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VIDEO: Diahann Carroll Talks Civil Rights and MLK on MSNBC

In case you missed it, the amazing Diahann Carroll appeared on MSNBC's PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton on Tuesday nght. The actress reflected on her six decades in entertainment and her trailblazing role in NBC's Julia. The series ran from 1968 to 1971 and debuted in the Top Ten. It was one of the first television weekly series "to depict an African American woman in a non-stereotypical role." Julia also marked the first time that a Black actress lead a dramatic network television series.

"I really didn't think about [the historical significance] then," Ms. Carroll admits. "When I heard all of the accolades that came along with the part, I was thrilled about that ... But later, I became aware of the fact that it had made quite a statement. And it made me very proud."

It would be another 38 years until a Black woman starred in a network television series. That actress is Scandal's Kerry Washington. Ms. Carroll presented Ms. Washington with the NAACP Image Award's President's Award for special achievement last Friday.

Diahann Carroll reflects on her former friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement AFTER THE JUMP ...

Kerry Washington's Amazing NAACP Image Award Speech: VIDEOS

PHOTOS: GETTY

The big winner at the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards: The fabulous Kerry Washington. The star of ABC's "Scandal" was a triple threat at the ceremony, picking up trophies for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for Scandal, Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Django Unchained and the President's Award for special achievement and exceptional public service.

Kerry Washington's amazing acceptance highlighted her work for equality and President Obama. Watch it AFTER THE JUMP ...

Said the actress:

"I consider it an honor to be an advocate for the arts and to serve on [President] Obama's committee for arts and humanities because just as we must insure that 'We, the people' includes all Americans, regardless of race, class, gender and sexual orientation, we must also work to ensure that the stories we tell, the movies we produce, the television we produce, the theaters we stage, the novels we publish, are all inclusive in all those same ways."

Kerry Washington is the "first Black female lead on network television in 38 years." The President's Award was presented to Washington by actress Diahann Carroll who first broke that color barrier in 1968.

The complete winners list HERE.

Videos of all three acceptance speeches, the transcript of the big speech and a photos of "Olivia" and "Fitz" on stage AFTER THE JUMP ...

Medgar Evers Widow To Deliver Prayer At Obama's Inauguration

Very good news. The widow of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers will deliver the invocation at President Barack Obama's inauguration. Myrlie Evers-Williams will become the first woman and "layperson rather than a clergy member" to deliver the prayer that precedes the presidential oath of office, reports The Washington Post.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the murder of Evers, who was the NAACP’s Mississippi field secretary at the time of his death. Myrlie Evers-Williams spent decades fighting to win a conviction of her late husband’s shooter, and served as chairman of the NAACP in the 1990s.

The inaugural committee [announced] that the benediction will be given by conservative evangelical pastor Louie Giglio, founder of the student-focused Passion Conferences, which draw tens of thousands of people to events around the world. The contrasting choice of speakers are typical of a president who has walked a sometimes complicated path when it comes to religion — working to be inclusive to the point that critics at times have questioned his faith.

In a statement released by the inaugural committee, the president said the careers of Evers-Williams and Giglio "reflect the ideals that the Vice President and I continue to pursue for all Americans - justice, equality and opportunity."

Medgar Evers was murdered by a white supremacist in 1963. Evers was the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi and was a key player in the fight to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, notes the NAACP.

Evers applied to the then-segregated University of Mississippi Law School in February 1954. When his application was rejected, Evers became the focus of an NAACP campaign to desegregate the school. ... [The] case was aided by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The University of Mississippi  was finally forced to enroll James Meredith in 1962."

Said Evers-Williams in a statement: "I am humbled to have been asked to deliver the invocation for the 57th inauguration of the President of the United States—especially in light of this historical time in America when we will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement."

VIDEO: JET's First Married Gay Male Couple Appear on MSNBC

Very nice. JET magazine featured the wedding of Dr. Ravi Perry and Paris Prince in its December 10 issue. Perry and Prince appeared on MSNBC last week to discuss that historic moment in the 61-year-old magazine's history and other current events. The conversation with Thomas Roberts also included the recent Supreme Court announcement that it would rule on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act.

Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

JET Magazine Features Wedding of Dr. Ravi Perry and Paris Prince

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/Ravi Perry Facebook

Very, very nice. JET magazine features the wedding of Dr. Ravi Perry and Paris Prince in its December 10 JET LOVE series. Rod 2.0 readers will recall the 29-year-old Perry made history in March 2011 when was elected president of the NAACP chapter of Worcester, Massachusetts

GLAAD notes:

Ravi, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Mississippi State University, and Paris, a licensed real estate broker and anti discrimination compliance expert, were married in August at their home in Worcester, Massachusetts. The biweekly feature, which traditionally showcases straight couples, includes a short bio of the couple and explains how the couple fell in love.

