John Legend surprises Duke Ellington School of the Arts students at the Kennedy Center - The Style Blog - The Washington Post

John Legend surprises Duke Ellington School of the Arts students at the Kennedy Center - The Style Blog - The Washington Post: ...The students, practicing at the Kennedy Center for their Tuesday night performance at the Millennium Stage, had no idea the Grammy winning singer (“with a voice like molten lava,” one visitor swooned) would be swinging by their rehearsal.

Legend was at the Kennedy Center Tuesday morning to participate in the launch of the Center’s “What’s Going On…Now” project meant to both inspire young people to engage in their communities through the arts and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”

“Can I play with you?” Legend, a longtime Gaye fan, asked the totally dumbstruck students, before sliding onto the piano bench and joining in their rendition of “What’s Going On.”

Ryan Rodriguez, 12-Year-Old Connecticut Student, Stabbed At School Because He Allegedly 'Wasn't Black Enough'

Ryan Rodriguez, 12-Year-Old Connecticut Student, Stabbed At School Because He Allegedly 'Wasn't Black Enough': When one student stabbed 12-year-old Ryan Rodriguez in the back with a pencil and walked away, Ryan didn't have to ask for a reason why. He already knew: his race, the Connecticut Post reports. The boy's mother, Gail Rodriguez, told the paper that her son, who is half white and half Puerto Rican, was often bullied for not being "black enough," and that other students teased him, calling him things like "stupid white cracker."

The bullying at the Engineering and Science University Magnet School in New Haven, Conn., was more than physical assault. The Post reports that students would also steal Ryan's belongings and break his binders. When his mother complained, however, teachers allegedly said they would have to catch the students in the act in order to take punitive action.

Chicago Most Segregated City In America, Despite Significant Improvements In Last Decade

Chicago Most Segregated City In America, Despite Significant Improvements In Last Decade: The results of a Census data study conducted by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research revealed that segregation in urban areas has gone down nationwide, with Chicago experiencing the second-largest declines. But the study, titled "The End of the Segregated Century," also found that Chicago remains the most racially segregated city in the country.

"A half-century ago, one-fifth of America’s urban neighborhoods had exactly zero black residents," wrote study authors Edward Glaeser and Jacob L. Vigdor in the report summary. "Today, African-American residents can be found in 199 out of every 200 neighborhoods nationwide."

About - African American History Month (Library of Congress)

About - African American History Month (Library of Congress): February is African American History Month

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort.

Black History Month — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts

Black History Month — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts: The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by black Americans and other peoples of African descent. Known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the group sponsored a national Negro History week in 1926, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The event inspired schools and communities nationwide to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs and host performances and lectures.

City council hopeful: 'My English is good enough' – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

City council hopeful: 'My English is good enough' – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs: When a judge ruled that Alejandrina Cabrera’s name couldn’t be on the ballot for City Council in San Luis, Arizona, because she couldn’t speak English well enough, it was not only a blow to her, but to her fellow citizens, Cabrera told CNN.

“When he took my right to be on the ballot he took away the right of the people who want to vote for me,” Cabrera said in an interview conducted in Spanish with CNN en Espanol.

A battle over Cabrera's run for office began when Juan Carlos Escamilla, the mayor of San Luis, said he was concerned that Cabrera might not have the proper grasp of the language for the job. Escamilla filed a lawsuit in December that asked a court to determine whether Cabrera's skills qualified her under state law to run for the council seat.

Leonard Gallo, East Haven Police Chief, Retiring After Town Hit By Scandal

Leonard Gallo, East Haven Police Chief, Retiring After Town Hit By Scandal: The police chief in a working-class city where four officers have been charged with tyrannizing Latino residents and using excessive force against undocumented immigrants is retiring from office, his attorney said Monday.

Leonard Gallo had been suspended as chief of the East Haven Police Department in April 2010 after the FBI launched the criminal investigation, but he was reinstated to the post in November after his friend Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. took office.

Gallo apparently has been referred to as an unnamed co-conspirator in the federal indictment, accused of blocking efforts by the police commission to investigate misconduct. His attorney, Jon Einhorn, has denied the allegations.

The retirement will take effect on Feb. 10, Einhorn said. A news conference on the retirement is planned for later Monday and Einhorn declined to comment further.

Sundance 2012: Ava Duvernay Becomes First Black Woman To Win Best Director Prize For 'Middle Of Nowhere' (VIDEO)

Sundance 2012: Ava Duvernay Becomes First Black Woman To Win Best Director Prize For 'Middle Of Nowhere' (VIDEO): Ava DuVernay won the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival for her drama 'Middle Of Nowhere — making her the first black woman to take home the honor.

In her acceptance speech, Duvernay said that it was important that Nowhere be seen beyond the film festival and for “filmmakers of color to see one another’s films and have them seen.” 'Nowhere' was picked up by Participant Media for distribution last week.

Her win came as a shock, as Benh Zeitlin's Beasts Of The Southern Wild, a story inspired by the people who refused to leave New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was considered the favorite. (Beasts took home the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.)

"Middle of Nowhere is a story about a woman named Ruby who has lost her husband to incarceration," DuVernay told Jason Scoggins of the Sundance Project 2012. "It touches on the prison wives' tale, but really the story of a woman who's living in a relationship that's imbalanced."

NAACP head gives keynote at LGBT conference - baltimoresun.com

NAACP head gives keynote at LGBT conference - baltimoresun.com: NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said Thursday the civil rights group supports legislation in Maryland to extend rights to transgender residents.

Jealous spoke at a national conference on rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, the 24th national conference on LGBT equality.

"This striving for inclusion is not new," Jealous told a crowded convention room at the Baltimore Hilton.

Under Jealous, the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People launched an equality task force for the LGBT community. The Maryland measure would extend rights relating to employment and housing to transgender residents.

Last year, legislation that would have protected transgender people from housing and employment discrimination passed the House of Delegates, but the bill failed to pass the Senate.

About a week after the legislative session adjourned in April, an attack on 22-year-old transgender woman at a McDonald's restaurant in Rosedale highlighted the issue again.

Black Male Identity Project: Addressing negative stereotypes of black men, yearlong program reaches end - baltimoresun.com

Black Male Identity Project: Addressing negative stereotypes of black men, yearlong program reaches end - baltimoresun.com: Using music, poetry, dance and art, the Black Male Identity Project has been striving for the past year to overturn negative stereotypes of African-American men.

"We know that Baltimore City has a lot of problems, but we wanted to celebrate the role of artists, of storytellers in producing narratives that can help us discover solutions," said Fanon Hill, a musician and co-director of the project.

On Sunday, the project concluded at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, but organizers say the program's positive message will carry on here and elsewhere.

Thomas Jefferson's Slave Ownership Explored In New Exhibit

Thomas Jefferson's Slave Ownership Explored In New Exhibit: Thomas Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal" to declare U.S. independence from Britain, yet he was also a lifelong slave owner who freed only nine of his more than 600 slaves during his lifetime.

That contradiction between ideals and reality is at the center of a new exhibit opening Friday as the Smithsonian Institution continues developing a national black history museum. It offers a look at Jefferson's Monticello plantation in Virginia through the lives of six slave families and artifacts unearthed from where they lived.

