Baltimore Afro American

Langston Hughes(1902-1967)Born in Joplin, MO., Hughes played an important part of the Harlem Renaissance which was thriving in New York in the 1920s and '30s.Hughes said of his poems: they are "to be read aloud, crooned, shouted and sung. None with a faraway voice."Many black academics opposed his depiction of blacks. He defied them further by publishing "The Ways of White Folks."He worked as the Madrid correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American during the Spanish Civil War.-- A Reader's Guide to Twentieth Century Writers

Ralph Dawson Matthews Jr., a former managing editor of the Baltimore Afro-American who worked closely with Malcolm X in the early 1960s and once shared a house with a young Miles Davis, died April 3 at the Adelphi House assisted living facility in Adelphi, Prince George's County. Mr. Dawson died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD. He was 86. "Ralph was always very inquisitive," remembered Harry Peaker, a retired mathematician who grew up with Mr. Matthews in Northwest Baltimore.

Magic School BusChildren won't want to miss the bus on Saturday when the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America presents Scholastic's the Magic School Bus LIVE! "Arnold's Favorite Field Trip." The 65-minute show is based on the book series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen published by Scholastic Inc. and the PBS television show. The Magic School Bus comes alive in this stage show filled with music, learning and fun -- complete with audience participation.In "Arnold's Favorite Field Trip," an ordinary field trip to a bridge dedication ceremony turns into an adventure in Arnold's pantry for the teacher, Ms. Frizzle, her reptilian sidekick, Liz, reluctant 11 Arnold, corny Carlos, bookish Dorothy Ann, curious Keesha and energetic Wanda.

Having just seen the wonderful film, "42," the other day, I, too, was struck by the absence of a mention of the Baltimore Afro-American's Sam Lacy in the sports reporting of such a momentous time in baseball, America's and civil rights history. Your article, "Sam Lacy's son upset by father's absence from '42'" (April 16) reveals Tim Lacy's surprise and hurt by the absence of any mention of his father's name despite all of his reporting as an eyewitness to history with Wendell Smith (the Pittsburgh Courier editor-reporter featured in the movie)

Having just seen the wonderful film, "42," the other day, I, too, was struck by the absence of a mention of the Baltimore Afro-American's Sam Lacy in the sports reporting of such a momentous time in baseball, America's and civil rights history. Your article, "Sam Lacy's son upset by father's absence from '42'" (April 16) reveals Tim Lacy's surprise and hurt by the absence of any mention of his father's name despite all of his reporting as an eyewitness to history with Wendell Smith (the Pittsburgh Courier editor-reporter featured in the movie)

John Stanley Lanier, a retired printer who made daily visits to Druid Hill Park for more than 30 years, died Friday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air of a heart attack. He was 75 and had lived in Northwest Baltimore before moving to Edgewood in 1999. A former printer and Linotype operator for The Boston Globe, The Sun and Baltimore Afro-American, he left the printing business nearly 40 years ago. In the years after World War II, he studied journalism at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

DEAR DELEGATE Rawlings et al:On Thursday, this paper printed a letter from you and eight other members of the House of Delegates objecting to an editorial cartoon that ran March 29. The offending drawing was "outrageous" and "cater[ed] to vile racial stereotypes," you wrote.The cartoon showed Julius Henson and Joan Pratt seemingly embracing in a Sunpapers editorial office as an unsuspecting woman walked in on them. The caption read, "You can't do that in The Sun's editorial offices!" Your letter said that the cartoon "missed the point entirely.

MY LIFE AND TIMES. By Verda F. Welcome as told to James M. Abraham. Henry House Publishers, Englewood, N.J. 310 pages, $19.95. ON A snowy and blustery day, Sen. Verda Freeman Welcome steered her sedan north from Baltimore to Harrisburg, slipping bTC and sliding all the way, terrifying her companion, Del. Lena K. Lee. They were headed for a regional strategy session of black state legislators.The trouble was that when they arrived, shaken but secure, no other out-of-state lawmakers had risked the treacherous trip.

Those students at Doris M. Johnson High School are at it again, and this time they've ventured where few in their generation have ever ventured before. You might have read about DMJ students before, in this column, about this time last year, to be precise. Students then gave presentations on the civil rights movement in Maryland. The site was the Maryland Historical Society. Some of the same students were back again this year, along with a few new ones, giving a presentation they called Collision: People and Events that Shaped the Vietnam Era in Maryland.

