A renown New Orleans visual artist, our Living Legend talks art, inspiration and the importance of following “your” path.
Several of her sculptures are displayed throughout the New Orleans Metropolitan area. Commissioned sculptures include, Armstrong National Park “Chief Allison Tootie Montana”, Rev. Avery C. Alexander, “Forever a Crusader” of Civil Rights, the Memorial Plaza, and “Opening the Gates” A Memorial to A. P. Tureaud Sr.
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Count Time Podcast Living Legend Sheleen Jones
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Sheleen Jones
She is a graduate of Xavier University of New Orleans and Florida State University. She is currently working on a sculpture Heritage honoring Black servicemen and women that will be permanently displayed on the grounds of the Louisiana State Capital. Ms. Jones is also on the faculty of Xavier University of New Orleans.
“In my sculptural portrait, I strive to capture the attributes of the person or entity in particular moment of inspiration. It is an honor to create memorial sculptures for communities, and I hope to continue creating images that capture, and celebrate, our humanity our, struggles, our beauty and our fortitude.”
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
I read something where they call her instead of divine. They call her the diva. We’re going to call her the Queen of Sheleen. That’s what they call the Queen of the east. Welcome to Count Time. It’s an honor that you allowed me to come here and do this podcast today. So we thank you for being here.
SJ Thank you very much.
LD What we want to do, I want you to tell your story. I want to give your history. Still a young lady, but you’ve done a lot of great things here in the city of New Orleans and still doing great things. You are a sculpture?
SJ Well, I’m an artist, and my main concentration is sculpture, but I do as a university student, I guess you’ve been trained in all these different areas print making, painting, sculpture, design courses. So you’ve been given so much, so many different types of experiences in the university. And so by the time I’ve gone on to graduate school, I was able to select which one that I gravitated toward and which was wind up being sculpture. Now, my teacher was Professor John Scott. The great Professor John Scott, Xavier University in New Orleans. And he was a sculptor, so I don’t know if that was an influence or not, but definitely it was great to be able to have somebody who had understanding of three dimensional thinking.
And that is basically, for me, what is taught in the universities. Three dimensional thinking or just thinking about seeing things and not just looking at something, actually observing it from all views or perspectives. And that’s even in painting, because even when you’re doing a drawing, that when you’re doing a drawing, you’re still creating illusions. You’re not actually creating something that is real. It’s a picture of something else. So you’re trying to create an illusion of something.
A trailblazer in the aviation industry our Living Legend from Baton Rouge, La., ran a $2 Billion a year federal agency and guided aviation into the digital age. A retired FAA Administrator, Ms. Whitley is the recipient of several prestigious FAA awards. A graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., she earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering.
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Count Time Podcast Living Legend Pamela Whitley
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Pamela Whitley
A retired FAA Administrator, Ms. Whitley’s FAA career began in 1993 as an electrical engineer responsible for the development of standards for airport electrical equipment and lighting. She has experience heading large-scale, complex initiatives, demonstrating the ability to lead at all levels and to help build leaders along the way.
Ms. Whitley is the recipient of several prestigious FAA awards, including a 2008 ATO Executive Council Leadership Award for her contribution to establishing a portfolio management framework for NextGen. She also received the FAA Administrator’s Award for Environmental Excellence in 2005, and has been recognized for her leadership on various technology development initiatives.
A graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., Ms. Whitley earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. Her professional career as an electrical engineer began with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
We have miss Pamela Whitley all the way from Baton Rouge jaguar land to Washington, D.C. back to Baton Rouge. Welcome home and welcome to Count Time, Ms. Whitley.
PDW Thank you. I’m happy to be here.
LD And you showed me a picture that you were surrounded by some strong women.
PDW Yeah, just recently I was kind of going through some old family photos, and I found a photo that I didn’t even remember taking, but it was at one of my debutante balls. I just kind of marveled at the fact that looking at the picture, it was really all of the women that created me and made me who I am today. So, of course, my mother was in the picture. My two grandmothers were in the picture, my aunts on my mother’s side, my mother’s sister, my aunt who’s still living, and aunt’s on my dad’s side, and the great Sadie Kiel, who was one of the founders of Alpha Tau Chapter Delta Sigma Theta and a very good friend of my grandmother. So you look back when you get a certain age and you say, how did I become the person that I am? And you realize that it was the steps that you’ve taken and the people that touch you along the way.
