Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Moving my mic back.
Speaker 1: You're like that.
Speaker 3: You can strikes with waters from headquarters behind him and
Speaker 3: the line.
Speaker 2: If you're just tuned it in the civic exich for
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Ramsay's job, Rams' job, I am q ward.
Speaker 1: You guys are listening to CIVI excited.
Speaker 2: Does indeed stick around? We still got a lot more
Speaker 2: show in stow for you. We're gonna be talking about
Speaker 2: the U Order Department of Education be ashamed of them,
Speaker 2: So we're gonna be talking about that they in short,
Speaker 2: I don't think that, uh, the education of African American
Speaker 2: studies has any educational value, and so we're gonna break
Speaker 2: that down. And we're also going to be spending some
Speaker 2: time talking about a gentleman by the name of Bo
Speaker 2: Diddley for our way Black history fact. For those of
Speaker 2: you who are are fans of rock and roll music
Speaker 2: or blues or any of that sort of stuff, we're
Speaker 2: going to show you the black origins of certainly rock
Speaker 2: and roll. I'm sure that you can actually tell about
Speaker 2: the blues. But before we get there, let's talk about
Speaker 2: becoming a better ally. Baba Baba. So today's b a
Speaker 2: Ba is sponsored by major Threads for the finest in
Speaker 2: quality menswear, check out major threads dot com. Todays Bobba
Speaker 2: comes from Black Enterprise and the headline reads. One of
Speaker 2: the nation's largest mutual fund companies, Fidelity Investments, is pledging
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty million dollars to help as many
Speaker 2: as fifty thousand Black, Latin X, and historically underserved students
Speaker 2: go to college. So the Boston based firm is making
Speaker 2: the commitment via a fresh social impact initiative, Impact on
Speaker 2: All Left My Team initiative, known as invest in My
Speaker 2: Education for over the next five years, will include providing
Speaker 2: students with scholarships and mentorships. It will focus on boosting
Speaker 2: college graduation rates, helping students finish school with no debt,
Speaker 2: and providing assistance and obtaining well paying jobs after college.
Speaker 2: The support is truly needed. Fidelity disclosed that just twenty
Speaker 2: one percent of Black students who start college graduate within
Speaker 2: four years versus forty five percent of white students. Moreover,
Speaker 2: the company revealed that black and Latin X students accumulate
Speaker 2: twenty five thousand more in student debt than their white peers.
Speaker 2: To help combat some of the disparity, Fidelity is joining
Speaker 2: with United Negro College Fund, which calls itself the nation
Speaker 2: student's largest and most effective education organization. With the gift,
Speaker 2: UNCF revealed it has gained the largest philanthropic corporate gift
Speaker 2: in its seventy eight year history from Bidelli Investments to
Speaker 2: launch the Fidelity Scholars Program. The UNCF reported Fidelity is
Speaker 2: donating one hundred and ninety million to UNCF as part
Speaker 2: of the company's two hundred and fifty million dollars initiative.
Speaker 2: And I think that this is very important because education
Speaker 2: is often seen as elitist, and this is kind of
Speaker 2: leveling the playing field and getting some more folks out there.
Speaker 2: So we applaud that that absolutely is an example of
Speaker 2: becoming a better ally. So shout out to Fidelity Investments. Now,
Speaker 2: from a bright moment in education to a a little
Speaker 2: bit darker moment, Florida Department of Education has declined to
Speaker 2: include an African American African sorry Advanced Placement African American
Speaker 2: Studies course proposed by the College Board in schools. This
Speaker 2: article comes from binnews dot com and before we get
Speaker 2: into it, what are your early thoughts or what were
Speaker 2: your early thoughts when you first heard about this and
Speaker 2: the why.
