African-American Communities Lack Movie Theaters, and Here’s Why Many May Never Be Developed

African-American and Latino audiences are more interested in moviegoing than many other populations, and yet in a country with nearly 40,000 screens, some of these communities face a cinema desert. That seems counterintuitive at best, racist at worst, and difficult to improve: We are in a period with fewer new theaters under development than virtually any time since the multi-screen era began five decades ago. Here’s why some areas may never see a movie house.

There’s a number of major population centers with African-American communities with successful theaters. Atlanta leads the way, but others thrive in or around Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, and Chicago.

Selma has a population of about 19,000, and is the largest town in a county of 46,000. The closest multi-screen theaters are in Plattville and Montgomery, at a distance of 35 miles or more. The city is 80 percent black; the county, 63 percent.

While Selma doesn’t have a commercial theater, it has the Walton, a single-screen outlet owned by the city and leased by a local nonprofit. With the support of distributor Paramount Pictures, the Walton provided free screenings of “Selma” for several weeks during its general release in January 2015. Currently, the theater is showing “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” (DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time” also screened this spring.)

Among its 10 top-grossing films in the last three years are three by black directors (“Black Panther” and two Tyler Perry films), plus three more with significant black story elements (“Hidden Figures,” “Woodlawn,” and “War Room,” its biggest success.) The theater tries to avoid R-rated films, which limits play across the board and particularly among some of the most acclaimed African-American directed films of recent years like “Get Out,” “Moonlight,” and “Birth of a Nation.”

While the Walton is clearly a valuable Selma resource, it’s a town is large enough to be served by more than a single screen. Many similar small towns have four- to six-screen theaters, often the result of the boom in multi-screen construction 20 to 30 years ago.

Compton’s situation is similar. The Los Angeles suburb is about 65 percent Latino, with 26 percent of households below poverty level. The nearest theaters are multi-screen complexes in Carson, Paramount, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Baldwin Hills, with the closest at least 15 minutes away.

A population of nearly 100,000 is enough to support a theater complex, but that absence is not unheard of given the sometimes-patchwork municipalities of Los Angeles county; West Hollywood and Beverly Hills have no major-first run theaters. However, Compton is hampered by economic and construction issues in a way those independent cities are not.

It’s been more than two years since Moctesuma Esparza’s Maya Cinemas proposed building a 14-screen complex in Compton. Esparza currently has five complexes in California, all located in underserved Latino areas; another in Las Vegas is on the way. However, he’s yet to break ground in Compton, and recently told the Los Angeles Times that he’s stymied by the lack of available land for parking.

Other smaller, mostly black cities lack local theaters, including East St. Louis, Illinois; Gary, Indiana; and Camden, New Jersey. Similarly, the largely Latino community of unincorporated East Los Angeles with a population of over 150,000 is served by no modern first-run complexes closer than downtown Los Angeles to the west or Commerce to the east.

In a time of plateauing ticket sales, and the promise of these underserved, movie-loving audiences, why don’t theater chains respond to the demand? One answer lies in the economic calculations necessary to invest in modern a multi-screen theater that will include stadium seating, plush seats, IMAX screens, and other amenities now viewed as standard essentials to attract audiences in the streaming age.

When complexes began to replace single screens in the ’70s and ’80s, it was a much less expensive proposition; chains opened new outlets in strip malls and other established shopping centers. Today, those hubs are dying, and a new theater often means committing to new construction to accommodate those massive screens and stadium seats. At a minimum, it’s a $15 million investment.

To support that outlay, investors look for areas that offer other local draws like restaurants and other entertainment venues. No one wants to count on movies as the sole attraction. That means a rabid audience isn’t enough; communities need parallel economic development, which is another complex and challenging issue with its own racial overtones.

While Magic Johnson’s theater chain failed — of the five multiplexes he opened in Cleveland, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Harlem, only the AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9 remains — companies like Maya still offer hope. However, cinemas are not a growth industry in America. Domestic screen numbers show decline, and theater chains focus their outreach overseas. Yes, all audiences have unprecedented access via streaming — but as they say, it’s just not the same.

[SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS]

African-American veterans monument in Buffalo will be first in U.S.

Buffalo is expected to receive national attention soon, for the construction of a monument that will be the first of its kind in the country.

Karen Stanley Fleming, the board chair of the Michigan Street African American Corridor, says that this monument will be "an incredible addition to Buffalo's interpretation of African-American history."

State officials announced this morning at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park that the state will provide $800,000 toward the construction of the African-American veterans monument there. The monument will be the first and only in the U.S., to honor black soldiers that fought in every American war to date.

New York State Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, who announced the grant along with state Sen. Chris Jacobs, R-Buffalo, said organizers hope to raise $1 million more by Veterans Day toward the construction of the 12-pillar structure.

"The purpose here is just to honor veterans," Peoples-Stokes said.

The monument will be an interactive, timeline walk of every American conflict in which black soldiers fought, between the Revolutionary War and the War in Afghanistan. Visitors will be able to observe the 12 10-foot tall and 3-feet wide pillars that represent each conflict, along with educational kiosks that will detail African-American involvement in each war.

Historian Madeline Scott said that the idea for creating the monument started when she and the Erie County Chapter of The Links Inc. began collecting names of deceased and living African-American veterans in 2016.

"The purpose [of the monument] is to recognize the hardships [black people] went through from the beginning," said Scott, "because history doesn't tell you about that until 1863."

The project has an anticipated budget of $1.4 million, which includes upkeep and management costs, according to monument committee chairman Warren Galloway. The committee hopes to implement technology within the monument that will work through a smartphone app, to allow visitors to explore the monument all while having the information at their fingertips. To raise additional money, the committee is selling commemorative bricks that will be laid on the ground surface of the monument.

