10 Great moments in African-American history 2009 (special series): Countdown part 2

Amnesty International French poster of Troy Anthony Davis. (AP photo)

For part 1 of the 10 great moments in African-American history 2009 countdown by Aberjhani please click here . Part 2 starts now:

NUMBER 8: the Supreme Court and Troy Anthony Davis

On August 17, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision ruled that Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis of Savannah, Georgia, would be granted a new evidentiary hearing to re-evaluate his guilt or innocence in the 1989 slaying of Officer Mark Anthony MacPhail. The decision came on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the death of MacPhail who was killed while working off-duty as security guard when he responded to a cry for help.

Davis was first convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of MacPhail on August 28, 1991. A series of appeals requesting a new trial led to last-minute stays of execution and an international protest campaign led by the inmate’s sister, Martina Correia, the NAACP, and Amnesty International. Moreover, scores of individuals, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, have visited and continue to visit Davis at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia noted that the Court’s decision was an historically exceptional one, “not taken in nearly 50 years—of instructing a district court to adjudicate a state prisoner’s petition for an original writ of habeas corpus.”

The Troy Anthony Davis case has revived both international criticism of the United States’ continued use of the death penalty and once again highlighted the role that race appears to play when issuing such sentences. It has also inspired songs, sparked protests both for and against Davis, and generated public debates on university campuses across the country.

The evidentiary hearing will allow U.S. District Judge William T. Moore, Jr., to hear new testimonies and determine whether new evidence adequately establishes Davis’ innocence. A date for the hearing has not yet been announced.

NUMBER 7: Top-Selling Poets of 2009

Poet Elizabeth Alexander topped the list of best-selling American poets in 2009 and long-time literary icon Nikki Giovanni took the number two spot for the year, just ahead of Mary Oliver, John Updike, and Jim Harrison, according to the listing compiled annually by the Poetry Foundation and presented December 14 by editor Travis Nichols.

Presidential poet Elizabeth Alexander. (AP photo)

On January 20, 2009, Elizabeth Alexander became one of the most famous poets in the world as she recited “Praise Song for the Day” at the inauguration of President Barack Obama; the book featuring this single poem placed her at number one on year’s bestseller list. Even before Inauguration Day 2009, Alexander had already been honored as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005 for her book American Sublime, received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, and the George Kent Award.

As one might expect, the poet’s sudden fame increased throughout the year 2009 with various readings and lectures, including her September 17 presentation before a packed audience at Penn State University where she delivered the distinguished annual Emily Dickinson Lecture.

Author and poet Nikki Giovanni at memorial following the
Virgian Tech massacres of 2007. (Virginia Tech file photo)

Like Maya Angelou (another presidential inauguration poet), Rita Dove, and Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni ranks among those black women poets whose voices for several decades have chronicled the ups and downs of the human condition via the African-American experience. Her career got underway during the Black Arts Movement of the l1960s and 1970s with the books Black Feelings, Black Talk and Black Judgement, followed by a series of popular spoken word recordings.

Nikki Giovanni won the number two spot on the bestselling poetry list with Bicycles: Love Poems, which some have described as a companion work to her acclaimed 1997 collection Love Poems. In addition to her celebrations of love and jazz, one of the more outstanding works in this volume would have to be “We Are Virginia Tech.” The poem eulogizes and elegizes the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where Giovanni is the University Distinguished Professor of English. In it, she noted that:

"We are strong enough to stand tall
tearlessly, we are brave enough to
bend to cry, and we are sad enough
to know that we must laugh again."

In addition to Bicycles, Giovanni has enjoyed significant success in recent years with the books Poetry Speaks to Children (2005) and Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (2008). Her many honors include: the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry; three NAACP Image Awards; and the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award.

Next: 10 Great moments in African-American history 2009 Countdown part 3 of 4

by Aberjhani
National African American Art Examiner
author of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry
and co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

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