Encouraging Entrepreneurship Among HBCU Students

Encouraging Entrepreneurship Among HBCU Students: ...In 1970, a $7.4 million grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity established OFC to test ways of attracting scarce capital into America’s impoverished communities. Bhuiyan discovered at least one reason why there weren’t enough successful African-American entrepreneurs: There were more than 100 historically Black colleges and universities but few had entrepreneurship programs.

For most of their history, HBCUs promoted upward mobility through higher education, offering degrees and graduate training in education, law, medicine, science and other fields. Under segregation, the most successful Black entrepreneurs were usually educated or licensed professionals who ran their own medical practices, law firms, churches or funeral homes.

Petula Dvorak - In the District, we're still struggling to overcome the racial divide

Petula Dvorak - In the District, we're still struggling to overcome the racial divide: Can we stop playing make-believe on this whole race thing?

We tried to declare our country's racial division over with and overcome once President Obama came into office.

Too many Americans believed that after the inauguration, we would have a post-racial America -- a world in which white folks enjoy hip-hop, a black family lives in the White House, prosperity and equality is there for all and we just don't have to talk about this stuff anymore.

Sorry, but that's so not the case.

America is still deeply divided along race. Nowhere is that more apparent than in our nation's capital. Both of our top dogs -- the president and the mayor -- are biracial, fit, educated Gen Xers who are not children of privilege and who work hard to keep their rhetoric colorblind. Yet, here we are, a city and, increasingly, a nation fractured.

One look at the two rallies on the Mall last weekend tells you that. A sea of white faces looking up adoringly at Glenn Beck while Al Sharpton marched with a crowd that was predominantly black.

Hostility across U.S. jars Muslim college students

Hostility across U.S. jars Muslim college students: Although the Muslim students hadn't eaten since dawn, something besides food was on their minds as they loaded plates with tandoori chicken, chickpeas and rice at American University to break their Ramadan fast.

For weeks, their faith had been under attack by some opponents of a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero. Every time they turned on the TV, there were new reports of anti-Muslim sentiment: mosque construction being opposed hundreds of miles from Ground Zero; a Florida pastor vowing to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of Sept. 11; a poll showing that 43 percent of Americans hold unfavorable views of Muslims. And just this week, a Muslim cabbie was stabbed in New York.

All of it points to a swelling hostility that many of these students had scarcely known was there and that religious and political leaders worry could fuel alienation and radicalism among some young American Muslims.

Education secretary says U.S. needs more minority teachers - CNN.com

Education secretary says U.S. needs more minority teachers - CNN.com: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Saturday that he plans to recruit more African-American and Latino teachers in a bid to narrow achievement gaps among students.

African-American males make up less than 2 percent of teachers nationwide, Duncan told CNN, while African-American and Latino males -- combined -- represent roughly 3.5 percent of all U.S. teachers.

'That's not a number we can be proud of,' Duncan said.

'Because so many of our young men grow up in single parent families, they grow up without a strong male presence in their household. They need to be surrounded by mentors and role models who can help them envision a positive future for themselves,' he added.

Nettleton Middle School Segregates Students: Only Whites Can Run For President (UPDATED: School Ends Policy)

Nettleton Middle School Segregates Students: Only Whites Can Run For President (UPDATED: School Ends Policy): MSNBC reports that the school board for Nettleton Middle school met in an emergency session today and voted to reverse its policy of apportioning student council positions by race:

'It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body,' Superintendent Russell Taylor said in a statement.

'Therefore, beginning immediately, student elections at Nettleton School District will no longer have a classification of ethnicity. It is our intent that each student has equal opportunity to seek election for any student office.'

Nettleton Middle School in Mississippi is facing criticism in the wake of reports that its students were told they could only run for certain student council posts based on their race.

Want to be class president? Not if you're black in this school - U.S. news - Life - Race & ethnicity - msnbc.com

Want to be class president? Not if you're black in this school - U.S. news - Life - Race & ethnicity - msnbc.com: If you’re black and a student at one public middle school in Mississippi, you can’t run for president – only whites need apply.

Nettleton Middle School in Nettleton, Miss., has segregated its elected class positions by race, according to a memo sent home with children at the school last week that was obtained by NBC News.

The memo was first brought to light when Brandy Springer, a mother of four children, contacted blogger Suzy Richardson, founder and editor of the blog mixedandhappy.com. It was also reported by Gawker.

“My [eighth-grade] daughter came home from[Nettleton] school telling me that she wanted to try out for the school reporter, but it is only open to black students,” Springer wrote Richardson. “They told her ‘she should run for class president, that was open to only white students.'”

The memo indicates that only white students can be president of the school’s eighth grade, while only black students can be vice president.

New Volume of James Baldwin Writings Demonstrates Timelessness

New Volume of James Baldwin Writings Demonstrates Timelessness: James Baldwin's passionate hope for a better America, a United States that he wanted to believe in and that believes in a brilliant Black person, comes through in each piece of this disparate collection.

Editor Randall Kenan, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, calls the compendium 'a collection of snapshots.' And the writings are haphazard. But these are snapshots in the best sense: glimpses deep inside a life lived daringly and fervently, if not always with politic attention to Baldwin's colleagues and compatriots.

Kenan offers Baldwin as a 'probable impossibility.' What made him an 'impossibility' ranges from his birth to a single mother in the Jim Crow South and his childhood in a poor fundamentalist preacher's family in New York City's Harlem neighborhood to his escape in 1948 to Europe, where both his homosexuality and his persistence as an intellectual were more viable.

Against Steep Odds, HBCU Leaders Rebuild Trust in Their Institutions

Against Steep Odds, HBCU Leaders Rebuild Trust in Their Institutions: As president of Morris Brown College, a small unaccredited institution in downtown Atlanta, Dr. Stanley Pritchett knows he has a tough job convincing parents and students to enroll. His problem is compounded by the fact that he has little money in the budget for marketing.

So when he gets the opportunity to talk to prospective students, he has a pitch prepared: The college offers a quality education at about 50 or 60 percent the cost of most colleges in the area. The class sizes are small. Its graduates are generally successful. One was even accepted to law school. Several others have gone on to graduate school. And many are gainfully employed. The college is moving toward re-accreditation. It has the resources to operate successfully. It maintains a balanced budget.

Women, minorities biggest users of mobile phones, survey says - CNN.com

Women, minorities biggest users of mobile phones, survey says - CNN.com: Women text and talk on their mobile phones more than men.

African-Americans and Hispanics use their phones more than whites, and Southerners out-chat their northern neighbors while on the go.

And here's a real shocker: Teenagers text way more than anybody else.

Those are the findings of a yearlong survey by the Nielsen Co. The statistics firm studied the monthly mobile phone bills of more than 60,000 U.S. customers.

