Sunday, January 31, 2021

RIP

Legendary Actor Cicely Tyson Has Died At Age 96

Over decades, Tyson became a legend by turning down stereotypical roles for Black women and instead forging a path with nuanced characters that led to household name status.

Krystie Lee Yandoli BuzzFeed News Reporter
Last updated on January 28, 2021

Jordan Strauss / AP
Inductee Cicely Tyson poses for a portrait at the 25th Television Academy Hall of Fame at the Saban Media Center on Jan. 28, 2020, in North Hollywood.

Cicely Tyson, the Hollywood legend who won Emmy and Tony awards during a 70-year career that spanned television, film, and theater, died Thursday. She was 96.

“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing,” Tyson’s manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement. “Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the ornaments of her personal and professional life. Today she placed the last ornament, a Star, on top of the tree.”

Over decades, she became a legend by turning down stereotypical roles for Black women and instead forging a path with nuanced characters that led to household name status with 1974’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, for which she won two Emmys.

Associated Press
Cicely Tyson poses in 1974 with her Emmy awards.

After first pursuing a career as a fashion model, Tyson took up acting in 1951 on the NBC show Frontiers of Faith. When she appeared on the TV series East Side/West Side as Jane Foster from 1963–1964, she became the first Black woman to land a main role in a television drama. She also acted on the soap opera The Guiding Light.

Tyson won her first Emmy Award in 1974 for Best Lead Actress in a Drama and Actress of the Year for playing the role of Jane Pittman in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. In 1994, her acting in Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All won her another Emmy in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special category. Throughout her career, Tyson was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards, including for her guest role in ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder.

In 2013, Tyson also earned a Tony Award in the category of Best Actress in a Play for the character Miss Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful, becoming the oldest recipient of the honor in that category.

An accomplished actor, Tyson also received an Oscar nomination in 1973 in the Best Actress category for Sounder, as well as an Honorary Oscar in 2018. Among her other notable awards, Tyson was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-president Barack Obama in 2016 as well as the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015.

Tyson's acting career didn't slow down when she got older. She played supporting roles in 2011's The Help, House of Cards in 2016, and Madam Secretary in 2019. She also appeared in many Tyler Perry films, such as Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2005, Madea’s Family Reunion in 2006, and Why Did I Get Married Too? in 2010.

In 1942, when the actor was 18, she married Kenneth Franklin, but the marriage ended 14 years later. In the 1960s, Tyson started dating famed jazz musician Miles Davis and the two married in 1981. She later filed for divorce in 1988.

On Jan. 26, two days before her death was announced, Tyson published a memoir titled Just as I Am, which detailed her career and personal life, including her marriage to Davis, who she said was unfaithful, physically abusive, and was addicted to drugs.

As news broke about Tyson's death, fans, members of Hollywood, and other public figures took to Twitter to mourn and celebrate the life of the iconic actor. US Rep. Maxine Waters wrote that Tyson was "one of the most profound, talented, & celebrated actors in the industry. She was a serious actor, beautiful & spiritual woman who had unlocked the key to longevity in the way she lived her life. Forever all my love & respect."Shonda Rhimes, who worked with Tyson on How to Get Away With Murder, wrote, "She was an extraordinary person. And this is an extraordinary loss. She had so much to teach. And I still have so much to learn. I am grateful for every moment. Her power and grace will be with us forever."

Earlier this month, the New York Times published an interview with Tyson while she was promoting her new memoir. When asked about whether she was afraid of death, the actor replied, “I’m not scared of death. I don’t know what it is. How could I be afraid of something I don’t know anything about?”

“[People] just think they know death because other people say it is something to be scared of, but they don’t know that it is a frightening thing. Do you?” Tyson added. “People say it is this and it is that. But they don’t know. They’ve not been there. I’ve not been there. I’m not in a hurry to go either! I take it a day at a time, David, and I’m grateful for every day that God gives me.”

Krystie Lee Yandoli is an entertainment reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Celebrities Are Remembering How Cicely Tyson Paved The Way For Black Women In Hollywood

"You made me feel loved and seen and valued in a world where there is still a cloak of invisibility for us dark chocolate girls," Viola Davis wrote on Twitter.

