Special to the NNPA from the AFRO-American newspapers Former Harvard University law professor and civil rights activist Derrick Bell died Oct. 5 from carcinoid cancer. He was 80. “From his work on the front lines of legal argument in the civil rights movement to his path-breaking teaching and scholarship on civil rights and racial justice issues, professor Derrick Bell inspired and challenged generations of ...

(Dewey Alfred Shanks) July 10, 1941 – Sept. 9, 2011 Chimba Kambon Omari was born in Detroit on July 10, 1941, the only child of Catherine and Dewey Shanks. Chimba attended Northern High School and graduated from Wilbur Wright High School where he played both basketball and football. He enjoyed all sports including tennis, ice hockey and lacrosse. Chimba often bragged about his younger days at the pool hall ...

Rosie Bell Gross, 99, died peacefully at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, on the morning of Sept. 7, 2011. The mother of the late Charles Kelly, founding publisher of the Michigan Citizen, Rosie was a long time Muskegon resident who moved to Detroit in 2000 from Kokomo, Ind. A talented seamstress, Rosie loved to create hats and wore them with flair. She worked in a school cafeteria, in private homes, and was ...

Abner McWhorter III was born on June 14, 1970 in Detroit to his loving parents, Sharon and Abner McWhorter. Abner was an all-around athlete and football star at St. Florian High School in Hamtramck, where he graduated from. Abner McWhorter III, 41, was a multitalented visionary and self-taught entrepreneur with great humility. He began his first business venture at the age of 11, selling candy at school. Ev ...

Annie Lee Eberhart, lovingly known as “Mama House,” was born May 11, 1912, but according to Mississippi Vital Records she was born in 1908, in Grenada, Miss., as the fifth child of 10 under the union of Archie Lucky Watts and Corrine Watts, who preceded her in death. She accepted Christ at an early age and moved to Detroit in the 1930s. Ann met and married John Eberhart, who preceded her in death, and joine ...

World-renowned and beloved Detroit artist/poet David Blair joined the ancestors July 23, two months before his 44th birthday. Blair contributed his award-winning artistry to Detroit and the world community through poetry, songwriting, musical instruments, writing, teaching and activism. He was a 2010 Callaloo Fellow, National Poetry Slam Champion, recording artist and author of the recently-released book of ...

Charles Douglas Waterman was born Feb. 8, 1943 to parents James and Daisy Waterman in Detroit. His birth mother died of Tuberculosis when he was only 5 years old. He was reared and cared for until the end of his life by his Earth Mother, Margaret Waterman, also known as Rae’Rae’. His dad, James, known as Jimmy, preceded him in death. Additionally, Charles’ sisters Wilma Douglas and Barbara Reid and brother, ...

Longtime public servant, political consultant passes away at 55 Native Detroiter worked with city, county and many of the state’s political hopefuls DETROIT — Gerard Grant Phillips, a longtime public servant and political consultant with a larger-than-life personality, died Sunday, May 8 at Detroit Receiving Hospital due to complications from pneumonia. He was 55. Over the course of a 35-year career, Philli ...

Robert A. Shakir was born May 30, 1915 in Ensley, Alabama to the late Henry and Amanda Jarvis. Robert was one of eighteen children; sixteen of whom proceeded him in death. Today, only one sister remains, Viola W. White of Akron, Ohio. They were a close knit family, yet each lived in different states. Truly a person of high standards, Bob loved to read, study, fish, hunt and was an avid gardener. Maybe you t ...

Juanita M. Shakir was born July 18, 1926 in Smithville, Georgia to the late Clarence and Maggie (Thomas) Raines. Juanita was one of seventeen children; sixteen of whom preceded her in death. At age seventeen, she moved to Detroit, married and was raising three sons. After divorcing, she began working in the restaurant industry as a cook. While cooking at a diner, she met Robert A. Shakir who introduced her ...