Women in the survey, whose findings were released Tuesday, spent about 22 percent more time chatting on mobile phones than men. They spent about 856 minutes per month on the line, on average, compared with 667 minutes for men.

Women also texted more, sending or receiving an average of 601 texts per month, compared with 447 for men.

Kindergartens see more Hispanic, Asian students - USATODAY.com

Kindergartens see more Hispanic, Asian students - USATODAY.com: The kindergarten class of 2010-11 is less white, less black, more Asian and much more Hispanic than in 2000, reflecting the nation's rapid racial and ethnic transformation.

The profile of the 4 million children starting kindergarten reveals the startling changes the USA has undergone the past decade and offers a glimpse of its future. In this year's class, for example, about one out of four 5-year-olds will be Hispanic. Most of today's kindergartners will graduate from high school in 2024.

More Hispanic children are likely in the next generation because the number of Hispanic girls entering childbearing years is up more than 30% this decade, says Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. 'It's only the beginning.'

Uneven Katrina recovery efforts often offered the most help to the most affluent

Uneven Katrina recovery efforts often offered the most help to the most affluent: IN NEW ORLEANS The massive government effort to repair the damage from Hurricane Katrina is fostering a stark divide as the state governments in Louisiana and Mississippi structured the rebuilding programs in ways that often offered the most help to the most affluent residents.

The result, advocates say, has been an uneven recovery, with whites and middle-class people more likely than blacks and low-income people to have rebuilt their lives in the five years since the horrific storm.

"The recovery is really the tale of two recoveries," said James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. "For people who were well off before the storm, they are more likely to be back in their homes, back in their jobs and to have access to good health care. For those who were poor or struggling to get by before the storm, the opposite is true."

Louisiana's program to distribute grants to property owners whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Katrina was found by a federal judge this month to discriminate against black homeowners.

Hate Crime Victim Speaks Out About Surge Of Anti-Gay Incidents In Kentucky City

Hate Crime Victim Speaks Out About Surge Of Anti-Gay Incidents In Kentucky City: The city of Covington, KY has been hit with a recent spate of incidents targeted toward LGBT individuals, and the community is now trying to come together and respond.

One particularly violent attack that has become a catalyst for greater awareness occurred at 1:00 a.m. on Aug. 15, when a group of men and women, both gay and straight, were attacked by four people, including a man with Swastika tattoos and Aryan Nation symbols all over his body. On Wednesday, one of the victims of the incident spoke with the Huffington Post and described what happened. She has asked that her identity be kept private.

Poll: Expectations of Sending Children to College Growing Among U.S. Parents

Poll: Expectations of Sending Children to College Growing Among U.S. Parents: With an increased number of parents expecting their children to go to college, K-12 educators must focus more time and effort on how to put effective teachers in the classroom who can help turn those higher education dreams into a reality.

Such was one of several conclusions drawn during a panel discussion Wednesday on the heels of a new Gallup Poll that shows growing disenchantment with public schools, a growing belief that teacher quality matters, and parental expectations of college that far exceed the population of students who are prepared to go to college and succeed.

“Who doesn’t want access to a middle-class way of life in this country?” asked Temple University College of Education Dean C. Kent McGuire, referring to a postsecondary credential as the means to a better life.

However, McGuire said there is a “huge gap” between the number of youths who aspire to go to college versus those who will go, much less persist in college and graduate on time, as well as serious issues about how to improve teacher quality and effectiveness in a way that prepares students for the demands of college.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants schools to give parents, teachers more data

Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants schools to give parents, teachers more data: Education Secretary Arne Duncan, stoking a national debate over a Los Angeles Times series that examines how much individual teachers have raised test scores, urged public schools Wednesday to give educators more data on student achievement and parents a full report on teacher effectiveness.

"In other fields, we talk about success constantly, with statistics and other measures to prove it," Duncan said in the advance text of a speech he planned to give Wednesday evening in the Arkansas capital. "Why, in education, are we scared to talk about what success looks like? What is there to hide?"

Study links poverty to depression among mothers

Study links poverty to depression among mothers: More than half of babies in poverty are being raised by mothers who show symptoms of mild to severe depression, potentially creating problems in parenting and in child development, according to a new study.

In what was described as the first detailed portrait of its kind, researchers reported that one in nine infants in poverty had a mother with severe depression and that such mothers typically breastfed their children for shorter periods than other mothers who were poor.

"A mom who is too sad to get up in the morning won't be able to take care of all of her child's practical needs," said researcher Olivia Golden, who co-authored the paper with two colleagues at the District-based Urban Institute. "If she is not able to take joy in her child, talk baby talk, play with the child - those are features of parenting that brain development research has told us contribute to babies' and toddlers' successful development."

Brutal slave history unearthed at Frederick County's L'Hermitage

Brutal slave history unearthed at Frederick County's L'Hermitage: ...Last week, in the midst of a summer-long archaeological dig, experts using surface-penetrating radar found what are believed to be remnants of two cabins that once made up the small slave village that served L'Hermitage.

And the National Park Service says the find adds another page to the story of the mysterious plantation, whose tropical-influenced main house still stands, an unlikely witness near the banks of the Monocacy, more than 200 years after it was built.

'It's a huge deal,' said National Park Service archaeologist Joy Beasley, cultural resources program manager for Monocacy National Battlefield, outside Frederick, where the plantation is located. 'It's an extraordinary site and very unusual, and I do not know of anything like it anywhere else.'

Man Held in Anti-Muslim Stabbing of Cabby in New York - NYTimes.com

Man Held in Anti-Muslim Stabbing of Cabby in New York - NYTimes.com: The man charged with the anti-Muslim slashing and stabbing of a cabdriver was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault as a hate crime and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

An emergency medical technician said that had the cut been any deeper or longer, the driver would have died, prosecutors said.

Judge ShawnDya L. Simpson ordered the man, Michael Enright, 21, held without bail.

Race gap remains in DC public schools - wtop.com

Race gap remains in DC public schools - wtop.com: Test scores show that D.C. public schools are improving. But those same scores show the gap between white students and black students is getting worse.

Only 29 percent of the students in the poorest parts of the District can read proficiently, compared to 86 percent of the students in Northwest.

'Despite the progress, we still have a gap between where our white students are and where our students of color are,' D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee says. 'Continuing on with aggressive reforms is really the way to ensure that that gap continues to close.'

Because of the low test scores in poorer neighborhoods, more than half of D.C. students, including Mayor Fenty's children, don't attend their neighborhood schools. Instead, many of them go to public schools in wealthier neighborhoods.

Still, there is good news.

'If you look at the achievement gap now versus where it was in 2007, we have improved that gap,' Rhee says.

