E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

When it comes to the rights of African Americans in this country, yes there is Martin (Luther King) and there is Malcolm (X). But they weren't the only ones, not only were they not the only ones, but their efforts would have been in vain were it not for the mettle of men such as deceased Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Although he is no longer with us, his shadow he cast looms large and the hole he left in the fabric of life remains unstitched.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was the grandson of a slave. His father, William Marshall, instilled in him from youth an appreciation for the United States Constitution and the rule of law. After completing high school in 1925, Thurgood followed his brother, William Aubrey Marshall, at the historically black Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His classmates at Lincoln included a distinguished group of future Black leaders such as the poet and author Langston Hughes, the future President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and musician Cab Calloway. Just before graduation, he married his first wife, Vivian "Buster" Burey. Their twenty-five year marriage ended with her death from cancer in 1955.*

A Chronology of Justice Marshall's Accomplishments

1930: Mr. Marshall graduates with honors from Lincoln U. (cum laude)

1933: Receives law degree from Howard U. (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore

1934: Begins to work for Baltimore branch of NAACP

1935: With Charles Houston, wins first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson

1936: Becomes assistant special counsel for NAACP in New York

1940: Wins first of 29 Supreme Court victories (Chambers v. Florida)

1944: Successfully argues Smith v. Allwright, overthrowing the South's "white primary"

1948: Wins Shelley v. Kraemer, in which Supreme Court strikes down legality of racially restrictive covenants

1950: Wins Supreme Court victories in two graduate-school integration cases, Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents

1951: Visits South Korea and Japan to investigate charges of racism in U.S. armed forces. He reported that the general practice was one of "rigid segregation".

1954: Wins Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, landmark case that demolishes legal basis for segregation in America

1961: Defends civil rights demonstrators, winning Supreme Circuit Court victory in Garner v. Louisiana; nominated to Second Court of Appeals by President J.F. Kennedy

1961: Appointed circuit judge, makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court (1961-1965)

1965: Appointed U.S. solicitor general by President Lyndon Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967)

1967: Becomes first African American elevated to U.S. Supreme Court (1967-1991)

1991: Retires from the Supreme Court

1993: Dies at 84**

There was a recent article on the strategic role President Lyndon Johnson played in ensuring that Thurgood Marshall became the iron-clad Justice he is renowned for today. For more on that click here.

If there's anything that needs to be added to the above timeline please feel free to add to the accomplishments in the comments below.

*Source
**Source

E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

This week my beautiful wife and I volunteered for a few hours at Atlanta's Community Food Bank. If aren't familiar with food banks, these non-profit agencies rescue food that would otherwise be "wasted out" by restaurants or grocery stores for one reason or another and then redistribute this food to their locally food impoverished citizens. Sadly due to the current financial times, these citizens now come from all walks of life.

Here in Atlanta, ACFB rescues food and household products and distributes them to churches, food pantries, schools, etc. This distribution is to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds of food per year. My wife and I volunteered for 3 hours in the afternoon. Her job was to weigh and label parcels of food according to their classification --- food, beverages, condiments, etc. My job was to stack those parcels on palettes then once full, move them from our staging area in ACFB's warehouse across the floor to an area where forklift operators took the palettes to be loaded on trucks. By the end of our 3 hours I had moved a total of 8 palettes and most of my wife's nails were broken. But it was a great experience on two fronts:

1. We were able to do some good in the community in which we live; and
2. We did something together and got to meet a bunch of people (other volunteers) we probably would never normally meet.

Why Volunteer in the First Place?
Last week I was in a VERY dark place, fluctuating between feeling sorry for myself and being pissed at myself and the world for the current financial crunch my family is currently experiencing. As the man of the house, this burden rests particularly heavy on my shoulders and the thought of not being able to meet the needs of my children (something which hasn't happened yet) is currently my Number One nightmare.

In the midst of my sorrow/rage my heart spoke to me:

"Take the focus off you."

Knowing exactly what that meant I hopped on the ol' trusty computer and registered to volunteer not only at ACFB but Habitat For Humanity. Here on this blog I pontificate at length about getting back to me and encourage all of you to do the same who may not be the same man or woman you once were now that you're a mom, dad, wife or husband. Working out as I've mentioned often is great. But there has to be more.

