After 14 years of being in operation, Justin’s Restaurant in Atlanta
recently closed. Justin’s was part of Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’s chain of
high-end soul food restaurants.
Director John Singleton has praised it. Filmmaking legend Melvin Van
Peebles has even given it the thumbs up. No, it’s not the latest film,
but an organization dedicated to empowering film journalists and
filmmakers, called the African-American Film Critics Association
(AAFCA), a collective of Black film critics.
Recently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Atlanta’s
Sweet Auburn Historic District, the Ella Little Collins-Malcolm X House
in Roxbury, MA, and Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philadelphia on its 2012 list of
America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The purpose of the list
is to protect such sites, although about a handful of listed
destinations have been lost since the list was started in 1988.
Sherman Hemsley, the gifted character actor who gave life to the blustering Black Harlem
businessman George Jefferson on "The Jeffersons," one of TV's longest running and most
successful sitcoms — particularly noteworthy with its mostly Black cast, has died. He was 74.
On the lawn of Gracie Mansion in Manhattan yesterday, politicians,
business owners and the Harlem community gathered to celebrate the
official kick-off of Harlem Week 2012. This year’s affair marked the
38th anniversary of the event.
