Well know for her salacious banana dance and bold comedy, Lady Josephine Baker was a revolutionary civil rights activist.

Describing herself, Josephine Baker said “I have never really been a great artist. I have been a human being that has loved art, which is not the same thing. But I have loved and believed in art and the idea of universal brotherhood so much, that I have put everything I have into them, and I have been blessed.” (Ebony report of interview in 1975.)

Shortly after her 11^th birthday, Josephine Baker born as Freda Josephine McDonald survived one of the worst riots in US history in East St. Louis, Missouri.

Lady Josephine was born at a time in history marred by racial segregation and violence that erupted due to white workers feeling threatened by the employment of black workers in factories with government contracts. During the riot, 40 blacks and 8 whites were killed.

After a difficult childhood, she left home at thirteen she began dancing as a street performer with a vaudeville revue company called the Dixie Steppers. The 1920s was a time popularized by parody and satire influenced by the artistry of the Harlem Renaissance.

Most memorable are the performances with the African American theater productions in New York known as Shuffle Along the first all-black Broadway musical created by Baltimore born Eubie Blake and Chocolate Dandies also by the Noble Sissle/Eubie Blake team considered to have composed the first jazz on film.

Disillusioned and hurt by the segregation and racism in American, Lady Josephine left for Paris in 1925 which set in motion her long international career with companies like Revue Nègre, Folies Bergères, and, the Ziegfeld Follies with Bob Hope and Fanny Brice.

Although there were many ups and downs during her career Lady Josephine overcame the limitations imposed by the color of her skin and became a well know star in Paris for most of her adult life.

On the stage her performances were exotic and extroverted expressed through sensual images with outfits which defined her unique boldness like her trademark leopard on a leash, a skirt made of feathers, and a dance in which she wore a string of bananas.

Lady Josephine, known as dancer, theater performer, writer, and civil rights activist was told that she was no longer welcome in the United States due to her efforts to change segregation and how she was treated in white establishments.

As a black woman, she was not allowed to access her room through the lobby of the hotels she stayed in to not offend the white patrons. Once refused service at the famous Stork Club in New York City she renounced her American citizenship and became a citizen of France.

During World War II Josephine Baker worked with the Red Cross, gathered intelligence for the French Resistance and entertained troops in North Africa and the Middle East.

Josephine was decorated for her undercover work for the French Resistance during World War II. As a civil rights activist she refused to perform for segregated audiences and integrated the Las Vegas nightclubs.

She adopted twelve children from around the world whom she called her “Rainbow Tribe.” making her home a World Village, a “showplace for brotherhood.”

She used her fame and influence as an international star to advance civil rights issues during her frequent visits to the United States. In 1951 the NAACP honored her political work by declaring an official Baker Day in Harlem.

A tireless crusader for racial equality in 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington along with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Josephine Baker’s World Village fell apart in the 1950s and in 1969 she was evicted from her chateau which was then auctioned off to pay debts. Princess Grace of Monaco gave her a villa. In 1973 Baker married an American, Robert Brady, and began her stage comeback.

In 1975, Josephine Baker’s Carnegie Hall comeback performance was a success, as was her subsequent Paris performance. But two days after her last Paris performance, she died of a stroke.

The impact Josephine Baker made on the civil-rights era in America gives her a permanent place as one of the most famous expatriates in American history.

Toni Morrison is also known for her first book, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sula and Beloved just to mention a few of those most well known. A Mercy is her ninth novel recently released this fall.

Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, in 1931 in Lorain (Ohio), the second of four children in a black working-class family. Her parents moved to Ohio from the South to escape racism and to find better opportunities in the North.

Toni Morrison is the first black woman to receive Nobel Prize in Literature. Her stories explore the experiences and roles of black women in a racist and male dominated society and celebrates the unique cultural inheritance of African-Americans.

Storytelling is a tradition in the Black family as a way of sharing time together Morrison recalled listening to the older relatives use homespun wisdom when telling tales for hours at family gatherings when she was growing up in Ohio. Morrison’s relatives had her retell the stories she had heard from their mouths, a challenge she said she reveled in, adding her own embellishments to make the stories more outrageous. The stories, many of which she described as violent and “really terrible,” whetted her appetite for books, and to this day influence her writing.

