True music doesn't involve nepotism. Great music has shown empathy, compassion, a sense of joy that has inspired the souls of humanity spanning millennia. Studies galore outline the positive mental and health benefits of listening to music. The final work of the Rock and Pop music history series closes a chapter. I have learned a lot from unsung bands like The Kinks and Living Colour, etc. and more information on more popular artists from Beyonce, U2, Tina Turner, Beyonce (who recently won the Best Country Album and Best Album of the Year awards in the 2025 Grammys), Boni Jovi, The Emotions, Toni Braxton, Amerie, Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, and other human beings. Also, formulating music takes time and talent as well. Many people work hard for years to comprehend fully about the concepts of scales, notes, beats, sound patterns, lyrics, hooks, and the different chords in making a completed song. There is a business side of the music industry that has inspired many of the younger generation to form their own businesses and institutions to advance their musical projects (without relying on large corporate labels all of the time). Marketing, publishing rights, copyright, trademark, and other aspects of contracts are part of the lexicon of musical culture too. One major lesson involving life and music is for everyone to maintain integrity, help others, and embrace your right to achieve excellence and greatness in your walk. After these years, I certainly appreciate the talent and sacrifice of musicians who want to show great work, who are humble, and acknowledge their own creative authenticity. Being true to yourself is more vital than token prestige. Therefore, in our lives, we have to improve ourselves and let great, authentic music to motivate us to move forward in an august, prodigious fashion.
Margaret Taylor-Burroughs was born in St. Rome, Louisiana, where her father worked as a farmer and laborer at a railroad warehouse. She was raised there as a Catholic. Later, the family moved to Chicago in 1928 when she was 5 years old. At Chicago, she attended Englewood High School along with Gwendolyn Brooks (who was an iconic poet), who in 1985-1986 served as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress (now United States Poet Laureate). As classmates, both Taylor-Burroughs and Brooks joined the NAACP Youth Council. Burroughs earned her teacher's certificates from Chicago Theaters College in 1937. She helped found the South Side Community Arts Center in 1939 to serve as a social center, gallery, and studio to showcase African American artists. In 1946, Taylor-Burroughs earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art education from the School of Art Institute of Chicago where she also earned her Master of Arts degree in art education by 1948. Dr. Margaret Taylor Burroughs exhibited her art with the American Negro Exposition (in Chicago by 1940), as well as in Atlanta University (1943-1945), and the San Francisco Civic Museum (in 1949). Burrough created many of her own works of art as well. In one of her linocuts, called Birthday Party, both black and white children are seen celebrating. They are around the table together waiting for a birthday cake. n article published by The Art Institute of Chicago described Burroughs' Birthday Party and said: "Through her career, as both a visual artist and a writer, she has often chosen themes concerning family, community, and history. 'Art is communication,' she has said. 'I wish my art to speak not only for my people - but for all humanity.' This aim is achieved in Birthday Party, in which both black and white children dance, while mothers cut cake in a quintessential image of neighbors and family enjoying a special day together." The painting puts in visual form Burroughs' philosophy that "the color of skin is a minor difference among men which has been stretched beyond its importance."
Burroughs once again depicts faces that are half black and half white in My People. Even though the title is similar to the previously referenced piece, the woodcut has some differences. In this scene, there are four different faces – each of which is half white and half black. The head on the far left is tilted to the side and close to the head next to it. It seems as both heads are coming out of the same body – taking the idea of split personalities to the extreme. The women are all very close together, suggesting that they relate to each other. In The Faces of My People, there were others pictured with different skin tones, but in My People all of the people have the same half black and half white split. Therefore, My People focuses on a common conflict that all the women in the picture face. She made more works like Still Life in 1943 being done by oil on compressed particle board. She created the linocut work of Black Venus in 1957, On the Beach in 1957 via linocut, and Woman with ink on paper in 2006. Taylor-Burroughs taught at DuSable High School on Chicago's south side from 1946 to 1969, and from 1969 to 1979 was a professor of humanities at Kennedy-King College, a community college in Chicago. She also taught African American art and culture at Elmhurst College in 1968. She was named Chicago park district commissioner by Harold Washington in 1985, a position she held until 2010. Margaret Burroughs is the recipient of an honorary doctorate, as well as the President's Humanitarian Award (1975).
