Lenora Higginbotham, MD, is senior associate in the Department of Neurology at Emory in Atlanta, Georgia and a 2018 Edmond J. Safra Fellowship graduate. From her own personal connection to Parkinson’s, she deeply understands the value of diversity in research to truly grasp disease variability. Dr. Higginbotham’s care for her grandmother, Ruby “Mamere” Higginbotham, sparked her professional curiosity, but also her work to raise awareness for neurological disorders in minority communities:

“As a movement disorder specialist working with minority populations through diversity programs, it’s not just about bringing people into research or giving them the best care. It’s also about making sure these communities have access to information and resources. Drawing parallels from my grandmother’s experience, I’m not sure if race had to do with her delay in diagnosis, but many people in my family had no prior exposure to the disease and we just thought it was old age. Now looking back on it and hearing from minority patient experiences in delayed diagnosis, I’m not surprised.”

https://www.michaeljfox.org/news/mjff-celebrates-black-history-month-community-reflections-representation-parkinsons-research

Clinical Research Training Scholarship in Lewy Body Diseases

Dementia with Lewy bodies (LBD) is the most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, yet there is still no reliable diagnostic test, and many cases are either missed or misdiagnosed. LBD shares similar symptoms found in other brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and can also occur alongside these diseases. A biomarker could help distinguish LBD from these other diseases, but because of the overlap between them, such a diagnostic test will likely require three or more markers.

Dr. Higginbotham’s project will use network-based proteomics, which enables the mapping of complex biological systems, to develop a marker for LBD diagnosis.

This research is funded by The Mary E. Groff Charitable Trust, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the American Brain Foundation, in collaboration with the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Higginbotham is a Senior Associate in Neurology at Emory University.

https://www.americanbrainfoundation.org/lenora-higginbotham/

Dancer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, of Urban Bush Women, wins prestigious Gish Award

A pioneer in the world of dance has been awarded one of the largest cash prizes for artists in the United States.

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar founded the dance ensemble Urban Bush Women in 1984. It was one of the first major dance companies composed entirely of female African-American dancers. Almost immediately, it was a sensation in the dance world. Revolutionary at the time – and still cutting edge — Zollar’s choreography synthesizes movement from modern dance and traditional folk African dance styles with the kind of text and shouted language the company describes as “the urgent dialogue of the 21^st century.”

Zollar, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., can trace her artistic lineage to Katherine Dunham, one of the most influential dancers, choreographers and educators of the 20th century. (Zollar studied with one of Dunham’s former students). Like Dunham, Zollar emphasizes community engagement and combining activism and dance. Now in her seventies, Zollar continues to perform, collaborate and choreograph and her company still thrives.

The Lillian and Dorothy Gish Prize was established in 1994 from the will of early screen actor Lillian Gish. It comes with a cash prize of approximately $250,000. Other recipients have included Sonia Sanchez, Ava DuVernay, Gustavo Dudamel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Spike Lee, Anna Deavere Smith, Maya Lin, Trisha Brown and Chinua Achebe.

“I became aware of the Gish Prize when Bill T. Jones received it, back in 2003,” Zollar said in a statement. “It’s amazing now to have my name included in the extraordinary list of Gish Prize winners, and above all to be recognized both for the work onstage and for the impact I’ve sought to have as an organizer and activist in the community. We artists don’t work for the sake of validation, but when you get the Gish Prize, it’s another way to keep moving forward.”

Just last year, Zollar was recognized with a MacArthur “genius” grant; her numerous other prizes include a Guggenheim fellowship and a Doris Duke Performing Arts award.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/18/1112133099/jawole-willa-jo-zollar-urban-bush-women-gish-prize

As a kid Harvey Matthews cut through the Moses Macedonia African Cemetery on River Road in Bethesda, Md., on his way to school, and remembers playing hide-and-seek there.

“I know Moses. I lived across the street from it. Where did the bodies go?” asks Matthews.

Originally, the cemetery was called White’s Tabernacle 39. Developers bulldozed it in the late 1950’s to give way to a high-rise tower and a parking lot. It’s owned by Montgomery County’s Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC), the county’s housing agency.

In the 1700’s there were several plantations along River Road, and after emancipation, a community of Black people flourished for almost a century – they built homes, a school, ballfields, a church and a cemetery.

“It was a prosperous, vibrant community,” says Matthews, describing the Black enclave where he was born in 1944.

Matthews gets emotional talking about the past.

“It bothers me to think about what happened to the River Road community,” he says. “It’s the lost colony.” An upscale supermarket is now where Matthews’ family home once stood.

Today, the Black cemetery is the center of a legal fight between the descendant community of River Road and the HOC. Local officials want to sell the property to a commercial developer. Descendants want to memorialize the site.

Battlegrounds of memories

It has largely fallen to descendants and volunteers to fight to preserve historically Black burial sites, such as the Durham Geer Cemetery in North Carolina, the East End Cemetery in Virginia, and the United American Cemetery in Ohio.

But in some cities, historically Black cemeteries are being re-discovered and protected.

In Portsmouth, N.H., city workers discovered an 18th-century Black burial site in a downtown street when working on a sewer line in 2003. The city built the Portsmouth African Burying Ground to honor those interred there.

In the 1950’s, according to the Little Falls Watershed Alliance, commercial developers got their eyes on the River Road corridor. Harvey Matthews says his family couldn’t afford to keep its land and was forced to move to the District of Columbia when he was 11. His community was “stolen and erased,” he says.

The last standing remnant of the once-thriving post-Civil War community on River Road is the tiny Macedonia Baptist Church wedged between a towering apartment building and a Bank of America branch.

In 2019, after years of trying to dialogue with the county to memorialize the cemetery, the descendant community of the church, led by minister Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, founded the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition.

And last fall the Coalition filed a lawsuit in the county’s circuit court against the HOC when it tried to sell the property to a developer for $51 million dollars. About 500 bodies of enslaved people and their relatives are interred at the cemetery, the lawsuit states. Harvey Matthews is one of the plaintiffs.

“They refused to talk to us, to negotiate in good faith,” Coleman-Adebayo says. This year she and others wrote The Bridge that Carried Us Over, the history of the Black community of River Road.

Arguing for equity

“We want to reclaim our history,” Coleman-Adebayo says.

Maryland has statutes that go back to the 19th century that protect the sanctity of cemeteries, and the court alone decides if a property where a burial ground sits can be sold and under what conditions.

In her written opinion, Judge Karla Smith ruled that the HOC did not get permission from the court before selling the property as required by state law.

In 2017, the Montgomery County Planning Department approved a historical investigation and cemetery assessment of the land along River Road. It was conducted by the Ottery Group, an archeological consulting firm.

It concluded that a Black cemetery is buried under the property’s parking lot, that there’s no evidence the cemetery was formally moved. It recommended the HOC develop a mitigation plan to stop any construction, or if construction moves forward, the agency must have protocols in place to safely remove human remains.

Lyle Torp is the Ottery Group’s managing director. Torp says that development and gentrification have forced many historically Black communities around the country, like the community along River Road, to uproot and disperse.

After their buildings are bulldozed, Torp says, “and their histories and heritage erased, cemeteries are the only tangible evidence that their communities existed.”

Attorney Steve Lieberman is an expert on cemetery desecration and he represents the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition pro bono.

“We are still not treating people equally,” says Lieberman. “The people who are buried at Moses are not of equal dignity.”

Lieberman says that during court proceedings, “the HOC’s maintained a respectful distance from the truth.”

According to the court hearing transcript last September, the HOC argued the land at issue no longer contains human remains. “It’s an assumption,” Frederick Douglas, who’s one of the attorneys representing the agency argued. “We can’t look at that parking lot and say, here lies the remains.”

A spokesperson for the HOC declined NPR’s request for an interview, citing the ongoing legal case. Gov. Larry Hogan’s office and county council members did not respond to NPR’s request for interviews.

Marc Elrich, Montgomery County executive, says he supports memorializing the site, but he’s certain HOC “will not give up the property.”

“I can’t force the HOC to give up the property,” he says.

