Information on Early December of 2019.

The Godfather of Harlem TV series is historic in many ways. It is like a prequel to the movie of American Gangster from 2007. It premiered on September 29, 2019 on Epix. The series follows the life of Bumpy Johnson during the early 1960’s New York City. Back then, the Cold War was in its peak. The economic situation in America dealt with a dual reality. While many people were rich and had financial growth, poorer Americans were struggling to survive. Many African Americans saw Jim Crow in the South and the Midwest. In the North including the West, where Jim Crow was mostly gone, black Americans still faced discrimination, redlining, economic exploitation, urban renewal, and police brutality. By this time, Malcolm X was a leader of the black freedom struggle. Malcolm X was a member of the Black Nationalist group of the Nation of Islam, which appealed to poorer and working class black people mostly. Also, Malcolm X and Bumpy Johnson were friends. Later, when many people threatened Malcolm X after him leaving the Nation of Islam, Bumpy Johnson offered Malcolm X protection. Malcolm X refused, because he didn’t want black people killing black people. Bumpy Johnson is the sole reason why many people (who threatened Malcolm X) are alive today.  Forest Whitaker stars as Bumpy Johnson. The series has a prominent cast with Ifenesh Hadera playing Mayme Johnson (Bumpy’s wife), Antoinette Crowe-Legacy as Elise Johnson (or Bumpy’s daughter), Nigel Thatch (playing Malcolm X), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (as Teddy Greene, a musician and Stella’s boyfriend), Rafi Gavron (Ernie Nunzi or a violent associate of Vincent’s), Lucy Fry (as Stella Gigante, Vincent’s daughter and Teddy’s girlfriend), Vincent D’Onofrio (as Vincent Gigante), and Giancario Esposito (playing Adam Clayton Powell Jr.). other characters like Muhammad Ali is played by Deric Augustine and Clifton Davis plays Elijah Muhammad. The Nation of Islam back then wanted black separation from white society. Their structure was very conservative in clothing and their dogmas. Jazmine Sullivan plays Mary Wells and Aloe Blacc plays Leonard or a friend of Stella’s. The show was written by Paul Eckstein and Moise Verneaux. The series also deals with the relationship of Bumpy Johnson and the Mafia. The Mafia has worked in gambling for generations, and Bumpy Johnson wants his piece of the action. Bumpy Johnson wants power while not being totally intimidated by outside influences.

By the early 1960’s, Harlem was in a unique space. There was the dual society of crime and the political atmosphere of a fight against racial injustice. Malcolm X had a huge legacy for black Americans and humanity. By 1963, Malcolm X was one of the prominent leaders in the Nation of Islam. Yet, Malcolm X was different than other NOI leaders. Malcolm X not only trained FOI members in self-defense. He was increasingly political. He fought police brutality in NYC (in defending NOI member Johnson Hinton) and Los Angeles (in opposing the unjust murder of Robert Stokes). He participated in rights for renters.  Malcolm X’s strength was that he didn’t sugarcoat the hypocrisies of American society when that society was claiming to be for democracy but treating black Americans as second class citizens. That inspired a new generation of black people to express in public what many of us were thinking in private. Malcolm X promoted the beauty of Blackness. Elijah Muhammad was the leader of the NOI during the 1960’s. Malcolm X wanted to go more in the political world in trying to solve problems, while Elijah Muhammad was mostly apolitical. This along with the FBI infiltrating people caused the rift by the end of 1963 between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X wanted the Third World revolutions overseas to be a catalyst to confront the Western international forces oppressing people in the world. Malcolm X was critical of not only white racists but of the moderate faction of the civil rights movement (made up heavily of the black bourgeoisie that seek no revolutionary change in the eyes of Malcolm X) for the following reasons: He believed in self-defense, he viewed them as being infiltrated by Democrats which included segregationists back then, he wanted black independence instead of integration back in 1963. Malcolm X criticized the 1963 March on Washington as stifling black revolution. Malcolm X appealed to heavily Northern black people who wanted an end to housing discrimination, police terrorism, troubling schools, and other issues. By the end of 1963, Malcolm X was suspended from the Nation of Islam, he left it in 1964, and he was assassinated in 1965. From 1964 to 1965, Malcolm X became more revolutionary, he criticized capitalism, he promoted Pan-African unity, and he wanted the U.S. government to be brought up on charges of violations to the rights of African Americans via the United Nations. He wanted a more international approach in ending injustices. Malcolm X criticized imperialism. So, the Godfather of Harlem TV series should motivate anyone to learn, to listen to the voices of the past, to be inspired, and to make great comprehensive changes that are still needed in our generation.

