“I asked the leadership, ‘Are you OK with this? … He clearly sees the people of Haiti as inferior. Do you see me as inferior?’” she wrote in “Qualified: Finding Your Voice, Leading With Character, and Empowering Others,” her 2023 memoir. “If you do not see me as an equal, you can remove me from this conference. If we don’t see everyone as equal under God we have bigger problems.”
~Mia Love, encounter with a fellow GOP member at a Republican Party conclave
There is a myth or urban legend that says, “Famous people die in groups of three.” I know this to be false and the recent deaths of a number of phenomenal Black human beings is my proof. In the past month and a half, we’ve lost a group of men and women who have exhibited a high level of excellence in their professional and personal lives. The corporate-owned media doesn’t always devote the proper amount of time and attention that I feel our sisters and brothers deserve. Here, I briefly celebrate each one. The diversity of the various disciplines that they mastered is remarkable, and this is one of the reasons why I selected them.
MIA LOVE
Ludmya “Mia” Love was born Ludmya Bourdeau on December 6, 1975 in the borough of Brooklyn. She recently passed away on March 23, 2025 (49 years old)
Source: Wikipedia
Cause of death: glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.
Mia was a former U.S. Representative of the 4th Congressional District of Utah. Love was elected to Congress in 2014 and served two terms. She was the first Black Republican female to serve in the United States Congress. While in office, she was a champion for reducing burdensome regulations and was also a leader in the push for immigration reform. She was adamantly pro-life and believed in protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. She was also a passionate supporter of women in the military who were subjected to discrimination and abuse. Mia was one of the few Republicans in Congress that spoke up after a recording was released in which Donald Trump bragged about groping women. Mia had courage while others remained silent. During her time in Congress Mia became the only Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Prior to her time in Congress, Rep. Love served on the city council and was elected mayor in her hometown of Saratoga Springs, Utah. Mia was a CNN correspondent and served as a non-resident senior fellow at The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
Mia was the daughter of legal immigrants from Haiti. She was a wife, mother of three children and a proud American. Source: https://politics.georgetown.edu/profile/mia-love/
ROBERTA FLACK
Photo credit: https://www.wttw.com/playlist/2017/01/24/roberta-flack-and-donny-hathaway
Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) (88 years old)
Cause of death: Cardiac arrest/ALS
Internationally hailed as one of the greatest songstresses of our time, GRAMMY Award winning Roberta Flack remains unparalleled in her ability to tell a story through her music. Her songs bring insight into our lives, loves, culture and politics, while effortlessly traversing a broad musical landscape from pop to soul to folk to jazz. She was the first solo artist to win the GRAMMY Award Record of the Year for two (2) consecutive years: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face won the 1973 GRAMMY and Killing Me Softly with His Song won the 1974 GRAMMY.
Described by Reverend Jesse Jackson as “socially relevant and politically unafraid,” Ms. Flack is very active as a humanitarian and mentor. She founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, providing an innovative and inspiring music education program to underprivileged students free of charge.
In 2010, Ms. Flack founded The Roberta Flack Foundation whose mission statement is to support animal welfare and music education. In 2019, she awarded grants to Anasa Troutman’s Shelectricity and filmmaker Carol Swainson.
In 2020, Ms. Flack received a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, she raised awareness and funds for Feed The Children.org during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roberta Flack was a teacher of music and attended Howard University. Donny Hathaway, who collaborated with Ms. Flack on numerous occasions, was also an alumni of Howard University. Ms. Flack’s first appearance as an artist on the Billboard Hot 100 was with Hathaway for their duet entitled “You’ve Got a Friend.” I’m sure there will be tributes and memorials to honor Roberta Flack. It is my dream that Donny Hathaway’s daughter, Lalah Hathaway, and former Fugee’s member, Lauren Hill, are involved in the production and performance of events honoring Roberta Flack.
Ms. Flack was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”) in 2022 and passed on from this life on February 24, 2025.
Source: https://robertaflack.com/biography/
GEORGE FORMAN
George Edward Forman (January 10, 1949; March 21, 2025) (76 years old)
Cause of Death: No official cause for his death
George Edward Foreman was born was born to J.D. and Nancy Foreman on January 10, 1949, in the town of Marshall, Texas. An impoverished youth, Foreman often bullied younger children and didn’t like getting up early for school. Foreman became a mugger and brawler on the hard streets of Houston’s Fifth Ward by age 15.
