America's Most Powerful Black Families

[get these nets]

3) re: Johnson and Robert Johnson and Oprah. You would think there would have been some beef with Robert Johnson but I’m not really aware of any. In fact, when Johnson died, most of all of the media giants, including Robert Johnson, came out to his funeral and paid tributes.

With one exception. Oprah.

Now here is some juicy chatty patty shyt.

There was beef between the Johnsons and Oprah. I have no idea what started it. Oprah was regularly featured on the cover of Ebony in the early 90s so their relationship must have soured at some point. But there were two things that pointed to some animosity. First, Oprah’s cousin came out years ago and essentially said that after telling Oprah that she was applying for a job at Ebony, Oprah told her that she did not like Linda Johnson Rice, and that she should come work for her. Second thing was from a source I got first hand.

Remember this woman in yellow in the Ebony post?-



I was talking to a niece of hers from Cali a few years ago when she was in town visiting. Her niece attended USC with Linda Johnson Rice and they all ran in the same clique along with the daughter of a wealthy black LA businessman who had a business that was essentially a rival to Soft Sheen and Johnson Products (can’t remember his name or busines at the moment also Johnson Products is unrelated to Johnson Publishing). In fact, they were roommates and she told me that Rice would get chauffeured around campus in a limo.

Anyway, this niece, whom is very close to Linda, told me there was historical beef between the Johnsons and Oprah.

Their fallout was exacerbated when Oprah essentially snubbed John Johnson by not showing up to his funeral or releasing a statement on the man that pretty much paved her way in Chicago.

I remember this because this was the first time I had started to lose some respect for Oprah.

Everybody noticed the snub and Roland Martin, who was over the Chicago Defender at the time, wasn’t scared to call Oprah out on it, which is why, contrary to the Coli and TNs narrative of him, I’ve always fucced with Roland.

Here’s a couple of articles -

NPR Choice page

Oprah's silence on John H. Johnson confounds many

Roland essentially says that he reached out to Winfrey over a period of two weeks to get a comment from her and essentially her team hit him with the

Cause Oprah refused to speak on John Johnson.

So Roland published an article in the Defender calling her out saying that all the black media titans and even President Clinton was at Johnson’s funeral and she purposely snubbed it and immediately Oprah broke her silence and hit the and was like she was in Hawaii but sent flowers and a note, but come to find out, the Johnsons never received them, and that she was going to do a Johnson tribute on her show when she got back to Chicago.

She never did the tribute.

The most interesting thing about all of this though?

Who is one of Linda Johnson Rice’s best girlfriends?

Valerie Jarrett.

Do you remember when Oprah was campaigning hard for Obama?

Who was Obama’s closest advisor?

Valerie Jarrett.

Do you remember that at some point when they were on the campaign trail, the Obama’s started to distance themselves from Oprah even though she uncharacteristicly pulled her weight to help him secure the nomination?

If not, let me refresh your memory.

https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/a...betrayal&year=2012&month=06&date=05&id=441238

”Ed Klein’s blockbuster new best-seller about President Barack Obama chronicles Obama’s shocking betrayal of Oprah Winfrey, disclosing how Oprah helped him win the presidency and then was “frozen out” of the White House after the election.

After Obama won the White House, Oprah was “largely frozen out of the White House” by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Obama’s wife

Jarrett advised Michelle to “distance herself” from Oprah and cut her out of the White House inner circle, suggesting Oprah “didn’t know her place” or “was a bad influence.”

The night crawler strikes.

Paybacks a bish for snubbing her best girlfriend’s father.

Oprah mentions to Roland that she never got to meet John Johnson but respected him. How tf ya’ll never meet and pretty much lived right next door to each other for YEARS on the same block in the Gold Coast?

This plus this recent stuff Oprah pulled with MJ, I don’t fucc with her at all. I don’t deny her accomplishments, but she is as coarse as they come.

This is the funniest story I've read in years, and everything adds up.
I had to go read the RM article, and the follow up article.

I went and found audio of an old interview of Roland from Ed Gordon about this story



I find it funny that Oprah was featured regularly in Ebony and Jet and never met the man himself. It had to have been a snub from Mr. Johnson which would bother Oprah's huge ego. I also think that Johnson's daughter employed the same "you're not one of us" tactics to Oprah that the established Blacks used on John Johnson........too dark, wrong pedigree and in Oprah's case......wrong school.
People without those "prerequisites" are going to have that drive to reach the top......like JJ did and like Oprah did.
That silver spoon that Rice was born with gave her a big head start in life, and she blew it. Oprah became a bigger star and mogul than anybody would have imagined.
Rice was forced to respect a person she once looked down on, much like how you described Chicago elite having to bow down to JJ.

