Slavery paintings coming down from Atlanta office

Slavery paintings coming down from Atlanta office: Murals of slaves harvesting sugar cane on a Georgia plantation and picking and ginning cotton are coming off the walls of a state building on the order of a new agriculture commissioner.

The murals are part of a collection of eight works painted by George Beattie in 1956 depicting an idealized version of Georgia farming, from the corn grown by prehistoric American Indians to a 20th-century veterinary lab. In the Deep South, the history in between includes the forced use of slave labor.

'I don't like those pictures,' said Republican Gary Black, the newly elected agriculture commissioner. 'There are a lot of other people who don't like them.'

Slavery was indisputably part of 19th-century farming in Georgia. By 1840, more than 280,000 slaves were living in the state, many as field hands. Just before the Civil War, slaves made up about 40 percent of the state's population.

Va. judges revisit noncitizens' convictions, sentences to prevent deportation

Va. judges revisit noncitizens' convictions, sentences to prevent deportation: A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that noncitizens in criminal cases must be advised of the possible consequences of a conviction has sparked a flurry of appeals by defendants who claim that they didn't know that conviction would lead to deportation.

But in Virginia, a similar battle has emerged over whether judges can revisit and reopen old cases or even summarily revise the sentences to avoid a convict's removal from the country.

A Loudoun County General District Court judge recently reopened four cases involving defendants who say they would not have pleaded guilty if they had known that they would be deported. In one instance this month, Loudoun prosecutors sought a court order to stop the judge from reopening such cases, but a Circuit Court judge refused.

Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour to free sisters sentenced to life in prison for robbery

Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour to free sisters sentenced to life in prison for robbery: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) announced late Wednesday that he will grant an early release from prison to two sisters serving unusually long sentences for armed robbery.

Gladys and Jamie Scott have each served 16 years of a life sentence. Their case had become a cause celebre among civil rights groups, including the NAACP, which mounted a national campaign to free the women.

The Scotts were convicted in 1994 for an armed robbery in which they led two men into an ambush. The men were robbed of $11, and their supporters contend that the Scotts, who are black, received extraordinary punishment for the crime.

Puerto Rico baffled by high asthma rate

Puerto Rico baffled by high asthma rate: ...Puerto Rico is a U.S. Caribbean territory where children are nearly 300 percent more likely to have the respiratory ailment than white non-Hispanic children in the continental United States. And this year, Puerto Rico has seen a jump in asthma cases, which health officials suspect might be linked to the heavy rains that have unleashed millions of spores.

The island, with a population of 4 million, already has 2.5 times the death rate stemming from asthma as the mainland, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Puerto Ricans in the U.S. also have been hit hard by asthma, with an asthma attack rate 2.5 times higher than for whites.

Adding to the problem is that Puerto Rican children do not respond as well as those from other ethnic groups to the number one medication prescribed to asthmatics: Albuterol, which comes in an inhaler used to relieve sudden attacks. As a result, several major pharmaceutical companies are working to create another medication, but they are still years away from doing so.

Hispanics Leaving Connecticut Town, Citing Racial Abuse By Police

Hispanics Leaving Connecticut Town, Citing Racial Abuse By Police: Santiago Malave has worked law enforcement jobs in Connecticut for more than four decades, but as a Puerto Rican, he says he cannot drive through his own town without worrying about police harassing him.

Malave, a probation officer who works in New Haven, says the racial abuse is so bad that he only crosses the town line into East Haven to go home. He and his wife are now preparing to sell their house and move, joining an exodus of Hispanics who say police have hassled them with traffic stops, false arrests and even jailhouse beatings.

The Justice Department has started a civil rights investigation, and the FBI recently opened a criminal probe. But that has not changed things on Main Street, where restaurants and stores that cater to Hispanics are going out of business.

Cherokee, Apple partner to put language on iPhones

Cherokee, Apple partner to put language on iPhones: Nearly two centuries after a blacksmith named Sequoyah converted Cherokee into its own unique written form, the tribe has worked with Apple to develop Cherokee language software for the iPhone, iPod and - soon - the iPad. Computers used by students - including Lauren - at the tribe's language immersion school already allow them to type using Cherokee characters.

The goal, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith said, is to spread the use of the language among tech-savvy children in the digital age. Smith has been known to text students at the school using Cherokee, and teachers do the same, allowing students to continue using the language after school hours.

Study: Stroke deaths higher where fried fish aplenty - USATODAY.com

Study: Stroke deaths higher where fried fish aplenty - USATODAY.com: The steep rate of death from stroke in a swath of Southern states often referred to as America's 'stroke belt' may be linked to a higher consumption of fried fish in that region, new research suggests.

A study published in today's Neurology shows people living in the stroke belt — which comprises North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana — eat more fried fish and less non-fried fish than people living in the rest of the country, and African-Americans eat more fried fish than Caucasians.

'Differences in dietary fish consumption, specifically in cooking methods, may be contributing to higher rates of stroke in the stroke belt and also among African Americans,' says study author Fadi Nahab, medical director for the Stroke Program at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

‘Freedom Riders’: The Fight To End Segregation

‘Freedom Riders’: The Fight To End Segregation: Filmmaker Stanley Nelson says his new documentary about the courageous activists who defiantly opposed the 1960s segregation of the South may help inspire a new generation of youth.

The film, “Freedom Riders,” recounts the 1961 crusade by daring young activists intent on ending segregated travel on interstate buses in the Deep South. The American Experience film, set to air May 16 on PBS, has been generating buzz on the film festival circuit ever since its showing at Sundance in January.

Most of the riders were college students coached in the art of nonviolent protest by veteran activists, including the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. The students, both Black and White, knew they were risking their lives by traveling on Greyhound and Trailways buses into the rigidly and violently segregated South.

Kaplan Higher Education Sued Over Alleged Job Discrimination

Kaplan Higher Education Sued Over Alleged Job Discrimination: Federal officials on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Kaplan Higher Education Corp., a nationwide provider of postsecondary education, for allegedly discriminating against Black job applicants by screening the credit history of potential employees.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says the practice of rejecting job seekers based on their credit history has a discriminatory impact on some racial and ethnic groups. The lawsuit alleges that Kaplan's practice is not job-related or justified by business necessity.

As a result of this practice dating back to 2008, the company has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the lawsuit filed by the EEOC’s Cleveland field office in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. It is a violation of Title VII to use hiring practices that have a discriminatory impact because of race and that are not job-related and justified by business necessity.

Texas Curriculum Changes Prompt Civil Rights Groups To Seek Review Of Public Schools In Lone Star State

Texas Curriculum Changes Prompt Civil Rights Groups To Seek Review Of Public Schools In Lone Star State: Two civil rights organizations are seeking a federal review of public school education in Texas, accusing state school administrators of violating federal civil rights laws after curriculum changes approved earlier this year by the Texas Board of Education.

The request to the U.S. Department of Education made by the Texas NAACP and Texas League of United Latin American Citizens on Monday contended that the curriculum changes passed in May 'were made with the intention to discriminate' and would have a 'stigmatizing impact' on African-American and Latino students.

'The State of Texas is failing to provide many of its minority students with equal educational opportunities,' documents sent to the federal department said.

Reinvented New Jersey College Embraces Minority Identity

Reinvented New Jersey College Embraces Minority Identity: Bloomfield College, started in the mid-1800s by the Presbyterian Church as a school for German ministers immigrating to the United States, today proudly stands among the nation’s predominantly Black colleges. It’s a status the small private college did not seek and only fully embraced after a painful evolution marked by racial demographic changes in its target commuter population, race riots in its largest nearby city, a court fight with tenured professors and a conscientious decision to embrace diversity—the welfare of the school requiring it.

