Prosperity Books Gifts & Variety

Prosperity Books Gifts & Variety Provide a wide selection of books, gifts and children's and women's apparel at great prices with friendly customer service.

07/22/2022

Zetas we welcome you to Philadelphia. Come to Booth 833 on Friday July 22 between 12 noon and 1 pm to see your soror Phila. City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson and for a sale on selected items during her visit.

02/28/2022

Marian Anderson is remembered as one of the best American contraltos of all time. She was the first African American singer to perform at the White House and also the first African American to sing with New York's Metropolitan Opera.
She was born in Philadelphia on Feb. 27, 1902 and was educated in the public schools. She displayed a remarkable flair for singing when very young. She sung at Union Baptist Church in South Philadelphia. When Anderson was 23, she entered a competition and won first place over 300 other singers, gaining her an engagement with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium. Further sponsorships enabled her to continue her studies in the United States and in Europe.
Following debuts in Berlin in 1930 and London in 1932, Anderson concertized in Scandinavia, Germany, South America, and the Soviet Union. In Salzburg, Austria, she gave a sensational performance at the Mozarteum with famous conductor Arturo Toscanini in the audience. Upon hearing her sing, Toscanini reportedly told her she had "a voice heard but once in a century."
After she returned to the United States she sang for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the White House, and she returned to perform for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England during their 1939 visit to the United States. In one year, she covered 26,000 miles in the longest tour in concert history, giving 70 concerts in five months. By 1950, it was estimated that she had performed before nearly 4 million listeners.
Marian Anderson's contralto voice was notable for its power
With Roland Hayes and Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson pioneered in winning recognition at home and abroad for black artists. In 1939, an incident involving the Daughters of the American Revolution focused public attention on racism. The DAR denied Anderson use of their Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. for an April concert. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest, and the U.S. government allowed her to perform at Lincoln Memorial on Easter morning. The concert had a live audience of 75,000, and millions more heard it over the radio.
On Jan. 7, 1955, Anderson sang Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (The Masked Ball) at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, and she returned the following season in the same role. This was the first time an African American person had sung with the Metropolitan since it opened in 1883.
Anderson sang at the presidential inaugurations of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Anderson gave her farewell concert at Carnegie Hall on Easter Sunday in 1965.
In addition to decorations from many foreign governments, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. She died on April 8, 1993.

02/26/2022

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. (February 25, 1928 - December 14, 1998)
A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. grew up during the Great Depression and the era of Jim Crow laws. He graduated from Antioch College in 1949 and graduated from Yale Law School in 1952 with honors.
In 1953, Higginbotham was the youngest and first African American District Attorney in the City of Philadelphia. In 1954 he became a founding partner of the first African American law firm in Philadelphia, Norris, Schmidt, Green Harris, & Higginbotham.
In 1962 President Kennedy appointed Higginbotham to the Federal Trade Commission making him the youngest and first African American to ever serve on a federal regulatory commission.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson nominated him as a federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania where he became one of the youngest people ever appointed to a federal bench at the age of 35.
He played an extraordinary role in the civil rights movement as an advisor to President Johnson and as a member of the National Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence.
In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit where he remained for 16 years, serving as Chief Judge from 1989 until 1991 and as Senior Judge until his retirement in 1993.
He was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Harvard University.
As a historian, he contributed to more than 100 publications and academic works and produced several critically acclaimed works including In the Matter of Color: The Colonial Period (1978)
He is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and numerous other honors and awards including honorary degrees from more than 60 universities.

02/23/2022

OCTAVIUS VALENTINE CATTO (1839-1871)
Octavius Valentine Catto was a prominent Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, activist, scholar, athlete, and military officer in the National Guard during the Civil War.
Catto was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 22, 1839. His mother, Sarah Isabella Cain, a free woman, was a descendant of one of Charleston’s most distinguished mulatto families, the DeReefs. His father, William Catto, was a slave millwright who gained his freedom and became a prominent Presbyterian minister. The elder Catto relocated his family north around 1850 and soon became the pastor at First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1854, he became a student at the Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney University) & graduated as valedictorian in 1858. Catto furthered his studies in Washington, D.C., & upon his return, became an instructor of literature, mathematics, Greek, & Latin at the Institute for Colored Youth.
When the Confederate Army invaded Pennsylvania in 1863, culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg, Catto responded to the call for emergency troops by raising one of the first volunteer companies, the 5th Brigade of the Pennsylvania National Guard. He served as major & inspector general in the brigade.
He was a member of several civic, literary, patriotic, & political groups, including the Philadelphia Library Company, 4th Ward Black Political Club, & the Franklin Institute. After the Civil War, Catto started a Philadelphia protest movement that led to passage of the 1867 Pennsylvania law that prohibited racially segregated public transportation. Later the same year, Catto & his childhood friend, Jacob White Jr., formed the city’s second black baseball team: the Philadelphia Pythians of which he was a co-manager & a player.
On Election Day, October 10, 1871, Catto, age 32, was murdered along with several other blacks in a Philadelphia riot when local African Americans attempted to vote as a result of the state’s ratification of the fifteenth amendment. During the riot, Catto was confronted near his home by Frank Kelly, a Democratic Party operative who fired several shots at Catto, with one bullet piercing his heart.
In September 2017 a Catto memorial was placed Philadelphia City Hall courtyard. The memorial consists of a 12-foot bronze statue of Catto. Behind him are five granite pillars, fashioned like upturned streetcars. The figure faces a stainless-steel ballot box resting on a broad table.