Speaker 1: You and I have discussed the very very rapid and
Speaker 1: dramatic temperature change in overt racism post the election of
Speaker 1: our former president, and I saw hundreds of thousands, millions
Speaker 1: of black people arguing for overt racism's place in today's culture,
Speaker 1: in today's ecosystem, as something they preferred. I like it
Speaker 1: for our racist to wear it on their chests and
Speaker 1: say it with their chests and let us know how
Speaker 1: they really feel. And I've always pushed back on that
Speaker 1: right because the actual outcomes matter more than the performative part.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So if being ashamed of being racist means you treat
Speaker 1: my children nicer just so people will think you're not racist,
Speaker 1: then I prefer that I don't need to know your
Speaker 1: true colors. If the world I live in is better
Speaker 1: because you're faking it, I don't live with you. I'm
Speaker 1: not in your home, so you're allowed to keep those private, dangerous,
Speaker 1: bigoted thoughts to yourself with everyone now wearing it more
Speaker 1: on their chest. I think I spoke to you off
Speaker 1: air about the idea that there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who part of their not just social identity, but
Speaker 1: professional identity, is that they're decent. So to protect their pocketbooks,
Speaker 1: they got to pretend to be decent people, or at
Speaker 1: least they used to, because something like this would have
Speaker 1: never been something that we even considered having to cover
Speaker 1: in news, because those people would have understood how flagrantly
Speaker 1: and overtly racist it would be to say what they said,
Speaker 1: to say what they said, and to have something like
Speaker 1: this make the news, they be too embarrassed. Nobody's embarrassed anymore.
Speaker 2: They're standing on it.
Speaker 1: They're standing again and stand to lose nothing because their
Speaker 1: supporters now feel more inclined and more emboldened to support
Speaker 1: these types loud views and express these types views out loud.
Speaker 1: This governor in a state that is extremely diverse can
Speaker 1: come out and with a straight face tell people that
Speaker 1: there is no scholastic or educational value in African American study,
Speaker 1: that's the most hurtful thing, and have a whole governing
Speaker 1: body stand behind in him and support it. And I'd
Speaker 1: be willing to bet that there were minorities involved in
Speaker 1: this decision. I'd be willing to bet that blindly, you know, I.
Speaker 2: If I were to accept that, it would be very
Speaker 2: easy because, as we've seen in the first part, of
Speaker 2: the show when we were talking about the five officers
Speaker 2: that ended the life of I think his name is
Speaker 2: Tyree Nichols. They were all black. All five of those
Speaker 2: officers ended that black child's life. Six black people involved.
Speaker 2: So absolutely I could totally see this board, you know,
Speaker 2: parroting these what we believe to be white supremacist sentiments
Speaker 2: and really espousing these ideals. And again, I think that
Speaker 2: the thing that's so hurtful about this is that they
Speaker 2: say it has no educational value. That part is really hurtful.
Speaker 2: So again I mentioned that I had a conversation, a
Speaker 2: very meaningful conversation earlier in the week with a person
Speaker 2: that I feel deserves way more of a stage than
Speaker 2: he already has, and he's got a huge stage, Anthony Browner.
Speaker 2: Once upon a time at our old station where we
Speaker 2: Q and I used to work, I'd go into the
Speaker 2: the program director's office. I was a music director, So
Speaker 2: I'd go in the office at the end of the
Speaker 2: day and I would program the logs for the next day.
Speaker 2: I was a music director, meaning that I basically scheduled
Speaker 2: the order in which the songs played. Surprise supplies. You know,
Speaker 2: they don't take your requests oh, I shouldn't say that anyway.
Speaker 2: Some Yeah, sometimes sometimes you can get a request in,
Speaker 2: but for the most part, it's predetermined anyway. So I
Speaker 2: would go in there and I'd spend some time, put
Speaker 2: a lot of thought into this, and it would take
Speaker 2: some time, and I would listen to these lectures. I
Speaker 2: would listen to these people, these great thinkers, these really
Speaker 2: educated folks, Anthony Browner being one of them. And I
Speaker 2: realized that I was either not educated or miseducated. I
Speaker 2: was given an alternative version of reality. In fact, I
Speaker 2: still know things that aren't entirely true. And I learned
Speaker 2: that in my conversation recently with it. And so I
Speaker 2: personally began to appreciate the value of a full education,
Speaker 2: an education that included African history as human history, as
Speaker 2: world history, an education that included African American history as
Speaker 2: American history. Right, because it's it's crazy. How do you
Speaker 2: tell the story of the United States. Well, we were
Speaker 2: being oppressed by you know, the King of England. You know,
Speaker 2: they were taxing us and not we didn't have any representation,
Speaker 2: and then we did the Boston Tea Party, and then
Speaker 2: you know the the you know, you know the story you.