“I helped the college understand what it had become and that was kind of a sea change,” says Dr. John Noonan, a veteran educator recruited by Bloomfield as president in 1987. “I knew which way the country was moving. Colleges that didn’t aggressively recruit non-White students were going to become anachronistic. It was not that I came and brought something new. All I did was to help people understand why that was occurring.”

It was important to embrace diversity, says Noonan, who retired from his post in 2003, “because that’s who we were by the time I got there. African-American students saved the school,” he says, pointing to the steady enrollment of Black and other minorities that helped offset the loss of White students who began leaving Bloomfield en masse in the early 1970s.

Curriculum Reform at UT-Galveston Medical School Yields Improved Minority Student Board Results

Curriculum Reform at UT-Galveston Medical School Yields Improved Minority Student Board Results: In the past several years, there have been many efforts to reform medical education and improve the rate of passage of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), in particular, Step 1, which is the most difficult part of the USMLE. According to a recent report published in Medical Education by Steven A. Lieberman, M.D., and other professors in the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB), the Step 1 examination has the lowest pass rate of all of the licensure sequence examinations, especially among under-represented minorities and women. UTMB has developed an approach that Lieberman and his colleagues report have had a remarkable effect on its students’ performance on the medical board exam.

Lieberman said that the overall rate of failure on the Step 1 exam has dropped from 7.5 percent to 2.3 percent, compared to a national rate in the 5 to 7 percent range. The change for minority students, which he described as “huge and surprising,” dropped from 16.9 to 3.9 percent, which is lower than the national failure rate for all students.

DREAM Act Blocked in Senate

DREAM Act Blocked in Senate: Senate Republicans on Saturday doomed an effort that would have given hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the military.

Sponsors of the Dream Act fell five votes short of the 60 they needed to break through largely GOP opposition and win its enactment before Republicans take over the House and narrow Democrats' majority in the Senate next month.

President Barack Obama called the vote “incredibly disappointing.”

“A minority of senators prevented the Senate from doing what most Americans understand is best for the country,” Obama said. “There was simply no reason not to pass this important legislation.”

Reaching Out to Diverse Students with Mental Health Services

Reaching Out to Diverse Students with Mental Health Services: A few weeks ago, a student of color who never sought professional help came to my walk-in support hours and concluded that the pain she held in from a childhood trauma caused anxiety and affected her relationships. She did not feel comfortable going to the counseling center—seeking therapy was not common in her community. She didn’t trust people—many systems had already failed her. I was the first person she told. She later said it was liberating to talk to someone and not repress her suffering and shame anymore.

Sadly, this student’s story is not unusual. According to a supplemental report from the U.S. Surgeon General, “striking disparities in mental health care are found for racial and ethnic minorities.”

Young supporters vow to keep fighting for DREAM Act | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News

Young supporters vow to keep fighting for DREAM Act | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News: After the U.S. Senate killed the DREAM Act on Saturday, its young supporters vowed to continue the fight.

'It's a heartbreaking loss, but we're going to keep fighting for it,' said Him Ranjit, a University of Texas at Austin student who was in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to support the legislation.

'I've never seen the Senate chambers that full,' he said of students who were present to witness the vote. 'We were holding hands and praying and hoping for the best.'

Ranjit, who came to Texas from Nepal, said he would struggle to continue his biomedical engineering studies without the financial support that students who are citizens typically receive.

Whatever Happened To ... the Baltimore high school debater?

Whatever Happened To ... the Baltimore high school debater?: Ignacio Evans was 18 and had just been awarded a full debate scholarship to Towson University when his story appeared in The Washington Post Magazine in August 2007.

Iggy was a kid who had a lot of strikes against him. He never knew his biological dad. His mom struggled with drug addiction, and he landed in foster care. He attended Baltimore's Frederick Douglass High School, one of four failing Baltimore schools slated for takeover under the No Child Left Behind Act. His odds of success were poor: Only 56 percent of Frederick Douglass students had graduated in 2006.

But Iggy, an argumentative kid, found a way to channel his contrariness through the wildly popular Baltimore Urban Debate League, a program that teaches the fundamentals of democracy -- as well as critical thinking, basic literacy and research skills -- to underprivileged students. Weekly debate tournaments in the city continue to draw more than 1,000 students on any given weekend.

Dream Act Scheduled for Senate Vote - NYTimes.com

Dream Act Scheduled for Senate Vote - NYTimes.com: The Obama administration joined with Latino leaders and immigrant advocates on Friday in a full-court press on behalf of a bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students, which faces a decisive vote on Saturday in the Senate.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, scheduled the vote on the student measure, which is known as the Dream Act, late on Thursday. The Senate will vote on a version of the bill that passed the House of Representatives on Dec. 8.

The bill gained some momentum after passing the House by 20 votes, including 8 Republicans, a wider margin than its supporters had expected. But on Friday the Senate count appeared to be short of the 60 votes Democrats need to bring the bill to the floor for debate. Its sponsors, including Senator Reid and Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second highest Democratic leader, acknowledged they faced an uphill climb.

The Root: When Biracial Means Black : NPR

The Root: When Biracial Means Black : NPR: Ever heard of Barack Obama? You know, the first black president? The one who won an election and near-deity status in the African-American community while openly discussing his white mother in books, interviews and stump speeches?

Yeah, me, too. This is just one of the reasons I'm scratching my head at the findings of a new study that people with one white and one black parent 'downplay their white ancestry,' in part to gain the acceptance of other black people. The authors dub this phenomenon 'reverse passing' and call it 'a striking phenomenon.' I'm beyond stumped. In a summary of the results, the sociologists behind 'Passing as Black: Racial Identity Work Among Biracial Americans' report that this occurs especially in 'certain social situations' — ostensibly, around other black people — where having a white parent 'can carry its own negative biases.

College President Tackles Student Persistence, Campus Expansion

College President Tackles Student Persistence, Campus Expansion: Dr. Carlos Hernandez has spent his entire career in higher education at New Jersey City University.

And that doesn’t bother him one bit.

Hernandez joined the faculty at NJCU—then Jersey City State College—as a professor of psychology in 1972. Over the last 17 years as president, he has shepherded the largely commuter school of about 10,000 students through some monumental changes, including the achievement of university status and an increase in the number of minority students—specifically Latinos by 52.2 percent—on the urban campus.

Reports Highlight Health Care Reform’s Potential Impact in Reducing Health Disparities

Reports Highlight Health Care Reform’s Potential Impact in Reducing Health Disparities: This week began and ended with legal challenges to the constitutionality of the provision in the nation’s new health care reform law that would require individuals to carry health insurance. On Monday, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the mandate is unconstitutional; on Thursday, a federal judge in Florida began hearing arguments.

Also on Thursday, the Washington-based Center for American Progress released two reports that explore the Affordable Care Act’s impact on racial and ethnic minorities who suffer from chronic illnesses and how the legislation can improve efforts to address gaps in the data that measure health care disparities.

“There has been considerable debate this week around efforts to dismantle health care reform,” said the reports’ author, Dr. Lesley Russell, a senior fellow at the think tank, during a conference call with reporters.

With Dream Act Shelved, Immigrants Look to 2012

With Dream Act Shelved, Immigrants Look to 2012: The undocumented immigrants who more than a decade ago were just teens hoping to forge a legal path to citizenship are vowing to make the Dream Act a campaign issue come 2012, even though they'll likely be too old to benefit if the law ever passes.

The measure that passed in the House on Wednesday is unlikely go anywhere in the Senate, and the House is unlikely to revisit the issue once the new Republican leadership takes over.

Groups like The National Council of La Raza and other Hispanic and immigrant advocacy groups know the prospects for comprehensive immigration reform are dim for the time being. So they've turned their attention to a measure that they believe will spark more sympathy from most Americans, bringing with them a coalition of labor groups, the Conference of Catholic Bishops and even Defense Secretary Robert Gates. And come 2012, advocates say, Spanish-language media will be filled with ads slamming lawmakers who voted against the Dream Act.

