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137-472: The mysteries combine traditional conventions of detective fiction with descriptions of racial inequities and social injustice experienced by African Americans and other persons of color in the Los Angeles of that period. While Rawlins is clearly in the tradition of Raymond Chandler 's Philip Marlowe and Ross Macdonald 's Lew Archer , he differs sharply from these earlier fictional detectives in that Rawlins

274-436: A Bildungsroman , or coming-of-age story. Pariah is also the home of several characters who appear in other Rawlins stories, such as Momma Jo the witch and Sweet William the blues musician. Maybe there's some white man somewhere think he don't have to skip out now and then, but a black man anywhere in these United States better be able to run a mile and then another one. —Easy Rawlins Set in early 1964. Three months after

411-579: A clinical psychologist . He has a sister, Cindy, and a brother, Colin. His family moved from city to city throughout his childhood. He attended Hartley Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska from 1970 to 1974. Cheadle graduated in 1982 from East High School in Denver , Colorado . During high school, he played saxophone in the jazz band, sang in choirs, and was active in the theater department, performing in musicals, plays, and mime shows. Cheadle went on to attend

548-574: A 14-year-old boy from Chicago. Spending the summer with relatives in Money, Mississippi , Till was killed for allegedly having wolf-whistled at a White woman. Till had been badly beaten, one of his eyes was gouged out, and he was shot in the head. The visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral mobilized the Black community throughout the US. Vann R. Newkirk wrote "the trial of his killers became

685-435: A Blue Dress . Clarke Peters played Rawlins in a 1997 BBC radio dramatization of Black Betty . Over the years there have been several announcements of Easy Rawlins projects that have failed to reach production. In 2006, it was announced that HBO Films had acquired the rights to Mosley's 2004 novel Little Scarlet for a feature starring Jeffrey Wright as Easy, and rapper/actor Mos Def as Mouse. In 2011, NBC announced it

822-499: A Blue Dress .) The story begins with Mouse asking Easy for a ride to Pariah. At the time Easy lives in a small apartment and is doing gardening work in Houston. Mouse is planning his wedding to Etta Mae, and is in need of money. He decides to get the money from his abusive stepfather Reese Corn. Easy agrees to drive Mouse for $ 15 in a car borrowed from a friend. On the drive, Easy and Mouse meet Clifton and Earnestine, who are hitchhiking, with

959-631: A Comedy Series for his roles as Marty Kaan in House of Lies (2012–2016) and Maurice Monroe in Black Monday (2019–2021). He was further Emmy-nominated for The Rat Pack (1998), A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Things Behind the Sun (2001), ER (2002), and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). In 2016, he received his first Grammy Award, winning Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for

1096-466: A White American mother and a Kenyan father— defeated Republican Senator John McCain to become the first African American to be elected president. At least 95 percent of African American voters voted for Obama. He also received overwhelming support from young and educated Whites, a majority of Asians , and Hispanics , picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column. Obama lost

1233-500: A big bag of money, also covered in blood. Easy must sort out what happened, while also defending his friend Jackson from extortion and preventing trouble between Evander and Mouse, and at the same time recovering from his injuries and trying to reconnect with Bonnie Shay. Set in July 1967. Three months after the events of Little Green , Easy has bought a new house in West LA . As he is moving in,

1370-555: A burger joint employee in the 1985 comedy Moving Violations . In 1987, he received a small role in the 7th season of Hill Street Blues , where he played a teenager with learning difficulties. This was followed by an appearance in Hamburger Hill the same year. Cheadle secured the role of Jack in the April 1, 1988, "Jung and the Restless" episode of Night Court ; although his character

1507-483: A case on behalf of "Charcoal Joe", a crime boss currently serving a jail term. The LA police have pinned a double murder on a young black physicist named Braithwaite, and Joe wants Easy to clear him. The case sets Easy following a trail of bodies in the wake of missing Mafia money. The character was played by Denzel Washington in Easy's first and (as of 2024) only on-screen appearance, the 1995 film adaptation of Devil in

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1644-428: A comedy-drama about a man who has slipped away from reality after the death of his wife and three daughters on 9/11 . The film was a box office flop , earning a domestic gross of $ 22.2 million. Cheadle later starred in the 2009 DreamWorks Pictures film Hotel for Dogs . Cheadle was to make his directorial debut with the adaptation of Elmore Leonard 's Tishomingo Blues , but in July 2007, he stated, " 'Tishomingo'

1781-542: A crucial role in producing the country's most valuable product and export: cotton . Enslaved people were instrumental in the construction of several prominent structures such as, the United States Capitol , the White House and other Washington, D.C.-based buildings. ) Similar building projects existed in the slave states . By 1815, the domestic slave trade had become a significant and major economic activity in

1918-477: A drive to get fans to submit their own advertising ideas, the NFL sought his permission to reference his previous commercials to portray themselves as having no new ideas: "he quickly signed off on the idea and found it funny." Abe Sutton (along with Etan Bednarsh), one of the finalists in this NFL contest, played on this commercial by proposing an ad in which every player on a football team is Don Cheadle. In 2005, Cheadle

2055-643: A federal crime to aid or assist those who had fled slavery or to interfere with their capture. By that time, slavery, which almost exclusively targeted Black people, had become the most critical and contentious political issue in the Antebellum United States , repeatedly sparking crises and conflicts. Among these were the Missouri Compromise , the Compromise of 1850 , the infamous Dred Scott decision , and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry . Prior to

2192-538: A former Green Beret , has left his eight-year-old daughter in Easy's care. Knowing this means Christmas is in trouble, Easy investigates and comes up against former servicemen who smuggled drugs in Vietnam ; this soon leads to his needing to clear his childhood friend Mouse of murder. The novel ends with a car crash, with Easy's fate unresolved, because the author hadn't decided whether he wanted to write another Rawlins novel. Set in April 1967. Two months after his car crash at

