Anti-Greek sentiment (also known as Hellenophobia (), anti-Hellenism, (), mishellenism (), or Greek-bashing) refers to negative feelings, dislike, hatred, derision, racism, prejudice, and/or discrimination towards Greeks, the Hellenic Republic, and Greek culture. It is the opposite of philhellenism.

Historic

Ancient Rome
In the mid-Republican period Rome phil-Hellenic and anti-Hellenic Roman intellectuals were involved in a conflict over Greek influence. One author explains, "the relationship of Romans to Greek culture was frequently ambiguous: they admired it as superior and adopted its criteria, while they remained skeptical of some aspects; hence they adapted it selectively according to their own purposes." An anti-Hellenic movement emerged in reaction to the primacy of Greek led by the conservative and reactionary statesman Cato the Elder (234-149 BCE), who was the first to write a Roman history in Latin, and was prominent for his anti-Hellenic views. He saw Hellenism as a threat to Roman culture, but did not find wide support, especially in the upper class. However, Erich S. Gruen argued that Cato's "anti-Greek 'pronouncements' reflect deliberate posturing and do not represent 'the core of Catonian thought'." The prominent philosopher and politician Cicero (106–43 BCE) was "highly ambivalent" about Greeks, and practiced "anti-Greek slur". The first-second century poet Juvenal was another major anti-Hellenic figure.

Latin West
Following the East–West Schism of 1054, anti-Greek sentiment became widespread in the Latin West (dominated by the Catholic Church). It reached its climax during the Fourth Crusade and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, and the establishment of the Latin Empire.

East Sicily and Malta
In East Sicily and Malta, Christian Greeks were persecuted by Arabs during the period of the Emirate of Sicily. And later Latin speaking Catholics persecuted the Orthodox Greeks in Eastern Sicily and Arabic speaking Catholics persecuted the Orthodox Greeks in Malta.

Modern

Albania
In the Interwar period (1918–39), the Albanian government closed down Greek schools as part of its policies of assimilation.

During the Communist rule in Albania (1944–92), the government restricted the use of Greek language and Greek names by the country's Greek minority in an attempt of forced assimilation. Anti-Greek sentiment dominated the thinking of Enver Hoxha, the communist leader of Albania, during the Greek Civil War. These practices continued, at the very least, until Hoxha's death in 1985.

In post-Communist Albania, "there are no significant explicitly racist or chauvinist political parties", although, according to James Pettifer, "there are many individual politicians who adhere to very strong anti-Greek views, which in turn affects the orientation of virtually all ethnic Albanian political parties." In a 2013 poll in Albania, Greece topped the list of countries perceived to be a threat to Albania (18.5%), although the plurality of respondents (46.4%) agreed with the statement "No country is a threat to Albania".

Australia
Greeks in Australia have been subject to discrimination. During World War I, due to King Constantine I's pro-German sympathies, Greek immigrants were viewed with hostility and suspicion. Anti-Greek riots occurred in Perth in 1915 and in Kalgoorlie in 1916.

The word "wog" is an ethnic slur used in Australia to refer to Southern European and Middle Eastern people of the Mediterranean region, including Greeks. It is also sometimes used against South Asians. The term has also been adopted and used by Greek Australians to refer to themselves, including through the sitcom Acropolis Now (1989–92), the television spin-off of the 1987 play Wogs Out of Work and the 2000 film The Wog Boy.

Bulgaria
In 1906, during the Macedonian Struggle, anti-Greek rallies and violent attacks took place in a number of Bulgarian cities. In Plovdiv, Greek Orthodox churches and schools, Greek-owned properties were looted and plundered. In Pomorie (Anchialos) the Greek population was expelled after the city was set up on fire and up to 110 Greeks were killed. Pogroms also took place in Varna, Burgas and other locations. Following the pogroms, around 20,000 Greeks fled Bulgaria.

Canada
On August 2–5, 1918, a three-day anti-Greek riot occurred in Toronto. "Mobs of up to 5,000 people, led by war veterans returned from Europe, marched through the city's main streets waging pitched battles with law enforcement officers and destroying every Greek business they came across." The consequence was damages of $100,000 to Greek businesses and private property.

Italy

When the Italian Fascists gained power in 1922, they persecuted the Greek-speakers in Italy.

North Macedonia
The Macedonia naming dispute since the breakup of Yugoslavia has given rise to anti-Greek sentiment in the Republic of North Macedonia. According to one author, there was "considerable popular anti-Greek feeling in Macedonia" as of 2004. On the contrary, German diplomat Geert-Hinrich Ahrens (ger) wrote in 2007 that he "had never detected any anti-Greek manifestations" in the republic.

The main opposition party of the Republic of North Macedonia, Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), founded in 1990, includes the name of Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, a revolutionary movement active in the early 20th century, which is regarded by Greeks "a notorious anti-Greek terrorist organization." During the party's First Congress, Ljubčo Georgievski, first leader of the party, declared that "the next Congress will convene in Solun" (Thessaloniki in South Slavic languages).
According to Dimitar Bechev, a British-based international relations researcher, then Prime Minister of North Macedonia Nikola Gruevski (the leader of VMRO-DPMNE) exploited "anti-Greek nationalism" during the 2008 parliamentary election. In 2012 Gruevski accused Greece of having waged "political genocide" against his country. Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Gregory Delavekouras responded that Gruevski's statements "stoke the systematic negative government propaganda that is aimed at turning public opinion in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia against Greece."

Romania
At its inception Romanian national historiography was heavily influenced by romanticism. This led to a reconsideration of the role played by the Phanariotes who ruled modern day Romania as emissaries of the Ottoman Empire. Romanian national poet Mihai Eminescu described Greeks as "the poison of the Orient, hypocritical people who crave to exploit others". The hellenophobic tendency in Romanian historiography was reversed through the work of historian Nicolae Iorga.

During the course of the Macedonian Struggle, Romania founded the Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society which conducted ethnographic expeditions to Macedonia, Epirus and Thessaly. The Society later took up the role of representing Romania interests in the region. The propagation of Romanian nationalist ideals among the Aromanian communities, created a rift between the two countries known as the Aromanian question. Another important issue was the status of the inheritances of Greeks in Romania. In 1892, Romania refused to hand over the property of the recently deceased Greek expatriate Konstantinos Zappas to the Greek state citing an article of the Romanian constitution forbidding foreign nationals from owning agricultural land. The Trikoupis government then recalled its ambassador in Bucharest, Romania followed suit thus severing diplomatic relations between the countries. Diplomatic relations were restored in July 1896, in response to a rise of Bulgarian komitadji activity in Macedonia. In 1905, the two countries exchanged accusations regarding the Aromanian question. Romania claimed that Greek armed bands targeted ethnic Romanians in Macedonia, whereas Greece accused Romania of trying to create a false equation between Aromanians and Romanians.

Hellenophobic articles began appearing in the Romanian press. On 2 August 1905, the Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society organized an anti-Greek protest in Bucharest, attended by army officers, students and ethnic Aromanians. After decrying Greek war crimes in Macedonia, the organizers called for a boycott of Greek products and services. Rioting was prevented by a large force of Romanian gendarmerie. On the same day a Greek owned cafe in Bucharest was vandalized and its owner beaten. Several days later three editors of the Greek-language newspaper Patris were expelled from the country for sedition. On 13 August, protesters burnt a Greek flag in Giurgiu. An official remonstrance by the Greek ambassador Tombazis was rebutted leading to a mutual withdrawal of embassies on 15 September. In November, the Romanian government allocated funding for the creation of armed Aromanian bands in Macedonia, a parallel motion closed numerous Greek schools in the country. In February 1906, six leading members of the Greek community were expelled from the country, citing their alleged funding of Greek bands in Macedonia. In July 1906, the Greek government officially severed diplomatic relations with Romania. In 1911, Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos used the occasion of the Italo-Turkish War to improve relations with Bulgaria and Romania, restoring diplomatic relations with the latter.

Soviet Union
Between 1919 and 1924 around 47,000 Greeks emigrated from Russia to Greece as a result of the official and unofficial anti-Greek sentiment in Russia, which in its turn was a result of the Greek intervention in the Black Sea region in the Russian Civil War against the Bolsheviks.

Tens of thousands of Greeks were deported to the remote parts of the Soviet Union during World War II in the Greek Operation of NKVD.

Turkey

Anti-Greek sentiment is "deeply rooted" in the Turkish public. A 2011 survey in Turkey revealed that 67% of respondents had unfavorable views toward Greeks, though only 6% said they saw Greece as their main enemy in a poll carried out that same year. Despite this, according to political scientist Emre Erdogan, Greece remains one of the "eternal enemies of Turkey", along with Armenia. Journalist Dr. Cenk Saraçoğlu of Ankara University argues that anti-Greek attitudes in Turkey "are no longer constructed and shaped by social interactions between the 'ordinary people' [...] Rather, the Turkish media and state promote and disseminate an overtly anti-Greek discourse." On the other hand, Turkish political scientist Bahar Rumelili wrote in 2007:

In 1821 Greeks of Constantinople were massacred in response to the Greek War of Independence, while Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople was hanged.

During and following World War I, almost all of the Greek population of Anatolia was either exterminated by the Ottoman government or later transferred to Greece as part of a population exchange based on religious affiliation.

In September 1955 the Turkish government sponsored anti-Greek riots and pogrom in Constantinople. The dispute over Cyprus kept anti-Greek feelings in Turkey high. At the height of the intercommunal violence in Cyprus, thousands of Greeks were expelled from Turkey, mostly Constantinople. In March of that year all persons (over 6,000) with Greek citizenship were expelled "on the grounds that they were dangerous to the 'internal and external' security of the state." Additionally, in September 1964, 10,000 Greeks were expelled. Cumhuriyet reported that 30,000 "Turkish nationals of Greek descent had left permanently, in addition to the Greeks who had been expelled." Within months a total of 40,000 Greeks were expelled from Constantinople.