It’s important to memorialize historically Black cemeteries, Lieberman says, because for Americans to understand the full historical scope of Montgomery County, including its shameful history of slavery and the slave trade, there need to be markers.

“People need to understand what took place before the Civil War, what took place before and after emancipation in the county,” Lieberman says.

It’s hard to know the extent of the problem

There is no national database for African American cemeteries. Currently there is pending legislation in the U.S. Congress. The African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, if passed, would create the first program at the National Park Service that would identify, preserve and restore African American burial grounds.

“It could be in the thousands,” Alan Spears says, referring to Black burial sites in the country. He’s director for cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that supports the legislation. It was created in 1919 to advocate for the National Parks System.

“It is about restorative justice,” Spears says.

“The country has conveniently been too comfortable in associating racism to the South,” says Spears. “We’ve got to come to grips with that legacy in the north and in the East and in the West.”

Slavery too is mostly associated with the South, but the oldest and largest Black cemetery where mostly enslaved Africans are buried was discovered in New York City in 1991. Today, the African Burial Ground National Monument sits in that location.

Michael Blakey is a professor of anthropology, Africana studies and American studies at the College of William & Mary. He was also principal investigator for the research and analysis of the African Burial Ground National Monument, and he advocates on behalf of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition in Maryland.

Resistance to honor these burial grounds include financial interests, says Blakey.

“White supremacy is not only intentional use of violence and strong words,” Blakey notes.

“Montgomery county is dismissing the humanity of that descendant community,” Blakey says. “And that is wrong.”

Segregated in life and segregated in death

“It’s all about money,” says Geneva Nanette Hunter, 62. Some of her ancestors are interred at Moses on River Road, including her great-great grandaunt Cora Botts and her husband, Jeremiah, as well as others. Hunter is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Growing up, her parents didn’t speak about their ancestors and slavery.

“It was shameful,” Hunter says. The Columbia, Md., resident says she only learned that some of her relatives were part of the River Road community a few years ago.

“It’s a lot to carry,” Hunter says. “They were openly disrespected in their daily lives, and now in death.”

She’s become more curious about her ancestors’ genealogy and lifestyles.

“I’m trying to be a soldier for the battles,” she says, her eyes getting moist.

She says the lawsuit has taken a toll on her, but “I owe it to Cora and Jerry and the Clippers, the Parkers, and all the people that are buried there,” she says.

Her hope, she adds, is that the site of the Moses Macedonia African Cemetery is turned into a memorial, “a place of reflection and meditation.”

The county is appealing Judge Smith’s decision. The next court date is set for Oct. 6th.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/03/1119809474/slavery-descendants-fight-to-memorialize-a-cemetery-in-maryland

Loretta J. Ross is a reproductive justice and human rights activist reframing reproductive rights within a broader context of human rights. Over her decades of grassroots organizing and national strategic leadership, Ross has centered the voices and well-being of women of color.

Ross is a key architect of the reproductive justice movement, which places reproductive decision making within social, economic, and political contexts. In 1994, Ross and other women of color designed the reproductive justice framework. It has three key tenets: the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to parent children in a safe and healthy environment. The framework includes access to clean air and water, affordable housing, food security, education, and maternal and infant healthcare. At the time, reproductive rights activism was overwhelmingly focused on abortion and the pro-choice/pro-life debate. This reflected the priorities and priviliges of middle- and upper-class White women, who have economic means for and access to abortions and reliable medical care. With the reproductive justice framework, Ross and her fellow activists sought to account for human realities and address the systemic barriers childbearing people face across race, class, and other identifiers. In her co-authored textbook, Reproductive Justice: An Introduction (2017) Ross outlines the legacies of harmful legal and medical practices that inform the movement’s emphasis on reproductive autonomy. Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous people and people with disabilities were subjected to racist and White supremacist reproductive policies, including forced breeding of enslaved people and forced sterilizations of Indigenous and Black people. In 1997, Ross co-founded SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective to unite reproductive justice organizations across the country around the shared mission of educating policymakers about the newly articulared reproductive justice principles.

In addition to her seminal work in reproductive justice, Ross has contributed to many other social justice movements through her writing, speaking, and advocacy. She founded the National Center for Human Rights Education to offer education and training in combating racism, antisemitism, and White supremacy. More recently, Ross has turned her attention to social media and our increasingly fractured civic discourse. She models a more compassionate and inclusive approach to movement building and argues that education and dialogue around how to address harms that have been committed can bridge seemingly impossible gaps and advance social justice causes. With her pragmatic approach, political acumen, and strategic vision, Ross provides essential guidance on ways to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our society.

Biography

Loretta J. Ross received a BA (2007) from Agnes Scott College and pursued doctoral studies (2008–2009) at Emory University. Since 2019, she has been an associate professor in the Program of the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. Ross has held previous appointments at Hampshire College (2017–2018) and Arizona State University (2018–2019). From 2005 to 2012, she was the National Coordinator for SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Ross is the co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice (2004) and the co-editor of Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, and Critique (2017). Her forthcoming book, Calling in the Calling Out Culture, is due out in 2023.

https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2022/loretta-j-ross#searchresults

Nataki Garrett is the Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the largest theater-producing organizations in the U.S., and is widely recognized as an innovative and influential arts leader. Across her career, Garrett has fostered and developed new work—having directed and produced the world premieres of vital contemporary playwriting voices including Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Aziza Barnes—and has been at the vanguard of adapting and devising new ways of performing the classics. 

Since becoming OSF’s Artistic Director in 2019, she has led the 85-year-old institution through one of the most cataclysmic periods in its history, raising $19 million while mobilizing federal support for the non-profit theater industry during the pandemic. At the start of her tenure, she conceived an interactive and immersive digital platform, O!, which became all the more vital in live theater’s absence as a source of groundbreaking performance, art, and discussion. 

Her approach to revitalizing classical theater is driven by both an appreciation for these works and a desire to expand their visions and audiences with new models of access. She explains, “I love Shakespeare because…he tried to teach the people that the world was always evolving and always changing, and their job was not to try to hold onto the way things were.” She has said, “I’m actually really blessed to be one of the gatekeepers, because I’m going to hold that gate open as wide as I can for as long as I can for as many people to come through.” 

Her credits at OSF include directing Christina Anderson’s How to Catch Creation. She was in the process of producing OSF’s 2020 season when the COVID crisis forced the theater to shut down. That season featured the world premiere of Karen Zacarias’ The Copper Children and Upstart Crow’s brilliant adaptation of the Henry VI trilogy performed in two parts with an all-female cast. Garrett served as the acting artistic director for Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company (DCPA) during the $66 million organization’s 18-month leadership transition. There, she produced a provocative Macbeth—which became the most successful production in the Space Theatre’s 40-year history—and initiated and negotiated the first co-world premieres in ten years for two DCPA-commissioned plays. Garrett was former associate artistic director of CalArts Center for New Performance. 

Garrett is a recipient of the first-ever Ammerman Prize for Directing, given by Arena Stage. She also received the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group Career Development Fellowship for Theatre Directors. She has served on nominating committees for countless awards supporting artists around the world. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and a member of the board of directors for Theatre Communications Group; a company member at Woolly Mammoth; and an advisory board member for Mixed Blood Theatre.

https://www.natakigarrett.com/about-1

Johnnie B. “Dusty” Baker Jr.^[a][2] (born June 15, 1949) is an American baseball manager and former outfielder who is the manager of the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for 19 seasons, most notably with the Los Angeles Dodgers. During his Dodgers tenure, he was a two-time All-Star, won two Silver Slugger Awards and a Gold Glove Award, and became the first NLCS MVP, which he received during the 1977 National League Championship Series. He also made three World Series appearances, winning one in 1981.

