PowerPoint; Best of Series: Blacks in Space, Nina Simone

The following program is an on -core presentation of PowerPoint. The phone lines are closed, however, you still have the power to make your point by calling the PowerPoint listener comment line toll -free at 888 -682 -6500. That number once again is 888 -682 -6500. This on -core presentation of PowerPoint is made possible by a grant from the National Legacy Foundation, a non -profit organization committed to enhancing, preserving and restoring the legacy and history of life in America. Production and broadcast of PowerPoint is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is PowerPoint, an information age clearinghouse for issues affecting the African -American community, the nation, and the world. And now, PowerPoint's Kenneth Walker. This is an historic broadcast for

PowerPoint as we become the first program serving the national African -American community to do a talk -back with astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, including African -American astronaut Major Mike Anderson. We're proud to bring PowerPoint listeners this special segment, and we thank NASA for providing PowerPoint this unique and extraordinary opportunity. My interview with Major Mike Anderson and other crew members aboard the space shuttle will begin in just a moment. Following that discussion, we'll be joined in studio with Curtis Graves of NASA headquarters in Washington, .C. to talk about opportunities for entrepreneurs and students to get involved with NASA programs. We'll also be joined by phone from New York City with Kefir Burns, co -author with Bill Miles of Black Stars in Orbit, the story of NASA's African -American astronauts. You can participate in this discussion by calling PowerPoint's hotline at 1

-800 -989 -8255. That's 1 -800 -989 -8255. Call a friend, tell them PowerPoint's on the air. In fact, at least for this edition, you can tell them that we're literally out of this world. Our talk with astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour begins in just a moment. But first, PowerPoint News with Verna Avery -Brown. With news and information to empower the community, I'm in Wandy Lawson. An August 5th spree in Birmingham, Alabama, ended with the death of three men and the arrest of suspect Alan Eugene Miller. Miller left for work the morning of the shootings but before 9 a .m. had killed two people at the air conditioning business where he worked and gone on to shoot a third man to death at a specialty gas distributor where Miller had previously been employed. Miller fled the second murder scene but was spotted by police minutes later on a

nearby interstate. The murders came one week after Mark O 'Barton fatally shot 12 people in Atlanta before killing himself. Supporters of Death Row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal say a letter written by former prison volunteer Philip Block proves he lied when he told Vanity Fair magazine that Abu Jamal admitted murdering a police officer. In the letter, Block told Abu Jamal, quote, when you get a new trial, I think there's a good chance of acquittal. Abu Jamal's supporters say the letter contradicts Block's magazine interview in which he stated that the one -time Black Panther and radio reporter had admitted to the 1981 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu Jamal is seeking a new trial on the grounds that the prosecution withheld evidence. The judge was biased, black jurors were kept off the jury, witnesses were influenced, and his original defense was inadequate. His appeal is pending before the U .S. Supreme Court. As long as the Confederate battle flag flies over the State House, the NAACP wants tourists to avoid South Carolina. And now the civil rights organization is targeting companies that support pro -flag lawmakers.

It has gathered campaign records to learn which companies have donated money to those legislators. Supporters say the flag represents South Carolina's heritage and it honors its veterans. The NAACP considers it a symbol of slavery and racism. South Carolina, the only state with the Confederate battle flag flying above its capital, raised it at the State House in 1962 to commemorate the Civil War's Centennial. Several attempts to take it down have failed, including a lawsuit by business leaders. Since the NAACP called for the travel boycott in July, the National Urban League and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have canceled convention plans to the state. There are no official estimates of the boycott's impact. Lobbyists for a bill to increase the government's power to prosecute hate crimes say they're closer than ever to seeing it passed by Congress and signed into law. The Senate approved the bill without debate in late July and the House Judiciary Committee followed in August with a hearing. The bill would add disability, gender, sexual orientation to federal anti -bias laws and make it easier for the Justice Department

to investigate and prosecute such offenses, as well as to assist local law enforcement authorities. President Clinton supports the legislation sponsored by Michigan Representative Democrat John Conyers. Eight states have no hate crime laws, 21 states have laws covering sexual orientation, 22 include gender in their anti -bias laws, and 21 cover disability. Republican leaders intend to use the August legislative break to whip up public support for their $792 billion tax cut. The Senate narrowly approved the bill, 50 to 49, after it cleared the House, 221 to 206. But President Clinton is expected to veto what would be the largest tax cut since President Reagan's 1981 cut. Republicans champion the bill as a way to refund individuals and families, while Democrats say the legislation is crammed with $60 billion worth of favors to businesses and lobbyists. GOP leaders will not send the bill to Clinton immediately, so that the president cannot veto it while they are away on August recess. But Clinton said that no matter when the

bill arrives at the White House, he will have no choice but to veto it immediately. The annual convention of the Jesse Jackson Rainbow Push Coalition kicked off with an agreement between Black and Hispanic leaders to promote solidarity between their communities on issues such as voting, redistricting, the census, health care, education, and immigration. Others who signed the pact included leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Hispanic Leadership Council, and the Chicago Urban League. President Clinton announced that the United States will continue to support the efforts between the Organization of African Unity to bring the strife between Ethiopia and Eritrea to a conclusion. Both sides in the conflict agreed to send delegates to Algeria to complete the arrangements for ending their 14 -month border war. The two East African nations have been battling in areas along their 620 -mile border since May of 1998. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and half a million people driven from their homes. Two Congolese rebel groups said August 5th they were

reconsidering their commitment to a fragile peace process after one group reported that 524 people were killed in a government bombing raid on two villages. Congolese liberation movement leader Jean -Pierre Bimba said 390 civilians and 134 of his troops were killed when two Sudanese aircraft dropped 18 bombs on two crowded Congo River fishing villages. There was no independent confirmation of Bimba's account. Bimba signed a peace agreement Sunday with President Laurent Kabila and his allies. Kabila seized power in the former Zaire in 1997 after his Rwanda -backed rebels forced opposition leader Mboto Ceceseco to flee the country. Civil war has been constant ever since along with political executions, gang warfare, refugee crises, and the collapse of the infrastructure. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said he's following the events and attempting to keep the ceasefire honored so that UN peacekeepers can advance. With news and information to empower

the community, I'm Nwandi Lawson. The following is an on -core presentation from Powerpoint's Best of series. We've received an enormous response from the listening audience, requesting rebroadcast of two of our most popular programs. In hour one, we take you into outer space and a live tag -up with Space Shuttle Endeavour. And in the second hour, we'll meet up with one out of this world diva, Nina Simone. We hope you've enjoyed our month -long series of the Best of Powerpoint. Join us next week, live on this public radio station. And now, back to Powerpoint. You said we think we're

ready for you on the flight deck. Endeavour, this is Powerpoint Radio. How do you hear me? Powerpoint Radio, this is Endeavour. We have you loud and clear. I'm Kenneth Walker. I want to welcome each member of the crew to Powerpoint Radio. Welcome aboard. Major Anderson, if I can, I'd like to be... you so much. Major Anderson, if I could, I'd like to begin with you. This is your first space mission. looking at that take -off of the Shuttle Endeavour last night, it's always a beautiful sight as it is at night time. What possibly could have been going through your mind? What did you feel when you were soaring through the clouds and ultimately into space? Endeavour, ICOM versus air to ground. Thank you. As you mentioned, your idea was that my first flight and it's pretty hard to describe the feelings that I had at that time. was a culmination of a lot of years of hard work and everything to get to that point. what had actually happened, it was really just a dream come true. At the time, I really couldn't tell you what was going through my mind. I was trying to concentrate on doing my

job and doing the things I'd been trained to do, but at the same time, I was thinking about my family that was out there watching their launch and my loved ones. But overall, it just a real fantastic experience. But the sight of Earth from space, we've seen pictures and we know something of what it looks like, but still nothing of what it feels. What did it feel like for you? Well, it's breathtaking. Pictures don't do justice to the way the Earth looks with your own eyes from this vantage point. You know, it's just a beautiful place. It's just a wonderful creation. And when I first got my glimpse of Earth from up here, it's just impossible to describe. It's a fantastic view. Not, I imagine not many African American youngsters, when you were a child, actually aspired to space travel or space work. How did you come upon this desire, this aspiration? Well, you know, I think for me, it was a combination of a number of things. My father was in the Air Force, so my exposure was to a lot of high tech