Part 2 Lyrics for the Soul interview with Kayin White, the son of LD Azobra. Kayin is a Hip-Hop/Rap Artist and performs under the name NWE Yeen. In this episode he discusses why he relates to and performs gangsta rap. He discusses what is behind the violent lyrics and offers a glimpse at what can be learned that can change communities.
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Count Time Podcast Young Legend NWE Yeen
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Kayin White Part 2
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
Today we will do a continuation of part two. Rapper who is my son, Kayin White, who go by the name of Yeen. he’s been in the rap game now going on one year and I was kind of concerned and I’ve been thinking about it for a while and contemplating on how are we going to have this discussion.
I just happened to be looking at the local TV the other day, it must be about a week or two ago, and I saw someone I had a chance to meet and get to know. Angela Bassett talked about her son being a rapper. She said she wanted him to get into rapping or both her children to get into rapping. She has twins.
But Angela, whose husband is my main man Courtney Vance, who really, I think is a wonderful individual, but she said she wanted her children to get into rapping because get into music because it’s a good form of expression. That’s where they can express themselves through music. And that’s the way I’m beginning to look at it with my son. He’s got into the rap game and it’s something he enjoys, he’s doing well at it.
We happen to have a discussion, that conversation led into another conversation like what’s going on in the community? That’s the question we are asking right now. What is going on with the violence, the killing, the anger, the suicide rates, they shot up. Everything just happening that is negative, that’s affecting the community all over and affecting everyone. We need to figure out what we need to do as people in the community, leaders in the community, just everyone in the community to come together to figure out, to see how we can bring this to a head.
And I happen to be talking with my son Yeen about this matter. And I want you to hear what he had to say. This young man was very impressive and he even closed the conversation with a powerful song, rap song that he created on the spot just for you to hear. So I want to move this conversation forward and I want you to hear what this young man Yeen has to say about what’s going on in the community with no more needs to be said, let’s move forward.
Let’s bring on brother Yeen.
Welcome to Count Time.
first where I’m from it’s just darkness we’re just trying to live
and we still trying to go to the light but there’s no light to give
Trying to save the soul that is how it is
but these dudes trying to put them under so they can’t even see their kids.
We out here day by day trying to make a way
but sometimes it’d be hard It’s a price to pay
the price could be a life to find your way
but one day we will come out and find a light
So just stay firm, stay patient and then live your life
but if you go down the same road, you’ll get the same results
but we was young and ain’t know no better so it’s not our fault
as we learn and get older, we put it together.
I remember back in 9th grade, I was saying I was about whatever.
As I got older, I realized that it didn’t matter.
Try to hold all these emotions but it’s going to burst like a full bladder.
Wake up in the middle of night, you hear that ratta tatta that is the sound of them guns but I climb the ladder.
You got to think about they Mamas.
Take their kids from them make them sadder
because you’re going either be the one dead or in jail.
So what happened after?
You’re always going to lose if you stand for nothing, but you’re going to win if you persevere.
I’m trying to think like the head, but I’m stuck in the rear.
You ain’t been through what I’ve been through Come see my point of view.
All this stuff I did. You think I wanted to?
I didn’t really want to do it. I feel like I had to.
That was probably your mom’s greatest moments when she had you.
So don’t make her disappointed by falling in the darkness.
Just put down a gun and fight.
You don’t got to spark it because once you’re gone, aint’ no coming back.
And that’s for both sides, not just the one in the pack.
We are the same color So think about your brother
before you do something stupid and y’all hate one another
and I know it’d be hard it was the same for me
but I stopped back and looked and it came to me.
And this whole thing we call life, it ain’t the same to me
every day I’m dreaming about how some Fame would be
but at the end of the day the Fame don’t really matter.
It’s about what you did while you was here. That’s what really matter.