The exhibit, "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty," was developed with Monticello and will be on view at the National Museum of American History through mid-October. It includes a look at the family of Sally Hemings, a slave. Most historians now believe she had an intimate relationship with the third president and that he fathered her children.

On Diversity, or Lack Thereof, in Media Criticism and Newsrooms | DCentric

On Diversity, or Lack Thereof, in Media Criticism and Newsrooms | DCentric: The Poynter Institute, a journalism-education organization, announced this week it hired Andrew Beaujon as a reporter to cover the media, taking over where Jim Romenesko left off. Beaujon (who is a former colleague of mine from TBD) said he plans to devote more coverage to ethnic media outlets than is seen in today’s current media criticism.

“It’s barely covered at all,” he told DCentric. “If you read about, say, [black newspaper] the Chicago Defender, it’s only ever about its financial troubles. And I’m certainly interested in that, but I’m also curious about how those papers and websites connect with their communities.”

Although Beaujon plans to report on ethnic media, the appointment of another white man as a prominent media critic inspired Washington City Paper‘s Shani Hilton to ask: is media criticism a white boys’ club? She lists off prominent media critics including Howard Kurtz, Erik Wemple, Richard Prince, Jack Shafer and David Carr, all of whom, except for one, is a white man. (Another exception is Eric Deggans, Wemple notes).

Interracial Poster Sparks Controversy In South Africa (PHOTOS)

Interracial Poster Sparks Controversy In South Africa (PHOTOS): Although it's been almost two decades since apartheid ended, South Africans still feel the pangs of racial tension, and a poster depicting an interracial couple proves just how deep the issue goes.

The political ad created by the student wing of the Democratic Alliance party, shows a white man and a black woman embracing with the tagline "In OUR future, you wouldn't look twice." While the students might be right about the future, in the present the poster has incited a heated debate among the local media and politicians, the Washington Post reports.

While some have supported the ad for its progressive message of tolerance, others were outraged.

Eye-opening artifacts of black history in the DC area from washingtonpost.com

Eye-opening artifacts of black history in the DC area from washingtonpost.com: As a capital city, the area has long attracted prominent African Americans, including civic leaders and artists. Slaves in the District of Columbia were freed before the Emancipation Proclamation, African American men had voting rights before those elsewhere, and institutions such as Howard University have been a draw as well. But the vestiges of this history won't always be found in statues or memorials. Here are some eye-opening objects that have their own stories to tell.

'Birmingham': A Family Tale In The Civil Rights Era : NPR

'Birmingham': A Family Tale In The Civil Rights Era : NPR: ...Our selection for January — The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis — describes the civil rights era from the perspective of a young (and extremely mischievous) boy and his family.

When young Byron Watson becomes too much to handle, his family decides to send him from Flint, Mich. to his legendarily tough Grandma Sands in Birmingham, Ala. — that incendiary year of 1963 when tensions over school desegregation were roiling.

Curtis tells NPR's Michele Norris that much of the book was inspired by the history he witnessed — as well as his own memories of growing up in Flint. For instance, at one point Byron lights toilet paper parachutes over the toilet and flushes them away.

"It was based on me," says Curtis. "I just threw matches in the toilet. I liked the sound they made when they hit the water." When Curtis tried to get away with burning the matches by locking the bathroom door, his mother kicked the door down and lifted him in the air by the collar, much as it happens in the book.

'Slave Game' Reported At Georgia's Camp Creek Elementary School Outrages Parents

'Slave Game' Reported At Georgia's Camp Creek Elementary School Outrages Parents: Parents of students at Camp Creek Elementary School in Liburn, Ga., are outraged after a 3rd-grader told her mother about a "slave game" students had been instructed to play, station WSBTV reports.

"It was kind of like tag, but we were slaves and slave catchers," mother Ericka Lasley said her daughter told her, the station reports.

Another parent, Charvia Rivers, says her children reported the same thing, but Gwinnett County Schools spokesman Jorge Quintana told the station that a district investigation found that the teacher did not organize the game.

"The district determined that the activity was student-initiated and that allegations regarding the teacher’s involvement were unfounded," Quintana said in a statement to the station. Nevertheless, the district is planning to hold diversity training for teachers in light of the incident.

This "insensitive" game comes after another Georgia elementary school sparked national outrage over math word problems which used examples of slavery.

Mexican actor hopes Oscar nod will help undocumented immigrants | The Raw Story

Mexican actor hopes Oscar nod will help undocumented immigrants | The Raw Story: Mexican actor Demian Bichir hopes his surprise Oscar nod for “A Better Life” will raise awareness about the 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.

Though little-known north of the border, the Mexican star beat out Leonardo DiCaprio and Ryan Gosling for the nomination, placing him in competition with Hollywood titans George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Bichir told reporters in Mexico City on Wednesday that “now more people will know who I am,” — but drawing attention to the difficulties faced by undocumented workers in the United States would be the “real prize”, he added.

NYPD played anti-Muslim movie ‘on continuous loop’ at training | The Raw Story

NYPD played anti-Muslim movie ‘on continuous loop’ at training | The Raw Story: The New York Police Department showed an anti-Muslim film “on a continuous loop” for between three months and one year of training at its COBRA (Chemical, Ordinance, Biological, and Radiological) Unit, which provides terrorism awareness training.

According to the New York Times, the documentary The Third Jihad showed Muslim terrorists shooting Christians in the head, executed children covered by sheets and a fake photograph of an Islamic flag flying above the White House. One of those interviewed in the film says that “Islamism is like cancer.”

News of the film’s use by the NYPD first broke in January 2011. A police official at the time claimed that it had only been shown “a couple of times.”

Federal Judge Orders Trial in Civil Rights Suit by Haitian-American Student Accusing Adelphi University of Discrimination

Federal Judge Orders Trial in Civil Rights Suit by Haitian-American Student Accusing Adelphi University of Discrimination: Adelphi University faces trial this summer in a civil rights lawsuit by a former Haitian-American graduate student who contends that one of her nursing courses was taught in a segregated classroom.

The suit by Marie Jacques also contends that Adelphi was racially motivated when it wrongfully dropped her from its adult nurse practitioner program one semester before she would have completed her master’s degree.

The Garden City, N.Y., university denies the allegations and asserted in court papers that it “acted reasonably and in good faith.” Adelphi also said students in Dr. Darylann Ficken’s course voluntarily self-segregated and that the program had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason to drop Jacques because she received a C in that class.

East Haven, Conn., Police Officers Accused of Mistreating Latinos - NYTimes.com

East Haven, Conn., Police Officers Accused of Mistreating Latinos - NYTimes.com: They were known as Miller’s Boys, police officers who worked the 4-to-midnight shift, patrolling the largely working-class town of East Haven, Conn., including the small but growing Hispanic community that has spread out in recent years from New Haven.

The officers were more than well known in that community; according to residents and federal authorities, they were feared. They stopped and detained people, particularly immigrants, without reason, federal prosecutors said, sometimes slapping, hitting or kicking them when they were handcuffed, and once smashing a man’s head into a wall. They followed and arrested residents, including a local priest, who tried to document their behavior.

