black community

Feb 7 2013

Dazzling them with science

Girls do do science, and the women from the Spelman College robotics team brought their Spelbots to Washington Preparatory High School last Friday to strut their stuff. Above from left, Micaela Hunter, Tyler Davis, Re’Kieya Ward, Ronique Young and Daria Jordan, discuss what it’s like to be the first all-female, all African American team to qualify and compete in international robotics competitions in places like Japan.

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Feb 7 2013

Alumni foundation has problems with any renewal

Five years after Green Dot Public Schools made history by becoming the first outside organization to assume control of a low-performing high school (Alain Leroy Locke High) in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the organization’s agreement is up for renewal and the matter will be taken up by the school board at its Feb. 12 meeting.

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Feb 7 2013

Practical Politics

The modern reparations movement, which has been alive and lively in the USA since at least 1988, and even earlier in international circles, still breathes. It no longer invokes the fire and brimstone of the 1980s and ‘’90s, especially since Congressman John Conyers’ H.R. 40 bill, which has regularly been re-introduced in Congress as proposed legislation since 1989, is virtually dead now, and the Greenwood, Okla., court case—-sometimes called the Brown v. Board case of the reparations movement—was excoriated by the Supreme Court in 2007.

Julianne Malveaux  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Feb 7 2013

Counting the Cost

There is lots of buzz about our nation’s “economic recovery” in these first weeks of 2013. The stock market has been rising, some would say even soaring. We postponed the fiscal cliff crisis, albeit only for a few weeks—March is the new deadline.

Feb 7 2013

Rally urges Compton residents to unite

Black and Brown residents of Compton attend a “No Hate Rally” on Saturday at the court house, and the message was that the two races have lived together for more than 40 years in the community and do get along. Further, speakers noted that a few bad individuals do not represent the entire city of 100,000. The L.A. Sheriff’s department also said that any potential hate incidents will be thoroughly investigated and prosecuted, if necessary.

Across Black America

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.