Just me speculating, because it could have been something as petty as a department store / hair salon / car dealership not reserving a one-of-a-kind item for one woman over the other that set off the feud. Maybe some Bears player was banging both of them.

But, not attending the funeral.......and then the family actually answering journalist's question about whether or not Oprah sent flowers is petty as shyt....and points to one of them being deeply hurt by the other.



THE SECOND PART is even funnier.
Oprah made Obama in some ways. Giving him access to her fanbase and cosigning him was HUGE. People forget that Oprah just mentioning the title of your book on her show would put you on the next NYT best seller's list .Jarrett forcing the Obama's to give her the stiff arm is funniest part. Oprah is not used to hearing the word "no", so Rice via her friend got the last laugh.

RM

Roland is old school traditional Black....Baptist, BGLO member, paid his dues working for historic Black newspaper in city with rich Black history. He understands who John Johnson was and he was right for calling out Oprah. I happen to think that she did send flowers (article said that she produced receipts), but out of respect for Johnson paving the way for ALL Black media that came after, she should have shown her face at the funeral.
Also, anybody reading this already knows that Oprah didn't forget Martin calling her out. He's not doing yt news show on youtube with "rent-a-center" like studio because he wants to. hahahahaha He publicly called Oprah, by himself. Hope he didn't expect other Black journalists (even those in Chicago) to join him. that article came out and this was the reaction in Black media.
cued

 

[get these nets]

excerpt about the late John Johnson from the Boss documentary

 

[get these nets]

excerpt about Reginald Lewis

 

[Booker T Garvey]

Not even his and Booker T’s family was immune from colorism.

Which is probably why they dispute him.

The actual 3rd Great Grandson of Frederick Douglas and Booker T. Washington.

So Frederick Douglass son married Booker t Washington’s daughter?

 

[invalid]

So Frederick Douglass son married Booker t Washington’s daughter?

It’s more like Booker T’s granddaughter, Nettie Hancock Washington married Frederick Douglas’s great grandson, Frederick Douglas III.

This is their daughter Nettie Washington Douglas who merges the two families.

And her son Kenneth B. Morris.

They came out with a carefully worded statement against Umar Johnson regarding his claims of being related to Frederic Douglas. I think he most likely is. Many of these families had out-of-wedlock children that they kept secret that are coming out of the woodworks now because of DNA testing. The way that they worded this statement though leaves open the door of being a blood relative but not “directly descended”.

“The family of Frederick Douglass has received numerous inquiries about Umar Johnson questioning his relationship to Frederick Douglass. There have also been questions about the legitimacy of his PhD and handling of the donations he's received for a school he is promoting. We can tell you with 100% certainty that he is not a descendant of Frederick Douglass.
With that being said, Mr. Johnson is very careful not to bill himself as a "descendant", but he doesn't correct people when they refer to him in this way. He calls himself a "blood relative" which is a nebulous reference designed to make people think he is a descendant. We have researched his explanation of being a "blood relative" to the Great Abolitionist. Some of the information he provides is accurate, but an extremely important piece of his explanation, with regard to a documented relative of Frederick Douglass, is false. The information he recites correctly is from the public record so his knowledge of our family ancestry is far from definitive proof.

The official Douglass family tree is held in the archives at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, DC. Mr. Johnson's name is not on it.”

 

[Booker T Garvey]

It’s more like Booker T’s granddaughter, Nettie Hancock Washington married Frederick Douglas’s great grandson, Frederick Douglas III.

This is their daughter Nettie Washington Douglas who merges the two families.

And her son Kenneth B. Morris.

They came out with a carefully worded statement against Umar Johnson regarding his claims of being related to Frederic Douglas. I think he most likely is. Many of these families had out-of-wedlock children that they kept secret that are coming out of the woodworks now because of DNA testing. The way that they worded this statement though leaves open the door of being a blood relative but not “directly descended”.

“The family of Frederick Douglass has received numerous inquiries about Umar Johnson questioning his relationship to Frederick Douglass. There have also been questions about the legitimacy of his PhD and handling of the donations he's received for a school he is promoting. We can tell you with 100% certainty that he is not a descendant of Frederick Douglass.
With that being said, Mr. Johnson is very careful not to bill himself as a "descendant", but he doesn't correct people when they refer to him in this way. He calls himself a "blood relative" which is a nebulous reference designed to make people think he is a descendant. We have researched his explanation of being a "blood relative" to the Great Abolitionist. Some of the information he provides is accurate, but an extremely important piece of his explanation, with regard to a documented relative of Frederick Douglass, is false. The information he recites correctly is from the public record so his knowledge of our family ancestry is far from definitive proof.