Census Data Show Immigrants Making Path to Suburbs - NYTimes.com

Census Data Show Immigrants Making Path to Suburbs - NYTimes.com: WASHINGTON — Immigrants fanned out across the United States in the last decade, settling in greater numbers in small towns and suburbs rather than in the cities where they typically moved when they first came to this country, new census data show.

Following jobs to rural and suburban areas, in industries like construction and the food business, immigrant populations rose more than 60 percent in places where immigrants made up fewer than 5 percent of the population in 2000. In areas that had been home to the most immigrants, the foreign-born population was flat over that period.

In Los Angeles County, long a major destination for new immigrants, the foreign-born population remained largely unchanged for the first time in several decades. In contrast, it quadrupled in Newton County, in central Georgia outside Atlanta.

Minnesota’s Private Colleges Recruit Diverse Students

Minnesota’s Private Colleges Recruit Diverse Students: At both the national and local levels, White high school graduates are still much more likely to enroll in college—and to go on to graduate again—than minorities. Just like their K-12 school-reform counterparts, higher education policymakers are feverishly comparing notes about what works to increase diversity on campus and what can be replicated elsewhere.

They’d do well to pay a little attention to some Minnesota success stories. For almost the tenth consecutive year the number of minorities enrolled in the 17 four-year, liberal arts schools that belong to the Minnesota Private College Council has increased. This year, 17 percent of incoming freshmen statewide are minorities, as are nearly 23 percent of transfers.

Garden State Abandons Minority Doctoral Program

Garden State Abandons Minority Doctoral Program: ...In the future, the challenge of financing doctoral study will be harder for minority students aspiring to follow Lopez and the other MAC fellows into academia: The state Legislature defunded the program in the 2011 budget. No new fellows were named for this academic year, although the last ones can complete their Ph.D.s.

“The defunding was the result of the continuing state fiscal situation,” says Dr. Glenn Lang, acting executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education. “The program was not singled out but was part of larger statewide budget cuts. The current budget only supports the seven remaining doctoral fellows.”

Lopez and other former fellows say they were surprised and dismayed at the cutback, which was announced in September. The chairman of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, state Sen. Ronald Rice of Newark, says he too was unaware that the Legislature has only provided appropriations to wind down the program.

Immigrant students try to rally support for national Dream Act

Immigrant students try to rally support for national Dream Act: As a high school senior at an area high school, Jacqueline Midence, 18, has carried a 3.5 grade-point average while taking Advanced Placement classes. She hopes to become a psychologist.

Midence arrived in Maryland four years ago, when her mother moved to the state with her and her younger sister from El Salvador as an undocumented worker. She declined to say where she currently lives or the name of her high school.

If the Development Relief and Education for Minors Act, dubbed the Dream Act, does not pass, she will continue to face a difficult path to college and citizenship.

'If I'm deported I have a lot I've done for my community to be proud of,' Midence said.

The Dream Act would allow the children of undocumented immigrants who have graduated from high school, are considered of 'good moral character' and have been in the country at least five years the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency if they complete two years of college or two years in the military. Those who complete military service or obtain a bachelor's degree would be eligible to become U.S. citizens.

Achievement gap on AP scores grows in Montgomery County schools, as overall performance dips

Achievement gap on AP scores grows in Montgomery County schools, as overall performance dips: The county school system touts the growing number of students taking Advanced Placement tests, but overall performance has declined recently and the achievement gap between racial groups has grown over the past five years.

Still, Board of Education members stress the importance of opening up Advanced Placement tests and classes to more Montgomery County Public School students — and more black and Hispanic students in particular.

As one of the school system's Seven Keys to College Readiness, the school system includes earning a 3 on an AP exam or a 4 on an International Baccalaureate exam.

Education Week: Study Finds Bad Schools Rarely Get Better—or Shut Down

Education Week: Study Finds Bad Schools Rarely Get Better—or Shut Down: The lowest-performing public K-8 schools often linger in that state for years, neither improving enough to get off accountability life support nor being shuttered completely, and persistently failing charter schools fare no better than regular public schools, a new study finds.

Of 2,025 chronically low-performing elementary and middle schools identified in 10 states in 2003-04, it found, only about 1 percent had improved enough to exceed their states’ average academic performance five years later, and fewer than 10 percent had even broken out of the lowest 25 percent of schools in their states. The findings are in a report released Tuesday by the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Basis Policy Research, of Raleigh, N.C.

Despite such a dismal record, only 19 percent of the lowest-performing charter schools and 11 percent of their more-traditional public school peers had been closed after five years, according to lead author David A. Stuit, a founding partner of Basis Policy Research.

Education Week: Study: States Must Move Faster to Close Achievement Gaps

Education Week: Study: States Must Move Faster to Close Achievement Gaps: If states continue their current pace of progress in narrowing achievement gaps between students of different races, ethnic groups, and income levels, it could take decades for lagging student groups in some states to catch up to their better-performing peers, a study of more than 40 states has found.

The report, released Tuesday by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research and policy group, breaks new ground by estimating the length of time it will likely take to close gaps in a sample of states, said Jack Jennings, the organization’s president and chief executive officer.

It shows that, overall, achievement gaps remain large and persistent across the nation, but the gaps between whites and Hispanics and whites and African-Americans are narrowing at a faster pace than those between whites and Native Americans.

“There’s some progress made in narrowing the gaps, but we have to do much more and kick it up much faster,” Mr. Jennings said.

Report: Latino students in area improve in math tests

Report: Latino students in area improve in math tests: Racial and ethnic disparities in student achievement remain stubbornly wide, despite a decade of efforts to close them, but a new report has found that Latino students are narrowing the academic gaps notably in many schools.

In Virginia, the report found, the pass rate for Latino students on state eighth-grade math tests rose almost 5 percentage points a year from 2006 to 2009. In Maryland, the rate has been rising at about the same clip. And in the District, it has been rising even faster - 8 percentage points a year.

Those increases were among the largest in a comparison of gains by racial subgroups in those jurisdictions, according to the report from the Center on Education Policy to be made public Tuesday. They reflected a national pattern.

American Indian Museum Still Facing Criticism for Historical Inaccuracies

American Indian Museum Still Facing Criticism for Historical Inaccuracies: Native Americans have long struggled to battle Hollywood stereotypes, correct the distorted “official” histories found in textbooks and museums and present their stories on their own terms.

It is not surprising that a group of Native American scholars and activists is gearing up for an effort to rewrite their history to clarify the true scale of their historical oppression. The struggle to correct the record is happening at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Since its 2004 opening, the NMAI has been a source of pride as a prominent national exhibit dedicated to the preservation and study of Native American culture but one that critics say inadequately represents the persecution of Native Americans.

The NMAI is the newest of 19 museums and nine research centers that make up the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum complex and research organization.

Only One In Four Young Black Men In New York Have A Job: Study

Only One In Four Young Black Men In New York Have A Job: Study: A new study paints a bleak portrait of the unemployment landscape faced by young black men in New York City.

The headline of the report, filed by the Community Service Society of New York reads, 'Only One in Four Young Black Men in New York City Have a Job.'

The study finds that the unemployment rate for African-American men in New York, between the ages of 16 and 24, was 33.5 percent from January 2009 through June 2010.

By comparison, the jobless rate amongst all New Yorkers in that age range was 24.6 percent.

In higher education, lessons in equality

In higher education, lessons in equality: Towson University, a Maryland institution that has yet to produce a Nobel prize or a Rhodes Scholar, is gaining a national reputation for something else it doesn't have: a gap in graduation rates between whites and underrepresented minorities.

The suburban Baltimore school joins Virginia's George Mason University on a list of 11 higher education institutions nationwide where graduation rates for minority students meet or exceed those of whites, according to an analysis by the Education Trust, a Washington-based think tank that focuses on racial and ethnic achievement gaps.