They rooted through stores looking for damning security videotapes of how they had treated some of their targets, described by one of them on a police radio as having “drifted to this country on rafts made of chicken wings.”

Johns Hopkins Launches Study of Genetic Drivers of Asthma in Blacks

Johns Hopkins Launches Study of Genetic Drivers of Asthma in Blacks: An international team of scientists is undertaking a groundbreaking, $9.5 million dollar study of the genetic coding of Black asthmatics, a group that constitutes a fifth of all Blacks in the United States.

Though zeroing in on hereditary links to the potentially lethal respiratory disorder in Blacks, the research also aims to yield a more comprehensive knowledge of the root causes of certain diseases in Blacks and, thereby, more precisely tailored medical treatment.

“The proof will be in the pudding of what we discover. But this study is the biggest of its kind. It’s the first of its kind,” said Dr. Kathleen Barnes, an immunogeneticist and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Black, Latino Students Perform at Levels of 30 Years Ago

Black, Latino Students Perform at Levels of 30 Years Ago: Educators are expressing alarm that the performance gap between minority and white high school students continues to expand across the United States, with minority teenagers performing at academic levels equal to or lower than those of 30 years ago.

Despite the hope that improving education for children of color would propel them to better life outcomes, Latino and African-American students are not being prepared in high school classrooms for brighter futures. While achievement levels have improved considerably for minority elementary and middle school students, educators say their academic performance drops during high school years.

How prevalent is the achievement gap at the high school level?

On average, African-American and Latino high school seniors perform math and read at the same level as 13-year-old white students.

Education Technology: As Some Schools Plunge In, Poor Schools Are Left Behind

Education Technology: As Some Schools Plunge In, Poor Schools Are Left Behind: ...The term "digital divide" used to refer to whether classrooms had computers connected to the Internet. Now, the bar has been raised, as newer software programs require high-speed connections and as WiFi-dependent devices such as iPads make their way into classrooms.

Even though Chicago Public Schools reports spending about $40 million a year on technology, Bronzeville Scholastic lags behind its peers and exemplifies a dangerous disparity that exists in the United States, according to Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning.

"Chicago in particular probably highlights the digital divide that's across the country," Patrick said. "Some schools may have access to one-to-one pilots, and other schools have old infrastructure that is barely functional, so that kids don't have access to the computers."

Federal Job Discrimination Complaints Rose To All-Time High Last Year

Federal Job Discrimination Complaints Rose To All-Time High Last Year: Federal job discrimination complaints rose to an all-time high last year, led by an increase in bias charges based on religion and national origin.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received nearly 100,000 charges of discrimination during the 2011 fiscal year, the most in its 46-year history. That's a slight increase over the previous year, which had 25 fewer complaints.

Charges of religious discrimination jumped by 9.5 percent, the largest increase of any category. Claims of bias based on ancestry or country of origin rose 5 percent.

Experts say the increase reflects the growing diversity of the nation's work force.

"We're seeing a greater diversity among minority groups in America," said Ron Cooper, a former general counsel of the EEOC who now works in private practice. "We're seeing more workers from India, Pakistan and other countries that bring additional religious complexity to the work force."

Survey paints portrait of black women in America - The Washington Post

Survey paints portrait of black women in America - The Washington Post: Rich or poor, educated or not, black women sometimes feel as though myths are stalking them like shadows, their lives reduced to a string of labels.

The angry black woman. The strong black woman. The unfeeling black woman. The manless black woman.

“Black women haven’t really defined themselves,” says author Sophia Nelson, who urges her fellow sisters to take control of their image. “We were always defined as workhorses, strong. We carry the burdens, we carry the family. We don’t need. We don’t want.”
In a new nationwide survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a complex portrait emerges of black women who feel confident but vulnerable, who have high self-esteem and see physical beauty as important, who find career success more vital to them than marriage. The survey, which includes interviews with more than 800 black women, represents the most extensive exploration of the lives and views of African American women in decades.

Tuskegee Airman Luke Weathers Jr. Buried At Arlington National Cemetery

Tuskegee Airman Luke Weathers Jr. Buried At Arlington National Cemetery: ARLINGTON, Va. — On the same day that retired Air Force Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. took his resting place among other war and military heroes, his real-life story as a World War II aviator played out on movie screens across the country.

Weathers was buried Friday at Arlington National Cemetery in a service that began with a flyover of four F-16 jets in the Missing Man formation, a special honor reserved for pilots, by the 113th Wing of the D.C. Capital Guardians, the same unit that guards the airspace over the nation's capital.

Weathers died Oct. 15 in Tucson, Ariz., of pneumonia at age 90. His burial coincided with the official opening in theaters of "Red Tails," a George Lucas-produced movie retelling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen who debunked widely held beliefs that black pilots were incapable of fighting in combat.

'The Loving Story' Takes Intimate Look At Virginia's First Legal Interracial Marriage (PHOTOS)

'The Loving Story' Takes Intimate Look At Virginia's First Legal Interracial Marriage (PHOTOS): Before June of 1967, sixteen states still prohibited interracial marriage, including Virginia, the home of Richard Perry Loving, a white man, and his wife, Mildred Loving, a woman of African-American and Native-American descent.

Nine years prior, in June 1958, the couple traveled to Washington, D.C. -- where interracial marriage was legal -- to get married. When they returned home, however, they were arrested and sentenced to one year in jail for violating the state's Racial Integrity Act.

According to court documents, the trial judge suspended the Lovings' sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that they leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

Blacks Face Bias in Bankruptcy, Study Suggests - NYTimes.com

Blacks Face Bias in Bankruptcy, Study Suggests - NYTimes.com: Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to wind up in the more onerous and costly form of consumer bankruptcy as they try to dig out from their debts, a new study has found.

The disparity persisted even when the researchers adjusted for income, homeownership, assets and education. The evidence suggested that lawyers were disproportionately steering blacks into a process that was not as good for them financially, in part because of biases, whether conscious or unconscious.

The vast majority of debtors file under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code, which typically allows them to erase most debts in a matter of months. It tends to have a higher success rate and is less expensive than the alternative, Chapter 13, which requires debtors to dedicate their disposable income to paying back their debts for several years.

The study of racial differences in bankruptcy filings was written by Robert M. Lawless, a bankruptcy expert and law professor, and Dov Cohen, a psychology professor, both with the University of Illinois; and Jean Braucher, a law professor at the University of Arizona.

Tapping the Federal Pipeline

Tapping the Federal Pipeline: In late November, one of the most memorable calls Michael Hester, interim CEO of the United Negro College Fund Special Projects Corp., or UNCFSP, answered came from a large, top-tier defense contractor looking to partner with his constituents, HBCUs, and other minority-serving institutions, on a federal contract worth $10 billion. But, on most days, Hester, a former NASA contractor, is concerned with eliminating the glaring racial and economic disparities that exist in contract awards and federal research and development, or R&D, expenditures for higher education. Only about 1.4 percent of the more than $32 billion in federal funds expended for R&D in higher education went to Black colleges, says Hester, citing a 2008-2009 National Science Foundation report.