Salvador HernandezBuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on January 28, 2021

Cicely Tyson's career was an inspiration on and off the screen, so after the 96-year-old Hollywood icon died Thursday, the tributes to her came pouring in.

"I really need this not to be true," Shonda Rhimes, prolific producer and screenwriter, wrote on Twitter. Tyson had a memorable recurring role on Rhimes' show How to Get Away With Murder.

Rhimes then followed with a tribute to Tyson, the legendary actor who forged a path for Black women in the industry with nuanced characters throughout a 70-year career that earned her Emmy and Tony awards.

"She was an extraordinary person," Rhimes wrote. "She had so much to teach. And I still have so much to learn."

Actor Zendaya also mourned the loss of the acting icon.

"This one hurts," Zendya wrote.

"You paved the way," actor Tracie Thoms noted.

I really need this not to be true — Twitter: @shondarhimes

She was an extraordinary person. And this is an extraordinary loss. She had so much to teach. And I still have so much to learn. I am grateful for every moment. Her power and grace will be with us forever. #cicelytyson https://t.co/RNYkGiooPD — Twitter: @shondarhimes

This one hurts, today we honor and celebrate the life of one of the greatest to ever do it. Thank you Cicely Tyson. Rest in great power. — Twitter: @Zendaya

I have no words. Just thank you, Madame Cicely Tyson. We are, because YOU paved the way for us. A queen and a trailblazer indeed. Rest now... #RIPCicelyTyson. https://t.co/rjhtE38NgL — Twitter: @traciethoms

"You made me feel loved and seen and valued in a world where there is still a cloak of invisibility for us dark chocolate girls," Viola Davis wrote. "You gave me permission to dream."

I'm devastated. My heart is just broken. I loved you so much!! You were everything to me! You made me feel loved and seen and valued in a world where there is still a cloak of invisibility for us dark chocolate girls. You gave me permission to dream... https://t.co/7V7AFZtFLa — Twitter: @violadavis

Others who had also gotten a chance to work with Tyson remembered her as tireless throughout the course of a 70-year career.

She was a consummate pro and all class and I was so fortunate to have worked with her on "Sweet Justice." But my best memory was traveling with her through Russia for a film festival, as she told us wonderful stories. Hollywood truly lost an icon today. RIP Cicely Tyson 😢🤟 — Twitter: @MarleeMatlin

It was an honor to have worked with Ms. Tyson on this video. We were worried she wouldn’t be able to read it off the prompter. But she took one look and said, “I’m ready.” She did it in one take.

Rest peacefully, Queen 🥺🙏🏾 — Twitter: @jasmynbeknowing

In a series of pictures, rapper and actor Common noted Tyson's influence throughout her career, not just on the screen, but in fashion and culture.

I’m so sad to hear the news that trailblazing artist and cultural icon Cicely Tyson has passed away today. While she may be gone, her work and life will continue to inspire millions for years to come. God Bless. — Twitter: @common

Just two days before her death, Tyson's memoir Just as I Am was published. In an interview with CBS This Morning's Gayle King, Tyson discussed her life and legacy as she promoted the book.

On Thursday, King posted a portion of the interview and thanked the trailblazing actor.

Thank you Cicely Tyson... for everything... — Twitter: @GayleKing

Such a loss. Rest in Peace, Cicely Tyson.💔 https://t.co/mYRsAD59WW — Twitter: @katiecouric

Others noted the barriers that were broken down by Tyson's work, especially for Black women. Her portrayals of nuanced characters and elegant presence on screen were both an inspiration and a force for change.

"I want to be recalled as one who squared my shoulders in the service of Black women, as one who made us walk taller and envision greater for ourselves."

Thank you for all that you did for Black women. You will inspire Black women and girls for generations to come. #CicelyTyson — Twitter: @ashleyrallison

Indeed. That is precisely why we loved you so. Rest in peace, Queen. Thank you for leaving a legacy of cinematic art behind, for using your gifts to tell Black stories & to convey our full humanity. And thank you for doing it all with style, flair & grace inimitable. — Twitter: @AyannaPressley

So saddened to hear my friend #CicelyTyson has passed-one of the most profound, talented, & celebrated actors in the industry. She was a serious actor, beautiful & spiritual woman who had unlocked the key to longevity in the way she lived her life. Forever all my love & respect. — Twitter: @RepMaxineWaters

Cicely Tyson was light-filled and generous with it, full of grace and gravitas, dignity and warmth and she was also very beautiful and glamorous and clearly knew it, and God, I love seeing black women bold with their beauty — Twitter: @BeeBabs

This woman gave us so many visions of ourselves.