Speaker 1: Know, lack of religious freedom, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is you know, a lot of a
Speaker 2: lot of things go into this. So basically, we're trying
Speaker 2: as a country, or as we started off as a
Speaker 2: series of colonies, but we were trying to gain our independence, right, U,
Speaker 2: gain some autonomy, be self determined. And you know, this
Speaker 2: fighting spirit is indeed written into the story of this country,
Speaker 2: right but when you break it down a little further,
Speaker 2: for black people, that wasn't true. And we're still trying
Speaker 2: to make it true day and day after day, year
Speaker 2: after year, decade after decade. We're still inching forward. Would
Speaker 2: love to feel as free as that rich white man
Speaker 2: that we always talk about seems to be.
Speaker 1: It is. You couldn't see it. But as you were
Speaker 1: saying that, I just got chills. And the reason why,
Speaker 1: as I've been trying to figure out how to say
Speaker 1: something for as long as we've been doing this show,
Speaker 1: and really for as long as I've been having these thoughts,
Speaker 1: and I think you just helped me get there. I
Speaker 1: do not think there is a more determined people to
Speaker 1: be a part of this country's history and what it celebrates.
Speaker 1: In black people, we really, really, really really really are
Speaker 1: proud Americans, like insanely so, considering our history with this
Speaker 1: country and everything that stands for and everything that it
Speaker 1: was built on. But we are the single most determined people,
Speaker 1: I think, in the history of the world to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the teachings and beliefs of a country that has essentially,
Speaker 1: for most of its history not just undervalued and underappreciated us,
Speaker 1: but abused us. And we somehow still really, really, really
Speaker 1: want to be proud Americans. We do not want to
Speaker 1: seek our revenge, We do not want to overthrow the place.
Speaker 1: We just want to like all those words that you
Speaker 1: guys didn't mean about us when you were writing Constitution,
Speaker 1: when you were writing the villain Rights, when you were
Speaker 1: writing the Pledge of Allegiance, when you were writing all
Speaker 1: these beautiful things that we sing and memorize and recite.
Speaker 1: Even though we now realize you were not talking about us,
Speaker 1: we still hope one day we're going to wake up
Speaker 1: and you guys are gonna be like, Okay, you guys too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it, that's it. Yeah, that's funny that you said that.
Speaker 1: That is a really that's a pretty low bar. It's
Speaker 1: both awesome and so crushingly different. Yeah, and I didn't
Speaker 1: mean to cut you off. I'm saying that. I'm just like.
Speaker 2: Wow, man, like well, I think that that that makes
Speaker 2: the point, because you know, their worry has historically been
Speaker 2: with the whole conversation about CRT or really American history
Speaker 2: and whether or not that should be taught in classrooms there.
Speaker 2: Their whole conversation has been about it, let's be honest,
Speaker 2: centering the feelings of white children and the expense of
Speaker 2: everyone else, of white children's parents.
Speaker 1: Ooh, that way they say, it's about the children, It's
Speaker 1: about their parents who have to answer those questions and
Speaker 1: speak to those feelings that their intelligent children will have
Speaker 1: when they hear those stories. Sure, they're not going to
Speaker 1: assume culpability and feel guilty themselves. They're gonna feel hurt,
Speaker 1: They're gonna want questions to answer it. They're gonna feel empathy,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have to teach that out of them,
Speaker 1: and they don't want that. I think the word they
Speaker 1: use is indoctrinated. They think that these teachers will doctrinate
Speaker 1: their their children to want to rise up and be
Speaker 1: good people. Yes, but that's not the words of activist
Speaker 1: good people. They don't want their children to become activist rooms.
Speaker 1: That's funny. Well, I think that, uh, you know again
Speaker 1: that that kind of proves the point. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you educate people, young people, especially about African American history,
Speaker 1: black history in this country, and indeed African history by itself,
Speaker 1: and you teach it all the way thoroughly up to
Speaker 1: present day, then what you're teaching the students is, well,
Speaker 1: these black people, these African and African American people, have
Speaker 1: an incredible resolve.
Speaker 2: They're very diligent. They have been through a lot and
Speaker 2: have not organized to rise up, you know, in mass
Speaker 2: you know, and if that were something that were to happen,
Speaker 2: nobody could really blame them. And yet that's not what
Speaker 2: they want. They're just simply seeking to be counted. They're
Speaker 2: seeking to have a fair go of things. Why is
Speaker 2: my neighbor's house three hundred thousand dollars more than mine
Speaker 2: and it's the same house. I'm black and I live
Speaker 2: here and my neighbor's not black, And if I change
Speaker 2: the family portrait in my house, then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: the value of my house goes up three hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Why is it the black real estate agents make less.