things, a lot of airplanes and a lot of the gadgetry that the Air Force had at the time. And also just an interest in science fiction. I was a big science fiction fan as a kid. I watched all kinds of television shows like Lost in Space and Star Trek. And I think just from watching those shows and seeing what those people were doing and from going to work with my dad and seeing what he did, just kind of developed a natural interest in me and want to do something like that. Commander Wilkut, this is, of course, the third space mission for you. Does it get repetitive for you or does the excitement recur each and every time? We only get to do this about every year and a half if you're lucky enough to do that. so it certainly never gets repetitive. It's exciting every single time. And how did you come to the space program? Well, sort of the same way I also, I guess, was always interested in space just from the science fiction, the movies, whatever. so I nearing the end of my tour as a test pilot and I was thinking about what I wanted to do next. A good friend of mine that was already in the astronaut program

asked me if I would be interested in that. And it seemed like a way to continue really the work that you do as a test pilot. And you get to work with a lot of very, very bright young engineers and scientists. And so it seemed like something I'd be interested in. Dr. Andy Thomas, you're, as I understand it, the last person the shuttle will deliver to the space station mere before the construction begins on the new international space station. What exactly will you do between now and then to prepare for the construction of the new space center? You're correct. I will be the last U .S. representative on the mere space station following six predecessors who have all done very good jobs under sometimes very trying circumstances. I'll be spending my time on the mere space station running a suite of experiments that are from U .S. sponsorship, looking at the effect mostly of long duration space flight on the behavior of the human body.

And I'll also be supporting the cosmonauts in operating and maintaining the space station and keeping it flying. So I expected to be pretty busy during my time there. And that kind of experience obviously is going to feed directly into the international space station because it's going to give us guidance on how you should operate one of these large orbiting vehicles. Major Anderson, back to you again. If there is one space mission either conceived or yet not conceived that you'd like to be on and you'd like to be a part of, what would it be? I think that's an easy question for me. I always thought it'd be nice to go to Mars and that's something that I think the space program is going to be looking rather closely at very soon here. And that's something that I think every astronaut in the program would really like to be a part of. A trip to another planet to explore that planet and see what's out there is something that would be very exciting for anyone. Well, I want to say to each and every member of the Endeavour crew that we here at the PowerPoint Network are all very proud of you and we wish you, in the words of the old Vulcan, live long and prosper. Thank you.

Thank you, PowerPoint. We're now resuming operational air to ground. Houston, that concludes this event. And Endeavour, we're off to the flight deck now. Stay tuned. There's more PowerPoint just ahead. Welcome back. I'm Kenneth Walker. We want to deliver a very special thank you to Senior Producer, Tony Regusters, for all the very hard work he put into securing the interview with the crew of the Shuttle Endeavour. The rest of this hour, PowerPoint will examine blacks in space, both the history and the future opportunities that exist in space exploration for students, entrepreneurs and aspiring astronauts. If you have questions about how you can benefit from

the space program, get in on this discussion by calling our toll -free number at 1 -800 -989 -8255. That's 1 -800 -989 -8255. To help provide some answers, we have in our studio, Curtis Graves, the Special Assistant for Executive Development, Office of Equal Opportunity Programs in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. And on the phone from New York, we have Kefra Burns, co -author, along with William Miles, of Black Stars in Orbit, the story of Black Americans in the American Space Program. Gentlemen, welcome. Good evening, Kefra. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. I want to start with you, Kefra, if I can, in terms of what you were able to discover in your book, Black Stars in Orbit. I can imagine that the astronaut core was the elite of perhaps all of

the U .S. military back when in its early days. And I'm wondering what kind of reception this elite core of white astronauts gave to Blacks as they started to try to make inroads into the astronaut core. Well, not a very good reception, I'm afraid. And that's probably the case with any area where minorities begin to make inroads into what was previously a white -only enterprise. One of the very first to be asked to join NASA was Captain Ed Dwight. And this is back in 1961. He was asked by President John F. Kennedy. But he had a terrible time in the space program, you know, just training to get ready for a flight, and was told by higher -ups that there would be no coons on the moon if they had anything to do with it. So they gave him a pretty rough time. then

when the president was assassinated, he was out of there the very next day because he didn't have the backup. And then following him, I think it was several years before the next African -American was invited. that was, as matter of fact, Robert Lawrence, who was in the Air Force, was part of the Air Force's space program. he became actually the first African -American astronaut designee, I believe he was called, but unfortunately an accident on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base where he lost his life. I prevented him from actually ever traveling in space. So it's been a long road. It's been a long road. Well, Curtis Graves is also an inspiration, I believe, one of the contributors. think he has a credit in your book. Curtis, by the time we got to Guy Buford, who was the first African -American actually to go up in space in

1983, can we expect that he encountered, perhaps, what Jackie Robinson encountered in baseball? Not really, because of the fact that by this time, there were a lot of barriers that were down. essentially Guy went in relatively trouble -free because after he'd gotten through the screening process, which was a difficult one, he'd gotten to the point where you're dealing with professionals. at this point, you're dealing with military guys that he had been flying with and dealing with for a long time. So it really wasn't a problem like you would have seen in earlier years, because after all, a lot of years had passed by the time Guy Bluford, Fred Gregory, and Ron McNair were accepted into the Corps. Well, it usually takes either very strong leadership or the sterling example, inspirational example of one person like a Jackie Robinson, to break down those barriers. How did you get from Captain Ed Dwight to Colonel Guy Buford?

Well, NASA put out a wide net that year. And I happened to be kind of instrumental in that, we had gotten the services of Lieutenant Uhur from Star Trek. had gotten, I can't think of a first name, Michelle Nichols, to help us with the recruiting process. And she was kind of working along with me. And I was taking her around the country and meeting people and what have you. And she was the person who did some commercials, and they ran public service commercials. They ran on television. And people like Fred Gregory was sitting in his home in Hampton, Virginia, saw that commercial one night at midnight and said, by God, I can do that. Applied on his own, out of the Air Force process, and was selected. So a lot of barriers were down by then, the time was right. But Keffer Burns, in terms of one's interaction with colleagues in this elite corps. You tell a story in your book

about conversation between Captain Ed Dwight and Colonel Chuck Yeager, who was the first test pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound. First of all, tell us that story, if you recall. Well, that's been a while. I'd have to review that story myself. But as I recall, Colonel Yeager did not want Ed Dwight in the space program. essentially, he told him that those folks in Washington don't know what they're getting you into down here. You could get killed down here. Just kind of veiled threats like that. And he was the one I was referring to, Ed told me, told him that there would be no coons on the moon if he had anything to do with it. Well, when in the course of your research for this book, when did this kind of interaction at the colleague level begin to break down as blacks begin to be accepted? I think Robert Lawrence, Major Robert Lawrence, had a lot to do with that.

After all the trouble that Ed Dwight went through, and Ed Dwight wrote to Washington and let folks know what he had been through down there. And they asked him, what would you have the next astronaut trainee do that you did differently? so he tried to tell them some of the pitfalls and whatnot. So anyway, by the time they brought in Major Robert Lawrence, officially, there was a little bit of resistance. But nothing like what Ed Dwight had gone through. And this was several years later, don't know, three and a half, four years later, that Robert Lawrence came into the program. And so he didn't have the same kind of resistance then that Ed Dwight did. By the time Fred Gregory, Guy Bluford, and Ron McNair came into the program, as Curtis was saying, NASA wanted minorities at that point. I think the times had changed, people had changed, and so they were actually looking for qualified minorities

to become involved in the space program. As well as women. And women joined the court at the same time, in a fairly large number. So it was a major step in the right direction. I think that the agency wanted to put its best foot forward at that time to say, yes, we do, in fact, want minorities and females to be a part of this program. And this is kind of the NASA's window on the world. This is what people see when they look at NASA. I remember guys who were, for instance, controllers in Mission Control, who the camera never pointed to them during the Apollo days. You never knew that there was a black person in Mission Control, but they were black people. And one of them lives right here in the Washington area, Joe Fuller, who worked in Mission Control, but you never saw his face. Who controlled the cameras? Had to be deliberate. Who controlled the cameras? You know who controlled the cameras. I mean, was it NASA or were the outside networks? There was also, in the very early

days, Colonel March Banks, who was a former Tuskegee Airman, who was a group surgeon with the 332nd Fighter Group, and he was in charge of monitoring John Glenn's vital signs from various points all over the, they had monitoring stations all over the world, various points. And he was in charge of that whole operation, monitoring John Glenn's vital signs as he orbited the Earth. This was 1962, I believe. And then, you know, Tuskegee Airman, really, those guys as pioneers are part of this whole story. Also, they even came to, several of those guys came to Fred Gregory when he was thinking about, you know, about applying, and they said, you know, you've got to do this. And they really told him, you know, about their adventures, and he was inspired, and that confirmed for him that he needed to go ahead and do this to apply. We're talking about blacks in space, with Curtis Graves and Kefra Burns. You can get in on this discussion by calling our toll -free hotline 1 -800 -989 -8255, that's 1 -800.

