Scoey Mitchell, African American Actor

Scoey Mitchell (born March 12, 1930) is an American actor, writer and TV director known for frequent appearances on game shows, including Match Game and Tattletales. He starred in the short-lived series Barefoot in the Park (based on the Neil Simon play), and had a recurring role on Rhoda. Occasionally his last name is billed as "Mitchlll". He also created two short lived NBC TV series, Me and Mrs. C and 13 East. He appeared as Richard Pryor's father in the film Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling.

Mitchell was born on March 12, 1930, in Newburgh, New York. He started his career on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967.^[1] Mitchell was in What's It All About, World?as himself in 1969.^[2][3]

He would guest star in many television series such as The Mothers-in-Law, Here Come the Brides, That Girl, The Odd Couple, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Baretta. Mitchell starred in several made-for-TV-Movies such as Voyage of the Yes,^[4] Cops,^[5] and Cindy.^[6] He also turned to directing television with such as Me & Mrs. C. in 1984^[7] and episodes of 13 East in 1989–90. Mitchell wrote for television and made-for-TV-Movies such as The Scoey Mitchlll Show in 1972,^[7] Just a Little More Love in 1983,^[8] and Handsome Harry's.^[9] In addition, he ventured into production of television and made-for-TV-Movies such as Grambling's White Tiger in 1981,^[10] Gus Brown and Midnight Brewster in 1985,^[11] and Miracle at Beekman's Place in 1988.^[12] Mitchell also was on a number of television shows as himself such as Match Game from 1974–79, Super Password in 1988, The Joey Bishop Show1968–69, The Hollywood Squares in 1968, and Tattletales in 1974.

In September 1970, ABC cast Mitchell in Barefoot in the Park based on the Neil Simon Broadway play of the same name. The series cast members were predominantly black, making it the first American television sitcom since Amos 'n' Andy to have a predominantly black cast (Vito Scotti was the sole major white character). Barefoot in the Park had also previously been a successful 1967 film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.^[13] It was thought by ABC that placing Barefoot in the Park behind Bewitched would do well, but because that show was already in a slump Barefoot in the Park never developed high numbers for the network. During its first few episodes, Barefoot in The Park developed behind-the-scenes strife that sealed its fate: Mitchell was fired due to "differences of opinion" with the series' producers. Rather than replace Mitchell with another actor -- and already disenchanted with the low ratings -- ABC decided to cancel Barefoot in the Park in December 1970. In 1986, Mitchell was in Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, a semi-autobiographical film about Richard Pryor.^[14] In 2017, he returned to acting in A Kindred Soul.

Grover Mitchell, Jazz Trombonist Who Led the Count Basie Orchestra

Grover Curry Mitchell (March 17, 1930 in Whatley, Alabama – August 6, 2003 in New York City) was a jazz trombonist who led the Count Basie Orchestra.

Mitchell was born in Alabama, but he moved with his parents to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when he was eight. He played the bugle in school and wanted to play trumpet, but the band needed a trombonist and Mitchell's long arms fit the task. He was a member of the school's orchestra with Ahmad Jamal and Dakota Staton.^[1] At sixteen, he played with King Kolax's territory band in Indiana.^[2]

In 1951 he joined the U.S. Marines and played in a military band.^[1] After being discharged in 1953, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked with Earl Hines, Lionel Hampton, and Duke Ellington.^[2] From 1962–1970, he was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. Mitchell had been a fan of Tommy Dorsey, and Basie told him he sounded like Dorsey. He spent the next decade working in television and movies, then returned to Basie's orchestra in 1980 and remained with it until Basie's death in 1984. Thad Jones became leader of the orchestra, followed by Frank Foster, then Mitchell in 1995.^[2][3]

As bandleader, Mitchell won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Live at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (1996) and Count Plays Duke (1998)^[3]

Dwike Mitchell, American piano player and teacher

Dwike Mitchell (born Ivory Mitchell Jr.; February 14, 1930) was an American piano player and teacher. He began his career as pianist for the Lionel Hampton Orchestra before joining Willie Ruff to form The Mitchell-Ruff Duo jazz group.^[1]