2329-535: A group formed to promote relations between the countries. After riots against Blacks in Cincinnati , its Black community sponsored founding of the Wilberforce Colony , an initially successful settlement of African American immigrants to Canada. The colony was one of the first such independent political entities. It lasted for a number of decades and provided a destination for about 200 Black families emigrating from

2466-503: A hired front man while he works as the buildings' handyman and janitor. As the book opens, Easy is audited by the IRS, a problem because he cannot account for how he came to own his property in the first place (because the money with which he bought his first building was stolen). Darryl T. Craxton, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , offers to get him out of trouble with the IRS on

2603-649: A limited theatrical release in December 2024. Cheadle is set to lead the film, Armor Wars , as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Cheadle has campaigned to end the genocide in Darfur , Sudan . Cheadle and John Prendergast co-authored a book about this issue entitled Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond . With George Clooney , Brad Pitt , Matt Damon , David Pressman , and Jerry Weintraub , Cheadle co-founded

2740-547: A murder spree: four women have been killed, apparently by a serial killer . Easy resents that the LAPD has only started investigating for real because the fourth victim is white. Easy solves the murders despite pressure from the fourth victim's parents, who don't want it known that their daughter had a child with a black man. Set in 1961. Now divorced, Easy lives in a rented house in LA with his adopted son Jesus and adopted daughter Feather. Easy

2877-642: A number of locations in the United States. In 1863, during the American Civil War , President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation . The proclamation declared that all slaves in Confederate-held territory were free. Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation, with Texas being the last state to be emancipated, in 1865. Slavery in a few border states continued until

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3014-499: A pageant illuminating the tyranny of White supremacy ". The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an all-White jury . One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in Alabama—indeed, Parks told Emmett's mother Mamie Till that "the photograph of Emmett's disfigured face in the casket was set in her mind when she refused to give up her seat on

3151-472: A partnership with fellow detectives Saul Lynx and “Whisper” Natly, and moved his office from Watts to West LA . His son Jesus has moved to Alaska with his wife and daughter to work in the fishing industry; his daughter Feather is now attending a private high school, the fees paid with the money Easy made in Rose Gold , while Easy prepares to propose to his girlfriend Bonnie. Easy's friend Mouse asks him to take

3288-416: A payroll robbery. After nearly passing out when running for his life from an ambush, Easy decides to give up smoking. Set in late 1964. Nearly a year after his friend Mouse's apparent death, Easy is determined to find out if Mouse is alive, or, if not, where his grave is. The seven short stories in the book are connected by the threads of Easy's search for news of Mouse and his own growing dissatisfaction with

3425-581: A private eye, takes the case. Mantle, calling himself Uhuru Nolicé, is a revolutionary, and while investigating him Easy runs afoul of the FBI and the US State Department , both of whom seem to be targeting Mantle with false charges; Easy must find out what really happened while avoiding threats from law enforcement and also helping his friends Melvin and EttaMae with their own problems. Set in May 1968. Easy has formed

3562-727: A process known as White flight . Despite discrimination, drawing cards for leaving the hopelessness in the South were the growth of African American institutions and communities in Northern cities. Institutions included Black oriented organizations (e.g., Urban League , NAACP ), churches, businesses, and newspapers, as well as successes in the development in African American intellectual culture, music, and popular culture (e.g., Harlem Renaissance , Chicago Black Renaissance ). The Cotton Club in Harlem

3699-692: A senior LAPD officer asks him to take on a case: college student Rosemary Goldsmith has gone missing from her dorm at UC Santa Barbara , and a man has called her wealthy father demanding a large ransom...but the father suspects his leftist daughter may actually be trying to take the money he makes from manufacturing napalm and give it to revolutionary causes. The police suspect a black former boxer named Mantle, who has also gone missing, and they put pressure on Easy to investigate, including sending city inspectors to demand large-scale renovations on Easy's real estate holdings, which will cost more money than he has. Easy, though growing doubtful of his own effectiveness as

3836-425: A small cash payment called "freedom dues". Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom. They raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or European settlers . By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown , and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640,

3973-518: A starring role in The Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace as Roland Wilson, a young serious hotel manager that Blanche, Rose, and Sophia had retained from the previous owners. He subsequently played district attorney John Littleton on three seasons of Picket Fences . Cheadle first received widespread notice for his portrayal of Mouse Alexander in the 1995 film Devil in a Blue Dress , for which he won Best Supporting Actor awards from

4110-829: A white public-aid lawyer who has gone missing after discovering proof that his family's law firm had secret dealings with the Nazis during World War II . The case takes him to Haight-Ashbury and Easy has his first encounter with the counterculture . Set in February 1967. Easy has not returned to his job at Sojourner Truth Junior High School, instead doing detective work full-time. He and Bonnie Shay have separated, and he remains living with his now 11-year-old daughter Feather, who has recovered from her illness. His son Jesus now lives in Venice with his girlfriend Benita and baby daughter Essie. Easy returns home one day to find that his friend Christmas Black,

4247-423: A year, compared with 41 percent in 1960. In 1965, 19 percent of Black Americans had incomes equal to the national median, a proportion that rose to 27 percent by 1967. In 1960, the median level of education for Blacks had been 10.8 years, and by the late 1960s, the figure rose to 12.2 years, half a year behind the median for Whites. Politically and economically, African Americans have made substantial strides during

Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins - Misplaced Pages Continue

4384-505: A young man in his early twenties, hugely strong but immature, who has left home after an argument with his mother. Easy goes to a meeting of the First Men, a black power group Brawly belongs to; the police raid the meeting, and though Easy escapes out the back, he now finds himself under investigation by covert federal agents ; he also discovers that some of the more militant First Men, including Brawly, are involved in arms dealing and planning

4521-410: Is also on the advisory board of Citizens' Climate Lobby . In 2010, Cheadle was named U.N. Environment Program Goodwill Ambassador. Also in 2010, he and Prendergast published their second book: The Enough Moment : Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes . On his 2019 Saturday Night Live appearance, he wore a T-shirt saying " protect trans kids ". In 2008, Cheadle's family history

