Across Black America

Nov 1 2012

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
Gen. Colin Powell will be the featured speaker at the 40th annual Los Angeles Urban League Whitney M. Young Jr. Awards Dinner. The dinner will take place Friday, April 26, 2013, at the JW Marriott, LA Live in downtown Los Angeles. “We are honored to have Gen. Colin Powell as our esteemed guest speaker at the 40th Whitney M. Young Jr. Awards Dinner,” said Noel Massie, Urban League board chair, and president of UPS, California Central District. “Through his service to our country, Gen. Powell epitomizes the strong transformational leadership which is needed to motivate economic and social impact opportunities in communities and neighborhoods seeking solutions in the 21st century. We look forward to the message he will bring to Los Angeles on this momentous occasion.”
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Henri R. Ford, vice president and chief of surgery, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has been elected to serve on the board of regents of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Founded in 1913, the American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational association of top-flight surgeons dedicated to improving the quality of care for surgical patients by identifying and establishing high standards for surgical education and practice. Ford and five other surgeons were elected to the 22-member ACS board of regents by the association’s board of governors. The regents are responsible for the management and control of the business and affairs of the college and individual regents serve on ACS committees and advisory councils.
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The 2012 Artivist Awards will honor Columbia Pictures senior vice president, author, and inspirational leader DeVon Franklin for his efforts as a community leader at Barnsdall Theatre & Art Park in Hollywood on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012, at 5 p.m. The awards ceremony will be at the conclusion of the Artivist Film Festival and will also honor 10 international films and filmmakers alongside three other diverse community leaders—Maria Bello, celebrity actress and advocate; Christine Devine, 16-time EMMY Award-winning journalist and children’s rights advocate, and S. Brian Willson, author and international peace activist. For more information about the Artivist Awards, visit www.ARTIVIST.com.

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California

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Across Black America

Oct 25 2012

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
Tanya Kersey, founder and executive director for The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) has announced that “Note to Self” will open the 12th Hollywood Black Film Festival tonight at 7 p.m., at the Montalban Theater, 1615 Vine St., Hollywood. The festival will close with “24 Hour Love” on Sunday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. at the same location. The festival runs Oct. 25-28. “Note to Self” centers around a handsome and popular student-athlete who embarks on a journey of self-realization while navigating the choppy waters of a love triangle.

District of Columbia
Black Youth Vote! (BYV!), the youth program of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, is hustling hard as it transitions the iThink 2012 Campaign efforts from voter registration to voter education and mobilization for the last days of the 2012 presidential election cycle. Active in 14 states and Washington, D.C., Black Youth Vote! is making waves at the grassroots level. The young leaders are dorm-knocking, staging vote raids, working with the fraternities and sororities to get their members to the polls, and collecting voter pledge cards. Florida BYV! organizers Lucas Melton and Jamaal Rose even convinced their college president, Florida A&M University (FAMU) interim president Larry Robinson, to sign a BYV! pledge card and cancel classes for a few hours so FAMU students could participate in a march to the polls on the first day of early voting.
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Dennis Garcia of Trek for Peace has partnered with Sudan Sunrise and Highways Performance Space to bring attention to the crisis in South Sudan. He will be accompanied by a film crew led by award-winning multi-disciplinary artist Patrick Kennelly and Sudanese-American peace activist Rudwan Dawod to document the reconciliation project in Torit, the Manute Bol school project in Turalei, and the Yida and Abyei refugee camps located in South Sudan. Garcia joins a growing list of Sudan Sunrise supporters, including Board Chairman John Zogby and advisory board member Ambassador Sharon Wilkinson. Sudan Sunrise supports projects that facilitate reconciliation efforts aimed at providing education, healthcare, and community development in South Sudan and Sudan.

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

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Across Black America

Oct 18 2012

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
Congresswoman Laura Richardson recently attended the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony where she presented a Congressional Gold Medal to Emanuel Caesar of Compton. The ceremony was held at the Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach. The award, bestowed by Congress, is the highest civilian honor in the United States and is awarded to persons for an distinguished achievement that has significantly impacted American society, history, and culture. Caesar, a Montford Point Marine who served the country in World War II, was awarded for his military service and was one of the first Black Marines to enter Montford Point, a segregated Marine training camp. The Montford Point Marines, the first Black Marines to serve in the United States Marine Corps, helped pave the way for the desegregation of the Armed Forces.