Thank you for always @IAmCicelyTyson — Twitter: @mobrowne

An icon, in its truest sense, is someone who wakes you up and, by the sheer beauty of their transcendent existence, doesn’t make you want to Beloit *them.* They make you want to be more of *yourself.*

And that is Ms. Cicely Tyson.

You can rest now. You gave us every gift.❤️ — Twitter: @MsPackyetti

Bernice King, the youngest of Martin Luther King Jr.'s children, also honored the actor.

"What a vessel," she wrote.

An elder...now an ancestor.
What a vessel.

#CicelyTyson — Twitter: @BerniceKing

Salvador Hernandez is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.

CORONAVIRUS

Anti-Vaxxers Temporarily Shut Down One Of The Largest COVID-19 Vaccination Sites In The US

Everyone who had an appointment for a vaccine on Saturday ultimately received one, the LA Fire Department said.

Olivia NilandBuzzFeed News Reporter

Last updated on January 31, 2021, at 2:16 p.m. ET

Posted on January 31, 2021

A group of anti-vax protesters temporarily shut down the COVID-19 vaccination site at LA's Dodger Stadium on Saturday, delaying appointments by nearly an hour.

About 50 protesters gathered at the stadium entrance, holding signs with anti-vaccine and anti-mask rhetoric and shouting at drivers who were lined up for their vaccination appointments. No vaccine appointments were canceled, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department told BuzzFeed News.

The LAFD closed the stadium entrance as a precaution for about 55 minutes beginning at 2 p.m., the Los Angeles Times reported. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, protesters remained peaceful.

Social media posts and a livestream from the protest showed participants wielding signs with false anti-vaccine claims and screeds against masks, lockdown measures, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The protesters attempted to engage with people waiting in their cars.

Newsom tweeted Saturday that the state will "not be deterred or threatened" by protesters in providing COVID-19 vaccines.

Dodger Stadium is one of the largest vaccination sites in the country, serving a region currently grappling with a particularly deadly wave of COVID-19. As of Saturday, there were 5,669 people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Los Angeles County, with more than 1.1 million cases and 16,647 deaths recorded in the county since the pandemic began.

Earlier this month, anti-mask protesters calling COVID-19 a "con job" harassed shoppers at an LA mall and grocery store. It was not immediately clear whether the two protest groups were connected.

COVID-19 Daily Update:
January 30, 2021
New Cases: 6,918 (1,111,089 to date)
New Deaths: 316 (16,647 to date)
Current Hospitalizations: 5,669 — Twitter: @lapublichealth

The county is currently vaccinating residents 65 and older, as well as healthcare workers and nursing facility staff and residents, but COVID-19 cases have continued to increase. To date, one out of every nine residents in LA County has had COVID-19, and at least one COVID-19 death is recorded in the county every 10 minutes.

Los Angeles County has also suspended environmental limits on cremation due to a backlog of bodies at hospitals, funeral homes, and crematoriums as a result of COVID-19.

Musician and LA resident Mikel Jollett tweeted that his mother's vaccination appointment was delayed due to the protest. His 69-year-old mother, Bonnie, was eventually able to get the vaccine once the site reopened, said Jollett, who fronts rock band Airborne Toxic Event.

We’re at the mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium to get my mom the vaccine. The anti–vax protestors have approached the entrance to the site. The LAPD have now closed the gate. We have been sitting here for about half an hour. Nobody is moving. — Twitter: @Mikel_Jollett

According to the Los Angeles Times, the protest was advertised as the “Scamdemic Protest/March" and asked participants to "refrain from wearing Trump/MAGA attire as we want our statement to resonate with the sheeple. No flags but informational signs only."

