title: Influenza pandemic

text: In the 2009 revision of the phase descriptions, the WHO has retained the use of a six-phase approach The grouping and description of pandemic phases have been revised to make them easier to understand, more precise, and based upon observable phenomena. Phases 1–3 correlate with preparedness, including capacity development and response planning activities, while phases 4–6 clearly signal the need for response and mitigation efforts. Furthermore, periods after the first pandemic wave are elaborated to facilitate post pandemic recovery activities.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In February 2020, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic explained that the WHO no longer uses this six-phase classification model: "For the sake of clarification, WHO does not use the old system of 6 phases—that ranged from phase 1 (no reports of animal influenza causing human infections) to phase 6 (a pandemic)—that some people may be familiar with from H1N1 in 2009."


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In nature, influenza viruses circulate continuously among animals, especially birds. Even though such viruses might theoretically develop into pandemic viruses, in Phase 1 no viruses circulating among animals have been reported to cause infections in humans.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In Phase 2 an animal influenza virus circulating among domesticated or wild animals is known to have caused infection in humans, and is therefore considered a potential pandemic threat.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In Phase 3, an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus has caused sporadic cases or small clusters of disease in people, but has not resulted in human-to-human transmission sufficient to sustain community-level outbreaks. Limited human-to-human transmission may occur under some circumstances, for example, when there is close contact between an infected person and an unprotected caregiver. However, limited transmission under such restricted circumstances does not indicate that the virus has gained the level of transmissibility among humans necessary to cause a pandemic.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Phase 4 is characterized by verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus able to cause "community-level outbreaks". The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic. Any country that suspects or has verified such an event should urgently consult with the WHO so that the situation can be jointly assessed and a decision made by the affected country if implementation of a rapid pandemic containment operation is warranted. Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a foregone conclusion.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a pandemic is under way.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: During the post-peak period, pandemic disease levels in most countries with adequate surveillance will have dropped below peak observed levels. The post-peak period signifies that pandemic activity appears to be decreasing; however, it is uncertain if additional waves will occur and countries will need to be prepared for a second wave.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Previous pandemics have been characterized by waves of activity spread over months. Once the level of disease activity drops, a critical communications task will be to balance this information with the possibility of another wave. Pandemic waves can be separated by months and an immediate "at-ease" signal may be premature.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In the post-pandemic period, influenza disease activity will have returned to levels normally seen for seasonal influenza. It is expected that the pandemic virus will behave as a seasonal influenza A virus. At this stage, it is important to maintain surveillance and update pandemic preparedness and response plans accordingly. An intensive phase of recovery and evaluation may be required.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In 2014, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced an analogous framework to the WHO's pandemic stages titled the Pandemic Intervals Framework. It includes two pre-pandemic intervals,


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In 2014, the CDC adopted the Pandemic Severity Assessment Framework (PSAF) to assess the severity of pandemics. The PSAF superseded the 2007 linear Pandemic Severity Index, which assumed 30% spread and measured case fatality rate (CFR) to assess the severity and evolution of the pandemic.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Historically, measures of pandemic severity were based on the case fatality rate. However, the case fatality rate might not be an adequate measure of pandemic severity during a pandemic response because:


title: Influenza pandemic

text: To account for the limitations of measuring the case fatality rate alone, the PSAF rates severity of a disease outbreak on two dimensions: clinical severity of illness in infected persons; and the transmissibility of the infection in the population. Each dimension can be measured using more than one measure, which are scaled to allow comparison of the different measures.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: If influenza remains an animal problem with limited human-to-human transmission it is not a pandemic, though it continues to pose a risk. To prevent the situation from progressing to a pandemic, the following short-term strategies have been put forward:


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The rationale for vaccinating poultry workers against common flu is that it reduces the probability of common influenza virus recombining with avian H5N1 virus to form a pandemic strain. Longer-term strategies proposed for regions where highly pathogenic H5N1 is endemic in wild birds have included:


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The main ways available to tackle a flu pandemic initially are behavioural. Doing so requires a good public health communication strategy and the ability to track public concerns, attitudes and behaviour. For example, the Flu TElephone Survey Template (FluTEST) was developed for the UK Department of Health as a set of questions for use in national surveys during a flu pandemic.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The Institute of Medicine has published a number of reports and summaries of workshops on public policy issues related to influenza pandemics. They are collected in "Pandemic Influenza: A Guide to Recent Institute of Medicine Studies and Workshops", and some strategies from these reports are included in the list above. Relevant learning from the 2009 flu pandemic in the UK was published in "Health Technology Assessment", volume 14, issue 34. Asymptomatic transmission appears to play a small role, but was not well studied by 2009.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: There are two groups of antiviral drugs available for the treatment and prophylaxis of influenza: neuraminidase inhibitors such as Oseltamivir (trade name Tamiflu) and Zanamivir (trade name Relenza), and adamantanes such as amantadine and rimantadine. Due to the high rate of side effects and risk of antiviral resistance, use of adamantanes to fight influenza is limited.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Many nations, as well as the World Health Organization, are working to stockpile antiviral drugs in preparation for a possible pandemic. Oseltamivir is the most commonly sought drug, since it is available in pill form. Zanamivir is also considered for use, but it must be inhaled. Other anti-viral drugs are less likely to be effective against pandemic influenza.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Both Tamiflu and Relenza are in short supply, and production capabilities are limited in the medium term. Some doctors say that co-administration of Tamiflu with probenecid could double supplies.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: There also is the potential of viruses to evolve drug resistance. Some H5N1-infected persons treated with oseltamivir have developed resistant strains of that virus.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: A vaccine probably would not be available in the initial stages of population infection. To date, there is no known mechanism to develop a vaccine to protect against a virus which does not yet exist. The avian flu virus H5N1 has the potential to mutate into a pandemic strain, but so do other types of flu virus. Once a potential virus is identified and a vaccine is approved, it normally takes five to six months before the vaccine becomes available.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The capability to produce vaccines varies widely from country to country; only 19 countries are listed as "influenza vaccine manufacturers" according to the World Health Organization. It is estimated that, in a best scenario situation, 750 million doses could be produced each year, whereas it is likely that each individual would need two doses of the vaccine to become immuno-competent. Distribution to and inside countries would probably be problematic. Several countries, however, have well-developed plans for producing large quantities of vaccine. For example, Canadian health authorities say that they are developing the capacity to produce 32 million doses within four months, enough vaccine to inoculate every person in the country.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Another concern is whether countries which do not manufacture vaccines themselves, including those where a pandemic strain is likely to originate, will be able to purchase vaccine to protect their population. Cost considerations aside, they fear that the countries with vaccine-manufacturing capability will reserve production to protect their own populations and not release vaccines to other countries until their own population is protected. Indonesia has refused to share samples of H5N1 strains which have infected and killed its citizens until it receives assurances that it will have access to vaccines produced with those samples. So far, it has not received those assurances. However, in September 2009, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA agreed to make 10 percent of their H1N1 vaccine supply available to less-developed countries.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: There are two serious technical problems associated with the development of a vaccine against H5N1. The first problem is this: seasonal influenza vaccines require a single injection of 15 μg haemagluttinin in order to give protection; H5 seems to evoke only a weak immune response and a large multicentre trial found that two injections of 90 µg H5 given 28 days apart provided protection in only 54% of people. Even if it is considered that 54% is an acceptable level of protection, the world is currently capable of producing only 900 million doses at a strength of 15 μg (assuming that all production were immediately converted to manufacturing H5 vaccine); if two injections of 90 μg are needed then this capacity drops to only 70 million. Trials using adjuvants such as alum, AS03, AS04 or MF59 to try and lower the dose of vaccine are urgently needed. The second problem is this: there are two circulating clades of virus, clade 1 is the virus originally isolated in Vietnam, clade 2 is the virus isolated in Indonesia. Vaccine research has mostly been focused on clade 1 viruses, but the clade 2 virus is antigenically distinct and a clade 1 vaccine will probably not protect against a pandemic caused by clade 2 virus.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Since 2009, most vaccine development efforts have been focused on the current pandemic influenza virus H1N1. As of July 2009, more than 70 known clinical trials have been completed or are ongoing for pandemic influenza vaccines. In September 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration approved four vaccines against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, and expected the initial vaccine lots to be available within the following month.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: According to "The New York Times" as of March 2006, "governments worldwide have spent billions planning for a potential influenza pandemic: buying medicines, running disaster drills, [and] developing strategies for tighter border controls" due to the H5N1 threat.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Together steps are being taken to "minimize the risk of further spread in animal populations", "reduce the risk of human infections", and "further support pandemic planning and preparedness".


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Ongoing detailed mutually coordinated onsite surveillance and analysis of human and animal H5N1 avian flu outbreaks are being conducted and reported by the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, the CDC, the ECDC, the World Health Organization, the European Commission, the National Influenza Centers, and others.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In September 2005, David Nabarro, a lead UN health official, warned that a bird flu outbreak could happen at any time and had the potential to kill 5–150 million people.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The World Health Organization (WHO), believing that the world was closer to another influenza pandemic than it has been any time since 1968, when the last of the 20th century's three pandemics swept the globe, has developed guidelines on pandemic influenza preparedness and response. The March 2005 plan includes guidance on roles and responsibilities in preparedness and response; information on pandemic phases; and recommended actions for before, during, and after a pandemic.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: "[E]fforts by the federal government to prepare for pandemic influenza at the national level include a $100 million DHHS initiative in 2003 to build U.S. vaccine production. Several agencies within Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)—including the Office of the Secretary, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), CDC, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—are in the process of working with vaccine manufacturers to facilitate production of pilot vaccine lots for both H5N1 and H9N2 strains as well as contracting for the manufacturing of 2 million doses of an H5N1 vaccine. This H5N1 vaccine production will provide a critical pilot test of the pandemic vaccine system; it will also be used for clinical trials to evaluate dose and immunogenicity and can provide initial vaccine for early use in the event of an emerging pandemic."