Speaker 2: And we're just talking about one tiny, teeny tiny facet.
Speaker 2: Why is black wealth? Why we're talking about education outcomes?
Speaker 2: Why is education? You know what I mean? And you can't,
Speaker 2: And it's there's so many people that will just accept
Speaker 2: the way the world is because A it doesn't affect them,
Speaker 2: or B they don't know any better. But you know,
Speaker 2: I think that a comforting thought for folks is well,
Speaker 2: that's just how it is. You know, some people are
Speaker 2: better at this, some people are better at that. And
Speaker 2: that's a falsehood because what I often do is compare
Speaker 2: black outcomes across the Atlantic. So are the outcomes for
Speaker 2: African Americans the same as the outcomes for Africans? And
Speaker 2: if so, they you know, Okay, your point is well made,
Speaker 2: But often enough the outcomes are not the same. And
Speaker 2: so what's the difference. Well, these are African Americans and
Speaker 2: these are Africans, so the American part must be the difference.
Speaker 2: So what's going on with the American part that's making
Speaker 2: the African Americans suffer more than the African counterparts? Granted,
Speaker 2: Africa is not in the best shape, but there's different
Speaker 2: ailments in African.
Speaker 1: Countries.
Speaker 2: There's the legacy of colonialism, there's you know, the theft
Speaker 2: and theft really in mass and then bad deals and
Speaker 2: people not honoring and then all kinds of government manipulation,
Speaker 2: British government manipulation that you know, destabilizes the country. And
Speaker 2: then you have left with the continent that looks the
Speaker 2: way it looks now. But you know how the prison
Speaker 2: populations look. You know what I mean, You see what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. So history is very, very important because it
Speaker 2: gives you a framework to understand the world a little
Speaker 2: bit better. Now, I didn't read this article yet, and
Speaker 2: I do need to read it just to you know,
Speaker 2: preserve some journalistic integrity here, So I'll start. According to
Speaker 2: w E s H two News, the FDOE said in
Speaker 2: a letter to College Board that it would not approve
Speaker 2: including ap African American studies into the Florida Course Code
Speaker 2: directory and instructional personnel assignments because quote, the content of
Speaker 2: this course is inexplicably, inexplicably contrary to Florida law. That
Speaker 2: would have been enough. It wouldn't have been enough. But okay,
Speaker 2: but here's where the knife gets twisted and significantly lacks
Speaker 2: educational value. Okay, that's the hurtful part. So my history
Speaker 2: lacks educational value. And mind you, this is an.
Speaker 1: AP course and it's contrary to the law.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I get that. That's you know, you fight
Speaker 2: some battles, you lose some battles. What are you going
Speaker 2: to do? Right, But then to go ahead and insult
Speaker 2: the educational value of our history is a slap in
Speaker 2: the face. You know. As a matter of fact, our
Speaker 2: way black history facts should have been about that that
Speaker 2: beach in Florida where only blacks could that was the
Speaker 2: only beach in Florida where black people could go and swim.
Speaker 2: In fact, I'll do that, and that'll show you just
Speaker 2: how racist Florida has been in the past. And this
Speaker 2: obviously shows that Florida is still, at least in these
Speaker 2: pockets of power, tenuous power, how racist it still can be.
Speaker 2: And I was making a point. This is an AP course,
Speaker 2: so those for those familiar, AP is not kindergarten, it's
Speaker 2: not first grade, it's not second grade. AP is advanced placement,
Speaker 2: I believe is the is what it's abbreviated for. I
Speaker 2: I took AP courses in high school. It was a
Speaker 2: long time ago, but all right, I'll finish reading or
Speaker 2: I'll continue reading rather. The AP African American Studies course
Speaker 2: was limited this academic year in sixty schools across the nation.
Speaker 2: Per the College Board website, the course intends to introduce
Speaker 2: high school students to African American studies and includes a
Speaker 2: curriculum that covers literature, geography, and more. Here's a quote.