After retiring as a player, Baker served as the manager of the San Francisco Giants from 1993 to 2002, the Chicago Cubs from 2003 to 2006, the Cincinnati Reds from 2008 to 2013, and Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2017. He has served as the manager of the Astros since 2020. Baker is the first MLB manager to reach the playoffs and win a division title with five different teams, having accomplished both feats with each team he managed. He won the 2022 World Series with the Astros, in addition to appearances with the Giants in 2002 and the Astros in 2021, and is the ninth manager to win pennants in both the American and National Leagues. Baker ranks ninth in MLB managerial wins and has the most wins among African American managers. Among the four major sports leagues in North America, Baker is the oldest manager to win a championship.^[3]

Early life

Baker grew up in Riverside, California, as the oldest of five children. He earned the nickname “Dusty” from his mother because of his propensity for playing in a dirt spot in the backyard. His father worked as an Air Force sheet-metal technician at Norton Air Force Base. Baker played a variety of sports growing up, describing basketball as his very first love while also playing sports such as baseball, with his father being his coach for Little League, although this did not stop the elder Baker from kicking his son off of teams because of his tantrums. When the younger Baker wanted to quit baseball and have a paper route, his father told him that he did not raise a son who was a quitter as a way to try to encourage him to spin his attitude into a positive direction.^[4] In 1963, when Dusty was 14 years old, the Baker family moved to the Sacramento area near McClellan Air Force Base.^[5][6] Baker grew up as a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and described Tommy Davis as his hero, but the signing of Bobby Bonds in 1968 made him a fan of the San Francisco Giants.^[7]

Baker excelled in baseball, basketball, football, and track in Del Campo High School near Sacramento, California, and he was inducted into the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Hall of Fame class in 2010 for his play at Del Campo.^[8] As such, he was offered a basketball scholarship by Santa Clara University. His father was so committed to his son going to college that he went around and told scouts that his son would go to college and play either football or basketball, as opposed to them wasting a draft pick on Baker. The one scout who saw something in Baker was Bill Wight, as he knew the situation between Baker and his family, which had just seen his father and mother go through a divorce that worried Baker about potentially being a burden to his parents. He was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 1967 amateur draft, despite his prayers to not play in the Deep South. On June 19 of that year, the Braves tasked Hank Aaron to try and influence Baker to sign with the team, with Aaron promising to both Baker and his mother Christine that he would take care of Baker as if he was his own son, while guaranteeing that Baker would be in the majors before his college class graduated.^[9] Baker decided to sign with the team to the anger of his father, who sued to nullify the contract (and the $15,000 signing bonus), which led to a decision where the State of California appointed a trustee over his finances until his 21st birthday. Baker did not speak to his father for three years nor reconcile for a few years after that; seeing how his finances were invested softened Baker’s perception of his father along with inspiring him to become a stockbroker for a time later in life.^[10]

Playing career

Atlanta Braves

As an outfielder, Baker played his first baseball games in the Texas League in Austin in the AA classification, playing nine games in 1967. He then played in the Western Carolinas League and the Florida State League (mostly in the former) before playing six games in the majors the following year.^[11] It was also during the year that Baker would serve as a Marine Corps Reserve in motor transport mechanics, as suggested by the team; he would do so for six years.^[12] He made his debut as a call-up on September 7, 1968, against the Houston Astros. He went 0-for-1, and he appeared in five other games that year and collected two hits.^[13] He played in the minors for most of the next three seasons, playing just 45 games for the major league Braves during that time while batting over .300 for the Triple-A Richmond Braves in 1970 and 1971. Finally, Baker made the roster for Opening Day in 1972 to get a true start to his major league career. He played in 127 games while batting .321 (third best in the National League) with 143 hits, seventeen home runs and 76 runs batted in (RBI); he received votes for Most Valuable Player, finishing 22nd.^[14][15] It was during the 1970s that Baker played for the Yaquis de Obregón of the Mexican Pacific League in the offseason, stating it was the toughest league that he ever played in professionally.^[16] The following year, he would play in 159 games (a career high) and batted .288 while collecting 174 hits with 101 runs, 21 home runs, and 99 runs batted in with 24 stolen bases (the latter two were career highs). He played two further seasons with the Braves, batting over .255 in each as the center fielder, but it was a moment on April 8, 1974, that earned him a place in history. On that day Baker batted fifth in the lineup behind Hank Aaron. In the fourth inning, with Baker on deck, Aaron hit a shot to left field off Al Downing for his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth in career home runs.^[17] After expressing a desire to be traded upon the closure of the 1975 season, Baker was traded on November 17, 1975, along with Ed Goodson to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Lee Lacy, Tom Paciorek, Jerry Royster and Jimmy Wynn.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Many of Baker’s accomplishments as a player would come during his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he spent the next eight seasons. His tenure began in 1976 with a meager .242 batting average in 112 games that saw him collect just 93 hits with 39 RBIs while suffering a problem with his stretched knee ligaments that required surgery after the season ended.^[18] However, he bounced back in 1977 by playing in 153 games that saw him bat .291 with 155 hits, thirty home runs and 86 runs batted in. It is believed that Baker played an integral part in the first-ever high five, which occurred between Baker and Dodgers teammate Glenn Burke on October 2, 1977, at Dodger Stadium, a story featured in the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary The High Five (2014), directed by Michael Jacobs.^[19] Vaunted historian and athletics instructor Dennis Pirkle disputes Baker’s origin of the high five.^[20]

“It was the last day of the regular season, and Dodgers leftfielder Dusty Baker had just gone deep off the Astros’ J. R. Richard. It was Baker’s 30th home run, making the Dodgers the first team in history to have four sluggers – Baker, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, and Reggie Smith – with at least 30 homers each. It was a wild, triumphant moment and a good omen as the Dodgers headed to the playoffs. Burke, waiting on deck, thrust his hand enthusiastically over his head to greet his friend at the plate. Baker, not knowing what to do, smacked it. ‘His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back’, says Baker. ‘So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do.'”^[20]

Baker would see the postseason for the first time in his career as the Dodgers won the National League West that season. The Dodgers faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS. Baker proved key in Game 2 when he hit a grand slam in the fourth inning to break a 1–1 tie that the Dodgers won 7–1.^[21][22] His second and last home run of the series proved just as important, as he hit a two-run shot off Steve Carlton in the second inning of Game 4 in a game the Dodgers won 4–1 to clinch the National League pennant. In total, he went 5-of-14 (.357) while driving in eight runs. For his efforts, he was awarded the first-ever National League Championship Series (NLCS) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. The Dodgers faced the New York Yankees in the 1977 World Series. Baker collected one home run in the series (Game 3) while going 7-for-24 (.292) with five runs batted in, but the Dodgers lost the Series in six games. In the 1978 season, he batted .262 while collecting 137 hits. The Dodgers and Phillies met up for a rematch. The result would be the same, as the Dodgers won the pennant in four games, and Baker went 7-of-15 (.467) with one run batted in.^[23] In the 1978 World Series, they met the Yankees again, with the same result for Baker and the Dodgers (complete with him hitting only one home run) as he batted .238 in the six-game loss.^[24]

Baker batted .274 in 1979 before improving in 1980 with heightened contact, as he batted .294 with 170 hits, 29 home runs and 97 RBIs. He finished fourth in MVP voting while winning the Silver Slugger Award.^[25] The 1981 season was shortened by a strike that saw a first and second half division champion, but Baker and the Dodgers were not slowed down. He played in 103 games and batted a career high .320 with 128 hits and 49 RBIs that saw him named to his first All-Star Game. He was also awarded the Silver Slugger Award and the Gold Glove Award while finishing seventh in MVP voting. The Dodgers won the first half NL West title and thus were matched against the second half champion in the Houston Astros. Baker batted .167 in the Division Series, but the Dodgers won in five games. In the Championship Series against the Montreal Expos, he batted .316 with three runs batted in as the Dodgers won in a closely contested five-game series to win their third pennant in four years. Facing the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series, Baker batted just .167 with one run batted in, but the Dodgers won in six games to win the title.^[26][27][28] The following year, Baker batted .300 in 147 games with 171 hits, 23 home runs and 88 RBIs to make his second and final All-Star Game. He closed out his Dodgers career in 1983 by batting .260 with 138 hits; curiously, this was the first season since 1975 where he drew more walks than strikeouts (in this case walking a career high 72 times with 59 strikeouts). In the NLCS, he batted .357 while hitting a home run for his fifth and final career postseason home run; the Dodgers lost in four games.^[29][30]

Closing years

He became a free agent after the season and signed with the San Francisco Giants for the 1984 season. He played 100 games that year and batted .292 with 71 hits and three home runs. He was traded to the Oakland Athletics on March 24, 1985, for two minor league players. While he would play the outfield during his time there, he also played first base at times, playing 61 games of his tenure at the position while also serving as a designated hitter for 28 total games. He played 111 games in 1985 and batted .268 with fourteen home runs and 52 RBIs. He played sparingly for his final season in 1986 with 83 games and a .240 batting average. He appeared in his final game on October 4, 1986, against the Kansas City Royals; he went 0-for-1 with two walks before being taken out for a pinch-runner in the seventh inning.^[31] While the Athletics offered to send him down to Triple-A for the 1987 season, Baker elected for free agency instead and subsequently retired.