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Each state and territory of the United States has a specific pandemic flu plan which covers avian flu, swine flu (H1N1), and other potential influenza epidemics. The state plans together with a professionally vetted search engine of flu related research, policies, and plans, is available at the current portal: Pandemic Flu Search.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: On 26 August 2004, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson released a draft Pandemic Influenza Response and Preparedness Plan, which outlined a coordinated national strategy to prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic. Public comments were accepted for 60 days.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on 14 September 2005, President George W. Bush announced the creation of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza. The Partnership brings together nations and international organizations to improve global readiness by:


title: Influenza pandemic

text: On 5 October 2005, Democratic Senators Harry Reid, Evan Bayh, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Tom Harkin introduced the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act as a proposal to deal with a possible outbreak.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: On 27 October 2005, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded a $62.5 million contract to Chiron Corporation to manufacture an avian influenza vaccine designed to protect against the H5N1 influenza virus strain. This followed a previous awarded $100 million contract to Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business of Sanofi, for avian flu vaccine.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: On 1 November 2005, Bush unveiled the National Strategy To Safeguard Against The Danger of Pandemic Influenza. He also submitted a request to Congress for $7.1 billion to begin implementing the plan. The request includes $251 million to detect and contain outbreaks before they spread around the world; $2.8 billion to accelerate development of cell-culture technology; $800 million for development of new treatments and vaccines; $1.519 billion for the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Defense to purchase influenza vaccines; $1.029 billion to stockpile antiviral medications; and $644 million to ensure that all levels of government are prepared to respond to a pandemic outbreak.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: On 6 March 2006, Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said U.S. health agencies are continuing to develop vaccine alternatives that will protect against the evolving avian influenza virus.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The U.S. government, bracing for the possibility that migrating birds could carry a deadly strain of bird flu to North America, plans to test nearly eight times as many wild birds starting in April 2006 as have been tested in the past decade.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: On 8 March 2006, Dr. David Nabarro, senior UN coordinator for avian and human influenza, said that given the flight patterns of wild birds that have been spreading avian influenza (bird flu) from Asia to Europe and Africa, birds infected with the H5N1 virus could reach the Americas within the next six to 12 months.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: July 5, 2006, (CIDRAP News) – "In an update on pandemic influenza preparedness efforts, the federal government said last week it had stockpiled enough vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza virus to inoculate about 4 million people and enough antiviral medication to treat about 6.3 million."


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The Public Health Agency of Canada follows the WHO's categories, but has expanded them. The avian flu scare of 2006 prompted The Canadian Public Health Agency to release an updated Pandemic Influenza Plan for Health Officials. This document was created to address the growing concern over the hazards faced by public health officials when exposed to sick or dying patients.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: Since the Nipah virus outbreak in 1999, the Malaysian Health Ministry have put in place processes to be better prepared to protect the Malaysian population from the threat of infectious diseases. Malaysia was fully prepared during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) situation (Malaysia was not a SARS-affected country) and the episode of the H5N1 outbreak in 2004.


title: Influenza pandemic

text: The Malaysian government has developed a National Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Plan (NIPPP) which serves as a time bound guide for preparedness and response plan for influenza pandemic. It provides a policy and strategic framework for a multisectoral response and contains specific advice and actions to be undertaken by the Ministry of Health at the different levels, other governmental departments and agencies and non-governmental organizations to ensure that resources are mobilized and used most efficiently before, during and after a pandemic episode.


title: Adjacency list

text: In graph theory and computer science, an adjacency list is a collection of unordered lists used to represent a finite graph. Each unordered list within an adjacency list describes the set of neighbors of a particular vertex in the graph. This is one of several commonly used representations of graphs for use in computer programs.


title: Adjacency list

text: An adjacency list representation for a graph associates each vertex in the graph with the collection of its neighbouring vertices or edges. There are many variations of this basic idea, differing in the details of how they implement the association between vertices and collections, in how they implement the collections, in whether they include both vertices and edges or only vertices as first class objects, and in what kinds of objects are used to represent the vertices and edges.


title: Adjacency list

text: The main operation performed by the adjacency list data structure is to report a list of the neighbors of a given vertex. Using any of the implementations detailed above, this can be performed in constant time per neighbor. In other words, the total time to report all of the neighbors of a vertex "v" is proportional to the degree of "v"


title: Adjacency list

text: It is also possible, but not as efficient, to use adjacency lists to test whether an edge exists or does not exist between two specified vertices. In an adjacency list in which the neighbors of each vertex are unsorted, testing for the existence of an edge may be performed in time proportional to the minimum degree of the two given vertices, by using a sequential search through the neighbors of this vertex. If the neighbors are represented as a sorted array, binary search may be used instead, taking time proportional to the logarithm of the degree.


title: Adjacency list

text: The main alternative to the adjacency list is the adjacency matrix, a matrix whose rows and columns are indexed by vertices and whose cells contain a Boolean value that indicates whether an edge is present between the vertices corresponding to the row and column of the cell. For a sparse graph (one in which most pairs of vertices are not connected by edges) an adjacency list is significantly more space-efficient than an adjacency matrix (stored as a two-dimensional array): the space usage of the adjacency list is proportional to the number of edges and vertices in the graph, while for an adjacency matrix stored in this way the space is proportional to the square of the number of vertices. However, it is possible to store adjacency matrices more space-efficiently, matching the linear space usage of an adjacency list, by using a hash table indexed by pairs of vertices rather than an array.


title: Adjacency list

text: The other significant difference between adjacency lists and adjacency matrices is in the efficiency of the operations they perform. In an adjacency list, the neighbors of each vertex may be listed efficiently, in time proportional to the degree of the vertex. In an adjacency matrix, this operation takes time proportional to the number of vertices in the graph, which may be significantly higher than the degree. On the other hand, the adjacency matrix allows testing whether two vertices are adjacent to each other in constant time; the adjacency list is slower to support this operation.


title: Adjacency list

text: For use as a data structure, the main alternative to the adjacency list is the adjacency matrix. Because each entry in the adjacency matrix requires only one bit, it can be represented in a very compact way, occupying only bytes of contiguous space, where is the number of vertices of the graph. Besides avoiding wasted space, this compactness encourages locality of reference.


title: Adjacency list

text: However, for a sparse graph, adjacency lists require less space, because they do not waste any space to represent edges that are not present. Using a naïve array implementation on a 32-bit computer, an adjacency list for an undirected graph requires about bytes of space, where is the number of edges of the graph.


title: Adjacency list

text: Noting that an undirected simple graph can have at most edges, allowing loops, we can let denote the density of the graph. Then, when , that is the adjacency list representation occupies more space than the adjacency matrix representation when . Thus a graph must be sparse enough to justify an adjacency list representation.


title: Adjacency list

text: Besides the space trade-off, the different data structures also facilitate different operations. Finding all vertices adjacent to a given vertex in an adjacency list is as simple as reading the list. With an adjacency matrix, an entire row must instead be scanned, which takes time. Whether there is an edge between two given vertices can be determined at once with an adjacency matrix, while requiring time proportional to the minimum degree of the two vertices with the adjacency list.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: The UAAP Basketball Championship holds its basketball tournaments from September to December. Basketball is a mandatory sport in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). All eight universities participate in the Men's, Women's, and Juniors (Boys') tournaments.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: The tournament is divided into two divisions, the Seniors' division, which is further subdivided into the Men's tournament, for male collegiate players, and the Women's tournament for female collegiate players. The other division is the Juniors' which is also subdivided into two tournaments for the male and female high school athletes.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: The UAAP basketball sport has a rich history of schools establishing dynasties. UE won a record seven consecutive basketball titles from 1965 to 1971 albeit the third one was a shared championship with UST. Ateneo had a 5-year winning streak from 2008 to 2012. Two other schools ended their championship streak at four. UST won it from 1993 to 1996 and La Salle from 1998 to 2001.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: The championship in basketball is the most coveted title that schools aspire for during a UAAP season and is one of the most anticipated live TV sporting events in the Philippines, but such aspirations have resulted in many controversies in the association. There are protests filed by the member-schools against one another almost every season. Ironically, the association has a handbook of its rules and regulations.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: Before the UAAP's first expansion, teams would play a single round robin where the team with the best record would be crowned champions. If two or more teams are tied, they would be declared co-champions. No quotient system or knockout games were used to break ties.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: Teams play a double round robin. The winner of the first round play the winner of the second round in a 1-game championship to determine the champion. Ties for round winners are broken by knockout games.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: If a team wins both rounds, it is automatically declared the champion, regardless if it was a sweep or not. If a team fails to win either rounds, but ends up with a better over-all record than either of the round winners, that team will challenge the second round winner for a championship slot against the first round winner.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: Teams play a double round robin. The top two teams (over-all record) after the double round robin play in the Finals with the #1 seed holding a twice-to-beat advantage. If a team sweeps the double round robin, they are automatically declared champions.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: The tournament currently uses the Final Four format, first implemented in 1993. The Tournament begins with a double round-robin elimination, where a team plays the other teams twice to determine which teams will qualify to the semi-finals (also called Final Four). The top four finishers enter the Final Four phase.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: Previously, if a team sweeps the double round robin, they are automatically declared champions. However, after UST's sweep in 1993, it was modified so that the sweeping team would automatically qualify to the best-of-three Finals. After UE swept their way to the Finals in 2007, it was again modified so that the sweeping team would now automatically qualify to a best-of-five Finals, holding a 1–0 game advantage.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: If no team sweeps the double round eliminations, the four top teams (and tiebreakers, if applicable) qualify for the regular postseason.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: The regular post-season is divided into the semi-finals (also called Final Four) and the Finals. In the semi-Finals, the two top seeds (#1 & #2) have a twice-to-beat advantage against the lower seeds (#3 & #4).