After World War II, many changes happened in Pittsburgh. Back then, smog was everywhere in Pittsburgh. It was so thick that streetlights burned during the day. Rivers looked like open sewers. Civic leaders like Mayor David L. Lawrence (David L. Lawrence, elected in 1945), Richard K. Mellon, chairman of Mellon Bank and John P. Robin began smoke control and urban revitalization, also known as Urban Renewal projects that transformed the city in unforeseen ways.  "Renaissance I" began in 1946. Title One of the Housing Act of 1949 provided the means in which to begin. By 1950, vast swaths of buildings and land near the Point were demolished for Gateway Center. 1953 saw the opening of the (since demolished) Greater Pittsburgh Municipal Airport terminal. By the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Lower Hill District (an area inhabited by mostly people of black African descent) was completely destroyed. 95 acres of the lower Hill District was cleared suing eminent domain. Hundreds of small businesses and more than 8,000 people (of 1,239 black families and 312 white families) were forcibly displaced. The city wanted to make a cultural center that included the Civic Arena which opened in 1961. Other than one apartment building, none of the other buildings planned for the cultural center were ever built. In the early 1960's, the neighborhood of East Liberty was also included in Renaissance I Urban Renewal plans, with over 125 acres (0.51 km2) of the neighborhood being demolished and replaced with garden apartments, three 20-story public housing apartments, and a convoluted road-way system that circled a pedestrianized shopping district. In the span of just a few years during the mid-1960's, East Liberty became a blighted neighborhood. There were some 575 businesses in East Liberty in 1959, but only 292 in 1970, and just 98 in 1979. Preservation efforts done by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (along with community neighborhood groups) resisted the demolition plans.

The neighborhoods with rich architectural heritage are the Mexican War Streets, Allegheny West, and Manchester. The center of Allegheny City has culturally and socially important buildings. It wasn’t as lucky. All of the buildings, with the exception of the Old U.S. Post Officer, the Carnegie Library, and Buhl Planetarium were destroyed. They were replaced with the pedestrianized Alleghany Center Mall and apartments. Pittsburgh’s industrial base grew in the post war era. It was assisted by the area’s first agency which was totally devoted to the industrial development (called the RIDC). Jones and Laughlin Steel Company expanded its plant on the Southside. H. J. Heinz, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Alcoa, Westinghouse, and U.S. Steel (plus its new division of the Pittsburgh Plate Company along with other companies) continued robust operations in the 1960’s. In 1970, Renaissance I completed its building projects.  There was the U.S. Steel Tower and the Three Rivers Stadium. In 1974, with the addition of the fountain at the tip of the Golden Triangle, Point State Park was completed. Although air quality was dramatically improved, and Pittsburgh’s manufacturing base seemed solid questions about the negative effects Urban Renewal continue to have on the social fabric of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh would later go into a dramatic transformation. Rebellions existed in Pittsburgh like in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 By the 1970’s and the 1980’s, the U.S. steel industry came from more pressure from foreign competition and form American min mills that had much lower overhead by using salvaged steel. Manufacture in Germany and Japan was booming. Foreign mills and factories, built with the latest technology, benefited from lower labor costs and powerful government-corporate partnerships, allowing them to capture increasing market shares of steel and steel products. Separately, demand for steel softened due to recessions, the 1973 oil crisis, and increasing use of other materials.  The era began with the RIDC's "Building on Basics" report in 1974. Free market pressures exposed the U.S. steel industry’s own internal problems. Their problems dealt with a now outdated manufacturing base that over expanded in the 1950’s plus the 1960’s, hustle management including labor relationships, oligarchic management styles, the inflexibility of the United Steelworkers involving wage cuts and work rule reforms, and poor strategic planning (by both unions and management). Pittsburgh had challenged. Local coke and iron ore despotized were depleted. This raised material costs. The large mills in Pittsburgh region faced competition from newer, more profitable mini mills and non-union mills with lower labor costs. By the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the steel industry in Pittsburgh started to implode. There was massive deindustrialization in America.  Following the 1981–1982 recession, for example, the mills laid off 153,000 workers. The steel mills began to shut down. These closures caused a ripple effect, as railroads, mines, and other factories across the region lost business and closed. The local economy suffered a depression, marked by high unemployment and underemployment, as laid-off workers took lower-paying, non-union jobs. Pittsburgh suffered as elsewhere in the Rust Belt with a declining population, and like many other U.S. cities, it also saw white flight to the suburbs.  In 1991, the Homestead Works was demolished, replaced in 1999 by The Waterfront shopping mall. As a direct result of the loss of mill employment, the number of people living in Homestead dwindled. By the time of the 2000 census, the borough population was 3,569. The borough began financially recovering in 2002, with the enlarging retail tax base.  Larger firms brought out top corporate headquarters like Gulf Oil (1985), Koppers (1987), Westinghouse (1996), and Rockwell International (1989). There was the loss of high paying, white collar headquarters and research personnel. Many massive charitable contributions by the home based companies to local cultural and educational institutions declined. At the time of the Gulf Oil merger in 1985, it was the largest buyout in world history involving the company that was No. 7 on the Fortune 500 just six years earlier. Over 1,000 high paying white collar corporate and PhD research jobs were lost in one day.  Today, there are no steel mills within the city limits of Pittsburgh, although manufacture continues at regional mills, such as the Edgar Thomson Works in nearby Braddock.

