November 19

1985—Stepin Fetchit, the first major Black movie star, dies of pneumonia in Woodlawn Hills, Calif. at the age of 83. Fetchit (real name Lincoln Perry) was harshly criticized by most major Black organizations because he made his money playing a lazy, shiftless, easily frightened Black character during the 1940s and 1950s. However, the role, which appealed to many Whites and some Blacks, made him a millionaire.

STEPIN FETCHIT, GARRETT T. MORGAN, WALTER PAYTON

(AP)—Is President Barack Obama willing to risk Slurpee brainfreeze as he grapples with political gridlock?

A strange but real possibility.

The president’s campaign-trail attack on Republicans as Slurpee-sipping do-nothings boomeranged on him the day after the GOP won the House majority in last week’s midterm elections. He was asked if he would have likely House Speaker John Boehner over for the slushy 7-11 staple, and the White House meeting next week with Congressional leaders was jokingly dubbed the “Slurpee Summit.”

ICONIC DRINK—This Nov. 10 photo shows Slurpees at a 7-11 in Concord, N.H. No word yet on whether the nation’s most powerful elected officials will actually be sipping Goji Berry Cherry Slurpees when discussing tax cuts on Nov. 18. (AP Photo/Larry Crow)

BOSTON (AP)—Marie Evans recalled she was 9-years-old when she first started getting free cigarettes in the Boston housing project where she lived.

At first, she traded them for candy, but she said she started smoking them herself at age 13. Four decades later, Evans died of lung cancer.

MARIE EVANS Age 10

by Russell Conteras

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. (AP)—He’s the most famous son of this quiet mountain hamlet in western Massachusetts. But until recently, people looking for signs of W.E.B. Du Bois’ life and legacy in Great Barrington would have had a hard time finding them.

NATIVE SON—A mural in downtown Great Barrington, Mass., honors African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois. As the town prepares to celebrate it’s 250th birthday, Du Bois, one of its most famous and controversial native sons, is being included in it’s history and promotional material. (AP Photo/Shana Sureck)

For decades since Du Bois’ death in Ghana in 1963, the civil rights activist and scholar has drawn praise for his writings but scorn from residents upset that he joined the Communist Party, became a citizen of Ghana and often criticized the U.S. over race relations.