989 -8255. And indeed, Kefra Burns, you are the son of a Tuskegee Airman, is I understand? Yeah, yeah, my dad was 44K, class 44K. He was probably one of the youngest guys. You know, I think he tried to get in even before he was old enough and had to wait. I think he went in on his 18th birthday, which is as soon as he could get in. So, and he's still flying today, my And in fact, your mother was one of the very few black female pilots at the time. Yeah, and back in the early 60s or late 50s, she was, because my dad had a business on Compton Airport, a little small six -based operation, she became a pilot, and I think she was one of only two African -American female pilots in the country at that time. I see. Curtis, how many black astronauts we got today? Well, you know, I think that there's six in that five. mentioned five to you earlier, I think that there's six

now, three males and three females. Out of a total of... Around numbers, about a hundred, but I'm guessing, yes. You were telling me before a fascinating story about the first human being so far, as we know, maybe even the only human being, to play music in space. Tell us that story. Well, the late Ron McNair had an opportunity to take his saxophone. Ron McNair was not only a black belt in karate, but also an accomplished jazz musician. And for our listeners who don't know, Ron McNair was one of the members of the crew of the Shuttle Challenger, which exploded, and of course, he lost his life there. But go ahead and finish this story. So Ron wanted to take his saxophone in space, the person who was director of public affairs at the time had some problems with the fact that Ron was going to go up and on air blow his saxophone, and they thought that this was a frivolous thing. So the compromise, I got

involved in it, and the compromise was... I was the deputy to this gentleman who was director of public affairs. The compromise was take your horn, record the actuality of your playing your saxophone, and then when you come back, we'll find a time and we'll air it. So he took his saxophone. As a matter of fact, he was an alto player. He took a soprano, took a smaller horn up, took it into space. He set up the camera, he videoed himself, as well as audioed himself, and some still photographs were taken. The next morning, he rewound the tape, stuck it in the cabinet. The next morning, he got up and they had several rats, test rats on board, and the little rats were just floating around looking like they were dead. McNair panicked, thought to himself that for some reason the rats had died overnight. So he grabbed a roll of video tape, stuck it in the camera, and recorded over the exact same spot that

he had recorded himself playing the saxophone. But the audio tape survived, and where is it today? In the Smithsonian. We have been able to make it a part of the permanent treasure of the Smithsonian. Well, and hopefully we can see about the technology that may allow you to lift that image off of the video tape. But we're talking about blacks in space. We're talking with Curtis Davis, an official with the National Aeronautics Space Administration, Curtis Graves, I'm sorry, an official with the National Aeronautics Space Administration, Keffer Burns, a co -author of a book on black stars in orbit. I'm Kenneth Walker, and our discussion will continue when we come back. Internet services for PowerPoint are provided by World African Network, offering news, information, sports, and entertainment for African and African American communities through internet, broadband, and new media technologies. The web address is www .world .africannet .com.

PowerPoint is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Radio Program Fund. Welcome back to PowerPoint. I'm Kenneth Walker. We're talking about blacks in space, and we want you to get in on this discussion about what NASA can do for you. Call our Tophie Hotline at 1 -800 -989 -8255. That's 1 -800 -989 -8255. We're going to take a call now. We're going to go to Walter. Station WEAA

out of Baltimore. Welcome to PowerPoint, Walter. Well, I'm fine. I'd to ask your two guests a question in particular, that has the white athlete that I caught on a public radio one night, and that question was, what is the social benefit of the billions of dollars spent in outer space when we have homeless, when we have the racist treatment of black people here on earth? I'd like for them to just give me that comment on the social agenda of racist white America here on earth and outside of the elitist group that I would suggest they're part of. I'll hold on and listen. Thank you so much. Thanks for the question, Curtis. You want to take a shout at that? Well, NASA's budget is minuscule when we talk about the federal budget. We spend about $13 billion a year. So

if you shut NASA down in the morning, I don't think it would help that many homeless people because that money wouldn't just happen to flow directly to the homeless. Now, when you look at the social benefit, and I think that that's the tone of the caller's question, the social benefit is what is learned by mankind. And if you look at, throughout man's existence, we have had this quest for knowledge. And what we see when you send astronauts into space or when you send that little rover up to Mars is an extraordinary amount of information coming back for the benefit of mankind. When you look at NASA, NASA is not only the space part of it, but also the aeronautics part of it. All those 747s that you see flying did not fly by accident. They're flying because of some research that has been done over many, many years that created the kind of atmosphere in the air that we have right now that makes aviation possible for the huge numbers of people that are flying all over the country. Kefrey,

what's the point that Walter asked about? I think you can't separate the social impact of the space program from the technological medical. mean, there are experiments that have been done in zero gravity that have resulted in advances in medicine that all human beings, including African Americans, benefit by. The computer technology that all people, including African Americans, benefit by, those things are part of, they have a social impact. The fact that we can get on the internet and be in touch with hundreds of other people all over the country, or African Americans all over the country, or even with Africans in Africa, the fact that we can travel, Curtis was saying, the major carriers in the computer technology that allow us to travel by jet carrier across the country and across the world has been, those advances

have been made because of the space program, and those things impact us socially. We can get on a plane. I can get on a plane here in New York and go visit my family in Los Angeles. Those things are a part of the space program, so you can't separate the advances that are made in technology and in medicine and all the other ways that the space program has benefitted from the social impact. Kefra, also you need to look at things like pacemakers and prosthetic devices, and there are hundreds of thousands of things that we take for granted. We think of Tang and Teflon as the things that maybe, that's what we got out of the space program. Really, that's not the things that we got out of the space program at all. The wristwatch that's on your arm that has a little battery in it, the automatic pumps that pump the insulin and diabetics, all of those kinds of things are direct benefits from the space program. When I talk to people all over the country about these kinds of things, you know, when we first put the first astronauts up, we had no idea what it

would be like to fly in space, so we started saying, what happens if the person gets into space and can't do anything? What things will they be able to use on their body? said, well, they can use, they can move their eyes around, can use their tongue, so we started developing devices that could be operated by the tongue and the eyes. Well, that, all of those devices were set aside when we realized, well, space is not that exotic, a guy still can use his hands and his legs and what have you. So years passed and all of a sudden we said, my god, paraplegics can use those devices that can be blown through or that can, you can move your eyes to the left or the right or up or down or whatever and cause machines to cut on or devices to talk for you. I saw a person in the wheelchair the other day who had a device that was talking for him that could ask questions and all of that was, all of those things directly came from the space program. In addition to all of those fabulous innovations,

we want our listeners to learn how to tap into some of those 13 billion dollars each year that that NASA spends and in order to do that you have to call. Our number is 1 -800 -989 -8255, that's 1 -800 -989 -8255. Curtis, was pulling some information off the internet, NASA's site there and learned that actually it has quite a number of outreach programs, two minorities and others. There's the Urban Community Enrichment Program, the Faculty Awards for Research Program. Tell us some of the things that NASA is doing to encourage participation by minorities. Well, let's kind of go through a chronology of those things. For instance, there are about 18 or about 16 institutions around the country, minority institutions, Hispanic institutions as well as historically black colleges that are receiving two or more million dollars a year to do specific kinds of research. I'm going to give you one of them to kind of show you

the kinds of cutting -edge research that's being done by minority institutions. In order for us to get to Mars, in order for us to get to planets that are further than Mars, that may be parts of maybe planets around other star systems, we're going to be in space a long period of time. Tuskegee, for instance, is doing research with sweet potatoes specifically that could be grown in space from the seed and you can eat the vegetable, can eat the green part of it, you can eat the stem, you can eat the fruit, the potato, you can make flour out of it, you can make pancakes out of it, it's a protein source. They're developing all kinds of things that could be grown, it could be done by using the potato that can be grown hydroponically in water, so you wouldn't even need soil. And if you're going to go on long -duration space flights, you're going to have to find those kinds of products that could be utilized in space so that you can provide food for yourself. So one of those 16 institutions is doing just

