NEW PORT RICHEY -- Papa Woody "The Entertainer" rolls off the names of entertainers who have influenced him. Among them are funk band Sly and the Family Stone, soul singer Otis Redding and R & B artist Wilson Pickett. "I do everything from Frank Sinatra to B.B. King," he said. But he quickly added all his music has a Papa Woody flavor. "I do their songs my way," he said and noted putting in a little R & B never hurts a song. ...more

June 18, 2008

Robert Butler has made a life doing what he loves. ...more

June 13, 2008

Now that Sen. Barack Obama has enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination, the history-making victory by a black candidate is complicated by another first: a runner-up who doesn't know how to count. ...more

June 5, 2008

Johnnie Carr, who joined childhood friend Rosa Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott and kept a busy schedule of civil rights activism up to her final days, has died. She was 97. ...more

February 24, 2008

For many black Americans, it's a conversation they find hard to avoid, revisiting old fears in the light of bright new hopes. ...more

February 23, 2008

The Rev. James E. Orange, a lieutenant of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, has died. He was 65. ...more

February 18, 2008

City Councilwoman Celia Graham, who served during one of the most turbulent political times in Zephyrhills history, will not seek re-election, she said Tuesday. ...more

February 6, 2008

The 2008 festival celebrating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday included some longtime traditions along with some changes. ...more

January 24, 2008

Anyone who showed up at Mount Zion AME Church on Monday expecting a staid ceremony honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. either left early or left singing. ...more

January 22, 2008

The church is small, a few dozen aging wooden pews, brick and stucco walls, a cramped fellowship hall next to the sanctuary, and a modest steeple with bells. ...more

January 22, 2008