Vitals - 1 in 8 low-income parents waters down formula, study finds

Vitals - 1 in 8 low-income parents waters down formula, study finds: Many low-income parents feel they must resort to “formula stretching,” to keep their infants fed, even with government food assistance programs, a new study shows.

The study found that 30 percent of parents who brought their infants to an inner city children’s clinic didn’t have enough food to make it through each month. And a full 15 percent, or about 1 in 8, made ends meet by watering down their babies’ formula or by feeding less frequently, according to the study which was published in Clinical Pediatrics.

“We knew this was a high-risk population,” said study co-author Andrew Beck, a fellow in general academic pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “But these numbers are still staggering.”

Community College of Philadelphia Programs Provide a Support System for Black Male Students

Community College of Philadelphia Programs Provide a Support System for Black Male Students: At the Community College of Philadelphia, two programs aim at low graduation rates among African-American males through the use of support coaches or mentors who help first-time college students inside and outside the classroom.

Through a series of assessments, the college uncovered a disturbing trend that seemed to be echoed at colleges across the country: African-American males were returning to college—and graduating—at a far lower rate than their peers.

The college, which is around 53 percent African-American, applied for and received a $600,000-per-year Predominantly Black Institutions grant, which the school used to create the Center for Male Engagement in 2009.

Maryland’s ‘achievement gap’ highlighted by new advocacy group - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post

Maryland’s ‘achievement gap’ highlighted by new advocacy group - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post: A week after Maryland was named the Number One state in the nation for public education by Education Week magazine, a new advocacy group released its own report highlighting Maryland as one of the worst performing education states when it comes to achievement gaps.

“Success masks a dark underbelly of Maryland student achievement, ” said the report, the State of Maryland Public Education. The group unveiled its report at a press conference with state lawmakers in Annapolis Tuesday afternoon.

Among its findings (based on results of the National Assesssment of Educational Progress):

* Maryland has the second largest disparity in the country between low-income students and their wealthier classmates on the 8th grade math test

* Eighteen percent of African-American eighth graders scored at least proficient on the math exam, compared to 56 percent of white students — a racial achievement gap that has more than doubled since 1990

* Maryland has the fourth largest socio-economic disparity in the country on the corresponding 8th grade English test

NSO had Columbia Heights on a string - The Washington Post

NSO had Columbia Heights on a string - The Washington Post: It was the National Symphony Orchestra’s grand experiment.

Take the players far away from the hallowed halls of the Kennedy Center. Plop them in a high school auditorium in the socioeconomic stew that is Columbia Heights. Have them play some Dvorak, Debussy, Vivaldi. Then, observe: Who would show up? Would anyone?

Warren Williams, who manages community outreach for the orchestra, was nervous that Friday night earlier this month. Then he was amazed.

There were young black children, clinging to their parents. The local postman and some business owners were there, too. Thirty minutes before the performance, they waited in the hallway of Bell Multicultural High School along with an overwhelming mass of the skinny-jeaned, a line that stretched from the metal detectors at the entrance to the seats in the auditorium.

Over the past decade, much has been made of the transformation of Columbia Heights, thanks to the extension of Metro’s Green Line; the opening of big-box stores, such as Target; and a crop of new condos. Housing prices soared; young professionals moved in. Then came the inevitable tension between the working-class African Americans and Latinos who lived in the subsidized housing that once defined the neighborhood.

Black Students At Duke Upset Over New Study Claiming They Take the Easy Way Out | Clutch Magazine

Black Students At Duke Upset Over New Study Claiming They Take the Easy Way Out | Clutch Magazine: College can be a difficult time. Not only are many trying to “find themselves,” but students are also forced to decide on what career path their lives will take. Because of this, many students often switch majors in an attempt to figure out what works best for them. While this practice may be common place, a new research paper at Duke University has some black student crying foul.

An unpublished report titled “What Happens After Enrollment? An Analysis of the Time Path of Racial Differences in GPA and Major Choice,” took a look at Duke’s 2001 and 2002 freshman classes, and concluded that black students switched to “easier” majors at disproportionally higher rates than their white counterparts.

TV One’s ‘Find Our Missing’ takes on the mysteries that didn’t get the headlines - The Washington Post

TV One’s ‘Find Our Missing’ takes on the mysteries that didn’t get the headlines - The Washington Post: “Find Our Missing,” a handsomely produced 10-part docu-series about unsolved cases, premieres Wednesday night on TV One, and it is not nearly outspoken enough about its cause: It’s a show about cases of black people who vanished suspiciously and who, for reasons that should probably embarrass producers at local and national news operations, never got the same amount of media attention as their white counterparts.

This discrepancy has been pointed out many times over the years by minority groups that track media coverage. Most watchers of TV news (and readers of newspapers and online news sites) have probably noticed it, too, if perhaps only subliminally. Missing white women just get more press, often to an extreme, as do missing white children — especially cherubic toddlers from sunny states.

Carl Clark, Black Navy Veteran, Awarded Combat Medal After 66 Years (VIDEO)

Carl Clark, Black Navy Veteran, Awarded Combat Medal After 66 Years (VIDEO): At 95 years old, navy veteran Carl Clark received what may be the last combat medal awarded to a living veteran of World War II, according to ABC News.

Clark, who's been credited with saving the lives of some of his shipmates during a World War II battle, received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with the Combat Distinguished Device yesterday, an honor he was denied because of his race.

According to the Associated Press, Clark was serving as an E-6 Steward First Class aboard the USS Aaron Ward when Japanese kamikazes attacked the destroyer near Okinawa in May 1945. Clark was 29 years old.

Though he suffered a broken collarbone in the attack, Clark saved the lives of several men by dragging them to safety. He also put out a fire in an ammunition locker that is said to have potentially cracked the destroyer in half. He was the only survivor on the eight-man damage control team he served on.

King Center shake-up: Martin Luther King III quits as president - latimes.com

King Center shake-up: Martin Luther King III quits as president - latimes.com: Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the slain civil rights leader, announced on Tuesday that he will step down as president of the Atlanta-based center devoted to the legacy of his father.

The resignation comes a day after President Obama led the nation in commemorating the life and career of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by celebrating the federal holiday established to honor his memory as a day of service. The resignation also comes on the heels of the center's announcement Jan. 9 of a major overhaul, one that included keeping Martin Luther King III as president but replacing him as chief executive with his sister, Bernice.

Their brother Dexter continues as chairman of the center’s board.

Martin Luther King III could not be reached for comment and messages left with the center were not returned.

Oprah Beams at First Graduating Class in Her South Africa School - The Daily Beast

Oprah Beams at First Graduating Class in Her South Africa School - The Daily Beast: Oprah Winfrey’s parental pride was on full display on Saturday as 72 young girls graduated from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in Henley on Klip, South Africa. Her glee was completely understandable, since it was the first graduating class for the school Winfrey founded in 2007.

Winfrey’s steadfast and earnest desire to better the lives of South African girls was met with both admiration and ridicule when she announced her intentions to build a lavish girls school in 2005. Many seemed unaware or dismissive of the millions Winfrey donates each year to institutions such Morehouse College in Atlanta. Rarely deterred by her critics, Winfrey used more than $40 million of her own fortune to create a state-of-the-art campus that features, among other luxuries, a 600-seat theater for concerts and plays, a full-service hair salon, and a 10,000-volume library.