It put Towson's graduation rate at 67 percent for white and black students and 70 percent for Hispanics. The report says the school has an overall graduation rate of 65 percent, higher than George Mason's 58 percent and the national rate of about 55 percent. (The overall rates include students who decline to identify themselves in a racial or ethnic group.)

'The goal has been, if you take them in, you should graduate them,' said Robert Caret, Towson president since 2003.

Student Activist Encourages Peers to Act on DREAM Act - Kensington, MD Patch

Student Activist Encourages Peers to Act on DREAM Act - Kensington, MD Patch: For Albert Einstein High School senior Victor Benitez, the DREAM Act is not just a piece of legislation to help undocumented student immigrants become citizens. It is personal.

'I was one of those kids. I was undocumented,' said Benitez, who is working to educate his fellow students about the DREAM Act and drum up support for the bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives on Dec. 8 and is expected to be voted on in the Senate before the end of the year.

If passed into law, the DREAM Act, formally known as the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010, would protect those who entered the United States when they were younger than 16 from deportation and help them to become citizens. If passed, the act won't affect anyone older than 30.

The bill states that candidates must show they are 'of good moral character' since their first entry into the United States and that those with state or federal convictions or prison sentences of one year or more are not eligible for DREAM Act protection. It also requires a mandatory background check for each candidate.

NAACP to protest secession ball - Local / Metro - TheState.com

NAACP to protest secession ball - Local / Metro - TheState.com: Members of South Carolina’s NAACP will march in protest of a “secession ball” in Charleston later this month which will commemorate the 150th anniversary of South Carolina’s secession from the Union.

State NAACP leaders held two press conferences Friday, spreading the word they will protest the ball and any other sesquicentennial events that they deem disrespectful.

“We are not opposed to observances,” said Lonnie Randolph, state president of the NAACP. “We are opposed to disrespect.”

NAACP members and supporters plan to hold a peaceful march in downtown Charleston the day of the ball, on Dec. 20, followed by a meeting and question-and-answer session focusing on slavery. Participants will watch segments of “Birth of a Nation,” a 1915 silent film that portrayed Ku Klux Klan members as heroes.

Book Review: Lending Credibility to the Oral Tradition

Book Review: Lending Credibility to the Oral Tradition: In The Assassination of Hole in the Day, Dr. Anton Treuer explores far more than the history behind the murder of Ojibwe chief Bagone-giizhig, whose role in U.S. and Ojibwe history is compelling in its own right. With his bold, deft and rigorous documentation of oral and written sources, Treuer lends new credibility to indigenous oral history as a genuine and credible source of academic information.

On June 27, 1868, Chief Hole in the Day (Bagone-giizhig pronounced Bug-oh-nay-gee-zhig) left his home in Crow Wing, Minn., for Washington, D.C., to fight the planned U.S. removal of his people, the Mississippi Ojibwe, to a reservation in White Earth, Minn. Several miles from his home, he was accosted by at least 12 men from his own tribe and shot dead. The death of this self-styled chief of all the Ojibwe people was front-page national news at the time.

Civil Rights Commission Report Finds That HBCUs Do a Better Job of Graduating Black STEM Majors

Civil Rights Commission Report Finds That HBCUs Do a Better Job of Graduating Black STEM Majors: Since their inception, historically Black colleges and universities have served as a lifeline to higher learning for African-Americans. Indeed, they were established to provide higher education opportunities for Blacks who were excluded from mainstream universities. A report released by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last week, titled “The Educational Effectiveness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” finds that these institutions continue to play a pivotal role in helping Blacks gain academic equality.

According to the findings, although HBCUs have an average graduation rate of 55 percent — compared to the 63 percent average graduation rate at non-HBCUs — they succeed in educating and graduating disproportionately large numbers of African-American students. The reason, the report says, is that HBCUs provide a better match for the students’ academic abilities.

“Many African-American students granted preferential admission at elite non-HBCUs, even when they score well compared to national norms, are competitively disadvantaged in developed ability relative to their school’s student body who are admitted without consideration of racial or ethnic preferences,” the report states.

Doll project aims to boost black girls' self-confidence - USATODAY.com

Doll project aims to boost black girls' self-confidence - USATODAY.com: ...Today, she participates in the Black Baby Doll Project, sponsored by the Ida B. Wells Living Learning Community, which puts black dolls in the hands of young girls.

'It means a lot to them,' said Smith, a junior at Mary Baldwin College. 'Having an African-American doll, it's like having a part of them.'

The project, which is in its 13th year, has collected more than 300 dolls, including Barbies, Kenya dolls and professional dolls. The Rev. Andrea Cornett-Scott has some caveats, though, about the types of dolls they accept.

Tattoos, piercings, a ton of makeup drawn on and skimpy clothes are some of the automatic disqualifiers for the dolls. They are supposed to model average black girls and women, Cornett-Scott said. Another big requirement, and a harder one to meet, is finding dolls that have authentic black features.

She held up three examples. The first, a doll with dark brown skin and a short bob, the next with braided hair and glasses, and the last with curls and full lips."

Racist cupcakes? Duncan Hines 'hip-hop' video ad under fire

Racist cupcakes? Duncan Hines 'hip-hop' video ad under fire: "Cupcakes aren't tasting so sweet for some Duncan Hines marketing execs who were forced to pull a video for their 'Amazing Glazes' frosting line after viewers and bloggers complained the dancing cupcakes were racist.

The commercial, which features chocolate-frosted cupcakes singing a harmony, was released on YouTube with the title 'Hip Hop'. Along with that title, the cupcakes featured exaggerated lips and eyes and more hummed a melody – that was decidedly un-hip hop.

'If you're going to call them hip-hop cupcakes, then shouldn't at least one of them at least do a verse?' a blogger wrote on the Racialicious blog wrote.

In a press release, the company said it wanted to inspire creativity in its new commercial."

On Nixon Tapes, Disparaging Remarks About Ethnic Groups - NYTimes.com

On Nixon Tapes, Disparaging Remarks About Ethnic Groups - NYTimes.com: Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president.

The remarks were contained in 265 hours of recordings, captured by the secret taping system Nixon had installed in the White House and released this week by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

While previous recordings have detailed Nixon’s animosity toward Jews, including those who served in his administration like Henry A. Kissinger, his national security adviser, these tapes suggest an added layer of complexity to Nixon’s feeling. He and his aides seem to make a distinction between Israeli Jews, whom Nixon admired, and American Jews.

In a conversation Feb. 13, 1973, with Charles W. Colson, a senior adviser who had just told Nixon that he had always had “a little prejudice,” Nixon said he was not prejudiced but continued: “I’ve just recognized that, you know, all people have certain traits.”

Early College Planning Essential for Latino Student Success, Experts Say

Early College Planning Essential for Latino Student Success, Experts Say: ARLINGTON, Va. – In order to ensure better college access and success for Latino students from low-income backgrounds, institutions should help them put together college plans in the eighth grade and help them navigate the complex array of family dynamics and social forces in their lives.

That was one of the take-home points that University of Maryland higher education professor Alberto Cabrera offered up Thursday while presenting at a research conference titled Building Better Students: Preparation for Life After High School. The Educational Testing Service, the College Board, and the American Educational Research Association sponsored the conference.

“The main message that we want to convey to you is that success in college and beyond is seeded in the eighth grade, if not earlier,” Cabrera, a professor at the University of Maryland at College Park, told the conferees.

Native Americans Combat the Suicide Spirit

Native Americans Combat the Suicide Spirit: ...The Wiconi Ohitika project is one of several tribal college and mainstream university efforts to address the high rates of suicide among American Indians. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate for American Indians and Alaska natives is more than twice the national average for other ethnic groups. It is the second-leading cause of death behind unintentional injuries and accidents for Indian youths aged 15 to 24.