In 1999 Turkey "was again swept by a wave of anti-Greek sentiment, encouraged by the Turkish government" following the capture of the Kurdistan Workers' Party leader Abdullah Öcalan in Nairobi, Kenya who was  initially hiding in the Greek embassy. However, as a result of the "earthquake diplomacy" and the subsequent rapprochement efforts between Greece and Turkey, the public perception of Greece as their main enemy decreased in Turkey from 29% in 2001 to 16.9% in 2004.

The Grey Wolves, a far-right organization associated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), routinely demonstrate outside the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Phanar district and burn the Patriarch in effigy. In October 2005 they staged a rally and proceeding to the gate they laid a black wreath, chanting "Patriarch Leave" and "Patriarchate to Greece", inaugurating the campaign for the collection of signatures to oust the Ecumenical Patriarchate from Constantinople. As of 2006 the Grey Wolves claimed to have collected more than 5 million signatures for the withdrawal of the Patriarch and called on the Turkish government to have the patriarch deported to Greece.

United States
In the early 20th century Greeks in the United States were discriminated against in many ways. In 1904 Greek immigrants, unaware of labor conditions and largely inexperienced, served as strikebreakers during a strike in Chicago diesel shops. This fueled anti-Greek sentiment among union members. Three Greek immigrants were killed during a riot in 1908 in McGill, Nevada. On February 21, 1909, a major anti-Greek riot took place in South Omaha, Nebraska. The Greek population was forced to leave the city, while properties owned by Greek migrants were destroyed. Greeks were viewed with particular contempt in the Mormon stronghold of Utah. The local press characterized them as "a vicious element unfit for citizenship and as ignorant, depraved, and brutal foreigners." Anti-Greek riots occurred in Salt Lake City in 1917 which "almost resulted" in lynching of a Greek immigrant. In 1922, as a response to the anti-Greek nativist xenophobia by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) was founded, which sought to Americanize the Greek immigrant in America.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburban county bordering Washington, D.C., some property deeds for houses included discriminatory covenants to exclude Greek-Americans prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

In December 2014 MTV aired the first episode of its new reality show Growing Up Greek. It was immediately denounced by Greek Americans and characterized as "stereotype-laden" and "offensive". The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) called for it to be canceled.

Western Europe
As a result of the Greek government-debt crisis, starting in 2010, anti-Greek sentiments grew in some European countries, especially in Germany. A 2014 study found, "An anti-Greek sentiment evolved and spread among German citizens and solidarity for crisis-hit Greece was mostly rejected." In 2012 Pew Research Center found, "Among the major European countries, Greece is clearly the least popular. And its reputation is slipping. In no country, other than Greece itself, is there a majority with a favorable view of Greece." Only 27% of respondents in Germany viewed Greece favorably.

Hostile and unfavorable views towards Greece and Greeks were especially pronounced in the tabloid press. A 2013 study found that Western European news sources "indicate bias against Greece in financial crisis coverage" and "include stereotypes, the recommendation of austerity as a punishment, morality tales, an absence of solidarity, and fear mongering." The popular German tabloid Bild "published numerous reports that implicitly and explicitly constituted the myth of the corrupt and lazy Greeks in comparison to the hard-working Germans." Dutch TV producer Ingeborg Beugel (nl) claimed that "the [anti-Greek] propaganda of the mainstream media provides Europe and the Netherlands with a convenient scapegoat to exploit."

German politicians, such as the former Minister for Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle and former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, publicly criticized the anti-Greek sentiment in their country and called for solidarity with Greece.

See also
 Anti-Eastern Orthodox sentiment
 Giaour

References

Anti-national sentiment

Anti-Greek sentiment


The Socialist Educational Association (SEA) is a socialist educational organisation in the United Kingdom. It is affiliated to the Labour Party as a socialist society. It assists in the development of and monitors educational policies of the Labour Party. It aims to promote non-selective education, equality of opportunity and lifelong availability of adequate educational provision throughout the UK. It believes in all compulsory education being free and adequately resourced. It seeks to enlist the support of the trade union and co-operative movements and to encourage support for a socialist vision of education amongst teaching staff.

The association was founded as the National Association of Labour Teachers in the 1920s, but grew into a broader church and was renamed the 'Socialist Educational Association'. The association is based in London and is active in England and Wales. It is organised on a structure of branches, each branch being loosely based on a local education authority area. The association has a national executive committee that meets eight times a year. This is composed of nationally elected members: officers, plus eight women and eight men; together with delegates from the branches. The association also holds an annual conference in June each year. Caroline Benn was, for a time, the SEA president.

Former general secretaries have included Graham Lane and Malcolm Horne. Martin Dore, who served from 2008 until 2014, was succeeded by John Bolt. Melissa Benn is a vice president of the association. Professor Richard Pring was the association's president from 2008 until he retired from that position in June 2017. The following month, it was announced that the association's new president was to be Professor Selina Todd of Oxford University. Selina Todd was succeeded in 2022 by Professor Diane Reay of Cambridge University. Following the retirement of John Bolt as General Secretary, James Whiting was elected as his successor at the AGM held in June 2019.

Presidents

 2008–2017: Richard Pring
 2017–2022: Selina Todd
 2022 - to present: Diane Reay

General Secretaries

     -2007  Malcolm Horne
 2007-2008  Richard Sidley
 2008–2014: Martin Dore
 2014-2019  John Bolt
 2019–present: James Whiting

See also
 Labour Party (UK) affiliated trade union
 List of organisations associated with the Labour Party (UK)

References

External links

Comprehensive education
Labour Party (UK) socialist societies
Educational organisations based in London
Socialist organisations in the United Kingdom

Socialist Educational Association


Building 429 is an American Christian rock band from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Their name is derived from a Biblical passage known as Ephesians 4:29, which, in the New International Version of the Bible, reads as follows: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." The band members originated from Snyder Memorial Baptist Church and various areas in North Carolina as well as Texas.

They were named as the Gospel Music Association 2005 New Artist of the Year.

History

Early years
In late 1999, bassist Scotty Beshears and guitarist/vocalist Jason Roy met in North Carolina at the final performance of Roy's band All Too Familiar.  Beshears had formerly been involved with Elijah's Ride, another independent band. They teamed up with drummer Christian Fuhrer to form a new band which blended modern pop-rock music with Christian-themed lyrics. The trio began to perform under the name "Building 429".

According to Jason Roy, the band's name originated from a youth group. Roy's wife Cortni had once belonged to a youth group that had a system called the "429 Challenge," based on Ephesians 4:29.  Whenever someone in the group spoke negatively about another, others were allowed to issue a verbal "four twenty-nine."  This resulted in the offender having to say something nice to the person that was offended.  The band members took this challenge and created a name around it - building one another up, hence, "Building 429".

Throughout the year 2000, Building 429 held a relentless touring schedule, with over 100 shows played and 3,000 copies of their first (self-titled) CD sold. In 2001, they deepened their sound by adding a second guitarist, Paul Bowden, to their lineup.  Further success saw the band place first on Flicker Records' A&R online website and forum. Much of the band's early success can be attributed to their extensive touring schedule and tendency to write and perform upbeat, commercially-friendly pop-rock songs.

In the summer of 2002, Building 429 released the EP Preflight, featuring three rough-mixed recordings from their forthcoming second independent release and four acoustic demos.  This EP was only available at live shows and on the band's website.  In the fall of 2002, the band's second full-length independent album, entitled Flight, was released.  Initially packaged as a CD-R in a sleeve with no artwork (save for a thermal printed disc label), the album was sold at shows and through the band's website.  In 2003, the album was re-titled Building 429 and was professionally pressed and repackaged in a full-sized jewel case with complete artwork.  2002 ended with Saul Johnson replacing Chris Fuhrer as drummer.

Work with Word Records
In 2003, Building 429 continued to tour in and around North Carolina promoting their music and independent album. When Saul Johnson left the band mid-year, Michael Anderson was hired as drummer. Anderson had formerly played for Remember Jonah, a North Carolina-based Christian rock band that had played with Building 429 earlier in the year. During the summer, Building 429 joined rock worship band Sonicflood on tour. This experience would garner the band national exposure, leading to a record deal with Warner Music Group label Word Records.  Studio work immediately began on the band's major-label debut album.

"Glory Defined", Building 429's first nationally serviced radio single, rose to No. 1 on eight combined Christian AC and CHR charts in early 2004, remaining No. 1 on Christian Radio Weekly's (CRW) AC chart for ten consecutive weeks and claiming the spot faster than any single in the history of the publication.  The song was the title track from the Glory Defined EP, released April 6, 2004.  The EP featured three full-mix tracks (the title track, "Free", as well as "Show Me Love") and two "unplugged" songs, "The Space in Between Us" and "All You Ask of Me".  A second, AC mix version of "Glory Defined" was also on the EP. On July 27, 2004, Building 429's national debut, Space in Between, was released.  Produced by Jim Cooper, the album gave three more radio hits, including "Above It All", "The Space in Between Us" and "No One Else Knows".  The release of the album was followed by major touring with artists such as Jeremy Camp, Tree63, and Sonicflood.

Building 429 received four Dove Award nominations and was honored as New Artist of the Year by the Gospel Music Association in 2005.  Touring also continued alongside artists Todd Agnew, BarlowGirl, Casting Crowns and Paul Colman.  An expanded edition of Space in Between was released in August 2005, which included the full original album plus two tracks from the Glory Defined EP ("All You Ask of Me" and "Free"), the AC mix of "Glory Defined", a radio mix of "No One Else Knows" and a cover of Chris Tomlin's "Famous One".  Early in 2005, Jesse Garcia (formerly of Afterglo) was asked to fill in for guitarist Paul Bowden after Bowden suffered an elbow injury during an autograph session.  When Bowden returned, the band decided to keep Garcia on as a third guitarist and keyboardist, allowing lead vocalist Jason Roy to concentrate more on singing during concerts.  By the fall of 2005, the band was back in the studio to record their second album, Rise.