Speaker 2: Drawing from expertise and experience of college faculty and teachers
Speaker 2: across the country, the course is designed to offer high
Speaker 2: school students an evidence based introduction to African American studies.
Speaker 2: The description of the course reads, per College Board quote,
Speaker 2: the interdisciplinary course reaches into a variety of fields literature,
Speaker 2: the arts and humanities, political science, geography, and more science
Speaker 2: to explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans.
Speaker 2: During the twenty twenty three twenty four academic school year,
Speaker 2: the pilot is expected to be implemented in hundreds of
Speaker 2: schools before all institutions can start offering the course in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four to twenty five. The first AP exams
Speaker 2: are set to be administered in the spring of twenty
Speaker 2: twe twenty five, following the FDE blocking the African American
Speaker 2: Studies course. College Board issued the following statement quote, Like
Speaker 2: all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing
Speaker 2: a rigorous multi year pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars,
Speaker 2: and policymakers. The process of piloting and revising course frameworks
Speaker 2: is standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks
Speaker 2: changed significantly as a result. We look forward to publicly
Speaker 2: releasing the updated course framework as soon as it is
Speaker 2: completed and well before this class is widely available in
Speaker 2: American high schools. In its letter to college Board, the
Speaker 2: FDOE wrote, in the future, should College Board be willing
Speaker 2: to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content,
Speaker 2: FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion. Okay, So, basically,
Speaker 2: they spent years with some of the most prominent educators
Speaker 2: in this country developing in this curriculum, They piloted it
Speaker 2: to see if it were works, and then when they
Speaker 2: took it to Florida, Florida says it lacks significant education
Speaker 2: or sorry, significantly lacks educational value, and then later says
Speaker 2: that the content was historically inaccurate. In other words, if
Speaker 2: you come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate
Speaker 2: content will resume the conversation, so that lets me.
Speaker 1: Know they and still ultimately till you know, yes and
Speaker 1: we're empowered to do so.
Speaker 2: Right, they're going to make it wrong even if it's not.
Speaker 2: They already did that. And I think your point that
Speaker 2: you made was they're doing this right in front of
Speaker 2: everyone's face, not even hiding the fact, and they're adding
Speaker 2: insult to injury. It's like they're mocking us. How dare
Speaker 2: you say?
Speaker 1: And singularly because other ap history classes from other cultures,
Speaker 1: other backgrounds, other migrant cultures that came over to this league,
Speaker 1: talk to them. Those are historical, listory and lawful.
Speaker 2: I did a talk about this again on the Black
Speaker 2: Information Network Daily podcast where I discussed the Holocaust. So
Speaker 2: m hmm, let's talk about this tragedy is a tragedy.
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that I say that I
Speaker 2: do believe that children should know about the Holocaust. I
Speaker 2: believe everybody should know about the Holocaust. It is an
Speaker 2: awful thing that happened, and we need to continue to
Speaker 2: learn from it so that we know how to be
Speaker 2: the best brothers and sisters to our Jewish brothers and
Speaker 2: sisters as we can possibly be A and B. We
Speaker 2: need to know about it so we know how to
Speaker 2: observe the uh makes of a similar event phenomenon taking
Speaker 2: place in the future, so that we can prevent it
Speaker 2: from you know, prevent the systematic extermination of human beings
Speaker 2: for their religious beliefs. Right, it's necessary. It has significant
Speaker 2: educational value. Right, I believe this, Right, so does the
Speaker 2: Florida Department of Education.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Six million. Now, again, I'm not an atrocity is an atrocity,
Speaker 2: and I'm not trying to compare other than to say
Speaker 2: that while that counts in my view and their view
Speaker 2: as significantly having educational value. Also, when you take into
Speaker 2: account the amount of slaves that die just in the
Speaker 2: Middle Passage, I think that was somewhere in the neighborhood
Speaker 2: of eighty million, eighty eighty five million, something like that.
Speaker 2: If that number may not be right, but it's certainly
Speaker 2: more than six million, right, And so that too belongs here,
Speaker 2: And if that were the only thing, that would be it.
