Rhode Island Father-Daughter Dance Stirs Sex-Discrimination Dispute - NYTimes.com

Rhode Island Father-Daughter Dance Stirs Sex-Discrimination Dispute - NYTimes.com: The members of the parent-teacher organization at Stadium Elementary School had no idea that the father-daughter dance they were planning last spring was, in fact, against the law.

But a complaint from a single mother about the event led to a renewal of a ban on such dances here, a move that has, in recent weeks, become a fiercely debated political flash point. 

The Cranston Public Schools Committee met Monday night to ask the state to create a special exception to a law it has cited in banning the dances. The law prohibits sex discrimination in “any and all other school functions and activities.”

By last spring, district officials say, a decade of turnover since the law was passed meant that administrators at Stadium Elementary were unaware of it, and the P.T.O. set out to plan the “Me and My Guy” dance, as well as a mother-son baseball game.

Mixed-Race America - NYTimes.com

Mixed-Race America - NYTimes.com: That map is from a new Census Bureau report about the population of mixed-race Americans, which grew 32 percent from 2000 to 2010. The population of single-race Americans, by contrast, grew 9.2 percent.

As a share of the total population, mixed-race Americans are still a tiny minority, just 2.9 percent, or about nine million people.

As you can see in the map, the states with the highest share of residents who report being of more than one race are Hawaii (23.6 percent), Alaska (7.3 percent), Oklahoma (5.9 percent) and California (4.9 percent).

Four distinct mixed-race combinations represented about 92 percent of all mixed-race people: people who reported being both white and black totaled 1.8 million; white and “some other race,” 1.7 million; white and Asian, 1.6 million; and white and American Indian and Alaska native, 1.4 million.

Specialized High School Admissions Test is Racially Discriminatory, Complaint Says - NYTimes.com

Specialized High School Admissions Test is Racially Discriminatory, Complaint Says - NYTimes.com: A coalition of educational and civil rights groups filed a federal complaint on Thursday saying that black and Hispanic students were disproportionately excluded from New York City’s most selective high schools because of a single-test admittance policy they say is racially discriminatory.

The complaint, filed with the United States Education Department, seeks to have the policy found in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and to change admissions procedures “to something that is nondiscriminatory and fair to all students,” said Damon T. Hewitt, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, one of the groups that filed the complaint. 

At issue is the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which is the sole criterion for admission to eight specialized schools that, even in the view of city officials, have been troubled by racial demographics that are out of balance.

Although 70 percent of the city’s public school students are black and Hispanic, a far smaller percentage have scored high enough to receive offers from one of the schools. According to the complaint, 733 of the 12,525 black and Hispanic students who took the exam were offered seats this year. For whites, 1,253 of the 4,101 test takers were offered seats. Of 7,119 Asian students who took the test, 2,490 were offered seats. At Stuyvesant High School, the most sought-after school, 19 blacks were offered seats in a freshman class of 967.

Carlton A. Funn Sr., teacher who focused on black history, dies at 80 - The Washington Post

Carlton A. Funn Sr., teacher who focused on black history, dies at 80 - The Washington Post: Carlton A. Funn Sr., a Washington area schoolteacher who championed the preservation of black history for more than a half-century, died Sept. 11 at Inova Alexandria Hospital. He was 80.
He had congestive heart failure, said his son Marc Funn.
 
Mr. Funn, an Alexandria native who taught in the District and several Northern Virginia school systems over a 38-year career, began working in classrooms during an era when racial segregation was being forcefully challenged.

While teaching a history class to Alexandria seventh graders in 1957 — three years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed public school segregation — Mr. Funn said he was shocked to see the school system using a dated and racially offensive text on Virginia history.

It depicted slaves as cheerful and docile. It was also the same book the Alexandria school system had used when he was a student. He complained to the principal but was ordered not to make waves.

Report: Black Graduate Student Enrollment Up - Higher Education

Report: Black Graduate Student Enrollment Up - Higher Education: In a significant one-year change that scholars say deserves more scrutiny, first-time graduate school enrollment among African-Americans rose in 2011, bucking an otherwise downward trend among all other groups, according to a new survey being released today by the Council of Graduate Schools.

The survey—formally known as the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees – found that, while graduate school enrollment declined overall in 2011, African-Americans “were the only U.S. citizen and permanent resident racial/ethnic group to experience an increase in first-time graduate enrollment between 2010 and fall 2011, a 4.4 percent gain.”

Meanwhile, total first-time graduate enrollment went down 1.7 percent. Among Whites it dropped 2.9 percent. It dropped 5.9 percent for Hispanics and .8 percent for Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 3.8 percent for American Indian/Native Alaskan students.

