bell & the Drells, "I'll Always
Love My Mama" for the Intruders and
"Be Truthful to Me" for Billy Paul, as
well as "The More I Get, the More I
Want" and "Cold, Cold World" for
Teddy Pendergrass.
In 2004, his writing partner John
Whitehead was shot dead in
Philadelphia while changing a tire on
his car in Phili.
Survived by: Wife and four children.
Gene McFadden
1949 Philadelphia, PA – January 27, 2006 Philadelphia, PA
Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist/Producer
Harry “Boom Boom” McGilberry, Jr.
January 19, 1950 – April 3, 2006
A former BASS vocal
and member of the
Temptations. He was
said to be “Melvin
Franklin” reincarnated.
He appeared on both
the Phoenix Rising and
Ear-Resistable
CD/LP’s.
Temp Trivia:
Otis Williams is the only living original, but
living or dead, how many Temptations have there
been?
21 or 25
John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil
Baseball Player
November 13, 1911 Carrabelle, Fl
October 6, 2006
O'Neil served as a first baseman and manager
in the Negro Leagues from 1937-1955. In 1962,
O'Neil became the first African-American coach in
the Major Leagues with the Chicago Cubs
Floyd Patterson
Boxer
55-8-1 and 40 knockouts
Before Mike Tyson, Patterson became the
youngest world heavyweight champion when he
beat Archie Moore in 1956 at the age of 21.
January 4, 1935 Waco, N. Carolina - May 11, 2006 New Paltz, NY
Mustang Sally
Wilson “Wicked” Pickett
Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You
Funky Broadway
In The Midnight Hour
Singer
May 18, 1941 Prattville, AL
January 19, 2006 Ashburn, VA
I Found A Love (Pt 1.)
She’s Looking Good
634-5789 Soulsville, USA
Land of 1000 Dances
Man and A Half
Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame
June Pointer
November 30, 1953 - April 11, 2006
William Everett “Billy” Preston
September 2, 1946 Houston, TX
June 6, 2006 Scottsdale, AR
Nat Cole & 10 year old Billy.
Raised mostly in Los Angeles, California. In addition to his successful, Grammy-winning career as a
solo artist, Preston collaborated with some of the greatest names in the music industry, including the
Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Ray Charles, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan,
Sam Cooke, Sammy Davis Jr., Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin, the Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Red Hot
Chili Peppers and more. He played the electric piano on the Get Back Sessions in 1969 and is highly
credited as being the "Fifth or Black Beatle". He is, in fact, the only person to receive label
performance credit on any Beatles record. It is also said that, “He made the greats even greater!”
Kirby Puckett
Baseball Player
March 14, 1960 Chicago, IL
March 6, 2006 Phoenix, AZ
A center fielder in Major League
Baseball who played his entire
career with the Minnesota Twins
from 1984 to 1995. Puckett led the
Twins to World Series titles in
1987 and 1991, the only two
championships for the franchise
since their move to Minnesota in
1961.
Louis Allen Rawls
Singer
December 1, 1933 Chicago, IL
January 6, 2006
Arthur Winston
March 22, 1906 Oklahoma – April 13, 2006 LA, California
A picture of Arthur Winston taken at age 99. Left: w/Great
Nephew Eric
Was a Los Angeles Metro employee for 72 years. His hourly salary was 41 cents an hour when he began work for the
Los Angeles Railway in 1924. He has set a record as the most reliable worker that the United States Department of
Labor has ever chronicled. He worked for 72 years without ever being late, and having only taken off a single day (in
1988 for the funeral of his wife Frances). In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded him with an "Employee of the
Century" citation for his work ethic and dedication. On his remarkable record: "It's easy. You just get up and go to
work," said Winston on his 100th birthday, "It ain't no trouble. You've got to like your job in the first place. I don't
lay around and play sick — work two days, sick five days. People are just using this sick leave business.
"The Arthur Winston Busyard (Division 5 in South Bay) was named in his honor in Los Angeles.
His 100th birthday advice for kids growing up today? "My advice to them is to just get up and go to work."