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Bebe Moore Campbell Goes “Home”

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Everyday Black Speech Became “. . . an Art Form”

“The walls of First AME, Los Angeles’ oldest African American church, could barely contain the scope of the life people traveled from throughout the country to celebrate” on Saturday, Cheryl Devall reports for Journal-isms.

 

 

 

“During a two-hour ‘homegoing’ service, Bebe Moore Campbell’s family, friends and colleagues in journalism, literature, faith and mental health advocacy shared affectionate stories, laughter, songs and meditations on the far-reaching effects of her 56 years on earth.”

No journalists delivered eulogies, Devall reports, but old friends referred to Campbell’s gaining confidence and proficiency as a freelance writer. Her longtime literary editor Adrienne Ingram spoke, with journalism surfacing as a small facet of a very full life.

Still, among the 1,200 in attendance were Audrey Edwards of More and Essence magazines; Karen Grigsby Bates of National Public Radio; Paula Madison, general manager of KNBC-TV in Los Angeles; Judi Moore Latta, professor and chair, Department of Radio, TV & Film at Howard University; Gayle Pollard-Terry and Mike Terry of the Los Angeles Times; and Shirlee Taylor-Haizlip, author of “The Sweeter the Juice.”

Here is the rest of Devall’s report:

With five novels, three children’s books, a groundbreaking nonfiction work about relations between successful women and resentful men and a memoir about growing up with and without her father, Campbell helped to create, define and expand the market for literature about the contemporary lives of African Americans. Over 30 years, she also contributed articles to Essence, Ebony, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Black Enterprise. Starting in the 1990s, Campbell was a regular commentator for National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” She died Nov. 27 of complications from a fast-moving brain cancer.

Black oppression was a touchstone for her fiction, and for the empathy that allowed her to explore the pain of others—Holocaust survivors, whites who inflict racial violence, victims of sexual harassment, people struggling with depression. Ingram praised the qualities that allowed Campbell to reach many audiences, saying, “What Bebe did was take everyday black speech and make it an art form.” Her novels “Brothers and Sisters” and “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine” have become standard on college reading lists, Ingram said, “but people who buy their books in paperback at Wal-Mart also read Bebe.”

Several speakers credited Campbell’s mother, Doris Moore, with setting the author on a path of learning and achievement. “She came from good stock,” said Nancy Carter of the National Association on Mental Illness urban Los Angeles chapter, noting that Campbell’s mother helped equip her with the tools and compassion she needed to speak up for people who couldn’t speak for themselves. The author’s most recent novel, “72 Hour Hold,” reflected her own family’s experience with a relative’s bipolar disorder, and in the final years of her life, she traveled and lectured extensively to try to erase the stigma many African Americans associate with mental illness.

Campbell’s mother sometimes accompanied her daughter on book and speaking tours, and a few years ago she moved from Philadelphia into her daughter’s Los Angeles home. Doris Moore survives the author, as do her husband, Ellis Gordon Jr., a daughter and stepson, and two grandchildren.

Eddie Moore Jr., president of Virginia State University, said his cousin’s concern for young people reached far beyond her extended family. “Many a student at Virginia State wouldn’t be there,” he said, without the support Campbell and her husband lent to the United Negro College Fund. Mark Nordenberg, chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, spoke warmly of the friendship he and Campbell developed years after she graduated from the institution. She became a trustee of Pitt last year, and this year the university awarded her an honorary doctorate of letters.

The service also included messages and proclamations from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; U.S. Reps. Diane Watson, Maxine Waters and Juanita Millender McDonald, all Democrats of California; members of the California State Assembly and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Philadelphia Mayor John Street.

Bebe Moore Campbell reveled in that kind of recognition, her friends said, but she also loved to have a good time. “She could have lunch at the White House on Monday, and on Tuesday she could take you to a blues joint so deep in the ‘hood it would give you the bends,” said longtime friend Darlene Hayes.

“Bebe loved joy. Bebe loved the thunder of laughter. Bebe loved to dance,” said Mark Whitlock, a minister and a longtime family friend, underscoring the celebratory nature of the service. “If you ever saw Bebe doing the ‘running man,’ you know her and Jesus are hanging out.”