Produced by Monroe Jones, Rise (released March 14, 2006) featured a heavier sound more in line with the band's live performances.  The first singles to be released from the record included "Searching For a Savior", "Fearless" and "I Belong to You". The album also included guest vocals from former dc Talk member Michael Tait on the track "Empty" and a medley of Blessid Union of Souls' hit "I Believe" and Andraé Crouch's "Jesus is the Answer". In January 2006 it was announced that guitarist Paul Bowden would be leaving the band at the end of the month to pursue other areas of ministry.

Following the release of Rise, Building 429 headlined their own tour with TAIT, the band fronted by former dc Talk member Michael Tait.  Parts of the tour also featured Travel the Road missionaries Tim Scott and Will Decker.  In September 2006, the band returned to the studio to begin recording the follow-up album to Rise.  The end of 2006 saw Building 429 travel to Germany for their first overseas tour; shows were performed in Heidelberg, Hanau, Baumholder, and Denmark.

In January 2007, the band officially announced through its e-mail list, website and MySpace page that bassist and band founder Scotty Beshears had left the band to pursue "another chapter" in his life.  Touring bassist Aaron Branch was then hired; however, the band officially remains a threesome according to its MySpace page and website.  Recording continued throughout January for Building 429's third major studio release, entitled Iris to Iris. "Grace That is Greater", a track from the album, was made available as a digital single through the iTunes music service on March 6, 2007.  During the spring of 2007, Building 429 joined another former dc Talk member, TobyMac, on the "Portable Sounds Tour", which also featured Thousand Foot Krutch and Family Force 5.

Iris to Iris, released May 1, 2007, and produced by Brown Bannister, took the band's album lineup in a different direction. According to the band's MySpace page, Jason Roy (principal songwriter) felt that initial songwriting sessions were not turning out material that was right for the band or the project.  The band "sensed that God was calling them in a new direction." After praying about the circumstances and the music they were creating, the band made the decision to strictly focus the songs on God.  After that, according to Roy, "the songs just started to flow. It was the easiest, most fulfilling, and most fun songwriting process we have ever experienced."  The resulting 11-track Iris to Iris became a collection of original worship songs and two hymn reworkings ("Grace That is Greater" and "Search Me O God"), making for a mellower and more ethereal-sounding record than past recordings from the group.  Building 429 also saw a change in writing, as band members Michael Anderson and Jesse Garcia joined Jason Roy in the songwriting process, along with veteran Christian songwriter Chris Eaton (Amy Grant, Point of Grace, and Jaci Velasquez).

In May 2007 the band embarked on a month-long schedule of tour dates with up-and-coming band Jackson Waters to promote Iris to Iris.  After performing a few festivals in the summer, Building 429 continued with a second leg of their touring with Jackson Waters, adding Storyside:B and 2006 GMA New Artist of the Year The Afters to the performance lineup.  Touring continued in 2008 with Pillar, Wavorly and Brooke Barrettsmith. on Pillar's "For the Love of the Game" tour (February 22 – April 6), and with Remedy Drive and Bread of Stone on the LifeLight Communications' "Lifelight" tour (April 9–19).

On February 16, 2008, Building 429 announced a fan contest on its official Myspace page.  A link was provided to a contest Web page which listed four requirements, of which fans with Myspace profiles were asked to complete two. These requirements included adding a Building 429 rotating web banner to the contestant's profile, adding the song "Singing Over Me" to the contestant's profile, putting Building 429 in the contestant's "Top 8 Friends" and changing the default profile picture to Building 429's default profile picture.  Each Monday beginning February 18, 2008, a contestant was chosen as the weekly winner and received a T-shirt, a copy of the Iris to Iris album, a signed poster and a drumstick. Winners were announced by name in blog posts on Building 429's Myspace page.  On April 14, a grand prize winner was chosen to win an iPod Nano.

On July 3, 2008, the band released Glory Defined: The Best of Building 429, a greatest hits collection from the albums under the Word Records label.  The CD contained all previously released tracks.

Work with INO Records
A press release dated September 10, 2008, stated that Building 429 had moved to INO Records after almost five years with Word Records. The self-titled album Building 429 was released on October 21, 2008, to mark the "new beginning" of the band with the new label. "End of Me" was the first single from the new album to be released to Christian AC and CHR radio outlets, followed by "Always". Soul-Audio, a Christian music publication, granted the album an average score, speaking highly of the band by saying "Forget the future—the present is pretty bright for this trio."

Work with Essential Records
Building 429 started out with Essential Records by releasing Listen to the Sound. Throughout 2011 and 2012, Building 429 released new singles "Listen to the Sound", "Right Beside You" and "Where I Belong". The single, "Where I Belong" was No. 1 on the Billboard NCA charts and was named the 2013 Billboard Magazine Christian Song of the Year.

On June 4, 2013, Building 429 released We Won't Be Shaken, their eighth studio album. The CD debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart.

On April 29, 2015 (in celebration of 4/29), Building 429 released "Impossible" as the single for their ninth studio album, Unashamed, which was released in September 2015.

3rd Wave Music

In 2019, Building 429 started an independent label called 3rd Wave Music which they currently release all of their material under.

Tours

 2007 - SHOUTfest Tour with After Edmund and other various artists (September–November)
 2008 - For the Love of the Game Tour with Pillar, Wavorly, and Brooke Barrettsmith
 2008 – Truth, Hope & Love Tour with Addison Road and After Edmund
 2009 - Truth, Hope & Love Tour with After Edmund, Above the Golden State, Kimber Rising, and Mile 7 (February–March)
 2009 - World Vision Summerfest '09 with 33 Miles, Lanae' Hale and Kimber Rising
 2009 - The Promise Remains Tour with Todd Agnew and Kimber Rising (September–December)
 2010 - World Vision Winterblast Tour with Britt Nicole, Mikeschair, and Chris and Conrad
 2010 - World Vision Canada Tour co-headlined with Big Daddy Weave
 2010 - Food for the Hungry Summerfest with Britt Nicole, Mikeschair, and Finding Favour
 2011 - Listen to the Sound tour with Revive and Anthem Lights
 2011 - Food for the Hungry Winterblast 2011 with 33 Miles, Jason Gray, and Kerrie Roberts
 2012 - WinterJam Tour Spectacular with Skillet, NewSong, Sanctus Real, Peter Furler, Kari Jobe, Group 1 Crew, Dara Maclean, For King & Country (band), and We As Human.
 2012 - Faith, Family, and Freedom Celebration with Laura Story, Sidewalk Prophets, and Mark Schultz
 2012 - Newsboy's God's Not Dead Tour with Newsboys, Luminate, and Grace Campbell
 2012 - Newsong's A Very Merry Christmas Tour with NewSong, Francesca Battistelli, and Jonny Diaz
 2013 - United We Stand Tour with The Afters and Hawk Nelson. With special guest Finding Favour.
 2013 - Winter Jam Tour Spectacular with Newsboys, Dara Maclean, Everfound, Love & The Outcome, Tenth Avenue North, Passion ft. Kristian Stanfill, and Crowder.
 2014 - We Won't Be Shaken Tour with Family Force 5 and Hawk Nelson. With special guests Satellites & Sirens and Lybecker. A second leg of the tour was announced in late 2014, with Love & the Outcome and special guests Cadence and Humble Tip.
2018 - I Am A Christian Tour ft. New Song, Citizen Way, and Caitie Hurst.
2019 - Live the Journey Tour ft. Blanca, Stars Go Dim, The Color, We Are Vessel, and Sanctus Real.
2019 - A Thrill of Hope Tour

Members

Current members
 Jason Roy – lead vocals, keyboards and guitar (1999–present)

Former members
 Christian Führer – drums (2000–2002)
 Saul Johnson – drums (2002–2003)
 Paul Bowden – guitars (2001–2006)
 Scotty Beshears – bass guitar (2000–2007)
 Brooke Deleary – background vocals (2019–2021)
 Jesse Garcia – background vocals, keyboards, and guitar (2005–2022)
 Michael Anderson – drums (2003–2023)
 Aaron Branch – bass guitar, background vocals (2007–2023)
 Steven Stewart – keyboards (2018–2023)

Discography

 2004: Space in Between Us
 2006: Rise
 2007: Iris to Iris
 2008: Building 429
 2011: Listen to the Sound
 2013: We Won't Be Shaken
 2015: Unashamed
 2018: Live the Journey

Awards

In 2005, Building 429 was nominated to three Dove Awards at the 36th GMA Dove Awards: New Artist of the Year, Song of the Year ("Glory Defined"), and Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for the same song. It ended up winning New Artist of the Year.

At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, their We Won't Be Shaken was nominated for "Best Contemporary Christian Music Album".

References

External links

 Building 429 at PureVolume
 Review: Building 429, Iris to Iris
 Soul-Audio Review: Building 429, Building 429
 Building 429 Fans Embrace "You Carried Me" Contest Promotion

American Christian rock groups
Rock music groups from North Carolina
Essential Records (Christian) artists
Musical groups established in 1999
1999 establishments in North Carolina

Building 429


Lynwood A. Alford (born August 22, 1963) is a former professional American football linebacker in the National Football League. Alford grew up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.  His father, Lynwood Alford, Sr. (born January 1944 in Beaver Falls), was a close childhood friend of Beaver Falls native Joe Namath.  Alford attended Aliquippa High School where he was a standout in football.  After graduating from high school in 1981, he attended Coffeyville (Kansas) Junior College.  In December 1982, he was offered a scholarship to play football at Syracuse University.  He played for Syracuse from 1983 to 1985.  He subsequently played with the New York Jets in 1987.  After appearing in his first game in the NFL, Alford told The New York Times: "It was a dream come true.  It was something that I'll never forget, something that I'll tell my grandchildren. I don't care if I was just on the kickoff return unit. I was in the game."