In a career that spanned nineteen years, Baker played in 2,039 games while collecting 1,981 hits, 242 home runs and 1,013 runs batted in while never going on the disabled list.^[32] Baker is noted for his love of toothpicks, saying, “Toothpicks are an excellent source of protein” while chewing at least one every game.^[33] He also uses the toothpick as a way to deter use of chewing tobacco, which he used as a player. In his final season of 1986, he began wearing a wristband (featuring his face), which he has continued to do as manager; he has stated it is to help wipe perspiration off his forehead.^[34][35][36]

Managerial career

San Francisco Giants

Baker was working as a stockbroker in 1987 when he received a call from Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan, and Frank Robinson to go to Dallas, Texas to try to get jobs for minority baseball players after they finished their playing careers, which came in the wake of controversial remarks by Dodgers general manager Al Campanis on April 6, 1987.^[b] While in Dallas trying to find jobs for players, Bob Kennedy, senior baseball operations executive for the San Francisco Giants, told Baker that Al Rosen, general manager of the Giants, asked to see Baker about a possible job. On the advice of his father, Baker, alongside his brother and daughter, set out to Lake Arrowhead to pray and seek guidance to decide whether he should see Rosen and possibly return to baseball. However, while checking into the hotel, Baker encountered Bob Lurie, owner of the Giants, which seemed a sign for Baker to take an opportunity, if offered.^[38] When Baker eventually met with Rosen, Rosen stated interest in having him serve as a first base coach, which differed from Baker stating interest in possibly being an assistant general manager because Rosen thought he would be better suited to manage on the field. Baker set out a goal to try and manage within five years or he would step down.^[10] Baker’s coaching career started as a first base coach for the Giants in 1988, and then he spent the following four years (1989–1992) as the hitting coach. In 1992, he managed the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League.^[39]

In 1992, Giants manager Roger Craig was fired while Bob Quinn was named general manager (the week prior, Rosen resigned) by the new ownership that was led by Peter Magowan.^[40] On December 16, 1992, Baker was hired to manage the club, becoming the seventh black manager hired to manage a Major League Baseball team. He beat out four other candidates in John Wathan, Davey Lopes, Tom Trebelhorn, and Ron Gardenhire.^[41] In his first year as Giants manager, the team had acquired Barry Bonds the same month Baker was promoted. Baker would win the NL Manager of the Year award (until 2021, he was the only Giant to win the award), leading the team to a 103–59 record. However, it was not enough for a playoff berth. They had led the National League West by 9+1⁄2 games on August 7, but they ended up losing the National League West to the Atlanta Braves. The Giants lost 12–1 on the final day of the season when a win could have forced a tiebreaking game with Atlanta for the division championship (the following year, a Wild Card was instituted in both leagues). It was the second-best record in baseball that year behind the 104–58 Atlanta Braves and 31 games better than their 72–90 finish the previous season. He was the first manager since Sparky Anderson (1970) to win 100 games as a rookie manager, and the fourth to do so. Since the Giants missed the playoffs (as only the division winners qualified before 1995), he also became the eighth and so far the last manager to lead a team to 100 wins without making it to the postseason.

His Giants went on to win division titles in 1997, and again in 2000; Baker won Manager of the Year honors in both of those years as well. He was the second person to win the award three times after Tony La Russa, and the first to do so with the same team all three times. His easy-going style of managing led to a description of him as a “player’s manager”, to where he learned Spanish to try to help relate to his players.^[42][43] It was also during his San Francisco tenure that the term “Dustiny” was coined by former Giants pitcher Rod Beck.^[44] However, the postseason would elude Baker and the Giants, as they fell in the NLDS in 1997 and 2000 while losing a tie-breaker game for the Wild Card spot in 1998.

In 2002, his Giants won 95 games and clinched the Wild Card by 3½ games. In the 2002 National League Division Series, they faced the Atlanta Braves. The two teams split the first four games before a pivotal Game 5 in Atlanta, which the Giants won 3–1 to deliver their first postseason series victory since 1989. The Giants faced the St. Louis Cardinals (who had beaten the Arizona Diamondbacks, the defending champions) in the 2002 National League Championship Series. The Giants won the series in five games for their first pennant in eleven years, winning on a walk-off single by Kenny Lofton. They advanced to the World Series against the Anaheim Angels, who were managed by his former Dodger teammate Mike Scioscia. The teams split the first two games in Anaheim before going to San Francisco. In Game 3, they were routed 10–4, but the Giants responded with a narrow 4–3 victory in Game 4 before a big win in Game 5 by a score of 16–4. The Giants were one victory away from the championship and had two games in Anaheim to do so. The Giants struck first in Game 6, scoring three runs in the fifth inning before adding runs in the sixth and seventh inning to make it 5–0. However, the seventh would start the unraveling of the game; in the inning, starting pitcher Russ Ortiz (who had 98 pitches) allowed consecutive singles after getting one out before Baker pulled him out for Félix Rodríguez. Scott Spiezio came up to the plate and soon hit a shot to right field to narrow the score to 5–3. In the next inning, Darin Erstad hit a leadoff line-drive shot for a home run before Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson hit singles that made Baker put in Robb Nen (battling a shoulder injury for most of the year) to try and close out the inning without allowing more runs. However, a double by Troy Glaus scored the runners to give the Angels a lead they would not relinquish. The five run deficit was the largest comeback in an elimination game in the World Series. While the Giants scored first in Game 7, the Angels scored three runs in the third inning to build a cushion on their way to a 4–1 victory.^[45]

Despite Baker’s success in San Francisco, he had an increasingly strained relationship with owner Peter Magowan, one that even the Giants’ first pennant in 13 years could not mend. The Giants did not renew his contract after the season,^[46] letting him leave to manage the Chicago Cubs and hiring Felipe Alou to replace him. Baker finished his tenure with a record of 840 wins and 715 losses in the regular season and 11 wins and 13 losses in the post-season.^[47]

To date, Baker is one of only four African Americans to manage a World Series team. Cito Gaston was the first, managing the Toronto Blue Jays to championships in 1992 and 1993. Baker was the second, and Ron Washington and Dave Roberts have since joined Gaston and Baker by managing the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively, to the World Series, with Roberts winning a championship in 2020. Baker left as the all-time winningest manager in the San Francisco era of Giants history; Bruce Bochy would later eclipse him alongside managing the Giants to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Chicago Cubs

On November 15, 2002, he was hired by the Chicago Cubs to a four-year deal to manage the team, replacing Don Baylor.

