Tough Times: African-American Realities Beneath the Breakthroughs

Tough Times: African-American Realities Beneath the Breakthroughs: When the Congressional Black Caucus held its annual legislative conference in Washington last month, there was much to crow about.

Since its gathering in the fall a year ago, the Black lawmakers and their nationwide network of supporters had played a key role in helping turn out the vote that helped elect Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as the nation’s first Black president.

With the new Congress, several caucus members had risen to the chairmanships of key committees in the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, more Black people with clout have been appointed to key positions in the new administration, from chief of the Environmental Protection Agency to U.S. Attorney General. The new attorney general, Eric Holder, has since promised more renewed focus on enforcing civil rights laws and reviewing mandatory minimum prison sentences.

Beneath the exciting veneer, however, at various meetings during the conference and as participants went back to their hometowns across the country, the mounting troubles besetting Black America – from HIV/AIDS to the soaring unemployment triggered by the economy’s collapse last year— sobered up even the most euphoric. The test of America’s mettle to survive is fast becoming an acute stress test for Black America on many fronts.

New Minority Engineering Leader Stresses K-12 Exposure to Careers

New Minority Engineering Leader Stresses K-12 Exposure to Careers: Describing the past decade's growth of African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans in the engineering profession as 'marginal at best,' diversity efforts have to increasingly target under-represented K-12 students, according to the president and CEO of the National Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME).

'Each of those groups has shown marginal increases in the baccalaureate degree production in engineering and in the engineering work force, but the reality is, there is a huge problem with proportionality,' Dr. Irving Pressley McPhail said.

The percentage of engineers from each minority group is still far below each group's percentage in the overall population, he said, and it's important to 'create an engineering work force that looks like America.'

College Enrollment Set Record in 2008, Study Says - NYTimes.com

College Enrollment Set Record in 2008, Study Says - NYTimes.com: ...Enrollment has been rising at two- and four-year colleges alike for decades. And most young adults still prefer four-year colleges, even though they are more expensive.

But the increase in the rate of students going to college reflected in the Pew report was attributable almost entirely to increased community-college enrollment. About 3.4 million, or 11.8 percent, of young adults were enrolled at community colleges, up from 3.1 million, or 10.9 percent, in 2007.

Enrollment at four-year colleges was essentially flat, at about eight million, or 27.8 percent of young adults, the Pew report said.

College enrollment varies by race and ethnicity. Nearly 41 percent of white 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in college in 2008, compared with about 32 percent of black young adults and 26 percent of Hispanics in that age group.

Obama signs bill expanding hate protection to gays - washingtonpost.com

Obama signs bill expanding hate protection to gays - washingtonpost.com: When a gay Wyoming college student was slain in 1998, congressional Democrats pledged to broaden the definition of federal hate crimes by the end of that year to include attacks based on sexual orientation.

The effort instead turned into a decade-long proxy war between liberal groups that want to expand gay rights and conservative groups that do not. But Wednesday, President Obama signed the bill and then hosted a White House reception for gay activists and the parents of the slain student, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard.

"After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are," Obama said after the signing.

Former senator Edward Brooke receives Congressional Gold Medal - washingtonpost.com

Former senator Edward Brooke receives Congressional Gold Medal - washingtonpost.com: The crisp cadence of a fife-and-drum corps reverberated through the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday morning, the august room packed with nearly 500 people craning their necks to see the remarkable tableau arranged on a stage before them.

There sat Edward William Brooke III, who grew up in a segregated neighborhood not far from the Capitol, fought in a segregated Army in World War II and returned to Washington in 1967, the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote -- and on this day, the recipient of the highest honor Congress can bestow, the Congressional Gold Medal.

And there sat President Obama, whose stunning electoral journey to the White House seemed no more improbable than the one made four decades earlier by the 90-year-old man who sat beside him, a black Protestant Republican who won in the overwhelmingly white, Catholic, Democratic state of Massachusetts. After Obama heralded Brooke for a life spent "breaking barriers and bridging divides," the two men embraced tightly. It was a reminder of how much this country has changed in their lifetimes.

Temple University's Commitment to Diversity Questioned

Temple University's Commitment to Diversity Questioned: When budgetary cuts become necessary at a college, the programs and departments most vulnerable are often the least fundamental to a school’s central mission. But when an institution has been ranked as the most diverse student body in higher education, it can be difficult to explain why an office that caters to multicultural students was downsized dramatically.

Rhonda Brown, the first associate vice president of multicultural affairs and director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMCA) at Temple University, said sweeping cuts to her department have crippled her operation, reducing her staff of 10 to five and relocating the program to a smaller, inaccessible office. Worst of all, Brown said, she wasn’t consulted about the deep cuts.

“There are budget crises going on everywhere and we were required to take a budget cut that was supposedly across the board — and we did,” said Brown, who lost clerical staff when she did initial cost-trimming. “Our budget was cut a second time by people above and beyond me. I found out just a few days before they were made and I was not consulted or made aware until later.”

Obama Restores Asian American Initiative, Gives Ed. Dept. a Lead Role

Obama Restores Asian American Initiative, Gives Ed. Dept. a Lead Role: Two years after the Bush administration let its authority lapse, President Barack Obama has reinstated the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders with the U.S. Education Department in a major leadership role.

Obama this month signed an executive order re-establishing the White House Initiative, to be co-chaired by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The Education Department also will house the initiative. The department already is home to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

The chief goal of the latest initiative is to improve the quality of life for underserved Asian communities through greater participation in federal programs. In announcing the initiative, President Obama also noted that some Asian communities have high school dropout rates, low college enrollment rates, health disparities and high poverty rates.