4658-712: Is an American actor. Known for his roles in film and television, he has received  multiple accolades including two Golden Globe Awards , two Grammy Awards , and a Tony Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award , two BAFTA Awards , and 11 Primetime Emmy Awards . Cheadle's career started with supporting roles in Hamburger Hill (1987), Colors (1988), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Rosewood (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), and Bulworth (1998). He collaborated with director Steven Soderbergh acting in Out of Sight (1998), Traffic (2000), The Ocean's Trilogy (2001–2007), and No Sudden Move (2021). Cheadle

4795-406: Is an unlicensed private investigator (though he acquires a license late in the series) with no background or training in law enforcement. Mosley has written fourteen novels and a collection of short stories featuring Rawlins, his most popular character. Mosley originally featured Rawlins in a novella called Gone Fishin' , but it was rejected by several publishers because they didn't think that there

4932-524: Is dead..." In 2009, Cheadle and Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder worked on a potential comedy show on NBC. The "project revolve[d] around mismatched brothers who reunite to open a private security company." Cheadle and McGruder were slated to serve as executive producers, while McGruder was expected to write the script. Also in 2009, Cheadle performed in The People Speak , a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of

5069-463: Is desperate to find money for the treatment of his daughter Feather, who has a life-threatening blood infection. He seriously considers joining his friend Mouse in a payroll robbery in Texas, but his old friend and fellow detective Saul Lynx brings him a high-paying job. On behalf of an eccentric private investigator named Robert E. Lee, Easy sets out to find Philomena "Cinnamon" Cargill, the black assistant of

5206-453: Is pressed for cash because most of his money is tied up in a real estate deal, which he's running through a front because he doesn't want any white investors to know that the primary stakeholder is black. He's approached by a white private detective to help search for a missing black woman, an older woman that Easy once had an adolescent crush on, during his youth in Texas . Needing the money he takes

5343-554: The American South , with four million enslaved people only liberated during and at the end of the Civil War in 1865. During Reconstruction , they gained citizenship and adult-males the right to vote ; however, due to the widespread policy and ideology of White supremacy , they were largely treated as second-class citizens and found themselves soon disenfranchised in the South . These circumstances changed due to participation in

5480-580: The Battle of the Bulge under George S. Patton and Omar Bradley ; after the war, he moved to Los Angeles where he purchased his first home and worked at an aircraft assembly plant. Easy got into his own dispute with his supervisor at the Champion aircraft assembly plant. He was asked to stay behind after his shift, but felt tired, and did not trust his ability to check his work. Easy was fired for not remaining to complete

5617-502: The Black racial groups of Africa . African Americans constitute the second largest ethno-racial group in the US after White Americans . The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States . Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African American,

Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins - Misplaced Pages Continue

5754-610: The California Institute of the Arts , graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater in 1986. During his time at the CalArts, Cheadle along with his friends acted in numerous plays such as Athol Fugard 's "Master Harold"...and the Boys , The Island ; and My Name Could Be Anne in the Black box theater . Cheadle became eligible for his Screen Actors Guild card when he appeared as

5891-673: The Civil War , eight serving presidents had owned slaves, a practice that was legally protected under the US Constitution. By 1860, the number of enslaved Black people in the US had grown to between 3.5 to 4.4 million, largely as a result of the Atlantic slave trade . In addition, 488,000–500,000 Black people lived free (with legislated limits) across the country. With legislated limits imposed upon them in addition to "unconquerable prejudice" from Whites according to Henry Clay . In response to these conditions, some free Black people chose to leave

6028-717: The Great Awakening . By 1775, Africans made up 20% of the population in the American colonies , which made them the second largest ethnic group after English Americans . During the 1770s, Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious American colonists secure their independence by defeating the British in the American Revolutionary War . Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in

6165-589: The Irish and Germans . According to the 2010 census , nearly 3% of people who self-identified as Black had recent ancestors who immigrated from another country. Self-reported non-Hispanic Black immigrants from the Caribbean , mostly from Jamaica and Haiti, represented 0.9% of the US population, at 2.6 million. Self-reported Black immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa also represented 0.9%, at about 2.8 million. Additionally, self-identified Black Hispanics represented 0.4% of

6302-731: The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics and earned nominations for similar awards from the Screen Actors Guild and the NAACP Image Awards . Following soon thereafter was his performance in the title role of the 1996 HBO TV movie Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault . In 1997, he starred in John Singleton 's historical drama Rosewood and in

6439-1082: The New York City metropolitan area still has the largest African American metropolitan population in the United States and the only to have over 3 million African Americans. Among cities of 100,000 or more , South Fulton, Georgia had the highest percentage of Black residents of any large US city in 2020, with 93%. Other large cities with African American majorities include Jackson, Mississippi (80%), Detroit, Michigan (80%), Birmingham, Alabama (70%), Miami Gardens, Florida (67%), Memphis, Tennessee (63%), Montgomery, Alabama (62%), Baltimore, Maryland (60%), Augusta, Georgia (59%), Shreveport, Louisiana (58%), New Orleans, Louisiana (57%), Macon, Georgia (56%), Baton Rouge, Louisiana (55%), Hampton, Virginia (53%), Newark, New Jersey (53%), Mobile, Alabama (53%), Cleveland, Ohio (52%), Brockton, Massachusetts (51%), and Savannah, Georgia (51%). Don Cheadle Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. ( / ˈ tʃ iː d əl / , CHEE -dəl ; born November 29, 1964)

6576-591: The Not on Our Watch Project , an organization focusing global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities. Cheadle was awarded the BET Humanitarian award of the year in 2007 for his humanitarian work for the people of Darfur and Rwanda. At the 2007 World Series of Poker , Cheadle and poker player Annie Duke organized an annual charity poker tournament, Ante Up for Africa . On December 13, 2007, Cheadle and fellow actor George Clooney were presented with

6713-656: The Western states. The west does have a sizable Black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African American population, only behind New York, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. According to the 2000 census, approximately 2.05% of African Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino in origin , many of whom may be of Brazilian , Puerto Rican , Dominican , Cuban , Haitian , or other Latin American descent. The only self-reported ancestral groups larger than African Americans are