In 1921, a Cambridge, Md., court sentenced a white man to three years in prison for the murder of the black supervisor of Dorchester County schools. About the same time in nearby Easton, a one-legged black man got 18 years for knocking down and threatening a white girl. The cases offered a clear example of the racial double standard of the times. But they would have gone unnoticed were it not for the Baltimore Afro-American. "Georgia, with its lynchings and its peonage has little to offer that is more putrid than this miscarriage of justice," the paper said in an editorial.

Those students at Doris M. Johnson High School are at it again, and this time they've ventured where few in their generation have ever ventured before. You might have read about DMJ students before, in this column, about this time last year, to be precise. Students then gave presentations on the civil rights movement in Maryland. The site was the Maryland Historical Society. Some of the same students were back again this year, along with a few new ones, giving a presentation they called Collision: People and Events that Shaped the Vietnam Era in Maryland.

John Stanley Lanier, a retired printer who made daily visits to Druid Hill Park for more than 30 years, died Friday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air of a heart attack. He was 75 and had lived in Northwest Baltimore before moving to Edgewood in 1999. A former printer and Linotype operator for The Boston Globe, The Sun and Baltimore Afro-American, he left the printing business nearly 40 years ago. In the years after World War II, he studied journalism at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

Langston Hughes(1902-1967)Born in Joplin, MO., Hughes played an important part of the Harlem Renaissance which was thriving in New York in the 1920s and '30s.Hughes said of his poems: they are "to be read aloud, crooned, shouted and sung. None with a faraway voice."Many black academics opposed his depiction of blacks. He defied them further by publishing "The Ways of White Folks."He worked as the Madrid correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American during the Spanish Civil War.-- A Reader's Guide to Twentieth Century Writers

Magic School BusChildren won't want to miss the bus on Saturday when the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America presents Scholastic's the Magic School Bus LIVE! "Arnold's Favorite Field Trip." The 65-minute show is based on the book series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen published by Scholastic Inc. and the PBS television show. The Magic School Bus comes alive in this stage show filled with music, learning and fun -- complete with audience participation.In "Arnold's Favorite Field Trip," an ordinary field trip to a bridge dedication ceremony turns into an adventure in Arnold's pantry for the teacher, Ms. Frizzle, her reptilian sidekick, Liz, reluctant 11 Arnold, corny Carlos, bookish Dorothy Ann, curious Keesha and energetic Wanda.

DEAR DELEGATE Rawlings et al:On Thursday, this paper printed a letter from you and eight other members of the House of Delegates objecting to an editorial cartoon that ran March 29. The offending drawing was "outrageous" and "cater[ed] to vile racial stereotypes," you wrote.The cartoon showed Julius Henson and Joan Pratt seemingly embracing in a Sunpapers editorial office as an unsuspecting woman walked in on them. The caption read, "You can't do that in The Sun's editorial offices!" Your letter said that the cartoon "missed the point entirely.

In 1921, a Cambridge, Md., court sentenced a white man to three years in prison for the murder of the black supervisor of Dorchester County schools. About the same time in nearby Easton, a one-legged black man got 18 years for knocking down and threatening a white girl. The cases offered a clear example of the racial double standard of the times. But they would have gone unnoticed were it not for the Baltimore Afro-American. "Georgia, with its lynchings and its peonage has little to offer that is more putrid than this miscarriage of justice," the paper said in an editorial.

Ralph Dawson Matthews Jr., a former managing editor of the Baltimore Afro-American who worked closely with Malcolm X in the early 1960s and once shared a house with a young Miles Davis, died April 3 at the Adelphi House assisted living facility in Adelphi, Prince George's County. Mr. Dawson died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD. He was 86. "Ralph was always very inquisitive," remembered Harry Peaker, a retired mathematician who grew up with Mr. Matthews in Northwest Baltimore.

A listing of commencement exercises held yesterday incorrectly identified Samuel H. Lacy as the speaker at Loyola College. In fact, the longtime Baltimore Afro-American sports editor received an honorary degree. The commencement speaker was Tim Russert, the Washington bureau chief of NBC News and host of "Meet the Press."The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 5/18/97

MY LIFE AND TIMES. By Verda F. Welcome as told to James M. Abraham. Henry House Publishers, Englewood, N.J. 310 pages, $19.95. ON A snowy and blustery day, Sen. Verda Freeman Welcome steered her sedan north from Baltimore to Harrisburg, slipping bTC and sliding all the way, terrifying her companion, Del. Lena K. Lee. They were headed for a regional strategy session of black state legislators.The trouble was that when they arrived, shaken but secure, no other out-of-state lawmakers had risked the treacherous trip.