The complex reasons behind these statistics dictate that suicide prevention strategies must recognize American Indians’ unique history and need to be effective, say American Indian mental health providers and researchers.

Education Week: Civil Rights Complaint Filed Over Chicago Flunking Policy

Education Week: Civil Rights Complaint Filed Over Chicago Flunking Policy: A non-profit organization representing Chicago Public Schools parents filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights today, alleging the district's policy of flunking 3rd, 6th and 8th grade students based on standardized test scores has disproportionately harmed black and Latino students.

Parents United for Responsible Education, or PURE, said in a news conference this morning that it filed a similar discrimination complaint against CPS in 1999 and reached a resolution to some of its concerns.

But the group said it decided to file another complaint after 10 years of seeing CPS flunk 'thousands of children every year'—despite research that PURE says shows flunking students doesn't help children's later achievement, and in fact increases their chances for dropping out of school.

'They drop out at an early age because they're so discouraged,' said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of PURE. 'It's like you have a bureaucratic door shut in your face and then you're left with a child who is unhappy and doesn't want to go to school.'

Obama Signs Settlement for Black Farmers

Obama Signs Settlement for Black Farmers: At 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, before a crowd of about 150 lawmakers from both parties, African-American activists and Native American leaders, President Barack Obama brought to a close decades of government-sponsored racial injustice -- or at least two chapters in a lengthy book.

Standing in the White House's South Court auditorium, the president signed into law H.R. 4783, otherwise known as the Claims Resolution Act. The act provides billions to fund two separate class-action-lawsuit settlements against the U.S. government: Cobell v. Salazar and Pigford v. Glickman.

In the first lawsuit, filed in 1996, Native American claimants alleged that the Interior Department had been conning them out of oil, gas and timber royalties since the late 1800s. In the second, brought by Timothy Pigford in 1997, African-American farmers argued that the Department of Agriculture systematically cheated them out of loans and other public assistance throughout the '80s and '90s. In the end, the Native Americans won a settlement worth $3.4 billion, and the African Americans won nearly $1.2 billion.

House approves DREAM Act, but Senate approval uncertain - CNN.com

House approves DREAM Act, but Senate approval uncertain - CNN.com: A hotly debated measure that offers a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children won approval Wednesday from the U.S. House.

The 216-198 vote, mostly on partisan lines, sends the so-called DREAM Act to the Senate, where it was uncertain if supporters had the votes to overcome a certain Republican filibuster against it.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act -- or DREAM -- would create a path to citizenship for immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children under the age of 16 and have lived in America for at least five years, obtained a high school or General Education Development diploma and demonstrated 'good moral character,' according to a White House fact sheet.

Foreign Language Courses Growing on Campuses

Foreign Language Courses Growing on Campuses: A growing number of college students are studying foreign languages, a trend propelled by greater interest in Arabic, a broader palette of languages being taugh,t and more crowded language classes at community colleges, a new study finds.

But, despite the strong interest, experts warn that foreign language study on campuses is in peril because of budget cuts and a dwindling number of graduate students who form the foundation of future college language faculties.

The latest figures from the Modern Language Association, released Wednesday, show that enrollment in foreign language courses grew 6.6 percent between 2006 and 2009, achieving a high mark since the study began in 1960.

Scholar Documents Historic Ties Between African-Americans and Native Americans

Scholar Documents Historic Ties Between African-Americans and Native Americans: Dr. Tiya Miles was a graduate student in literature at the University of Minnesota when, out of personal interest, she took a seminar on Native American history. One course reading delved into the contacts between the Catawba Indians of South Carolina and African-Americans.

“That changed my whole trajectory,” Miles says. “I switched, in the context of that class, from focusing on African-American 19th century literature to focusing on African-American-Native American relations, also in the 19th century.”

Now an associate professor of American culture, history, Afro-American and African studies, and Native American studies at the University of Michigan, Miles has emerged in this decade as a leading scholar of Cherokee-African American relations.

Aretha Franklin 'battling cancer' | Music | guardian.co.uk

Aretha Franklin 'battling cancer' | Music | guardian.co.uk: Aretha Franklin has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to reports. Last month, the Queen of Soul cancelled all public appearances due to an unspecified illness, and on 2 December underwent surgery in Detroit. The operation was 'highly successful', the singer's spokesperson said, but her family is reportedly 'very concerned'.

'God is still in control,' Franklin said after last week's surgery. The 68-year-old singer's condition has been the subject of speculation since she announced she was clearing her calendar 'at the insistence' of doctors. Earlier this summer, Franklin suffered a serious fall in which she broke two ribs, and she also had a brief stay in hospital in early November.

NAACP contests suicide as cause of hanged man's death - USATODAY.com

NAACP contests suicide as cause of hanged man's death - USATODAY.com: The county sheriff says that a 26-year-old black man found hanged from an oak tree in Greenwood, Miss., apparently committed suicide, but the president of the local NAACP challenges that explanation and says the group will monitor developments in the case.

Frederick Jermaine Carter, whose body was found Friday in North Greenwood, had a history of mental illness, was on medication and had a pattern of wandering away, says Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks.

Carter, who lived in neighboring Sunflower County, was helping his stepfather paint a building Wednesday. The stepfather went to get tools and when he returned, Carter had wandered off, Banks says.

'That really didn't bother the stepdaddy,' Banks says. 'It had happened so many times before. He's a mental patient and was taking medication. He had wandered to Florida, to Arkansas.'

Ten HBCUs Get Accreditation Reaffirmed, Two Placed on Warning Status

Ten HBCUs Get Accreditation Reaffirmed, Two Placed on Warning Status: Ten HBCUs across the South had their accreditation reaffirmed Tuesday for another 10 years by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Commission on Colleges, the principal accreditation group for colleges across the region.

Two major colleges—Fisk University and Tennessee State University, both in Tennessee—were placed on “warning” status, a position that leaves their accreditation intact pending resolution of issues SACS raised during their review process. Warning is one step short of probation, a rating that could lead to a school losing accreditation.

Stillman College, a small private historically Black school in Alabama, was denied reaffirmation.

The SACS decisions were announced in Louisville late Tuesday as the Commission completed four days of meetings built around its annual convention.

Southern U.S. College Graduation Rates Lag Behind National Average

Southern U.S. College Graduation Rates Lag Behind National Average: A nuanced picture of college completion rates in southern U.S. states emerged Tuesday with the release of a study report that shows most of the states trailing the national average—a trend that the report’s authors say could have negative implications for the region’s workforce and its increasingly diverse student population if things don’t improve.

But while the study released Tuesday paints a disquieting portrait of college degree attainment for minorities in the South, education policy experts say it simply highlights a problem that has been occurring in the South for years.

Oxford, Cambridge Fail To Admit Black Students [UPDATED]

Oxford, Cambridge Fail To Admit Black Students [UPDATED]: The U.K.'s two elite universities admit a paltry number of black students to their undergraduate programs, the Guardian reports.

Last year, 21 Oxbridge colleges did not offer admission to a single black student. Oxford's storied Merton college has not accepted a black student for five years. Out of all of its colleges, Oxford accepted one black student last year out of 35 applicants. Cambridge accepted six, according to the Daily Mail.

These figures were produced after a Freedom of Information Act request on Oxbridge undergraduate admissions by Labour MP David Lammy. The statistics also show that Oxford and Cambridge's social profiles are 89 percent and 87.6 percent upper and middle-class, respectively.

Study: Graduation rates between blacks, whites widening - USATODAY.com

Study: Graduation rates between blacks, whites widening - USATODAY.com: The disparity between graduation rates for white and black players at schools headed to bowl games grew again this year even as overall academic progress increased for both, a study released Monday found.

The annual report by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found that the graduation success rate is increasing at a higher rate for white players than black players.

Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the study, said it's a 'disturbing' gap that has continued to widen.