References

External links
Pro-Football reference

1963 births
Living people
New York Jets players
Syracuse Orange football players
Coffeyville Red Ravens football players
National Football League replacement players

Lynwood Alford


Hadrobregmus pertinax is a species of woodboring beetle within the genus Hadrobregmus of the family Ptinidae. The adult is black, with yellow hairs at the back corners of its head, and is 4–5 mm long. The larva is white, about 5 mm long, and lives in decaying wood. The larval stage lasts many years. The Finnish name is "kuolemankello", literally the "clock of death", which comes from the sound resembling the ticking of a clock, made by the male striking its head against the surface of the wood in order to attract a mate. It is the most destructive insect of buildings in Finland, where it survives the long winters in below-freezing temperatures. Because the larva lives in decaying wood, its presence indicates moisture damage. Resolution of the moisture problem will cause the beetle to leave.

See also
 Death watch beetle
 Priest killer

Notes

External links
 Fauna Europaea: Hadrobregmus pertinax
 Atlas of Beetles of Russia: Hadrobregmus pertinax

Ptinidae
Beetles described in 1758
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Hadrobregmus pertinax


Azora, The Daughter of Montezuma is a 1917 opera in three acts by American composer Henry Kimball Hadley to a libretto in English by author David Stevens.

Synopsis
The story takes place at the time of the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortez.  Xalca, the Tlascalan prince, and Ramatzin, general of Montezuma's army, vie for the hand of Montezuma's daughter Azora; the former having prevailed, Montezuma condemns the lovers to death.  In a scene set at dawn in a cavern, all gather by the sacrificial stone, but before the execution can proceed Cortez and his priests appear, and the lovers are set free.

Roles
A Spanish Priest
Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma (soprano)
Canek, High Priest of the Sun (bass)
Hernando Cortez, Conqueror of Mexico
Montezuma II, Emperor of Mexico (bass)
Ramatzin, General of Montezuma's Army (baritone)
Papantzin, Sister of Montezuma (contralto)
Piqui-Chaqui (Flea-footed), A Runner
Xalca, A Tlascalan Prince (tenor)

Performance history
The Chicago Opera Association gave the work its world premiere in Chicago, Illinois, on December 26, 1917, and performed it once more in Chicago shortly thereafter.

As a single performance during an out-of-town residency that opened with the New York premiere of Mascagni's Isabeau, the Chicago company gave Azora its New York premiere on January 26, 1918, at the Lexington Opera House. The composer conducted, and the cast included Anna Fitziu as Azora, Forrest Lamont as Xalca, Cyrena van Gordon as Papantzin, Arthur Middleton as Ramatzin, Frank Preisch as Canek, and James Goddard as Montezuma.  Although all members of the cast were promoted as young American singers, Lamont, who admittedly first trained and would make most of his career in the United States, was actually of Canadian birth. There were further performances given the same season in Boston and St. Louis.

The New York Times offered mostly praise for the "fresh, young, powerful voices" of the cast; only Goddard was "out of voice," and even he received high marks for his dramatic presentation. The paper's assessment of the work itself, however, although on balance favorable, was not unmixed: "...[W]hile [the] opera lacks somewhat the routine of the theater, and still more the dramatic note, it nevertheless escapes being either mere scholar's music or unsingable." The Times singled out for praise "a fine barbaric dance in the first act," the heroine's aria "Now Fades the Opal Sky" in Act 2, and some ensembles but suggested that more than one segment of the score somewhat outstayed its welcome. The paper also faulted the work for setting the execution in a cave: "The opera should have ended in the open, for the Aztecs worshipped on plateaus, on the pyramid of Cholula, for example, and not in caves." Nonetheless, it deemed the setting appropriately atmospheric for the drama's purposes.

After the performance, both Hadley and Stevens appeared for curtain calls. Fitziu presented Hadley with a large silk American flag, and the "representative audience of New York musicians and society folk" joined in singing as the orchestra played "The Star-Spangled Banner".

References
 The New York Times, "'Isabeau' to Start Chicago Opera Here," January 13, 1918
 The New York Times, "'Romeo and Juliet' Sung," January 27, 1918
 The New York Times, "Hadley's 'Azora' Given," January 28, 1918
 The Virtual Gramophone, biographical sketch of Forrest Lamont.

Operas
English-language operas
Operas by Henry Kimball Hadley
1917 operas
Operas set in Mexico
Aztecs in fiction
Fictional Mexican people

Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma


The 1955 U.S. Open was the 55th U.S. Open, held June 16–19 at the Lake Course of the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California. In one of the greatest upsets in golf history, Jack Fleck, a municipal course pro from Iowa, prevailed in an 18-hole playoff to win his only major title and denied Ben Hogan a record fifth U.S. Open.

Fleck, 32, won two more titles on the PGA Tour and later won the Senior PGA Championship in 1979. He won the U.S. Open with clubs manufactured by Hogan's company.

Hogan, 42, never did win his fifth U.S. Open or a tenth major; he won just one more tour event the rest of his career, in 1959. It was his fourth and final playoff in a major championship, all at 18 holes. Hogan won at the U.S. Open in 1950 but lost twice by a stroke at the Masters, to Byron Nelson in 1942 and Sam Snead in 1954. He repeated as runner-up at the U.S. Open in 1956, and had top ten finishes in 1958, 1959, and 1960. (A pre-tournament favorite in 1957, he withdrew due to a back ailment before teeing off.) When the U.S. Open returned to Olympic in 1966, Hogan finished twelfth at age 53 and received a standing ovation at the 72nd green.

Byron Nelson came out of semi-retirement to play in his final U.S. Open and finished in 28th place. Arnold Palmer made the cut for the first time at the U.S. Open and finished in 21st. For the first time since 1919, Gene Sarazen did not play in the U.S. Open, ending a streak of 31 consecutive appearances.

This was the first U.S. Open at the Lake Course of the Olympic Club; it returned in 1966, 1987, 1998, and 2012.

Course layout

Lake Course

Round summaries

First round
Thursday, June 16, 1955

Source:

Second round
Friday, June 17, 1955

Source:

Third round
Saturday, June 18, 1955 (morning)

Final round
Saturday, June 18, 1955 (afternoon)

After Hogan made par on the 72nd hole to post a 287 total, most observers believed that he had already locked up the championship. Gene Sarazen, providing television commentary, congratulated him on the win and the NBC broadcast went off the air after proclaiming Hogan the champion. Fleck, however, was only a stroke behind playing the 14th. A bogey there, however, dropped him to two back. Fleck then made birdie on 15 and pars at 16 and 17, after a  birdie attempt lipped out. Needing a birdie on 18 to tie Hogan, Fleck played his approach from the edge of the rough to , then knocked in the putt for a 67 and forced an 18-hole playoff on Sunday.

(a) denotes amateur

Playoff
Sunday, June 19, 1955

Despite overwhelming odds against him, Fleck held a two-stroke lead over Hogan at the turn. After a third consecutive birdie at 10, Fleck's lead was three. But after a bogey at 17, the lead had dropped to just a single stroke on the 18th tee. Hogan hooked his drive into the very deep rough and took three strokes to get on the fairway: he made a  putt to save double-bogey, but Fleck's regulation par sealed the upset by three strokes, 69 to 72.

Scorecard

{|class="wikitable" span = 50 style="font-size:85%;
|-
|style="background: Pink;" width=10|
|Birdie
|style="background: PaleGreen;" width=10|
|Bogey
|style="background: Green;" width=10|
|Double bogey
|}
Source:

References

Further reading

External links
USGA Championship Database
USOpen.com - 1955
The Olympic Club

U.S. Open (golf)
Golf in California
Sports competitions in San Francisco
U.S. Open
U.S. Open
U.S. Open
U.S. Open

1955 U.S. Open (golf)


"The Immunity Syndrome" is the eighteenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Robert Sabaroff and directed by Joseph Pevney, it was first broadcast on January 19, 1968.

In the episode, the crew of the Enterprise encounters an energy-draining, space-dwelling organism. The Immunity Syndrome won an Emmy Award for its special effects.

Plot
The Federation starship USS Enterprise receives a garbled message from Starfleet mentioning the USS Intrepid, a Federation starship crewed entirely by Vulcans. First Officer Spock suddenly looks shocked and announces that he felt the Intrepid "die". Starfleet then succeeds in making contact, and orders Captain Kirk to investigate the Gamma 7A system, the Intrepid'''s last known position. Ensign Chekov reports that the sensors show no life readings in the billion-inhabitant system.

Meanwhile, Spock is examined by Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy in sickbay, where he explains he felt the combined shock and terror in the minds of 400 fellow Vulcans aboard the Intrepid as they died. McCoy is amazed that Spock felt anything over the distance involved, but admits there is a lot about Vulcans he still doesn't understand.

Spock returns to the bridge just as Lt. Uhura announces she has lost contact with Starfleet. Kirk has Spock scan a dark zone that appears on the main viewscreen. Suddenly, half the crew are sickened or faint. Spock is unable to determine the nature of the zone, but suggests it is some kind of energy turbulence, and possibly responsible for the death of the system inhabitants and the Intrepid crew. Kirk has Chekov launch a sensor probe into the void. The probe transmits a piercing, high-pitched noise before contact with it is lost.

Kirk orders the ship into the zone, and as it enters, the piercing sound returns and all the stars disappear from the viewscreen. Dr. McCoy then reports that the crew are getting worse, and Chief Engineer Scott reports a loss of power. Spock surmises that the ship has entered a sort of negative energy field that interferes with biological and mechanical processes.

The Enterprise appears to accelerate of its own accord, and the ship's engines seem to operate in reverse: forward thrust slows the ship down. Kirk suggests that all available power be channeled into a massive forward thrust, in the hope of breaking free of the zone, but the effort succeeds only in bringing the ship to a halt.

Their quarry is finally revealed to be a gigantic, multicolored object resembling an amoeba. Kirk launches a sensor probe into it, which reveals that the object is indeed made of protoplasm, and alive. McCoy believes that a crewed probe must be sent into the creature to gather data needed to destroy it, and volunteers himself. Spock insists that he is better qualified.  Kirk is reluctant to send either, arguing that it would be a suicide mission and that if anyone should go it should be he, the captain. But Spock points out that Kirk is not a science specialist and is much better served commanding the Enterprise.

