Three Icons and the Worlds They Left Behind

From Negritude 2.0 by Mark Reynolds (popmatters.com)

Much was made of how Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes were linked by more than just their deaths on the same August weekend. They both represented a certain generation and caliber of strong black man, proud and solid citizens enjoying respect and admiration for how they both performed and handled their business. But aside from the movie Soul Men, they came from different quadrants of the black pop universe, and otherwise weren’t usually mentioned in the same context.

Miriam Makeba, Odetta and Eartha Kitt, on the other hand, share much more in common than the proximity of their passings (Makeba shortly before Thanksgiving, Odetta shortly afterwards, and Kitt on Christmas Day). They broke new ground in their respective corners of the musical universe. They had their greatest impact in an era charged with upheaval across racial, geopolitical and cultural lines. They provided new images of what strong, self-assured black women could look like. They enjoyed respect and admiration years after their heydays.

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