Washington Post: A black college closed in 1955, but its fading alumni fight to pass on a legacy

We looked at an HBCU on the brink of potential closure and today another that didn't survive. In this case, this school left behind a significant legacy as far as its history and dwindling alumni:

Storer started as a primary school in 1865, weathering racist attacks because it dared educate African Americans.

It graduated its last class in 1955, six decades ago, but Storer’s dwindling alumni return, year after year. Their descendants who never attended the school keep returning, too, even as the National Park Service, which now owns the campus, is making efforts to highlight Storer’s history.

The alumni and their descendants believe it’s their responsibility to honor those who persevered before them.

“Blacks and whites sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to make things happen,” says David Vollin, a zoning engineer with the District’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Born during Reconstruction, Storer survived violence and was the site of other historic moments, including contributing to the birth of the modern civil rights era. And mostly, it created a refuge for young men and women. It’s a source of pride.

White Sox championship history

10 years ago the Sox won it all!

The Chicago White Sox is a charter member of the American League which was founded in 1901. Even then in that year they also won the AL pennant. In researching their championship history it seems they didn't have as many post-season wins as even their crosstown National League rivals Chicago Cubs.

So yes, the Sox have had less post-season than even the historically hapless Cubs. Yes the White Sox has more world series titles having won in 1906, 1917, and most recently in 2005. Unfortunately they haven't had as many pennants since the creation of the world series in 1903.

The Sox won pennants in 1901, 1906, 1917, 1919, 1959, and 2005. 1906 was the year of Chicago's only crosstown series so far. 1919 was the year of the Black Sox scandal which saw members of the Sox were thrown out of baseball for allegedly throwing that year's world series. You may have seen the film Eight Men Out on this subject.

Since the current playoff structure was first created in 1969, the White Sox have won the west division in 1983 & 1993. They have won the central division in 2000, 2005, and 2008. In 2008 they made their playoffs at the same time as the Cubs. The Sox have never won a wild card berth.

2015 marks the 10th anniversary of the White Sox sweep of the then National League pennant champs Houston Astros. It had been 10 years since that amazing victory and was even marked on this blog back them.

Will I ever take Greyhound again?

Nashville, TN Greyhound station

During my time at Morehouse I exclusively took Greyhound to Atlanta. I knew how the ride is supposed to go since it was done so many times. Before finally graduating though the nature of bus travel began to change one of those was for that historic company to shed its seedy image.

I miss the schedule that saw my bus bypass cities such as Nashville,TN on the way down to Atlanta and now it's often a regular stop on the way down to Atlanta. Another change was that at certain points the bus made local stops either outside of Atlanta or outside of Chicago. For example, after leaving Nashville the bus would make stops in Chattanooga, TN; Marrietta, GA; and finally Atlanta.

Once upon a time on Greyhound whether or not you specifically bought a ticket for a particular schedule or departure you could still get a seat on a bus. Or probably more accurately Greyhound officials - drivers or terminal personnel - didn't make a big deal about it if you didn't purchase a ticket for a particular schedule. These days they know how many seats are available on the bus enough to determine whether you can switch your departure at the last minute.

Of course, I see with the 'hound is that now they board people according to their boarding number. Now depending upon who's on duty they may catch that you don't belong on that schedule and decide that you need to change your ticket (and possibly incur a fee). In my recent Greyhound trip, I did this pre-emptively although this was at the last minute and incurred the fee because originally I bought a non-refundable ticket.

While I think it's unfortunate that even though you bought a ticket, you must travel on the the schedule for which you purchased that ticket. At the same time the boarding policy is a nice touch perhaps less possibility of chaos as there had been in the past with boardings.

The only issues I have with Greyhound is that wifi doesn't work in all terminals and on all buses. Most buses at this point have signs indicating they have wifi and the two buses I rode on the way down had either no wifi or it just didn't work for me. Also on one bus the outlets to charge my cell phone didn't work.

What I learned on my way back is that the driver can flick a switch if you let them know for the outlets. Also you'd have to work with the wifi and therefore you can still get on the internet on the bus. The only thing is if you don't stay on the net you'd have to reconnect through the browser from time to time. It works, but a user has to work with it and that goes for at the terminals as well.

One thing I can say for sure is that, it's definitely a good thing that I no longer have to rely on Greyhound. That is at least I don't have to travel back and forth between Atlanta frequently where the bus is the only choice. If bus travel is the future my experience this year will allow me to be much smarter. All the same the 16 hour ride is not something I miss anymore.