6850-479: The Winyah Bay area of present-day South Carolina ), founded by Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526. The ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans . De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterward, due to an epidemic and the colony was abandoned. The settlers and

6987-446: The colony of Georgia to come to Florida as a refuge, promising freedom in exchange for conversion to Catholicism . King Charles II issued a royal proclamation freeing all slaves who fled to Spanish Florida and accepted conversion and baptism. Most went to the area around St. Augustine , but escaped slaves also reached Pensacola. St. Augustine had mustered an all-Black militia unit defending Spanish Florida as early as 1683. One of

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7124-465: The disaster film Volcano . In the same year, he appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson 's period   drama Boogie Nights . The following year, he appeared in Out of Sight . The film was an adaptation of  Elmore Leonard 's 1996 novel of the same name and the first of Cheadle's many collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh . Cheadle's portrayal of  Sammy Davis Jr. in

7261-425: The military conflicts of the United States , substantial migration out of the South , the elimination of legal racial segregation , and the civil rights movement which sought political and social freedom. However, racism against African Americans and racial socioeconomic disparity remain a problem into the 21st century. In the 20th and 21st centuries, immigration has played an increasingly significant role in

7398-447: The sci-fi film Mission to Mars . The following year, he played Basher Tarr in the heist film Ocean's Eleven , a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack original . He joined an ensemble cast including George Clooney , Brad Pitt , Matt Damon , Andy García , and Julia Roberts , and reprised his role for the sequels Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007. Cheadle made a guest appearance in the  ninth season  of

7535-543: The transatlantic slave trade were people from several Central and West Africa ethnic groups. They had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids, or sold by other West Africans, or by half-European "merchant princes" to European slave traders, who brought them to the Americas. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo in the Caribbean to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony (most likely located in

7672-429: The 1790s, Governor Francisco Luis Héctor, baron of Carondelet reinforced local fortifications and recruit even more free Black men for the militia. Carondelet doubled the number of free Black men who served, creating two more militia companies—one made up of Black members and the other of pardo (mixed race). Serving in the militia brought free Black men one step closer to equality with Whites, allowing them, for example,

7809-629: The 1900 Hampton Negro Conference , Reverend Matthew Anderson said: "...the lines along most of the avenues of wage earning are more rigidly drawn in the North than in the South." Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, restrictive covenants , redlining and racial steering ". While many Whites defended their space with violence, intimidation, or legal tactics toward African Americans, many other Whites migrated to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions,

7946-570: The 1998 TV movie  The Rat Pack won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination. A year later he starred as Grant Wiggins, a school teacher in the film A Lesson Before Dying , which won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie . It was based on the novel of the same name by Ernest J. Gaines . He had two major film roles in 2000, starring as Montel Gordon, a  DEA  agent in Traffic and as Luke Graham in

8083-663: The African slave trade, Spanish rule introduced a new law called coartación , which allowed slaves to buy their freedom, and that of others. Although some did not have the money to do so, government measures on slavery enabled the existence of many free Blacks. This caused problems to the Spaniards with the French creoles (French who had settled in New France ) who had also populated Spanish Louisiana. The French creoles cited that measure as one of

8220-556: The African-American community. As of 2022, 10% of Black Americans were immigrants, and 20% were either immigrants or the children of immigrants. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first, and so far only, African American to be elected president of the United States. Kamala Harris became the nation's first African-American vice president in 2020. African-American culture has had a significant influence on worldwide culture, making numerous contributions to visual arts , literature ,

8357-503: The American Revolution. They fought in the 1779 battle in which Spain captured Baton Rouge from the British. Gálvez also commanded them in campaigns against the British outposts in Mobile , Alabama , and Pensacola , Florida. He recruited slaves for the militia by pledging to free anyone who was seriously wounded and promised to secure a low price for coartación (buy their freedom and that of others) for those who received lesser wounds. During

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8494-689: The Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere . After arriving in the Americas , they were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations , particularly in the southern colonies . A few were able to achieve freedom through manumission or escape, and founded independent communities before and during the American Revolution . After the United States was founded in 1783, most Black people continued to be enslaved , primarily concentrated in

8631-418: The Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson , would later own one of the first Black "slaves", John Casor , resulting from the court ruling of a civil case. The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 18th century. The Dutch West India Company introduced slavery in 1625 with the importation of eleven Black slaves into New Amsterdam (present-day New York City ). All

8768-453: The English language, philosophy , politics, cuisine , sports , and music . The African-American contribution to popular music is so profound that most American music , including jazz , gospel , blues , rock and roll , funk , disco , house , techno , hip hop , R&B , trap , and soul , has its origins either partially or entirely in the African-American community. The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in

8905-418: The Iron Patriot, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), and Avengers: Endgame (2019), as well as the Disney+ TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), What If...? (2021), Secret Invasion (2023) and the upcoming theatrical film Armor Wars (TBA). From 2012 to 2016, Cheadle starred in

9042-400: The Jim Crow laws, to avoid racially motivated violence . To maintain self-esteem and dignity, African Americans such as Anthony Overton and Mary McLeod Bethune continued to build their own schools , churches , banks, social clubs, and other businesses. In the last decade of the 19th century, racially discriminatory laws and racial violence aimed at African Americans began to mushroom in

9179-555: The Montgomery bus." The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the conditions which brought it into being are credited with putting pressure on presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson . Johnson put his support behind passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and labor unions , and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which expanded federal authority over states to ensure Black political participation through protection of voter registration and elections. By 1966,

9316-423: The N-word his father punched him. After the scuffle Easy and his father ran off, with his father kissing Easy one last time, and telling him to go home. Easy never found out what became of him. Easy's older half-brother and half-sister went to live with cousins in El Paso while Easy was taken in by his mother's brother-in-law, a violent man named Skyles. After a few weeks, Easy ran away from Skyles's farm and spent