As a child I was indoctrinated into service through my church's Sunday School. This experience continued through middle and high school years. In college I pledged a fraternity that has as one of it's primary tenets being in the service of others. As a young corporate America guy I participated in a few community service projects, most memorably at State Farm Insurance where I participated in a build with Habitat For Humanity. Then I got into the non-profit world and began hosting volunteer events myself. This is when and where my volunteerism ended. Why volunteer when I'm coordinating everything, right?

Wrong.

My New Mojo
This week my soul opened up at the food bank. I felt a long lost piece of me return home. At 4pm when the session was officially over, they had to tell me to stop. I know I had a good two more hours of hard labor left in me. While we were there my wife received a call for a 2nd interview for directorship she really wants. We walked away smiling and looking forward to working with the staffers again. That night I went to be happy, slept well and woke up refreshed. And these are just some of the joys that come from serving others.

This experience impacted me so strongly that I am now committed to putting in 27 hours of Community Service before the end of this year, MINIMUM. Why 27? Because 27 is a nice odd number that actually forces you to keep a tally and it also happens to be the number of my date of birth.

• 27 hours can be 27 weeks spent mentoring a child 1 hour at a time.
• 27 hours can be 3 build days at Habitat For Humanity.
• 27 hours can take whatever form you wish as it pertains to serving others, whether that is hands-on, doing volunteer admin work in an office, teaching a workshop, gardening a community plot, etc.

In the coming weeks as I look to take this blog to places it's never been before expect to see an initiative around 27 Hours of Volunteerism And Service. The inspiration just hit me, so stay tuned while the seed takes root to bear fruit.

I've got 24 more hours to go. How about you? Please let me know in the comments below:

• Have you volunteered at all in 2011?
• What and where have you volunteered?
• Do you think you can commit to volunteering 27 hours of your time this year in the service of others?

To learn more about the effects of Hunger in this country visit, Feeding America.

E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

We're almost completely caught up here at Makes Me Wanna Holler. I hope this impacts you as positively as it impacted me...



For further inspiration, check out Lamar's Tumblr site.


E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

Coming soon as a download to the eBook Store here at Makes Me Wanna Holler:



If you like it, please share and retweet amongst your networks.

E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

Recently, I posted a status on Facebook about my Facebook Page and it got a lot of attention.

Those of you who are with me over at Facebook know that my Fan numbers crossed 1,000 at the beginning of the year. What you might not know is that the number stalled right there at 1,000. In the last 2 weeks I've added close to 200.

How? By following some very simple commandments that were taught to me by Lamar Tyler:



And here's a little something I just made up to help you in your quest to become a Facebook Page "ACE."

• Ads (within your budget) are Necessary (depending on your goals).
  
• Content is King.
• Engagement is an Absolute Requirement.

E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

It's the weekend and if you're in the southern states like me, you're probably out in shorts and a t-shirt running through a park with your dog with plans of eating outside all weekend. We're in the middle of what I can only describe as a heat wave. But even if you're not, there's plenty going on this weekend, namely the NBA All Star Game.

When it comes to making an appropriate selection of beer to drink, as I am no connoisseur as I barely indulge. But when I do, I whip out my cell phone and shoot a text over to my man, Ale Sharpton.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because he graced Makes Me Wanna Holler.com with a list of Fall Beers That Make You Wanna Holler. He has his own blog, writes for magazine's such as Beer Connoisseur and has posted some home-made videos on YouTube. But lately he's been getting some major Internet/social media play and being deemed by most if not all as a certified Beer Sommelier.

At the end of 2010 he did a feature for Thrillist:



And this week he was featured as a Local Find on the ever-growing, moustache-toting, site Scoutmob. To read the full article on his comings and goings and his love of all things brew click here.

Hopefully Mr. Ale will grace this blog once more with his Winter or Spring recommendations, depending on what this weather decides to be. Continued success, Ale Sharpton!


Dennis Malcolm Byron aka “Ale Sharpton” has been a beer enthusiast for more than two decades. A longtime imbiber, he’s taken his appreciation for beer to the next level, writing and educating consumers around the nation about the frosty beverage. To learn more visit his popular website, www.alesharpton.com, for more brew love. And on Twitter he's @AleSharpton.