Small Washington College Aims To Teach Civil Rights

Small Washington College Aims To Teach Civil Rights: Noah Lerner doesn't remember hearing much about the civil rights movement when he was in public school. Now a senior at a small liberal arts college in rural Washington state, Lerner aims to ensure some students learn more about a key moment in America's history.

Whitman College is partnering with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization based in Montgomery, Ala., to help its students teach schoolchildren about the civil rights movement in Walla Walla, Wash.

The small city known more for its sweet onions and wine in the state's southeastern corner might seem an unlikely place to engage students in the topic of racial justice: Blacks make up less than 3 percent of the population and even less at the college, and Washington State sits many miles from the movement's heated center in the Deep South.

Young U.S. Citizens in Mexico Up Early to Learn in the U.S. - NYTimes.com

Young U.S. Citizens in Mexico Up Early to Learn in the U.S. - NYTimes.com: ...California teenagers start their mornings with crossing guards and school buses. Martha and her friends stand for hours in a human chain of 16,000 at the world’s busiest international land border. Cellphones in one hand and notebooks in the other, they wait again to cross on foot, fearing delays that could force them to miss a social studies final, oblivious to hawkers selling breakfast burritos or weary parents holding toddlers in pajamas.

In San Ysidro, the port of entry, they board a red trolley to another bus that takes them to school. They are sweating the clock — the bell rings at 8 a.m. sharp.

“Most of the time I am really, really tired,” said Martha, whose parents moved back to Tijuana because the cost of living was cheaper here than in southern California.

“I try to do my best,” she added. “But sometimes, I just can’t.”

In the raging debate over immigration, almost all sides have come to agree on tougher enforcement at the border. But nearly unnoticed, frustration is focusing locally on border-crossers who are not illegal immigrants but young American citizens, whose families have returned to Mexico yet want their children to attend American schools.

Studying Steinbeck, New Jersey Students Find Common Ground - NYTimes.com

Studying Steinbeck, New Jersey Students Find Common Ground - NYTimes.com: ...In a state stratified to a large extent by race and wealth, the mostly white students in tony Westfield say that they live in a privileged “bubble,” while the Cedarbrook students in Plainfield are nearly all black and Hispanic, and two-thirds of them are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced lunches. On Tuesday, the day after Martin Luther King’s Birthday, 130 of the eighth graders who have been reading Steinbeck side by side, trading questions via Wikispaces, Skype and visits to each others’ schools, will gather for the final chapter in a project that sought to teach them as much about themselves as about Lennie and George.

“If you become experts in Steinbeck, beautiful, but that’s not my goal,” Matthew Kalafat, a Westfield teacher, told his class of 13 students — 11 white, 2 Asian — holding well-thumbed hardcover books in first period the other day. “This is just a tool to get us to understand our world.”

Martin Luther King Jr. hailed for breakthroughs in equality – USATODAY.com

Martin Luther King Jr. hailed for breakthroughs in equality – USATODAY.com: On the federal holiday marking what would have been King's 83rd birthday, people here and elsewhere celebrated King's achievements while warning that voter identification laws enacted or sought in dozens of states threaten those gains.

"You cannot celebrate Dr. King on Monday, and undermine people's ability to vote on Super Tuesday," said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached during the 1960s.

It was a reference to March 6, when 11 states hold primaries or caucuses for the Republican presidential nomination. Voter ID laws require voters to present some form of official identification.

During remarks at the annual commemorative King service at the downtown church here, Warnock's attacks on such laws drew a standing ovation from nearly everyone except Gov. Nathan Deal and Sen. Johnny Isakson, both Republicans, who were on the dais with him.

Commentary: Post-9/11 GI Bill Helps Support Higher Education Opportunities of Minorities in Armed Services

Commentary: Post-9/11 GI Bill Helps Support Higher Education Opportunities of Minorities in Armed Services: Service members and veterans pursuing higher education receive significant financial support through two key military programs: the Reserve Officer Training Corps, or ROTC, and the GI Bill. Both programs provide financial support in exchange for a service commitment, but they differ in the timing of service. For ROTC, the service commitment follows the attainment of a bachelor’s degree and commissioning as an officer in one of the service branches, whereas the GI Bill supports veterans who have completed their service. Although neither program focuses on minority students, both have significant minority participation.

New Research: How Girls Can Win in Math and Science - The Daily Beast

New Research: How Girls Can Win in Math and Science - The Daily Beast: For years, feminists have lamented the sorry state of girls in math and science, as they lag behind their male peers in test scores and shy away from careers in engineering and technology. Yet perhaps the most frustrating recent development on the topic is that some of the very programs designed to help girls get ahead may be holding them back—or are simply misguided.

Take single-sex math and science classes. While they seem like a logical way to give girls a jump-start in these subjects, new research suggests this initiative—championed over the past two decades as a possible solution—may backfire.


In a study published last year, psychologist Howard Glasser at Bryn Mawr College examined teacher-student interaction in sex-segregated science classes. As it turned out, teachers behaved differently toward boys and girls in a way that gave boys an advantage in scientific thinking.

Ted Horrell, Germantown High School Principal, Apologizes For Presentation On Race, Test Scores

Ted Horrell, Germantown High School Principal, Apologizes For Presentation On Race, Test Scores: A Tennessee high school principal has issued a letter of apology to parents and students for saying the school's black students are "less smart," as evidenced by a state report card issued this month, WREG reports.

"I unintentionally offended a number of students on this campus," Germantown High School Principal Ted Horrell wrote in the letter. "I apologize to all the students and parents who were offended."

During a school presentation last week, Horrell reportedly laid out the results of the Germantown High's Tennessee state report card, which breaks down standardized test scores by race and income. The assembly aimed to discuss how the school can close the achievement gap and introduce a new program that would offer assistance to struggling students, WMC-TV

MLK digital archive goes live with nearly 200,000 documents - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

MLK digital archive goes live with nearly 200,000 documents - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: Nearly 200,000 documents connected with the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. are part of a new online archive that will go live on Monday, the national holiday that honors the slain civil rights leader.

The huge effort is called the King Center Imaging Project. The documents, which can be seen here, include copies of original speeches, letters, telegrams, articles, photos, sermons, a court summons, meeting agendas and much more.

King’s draft of the speech he gave to accept the1964 Nobel Peace Price is there, in his own writing, with words crossed out, as is a typewritten draft of his “I Have a Dream” speech, with crossouts. The digitizing of these documents will make it much easier for researchers — and students studying King — to find original material.

For Many Latinos, Race Is More Culture Than Color - NYTimes.com

For Many Latinos, Race Is More Culture Than Color - NYTimes.com: Every decade, the Census Bureau spends billions of dollars and deploys hundreds of thousands of workers to get an accurate portrait of the American population. Among the questions on the census form is one about race, with 15 choices, including “some other race.”

More than 18 million Latinos checked this “other” box in the 2010 census, up from 14.9 million in 2000. It was an indicator of the sharp disconnect between how Latinos view themselves and how the government wants to count them. Many Latinos argue that the country’s race categories — indeed, the government’s very conception of identity — do not fit them.