Gay and lesbian teens are punished more at school, by police, study says

Gay and lesbian teens are punished more at school, by police, study says: Gay and lesbian teens in the United States are about 40 percent more likely than their straight peers to be punished by schools, police and the courts, according to a study published Monday, which finds that girls are especially at risk for unequal treatment.

The research, described as the first national look at sexual orientation and teen punishment, comes as a spate of high-profile bullying and suicide cases across the country have focused attention on the sometimes hidden cruelties of teen life.

The study, from Yale University, adds another layer, finding substantial disparities between gay and straight teens in school expulsions, arrests, convictions and police stops. The harsher approach is not explained by differences in misconduct, the study says.

NAFEO, AT&T Launch Effort To Help Students With Disabilities Attend HBCUs, PBIs

NAFEO, AT&T Launch Effort To Help Students With Disabilities Attend HBCUs, PBIs: With more than 1.2 million college students with disabilities attending U.S. colleges and universities, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), with funding from AT&T, has started an initiative to provide scholarships to students with disabilities attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The Inclusion Scholars Program (ISP) is a program designed to increase the recruitment, enrollment and graduation rates of students with disabilities at HBCUs and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs); support efforts by HBCUs and PBIs to increase graduation rates of traditionally underserved students; and assess HBCU campus readiness to receive students with disabilities.

Report: Asian American Academic Achievement in California Lags Heavily Within Certain

Report: Asian American Academic Achievement in California Lags Heavily Within Certain: Despite the pervasive nature of the “model minority” myth, members of certain Asian ethnicities in California have disproportionate rates of never finishing high school, especially if they're poor or speak limited English, University of California researchers say.

In a report that arguably underscores national findings that are too-rarely part of the public discourse, UC researchers ascertained that some southeast Asians and other subgroups struggle to even reach college in the first place. Indeed, the 2008 American Community Survey already showed that 40 percent of Cambodians and Hmong as well as 32 percent Laotians in this country lack high school diplomas. Nationally, 19 percent of Cambodians and 23 percent of Hmong lived below the poverty line.

On Duncan's Mind for 2011: Technology, Contracts, ESEA - Politics K-12 - Education Week

On Duncan's Mind for 2011: Technology, Contracts, ESEA - Politics K-12 - Education Week: In a speech to state lawmakers and education leaders this afternoon, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded states for driving the reforms that could raise the bar for students, but he warned: 'We are not giving a world-class education that children desperately need.'

Duncan highlighted adoption of the common core standards by most states as a 'game changer' in education. 'For the first time, students in Massachusetts and Mississippi will be measured by the same yardstick,' he said.

He also spoke of the need for better assessments and of the work being done to provide real-time feedback to students. He emphasized the importance of rewarding excellence in teaching and linking student performance with teacher pay, as well as providing access to 'great' schools for all students. Success in turning around 700 of the nation's lowest-performing schools is evidence that progress is possible in poor communities, he said.

Education Week: Race to Top Winners Press Ahead, Despite Pushback

Education Week: Race to Top Winners Press Ahead, Despite Pushback: States are pushing ahead with efforts to make sweeping changes to education policy through the Race to the Top program, despite some of them having seen individual schools and districts back out of the process because of concerns over the time and money required to make those plans a reality.

While some of the winning states in the $4 billion competition were able to keep all their local participants on board, others, such as Ohio and Massachusetts, have seen schools and districts peel off and give up their right to a slice of federal cash.

All of the winners in the second round of the federal competition—nine states and the District of Columbia—were required to turn in detailed blueprints explaining how they will carry out their plans to the U.S. Department of Education by Nov. 22. ('Ambitious Race to Top Plans Put School Districts on Spot,' Oct. 13, 2010.) Those plans include “scope of work” documents from local participants.

Education Week: Students Want DREAM Act to Become a Reality

Education Week: Students Want DREAM Act to Become a Reality: The student body president at Fresno State. The drum major at UCLA. Student senators, class presidents, team captains and club officers at community colleges.

Scores of student leaders across California are illegal immigrants who came to this state as children.

With Congress expected to vote soon on immigration reform that would give these students a pathway to legal status, a new generation of scholars who were raised in California but not born here are shedding their secrecy and speaking about their lives.

They have a sense of urgency. If the bill, known as the DREAM Act, does not pass before a more conservative Congress takes power in January, it is unlikely to pass for years to come.

'At first my parents said, 'What are you doing? You're risking so much,' ' said David Cho, the UCLA drum major. 'But I told them, 'It's not only me. There are thousands of students like me trapped in a broken system. Unless our generation speaks out, the politicians won't tackle it. They have to see our faces.' '

Kindergarten Program Boosts Students' Vocabulary in 1st Grade - Inside School Research - Education Week

Kindergarten Program Boosts Students' Vocabulary in 1st Grade - Inside School Research - Education Week: A new randomized control trial in Mississippi has found that a good kindergarten literacy program can boost disadvantaged students' vocabulary in kindergarten by as much as an extra month of school.

Early childhood programs like Mississippi's have focused heavily on early vocabulary for decades, with growing urgency since a seminal 1995 University of Kansas study showed children of parents on welfare enter school knowing about 525 words, less than half of the 1,100-word vocabulary of children of parents in professional jobs.

The Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast, housed at the SERVE Center of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, evaluated the Kindergarten PAVEd for Success program, which trains teachers to supplement their normal literacy instruction.

Baltimore Schools, a Mission for Andres Alonso - NYTimes.com

Baltimore Schools, a Mission for Andres Alonso - NYTimes.com: BALTIMORE — For years, this city had one of the worst school systems in the country. Fewer than half its students graduated, enrollment had fallen precipitously and proficiency levels were far below the national average.

n 2007, the school board hired Andres Alonso, a Cuban immigrant with a Harvard degree and strong views on how to change things. In three years, he pushed through a sweeping reorganization of the school system, closing failing schools, slashing the central office staff by a third and replacing three-quarters of all school principals.

Not everyone likes Dr. Alonso’s methods, and many find that his brassy self-confidence can grate. But few are arguing with his results. Since he was hired, the dropout rate has fallen by half, more students are graduating and for the first time in many years, the system has gained students instead of losing them.

Mississippi Still Lacks Civil Rights Museum

Mississippi Still Lacks Civil Rights Museum: JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi bred some of the worst violence of the civil rights era, yet nearly a half-century after a barrage of atrocities pricked the conscience of America, it's one of the few civil rights battleground states with no museum to commemorate the era.

Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old Black boy, was bludgeoned to death for “sassing'' a White woman and his body dumped in the Tallahatchie River in 1955. The Mississippi field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Medgar Evers, was gunned down outside his home by White sniper in 1963. And three young voter registration activists were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan during the Freedom Summer of 1964.

Such events forced America's eyes on the upheaval in the segregated South and were pivotal in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

UVa Preserves Civil Rights-era News Films

UVa Preserves Civil Rights-era News Films: CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.— The University of Virginia Library is continuing to preserve Civil Rights-era television news footage that includes clips of civil rights leaders discussing plans for demonstrations and then-Gov. Lindsay Almond vowing to fight racial integration.

The WSLS-TV News Film Collection 1951-1971 is rare, original 16-millimeter film from Virginia's Civil Rights era. It contains nearly 12,500 news clips and about 20,000 pages of scripts read by the Roanoke station's anchors during broadcasts.

U.Va. said that the National Endowment for the Humanities has contributed $254,600 toward the preservation project.

The project is part of the endowment's “We the People” initiative, which aims to enhance the study and understanding of American history, culture and democratic principles.

Colin Powell, Educators Focus on High School Dropout Epidemic

Colin Powell, Educators Focus on High School Dropout Epidemic: WASHINGTON— If America’s high school dropout problem is a patient in critical condition, his situation has improved in recent years but still not enough to move him out of intensive care.

That’s one of the messages conveyed by a new report released Tuesday by America’s Promise Alliance, the Washington-based national youth advocacy group founded by retired U.S. Army Gen. Colin Powell.