Kirk is then forced to choose which of his two friends to send out, with a realistic probability he won't return. Kirk ultimately chooses Spock, agreeing that he is better equipped to handle the mission. Spock pilots the shuttle through the creature's outer membrane and makes his way toward the nucleus. Eventually, he reports that the creature is ready to reproduce, and suggests a method of destroying it, but the key part of the message is garbled. Kirk and McCoy meet to discuss the situation, and Kirk speculates that if the organism is like an invading virus, then an equivalent of "antibodies" is needed to destroy it.

Kirk takes the Enterprise into the creature's body, and orders Chief Engineer Scott to prepare an antimatter bomb with a timer set for a seven-minute delay. The bomb is fired into the cell's nucleus and the Enterprise backs out using what little power remains. With seconds remaining, Spock's shuttle is finally located and Kirk orders Scott to tow it with a tractor beam. With power levels nearly exhausted, the ship approaches the outer membrane just as the bomb explodes. Both the Enterprise and the shuttle are thrown clear of the organism as it is destroyed. The Enterprise is restored to full power and sustains only minor damage. Kirk, while glancing at a female yeoman, says he looks forward to recreation.

Music
Music from the episode "The Doomsday Machine" was reused in this episode.

Production and reception
When this episode was filmed, George Takei was filming The Green Berets'' and therefore unavailable to portray his character, Lt. Sulu. John Winston's character, Lt. Kyle, occupied Sulu's helmsman's seat, wearing a gold command tunic instead of his usual red engineering tunic that he wore as transporter chief. However, Kirk repeatedly mispronounced his name in this episode as "Cowell".

Robert J. Sawyer of TrekMovie.com felt the episode reminded him too much of other "mindless giant space thingy threatening the galaxy" episodes, but praised the interaction of McCoy and Spock.

References

External links

 "The Immunity Syndrome" Remastered version at TrekMovie.com

Star Trek: The Original Series (season 2) episodes
1968 American television episodes
Films scored by Sol Kaplan
Television episodes directed by Joseph Pevney

The Immunity Syndrome (Star Trek: The Original Series)


Buchanan Street subway station is a station on the Glasgow Subway in Scotland. It serves Buchanan Street, which is popular with shoppers. Close to Buchanan Bus Station and providing interchange with Glasgow Queen Street railway station via a travelator, it is the busiest station on the Subway, with 2.54 million passengers in the 12 months ending 31 March 2005.

When built in 1896 the station had a single island platform serving both tracks. An additional side platform was added as part of the 1977-1980 modernisation scheme. A glass wall was added on one side of the island platform to prevent access to the train that is boarding at the side platform. Each platform has a single stairway linking it to the ticket hall, causing congestion during peak hours due to conflicting passenger movements in the same space. The station was closed due to the 2002 Glasgow floods.

Other than St Enoch it is the only station with an underground ticket hall, and surface buildings are restricted to new mid-street entrance canopy which was rebuilt in 1999 as part of the repaving of Buchanan Street.   This canopy is constructed entirely of structural glass: all beams and columns, the walls and roof are glass.

Part of carriage 41 from the Subway's pre-1977 rolling stock was preserved within the station.

Nearby places:
Buchanan Galleries
University of Strathclyde

Past passenger numbers
 2011/12: 2.484 million annually

References

Glasgow Subway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1896
1896 establishments in Scotland

Buchanan Street subway station


The Meaher–Zoghby House is a historic townhouse in Mobile, Alabama.  The two-story brick structure was built in 1901 for Augustine Meaher.  It retains its original cast iron details and front yard fence.  The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 5, 1984.  In addition to being listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places, it is also a contributing building to the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Mobile, Alabama
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama
Houses in Mobile, Alabama
Houses completed in 1901

Meaher–Zoghby House


In botany and ecology, graminoid refers to a herbaceous plant with a grass-like morphology, i.e. elongated culms with long, blade-like leaves. They are contrasted to forbs, herbaceous plants without grass-like features.

The plants most often referred to include the families Poaceae (grasses in the strict sense), Cyperaceae (sedges), and Juncaceae (rushes). These are not closely related but belong to different clades in the order Poales. The grasses (Poaceae) are by far the largest family with some 12,000 species.

Besides their similar morphology, graminoids share the widespread occurrence and often dominance in open habitats such as grasslands or marshes. They can however also be found in the understory of forests. Sedges and rushes tend to prefer wetter habitats than grasses.

See also
Reed
Seagrass

References

Plant morphology
Plants by habit
Plant life-forms

Graminoid


Carolyn Lynne Steinseifer (born February 12, 1968), later known by her married name Carolyn Bates, is an American former competition swimmer and Olympic champion.  She won gold medals in the women's 100-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter freestyle relay and 4x100-meter medley relay at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

As a 15-year-old at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela, she won gold medals in the 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter medley relays.  As a 17-year-old, she won gold medals in the 200-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter freestyle relay and the 4×200-meter relay, and a silver in the 100-meter freestyle at the 1985 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

Steinseifer attended the University of Texas, where she swam for coach Richard Quick's Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition.  During her college career, she was a member of three of the Lady Longhorns' NCAA national championship relay teams—once in the 800-yard relay (1987) and twice in the 200-yard relay (1987, 1988).  She was also a key points contributor to the Longhorns' NCAA national team championships in 1987 and 1988.

While attending Texas, she continued to represent the United States in international competition.  She won a gold medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, and another gold as a member of the winning U.S. team in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 1989 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo.

Steinseifer was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1999.

She lives outside Portland, Oregon, with her two daughters, Gabby and Miya, and her husband, Ken Blanco.

See also
 List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
 List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
 List of University of Texas at Austin alumni

References

External links

1968 births
Living people
American female freestyle swimmers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Sportspeople from Redwood City, California
Sportspeople from California
Swimmers at the 1983 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1987 Pan American Games
Texas Longhorns women's swimmers
Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Swimmers from Oregon
Pan American Games medalists in swimming
Medalists at the 1983 Pan American Games
Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games

Carrie Steinseifer


William December Williams Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American actor, novelist and painter. He appeared as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise, first in the early 1980s for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), and 36 years later in The Rise of Skywalker (2019), marking one of the longest intervals between onscreen portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history.

Williams was born in New York City, and raised in Harlem along with his twin sister, Loretta. In 1945, he made his Broadway theatre debut at age seven in The Firebrand of Florence. He later graduated from The High School of Music & Art, then won a painting scholarship to the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design, where he won a Hallgarten Prize for painting in the mid-1950s. He returned to acting to fund his art supplies, including stage, films, and television. He continued painting; his work has since been shown in galleries and collections worldwide.

Williams' film debut was in The Last Angry Man (1959), but he came to national attention in the television movie Brian's Song (1971), which earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Actor. He has appeared in at least 70 films over six decades including critically acclaimed and popular movies such as Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Mahogany (1975), both starring Williams and Diana Ross, and Nighthawks (1981). In the 1980s, he was cast in his most enduring role as Lando Calrissian, becoming the first actor of black/African descent with a major on-screen role in the Star Wars franchise, in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). He also voiced Lando in video games, animated series, and the National Public Radio adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. He was inducted into the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame in 1984, and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985. Another franchise relationship started with Batman (1989), playing attorney Harvey Dent, a role that was developed into a villainous alter-ego, Two-Face, which he voiced for The Lego Batman Movie (2017).

Williams's television work includes over sixty credits starting in 1966 including recurring roles over the decades in Gideon's Crossing; Dynasty,  General Hospital: Night Shift; and General Hospital. Numerous cameos and supporting roles included being paired with Marla Gibbs on The Jeffersons, 227, and The Hughleys. Later work included voice acting in the series Titan Maximum (2009), and appearing on the reality show Dancing with the Stars (2014). His work has earned him numerous awards and honors including three NAACP Image Awards, and the NAACP Lifetime Achievement award.

Early life and education
William December Williams Jr. was born in New York City, the son of Loretta Anne (1915–2016), an elevator operator at the Lyceum Theatre and aspiring performer from Montserrat, and William December Williams Sr. (1909–1973), an African-American caretaker, with some Native American ancestry from Texas. He grew up in Harlem on 110th Street, between Lenox and 5th, adjacent to Central Park North–110th Street station. He used to go to Central Park to see the Negro league players and the Cuban baseball league, "They were fantastic, and I wound up working with a lot of those guys," (in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)). He has a twin sister, Loretta, and they were raised by their maternal grandmother while their parents worked several jobs. His mom had studied opera for years, becoming an accomplished opera star who wanted to break into movies; the family was richly cultured, exposing the children early on to drawing, painting, theatre and similar creative experiences; Billy Dee would remain a fan of the arts including opera. In March 1945, he made his Broadway debut at age seven portraying a page in The Firebrand of Florence, Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's operetta starring Lotte Lenya. His mom, who worked at the theatre, volunteered him for the part which he found boring.

Williams attended Booker T. Washington Junior High School where he had dreams of being a painter. He graduated in 1955 from the  LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, where he majored in arts with a focus on visual arts. The school would later be the subject for Fame (1980), and its derivative television series. While there he got a two-year scholarship for the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design in New York—which later changed its name to National Academy of Design—to study with a focus on "classical principles of painting". He was nominated at eighteen or nineteen years old for a Guggenheim Fellowship grant—for "creative ability in the arts," and won a Hallgarten Prize in the mid-1950s. Although he had scholarships to pay for school tuition, he turned to acting to pay for his paints, supplies, and canvasses. His first Broadway theatre "big break" was a play, A Taste of Honey. He continued to struggle as an actor for ten years working as an extra, doing small and large theatre, and "slowly breaking into television and film". During art school he gained interest in the Stanislavsky Method—experiencing a role in contrast to representing it, to mobilize an actor's conscious thought and will to activate emotional response and subconscious behavior—and began studying at the Harlem Actors Workshop. It was run by blacklisted actor Paul Mann who embraced actors of all races; Williams also studied there under Sidney Poitier. Though he first viewed his acting as a way to pay for his art supplies, by the early 1960s he began to "devote all of his energy to performance." In succession, he got an actor agent through a friend, started getting major Off-Broadway roles, then work on Broadway.