Mitchell was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida. He began playing piano around the age of three after his father, who had a job driving a garbage truck, brought home an old piano discarded by its owner. With the help of his mother, who made him play exercises and scales, and a cousin, who had been taking piano lessons herself, Mitchell soon displayed an exceptional aptitude for the instrument. He began performing in public at the age of five. His mother, a soloist in her church choir, needed an accompanist and gave the job to her young son. Before long he was playing for the entire Sunday morning service, a role he would continue to perform through the age of seventeen.^[2]:24–26

In the spring of 1946, Mitchell enlisted in the armed services and eventually was stationed at Lockbourne Air Force Base. Lockbourne, at that time an all-black facility, was renowned for its excellent music program, and in particular its concert band and legendary bandmaster John Brice. This proved to be a major step in Mitchell's musical education. Assigned to the band, he met an older musician, Sergeant Proctor, who suggested that Mitchell "learn the Grieg A Minor Concerto and play it with the concert band."^[2]:74 Still a slow reader of music, Mitchell had never before seen a concerto score. But with the help of another pianist at the base, Captain Alvin Downing, he eventually mastered the Grieg score and played the work with the concert band.^[2]:72–75

It was also at Lockbourne that Mitchell was introduced to the music of Rachmaninoff, whose compositions would influence Mitchell as he developed his unique jazz piano style. A pilot who went by the nickname "Flaps" had recordings of virtually every work Rachmaninoff had written. Mitchell later told a writer that, after hearing the first of those recordings, he "began to cry. . . . The chords . . . go through incredible progressions, and they're also very jazz-oriented."^[2]:75–76

Following his discharge from the Army, Mitchell enrolled in the Philadelphia Musical Academy, where he studied with Hungarian-born pianist Agi Jambor. Under her tutelage, Mitchell learned the Khachaturian Piano Concerto and performed it with the Academy's orchestra.^[3]

After graduating from the Academy, Mitchell joined the orchestra of the renowned jazz musician Lionel Hampton. Hampton had heard Mitchell play at Lockbourne five years earlier and told him at the time that he wanted him as his pianist.^[2]:132 Mitchell had abandoned his given name, Ivory, because of its popular association with piano keys. His new professional name, Dwike, was his mother's suggestion, based on several family names.^[4]

In 1954 Mitchell was reunited with French horn player Willie Ruff, whom Mitchell had befriended when both were stationed at Lockbourne. Ruff had just received a master's degree in music from Yale and was considering offers from two symphony orchestras. He had been watching Lionel Hampton's orchestra perform on the Ed Sullivan television show and recognized Mitchell when the camera panned to the pianist. Ruff immediately phoned the television station, and in the ensuing conversation Mitchell convinced Ruff to abandon his symphony plans and instead join the Hampton orchestra.^[5]:227

In 1955 the pair left the orchestra to form the Mitchell-Ruff jazz duo. The duo placed an emphasis on introducing American jazz music in parts of the world unfamiliar with the genre. Most notable were visits to the Soviet Union in 1959 and to China in 1981. On the former trip they made a pretext of performing with the Yale Russian Chorus, jazz being prohibited at the time by the Soviet government. In fact, they held two jazz concerts at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.^[6] In appreciation for the duo's performances, Mitchell and Ruff were invited to attend the Bolshoi Theater to see the final performance of the Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova.^{[5]:301–303} The 1981 trip to China marked the first time Americans had played and conducted workshops on jazz in that country after the Cultural Revolution.^[1]

Throughout his time with the duo, Mitchell maintained a residence in New York City and a parallel career teaching piano there. He remained in touch with his childhood hometown of Dunedin, giving concerts at both the University of South Florida and Dunedin High School. He also went back in 1983 to spend time with his dying father.^[1] In 2012, after becoming ill, he returned to his native South, spending his last months in Jacksonville, Florida. He died on April 7, 2013, of pancreatic disease.^[4]

Charlene Mitchell, African American Civil Rights Activist

Charlene Alexander Mitchell (born c. 1930) is an African-American international socialist, feminist, labor and civil rights activist. Formerly a member of the Communist Party USA, which she joined at 16 – emerging as one of the most influential leaders in the party from the late 1950s to the 1980s^[1] – she now belongs to the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS).