Minority Graduate Students Urged to Address Pipeline Issues

Minority Graduate Students Urged to Address Pipeline Issues: ARLINGTON, Va. — A panel of senior professors and researchers told attendees at the largest annual gathering of U.S. minority graduate school students that earning their Ph.D.s and becoming faculty will help make them effective advocates for expanding the educational pipeline of students of color seeking higher education.

During the session, “The Need to Examine and Address the Current Status of Minority Males in Higher Education,” at the Compact for Faculty Diversity's 16th Annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring on Friday, panelists urged students to channel their eventual Ph.D. success into becoming role models and advocates for programs that could boost the numbers of young minority males completing college and graduate school. The Compact for Faculty Diversity, a national partnership of regional, federal and foundation programs that focus on minority graduate education and faculty diversity, held the annual institute in Arlington, Va., this past weekend.

Perfectionism: Just Stop It!

Access Granted with Dr. Marybeth Gasman

University of Pennsylvania professor Marybeth Gasman explores issues of access and retention for students and faculty of color and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, among other things.

Perfectionism: Just Stop It!: The best piece of advice received in my academic career thus far was given to me by Dr. Wayne Urban, an historian and professor at the University of Alabama. During my first year as a faculty member, I walked into his office and asked, “Wayne, how do you write so much excellent scholarship, how did you become a full professor?” His response was, “I am not a perfectionist.”

These words have stuck with me and I learned immensely from them. Wayne also noted that doctoral students and young assistant professors often succumb to perfectionism and become immobilized in terms of sending out their work for review. He told me reviewers and editors are our friends and they help us to take good work and make it better. I have lived by Wayne’s words through my time as a faculty member and I think I have benefited.

Haskell Indian Nation U. President Faces Backlash on Tuition

Haskell Indian Nation U. President Faces Backlash on Tuition: LAWRENCE, Kan.— Dr. Linda Sue Warner had big ambitions when she arrived in 2007 as president of Haskell Indian Nation University, the only four-year college operated by the federal government for American Indians. Now she wonders whether those ambitions could cost her the job.

She envisioned major campus improvements and an expansion of the college's programs. But she also proposed to increase the extremely small fees paid by Haskell's roughly 1,050 students —$215 per semester, including room and board — to $1,000.

And that was where she ran headlong into the belief among many Haskell students and alumni that the government owes them a free or nearly free education, both by treaty and as compensation for generations of cultural oppression.

Students protested and members of the Board of Regents called for Warner's ouster.

“I feel strongly that these kids shouldn't have to pay to go to school here,'' said Haskell alumnus and Kickapoo tribal chairman Russell Bradley.

In September, amid the furor, Warner was sent to New Mexico on what the government said was a temporary assignment.

Ayers Settlement Falls Short of Funding

Ayers Settlement Falls Short of Funding: A legislative watchdog panel this month gave a generally rosy report about how Mississippi is meeting its obligations in a decades-old college desegregation case, but a closer examination reveals flaws with a private endowment that has failed to reach its goals.

The settlement of the case in 2002 put an end to litigation that began in 1975 when Jake Ayers Jr. filed suit with a group of other students, accusing Mississippi of operating an unequal system of higher education— one for Black students, and another for White students.

Lawmakers put the settlement package together in 2002 but no money was allocated until the last appeal was exhausted in 2004.

In the settlement, there was a $70 million publicly funded endowment and a separate, privately funded $35 million endowment. The private endowment has only $1 million.

Seven years after a federal judge signed off on the settlement, state officials agree there is no organized campaign to raise private money.

Resolution may be near between students and bar accused of racism - CNN.com

Resolution may be near between students and bar accused of racism - CNN.com: CNN) -- An agreement could be reached before week's end between Washington University students and an Illinois nightclub that allegedly barred six African-American students while admitting nearly 200 of their white classmates.

Fernando Cutz, senior class president at the university in Missouri, said the aggrieved students have been in contact with lawyers representing Original Mother's, a bar in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.

The two sides expect a resolution to their dispute as early as Wednesday, Cutz said. He did not, however, say what the students were demanding or why he was optimistic that a deal could be struck.

The students complained to state and federal agencies after six African-American members from their senior class trip celebration were denied admission to the club on October 17.

Federal programs give disadvantaged extra help in college - washingtonpost.com

Federal programs give disadvantaged extra help in college - washingtonpost.com: ... The federal Student Support Services program, launched during the Nixon administration, is part of a larger effort to help disadvantaged students overcome academic and cultural barriers to success in higher education. The program is part of TRIO, a group of national initiatives that have proven their ability to raise the odds that a disadvantaged student will stay in college, get good grades and graduate.

Yet supporters say the programs have languished through years of fiscal neglect. Total funding to the TRIO programs -- $848 million in the fiscal year that began this month -- has risen about 1 percent in the past five years. TRIO serves 838,591 students, fewer than it did in 2003.

The support programs are closely linked to the federal Pell grant, a $25 billion fund that helps students from low-income families pay for college. Unlike TRIO, funding for Pell has increased by more than one-third over the past three years. A student aid bill that cleared the House last month would add $40 billion to Pell over the next decade but does not address TRIO.

The House Rules

The House Rules: The House Rules
by Dr. Pamela D. Reed, October 21, 2009

Morehouse College has laid down the law. And not a moment too soon..."

As you might imagine, the institutional decree has caused quite a stir — and it has been met with mixed reviews. Some argue that the policy is draconian and designed to stifle self-expression. Others — present company included — view the stance of the Morehouse administration as courageous and long overdue. (The only thing missing is a restriction on conspicuous tattoos!)

Of course, as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others, everyone has the right to live as they will. And certainly young adults have the right to dress according to their personal tastes; however, Morehouse is a private college. As such, it should have the right to impose whatever standards deemed appropriate for its student body (as long as bodily harm is not involved). Mind you, anyone unable to abide by the said rules also has the absolute right to matriculate elsewhere.