Will a 1000 people know my name or just one person,
you still gon feel fulfilled If you do your purpose.
So that being said, try to do better.
So I’m not going to tell you whether
to pick up a book or pick up the Barretta.
Whatever you feels best for you go ahead and do it.
But just think is it the light or the dark influence.
God the Devil and the Soul of Man. Kayin White, the son of LD Azobra is a local rapper and recordings artist know as NWE Yeen currently living in Houston TX. In Part 1 of his interview, Kayin gives an interesting perspective on how Lucifer is jealous of God’s greatest creation, man. This episode gives a young mans view on spirituality, conservation of energy and the afterlife. Did you know the devil doesn’t have a soul?
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Count Time Podcast Young Legend Kayin White
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Kayin White
Lucifer is a Latin word (from the words lucem ferre), literally meaning “light-bearer”, which in that language is used as a name for the dawn appearance of the planet Venus, heralding daylight. Use of the word in this sense is uncommon in English, in which “Day Star” or “Morning Star” are more common expressions. In English, “Lucifer” generally refers to the Devil, although the name is not applied to him in the New Testament.
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
Now, you know, on this show, we keep it rolling. We keep a lot of great and interesting information flowing through here. And today we got a Local recording artist rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana by way of Houston, Texas. We got the one and only Mr. Kayin White, known as his rapper name by NWE Yeen. today he is dropping a lot of knowledge, a lot of insight. He has a very philosophical, theological view and perspective. He said, the devil don’t have soul. Welcome, Kayin to Count Time.
KW What’s up with it?
LD We’re glad to have you. And now this is unplanned, unprepared conversation. He and I were just having a discussion on something that he was contemplating on pondering. So I’m listening to him, and the more he started talking, the more I became interested and excited about what he was saying. And he’s taking me somewhere else. And I’m very excited and enthused about this conversation. So I want to translate this conversation into a podcast.
Now, you asked me a question you started off with. The question was, why did Kane kill Abel?
KW He was jealous.
LD It was a great question because that’s something that most people know off the bat, and I normally know that answer to that question, but I was like, okay, that is a good question, and I couldn’t figure that out. and you took me somewhere, and I became very interested within this conversation on why Kane killed Abel. We started having a discussion about darkness and light. And how did the darkness light come about your thought process?
KW That’s why Kane killed Abel, because he was jealous and the darkness was rubbing off on him, which caused that jealous spirit was what let him do what he did.
LD What the jealous spirit came from?
KW because God favored Abel sacrifices over his sacrifices. Abel sacrifice he favored over what Caine sacrifice. Cain became jealous envious of Abel just the same way Lucifer became jealous and envious of man.
The umbilical cord connects the baby to the mother’s placenta. Does the church need to cut the “umbiblical” cord? LD gives his thoughts about church and the community.
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Count Time Podcast Living Legend Host LD Azobra
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra “Umbiblical” Cord?
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
Today. We gonna do what we call now. We ain’t gonna say regress. We progress. And we just going back We’re going back to the roots of Count Time What is the purpose of this podcast? We are here to restore peace, accountability and reconciliation to those who are civilly and spiritually dead by awakening the mind. For all too long. The system has taught you what to think. We’re here to teach you how to think where you can function on your own.
All right. With that being said, I’m going to have to bring forward a little word of the day. No, we ain’t going to preach. We’re going to just do a little teaching in hope of uplifting bringing life new meaning to back to all who hear where we going to start at, I guess. Can I title my message today? Church, it’s time to cut the “umbiblical” cord. Yes, you heard me right. You know, when the baby is born, the baby is attached to the mother. The life source of the mother to the child is and umbilical cord. And that cord is what feeds the child to breathe through the cord. Get all this nurturing nutrition through that cord. His whole life forces is through that cord.
And now, mostly after nine months that you come into existence and the umbilical c0rd is clamped, it’s cut, then eventually, within five to 15 days, I believe it falls off on its own. The Church, we’ve been holding these people here too long. They don’t even know they can survive on their own So it’s time to cut that “umbiblical” cord, what we’re going to call it. But anyway, you all know what I’m talking about. And it’s time because why is it this time? It’s a vital time in our community.