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: The surviving teams face off in a best-of-three finals, where the team which notches two wins first wins the championship.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: From 2008 to 2015, if a team wins all of the games in the group stage, the step ladder format is used, where the unbeaten team has a bye up to the best-of-5 finals holding a 1–0 game advantage. The third and fourth seed will figure in a knockout game; the winner of that game will face the second seed with a twice-to-win disadvantage. The surviving team meets the first seed at the Finals. The format was modified in 2016, where the unbeaten team proceeds to the best-of-3 finals without any playoff advantage, but the knockout games in all of the three semifinal seeds remain in place.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: Adamson University, Manila Central University, University of Manila and University of the East were admitted in 1952 on a two-year probationary membership status. Only UE and MCU retained as permanent member. However, MCU pulled-out in 1962. Adamson was readmitted into the association in 1970.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: In line with the association's commitment for inclusiveness, the tournament for girls' division was introduced.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: ^ Does not include 2 seasons (2013–14 and 2015–16) where NU swept the group stage and automatically advanced to the Finals.


title: UAAP Basketball Championship

text: Prior to 2005, all players playing in their first year (including transfers and those elevated from "team B") are eligible for the award. In 2005, the rule covering the seniors division was changed. Only fresh high school graduates are eligible.


title: Sunset Limited

text: The Sunset Limited is an Amtrak passenger train that for most of its history has run between New Orleans and Los Angeles, over the nation's second transcontinental route. However, up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it ran between and Los Angeles, and from 1993 to 1996, continued on to Miami (via the "Silver Meteor"s route). It is the oldest continuously operating named train in the United States, introduced in 1894 by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and acquired by Amtrak upon its formation in 1971.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Along with the "Cardinal", this train is one of Amtrak's two long-distance services which operate just three days a week. Consequently, the "Sunset Limited" carried the third-fewest passengers of any Amtrak train in fiscal year 2019, 92,827, a 4.4% decrease over FY2018. It had a total revenue of $10,769,179 in 2016, marking a 7.5% decrease over FY2015.


title: Sunset Limited

text: For most of its existence, the "Sunset Limited" route was owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad. The name "Sunset Limited" traces its origins to the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, a Southern Pacific subsidiary which was known as the "Sunset Route" as early as 1874.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Most of the current route from New Orleans westward is now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, which acquired Southern Pacific in 1996. However, the route within Louisiana and some of Texas was partially sold to BNSF Railway in 1995 in return for BNSF not objecting to the UP-SP merger.


title: Sunset Limited

text: On the portion of the route east of New Orleans, service was suspended after Hurricane Katrina. Those tracks, between New Orleans and Florida, include parts of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad—all now merged into CSX Transportation. Currently, the segment of the former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad between DeLand and Orlando is owned by Orlando's commuter service SunRail, and the segment of track from Pensacola to Baldwin is now owned by the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Service on the "Sunset Limited" between New Orleans and Florida has been suspended since August 29, 2005, because the rail line in the path of Hurricane Katrina east of New Orleans was washed out. The operating railroad CSX restored the line itself between New Orleans and Jacksonville. However, in 2006, Amtrak said it was deemed too expensive to rebuild to modern passenger rail standards. In 2016 Amtrak proposed to return the "Sunset Limited" service to Florida in the near future.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Eastbound trains leave Los Angeles on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Westbound trains leave New Orleans on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The journey takes two days to complete in either direction. In its present form, the eastbound "Sunset Limited" leaves Los Angeles in the late evening, traveling overnight through Arizona before arriving at breakfast time in Tucson and mid-afternoon in El Paso. After traveling through west Texas overnight, it separates from the "Texas Eagle" in San Antonio. Resuming the second day of the trip, it arrives in Houston at lunchtime, Lafayette at rush hour, and New Orleans in the middle of the night. The westbound train leaves New Orleans just after rush hour, arriving in Lafayette at lunchtime and in Houston just after the afternoon rush. It then joins the "Texas Eagle" just after midnight and travels overnight through west Texas before arriving in El Paso at lunchtime the following afternoon and in Tucson and Maricopa at dinner time. After traveling overnight through Arizona and California, it arrives in Los Angeles before breakfast.


title: Sunset Limited

text: The "Texas Eagle," which runs daily between San Antonio and Chicago, operates as a section of the "Sunset Limited" on the days the latter train operates. At San Antonio, a through coach and a through sleeper from the "Texas Eagle" combine with the "Sunset Limited" for the journey westward and split eastward. When combined with the "Sunset Limited", the "Texas Eagle" is numbered as 421 westbound and 422 eastbound.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Before the start of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, the "Sunset Limited" was operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad. The "Sunset Limited" is the oldest named train in the United States, operating since November 1894 along the Sunset Route (though originally named the "Sunset Express"). The Sunset Route (originating in New Orleans) is the southernmost of the three gateways to the West Coast envisioned through the Pacific Railroad Acts. The other two embarked from Chicago and St. Louis. However, the Sunset Route had two major advantages over the other two routes. It was an all-weather, year-round route that did not face the crippling snows of the Wasatch or Sierra mountain ranges to reach the Pacific Coast. Additionally, the other two routes had to assault the front range of the Rockies.


title: Sunset Limited

text: In addition, opened 20 years before the Panama Canal, the Sunset Route vastly shortened the time to reach the West Coast from the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, as New Orleans was already an established seaport for Atlantic shipping lines’ passengers, seeking to reach the US interior. The Sunset Limited allowed passengers to reach the West Coast in a few days, not weeks.


title: Sunset Limited

text: The "Sunset Limited" was Southern Pacific's premier train. Initially, the "Sunset Limited" was an all-Pullman train, with sleeping cars and no coaches, running from New Orleans to San Francisco via Los Angeles. From its beginning in 1894, until streamlining in 1950, all the train's cars had 6-wheel trucks and dark olive green paint, with black roofs and trucks. In the summer of 1926, it was scheduled at 71 hr 40 min New Orleans to San Francisco; it then carried a coast-to-coast sleeper from Jacksonville to Los Angeles.


title: Sunset Limited

text: In contrast to its earliest Amtrak years, the "Sunset Limited", up to its later years, made stops not only at Phoenix, but also at Mesa and Chandler, Arizona.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Amtrak left the "Sunset" unchanged, while it dropped the Louisville & Nashville's "Gulf Wind", which operated between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida. The tracks between these two points remained unused by passenger trains until April 29, 1984, when an Amtrak train called the "Gulf Coast Limited", running between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, began service, seeking to regenerate some form of regional intercity rail traffic between large cities outside the Northeast. However, this train only lasted until January 6, 1985. Almost five years later, on October 27, 1989, the track segment between Mobile and Flomaton, Alabama, came into passenger train use as part of the route of the "Gulf Breeze". This was another attempt to regenerate regional inter-city rail traffic, this time between Birmingham, Alabama, and Mobile. The train was a reestablishment of the Mobile section of Amtrak's New York City–New Orleans "Crescent". It branched from the "Crescent"'s route at Birmingham, turning south toward Montgomery, Flomaton, and terminating in Mobile. The "Gulf Breeze" was discontinued in 1995.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Meanwhile, on April 4, 1993, passenger service was reestablished along the entire New Orleans–Jacksonville corridor with the extension of the "Sunset Limited" to Miami, using the route of Amtrak's "Silver Meteor" south of Jacksonville; it was serviced at Amtrak's Hialeah yards for the return trip. It was only the second direct rail link between Orlando and Miami, following local trains by the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Coast Line in the mid-1960s. However, schedule unreliability caused the "Sunset Limited"'s eastern terminus to be truncated to Sanford on November 10, 1996. Service was re-extended to Orlando on October 26, 1997, and the train deadheaded (operated empty) between Orlando and Sanford for servicing. Sanford was, and still is, the servicing point for Amtrak's Auto Train.


title: Sunset Limited

text: On September 22, 1993, the three locomotives and four of the eight cars of the eastbound "Sunset Limited" derailed and fell off a damaged bridge into water near Mobile, Alabama, in Amtrak's worst train wreck, the Big Bayou Canot rail accident. 47 people died.