9453-455: The Patriot cause included James Armistead , Prince Whipple , and Oliver Cromwell . Around 15,000 Black Loyalists left with the British after the war, most of them ending up as free Black people in England or its colonies, such as the Black Nova Scotians and the Sierra Leone Creole people . In the Spanish Louisiana , Governor Bernardo de Gálvez organized Spanish free Black men into two militia companies to defend New Orleans during

9590-463: The Showtime TV series House of Lies . In 2013, he won the Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on the show. He was in the show for five seasons until it ended in 2016. Cheadle spent 10 years writing and producing the film Miles Ahead (2016) based on the life of jazz musician Miles Davis . Cheadle also directed and starred in the film. Locations for the movie were found in Cincinnati . In 2018, Cheadle guest-starred in

9727-427: The South sparked the Great Migration during the first half of the 20th century which led to a growing African American community in Northern and Western United States. The rapid influx of Blacks disturbed the racial balance within Northern and Western cities, exacerbating hostility between both Blacks and Whites in the two regions. The Red Summer of 1919 was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across

9864-661: The Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome for their work to stop the genocide and relieve the suffering of the people of Darfur. Cheadle has worked with the United Nations on climate change concerns. He and Harrison Ford created a documentary event series entitled Years of Living Dangerously that provided first-hand reports on those affected by, and seeking solutions to climate change. He

10001-513: The US Census Bureau, evidence from the 2000 census indicates that many African and Caribbean immigrant ethnic groups do not identify as "Black, African Am., or Negro". Instead, they wrote in their own respective ethnic groups in the "Some Other Race" write-in entry. As a result, the census bureau devised a new, separate "African American" ethnic group category in 2010 for ethnic African Americans. Nigerian Americans and Ethiopian Americans were

10138-636: The US and emigrate to Liberia in West Africa. Liberia had been established in 1821 as a settlement by the American Colonization Society (ACS), with many abolitionist members of the ACS believing Black Americans would have greater opportunities for freedom and equality in Africa than they would in the US. Slaves not only represented a significant financial investment for their owners, but they also played

10275-497: The US as a result of race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities, such as the Chicago race riot of 1919 and the Omaha race riot of 1919 . Overall, Blacks in Northern and Western cities experienced systemic discrimination in a plethora of aspects of life. Within employment, economic opportunities for Blacks were routed to the lowest-status and restrictive in potential mobility. At

10412-407: The US. As a result of this large-scale forced movement, countless individuals lost their connection to families and clans, and many ethnic Africans lost their knowledge of varying tribal origins in Africa. The 1863 photograph of Wilson Chinn , a branded slave from Louisiana, along with the famous image of Gordon and his scarred back, served as two of the earliest and most powerful examples of how

10549-423: The United States . In June 2021, Juneteenth , a day which commemorates the end of slavery in the US, became a federal holiday. In 1790, when the first US census was taken, Africans (including slaves and free people) numbered about 760,000—about 19.3% of the population. In 1860, at the start of the Civil War , the African American population had increased to 4.4 million, but the percentage rate dropped to 14% of

10686-471: The United States population, at about 1.2 million people, largely found within the Puerto Rican and Dominican communities. Self-reported Black immigrants hailing from other countries in the Americas, such as Brazil and Canada, as well as several European countries, represented less than 0.1% of the population. Mixed-race Hispanic and non-Hispanic Americans who identified as being part Black, represented 0.9% of

10823-748: The United States, a period often referred to as the " nadir of American race relations ". These discriminatory acts included racial segregation—upheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896—which was legally mandated by southern states and nationwide at the local level of government, voter suppression or disenfranchisement in the southern states, denial of economic opportunity or resources nationwide, and private acts of violence and mass racial violence aimed at African Americans unhindered or encouraged by government authorities. The desperate conditions of African Americans in

10960-690: The United States, continuing to flourish until the 1860s. Historians estimate that nearly one million individuals were subjected to this forced migration, which was often referred to as a new "Middle Passage". The historian Ira Berlin described this internal forced migration of enslaved people as the "central event" in the life of a slave during the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Berlin emphasized that whether enslaved individuals were directly uprooted or lived in constant fear that they or their families would be involuntarily relocated, "the massive deportation traumatized Black people" throughout

11097-514: The Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of lifetime slavery when they sentenced John Punch , a Negro, to lifetime servitude under his master Hugh Gwyn , for running away. In Spanish Florida , some Spanish married or had unions with Pensacola , Creek or African women, both enslaved and free, and their descendants created a mixed-race population of mestizos and mulattos . The Spanish encouraged slaves from

11234-418: The bible. This leads to Easy deciding to learn to read better himself. Easy and Mouse are separate for much of Easy's time there, with Easy getting sick and needing to be healed by Mamma Jo. While recovering Easy sees Clifton again, who has been living outside, on the run from the law. With assistance from Mamma Jo Easy gets better in enough time to try to stop Mouse's plan to bring violence to his stepfather, but

11371-569: The book set Easy on his new career as a trader in outside-the-law "favors". The book was adapted into a 1995 film of the same name , which starred Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlins, and also featured Jennifer Beals , Tom Sizemore , Maury Chaykin , and Don Cheadle as the unhinged "Mouse". Set in 1953. With the money he made in Devil in a Blue Dress , Easy has become a landlord. He owns several apartment buildings in Los Angeles , running them through

11508-477: The climax Easy's friend Mouse appears to be mortally wounded, but Mouse's wife EttaMae carries him out of the hospital over her shoulder and disappears. Set in 1939. Easy, nineteen years old, joins his friend Mouse on a journey from Houston to Mouse's tiny home town of Pariah to confront Mouse's abusive stepfather Reese, a journey that gives Easy his first encounter with murder. (The plot is described briefly in Devil in

11645-480: The colony's slaves, however, were freed upon its surrender to the English. Massachusetts was the first English colony to legally recognize slavery in 1641. In 1662, Virginia passed a law that children of enslaved women would take the status of the mother, rather than that of the father, as was the case under common law . This legal principle was called partus sequitur ventrum . By an act of 1699, Virginia ordered

