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.
Indiana
Janet Jackson has fired off a legal letter to Vanity Fair Editor in Chief Graydon Carter, demanding the publication retract allegations suggesting the music superstar delayed her late brother Michael’s funeral over a financial dispute. In excerpts from Randall Sullivan’s upcoming book, ‘Untouchable’ The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson,” published in Condé Nast magazine, it was alleged that Janet, 46, delayed her sibling’s funeral over money owed relating to the burial plot deposit. “The article states that, according to ‘Untouchable,’ Ms. Jackson put down a $40,000 deposit to secure a burial plot for Michael Jackson but refused to let the funeral take place until that money was repaid.” “This is untrue,” Janet’s attorney Blair G. Brown wrote in the letter. “Ms. Jackson never delayed the funeral in any way. In fact, she paid for the funeral and was reimbursed for some of those expenses by Michael Jackson’s estate in the year after the services took place.”
Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana has been chosen through a national competition sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities to participate in Preparing Critical Faculty for the Future, a project that supports women of color faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in becoming strong academic and administrative leaders, both on campus and within their respective disciplines. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP). The institutions selected represent many different types, including two-year and four-year, public and private HBCUs.
New Jersey
First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens will hold the dfree (debt-free) Lifestyle Weekend Symposium at its facilities on Oct. 19-20. This two-day event will celebrate the progress that many churches and groups across the United States have made in helping their members attain financial freedom, through various activities including a panel discussion of national speakers. In addition, the new website for The Billion Dollar Challenge, a national dfree initiative that will challenge Americans to pay down a billion dollars of consumer debt, will be unveiled during a Friday night presentation. This website will enable individuals and groups to set debt-reduction goals and track their progress.
New York
The Rescues, a diverse group of talents featuring Adrianne Gonzalez, Gabriel Mann, Kyler England, and Rob Giles, recently launched The Pledge Music campaign to help fund their newest album and unexpectedly reached their target in eight days. Due to the overwhelming success of the campaign, The Rescues have chosen to donate a portion of the extra funding to Free The Slaves, an international organization dedicated to ending slavery worldwide. The Rescues are continuing their campaign as they put the finishing touches on the album “Blah Blah Love and War,” to be released in early 2013. In addition to a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album, rewards offered to pledgers include autographed CDs, a Skype session with the band, paintings by AG, and even a “mystery box.” Fans interested in supporting the project can visit http://www.pledgemusic.com/TheRescues.
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Music Choice has unveiled the latest episode of “The F Word.” The show is available free On Demand and features multi-platinum selling Grammy-Award-winning R&B/Pop singer songwriter and actress Brandy. “The F Word” focuses on the total picture of being famous, giving fans the inside story from the artists themselves. Featured artists reflect on their fame, from the highs and lows to everything in between. Additional artists to be featured this season include Cobra Starship and many more. For more information on Music Choice programming, visit http://www.musicchoice.com/Originals/.
Ohio
My Black Is Beautiful (MBIB) recently announced the sponsorship of the 2013 United Negro College Fund (UNCF) Empower Me Tour, as part of MBIB’s “Imagine a Future” initiative to touch the lives of 1 million Black girls. MBIB will host “Girl Talk: Strength in Sisterhood” workshops at eight of the tour stops to spur insightful discussions that will empower and educate the participants (8th grade – college freshman) to be their true best self by uplifting other young girls. In conjunction with UNCF, MBIB will also be awarding monetary scholarships to students amounting to a sum of $17,000. The “Girl Talk: Strength in Sisterhood” workshops will be led by a panel of African American media influencers. These women will engage the participants in a provocative discussion focusing on the epidemic of girl-on-girl bullying and Black beauty insecurities, as well as examine images of Black women in the media throughout time.
National
Written in early 2007, Why Obama Will Win in 2008 & 2012 is a study of American business and political cycles since the great deflation of agricultural commodities following the Revolutionary War and Shay’s Rebellion of the 1790s. The author, Daniel Bruno from Oxford University, forecast the great recession of 2008 and his book was the first to predict that Obama would defeat Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic Party nomination. It is also the first book to correctly forecast the presidential election outcome of 2008 and predict an Obama win for the election of 2012. The thesis is that electoral realignments follow on the heels of deflationary shocks (collapse in asset prices of stocks and real estate) and that these shocks occur in predictable cycles. Recessions, wars, stock market crashes and rotation of power within the two-party duopoly can be predicted years in advance to a degree of probability that is statistically significant. Public opinion and polls are of no value in predicting election outcomes until seven days before the vote. The book is available as a free download at www.hpub.org/why-obama-will-win-in-2012-by-daniel-bruno.
COMPILED BY JULIANA NORWOOD