The official Douglass family tree is held in the archives at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, DC. Mr. Johnson's name is not on it.”

Dap + rep I didn’t know any of this

 

[Originalman]

Good thread OP. Being from Chicago I know about some if thess families.

 

[Nicole0416_718_929_646212]

Does anyone know whatever happened to the families of major number runners from the early to mid 1900s like Bumpy Johnson, Queen St. Claire, Teddy Roe, etc did any of their money ever make it far

wow.. that's a good question. The "numbers racket" wasn't just an illegal business though. A lot of them flipped the money into legit local businesses for disenfranchised black people in the neighborhoods. For some of the people in Harlem, it was the primary method for black people to have investments bc white owned banks or financial companies didn't allow black customers. I know it was that way in New York. Queen St. Clair aka Queenie (Madame St. Clair as she was known in the streets) retired from the business. Some of the others handed the numbers business over to their next in line associates bc after awhile, between the mafia and the police - it was a losing situation if they didn't branch out bc of the protection and intimidation racket from the irish and Italians, kickbacks.

For Bumpy - this was during the Luciano era, the Italians were forced to go through Bumpy for any interests that the Italian Mafia had and the same with Schultz. Because Harlem had a lot of black owned businesses - the whites during that era would buy out some of the black owned businesses or profited off black dollars. Owney Madden ran The Cotton Club which had acts like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne etc. There was a lot of money circulating through that period , so lowkey some of the money probably did last throughout the decades as family wealth. Madame St. Clair got locked up for a period of time, not for anything having to do with her businesses (they say that she had a history of killing her boyfriends/ex-husbands (first one was self defense, and she shot her ex-husband). She was also a political activists and civil rights proponent - community activist against racism, police brutality, corruption. She didn't have any kids- Bumpy was living with her (mother-son) type of role and was with her when she died. Bumpy was like a son to her, he was her enforcer/protector in the business. He probably inherited the money since St. Clair turned over her business dealings to him.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

a while ago I had ran across a descendant of Booker who happens to a be medical doctor






his daughter

 

[invalid]

a while ago I had ran across a descendant of Booker who happens to a be medical doctor






his daughter

Booker T was certainly an interesting guy.

I've heard accounts that he had an annoyance with the black bourgeoisie featured in this thread and argued against the usefulness of a classical education that many of them attained.

But yet, he sought them out exclusively to teach at Tuskeegee. In fact, those were the only blacks he allowed as teachers at the school especially those with Ivy League education. And of course, Valerie Jarrett's great grandfather, the MIT trained Robert Robinson Taylor, built his campus.

So there appeared to be this love/hate dynamic going on.

Coupled with the fact that all three of his marriages were to women from the bourgeoisie, I have a hard time believing he didn't sympathize with them. And I have a hard time believing he did not see the value of a classical education, what WEB Dubois championed, to black people.

His wives -

He needed to fund his school. So I think by and large, his message, which appealed to Dixiecrats, and that was receptive to the point where they came out of their pockets to fund him, may have been different from his actual feelings.

How would he be received today? What does a black person look like that would have a message that appealed to and then was funded by, lets say, MAGA?

History has proven to be sympathetic to Washington.
Will this be the same fate for blacks that appealed to MAGA because it was lucrative?

 

[get these nets]

Booker T was certainly an interesting guy.

I've heard accounts that he had an annoyance with the black bourgeoisie featured in this thread and argued against the usefulness of a classical education that many of them attained.

But yet, he sought them out exclusively to teach at Tuskeegee. In fact, those were the only blacks he allowed as teachers at the school especially those with Ivy League education. And of course, Valerie Jarrett's great grandfather, the MIT trained Robert Robinson Taylor, built his campus.

So there appeared to be this love/hate dynamic going on.

Coupled with the fact that all three of his marriages were to women from the bourgeoisie, I have a hard time believing he didn't sympathize with them. And I have a hard time believing he did not see the value of a classical education, what WEB Dubois championed, to black people.

His wives -

He needed to fund his school. So I think by and large, his message, which appealed to Dixiecrats, and that was receptive to the point where they came out of their pockets to fund him, may have been different from his actual feelings.

How would he be received today? What does a black person look like that would have a message that appealed to and then was funded by, lets say, MAGA?

History has proven to be sympathetic to Washington.
Will this be the same fate for blacks that appealed to MAGA because it was lucrative?

Agree that his was an interesting story. I know more about the man that he influenced/inspired, Marcus Garvey, than I know about Washington.


BTW was born into slavery, so I think he understood the economic and day to realities of Black people living in post-Civil War South better than the children of freedmen who primarily made up the Black bourgeoisie of the era.