Many educational services exist in Pittsburgh. They include the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and Duquesne University. Many of these university places deal with research, science, technology, etc. There are other regional collegiate institutions like Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and the Community College of Allegheny County. By the 1980’s, Pittsburgh shifted its economy from heavy industry to services, medicine, higher education, tourism, banking, corporate headquarters, and high technology. Today, the top two private employers in the city are the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (26,000 employees) and the West Penn Allegheny Health System (13,000 employees). Some improvements did exist in the mid-1970's. Arthur P. Ziegler Jr. and the Pittsburgh History and landmarks Foundations wanted to have historic preservation. They wanted economic development to grow. The catch was that many wanted eminent domain or public subsidies. Landmarks acquired the former terminal buildings and yards of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, a 1-mile (1.6 km) long property at the base of Mt. Washington facing the City of Pittsburgh. In 1976, Landmarks developed the site as a mixed-use historic adaptive reuse development that gave the foundation the opportunity to put its urban planning principles into practice. Aided by an initial generous gift from the Allegheny Foundation in 1976, Landmarks adapted five historic Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad buildings for new uses and added a hotel, a dock for the Gateway Clipper fleet, and parking areas. Now, shops, offices, restaurants, and entertainment anchor the historic riverfront site on the south shore of the Monongahela River, opposite the Golden Triangle (Pittsburgh). Station Square is Pittsburgh's premier attraction, generating over 3,500,000 visitors a year. It reflects a $100 million investment from all sources, with the lowest public cost and highest taxpayer return of any major renewal project in the Pittsburgh region since the 1950's. In 1994, Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation sold Station Square in to Forest City Enterprises which created an endowment to help support its restoration efforts and educational programs. Each year, the staff and docents of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation introduce more than 10,000 people – teachers, students, adults, and visitors – to the architectural heritage of the Pittsburgh region and to the value of historic preservation.
Many people like Dorothy Mae Richardson fought for community development in Pittsburgh.

She founded Neighborhood Housing Services in 1968. This organized was the foundation for the national NeighborWorks Americans. Richardson is an activist. She wanted to rehabilitate Pittsburgh rather than demolish and redevelop. In 1985, the J & L Steel site on the north side of the Monongahela River was cleared and a publicly subsidized High Technology Center was built. The Pittsburgh Technology Center, home to many major technology companies, is planning major expansion in the area soon. In the 1980's, the "Renaissance II" urban revitalization created numerous new structures, such as PPG Place. In the 1990's, the former sites of the Homestead, Duquesne and South Side J&L mills were cleared.  In 1992, the new terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport opened.  In 2001, the aging Three Rivers Stadium was replaced by Heinz Field and PNC Park, despite being rejected by voter referendum. In 2010, PPG Paints Arena replaced the Civic Arena, which at the time was the oldest arena in the National Hockey League.  Also in 1985, Al Michaels revealed to a national TV audience how Pittsburgh had transformed itself from an industrial rust belt city. Today, Pittsburgh has a diversified economy. Many places have a low cost of living compared to other large cities. There are educational and cultural institutions. Tourism has grown in Pittsburgh with almost 3,000 new hotel rooms operating since 2004. Meanwhile, Apple, Google, Uber, and Intel have joined the 1,600 technology firms choosing to operate out of Pittsburgh. The region has also become a leader in green environmental design, a movement exemplified by the city's convention center. In the last twenty years the region has seen a small but influential group of Asian immigrants, including from the Indian sub-continent. Pittsburgh has gone through ups and downs, but Pittsburgh is still here in its strength and beauty.