The main reason for the split is that the census categorizes people by race, which typically refers to a set of common physical traits. But Latinos, as a group in this country, tend to identify themselves more by their ethnicity, meaning a shared set of cultural traits, like

Policy Study Touts the Expertise, Experience of Minority-Serving Schools

Policy Study Touts the Expertise, Experience of Minority-Serving Schools: When it comes to reaching the nation’s college completion goals, Minority Serving Institutions, or MSIs, should be seen as “experts in the education of low-income, first generation, and under-represented students.”

That’s one of the key points of a new policy brief issued this week by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, or IHEP, a D.C.-based organization that seeks higher education reform through research and policy.

“In this time of economic stress and rapid demographic shifts, we will need to turn to MSIs, which are experienced in doing more with less and are recognized leaders in educating and graduating students of color,” the brief states of MSIs, which enroll more than 2.3 million students or nearly 14 percent of all students, including African-American, American Indian, Hispanic and Asian American Pacific Islander students.

Is Hollywood 'whitewashing' Asian roles? – In America - CNN.com Blogs

Is Hollywood 'whitewashing' Asian roles? – In America - CNN.com Blogs: America’s embrace of Japanese pop culture, particularly manga and anime, hasn’t resulted in an embrace of Asian and Asian-American actors when those storylines go to Hollywood.

Two upcoming feature films based on Japanese material are already stirring controversy after rumors that white American actors will be cast as characters originally written as Japanese.

Tom Cruise is rumored to be in talks to play the lead role in the Warner Bros. adaptation of Japanese novel “All You Need is Kill,” replacing a Japanese main character. Warner Bros., which is owned by the same parent company as CNN, is also in the pre-production stages of making a live-action version of “Akira,” a graphic novel that was made into a landmark 1988 animated feature film in Japan. All of the actors rumored to be in consideration for the upcoming film’s main characters are white Americans, although casting calls invited actors of “any race” to audition.

That’s troubling to both the series’ devoted fans and advocates of diversity in casting.

MLK Memorial’s ‘drum major’ quote will be corrected, Interior secretary says - The Washington Post

MLK Memorial’s ‘drum major’ quote will be corrected, Interior secretary says - The Washington Post: Five months ago, in this space, I wrote that something was wrong with the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. The quotation inscribed on the monument’s left flank had been so badly excerpted that a modest statement of King’s was turned into a boast.

At the time, it wasn’t clear how or why this had happened, but what seemed likely, at least to me, was that nothing would be done about it. Things that are etched in stone seldom are changed, especially in Washington, which is not famous for admitting error, righting wrongs, getting things done in a timely fashion, or getting things done at all.

In Laurens, S.C., the Redneck Shop and Its Neighbor - NYTimes.com

In Laurens, S.C., the Redneck Shop and Its Neighbor - NYTimes.com: The Redneck Shop has been selling Confederate bikinis and white satin robes on the historic courthouse square in this former mill town for so long that most people have learned to ignore it.
“The only people who really get caught up and interested in the store are from out of town,” said Sharon Brownlee, the mayor, who is white. “The store causes no problems that I’m aware of.”
That is a matter of perspective. Since 1996, the Rev. David Kennedy, who is black, has been fighting the shop and the Ku Klux Klan leader who runs it.
Now, in a quirk of fate laced with lawsuits, religious conversions and a small-town Southern narrative Harper Lee might deliver, a black pastor will eventually control what just might be the most famous white supremacist shop in America.

Tucson Schools Ethnic Studies Program Dismantled, Deemed Illegal

Tucson Schools Ethnic Studies Program Dismantled, Deemed Illegal: A school district in Tucson voted to dismantle its ethnic studies program after more than $1 million of monthly state funding was to be cut off in response to conclusions by Arizona's public schools chief and a judge that the program violated the law.

Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal last week ordered that 10 percent of the district's monthly state aid, amounting to more than $1 million per month, be withheld until the district follows the law.

Huppenthal concluded during the summer that the program violated the law. The district appealed Huppenthal's earlier findings, and an administrative law judge in December upheld the decision by the schools chief.

Martin Luther King Day 2012 Report | Dissident Voice

Martin Luther King Day 2012 Report | Dissident Voice: This January 16, 2012, marks the 25th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday. We all know the story of Dr. King being called to Memphis in April 1968 on an environmental and economic justice mission involving 1,300 striking sanitary public works employees from AFSCME Local 1733. The strike shut down garbage collection, sewer, water and street maintenance. Clearly, the Memphis struggle was much more than a garbage strike. It was also about human dignity and human rights. Although Memphis was Dr. King’s last campaign, his legacy lives on in modern day garbage and environmental justice struggles.

If Dr. King were alive today, there is a good chance the 83-year-old civil rights icon would be standing side-by-side with the African American Harry Holt family in Dickson County, Tennessee, located just 160 miles east of Memphis, whose 150-acre farmland and well were poisoned with the deadly trichloroethylene (TCE) chemical from the leaky Dickson County Landfill. The landfill is located just 54 feet from the Holt family’s property line.

Welcome to MLKDay.gov

Welcome to MLKDay.gov: What is the MLK Day of Service?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'"

Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities.

The MLK Day of Service is a part of United We Serve, the President's national call to service initiative. It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems.

Martin Luther King Day in United States

Martin Luther King Day in United States: What do people do?

Martin Luther King Day is a relatively new federal holiday and there are few long standing traditions. It is seen as a day to promote equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their background. Some educational establishments mark the day by teaching their pupils or students about the work of Martin Luther King and the struggle against racial segregation and racism. In recent years, federal legislation has encouraged Americans to give some of their time on this day as volunteers in citizen action groups.

Martin Luther King Day, also known as Martin Luther King’s birthday and Martin Luther King Jr Day, is combined with other days in different states. For example, it is combined with Civil Rights Day in Arizona and New Hampshire, while it is observed together with Human Rights Day in Idaho. It is also a day that is combined with Robert E. Lee’s birthday in some states.

Ohio landlord wants commission to reconsider ruling on 'white only' sign - CNN.com

Ohio landlord wants commission to reconsider ruling on 'white only' sign - CNN.com: A landlord wants the Ohio Civil Rights Commission on Thursday to reconsider its finding that she violated the law by posting a "white only" sign at her swimming pool.

Jamie Hein has asked the commission to reverse its initial ruling that found she violated the Ohio Civil Rights Act by putting up a sign that read "Public Swimming Pool, White Only" at her Cincinnati duplex.

The commission, meeting this week in Columbus, concluded last year that the sign "restricts the social contact between Caucasians and African Americans as well as reinforcing discrimination actions that are aimed at oppressing all 'people of color.'"

Mississippi Voter ID Law Rejected Overwhelmingly By Blacks, Supported By Whites

Mississippi Voter ID Law Rejected Overwhelmingly By Blacks, Supported By Whites: When Mississippi residents last year voted in favor of a ballot initiative amending the state's constitution to require voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls, it was seen as a strong public affirmation of the Republican initiative.