That ability to hang out—to maintain old friendships over decades and to keep developing new ones—was grounded in a firm self-confidence Campbell’s friend Karen McKie Krisberg recalled from her first day of first grade. “We were smart, and we liked it,” Krisberg told the full sanctuary. She remembered catching her friend Bebe’s eye in a classroom, or across the aisle on the subway and smiling, “because in that moment, we loved who we were.”

Many friends also elaborated on the strength of Campbell’s 22-year marriage to Gordon, a banker.

Amid laughter, they and Gordon took turns relating the story of the couple’s first meeting, halfway through a week during which friends had set up dates with seven different men for Campbell during a visit from the East Coast to Los Angeles.

On the third day, Gordon recalled, Campbell met him at his office for lunch. “I was in my Mack mode back then,” he told the gathering. “I told her, ‘tear up the list.’ When she asked how I knew there was one, I said, ‘You’re so fine, there’s GOT to be a list.'” Following that lunch, the couple disappeared for the remaining four days of Campbell’s visit.

Gordon recited Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee?” and exhorted the married men present to treasure their mates.

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Rene Syler to Leave CBS “Early Show” Dec. 22

Rene Syler will leave “The Early Show” at the end of the year “because I was told they are moving in another direction. It’s time for me to move on,” Syler told Journal-isms today.

CBS announced late today that Syler was leaving “to pursue other media opportunities, which include the publication of her first book,” titled “Good Enough Mother.”

 

 

 

Syler has been an anchor of “The Early Show” since October 2002, when it debuted in its current four-anchor format.

“I hope I’m going to sell 3 million copies. If anybody wants to help, they can spend $22.95,” Syler told Journal-isms. She added, “I hope people are not sad for me because I’m not sad for myself. I had a wonderful experience and I’m leaving with a smile on my face.”

As for her future, “Who knows? I don’t know what my next act is going to be.”

Likewise, CBS spokeswoman Kelli Edwards said what happens next with the program is “still to be determined.”

Sean McManus, president, CBS News and Sports, said in a news release, â??Rene has been an important and wonderfully spirited part of THE EARLY SHOW anchor team from the start. Her enthusiasm and ability to communicate with and touch people have served her and the broadcast very well. As Rene moves to the next phase of her life, we sincerely thank her for her many contributions to CBS News and look forward to her future successes.â??

In the release, Syler said, â??Iâ??ve been able to make a difference in millions of womenâ??s lives by talking about everything from breast cancer awareness to hormone replacement therapy to diet dos and donâ??ts. Iâ??ve had the opportunity to trace my ancestral roots, go to space camp with my son and swim with whales in Florida. Iâ??ve even been able to teach Bobby Flay a thing or two about tacos. Iâ??m now on to the next chapter in my life . . . literally. My book will be published in March, and Iâ??ll be off on a book tour across the U.S., where I very much look forward to meeting in person all the people Iâ??ve woken up with for the last four years.â??

Sylerâ??s last appearance as anchor on the show is to be Friday, Dec. 22.

Syler came to the show from KTVT in Dallas, where she anchored the noon and 6 p.m. newscasts. She is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists, and hosted its last two awards banquets. She is a recipient of the 2004 Gracie Allen Award for Individual Achievement in the National Best Anchor category for her breast cancer series. Syler has long been active in numerous breast cancer causes. The American Women in Radio and Television also awarded her Television Personality of the Year in 1997.

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Search Continues for Missing CNET Editor

“The search for missing CNET senior editor James Kim continued Sunday, with search-and-rescue teams from the ground and air checking secondary rural routes in southwest Oregon, Oregon police said,” Leslie Katz and Michelle Meyers reported for CNETNews.com.

“Ryan Lee, a longtime friend of the Kims, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had brunch with the Kims in Portland on Saturday. The Kims told their friend they planned to stop by a clothing boutique in Portland before driving to Gold Beach, where they said they had a hotel reservation at the Tu Tu Tun Lodge for Saturday night.