New Orleans and other places of the Deep South represent the culture of the Delta. The Mississippi River Delta is one of the most important environmental locations on Earth that has more than 2.7 million acres of coastal wetlands and 37 percent of the esutraine marsh in the coterminous U.S. The coastal area is the nations' largest drainage basin and drains about 41 percent of the contiguous United States into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate of 470,000 cubic feet per second. New Orleans is a consolidated city-paris located along the Mississippi River with a population of 383,997. It is a city of the most populous city in the state of Louisiana. Being part of the Gulf Coast region of America, it has a large cultural influence in overall American society. The Mississippi Delta (found in Mississippi, parts of Arkansas, and parts of Louisiana) represent a key part of Southern culture too. Planters are found in the region. Many black and white Americans came to sell timber in the land. Also, Chinese families, Italian Americans, Latinos, and other people lived in the Delta too. It has been a region where black Americans fought poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and other evil actions done by Jim Crow apartheid. Jim Crow apartheid was backed by the U.S. government back then too. African Americans fought hard to make the Civil Rights of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to be a realities. The Mayor of New Orleans now is the Democratic leader LaToya Cantrell. New Orleans also have 169.42 square miles in land and 180.43 square miles in water. Since New Orleans is located in the Mississippi River Delta, south of Lake Pontchartrain, on the banks of the Mississippi River, it is heavily close ot large bodies of water. There is a levee system done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with both natural and man-made levees to control flooding in New Orleans. New Orleans has an average elevation of 1 and 2 feet below sea level. Some parts of the city is as high as 20 feet at the base of the river levee in Uptown. Some of the city is as low as 7 feet below sea level. There is a debate on the reason for the magnitude of the subsidence potentially caused by the draining of the natural marsh in the New Orleans area and southeast Louisiana. The culture of New Orleans deals with music, foods, black American culture, Afro-Caribbean culture, French culture, Spanish culture, and cultures from all people. Native American culture is found in New Orleans too as the Choctaw, Houma, and other Native Americans tribes originally lived in the region. New Orleans has always been an epicenter of Creole music, Zydeco music, Jazz, and Delta blues. New Orleans perfected the dishes of gumbo, etoufee, jambalaya, crawfish, chicory, beignets, and red beans and rice. Some of the greatest restaurants on Earth reside in New Orleans with a lot of hospitality and delicious cuisines.
After the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., the history of Christianity expands rapidly. There was the Kingdom of Askum (found in modern day Ethiopia and Eritrea) by 325 A.D. declaring Christianity as the official state region, becoming the 2nd country to do so. Constantine allowed the building of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in the same year. Later, the union of church and state by Constantine grows by Constantine the Great allowing Bishop Sylvester I of Rome to consecrate the Basilica of St. Peter over the tomb of Apostle Peter in 326 A.D. Later, Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, first cite the modern 27 book New Testament canon form 328 to 373 A.D. Constantine in 330 dedicated the Old Church of the Holy Apostles. Constantine in 321 commissioned his ally Eusebius to deliver 50 Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Later, the Council in Jerusalem in 335 did the wrong thing to reverse the Nicaea's condemnation of Arius. This council consecrates the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Mirian III of Iberia (in modern day Georgia) adopted Christianity in 337, Shiphur II persecuted Persian Christians from 341 to 379, and the Council of Sedica have canons confirmed by Bishop Julius of Rome in 343 A.D. Julius Firmicus Maternus existed in 350 A.D. promoted his astrology. In 350 A.D., the Codex Sinaticus was created along with the Alexandrian text type. Ulfilas or an Arian was the apostle to the Goths, and he translated the Greek NT to the Gothic language. The Comma Johanneum was promoted, and the School of Nisibis was founded in 350 A.D. The rise of Arians continued. Then, the Julian the Apostate was the last non-Christan Roman Emperor in 360 A.D. The Council of Laodocea existed form 363 to 364 A.D. that called anathema for Christians who rest on the Sabbath, disputed Canon of 60 named 26 books (excluded Revelation). It is important to not that this council is wrong as we aren't to judge if a Christians rests on the Sabbath or not and the book of Revelation is part of the New Testament. There was the views of the Donatists too by this time. Donatists wanted Christian clergy to be faultless for their ministry to be effectives and their payers to be valid. Many Berbers accepted Donatism. Augustine opposed the views of Donatists. Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica to make Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire in February 27, 380. He was baptized on November 24, 380. The First Council of Constantinople in 381 mentioned that Jesus had a true human soul. By the end of the 300's, the Biblical canon is set. Saint Ninian evangelizes Picts in Scotland. The Vulgate Bible form Jerome was made in 400, the Ethiopic Bible in Ge'ez was made with 81 book, part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, and the Peshitta Bible was made in Syriac by 400 A.D.