that, is providing an opportunity for us to look at food stuffs that could be used in space, and they're doing all kinds of research in laser physics and optics and all kinds of things that are done by minority institutions, Hampton, Howard, Florida A &M and others. What about university scholarships? University scholarships are available through NASA, not as many now as in the past, but they're still available. The summer faculty fellowship program is one, we take faculty from minority institutions and bring them into the agency and have them do research. I'm running a program, a brand new program at NASA right now called the NASA Administrator Fellowship Program, which takes minority faculty from minority institutions and bring them into the agency so that they can do research for two years and take NASA people and take them to minority institutions and have them to teach for two years. So it's an exchange program where NASA people go out and faculty come in so that we can better prepare them for the realities of the real world in science and technology. So there, I mean so

many things and we could take up this hour in no time flat. Let's go to the phones. We have Libby out of station WLTR in Columbia, South Carolina. Welcome to PowerPoint. Thank you, Kenneth. I'm really glad to have discovered you. I am in my home state. I'm a military wife. are actually back in Andrews Air Force Base, my husband being an Air Force. And I was picked up just about the point. I believe you mentioned Ron McNair. Yes, ma 'am. And not too far from his home territory, I believe it's Lake City. And of course I want to pay tribute to him and those who have served with the space program. And it was a privilege to know Ed White, who worked with my husband at Wright -Patterson Air Force Base before he became an astronaut. So I have always been very supportive of the space program. I see great gains that we can make. I tend to express my opinions to Congress and those there about town because I don't have to pay long distance when I'm there to call. Wonderful. And

I have always urged that they have the, you know, in other words, provide the funding for the space program. And I just wanted to lend that support and also to say that I have wonderful, I've never been down, of course, through the Florida area, but I have been to Edwards Air Force Base where our son is stationed and had the joy of going to the NASA Museum there. And of course I bought it out buying for the grandchildren in the gift shop. But I just wanted to pay tribute to those who are still serving in our space program and who have given the precious times of their lives and to their families, I say thank you. So keep up the good work. And I think more and more people will come to understand that I think it's very vital to our future to provide for this program. Thank you so much, Libby. Thanks for your calls and call of support. you. We are going to stick with the phones. Going to Chris out of the same station in Columbia, South Carolina. Welcome to PowerPoint. Could you please turn your phone down, Chris?

Yes, hello. Could you turn your radio down? Yes, okay. I got it down now. Okay. Thank you son, Ron McNair. I served in the legislature at the time when he was with the space program. what he meant to our community, especially the Afro -American community, and going into classrooms in our schools and doing seminars, we took great pride in that. And that meant so much to so many young. his memory lives on here in South Carolina. And I know several young people who he's inspired and are now one particular at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. so you just can't minimize the good that's been done by our space program, by the African -American participation in that program for our young people in our classrooms. I

just didn't want this time chance to go by without making that statement. Thank you so much. Chris, this is Curtis Graves at NASA. I agree with you so much. Ron McNair was such a role model. He was a star athlete when he was in Lake City. He was a star athlete when he was at North Carolina A &T. Of the first three African -Americans to go into space, he was the only one who had gone to a minority institution for his undergraduate degree. So he really paid a lot of dues and gave a lot back by visiting with those individuals. I went with him to Lake City on one or two occasions and was very proud of what he was doing and giving back to the community. So astronauts do a lot, but beside just flying space. Thanks again, Chris, for that comment and question. We now go to Andre, a station W -H -Y -Y in Philadelphia. Welcome to PowerPoint. Hello. I just

turned tuned in my station. I just started carrying a show a few weeks ago. We're very happy to be on it. Yeah. My questions are kind of historical. I understand that NASA just honored Major Robert H. Lawrence, I believe it's his junior, a few months ago, acknowledging that he was, in fact, in astronaut training. I first heard of him through, of all things, Jet Magazine. I read an article that some high school, I believe it was, was named after him. I'm not sure. was in Chicago or someplace. Could your guests tell me more about him and probably how he died and when? Secondly, another person I learned of some years ago, Pete Peterson. I believe he was an Air Force pilot and I think he was a member of the Thunderbirds and he

died in a plane crash. In fact, it took the entire group of Thunderbird pilots. I believe it was somewhere in Nevada. I think it was early 80s, 82 or something like that. But I just want to know if your guests knew anything about either those people and could be the first one and two people in line to become astronauts. Thank you so much, Andre. I believe that Curtis actually was, we were talking a little bit earlier about Major Robert Lawrence and tell us that story. maybe Kofi would like to go back a little bit to talk. Kefra. Kefra, rather, would like to go back a little earlier to talk about him and when he was selected because I don't remember all of that. Do you remember that? Well, Major Robert Lawrence was part of the Air Force's MOL manned orbiting. I forget what the initial stand for. Do you remember, Curtis? I don't remember. That's the reason I asked you to fill in because that part I don't

really remember that well. MOL program and training and so the Air Force had a space program. Manned orbiting laboratory. Yes, that's what it was. That's what it was. So he had pretty much completed his training. He was a test pilot and he died in an F -104 crash landing at Edwards Air Force Base on the runway there. He tried to eject. As a matter of fact, his co -pilot did eject and survived with some injuries. for some reason, Major Lawrence's shoot did not open and he died there on the runway. The F -104, he was a test pilot and the F -104 has been described as a rocket with wings. So it was a pretty aggressive piece of machinery. One thing that his wife was very sensitive about was that he was not piloting that aircraft.

He was in the back seat, so it really wasn't his fault at all. The plane crashed on takeoff, so they were just a few feet off the ground and unfortunately his shoot did not deploy when he punched out. Now about Pete Peterson, Pete Peterson was never in the AASHNA program, to my knowledge. Pete Peterson was a Thunderbird pilot and he perished with his whole crew that went down in a training flight. They were practicing some maneuver with the Thunderbirds and all of them went into the ground at one time. He didn't pull up in time and he was the lead pilot. But for Major Lawrence, there was this ceremony. Oh yes. I wanted to mention that. About a month ago, Major Lawrence was posthumously recognized as in fact a person who was in the AASHNA training program. For years, the NASA didn't know how to handle Major Lawrence's the recognitions about Major Lawrence because of the fact that

the Air Force had designated him as a part of this AASHNA training program, but he had never really come to NASA yet. So NASA was saying well we don't know what to and then finally a decision was made that that he would in fact be recognized as one of the people who had lost his life in the AASHNA program at the Kennedy Space Center. If you go now, there's a huge memorial wall there and his name is inscribed on the wall so that he will be permanently recognized as a person who had given his life in the space program. Our number here at Power Point, we're talking about blacks in space is 1 -800 -989 -8255. That's 1 -800 -989 -8255. In terms of entrepreneurs, Curtis, there is there some special outreach for minority business people and if so give us some sense of its scope? I really don't have the numbers in mind, but I know that there's a

at NASA headquarters, we have a whole division that's dedicated to smaller minority businesses and we do a lot of business but small businesses across the country. So that's a part of the thing that has been going on for a long time. We're talking about blacks in space, we're coming up on 49 minutes after the hour, we're talking with Curtis Graves with NASA and Keffer Burns, a co -author of a book or Black Stars in Orbit. You can join in this discussion by calling 1 -800 -989 -8255. Our discussion on Power Point will continue when we come back. Still ahead on Power Point. The massacres in Algeria have shocked us all and the world wants to know who's behind the bloodshed and carnage that's claimed the lives of 75 ,000 people. Stay tuned for hour two of Power Point when we'll talk with the ambassador from Algeria. Welcome back to Power Point. We're talking

about blacks in space, both the history of it, opportunities for future participation. You can join this discussion by calling our toll -free hotline at 1 -800 -989 -8255. That's 1 -800 -989 -8255. I was just looking at some of the figures here that I've pulled off the net and for any agency actually these aren't bad numbers Curtis. You got 23 % or about a quarter of senior managers at NASA are either women and or minorities. It says here the representation of women and minorities in NASA has increased from 39 % to about 43%. Minorities employed by NASA increased from about 16 to 9%. Before the break we're talking about some of the business, minority businesses that are involved with NASA. NASA's pretty cutting, leading cutting -edge technological stuff. Give us some sense of what some black firms are doing in this area. Everything that you can think of. They're computer firms that are designing or that are doing the computer networking and

all those kinds of things for the agency. There's their firms. Well, number one we have 10 locations around the country. We have locations in Cleveland that somebody was mentioning. Ed was Air Force Base. We have a Dryden facility there. have a facility at Ames in California. We have one at the propulsion laboratory, one in Houston, one at Langley in Hampton, Virginia. And then the Houston facility and I mentioned that one in the and the Florida facility. Oh and Goddard. So at all of those facilities there is an aggressive program to include minority contractors in. So they're doing everything from grounds keeping to very technical work that keeps spacecraft up, provide the data that we need in order to understand better what's happening in space. Is there some central or location or person or number that anyone, is there a catch -all location for a student, for a business