Career

Stage

Williams first appeared on Broadway in 1945 in The Firebrand of Florence. He returned to Broadway as an adult in 1960 in the adaptation of The Cool World. He appeared in A Taste of Honey in 1960. A 1976 Broadway production, I Have a Dream, was directed by Robert Greenwald and starred Williams as Martin Luther King Jr. His most recent Broadway appearance was in August Wilson's Fences, as a replacement for James Earl Jones in the role of Troy Maxson in 1988.

Break into film and television
Williams made his film debut in 1959 in The Last Angry Man, opposite Paul Muni, in which he portrayed a delinquent young man. He was frustrated in the 1960s with the "paucity of parts for leading black men," the majority of roles he wanted went to Sidney Poitier. He enjoyed doing theater and television, but "his slow-building film career ate at him." He found LSD, a popular hallucinogenic drug with the era's hippie movement to be a cure, "LSD saved my life ... I wasn't doing it to get high. It let me get inside of myself." Otherwise he is anti-drug.

He rose to stardom after starring in the critically acclaimed television film  Brian's Song (1971), in which he played Chicago Bears star football player Gale Sayers, who stood by his friend Brian Piccolo (James Caan), during Piccolo's struggle with terminal cancer. Both Williams and Caan were nominated for Emmy Awards for best actor for their performances. Williams said the role was the one of which he was most proud "It was a love story, really. Between two guys. Without sex. ... It ended up being a kind of breakthrough in terms of racial division."

Williams' success with Brian's Song earned him a seven-year contract with Motown's Berry Gordy. He became one of America's most well-known black film actors of the 1970s, after starring in a string of critically acclaimed and popular movies, many of them in the "blaxploitation" genre. In 1972, he starred as Billie Holiday's husband Louis McKay in Motown Productions' Academy Award-nominated Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues. Through his portrayal he became "a full-fledged sex symbol, touted as the 'black Clark Gable.'" Diana Ross starred in Lady Sings the Blues opposite Williams; Motown paired the two of them again three years later in the successful follow-up project Mahogany.

1980–present

Williams was cast as Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), becoming the first African-American actor with a role in the Star Wars series. J. J. Abrams, who would direct Williams in the ninth installment film in 2019, noted, "Lando was always written as a complex, contradictory, nuanced character. And Billy Dee played him to suave perfection, ... It wasn't just that people of color were seeing themselves represented; they were seeing themselves represented in a rich, wonderful, intriguing way." He would reprise the role in Return of the Jedi (1983). Between the latter two films, he starred alongside Sylvester Stallone as a cop in the thriller Nighthawks (1981). The charm of his role as Lando Calrissian proved to be popular with audiences. Williams has voiced the character in the 2002 video game Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, the audio dramatization of Dark Empire, the National Public Radio adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, two productions for the Star Wars: Battlefront series, The Lego Movie, and in two episodes of the animated TV series Star Wars Rebels. Some fans were disappointed with Calrissian's absence from the first film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens, but in July 2018 it was announced that he would reprise his role in The Rise of Skywalker (2019), marking one of the longest intervals between onscreen portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history.

Williams co-starred in 1989's Batman as district attorney Harvey Dent, a role that was planned to develop into Dent's alter-ego, the villain Two-Face, in sequels. However, that never came to pass; he was set to reprise the role in the sequel Batman Returns, but his character was deleted and replaced with villain Max Shreck. When Joel Schumacher stepped in to direct Batman Forever, where Two-Face was to be a secondary villain, Schumacher decided to hire Tommy Lee Jones for the role. There was a rumor that Schumacher had to pay Williams a fee in order to hire Jones, but Williams said that it was not true: "You only get paid if you do the movie. I had a two-picture deal with Star Wars. They paid me for that, but I only had a one picture deal for Batman." Williams eventually voiced Two-Face in the 2017 film The Lego Batman Movie.

Williams' television work included a recurring guest-starring role on the short-lived show Gideon's Crossing. He is also known for his advertisements for Colt 45, a  malt liquor, for a five-year period starting in the mid-1980s; he would reprise his spokesperson role in 2016. Williams brushed off criticism—for the subtext of the ad campaign, 'works every time,' and the target audience—of the choice, "I drink, you drink. Hell, if marijuana was legal, I'd appear in a commercial for it." Colt 45 hired Williams "simply because he was so cool," and went from trailing behind Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in barrels produced, to "skyrocketing" a year after the 1986 ads ran to two million barrels in the top spot for malt liquor.

In the 1984–1985 season of Dynasty, he played Brady Lloyd opposite Diahann Carroll. Williams was paired with actress Marla Gibbs on three situation comedies: The Jeffersons (Gibbs's character, Florence, was a major fan of Williams and challenged him on everything because she thought Williams was an imposter); 227 (her character, Mary, pretending to be royalty, met Williams at a banquet); and The Hughleys (Gibbs and Williams portrayed Darryl's parents). In 1992, he portrayed Berry Gordy in The Jacksons: An American Dream. In 1993, Williams made a guest appearance on the spin-off to The Cosby Show, A Different World, as Langston Paige, a grumpy landlord, in a backdoor pilot for his own series. Williams appeared as himself on Martin where he provided Martin Lawrence's character with advice on getting back together with Gina.

Williams made a special guest appearance on the hit sketch comedy show In Living Color in 1990. He portrayed Pastor Dan in an episode of That '70s Show. In this episode, "Baby Don't You Do It" (2004), his character is obsessed with Star Wars, and uses this to help counsel Eric Forman (himself a Star Wars fan) and Donna Pinciotti about his premarital relationship. Williams made a cameo appearance as himself on the television series Lost in the episode "Exposé". He also appears regularly on short clips on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a semi-parody of himself. In February 2006, Williams guest starred as himself in the season 5 episode "Her Story II" of Scrubs, where he plays the godfather of Julie (Mandy Moore). Turk hugs him, calling him "Lando", even though he prefers to be called Billy Dee. Williams played Toussaint Dubois for General Hospital: Night Shift in 2007 and 2008. Williams reprised his role as Toussaint on General Hospital beginning in June 2009. Also in 2009, Williams took on the role of the voice of Admiral Bitchface, the head of the military on the planet Titan, in the Adult Swim animated series Titan Maximum. In July 2010, Williams appeared in the animated series The Boondocks, where he voiced a fictionalized version of himself in the episode "The Story of Lando Freeman".

In February 2011, Williams appeared as a guest star on USA Network's White Collar as Ford, an old friend of Neal Caffrey's landlady June, played by Diahann Carroll. In February 2012, Williams was the surprise guest during a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show spotlighting Diana Ross. Ross and Williams were reunited after having not seen each other in 29 years. In October 2012, Williams appeared as a guest star on NCIS in Season 10 Episode 5 titled "Namesake", as Gibbs's namesake and his father's former best friend, Leroy Jethro Moore. On January 9, 2013, Williams made a cameo appearance as himself on Modern Family, season 4, episode 11 "New Year's Eve".

In 2014, Williams competed on the 18th season of Dancing with the Stars, a reality show/dancing competition partnered with professional dancer Emma Slater. The couple had to withdraw from the competition on the third week due to an injury to Williams's back.

Over the years, Williams has been a featured guest at fan conventions, mostly science fiction ones for his iconic Lando Calrissian role in the Star Wars franchise. Of his fan interactions he has said they have mostly been positive ones, "I love every single moment of it, I'll have an audience for the rest of my life."

Return to painting
In the late 1980s, Williams resumed painting, devoting much of his time to the work. He returned to New York to star in August Wilson's play Fences, replacing James Earl Jones in the lead for four months starting in February 1988. It marked a turning point for him, returning home, and for him, the center of the art scene. He also renewed his friendship with Peter Max, who had also trained and sold art in the city, and renewed Williams' interest in painting. Within a two-year span he "cranked out 120 original works of art".

Williams is the honorary chairman of Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (formerly Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz) in Washington, D.C., which fosters jazz education. The institution has used his artwork each year for its competition programs since 1990. He had his first solo exhibition in 1991, followed by many throughout North America, and, later, the world. Around 1992, Williams, inspired by his friend and fellow New York artist Peter Max who had a teapot collection, started a cookie jar collection. Being an opera fan, he first found a jar in the shape of a singer in an opera gift shop by artisan couple Michael and Shelley Buonaiuto; later buying more than a dozen from their limited lines including ones of jazz artists Josephine Baker and Fats Waller. His 1993 self-portrait is at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.) with a description that he "specializes in acrylic paintings combining traditional brushwork with an airbrushing technique"; he also works in oils. Williams painted a series of impressionistic portraits of the Tuskegee Airmen, the "African-American pilots whose real-life exploits changed the course of American military history." He started the series in the 1990s but when officials from National Air and Space Museum  (NASM) saw them they wanted more, and to use them in an exhibition. In 1999 they were displayed at the African-American Museum of Art, Culture and History in New Orleans, and in early 2000, the NASM in Washington, D.C.

He was commissioned for four paintings—including one of track and field star Jesse Owens sprinting, and another of a pair of boxers in a fight ring—for Nissan that were displayed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1997, he did paintings for Walt Disney Company's Mighty Ducks arena for the Anaheim Ducks. From a description, circa late 1990s, at one of the galleries that carries his work, "Billy's paintings are usually acrylic on canvas, applied with brush and airbrush. He also works with collage elements and has even created three-dimensional canvasses incorporating ceramic, Lucite, and neon light."