Luckily, he was saved by the Lyndon B. Johnson Job Corps, a program developed to help disadvantaged kids by teaching them vocational job skills. It was Doc Broaddus (Job Corps Counselor) who encouraged Foreman to become a boxer.
Foreman fought just 20 times as an amateur before traveling to the Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games. He was raw, but strong. “The left jab was my No. 1 punch – I still think it was the best punch in boxing,” Foreman said years later.
In four Olympic bouts, Foreman went the distance just once. He stopped Jonas Cepulis of the Soviet Union in the second round of the gold medal bout, prompting Foreman to dance around the ring carrying a small American flag.
In 1969, Foreman turned professional and within two years, Foreman was ranked the No. 1 challenger by the WBA and WBC. By 1972, Foreman had a perfect 37-0 record which included 35 knockouts.
He was ordained a minister in 1978 and began preaching in his hometown of Houston, Texas. In 1984, he founded the George Foreman Youth and Community Center, a non-denominational place for kids who need direction like he once did.
After more than a year out of the ring, On Nov. 5, 1994, Foreman took on the new champ, Michael Moorer, and knocked him out in the 10th round. With the victory, at the age of 45, Foreman became the oldest fighter ever to win the heavyweight crown as well as the boxer with the most time between one world championship and the next.
Source: https://www.georgeforeman.com/pages/biography and https://usopm.org/george-foreman/#:~:text=A%20high%20school%20dropout%2C%20George,Mexico%20City%201968%20Olympic%20Games.
ANGIE STONE
Photo credit: https://www.instagram.com/emp.press/
Angela Laverne Stone (née Brown; December 18, 1961 – March 1, 2025) (63 years old)
Angela was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer.
Source: Wikipedia
Cause of death: car accident in Montgomery, Alabama
She was an actress and director, known for The Hot Chick (2002), Ride Along (2014) and Brown Sugar (2002). She was married to Lil’ Rodney Cee.
Source: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1102921/bio/
Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Angie Stone was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter, actress, and record producer widely recognized for her soulful voice and significant contributions to R&B, soul, neo-soul, and hip-hop music.
Stone’s musical journey began in the late 1970s when she became a founding member of The Sequence—one of the first female rap groups signed to Sugar Hill Records. In the early 1990s, Angie Stone transitioned from hip-hop into R&B as part of the group Vertical Hold. Stone’s solo breakthrough came in 1999 with her debut album Black Diamond, which featured standout singles such as “No More Rain (In This Cloud)” and “Everyday.”
I actually grew up listening to Angie Stone when she was a member of Sequence. I loved songs like, “Funk You Up,” and I didn’t actually know until recently that was Angie Stone in the group. When you begin conversations about the neo-soul genre, Angie Stone immediately pops into your mind. She was a “Soul Sista” whose song “Brotha” made it popular and acceptable to celebrate Black men.
Throughout her extensive career, Angie Stone has collaborated with numerous legendary musicians across genres—including Prince, Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys—and earned multiple Grammy nominations recognizing vocal performance excellence and songwriting prowess. Source: https://www.shatterthestandards.com/p/our-tribute-to-angie-stone-1961-2025
SYLVESTER TURNER
Sylvester Turner September 27, 1954 – March 5, 2025 (70 years old)
Cause of death: remains unknown at this time
Sylvester Turner was born on September 27, 1954, in Acres Homes, Texas, considered to be the largest unincorporated African American community in the Southern United States. His mother Ruby Mae worked as a maid in the old Rice Hotel in Houston. His father Eddie worked as a painter for Continental Ensco and, on the weekends, cut yards with his sons to make extra money.
He received his B.A. degree in political science from the University of Houston, after which he attended Harvard Law School, where he received his J.D. degree in 1980. In 1983, he co-founded the Houston law firm of Barnes & Turner. Sylvester was elected Mayor of Houston in 2015.
Sylvester Turner spent many years as an immigration lawyer in Houston, Texas and was dedicated to equal opportunity to all communities of color.
Turner’s death comes two months into his first term representing Texas’ 18th Congressional District, the seat long occupied by his political ally, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who also died in office last year amid a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Turner said in 2022 that he had secretly been recovering from bone cancer. Last summer, as he was seeking the nomination for Jackson Lee’s seat, Turner said he was cancer-free.
