Summer 2018: African American Mentions, News, and Articles of Interest

Eight HBCUs Get Loan Relief From the U.S. Department of Education – The HBCU Capital Finance program allowed colleges and universities to take out low-interest loans to restore building and facilities on their campuses. But due to the 2008-09 recession and declining enrollments at some HBCUs, many institutions have had difficulty making payments on their loans….

Blacks were not Cowards during Slavery

“His mistake is also a thorough misrepresentation of the fortitude — the mental toughness and will to survive — required to survive slavery, individually and collectively, for centuries.” – By Blair L.M. Kelley I’m not understanding how people can say, “slaves were cowards” or what #Kanye said, about how “slaves were enslaved as if it were a…

November – December 2017: African American Mentions, News, and Articles of Interest

#BlackBoyJoy: Hazim Hardeman, 1st Rhodes Scholar from Temple University.  Hardeman grew up at 23rd and Diamond, just blocks from Temple’s campus. The university always seemed like “another world.” He dreamed of crossing the barrier. Link to Article: http://www.philly.com/philly/education/temple-gets-its-first-rhodes-scholar-a-north-philly-kid-20171119.html #BlackGirlMagic: Candice Marshall – one of 11 students in the industrial and computational mathematics program at Morgan State University in…

LEADers on Inequality, Race, Ethnic Politics, and African American History

Special treat for African American History Month Netflix will stream 22 hard to find films from Black Cinema’s Earliest Pioneers. In 2015, Kino Lorber released a treasure trove from American history in a DVD box set, Pioneers of African-American Cinema. Hours upon hours of feature-length and short films spanning the 1910s to the 1940s were…

March-April 2017: African American Mentions, News, and Articles of Interest

  African Americans earned 340,946 degrees and certificates from four-year institutions in the 2014-15 academic year. They made up 10.5 percent of all individuals who were given degrees or certificates from four-year institutions. The Full report is here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016112rev.pdf #BlackBoyJoy: A. Benjamin Spencer, Associate Dean and Professor of and Director, Frances Lewis Law Center:  An expert…

Tulsa’s Greenwood District: Race Riot of 1921

Tulsa’s Race Riot of 1921 In a political sense, Tulsa Negroes have made tremendous progress. Constituting one tenth of the voting strength, they easily swing elections one way or the other at will. In this respect, it has been demonstrated time after time, that no office seeker can be elected in a citywide or countywide…

July/August 2016: African American Mentions, News, and Articles of Interest

Malcolm X was invited back to London by the African Society to address a large audience in the Old Theatre at the London School of Economics. In both addresses, Malcolm X moved the political discourse from civil rights to human rights and stated clearly and unequivocally that the Black liberation struggle had to be internationalized rather than ghettoized….

June 2016: African American Mentions, News, and Highlights

In Native Son, Wright writes: “Goddammit, look! We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain’t. They do things and we can’t. It’s just like living in jail.” Vince Staples reminds us that the inner city still imprisons many. We should never forget that for some…

May 2016: African American News, Highlights, and Mentions

Chesler found that 70 percent of fathers who fight for custody win, regardless of the father’s character or even if he’s an active part of the child’s life. The perception of mothers who retain custody of their children is flawed. They don’t all have their children because the courts decided that they were the better…

No Longer 3/5ths of a Person: a’n’t I a woman?

Harriet Tubman was a great woman and she deserves every honor we can get for her accomplishments, trials, tribulations, and love for her people.  She was born a slave in America and decided to free slaves during a time when she would have been hung, raped, and murdered just like Mary Turner.  Sojourner Truth said,…

Become Political “Gladflys”: African American Votes are Political Currency

#NOAMCHOMSKY: Well, before answering that, let me just make one comment on elections: They’re important. It does matter who sits in the White House, who’s—who appoints Supreme Court justices, who makes decisions about war and peace, about environment and so on. Matters who’s in Congress, matters who’s in the state legislatures and so on. It…

Black Girls are Angry too….and Politically Invisible

Why you gonna take me seriously if I don’t show you that I’m in charge of myself? That I’m no joke. You ain’t gonna respect me until you know that what I say is for real. —Samantha, a 14-year-old girl There ain’t nothing more convincing than a good punch. —Lakeesha, a 16-year-old girl This girl…