Lawrence Otis Graham, Best Selling Author of Our Kind of People, dies at 58

[invalid]

He talks about it, gives other examples, and mentions the playbook that's used for those who pass.

When LOG first went on his media rounds, he reminded me of Donald Bogle, a film historian. Similar mannerisms. I picked his books and always remembered an obscure film based on a real life story.

The image above depicts Dr. Albert C. Johnston, his wife Thyra Johnston, and their four children. The 1949 movie Lost Boundaries, was based on the story of Dr. Johnston’s life. Dr. Johnston, a biracial radiologist who graduated with honors from the University of Chicago’s Rush Medical School, unintentionally passed for white in the 1930s. After completion of his postgraduate work, Johnston could not find a job that would hire African Americans. Eventually, he was hired at Maine General Hospital in Augusta, Maine, the only place that did not inquire about his race. When he realized his associates and co-workers believed he was white, he maintained the secret of his actual identity for over a decade. His wife, who was one-eighth black, understood her husband’s predicament and kept his secret as well. In 1940, the United States Navy recruited Dr. Johnston but suspected him of having “colored blood.” After Dr. Johnston admitted in the investigation to being partly black, the Navy refused him a commission. Stunned by the rejection, Dr. Johnson decided to tell his children about their background. However, this revelation did not impact the Johnson family's role in society. The family continued to live in New Hampshire where Dr. Johnson operated his medical practice into the 1960s.

trailer


film snippet

This is interesting.

My great grandfather was from Canada. He had siblings that passed for white. His family primarily settled in Detroit while he came to Chicago. The family that remained black became the darlings of Detroit black society. Museum's named after them, founders of some of the black cemeteries and funeral homes, founders of Mercy Hospital. The white passing side became rednecks that live in Flint and Dearborn. And if you saw them, they look every bit of it with the confederate flags to boot.

 

[get these nets]

My great grandfather was from Canada. He had siblings that passed for white. His family primarily settled in Detroit while he came to Chicago. The family that remained black became the darlings of Detroit black society. Museum's named after them, founders of some of the black cemeteries and funeral homes, founders of Mercy Hospital. The white passing side became rednecks that live in Flint and Dearborn. And if you saw them, they look every bit of it with the confederate flags to boot.

"Ride this white thing out, see where it takes me"

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I did too. Taught by a professor who was a baptist minister. First time learning about what he called "the black sacred cosmos."



It's funny that he mentions the woman in Chicago who said that her group views themselves as black 'WASP'. There is a whole history behind the Anglican/Episcopalian and Congregational Churches being affiliated with the American elite.

In New England, the Congregational Church was founded by the Pilgrims who were escaping the Church of England. So the Congregational Church was the church most affiliated with New England WASP, many of whom were the descendants of the Mayflower that landed in Plymouth.

The South was first populated by royalist who founded Jamestown - English Landed Gentry who brought over the Church of England and the English feudal system that would eventually become the plantation system. So the southern aristocrats were affiliated with the Anglican/Episcopal Church while the poorer non-landowning descendants of Scots-Irish immigrants were southern baptist.

House slaves had to attend church with the masters which is how the Anglican/Episcopal Church entered into that faction of the black elite.

Many of the early WASP abolitionist had ties to the Congregational Church, so you had a lot of free blacks become affiliated with that Church due to their views on racial equality.

Some even say that the Civil War was was a continuation of the Battle of Hastings, which was a war against the Normans and the native Anglo-Saxons. The Normans obviously won and dominated the English Aristocracy. In the US, the English Slave Owners would've been of Norman descent whereas the New England WASP would be descendants of the Saxons.

And then you had the broader black bourgeoise who took to the AME Church.

This is generalizing but that's how you got the major affiliations of the Congregational, Episcopal, and AME Churches with the black elites. But again, there were upscale churches of most mainline denominations in most cities with sizeable black communities.

Trinity United Church of Christ is Congregational so that's why it had a big population of Chicago's upscale blacks.

There is/was an old established anglican/episcopal tradition in AfroAmerica going back the 1700s but it wasn't necessarily tied to class in those periods. AME is the true denomination of the masses of black middle class but I do remember reading that in modern times, many blacks who wanted to be super exclusive went the anglican/episcopal route because they thought of themselves as the "upper crust" of the black elite/more refined than even the black elite who were AME. Reminded me of something I posted in your thread

 

[Mtt]

Good info in this thread thanks

 

[get these nets]

Melissa Haizlip produced a documentary about her uncle, Ellis, who was the host of the groundbreaking PBS series, "Soul."