State and local officials denounced the protest, with Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez calling the demonstration "unbelievable," while others drew parallels to the far-right extremists responsible for the attempted coup at the US Capitol earlier this month.

Unbelievable. If you don't want the vaccine fine, but there are millions of Angelenos that do. 16,000 of your neighbors have died, so get out of the way. https://t.co/OTKL7ugJzL — Twitter: @CD6Nury

Dr. Richard Pan, a pediatrician and California state senator, described the protesters as extremists using intimidation and violence to further their false beliefs. Anti-vaxxers have regularly disrupted the California legislature in recent years, and Pan was assaulted by an anti-vax activist in 2019.

“These extremists have not yet been held accountable, so they continue to escalate violence against the body public," Pan said in a statement. "We must now summon the political will to demand that domestic terrorists must face consequences for their words and actions. Our democracy and our lives depend on it.”

Olivia Niland is a news reporter and curation editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.
Contact Olivia Niland at olivia.niland@buzzfeed.com.
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This Woman Photographer Captured The Style Of The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring ‘20s through the eyes of Madame d’Ora.

Pia PetersonBuzzFeed News Photo Editor

Posted on January 31, 2021,

Dora Kallmus, who was professionally known as Madame d'Ora, was a Jewish society photographer born in Vienna at the end of the 19th century. At a time when most women did not own or know how to operate a camera, she became a highly sought-after woman photographer in a male-dominated field.

She photographed many great artists and dancers of the day, from all over the world — including Pablo Picasso and Josephine Baker. The first woman photographer to open her own studio in Vienna, she relocated to Paris and immersed herself in fashion photography until the Nazis seized the city 15 years later. When Kallmus was forced into hiding, she lost many close friends and family members in concentration camps.

Kallmus continued photographing after the war until her death in 1963, but her most compelling work is her glamorous and carefully composed photographs of friends and celebrities, which show us even today the decadence and splendor of a young generation of artists coming into their own after the First World War.

We look at one woman’s view of the Roaring ‘20s as we enter a new decade over a hundred years later, with global fascism on the rise once more.

Ullstein Bild Dtl. / Getty Images

Ullstein Bild Dtl. / Getty Images

Ullstein Bild Dtl. / Getty Images
SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTO ESSAY HERE https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/piapeterson/photographer-dora-kallmus-roaring-twenties-style

A New Photo Exhibit Looks At Decades Of FBI Surveillance On American Citizens

In Las Carpetas, Christopher Gregory-Rivera shares a cautionary tale of the American surveillance state.

Pia Peterson BuzzFeed News Photo Editor

Posted on January 29, 2021,

Christopher Gregory-Rivera
The carpeta of Providencia Pupa Trabal, a cofounder of the Pro-Independence Movement (MPI). She had surveillance outside her home in 8-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. It turned out a person who was like her second son had been informing on her to the cops. She found out when the files were declassified.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Christopher Gregory-Rivera has always been deeply engaged with issues around colonialism, which he said has “unequivocally reshaped the island — and many parts of the globe.” Most of his work looks at the territory’s history as a way to understand the present and attempt to unravel the forces behind the injustices that colonized and marginalized communities face.

He began his photography career in Washington, DC. “I intimately experienced the way politics and power is crafted but grew increasingly disillusioned with the ability of political journalism to truly speak truth to that process,” he said. He kept this in mind for years before he saw his first “carpeta” (Spanish for “binder”), files on Puerto Rican residents compiled by a Puerto Rican secret police with the support of the FBI. The files targeted ordinary citizens who were suspected of aligning with the territory’s independence movement, whom authorities considered to be a political threat to US interests. Over the course of four decades, the FBI and the Puerto Rico Police Bureau maintained a secret network throughout the territory, “surveying, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting” any national movements for independence by instilling a culture of fear, violence, and intimidation. This movement threatened the lives of ordinary citizens and political activists and turned national folklore into a real and ugly story of American colonialism.

Las Carpetas, an exhibition now on view at the Abrons Arts Center in New York, was curated by Natalia Viera Salgado, the current curatorial resident at the Abrons Arts Center, and the assistant curator at the Americas Society.