title: Sunset Limited

text: On October 9, 1995, saboteurs derailed the "Sunset Limited" near Harqua, Arizona by removing 29 spikes from a section of track, and short-circuited the signal system to conceal the sabotage. The attack killed one person and injured dozens of others. The crime still remains unsolved.


title: Sunset Limited

text: On June 2, 1996, the "Sunset Limited" was rerouted to a more southerly route between Tucson, and Yuma, Arizona, bypassing Phoenix. Union Pacific, which had acquired Southern Pacific earlier in the year, wanted to abandon a decaying portion of its Phoenix–Yuma "West Line" that had previously been used to serve Phoenix. This made Phoenix one of the nation's largest cities without direct passenger service; although the designated Phoenix-area stop is in Maricopa, a suburban community about south of downtown Phoenix. Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service, run by Stagecoach Express, connects the two cities.


title: Sunset Limited

text: The "Sunset" received a better schedule on May 7, 2012, moving its westbound movements from New Orleans to a Monday, Wednesday, Saturday circuit. The times allow several 7- to 12-hour rides between major-city pairs; for example, overnight between Tucson or Maricopa (for Phoenix) and Los Angeles in both directions.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Since 1981, the "Texas Eagle" has operated as a section of the "Sunset Limited." A coach and sleeper from the "Texas Eagle" split from the eastbound "Sunset Limited" in San Antonio and continue to Chicago, combining with the westbound "Sunset Limited" for the journey to Los Angeles. The "Texas Eagle" runs independently between Chicago and San Antonio for the rest of the week. Between October 2020 and May 2021, the "Texas Eagle" ran tri-weekly due to massive service reductions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Sunset Limited

text: A Sunset Limited Consist includes two GE P42DC Locomotives, a Viewliner II Baggage Car, a Superliner transition Sleeper, a Superliner sleeper, a Superliner dining car, a Superliner sightseer lounge car, a Superliner coach-baggage car, two Superliner coaches and a Superliner Sleeper at the rear.


title: Sunset Limited

text: On August 29, 2005, the "Sunset Limited" route was truncated at San Antonio, Texas, as a result of damage to trackage in the Gulf Coast area caused by Hurricane Katrina. In late October 2005, service was restored between San Antonio and New Orleans, as the line through Louisiana had been repaired.


title: Sunset Limited

text: As time has passed, particularly since the January 2006 completion of the rebuilding of damaged tracks east of New Orleans by their owner CSX Transportation Inc., the obstacles to restoration of the "Sunset Limited"'s full route have been more managerial and political than physical. Advocates for the train's restoration have pointed to revenue figures for Amtrak's fiscal year 2004, the last full year of coast-to-coast "Sunset Limited" service. During that period, the Orlando–New Orleans segment accounted for 41% of the "Sunset's" revenue.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Section 226 of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 16, 2008, gave Amtrak nine months to provide Congress with a plan for restoring service that "shall include a projected timeline for restoring such service, the costs associated with restoring such service, and any proposals for legislation necessary to support such restoration of service."


title: Sunset Limited

text: In January 2016, Amtrak and the Southern Rail Commission announced jointly that a Gulf Coast passenger rail inspection trip was to be made from New Orleans to Jacksonville, with elected officials among those on board during the February 18–19 excursion. Stops were planned for all of the stations formerly part of the "Sunset Limited"'s route between those two cities. In June 2018, the commission missed the deadline for submitting a request for service restoration along the Gulf. It said that it could not apply for the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) fiscal-year 2017 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure Safety and Improvements (CRISI) funding because Alabama and Mississippi were unwilling to assist with funds. Alabama's share would have been $5.3 million. The Louisiana governor, on the other hand, was willing to provide the funds. The three states' cooperation was needed to secure the $35.5 million in federal CRISI funds.


title: Sunset Limited

text: In June 2019, the Federal Railroad Administration announced a grant award of $33 million to restore Amtrak service between New Orleans and Mobile, and to upgrade tracks, stations, and other facilities to support improved passenger rail service. The grant was matched by funds from Louisiana, Mississippi, and the city of Mobile. Officials announced plans for up to four daytime rail trips per day within 24 months, serving the cities of New Orleans, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula. Having received a commitment of support from the City of Mobile, if the state of Alabama participates, service could be extended to downtown Mobile.


title: Sunset Limited

text: On February 23, 2021, following the conclusion of one year negotiations with CSX and Norfolk Southern, Amtrak officials announced that Gulf Coast Service between New Orleans and Mobile would start as early as January 2022. Amtrak plans to pay for repairs along the route. As of late 2022, after lengthy negotiations with Norfolk Southern and CSX, Amtrak now expects Gulf Coast service to begin sometime in 2023.


title: Sunset Limited

text: In 2009, Brian Rosenwald, a now-departed Amtrak executive, outlined ideas for a complete overhaul of the route, including daily service. It was to have the "Texas Eagle" operate over the "Sunset"'s route west of San Antonio, with a stub train connecting San Antonio (with a cross-platform transfer) and New Orleans. The plans were halted when Union Pacific stated that to get a daily "Sunset Limited", Amtrak would need to pay $750 million for infrastructure improvements.


title: Sunset Limited

text: Passenger totals would double with daily service, according to the PRIIA study that looked at "Texas Eagle"/"Sunset Limited" service. It forecast an incremental improvement of more than 100,000 passengers from the daily service, which is already running in excess of 100,000 a year. In the meantime, the Union Pacific has double-tracked much of the route with its own money. However, Amtrak still lacks the equipment and funds needed to move to daily service.


title: Sunset Limited

text: In June 2021, Senator Jon Tester of Montana added an amendment to the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021 which would require the Department of Transportation (not Amtrak itself) to evaluate daily service on all less frequent long-distance trains, meaning the "Sunset Limited" and "Cardinal". The bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee with bipartisan support, and was later rolled into President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Congress passed on November 5, 2021. The report must be delivered to Congress within two years.


title: Colossus of Nero

text: The Colossus of Nero (Colossus Neronis) was a bronze statue that the Emperor Nero (37–68 AD) created in the vestibule of his Domus Aurea, the imperial villa complex which spanned a large area from the north side of the Palatine Hill, across the Velian ridge to the Esquiline Hill. It was modified by Nero's successors into a statue of the sun god Sol. The statue was eventually moved to a spot outside the Flavian Amphitheatre, which (according to one of the more popular theories) became known, by its proximity to the Colossus, as the Colosseum.


title: Colossus of Nero

text: The last mention of the "Colossus" is in an illuminated manuscript from the late 4th century AD. The statue disappeared sometime afterwards, likely toppled by an earthquake or destroyed during the Sack of Rome, although some sources indicate the statue may have remained standing as late as the 7th century AD. Today, the only remnants of the statue are some concrete blocks that once made up the foundation of its marble pedestal.


title: Colossus of Nero

text: The statue was placed just outside the main palace entrance at the terminus of the Via Appia in a large atrium of porticoes that divided the city from the private villa. The Greek architect Zenodorus designed the statue and began construction between AD 64 and 68. According to Pliny the Elder, the statue reached 106.5 Roman Feet () in height, though other sources claim it was as much as .


title: Colossus of Nero

text: Shortly after Nero's death in AD 68, the Emperor Vespasian added a radiate crown and renamed it "Colossus Solis", after the Roman sun god Sol. Around 128, Emperor Hadrian ordered the statue moved from the Domus Aurea to just northwest of the Colosseum in order to create space for the Temple of Venus and Roma. It was moved by the architect Decriannus with the use of 24 elephants. Emperor Commodus converted it into a statue of himself as Hercules by replacing the head, but after his death it was restored, and so it remained.


title: Colossus of Nero

text: The last certain mention from antiquity of the statue is the reference in the "Chronography of 354". Today, nothing remains of the Colossus of Nero save for the foundations of the pedestal at its second location near the Colosseum. It was possibly destroyed during the Sack of Rome in 410, or toppled in one of a series of fifth-century earthquakes, and its metal scavenged. However, it is also possible that the statue was still standing during the Middle Ages, because a poem by Bede (c. 672–735) says: "As long as the Colossus stands, Rome will stand, when the Colossus falls, Rome will also fall, when Rome falls, so falls the world."


title: Colossus of Nero

text: The remains of the brick-faced masonry pedestal, once covered with marble, were removed in 1936 on the orders of Benito Mussolini. The foundations were excavated in 1986, and can be viewed by the public.


title: Colossus of Nero

text: According to one theory, the name of the Roman amphitheatre, the Colosseum, is derived from this statue.


title: Colossus of Nero

text: This is often mistranslated to refer to the Colosseum rather than the Colossus (as in, for instance, Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"). However, at the time that Bede wrote, the masculine noun was applied to the statue rather than to what was still known as the Amphitheatre.


title: Martha Scott

text: Martha Ellen Scott (September 22, 1912 – May 28, 2003) was an American actress. She was featured in major films such as Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (1956), and William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" (1959), playing the mother of Charlton Heston's character in both films. She originated the role of Emily Webb in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" on Broadway in 1938 and later recreated the role in the 1940 film version, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.


title: Martha Scott

text: Scott was born in Jamesport, Missouri, the daughter of Letha (née McKinley) and Walter Alva Scott, an engineer and garage owner. Her mother was a second cousin of U.S. President William McKinley. The Scott family remained in Jamesport until Martha was 13 years old, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and eventually to Detroit, Michigan. Scott became interested in acting in high school, an interest she furthered by attending the University of Michigan, earning a teaching certificate and a bachelor of arts degree in drama in 1934.


