What do Brigitte Bardot, beach litter, and American rappers on skid row have in common? They’re all on the TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup!  The Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie:

Pras On Skid Row (Literally)

Top 10 Reasons to Go to the Havana Film Festival in New York

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Nicole:

6 Million Pounds of Trash Found On World’s Beaches In One Day

“Take A Bite” Out of Climate Change

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Giulia:

Once Upon A Time Mommy Wasn’t This Pretty

We Can Solve It

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Gina:

The Fresh Air of the Flight of the Red Balloon and Hou Hsiao Hsien

Brigitte Bardot on Trial for Her Contempt Towards Muslims

In his latest project, hip hop artist, actor, and filmmaker Pras Michel (The Fugees) goes undercover for 9 days and nights as a homeless person in downtown LA’s notorious Skid Row. I met up with Pras in a hotel lobby in Manhattan to discuss Skid Row, the documentary based on his time on the street living with 90,000 people in a 50 square block area. Pras talked to me about Muhammed Ali, why he likes Obama and doesn’t go for Bill Cosby, how Oprah and Snoop could help the “lost African-American generation” by meeting face to face, and why we’re in a “transitional moment.”

Check out www.skidrowthemovie.com to find where it’s showing near you.

Why did you make this movie?

To make people aware. The majority of Americans just want to be able to work and provide. People on Skid Row … they just want to be able to work, they don’t care what it is. A lot of people think if something’s going on over here and not where they are, then it doesn’t affect them. We have to get away from that mindset.

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All the news that’s fit to print doesn’t begin to fit in all the news about Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King is rightly praised as a civil rights hero who called for integration and fought against racism.

But he is wrongly pigeonholed as a single issue activist. In fact, Martin Luther King, especially towards the end of his life, saw that civil rights were empty if not accompanied by economic rights, workers’ rights and human rights. He called the labor movement “the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.” Injustice, oppression, and racism against other peoples and nations was just as abhorrent to Dr. King as injustice, oppression and racism against Americans. But his position on capitalism, labor, U.S. foreign policy, and Vietnam are not part of the legend that surrounds Dr. King. So here are 10 things you didn’t learn about Martin Luther King.

1) Martin Luther King gave his life for workers on strike. You may (or may not) know that Martin Luther King went down to Memphis, where he was killed, in order to march with AFSCME Memphis Sanitation workers on strike. The night before he was killed, Dr. King addressed the workers

You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.

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40 years have passed since Martin Luther King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine hotel in Memphis Tennessee. And yet, today, April 4 2008, the words of the slain civil rights leader remain as poignant and applicable as ever.

It is impossible to pick a top 10 list of King’s best quotes, because he delivered hundreds of speeches, thousands of words of brilliance, compassion and love.

Here are 10 quotes which are a sample of the countless amazing quotes of Dr. King. The first excerpt comes from a speech delivered at a sanitation strike in Memphis. He refers to his own probably assassination. Fearless and passionate, King urges us to carry on his struggle towards “the promised land” peace and justice and equality without him.

1. And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say that threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

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Green For All is a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Although often presented as “single issues” poverty, racism, and environmental degradation are interlinked, as low-income people suffer disproportionately from cancer, asthma and other respiratory ailments. Katrina was a dramatic example of the way class and race interacted with the environment. “By advocating for local, state and federal commitment to job training, job creation, and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy ““ especially for people from disadvantaged communities ““ Green For All fights both poverty and pollution at the same time.”

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Obama went On The View Today. But he has been in the view for a while now. he has received a lot of criticism for his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But he has also received praise for his “A More Perfect Union” speech on race in America, which has even been compared to the speeches of Martin Luther King. Let’s look at the speeches of King and Obama. Are they similar? You be the judge.

Watch the videos below. Are you inspired? Then . Did you know that Martin Luther King said “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” So to continue King’s legacy and fight for Healthcare Now. Sign this petition for HR 676, guaranteeing non-profit Medicare for all.

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Since the premiere of “Brother Outsider” at the Sundance Film Festival, millions of people have been introduced to Bayard Rustin, who until now has remained somewhat of an unsung hero of the civil rights movement.

“Brother Outsider” is a film about the life of Bayard Rustin, a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and one of the major architects of the 1963 March on Washington. His pioneering activist spirit penetrated his personal life as well, as he was an openly gay man in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The film takes a many-sided approach to Rustin’s life, recreating a chronological and thematic portrait of his 60-year activist career through the use of traditional documentary and interview techniques. Historical research for the film was done by examining Rustin’s personal correspondence, papers, letters, archival footage, government propaganda films, stills, and paintings.

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The “Reverend Wright is Wrong” refrain has been repeated endlessly this past week as pundits on both sides weigh in on the racial and religious controversy that’s rocked the Obama campaign. Martin Luther King, Jr. touched on this not-so-divine divide 45 years ago:

“We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation.”  

Sunday morning in our household is, by contrast, the one time during the week when we suspend our secular segregation and tune in to the hot air from beltway blowhards on both sides of the partisan divide. On rare occasions, we even agree with an aside from George Will or a point made by Pat Buchanan.

But Wall Street Journal pundit Peggy Noonan literally gave us pause on Meet the Press yesterday when she responded to a question from Tim Russert about Obama’s seminal speech so reasonably that we had to grab the remote, rewind, and relisten:

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The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most moving and transformational chapters of Black history so it’s appropriate to highlight it during Black History Month. And it is hard to imagine the Civil Rights Movement without the songs people sang during the good and the bad, during the rallies, sit ins, marches, arrests and beatings. In the face of violence, the songs were not just tools of inspiration but tools of non-violent resistance. While there were too many songs too count, these stand out as among the best.

1. We Shall Overcome was a gospel song, which became a civil rights anthem during a strike in Charleston in 1946. One of the women walking the picket line outside of the American Tobacco Company, started singing the spiritual. Zilphia Horton, the co-founder of the Highlander Research and Education Center, learned the song and taught it to Pete Seeger, who taught it to other folk singers, including Guy Carawan who performed it and taught it at the founding meeting of the Civil Rights Organization SNCC ( Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.) The song then became an anthem not only for the Civil Rights movement in the United States, but for South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, North Ireland’s independence movement, and many other independence movements in countries including India, Bengal, Czechoslovakia. Listen to Mahalia Jackson sing We Shall Overcome:

2. Oh Freedom is an anti-slavery spiritual that was sung by slaves. It is fitting that in 1963, this freedom song inaugurated the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where 250,000 would rally for civil rights and labor rights, and where Martin Luther King would deliver his legendary I have a Dream speech. On the morning of August 28th, the protesters gathered at the Washington Monument, where Joan Baez sang Oh Freedom, immortalizing the song for generations to come.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Several topics really stood out this week, including the Oscars as social advocacy inspiration, civil rights and Black History Month, and lots of hot news on entertainment going Green. Check out our most popular posts of the week on these subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Happy Belated “Freedom to Marry” Week!

Rosa and Raymond Parks: Valiant Valentine #5

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Nicole:

Top 10 Oscar Picks to Inspire Social Action

Cornel West: Black Thoughts On Black History Month

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Giulia:

H&M’s “Fashion Against AIDS”

Ed Begley Jr. Goes Green

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Gina:

Top 10 Best Picture Winners That Inspire

Remixing “Chicago 10″

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Kerry:

How To Set the World On Fire Without Burning Out

Eco-Brokers Cater to Green Homebuyers