person, you know, faculty person on university? Is there some place they can call or contact to see how they might participate in some of these programs? The Office of Equal Opportunity programs at NASA headquarters might be a good place. We have a web page and you could look there and get some information but we also have a small and disadvantaged business office at NASA headquarters and you could find that on a web page. It's code K. through those two you could probably get some information about the entrepreneurial piece as well as the minority educational as well as what we're doing, the numbers that you just read about how many minorities are doing various things at NASA. Kefra, I know there really hasn't been enough numbers to draw any conclusions but I'm wondering if on the basis of your reporting and writing about the Blacks in the Space program, whether there were any common threads, whether there were some earlier indications that one might point to and say they all had this in common? I think they all had, like

the pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen for them, they all had a dream of flying, you know, they wanted to fly, which is really a common theme, not you know, among all people, everybody dreams about flying. I'd love to go up in the space shuttle myself. I, you know, I love to fly and when I fly, I love to sit near the window because I can look out and I can see the earth and see. I can only imagine what it's like to be 190 miles up as you know, as Fred Gregory describes, and this here is this this tiny little ball in the vacuum, the dead vacuum of space, but it's got it's teeming with life and in the rainforest, you can find life by by the millions into a quarter inch of soil, you know, down to the microscopic. It's just teeming with life, trees, plants, animals.

It's really incredible, you know, and I think that's been one of the transforming things. think everybody who's gone up and has actually seen the earth from space has, as Fred Gregory would say, you can actually see Houston and how close it is to Mexico City and how close that is to South America and to Africa and to Russia, but there's no boundaries. There's like on the Rand McNally maps, you know, there's nothing dividing state from state and it's really one world and people come back realizing like Ron McNair did, that you know it doesn't make any sense for people down here to be fighting because it's such a tiny little place and when you know you consider it in the vastness of the dead vastness of space, you know, and so that and that also I think kind of speaks to the social issue that Walter brought up earlier. You know, how does this benefit us? more we realize who we are and where we are in, you know, on

this little planet in space, I think, you know, folks will, a lot of the differences will begin to dissipate, you know, and we'll realize that, you know, it's much more important that we work together as one world. I'm sure that that answered your question. This is Curtis Graves again. Fred Gregory said once and I always remembered that he said, I left as a citizen of Washington D .C. and after flying, I became a citizen of the world because I realized that there were no lines when you, when you get up there and look, he said, I'd been raised with those maps with all the lines on them, but then when you get up there and you look at it, you realize that you're really a citizen of this whole planet. We're going to try to take one more call here. We have Charles out of Baltimore. Welcome to PowerPoint. Great. Thank you. You know, I just was listening at your program this first time I heard it tonight. And, you know, during my years, I was on one of the first missile tracking ships. The name of the ship was the American Miner. And they used to,

they used to send it off from Cape Canaveral and it would, it would break up in the Indian Ocean right off Cape Town, South Africa. And I was thinking the missile, the missile program would still come under this program, right? Let's get our guests to weigh in on that. Thanks for the question. No, not really. The missile program would be probably under the military and not under, under NASA. Okay. And in the closing moments that we have, gentlemen, tell us if you can, why you think today young black kids ought to pay any attention to what's going on at NASA and whether, and to what extent you think it's available to them? Well, I think that we are at the dawn of the Information Age. And in order for you to weigh in, in order for you to make a valuable contribution, you need to be as computer literate, you need to be as articulate, you need to be as bright as you can be. And the space program gives you that opportunity to dream the impossible dream. And I think this is an

opportunity, if you are interested in aeronautics and space, join us. In 10 seconds or less, Caphras. I agree. I think that this is a human endeavor. And as human beings, we need to be a part of this. I mean, it's like asking, why should we have been involved in the discovery of fire or the wheel? Or, you know, this is where human beings are going. Thanks, Kefir Burns, Curtis Graves for this discussion on Blacks in Space. I'm Kenneth Walker, and this is PowerPoint. February is Black History Month. And next time on PowerPoint, we make a little history of our own with an historic special broadcast uniting PowerPoint with the American Indian Radio on Satellite Network. Be sure to join us. PowerPoint is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Radio Program Fund. This is PowerPoint, a production of Hicks & Associates.

There's more PowerPoint just ahead in the second hour. Stay tuned for our monthly Ambassadors Roundtable Series, where we'll talk this time with Algerian Ambassador Remtame Lamamra about the crisis in Algeria. Stay tuned. This is PowerPoint,

an Information Age clearinghouse for issues affecting the African American community, the nation, and the world. And now, PowerPoint's Kenneth Walker. I put a spell on you. Because you're mine. You better stop the things you do. I ain't lying. She's an artist and a rebel, impeccable in style. She wears her rich color like a velvet gown. Her music served as the anthem for a protest, a protest she took to the

ultimate personal limit, by leaving America and the racism that enraged her. Nina Simone's a living legend and icon of the jazz realm. And for the next hour on PowerPoint, Miss Simone joins us to share moments from her life and talk about her music. Join us in this rare experience as PowerPoint presents this exclusive interview with the last diva, Nina Simone. So call a friend. them to tune into the station that you have the good fortune to be listening to. As PowerPoint casts the spell on you with this very special moment in time with Miss Nina Simone. You can join this discussion by calling the PowerPoint hotline at 1 -800 -989 -8255. PowerPoint's conversation with the legendary Nina Simone begins in a moment. first, these headlines from PowerPoint News with Verna

Avery With news and information to empower the community, I'm Nwandi Lawson. An August 5th spree in Birmingham, Alabama ended with the death of three men and the arrest of suspect Alan Eugene Miller. Miller left for work the morning of the shootings, but before 9 a .m. had killed two people at the air conditioning business where he worked and gone on to shoot a third man to death at a specialty gas distributor where Miller had previously been employed. Miller fled the second murder scene but was spotted by police minutes later on a nearby interstate. The murders came one week after Mark O 'Barton fatally shot 12 people in Atlanta before killing himself. Supporters of Death Row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal say a letter written by former prison volunteer Philip Block proves he lied when he told Vanity Fair magazine that Abu Jamal admitted murdering a police officer. In the letter, Block told Abu Jamal,

quote, When you get a new trial, I think there's a good chance of acquittal. Abu Jamal's supporters say the letter contradicts Block's magazine interview in which he stated that the one -time Black Panther and radio reporter had admitted to the 1981 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu Jamal is seeking a new trial on the grounds that the prosecution withheld evidence. The judge was biased. Black jurors were kept off the jury, witnesses were influenced, and his original defense was inadequate. His appeal is pending before the U .S. Supreme Court. As long as the Confederate battle flag flies over the statehouse, the NAACP wants tourists to avoid South Carolina. And now the civil rights organization is targeting companies that support pro -flag lawmakers. It has gathered campaign records to learn which companies have donated money to those legislators. Supporters say the flag represents South Carolina's heritage and it honors its veterans. The NAACP considers it a symbol of slavery and racism. South Carolina, the only state with the Confederate battle

flag flying above its capital, raised it at the statehouse in 1962 to commemorate the Civil War's Centennial. Several attempts to take it down have failed, including a lawsuit by business leaders. Since the NAACP called for the travel boycott in July, the National Urban League and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have canceled convention plans to the state. There are no official estimates of the boycott's impact. Lobbyists for a bill to increase the government's power to prosecute hate crimes say they're closer than ever to seeing it passed by Congress and signed into law. The Senate approved the bill without debate in late July, and the House Judiciary Committee followed in August with a hearing. The bill would add disability, gender, sexual orientation to federal anti -bias laws, and make it easier for the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute such offenses, as well as to assist local law enforcement authorities. President Clinton supports the legislation sponsored by Michigan Representative Democrat John Conyers. Eight states have no hate crime laws, 21 states have laws covering sexual orientation, 22

include gender in their anti -bias laws, and 21 cover disability. Republican leaders intend to use the August legislative break to whip up public support for their $792 billion tax cut. The Senate narrowly approved the bill, $50 to $49, after it cleared the House, $221 to $206. But President Clinton is expected to veto what would be the largest tax cut since President Reagan's 1981 cut. Republicans champion the bill as a way to refund individuals and families, while Democrats say the legislation is crammed with $60 billion worth of favors to businesses and lobbyists. GOP leaders will not send the bill to Clinton immediately, so that the president cannot veto it while they are away on August recess. But Clinton said that no matter when the bill arrives at the White House, he will have no choice but to veto it immediately. The annual convention of the Jesse Jackson Rainbow Push Coalition kicked off with an agreement between Black and Hispanic leaders to promote solidarity between their communities

on issues such as voting, redistricting, the census, healthcare, education, and immigration. Others who signed the pact included leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Hispanic Leadership Council, and the Chicago Urban League. President Clinton announced that the United States will continue to support the efforts between the Organization of African Unity to bring the strife between Ethiopia and Eritrea to a conclusion. Both sides in the conflict agreed to send delegates to Algeria to complete the arrangements for ending their 14 -month border war. The two East African nations have been battling in areas along their 620 -mile border since May of 1998. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and half a million people driven from their homes. Two Congolese rebel groups said August 5th they were reconsidering their commitment to a fragile peace process after one group reported that 524 people were killed in a government bombing raid on two villages. Congolese liberation movement leader Jean -Pierre Bimba said 390 civilians and