My 2nd grandfather was Adam D. His grandfather was my 4th grandfather named James D. James D. married Edney D. and they had a child named Alfred D. (1828-?). Alfred son was Adam D. My 3rd great grandfather Alfred D. married a woman named Jennie D. (1820-1910). They had the following children: Alfred D. (1860-?), Adam D. (1862-?), James D. (1863-?),  Daniel D. (1868-?), and Frank Grant D. (1869-1949). Frank Grant D. married Eliza Whitaker on February 9, 1898 at Halifax, North Carolina. My 3rd great uncle Frank Grant D. later married Malinda Washington on April 22, 1903 at Halifax, North Carolina. Frank Grant D. and Malinda Washington had the following children: Luther D. (1905-?), Juddie D. (1907-?), and George Washington D. (1909-1984). My 3rd great uncle Daniel Doggett (1868-?) married Mollie Demry on November 25, 1894 at Halifax, NOrth Carolina. Daniel and Mollie D. had the following children: James L. D. (1900-1980), Rosa Wooten (1903-1982), Nicy D. (1905-?), Urdiel D. (1909-?), and Vinnie Anne D. (1912-1978).Rosa Wooten was born on April 11, 1903 at North Carolina. She married John Bridges (1879-?) on January 17, 1930 at Halifax, North Carolina. Later, she married Jim Wooten (1909-?) on July 27, 1952 at Halifax, North Carolina. She passed away on November 18, 1982. My first cousin Vinnie Anne (or Lavenia) D. was born in 1912 at Halifax County, North Carolina. She married Fletcher Crowell Jr. (1911-?) on March 21, 1933 at Greensville County, Virginia. Vinnie Anne and Fletcher Crowell Jr. had the following children: Fletcher Crowell III (1935-?), Richard Lee Crowell (1939-?), Jean Carol Crowell (1942-?), James Crowell, Matthew Crowell, Evelyn King, and Dorothy Gray. Fletcher Crowell III was born on February 3, 1935 at Halifax, North Carolina. He married Shirley Ann Crowell on September 2, 1958 at Newport News, Virginia. Their children are Tawanna Janene Crowell and Tammy Rayletta Crowell-Jones. Tammy Rayletta Crowell-Jones married Ricky Jones. Tammy Rayletta Crowell was born on August 31, 1968, and she married Ricky Jones on December 18, 1993 at Newport News, Virginia. Tammy and Ricky Jones' daughter is Destiny Rayl Jones, and she was born on May 7, 1998 at Newport News, Virginia. Destiny Jones is my 4th cousin. My 3rd cousin Tawanna Janene Crowell's  (who was born on September 2, 1970 at Virginia) daughter is Jazmine Janae' Crowell (who was born on January 28, 1989 at Hampton Virginia). Jazmine Crowell is my 4th cousin.

During this time of the year, it is always important to acknowledge the value of spirituality. Spirituality at its best is meant to stir up the soul, to help our neighbors, thoroughly, and to respect the concept of almsgiving. Christianity started with Jesus Christ. Later, Jesus Christ died, rose again, and is at the right hand of God the Father. His earliest supporters were his apostles and early followers. These 12 men including others (including women) would spread the message of Jesus Christ into multiple continents. They faced opposition and persecution (by the Roman Empire and others), but they continued in the faith. It is said by many that every apostle died by murder except for the apostle John, who died of natural cases near the age of 100 years old. The Gospels were written around the time of 40-100 A.D. The New Testament outlines the life of Jesus Christ. Other non-Biblical sources describe the life of Jesus Christ like Flavius Josephus (37-100 A.D.), the Samaritan born historian Thallus, Cornelius Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, Suetonius, the Talmud, and other sources. Josephus was a Judean Levite, and Tacitus was a Roman senator. Yeshua was crucified on the orders of the Roman governor of Judea named Pontius Pilate. Jesus Christ’s brother was Ya’akov (or James), and John the Baptist (Yokhanon) also lived in the region. The movement of Jesus spread into Greece, Rome, Africa, Spain, and India within a short period of time including the rest of the Roman Empire region. Even Josephus said that James was the brother of Jesus and their cousin was John the Baptist. The apostles were Simon ben Jonah (Peter), Kepha (Andrew), Ya’akov ben Zebedee (James), Yohhanan (John), Philip, Natanel bar Taimey (Bartholomew), Matityah (Matthew), Ta’om (Thomas), Thaddeus (Taddi), Shimon (Simon), Yehudah (Judas), and Judas’s replacement Matthias. The New Testament, especially the Gospel of Acts, described the lives of much of the apostles. By the time of the Great Commission, the Christian faith was spreading beyond the area of Israel. There were dozens of followers of apostles from Silas, Timothy, and Apollos. Therefore, it is important to show the truth that spiritual belief has a very prominent role in the essence of human existence.



Timothy