I think there was some element of conning white people in some of his public stances, but that he really believed and promoted the objective he fought for to build skilled Black workforce to integrate them into national economy and/or operate independent economies.

Reading about the hell and torture that Black citizens faced in jim crow era, it's impossible to defend BTW's repeated calls to not pushback against that, though. If history has been sympathetic to him, that's been fairly recently (post 1980s) . I can imagine that scholars in the 1960-70s DESTROYED him.

I think he operated from a standpoint of practicality in dealing with whites and the Black elite. I don't think he had love for or related to either group, but they were the ones with the resurces that he could extract and, in his view, help the masses of Blacks. Before all of the HBCUs were set up.....that Black elite circle was where the educated Blacks were, so they would be the ones he would recruit to teach , build and donate their resources.
Even the marriages. Washington's national political prominence gave him entry into those circles that his background would have locked him out of. I think he was aware of this and that the marriages were based on that understanding and served to further his objectives.

 

[The Coochie Assassin]

Is this study including men from the West Indies, Caribbean, and South America?

Studies I’ve seen specifically for African Americans have shown the average to be European Y and African X.

This has been years ago though and since DNA has become really popular the last few years and more people have been testing, this may have changed and so you may be right.

I'm on 23andme and most AA men I've seen have an African paternal haplogroup. A few brothas had a European one like me.

DNA so crazy tho, I got a Native American maternal haplogroup too but I'm 83% African

 

[invalid]

BTW was born into slavery, so I think he understood the economic and day to realities of Black people living in post-Civil War South better than the children of freedmen who primarily made up the Black bourgeoisie of the era.

It was the mixed children of house slaves that primarily made up the black bourgeoisie. The children of both freemen and freedmen (there was a distinction) made up a smaller contingent. So Booker T sprang squarely from that mixed race slave ranks.

I don't think he had love for or related to either group, but they were the ones with the resurces that he could extract and, in his view, help the masses of Blacks.

This is closer to the truth. I remember reading that Josephine Willson Bruce, the wife of Senator Blanche Bruce, went down to teach at Tuskeegee for a stint. At the time, she and her husband had become the "it" couple among blacks in Washington DC. And she mentioned in numerous correspondence to her husband that Booker T had no tolerance for her at all. Any other school, for instance, Howard, would have paid deference to her.

Before all of the HBCUs were set up.....that Black elite circle was where the educated Blacks were, so they would be the ones he would recruit to teach , build and donate their resources.

This is where I see the value of a classical education for certain demographics in the black community. Booker T operated with this very linear way of thinking not understanding that different forms of education can be useful and/or play a hand in advancing us economically. It was from a pool of classically trained blacks that put Tuskeegee on the map if we're keeping it a buck. It was like Howard in that regard, which also attracted a large swath of black Ivy League talent. So to have the belief that classical education holds no value is pretty rich considering your school's reputation was built on the backs of those that had classical education. Like his "five fingers" speech, there is a way that we can integrate all to form the whole.

Even the marriages. Washington's national political prominence gave him entry into those circles that his background would have locked him out of. I think he was aware of this and that the marriages were based on that understanding and served to further his objectives.

This is true. But remember he sprang from that mixed race slave contingent so he wasn't all the way an outsider. His marriages certainly codified his place within the ranks.

It's just odd to me that for all of the dislike of the black bourgeoisie, he not only associated with but transformed his family into the very thing that he did not like, the black bourgeoisie-lol.

I'm not that familiar with Marcus Garvey but it appears his convictions were enough to where they diverged from any type of intersection with this group.

 

[invalid]

I'm on 23andme and most AA men I've seen have an African paternal haplogroup. A few brothas had a European one like me.

DNA so crazy tho, I got a Native American maternal haplogroup too but I'm 83% African

Really? That's interesting. I think initial assertions that were made regarding black DNA results are being revisited. When I tested with 23andMe back in 2010, I was one of the few that had an African paternal haplogroup based off of discussions with other black testers in the 23andMe forums. I'm guessing, in those early years, many of the black people that were testing were primarily among genealogical circles, and that majority of that population, for whatever reason, had a Euro paternal haplogroup and maybe those early assertions, that were being extrapolated to the black largesse, were based off that early testing population.

Now that the popularity of DNA testing has moved beyond that initial group to the general black population, maybe we're starting to see that majority testers do in fact have an African paternal haplogroup and that those earlier assertions are being revisited. Much like how AncestryDNA had a recent update to their test populations changing most of our percentages.

And lol at having a Native maternal haplogroup. DNA test has actually proved that the average black person doesn't have any Native DNA. It certainly is very interesting.

 

[Neuromancer]

Wish they had more dark descendants.