134 of his troops were killed when two Sudanese aircraft dropped 18 bombs on two crowded Congo River fishing villages. There was no independent confirmation of Bimba's account. Bimba signed a peace agreement Sunday with President Laurent Kabila and his allies. Kabila seized power in the former Zaire in 1997 after his Rwanda -backed rebels forced opposition leader Mboto Ceceseco to flee the country. Civil war has been constant ever since along with political executions, gang warfare, refugee crises and the collapse of the infrastructure. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said he's following the events and attempting to keep the ceasefire honored so that UN peacekeepers can advance. With news and information to empower the community I'm Nwandi Lawson. The following is an on -court presentation from PowerPoint's best of series. We've received requests from the listening audience to rebroadcast our most popular programs and coming up next our most requested program.

In the second hour we meet up with the last diva herself Nina Simone. We hope you've enjoyed our month -long series of the best of PowerPoint. Join us next week live on this public radio station and now back to PowerPoint. My hair is woolly. My back is strong. Strong enough to take the pain. Inflicted again and again. Welcome back. I am Kenneth Walker. As a teenager I

would sit in the kitchen and watch and listen as my mother prepared our meals while humming and singing songs by Nina Simone. I renewed my love of Nina Simone during the turbulent 60s when she, her brutally frank artistry, captured the aspirations, the fears, and the angers of the African -American people. Not only her artistry was brutally frank but Nina Simone always spoke her mind and lived her life, lived the life of her choosing and no matter what anybody else thought of it. In this way I became a die -hard fan of Nina and her music so it was with undiluted joy when about 20 years ago I had a treasured personal encounter. On her way to Washington a mutual friend and fellow newspaper man Chuck Stone suggested that Nina looked me up and she did. It was my privilege and the highest of honors to be able to have dinner and go dancing with Madam Nina Simone, one of the great experiences of a lifetime. Now you too can have something of that privilege. You can

speak with the legendary Dr. Nina Simone. Just call the PowerPoint hotline at 1 -800 -989 -8255. That's 1 -800 -989 -8255. Now once again it's an honor to welcome Dr. Nina Simone. Welcome Nina. Thank you very much. I am ill and I can't stay on this phone very long. Well I'm just happy for the opportunity however long it lasts. I'm sorry to hear that you're not feeling well. Could you tell us something about how your music has evolved over the years to where it is today and something about what your life is like? Well my life is going from here and there giving concerts. We just left Seattle. Seattle. Had a great concert there. We had a sold out house there

and we've only been here today so I'm in bed trying to rest. I understand. You actually have lived outside the United States for oh 25 years. Why did you leave? Racism. And there you founded no opportunity to deal with that within the United States I trust. I beg your pardon? Well you felt you had to leave because of that? That's right. How do audiences outside the United States differ in their admiration of you from those inside the United States? They differ because they ask all about the racism here. I was just with President Mandela in South Africa and they all wanted to know about

the racism here and I told them it was worse than ever. How do you describe how you think it's worse compared to a time when they were killing off for African American leaders and bombing little girls? It's more subtle now you think. Yes. But it's just as bad. It's in the very fabric of American society. So what are your long term expectations or hopes for African American people here in the United States? My dear man I think unless they leave we have unless they leave they're going to die here because there aren't any leaders anymore. What will they die of? Racism. I

see. I was surprised to read in my research that you actually did not originally intend to become a singer but rather a classical concert pianist. That's right. What happened to change your mind? I was rejected at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia because of my race and I never got over it. And I understand your first performing job was as a performer at a club in Atlantic City. Yeah that's after I was rejected at Philadelphia Institute of Music at Curtis. Now it was at this club in Atlantic City where both you adopted your name I understand and you began singing as well as playing. Can you tell us about that? Well there's nothing to tell. I had to help support my family and I had to start singing in order to do that and first

I was playing the piano and then the owner a big fat character with a cigar in his mouth told me that if I didn't sing I didn't have the job and at that time we had no money and I had to sing in order to make 90 dollars a week. And I understand that you adopted the name Nina Simone because your mother was a Methodist minister and you didn't want her to know you were playing in this club. That's right. Tell us about your experience in South Africa recently. What did you think of President Mandela? I think he's the greatest man on the planet. I was there at his wedding and I was there at his anniversary. What do you think of the situation for black people inside South Africa? Well they're fine. How so? How do you mean that? Well he's the president. He's the one who dictates what

happens in that country and his main concerns are the children. We don't have that over here. I was also reading in some of the research that you felt when you first went to visit the continent of Africa that you felt so at home. That's right and I urge all black Americans to go to Africa. What do you think they will find there? They will find a home. Oh you think that they ought to leave and live there? Damn right. Tell us in terms of your own family here have any of them adopted this advice? No we're separated just like they did in slavery. They separated the family and they've done the same thing here. My mother is 97

years old and I don't see her. I do have a daughter who sings and acts in America and she's the only one I'm close to. Our slavery hasn't changed. My friend has just adopted a new face. And but you don't see among African Americans here any progress in race relations at all? No I see rappers sing the same thing I did years ago. Speaking of rappers what do you think of contemporary music? I don't like rappers. Why not? Because they don't sing. All they do is play drums and talk. I see. Well where do you think beyond the

rap music the state of American black American music is today? I don't see it being anywhere. I don't know of any one singer that I admire in this country. Well I read that you were a great admirer of Michael Jackson. Yeah well yeah I do because of his record call they don't uh uh when is Michael Jackson? They don't care about us? They don't care about us. And that's the one where he took off and announced what was happening with the Jews and the Americans here and then of course he changed. Well yes when he changed I've read that you said that Quincy Jones is responsible for the tragedy that is Michael Jackson. I think so I think that's why he

changed his uh face and why he changed his hair because he was too confused about what it meant to be black. And how was Quincy Jones responsible for that? Because he influenced him. Quincy Jones did most of his albums and he had to have somebody to imitate and Quincy Jones was married to a white woman so Michael married a white woman and had a white baby. I gather you don't believe in interracial romantic relationships. don't believe in them. No. But you you had a white husband once. My god that was a mistake. He was a creep. Well so so you think black people just ought to marry black people? I certainly think that

and I don't think it's going to happen over here. It's too late. Why do you think the quality of African -American leadership has deteriorated in your view? Because Martin Luther King is dead. Jackson Jackson is full of shit and we ain't got nobody. Is there anything you think that you could tell the younger people coming up about how to become more effective leaders? Oh god they have to finish college and they have to read that black history which they don't do. They can start with roots. I see we have actually the switchboard is off the scales and I want to give our listeners an opportunity to... Darling I can't do that. I'm ill. I see well maybe I can ask just another one or two questions. Just one another one or two questions. Are you still involved politically?

You've always been something of a rebel. always have been and I still am. I didn't want to come to the United States. I didn't want to do uh what's the name of that place? Seattle? Do you have is that part of a continuing tour? Do you have other American stops on it? No just Newark. Newark, New Jersey? Yes. Well if it's so painful for you to come to the United States I have to ask you why you do. I needed the money and this is the first time I've been in the United States to give a concert in four years. You seem to... I needed the money. Well I have to tell you I'm we're absolutely happy that you're here and I'm glad to hear that. And grateful very grateful for the opportunity to to be able to speak with you now. You have you do give concerts more frequently

in Europe and Asia I gather. Yes and we're getting ready to do a South American tour. A South American tour? When is that going to schedule a template? I'm not sure when it's going to be. What I what do you think uh because I hear so many young black women who admire you what do you think your influence on young African American women has been? I'm a model for them. They watch me to see what I'm going to do and they watch me to see if I've changed and I've shown up ain't changed. At all? Hell no I still believe that uh Americans uh blacks are going to be uh uh involved in the genocide. Jesus. When do you have any idea about when any of this is likely to happen? No.