Christopher Gregory-Rivera

READ THE REST HERE https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/piapeterson/puerto-rico-fbi-files-photos-carpetas

A surveillance image of a strike at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus. It was not uncommon for the police to photograph protests and identify those involved. The person identified with the number 14 was Arnaldo Darío Rosado, who was entrapped and murdered by police just three years after this image was taken. The individuals in the photograph are clearly numbered and identified

THEY VAX 6000 STAFF

Pentagon halts plan to vaccinate Guantanamo Bay detainees

A sign for Camp VI in Camp Delta where detainees are housed is seen at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in this July 2010 photo. Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The Pentagon is pausing a plan to vaccinate detainees at Guantánamo Bay against COVID-19 after a backlash over the Defense Department's priorities.

"No Guantanamo detainees have been vaccinated. We're pausing the plan to move forward, as we review force protection protocols," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby wrote on Twitter Saturday. "We remain committed to our obligations to keep our troops safe."

Forty wartime prisoners are detained at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as well as six men who have been cleared for release by an interagency government panel.

Earlier this week The New York Times reported that the Department of Defense had decided to offer the vaccine to prisoners starting next week.

Medical workers at the U.S. naval base began vaccinating its 6,000 residents, including 1,500 troops assigned to the detention center, on Jan. 8.

The announcement that terrorism suspects could receive the vaccine as well sparked a backlash among conservatives, with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, writing, "President Biden told us he would have a plan to defeat the virus on day 1," on Twitter. "He just never told us that it would be to give the vaccine to terrorists before most Americans."

The detention camp was opened by then-President George W. Bush in 2002 to detain enemy combatants in the War on Terror.

RELATED New COVID-19 variants found in Arizona, Maryland; U.S. surpasses 26M cases

The camp's existence has drawn criticism from human rights organizations for violations of due process, as some detainees have awaited trial.

The lack of vaccinations has been an obstacle to resuming pretrial hearings in the Sept. 11 case, because almost everyone involved in the hearings -- save the prisoners -- commutes to the court from elsewhere, and vaccinating the prisoners, lawyers, judge and court staff has not been a priority.

As recently as three weeks ago, when Amnesty International released a report describing Guantánamo as the center of "ongoing and historic" human rights abuses, critics have cited a lack of adequate medical care as an ongoing problem at the site.

President Barack Obama promised to close the detention center during his 2008 campaign, but was stymied by Congressional opposition, and in 2018 then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying it would stay open indefinitely.

But as recently as last March, Pentagon officials said they were considering "right-sizing" the number of staff at the facility, which at the time employed 1,800 troops -- 45 for each man held there -- with an operating cost of $13 million per prisoner.

Reindeer lichens reproduce sexually far more than scientists thought

While reindeer lichen can produce both sexually and asexually, researchers were surprised at the genetic diversity found in lichens in Northern Canada -- because it means they are more sexual than previously thought. Photo by Marta Alonso-García

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Like most lichen, reindeer lichen can reproduce both sexually and asexually, by sending out spores or simply cloning themselves.

Previously, researchers assumed reindeer lichen, Cladonia stellaris, was primarily a clonal species, and would therefore feature relatively low levels of genetic diversity.

But according to a new genomic survey, published Friday in the American Journal of Botany, the reindeer lichen that blanket the forest floors of northern Canada have been doing a lot more gene-mixing than scientists thought.

In other words, reindeer lichen have been having plenty of sex.

RELATED Lichens are much younger than scientists thought

Lichen are composite organisms featuring fungi and algae. Algae provide energy via photosynthesis, while the fungi secure nutrients from organic matter in rocks, soil and bark.

When lichen reproduce sexually, neighboring lichen exchange genetic information through intertwined root-like structures. The lichen then release single-cell spores.

Dispersed by wind, the spores colonize new territory, sprouting genetically distinct lichen.

RELATED Heat, wildfires could alter Alaska's forest composition

During asexual reproduction, lichen pinch-off a bit of themselves. This bit of fungi and algae, called the thallus, establishes a separate lichen that is genetically identical to its parent.

Ubiquitous and often inconspicuous, lichen are vital -- and according researchers, under appreciated -- members of forest ecosystems.