I had my own personal interactions with Sylvester Turner when he was a state representative in Texas. Mr. Turner was a huge supporter of the incarcerated veterans’ program at the Ramsey Unit located in Rosharon, Texas.
Following the untimely passing in 2024 of his dear friend and colleague, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Sylvester came out of retirement and was elected to serve as the United States Representative for the historic 18th Congressional District of Texas.
Source: https://sylvesterturner.com/
D’WAYNE WIGGINS
Photo credit: https://deadline.com/2025/03/dwayne-wiggins-dead-tony-toni-tone-1236314089/
D’Wayne Patrice Wiggins (February 14, 1961 – March 7, 2025) (64 years old)
D’Wayne was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer best known as a founding member of the R&B/soul band Tony! Toni! Toné Source: Wikipedia
Cause of Death: Bladder cancer
D’Wayne’s life was incomparable, and his music and service impacted millions around the world, including in his hometown of Oakland, California. He was a guitarist, producer, composer, philanthropist, mentor and founding member of Tony! Toni! Tone! He was deeply passionate about providing artist development and mentorship to emerging young musicians, helping to shape the early careers of many.
Here’s a fun memory of my experience with Tony, Toni, Toné in San Francisco: It was 2021 and the group was playing at San Francisco’s Black Cat nightclub in the Tenderloin. I was keeping a really low profile, and I watched as former San Francisco Mayor London Breed got up on stage and sang with the group. At the time, a lot of people in the City were critical of London for not wearing her mask. However, it was a very memorable and fun time to be in San Francisco as we slowly came out of the Covid pandemic.
LENA DERRIECOTT KING
Photo credit: https://www.nabmw.org/lena-derriecott-bell-king
Lena Derriecott Bell King (January 27, 1923 – January 18, 2024) was a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-Black, all-female unit to serve overseas during World War II. Source: Wikipedia
Lena Derriecott Bell King, age 100, peacefully passed away on January 18, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was born January 27, 1923, in Washington, Georgia and her departure from this world marks the end of a life-well lived. Lena Derriecott Bell answered the call and enlisted in the Army Air Force at 18, starting her Army active-duty service on December 15, 1943, from her home of residence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She completed basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and her first duty assignment was as a nurse at Douglas Army Airfield near Bisbee, Arizona.
Corporal Lena Derriecott Bell became a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, nicknamed “Six Triple Eight” Bn., consisting of 855 women and the only Battalion size unit of predominantly African American females who served overseas during World War II. The mission in Birmingham was to clear the over two years of backlog of mail in the European Theater of Operations in six months. The unit’s motto was “No Mail, Low Morale.” Under the leadership of Major Charity Adams, they worked around the clock, three eight-hour shifts, seven days a week in harsh wartime conditions and rat-infested warehouses to clear the backlog of over seventeen million pieces of letters and packages in just three months, breaking all Army records for mail delivery.
In 2016, the Army Women’s Foundation inducted the Six Triple Eight into its Hall of Fame. In Feb 2019, the Army posthumously awarded the 6888th their only award for exemplary performance, the Meritorious Unit Commendation. In May 2019, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom dedicated a Blue Plaque at the King Edwards School in Birmingham, England, to mark the 6888th station. In October 2019, Lena, and the other surviving 6888th members received the 2019 Audie Murphy Award during the nationally televised American Valor Awards ceremony. She was also an Honor Roll Awardee at the World War II National Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana. On March 14, 2022, President Joe Biden signed The Six Triple Eight U.S. Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021 into law.
Source: https://www.nabmw.org/lena-derriecott-bell-king
The women of the 6888th faced racism and discrimination as they attempted to complete their mission. However, with the help of their commander, Maj. Charity Adams, they were not deterred. These phenomenal Black women exhibited courage, tenacity, and strength. They must never be forgotten, and we must continue to tell future generations about their story.
I strongly encourage our readers and followers to view Tyler Perry’s Netflix film entitled “Six Triple Eight” starring Kerry Washington.