Um how how would you rate... here it's going to happen. Where are you living now? I live in France. In the south of France I gather. Yes. How do people treat you over there? Okay and there's less racism. Less racism? wouldn't you think that that for uh a woman of your celebrity and talent that that you'd get treated with that kind of respect wherever you are? Well yeah but I'm not treated that with that kind of respect in America. I'm no more than a nigger here. Give us some examples of how you're treated in America. Oh come on man you know how I'm treated. I'm treated like you are. I'm treated like all the American junkies. I'm treated like uh a piece of shit uh uh

and when I'm in America that's why I don't come here. Well you know we have hundreds of people who who are very diehard fans and who love you who are calling now who want an opportunity just to have a word with you. Well I can't do that I'm too ill I just got over uh an illness a surgery as a matter of fact and I need these five days to rest up. I understand. you tell those lovely people I'm glad they love me and they should come and see me in Newark. When is that do you think in the concert in Newark? The 30th. The 30th of August, the concert in Newark. Give us the name of your latest album and the label it's on. There is no latest album well the name of the latest album. Single Woman I think is Woman Alone. A Woman Alone. By by Electra. By Electra. Electra.

What what do you think uh what was the uh inspiration behind that album? There was no inspiration that they they hired me to make a uh an album they told me what to sing and I sang it. About three years ago a court in San Francisco gave you ownership of 52 of your master recordings. That's something of a a different uh a positive approach in that you are gaining ownership of your music. Yeah because I've got a great lawyer in San Francisco. Well how do you reconcile your artistic excellence with with the compromises that are necessary for show business? I don't understand that question. Well you know show business is requires you know a lot of unpleasant activity I suppose and as an artist you know how do you deal with all that? I simply get up and do my songs and don't change.

What what the uh the inspiration for Four Women the uh that song the Four Women what what can you tell us about that? I can only say that it speaks for itself about the different colors of American women the texture of their hair and their color. It addresses themselves to black women not that many of them have embraced the song they don't seem to care and they certainly don't identify with it. And your your so -called uh protest music uh in the 60s Mississippi Goddamn Strange Fruit and others uh you don't seem to do much of that kind of music anymore. is that? because ain't nothing happening in the States. You know that?

Malcolm X is dead. Martin Luther King is dead. You got no leaders here except uh Lewis Farron and his is very uh limited. Well Nina we're coming up on a break we have to take we want to know if you want to continue with us or you need to. I have to go. Okay well we want to thank you when we come back we're going to give some of our callers a listen an opportunity to give their observations and recollections about uh about Dr. Nina Simone. I want to thank you so much and wish you uh we'll get well soon Dr. Simone. Thank you very much. God bless you. Bye bye. We're coming up on 29 minutes into the hour we've been talking with Dr. Nina Simone about her life and her music. You can offer your observations about her that legendary diva when we come back. Internet services for PowerPoint are provided by World

African Network offering news information sports and entertainment for African and African American communities through broadband and new media technologies. The web address is www .wan online dot com that's www .wan online dot com You're listening to public radio and this is PowerPoint with Kenneth Walker. Welcome back uh that was uh one of the most fascinating rides

we've had on PowerPoint here. I'm sure you've found it is interesting too but as you may have guessed uh Madam Nina Simone Dr. Simone wasn't feeling well and she's gone off to try to recover but we are going to take your calls now and and get your observations your recollections anything you care to say about Dr. Nina Simone. We're going to talk to Suzanne in Atlanta with WCLK. to PowerPoint Suzanne. Thank you that was a very interesting conversation with Nina Simone. I remember her records and her active music advocacy music years and years ago and I'm glad to see that she's producing albums again and is thoughtful about what's happening here and around the world. Yeah I thought it was a very interesting and provocative thing she had to say. Have you ever seen her in concerts Suzanne? Yes. When was that? Oh gosh that was many years ago. Well she said she doesn't do them that often here anymore. No I wanted to ask if she

planned to come to Atlanta but apparently that's not in the cards. Apparently not. She's going right back to France as we understand it after she finishes the concert in Newark. But I want to thank you for calling I'm sorry that she couldn't stay to answer your questions directly but um Madam Nina Simone does what she pleases when she pleases how she pleases. Her latest albums not the latest one but the one before that. mean her albums are really excellent and I'm pleased to have some and I would suggest that we buy them and listen to them because they're always something to say. Thank you so much. We're talking about Dr. Nina Simone who's for the first half hour spent with us talking about her life and her time. We're going to spend the balance of this hour taking your calls your observations your comments and your questions if we can answer them. About Dr. Nina Simone the PowerPoint hotline number is 1 -800 -989 -8255 that's 1 -800 -989 -8255. We're going to go to Boston now and

speak with Rita with station WUMB. Welcome to PowerPoint Rita. Hi how are you? Okay. Actually I just um I had wanted to ask her how she identifies as a performer just because she has such a range um but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to but I'm just a great fan of her music and you know although it's a lot of it is before my time it's it's amazing it just does not date. Well in fact in the research that I did of her she resists of in fact is insulted by being referred to as a jazz singer or anything else she calls herself the last diva and so you can interpret that how you will but in terms of how she regards her her her musical self that's how she described it. Okay Rita thanks for calling the best of you in Boston and all the listeners at WUMB we are now going to talk to Jim with South Carolina Educational Radio in Aiken South Carolina. Welcome to PowerPoint Jim. How are you doing this evening? Okay

how are you? I'm very interested uh there was a fascinating conversation you had with uh Ms. Simone. I thought so. Yes I was curious uh Ms. Simone now lives in France. Right. And I was wondering I know then in the past she had supported some of the socialist political parties in the United States so which most Americans are not even aware that they exist one of the most prominent is the black socialist party and uh I was also curious if she had any connections who or made any support of the fourth international socialist party which is headquartered in France especially in that a lot of her conversation or her dialogue didn't sound very hopeful of the future. No it didn't. United States and I was wondering if perhaps she might look to one of those unheard of political parties as any sort of hope in the United States. I gather both from our brief conversation with her this evening and the research that I've done

on her that she's washed her hands of America and that she doesn't have much uh much hope uh for America as a country and certainly African -American prosperity in it. If there was a any sort of African -American leadership which might show itself in the near or for future in the United States I guess I would love it if Mrs. Simone might somehow let us know if it might come from perhaps the black socialist party or the fourth international they're in France which has a number of organizations here in the United States. I share that hope with you Jim but we'll just have to wait and see. I want to thank you for the call and the best of you in Aiken, South Carolina. now before we take this musical interlude I want to remind you that we're still taking your calls and for your questions your observations and comments about Madam Nina Simone the PowerPoint hotline 1 -800 -989 -8255 we're now going to listen

to a little bit of Madam Nina Simone's uh one of you if I should lose you the leaves would wither and die the

birds in May time would sing a lonely refrain and I would wander around hiding the sound of rain me you beside me no in winter would blow oh you

beside me a rose would bloom in the snow I gave you my love but I was living a dream and living would seem in vain oh if I lost

you if I should lose you Madam Nina Simone once again uh we're sorry that uh Madam Nina Simone wasn't feeling well and had to leave us at the uh midway point in our broadcast but we still want to take your calls and hear what you think your observations any questions that we can answer that you might have about

Madam Nina Simone our powerpoint hotline number is we're going to go to the phones now and speak with Will in Philadelphia with station WHYY welcome to PowerPoint Will hey how are you okay how are you good uh I just wanted to uh show my enthusiasm and support for Nina Simone years ago when I was at the University of Pennsylvania my roommate Jay Hollitt um was friends not only with Nina Simone but Jimmy's a priest and they used to come up to the apartment and she was so lovely and um I picked up a lot of anger tonight and it was not there she was just she used to sing and play piano down at the showboat which was down on Broad Street and we used to go down there and it was so exciting for me thank you so much for having her on

the line um um you know people change as I get older but I hold this image as how lovely she was and her voice uh as you just played was so wonderful and that's what I remember um she has changed as we all have well I'm Will I'm not too sure that's the case uh as I said I had the singular opportunity to have dinner and go dancing when with Nina Simone about 20 years ago this week well mine was 30 years ago and uh I think Nina has been angry certainly at the United States for a very very long time and that perhaps it was more edgy tonight than it normally is but I've seen that anger in her for a long time when when she and uh there were times when she would be there by herself and there were times when she and Jimmy the priest were there um they she was not