He got permission from Star Wars creator George Lucas to sell lithographs of a montage of Williams' iconic character from the franchise, Lando Calrissian. As of 2001 his paintings sold for an average of $10,000 to $35,000 (). "I call my paintings 'abstract reality,'" said Williams. "Sometimes I refer to them as 'impressions/expression.' It's the best way I can explain them." In early 2001 Williams was one of the celebrity artists painting seven-foot angel sculptures as part of the Oscar Academy's sponsoring L.A.'s "A Community of Angels" charity project. The art angels were displayed for months then auctioned to raise funds for L.A. youth programs. In his online gallery biography, he states, "[an] interest in Eastern philosophy characterizes his images, first to record the physical reality, and then to uncover through the application of light, color and perspective. He cites Edward Hopper, M. C. Escher—the Dutch Master, Frida Kahlo, Tamara de Lempicka, Thomas Hart Benton, and the exciting, vibrant forms of African art as some of his strongest influences." Williams' work is included at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

In a 2001 interview he said, "Either I want to drop dead with a paint brush in my hand or I want to drop dead doing a soliloquy on the stage, I love acting. I love it. I take my acting very seriously, but I also find it fun. To do what children do and get paid for it is a lot of fun. I'm very fortunate." In late 2007, he was a guest artist on a ten-day Princess Cruise liner. They bought about eighty pieces which they put on their cruises and then auctioned off. He was commissioned for another set of Disney paintings to be unveiled in 2011 at Disney's D23 Expo, also in Anaheim, California. For those, he set iconic Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Goofy in jazz music settings. In a 2011 interview he said, "I mostly create abstract paintings. I paint what's obvious to the eye and then incorporate an abstract point of view, which allows me a lot of space to play in. I work a lot with acrylic and oils, mostly acrylic right now and do a lot of line drawings." In a September 2015 interview, he said he finds painting "cathartic" compared to collective film work, "When you're painting you just lock yourself up in your little private world. And it's all about you and your imagination and nobody else interfering with that. It's a great exercise because you really start discovering who you are and what you are without a lot of assistance … and the moment you come up with something interesting it's a success that's really based on your own personal, private sensibility." As of 2019 he has made around 300 paintings, which Williams sees as his legacy.

Other ventures

Let's Misbehave
In 1961, Williams recorded a jazz LP produced by Prestige Records entitled Let's Misbehave, on which he sang swing standards. The album, which was a commercial success, earned Williams a spot on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983). The album included the first-ever vocal recording of "A Taste of Honey", a song by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow later covered by The Beatles on their 1963 debut album Please Please Me. Williams was the first to sing the song in the U.S., on the Broadway stage with Joan Plowright as part of the original Broadway production of the play A Taste of Honey. Williams said of the album, "Recording it was sort of a lark. I did some singing in clubs, for a moment, and then I stopped. I have too much respect for singers to really think that I'm a singer." The album was re-released on CD, download and streaming platforms in 2014.

Thirty years later, in the early 1990s, he sang on a "celebrity-packed charity single," "Voices That Care," to honor U.S. troop of Operation Desert Storm, the 1990–1991 Gulf War, and supporting the International Red Cross. The single reached number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100, and number six on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks. Through sales and plays of the song Williams and the other celebrities became platinum-recording and Billboard-charting artists.

Video games
Williams voiced Lando Calrissian in the video game Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Battlefront as well as the spin-off Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron. However, the Battlefront appearances were archive footage and his voice-appearance in Elite Squadron is left uncredited or unknown. He also played a live-action character, GDI Director Redmond Boyle, in the game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, which was released in March 2007. This made him the second former Star Wars actor to appear in a Command & Conquer game, with the first being James Earl Jones as GDI General James Solomon in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. Williams voiced Lando Calrissian in 2015's Star Wars: Battlefront for the DLC pack Bespin and its 2017 sequel Star Wars Battlefront II. In the 2016 game Let It Die, Williams voices Colonel Jackson, who acts as the second major boss players face.

Internet
In 2008, Williams reprised his role as Lando Calrissian to appear in a video on Funny or Die in a mock political ad defending himself for leader of the Star Wars galaxy against vicious attack ads from Emperor Palpatine. Williams was a cast member of Diary of a Single Mom, a web-based original series directed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Townsend. The series debuted on PIC.tv in 2009.

Books

 PSI/Net (1999), , novel co-written with Rob MacGregor based on an actual government program of psychic spying
JUST/In Time (2001),
Batman '89 (2021–22), a comic book using the likeness of Williams and showing the transformation Harvey Dent into Two-Face.

Personal life
Williams has been married three times, and has three children, and two grandchildren. His first marriage was to Audrey Sellers in 1959. They were divorced some years later, after which he apparently became depressed. He stated that "there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed, my first marriage was on the rocks." They had a son, Corey Dee Williams, born in 1960. In 1968, Williams married model and actress Marlene Clark in Hawaii. They divorced in 1971. He moved from New York City to California in 1971.

He married Teruko Nakagami on December 27, 1972. She brought a daughter, Miyako (born 1962), from her previous marriage to musician Wayne Shorter. Together they have a daughter, Hanako (born 1973). In 1984, he bought a "Zen-like contemporary" home in the Trousdale Estates neighborhood of Beverly Hills, California; he sold it in 2012. He filed for an amicable divorce from Nakagami in 1993, but they reconciled, and were again living together by 1997.

Williams was arrested on January 30, 1996, after allegedly assaulting his live-in girlfriend, whom the police did not identify. He posted a US$50,000 bail. L.A. Police said the woman had minor bruises and scratches. The district attorney's office filed misdemeanor charges of spousal battery and dissuading a witness. The woman later stated that the incident was her fault and hoped the police would drop the case. In a plea bargain, Williams agreed to undergo 52 counseling sessions. In a 2019 interview, Williams says he never slapped or abused women.

In late 2019, Williams talked about his feminine side in an interview, and used masculine and feminine pronouns to refer to himself. Media outlets speculated that Williams might be gender fluid, but he clarified that he was referring to anima and animus: the feminine side of men and the masculine side of women in Jungian psychology.

Honors and awards

 Primetime Emmy [Nominee] (1972) for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in "Gale Sayers" in Brian's Song (1971)
Inducted into the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame in 1984.
 Hollywood Walk of Fame
 Star on the Walk of Fame (1985) at 1521 Vine Street.
 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
 Saturn Award [Nominee] (1981) for Best Supporting Actor in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
 Saturn Award [Nominee] (1984) for Best Supporting Actor in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
 Film Independent Spirit Awards
 Independent Spirit Award [Nominee] (2001) for Best Supporting Male in The Visit (2000)
Multicultural Motion Picture Association (Diversity Awards): Circa 2000–2001, Lifetime Achievement Honor
Black Reel Awards: Nom 2002 Theatrical - Best Supporting Actor for The Visit
 NAACP Image Awards (NAACP)
 Image Award [Winner] (1972) for Best Actor - Motion Picture in Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
 Image Award [Winner] (1977) for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)
 Image Award [Nominee] (2001) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture in The Visit (2000)
 Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to the arts in 2006.
 Indie Series Awards
 ISA [Winner] (2010) for Best Performance by a Guest Actor in Diary of a Single Mom (2009)
 ISA [Nominee] (2011) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in Diary of a Single Mom (2009)
 TV Land Awards
 TV Land Award [Winner] (2006) for Blockbuster Movie of the Week In Brian's Song (1971)
 TV Land Award [Nominee] (2003) for Most Memorable Male Guest Star in a Comedy as Himself In The Jeffersons (1975)
 African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA)
 Special Achievement Award [Winner] (2012)
 Behind the Voice Actors Awards
 BTVA Feature Film Voice Acting Award [Nominee] (2018) for Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film in The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
 American Black Film Festival
 (2018) Hollywood Legacy Award

Notes

References

Further reading
 Nishikawa, Kinohi. "Billy Dee Williams". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 1742–43.

External links

  (archive)

1937 births
Living people
20th-century African-American writers
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American writers
21st-century African-American writers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American writers
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Billy Dee Williams


James Martin Pacelli McGuinness (; 23 May 1950 – 21 March 2017) was an Irish republican politician and statesman for Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles. McGuinness was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to January 2017.

McGuinness served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Ulster from 1997 until his resignation in 2013. Like all Sinn Féin MPs, McGuinness followed abstentionism in the Westminster Parliament. Working alongside US Special Envoy George Mitchell, McGuinness was also one of the main architects of the Good Friday Agreement which formally cemented the Northern Ireland peace process and established the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In 1998, McGuinness was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Mid Ulster. He served as Minister of Education in the Northern Ireland Executive under First Minister David Trimble from 1999 to 2002. Following the St Andrews Agreement and the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, he became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 8 May 2007, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley becoming First Minister. In 2008 and 2016, he was reappointed as deputy First Minister to serve alongside Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster, respectively. He was Sinn Féin's candidate for President of Ireland in the 2011 Irish presidential election.

In the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election, McGuinness was elected as the MLA for Foyle. On 9 January 2017, McGuinness resigned as deputy First Minister in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal. He announced on 19 January that he would not be standing for re-election in the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election due to ill health. He reportedly suffered from amyloidosis, a condition that attacks the vital organs, and retired shortly before his death on 21 March 2017, aged 66.

Provisional IRA activity
McGuinness acknowledged that he was a former IRA member, but stated that he left the IRA in 1974. He originally joined the Official IRA, unaware of the split at the December 1969 Army Convention, switching to the Provisional IRA soon after. By the start of 1972, at the age of 21, he was second-in-command of the IRA in Derry, a position he held at the time of Bloody Sunday, when 14 civil rights protesters were killed in the city by British soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

During the Saville Inquiry into the events of that day, Paddy Ward stated he had been the leader of the Fianna, the youth wing of the IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday. He said that McGuinness and an anonymous IRA member gave him bomb parts that morning. He said that his organisation intended to attack city centre premises in Derry on the same day. In response, McGuinness said the statements were "fantasy", while Gearóid Ó hEára (formerly Gerry O'Hara), a Derry Sinn Féin councillor, stated that he and not Ward was the Fianna leader at the time.

The inquiry concluded that, although McGuinness was "engaged in paramilitary activity" at the time of Bloody Sunday and had probably been armed with a Thompson submachine gun, there was insufficient evidence to make any finding other than they were "sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire".