Unlike nearly a dozen other states that recently pushed similar bills through their legislatures against waves of opponents arguing the laws were unconstitutional and would disenfranchise minority and elderly voters, the people themselves in Mississippi had spoken: 62 percent for the amendment, 38 percent against it.

But a recent report from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law reveals a clearer picture of just which voices were heard in Mississippi. According to the report, more than 75 percent of non-white voters rejected the ballot measure, while more than 82 percent of their white counterparts supported it.

Seattle University’s Korematsu Center Seeks Social Justice

Seattle University’s Korematsu Center Seeks Social Justice: As a young lawyer in the early 1980s, Lorraine Bannai was convinced Fred Korematsu’s civil rights case was about more than just a man who refused to report to an internment camp during World War II. To Bannai and her colleagues, the case was about social justice for all Americans during times of peace as well as conflict.

This theme also informs Bannai’s work as a Seattle University educator today. As a director of its Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, she helps lead faculty and researchers trying to empower politically and socially disadvantaged populations.

Since its 2008 inception, the Center, which is based at the Seattle University School of Law, has launched a project studying ways to combat minority vote dilution and an initiative aimed at improving public defense representation in courts for indigent people accused of misdemeanors.

First Native American lesbian elected to Minnesota House | The Raw Story

First Native American lesbian elected to Minnesota House | The Raw Story: Susan Allen became the first openly lesbian Native American to be elected to a state legislature after winning a special election in Minnesota on Tuesday night.

The Democratic candidate beat her Republican opponent, Nathan Blumenshine, by a 53 percent to 43 percent vote. Allen will replace Democrat Jeffrey Hayden, who was recently elected to the Minnesota Senate.

“My early priorities will be to bring jobs and job training to our district, work on a fair tax system for Minnesota and fight the discriminatory constitutional marriage amendment,” Allen said after winning the election. “I look forward to getting to know you better, hearing about your priorities and about how I can best represent you.”

Commentary: Sweep Around Your Own Front Door

Commentary: Sweep Around Your Own Front Door: Fifteen Harvard students walked out of an economics class when the faculty member posited that 99 percent of the poorest of the poor, defined as those at 50 percent or less of the official poverty level ($5,570 for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four) were suffering from economic envy and concluded that inequality hadn’t increased in the United States. This is occurring at a time when 1 in 15 Americans are considered the poorest of the poor and the same time that those fortunate enough to attend college, leave with an average of $20,000 in loan debt. At Alabama A&M, for example, the average debt was $32,000, while at prestigious Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., the debt level was only about $8,000. The question I ask us to consider together is where do HBCUs stand on these issues of ever pressing concern?

Montgomery County civil rights leader dies - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post

Montgomery County civil rights leader dies - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post: Roscoe R. Nix, a Montgomery County civil rights leader who used his political influence and confrontational style to draw attention to racial inequities in one of the region’s most affluent jurisdictions, died Jan. 4 at a hospital in Riverdale, Ga. He was 90.

Mr. Nix, whose civil rights activism spanned more than half a century, said in a 1980s profile in The Washington Post that his roots in the Deep South defined his outlook on race relations.

George Lucas: Hollywood Didn't Want To Fund 'Red Tails' Because Of Its Black Cast (VIDEO)

George Lucas: Hollywood Didn't Want To Fund 'Red Tails' Because Of Its Black Cast (VIDEO): In an appearance on The Daily Show last night, George Lucas said that he had trouble getting funding for his new movie, "Red Tails," because of its black cast.

"This has been held up for release since 1942 since it was shot, I've been trying to get released ever since," Lucas told Jon Stewart. "It's because it's an all-black movie. There's no major white roles in it at all...I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don't know how to market a movie like this."

John Elway's Los Angeles Auto Dealership Targeted In Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

John Elway's Los Angeles Auto Dealership Targeted In Racial Discrimination Lawsuit: A former employee is alleging workers were routinely subjected to racial discrimination at a California car dealership partially owned by former Denver Broncos star John Elway.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, a former sales manager at John Elway's Manhattan Beach Toyota alleges he and other minority employees were denied promotions and opportunities based on their race.

Timothy Sandquist says he didn't get a promotion he deserved despite eight years of successful employment because he is black. He was instead made to work the job without earning the title or a raise.

Sandquist alleges the dealership's general manager used ethnic slurs against black, Latino and Middle Eastern employees.

NAACP head calls for death penalty abolition this year - baltimoresun.com

NAACP head calls for death penalty abolition this year - baltimoresun.com: Ben Jealous, the national NAACP president, came to Annapolis Tuesday to call on Maryland legislators to make this the year the state does away with the death penalty.

Flanked by several legislators, Jealous said he intends to return to Annapolis repeatedly through the 90-day legislative session that starts Wednesday to work for repeal.

Death penalty opponents have come close in recent years to securing the votes needed to remove capital punishment from the books, but each time have fallen a few votes short.

This year, they are hoping that lingering doubts about the guilt or innocence of Troy Davis, a 42-year-old who was convicted of murder in 1981 and executed in Georgia in September, will give fresh impetus to their efforts.

Jealous, who noted that he will soon move to a new House in Silver Spring, said he plans to meet with Gov. Martin O'Malley soon to urge him to step up efforts to secure the votes needed for repeal.

How The Feds Brought Down Arizona’s Suspected White Supremacist ‘Serial’ Bombing Brothers | TPMMuckraker

How The Feds Brought Down Arizona’s Suspected White Supremacist ‘Serial’ Bombing Brothers | TPMMuckraker: In a small trailer park in Catoosa, Okla., in 2005, an aging white supremacist made a startling claim to a woman he had met only earlier that day.

He told her he was a serial bomber.

According to federal court records, Dennis Mahon, was thumbing through an album of old pictures for the woman, showing off his Ku Klux Klan robe and other artifacts of his life when he began to tick off a list of places he claimed to have bombed since the early 1980s.

There was an abortion clinic, a Jewish community center and offices of the IRS and immigration authorities. He told the woman he liked to use a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. He said he added powdered sugar to the mix for an extra bang. He would set off the bombs at 2 a.m., he said, so that no one was hurt but a message was still sent.

What Mahon didn’t know was that the woman he was bragging to was an informant working for federal law enforcement. And the trailer she was staying in was rigged with hidden cameras and microphones to catch every word.

Commentary: Online Courses Can Be Used to Boost Minority Numbers in STEM fields

Commentary: Online Courses Can Be Used to Boost Minority Numbers in STEM fields: It is now widely understood that increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce is an effective approach to address the economic and technological challenges faced by our country. However, recent national reports supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other national organizations provide strong evidence to support the prevalence of underrepresentation of women and minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines and careers.

Research also indicates that declining minority participation rates in STEM fields are attributed to a lack of institutional support, systemic intransigent attitudes, mendacious recruitment efforts, lack of financial support, professional marginalization, hiring inequities, low academic self-concept and inadequate and unsatisfactory K-12 education programs in math and science.

'Work It' Controversy: ABC Sitcom's Puerto Rican Diss Spurs Debate About Island's Drug Scourge

'Work It' Controversy: ABC Sitcom's Puerto Rican Diss Spurs Debate About Island's Drug Scourge: When the much-maligned ABC sitcom "Work It" airs its second episode tomorrow, you may wonder which segment of the show's audience will turn away offended.