Baker would make a major impact in his first season as manager for the Cubs in 2003. In July of that year, Baker was the subject of some controversy when he stated that “black and Hispanic players are better suited to playing in the sun and heat than white players.” Baker, defending his beliefs, later said, “What I meant is that blacks and Latinos take the heat better than most whites, and whites take the cold better than most blacks and Latinos. That’s it, pure and simple. Nothing deeper than that.”^[48] With the help of an impressive pitching staff and big gun batters such as Sammy Sosa and Moisés Alou, the Cubs claimed their first division title in fourteen years. Baker led the Cubs to victory over the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series, the first postseason series victory for the team since the 1908 World Series. However, the hopes for the Cubs winning a World Series title were cut short during the 2003 National League Championship Series against the Florida Marlins. In Game 6, with Chicago five outs away from the pennant and holding a 3–0 lead, the infamous Steve Bartman foul ball incident near the fans in left field would unravel the Cubs and derail the chance for their first World Series appearance in 58 years. The Bartman incident proved to be a distraction for fans and the media, but it was critical execution failures by the Cubs such as a wild pitch on a ball four, a fielding error on a potential inning-ending double play, and a bad throw from the outfield after a Marlins hit, which allowed the visitors from Miami to score eight runs in that eighth inning to win the game 8–3; Cubs player Doug Glanville also stated that the loss in Game 5 (where Josh Beckett threw a two-hit shutout) was the true turning point of the series.^[49] The Marlins would go on to win Game 7 at Wrigley Field on their way to winning the 2003 World Series.

In 2004, the team was involved in a heated wild card chase with the Houston Astros but fell out of contention near the season’s end, losing six of their last eight games and missing the playoffs by three games. He also received criticism from television analyst Steve Stone, who blamed Baker for his players harassing him at team charters and hotels, which Baker waved off as being “grown men”. On August 30, Baker won his 1,000th game as manager with a win over the Montreal Expos, doing so in his 1,848th game.^[50][51]

In 2005, the Cubs lost several of their key players, most notably ace pitchers Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, to injuries. The team finished the season with a 79–83 record, marking the first time in three years that the Cubs finished with a losing record. The Cubs’ performance continued to decline in 2006 as they fell to 66–96^[47] and finished last in the entire National League. Baker, an old-school baseball traditionalist, was scrutinized for the Cubs’ declining productivity. Baker has said that putting men on base can be unimportant and merely “clogging up the bases.”^[52] This position has made Baker a target among the sabermetric community.^[53] It was around this time that Baker came under scrutiny for his tendency to overuse pitchers, such as with Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. Wood and Prior suffered serious arm injuries following their first full seasons under Baker. Wood and Prior averaged 122 and 126 pitches per start, respectively, in their final six regular-season starts of 2003.^[54] However, the only season where Wood was used for a full season under Baker’s tenure was in 2003, in which he pitched 211 innings, which was two innings more than he had pitched in 2002. In the next three seasons, Wood would only pitched a combined total of 226 innings due to injuries before the Cubs decided to try him as a reliever after 2006.^[55][56] Additionally, Wood and Prior have been quoted as not blaming Baker for what happened with his career, with Prior stating that he had to balance pitcher use with the decisions required to try and help the Cubs win games. Prior also cited him as an inspiration to stay in the game after he retired from pitching, with Baker describing baseball as a relationship.^[57][58]

A month after the 2006 season ended, the Cubs declined to renew Baker’s contract. They allowed Baker to address the media in a press conference in early October, where he officially announced his departure. The Cubs turned to Lou Piniella to replace Baker for the 2007 season. Baker finished his tenure with a regular-season record of 322 wins and 326 losses and a postseason record of six wins and six losses.^[47]

Cincinnati Reds

On October 13, 2007, Baker was hired as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, replacing interim manager Pete Mackanin.^[59] Baker and the Reds finished 74–88 and 78–84 in 2008 and 2009, finishing 5th and 4th in the NL Central. In 2010, the Reds enjoyed success as one of baseball’s breakout teams (which included first baseman Joey Votto being named Most Valuable Player of the National League), and on September 28, 2010, the Reds won the Central title. This championship led to their first playoff appearance in 15 years.^[60] However, the appearance was short-lived as the Reds were swept by the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS. Baker signed a two-year contract extension with the Reds on October 4, 2010.^[61]

The Reds won 97 games in 2012 to win the National League Central for the second time in three seasons (only the Washington Nationals won more games than the Reds that year in the NL). During September 2012, Baker stayed in a Chicago hospital for treatment of an irregular heartbeat. At the time, Baker had been dealing with a longstanding heart problem.^[62] The Reds clinched the 2012 Central Division championship in his absence, their second in three years and Baker’s fifth as a manager. In the 2012 National League Division Series, the Reds faced the San Francisco Giants. The Reds beat the Giants 5–2 and 9–0 in San Francisco to lead the series heading back to Cincinnati. Game 3 turned out to be a tight affair with the Reds on the wrong side of it, as a bobbled play by Scott Rolen led to the winning run by the Giants, and they tied the series with an 8–3 victory in Game 4. In Game 5, the Reds collapse became complete, as the Giants scored six runs in the fifth inning to win 6–4, making them the second team in NLDS history to blow a 2–0 series lead (after 1981) and the third team ever to blow a 2–0 lead in a best-of-five series. On October 15, 2012, he signed a two-year contract extension as manager of the Reds.^[63]

In 2013, the Reds won ninety games, but it was only good enough for a third place finish in the division (the Cardinals won the division by seven games), and a five-game losing streak closed out the regular season. As such, they were the second Wild Card team and faced the division rival Pittsburgh Pirates (who won 94 games) in Wild Card game. Baker was fired by the Reds three days after the game. The Pirates, making their first postseason appearance since 1992, took the lead in the second inning and never relinquished it, cruising to a 6–2 victory. Reds general manager Walt Jocketty admitted the team’s latest collapse played a role in the decision to fire Baker.^[64][65] Baker finished his tenure with a regular season record of 509 wins and 463 losses and a post-season record of two wins and seven losses; he was the first full-time Reds manager to finish with a winning record since Jack McKeon and he is currently the last Reds manager to have a winning record as of 2022.^[47] On October 22, 2013, he was replaced by Reds pitching coach Bryan Price.^[66]

Washington Nationals

On November 3, 2015, Baker was named the new manager for the Washington Nationals for the 2016 season, his first managerial position since being fired by Cincinnati in 2013.^[67] At the time of his hiring, he was the only black manager in Major League Baseball and had the second-highest total for most wins in MLB.^[67] Comments made shortly after his hire raised attention when he suggested his Washington Nationals should field more players of color as “you’ve got a better chance of getting some speed with Latin and African-Americans,”^[68] also generated controversy. Baker said of the comments, “I’m not being racist. That’s just how it is.”^[69] The hire came with scrutiny that Baker would overuse pitchers as he was alleged to do before, but it was noted that his prior Reds teams featured players throwing fewer pitches, and some baseball writers have noted that there is no clear link between pitches thrown and injuries suffered.^[70][71]

The Nationals won the NL East in Baker’s first season with 95 wins (a twelve game improvement), which was the third time the team had won the NL East in the last five seasons. However, the Nationals lost in the NLDS in five games against the Los Angeles Dodgers after losing Game 4 and Game 5 (in the latter game, the Nationals gave up four runs in the seventh inning in a 4–3 loss). The following season, Baker led the Nationals to another NL East Championship. However, their postseason was once again cut short after losing in the 2017 NLDS to the Chicago Cubs in five games. Game 5 saw the Nationals lead 4–1 by the time of the second inning, but the game turned wildly in the fifth inning with four runs that were all scored on two outs, which included multiple hits, a passed ball, an error, catcher’s interference, and a hit batter. While the Nationals tried to rally, the Cubs prevailed 9–8. The fifth game was the tenth time in fourteen years where a Baker-managed team had lost a “close-out” games with the opportunity to advance to the next round of the playoffs, which was a record; in both NLDS matchups, the Nationals had outscored their opponent but lost the series.^[72] On October 20, 2017, the Nationals announced that Baker and his entire coaching staff would not return as the team’s manager in 2018.^[73][74]

Houston Astros

In 2020, Baker was one of three finalists for the Philadelphia Phillies job (alongside Joe Girardi and Buck Showalter). Girardi got the job.^[75]

On January 13, 2020, the position for the managerial spot of the Houston Astros opened up, as A. J. Hinch had been fired in the wake of the Astros sign stealing scandal. Candidates for the position included Buck Showalter, John Gibbons, Joe Espada, and Will Venable. On January 29, Baker was hired, becoming the third manager to be hired after the age of seventy and first since Jack McKeon; he is also the first manager in the two-league era to have coached over 3,000 games in one league before managing a single game in the other, as this was his first managerial job in the American League.^[76] The contract was for one year with a club option for a second year.^[77]

