Stories.

  

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971 in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. This time was the end of the old school U.S. Civil Rights Movement and at the zenith of the Black Power movement in America. His parents are Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, both parents being members of the Black Panther Party of Self-Defense. His original name was Lesane Paris Crooks, and he was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur when he was one year old. He is named after Túpac Amaru II, a descendant of the last Inca ruler, who was executed in Peru in 1781 after his revolt against Spanish rule. Shakur's mother Afeni Shakur explained, "I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood." Tupac's surname came from Lumumba Shakur, a Sunni Muslim, whom his mother married in November 1968. Their marriage fell apart when it was discovered that Lumumba was not Tupac's biological father. Tupac's maternal parents came from North Carolina. Afeni Shakur (whose original name was Alice Faye Williams) lived from January 10, 1947, to May 2, 2016. His father William or Billy Garland was born on March 14, 1949). The Black Panthers was a group that fought against capitalism, imperialism, racism, and alll injustice to make a revolutionary change in society. A month before Shakur's birth, his mother was tried in New York City as part of the Panther 21 criminal trial. She was acquitted of over 150 charges. Afeni Shakur defended herself in trial, and she caused her own victory. That outlines the strength and intellect of a black woman.

Tupac had relatives and friends involved in the Black Panther Party. One member of the Black Panthers' Black Liberation Army were convicted of serious crimes and imprisoned, including Shakur's stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, who spent four years as one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Mutulu was apprehended in 1986 and subsequently convicted for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur's godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was wrongly convicted of murdering a schoolteacher during a 1968 robbery. After he spent 27 years in prison, his conviction was overturned due to the prosecution's having concealed evidence that proved his innocence. Shakur's godmother, Assata Shakur, was a former member of the Black Liberation Army who was convicted in 1977 of the first-degree murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. She escaped from prison in 1979 and was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2013, and would remain on the list up until her death in 2025. For the record, there is no conclusive evidence that Assata Shakur shot at a police officer. Tupac's early life was harsh and dangerous. He and his family were harassed by the NYPD and the FBI constantly. Afeni Shakur suffered drug addiction by the 1980s.  

 

By 1984, Tupac Shakur and his family moved into Baltimore, Maryland from New York City. He was 13 years old. He lived in the  Pen Lucy neighborhood with his mother and younger sister at 3955 Greenmount Ave. The home was a two-story rowhouse that had been subdivided into two separate rental units; the Shakur family lived on the first floor. After his death, the block was renamed Tupac Shakur Way. Baltimore was a different environment. He attended the 8th grade at Roland Park Middle School and the ninth grade at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. He transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts in the tenth grade, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays—the themes of which he identified in patterns of gang warfare—and as the Mouse King in The Nutcracker ballet. At the Baltimore School for the Arts, Shakur befriended actress Jada Pinkett, who became the subject of some of his poems ("Jada" and "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes"). With his friend Dana "Mouse" Smith as a beatbox, he won competitions for the school's best rapper. Known for his humor, he was popular with all crowds of students. He listened to a diverse range of music that included Kate Bush, Culture Club, Sinéad O'Connor, and U2. Back then, Tupac was political to publicly fight gun violence, HIV/AIDS, poverty, and other important issues in our communities. Tupac Shakur was very popular in the Baltimore School of the Arts. Tupac allied with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA, and he dated Mary Baldridge, who was the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA. In 1988, Tupac Shakur moved to Marin City, California. Poverty and crime were found in Marin City in the San Francisco Bay area. Tupac said that poverty connected poor black communities in America. In nearby Mill Valley, he attended Tamalpais High School, where he performed in several theater productions. Shakur did not graduate from high school, but later earned his GED.

 

Shakur began recording under the stage name MC New York in 1988. That year, he began attending the poetry classes of Leila Steinberg, and she soon became his manager. Leila Steinberg admitted that she was romantically attracted to Tupac Shakur, but she didn't go any further because she said that it is important to promote love among black men and black women. Steinberg (who has a Jewish father, who was a criminal defense lawyer and a Mexican born mother with Sephradic Jewish heritage) is a progressive person who helped young people develop the arts among every color.  “The Bay is one of the most revolutionary areas you can live in, in this entire country, whether it’s education, politics, religion,” she said. Tupac spoke these words about Steinberg, “She was older, she was white, and she’s the one that I used to let look at my poetry,” he says in a clip from a 1995 deposition. “She understood a lot of things that I was doing that other people couldn’t understand. And she’s the one that stayed on me about working hard to do my music.” Steinberg wanted Tupac and Ray Luv to be honest. 