title: Martha Scott

text: Scott received a career boost right out of college, when she appeared with the Globe Theatre Troupe in a series of Shakespeare productions at the Century of Progress world's fair in Chicago in 1934. Following that, she moved to New York City, where she found steady work both in stock stage productions and radio dramas. In 1938, she made her Broadway debut in the original staging of Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town" as Emily Webb, the tragic young woman who dies in childbirth.


title: Martha Scott

text: Two years later, Scott reprised the role of Emily in her film debut when "Our Town" was made into a movie. Her critically acclaimed performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.


title: Martha Scott

text: Scott found steady movie work for the next four decades, appearing in major epics such as "The Ten Commandments", "Ben-Hur", "The Desperate Hours", and "Airport 1975". Charlton Heston was a frequent co-star with Scott on both stage and screen. As she told an interviewer in 1988, "I played his mother twice and his wife twice. I was his mother in "Ben Hur" and "The Ten Commandments". I was his wife on the stage in New York in "Design for a Stained Glass Window" and "The Tumbler in London"."


title: Martha Scott

text: In 1968, Scott joined Henry Fonda and Robert Ryan in forming a theatrical production company called the Plumstead Playhouse. It later became the Plumstead Theatre Company and moved to Los Angeles. The company produced "First Monday in October", both on stage and on film. Scott co-produced both versions. Her last production was "Twelve Angry Men", which was performed at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, California.


title: Martha Scott

text: Scott began appearing in TV roles in the medium's early days. On November 2, 1950, she starred in "The Cut Glass Bowl" on "The Nash Airflyte Theater", followed by several guest appearances on "Robert Montgomery Presents" and other shows of television's "golden age", including two episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". This pattern of guest roles continued through the 1960s with appearances on "Route 66", "Ironside", and "The Courtship of Eddie's Father", among others. In the mid-1950s, Scott was the narrator for "Modern Romances", an afternoon program on NBC-TV.


title: Martha Scott

text: Scott was also a frequent TV guest star in the 1970s. She had recurring roles as Bob Newhart's mother on "The Bob Newhart Show", the mother of Colonel Steve Austin (Lee Majors) on both "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman", as well as Patricia Shepard, Sue Ellen and Kristin's mother on "Dallas" during its early years and later during the 1986 season. Scott was cast in single-episode guest appearances on several hit shows of the era, such as "The Sandy Duncan Show", "Columbo: Playback" (1975), "The Mod Squad", "Marcus Welby, M.D.", and "The Love Boat". She played the role of Jennifer Talbot, Terri Brock's nasty grandmother, on "General Hospital" for six months (1986–1987), which ended when her character was murdered and stuffed in a drain pipe.


title: Martha Scott

text: In the 1980s, she had a regular role on the short-lived series "Secrets of Midland Heights" and appeared in several television movies and in single episodes of shows such as "Magnum, P.I.", "The Paper Chase", and "Highway to Heaven". In the late 1980 she costarred with Jeffrey Lynn in an episode of "Murder, She Wrote", which was a direct sequel to their 1949 feature film "Strange Bargain". Scott's final acting role on television was in 1990 in the movie "Daughter of the Streets".


title: Martha Scott

text: Scott was married twice, first to radio producer and announcer Carleton William Alsop from 1940 to 1946, and then to jazz pianist and composer Mel Powell from 1946 until his death in 1998. She had one child with Alsop, son Carleton Scott Alsop, and two daughters—Mary Powell Harpel and Kathleen Powell—with her second husband.


title: Martha Scott

text: According to her son, Scott never forgot about her childhood hometown, using the mental image of a Jamesport cemetery in preparation for her Oscar-nominated role in "Our Town". Said Alsop, "She told me she used that place as her image because it's so serene and beautiful" and that her deceased McKinley and Scott relatives "became the Gibbs and the Webbs in the play".


title: Martha Scott

text: Scott died on May 28, 2003, in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, aged 90, from natural causes. She was interred next to Powell in the Masonic Cemetery in her native Jamesport, Missouri.


title: Martha Scott

text: For her contribution in the theatre, Scott has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6126 Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The Black Seminoles, or Afro-Seminoles are Native American-Africans associated with the Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma. They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people, free Africans, and escaped slaves, who allied with Seminole groups in Spanish Florida. Many have Seminole lineage, but due to the stigma of having very dark or brown skin and kinky hair, they all have been categorized as slaves or freedmen.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Historically, the Black Seminoles lived mostly in distinct bands near the Native American Seminole. Some were held as slaves, particularly of Seminole leaders, but the Black Seminole had more freedom than did slaves held by whites in the South and by other Native American tribes, including the right to bear arms.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Today, Black Seminole descendants live primarily in rural communities around the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. Its two Freedmen's bands, the Caesar Bruner Band and the Dosar Barkus Band, are represented on the General Council of the Nation. Other centers are in Florida, Texas, the Bahamas, and northern Mexico.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Since the 1930s, the Seminole Freedmen have struggled with cycles of exclusion from the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma. In 1990, the tribe received the majority of a $46 million judgement trust by the United States, for seizure of lands in Florida in 1823, and the Freedmen have worked to gain a share of it. In 2004 the US Supreme Court ruled the Seminole Freedmen could not bring suit without the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which refused to join them on the claim issue. In 2000 the Seminole Nation voted to restrict membership to those who could prove descent from a Seminole on the Dawes Rolls of the early 20th century, which excluded about 1,200 Freedmen who were previously included as members. They argue that the Dawes Rolls were inaccurate and often classified persons with both Seminole and African ancestry as only Freedmen.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The Spanish strategy for defending their claim of Florida at first was based on forcing the local Indian tribes into a mission system. The Native Americans in the missions were to serve as a militia to protect the colony from incursions from the neighboring colony of South Carolina. However, due to a combination of raids by South Carolinan colonists and newly introduced European diseases to which the Indians had no immunity, Florida's native population was quickly decimated. After the local Native Americans had all but died out, Spanish authorities encouraged Native Americans and runaway slaves from the Southern colonies to move to their territory. The Spanish hoped that the increased number of inhabitants of Spanish Florida would be effective in case of potential raids by American colonists.


title: Black Seminoles

text: As early as 1689, enslaved Africans fled from the South Carolina Lowcountry to Spanish Florida seeking freedom. These were people who gradually formed what has become known as the Gullah culture of the coastal Southeast. Under an edict from King Charles II of Spain in 1693, the black fugitives received liberty in exchange for defending the Spanish settlers at St. Augustine. The Spanish organized the black volunteers into a militia; their settlement at Fort Mosé, founded in 1738, was the first legally sanctioned free black town in North America.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Not all the slaves escaping south found military service in St. Augustine to their liking. More escaped slaves sought refuge in wilderness areas in northern Florida, where their knowledge of tropical agriculture—and resistance to tropical diseases—served them well. Most of the black people who pioneered Florida were Gullah people who escaped from the rice plantations of South Carolina (and later Georgia). As Gullah, they had developed an Afro-English based Creole, along with cultural practices and African leadership structure. The Gullah pioneers built their own settlements based on rice and corn agriculture. They became allies of Creek and other Native Americans escaping into Florida from the Southeast at the same time. In Florida, they developed the Afro-Seminole Creole, which they spoke with the growing Seminole tribe.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Following the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763 at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War, Spanish Florida was ceded to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The area remained a sanctuary for fugitive slaves from the Southern colonies, as it was lightly settled. Many slaves sought refuge near growing Native American settlements.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In 1773, when the American naturalist William Bartram visited the area, he referred to the Seminole as a distinct people, their name apparently coming from the word "simanó-li", which according to John Reed Swanton, "is applied by the Creeks to people who remove from populous towns and live by themselves.". William C. Sturtevant says the ethnonym was borrowed by Muskogee from the Spanish word "cimarrón", supposedly the source as well of the English word "maroon" used to describe the runaway slave communities of Florida and of the Great Dismal Swamp on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, on colonial islands of the Caribbean, and other parts of the New World. Linguist Leo Spitzer, however, writing in the journal "Language", says, "If there is a connection between Eng. "maroon", Fr. "marron", and Sp. "cimarron", Spain (or Spanish America) probably gave the word directly to England (or English America)."