11782-535: The condition that Easy investigate an espionage problem at a major aircraft manufacturer. Craxton also wants to prove that labor union organizer Chaim Wenzler is a communist spy. Easy reluctantly agrees, and the job brings him into conflict with several old friends and his own conscience. Set in 1956. Easy is married and living in a house in Los Angeles with his wife, their baby daughter, and their adopted son Jesus. A black Los Angeles Police Department detective named Quinten Naylor reluctantly taps Easy to investigate

11919-428: The deportation of all free Blacks, effectively defining all people of African descent who remained in the colony as slaves. In 1670, the colonial assembly passed a law prohibiting free and baptized Blacks (and Native Americans) from purchasing Christians (in this act meaning White Europeans) but allowing them to buy people "of their owne nation". In Spanish Louisiana , although there was no movement toward abolition of

12056-533: The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted from 1966 to 1975, expanded upon the aims of the civil rights movement to include economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from White authority. During the post-war period, many African Americans continued to be economically disadvantaged relative to other Americans. Average Black income stood at 54 percent of that of White workers in 1947, and 55 percent in 1962. In 1959, median family income for Whites

12193-565: The end of Blonde Faith , Easy wakens from a semi-coma . His friend Mouse asks him to find a young man named Evander Noon, whom Mouse calls "Little Green"; Evander was unknowingly given LSD at a party and wandered off and disappeared during his subsequent hallucinations. Easy's search sends him into the heart of the LA counterculture , where he takes stock of how much America has changed since his own youth. He finds Evander, but also finds trouble. Evander has no memory of his acid trip, but he came out of it covered in someone else's blood and holding

12330-403: The events of A Little Yellow Dog , Easy is haunted by grief and guilt over the apparent shooting death of his friend Mouse, and without closure since Mouse's wife took his body from the hospital and disappeared, so Easy clings to an ephemeral hope that Mouse might not be dead. Bonnie Shay has moved in with Easy and his children. Easy's old friend John asks him to look for his stepson, Brawly Brown,

12467-552: The events of this trip haunt him. Following this adventure, he remains in Houston long enough to attend Mouse's wedding as his best man, but the next day he gets on a train to Dallas and leaves Houston behind. Not six months after that Easy enlists in the US Army and fights in World War II. Easy recalls the tale while on leave in Paris . The novel is not strictly speaking a mystery, but rather

12604-531: The first African American woman elected to the US Senate . There were 8,936 Black officeholders in the United States in 2000, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970. In 2001, there were 484 Black mayors. In 2005, the number of Africans immigrating to the United States, in a single year, surpassed the peak number who were involuntarily brought to the United States during the Atlantic slave trade . On November 4, 2008, Democratic Senator Barack Obama —the son of

12741-538: The first-season finale of DuckTales , providing Donald Duck 's new voice box. He later guest-starred again in 2020 during season three after a wish Donald made to Gene the Genie had altered reality. In 2021, Cheadle starred in the period crime thriller No Sudden Move , in which he played Curt Goynes, a gangster in 1950s Detroit. Around that same year, Cheadle played a villain role in Space Jam: A New Legacy , portraying

12878-561: The future United States) were "20 and odd negroes" who arrived in Jamestown , Virginia via Cape Comfort in August 1619 as indentured servants . As many Virginian settlers began to die from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. An indentured servant (who could be White or Black) would work for several years (usually four to seven) without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland

13015-474: The intent to go to New Orleans. Clifton is on the run after beating up a man in Houston. In the small town of Pariah Easy meets many of the people who made Mouse who he is, including the witch Mamma Jo, her hunchback son Domaque Jr, the Blues musician Sweet William (who may have been Mouses's biological father), and many other colorful characters. Easy becomes jealous of the hunchback Domaque's ability to read and recite

13152-404: The job, and he tracks the woman into a tangled mire of wills and inheritance and questions of who's really related to whom. At the same time Easy has to rein in his murderous friend Mouse, who has just been released after serving five years in prison for manslaughter; not knowing who called the police on him, Mouse has decided simply to kill everyone who might have done it. Easy manages to sort out

13289-463: The letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn 's A People's History of the United States and its companion volume Voices of a People's History of the United States . In 2010, Cheadle assumed the role of James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine in Iron Man 2 (2010), replacing Terrence Howard . Cheadle reprised this role in the films Iron Man 3 (2013) as

13426-443: The majority of first-generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. Most African Americans are of West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry. African-American history began in the 16th century, with Africans from West Africa and coastal Central Africa being sold to European slave traders and transported across

13563-430: The missing mistress of a wealthy white politician. No one is willing to tell Easy just why so many people want to find Daphne, and the trail leads him through the intersection of crime, corruption, and race politics in Los Angeles . In the course of the search Easy reunites with a childhood friend, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, a charming but conscienceless stone-cold killer, recently arrived in LA from Houston . The events of

13700-489: The missing-person case and stop Mouse from killing half the neighborhood, but he loses his real-estate investment when his agent sells him out to a group of rich white men. Set in November 1963. Easy, concerned for his adopted children's future, has given up his career as an outside-the-law "fixer" and secured a state job with a pension, working as the supervisor of the janitorial staff at Sojourner Truth Junior High School. One of

13837-489: The most reported sub-Saharan African groups in the United States. Historically, African Americans have been undercounted in the US census due to a number of factors. In the 2020 census, the African American population was undercounted at an estimated rate of 3.3%, up from 2.1% in 2010. Texas has the largest African American population by state. Followed by Texas is Florida , with 3.8 million, and Georgia , with 3.6 million. After 100 years of African Americans leaving

13974-476: The murder of a black woman named Nola Payne, whose nickname was "little Scarlet" because of her reddish hair. Nola had taken in a white driver who was fleeing from a carjacking ; she was found strangled and shot in her apartment, and both her aunt and the police suspect the driver. The LAPD has kept the murder out of the news, and the deputy commissioner asks Easy to find the driver without triggering another outburst of violence. Easy agrees, but he refuses payment for