It’s a vital time all over this country, all over this world. And the vital signs are saying there’s a problem here. There’s a lot going on. We all know what vital signs, all right, because they have vital signs for good health. They have measured up to what they call clinical measurements, sign of good health, crucial medical signs that indicate the health of a human being. For example, your body temperature, if it’s 98.6 98.7, I guess that’s pretty good one’s. Blood pressure, what it is, 127 over 79 for most men in 122, 77 or 76 for women. Let you know that you got pretty good health for your blood pressure, your pulse rate, like your heart rate. If it’s beating properly, you’re going to be all right. If you’re breathing properly, you’re going to be all right.
But if not, you’re going to have some problems, right? And we know that’s how that goes. If there are some problems, if there are some deteriorating issues going on in your health, like some deteriorating issues with your blood pressure, deteriorating issue with your body temperature, you want to be what they call they have early warning signs. That’s what they call it, early warning signs to let you know there’s something going on. And we need deteriorating vital signs. If you get help in a timely manner, you can heal yourself from any serious harm or injuries and you can be admitted into what we call the ICU intensive care unit.
Right? But even if you’re having a stroke, if you get to the hospital in time enough, they can reverse that. So there are ways to help these kind of things, right. The system have a way of giving you hope, even if in spite of your health condition, for the most part, if you get to the hospital in a timely manner, if you get the proper check up in a timely manner, sometimes you can prevent these issues from happening.
And right now the vital signs in Our community don’t look good. It does not look good at all. It’s time for the Church to cut the “umbiblical” and release what we going to call the rapid response team to go into the community to bring health and healing to the community, because there’s a serious issue going on in the community.
The ethnomusicologist on the Blues, origin stories and the mixture of colonizers that made Louisiana its likely birthplace. From the misery of the plantation to the classic blues decade of the women, the Harlem Renaissance to Louisiana festivals and everything in between. The Blues is alive and well.
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Count Time Podcast Living Legend Dr. Joyce Jackson on the Blues
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Dr. Joyce Jackson
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
We have someone here who was here about a year ago, and she made such an awesome impact and impression on us that we had to bring her back because this lady knows her stuff. And we have here Madame Chair Dr. Joyce Jackson. Welcome again to Count Time.
DJJ Well, thank you very much. Glad to be here.
LD It’s that time of year in South Louisiana. It’s towards the end of the spring and the summer is moving in. The skies are blue, the sun is shining bright, and everybody is singing the Blues.
We did a story several weeks ago on there, the Neil family a guy named Rayful Neil, and Mother of the Blues, Ms. Shirley Neil. And you wrote an article years ago when I had a magazine called Refreshen Magazine on Raful. Do you remember that?
DJJ Yes, I do, because he had passed then, but just passed. So I really got my information from his children.
LD Now, what we’re going to do here today is that we’re going to do a How did the Blues come about? What is the Blues?
DJJ Well, first, it’s a genre of music created by Blacks after the Civil War, during the Reconstruction era. And it was created during that time because of the changes that were going on within the community, within the black community. You find like before the Civil War, you had music, of course, being performed by Blacks, sort of like the entertainment for the planters during slavery. So they were singing they were playing instruments, basically string instruments during that time. And they were basically the entertainment. They would perform at the plantation homes, at restaurants and wherever else that whites wanted to be entertained. And of course, there were the work songs, the spirituals, and all of that was very prominent during the slavery period.
Well, the Blues came about most, you might say, scholars of the Blues during Reconstruction era, but because we know it was happening during slavery, but people start writing about it during the Reconstruction era and because things were changing. So the music was changing. So you have to look at the music. And I always say music is just a mirror of culture. So you can find out what is going on in the culture of a people by listening to the music, particularly the folk music.
And this was coming out of the plantation era going into the Reconstruction era. Of course, Blacks were emancipated. After emancipation there were major migrations going from the south to the north, going from the rural areas to the city areas. You have many things happening and you’re coming out of slavery. You don’t have no type of economic clout. You don’t have no education. You don’t have any type of political clout. But you got to move now. You got to get off the plantation. Some actually stayed on the plantation.