On July 28, 2020 (four days after the season started), the Astros picked up the 2021 option on Baker’s contract.^[78][79] On September 25, the Astros clinched a playoff spot as the sixth seed in the pandemic-shortened season. Baker became the first baseball manager to lead five teams to the postseason.^[80] He also became the first manager to lead a team that finished under .500 in the postseason to a series win, having beaten both the Minnesota Twins and the Oakland Athletics to reach the American League Championship Series (ALCS). It was the first time since 2003 that a Baker-led team had made the League Championship Series. The Astros lost to the Tampa Bay Rays in seven games after having come back from 3–0. Baker’s appearance in Game 7 (a winner-take-all) was his ninth as manager, setting a new record for most appearances by a manager in a winner-take-all game, although Baker has only won two of those games.^[81]

On April 22, 2021, Baker secured his 1,900th win as a manager in the regular season, becoming the 14th manager to do so with an 8–2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.^[82] Four days later, he passed Gene Mauch for 13th on the all-time wins list with a 5–2 win over the Seattle Mariners. On April 30, he passed Casey Stengel for 12th all-time with a 9–2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the teams’ first meeting since the previous year’s ALCS.^[83]

By winning the American League West division in 2021, Baker became the first manager in the major leagues to guide five different clubs to division titles.^[84] In the playoffs, the Astros first played the Chicago White Sox in the American League Division Series (ALDS). The White Sox were led by Tony La Russa, who Baker had faced as manager over 200 times previously, and whose careers both had intertwined and spanned more than five decades. They met most frequently in games in the National League Central when La Russa managed the St. Louis Cardinals, and Baker managed the Cubs and Reds.^[85]

The Astros faced the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series (ALCS) for the AL pennant. On October 22, 2021, the Astros won Game 6 of the series to clinch the pennant, doing so in a dramatic comeback where they had lost two of the first three games to the Boston Red Sox (who had hit three grand slams in Game 2 and 3 combined) before winning three in a row to advance to the 2021 World Series. The nineteen-year gap between World Series appearances in the second longest all-time between managers (with the only greater one being Bucky Harris), and Baker became the ninth manager in major league history to win a pennant in both leagues.^[84][86] The Astros faced the Atlanta Braves in the Series and lost in six games.

On November 5, 2021, owner Jim Crane announced that Baker had agreed to a one-year extension to manage the club for the 2022 season.^[87] He had managed over 24 major league seasons.^[88] On May 3, 2022, Baker won his 2,000th game as a manager with a 4–0 win over the Seattle Mariners at home in Minute Maid Park.^[89] Coincidentally, both Baker’s first win and his 2,000th win involved the father-son tandem of Peñas in the lineup, as Gerónimo Peña batted leadoff for the St. Louis Cardinals versus the Giants on April 6, 1993, and son Jeremy started the May 3 game as shortstop for the Astros.^[90] Baker became the twelfth manager and first African American manager to reach the milestone. Baker was named manager of the American League in the MLB All-Star Game played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.^[91] The Astros won their 90th game of the season on September 11 versus the Angels, giving Baker a 12th season reaching that threshold in wins as manager.^[92] On September 19, the Astros clinched the AL West title, which is Baker’s ninth division title as manager. On September 24, the Astros won 11-10 over the Baltimore Orioles, their 100th of the season. It made Baker the fourth manager to have 100-win seasons in both the American and National League, as Baker had achieved the mark with the San Francisco Giants in 1993; Baker went 23 seasons between 100-win seasons, the longest for any manager to have multiple 100-win seasons. On October 2, the Astros won their 104th game, setting a new high in wins for a Baker-managed team. ^[93] In the 2022 postseason, the Astros were first matched up against the Seattle Mariners in the 2022 American League Division Series. The Mariners scored seven runs by the 7th inning of Game 1 and promptly scored two runs over the next 29 innings as the Astros rallied to win Game 1 and 2 before winning Game 3 in an eighteen-inning scoreless duel 1-0, as the Astros outscored the Mariners 13-9. It was Baker’s first ever LDS sweep as manager, and it guaranteed the Astros a sixth straight appearance in the ALCS. In the 2022 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees, the Astros won narrowly in Game 1, 2, and 4 (with one blowout win in Game 3) to complete a sweep, making them the third team to sweep the LDS and LCS since 1995. The Game 4 win on October 23 clinched the fourth pennant in the last six seasons for the Astros and it was Baker’s third pennant as a manager. It was his sixth postseason series victory with Houston, after having won three postseason matchups in his first 22 seasons.

On November 3, Baker won his 50th postseason game as manager, becoming only the fourth in MLB history to do so. On November 5, the Astros defeated the National League champions, the Philadelphia Phillies, in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series, winning Baker his second World Series and first as a manager. At age 73, he is the oldest manager to win the World Series, surpassing Jack McKeon. It was his 28th postseason victory with the Astros, tying him with A. J. Hinch for most playoff wins as an Astro; the Astros went 11–2 in the postseason, becoming the fourth team in the Wild Card era (since 1995) to lose less than three times in the playoffs, and Houston never faced elimination at any point in their postseason; Baker won his first World Series title 40 years after winning one as a player, establishing a record for the longest gap between World Series championships by a player/manager in MLB history. ^[94][95][96] Baker also became the seventh person in Major League history to win a World Series championship as both a player (1981) and a manager.^[97] He also became the third African-American manager to win a World Series after Cito Gaston (1992 and 1993) and Dave Roberts (2020).

Baseball career accomplishments

• First manager in major league history to lead five different teams to division titles^[84]
• Ninth manager to win both an AL pennant and an NL pennant.^[84]
• Twelfth manager and first African American manager with 2,000 victories, and first African American manager with 50 postseason victories^[99]
• Oldest manager to appear in, and win, the World Series (2022)

Broadcasting career

Baker served as an ESPN analyst during the 2006 MLB postseason and served in a similar role during the 2007 season.^[100][101] In 2015, Baker joined TBS as a studio analyst for the final two weeks of their regular season coverage and for their coverage of the National League playoffs.^[102]

Personal life

Baker was a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1969 through 1975.^[103] Baker has a wife, Melissa, and two children: Natosha (born 1979), from his first marriage, and Darren Baker (born 1999). Darren was rescued by J. T. Snow from being run over at home plate as a batboy during the 2002 World Series.^[104] In 2017, Darren was drafted in the 27th round of the MLB draft by the team his father managed at the time, the Washington Nationals.^[105] He decided to play as infielder for the California Golden Bears, and in 2021 he was drafted by the Nationals in the tenth round of the amateur draft, where this time he signed to join the organization. On the same day that Baker won his 2,000th game, his son Darren scored the winning run home for his High A team in Delaware on a sacrifice fly.^{[106][107][108]} Baker and his family reside in Granite Bay, California.^[109] In the winter of 2001, Baker was diagnosed with prostate cancer during a routine check-up (his father had been diagnosed with the disease eight years prior). Baker had had surgery in December of that year to remove his prostate (his fears over potentially having the cancer return led him to name his three-year old son as a batboy to “show him the world”).^{[110][111][112]} Near the end of the 2012 baseball season, Baker was hospitalized for both an irregular heartbeat and a “mini-stroke”.^[113]

For a period of time, Baker had troubles with the Internal Revenue Service, who had determined that his investments in tax shelters for a number of years (as guided by his brother Victor) was to be disallowed, which would have resulted in penalties of at least a million dollars with interest. When managing the Giants, the IRS garnished his paychecks, leaving him with less than a percent of his $900,000 salary to live on a month; around the time of negotiating his contract in 1999, Magowan loaned him money in case he needed to deal with the IRS, which Baker repaid later. With the help of a tax crisis lawyer (over the course of several years), the issue was resolved, roughly around the time the news was broken by the media in late 2002.^{[114][115][116]}

Baker is a member of the National Advisory Board for Positive Coaching Alliance, a national non-profit organization committed to providing student-athletes with a positive, character-building youth sports experience.^[117] Baker has appeared in several videos and webinars for this organization, all of which can be found on the group’s YouTube channel.^[118] Dusty is also owner of Baker Family Wines, along with owner and winemaker Chik Brenneman.^[119] Baker was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. He returned to the Giants organization in 2018 as a Special Advisor to the CEO.^[120]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dusty_Baker

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s music doesn’t elude categories. It embraces them. “An eclectic, a genre-weaver,” says The Boston Globe. “Jazz, blues, bluegrass, zydeco, cajun and calypso all fit into his panoramic worldview.” Gate is a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, violin, harmonica, piano, mandolin, viola and drums), but perhaps the most impressive aspect of his music is its variety. Gate sums it all up under the category of “American and World Music — Texas Style.”