"Services provided by lichens are countless," lead study author Marta Alonso-García, postdoctoral fellow at Laval University in Quebec, told UPI in an email. "For example, together with mosses, they are the first organisms to colonize the soil after a fire."

RELATED Lichens thrived, diversified after the dinosaurs died out

"In particular, reindeer lichens have adapted better than almost all other lichens to boreal biome, the largest biome in North America," said Alonso-García. "Cladonia lichens have become essential components of those ecosystems and, in winter, they represent the most important food source for reindeer and caribou. In addition, they contain about 20 percent of the total lichen woodland biomass and can contribute up to 97 percent of ground cover."

To better understand the relationships between the reindeer lichens growing in the forests of northern Canada, researchers extracted and sequenced the DNA from dozens of lichen samples. Researchers focused on the DNA of the lichen's fungi.

Researchers were surprised to find a significant amount of genetic variation among lichens growing in different parts of the forest.

Sexual reproduction can help organisms rid themselves of potentially harmful gene mutations and accumulate potentially useful genetic variations. But sexual reproduction requires more energy, making it a riskier strategy.

Sexual reproduction is also more difficult for symbionts like lichen.

"Asexual reproduction has the advantage that the fungus reproduces together with the algae -- lichen parts breaking apart," study co-author Felix Grewe told UPI in an email.

"In comparison, sexual reproduction by fungal spores requires a reacquisition of the algal/cyanobacterial symbiotic partner wherever the wind dispersed spore lands," said Grewe, co-director of the Field Museum's Grainger Bioinformatics Center.

Though reindeer lichen are apparently having more sex than expected, under certain circumstances the lichen are still opting for asexual cloning.

Researchers found that reindeer lichen were much more genetically homogenous across recently burned forest.

The discovery was another surprise. Scientists assumed the thallus pieces that enable asexual reproduction would be easily destroyed by fire.

In followup studies, researchers said they hope to directly observe the reproductive behaviors of reindeer lichen in order to confirm the conclusions of their genetic analysis.

ON THE EVE OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
'Stat geeks' make Negro Leagues come alive again

Pitcher Satchel Paige, shown in 1948 while with the Cleveland Indians, will have 20 years of additional data credited to his career statistics after MLB designated the Negro Leagues as major leagues. Photo courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

MIAMI, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Major League Baseball is leaning on tedious, decades-long work of self-proclaimed "stat geek" researchers as it adds Negro Leagues statistics to its official record book.

MLB announced the decision to include the statistics in December, reclassifying the seven leagues, which played from 1920 to 1948, as major leagues.

MLB and the Elias Sports Bureau have started the verification process for the findings of Gary Ashwill, Larry Lester and other researchers who are trying to piece together records that are largely a mystery.

Many Negro Leagues game accounts have been lost or distorted or never were recorded. But the researchers' statistical discoveries will meld into major league records, even though these players' list of achievements probably never will be complete.

RELATED MLB's inclusion of Negro Leagues stats reframes greatest-player debate

"There were no comprehensive publications that covered everything" for Negro Leagues, said Ashwill, the lead researcher for Negro Leagues database Seamheads.com.

"For White baseball, you had the Sporting News, which covered everything. Even mainstream newspapers had box scores for every game," Ashwill said. "If you had to reconstruct White baseball history, you could do it very easily because you have evidence and material all over the place."

Lester, chairman of the Society for American Baseball Research Negro Leagues Committee, began his research in 1970. Ashwill started two decades ago.

RELATED MLB classifies Negro Leagues as a major league, will count statistics

The researchers stare at microfilm for hours in libraries and comb the country for publications, baseball artifacts and unanticipated discoveries. In November, for example, Ashwill found two previously unreported home runs that "Mule" Suttles hit for the St. Louis Stars in 1926.

James "Cool Papa" Bell, shown in 1942 with the Chicago American Giants, will have his statistics added to the baseball record book after MLB designated the seven Negro Leagues as major leagues. Photo courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

The researchers have discovered that "Cool Papa" Bell holds the leagues' single-season stolen base record (49 in 1929 for the St. Louis Stars). They've counted 238 home runs for Josh Gibson, a Negro Leagues career record.

"It cost me a dime for every copy from the microfilm machine," Lester said. "I have roughly 14,000 box scores after 50 years of research."