Drive to Overhaul Low-Performing Schools Delayed - NYTimes.com

Drive to Overhaul Low-Performing Schools Delayed - NYTimes.com: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan set an ambitious goal last year of overhauling 1,000 schools a year, using billions of dollars in federal stimulus money.


But that effort is off to an uneven start. Schools from Maine to California are starting the fall term with their overhaul plans postponed or in doubt because negotiations among federal regulators, state officials and local educators have led to delays and confusion.

Scant Progress in Effort on Old Racial Killings - NYTimes.com

Scant Progress in Effort on Old Racial Killings - NYTimes.com: In February 2007, Alberto R. Gonzales, the attorney general under President George W. Bush, issued a stern warning to those who murdered blacks with impunity during the civil rights era: “You have not gotten away with anything. We are still on your trail.”

He noted that time was short. The window of opportunity to solve racially motivated crimes more than 40 years old was closing. Families of the victims had waited decades for resolution, while suspects and witnesses have died.

More than three years later, they are still waiting.

There have been no federal indictments since Mr. Gonzales’s announcement, which heralded the Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative. Very little of the millions of dollars approved by Congress to finance the initiative has materialized. Though 40-year-old murder cases are incredibly difficult to solve, no Federal Bureau of Investigation field agents are assigned to pursue the cases full time.

Kids Face Differing Realities In New Orleans Schools : NPR

Kids Face Differing Realities In New Orleans Schools : NPR: For many children of New Orleans, their world was turned upside down five years ago when Katrina swept through the city.

Many had to leave home, and were shunted from one house and one school to another. Those who returned to the city found a school system that was in complete upheaval — and is still undergoing major changes today.

Obesity rates higher among minority girls - USATODAY.com

Obesity rates higher among minority girls - USATODAY.com: While some research suggests that the incidence of childhood obesity may be leveling off, a new study finds that for certain racial groups the rates may actually be getting higher.

The study, to be published in the September issue of Pediatrics, finds that black, Hispanic and American Indian girls have two to three times higher odds of having a high body-mass index (BMI) compared to white girls.

What's more, although rates of obesity peaked for Hispanic girls in 2005, they have kept on rising for American Indian and black girls.

Saint Augustine’s Dianne Suber Urges News Media Confidence by Black Colleges

Saint Augustine’s Dianne Suber Urges News Media Confidence by Black Colleges: “Sometimes you’re going to get burned. No question about that.”

That’s how Dr. Dianne B. Suber, president of Saint Augustine’s College, describes her risk-vs.-reward approach to dealing with local and national media.

But Suber says public relations is as important to a college as any other campus initiative, and her Raleigh, N.C.-based historically Black college has positive national television exposure to prove it.

In June, the college was featured in a three-part series called “Beyond the Dream” on the Fox News channel, which reaches more than 90 million households, according to Nielsen TV Ratings data.

Since Suber arrived at Saint Augustine’s 10 years ago, she has developed a reputation as a driven leader. She instituted reforms at a school beset with financial woes, low enrollment, scant alumni support and poor faculty and staff morale when she joined.

University of Maryland Names First Asian American To Assume School's Presidency

University of Maryland Names First Asian American To Assume School's Presidency: COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Dr. Wallace D. Loh was appointed Tuesday as president of the University of Maryland's flagship campus in College Park.

Loh, the provost of the University of Iowa, will succeed C.D. “Dan” Mote Jr., who has served as president for 12 years. Loh starts Nov. 1; until then, provost Nariman Farvardin will serve as interim president.

Loh, 65, has more than 30 years of experience in higher education and will become the first Asian to serve as U-Md. president. He was born in Shanghai, China, and immigrated with his family to Lima, Peru, where he graduated from high school. He then moved alone to Iowa, graduating from Grinnell College with a degree in psychology. He later earned degrees from Yale University, the University of Michigan and Cornell University.

Purdue’s Cordova Leads University Into Firm Embrace of Diversity

Purdue’s Cordova Leads University Into Firm Embrace of Diversity: Dr. France Cordova is by no means the first college president to declare increasing the presence of women and minorities on campus as a top priority. Nor will Cordova be the last. However, several of her initiatives thus far suggest she is aggressively guiding Purdue University into a firmer embrace of diversity while building on its stellar reputation as a world-class engineering institution.

Report: U.S. K-12 Schools Failing To Educate Black Males

Report: U.S. K-12 Schools Failing To Educate Black Males: Despite the occasional success in closing the achievement gap, America’s K-12 educational system does a wholly inadequate job of educating Black males, as evidenced in large disparities in the graduation rate between Black males and their White counterparts.

So says a new report being released today from the Cambridge, Mass.-based Schott Foundation for Public Education.

“The harsh reality is that systemically most states and too many districts don’t provide the necessary, targeted resources or supports for all students’ educational success,” Schott Foundation president John H. Jackson states in the report, titled Yes We Can: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males. “We have too often settled for the sweet taste of minor success over stomaching the bitter taste of the reality that without systemic reform we are winning some battles, but largely still losing the war.”

Education Week: More Minorities Taking ACT, but Score Gaps Persist

Education Week: More Minorities Taking ACT, but Score Gaps Persist: Far more Hispanic students are taking the ACT than ever, but their scores continue to fall short of levels considered necessary for strong performance in college.

Scores released today by ACT Inc. for the graduating class of 2010 show that the number of Hispanic students who have taken the college-entrance exam during high school grew 84 percent in the past five years. Participation by Asian-American students rose by 63 percent and by African-American students 55 percent, compared with a 29 percent rise in the number of white students.

But stubborn score gaps persist among racial and ethnic groups.

Hispanic and black students were the least likely to reach ACT score levels that are predictive of college success. Only 11 percent of Hispanic students and 4 percent of black students met the ACT’s benchmarks for college readiness in all four subject areas tested, compared with 30 percent of white students and 39 percent of Asian students. The exam, which is scored on a 36-point scale, covers mathematics, English, reading, and science.

The gaps were even more stark on individual subjects. In math, for instance, 13 percent of black students and 27 percent of Hispanic students met the college-ready score of 22, compared with 52 percent of white students and 68 percent of Asian students.

Poll: Hispanic Immigrants Hold High Hopes for Life in U.S.

Poll: Hispanic Immigrants Hold High Hopes for Life in U.S.: Daily life for Marlen Lopez sounds anything but easy: The undocumented worker cleans offices to pay her bills and hasn't seen her 8-year-old son since she left El Salvador three years ago. Yet Lopez is happy with her job, hopeful about the future and confident her son will one day graduate from college in the United States.

For the 33-year-old Lopez, as for many other Hispanic immigrants, optimism about life in the U.S. appears to be partly a product of what she sees in the rearview mirror.

An Associated Press-Univision poll of more than 1,500 Latinos finds that Hispanic immigrants, many of whom faced huge problems in their homelands, have more idealized views of the United States than do Hispanics who were born in America.