"With these bricks," said Galloway, "you can walk and see the impact African-Americans have had in this whole area."

Galloway says that the Buffalo monument committee has been working with Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and a host of U.S. senators to get the future monument nationally recognized. He says that although the monument is meant to honor veterans, it can be used as a teaching tool, which he believes will increase the chances of it becoming a national landmark.

"We're honoring our veterans but this is also educational," said Galloway, "so we want to attract educational money."

Organizers announced they expect to break ground on Veterans Day and have the ribbon-cutting some time around the Fourth of July in 2019.

The unveiling of the monument is expected to gain national attention and serve as what Fleming says is "a good starting place to learn about African-American history."

[SOURCE: THE BUFFALO NEWS]

Daniel Cormier is now UFC Heavyweight Champion!

By George L. Cook III African American Reports.

Although he could never beat Jon Jones, it looks like UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier will finally be getting some big boy respect. Cormier took the challenge and "stepped up in weight" to fight heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, he entered the cage as the challenger and left it as the new heavyweight champion!

Despite being the shorter guy, having a shorter reach, and Miocic's supposed superior punching power Cormier knocked the champ out in the first round of their heavyweight fight at UFC 226.

With the victory DC becomes just the second UFC fighter to simultaneously hold two belts (light heavyweight, heavyweight), with Conner McGregor being the first.

"I am 39 years old, and I've been second a lot of times, but today I finally accomplished everything from crying in this very same octagon last year -- almost a year to the day -- to becoming the UFC heavyweight champion. This is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced," Cormier said after the fight.

After the fight UFC President Dana White called Cormier one of the greatest of all time.

Some may want to debate Whit's statement but, one thing that you can't argue is that Daniel Cormier is the new UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Congrats to the champ, DANIEL CORMIER!

Chicago protesters call for end to city violence

Thousands of anti-violence protesters including Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson and the Rev. Jesse Jackson marched in a protest organized by Rev. Michael Pfleger. Protesters marched along a Chicago interstate on Saturday, shutting down traffic in an effort to draw attention to the gun violence that's claimed hundreds of lives in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods and pressure public officials to do more to stop it. Some stopped to write on the road with chalk: "Enough is enough" and "Peace."

Black World War II veteran finally promoted to second lieutenant after 76 years

Seventy-six years after being denied his officer status in the U.S. Army, a Philadelphia man was ceremoniously commissioned Friday as a second lieutenant.

John James of Southwest Philadelphia, now 98, completed officer training in 1942, but he was denied his rightfully earned bars because he is black.

In 1941, James was drafted into the Army. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was preparing to ship out to the Pacific, but took a chance on applying for officer training in Fort Benning, Georgia.

“It was a long shot,” James recalled. “There were 21 of us in a class of 200. All the rest were white.”

He finished training in about three months, but, the day before he was to receive his commission, the camp’s contact officer pulled him aside.

“I go into his office and he said, ‘I’m not going to grant you your bars. You’re being transferred,’” recalled James.

During World War II it was not uncommon for African-American soldiers to be denied an officer commission if they were to be assigned to a predominately white unit. At the time, it was against Army regulation for white soldiers to be subordinate to blacks.

James spent the war as a corporal, serving as a typist with a quartermaster battalion supplying front-line combat units in North Africa and Italy for three years. He was part of several key moments of the war, including the Battle of Salerno and the Battle of Monte Cassino.

At the end of the war, he returned to Philadelphia and studied to be a mortician. With mortuary jobs scarce and a family to support, he jumped at an opening at the post office.

“Naturally, I was not going to leave that,” said James. “That was sure money.”

Life carried on. James spent 35 years at the post office. He had three kids. His wife passed away in 1969. He eventually remarried and took on three stepchildren. He retired. He spent a lot of time fishing.

All that time he never told his children anything about being an uncommissioned Army officer, until three years ago when his daughter discovered the class photo from Fort Benning.

“Throw it in the trash,” he told her.

Instead, Dr. Marion Teresa Lane framed it and hung it on the wall. The James family history has a long military streak: They have had an ancestor in every American war since the Revolutionary War (except the Spanish-American war, which the Jameses sat out).

Because of her lineage, Lane belongs to 13 heritage organizations, including the Daughters of the American Revolution. The former national president of the Society of Descendants of Washington’s Army at Valley Forge, she currently is on the board of the Museum of the American Revolution.

With all that under her belt, as well as a 38-year career in public education, Lane said she knows how to work through red tape. She was determined to get her father’s commission.

At the commissioning ceremony in the Museum of the American Revolution’s Liberty Hall, complete with color guard, Casey said he was “humbled” to finally present James with his officer’s certification.

“Although not awarded the commission owed to him, he bravely rose to face one of our most challenging times in history,” said Casey. “He was denied recognition of his service to his country simply because of his race, because of the color of his skin.”

Also lauding James was Gen. John Jumper, a former Vietnam fighter pilot, who is now the museum’s board chair and acting interim president. He said one of America’s greatest attributes is an ability to correct its mistakes, even if it’s long after the fact.

“This is not the first time soldiers of African descent struggled to fight and serve their nation,” he said. “Since the beginning of the U.S. Army in 1775, soldiers of African descent had to fight for their right to fight for their country.”

In many ways, James is the story of African-American patriotism – its noble honors and crushing disappointments. After two centuries of public service, the family is sending another generation into the field: James’ grand-nephew is now enlisted in the Army.

[SOURCE: YORK DAILY RECORD]