02/20/2022

Rev. Dr. Vernon Johns was a social Reformer, farmer, preacher & civil-rights pioneer who has been referred to as the "Father of the Civil-Rights Movement". He was a man ahead of his time in the movement. He was born in April 1892 in Prince Edward County, Va. Since his parents did not have enough money to send him to school, he educated himself while working.
He had a photographic memory & taught himself Greek, Latin, Hebrew & German. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1918, he became the pastor of Court Street Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va (1 of the oldest African-American congregations in the South), serving first from 1920 to 1926, then from 1941 to 1945.
As the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from 1947 to 1952, Dr. Johns was an early proponent of civil rights activity in Montgomery, urging his congregation to challenge the traditional status quo. His early activism and challenges to the power structure paved the way for Dexter’s congregation to receive Dr. King's socially active ministry and enabled Dr. King to take a leading role in the Montgomery bus boycott.
In 1954, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., succeeded Dr. Johns as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Rev. Johns had a lasting effect on Dr. King both personally & professionally. In “Stride Toward Freedom”, his memoir of the Montgomery bus boycott, Dr. King described Dr. Johns as “a brilliant preacher with a creative mind” & “a fearless man, [who] never allowed an injustice to come to his attention without speaking out against it” (p. 38). Dr. King found an example in Dr. Johns, a preacher who was able to use his religious position in the community to challenge his congregation to act.
After he left Dexter, Dr. Johns continued to speak at churches & colleges throughout the United States. At Dr. King’s request, he returned to Dexter as guest preacher for its 79th anniversary service. In addition to his speak -ing engagements, Dr. Johns was active in Farm & City Enterprises, Inc., an economic cooperative that enabled farmers to sell their goods directly to the consumer. Johns continued to preach until his death in 1965.

02/18/2022

Luisa Mae Harris Feb 1955-Jan 2022
Lusia Harris was one of women’s basketball’s most accomplished players. She was also the first woman to be officially drafted by an N.B.A. team, the New Orleans (now Utah) Jazz, although she said at the time that she did not think she could play at the level of professional male players.
She averaged 25.9 points and 14.4 rebounds a game at Delta State, in Cleveland, Miss., and also scored the opening points when women’s basketball was first played at the Olympics, in Montreal in 1976.
Harris, known as Lucy, played at Delta State before the N.C.A.A. held a women’s basketball tournament (its first one was in 1982) and before major universities began to dominate the sport.
But there was a title for the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, and the Delta State Lady Statesmen won their first in 1975, defeating Immaculata University, a Pennsylvania school. The next season, Harris scored 46 points against Queens College before 10,032 fans at Madison Square Garden.
Harris scored the opening points when Olympic women’s basketball was first played, at the Montreal Summer Olympics, in 1976.
Delta State soon defeated Immaculata again to win the A.I.A.W. championship. Then, in 1977, the Lady Statesmen won the title over Louisiana State University.
A few months after her final game at Delta State, Harris was chosen in the seventh round of the N.B.A. draft by the Jazz.
Harris expressed shock that she was picked and did not take her selection too seriously. Harris ultimately declined to join a Jazz rookie camp.
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02/04/2022

Karen Hastie Williams, Barrier-Breaking Lawyer, Sept 1944-2021

Her father, William H. Hastie, was also a racial pioneer: In 1937 he became the first Black man to serve as a Federal District Court judge, a job he left to become dean of the law school at Howard University.
After graduating from college & earning a master’s degree, she attended law school at the Catholic University of America in Washington, clerked for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit &, in 1974, became the first Black woman hired as a clerk on the Supreme Court, working for Justice Marshall, her godfather.

02/03/2022

Prosperity Bookstore celebrates Crispus Attucks
On March 5, 1770, Crispus Attucks stood tall when the British soldiers came against the colonists in Boston. He was a sailor, slave and patriot. When the British soldier shot Attucks, it began the Boston Massacre and the Revolutionary War.

02/02/2022

Prosperity Bookstore salutes Black History heroes
Quinta Brunson
Social media star turned executive producer Quinta Brunson created and stars in the ABC hit series Abbott Elementary.
On January 27, 2022, Philadelphia City Council honored Quinta Brunson for capturing Philly's spirit in 'Abbott Elementary' The sitcom has received widespread acclaim for depicting the challenges of working in an underfunded school district. Quinta Brunson stars as second grade teacher Janine Teagues in the ABC sitcom 'Abbott Elementary.'

Fantastic sessions and wonderful authors.
09/30/2021

Fantastic sessions and wonderful authors.

04/15/2021

Remembering Jackie Robinson and his great accomplishment!!

02/19/2021

Attending the first virtual Winter Institute

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