I don't maybe it took uh took it it's all um I was at Penn in 1958 and why not so it's been a while um she was just lovely okay well I I mean I don't mean to to dispute what I heard tonight or how she felt or how your reaction was when it occurred some 10 years after I knew her but things they've been a change it they've been a change and thanks for the call Will I want to wish you the best and filly and all the listeners at WHYY thank you so much we uh want to remind our listeners we're going to send a tape of this show to Nina Simone so that your comments will uh will probably reach her uh at some point uh the PowerPoint hotline is 1 -800 -989 -8255 we're now going to talk to Helen in Baltimore with station w e a a welcome to PowerPoint Helen hello hello welcome

hi um I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to speak with Nina Simone but um she made a very powerful point and that is that we definitely need to be um educated about our history so that we can truly conduct the uh racism that is real here in the United States um I did want to tell her I am 41 years of old age and I recently picked up her compact disc Little Girl Blue which included um uh cut by the name of my baby just loves me for just cares for me but after getting the uh compact disc and listening to the entire compact disc it's really good music it sounds very good and you know the fact that she um produced and played um the different instruments and stuff I was just truly impressed with this compact disc I wish I could make it to Mirick so that I could really get listen to her

concert I hope that she can perform you know since she is so ill um I'm she her music is good and I'm glad to learn of her new uh CD that uh compact disc that is out so that maybe I can purchase that and uh appreciate that good music as well okay Helen I want to thank you so much for your call and your observations and the best to you and Baltimore and all the listeners at WEAA we're now going to talk to Evan in Columbia South Carolina with Station WLTR welcome to PowerPoint Evan uh yes uh thank you Ken for having me on uh I just I'm I would just like to uh commend uh uh sister uh diva and uh and and I applaud her for uh the stance that she has taken over these many many years and uh I just want to say that I believe that she is correct in everything that she has said this country black

people in this country have no leaders there are too many black people who are who feel that they have to get into the pocket of a white establishment in this country and that does not do us any good we have no black person today except for Louis Farrakhan and I'm not saying this because I'm a muslim because I'm I'm not a muslim uh he is the only free black in this country free to play just what he thinks that this country is in terms of the viewpoint of black people so you know I gather you don't think Nina's anger her rage is misplaced no I do not think that her anger is misplaced I'm 67 years old and this country has been the same way for all of these 67 years and the only thing that I see in this country is that they move from one dress to another dress confusing black people

thinking making black people think that they are making progress and if you recall you hear every black person say that we we have come a long way but we got a long way to go and I don't know how long that long way to go uh uh is I think it's it's just a simple case of keeping black folks confused in this country fighting something that is not going to mature and and this keeps our minds away from the true things that we should be doing with ourselves and for ourselves and I just want to commend uh uh Nina Simone the last time that I've seen Nina Simone was at the village gate in New York City and that was back in the 60s and I I I just want to I appreciate her very very much and and and appreciate the stance that she has continually taken thank you Ken thanks Evan and the

best to you and Columbia and all the listeners at WLTR we now want to speak with uh Richard in Washington DC with station WPFW welcome to thank you I've been listening to Nina Simone since 1961 62 first herder in San Francisco had an awful had a had the opportunity to speak to her personally on many occasions over the years and just recently saw her in Washington DC back in August the early 1990s when she was doing a socialist uh concert uh or appearance rather for a socialist rally in in Washington DC and I think that that is absolutely fabulous I don't think that she is a socialist I think she is a free artist and as an artist she is just describing what she knows I don't think it's fair to talk to her you know very much about political politics but her view is that of a black woman a black musician a black

artist who has seen the development or the the the rape of black music by the establishment okay we're gonna have to leave it there Richard we're coming up on 48 minutes 30 minutes into the hour I want to wish you the best and all the listeners at WPFW as I said we're coming up on 48 minutes 30 seconds into the hour we'll continue to take your calls about Dr. Nina Simone when we come back still ahead on PowerPoint with america's declaration of war on terrorism the american people will be walking an unknown path along a steep precipice where one slip up can mean death slipping into darkness the war on terrorism we'll talk about it stay tuned this is public radio and you're listening to powerpoint our program will continue in just a moment welcome back I'm Kenneth Walker

for those of you who have just joined us we had Dr. Nina Simone for the first 30 minutes of the broadcast but she wasn't feeling well and had to beg off taking your calls we however are more than happy to take your calls we're going to send a tape of this entire broadcast to Nina Simone so she'll certainly have the benefit of your views the powerpoint hotline is 1 -800 -989 -8255 we're going to go to the phones now and speak with uh tanya in holly springs mississippi with station w u r c welcome to powerpoint okay I want I know you only have a few more minutes so this is what I want to I think that Nina Simone music presence and everything are phenomena I'm still in my 20s and I basically just have embraced her but one thing that I did notice is that in her interview she basically urged all blacks to leave America and the Nina Simone that I became very familiar with even she's the kind of person

that she she had this protest music in the 60s and seemingly there was a change when she basically says leave and to me that's more unlike the other callers can detect anger I detect despair and um that was sort of distressing for me in within an interview well there was a little bit of anger and I thought a little bit of despair too a lot of it as a matter of fact I think you're absolutely right and so thank you tanya for the call the best to you and holly springs and all the listeners at w u r c we want to talk to yasser with w pfw in washington dc welcome to powerpoint yasser yes go ahead thank you mr walker for doing that interview that was wonderful I first heard Nina Simone a few years ago in england she actually rose to the top 10 and to number one with my baby just cares for me um funnily enough um doing that song again and I was fortunate living in dc to be able to see her perform only a few years ago um downtown and got seats and I mean her performances are just electric she got three standing ovations before she even began

and this went on for 10 minutes they named a day after her and she launched right into mr p goddam I mean this music moves it's powerful I think it has the same intensity and urgency as in the 60s and you know the previous caller talked about expressing some despair I felt anger but I also felt power and I think one of the problems is that you know she's just so wonderful she's been sort of made into an icon which she is but we go in we listen to her we buy her CDs we're moved you know there's some nostalgia now about a lot of the stuff that most of us never went through and I think we sort of feel we've done enough by just simply listening participating and agreeing but um you know the reality is for her the things never really changed she felt she's been forced into exile as many african -american musicians have over the last few decades and you know a tremendous loss to this country in a state then actually is that more than the musicians there is a small but still significant and growing number of african -american expatriates small in europe growing in africa so she's speaking to an

attentive audience anyway want to thank you yasser for your comments best to you in washington thank all the listeners at WPFW we're now going to take a listen to another Nina Simone favorite strange fruit southern feets barren strange fruit blood on the leaves and blood at the roots black bodies swinging in the southern reeds strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

pastoral scenes of the gallant south them big bulging eyes and the twisted mouth scent of magnolia clean and fresh then the sudden smell of burning flash here is a fruit for the closed black

for the rain together for the wind to suck for the sun to rot for the leaves to drop here is strange and becomes strange fruit. Madam Nina Simone, it is

so rarely that prominent African Americans express such undiluted rage on a national broadcast. We've been witness here to something new, something unique. If you care to order a copy of this broadcast, you can do so by calling the toll -free hotline for PowerPoint at 1 -888 -682 -6500. Dr. Nina Simone has given us all something to think about here this evening. I'm Kenneth Walker. This has been an exclusive PowerPoint show. Nina is talking with no one else. If you would like a tape or transcript of this or any past edition of PowerPoint or to make listener comments or program suggestions, please call PowerPoint toll -free at 1 -888 -682 -6500. That's 1 -888 -682 -6500. The PowerPoint production team includes senior producer Tony Regusters, producer and show director

Debbie Williams, news producer Verna Avery -Brown, and associate producer Tom Woodward. Okay, Marshall's on the phones and Candy Shannon is the program announcer. The engineering staff includes technical director Neil T. Vault and production engineers Rima Snyder and Sereya Muhammad. PowerPoint's theme is from the CDF Stops by Craig Harris. Legal counsel is provided by Theodore Brown. The executive producer is Reggie Hicks. For PowerPoint, I'm Kenneth Walker. PowerPoint is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Radio Program Fund. This is PowerPoint, a production of Hicks and Associates. This is Kenneth Walker. You're listening to PowerPoint coming to you for PowerPoint Washington, D .C. Straight ahead

in our two important questions about the War on Terrorism. What it means to America, what it means to you. Stay tuned for more PowerPoint. To take a stand, don't mind the dues. It must be paid for what happens. And hear me, hear me every word that I say.