Anyone conscious of Black progress during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s clearly remembers songs like James Brown’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud,” Marvin Gay’s “What’s Going On?” and Stevie Wonder’s popular “Happy Birthday” song to the assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in pursuit of a national holiday in his honor.

       Richard Willis, lead producer of ALI, the new musical celebrating the life and legacy of the heavyweight boxing champion and humanitarian Muhammad Ali, today announced the production will premiere in Chicago at the James M. Nederlander Theatre April 22 through May 18, 2025.

Bill Cobbs, a prominent Black American actor with roles in more than 150 films and television shows, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, his family said.

     As much as any message that stirred the crowd and brought them to tears that day was “I’ve Been Buked and I’ve Been Scorned,” a slave lamentation first recorded as a Negro spiritual in the early 20th Century. Sang that day by the reputed, “Queen of Gospel Music,” Mahalia Jackson, upon special request from Dr. King, she rendered the song slowly and prayerfully in her deep, rich contralto just before he spoke.