The purpose and mission of African American Family Connection is to continue to honor the tradition of homespun wisdom and telling folktales to transfer the heritage of African Americans to another generation.

Morrison said her storytelling as a child helped her develop a sense of how language and sound work together. “The rhythm in a period or a comma is lifesaving to me.” A Mercy is a story set in the 1680s, the period of 17^th century America when this country’s reliance on slavery as an economic engine was just beginning. A Mercy explores the repercussions of an enslaved mother’s desperate act: She offers her small daughter to a stranger in payment for her master’s debt.

A farmer/trader of Dutch descent, Jacob is said to have owned a few slaves only as a necessity to run his homestead. Jacob is sympathetic towards orphans and waifs because he himself was homeless and learned to survive for himself on the streets running small errands.

There are four women who are the main characters, a Native American enslaved as a servant known as Lina; the main character Florens, the young slave girl resentful of her mother and feeling abandoned for being traded away to pay a debt; a rebellious young woman named Sorrow; and Rebekka, the European mistress, torn by the loss of several infants due to the hardship frontier life.

The act of mercy is when Jacob travels to Maryland to collect debt from a tobacco plantation owner named Senor D’Ortega, and finds out that Senor is broke and has no money to pay off the debt. Senor offers Jacob a thin black girl named Florens, a daughter of one of his slaves, as a partial payment of the debt. Florens’ mother feels that Jacob is a more kind-hearted man than Senor, and pleads with him to give her daughter to Jacob. The mother believes that Florens would have a better life in Jacob’s estate and does this as an act of mercy.

The farmer Jacob dies of smallpox and the wife become ill. If the wife dies too, the women are left to an unknown fate of being exiled and squatter or subject to purchase, hire, assault, or abduction.

Morrison says she wrote the novel in an effort to “remove race from slavery.” She notes that in researching the book, she read White Cargo by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, and was surprised to learn that many white Americans are descended from slaves. “Every civilization in the world relied on slavery,” says Morrison. “The notion was that there was a difference between black slaves and white slaves, but there wasn’t.” White slaves, called indentured servants, were people who traded their freedom for their passage to America.

The diversity of characters in this story represent in large part the diversity of the times we live in today. An Anglo-Dutch farmer, his wife, who was gladly sent away by her father to America which saved him one less mouth to feed; a Native American woman forced to be a servant; a Black woman and her mother locked in fierce love and misunderstanding; and the daughter of a sea captain from an unknown place and a Latin tobacco plantation owner.

A Mercy was released on November 11, the day we received Senator Barack Obama the 44^th President and first African American President of America.

Click here to review this book @ Amazon.com in the AAFC store.

In the world of books, first came hardcover, soft cover, books on tape, and ebooks. Well, get ready because Amazon has just released its new Kindle, a wireless reading device. This revolutionary device allows you to read any book, newspaper, magazine, and blogs effortlessly and without the need for a PC or sync.

According to Amazon, “We designed Kindle to provide an exceptional reading experience. Thanks to electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology, reading Kindle’s screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper—and nothing like the strain and glare of a computer screen.”

“Kindle is also easy on the fingertips. It never becomes hot and is designed for ambidextrous use so both “lefties” and “righties” can read comfortably at any angle for long periods of time. We deliver your content using our own wireless delivery system, Amazon Whispernet. Unlike WiFi, you’ll never need to locate a hotspot. There are no confusing service plans, yearly contracts, or monthly wireless bills—we take care of the hassles so you can just read.”

The Kindle’s features include:
* Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
* Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
* Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
* Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
* More than 115,000 books available, including more than 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
* New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
* Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
* Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
* Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
* More than 300 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN’s Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post—all updated wirelessly throughout the day.
* Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.
* Holds over 200 titles.
* Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.
* Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
* No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.
* Includes free wireless access to the planet’s most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.
* Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.
* Included in the box: Kindle wireless reader, Book cover, Power adapter, USB 2.0 cable
If you are an avid reader, you will love the Kindle with its Whispernet technology. You will be able to take this pocket-sized device wherever you go; whether it’s on a train, bus or plane or while you are sitting in an office waiting to see a doctor or dentist.
In addition, not only will you be able to access any book by entering the name on the Kindle keyboard, but this device also provides a built-in dictionary, access to Wikipedia, and can amplify the font size to make your reading experience more enjoyable.