Influential Lumina Foundation Drives Higher Education Change, Innovation

Influential Lumina Foundation Drives Higher Education Change, Innovation: Lumina Foundation President Jamie Merisotis travels the country urging local, state and federal government officials and higher education leaders to rethink higher education and determine what steps will create the work force the nation requires in the future to remain competitive.

When the Lumina Foundation for Education opened in the summer of 2000, it had lots of ideas and, for a brand new foundation, loads of cash — $770 million. Its agenda for the future was clear and fuzzy, say those familiar with its launch. Unsure about how best to improve higher education, it spent years funding exploratory projects.

African-American Valedictorian Challenges Elite N.Y. High School on Diversity

African-American Valedictorian Challenges Elite N.Y. High School on Diversity: Justin Hudson has become somewhat of a heroic figure at Hunter College High School—a New York City public school founded in 1869 for intellectually gifted students.

This past June, Hudson, 18, used his graduation speech to challenge the high school’s admission procedures, which he says puts too much stock on a single, teacher-written exam for admission into the selective school that caters to students in grades 7-12.

Only elementary school students in New York City who score in the top 10 percent on the state English and math exams are invited by Hunter to take the admissions exam. In the past, individual elementary schools were chiefly responsible for getting the word out about when the exam would be administered.

MLK memorial's stonework 11,000 miles closer to D.C.

MLK memorial's stonework 11,000 miles closer to D.C.: After more than a decade of effort, a few chapters of controversy and a 47-day ocean voyage from China, a small blue and white cargo ship pulled into Baltimore's Canton Marine Terminal at 6 a.m. Friday bearing the shipment of stone blocks that will make up Washington's national memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The 159 granite sculpture blocks, which weigh 1,600 metric tons, were thought to be the vessel's only freight. They were carried, with little fanfare, aboard the BBC France, a modern 300-foot-long vessel operated by the German-based shipping firm BBC Chartering.

As officials with the King project watched, the crated blocks were unloaded and placed in temporary storage near the port. They will remain there until construction crews are ready to start assembling the memorial this fall on a site amid the cherry trees near the Tidal Basin.

Education Week: Report Advises Rethinking Home-Language Surveys

Education Week: Report Advises Rethinking Home-Language Surveys: A review of state policies by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, raises questions about the validity of the use of home-language surveys as a step to identify students eligible for special help to learn English.

While it’s ubiquitous in schools across the country, the practice for educators to give a home-language survey to parents or students who are believed to speak a language other than English at home is not mandated by the federal government. Federal law does, however, require that states somehow identify students who need extra services to learn English, and many schools use the survey to find out whether children’s English skills should be tested.

But the wording of questions on the surveys and how the surveys are carried out vary so much among states, and the validity of the information gathered from them is so unproven, that the researchers suggest it might be best for home-language surveys to be abandoned. They say a study should be conducted to explore if schools should instead use a short language-screening tool for all students.

Education Week: Study: Fewer Than Half of Black Males Graduate on Time

Education Week: Study: Fewer Than Half of Black Males Graduate on Time: Only 47 percent of America’s black males graduate from high school on time, according to a new report from a philanthropic organization.

The report is the fourth such biennial accounting by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Schott Foundation for Public Education.

Based on federal, district, and state data, the foundation reported that 53 percent of African-American males did not graduate with their peers in the 2007-08 school year. In contrast, 78 percent of white males graduated from high school on time, an increase of 3 percentage points since the foundation’s last report, in 2008. ('Schott Foundation to Step Up Advocacy for Black Males,' August 5, 2008.)

The findings closely mirror those in a June report from the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. That report, using federal data from the 2006-07 school year, found that just 46.7 percent of African-American male students graduated that year, compared with 73.7 percent of their white male counterparts.

New Report “Yes We Can” Shows America’s Public Schools Fail Over Half the Nation’s Black Male Students | The Schott Foundation for Public Education

New Report “Yes We Can” Shows America’s Public Schools Fail Over Half the Nation’s Black Male Students | The Schott Foundation for Public Education: New York, August 17, 2010 – “Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education” reveals that the overall 2007/8 graduation rate for Black males in the U.S. was only 47 percent. Half of the states have graduation rates for Black male students below the national average. The report highlights concerns that New York's graduation rate for its Regents diploma is only 25 percent for Black male students. New York City, the district with the nation's highest enrollment of Black students, only graduates 28 percent of its Black male students with Regents diplomas on time. Overall, each year over 100,000 Black male students in New York City alone do not graduate from high school with their entering cohort. These statistics—and the other alarming data—point to a national education and economic crisis.

NSSE Data Helps Institutions Foster Minority Student Success

NSSE Data Helps Institutions Foster Minority Student Success: University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) officials in recent years created a minority mentoring program to connect students of color with business leaders in the community. The university recruited minority staff and students to work in its career center. It hired an adviser to work with minority student groups to ensure campus events reflected their interests.

All of these changes came about due to data—survey data that, for instance, revealed minority students were not taking advantage of the career services center.

“There were certain sub-populations on campus that felt marginalized,” says Dr. Nathan Lindsay, director of student life assessment at the University of North Carolina Wilmington that has an 11 percent minority undergraduate enrollment. “Students who are Native America and Asian consistently across several different surveys produced lower scores in terms of their satisfaction level with services, in terms of feelings of being included or represented. It gave us greater cause to address those things.”

Youngest in class get ADHD label - USATODAY.com

Youngest in class get ADHD label - USATODAY.com: Nearly 1 million children may have been misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, not because they have real behavior problems, but because they're the youngest kids in their kindergarten class, researchers say.

Kids who are the youngest in their grades are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than the oldest children, according to a study out today from Michigan State University, given exclusively to USA TODAY. A second study, by researchers at North Carolina State University and elsewhere, came to similar conclusions. Both are scheduled for publication in the Journal of Health Economics.

Triumph on Racial Gap Withers in New York Schools - NYTimes.com

Triumph on Racial Gap Withers in New York Schools - NYTimes.com: ...“We are closing the shameful achievement gap faster than ever,” the mayor said again in 2009, as city reading scores — now acknowledged as the height of a test score bubble — showed nearly 70 percent of children had met state standards.

When results from the 2010 tests, which state officials said presented a more accurate portrayal of students’ abilities, were released last month, they came as a blow to the legacy of the mayor and the chancellor, as passing rates dropped by more than 25 percentage points on most tests. But the most painful part might well have been the evaporation of one of their signature accomplishments: the closing of the racial achievement gap.

Among the students in the city’s third through eighth grades, 40 percent of black students and 46 percent of Hispanic students met state standards in math, compared with 75 percent of white students and 82 percent of Asian students. In English, 33 percent of black students and 34 percent of Hispanic students are now proficient, compared with 64 percent among whites and Asians.