14111-458: The newborn medium of photography could be used to visually document and encapsulate the brutality and cruelty of slavery. Emigration of free Blacks to their continent of origin had been proposed since the Revolutionary war. After Haiti became independent, it tried to recruit African Americans to migrate there after it re-established trade relations with the United States. The Haitian Union was

14248-451: The overall White vote, although he won a larger proportion of White votes than any previous non-incumbent Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter . Obama was reelected for a second and final term , by a similar margin on November 6, 2012. In 2021, Kamala Harris , the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, became the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to serve as Vice President of

14385-417: The overall population of the country. The vast majority were slaves, with only 488,000 counted as " freemen ". By 1900, the Black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million. In 1910, about 90% of African Americans lived in the South. Large numbers began migrating north looking for better job opportunities and living conditions, and to escape Jim Crow laws and racial violence. The Great Migration , as it

14522-521: The pleasure of standing up to the police. I knew that if I had been twenty years younger, I would have been a hippie too. —Easy Rawlins Set in April 1966. Easy is now a legitimate private investigator, the city of LA having given him a license in recognition of the work he did in Little Scarlet . As the book opens, Easy takes a leave of absence from his job as a head custodian in the LAUSD , because he

14659-452: The population. Of the 12.6% of United States residents who identified as Black, around 10.3% were "native Black American" or ethnic African Americans, who are direct descendants of West/Central Africans brought to the US as slaves. These individuals make up well over 80% of all Blacks in the country. When including people of mixed-race origin , about 13.5% of the US population self-identified as Black or "mixed with Black". However, according to

14796-509: The post-war Reconstruction era was initially a time of progress for African Americans, that period ended in 1876. By the late 1890s, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation and disenfranchisement . Segregation was now imposed with Jim Crow laws, using signs used to show Blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat. For those places that were racially mixed, non-Whites had to wait until all White customers were dealt with. Most African Americans obeyed

14933-504: The post–civil rights era. In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the US Congress . In 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected governor in US history. Clarence Thomas succeeded Marshall to become the second African American Supreme Court Justice in 1991. In 1992, Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became

15070-535: The predictability of his workaday life as a head custodian. Easy looks into cases of arson, missing persons, and murder, and we learn he has formed a relationship of wary mutual respect with Sergeant Andre Brown, a black LAPD officer, and that Momma Jo the witch (last seen in Gone Fishin' ) has moved to the LA area from Texas. Easy is unsettled by his girlfriend Bonnie's acquaintance with African princes and civil rights activists and other people who are working to change

15207-569: The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865. While the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited US citizenship to Whites only, the 14th Amendment (1868) gave Black people citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) gave Black men the right to vote. African Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves, as well as schools and community/civic associations, to have space away from White control or oversight. While

15344-471: The region from Senegal to Liberia , just over one-quarter comes from the Congo - Angola region, and the rest comes from western Nigeria and Benin . Cheadle married his long-time partner, actress and Rosewood co-star Bridgid Coulter, in early 2020. The couple has been together for more than 28 years and have two children. He is the recipient of  multiple accolades , including two Grammy Awards ,

15481-538: The rest of his childhood and adolescence living on his own in the Fifth Ward of Houston , Texas . After accompanying his friend Raymond ("Mouse") to Pariah, which resulted in the death of Mouse's stepfather, Easy decided to leave Houston to move to Dallas, Texas . He lived there a short while before enlisting in the armed forces. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army, fighting in North Africa, Italy, and finally,

15618-461: The right to carry arms and boosting their earning power. However, actually these privileges distanced free Black men from enslaved Blacks and encouraged them to identify with Whites. Slavery had been tacitly enshrined in the US Constitution through provisions such as Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the 3/5 compromise . Due to the restrictions of Section 9, Clause 1 , Congress

15755-595: The role of the main antagonist Al-G Rhythm. In February 2024, it was announced that Cheadle had joined the main cast for Peacock 's crime drama miniseries Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist . Cheadle co-starred in the biographical wrestling drama Unstoppable . Based on the life of wrestler Anthony Robles , Cheadle portrayed Sean Charles, his head coach. The feature premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, followed by

15892-606: The slaves who had not escaped returned to the Island of Hispaniola , whence they had come. The marriage between Luisa de Abrego, a free Black domestic servant from Seville , and Miguel Rodríguez, a White Segovian conquistador in 1565 in St. Augustine (Spanish Florida), is the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in what is now the continental United States. The first recorded Africans in English America (including most of

16029-465: The soundtrack Miles Ahead . In 2022, he received a second Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for his narration of the audiobook Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation from John Lewis ; he also received a Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer for the musical A Strange Loop . Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri to Bettye Cheadle (née North), a teacher, and Donald Frank Cheadle Sr.,

16166-721: The south in large numbers seeking better opportunities and treatment in the west and north, a movement known as the Great Migration , there is now a reverse trend, called the New Great Migration . As with the earlier Great Migration, the New Great Migration is primarily directed toward cities and large urban areas, such as Charlotte , Houston , Dallas , Fort Worth , Huntsville , Raleigh , Tampa , San Antonio , New Orleans , Memphis , Nashville , Jacksonville , and so forth. A growing percentage of African Americans from

16303-734: The system's worst elements. First established in South Carolina in 1704, groups of armed White men— slave patrols —were formed to monitor enslaved Black people. Their function was to police slaves, especially fugitives. Slave owners feared that slaves might organize revolts or slave rebellions , so state militias were formed to provide a military command structure and discipline within the slave patrols. These patrols were used to detect, encounter, and crush any organized slave meetings which might lead to revolts or rebellions . The earliest African American congregations and churches were organized before 1800 in both northern and southern cities following

16440-436: The teachers at the school turns out to be involved in a heroin-smuggling/theft operation run out of the school property, which leads to several murders; an overzealous rookie detective suspects Easy of being involved, and Easy sets out to solve the murders, break up the ring, and get himself out of trouble. In the course of the job he meets Bonnie Shay, a flight attendant unwillingly involved in smuggling, and they start dating. At