Steinberg organized a concert for Shakur and his rap group Strictly Dope. Steinberg managed to get Shakur signed by Atron Gregory, manager of the rap group Digital Underground. In 1990, Gregory placed him with the Underground as a roadie and backup dancer. At the request of Steinberg, Digital Underground co-founder Jimi "Chopmaster J" Dright worked with Shakur, Ray Luv and Dize, a DJ, on their earliest studio recordings. Dright recalls that Shakur did not work well as part of a group, and added, "this guy was on a mission. From day one. Maybe he knew he wasn't going to be around seven years later." From 1988 to 1991, Dright and Digital Underground produced Shakur's earliest work with his crew at the time, Strictly Dope. The recordings were rediscovered in 2000 and released as The Lost Tapes: Circa 1989. Afeni Shakur sued to stop the sale of the recordings but the suit was settled in June 2001 and rereleased as Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988–1991. 

Shakur debuted under the stage name 2Pac on Digital Underground, under a new record label, Interscope Records, on the group's January 1991 single "Same Song." The song was featured on the soundtrack of the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble, starring Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Chevy Chase, and Demi Moore. He also appeared with the group in the film, marking Shakur's first film appearance credited as a cameo by the Digital Underground. "Same Song" opened the group's January 1991 EP titled This Is an EP Release, while Shakur appeared in the music video. Shakur's early days with Digital Underground made him acquainted with Randy "Stretch" Walker, who along with his brother, dubbed Majesty, and a friend debuted with an EP as a rap group and production team, Live Squad, in Queens, New York. Stretch was featured on a track of the Digital Underground's 1991 album Sons of the P. Becoming fast friends, Shakur and Stretch recorded and performed together often. By the late 1980s, and early 1990, Tupac Shakur was the National Chariman for the New Afikan Panther Party. He gave an interview about black conscious issues by 1989.  

 

Halle Berry was born in the Midwest in Cleveland, Ohio on August 14, 1966 to Judith Hawkins (her mother came from Liverpool, England), and Jerome Jesse Berry, an African American man. Her named was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry at the age of five. Her parents selected her middle name from Halle's Department Store, which was then a local landmark in Cleveland. Berry's mother worked as a psychiatric nurse, and her father worked in the same hospital as an attendant in the psychiatric ward; he later became a bus driver. They divorced when Berry was four years old, and she and her older sister Heidi Berry-Henderson were raised exclusively by their mother. She has been estranged from her father since childhood, noting in 1992 that she did not even know if he was still alive. Her father was abusive to her mother, and Berry has recalled witnessing her mother being beaten daily, kicked down stairs, and hit in the head with a wine bottle. Berry has also said that she was bullied as a child and, as a result, learned how to fight and protect herself. Halle Berry grew up in Oakwood, Ohio and graduated from Bedford High School. In that high school, she was a cheerleader, honor student, editor of the school newspaper, and prom queen. She worked in the children's department of Higbee's department store. She then continued her studies at Cuyahoga Community College. In the 1980s, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Teen All American 1985 and Miss Ohio USA 1986. She was the 1986 Miss USA first runner-up, with Christy Fichtner of Texas taking home the crown. In the Miss USA 1986 pageant interview competition, Berry said she hoped to become an entertainer or do some kind of work in media. Her interview was awarded the highest score by the judges. In 1986, Berry became the first African-American to represent the United States at the Miss World beauty pageant. She placed sixth, with Trinidad and Tobago's Giselle Laronde being crowned Miss World.

 