Post Mortem - Singer Abbey Lincoln dies at 80

Post Mortem - Singer Abbey Lincoln dies at 80: Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, who was known as much for uncompromising stance on civil rights as for her soulful singing, has died at the age of 80 in New York.

I interviewed her in 2006 for a story in The Post before her performance as part of the Kennedy Center's Women in Jazz Festival. She was married for several years to pioneering jazz drummer Max Roach, who died three years ago, and recorded several albums with him.

We'll have a full obituary up shortly. Meanwhile, here is a sample of her work from an appearance at the Marciac jazz festival in France, in which she performed her songs 'Down Here Below' and 'Bird Alone.'

Accelerated Community College Program Puts Achievement in Reach for Disadvantaged Students

Accelerated Community College Program Puts Achievement in Reach for Disadvantaged Students: Ivy Tech President Thomas Snyder says the college aims to make education affordable for those who may not have the means to attend college.

Jesus Nino is one of 42 low-income and/or first-generation college students enrolled in the inaugural class of Ivy Tech’s accelerated degree program.

But he scored high enough on his course placement exam to bypass summer remedial courses and gain acceptance into a new program that puts him on a fast track to an associate degree.

Nino, along with 42 other low-income and/or first-generation college students, is a part of the inaugural class to enroll in Ivy Tech Community College’s accelerated associate degree program. Each student will receive free tuition, textbooks, a laptop and a $100 weekly stipend to help cover transportation and food costs.

Some Job-screening Tactics Challenged as Discriminatory

Some Job-screening Tactics Challenged as Discriminatory: Companies using criminal records or bad credit reports to screen out job applicants might run afoul of anti-discrimination laws as the government steps up scrutiny of hiring policies that could hurt Blacks and Hispanics.

A blanket refusal to hire workers based on criminal records or credit problems can be illegal if it has a disparate impact on racial minorities, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agency enforces the nation's employment discrimination laws.

“Our sense is that the problem is snowballing because of the technology allowing these checks to be done with a fair amount of ease,” said Carol Miaskoff, assistant legal counsel at the EEOC.

Coaching Diversity Slowly Rising at FBS Schools

Coaching Diversity Slowly Rising at FBS Schools: Joker Phillips thought his longtime friend Charlie Strong would get the opportunity to be a head coach years ago.

It didn't happen.

Each offseason would follow a similar pattern: Jobs would come open, the former Florida defensive coordinator's name would emerge as one of the top minority candidates and each time the offer would be made to someone else. Someone hite.

'I thought he would be the guy,' Phillips said of Strong.

The tide, however, finally appears to be slowly turning.

Both Phillips and Strong are among a dozen Black head coaches at FBS schools, triple the number of Black head coaches two years ago. It's the most there have ever been, but still just 10 percent of the 120 FBS coaches.

IUPUI Minority Students Pressure School to Improve Diversity Outreach

IUPUI Minority Students Pressure School to Improve Diversity Outreach: It was the kind of crisis most universities dread.

In November 2006, a group of minority student leaders at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis threatened to sue the university if administrators did not heed demands that included providing more funding for multicultural student groups.

In a letter to university administrators, the leader of the university’s Black Student Union also appealed for the hiring of more African-American faculty and administrators. The demands came on the heels of several concerns expressed by minority students, including the fact that they did not feel welcome on campus and that requests for excursions by Black student groups were often rejected.

Mississippi Flag Could Hurt Bid for SEC Baseball Tourney

Mississippi Flag Could Hurt Bid for SEC Baseball Tourney: The Confederate symbol on the Mississippi flag could hurt the state's bid to host the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament starting in 2012 because some people find the emblem offensive, a top conference official said Tuesday.

“It would not be a 100 percent deal breaker on any kind of bid that Jackson may submit. However, it would be something we would have to consider in evaluating all the bids,” Craig Mattox, the SEC assistant commissioner for championships, told The Associated Press.

South Carolina has encountered a similar problem for the past decade because of the NAACP's boycott over a Confederate flag on the statehouse grounds. Shortly after the boycott started on Jan. 1, 2000, the NCAA executive committee decided it wouldn't award predetermined championships like basketball regionals to South Carolina.

Dream Act could save immigrant students from deportation

Dream Act could save immigrant students from deportation: ...Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) conceived the Dream Act to offer a path to citizenship for thousands of promising young people who came to the country illegally when they were children. Some of these students do not even know they are undocumented until they try to apply for driver's licenses or scholarships. Rather than deporting them to countries many of them barely remember, the Dream Act would help lead to naturalization for youths who came to the United States before age 15, earned GEDs or high school degrees and completed two years in college or in the armed forces. The measure is carefully aimed, targeting only young people with clean records who have resided in the country continuously for at least five years. Such students demonstrate the hope and promise of a better life that America has always held out to those who seek its shores. But without the Dream Act, they remain vulnerable to deportation.

Comprehensive immigration reform is necessary to repair the broken immigration system that strands thousands of deserving would-be immigrants on endless waiting lists. But it may not be achieved before the end of the congressional session. This is no excuse not to pass a sensible, narrowly tailored measure that could have a significant, positive impact.

Black farmers ask why some get aid and they wait | Reuters

Black farmers ask why some get aid and they wait | Reuters: Black farmers involved in a decades-old discrimination case are questioning why the Obama administration has promised to hasten aid for some large-scale farmers in the South while their case is held up in political wrangling.

The administration pledged last week to find $1.5 billion to help farmers hit by natural disasters after it appeared unlikely the Senate would promptly fund the package.

Black farmers reached a historic $1.25 billion civil rights settlement in February to compensate them for being left out of federal farm loan and assistance programs for years due to racism, but are still waiting for funding.

There have been seven failed attempts by the Senate, including one last week, to fund the settlement.

The deadline for finalizing the settlement is Thursday. If the administration does not step in with funds from other Agriculture Department programs, it will be the third missed deadline for the deal.

David Wolper, producer of 'Roots,' dies at 82

David Wolper, producer of 'Roots,' dies at 82: David L. Wolper, whose landmark 1977 miniseries 'Roots' engrossed the nation with its saga of an American family descended from an African slave, has died. He was 82.

Wolper died peacefully in his Beverly Hills home Tuesday evening while watching television with his wife Gloria, said spokesman Dale Olson. Wolper died of congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinson's disease, Olson said.

He was a consummate salesman and advocate for filmmakers, said Mel Stuart, a veteran feature director and documentarian who worked with Wolper for two decades.

'There was an excitement. Anything was possible because Dave could enable it. He was a dreamer who could make dreams come true,' said Stuart, who directed 'The Making of the President' documentaries and 'Willy Wonka,' among other Wolper-produced films.