The report — titled Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic — found that the number of dropout factories — the phrase used to describe high schools where 40 percent or more of the students fail to graduate — has dropped from 2,007 in 2002 to 1,746 in 2008.

Powell said the report shows that “there’s still a long way to go.”

Groups Make Late Push to Salvage Bill Aiding Illegal Immigrant Students - NYTimes.com

Groups Make Late Push to Salvage Bill Aiding Illegal Immigrant Students - NYTimes.com: Immigrant advocate groups have mobilized across the country in what they call a last-ditch effort to persuade Congress to pass a bill that would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students, pressing for action in the remaining weeks when Democrats control both houses of Congress.

The groups held marches, hunger strikes, prayer vigils and protests at lawmakers’ offices on Monday and Tuesday in support of the bill, which they call the Dream Act. Opponents are also in high gear, swamping some senators who have not disclosed their positions with faxes and phone calls.

House Clears Indian, Black Farmer Settlements : NPR

House Clears Indian, Black Farmer Settlements : NPR: The House of Representatives passed landmark legislation Tuesday to pay for some $4.6 billion in settlements with American Indians and black farmers who say they faced discrimination and mistreatment from the government.

Lawmakers voted 256-152 to send the measure to President Obama, whose administration brokered the settlements over the past year.

The package would award some $3.4 billion to American Indians over claims they were cheated out of royalties overseen by the Interior Department for resources like oil, gas and timber. Another $1.2 billion would go to African-Americans who claim they were unfairly denied loans and other assistance from the Agriculture Department.

The settlements have broad bipartisan support but had stalled in Congress over costs until the Senate broke a stalemate this month.

Pennsylvania Museum Ordered to Return Alaskan Tribal Artifacts

Pennsylvania Museum Ordered to Return Alaskan Tribal Artifacts: A shaman’s owl mask. A brass Loon Spirit hat. A faded hide robe that memorializes ancestors of the Hoonah T’akdeintaan clan wiped out by a tidal wave in Lituya Bay, Alaska.

These items and dozens more belong to clan members, not the Pennsylvania museum where they’ve been stored for decades, a federal committee ruled recently.

Marlene Johnson, a T’akdeintaan elder, has been trying to return the objects to Alaska ever since watching a slideshow of the collection in the mid-1990s.

“As long as there’s one of us around, it belongs to us,” she said.

The decision comes on the 20th anniversary of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a federal law under which American Indians can claim human remains and cultural objects held by museums and federally funded agencies.

Swastika case another race issue for NM town

Swastika case another race issue for NM town: FARMINGTON, N.M. -- Three friends had just finished their shifts at a McDonald's when prosecutors say they carried out a gruesome attack on a customer: They allegedly shaped a coat hanger into a swastika, placed it on a heated stove and branded the symbol on the arm of the mentally disabled Navajo man.

Authorities say they then shaved a swastika on the back of the 22-year-old victim's head and used markers to scrawl messages and images on his body, including 'KKK,' `'White Power,' a pentagram and a graphic image of a penis.

The men have become the first in the nation to be charged under a new law that makes it easier for the federal government to prosecute people for hate crimes.

The Answer Sheet - Report: Number of 'dropout factories' declines

The Answer Sheet - Report: Number of 'dropout factories' declines: The number of U.S. “dropout factory” high schools declined from 2002 through 2008, a new report says, but close to 40 percent of minority students continue to fail to graduate with their class.

According to the report, called 'Building a Grad Nation” and being released today, the pace of improvement is too slow to meet a national goal of a 90 percent graduation rate by 2020.

The number of dropout factory high schools fell by 261, from a high of 2,007 in 2002 to 1,746 in 2008, a decline of 13 percent, the report said, and the actual number of students in these schools dropped by 15 percent.

Changes afoot for state colleges

Changes afoot for state colleges: A lawsuit pertaining to black colleges in regard to alleged discrimination by the state is in its fifth year, but its roots trace back to 1954 and 30 years of legal wrangling between Maryland and the federal government.

The lawsuit — set to go to trial June 27 — was filed in October 2006 by the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education and alleges the Maryland Higher Education Commission and other officials have not completely dismantled racially discriminatory policies against students at historically black colleges and universities.

The state Higher Education Commission, however, maintains it has brought historically black colleges and universities up to par with traditionally white institutions. The commission establishes and oversees policies for public and private colleges and universities in the state, as well as for-profit career schools. It also administers statewide financial aid programs.

The coalition maintains that historically black institutions of higher education in Maryland still are not equally funded, and that predominantly white institutions receive preferential treatment when it comes to degree programs and infrastructure.

NewsHour Extra:Spanish Student Reflects on Religious Tolerance | PBS

NewsHour Extra:Spanish Student Reflects on Religious Tolerance | PBS: Religious tolerance has been a hot topic in the news recently, and in many parts of the world, followers of the three major religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) struggle to coexist peacefully. But, in Andalucia, a region in Spain, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side in peace for more than 700 years, creating a tolerant culture that was home to some of the most important artwork, philosophy and science of its time.

Nineteen-year-old Irene Dorado, who grew up in Andalucia, shares what religious tolerance means to her and how Andalucia’s rich religious past is reflected in its people and monuments.

NewsHour Extra: Student Voice | Homeless Youth Fights for Her Future | November 23, 2010 | PBS

NewsHour Extra: Student Voice | Homeless Youth Fights for Her Future | November 23, 2010 | PBS: Roughly 110,000 American youth experience homelessness in a given year, according to government agencies. While some homeless youth live with their families, others have been abused and neglected, or pushed out of the foster care system.

During National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, NewsHour Extra visited Covenant House in Washington, D.C., a sanctuary for youth who have no other where to live.

Vida, 20, came to the Covenant House in 2009. Below she shares her story and thoughts about youth homelessness in America.

Sullivan Seeks to Lead the University of Virginia at a Challenging Time

Sullivan Seeks to Lead the University of Virginia at a Challenging Time: In January, when Dr. Teresa Sullivan became the first woman selected to become president of the University of Virginia, expectations were that the noted sociology professor, provost and executive vice president for student affairs of the University of Michigan would ease into her job in bucolic Charlottesville.

When she took over in August, however, the scene was anything but peaceful.

New push planned for DREAM immigration act

New push planned for DREAM immigration act: Thousands of high-school and college-age student-immigrants are lobbying Congress, introducing themselves to citizens by scheduling meals together and performing acts of public service to draw attention to the DREAM Act - a measure that seeks to provide legal papers for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States when they were children.

...The bill was blocked in the Senate when Reid introduced it before the midterm elections. Advocates and critics both say the odds of it passing in the next Congress are slim, given that a Republican majority in the House is expected to concentrate on immigration enforcement measures. And Republicans have vowed to block the new bill because they believe it would provide amnesty to lawbreakers and legal status to criminals.

Study Suggests Simple Fix to Help Women Succeed in Science | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Study Suggests Simple Fix to Help Women Succeed in Science | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS: A simple 15-minute writing exercise could help young women succeed in math and science classes, according to a study released Thursday by the journal Science.

In recent years, women have earned nearly 60 percent of the college degrees awarded in the U.S., but only about one in five of the degrees granted in physics, computer science and engineering. What's behind the gender gap? College administrators have looked for answers as they try to attract women to their science programs, and pundits have blamed stereotypes, societal pressure, and -- controversially -- a difference in innate abilities between the sexes.

Now, a new study suggests that the psychological effects of subtle stereotypes are at least partly to blame for the achievement gap -- and that a remarkably easy intervention could help more women stick with science. Social psychologist Akira Miyake and his colleagues at the University of Denver found that for women in an introductory college physics class, a simple writing exercise that bolstered the students' sense of self-worth helped raise their grades significantly, pushing many of them from a C to a B in the class.

