Sister Souljah

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Sister Souljah (born as Lisa Williamson in 1964, Bronx, New York) is an American hip hop-generation author, activist, recording artist, and film producer. She is best known for Bill Clinton's criticism of her remarks about race in the United States during the 1992 presidential campaign. Clinton's well-known repudiation of her comments led to what is now known in politics as a Sister Souljah moment.

Souljah is the executive director of Daddy's House Social Programs Inc., a not-for-profit corporation for urban youth, financed by Sean Combs and Bad Boy Entertainment.

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[edit] Early life

Lisa Williamson claims that she was born into poverty and raised on welfare. At age 10 she moved with her family to the suburbs of Englewood, New Jersey, a wealthy suburb of New Jersey with tree-lined streets.[1] Englewood is also home to other famous black artists such as George Benson, Eddie Murphy, and Regina Belle.[2]

Souljah disliked what she was being taught in school. She felt that she was being taught very little of her history, since the junior high school and high school left black history, art, and culture for Black Studies Week only once a year. The Englewood school district took an active role with respect to including African studies in the curriculum from the early seventies. This district also took an active role recruiting Black educators and administrators. The junior high school that Williamson attended was renamed Janis E. Dismus School after the death of a well-respected black educator in the district as well as the mother of one of her classmates.

Souljah took a very active and special interest in learning everything she could about African history, which she felt was left out of the education curriculum in this country purposely: "I supplemented my education in the white American school system by reading African history, which was intentionally left out of the curriculum of American students."[3] While at Dwight Morrow High School, a school that had a 55-percent black enrollment, and a majority black faculty and administration during the time of her studies. From 1978 to 1982, she was a legislative intern in the House of Representatives for the Republican Party.[2] Souljah was also the recipient of several honors during her teenage years. She won the American Legion's Constitutional Oratory Contest, a scholarship to attend Cornell University's Advanced Summer Program, and a chance to study abroad in Spain at the University of Salamanca—all before the age of 18.[2]

Throughout college she traveled, visiting Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Finland, and Russia. Her academic accomplishments were reinforced with first-hand experiences as she worked in a medical center in Mtepa Tepa, a village located in Zimbabwe, and assisted refugee children from Mozambique. She also traveled to South Africa and Zambia. She graduated from Rutgers University with degrees in American History and African Studies. She became a well-known and outspoken voice on campus and active writer for the school newspaper. One of her noted campus initiatives was spearheading a campaign to bring Jesse Jackson to Rutgers to speak against the university's controversial investments in South Africa at the time, when divestiture from apartheid-era South Africa was a heated political issue.

In 1985, during her senior year at Rutgers University, she was offered a job by Reverend Benjamin Chavis of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. She spent the next three years developing, organizing, and financing programs such as African Survival Camp, a 6-week summer sleep-away camp in Enfield, North Carolina.[4]

She became a controversial figure during the 1990s as a frequent guest on American talk shows. Unwilling to separate her pro-Black stance from her disdain for people of European origin, Souljah shocked many viewers with her racially charged statements. She became known for the line "I'm not saying there aren't any decent white people; I've just never met one."

Sister Souljah is married and has one child.[5]

[edit] Career

[edit] Music

She appeared on several tracks as a featured guest with the hip-hop group Public Enemy, and she became a full member of the group when Professor Griff left the group after allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks. In 1992, she released her only solo album, 360 Degrees of Power. Both of her videos, "The Final Solution: Slavery's Back in Effect" and "The Hate that Hate Produced," were banned by MTV. Her album sold only 27,000 copies, and so her label, Epic/SME Records, dropped her. It is believed that the album sold poorly due to public backlash from her comments in response to the beating of Rodney King, but it also received terrible reviews in the music press.

[edit] Sister Souljah moment

Souljah became infamous for her statements that year about the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In an interview conducted May 13, 1992, she was quoted in the Washington Post as saying:

“ If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? ”

The quote was later reproduced in the media and she was widely criticized. Presidential candidate Bill Clinton publicly criticized that statement—and Jesse Jackson for allowing her to be on his Rainbow Coalition—thus the Sister Souljah moment was created.

[edit] Author

In 1995, at the age of 31, she published her autobiography, No Disrespect (Times/Crown/Random House ISBN 0-812-92483-5). In 1999, she made her debut as a novelist with The Coldest Winter Ever (Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-671-02578-3). The latter was praised by The New Yorker. A sequel of the novel, titled Midnight: A Gangster Love Story (Atria/Simon & Schuster ISBN 978-1-4165-4518-7), is to be published October 14, 2008.[6]

She also does occasional pieces for Essence Magazine.

[edit] Community Activist

As a community activist, Souljah has organized a number of service programs. In 1985, during her senior year at Rutgers University, she developed and financed the African Youth Survival Camp for children of homeless families, a 6-week summer sleep-away camp in Enfield, North Carolina. She has been a motivating force behind a number of hip-hop artists' efforts to give back to the community, organizing major youth events, programs, and summer camps with artists such as Lauryn Hill, Doug E. Fresh, and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Presently, Souljah is the executive director of Daddy's House Social Programs Inc., a not-for-profit corporation for urban youth, financed by Sean Combs and Bad Boy Entertainment. Daddy's House educates and prepares youth, aged 10–16, to be in control of their academic, cultural, and financial lives. The students progressing through the program earn support to travel throughout the world.[7]

[edit] Discography

Album information
360 Degrees of Power
  • Released: March 17, 1992
  • Chart positions: #72 Top R&B/Hip Hop
  • Last RIAA Certification: N/A
  • Singles: "The Hate that Hate Produced," "The Final Solution: Slavery’s Back in Effect"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Brody, Leslie. "Souljah's Roots Reach Englewood," The Record (Bergen County), June 18, 1992. Accessed November 11, 2007. "Sister Souljah, the [hip-hop] [emcee] who accused Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton of racism, began her activist days as a student in Englewood."
  2. ^ a b c She Thang: Profiles—Sister Souljah
  3. ^ Sister Souljah Statement
  4. ^ She Thang:Profiles-Sister Souljah
  5. ^ “Biography of Sister Souljah.” Retrieved from http://www.sistersouljah.com on April 30, 2008.
  6. ^ Simon & Schuster.com. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
  7. ^ Washington University Assembly Series Speakers: Sister Souljah. Retrieved March 5, 2008.

[edit] External links

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