LD Yeah. Doing sharecropping work.
DJJ And so they moved on. And then the music also moved on. So it changed. And the Blues developed. The country Blues developed during this time. And a lot of people say, well, it’s a Mississippi Delta. But we also have those like me and others say, well, it could have developed in Louisiana, too. We were going through the same thing that the folks were going through in Mississippi. And you have arguments for both sides.
LD But I think Chicago claiming the Blues now.
DJJ Well, the Chicago claim the Blues only because the people from the south moved to the north to Chicago. And so some of the same people going to Chicago and New York and moving north migrations. And that changed a lot of life situations for Blacks looking at the south and looking at the movement of the Blues in the South, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, all those places. We were having the same conditions, basically. But Mississippi, a lot of people talk about Mississippi because that’s how the ethnomusicologist, the folklorist were writing about Mississippi more than any other area. You look at people like Charters and John and Alan Lomax, they were moving down from Washington, DC, from the Library of Congress to come down in the south to record folk music. They were folklorist. And that’s what they were coming here to record the music.
So where would they go? And you think, oh, what’s the worst area in the world for black folks during this period? They come in the they went to the south. They went to Mississippi because they knew it was just a really bad place for Blacks as far as economics and education, et cetera, et cetera. They were recording a lot in Louisiana, especially in the course they would go into the prisons, because where you have work songs, where you have a group of and they were targeting men more than women. And so where you have a group that’s just right there, very convenient for you to go and record.
And they were coming down with these huge recording units. We didn’t have the little tiny recorders and digital recorders that we have now. They had these huge units where they would come in and have them in the trunk of the car or the van, and they would take these recording units around to the prisons and into the black community.
LD And you said the United States government paid people to come do this in the south.
DJJ Yeah. Well, it was the Library of Congress. the Federal Library of Congress.
LD So they paid them to come here to capture the history. Did they call it the Blues at the time?
JDD Yeah, they were called well, by then. Yes, they were calling it the Blues. They were calling the Blues actually before then because that’s why some of the arguments are there for Louisiana. We know that a number of the traditional jazz musicians were playing the Blues before they start playing traditional jazz. That’s what part of that argument is because we not only have the recordings but we actually have the music itself saying something blue the blue in the title. Okay, in the title you have printed music and you have it in the title a lot of people look at WC handy writing the first Blues he had Blues in the titles of his music.
A lot of people credit him with that but we have the first recording of the Blues in 21 by Mamie Smith, a female a female Blues singer.
LD Where was she from?
DJJ Cincinnati. The musician was the composer and she wrote the lyrics. They coordinated and she performed in 1921 recorded on okay records. That was the first recording of the Blues done by a black woman and the crazy Blues was the title of the song. It sold 75,000 copies in the first month. That’s when the recording industry knew that the Blues would really sell so that was a very important production of that song. They only could do it if they used a white band and not the Mamie Smith band.
Crazy Blues sold a million copies in its first year.
Picked cotton as a teenager on the family farm and went back to school at the age of 65 to take over the family business in operation since 1958. A woman of destiny, matriarch, successful entrepreneur and Living Legend. LaBelle Demby known for her kind spirit talks about life, business and the need for compassion.
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Count Time Podcast Living Legend LaBelle Demby
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with LaBelle Harleaux Demby
In October of 1958, Henry Demby, Sr. along with his only son, Henry Demby, Jr. started the business Demby & Son Funeral Home.
The wife of the late Henry Demby, Jr. LaBelle Demby began considering taking the head position at the funeral home after the passing of her husband in 1989. At the age of 65, Mrs. LaBelle enrolled at Delgado Community College in New Orleans, Louisiana. After completing the required courses and passing the State Boards, she is enjoying her life as owner and director of Demby & Son Funeral Home.