Embracing The Africa In African-American : Tell Me More : NPR

Embracing The Africa In African-American : Tell Me More : NPR: 'I'm not Black or American, I'm an African.'

These were the words I proudly uttered, as a young adolescent sitting in the kitchen of our home. The response however, wasn't quite what I expected.

'You know, there are a lot of Africans who would resent you saying that,' my mother replied.

The Africans she was referring to, of course, were those born on the continent. But what I would come to realize, is that she wasn't so much discouraging me from defining myself as an African as much as she was challenging me to examine what made me African.

Fast-forward to a few days ago.

'Are you black Americans or white Americans?'

That was the question put to me and other African-Americans, in a junior high classroom in Accra, Ghana.

Report: For-profit Schools Likened to Subprime Mortgage Lenders

Report: For-profit Schools Likened to Subprime Mortgage Lenders: The embattled for-profit college sector took another hit Tuesday with the release of a new report that cites the industry for preying on low-income and minority students in a way that will ultimately lead to a financial catastrophe like the subprime mortgage collapse of 2008.

The report—produced by The Education Trust, a D.C.-based organization that works to address the nation’s achievement gap—essentially serves as a wake-up call for Congress and the federal government to advance with efforts to more heavily regulate the for-profit college sector. Many fear that GOP lawmakers, fresh off a victorious takeover of the U.S. House, may stifle or roll back such efforts.

“The developing showdown between for-profit colleges and the government is another example of how the aspirations of the underserved and the unfulfilled promise of the American Dream combine with lax regulation to make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer,” says the report, titled Subprime Opportunity: The Unfulfilled Promise of For-Profit Colleges and Universities.

San Jose State Dean Humanizes the Engineering Curriculum

San Jose State Dean Humanizes the Engineering Curriculum: As a college professor, Dr. Belle Wei concluded that, too often, engineers were trained only in technical skills without developing personal character. Teaching at San Jose State University since 1987, she observed this in her electrical engineering department and in counterparts such as computer and mechanical engineering. “This wasn’t new. My peers and I were educated the same way in the 1970s.”

So as SJSU’s Don Beall Dean of Engineering, Wei tries educating students broadly. She wants them globally informed and socially responsible. Wei encourages the more than 4,900 engineering students seeking bachelor’s and master’s degrees to take courses in the humanities and social sciences.

Civil Rights, Judicial Bias Surround Texas Drug Case : NPR

Civil Rights, Judicial Bias Surround Texas Drug Case : NPR: A legal drama has been playing out for almost three years in the Texas town of Clarksville of Red River County.

During that time, two black brothers have seen their lives turned upside down, and a white judge was recused from the case after allegations of judicial bias and criticism for pushing a drug case that just about everyone urged him to drop.

Clarksville was one of the first places settled in the state of Texas. After 190 years since its founding, the town of 3,200 retains a slightly dilapidated Southern charm.

In the town square stands a large statue of a Confederate soldier, Col. John C. Burks. What's strange is that the statue is not facing east toward Murfreesboro, Tenn., where Burks and many other locals lost their lives charging a Union battery. Nor is it facing south in honor of Burks' beloved Confederacy.

The Confederate colonel faces northwest, as if looking toward Idaho. But the way Vergil Richardson sees it, the statue is actually keeping an eye on the town's black neighborhood.

Lone Latina Senator in Mass. Defends Tuition Plan

Lone Latina Senator in Mass. Defends Tuition Plan: BOSTON – Massachusetts' only Latina state senator defended a state proposal Wednesday to grant in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants and accused critics of the plan of spreading “fiction.”

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz said House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr. is misleading voters by saying such a plan would hurt taxpayers. She pointed to a Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation 2006 report that said it would raise revenue.

“This fiction has gone on long enough,” Chang-Diaz, a Boston Democrat, said in a statement. “Leader Jones knows—or should know, before opining publicly on an issue—that in-state tuition is a reform that would actually generate revenue for the state at a time when we desperately need it.”

Perspectives: A Chat and a Tweet on Race

Perspectives: A Chat and a Tweet on Race: It has been more than a decade since Harvard law professor Lani Guinier, and, in her wake, former President Bill Clinton, called for a national conversation on race. Clinton’s initiative died after 15 months of town hall meetings, buried by media disinterest in an event about reconciliation, rather than rage.

With the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, a conversation on race began to re-emerge, albeit in a form that was more about an imagined “post-racial” state of affairs than any reality that most Americans encounter daily.

For simple reasons—the harsh facts of demographics and economics, if not for reasons of doggedly trying to better this country and ourselves—we ask that a serious conversation on race again be attempted. This time, we ask for a conversation with attention to the kind of depth and texture invited by Guinier, who grew up with a keen awareness of the need for bridge building across America’s ravine that we call race.

Colleges Showing Improvement on Hiring Minorities as Head Football Coaches, Survey Reveals

Colleges Showing Improvement on Hiring Minorities as Head Football Coaches, Survey Reveals: Major college football programs are making steady headway in selecting Blacks and other racial minorities for prized head coach positions, says a new survey of hiring practices issued by the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) association.

Still, it is easier to become a general in the U.S. Army than to become a major college football coach, says veteran former college football coach Floyd Keith, the group’s executive director.

“While we have made progress, is the task finished?” asks Keith, in a statement and telephone interview after the report’s release. “No, but we are headed in the right direction to eventually realize an acceptable ratio in the number of head coaches to the number of participants on the playing field,” says Keith.

Lost Boys of Sudan Regain a Bit of Their History - NYTimes.com

Lost Boys of Sudan Regain a Bit of Their History - NYTimes.com: PHOENIX — It has been 10 years since Malek Deng and thousands of other young men known as the Lost Boys of Sudan left war behind for new lives in the United States. But a new digital archive of their refugee records is taking Mr. Deng and the others back to the harrowing days of their youth.

Sitting in a community center in Phoenix, where thousands of Sudanese refugees have resettled, Mr. Deng recently examined documents about his war-torn childhood that he had never seen. They were based on an interview that field workers with the Swedish branch of Save the Children International conducted with him in 1989 at a refugee camp in Ethiopia. He was just a scared boy of about 14 at the time.
The papers said he was born in a village called Thur Kuol in the Bahr al-Gazal region of southwestern Sudan. The documents listed Mr. Deng’s relatives and recounted how he tended cattle before civil war drove him from his family. He had explained to the interviewers that he fled with other Lost Boys to avoid being kidnapped by soldiers from northern Sudan.

White supremacists on trial in explosives plot

White supremacists on trial in explosives plot: BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Two reputed white supremacists and a black associate collaborated on a plot to sell grenades and guns to a member of a national white supremacist group, according to prosecutors who put the men on trial this week.

But the buyer was really a government informant who often wore hidden video and audio recording equipment, producing hours of what prosecutors say is incriminating evidence.

Jurors, who have watched some of the videos and listened to audio excerpts during the federal trial, are to return to court Monday and Tuesday, then take a break until Nov. 29 because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Senate approves $4.5B payment to Native Americans, black farmers

Senate approves $4.5B payment to Native Americans, black farmers: After months of hang-ups, the Senate unanimously approved Friday two multibillion-dollar settlements that will rectify long-standing claims against the federal government for discrimination and mismanagement.

The vote essentially brings closure to the two cases, which have each been litigated for more than a decade.

The House, which has twice endorsed the deals, must still do so one more time, an action that is expected after Thanksgiving. Senate approval, however, has been a huge hurdle for Native Americans, who sued the government over poorly handled individual Indians' trust accounts, and black farmers, who were for years unfairly refused loans by the Agriculture Department.

'Black farmers and Native American trust account holders have had to wait a long time for justice, but now it will finally be served,' Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement after the vote. 'I am heartened that Democrats and Republicans were able to come together to deliver the settlement that these men and women deserve for the discrimination and mismanagement they faced in the past.'