In its inauspicious debut a week ago, a character played by the Puerto Rican actor Amaury Nolasco matter-of-factly uttered the cringe-worthy line, "I'm Puerto Rican... I'd be great at selling drugs."

The supposed joke backfired, setting off a firestorm of criticism on Facebook and Twitter and even a prime-time demonstration by about two dozen people on Wednesday outside ABC studios in Manhattan.

The controversial line has prompted a bit of soul searching for an island devastated by drug-related violence. Puerto Rico's dirty little secret is neither little nor secret any more.

Still, some protesters outside ABC carried signs with the Puerto Rican flag and chanted, "I am Puerto Rican and not a drug dealer."

Latino Student Struggles Challenge Connecticut School Reformers

Latino Student Struggles Challenge Connecticut School Reformers: As a parent liaison in a school district with a fast-growing Hispanic majority, Ana Lozada navigates a deep cultural divide: Parents think teachers are racist. Teachers doubt parents' commitment. And in many cases, one side speaks only English and the other only knows Spanish.

The disconnect helps explain the struggles of public schools in Windham, a district in rural eastern Connecticut that ranks near the bottom in a state known better for high-performing schools in the tony suburbs of New York City. Last year, the state took the unprecedented step of intervening here to address budget problems, falling test scores and soaring dropout rates.

But the frustrations of the Latino families that Lozada encounters are hardly unique to this blue-collar former mill town: Hispanic achievement gaps have been found in every school district where the data is available in Connecticut, a corner of New England that critics say has been slow to adapt to its largest and fastest-growing minority population.

Slaves used as part of 3rd grade math questions - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Slaves used as part of 3rd grade math questions - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: What would you do if your elementary school child came home with a worksheet that had questions such as these:


--“Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?”

--“If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”

That actually happened in Norcross, Ga., where parents complained that their third-grade children had come home with worksheets with those questions from Beaver Ridge Elementary School, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

How did that happen?

The newspaper quoted officials in Gwinnett County Public Schools as saying teachers were looking for opportunities to teach history and tried to use third grade math questions in that effort.

The paper quoted district spokeswoman Sloan Roach as saying: “Clearly, they did not do as good of a job as they should have done.”

Clearly.

Parents complained to school district officials, who responded by saying that the principal of the school — where some 60 percent of the students are Hispanic and nearly 30 are black — would help teachers come up with better questions and that there would be more professional development.

Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap: Within the last year, two Minnesota school districts have reached agreements with the U.S. departments of Education and Justice to settle complaints of harassment brought by Somali-American parents and a civil rights group.

The complaints alleged that district officials failed to take action when students made “inflammatory and derogatory” comments about Somalis and Muslims in school and on social media. There also were allegations that a school bus driver refused to pick up Somali-American students.

The immigrant population in Minnesota from East Africa, and Somalia specifically, has burgeoned in recent years to the point that the state now has the largest Somali population in the U.S. — between 29,000 and 36,000 — according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released in October.

'Brilliant' Report On Obesity in African-American Girls Navigates Race : NPR Ombudsman : NPR

'Brilliant' Report On Obesity in African-American Girls Navigates Race : NPR Ombudsman : NPR: Two reactions are common when a negative news report comes out about our own race or ethnic group. One, I want to know more, so I can confront the problem. Or, two, why are they pointing fingers at us?

A recent report on Morning Edition about the high rate of obesity among African-American girls sparked both reactions. It's the latter one that is troubling.

"I was once again appalled to hear about an issue that has nothing to do with race framed in a racial context," wrote Carolyn Casey, of Boston, MA. "The fact of the matter is that the lack of exercise increases EVERYONE'S risk of obesity, which is why over 60% of ALL Americans are considered overweight or obese."

Listener Kwende Madu commented: "I would ask that NPR refrain from publishing stories that concern the African-American community as this only gives racist elements an excuse to vent their hatred. I have no doubt that this particular problem will be handled internally and the African community will emerge stronger much to the dismay of our enemies."

Urban American Indians Rewrite Relocation's Legacy : NPR

Urban American Indians Rewrite Relocation's Legacy : NPR: ... Los Angeles County is home to the largest urban American Indian population — more than 160,000. In 1952, the federal government created the Urban Relocation Program, which encouraged American Indians to move off reservations and into cities such as Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. They were lured by the hope of a better life, but for many, that promise was not realized.

"The boarding schools, relocation — I mean, everything that historically happened to American Indians — continues to impact them today," Carrie Johnson says. Johnson is part of an effort to help those living with the consequences of the relocation program and build a new future for today's urban American Indian youth.

Judge rules black church is landlord of KKK store | The Raw Story

Judge rules black church is landlord of KKK store | The Raw Story: A store in South Carolina that sells Ku Klux Klan paraphernalia isn’t backing down after the pastor of an African American church that owns the building promised the business would “come to an end.”

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that a judge found the New Beginnings Baptist Church to be the rightful owner of the Redneck Shop in Laurens.

In 1997, Klan infighting led to the store being sold to New Beginnings, but store proprietor John Howard, a former KKK grand dragon for the Carolinas, allegedly has lifetime rights to operate the business, according to a clause in the deed.

Postal Service honors Jose Ferrer on 2012 Forever Stamp | El Hispanic News

Postal Service honors Jose Ferrer on 2012 Forever Stamp | El Hispanic News: Washington, D.C. — Actor Jose Ferrer will be immortalized on a First-Class Forever Stamp in 2012 as the 14th luminary celebrated in the U.S. Postal Service’s Distinguished Americans series.

Considered one of the most accomplished talents of his generation, Ferrer (1912-1992) won several Tony Awards for his work on stage and performed in more than 60 movies, garnering three Academy Award nominations. He received a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the title character in “Cyrano de Bergerac.”

Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain - NYTimes.com

Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain - NYTimes.com: Elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings, according to a new study that tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years.

The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, all economists, examines a larger number of students over a longer period of time with more in-depth data than many earlier studies, allowing for a deeper look at how much the quality of individual teachers matters over the long term.

“That test scores help you get more education, and that more education has an earnings effect — that makes sense to a lot of people,” said Robert H. Meyer, director of the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which studies teacher measurement but was not involved in this study. “This study skips the stages, and shows differences in teachers mean differences in earnings.”

Possibility of emergency manager in Detroit prompts civil rights concerns - The Washington Post

Possibility of emergency manager in Detroit prompts civil rights concerns - The Washington Post: As a Michigan panel considers whether a state-appointed emergency manager should take over Detroit’s debt-laden budget, some residents and leaders are arguing that the move would disenfranchise black voters.

“How come all of the jurisdictions put under emergency management are majority African American? Has anybody noticed that?” asked Rep. John Conyers (D), who has represented Detroit for 47 years. “There seems to be a racial aspect, a racial component of the application of this law.”

Under a newly strengthened law allowing the governor to appoint emergency managers over local governments, appointees are now running other financially bereft cities with large black populations — including Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Ecorse and Flint. If Detroit is added, a sizable proportion of the state’s black residents will be living under emergency managers.