The Visigoths sack Rome by Alaric and others. The heretic Council of Ephesus was right to repudiate Nestorianism, but falsely claimed that Mary was the Mother of God when the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existed before the birth of Mary. The Persian Church rejected this council and promoted the Nestorian view. By 432, Patrick started his mission in Ireland. By the time of Patrick's death, almost all of Ireland became Christian. Bishop Leo the Great of Rome stopped Attalia the Hun in Rome, issued Tome in support of the Hypostatic Union, approved Council of Chalcedon but rejected canons in 453. The heretic Second Council of Ephesus called Jesus divine but not human. There was the 451 A.D. Council of Chalcedon declared Jesus being a Hypostatic Union of being human and divine in essence (or the Chalecdonian Creed). This view was rejected by some in the Oriental Orthodoxy. The sack of Rome came by the Vandals. The Armenian Church split from East and Western church. Bishop Gelasius I of May 13, 405 called himself the blasphemous title of Vicar of Christ. By 496 A.D, Germanic peoples start to conquer much of Europe in a greater level as Clovis I, who was the King of the Franks, was baptized. Rival bishop of Rome exist. License was promoted. Boethius, a Christian philosophie wrote literature. There were climate changes, and by 538 A.D., Byzantine general Belsiarius defeated the last Arian Kingdom, so Western Europe was completely part of post-Nicene Christianity. There was the plague of Justinian by 541-542 A.D, and Justinian condemned Origen. There were many issues in the church. The crucifix was introduced by 550 A.D, and St. David converts Wales. The Second Council of Constantinople or the 5th ecumenical existed in 553 A.D. called by Justinian. Columbia goes to Scotland to evangelize the Picts, and form a monstery in Iona. By 589, the Visigoths convert from Arianism to Trinitarian Christianity. The Filouqe clause is added to the Nicene Creed. Bishop Gregory the Great of Rome promoted the Gregorian chant and the seven deadly sins. By 606 A.D., the church of Rome claims its Bishop Phocas to be the Universal Bishop or the Pope, leader of all Christians on it which is false.
BET or Black Entertainment Television has its 45th year anniversary. It has been through ups and downs, but at its core, it is one important institution being part of black history and black culture. I have watched BET for a long time now. Almost 70 million households have access to the channel. BET started by Robert L. Johnson and Sheila Johnson. Robert L. Johnson was a lobbyist for the cabinet industry. He was a Freeport, Illinois native. Later, he wanted to form his own cable television network. Johnson acquired a loan for $15,000 (equivalent to $55,648 in 2023) and a $500,000 (equivalent to $1,854,921 in 2023) investment from media executive John Malone to start the network. The network, which was named Black Entertainment Television (BET), launched on January 25, 1980. Cheryl D. Miller designed the logo that would represent the network, which featured a star to symbolize "Black Star Power." Back then, BET had broadcasting for 2 hours a week as a block of programming on The Madison Square Garden Sports Network (it would change their name to USA Network three months after BET launched). The BET network was originally made up of music videos and reruns of popular black sitcoms.