Community Colleges May Soon Start Turning Students Away

Community Colleges May Soon Start Turning Students Away: Nicole Rodriguez has been waiting a year to get into Pima Community College’s nursing program. But she’s running out of patience.

The Tucson-based Hispanic-serving institution has nearly 340 people on the waiting list to get into the program. The next available semester is spring 2011, according to the college, but Rodriguez, 24, says she was told she would have to wait three years to get admitted. She told Diverse she lost her original place on the list because she did not immediately respond to an email from the school asking her if she wanted to stay on it.

“So I’m probably starting all over again, which makes me really upset,” Rodriguez adds. “If all else fails, I’ll probably end up going to another school in another state that doesn’t have three-year waiting lists.”

Reforms Across Multiple Policy Areas Key to Eliminating Health Disparities, Experts Say

Reforms Across Multiple Policy Areas Key to Eliminating Health Disparities, Experts Say: WASHINGTON — A panel of health policy experts Tuesday told congressional staff members and policy professionals that, while health care reform could play a powerful role in reducing health disparities between minorities and Whites, major policy reform in areas such as housing, transportation, agriculture and labor will also prove necessary to close the health care gap.

“We need multiple strategies across a variety of sectors. These are not just problems for public health; these are problems for the housing sector, the transportation sector and others,” said Dr. Brian Smedley, vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

UW Bothell Chancellor Champions For Diversity Among College Leadership

UW Bothell Chancellor Champions For Diversity Among College Leadership: The under-representation of minorities, particularly Asian-Americans, in U.S. college presidencies can be due to the fact that many potential minority leaders in the faculty ranks are “ignored” and “overlooked,” said University of Washington Bothell Chancellor Dr. Kenyon S. Chan, who encourages chancellors to think hard about how they develop leadership on their campuses.

“There’s a lack of real mentorship” for minority faculty who want to move up in the ranks, Chan said during a meeting Tuesday with the editorial board of Diverse. “People of color are overlooked.”

For Asian-Americans, particularly, “I think a lot of it has to do with being ignored and being invisible as a potential leader for an institution,” he said. “Many institutions have never had a person of color as a leader. … Asian-Americans are still quite rare, and quite unique.”

Jack Nelson dies at 80 - Michael Calderone - POLITICO.com

Jack Nelson dies at 80 - Michael Calderone - POLITICO.com: Jack Nelson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter best known for his coverage of the civil rights movement, has died. He was 80.

The Associated Press reports that Nelson died Wednesday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Born in Talladega, Ala., Nelson worked in the late '40s and '50s at the Biloxi Daily Herald and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. At the Journal-Constitution,Nelson won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on malpractice at a state mental hospital.

In 1965, he joined the Los Angeles Times, where he spent more than 35 years, before retiring as chief Washington correspondent in 2001. LA Times columnist described Nelson to the AP as a "reporter's reporter."

Nelson wrote about his experience on the civil rights beat in recent years for Nieman Reports:

It was a story where the issue seemed so cut and dry and the injustices so stark that reporters struggled to remain objective, though many found it difficult not to become emotionally involved. Seeing hard-eyed state troopers (always described as hard-eyed—and they were) in Selma slamming their clubs against the skulls of blacks who were demonstrating for the right to vote left reporters feeling there weren’t two sides to this story. And there seemed to be only one side to Jim Crow justice when the only black you could find at a county courthouse would be a defendant or one pushing a broom.

Latinos may be 'future' of U.S. Catholic Church - CNN.com

Latinos may be 'future' of U.S. Catholic Church - CNN.com: ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- 'I'll take two chili, uh...' a hungry customer stammers at the front of a two-hour-long line. 'Chile rellenos,' the money-handler trills back in perfect Spanish. This is not a trendy Tex-Mex restaurant; and it's more than 1,000 miles from the Mexican border.

The stuffed pepper causing the stutter is the hottest menu item at St. Cecilia's Lenten fish fry in St. Louis, Missouri. Chile rellenos, a traditional Mexican dish, have replaced fish as the main draw for Catholics giving up meat on Fridays. This century-old parish founded by German immigrants has turned 85 percent Hispanic.

"It's the browning of the Catholic Church in the United States," says Pedro Moreno Garcia, who until last month led the Hispanic ministry for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Moreno Garcia points to St. Cecilia's Spanish-dominant Mass schedule as a sign of the times.

"Hispanics are the present and Hispanics are the future of the Catholic Church in the United States," says Moreno Garcia.

One-third of all Catholics in the United States are now Latinos thanks to immigration and higher fertility rates, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. While St. Cecilia's parish has relished the growth, elsewhere, the Latino population boom has rocked the pews.

Vassar Professor Examines Black Women's Film Stardom

NEW YORK — Dorothy Dandridge was the first Black woman nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Almost 50 years passed before another Black woman Halle Berry won the award.

They and three others Pam Grier, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey are subjects of the new book Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film.

'These women have pushed the racial boundaries for audiences, setting new standards for beauty and body type,' said author Dr. Mia Mask.

She took on the book because, while Black male stars are now enjoying huge success, little has been written about their female counterparts as performers who can headline a film, said Mask, who teaches film and drama at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie , N.Y.

Pardon for black boxer jailed for interracial dating waits on Obama - CNN.com

Pardon for black boxer jailed for interracial dating waits on Obama - CNN.com: The White House refused to indicate Monday whether President Obama will issue a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the African-American boxing champion convicted in 1913 for dating a white woman.

The House of Representatives on July 29 unanimously passed a resolution urging Obama to grant a pardon; the Senate passed a similar measure by a voice vote on June 24.

The push for a rare posthumous pardon has been spearheaded for years by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Rep. Peter King, R-New York, two of Congress' top boxing enthusiasts.