title: Black Seminoles

text: Florida had been a refuge for fugitive slaves for at least 70 years by the time of the American Revolution. Communities of black Seminoles were established on the outskirts of major Seminole towns. A new influx of freedom-seeking black people reached Florida during the American Revolution (1775–83), escaping during the disruption of war. During the Revolution, the Seminole allied with the British, and African Americans and Seminole came into increased contact with each other. The Seminole held some slaves, as did the Creek and other Southeast Native American tribes. During the War of 1812, members of both communities sided with the British against the US in the hopes of repelling American settlers; they strengthened their internal ties and earned the enmity of American general Andrew Jackson.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Spain had given land to some Muscogee (Creek) Native Americans. Over time the Creek were joined by other remnant groups of Southeast American Native Americans, such as the Miccosukee, Choctaw, and the Apalachicola, and formed communities. Their community evolved over the late 18th and early 19th centuries as waves of Creek left present-day Georgia and Alabama under pressure from white settlement and the Creek Wars. By a process of ethnogenesis, the Native Americans formed the Seminole.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The black Seminole culture that took shape after 1800 was a dynamic mixture of African, Native American, Spanish, and slave traditions. Adopting certain practices of the Native Americans, maroons wore Seminole clothing and ate the same foodstuffs prepared the same way: they gathered the roots of a native plant called "coontie", grinding, soaking, and straining them to make a starchy flour similar to arrowroot, as well as mashing corn with a mortar and pestle to make "sofkee", a sort of porridge often used as a beverage, with water added— ashes from the fire wood used to cook the sofkee were occasionally added to it for extra flavor. They also introduced their Gullah staple of rice to the Seminole, and continued to use it as a basic part of their diets. Rice remained part of the diet of the black Seminoles who moved to Oklahoma. In addition, the language of the black Seminoles is a mix of African, Seminole, and Spanish words. The African heritage of the black Seminoles, according to academics, is from the Kongo, Yoruba, and other African ethnic groups. African American linguist and historian, Lorenzo Dow Turner documented about fifteen words spoken by black Seminoles that came from the Kikongo language. Other African words spoken by black Seminoles are from the Twi, Wolof, and other West African languages.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Initially living apart from the Native Americans, the maroons developed their own unique African-American culture, based in the Gullah culture of the Lowcountry. black Seminoles inclined toward a syncretic form of Christianity developed during the plantation years. Certain cultural practices, such as "jumping the broom" to celebrate marriage, hailed from the plantations; other customs, such as some names used for black towns, reflected African heritage.


title: Black Seminoles

text: As time progressed, the Seminole and blacks had limited intermarriage, but historians and anthropologists have come to believe that generally the black Seminoles had independent communities. They allied with the Seminole at times of war.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The Seminole society was based on a matrilineal kinship system, in which inheritance and descent went through the maternal line. Children were considered to belong to the mother's clan, so those born to ethnic African mothers would have been considered black by the Seminole. While the children might integrate customs from both parents' cultures, the Seminole believed they belonged to the mother's group more than the father's. African Americans adopted some elements of the European-American patriarchal system. But, under the South's adoption of the principle of "partus sequitur ventrem" in the 17th century and incorporated into slavery law in slave states, children of slave mothers were considered legally slaves. Under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, even if the mother escaped to a free state, she and her children were legally considered slaves and fugitives. As a result, the black Seminoles born to slave mothers were always at risk from slave raiders.


title: Black Seminoles

text: By the early 19th century, maroons (free Black people and runaway slaves) and the Seminole were in regular contact in Florida, where they evolved a system of relations unique among North American Native Americans and Black people. Seminole practice in Florida had acknowledged slavery, though not on the chattel slavery model then common in the American south. It was, in fact, more like feudal dependency and taxation since African Americans among the Seminole generally lived in their own communities.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In exchange for paying an annual tribute of livestock, crops, hunting, and war party obligations, Black prisoners or fugitives found sanctuary among the Seminole. Seminoles, in turn, acquired an important strategic ally in a sparsely-populated region. They elected their own leaders, and could amass wealth in cattle and crops. Most importantly, they bore arms for self-defense. Florida real estate records show that the Seminole and Black Seminole people owned large quantities of Florida land. In some cases, a portion of that Florida land is still owned by the Seminole and black Seminole descendants in Florida. In the 19th century, the Black Seminoles were called "Seminole Negroes" by their white American enemies and "Estelusti" ("black People"), by their Native American allies.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Under the comparatively free conditions, the Black Seminoles flourished. US Army Lieutenant George McCall recorded his impressions of a Black Seminole community in 1826:


title: Black Seminoles

text: We found these negroes in possession of large fields of the finest land, producing large crops of corn, beans, melons, pumpkins, and other esculent vegetables... I saw, while riding along the borders of the ponds, fine rice growing; and in the village large corn-cribs were filled, while the houses were larger and more comfortable than those of the Native Americans themselves.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Historians estimate that during the 1820s, 800 blacks were living with the Seminoles. The Black Seminole settlements were highly militarized, unlike the communities of most of the slaves in the Deep South. The military nature of the African and Seminole relationship led General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, who visited several flourishing black Seminole settlements in the 1800s, to describe the African Americans as "vassals and allies" of the Seminole.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The traditional relationship between Seminole Blacks and natives changed in the course of the Second Seminole War when the old tribal system broke down and the Seminole resolved themselves into loose war bands living off the land with no distinction between tribal members and Black fugitives. That changed again in the new territory when the Seminole were obliged to settle on fixed lots of land and take up settled agriculture. Conflict arose in the territory because the transplanted Seminole had been placed on land allocated to the Creek, who had a practice of chattel slavery. There was increasing pressure from both Creek and pro-Creek Seminole for the adoption of the Creek model of slavery for the Black Seminoles. Creek slavers and those from other Native groups, and whites, began raiding the Black Seminole settlements to kidnap and enslave people. The Seminole leadership would become headed by a pro-Creek faction who supported the institution of chattel slavery. These threats led to many Black Seminoles escaping to Mexico.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In terms of spirituality, the ethnic groups remained distinct. The Seminole followed the nativistic principles of their Great Spirit. Black enslaved people had a syncretic form of Christianity brought with them from the plantations. In general, the Black former-slaves never wholly adopted Seminole culture and beliefs but were accepted into Seminole society, as seen by the skin tone in the pictures of the early 1900s. They were not considered Native American by the middle of the 20th century.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Most Black former-slaves spoke Gullah, an Afro-English-based creole language. That enabled them to communicate better with Anglo-Americans than the Creek or Mikasuki-speaking Seminole. The Native Americans used them as translators to advance their trading with the British and other tribes. Together, in Florida, they developed Afro-Seminole Creole, identified in 1978 as a distinct language by the linguist Ian Hancock. Black Seminoles and Freedmen continued to speak Afro-Seminole Creole through the 19th century in Oklahoma. Hancock found that in 1978, some Black Seminole and Seminole elders still spoke it in Oklahoma and in Florida.


title: Black Seminoles

text: After winning independence in the Revolution, American slaveholders were increasingly worried about the armed black communities in Florida. The territory was ruled again by Spain, as Britain had ceded both East and West Florida. The US slaveholders sought the capture and return of Florida's black fugitives under the Treaty of New York (1790), the first treaty ratified under the Confederation.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Wanting to disrupt Florida's maroon communities after the War of 1812, General Andrew Jackson attacked the Negro Fort, which had become a black Seminole stronghold after the British had allowed them to occupy it when they evacuated Florida. Breaking up the maroon communities was one of Jackson's major objectives in the First Seminole War (1817–18).


title: Black Seminoles

text: Under pressure, the Native American and black communities moved into south and central Florida. Slaves and black Seminoles frequently migrated down the peninsula to escape from Cape Florida to the Bahamas. Hundreds left in the early 1820s after the United States acquired the territory from Spain, effective 1821. Contemporary accounts noted a group of 120 migrating in 1821, and a much larger group of 300 African-American slaves escaping in 1823, picked up by Bahamians in 27 sloops and also by canoes. Their concern about living under American rule was not unwarranted. In 1821, Andrew Jackson became the territorial governor of Florida and ordered an attack on Angola, a village built by black Seminoles and other free blacks on the south of Tampa Bay on the Manatee River. Raiders captured over 250 people, most of whom were sold into slavery. Some of the survivors fled to the Florida interior and others to Florida's east coast and escaped to the Bahamas. In the Bahamas, the black Seminoles developed a village known as Red Bays on Andros, where basket making and certain grave rituals associated with Seminole traditions are still practiced. Federal construction and staffing of the Cape Florida Lighthouse in 1825 reduced the number of slave escapes from this site.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Anticipating attempts to re-enslave more members of their community, black Seminoles opposed removal to the West. In councils before the war, they threw their support behind the most militant Seminole faction, led by Osceola. After war broke out, individual black leaders, such as John Caesar, Abraham, and John Horse, played key roles. In addition to aiding the natives in their fight, black Seminoles recruited plantation slaves to rebellion at the start of the war. The slaves joined Native Americans and maroons in the destruction of 21 sugar plantations from Christmas Day, December 25, 1835, through the summer of 1836. Historians do not agree on whether these events should be considered a separate slave rebellion; generally they view the attacks on the sugar plantations as part of the Seminole War.


title: Black Seminoles

text: By 1838, U.S. General Thomas Sydney Jesup tried to divide the black and Seminole warriors by offering freedom to the blacks if they surrendered and agreed to removal to Indian Territory. John Horse was among the black warriors who surrendered under this condition. Due to Seminole opposition, however, the Army did not fully follow through on its offer. After 1838, more than 500 black Seminoles traveled with the Seminoles thousands of miles to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma; some traveled by ship across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River. Because of harsh conditions, many of both peoples died along this trail from Florida to Oklahoma, also known as "The Trail of Tears".