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charlene Alexander (Mitchell) migrated with her family to Chicago.^[1] During the Second World War she grew up in the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses and took classes in the Moody Bible Institute.^[1]

At the conference on Black Women And The Radical Tradition held "in tribute to Charlene Mitchell" at Brooklyn College Graduate Center^[2] in 2009, Genna Rae McNeil recounted the origins of Mitchell's involvement in political activism. "I probably have been trying to be an organizer most of my life," Mitchell observed to McNeil in 1995. McNeil went on to relate that:

...at age 7 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charlene's mother's illness necessitated that Charlene take several busses for one of the scariest trips on which she had ever been thus far in her life. She was on her way to the Federal jail to visit her labor-activist father. After a long ride with several transfers, she arrived so late at the Federal jail that the guards deemed it too late for her to really have any kind of visit. Technically, at the time of her arrival, visiting hours were not over, and Charlene at age 7 argued the point, protesting the guards' decision which, if implemented, would have prevented her from visiting her father and delivering a basket of items her mother had entrusted to her for him. Through what she remembers and describes as "hollering and demanding", she managed to persuade the armed guard to let her go up in the jail elevator at the very end of visiting hours then, and after she "hollered" some more, she persuaded the guard that visiting her father with the glass between them was completely unacceptable, and made it impossible for her to deliver the basket. The guards held the basket and let her go into the room where there were table visits permitted providing visitors remained on their side of the table. As soon as Charlene's father came out and sat down, Charlene jumped around the table and sat on his lap. The guards threw up their hands, but she was not finished yet. She kept talking to them about the basket, telling the guards they could not go away with her father's basket, until they finally agreed that her father could see the basket before they took it back for inspection. In their very next conversation Charlene's mother and father had, Charlene's father told her mother 'never let Charlene come again'. It was too hard on him and the jailers would never get over it.

Mitchell's early civil rights activism included organizing, in 1943 at the age of 13, both black and white teenagers in pickets and other actions at the Windsor Theatre in Chicago, which segregated black customers in the balcony, and also at a nearby segregated bowling alley. The lack of success of picketing and leafletting led the young Charlene to organize another action for her group of activists, who took the name American Youth for Democracy. They held a sit-in at the Windsor, with white members going up to the "colored only" balcony while black members took their seats in the auditorium's "whites only" section below.^[3]

So began a long career of unrelenting activism and persistence, perhaps most famously illustrated in the success of the campaign to free Angela Davis, which she led alongside Kendra Alexander and Franklin Alexander.^[4]

Speaking at the same event as McNeil, Davis described the effort to free her, spearheaded by Mitchell, as "one of the most impressive mass international campaigns of the 20th century." Davis stressed that the relative lack of celebrity Mitchell enjoys today in comparison to some contemporaries and later generations of women's movement and civil rights leaders involved in the same struggles is no indication of the impact her work has had. "I have never known anyone as consistent in her values, as collective in her outlook on life, as firm in her trajectory as a freedom fighter." At another tribute to Mitchell, at the CCDS Convention in Chicago, CCDS militant and leader Mildred Williamson said of Mitchell: "If it hadn't been for Charlene opening my eyes to many things and encouraging me, I wouldn't be here today, nor would I have been able to achieve many of the other things in my life."

In 1993, Mitchell attended the Foro de São Paulo in Havana as an observer from the CCDS.^[5] In 1994 she served as an official international observer of the first democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa^[6] and was an observer at the congress of the South African Communist Party that year. Also in 1994, she visited Namibia as a guest of the mines and energy ministry. In recent years, she returned to Cuba for rehabilitation medical treatment following a stroke suffered in 2007.

Lisa Brock interviewed Mitchell in her home in Harlem in 2004. Among the topics raised were anti-colonialism, Pan-Africanism and the internationalism of the Communist Party USA:

BROCK: I want to turn now specifically to solidarity with Africa. And were you involved in solidarity activity with the growing anti-colonial movement in Africa, that sort of emerged after World War II in the late '40s and then sort of reached sort of a pinnacle in the '50s and '60s? Were you involved in any of that anti-colonial activity?