Florida
More than 60 South Florida homeowners facing foreclosure, public housing developers, real estate brokers and housing agency counselors joined the Urban League of Broward County (ULBC) for the Home for Good Lunch & Learn. The panel discussion and workshop at the Urban League Community Empowerment Center provided insider tips about new state and federal programs designed to keep owners in their homes. Attendees also learned how the Florida housing settlement provides dollars to fight off foreclosure. The workshop was the first South Florida event for the national Home for Good campaign, an initiative uniting organizations to voice concerns and find solutions to ongoing housing challenges in minority communities.

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

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Across Black America

Oct 11 2012

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
On Saturday, Oct. 20, Ambassador Andrew Young will take his insight and experience to Oakland for a lecture, “The Time Is Now: Our Legacy, Our Future.” The lecture begins at 7 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Oakland City Center Marriott. Admission is free. Organizers of the lecture strongly encourage reservations because space is limited. Ambassador Young’s lecture is the 2012-2013 kickoff for the Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series. The lecture is co-produced by the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center, a nonpartisan, non-political educational organization, promotes the principles of nonviolence and offers an environment where young people actively seek peaceful, nonviolent solutions to the difficult challenges communities face. The Freedom Center serves individuals, organizations, schools and communities in the Greater Bay Area. Call April Chan at (510) 6100-5446 to RSVP.
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World Fantasy Award-winning author of “Who Fears Death,” Nnedi Okorafor, has been named as a judge in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. Nnedi won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa for her story “Zahrah the Windseeker” and has been nominated for dozens of awards internationally. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and is a professor of creative writing at Chicago State University. Now in its 29th year, the Writers of the Future Contest awards annual cash prizes totaling $30,000 for writers and illustrators of never-before-published works of science fiction and fantasy. It includes annual publication of the year’s winning stories and illustrations in the anthology titled L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future. The contest helped to launch her career by publishing her story “Windseekers” in “Writers of the Future Volume XVIII” back in 2002. Nnedi will judge one set of the quarterly finalists every year and will also judge for the grand prize story each year.

Connecticut
The University of Connecticut’s first African American professor, Rollin Charles Williams, died Sept. 24 in Waterford, Conn., after a short illness. He was 90 years old. A professor emeritus at the time of his death, Williams was hired as a full-time assistant professor in the School of Social Work in 1957. During his 30 years with the university, Williams spent time running the admissions office and as an interim dean. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012, at 2 p.m. at the Fulton-Theroux Funeral Home, 181 Ocean Ave., New London, Conn. A visiting hour will be held one hour prior to the service. A tribute page has been created in Williams’ honor at www.fultontherouxnewlondon.com.

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

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Across Black America

Oct 4 2012

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

Alabama
The U.S. Department of Education recently announced that 97 historically Black colleges will receive $227.9 million in federal funds as part of its annual Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities grants. Of the 97 colleges receiving funds under the program, 15 are in Alabama. Alabama State University gets about $3.9 million, Alabama A&M University gets about $3.2 million, Lawson State Community College gets about $2.9 million, and Tuskegee University gets about $2.2 million. Other schools on the list receive anywhere from $250,000 for Gadsden State Community College to $1.7 million for Stillman College based on the number of students qualifying for Pell Grants.

California
The Oakland Unified School District and the U.S. Department of Education reached an agreement last week that would allow federal officials to monitor the district's efforts to curb the number of out-of-school suspensions of its African American students. The resolution closes an investigation by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights into whether African American students were disciplined more frequently and harshly than their White classmates. Last school year, African American students made up about 39 percent of the district's total enrollment but accounted for 63 percent of students with at least one suspension and 61 percent of those who were expelled, said Russlynn Ali, the department's assistant secretary for civil rights.
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Students and workers recently stood together to fight for fair and dignified working conditions for campus workers and to defend universal access to public education for students. This demonstration focused on the recent decision by UC management to issue layoffs to five custodial workers (called the Eshleman 5) at UC Berkeley’s Lower Sproul Plaza. Ruben Reyes, one of the five laid off workers, explains: “I have been loyal to this university for six years as a senior custodian and I take pride in serving the students at UC Berkeley. My co-workers and I have recently been notified by the university that we are being laid off. These layoffs threaten the job security of all workers at UC and come at a time when the university is understaffing all our departments and hiring private subcontractors.” Despite several open custodial positions in other departments, the Eshleman 5 have been denied the opportunity to transfer and are being required to reapply with no guarantee of rehire.

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

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Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.

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Walk-a-Thon

June 1, 2013

Across Black America