From 1989 to 1999, she started her career in its early stages. By the late 1980s, she ran out of money and lived briefly in a homeless shelter and a YMCA. By the end of 1989, her situation improved. She was cast in the role of model Emily Franklin in the short-lived ABC television series Living Dolls, which was shot in New York and was a spin-off of the hit series Who's the Boss?. During the taping of Living Dolls, she lapsed into a coma and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. After the cancellation of Living Dolls, she moved to Los Angeles. Her film debut was in a small role for Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991), in which she played Vivian, a drug addict. That same year, Berry had her first co-starring role in Strictly Business. Halle Berry was on A Different World too. In 1992, Berry portrayed a career woman who falls for the lead character played by Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. The following year, she caught the public's attention as a headstrong biracial slave in the TV adaptation of Queen: The Story of an American Family, based on the book by Alex Haley. Berry was also in the live-action Flintstones film as Sharon Stone, a sultry secretary who attempts to seduce Fred Flintstone. Berry tackled a more serious role, playing a former drug addict struggling to regain custody of her son in Losing Isaiah (1995), starring opposite Jessica Lange. She portrayed Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun (1996), which was based on a true story, shot in Australia, and co-starred alongside Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. Beginning in 1996, she was a Revlon spokeswoman for seven years and renewed her contract in 2004. She starred alongside Natalie Deselle Reid in the 1997 comedy film B*A*P*S. In 1998, Berry received praise for her role in Bulworth as an intelligent woman raised by activists who gives a politician (Warren Beatty) a new lease on life. The same year, she played the singer Zola Taylor, one of the three wives of pop singer Frankie Lymon, in the biopic Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

 

There is a new report from Tom Latchem from the Daily Beast mentioning that ICE is stockpiling warheads and chemical weapons. The question is why ICE is doing this and if they plan on using them on peaceful protesters. ICE or the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased their buying of weapons. Federal purchasing logs show ICE spent $71,515,762  on small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories between January 20 and October 18, 2025. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin denies that ICE is buying guided missile components. Wisconsin state Senator Chris Larson said that at least 170 U.S. citizens have been detained by immigration agents, including children. Most people detained by ICE are not violent criminals, so this proves that ICE is about intimidation, following Trump's xenophobic agenda, and cruelty not compassion. ICE has drawn guns on people, used pepper spray, and Rev. David Black (who is 52 years old) was struck in the head with a pepper spray ball fired by ICE agents while he prayed outside the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois on September 19, 2025. By September 28, 2025, CBS Chicago reporter Asai Rezaei said an ICE agent shot a pepper spray ball into her tuck outside a facility causing a criminal probe. Since June 16, 2015, or when Trump promoted his racist Presidential campaign, the MAGA movement has promoted fear, division, hatred, and carnage against the American people. We have every right to disagree with Trump and advocate for liberty and justice for all human beings.

The Obama Presidential library will be completed by the Spring of 2026. It will be found in Chicago's South Side, being a historical location for our black community. Tons of recent Presidents have made their Presidential libraries in many places, mostly at their place of birth or at their place or residency for an extended period of time. President Barack Obama represented a new chapter of American history being the first African American President, and First Lady Michelle Obama being the first African American First Lady in American history too. The construction of the Presidential library has been in existence for over 10 years. President Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States of America. The center will have a branch of a public library, a museum, a garden (with fresh fruits and vegetables named after Eleanor Roosevelt), and an auditorium. I was in my mid 20s when his Presidency started on January 20, 2009, and I was in my early 30s when his Presidency ended on January 20, 2017. So, I lived through both of his terms. I agreed with President Barack Obama on many issues like The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the legitimate parts of the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall street and Reform and Consumer Protection Act, investments in renewable energy, the Iran nuclear deal, diplomatic ties to Cuba, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the Fair Sentencing Act, his promotions of civil rights and equality, and DACA plans. Obama did help to lower the unemployment rate and gave investments in HBCUs. I didn't agree with him on his some of his foreign policy actions being too hawkish in my view, especially in the Libyan war and drone strikes in various places. Despite Barack Obama's faults, he is a million times better than Donald Trump. Let's keep it real.

I found out that Jesse Lee Daughtrey Jr. (b. 1993) is my paternal 4th cousin. His parents are Jesse Lee Daughtrey (b. 1958) and Bonita Karen Stith (b. 1957). The parents of Jesse Lee Daughtrey were Johnny Edward D. (1928-2015) and Virginia Goodwin. Johnny Edward D. had 6 daughters who are Carrie, Edwina, Verna, Virginia, Marilyn, and Ginger. His 3 sons are John, Robin, and Jesse. He had a late son of Larry Daughtery and his stepdaughter Mary Marriner. He lived in Newport News, Virginia for over 60 years and was a member of the Gethsemane Baptist Church. He retired from working at the City of Newport News, Virginia. His sisters are Nannie, Ethel, and Dora. The parent of Johnny Edward D. was Nicey D. (1904-1928). The parents of Nicey D. were Daniel D. (b. 1868) and Mollie Demry (b. 1868). The parents of Daniel D. were my 3rd great grandparents of Alfred D. (b. 1828) and Jennie D. (b. 1820-1919). 

By Timothy