In 1983, BET became a full-fledged entity, independent of any other channel or programming block, though continuing to share channel space with other cable networks on local cable systems due to lack of channel room for their 24-hour schedule until the time of digital cable allowed for larger channel capacity. In some markets, the network would not arrive at all until as late as the early 2010s and Viacom considered it compulsory in retransmission consent negotiations to carry the BET-branded networks with Viacom Media Networks, due to some providers claiming that there was an overall lack of demand for the channel, or excused their lack of interest in BET due to an alleged low to non-existent Black American population within their service area.
BET launched a news program, BET News, in 1986, with Paul Berry as its first anchor. Berry was also a local anchor at WJLA-TV in Washington, DC at that time. Ed Gordon became anchor in 1988. Gordon later hosted other programs and specials on BET, such as For Black Men Only: The Aftermath, related to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and a recurring interview show, Conversations with Ed Gordon. In 1996, the talk show BET Tonight started with Tavis Smiley as host; in 2001, Ed Gordon replaced Smiley as host of the program.
In 1991, the network became the first black-controlled television company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Starting the late 1990s, the network expanded with the launch of digital cable networks: what is now the general interest channel BET Her was initially launched as "BET on Jazz" (later known as "BET Jazz", "BET J", and "Centric"), created initially to showcase jazz music-related programming, especially that of black American jazz musicians. In 1997, BET entered into a joint venture with Starz (then-owned by John Malone's Liberty Media, but later acquired by Lionsgate years later) to launch a multiplex service of the premium channel featuring black American-oriented films called "BET Movies: Starz! 3" (later renamed "Black Starz" after BET dropped out of the venture following its purchase by Viacom, then-owner of Starz rival Showtime, and now known as "Starz InBlack"). You can make the case that Black Entertainment Network reached its first peak during the 1990s with diverse programming and inspirational content.
Everything would change in the year of 2000. In 2000, media conglomerate Viacom (later to become part of Paramount Global) purchased BET for $2.3 billion. In 2005, Johnson retired from the network, turning over his titles of president and chief executive officer to former BET vice president Debra L. Lee. In 2002, the network had launched two more music-oriented networks: BET Hip-Hop and BET Gospel. BET also launched a series of original programming by this time, including reality shows Baldwin Hills and Hell Date, competition show Sunday Best, and town hall-style discussion show Hip Hop vs. America. BET's president of entertainment Reginald Hudlin resigned from the network on September 11, 2008. He was then replaced by Stephen Hill, who is also executive vice president of music programming and talent.
During the 2000s and beyond, BET has been heavily criticized by many black people of perpetuating anti-black negative stereotypes on shows and other content. These critics have been numerous like Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, journalist George Curry, writer Keith Boykin, comic book creator Christopher Priest, filmmaker Spike Lee, Syracuse University professor of finance Dr. Boyce Watkins, former NFL player Burgess Owens, and cartoonist Aaron McGruder (who, in addition to numerous critical references throughout his series The Boondocks, made two particular episodes, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show", criticizing the channel). As a result, BET heavily censors suggestive content from the videos that it airs, often with entire verses and scenes removed from certain rap videos.
Following the death of civil rights leader Coretta Scott King in 2006, BET broadcast its regularly scheduled music video programming, rather than covering King's funeral live, as was done by TV One and Black Family Channel, and by cable news channels such as CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. The network's website streamed the funeral live, while it periodically broadcast taped, 60-second reports from the funeral by senior news correspondent Andre Showell. Michael Lewellen, BET's senior vice president for corporate communications, defended the decision: "We weighed a number of different options. In the end, we chose to offer a different kind of experience for BET viewers." Lewellen also explained that BET received around "two dozen" phone calls and "a handful" of emails criticizing BET for not showing the King funeral live. On the evening of the funeral, February 7, 2006, BET broadcast the tribute special Coretta Scott King: Married to the Mission, and repeated it the following Sunday, February 12. Showell hosted the program featuring highlights of the funeral, Coretta Scott King: Celebrating Her Spirit, that broadcast that same day. In its 2007 convention, the National Association of Black Journalists gave BET its "Thumbs Down Award" for not broadcasting King's funeral live.