Study: African American couples more likely to share core religious beliefs

Study: African American couples more likely to share core religious beliefs: African American couples are more likely than other groups to share core religious beliefs and pray together in the home -- factors that have been linked to greater happiness in marriages and relationships, according to a study released Tuesday.

In what was described as the first major look at relationship quality and religion across racial and ethnic lines, researchers reported a significant link overall between relationship satisfaction and religious factors for whites, Hispanics and African Americans. The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

True to the old aphorism, couples that pray together stay together, said study co-author W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project, based at University of Virginia, and 'African American couples are more likely to have a shared spiritual identity as a couple.'

Towson, UMBC excel at graduating minorities, studies find - baltimoresun.com

Towson, UMBC excel at graduating minorities, studies find - baltimoresun.com: Towson University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County are national leaders in graduating black and Hispanic students at similar rates to their white peers, according to studies released this week by the Education Trust.

Towson was one of 11 institutions hailed by the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that works to lower the achievement gaps for minority students, for maintaining low graduation gaps for both black and Hispanic students.

At Towson, 69.6 percent of Hispanic students graduated within six years for the classes that finished college between 2006 and 2008 compared with 66.7 percent of white students. During the same period, 66.9 percent of black students graduated from Towson within six years. The university placed sixth in the study's ranking of Hispanic graduation gaps and 21st in the ranking of gaps for black students.

'What's interesting is that a couple of years ago, Towson wouldn't have showed up on this list,' said Jennifer Engle, who co-wrote the study. 'But they've brought up their numbers while also admitting more minority students. It's very impressive.'

Baseball’s Praised Diversity Is Stranded at First Base - NYTimes.com

Baseball’s Praised Diversity Is Stranded at First Base - NYTimes.com: About 40 percent of the players in Major League Baseball are black, Hispanic or Asian, and the sport is seen as a leading example of diversity, yet a curious disparity has emerged in a corner of the game.

Among baseball’s 30 teams, only 23 percent of the third-base coaches are members of minorities, compared with 67 percent of its first-base coaches. The disparity has existed for decades but it is now about twice as large as it was in 1990, based on an analysis by The New York Times.

The question is why.

It’s more than a mysterious quirk: the third-base coaching position carries greater prestige, the pay is better and the position is often a steppingstone to a managerial job.

Current and former minority coaches and managers said they had noticed the disparity for years, but none attributed it to overt racism. Instead, some of the former coaches, along with diversity experts, questioned whether race may be playing a more subtle role, with minorities routinely funneled into a job at first base that is less demanding than the one at third.

Perspective: First Lady’s Spain Trip Stirs Up Reflections of America’s Past

Perspective: First Lady’s Spain Trip Stirs Up Reflections of America’s Past: It seemed surprising that two days before first lady Michelle Obama’s recent visit to Spain, the U.S. State Department removed a warning on its website that stated, “We have received isolated reports that racial prejudice may have contributed to the arrest or detention of some African-Americans traveling in Spain.”

Someone must have grasped the incongruity of the State Department having such a statement on its website when the African-American wife of the first African-American president of the United States was about to arrive in Spain.

The presence of such language on the State Department website should not surprise any minority in this country or any person of a darker hue who has traveled here. Perhaps, a historical perspective about the United States and its treatment of African-Americans and darker-skinned foreigners, especially by the State Department, would be helpful.

College-bound kids with learning disabilities get help - USATODAY.com

College-bound kids with learning disabilities get help - USATODAY.com: ...Colleges and universities across the nation are increasingly offering programs such as Project Access to help prepare incoming students who have learning disabilities. Since 2001, the number of such programs has increased tenfold, from 22 to more than 250 today, says Debra Hart, the director of education and transition for the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

A 2008 survey by the federal government showed that more than 200,000 college students nationwide have been diagnosed with a learning disability, such as dyslexia. The Department of Education now offers grants to post-secondary schools to establish transition programs for students with learning disabilities who want to go to college, and Hart predicts that the number of such programs is 'only going to increase.'

Education Trust Reports Divulge Minority College-graduation Rate Gaps

Education Trust Reports Divulge Minority College-graduation Rate Gaps: The Education Trust, a Washington-based education advocacy organization, released two reports Monday highlighting institutions that have highest college success rates for African-American and Latino students in comparison to White students. The reports also highlight the schools that have the largest graduation rate gaps between underrepresented minorities and Whites.

The reports, titled “Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating African-American Students” and “Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating Hispanic Students,” draw upon national college graduation averages and explore disaggregated six-year graduation rates at hundreds of U.S. public and private institutions.

With 57 percent of all students completing bachelor degrees within six years, the graduation rates for different groups of students vary significantly. Nationally, 60 percent of Whites but only 49 percent of Latinos and 40 percent of African-Americans who start college earn bachelor degrees six years later, according to the data.

Poll: Language barrier a 'risk' for Latinos in schools - USATODAY.com

Poll: Language barrier a 'risk' for Latinos in schools - USATODAY.com: With Hispanic enrollment surging in schools, many Spanish-speaking parents are having trouble helping their children with homework or communicating with U.S. teachers as English-immersion classes proliferate in K-12.

An Associated Press-Univision poll highlights the language and cultural obstacles for the nation's Latinos, who lag behind others when it comes to graduating from high school.

The findings also raise questions about whether English-immersion does more to assimilate or isolate — a heated debate that has divided states, academics and even the U.S. Supreme Court. Arizona recently ordered its schools to remove teachers with heavy foreign accents from English-language instruction, while the Obama administration is seeking to push more multilingual teaching in K-12 classrooms.

'The language barrier is still a serious risk factor for Hispanics,' said Michael Kirst, a Stanford University professor emeritus of education who helped analyze the survey. Even with many schools replacing Spanish with English in classrooms, for a student evaluated as learning English, 'the odds of completing high school, and particularly college, significantly drops.'"

Tribal Officials: Indian Education Needs Money

Tribal Officials: Indian Education Needs Money: American Indian students could achieve more academically if their crumbling schools are fixed, more money is provided for teachers and supplies and tribes gain more control of what happens in classrooms, tribal officials said Friday at a congressional hearing.

Dayna Brave Eagle, education director for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said the federal government has been unsuccessful while controlling the schools the past century.

“They have failed. It's time now for the tribes to make decision for their future,'' Brave Eagle said.

Early puberty for girls is raising health concerns - USATODAY.com

Early puberty for girls is raising health concerns - USATODAY.com: American girls are hitting puberty earlier than ever — a change that puts them at higher risk for behavioral problems as adolescents and breast cancer as adults, a new study shows.

About 15% of 1,239 girls studied showed the beginnings of breast development at age 7, according to an article in today's Pediatrics. One in 10 white girls, twice as many as in a 1997 study, showed breast growth by that age, as did 23% of black girls and 15% of Hispanic girls.