We got tickets to the MV African American Film Fest where Melissa was debuting Mr. Soul. It was a great documentary. Never knew about the series before then.

 

[invalid]

younger picture

Eh..I can see how she passed. Probably came off as Jewish.

In her older years, that forehead and eyes gives her away almost immediately. It's something about them boxed or square foreheads.

 

[get these nets]

I was excited about this before but now I see what kinda bullshyt they're gonna be on...

There are certainly a number of producers/writers that come from the OKOP set.
I think any one of them could've tackled the subject with the nuance that it deserves.
.

"A single mom with a hair care line"?? I take it they had to wait until LOG was deceased and gone to roll out all the tropes and eliminate the strong successful black male from the plot. Good lord, they can't be serious with this shyt If they're going to go this route then change the title at least. This is bullshyt

shyt gonna be a disrespectful swirlathon with all the black stereotypes.

Call it empire with uppity blacks.

They just announced who will direct the first two episodes of the series based on Our Kind of People.

Spoiler

 

[Thurgood Thurston III]

They just announced who will direct the first two episodes of the series based on Our Kind of People.

Spoiler

Interesting. Is she qualified though? What has she written before?

 

[invalid]

They just announced who will direct the first two episodes of the series based on Our Kind of People.

Spoiler

Never heard of her. But came across this...

Earlier this year Smith’s ex-husband, Keith Douglas accused her of sleeping with other women and he filed a restraining order against her which required Smith to stay at least two yards away from him despite the two living under the same roof at the time.

Daniels, Gist, and Smith. That's three for three.

It absolutely amazes me the speed at which things are getting greenlit after his death.

Timestamped:



Smith strikes me as a "what type of black people would ever go to Harvard?"

Smith dropped out of Camden High School in her freshman year, and at age 19 moved to California.[3]

 

[get these nets]

Interesting. Is she qualified though? What has she written before?

Never heard of her. But came across this...

I know of her because she's from Jersey.

We support local talent, and glad to see them succeed, BUT as an actress, Tasha's niche is playing super-hood characters. Most notably in Tyler Perry films.
She has very few credits as a director, so she's not being brought in for her technical skills or storytelling ability. Producers getting her to sign on to direct is a clear indicator of the direction they are taking the series. And the audiences they are going after.

Completely different than what LOG fought for and refused (for years)to compromise about.

 

[pete clemenza]

The actual "Soul" episodes are on Prime Video if anybody wants to watch. I watched a couple of episodes sometime last year. Its a good ground breaking show but its a tad on the boring side tbh

 

[pete clemenza]

They just announced who will direct the first two episodes of the series based on Our Kind of People.

Spoiler

Damn shame they're going to destroy this man's work like that

 

[get these nets]

"what type of black people would ever go to Harvard?"

The comment made me cringe.


.Was reluctant to post this, because the writer has passed, but LOG is gone also.


Judi Ann Mason was the woman who said that to him.

The Shreveport, Louisiana native and Grambling State University alumna began in theater and penned over 25 published and produced plays such as: Living Fat, for which she won the Kennedy Center’s Norman Lear Award for comedy writing at only age 19, and A Star Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hole in Heaven, garnering her the first Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award in 1977. She also became one of the youngest playwrights — of any race — ever to be produced Off-Broadway. Last fall, she served as inaugural national honorary chair of the First Southern Black Theatre Festival, held in Shreveport. In addition, she was lauded for her latest play Storm Stories: True Dramas of Hurricane Katrina.

She was also a successful television writer and producer. Her career in television began at barely 20 years old after being hired as a writer on the CBS hit Good Times by TV legend Norman Lear. Her other TV writing credits include writing or co-writing for primetime network shows such as A Different World, American Gothic, Beverly Hills 90210, Sanford, and the Emmy-nominated series I’ll Fly Away (NBC). Her telefilm credits include Lifetime’s Sophie & the Moonhanger (teleplay by Sara Flanigan and Judi Ann Mason, story by Sara Flanigan). In addition, she wrote on daytime dramas, as head writer for the Writers Development Program at Guiding Light (CBS), later becoming associate head Writer on Generations, the first soap about an African American family.