title: Black Seminoles

text: The status of black Seminoles and fugitive slaves was largely unsettled after they reached Indian Territory. The issue was compounded by the government's initially putting the Seminole and blacks under the administration of the Creek Nation, many of whom were slaveholders. The Creek tried to re-enslave some of the fugitive black slaves. John Horse and others set up towns, generally near Seminole settlements, repeating their pattern from Florida.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In the west, the black Seminoles were still threatened by slave raiders. These included pro-slavery members of the Creek tribe and some Seminole, whose allegiance to the blacks diminished after defeat by the US in the war. Officers of the federal army may have tried to protect the black Seminoles, but in 1848 the U.S. Attorney General bowed to pro-slavery lobbyists and ordered the army to disarm the community. This left hundreds of Seminoles and black Seminoles unable to leave the settlement or to defend themselves against slavers.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Facing the threat of enslavement, the black Seminole leader John Horse and about 180 black Seminoles staged a mass escape in 1849 to northern Mexico, where slavery had been abolished twenty years earlier. The black fugitives crossed to freedom in July 1850. They rode with a faction of traditionalist Seminole under the chief "Coacochee", who led the expedition. The Mexican government welcomed the Seminole allies as border guards on the frontier, and they settled at Nacimiento, Coahuila.


title: Black Seminoles

text: After 1861, the black Seminoles in Mexico and Texas had little contact with those in Oklahoma. For the next 20 years, black Seminoles served as militiamen and Native American fighters in Mexico, where they became known as "mascogos", derived from the tribal name of the Creek – Muskogee. Slave raiders from Texas continued to threaten the community but arms and reinforcements from the Mexican Army enabled the black warriors to defend their community. By the 1940s, descendants of the Mascogos numbered 400–500 in Nacimiento de los Negros, Coahuila, inhabiting lands adjacent to the Kickapoo tribe. They had a thriving agricultural community. By the 1990s, most of the descendants had moved into Texas.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Throughout the period, several hundred black Seminoles remained in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Because most of the Seminole and the other Five Civilized Tribes supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War, in 1866 the US required new peace treaties with them. The US required the tribes emancipate any slaves and extend to the freedmen full citizenship rights in the tribes if they chose to stay in Indian Territory. In the late nineteenth century, Seminole Freedmen thrived in towns near the Seminole communities on the reservation. Most had not been living as slaves to the Native Americans before the war. They lived —as their descendants still do— in and around Wewoka, Oklahoma, the community founded in 1849 by John Horse as a black settlement. Today it is the capital of the federally recognized Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Following the Civil War, some Freedmen's leaders in Indian Territory practiced polygyny, as did ethnic African leaders in other diaspora communities. In 1900 there were 1,000 Freedmen listed in the population of the Seminole Nation in Indian Territory, about one-third of the total. By the time of the Dawes Rolls, there were numerous female-headed households registered. The Freedmen's towns were made up of large, closely connected families.


title: Black Seminoles

text: After allotment, "[f]reedmen, unlike their [Native] peers on the blood roll, were permitted to sell their land without clearing the transaction through the Indian Bureau. That made the poorly educated Freedmen easy marks for white settlers migrating from the Deep South." Numerous Seminole Freedmen lost their land in the early decades after allotment, and some moved to urban areas. Others left the state because of its conditions of racial segregation. As US citizens, they were exposed to the harsher racial laws of Oklahoma.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Since 1954, the Freedmen have been included in the constitution of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. They have two bands, each representing more than one town and named for 19th-century band leaders: the Cesar Bruner band covers towns south of Little River; the Dosar Barkus covers the several towns located north of the river. Each of the bands elects two representatives to the General Council of the Seminole Nation.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In 1870, the U.S. Army invited black Seminoles to return from Mexico to serve as army scouts for the United States. The black Seminole Scouts (originally an African American unit despite the name) played a lead role in the Texas-Indian Wars of the 1870s, when they were based at Fort Clark, Texas, the home of the Buffalo Soldiers. The scouts became famous for their tracking abilities and feats of endurance. Four men were awarded the Medal of Honor, three for an 1875 action against the Comanche.


title: Black Seminoles

text: After the close of the Texas Indian Wars, the scouts remained stationed at Fort Clark in Brackettville, Texas. The Army disbanded the unit in 1914. The veterans and their families settled in and around Brackettville, where scouts and family members were buried in its cemetery. The town remains the spiritual center of the Texas-based black Seminoles. In 1981, descendants at Brackettville and the Little River community of Oklahoma met for the first time in more than a century, in Texas for a Juneteenth reunion and celebration.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Black Seminole descendants continue to live in Florida today. They can enroll in the Seminole Tribe of Florida if they meet its membership criteria for blood quantum: one-quarter Seminole ancestry. About 50 black Seminoles, all of whom have at least one-quarter Seminole ancestry, live on the Fort Pierce Reservation, a 50-acre parcel taken in trust in 1995 by the Department of Interior for the Tribe as its sixth reservation.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Descendants of Black Seminoles, who identify as Bahamian, reside on Andros Island in the Bahamas. A few hundred refugees had left in the early nineteenth century from Cape Florida to go to the British colony for sanctuary from American enslavement. After banning its participation in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, in 1818 Britain declared that slaves who arrived in the Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would be manumitted. In 1833 Britain abolished slavery throughout its Empire. They have been sometimes referred to as "black Indians", in recognition of their history.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In 1900, Seminole Freedmen numbered about 1,000 on the Oklahoma reservation, about one-third of the total population at the time. Members were registered on the Dawes Rolls for allocation of communal land to individual households. Since then, numerous Freedmen left after losing their land, as their land sales were not overseen by the Indian Bureau. Others left because of having to deal with the harshly segregated society of Oklahoma.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The land allotments and participation in Oklahoma society altered relations between the Seminole and Freedmen, particularly after the 1930s. Both peoples faced racial discrimination from whites in Oklahoma, who essentially divided society into two: white and "other". Public schools and facilities were racially segregated.


title: Black Seminoles

text: When the tribe reorganized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, some Seminole wanted to exclude the Freedmen and keep the tribe as Native American only. It was not until the 1950s that the black Seminole were officially recognized in the constitution. Another was adopted in 1969, that restructured the government according to more traditional Seminole lines. It established 14 town bands, of which two represented Freedmen. The two Freedmen's bands were given two seats each, like other bands, on the Seminole General Council.


title: Black Seminoles

text: There have been "battles over tribal membership across the country, as gambling revenues and federal land payments have given Native Americans something to fight over." In 2000, Seminole Freedmen were in the national news because of a legal dispute with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, of which they had been legal members since 1866, over membership and rights within the tribe.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma held the black Seminoles could not share in services to be provided by a $56 million federal settlement, a judgement trust, originally awarded in 1976 to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida (and other Florida Seminoles) by the federal government. The settlement was in compensation for land taken from them in northern Florida by the United States at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, when most of the Seminole and maroons were moved to a reservation in the center of the territory. This was before removal west of the Mississippi.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The judgement trust was based on the Seminole tribe as it existed in 1823. black Seminoles were not recognized legally as part of the tribe, nor was their ownership or occupancy of land separately recognized. The US government at the time would have assumed most were fugitive slaves, without legal standing. The Oklahoma and Florida groups were awarded portions of the judgement related to their respective populations in the early 20th century, when records were made of the mostly full-blood descendants of the time. The settlement apportionment was disputed in court cases between the Oklahoma and Florida tribes, but finally awarded in 1990, with three-quarters going to the Oklahoma people and one-quarter to those in Florida.


title: Black Seminoles

text: However, the black Seminole descendants asserted their ancestors had also held and farmed land in Florida, and suffered property losses as a result of US actions. They filed suit in 1996 against the Department of Interior to share in the benefits of the judgement trust of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, of which they were members.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In another aspect of the dispute over citizenship, in the summer of 2000 the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma voted to restrict members, according to blood quantum, to those who had one-eighth Seminole ancestry, basically those who could document descent from a Seminole ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls, the federal registry established in the early 20th century. At the time, during rushed conditions, registrars had separate lists for Seminole-Indian and Freedmen. They classified those with visible African ancestry as Freedmen, regardless of their proportion of Native American ancestry or whether they were considered Native members of the tribe at the time. This excluded some black Seminole from being listed on the Seminole-Indian list who qualified by ancestry.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The Dawes Rolls included in the Seminole-Indian list many Intermarried Whites who lived on Native American lands, but did not include blacks of the same status. The Seminole Freedmen believed the tribe's 21st-century decision to exclude them was racially based and has opposed it on those grounds. The Department of Interior said that it would not recognize a Seminole government that did not have Seminole Freedmen participating as voters and on the council, as they had officially been members of the nation since 1866. In October 2000, the Seminole Nation filed its own suit against the Interior Department, contending it had the sovereign right to determine tribal membership.


title: Black Seminoles

text: In April 2002, the Seminole Freedmen's suit against the government was dismissed in federal district court; the court ruled the Freedmen could not bring suit independently of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which refused to join. They appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which in June 2004 affirmed that the Seminole Freedmen could not sue the federal government for inclusion in the settlement without the Seminole Nation joining. As a sovereign nation, they could not be ordered to join the suit.


title: Black Seminoles

text: Later that year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs held that the exclusion of black Seminoles constituted a violation of the Seminole Nation's 1866 treaty with the United States following the American Civil War. They noted that the treaty was made with a tribe that included black as well as white and brown members. The treaty had required the Seminole to emancipate their slaves, and to give the Seminole Freedmen full citizenship and voting rights. The BIA stopped federal funding for a time for services and programs to the Seminole.