"It is our hope that you will be eager to agree to right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison," they wrote Friday in a letter to Obama.

Johnson, the first African-American to win the heavyweight title, was convicted for violating the Mann Act, which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for "immoral" purposes.

Removing a justice of the peace in Louisiana no cakewalk - CNN.com

Removing a justice of the peace in Louisiana no cakewalk - CNN.com: Two disgruntled Louisiana newlyweds have called for the dismissal of a justice of the peace who refused to marry the interracial couple, and have even been joined in their fight by the governor, who said the official's license should be revoked.

But unseating a Louisiana justice of the peace isn't easy.

Beth and Terence McKay -- who are now married -- stepped into the national spotlight when Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward, refused them a license.

Bardwell told Hammond's Daily Star last week that he was concerned for the children who might be born of the relationship and that, in his experience, most interracial marriages don't last.

"I'm not a racist," Bardwell told the newspaper. "I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children."

Despite a national uproar and a call by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for him to lose his license, Bardwell, 56, said he has no regrets. "It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong," he told CNN affiliate WAFB on Saturday.

Reinventing Remedial Education

Reinventing Remedial Education: When Kafayat Olayinka graduated from Spingarn High School in Washington, D.C., with a 3.5 grade-point average, she was certain those kinds of grades would help her zip right through college.

Sure enough, Olayinka received a letter of acceptance from the University of the District of Columbia, along with a request that she take a battery of tests given all freshmen. Soon, though, she realized something was wrong.

“I couldn’t solve problems in basic math,” Olayinka says, recalling the summer of 2007 when she took the placement exams. “I was surprised. I thought I was going to pass the tests.”

Despite the disappointing experience that made her doubt her readiness for college, Olayinka was notified she had been accepted into a special eight-week pre-college program at UDC called the Gateway Academic Program, or the GAP. It wasn’t until the end of the GAP, when Olayinka was tested again, that she learned her true academic story. She and her cohorts selected for the GAP had posted the lowest scores in English and math of all entering freshmen who took the original placement tests. By the end of the eight weeks of rigorous classroom work aimed specifically at the deficiencies found in her first tests, she was tested again and her performance on the second tests cleared her to enter the school as a full-fledged freshman.

Profile of Nobel Prize Winner Carol Greider, a Johns Hopkins Molecular Biologist - washingtonpost.com

Profile of Nobel Prize Winner Carol Greider, a Johns Hopkins Molecular Biologist - washingtonpost.com: Partway through an interview, Carol Greider's cellphone emits the special ring she has set to indicate the caller is one of her two children. Greider, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins who this year became one of only 10 women to win the Nobel Prize in medicine, is at her phone in a split second. The caller is her 9-year-old daughter, Gwendolyn, who has gotten out of school.

'How was Spirit Day?' Greider asks. They chat -- a babysitter is at home -- then she rings off. Nearby is a pile of handmade cards from Gwendolyn's fourth-grade class, the members of which have different ideas about for what, exactly, Greider has won the prize.

Twenty-five years ago, as an exceptionally gifted graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, Greider, now 48, visited her lab to check an experiment, and discovered evidence of an enzyme called telomerase. The enzyme helps maintain telomeres, the caplike structures that protect the ends of chromosomes. The discovery was a breakthrough -- telomerase is implicated in cancer and genetic disease -- the import of which would become clearer over time, as possible therapies emerged.

Girl in tuxedo denied a place in school yearbook - USATODAY.com

Girl in tuxedo denied a place in school yearbook - USATODAY.com: JACKSON, Miss. — Veronica Rodriguez describes her daughter, 17-year-old Ceara Sturgis, as 'a perfect child': a straight-A student, a goalie on the soccer team, a trumpet player in the band and active in Students Against Destructive Decisions.

Sturgis also is gay and feels more comfortable in boys' clothes, her mother says. So Rodriguez supported her daughter's decision to wear a tuxedo, rather than the drape customary for girls, when she had her senior portrait made in July. Now she is battling officials at Wesson Attendance Center in the Copiah County (Miss.) School District. Rodriguez said she received a letter from the school in August stating that only boys could wear tuxedos and have since refused to include the photo in the school yearbook.

The conflict is one of several this year involving how school districts handle cross-dressing students.

'The yearbook is not for the parents or the teachers. It's for the students,' Rodriguez said. 'She's not a troublemaker. She is gay.'

Migrants Going North Now Risk Kidnappings - NYTimes.com

Migrants Going North Now Risk Kidnappings - NYTimes.com: TECATE, Mexico — For 37 days, the Salvadoran immigrant was held captive in a crowded room near the border with scores of people, all of them Central Americans who had been kidnapped while heading north, hoping to cross into the United States. He finally got out in August, he said, after the Mexican Army raided the house in the middle of the night to free them.

“The army said: ‘Don’t run. We’re here to help you,’ ” recalled the migrant, a 30-year-old father of three who insisted that his name not be printed for fear of either being kidnapped again or deported. “I kept running.”

Getting to “el norte” has never been a cakewalk. Along with long treks through desert terrain, death-defying river crossings and perilous rides clinging onto trains, there have always been con men and crooked police officers preying on migrants along the way.

But Mexican human rights groups that monitor migration say the threats foreigners face as they cross Mexico for the United States have grown significantly in recent months. Organized crime groups have begun taking aim at migrants as major sources of illicit revenue, even as the financial crisis in the United States has reduced the number of people willing to risk the journey.

Kidnapping people for ransom is a pervasive problem in this country, although victims have typically been prosperous people with bank accounts that can be emptied at the nearest A.T.M., or those with relatives willing to hand over significant sums to save them.

