Please name five Black American males you respect

[Algernon Moncrieff]

48. I'm not sure why we're doing this, but why not...

1) Bill Cosby: He's made me laugh, and he's an advocate for better childhood education. He's not a perfect human being, but he's done a lot of good.

2) Barack Obama: He rose from a dysfunctional family to become an Ivy-League educated attorney, a US Senator, and President of the United States.

3) Earvin "Magic" Johnson: Hall-of-fame basketball player who -- whether he meant to or not -- did a great deal to destigmatize HIV/AIDS. He's also a hghly proficient businessman who has risen to the ownership of the Dodgers.

4) Jay-Z: Musician who earned over a billion dollars and married Beyonce Knowles in the process.

5) Les Brown: Motivational speaker, one-time talk host, one-time Democratic politician, and one-time husband of Gladys Knight. I heard him speak in Florida about 20 years ago. He's a very sharp, self-made man who at one time in his life was labled by the Dade County schools as "educably mentally retarded."

I've stuck with the living, so I've left Malcom X, MLK, Richard Pryor, George Washington Carver, Benjamin Banneker, and countless others out of this.


Why do you ask?