Brown started crossing boundaries — both musical and geographical — at a very young age. He was born in 1924 in Vinton, Louisiana and raised in Orange, Texas. He learned guitar and fiddle from his father, a strong multi-instrumentalist who taught his son to play Texas fiddle music, traditional French tunes and even polkas. Gate began his professional career at the age of 21 as a drummer in San Antonio.

In 1947, Gate was in the audience at the Golden Peacock nightclub in Houston, when famed guitarist T-Bone Walker took sick and dropped his guitar onto the stage in the middle of a number. Gate leaped to the stage, picked up Walker’s axe and laid into one of his own tunes, “Gatemouth Boogie.” T-Bone was not amused by the young upstart, but the crowd went wild, tossing $600 at Brown’s feet in 15 minutes.

That stunt also got the attention of the club’s owner, a Houston businessman named Don Robey. Robey hired Gate to play the club and eventually became his manager. He teamed Gate with a swinging 23-piece orchestra and booked him into venues across the South and Southwest. Gate made his first records for Hollywood’s Alladin Records in 1947. When Alladin’s promotion and release schedules didn’t live up to expectations, Robey founded Peacock Records as an outlet for Gate’s music. Dozens of Brown’s records, including “Okie Dokie Stomp,” “Boogie Rambler,” “Just Before Dawn” and “Dirty Work At The Crossroads,” became big hits. Beginning with Gate’s hits, in a few years Peacock grew to become a major independent r&b record label, with an artist roster that included stars like Bobby “Blue” Bland, Junior Parker and Joe Hinton.

In the ’60s, Gate moved to Nashville to take part in a syndicated r&b television show called “The Beat,” which was hosted by local radio personality Hoss Allen. While in Nashville, Gate also recorded a series of country singles.

During a brief hiatus from music in the late sixties, Gate moved to New Mexico and became a deputy sheriff. It wasn’t long, however, before he was drawn to Europe by a newly developing blues audience there. In 1971, he travelled to France for his debut tour of that country. During the ’70s he toured Europe nearly a dozen times and recorded a total of nine European albums. The best cuts from three of those albums were later released in the U.S. by Alligator Records as PRESSURE COOKER, which subsequently received a Grammy nomination for Best Blues Recording in 1986.

Moving to New Orleans in the late ’70s, Gatemouth signed with Jim Bateman’s Real Records production company. His first-ever American album, BLACKJACK, was released in 1978 on the Music Is Medicine label. An appearance on the PBS-TV series “Austin City Limits” soon followed, and Gate began touring nationally again. In 1979, he teamed up with country music star Roy Clark for an MCA album, MAKIN’ MUSIC, which led to an appearance on the syndicated television program “Hee Haw,” and another appearance on “Austin City Limits.” More albums and television appearances followed, as well as a 1982 Grammy award for “Best Blues Recording” for ALRIGHT AGAIN! on the Rounder label. Gate also won his first Blues Music Award in 1982 for “Instrumentalist of the Year,” beginning a string of Blues Music Awards for his instrumental versatility.  A second Rounder Records release, ONE MORE MILE, and a reissue of THE ORIGINAL PEACOCK RECORDINGS followed in 1983. That same year he won another Blues Music Award when he was voted “Entertainer of the Year.”

Gate had two releases in 1986, Rounder’s REAL LIFE and Alligator’s Grammy-nominated PRESSURE COOKER, compiled of tracks cut in France during the 1970s. Gatemouth officially joined the Alligator roster in 1989 with STANDING MY GROUND, another Grammy nominee, featuring Gate backed by his red hot touring band. It was followed by the equally swinging 1991 release, NO LOOKING BACK.

In the last few years of his life, Gate continued his hectic touring schedule with performances across the U.S. as well as debut appearances in New Zealand and Australia. When asked by a New York Times reporter to explain his tours to such politically tense areas as Central America, Africa and the Soviet Union, Brown replied, “People can’t come to me, so I go to them.”

His knack for blending the various American music forms — jazz, blues, bluegrass, country, swing, funk and zydeco — coupled with his determination to bring his music to audiences around the world brought him praise from fans and the international media alike. Newsweek called him “a virtuoso talent.”

Gate passed away in Orange, Texas on September 10, 2005.

https://www.alligator.com/artists/Clarence-Gatemouth-Brown/

Ashleigh Elizabeth Johnson (born September 12, 1994) is an American water polo player considered by many^[2][3][4][5] to be the best goalkeeper in the world. She was part of the American team that won the gold medal at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships.^[6][7] In 2016, she became the first African-American woman to make the US Olympic team in water polo. She was part of the gold-medal winning 2016 and 2020 U.S. women’s water polo Olympic teams.^[8][9]

Early life

Johnson was raised by her mother, Donna Johnson. Johnson grew up with four siblings (three brothers and one sister), all of whom play water polo. Her brothers are Blake, Julius and William. Her younger sister Chelsea, is a 2 Meter player and played with Johnson at Princeton. Chelsea graduated from Princeton in 2018 and continues to be involved with water polo in Miami.^[10][11] Ashleigh Johnson graduated from Princeton in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.^[12]

About her decision to play goalie in water polo, Johnson shared with Princeton Alumni Weekly her goalie origins trace back to her sister Chelsea:

I was just copying her, I wasn’t choosing to go in the goal because it was anything that appealed to me in particular.^[13]

Water polo career

High school

Johnson was raised in Miami, Florida and attended Ransom Everglades School for high school. At Ransom Everglades, she was a four-year letter winner and starter on her school’s team guiding them to three consecutive Florida State Championships. She also earned All-Dade honors throughout career, while also earning all-county honors twice in swimming.^[10]

As a senior, Johnson committed to play water polo at Princeton University.

Collegiate career

In her first year she was named Third-Team All American, while earning Honorable Mention as a sophomore in 2014, and Second Team as a junior in 2015.^[10]

2016 Summer Olympics

See also: Water polo at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Johnson was the first African-American woman to make the US Olympic water polo team when she made the team for the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[14] The geographical diversity Johnson brought to the team, she was the only team member not from California, was highlighted by SwimSwam before the Olympic Games.^[15] Her age, 21 years old, and with her sub-Saharan African ancestry, she identifies as Black, were highlighted by Sports Illustrated leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games.^[16] She helped the team win the gold medal at the Olympic Games.^[14]

Orizzonte Catania, Italy

From January 2018 she has been hired by the Orizzonte Catania, the most titled club in Europe in recent times. She lives and trains in Italy for Orizzonte Catania during the season, training in the United States in the off-season.^[17]

Ethnikos Piraeus, Greece

For the 2021-22 season, she is the goalkeeper of Greek Ethnikos Piraeus, a club with big tradition in Greek waterpolo. ^[18] On March 30, she won the Women’s LEN Trophy with Ethnikos Piraeus. That was the second time Ethnikos has won the title, thus becoming the Greek team with the most in the competition. Meanwhile, that was Johnson’s first European club competition title.

Awards

• Swimming World 2014 Female Water Polo Player of the Year^[19][20]
• Swimming World 2015 Female Water Polo Player of the Year^[13]
• Swimming World 2016 Female Water Polo Player of the Year^[21][22]
• Swimming World 2019 Female Water Polo Player of the Year^[17]
• Forbes, Sports 30 Under 30: 2022^[23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashleigh_Johnson

Photos: What do reparations mean to me?