The New York Times reported that the Reverend Delman L. Coates and his organization Enough is Enough led protests every weekend outside the residences of BET executives against what they claim are negative stereotypes of black people perpetuated by BET music videos. Enough is Enough backed an April 2008 report titled The Rap on Rap by the Parents Television Council that criticized BET's rap programming, suggesting that the gratuitous sexual, violent and profane content was targeting children and teens.
In a 2010 interview, BET co-founder Sheila Johnson explained that she herself is "ashamed" of what the network has become. "I don't watch it. I suggest to my kids that they don't watch it," she said. "When we started BET, it was going to be the Ebony magazine on television. We had public affairs programming. We had news... I had a show called Teen Summit, we had a large variety of programming, but the problem is that then the video revolution started up... And then something started happening, and I didn't like it at all. And I remember during those days we would sit up and watch these videos and decide which ones were going on and which ones were not. We got a lot of backlash from recording artists...and we had to start showing them. I didn't like the way women were being portrayed in these videos."
BET announced in March 2010 that Ed Gordon would return to the network to host "a variety of news programs and specials."
In March 2017, president of programming Stephen Hill and executive vice president of original programming Zola Mashariki both stepped down. Connie Orlando, senior vice president of Specials, Music Programming, and News was named the interim president of programming. In July 2017, Viacom signed new film and television development deals with Academy Award winner Tyler Perry following the expiration of his existing pact with Discovery Inc. in 2019. As part of this deal, Perry would produce The Oval and Sistas for BET and co-own the network's newly launched streaming service, BET+. Over many years, BET had created spin off cable networks. There is now BET Her (formerly known as "BET on Jazz", then "BET J" and later "Centric"), BET Hip-Hop, and BET Gospel. Overtime, spin-offs from sibling channels would be realigned under the BET branding; such as BET Jams (formerly known as "MTV Jams"), BET Soul (formerly known as "VH1 Soul"), SHO×BET, a premium Showtime multiplex network, and VH1 (an older-skewing spin-off of MTV that drifted into reality shows and, later, Black American-centric programming).
In May 2019, a BET-branded channel was launched on Pluto TV (which was acquired by its parent company two months earlier). In June 2019, the launch of BET+ was announced, a premium streaming service targeting Black Americans. The service launched in the United States in Fall 2019 with First Wives Club (which was originally planned to launch on Paramount Network before being shifted to BET) announced as one of the service's original series. There is BET International too. There is BET France.
I think one of the greatest comebacks of BET was when it released the TV miniseries movies were The New Edition Story and The Bobby Brown Story. The New Edition Story was released from January 24-26, 2017. The American biographical three part ministries was about the R&B group New Edition that went from a boy band from the Orchard Park Projects of Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts to be a very successful adult music group. All six members of New Edition served as co-producers. BET leaders Stephen Hill and Debra Lee were producers of the project. The movie was written by Abdul Williams and directed by Chris Robinson. The film's premiere was watched by 4.2 million viewers, making it BET's most watched premiere since the 2012 season premiere of the sitcom The Game, which drew 5.2 million. The second and final episodes brought in 3.96 million and 4.23 million viewers respectively, making the miniseries the top rated cable program for three consecutive nights. The New Edition Story was excellent, realistic, and emotional. It was one of the greatest black TV biopics of all time like The Jacksons: An American Dream, The Temptations, and The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel. The New Edition Story won NAACP Image Awards and Black Reel Awards. Since 2017, BET is a mixture of both inspirational shows and controversial shows. Tyler Perry has a great power in BET in terms of his content shown in BET. The BET Awards still goes on since 2001 and the BET Hip Hop Awards still exists since 2006. There is the Soul Train Music Awards and the NAACP Image Awards existing on BET too. The Game, Celebrity Family Feud, Average Joe, Zatima, Sisters, and other shows still exist in BET. Yet, there is less news-oriented programming and programming dealing with real social issues (except during election time). Therefore, the legacy of BET is that it went through its infancy, its Golden Age from the late 1990s to 2000, its more criticized phrase from 2000 to 2010, and its attempt at a renaissance since 2010 with new school shows and specials. We hope for the best for BET in being better. Black Entertainment Network is part of our black American history, and our goal is to always inspire us to grow in excellence filled with determination and humbleness.
By Timothy