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
As you always know, we always have very, very special individuals on this show. And we got someone that is near and dear to me, my dear friend Kin folks who I met many, many years ago So we have Ms. Labelle Demby here today from out of Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Welcome to Count Time
LHD Okay. Hi, I’m Labelle. And so good to have my friend here today, Mr. Lyman. And it’s just a pleasure having him at my home today to interview me about my past and future.
LD And I met her many years ago while I was at LSU with her kin people, a guy named Demitri Williams. And we were roommates, and he brought me through here one day to visit with you. Do you remember those days?
LHD Yes, I do remember those days. I do remember that the day that you and Demetri came. I was really excited about both of you were football players. I was really excited and talked about it for a long time afterwards.
LD Oh, you do remember that was a long time ago. He thought very highly of you
LHD Yes. Demetri was my Godchild. But he did come by and interviewed me for a magazine, and he took a picture of me and it appeared in the magazine.
LD That’s what his wife Robin was doing, La Rouge, I forgot the name. His wife was doing a magazine back right after Hurricane Katrina. Now let’s talk about you now. Where are you from? Where did you grow up in?
LHD I grew up in Erwinville, Louisiana. We went to school. You used to call it grade. You went from Prima grade to fourth grade.
LD You must gone to a Catholic school. I never heard that.
LHD No. Prima grade, you call it prima. That was the grade before. It’s like. No, I guess like high school, Head Start. Like preschool. We went to school in the Church. St. Peter Baptist Church in Erwinville. We would walk to school. We had some neighbors that was a little bit older than us, and they would bring us to school and bring us back home. It wasn’t that much difference in our ages, but I was a little bit younger. The Church is still there.
Living Legend Ronnie Moore describes his role in the hundred year struggle that is the civil rights movement. He took on the klan and southern law enforcement in a battle against evil while surviving near miss assassination attempts. He provides a fresh take on what we do now to reach the Promise Land.
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Count Time Podcast Living Legend Ronnie Moore
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Ronnie Malcolm Moore
Ronnie Moore is a civil rights activist and community organizer. Moore was the field secretary in the South for the Congress of Racial Equality (1961-1965) and the executive director of the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality, Inc. (1965-1973).
In 1961 while a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Moore led a group of 2,500 students to the state capitol to protest the city’s hiring policies and segregated lunch counters. Moore was arrested, jailed, and expelled from Southern University for his involvement in the demonstration. After his release from jail, Moore began working full-time as a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) increasing the voter registrations of citizens denied that right in Louisiana and throughout the south.
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
Today we have another true living legend. His story is beyond what you can imagine. This young man fought for justice for all, not just for himself. He’s come out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Welcome, Mr. Ronnie Moore.
RMM Thank you
LD Now your story. I don’t even know where to start it with your story. Let’s just start now. You grew up where?
RMM I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the 15th ward it’s called Algiers.
LD How many in the family?
RMM There are seven in the family. They all dead. I’m the only sibling in the family. I’m the youngest there. It’s been a struggle to be the only one still here.
LD What’s your mother’s father’s name?
RMM My father’s name is Alvin Moore. And my mother’s name was Beatrice Moore.
LD There’s a lot of people from New Orleans that come out of Mississippi or Haiti somewhere.
RMM Yeah. We have this dual history. We all grew up in the second good old Baptist Church on Elmira Street. And I attended the Catholic school, Osakes Catholic School, which is on Tad Street down there. And that’s my beginning of the movement. And the movement started at a very young age. It’s 1953 when TJ Jemmison was doing the bus boycott here in Baton Rouge. I was 13 years old 1954 when the Supreme Court overturned Plessy versus Ferguson. I was 14. And so I sort of thought it felt like the white only signs had had it’s day. It was time that they come down. So I was in 6th grade with some students, which at school opposite that little park. If you ever go to Algiers, you see that park right there opposite the school. And we’re playing on the street between the park and the school. And the park had a white’s only sign. All the white kids go in.
We started to figure out what the Supreme Court said it was all right. Maybe we went into the park to play and 15 of us were arrested at six years old when we were arrested for going in the park. Well, it was a difficult time and yeah, it was an easy time. The white only signs will be it all over the place in New Orleans.