The median age of breast development fell from 10.9 years in 1991 to 9.9 in 2006, according to a Danish study published in Pediatrics last year.

The new study doesn't explain why girls are developing earlier, but it did find heavier girls with a higher body-mass index were more likely than others to begin puberty early, says pediatrician Frank Biro, director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Students Spared Amid an Increase in Deportations - NYTimes.com

Students Spared Amid an Increase in Deportations - NYTimes.com: The Obama administration, while deporting a record number of immigrants convicted of crimes, is sparing one group of illegal immigrants from expulsion: students who came to the United States without papers when they were children.

In case after case where immigrant students were identified by federal agents as being in the country illegally, the students were released from detention and their deportations were suspended or canceled, lawyers and immigrant advocates said. Officials have even declined to deport students who openly declared their illegal status in public protests.

The students who have been allowed to remain are among more than 700,000 illegal immigrants who would be eligible for legal status under a bill before Congress specifically for high school graduates who came to the United States before they were 16.

Separate but equal: More schools are dividing classes by gender

Separate but equal: More schools are dividing classes by gender: ...The boys and girls at Imagine Southeast Public Charter School are part of a national experiment in public schools: single-sex education. While a debate rages about the potential merits and dangers of separating students during the school day based on gender, two-year-old Imagine is one of at least four publicly funded schools in the District, a smattering of public schools in Maryland and Virginia, and a profusion of public schools across the country.

Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching : NPR

Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching : NPR: Eighty years ago, two young African-American men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, were lynched in the town center of Marion, Ind. The night before, on Aug. 6, 1930, they had been arrested and charged with the armed robbery and murder of a white factory worker, Claude Deeter, and the rape of his companion, Mary Ball.

That evening, local police were unable to stop a mob of thousands from breaking into the jail with sledgehammers and crowbars to pull the young men out of their cells and lynch them.

News of the lynching spread across the world. Local photographer Lawrence Beitler took what would become the most iconic photograph of lynching in America. The photograph shows two bodies hanging from a tree surrounded by a crowd of ordinary citizens, including women and children. Thousands of copies were made and sold. The photograph helped inspire the poem and song 'Strange Fruit' written by Abel Meeropol — and performed around the world by Billie Holiday.

But there was a third person, 16-year-old James Cameron, who narrowly survived the lynching.

District Latinos face challenges in employment and housing, study says

District Latinos face challenges in employment and housing, study says: The recession has been particularly harsh for many of the District's Latino residents, who are heavily represented in some of the lowest-paying jobs and have clustered in neighborhoods where rents and condominium conversions soared during the decade, according to an Urban Institute study.

The State of Latinos in the District of Columbia paints what it characterized as a 'bleak picture' of recent Latino employment trends in the city. The study says that many District Hispanics are vulnerable because their education levels and English-language skills are low, making it difficult to shift to another line of work when they lose their jobs. Almost half have no high school diploma, including a third with less than a ninth-grade education, the study said.

The report relied on census data through 2007 and interviews with community leaders and organizations to measure the recession's impact. It was commissioned by the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs to help determine how to help Latinos thrive.

Senate Stalls Again On Settlements To Black Farmers, Native Americans

Senate Stalls Again On Settlements To Black Farmers, Native Americans: Despite broad support, legislation to finalize $4.6 billion in settlements with black farmers and American Indians stalled in the Senate again Thursday amid partisan bickering.

Lawmakers from both parties say they support resolving the long-standing claims of discrimination and mistreatment by federal agencies. But the funding has been caught up for months in a fight over spending and deficits, with Republicans and Democrats arguing over how to pay for them.

Poll: Identity, Blending in Important to Hispanics

Poll: Identity, Blending in Important to Hispanics: Tomasa Bulux speaks Spanish to her children, maintains an altar at home representing her Mayan culture's view of the world and meets once a week with Mayan immigrants who speak her indigenous Quiche tongue.

At the same time, she's becoming a part of the diverse, cosmopolitan city she lives in. Her Guatemalan dishes share space on the table with experiments in cooking Thai or Arabic food. She's fluent in English and socializes with her European-American husband's English-speaking family as much as with other Hispanics.

Bulux (BOO-loox), 42, an immigrant from Guatemala, is hardly alone.

An Associated Press-Univision poll shows that a significant percentage of Hispanics believe it is important to hold on to their unique identity even as they work to blend into American society. That dual view of their cultural space—a strong sense of heritage and a desire to embrace the United States as their home—challenges perceptions that a growing Hispanic population poses a destabilizing threat to national unity.

Diversity Debate Engulfs Hunter High in Manhattan - NYTimes.com

Diversity Debate Engulfs Hunter High in Manhattan - NYTimes.com: With one of its alumnae, Elena Kagan, poised for confirmation as a justice on the United States Supreme Court, it should be a triumphant season for Hunter College High School, a New York City public school for the intellectually gifted.

But instead, the school is in turmoil, with much of the faculty in an uproar over the resignation of a popular principal, the third in five years. In her departure speech to teachers in late June, the principal cited several reasons for her decision, including tensions over a lack of diversity at the school, which had been the subject of a controversial graduation address the day before by one of the school’s few African-American students.

Hours after the principal’s address, a committee of Hunter High teachers that included Ms. Kagan’s brother, Irving, read aloud a notice of no confidence to the president of Hunter College, who ultimately oversees the high school, one of the most prestigious public schools in the nation.

Suit alleges exploitation of Filipino teachers in La. - USATODAY.com

Suit alleges exploitation of Filipino teachers in La. - USATODAY.com: Hundreds of Filipino teachers recruited to teach in Louisiana schools were thrust into massive debt, unsavory living conditions and, in effect, indentured servitude, an attorney charges in a class action lawsuit to be filed today.

About 350 teachers were recruited through a placement service for Filipinos, which the lawsuit says charged them exorbitant application fees and transportation and housing costs and demanded up to 30% of their salaries their first two years.

'It was close to slavery,' said Mary Bauer, lead attorney in the lawsuit set to be filed in federal court in Los Angeles by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Federation of Teachers and the law firm Covington & Burling. 'There was fraud on a number of levels here.'

Texas Urged To Hire More Minority Teachers

Texas Urged To Hire More Minority Teachers: Texas schools need to hire more Black and Hispanic teachers, especially as the enrollment of minority students continues to rise, experts said.

The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday that two out of three Texas teachers in the past school year were White, which is a proportion that has not changed much in recent years. The state projects that minority students will make up around 62 percent of the student body in the 2011-12 school year, up more than 10 percent from a decade ago.

“The research shows that, if you can match the ethnicity and race of teachers and students, teachers tend to be more effective,” said Ed Fuller, associate director of the University Council for Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin.