title: Black Seminoles

text: The individual Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) is based on registration of ancestors in the Indian lists of the Dawes Rolls. Although the BIA could not issue CDIBs to the Seminole Freedmen, in 2003 the agency recognized them as members of the tribe and advised them of continuing benefits for which they were eligible. Journalists theorized the decision could affect the similar case in which the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma excluded Cherokee Freedmen as members unless they could document a direct Native American ancestor on the Dawes Rolls.


title: Libertad (coin)

text: The Libertad coins are silver and gold bullion coins originating from Mexico and minted by the La Casa de Moneda de México (Mexican Mint). The Mexican Mint was established in 1535 and is the oldest mint in the Americas. The modern coins contain 99.9% silver or gold (.999 fineness) and are available in various sizes. Both metal coins have undergone a design change. In 1989, 3,500 ounce Libertad platinum coins were produced. Libertads are devoid of face value, yet are still accepted as currency and guaranteed by Banco de México based on the market value of its gold or silver content.


title: Libertad (coin)

text: In addition to the bullion version, a proof and reverse proof versions for both metals are manufactured specifically for collectors. Proof coins contain a frosted angel with a polished background. A reverse proof is the opposite and has a polished angel with a frosted background. An antique finish is available in silver and is also sought out by collectors. An antique finish gives coins an aged appearance without any loss of detail. The antiqued finish usually displays portions that look as if they have toned darker. Proof and antique finish coins are minted in relatively small quantities and are considered more beautiful and valuable than the standard bullion coin.


title: Libertad (coin)

text: Obverse: The Coat of arms of Mexico is shown with a Mexican golden eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattlesnake. This imagery relates to the founding of Tenochtitlan, present-day Mexico City. The coat of arms is rooted in the legend where the god Huitzilopochtli told the Aztec people where to build their city where they saw an eagle eating a snake on top of a cactus. The bottom half of the coat of arms has oak and laurel leaves encircling the eagle. The top half has the words "" (United Mexican States) encircling the eagle. The gold obverse has not changed since its inception and the silver coin had the same obverse at its inception. In 2000, the silver obverse was changed to depict the current Mexican national coat of arms along with 10 past versions of this symbol surrounding it. The Spanish inscription "ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS" still surrounds the central coat of arms. The past version of the symbol at the top is found in the Codex Mendoza from 1524.


title: Libertad (coin)

text: Reverse: The design used was based on the 1921 gold Centenario, a coin issued to mark the centennial of Mexican independence. The winged Victoria of Angel of Independence is in front with the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl in the background. The weight ("" or ounce), date, and purity are also listed. The older Libertad coins show a front-facing view of the angel. The new Libertad series shows a three-quarter side profile of the angel. The gold used the older angel from 1981 through 1999. The silver used the older angel from 1982 through 1995.


title: Libertad (coin)

text: Gold coins have not changed sizes since first minted. From 1982 through 1995, the one, , and ounce silver coins had slightly smaller diameters and greater thicknesses than current minted coins. From 1981 through 1990, the gold coins contained 90% gold (.90 fineness). The gold coins since 1991 and all silver coins have contained 99.9% silver or gold. (.999 fineness).


title: Mo McRae

text: Mo McRae (born July 4, 1982) is an American actor, writer and producer, best known for his recurring role as Tyler in the FX series "Sons of Anarchy" as well as Leon Hayes in the 2006 film "Gridiron Gang". He starred in Fox's "Pitch".


title: Mo McRae

text: Raised in South Los Angeles, McRae turned to acting for solace. After enrolling in a drama class at Washington Preparatory High School, McRae opted to forgo his spot on the basketball team when he landed the lead in the school play.


title: Mo McRae

text: After high school, McRae pursued his new found dream as an artist in the entertainment industry. After being signed by an agent, he quickly began to book national television spots for major corporations such as Visa, Nike and Reebok, among many others. These spots opened the doors to some early primetime guest appearances on shows such as "NYPD Blue", "Becker" and "Boston Public". Other television work soon followed with appearances on "", "ER" and "The Shield".


title: Mo McRae

text: In 2006, McRae was introduced to a much wider audience. He played one of the lead roles in the hit film "Gridiron Gang" opposite Dwayne Johnson, inhabiting the role of the troubled quarterback "Leon Hayes". The Neal H. Moritz–produced film grossed more than $40 million worldwide.


title: Mo McRae

text: As McRae became more successful as an actor, he began to build an interest behind the camera. He produced and starred in "The Fall" which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Additionally, he wrote a screenplay "No Return" with acclaimed movie and television writer Harry Winer. The film is currently set-up at Smash Media. Since 2012 he has had a recurring major guest role in the FX drama "Sons of Anarchy".


title: Mo McRae

text: In 2010, McRae appeared in Carmen Madden's film "Everyday Black Man". Also that year, McRae recurred on the ABC drama "Detroit 1-8-7" as Pooch and also filmed a lead role in the indie film "The Deadliest Lesson" opposite Penelope Ann Miller and Yancey Arias.


title: Mo McRae

text: In total, McRae has appeared in over 30 film and television projects over the past decade. He currently resides in Los Angeles.


title: Mo McRae

text: Mo McRae married Lex Scott Davis on July 21, 2019, after less than a year of being engaged. They had an "unplugged" wedding to ensure that all of their guests were "present in the moment" as they shared personalized vows. The couple met on the set of "The First Purge". They welcomed their first child, a son, in July 2020.


title: Q (New York City Subway service)

text: The Q Second Avenue/Broadway Express/Brighton Local is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored since it uses the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan.


title: Q (New York City Subway service)

text: The Q operates at all times between 96th Street in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn, via the BMT Broadway Line, the Manhattan Bridge and the BMT Brighton Line. Daytime service makes express stops in Manhattan and local stops in Brooklyn; late night service makes local stops along its entire route. Limited rush hour service operates locally in Brooklyn via the BMT Sea Beach Line and express via the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, but only in the northbound direction.


title: Q (New York City Subway service)

text: The Q was originally the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT)'s 1 service; beginning in 1920, it ran along the Brighton Line in Brooklyn and Broadway Line in Manhattan. In the past, the Q has run many different service patterns in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, both local and express, including QB service on the Manhattan Bridge and QT service via the Montague Street Tunnel. From 1988 to 2001, Q service ran along the IND Sixth Avenue Line in Manhattan, with a bullet colored orange. The Q also ran in Queens at various points, including to Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard on the BMT Astoria Line from 2010 to 2016, Forest Hills–71st Avenue on the IND Queens Boulevard Line during temporary post-9/11 service reroutes, and 21st Street–Queensbridge on the IND 63rd Street Line until 2001. There was also a <Q> variant from 2001 to 2004, which ran express on the Brighton Line and terminated at Brighton Beach. On January 1, 2017, the Q was rerouted along the Second Avenue Subway.


title: Q (New York City Subway service)

text: The predecessor to the subway service known as the Q today was the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway. On July 2, 1878, this steam railroad began operations on what would become the BMT Brighton Line, from Prospect Park to the Brighton Beach Hotel in Brighton Beach, which opened at the same time. The Brighton Beach Hotel was located on Coney Island by the Atlantic Ocean at the foot of modern-day Coney Island Avenue. Passengers could make connections with the horsecars of the Brooklyn City Railroad at the Prospect Park terminal.


title: Q (New York City Subway service)

text: On August 19, 1878, service was extended north from Prospect Park along what is today the BMT Franklin Avenue Line used by the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, to Atlantic Avenue west of Franklin Avenue, a location known as Bedford station on what is today the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). A physical connection existed between the Brighton, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway and the LIRR. By mutual agreement trains of the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway ran on LIRR trackage west to its terminal at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue, providing a connection to Downtown Brooklyn and ferries to Manhattan. LIRR trains also operated to Brighton Beach from Flatbush Avenue and from its own terminal in Long Island City, with ferry access to Midtown Manhattan. Initially, service operated during the summer season only. At the end of the 1882 summer season, the LIRR abrogated its agreement allowing Brighton Line trains to access its Flatbush Avenue terminal and beginning with the 1883 summer season, only Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island trains operated between Bedford Terminal and Brighton Beach.


title: Q (New York City Subway service)

text: In 1896, a short elevated extension of the Brighton Beach Line (since reorganized as the Brooklyn & Brighton Beach Railroad) opened to the corner of Franklin Avenue and Fulton Street in the north. This extension connected to the Fulton Street Line of the Kings County Elevated Railroad, allowing rapid transit trains on Fulton Street to operate along the Brighton Line. These trains ran from Brighton Beach, up the Franklin Avenue and Fulton Street lines to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, where walking or transferring to a cable car service connection over the bridge allowed access to New York City Hall at Park Row in Manhattan. In 1900, elevated trains were through-routed to Park Row without need to change trains. By 1903, a surface extension of the Brighton Beach Line on what is now Brighton Beach Avenue permitted through service from Park Row, Manhattan west to Culver Depot at Surf Avenue near West 8th Street, much nearer to the growing amusement center known then as West Brighton and now simply as Coney Island.


title: Q (New York City Subway service)

text: In 1908, a massive grade crossing elimination project was completed with a 4-track line from south of Church Avenue station to Neptune Avenue near the Coney Island Creek, permitting true local and express service, as pioneered on the New York City Subway that opened in 1904. The Brighton Beach line was also converted to electrified third rail. Brighton Beach local and express service was extended to a new West End terminal at Stillwell and Surf Avenues, the location of the Coney Island terminal for the BMT Southern Division, in May 1919.