The Long Civil Rights Movement: Photographs from the Ronnie Moore Papers, 1964 -1972
Ronnie Moore (right) marches next to former Deacons for Defense member Tommy Brumfield during the dedication of a National Register of Historic Places marker commemorating the late Robert Hicks.
Article on “Plaquemine Riot” which includes James Farmers’ Plaquemine journal
The Matriarch of the Family of the Blues a Louisiana Musical Dynasty, Mrs. Shirley Neal “The Mother of the Blues” talks about life growing up in Erwinville, Louisiana her life with Blues legend Raful Neal and raising a family of world renown Blues musicians. An inspirational look at family, hardship and love.
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Count Time Podcast Living Legend Shirley B Neal
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Shirley Neal
Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.
The Mother of Blue is going to be our Mother Day special. We got a wonderful young lady here all the way from Erwinville, Louisiana. So today we got Miss Shirley Brooke Neal from Erwinville, Louisiana. We like to welcome you to Count Time Ms. Shirley.
SBN Thank you.
LD Well, I know once we give you some information, you’re going to find out who this lovely, beautiful young lady is and a lot about her. She has been around for quite some time. Her husband was a famous young man that I got to know many years ago, he used to come to my restaurant all the time called Lyman Whites, Buffalo Wings Express. He used to come there all the time. You and your husband, what’s his name?
SBN Raful.
LD Raful Senior. Who was a big time Blues player.
SBN He played harmonica and sang.
LD Now, what we want to do here today is kind of go down memory road. We want to learn some more about you, about your history. But the most important thing we want to take away here is that you have a whole family of the Blues. You all keep the Blues going. Today she is known as the mother of Blues. All of her children sing the Blues now. We’re at your home today. How many children you had?
SBN I had ten. Seven boys and three girls. Everybody was a musician.
LD All ten of your children played the Blues?
SBN That’s right.
LD How did that come about? How do you get all ten children?
SBN My husband, when they were small, I mean, that’s what he gave them instruments. Kenny really enjoyed it. Slim Harpo used to come by the house sometimes He had a trailer on the back of his car. And he opened the door and Kenny go in there and he just tried to play everything he seen so they locked him up in there one day. He was so scared. He didn’t know what was going to happen.
But Kenny would get to like the bar where you served the people. He’d go get him a chair and get on top of the bar and try to sing I mean, that’s the way they were. They just thought they just could get into the music and they did it.
Permission to use You Been Sweet to Me, Pride and Joy and Someday granted by Mrs. Shirley B Neal, Mother of the Blues.
Count Time Podcast honors the life and legacy of warrior, legend Dr. Johnnie A Jones, Sr. who passed away on April 23rd 2022. He was 102-years-old. He fought for the next generation and his legacy will inspire future generations as it has inspired all who knew of him. A civil rights attorney, Dr. Jones was inducted into the Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame and earned the Purple Heart for fighting while injured by shrapnel during Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach. This episode includes an excerpt from Interview with Johnnie A Jones, Sr. as he describes his experiences as a warrant officer in World War II.
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Dr. Johnnie A. Jones, Sr. Funeral Services
Funeral services will be held for Dr. Jones on Monday, May 2nd 2022 at the Mount Zion First Baptist Church, 356 T. J. Jemison Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA
9 – 10 viewing
10 – 10:30 Special Recognition and Presentations
11 – 12 Services
1:00 Port Hudson Cemetery Military Burial
Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra on the passing of Johnnie Jones
Johnnie A. Jones, Sr. (November 30, 1919 – April 23, 2022) was an African American Louisiana state legislator, soldier in the 494th Port Battalion and civil rights attorney associated with the 1953 Baton Rouge bus boycott, the first anti-segregation bus boycott, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a precursor to the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama.
He was born Nov. 30, 1919 in Laurel Hill, La. where he was raised on Rosemound Plantation by his parents who farmed 73 acres of land. Known as a social justice warrior, Dr. Jones was inducted into the Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame for his service to the citizens of Louisiana and for his achievements in the pursuit of justice. He earned the Purple Heart for fighting while injured on the beaches of Normandy.