Federal Appeals Court Hears University of Texas Admissions Case

Federal Appeals Court Hears University of Texas Admissions Case: Two White students who were denied admission to the University of Texas at Austin asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to rule that the school impermissibly uses race in its undergraduate admissions decisions.

A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn't indicate when it will rule after hearing arguments in the case brought by Abigail Fisher and Rachel Michalewicz, who were denied admission to UT's 2008 freshman class.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin dismissed the students' lawsuit last year. They appealed, claiming UT's consideration of race in its admissions process is unconstitutional because it pursues a representational goal rather an educational one.

Researching African-American History in Indiana

Researching African-American History in Indiana: Ask Dr. Tim Lake about early Black settlements in Indiana. He’ll share how he and Wabash College students have discovered that, 150 years ago, Black-White relations were not nearly as polarized as one might assume.

“It was the Quaker influence,” says Lake, director of the college’s Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies (MXIBS). “Quakers were willing to sell land to Blacks. When Indiana law required Blacks to pay $500 in order to settle in the state, there were plenty of Quakers who paid for them.”

The finding is among many in a research project pegged to Indiana public markers identifying African-Americans. For five summers, Wabash student interns combed monuments, grave sites and churches to document the cultural influence of Blacks. The project is part of an ongoing effort to bring the MXIBS deeper into the college’s academic mission, says Lake, also an associate professor of English.

Connecticut Shooting: Racial Bias Caused Gunman To Snap, Family Says

Connecticut Shooting: Racial Bias Caused Gunman To Snap, Family Says: In the end, Thornton killed eight people, wounded two, then turned the gun on himself in a rampage Tuesday at Hartford Distributors that union and company officials said they would not have anticipated from someone with no history of complaints or disciplinary problems.

Yet relatives say Thornton, 34, finally cracked after suffering racial harassment in a company where he said he was singled out for being black in a predominantly white work force.

'Everybody's got a breaking point,' said Joanne Hannah, the mother of Thornton's longtime girlfriend.

After shooting his co-workers, Thornton hid as police moved in. He called his mother, who tried for 10 minutes to talk him out of killing himself, his uncle Will Holliday told reporters.

'He said, 'I killed the five racists that was there that was bothering me,'' Holliday said. 'He said, 'The cops are going to come in so I am going to take care of myself.''

Authorities said they found him dead.

Thornton had said he found a picture of a noose and a racial epithet written on a bathroom wall, said Hannah, of Enfield, whose daughter Kristi had dated Thornton for the past eight years. Her daughter told her that Thornton's supervisors said they would talk to his co-workers.

Excavation of sites such as Timbuctoo, N.J., is helping to rewrite African American history

Excavation of sites such as Timbuctoo, N.J., is helping to rewrite African American history: TIMBUCTOO, N.J. -- In Timbuctoo lies a hill. Underneath that hill lies a house, or what archaeologists think might have been a house once upon a time. The silver clasp of a woman's handbag, piles of Mason jars, chips of dinner plates and an empty jar of Dixie Peach Pomade lie among the bricks that have broken away from the foundation.

These are crushed fragments of a past life when free black people lived in this New Jersey community almost 200 years ago -- free even then, 45 years before Emancipation. 'Most of the history of this country is in that house,' says David Orr, a classical archaeologist and professor of anthropology at Temple University. Orr is standing at the site down a gray road in Timbuctoo. A hot wind is blowing.

Orr said that the buried community has the potential to be a very important find in African American history. 'Timbuctoo is great in a larger context because it lasted, some of it, into the 20th century,' he said. 'It also has a very large descendant community, so ethnographically it is important.'

Aaron Belkin: Hypocrisy on Immigration (and Salad)

Aaron Belkin: Hypocrisy on Immigration (and Salad): I teach an American politics class to 700 undergraduates at San Francisco State University. On the day that we discuss immigration, I broadcast a startling, live image of a field in Texas on the huge movie screen behind me.

The live shot of an apparently innocuous field is shocking because the camera that produces it is part of a program created by Texas governor Rick Perry to provide citizens with an outlet for their paranoia. Perry has placed web-cams along the Texas border that allow anyone with an internet connection to monitor fields and streams on a 24-hour basis. If a Mexican appears on-screen, you can click a red button to alert the border patrol.

During my class, someone appeared on screen. A few students started shouting. I asked, 'should I click the red button to alert an agent?' More students started screaming. The class deteriorated into mayhem and it took a minute to restore calm. I had made my point. I wanted the students to experience the politics of paranoia first hand.

Journalism Education Embraces Ethnic Media

Journalism Education Embraces Ethnic Media: As the Oregonian newspaper’s first race and ethnicity beat reporter, Angie Chuang turned to ethnic media outlets to help her stay abreast of community issues and identify sources she should get to know. So when she became an assistant journalism professor at American University in Washington, D.C., Chuang aimed to share the importance of ethnic media with her mostly White students

In her ‘Race, Ethnic and Community Reporting’ class, Chuang’s students follow the city’s newspapers, magazines and television and radio stations that cater to particular ethnic groups. They track important issues, such as immigration, to compare coverage in mainstream media with reporting in the ethnic outlets.

“We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we weren’t paying attention to ethnic media,” Chuang says. “It is part of who we are as a society and what we’re becoming as a city and a country.”

At colleges and universities across the country, the study of ethnic media is growing. Some schools, such as California State University, Northridge, sanction student-written ethnic publications. The University of Georgia and Louisiana State University, among others, host events for ethnic media reporters.

Racism shadows property covenants - USATODAY.com

Racism shadows property covenants - USATODAY.com: Language that once prohibited property ownership based on race remains in hundreds — if not thousands — of homeowner covenants, even though such restrictions have been illegal since 1968, because of the difficult process to remove it, historians and other experts say.

Many homeowners don't even know that the language against selling property to African Americans and people of Jewish, Hispanic or Asian descent is in their covenants, says James Gregory, a history professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Gregory, who is the director of the university's Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, says the project has identified racially discriminatory language in more than 400 properties alone in Seattle and its suburbs.

Black Techies Find Niche Online : NPR

Black Techies Find Niche Online : NPR: In the online marketplace of information, there are some deep holes. Angela Benton is working to help fill one void with Black Web 2.0, a website designed for African-Americans engaged in technology and new media work.

Benton, the founder and CEO of BlackWebMedia, launched the site in 2007. The magazine Fast Company included her on its list as one of the most influential women in technology for 2010. She is also one of this year's recipients of the National Urban League's Woman of Power award.

While Black Web 2.0 has become something of a magnet for people who want to know how technology affects the black community, it also has general interest appeal. In addition to news, the site features stories on trends, gadgets and social networking and has tips for entrepreneurs.