Speaker 2: But obviously the rabbit hole goes much deeper. But now
Speaker 2: it's time for the way Black history facts. So let's
Speaker 2: move it on. Today's Way. Black History Fact is sponsored
Speaker 2: by the Black Information Network Daily Podcast and today we
Speaker 2: are pulling from two sources, so we be Rollingstone dot com.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Rolling Stone, they did a nice article
Speaker 2: on us and Blackpast dot org and we are talking
Speaker 2: about Bo Diddley. Sorry, I had a moment shout out
Speaker 2: to Rolling Stone because they did an article on us.
Speaker 2: That's actually shout out. They did do an article on
Speaker 2: this show.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's that's special.
Speaker 1: That's an impossible thing to say out loud, and it'll
Speaker 1: be true. Man, we're doing something special apparently, all right.
Speaker 2: Boxer and singer Bo Didley, whose birth name was Ellis
Speaker 2: Bates McDaniel, was born on December thirtieth, nineteen twenty eight,
Speaker 2: in McComb, Mississippi. He was adopted by his mother's cousin.
Speaker 2: When the mother's husband died in the mid nineteen thirties,
Speaker 2: McDaniel moved her family to Chicago, where young Ellis took
Speaker 2: violin lessons from Professor ol W. Frederick at the Ebenezer
Speaker 2: Missionary Baptist Church. He studied violin for twelve years and
Speaker 2: composed two concertos or concertos. I never know how to
Speaker 2: say that word. In nineteen forty, his sister bought McDaniel
Speaker 2: and acoustic guitar for Christmas. He soon started to play
Speaker 2: the guitar, largely duplicating his actions on the violin. Soon afterwards,
Speaker 2: he formed his first group of three, named the Hipsters
Speaker 2: and later known as the Langley Avenue Jive Cats. I
Speaker 2: Love That. It was during this time that the band
Speaker 2: leaders gave him the nickname Bo Diddley. Didley recorded his
Speaker 2: first single, Bo did Lee Slash I Am a Man
Speaker 2: on March second, nineteen fifty five, on Checkers Records. It
Speaker 2: topped the R and B chart for two weeks. Soon afterward,
Speaker 2: Didley began to tour, performing in schools, colleges, and churches
Speaker 2: across the United States. Regardless of the venue, he taught
Speaker 2: people the importance of respect and education and all the
Speaker 2: dangers of drugs and gang culture. For a young black
Speaker 2: singer and guitarist from Chicago with only a minor hit,
Speaker 2: getting booked on the Ed Sullivan Show in nineteen fifty
Speaker 2: five was a career making opportunity. Sullivan asked him to
Speaker 2: sing Tennessee Eerie Ford's country smash sixteen Tons. Instead, The
Speaker 2: young star unleashed the guitar Maelstrom that introduced him to
Speaker 2: the world and whose title bore his name, Bo Didley.
Speaker 2: The audience went wild, and Sullivan fumed, promising that Diddley
Speaker 2: would never appear on television again. Later, Didley recalled the
Speaker 2: aftermath quote he says to me, you're the first colored
Speaker 2: boy ever double crossed me on a song unquote. And
Speaker 2: I started to hit dude because I was a young
Speaker 2: hoodlum out of Chicago and thought colored boy was an insult. Hey, man,
Speaker 2: you're right about that. Colored boy is an insult, all right.
Speaker 2: Idley was pure masculinity, with songs that shouted his name
Speaker 2: and proclaimed his skills with a cigar box shaped guitar
Speaker 2: he designed himself, a stetson on his head, and a
Speaker 2: sound that permanently reoriented the world's senses of rhythm. Bo
Speaker 2: Diddley called himself the Originator, and when he died at
Speaker 2: age seventy nine on June second from heart Sorry that
Speaker 2: would have been two thousand and eight, from heart failure
Speaker 2: in his home in Archer, Florida, music lost a one
Speaker 2: of a kind pioneer. Bo Diddley was known for many
Speaker 2: new musical styles and innovations. He was one of the
Speaker 2: first musicians of the nineteen fifties to incorporate women musicians,
Speaker 2: including Lady Bo. He hired a full time to play
Speaker 2: all of his stage performances, whereupon she became the first
Speaker 2: female lead guitarist in history to be employed by a
Speaker 2: major act. Also, the usage of special effects like reverb
Speaker 2: and his manipulations of the guitar made him a groundbreaking musician.
Speaker 2: Didley hopped and strutted around stage while playing his guitar,
Speaker 2: over his head, with his teeth, and even between his legs.