"We are excited and honored to have our wedding featured in the historic yet ever-current JET Magazine. Long the hallmark in publishing news, culture, and events pertaining to the Black American experience, Jet's publishing of our union is historic" said Ravi and Paris.

"JET Magazine has an extensive legacy of covering the lives of LGBT African-Americans," said Herndon Graddick, President of GLAAD. "This is yet another opportunity to applaud JET Magazine for continuing to highlight the diversity of the African-American community and to urge other media outlets to recognize that it’s these stories that help grow acceptance of our community and give a voice to LGBT people of color who are too often invisible in the media."

Ravi Perry was a political science professor at Clark University when he was elected to the NAACP position last year. He became the youngest and first openly gay president in that chapter's history. Perry also became one of the very few openly gay chapter president's in the NAACP's history.

The Mississippi State University professor is also a contributor to EBONY.com. He recently wrote "A Kappa Man Speaks on the Viral Video 'Controversy'", a response to the homophobic backlash over so-called "Kappa Wedding" video.

JET is a weekly publication and boasts more than 7 million readers. Last year, JET featured its first same-sex wedding, telling the amazing story of Nyema Vernon and Dr. Tenika Jackson. JET has featured Black gay males couples in recent years, too. The biweekly magazine also  featured Kye Allums last year, the former George Washington University student who made history as the first out transgender Division I college basketball player.

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Openly Gay NAACP Leader Willis Edwards Dies at 66

Very disappointing news. Civil rights pioneer Willis Edwards has died, reports CNN. The openly gay and openly HIV positive Edwards was the longtime president of the NAACP Beverly Hills/Hollywood branch and key to launching the NAACP Image Awards on national television.

Edwards was known as a fixer and "Mr. NAACP", according to those who knew him. Born in Texas and raised in Palm Springs, he lead a storied life in politics, entertainment and activism.

Edwards served on the Social Services Commission after Tom Bradley was elected Los Angeles mayor, according to a spokeswoman for the family. Four years after an unsuccessful run for the California General Assembly, Edwards was elected president of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood Branch of the NAACP in 1982, according to the website. More recently, he served as the chapter's first vice president.

Phill Wilson, president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, reflected on Edwards' resourcefulness. "The thing about Willis is that he was one of those people in the tradition of the black experience of making a way out of no way," Wilson said.

Former U.S. Rep. Diane Watson knew Edwards for more than 40 years, going back to when he was student body president in college. She said he was known around town as "The Fixer." "Willis could get you into anything, any party, any private event. He just knew everybody," said Watson, a former U.S. ambassador to Micronesia. "Willis could talk his way into Fort Knox with two guns blazing."

Edwards served on the National Board of the NAACP for 12 years. He was also a key figure in the Board's historic May 19 resolution to support marriage equality. The civil rights leader also pressed the NAACP to take a more active role in HIV/AIDS, reports the Los Angeles Sentinel.

Willis served as chair of the sub-committee on HIV/AIDS. After having been diagnosed with AIDS and becoming a prominent voice on the issue of HIV/AIDS education, he has aggressively encouraged the NAACP to take on this issue as an important civil rights initiative since so many African Americans were suffering from health disparities associated with HIV/AIDS diagnosis, medical resources, and mental health counseling. Willis has also worked with the Minority AIDS Project.

Edwards worked for the late Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, as well as civil rights icons Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks. He led the campaign to get Rosa Parks on a U.S. postage stamp in 2006. Edwards also wrote and co-produced the critically acclaimed film The Rosa Parks Story which starred Angela Bassett.

Willis Edwards was 66-years-old.

VIDEO: Thousands Silently Protest NYPD's "Stop and Frisk" Policies

PHOTOS: AP

Several thousand demonstrators participated in a silent march on Sunday down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue to protest the New York Police Department’s "stop and frisk" policies. The policies grant officers wide discretion to detain and search pedestrians.

Civil rights activists say the city’s Black and Latino residents—and LGBT youth of color—are unfairly targeted, notes the New York Times.

Police officers stopped nearly 700,000 people last year, 87 percent of them black or Latino. Of those stopped, more than half were also frisked. The protest, which began at 3 p.m., followed recent remarks by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that he planned to scale back and amend the practice, amid escalating protests. Mr. Bloomberg has argued that stop-and-frisk gets guns off the street and reduces crime. The march, which stretched for about 20 blocks, ended at East 78th Street, a block from the mayor’s residence.