16577-526: The television series ER , playing the role of Paul Nathan, a medical student who suffers from Parkinson's disease . For this performance, he was nominated for an  Emmy Award  in the category of  Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series . Cheadle appeared in NFL commercials promoting the Super Bowl from 2002 to 2005. He so regularly appeared for the NFL in its Super Bowl advertising that in 2006, in

16714-578: The total population, declined until 1930 and has been rising since then. By 1990, the African American population reached about 30 million and represented 12% of the US population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900. At the time of the 2000 US census , 54.8% of African Americans lived in the South . In that year, 17.6% of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7% in the Midwest , while only 8.9% lived in

16851-515: The west and north are migrating to the southern region of the US for economic and cultural reasons. The New York City , Chicago , and Los Angeles metropolitan areas have the highest decline in African Americans, while Atlanta , Dallas , and Houston have the highest increase respectively. Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio; Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Orlando. Despite recent declines, as of 2020,

16988-403: The work. Concerns about his unemployment and mortgage payments influenced him to take up his first case as an amateur private investigator. Set in 1948, Devil in a Blue Dress introduces Easy Rawlins, a newly unemployed factory worker, let go from his job building aircraft because his white supervisor found him "uppity". Needing money to pay his mortgage, Easy agrees to search for Daphne Monet,

17125-521: The world; perhaps in response, he rents an office and takes steps toward setting up his own investigation business. [It] was the first piece of solid evidence I had that the white man's grip on my throat was losing strength. —Easy Rawlins Set in August 1965. In the aftermath of the Watts Riots , a white detective named Melvin Suggs seeks out Easy at his office. Suggs tells Easy he wants him to investigate

17262-543: Was $ 5,600 (equivalent to $ 58,532 in 2023), compared with $ 2,900 (equivalent to $ 30,311 in 2023) for non-White families. In 1965, 43 percent of all Black families fell into the poverty bracket, earning under $ 3,000 (equivalent to $ 29,005 in 2023) a year. The 1960s saw improvements in the social and economic conditions of many Black Americans. From 1965 to 1969, Black family income rose from 54 to 60 percent of White family income. In 1968, 23 percent of Black families earned under $ 3,000 (equivalent to $ 26,285 in 2023)

17399-522: Was 16 years old, Cheadle was 23 at the time. Cheadle then played the role of Rocket in the 1988 movie Colors . In 1989, he appeared in a music video for Angela Winbush 's number-two hit single " It's the Real Thing " as a car wash employee performing dance moves. In 1990, he appeared in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air titled " Homeboy, Sweet Homeboy ", playing Will Smith 's friend and Hilary's first love interest, Ice Tray. In 1992, he had

17536-401: Was a Whites-only establishment, with Blacks (such as Duke Ellington ) allowed to perform, but to a White audience. Black Americans also found a new ground for political power in Northern cities, without the enforced disabilities of Jim Crow . By the 1950s, the civil rights movement was gaining momentum. A 1955 lynching that sparked public outrage about injustice was that of Emmett Till ,

17673-495: Was a market for books about black men. When Mosley rewrote the story as a detective novel, he found a publisher. Mosley once stated he intended to bring the character into contemporary times, but later said the 2007 novel Blonde Faith , which is set in 1967, would be the last. Nevertheless, in 2013 a new Easy Rawlins novel entitled Little Green was published, followed by Rose Gold (2014), Charcoal Joe (2016), Blood Grove (2021), and Farewell, Amethystine (2024). Easy Rawlins

17810-456: Was born on November 3, 1920, in New Iberia, Louisiana . His mother died when he was eight years old; soon afterward his father fled to escape lynching after fighting with a white man. The fight was the result of a dispute with his father's supervisor over earnings. Easy had accompanied his father to his job at the slaughterhouse and saw his father argue with the man. When the man called his father

17947-449: Was called, spanned the 1890s to the 1970s. From 1916 through the 1960s, more than 6 million Black people moved north. But in the 1970s and 1980s, that trend reversed , with more African Americans moving south to the Sun Belt than leaving it. The following table of the African American population in the United States over time shows that the African American population, as a percentage of

18084-757: Was developing an Easy Rawlins project. In 2012 Mosley told the Los Angeles Times that NBC passed on his script. In 2016, filmmaker Josh Boone announced that he was adapting the series for a television series on FX. In 2021, it was announced that Amblin Television would create a series, with Mosley and Sylvain White attached as executive producers. African Americans African Americans , also known as Black Americans , formerly also called Afro-Americans , are an American racial or ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of

18221-603: Was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina in the historical drama film Hotel Rwanda (2004). He was the co-producer of Crash , which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005. Cheadle joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe portraying James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine in the beginning with Iron Man 2 (2010). On television, Cheadle earned nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in

18358-653: Was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina in the film Hotel Rwanda . He also starred in and co-produced Crash , which won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Picture . For his performance in Crash , Cheadle was nominated for the BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild awards for Best Supporting Actor. He played the main character in the movie Traitor . In March 2007, Cheadle starred with comedian Adam Sandler in Mike Binder 's Reign Over Me ,

18495-645: Was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2 . The family history revealed that Cheadle's ancestors had been owned by the Chickasaw Nation , who had refused to free their slaves until 1866. Cheadle's ancestors did not hold U.S. nor Chickasaw citizenship until the 1890s, thanks to the Dawes Commission . A DNA test taken by the show revealed that Cheadle is of Cameroonian descent. Another DNA test revealed that among his African ancestry, one-third comes from

18632-413: Was similar to slavery. Servants could be bought, sold, or leased, and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or attempting to running away. Unlike slaves, they were freed after their term of service expired or if their freedom was purchased. Their children did not inherit their status, and on their release from contract they received "a year's provision of corn, double apparel, tools necessary", and

18769-544: Was unable to pass an Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves until 1807. Fugitive slave laws (derived from the Fugitive Slave Clause of the Constitution— Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 ) were passed by Congress in both 1793 and 1850 , guaranteeing the right of a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave anywhere within the US. Slave owners, who viewed enslaved people as property, ensured that it became

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