Speaker 2: In that regard, he influenced numerous rock musicians from the
Speaker 2: nineteen sixties on, and in nineteen eighty six, Vau Didley
Speaker 2: was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association's Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Then in the following year, he was inducted into the
Speaker 2: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. In nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety six, Didley received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Speaker 2: Rhythm and Blues Foundation in Los Angeles, while the following
Speaker 2: year his nineteen fifty five debut record of his song
Speaker 2: Bo Didley was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
Speaker 2: as a recording of Lasting qualitative or historical significance. Also
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety six, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award
Speaker 2: at the Grammy Awards ceremony. In two thousand, Didley was
Speaker 2: inducted into the Mississippi Museum Musicians Hall of Fame as
Speaker 2: well as the North Florida Music Association's Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: And in seven Didley went to Mississippi to receive the
Speaker 2: Governor's Award for Excellence in Arts for Lifetime Achievement, which
Speaker 2: is the state's highest arts honor. Let's see, and he
Speaker 2: was married four times, and he was survived by his
Speaker 2: five children, fifteen grandchildren, and fifteen great grandchildren and three
Speaker 2: great great grandchildren. And I love this story because and
Speaker 2: the reason that I was kind of prime for the
Speaker 2: story is because I saw a clip on social media
Speaker 2: as a video of Ray Charles, right, and Ray Charles
Speaker 2: was getting interviewed. My older sister actually posted this, So
Speaker 2: shout out to my sister Trudy, and that's your screen
Speaker 2: name if you want to follow her. It's true underscore D. Anyway,
Speaker 2: so this video, a journalist isn't excuse me interviewing Ray Charles,
Speaker 2: and he says something like, you know, Elvis is really good, right,
Speaker 2: Elvis is really good?
Speaker 4: And Ray Charles goes, oh, okay, okay, and the journalist says, whoa, okay, well,
Speaker 4: you know, you tell me what are your thoughts on Elvis?
Speaker 2: And he says, well, Elvis is you know, let's be honest.
Speaker 2: And then effectively, what he says is that Elvis copied
Speaker 2: black music, copied black dance styles, singing styles, you know,
Speaker 2: guitar styles, etc. And just repackaged it for a white audience.
Speaker 2: And that's why he was successful. But that didn't make
Speaker 2: him good. It's not just to say that he was bad,
Speaker 2: but there were certainly a lot of people who were
Speaker 2: better performers, musicians, singers, et cetera. And so for Elvis
Speaker 2: to be celebrated in that way, Ray Charles just couldn't
Speaker 2: really see it, and he was almost insulted. In fact,
Speaker 2: I think he was insulted to be having to have
Speaker 2: this conversation about Elvis Presley when he's Ray Charles, right,
Speaker 2: and from his perspective, you get, it didn't seem like arrogance.
Speaker 2: It seemed like, well, shoot, I never thought of that.
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right, you know, we you know who didn't
Speaker 2: grow up in that time, we look at it like, oh, yeah, Elvis,
Speaker 2: he's like one of the greats, Sure, why not, right,
Speaker 2: But the way he tells it, it's like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 2: he's right, right. And so having that sort of as
Speaker 2: the backdrop for you know, this Bo Diddley story, I
Speaker 2: realized that, you know, it's up to us to make
Speaker 2: those connections, those decidedly black connections to rock and roll,
Speaker 2: to everything that was black, because you know, we need
Speaker 2: to give credit where credit is due. We need to
Speaker 2: highlight our contributions to this country in entertainment and in
Speaker 2: every other space because they're often overlooked, and we need
Speaker 2: to make sure that we celebrate our heroes. And so
Speaker 2: Bo Diddley was the name of the day, and that,
Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen, is your way Black history.
Speaker 1: Fact. That's incredible, nice and neat right. Yeah, I got
Speaker 1: to learn about Bo Diddley as a kid because Bo
Speaker 1: Jackson a very prominent and famous athlete. Part of his
Speaker 1: marketing campaign through Nike was you don't know Bo, and
Speaker 1: then Bo Diddley said, BO don't know Diddley. So it
Speaker 1: was a really good play on words in a way
Speaker 1: of interjecting himself back into the sociular culture and the
Speaker 1: culture I love that well.
Speaker 2: We'd like to thank you once again for tuning in
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