MITCHELL: Actually, in the '40s, no. The most I knew about Africa in the '40s, I guess, was the existence of the ANC. But no, I really didn't know much about it. But in the '50s, in the late '40s, in the '50s, already there was tremendous concern on the left in the United States, but particularly in the Communist Party. Not all the left agreed in terms of the importance of Africa. And I began to read a lot. But also, there was Alphaeus Hunton, whom I had come to know, and his interest, and his knowledge about Africa was—really showed deep. And it was at that time that Ghana was in the process of receiving its—or winning, not receiving, its independence. And Du Bois was already interested in what was going to happen there. The interesting thing about it, at that time, was the Freedom newspaper—Paul Robeson and Louis Burnham, and Du Bois was kind of part of it, but they were mainly the activists there. And that was where there was a tremendous bringing together of the struggles in Africa and those for liberation in the United States, of African Americans. So that was when I really began to see the importance of it.

And then in, I think it was 1957, I came to New York for a meeting, and I heard about a big demonstration that was going to be held in Washington, DC, and it was in support of the movements in Africa for liberation. And the speaker was Tom Mboya. And it was really interesting because we came back and the song that we were all—it was kind of a protest song when we were marching sometimes. It's "I want to be a Mau Mau just like Jomo Kenyatta," and it was kind of a more militant aspect of the youth movement and the peace movement and bringing it together. Because it wasn't taking place all over in the peace movement, or the youth movement, and we kind of saw the importance of that.

And then, of course, what was happening in Kenya at the time—and I hadn't thought about it until right now, and that is all of the blame for the terrible violence and how awful, people were being hatcheted to death, and so on, is the same as they're projecting what's going on in Iraq, with the beheadings and so on. All the blame, now, is on the people who are conducting this kind of terror, and not the people who brought earlier all the terror up on these people, in terms of just forbidding them any humanity whatsoever. So I really had not thought about that until now.

So, but that was kind of the beginning. And then, in 1960, when I went to London, one of the first people I went to meet with—well, I saw Claudia Jones, whom I had met earlier here in New York. Claudia was a member of the leading committees of the Communist Party and had been deported to London. So I went to visit her, and she took me to visit Yusuf Dadoo, who is an Indian member of the Communist Party and had been a member of the Indian Congress of South Africa. But by then he was a leader of the Communist Party and a leader in ANC, and at one point, I think the editor of the African Communist, which is a quarterly magazine that still comes out. And I remember being so impressed about his knowledge and his understanding of what actually was happening in Africa, and why South Africa was so important.

And immediately after that, I began to hear more and understand more a phrase that Henry Winston, who's the chairman of the Communist Party, used. He would say that Israel was the northern end opening of American imperialism, and South Africa was the southern opening for imperialism in South Africa—in the world. And I kind of would put that together with what I had learned from Dadoo, and it was so very—not just moving, I mean, it explained so much to me that as a teenager, I could not understand. I'm not even sure teenagers do today, that Africans did not all come from—either come from princesses and princes or they were slaves. I mean, there were workers, there were people who were farmers. They were people. And they fought for their freedom from day one. But we seem to see it only as a bunch of people who need help, and not that they have been of assistance to the whole world development, and that a lot of the wealth in the world has come from that, from those workers.

So to me, Africa opened its doors, to me, more as part of the movement and solidarity with us as we were with them. And I kind of always saw that as an equal thing, because I would learn so much from it.^[7]

Writer and CCDS militant Carl Bloice celebrated Mitchell's globe-embracing vision and work at the 2009 CCDS Convention: "I have a picture on my wall at home. It's of a hall full of Bulgarian communists, all smiling, and right in the middle is one Black woman, Charlene."^[8]

As a third-party candidate in the Election of 1968, Mitchell was the first African-American woman to run for President of the United States. She represented the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and her running mate was Michael "Mike" Zagarell, the National Youth Director of the party. At 23 years of age, he was younger than the constitutionally required age of 35 to hold office. They were entered on the ballots in only two states.^[9] Mitchell's brother and sister-in-law Franklin and Kendra Alexander had also been active in the party.