Blake Gopnik - Art: Blake Gopnik Reviews Man Ray Exhibit at Phillips - washingtonpost.com

Blake Gopnik - Art: Blake Gopnik Reviews Man Ray Exhibit at Phillips - washingtonpost.com: How's this for peculiar: An art world that, almost overnight, turns its back on hundreds of years of its own culture and heads instead to the art of a remote continent. That art world doesn't only borrow bits and pieces of the foreign style; it actually takes over the strangers' objects as its own new art forms. To cap off the weirdness, it turns out the borrowers aren't even sure they like the culture of the borrowees.

That is the strange situation on view in 'Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens,' a fascinating new exhibition at the Phillips Collection. You don't have to care about African art or modernist photography to want to delve into their unlikely intersection.

The Phillips show presents about 50 images by such pioneers of 'straight' modernist photography as Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans and Charles Sheeler. It also includes about the same number by Man Ray, one of photography's more radical figures. Born in Brooklyn in 1890 as Emmanuel Radnitsky, he moved to Paris in 1921 and made his (new) name as one of the first surrealist photographers, adding a dose of strangeness to the photos seen in both museums and the fashion world.

All-male college cracks down on cross-dressing - CNN.com

All-male college cracks down on cross-dressing - CNN.com: ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An all-male college in Atlanta, Georgia, has banned the wearing of women's clothes, makeup, high heels and purses as part of a new crackdown on what the institution calls inappropriate attire.

No dress-wearing is part of a larger dress code launched this week that Morehouse College is calling its "Appropriate Attire Policy."

The policy also bans wearing hats in buildings, pajamas in public, do-rags, sagging pants, sunglasses in class and walking barefoot on campus.

However, it is the ban on cross-dressing that has brought national attention to the small historically African-American college.

The dress-wearing ban is aimed at a small part of the private college's 2,700-member student body, said Dr. William Bynum, vice president for Student Services.

"We are talking about five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men," he said.

Before the school released the policy, Bynum said, he met with Morehouse Safe Space, the campus' gay organization.

"We talked about it and then they took a vote," he said. "Of the 27 people in the room, only three were against it."

There has been a positive response along with some criticism throughout the campus, he said.

Newlywed won't tolerate 'overt racism' by Louisiana official - CNN.com

Newlywed won't tolerate 'overt racism' by Louisiana official - CNN.com: HAMMOND, Louisiana (CNN) -- The woman who was denied a marriage license by a Louisiana justice of the peace because he refused to marry interracial couples said the official should lose his job.

Beth McKay said she never could have expected what she heard from Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell when she called his office a week ago to officiate her marriage to her African-American fiance, Terence.

McKay spoke with Bardwell's wife to make arrangements for the ceremony.

"At the end of the conversation, she said that she had to ask me a question. She asked if this was an interracial marriage." When McKay replied yes, she was told, "Well, we don't do interracial weddings or marriages."

McKay said she was beyond shock. "We are used to the closet racism, but we're not going to tolerate that overt racism from an elected official."

Hampton University Roiled by a Non-Black Homecoming Queen - washingtonpost.com

Hampton University Roiled by a Non-Black Homecoming Queen - washingtonpost.com: HAMPTON, Va. -- Nikole Churchill, a tall, thin woman with long, dark hair, was named homecoming queen at historically black Hampton University last week. The next day, she appeared with her court at the football game against Howard University, another historically black school.

All this would be unremarkable except that Churchill is the first homecoming queen at Hampton who is not black. That apparently did not sit well with a handful of people at the game, who heckled the senior nursing major.

This bit of unpleasantness, along with similar comments online, might have passed unnoticed except for what Churchill did next. She posted a public letter to President Obama on a Web site asking him to visit the campus and help with her predicament.

In N.Va. Heists, Only the Finest Jewelry Nabbed; Lesser Karats Are Left Behind - washingtonpost.com

In N.Va. Heists, Only the Finest Jewelry Nabbed; Lesser Karats Are Left Behind - washingtonpost.com: Burglars with a keen appreciation for gold have targeted Indian and South Asian homes in a months-long series of daytime break-ins in Northern Virginia.

The burglars are discerning. They have taken 22-karat pieces but left behind sterling silver and well-crafted costume jewelry. They have sifted through floor-length gowns lovingly stored in closets and plucked every custom-made sari threaded with gold and worth thousands, disdaining saris worth only hundreds.

Officers in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, and the homeowners themselves, have yet to figure out how the burglars so successfully identify houses with large gold caches. Before they became victims, many of the families were strangers, and they and police have eliminated many of the obvious links: churches, temples, schools or even grocery stores where they could have been tracked.

Pneumonia, Susceptibility of Young Among Traits of Swine Flu - washingtonpost.com

Pneumonia, Susceptibility of Young Among Traits of Swine Flu - washingtonpost.com: As swine flu continues to spread around the globe, a clearer and in some ways more unnerving picture of the most serious cases has started to emerge, indicating that the virus could pose a greater threat to some young, otherwise vibrant people.

The virus can cause life-threatening viral pneumonia much more commonly than the typical flu, prompting the World Health Organization on Friday to warn hospitals to prepare for a possible wave of very sick patients and to urge doctors to treat suspected cases quickly with antiviral drugs.

Experts stress that most people who get the H1N1 virus either never get sick or recover easily. But some young adults, possibly especially women, are falling seriously ill at an unexpectedly rapid pace and are showing up in intensive care units and dying in unusually high numbers, they say.

Advocacy Groups Assail Immigration Enforcement Program - washingtonpost.com

Advocacy Groups Assail Immigration Enforcement Program - washingtonpost.com: Immigrant advocacy groups on Friday assailed a Department of Homeland Security decision to continue deputizing state and local law enforcement agents to catch illegal immigrants, saying the department's new rules aimed at curbing racial profiling by police were inadequate.