Saw "Steve Jobs"

Earlier this week I finally saw Steve Jobs. It's the 2nd biopic of the Apple Computers founder and this new effort was written by Aaron Sorkin who's responsible for A Few Good Men, The West Wing, The American President, etc.

It seems like a much stronger film than Ashton Kutcher's Jobs from 2013. This one had more drama with the anointed John Scully and Jobs' eventual ouster from the company he created. Of course there was the drama of the products launches in addition to his family drama. The film mostly focused on his relationship with ex-girlfriend Chrisann and their daughter Lisa.

It seemed Jobs was more about building the legend at least the legend we know today. The legend who had it somewhat rough during Apple's developing years. Then he became the man who created the iPod, iPhone, iPad and redesigned the Mac as we know it today. In fact it's funny how it seemed the original Macintosh didn't seem to be the most ideal product for that time and now the whole line of desktops and laptops are called Macs.

Both films in their own way addressed Jobs' family drama - in Jobs Lisa was actually living with his new family and ultimately his return to Apple. Sorkin's effort seem to suggest well Jobs had a plan to get Apple back. He had to leave to get Apple back.

Ashton Kutcher was believable in Jobs even looked like him at various points. Michael Fassbender probably had a harder time but was convincing. It would be a tough vote to determine who resembled and acted the part better.

BTW, because of both movies now I must decide if it's worth expanding beyond the iPhone and iPad and get myself a Mac.

99 homes

Finally took the opportunity to see this film recently. Basically it reminds me of Wall Street with Gordon Gecko essentially mentoring a young stock broker only to see them both on the radar of the federal government for insider trading.

Lately I seem to be watching movies that prove to be somewhat depressing. For example I saw the biopic Black Mass of gangster Whitey Bulger - thank goodness he's off the streets although he's still a senior citizen at this point. Another time I saw Sicario which I recently wrote about. Those films involved criminal figures and the things they do to maintain their criminal activities.

On this occasion, we see a film that easily was set during the course of the housing crisis earlier in this decade. Unfortunately someone has to put people out of their homes because of their inability to pay their mortgage or any loans borrowed against their homes. And of course someone is profiting from this and this could make people angry.

One tagline from this film is "don't get emotional about real estate". So we see a guy named Nash (Andrew Garfield) struggling to make ends meet and keep the family home for his mother and son. Ultimately Carver (Michael Shannon) kicks them out only to give Nash a job later and besides he's down on this luck anyway.

Suddenly Nash goes from the go to handyman to doing various jobs which also includes kicking people out of their homes in addition to essentially sabotaging homes so they won't attract interest from rival real estate agents. While Nash finally gets into the groove of his new found career he hasn't lost his conscious and it shows at the end of the movie.

Carver well somehow I like him while also recognizing him as a snake. Another tagline he utters during the film is "America doesn't bail out losers, America bails out winners". He proves a point about how his father worked hard and had very little to show of it other than a major injury which he was unable to get treated because insurance wouldn't cover it. And then noting how Nash worked very hard and lost his family home.

Carver is insensitive, greedy, and definitely unethical but somehow I could connect with him. Just as easily as I could connect with Nash. However, this film is a reminder not only to not get emotional about real estate but to also take care of our financial houses before we see someone like Carver serving us eviction notices.

The need to restore order according to "Sicario"

Saw the movie Sicario on Thursday. It both spooked and depressed me. It wasn't about the body count as much as it was the methods used by law enforcement or the criminal side to combat each other.

An FBI agent (portrayed by Emily Blunt) was assigned to essentially independent contractors to fight a Mexican drug cartel. She had been spooked and depressed by some of their methods. Basically these independent contractors seeks to reassert some form of order to the drug trade that hadn't existed in years.

Then I thought about Chicago with the issues of gun violence. I understand that violence in Mexico makes our violence seem like childsplay. But all the same our city streets are plagued by those who aren't much different than those cartel enforcers.

A few years ago, I attended a neighborhood meeting with a featured guest Chicago police chief Garry McCarthy and one of the questions came up involving these gang's hierarchy. If each of them has a top guy to maintain some type of order would we see the violence we've been seeing in Chicago these days.

McCarthy didn't want to hear that considering that in the past the number of murders in Chicago approached almost 1000/year. So he questioned having a leader like Larry Hoover would truly calm the violence in some parts of Chicago.

In watching Sicario this aspect of city violence came to mind. Do we need people just like those in these criminal groups to restore some form of law & order in the world?