“At CNET, James Kim is a senior editor covering digital audio who also co-hosts a weekly video podcast for the Crave gadgets blog. He has been writing a book on Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player. Formerly, he was an on-air personality on the now-defunct cable television network TechTV.”

Three members of the Kim family were found alive Monday along a snowy, treacherous roadway in southwestern Oregon, police said. A search continued for James Kim, the Associated Press reported.

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Michael Scott Suddenly Leaves K.C. Anchor Job

“Michael Scott, who had been Kansas City’s most watched news anchorman the past two years, found himself out of a job Friday,” Aaron Barnhart reported Saturday in the Kansas City Star.

“In confirming Scott’s departure from KCTV5, both Scott and the station’s general manager, Kirk Black, refused to elaborate. Scott said he would be seeking employment in television immediately.

“Scott, 52, had been with KCTV5 since August 2004 . . . So sudden was Scott’s exit that he taped the KCTV public affairs show ‘Your Kansas City’ for airing this Sunday. That broadcast has been pulled from the schedule, Black said Friday night. As of Friday, Scott’s biography had been removed from KCTV’s Web site, though not the blog he wrote during his 2005 visit to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.”

On his own blog Saturday, Barnhart dropped hints that sexual harassment had something to do with Scott’s disappearance.

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Richards Commentary Includes “Mammy” Question

Michael Richards will apologize in person to the four black patrons he targeted in a tirade of racial slurs during a recent comedy club performance, the Associated Press reported over the weekend. “A retired judge will mediate the meeting and determine whether he should act further to resolve the matter, Richards’ spokesman and an attorney for the customers said Friday.

“A cash settlement could be part of the resolution, said Howard J. Rubenstein, who represents Richards,” the story said.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post’s Darryl Fears wrote a story Saturday about the controversy, “The Word That Is the Very Definition of Unspeakable.” The final episode of the Sundance Channel’s “Iconoclasts” aired, featuring a conversation between comedian David Chappelle and poet Maya Angelou.

They found themselves to be “soulmates,” but “they differed on the ‘n-word,’ however,” FishBowl NY reported. “Chappelle argued that he can use ‘ugly words’ because people know his intentions are good, while Angelou maintained the word was dehumanizing. Still, Chappelle remained deferential throughout, telling Angelou, ‘I know you’re going to crush me in a minute.'”

Columnists continued to explore the topic. In the Miami Herald, Ana Menendez reported that the white town manager of upscale Golden Beach, Fla., was accused of calling her black assistant ”mammy.” “‘We were interviewing for a receptionist and we had a break and I was standing right here,’ Barbara Tarasenko told me at Town Hall last week,” Menendez wrote. “And she said to me, `Why don’t you put the tape in, mammy.’ ” Native journalist Tim Giago asked, what about the “R” word?

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Thomas Fleming, Bay Area Pioneer, Dies at 98

“Thomas Fleming, a longtime journalist and San Francisco Bay Area civil rights advocate, died of congestive heart failure at a San Leandro retirement home Nov. 21. He was 98,” Kamika Dunlap reported Wednesday in the Alameda (Calif.) Times-Star.

 

 

“Fleming, who was a pioneering voice for the African-American community, would have celebrated his 99th birthday today.

“Founding editor of the Reporter, San Francisco’s only black newspaper in 1944, Fleming also worked as a reporter, columnist and editor when the publication merged with the Sun to form the Sun-Reporter.

“Fleming’s best friend, Dr. Carlton Goodlett, whom he met in 1935, owned the paper for many years. Together, they took turns writing the paper’s editorials.

“Fleming wrote weekly articles which chronicled the lives and experiences of blacks in San Francisco and Oakland. He wrote on a variety of topics including blacks in the labor movement, black entertainers during the Depression and California’s first black politicians.

“Fleming . . . traveled in many social circles and met several influential African Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. [Du Bois], Malcolm X, Mary McLeod Bethune and Duke Ellington. Paul Robeson also became a personal friend.

” . . . On his 90th birthday he published a collection of photos and stories based on his boyhood growing up in Jacksonville and Harlem.”

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