Critics focused their fire at the continuing participation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose Phoenix-based agency has produced the largest number of arrests under the federal program and who is under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged civil rights violations. DHS terminated Maricopa deputies' authority to investigate federal immigration violators in the community, but allowed them to continue checking for illegal immigrants already in jail.

Spelman College Announces $150 Million Capital Campaign

Spelman College Announces $150 Million Capital Campaign: Spelman College has set the most ambitious fundraising goal in the 128-year existence of the historically Black women's institution: $150 million by 2015.

President Beverly Daniel Tatum says the school's capital campaign announced this week would help educate 5,000 women, many of them first-generation college students, over the next decade.

“The economy is not as robust as we wish it were, but there are still individuals ready and willing to invest in human capital,” Tatum said. “Now more than ever, our nation needs the talent of the kind of women we have at Spelman.

Predominantly Black Sorority Empowered to Expand International Aid Work

Predominantly Black Sorority Empowered to Expand International Aid Work: Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority, the nation’s oldest Greek-letter organization for African-American women, has been granted special consultative status by the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a designation that will help the sorority further its international aid work under the U.N. banner.

“Obviously we’re quite delighted,” said AKA spokeswoman Melody McDowell. “It’s something that we’ve worked hard for and certainly are deserving of because of our international reach.”

Indian-Americans hail Obama for celebrating Diwali in White House- Hindustan Times

Indian-Americans hail Obama for celebrating Diwali in White House- Hindustan Times: Barack Obama, who became the first US President to celebrate Diwali in the White House, has won praise from the Indian-American community which said that his gesture demonstrated his commitment towards diversity and inclusiveness.

'It is indeed a historic occasion. All the credit should be given to Obama for officially bringing Diwali to the White
House,' said Shambhu Banik, an eminent Indian-American leader based in Bethesda, Maryland.

Though it was the Bush Administration which started the practice of celebrating Diwali, the event always took place in
the Indian Treaty Room in a building annexed to the White House.

Meet the Garcias

Seventy percent of the students at Cindy Garcia's Los Angeles school do not graduate on time. Will Cindy (pictured above) make it? In North Carolina, Bill and Betty Garcia are worried their sons are not getting the Latino experience they had. Lorena Garcia in Miami is striving to succeed as a businesswoman. In our Latino in America special report, we invite you to meet the Garcias and see how Latinos are changing America -- and how America is changing them

Unlocking the Learning Potential

Unlocking the Learning Potential: 'I like you but I can't pass you.'

I've said something along that line to a number of students over the years and it's been especially tough for me to say to students I am fond of.

One of the things that I've had to deal with over the past five years has been separating my personal feelings for a student from my desire to enforce sanctions fairly and equally. I pride myself on the fact that I treat my best students the same way as I do the not-so-good ones, particularly when it comes to grading.

I find it funny that, despite being a proud left-of-center thinker and a progressive social advocate, I ascribe to a more conservative teaching approach. I seem to be channeling my inner John McWhorter or Bill Cosby every time I'm in the classroom, which puts me at odds with the 'systems of oppression' research I do.

Scholar’s Documentary Leads to S.C. Pardon for Tom Joyner’s Great-Uncles

Scholar’s Documentary Leads to S.C. Pardon for Tom Joyner’s Great-Uncles: Two great-uncles of syndicated radio host Tom Joyner, sent to the electric chair for the 1913 murder of a Confederate Army veteran, were unanimously pardoned Wednesday by South Carolina.

Officials believe the men are the first in the state to be posthumously pardoned in a capital murder case.

Black landowners Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed 94 years ago after a jury convicted them of killing 73-year-old John Lewis, a wealthy White veteran living in Blackstock, a Chester County town 40 miles north of Columbia. Two other Black men were also put to death for the crime.

'This won't bring them back, but this will bring closure. I hope now that they rest in peace,' Joyner said. 'This is a good day.'

Bay Area Digital News Project Promises Diverse Coverage

Bay Area Digital News Project Promises Diverse Coverage: The changing media landscape is testing the relevancy and innovation of news operations all over the country. It’s no surprise then that new partnerships among media organizations are turning to Web sites as outlets for local news.

In San Francisco, private and public entities are coming together to create the Bay Area News Project, a nonprofit local news Web site for the San Francisco bay metropolitan area. But unlike other enterprises, the collaboration between the KQED public broadcasting organization, the University of California Berkeley, and a wealthy benefactor, they have expressed a commitment to ensuring diversity in news coverage.

“I’ve never been anywhere more diverse,” said Scott Walton, a spokesperson for KQED-San Francisco. “We know the Bay area is diverse and within a few years it will be a minority majority region.”

Stalled Pursuit of Higher Learning

Stalled Pursuit of Higher Learning: As a founder of the University Leadership Initiative, an advocacy group for undocumented students in Texas, Julieta Garibay sorts through the numerous e-mails her organization receives daily.

Before the economic downturn, most of the e-mails were from students in the state. Now, because Texas is a rare exception in allowing undocumented college students to receive state financial aid, Garibay fields requests from undocumented students across the country inquiring whether they too would be eligible for aid in Texas.

She has to tell them they are not.

More Teachers Turning to Sign Language to Manage Classrooms - washingtonpost.com

More Teachers Turning to Sign Language to Manage Classrooms - washingtonpost.com: Teachers come to the classroom with noble goals: closing the achievement gap, illuminating young minds. But first they must confront a more pressing problem: how to manage children's urgent requests, in the middle of the most carefully planned lessons, for permission to sharpen pencils, get drinks of water or visit the bathroom.

One solution, a growing number of teachers are finding, is learning to speak without sound.