November 6, 20221:14 PM ET

Dee Dwyer

When photographer Dee Dwyer attended the Rally 4 Reparations in Washington, D.C., she heard from people across the country about what reparations from slavery in the United States means to them.

Here is what she was told.

A large crowd turned out for the Rally 4 Reparations.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Ishia House and Mikos Dickerson

Dee Dwyer for NPR

“Reparations mean acknowledgement. It’s acknowledgement and proof of everything that I’ve been learning, everything that I’ve been teaching my children. That we are the builders and the creators of everything and just that we’ve been taught lies and to get reparations, like I said, it’s acknowledgment of truth.”

Ishia House, Oakland, Calif.

“It means to me really, freedom. Like we’re free to do whatever it is we want. We don’t have to count on nobody else to help us. We don’t have to sit around and just wait for anything, no welfare. We don’t have to do all that. We just take care of our own. And it shortens up the wealth gap. It makes us more independent.”

Mikos Dickerson

Rally 4 Reparations attendees work to raise awareness about reparations.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Mensah Chidubem, left, and Imrah Knotti

Dee Dwyer for NPR

“Reparations, it means that we deserve our money back for the wrong that was done to us. We built the entire country. We created almost everything we use today. Everything we use, we created. And we didn’t get a dime off of it. So I believe reparations is the money that we deserve for building the country that the hell we put through, etc.”

Mensah Chidubem

“That’s the first time I’ve been asked this question. But if I had to sum up and make it short, of course, is to try to correct a wrong that was done to my people, my ancestors. But it’s also a debt that needs to be paid that can help further the generations that come out.”

Imrah Knotti, Baton Rouge, La.

Kevin Belnavis

Dee Dwyer for NPR

“What reparations means to me is the payback for 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow and non-stop brutality that has been going on ever since. We need some kind of reparations to take care of future generations. It may not be around for me, but the future, our future, is in the hands of our youth. And that’s what’s most important.”

Kevin Belnavis, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Host of the Rally 4 Reparations Tariq Nasheed speaks to the crowd.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

A Rally 4 Reparations attendee listens as host Tariq Nasheed speaks on the importance of reparations.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

(Left to right) I am T Shirts Brandi Wilcox, Elizabeth Gainous and Marva Dix traveled from Ohio to attend the Rally 4 Reparations.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Speaker Dr. Kaba Kamene

Dee Dwyer for NPR

“Reparations is for our children. For the children yet to be born. The children in 100 years, what will they inherit from us? Not just our legacy, but there’s also a financial situation that we have to take care of. Someone’s got to cut the check for what our ancestors did for them.”

Dr. Kaba Kamene

Attendees listen Dr. Kaba Kamene deliver his speech.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Tierra ‘Syren’ Jackson

Dee Dwyer for NPR

“To me, reparations means getting tangibles for making amends for the wrongs our ancestors had to go through for hundreds of years. We need to be paid money to continue to build back up people that has been beaten down after beat down. And even though we’ve been beaten down, we’re still persevering regardless. But we need that anti-black hate crime bill now.“

Tierra ‘Syren’ Jackson, Washington, D.C.

Rally 4 Reparations attendees listen to Dr. Kaba Kamene deliver his speech.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Stephen Williams attends the Rally 4 Reparations.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

“Reparations means atonement as well as restitution for wrongs that have happened in the past as well as what is currently happening right now. Cash payments. Not only are the native black Americans of this country owed reparations in the form of monetary value, but we have also been systematically gentrified what I like to call like, a four pronged attack. We’re attacked on the economic level, we’re attacked on the medical level. We’re attacked when we go to get a job, and we’re definitely attacked in the society when they deputize the citizens against us. So we need to create our own foundation in order to ratify some of the things that have become normal.”

Stephen Williams, Germantown, Md.

Attendees listen at the Rally 4 Reparations.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Attendees listen to Dr. Kaba Kamene.

Dee Dwyer for NPR

Dee Dwyer is a photographer from Southeast, Washington, D.C. who covers wards 7 and 8 for DCist.

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/11/06/1134594807/photos-what-do-reparations-mean-to-me

Attorney Sue Jamieson was touring a grim state hospital in Georgia three decades ago when she was introduced to a young woman, Lois Curtis, who’d spent much of her teen years and early 20’s in state institutions.

“As we always say, ‘What is it you think we could do for you? I work at Legal Aid. And I’m a lawyer,'” Jamieson recalled for an oral history for her employer, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. “And she’d say: ‘Get me out of here. Would you please get me out of here? When am I getting out of here?'”

Curtis, who had an intellectual disability and was diagnosed with mental illness, kept calling Jamieson from the hospital, asking when she could get out.

The lawsuit that Jamieson filed on behalf of Curtis and another woman – L.C. v. Olmstead – led to a landmark Supreme Court decision benefitting elderly and disabled people, and ultimately helped Curtis move out of institutional care and into her own home.

Curtis, 55, died in her own home outside of Atlanta on Thursday. The cause was pancreatic cancer.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1999, in a decision delivered by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that Curtis, her co-plaintiff Elaine Wilson and other people with disabilities had a right—under the Americans with Disabilities Act—to live in a “less restrictive setting.”

The landmark civil rights case gave disabled and elderly people a right to seek long-term care services in their own home, instead of in an institution like a nursing home or a psychiatric hospital.

Curtis “created a sea change in what our service systems look like,” says Alison Barkoff, the top federal official for aging and disability policy.

“We went from a system in 1999 that the only places that most people with disabilities and older adults could get services were in institutions like nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals, to systems that are primarily focused on supporting people with services in their own homes,” says Barkoff, the acting administrator and assistant secretary of aging at the Administration for Community Living at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

After the Olmstead decision, state Medicaid budgets shifted. Today, more money goes to pay for care at home. Less government funding goes to pay for care in institutions.

Federal law makes nursing home care an entitlement for people who meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid. Home-based care, although it is more popular and became a right under the Olmstead decision, is not an entitlement.

As a result, there are long waiting lists for care at home—at least 700,000 people waiting in some 40 states. But the Olmstead decision requires every state to move toward providing more of that care at home.

The Olmstead decision is cited in scores of lawsuits to get others out of institutional care. And its use has spread. The U.S. Department of Justice, in the Obama Administration, applied the decision’s wording that people with disabilities are entitled to live in the “less restrictive environment” to sue to end segregated work programs that pay people with disabilities a sub-minimum wage. Now parents use Olmstead to assert their children should be in integrated classrooms.

The argument behind the Olmstead decision was that when people live fully integrated in their communities, they live better, more fulfilling lives.

Curtis proved it. She moved into a series of houses, needing help from a caregiver with things like cooking, shopping and other care. And there she discovered her talent as an artist—something she didn’t get to develop when she lived in state hospitals.

Curtis made pencil and pastel drawings of animals and flowers. And sometimes she drew people whose pictures she saw in magazines and books—like a serious Martin Luther King with his arms crossed or a shirtless, young Muhammad Ali.

In 2011, she was invited to the White House on the anniversary of the Olmstead decision. She presented President Barack Obama a framed picture she called “Girl in an Orange Dress.” It was one of a series of self-portraits Curtis did of herself as a young girl, because she had no photographs from the years she lived in the state psychiatric hospitals.

Curtis used her artwork to meet people, says Lee Sanders, who was first hired to help Curtis find work and then became a friend. Curtis, Sanders wrote, “created artwork as she lived: Her lines drawn without hesitation, her colors bold and saturated, her images uncomplicated and spirited.”

Curtis was very social and, with her quick smile, was gifted at making friends. They bought her art supplies and helped her sell her art work.

When Curtis died on Thursday, she was surrounded by many of those friends.

In a video she made for the National Disability Rights Network in 2020, Curtis said: “My name is Lois Curtis… I’m glad to be free.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/05/1134426128/lois-curtis-who-won-a-landmark-civil-rights-case-for-people-with-disabilities-di