Mason’s screen credits include co-writing Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (written by James Orr & Jim Cruickshank and Judi Ann Mason, based on characters created by Joseph Howard). Before her untimely passing, Mason was in the midst of working on an independent film scheduled to shoot in December called Motherland, about a college history instructor taking middle-class African American students to Africa.

Mason also found time for academia, sharing her writing and producing knowledge as a visiting professor at such institutions as the University of Florida and the University of Louisville.

 

[invalid]

The comment made me cringe.


.Was reluctant to post this, because the writer has passed, but LOG is gone also.


Judi Ann Mason was the woman who said that to him.

The Shreveport, Louisiana native and Grambling State University alumna began in theater and penned over 25 published and produced plays such as: Living Fat, for which she won the Kennedy Center’s Norman Lear Award for comedy writing at only age 19, and A Star Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hole in Heaven, garnering her the first Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award in 1977. She also became one of the youngest playwrights — of any race — ever to be produced Off-Broadway. Last fall, she served as inaugural national honorary chair of the First Southern Black Theatre Festival, held in Shreveport. In addition, she was lauded for her latest play Storm Stories: True Dramas of Hurricane Katrina.

She was also a successful television writer and producer. Her career in television began at barely 20 years old after being hired as a writer on the CBS hit Good Times by TV legend Norman Lear. Her other TV writing credits include writing or co-writing for primetime network shows such as A Different World, American Gothic, Beverly Hills 90210, Sanford, and the Emmy-nominated series I’ll Fly Away (NBC). Her telefilm credits include Lifetime’s Sophie & the Moonhanger (teleplay by Sara Flanigan and Judi Ann Mason, story by Sara Flanigan). In addition, she wrote on daytime dramas, as head writer for the Writers Development Program at Guiding Light (CBS), later becoming associate head Writer on Generations, the first soap about an African American family.


Mason’s screen credits include co-writing Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (written by James Orr & Jim Cruickshank and Judi Ann Mason, based on characters created by Joseph Howard). Before her untimely passing, Mason was in the midst of working on an independent film scheduled to shoot in December called Motherland, about a college history instructor taking middle-class African American students to Africa.

Mason also found time for academia, sharing her writing and producing knowledge as a visiting professor at such institutions as the University of Florida and the University of Louisville.

Reading her background, she wouldn't have struck me as the type to make such a comment. Especially since lots of HBCU graduates go on to get graduate degrees from Ivies. She was certainly accomplished so I won't take that away from her. Also, interesting considering she received the Lorraine Hansberry Playwrighting Award, who was a member of the black elite.

Speaking of, Lorraine Hansberry has a niece that is an actress that could be tapped - Taye Hansberry. Taye is also a cousin of Issa Raye.

 

[invalid]

Yaya DaCosta has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming Fox drama series “Our Kind of People,” Variety has learned. With the casting, DaCosta will exit the NBC series “Chicago Med,” on which she has starred for six seasons.

Inspired by Lawrence Otis Graham’s book, “Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class,” the series takes place in the aspirational world of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, a historical stronghold where the rich and powerful Black elite have come to play for over 50 years. The series follows strong-willed, single mom Angela Vaughn (DaCosta) as she sets out to reclaim her family’s name and make an impact with her revolutionary haircare line that highlights the innate, natural beauty of Black women. But she soon discovers a dark secret about her mother’s past that will turn her world upside-down and shake up this community forever.

DaCosta first rose to prominence during her time on “America’s Next Top Model” in 2004. She has gone on to a successful acting career, having starred in shows like “All My Children” and “Ugly Betty.” She has been a main cast member of “Chicago Med” since 2015, playing ED nurse April Sexton. She has also made appearances on both “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Fire.” Her feature credits include “The Butler,” “The Nice Guys,” the Whitney Houston Lifetime biopic “Whitney,” and “The Messenger.”

She is repped by Gersh and ID PR.

Fox opened a writers’ room for “Our Kind of People” in September 2020 and was ordered to series in March 2021. Karin Gist is writing and executive producing. Lee Daniels and Marc Velez also executive produce via Lee Daniels Entertainment along with Pam Williams and Claire Brown of The Gist Of It Productions, Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens and Rodney Ferrell of Propagate, and Montrel McKay. Tasha Smith will direct the pilot episode. 20th Television and Fox Entertainment will produce. Gist and Daniels are currently under overall deals at 20th Television.