'The very first year I taught, I realized how much time I was wasting in my classroom for my students to be constantly raising their hands,' said Fran Nadel, 25, a second-grade teacher at Woodburn School for the Fine and Communicative Arts in Falls Church. 'I realized if they could do this without talking, I could send them somewhere with a flick of my finger.'

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La. - Yahoo! News

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La. - Yahoo! News: NEW ORLEANS – A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

'I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way,' Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. 'I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.'

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

Classroom Strategies for Teaching Across Race | Scholastic.com

Classroom Strategies for Teaching Across Race | Scholastic.com: Tuesday afternoon, fifth grader Jacob disrupts groupwork with his goofing around. On Thursday, it’s his deskmate, Miles, who has the class’s attention with similar antics. What’s the outcome? Jacob gets a reprimand, and Miles receives a detention. What’s the difference? Miles is African-American.

The latest government data, analyzed recently by Howard Witt in an article in the Chicago Tribune, shows that black students are getting a raw deal in American schools when it comes to discipline. In the average New Jersey public school, reports Witt, African-American students are almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled. Nationally, they are three times more likely than non-black students to be suspended or expelled for the same offenses. The problem has gotten worse, not better: In 1972, black students were suspended at just twice the rate of other students. And today’s numbers can’t be explained away by differences in class or income, since middle-class and wealthy black students are being punished more often—and more severely—than their non-black peers.

Lost in space race: Female pilots - USATODAY.com

Lost in space race: Female pilots - USATODAY.com: Women had the 'right stuff,' too, back in the '60s. But the data on their performance tests were buried in the Mad Men era, and it was two decades before there was an American female astronaut.

A report in the current Advances in Physiology Education reveals that the 'Mercury 13' members of the private Woman in Space Program of the early 1960s did about as well as, or better than, male candidates identically tested.

'Some of these women were told they were as good as men. The data show it was true,' says lead author Kathy Ryan of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

But the 13 women who passed the astronaut tests at Lovelace saw their chance at 'one giant step for womankind' canceled in 1961. 'I quit my job teaching flight instruction, and … there I was, unemployed,' says Gene Nora Jessen, 72, of Boise.

Nation's Pupils Find Few Black Men To Call Mister

Nation's Pupils Find Few Black Men To Call Mister: Lenny Macklin made it to 10th grade before having a teacher who looked like him -- an African-American male. Gregory Georges graduated from high school without ever being taught by a Black man.

Only about 2 percent of teachers nationwide are African-American men. But experts say that needs to change if educators expect to reduce minority achievement gaps and dropout rates.

Macklin, now an 18-year-old college student, said he understands the circle that keeps many of his peers out of the classroom professionally.

“A lot of males, they don't like being in school because they can't relate to their teacher,” said Macklin, of Pittsburgh. “So why would you want to work there?”

Family, Education Struggles Motivate Immigration Reform Activism

Family, Education Struggles Motivate Immigration Reform Activism: It’s not a question of why immigration reform needs to happen for Alma Huerta, a freshman at Georgetown University—it’s a matter of when. The 18-year-old has lived through having no papers to waiting to take a citizenship test to undergo a uniquely American transmutation—from Mexican to Mexican-American.

“You live here and study here, this becomes your country,” said Huerta, who is studying international politics and foreign policy. “You are product of your heritage but in the end there is a reason why you left, you want to be a part of this country.”

But for many—approximately 12 million—joining the union isn’t an option until legislators in Washington decide their fate. Hundreds of activists and demonstrators assembled near the Capitol Tuesday, hoping to revive the debate and unveil Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s (D-Ill.) new comprehensive reform bill.

150 Years Later, John Brown's Failed Slave Revolt Marches On - washingtonpost.com

150 Years Later, John Brown's Failed Slave Revolt Marches On He had a safe house, weapons and a mole planted among his unsuspecting victims.

He had wealthy backers, a juicy military target outside Washington and fanatical followers ready to die for their cause.

He was a religious zealot who hated what he saw as an evil and corrupt system. And 150 years ago this week, in what is now the quaint tourist town of Harper's Ferry, W.Va., he fueled the smoldering fires of Civil War, helped doom slavery in America and prepared the way for the civil rights movement and beyond.

He was John Brown, a 59-year-old abolitionist patriarch who sired 20 children, directed his share of the blood-letting in "Bleeding Kansas," and now hoped to start a slave insurrection that would spread from the mountains of Virginia to the plantations of the deep South

A darker side of Columbus emerges in US classrooms - washingtonpost.com

A darker side of Columbus emerges in US classrooms - washingtonpost.com: Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday on Monday. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.

'The whole terminology has changed,' said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. 'You don't hear people using the world 'discovery' anymore like they used to. 'Columbus discovers America.' Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?'

In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade about the 'Columbian Exchange' - which consisted not only of gold, crops and goods shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.

In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year - charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

'In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy,' teacher Laurie Crawford said.

Buffalo Soldiers Seek to Preserve History - washingtonpost.com

Buffalo Soldiers Seek to Preserve History - washingtonpost.com: Dozens of Buffalo Soldiers, African American World War II veterans who served when the military was still segregated, gathered for the annual reunion of the 92nd Army Division at the Hilton Hotel in Silver Spring. As time thins their ranks, some fear their legacy may be forgotten.

Students Trace University of Maryland's Slavery Ties - washingtonpost.com

Students Trace University of Maryland's Slavery Ties - washingtonpost.com: When the University of Maryland elaborately celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2006, there were only fleeting mentions of its early ties to slavery. The next year, black faculty members urged President C.D. Mote Jr. to follow the lead of Maryland lawmakers and issue an apology for the university's historic use of slave labor.

Mote refused to do so, but he asked a group of students to research the topic. As they presented him with a final report Friday, the students recommended the university 'issue a statement of regret,' honor African Americans who assisted with its creation by naming them founders, add classes focused on slavery, continue research and ensure that the university is not benefiting from current international 'coercive labor practices.'