Black excellence is something that must continuously be highlighted and talked about. In order for me to convey my point more clearly and illustrate the importance of this type of storytelling, I leave you all with a thought-provoking quote from Dr. Joy DeGruy from her book, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing,” on pages 177-78, Dr. DeGruy said the following:
“It is important that in whatever venture we pursue, whether completing school, advancing in a career, or raising a healthy family, excellence should be the objective. Modeling (or the lack thereof) is why mere recitations ‘Be all that you can be’ and pronouncements such as ‘You can do anything’ are not enough for African Americans, and particularly for our youth. We need real, living, breathing examples. Without such examples, simple words of exhortation, seminars, or workshops end up repeating these vague, idealistic hopes and dreams. People are often left discouraged and unconvinced. It is difficult to believe those around you who constantly tell you that your aspirations are definitely obtainable, when you don’t know of anyone who has attained them. Whereas real-life examples serve as evidence of possibility; and the more evidence in our immediate environment, the greater the expectation we will have of our own ultimate success.”
I am thankful to have a colleague and life partner who supports the work I do, and I am very grateful for David Greenwald, the editor of the Davis Vanguard as he continues to support the exercise of my free speech rights. Black journalists, Black writers, and Black authors should become bold in promoting Black excellence and Black history. If you are employed by a media organization that does not respect YOUR AGENCY then you should find another platform to ply your trade.
We leave you with this song and video by:
Roberta Flack ft. Donny Hathaway – The Closer I Get To You
Malik Washington is a freelance journalist and Director at Destination: Freedom and Destination Freedom Media Group.
II had wondered what happened to Mia Love and then heard she had died from brain cancer. She was a rising star in the Republican party. There was even talk that she might run for President some day. She’ll be sadly missed. Here are a few other quotes attributed to Mia Love:
“According to liberals, I’m not supposed to exist. I know that I am going to be a target for the Left. I have something to say to them: ‘Game On.'”
“President Obama’s version of America is a divided one – pitting us against each other based on our income level, gender, and social status. His policies have failed! We are not better off than we were 4 years ago, and no rhetoric, bumper sticker, or campaign ad can change that.”
“Mr. President I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in 2012.”
“The Democrats have come right out and said it: the power of the central government shall have no limits at all.”
I find it disgusting when a group eats its own because they are conservative, often more viciously then they attack ‘white’ appearing conservatives. Black or gay people, as examples, sometimes rather mildly in the conservative direction (as in, simply don’t hold far-left views), are expected hold liberal views by some in those groups, like it’s a requirement. Why? Isn’t freedom of ideology for individuals in such groups among the most beautiful outcomes of reduced racism and other forms of bigotry in our country?
Hello, Alan. This is Malik Washington. I read your comment today and it was certainly thoughtful and held a lot of truth. I highlighted Mia Love’s story because I know what it is like to be ostracized and ridiculed in a predominantly white community. Can you imagine the courage it took for her to be a Republican lawmaker in Utah during the rise of Donald Trump? Then, of course, she became a lightning rod for criticism because she spoke out about Trump’s disrespect and sexual assault of women. I still celebrate her courage even though I don’t think I will ever in this life embrace Republican politics. As far as Black folks are concerned, we can be pretty rough on each other and on individuals who have their own unique perspectives which don’t always align with the majority’s ideas. Once again, thanks for your comment and keep reading the Vanguard!
Hello there Keith Olsen. This is Malik Washington. Now, Keith, just when I thought that you were posting a positive comment, you mess it up by repeating this quote by Mia Love: “The Democrats have come right out and said it: the power of the central government shall have no limits at all.”
Now, I really need you to think about what President Donald Trump has done in the past 100 days. We talk about government power, fascism, and hubris. I’m almost positive that you are a highly intelligent human being, and for the life of me, I cannot understand why you cannot see the blatant destruction and attack on our democracy that is taking place right before our eyes. The thing that hurts me the most is the onslaught against the practice of Free Speech. If you continue to support what is going on in our country, Keith, simply because you don’t like the other side (THE LEFT), we will find ourselves in a place that we cannot come back from. If you have time, I recommend that you read Naomi Wolf’s book, “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.” Thank you for your comment. Keep reading the Vanguard.
Thanks Malik for your response. You cherrypicked some of her stances and quotes that were anti Trump and anti GOP so all I did was point out some of her quotes that weren’t so kind to democrats in the name of fair play. After all she was a Republican who I also happened to like.