In 1988, Mitchell ran as an Independent Progressive for U.S. Senator from New York against the incumbent Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He was re-elected by a large margin.^[10]

While Mitchell had long been a Communist Party member, she and other reform-minded people wanted changes. African Americans were unhappy with the leadership of Gus Hall, as they believed he failed to recognize the international Communist Party members' responsibility for problems in the Soviet Union and other European nations. They planned a reform movement and matters came to a head at a convention in December 1991. Many who signed a letter urging reform were purged by Gus Hall from the CPUSA's national committee, including Mitchell, Angela Davis, Kendra Alexander and other African-American leaders.^[11] As of 2006, Mitchell was active in the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), an independent offshoot of the Communist Party.

Richard Mitchell, American Jazz and R&B Trumpeter

Richard Allen "Blue" Mitchell (March 13, 1930 – May 21, 1979) was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and funktrumpeter, and composer, who recorded many albums as leader and sideman for Riverside, Blue Note and Mainstream Records.^[1]

Mitchell was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He began playing trumpet in high school, where he acquired his nickname, Blue.^[1]

After high school he played in the rhythm and blues ensembles of Paul Williams, Earl Bostic, and Chuck Willis. After returning to Miami he was noticed by Cannonball Adderley, with whom he recorded for Riverside Records in New York in 1958.

He then joined the Horace Silver Quintet, playing with tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor and drummer Roy Brooks. Mitchell stayed with Silver's group until the band's break-up in 1964, after which he formed a group with members from the Silver quintet, substituting the young pianist Chick Corea for Silver and replacing Brooks, who had fallen ill, with drummer Al Foster. This group produced a number of records for Blue Note. It disbanded in 1969, after which Mitchell joined and toured with Ray Charles until 1971.

From 1971 to 1973 Mitchell performed with John Mayall, appearing on Jazz Blues Fusion and subsequent albums. From the mid-70s he recorded and worked as a session man in the genres noted previously, performed with the big band leaders Louie Bellson, Bill Holman and Bill Berry and was principal soloist for Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. Other band leaders Mitchell recorded with include Lou Donaldson, Grant Green, Philly Joe Jones, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Johnny Griffin, Al Cohn, Dexter Gordon and Jimmy Smith. Blue Mitchell kept his hard-bop playing going with the Harold Land quintet up until his death from cancer on May 21, 1979, in Los Angeles, at the age of 49.^[2]

Aaron Mitchell, Only Person Executed During Reagan's Term as Governor

Aaron Mitchell (1930 – April 12, 1967) was executed in the gas chamber for murdering police officer Arnold Gamble in Sacramento on February 15, 1963.

Mitchell was the last person to be executed in California before the Supreme Court of California ruled in 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional (the Supreme Court of the United States made a similar ruling later that year). He was the 194th person to be executed by gassing in California (1937–67), and the only person to be executed in that state during the term of Governor Ronald Reagan (1967–1975). Both Reagan and his predecessor had declined clemency. Mitchell's case had been heard twice by the US Supreme Court and twice by the California Supreme Court. His last words were ""I am Jesus Christ!"^[1]

There were no further executions in California until 1992, when Robert Alton Harris was gassed. The gas chamber was ruled unconstitutional in California in 1996.^[2]

Peter Milton, Colorblind American Artist

Peter Winslow Milton (born 1930) is a colorblind American artist who was diagnosed with deuteranopia after hearing a comment about the pink in his landscapes.^[1]

A creator of black and white etchings and engravings that often display an extraordinary degree of photo-realistic detail placed in the service of a truly visionary aesthetic, his themes include architecture, history, myth, and memory, their intersections and hidden juxtapositions. His pieces often compress long periods of time into a single moment, as in "Family Reunion" and "The Train from Munich."^{[citation needed]}

Peter Milton received his MFA from Yale University in 1961. His work has been exhibited in most major museums in the U.S. and Europe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Artand the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the British Museum and the Tate Gallery, London, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Two major book collections of his work have been published: The Primacy of Touch: The Drawings of Peter Milton (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993) and Peter Milton: Complete Prints 1960-1996 (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996).