Movie Review - Good Hair - Untangling A Knotty (But Big) Business : NPR

Movie Review - Good Hair - Untangling A Knotty (But Big) Business : NPR: The documentary Good Hair takes its inspiration and its title from a question comedian Chris Rock fielded one day from his 6-year-old daughter: 'How come I don't have good hair?' she wondered, a query the comedian says set him to pondering the social expectations that had put that notion into her head. Grabbing a film crew, he went in search of answers — at a hair-shaving temple, a hair-styling convention and a range of hair-raising spots in between.

He begins his quest at the Bronner Brothers Hair Show in Atlanta, where some 120,000 hair professionals show up at semiannual showcases to learn about the latest twists in straighteners, wigs, sprays and gels. Also, to watch a competitive styling contest — a sort of Follicular Follies, with everything from underwater haircutting to marching bands. All because the black hair business is big business.

African-Americans represent 12 percent of the population, a Bronner brother tells him, but buy 80 percent of the hair products, a striking statistic made more striking by the fact that many of those products are downright painful to use.

Tough sheriff's immigration duties face limits after complaints - CNN.com

Tough sheriff's immigration duties face limits after complaints - CNN.com: (CNN) -- Federal authorities are moving to rein in the man dubbed 'America's Toughest Sheriff' after complaints that immigration raids by his deputies amounted to unconstitutional roundups of Latinos.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff's department have had an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security since 2007 that allows his department to enforce federal immigration laws. But Arpaio says the federal agency is moving to revise the agreement to limit that power to checking the immigration status of inmates already in his Phoenix jail.

Arpaio has cultivated his image as "America's Toughest Sheriff," a nickname earned by his treatment of Maricopa County inmates. Many of his prisoners are housed in tents and forced to wear pink underwear, and he once boasted of feeding them on less than a dollar a day.

Now he faces a Justice Department investigation into allegations of civil rights abuses, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona is suing the sheriff over immigration raids conducted by his department. The class-action lawsuit alleges that Arpaio has abused the power delegated to him under his agreement with Homeland Security, known as the 287(g) program.

Lunch debts piling up for school districts - USATODAY.com

Lunch debts piling up for school districts - USATODAY.com: More children are getting into school lunch lines without being able to pay, creating a financial burden for school districts.

Some schools are toughening their policies — limiting students to two or three unpaid meals, creating payment plans and using collection agencies.

It's a growing problem that reflects families' economic struggles nationally, says Dora Rivas, president of the School Nutrition Association.

'When we're talking to parents, we're hearing that they lost their jobs, their cars have broken down,' says Sheila Mason of Des Moines Public Schools.

About 4,500 students in Des Moines owed $133,000 for unpaid meals at the start of the year, most of it from previous years. That's more than twice the amount a year earlier.

If a student can't pay, school officials say they contact parents and urge them to apply for federally subsidized free and reduced-price lunch programs. About 19 million students received free and reduced-price lunches in May, according to the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service.

UMass-Amherst Journalism Professor Teaches Students To Be Culturally Sensitive

UMass-Amherst Journalism Professor Teaches Students To Be Culturally Sensitive: A cursory glance at the courses in Nick McBride's teaching load at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst would suggest his priorities and goals mirror journalism educators everywhere.

Like his colleagues, McBride wants his students to hone their writing skills. He wants them striving for accuracy. And he wants them to be fair and to consider all the sides to any story they report, edit or photograph.

But, unlike many of his counterparts, McBride, an associate professor of journalism, routinely pushes students to consider issues of race and ethnicity and to examine historically marginalized populations in their class assignments. Courses developed and taught by McBride titled “Covering Race” and “Community Journalism” reveal his passion — and insistence — that his students, most of them White, learn how to cover disadvantaged people in their reporting and how to interact with them on a daily basis.

Ben Ali of Ben's Chili Bowl Dies - Post Mortem - Obituaries from The Washington Post

Ben Ali of Ben's Chili Bowl Dies - Post Mortem - Obituaries from The Washington Post: Ben Ali, the founder of Ben's Chili Bowl, a landmark D.C. eatery that has fed presidents, celebrities and the common folks of the city, died last night of congestive heart failure at his home in Washington. He was 82.

A fixture of U Street since 1958, the cramped restaurant has outlasted the changing fortunes of its neighborhood and supplied hungry Washingtonians with heaping bowls of chili, hot dogs and its trademark chili-topped half-smokes. Photos of visiting celebrities -- including Denzel Washington, Danny Glover and Bill Cosby -- lined the walls, and in January the restaurant received its best publicity boost ever when president-elect Obama dropped by for a half-smoke (a smoked sausage).

Near a sign that warned, "Who eats free at Ben's: Bill Cosby. No one else," Obama paid for his $12 tab with a $20 bill, leaving the change as a tip.Mr. Ali, a Trinidadian immigrant who had studied at Howard University, opened the eatery with his wife, Virginia, and ran the popular but eccentric carryout restaurant with two of his three sons. The place was known as a gathering spot for Washingtonians of all classes and races, who were united by their love of chili and the restaurant's excellent jukebox and quirky customs. It was open as long as 22 hours a day and survived several urban renewal efforts on a street once known as Washington's "Black Broadway" but later hit by severe blight before a recent renaissance.

Nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide is Muslim, report says - CNN.com

Nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide is Muslim, report says - CNN.com: Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim -- and they are not necessarily where you might think, according to an extensive new study that aims to map the global Muslim population.

India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as Egypt.

China has more Muslims than Syria.

Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.

And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.

Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one in five of the world's Muslims, trail a very distant second.

There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report, "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total global population of 6.8 billion.