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Just FYI : Amazon CEO Was World’s Richest For A Minute
Jeff Bezos ($90.9 billion) Vs. Bill Gates ($90.7 billion).
Foundation Will Honor Slave That Taught Jack Daniel How To Make Whiskey
Nathan ‘Nearest’ Green was head stiller, commonly referred to now as a master distiller. He is known as being the master distiller who taught distilling techniques to Jack Daniel, founder of the Jack Daniel Tennessee whiskey distillery, the first master distiller for Jack Daniel Distillery and the first African-American master distiller on record in the United States.
Once upon a time, back when Amazon only sold books, Bill Gates was the world’s richest person.
To state the obvious, Ama- zon outgrew the book game. And on Thursday morning, its founder Jeff Bezos briefly eclipsed the Microsoft co-founder as the world’s richest person.
That was thanks to Ama- zon’s soaring value, shares of which hit $1,065.92 Thursday morning, bumping Bezos’ net worth up to $90.9 billion. Per Bloomberg, Gates’ net worth sits at around $90.7 billion.
Bezos didn’t stay on top for long, however. Amazon shares closed down Thursday evening after an earnings
miss, knocking Bezos back to number two.
Had Amazon’s stock closed high enough, Bezos would have officially replaced Gates atop the Bloomberg Billion- aires Index, a spot Gates first seized in 1995 when the then- 39-year-old’s fortune hit $12.9 billion.
Gates’ (first) reign as “world’s richest person” came to an end in 2007, when he systematically began giving tens of billions of dollars to charity.
Bezos’ wealth has soared $24.5 billion so far this year, thanks primarily to his 17 per- cent ownership of Amazon, which is now valued at more than twice as much as Wal- mart.
Fawn Weaver created the Nearest Green Foundation, an organization that will honor Nathan “Nearest” Green, the slave who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.
The initiative was started b y Weaver, a New York Times best-selling author who plans to honor Green by “in- cluding a museum, memorial park, book about his life and college scholarships for his de- scendants,” according to a statement from the founda- tion.
The first people to get the scholarships will be Matthew McGilberry and Marcus Butler, who are set to attend college this fall.
Weaver was inspired by Green, a Lynchburg, Ten- nessee native, after she went on an international business trip with her husband and, “she read and was struck by the narrative – a slave whose sig- nificance in the Tennessee whiskey industry was uncov- ered and acknowledged.
As she dug deeper, she real- ized the story was not about just two men, but rather an en- tire community of African- Americans and whites in the South living and working in harmony.”
“The idea that there were positive stories out there of Whites and Blacks working side by side, through and be-
yond the Civil War, resonated with me,” Weaver stated. “I liked the story of Jack Daniel, but Nearest Green’s story and the com- munity at large really stayed with me.”
Now, the 300-acre farm where the distillery once was located is owned by Weaver and her husband.
The purpose of the founda- tion is not to just pay homage to Green, but to make sure his story isn’t forgotten. And that starts with artifacts being transported to the Smithson- ian National Museum of African-American History and Culture in the District of Co- lumbia.
Appeals Court: Flint Residents CAN Sue The State Of Michigan
The residents of Flint, MI have been fighting to get compensa- tion since finding out that their water was contaminated.
Oldest Living Tuskegee Airman Recently
Talked About ‘Racism’ Then And Now
A federal appeals court de- cided on Friday that Flint resi- dents who were exposed to contaminated water can take legal action against the state of Michigan and local officials.
In a unanimous 3-0 deci- sion, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decided to overrule a judge who dismissed the cases of two residents that sued over the tainted water, the out- let writes. The two lawsuits will go back to U. S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara in Ann Arbor.
They are just two of several cases filed in local and federal courts related to the water cri-
sis.
Melissa Mays, a Detroit
activist, told the Detroit Free Press that the court’s decision is a major step towards justice for Flint residents who were plagued by the contaminated water. According to the outlet Royal Oak attorney Michael Pitt, who represents residents in the community, echoed her sentiments.
The state of Michigan has racked up millions in legal fees in relation to the water crisis. Nearly $14 million of the state’s funds has been allo- cated towards acquiring lawyers.
DETROIT, MI — Sgt. Pre- ston Jowers, the oldest liv- ing member of the Tuskegee Airmen at the age of 102, re- cently spoke out about racism decades after he helped to de- segregate the U.S. Armed Forces.
The legendary military pilot said that the racial dis- crimination that he experi- enced flying with his fellow servicemen in the nation’s first all-Black aviation unit during World War II is still a major problem that “breaks his heart,” People reports.
“I just have to ask, ‘Why?’” Jowers, who now lives in the American House inde- pendent senior living com- munity in Southfield, Michigan, told People. “We proved all those years ago that Black men and women weren’t dummies, we showed the nation that we are capa- ble of doing a job and doing it well, but racism — it just has- n’t stopped.”
Jowers was 27 when he got drafted during WWII
Preston Jowers, 102, says racism ‘just hasn’t stopped’.
after growing up in Douglas, Georgia. His main duties as a Tuskegee Airman were to ensure that all plane engines and instruments were in good condition.
However, his time as an airman was rife with racism, People writes:
“We couldn’t eat together, we couldn’t fight the war with white men,” he recalls. “...It
was some of the worst segre- gation I’d ever seen...So what we did was stop and put God on our side and try to love each other — and that’s what weneedtodonowasacoun- try.”
The Tuskegee airman re- ceived an honorary discharge and later went into the truck- ing business. He got married in 1943 and had five children.
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