RELATED MLB, players union donate $1M to Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Ashwill and Lester, who also co-founded the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., are among a group of some 10 primary researchers with an obsession for uncovering the hidden performances.

Ashwill's desk is covered in old newspapers. He owns a trove of copied box scores and microfilmed pages, constantly seeking to uncover forgotten stories.

Lester has 20 four-drawer file cabinets at home, each packed with newspaper clippings, box scores, biographies and other Negro Leagues data.

The quest has been inspirational, frustrating and emotional for the researchers. Lester has become teary-eyed looking into the microfilm viewer.

"You read about a great ballplayer like a 'Bullet' Rogan and see the games on the screen where he gets two or three hits every game," Lester said. "He's pitching, playing center field, leading his team in home runs and hitting over .400.

"And you are like: Why haven't I heard of this ballplayer? It shakes your faith in baseball Americana."

Negro Leagues star Oscar Charleston (C), shown in 1921 as a member of the St. Louis Giants, never appeared in MLB, but now will have his statistics added to the official major league record book. Photo courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Some tangible Negro Leagues records from newspapers and other publications weren't considered "valuable" and often were discarded after Jackie Robinson broke MLB's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, the researchers said.

The popularity of the leagues faded into oblivion as more Black players joined MLB in the 1950s and 1960s.

Newspapers that served Black communities -- like the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American and Kansas City Call -- are the main source for Negro Leagues statistics, but they only printed weekly until the 1930s and couldn't cram a week's worth of daily box scores into only two or three pages dedicated to sports. As a result, some box scores never were printed, creating a dead end for historians.

The available box scores often aren't of good quality and omit important statistics. Modern-day researchers have had to collect multiple newspapers from around the United State to verify performances.

"I have mined more than 400 newspapers for Negro Leagues data," Lester said.

The statistics detectives work on a game-by-game basis for a specific season with the ultimate goal of compiling a player's career statistics.

"For any one season, you have to use dozens and dozens of newspapers," Ashwill said. "There are plenty of Negro Leagues games that took place in small cities. You have to dig up and check newspapers from all those cities, and it takes forever."

The tedious work has provided enough statistics to form the Seamheads database, but the job may never be finished. Researchers say a "complete" database won't be possible because of the lost and incomplete information.

Lester, 71, had a closer connection to the Negro Leagues than most researchers. He lived in the same Kansas City neighborhood as some players and went to high school with the children of Satchel Paige, arguably the greatest player in league history.

He said he "can't wait" to share his findings with baseball fans.

"You just want to know, why has America kept a great ball player like Oscar Charleston from [us]?" Lester said. "I know about Ty Cobb, Cy Young, Babe Ruth, a lot of White ballplayers I've never seen play. But what about 'Rap' Dixon and 'Turkey' Stearnes?"

MLB's official historian, John Thorn, credited Lester, Ashwill and other researchers for the data expansion. He said Seamheads has extended the data collection beyond what "anyone imagined was possible" over the last decade.

"Everyone who has found an extra home run for 'Mule' Settles [who primarily played for the Newark Eagles] or an extra RBI for 'Chino' Smith [Brooklyn Royal Giants] stands on the shoulders of giants," Thorn said.

New record-holders will be announced as Elias and MLB verify statistics from Negro Leagues players. It's a process with no finish line.

"I don't know if this will take six months or six years," said John Labombarda, the director of research at Elias Sports Bureau.

"How missing information will be filled in is an ongoing process. As they find information, they will let us know and we will include that," he said.

Thorn expects some fans to object to the inclusion of Negro League stars on all-time statistical leaderboards, which likely will move MLB legends like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams down in the rankings.

"The really significant thing for fans to understand is that history is not product, it's process," Thorn said.

"History is not something you put on a bronze plaque and put in Cooperstown [at the Baseball Hall of Fame] and don't challenge that data. History is always subject to investigation, and in some cases, corrections."

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Sunday, January 31, 2021

Celebrities Are Remembering How Cicely Tyson Paved The Way For Black Women In Hollywood

Anti-Vaxxers Temporarily Shut Down One Of The Largest COVID-19 Vaccination Sites In The US

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