McGuinness negotiated alongside Gerry Adams with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Willie Whitelaw, in 1972. In 1973, he was convicted by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court, after being arrested near a car containing  of explosives and nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition. He refused to recognise the court, and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. In court, he declared his membership of the Provisional IRA without equivocation: "We have fought against the killing of our people... I am a member of Óglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it".

After his release, and another conviction in the Republic of Ireland for IRA membership in 1974, he became increasingly prominent in Sinn Féin, the political wing of the republican movement. He was in indirect contact with British intelligence during the 1981 hunger strikes, and again in the early 1990s. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in 1982, representing Londonderry. He was the second candidate elected after Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume. As with all elected members of Sinn Féin and the SDLP, he did not take up his seat. On 9 December 1982, McGuinness, Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison were banned from entering Great Britain under the Prevention of Terrorism Act by the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw.

In August 1993, he was the subject of a two-part special by The Cook Report, a Central TV investigative documentary series presented by Roger Cook. It accused him of continuing involvement in IRA activity, of attending an interrogation and of encouraging Frank Hegarty, an informer, to return to Derry from a safe house in England. Hegarty's mother Rose appeared on the programme to tell of telephone calls to McGuinness and of Hegarty's subsequent murder. McGuinness denied her account and denounced the programme saying "I have never been in the IRA. I don't have any sway over the IRA".

In 2005, Michael McDowell, the Irish Tánaiste, stated McGuinness, along with Gerry Adams and Martin Ferris, were members of the seven-man IRA Army Council. McGuinness denied this, saying he was no longer an IRA member. Experienced Troubles journalist Peter Taylor presented further apparent evidence of McGuinness's role in the IRA in his documentary Age of Terror, shown in April 2008. In his documentary, Taylor alleges that McGuinness was the head of the IRA's Northern Command and had advance knowledge of the IRA's 1987 Remembrance Day bombing, which left 12 people dead.

Chief negotiator and Minister of Education

He became Sinn Féin's chief negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace process negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement.  At the time of his death, former US President Bill Clinton noted that McGuinness was the one who personally oversaw the agreement's arms decommissioning phase.  Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also acknowledged the leading role which McGuinness had in ensuring the agreement would be enforced.

He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996 representing Foyle. Having contested Foyle unsuccessfully at the 1983, 1987 and 1992 Westminster elections, he became MP for Mid Ulster in 1997 and after the agreement was concluded, was returned as a member of the Assembly for the same constituency. He was nominated by his party for a ministerial position in the power-sharing executive, where he became Minister of Education. One of his acts as Minister of Education was his decision to scrap the 11-plus exam, which he had failed as a child. He was re-elected to the Westminster Parliament in 2001, 2005 and 2010.

In May 2003, transcripts of telephone calls between McGuinness and British officials including Mo Mowlam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, were published in a biography of McGuinness entitled From Guns to Government by Kathryn Johnston and Liam Clarke. The tapes had been made by MI5 and the authors of the book were arrested under the Official Secrets Act. The conversations showed an easy and friendly relationship between McGuinness and Powell. He joked with Powell about unionist MPs while Mowlam referred to him as "babe" and discussed her difficulties with Blair. In another transcript, he praised Bill Clinton to Gerry Adams.

St Andrews Agreement and deputy First Minister

In the weeks following the St Andrews Agreement, the four biggest parties—the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP—indicated their choice of ministries in the Executive and nominated members to fill them. The Assembly convened on 8 May 2007 and Paisley and McGuinness were nominated as First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively.

On 12 May Sinn Féin agreed to take up three places on the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and nominated three MLAs to take them.

On 8 December 2007, while visiting President of the United States George W. Bush in the White House with the Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley, McGuinness said to the press, "Up until the 26 March this year, Ian Paisley and I never had a conversation about anything—not even about the weather—and now we have worked very closely together over the last seven months and there's been no angry words between us.... This shows we are set for a new course."

2011 Irish presidential campaign

On 16 September 2011 McGuinness was announced as the Sinn Féin candidate in the 2011 Irish presidential election. In the election held on 27 October, McGuinness placed third in the first preference vote, behind Michael D. Higgins and Seán Gallagher.

McGuinness was the only candidate ineligible to vote in the election as, although an Irish citizen, he was not ordinarily a resident in the Republic of Ireland. Following the election, McGuinness formally returned to the role of deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 31 October.

Resignation from the House of Commons
On 30 December 2012 McGuinness announced that he had formally resigned as the MP for Mid-Ulster stating "I have served formal notice of my resignation from the position of MP for Mid-Ulster with immediate effect. This is in line with my party's commitment to end double jobbing." To do this, he was made Steward of the Manor of Northstead on 2 January 2013 by Chancellor George Osborne, making him an employee of the Crown and thus ineligible for membership of the House of Commons.

Resignation as deputy First Minister

In November 2016, a scandal came to light surrounding the Renewable Heat Incentive, an energy incentive championed by Arlene Foster when she was Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Incentives in 2012. The incentive would cost the Northern Ireland Executive £480m over 20 years, and was marred by allegations of fraud, which were not acknowledged or acted upon by Foster or the DUP. McGuinness and others in Sinn Féin called for Foster to step aside as First Minister to allow for independent inquiries, but she refused. She made a statement before the assembly on 19 December without McGuinness' approval (as required under the power-sharing agreement), resulting in Sinn Féin and the opposition parties all walking out of the assembly.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams indicated on 8 January 2017 that McGuinness could resign, thus vacating both his and Foster's offices, if Foster did not agree to temporarily step aside to allow an independent inquiry. McGuinness resigned the following day; in his statements to the press, he said "Today is the right time to call a halt to the DUP's arrogance", and said that Foster had a "clear conflict of interest" in the affair. Another reason cited for his resignation was the decision by DUP Minister for Communities Paul Givan to remove £50,000 in funding from the Líofa Gaeltacht Bursary scheme, a yearly programme that allowed 100 school-age children to travel to the Donegal Gaeltacht to learn the Irish language. Sinn Féin refused to nominate a successor to McGuinness before 16 January, resulting in the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire, calling for new elections scheduled for 2 March. McGuinness subsequently announced that he would not run for re-election, due to ill health.

Personal life
One of McGuinness's middle names, Pacelli, is after Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli).

McGuinness attended St. Eugene's Primary School and later the Christian Brothers technical college, leaving school at the age of 15.

McGuinness married Bernadette Canning in 1974; they had four children, two girls and two boys. He was a fan of the Derry Gaelic football and hurling teams and played both sports when he was younger. He grew up just 50 metres from Celtic Park, the home of Derry's Gaelic Athletic Association. His older brother Tom played Gaelic football for Derry. He supported Derry City F.C. where his younger brother Paul played for the Candystripes.

McGuinness supported Manchester United from the age of eight. McGuinness also had an interest in cricket – sometimes extending his support to the England cricket team, as well as that of Ireland.

In March 2019, McGuinness was posthumously awarded a certificate of honour by mayor of San Francisco London Breed for his "courageous service in the military." The nomination had been made by the United Irish Societies who had appointed him honorary marshal in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Breed apologised two days later following controversy.

Health concerns and death

In December 2016, McGuinness was advised against making a planned visit to China on medical grounds, initially announcing that this was due to "unforeseen personal circumstances." After subsequent tests, he was told that he was suffering from "a very serious illness." McGuinness and Sinn Féin declined to give details of his illness to the media. In January 2017, The Irish Times disclosed that McGuinness was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare incurable disease that affects organs. McGuinness complained that the Times had breached his privacy and that the paper had inaccurately reported the condition as genetic, thereby causing distress to his family.

On 6 March 2017, McGuinness was hospitalised at Derry's Altnagelvin Area Hospital due to ill health. He died on 21 March, at the age of 66.

See also
Northern Ireland peace process
Operation Taurus

References

Further reading
 Clarke, Johnston; Clarke, Liam. (2003). Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government. Mainstream.

External links

 Sinn Féin profile

30 May 1972: Official IRA declares ceasefire. A young Martin McGuinness gives the Provisional IRA's reaction – VIDEO
Martin McGuinness interviewed by James Macintyre on NewStatesman
McGuinness' Record As IRA Chief Of Staff

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Martin McGuinness


James Crossley Raymond (February 25, 1917 – October 14, 1981) was an American comic strip artist and the younger brother of Flash Gordon artist Alex Raymond. He was also the great-uncle of actors Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon.

Biography
Born in Riverside, Connecticut and raised in New Rochelle, New York, Raymond's first cartoons were published in his high school newspaper. In 1935, he started as an assistant on the Blondie comic strip, mostly as a replacement for his brother, who had been working on Blondie for three years before leaving to start his own strips.

Initially, Raymond's responsibilities were quite minor, but by 1937, when the first son of Blondie creator Chic Young died of jaundice, Raymond was considered experienced enough to take over both writing and drawing the strip for a year.

In 1938, Chic Young returned from his sabbatical, resuming his place as the main writer of Blondie. Raymond continued to play a major role in creating the artwork, in addition to a short stint assisting his brother Alex on Jungle Jim around 1944. In 1950, due to Chic's diminishing eyesight, Raymond permanently became the lead artist of Blondie and began to develop the distinctive style that the strip uses to this day.

Chic Young died in 1973 and his son Dean, who had been assisting with the writing for about ten years, took over as head writer.  Raymond continued as the artist and began sharing a byline credit with Dean soon after.

Raymond's health began to fail in 1979, and he died in late 1981 from cancer. After his death, he was succeeded by Mike Gersher, who had assisted him for about 17 years.  All Blondie artists since that time have stuck closely to the style that Jim Raymond refined, with small modifications to keep props and clothing styles contemporary.

References

Further reading

External links
Lambiek: Jim Raymond

1917 births
1981 deaths
American comics artists
American comic strip cartoonists
Artists from New Rochelle, New York
Deaths from cancer in Florida

Jim Raymond