As of Friday, 299 organizations had endorsed the march, including unions, religious groups and Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arab, and Jewish groups. The turnout reflected the growing alliance between civil rights groups and gay and lesbian activists, who in past years have often kept each other at arm’s length. Last month, the board of the N.A.A.C.P., which includes several church leaders, voted to endorse same-sex marriage. The roster of support for the march on Sunday included at least 28 gay, lesbian and transgender groups.

Chris Bilal, 24, who is black and gay, said he had been stopped three times, the last time while dancing with two friends in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. “Sometimes I’m targeted as a drug dealer, sometimes as someone interfering with the quality of life, sometimes as a gay African-American man in a place I don’t belong,” he said.

During the 10 years of the Bloomberg administration, the police have performed 4,356,927 stops, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Among Black men ages 14 to 24, the number of stops last year was greater than their total population. LGBT youth of color are often "targets of police violence and harassment," the Huffington Post reported last week.

The march's leaders included the NAACP's Benjamin Todd Jealous and the Rev. Al Sharpton. The march was attended by the city's Democratic mayorals—Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, Comptroller John Liu and former  comptroller William C. Thompson. Their presence indicates a solidifying opposition to the policy.

Watch Al Jazeera and other reports AFTER THE JUMP ...

EBONY: "Why Did New Jersey Democrats Reject Bruce Harris"

PHOTO: AP

Our latest news analysis for EBONY: "Why Did New Jersey Democrats Reject a Black, Gay Man to the Supreme Court?"

"Bruce Harris was even more cynical appointment than Clarence Thomas," Rev. Taylor told EBONY. "A Black man who votes against most of the Black community. A gay man who won’t vote on the most pressing gay rights case of our time."

"The gay establishment latched on to this nomination very quickly. They saw he was gay, so they were excited," Darnell Moore told EBONY. Moore is former chair of Newark’s LGBTQ Advisory Commission. "But the big issue in New Jersey right now is school funding. It’s critical to the Black community. But most reporters didn’t interview Black folks or certainly not any Black gay folks. We would have told them."

Christie opposes the court-mandated formula that funds urban school districts. That opposition—as well as the Republican governor’s reluctance to direct funding to inner cities such as Newark or Camden—could have been the motives behind the ill-fated Harris nomination.

"The state supreme court will consider cases on affordable housing, racial profiling and funding for urban schools," said NJ NAACP’s James Harris. "Christie nominates a Black, gay Republican man with a white partner who lives in a wealthy community? Christie was being disrespectful to Blacks and poor people. We were convinced that Mr. Harris would support the governor on school funding."

Read the full article HERE.

ABC/WaPo Poll: Black Support for Gay Marriage Exceeds General Pop

New polling by ABC News/Washington Post finds more Blacks now support marriage equality than the general population.

The new poll finds "strong" support for equal marriage from 53 percent of Americans.  Fifty-nine percent of Blacks want to legalize same-sex marriage and 65 percent favor President Obama’s position. The data is "a new high among African-Americans in ABC/Post polls, up from four in 10 in recent surveys to 59 percent now," adds ABC News.

Another first: The number of Americans who "strongly" support same-sex marriage (39 percent) outweighs the number who "strongly" oppose it (32 percent).

The new polling comes about two weeks after President Obama's historic announcement supporting marriage equality. The NAACP also announced its support for equal marriage rights last weekend.  Two words: Leadership. Matters.

Full results HERE.

VIDEO: NAACP's Ben Jealous Talks Equal Marriage on "Maddow"

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous appeared last night on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show. The topic: The veteran civil rights organization's historic resolution support equal marriage for gay and lesbian couples. "The NAACP has always stood for expanding rights and the Constitution, not taking them away," said Jealous. "When we get it wrong it gives permission for parents to reject kids."

"This an important day. ..... And it's very personal to me," he added. The NAACP president fought back tears and explained how his mother and father, an inter-racial couple, were prohibited from marrying in their home state.

Jealous has worked to engage the NAACP in LGBT issues. In February 2009, the national board called for the overturn of California's Proposition 8 but stopped short of endorsing equal marriage. Later that year, the National Black Justice Coalition became the first Black LGBT group to address the national board. In March 2011, the first openly LGBT president of a local NAACP chapter was elected.  In August 2011, the organization held its first town hall on LGBT issues.

Watch the segment AFTER THE JUMP ...