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The success of Denzel Washington and Halle Berry at the recent Academy
Awards, along with the Life-Time-Achievement Award bestowed upon Sidney
Potier reminds me of so many gone, the so few remembered. Names like Joel
Fluellen, Nick Steward and Beah Richards that were either swept out with the
trash, or given only a momentary glance by those who track success. They were
like the shadow puppets on some Asian landscape whose presence is felt, but is
quickly forgotten. Like those puppets, however, these men and women represent
the forces that drove the recently honored toward their goal. In the months
to come we will pay tribute to those African-American actors who got the
Berrys, Washingtons and even Poitier over the Middle Passage.
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