Commentary: Could End of Affirmative Action Be Boon for Black Colleges? - Higher Education

Commentary: Could End of Affirmative Action Be Boon for Black Colleges? - Higher Education: As the Supreme Court prepares once again to consider the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education, I have been struck by many questions. What if the court further restricted or even banned the use of affirmative action at public colleges and universities? What would be the effects on diversity? Would there be a re-segregation of public higher education akin to what has happened on the K-12 level? If so, would this re-segregation benefit historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)? For HBCUs, integration has been somewhat of a double-edged sword. On one end, the integration of the nation’s schools and public spaces highlighted the vital role that HBCUs played in educating African-Americans. The lawyers and others who led the fight against segregation were educated at HBCUs.

Social Science Research Group Deems Race-conscious Admissions Most Effective Path to Diversity - Higher Education

Social Science Research Group Deems Race-conscious Admissions Most Effective Path to Diversity - Higher Education: The U.S. Supreme Court should continue to allow the narrow use of race in college admissions because it achieves diversity in ways that race-neutral policies cannot, a group of social science researchers argued Thursday during a briefing on the soon-to-be heard Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin case.

“Some say you could do this by relying on social class … . We tried that,” said Dr. Gary Orfield, Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at UCLA and co-director of The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

The shortcoming of class-based affirmative action, Orfield said, is that it fails to account for the fact that children from middle-class Black and Latino families still end up attending inferior K-12 public schools in poorer neighborhoods more than Whites from similar backgrounds and thus have a distinctly different pre-college experience.

Civil rights dominate Supreme Court term - First Read

Civil rights dominate Supreme Court term - First Read: The U.S. Supreme Court term that begins Monday promises to be one of the most important for civil rights in decades, with the potential for blockbuster decisions on issues from race in classrooms and the voting booth to legal recognition for same-sex marriage.

Less than a decade after ruling that the nation's colleges and universities can consider the race of student applicants to achieve more racially diverse campuses, a practice now widely used by the nation's selective schools, the court has agreed to take a fresh look.

The new challenge comes from Abigail Fisher, a white student denied admission to the University of Texas at Austin. The school admits the top 10 percent of academic performers from all Texas high schools, then considers the race of applicants as one factor in admitting the remainder of an incoming freshman class.

Peering Though the Kaleidoscope - Higher Education

Peering Though the Kaleidoscope - Higher Education: Irish dancers entertained students and faculty at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, as part of the school’s monthly Rhythm of Life series. Upperclassmen discussed race relations, harassment and other serious topics in the Circle of Oppression. These are among the programs Andy Herrera either helped create or established during his tenure as the school’s director of educational equity and diversity programs within the school’s student services division.

Herrera, who enters his 10th year at the Penn State campus, also known as Penn State Behrend, helps Ariana Rosario-Fuste “stay busy” by taking notes for disabled students and giving campus tours for international students.

“He really respects the eagerness to learn about all the cultures in the world and in the student body,” said the 19-year-old sophomore biology major who transferred to Penn State Behrend last semester from the University of Puerto Rico. “It is definitely nice to have a faculty member at Penn State [Behrend] who speaks Spanish. Andy understands what students go through coming from a different nation and with a different culture.”

HBCU Week Conference: Black College Leaders Counseled on Federal Contracting, Grant Opportunities - Higher Education

HBCU Week Conference: Black College Leaders Counseled on Federal Contracting, Grant Opportunities - Higher Education: To win federal grants and contracts, college leaders must gain a realistic sense of their institutional capabilities, hire faculty with a vision to do more than just teach, and be willing to remedy any shortcomings identified in their proposals.

It also pays to “spy” on competitors and research the mission of the agency from which funds are being sought.

Those were among the tips that federal administrators and university leaders offered Wednesday during the final day of HBCU Week at a panel discussion titled “How to Effectively Engage the Federal Sector.”

“There are opportunities out there,” said Leslie Pollard, president of Oakwood University in Huntsville, Ala., which he described as the “Silicon Valley” of the South. “But it’s going to take for us as HBCUs a certain kind of self-assurance that’s grounded on a realistic assessment of what our capabilities and capacities are.”

Terry Johnson, North Carolina Sheriff, Will Not Settle Racial Profiling Charges By Justice Department, Says Attorney

Terry Johnson, North Carolina Sheriff, Will Not Settle Racial Profiling Charges By Justice Department, Says Attorney: An attorney for a North Carolina sheriff accused of illegally arresting Latinos without probable cause to boost deportations says the lawman isn't interested in a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department.

Attorney S.C. Kitchen told government lawyers Wednesday that Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson hasn't done wrong and his deputies don't discriminate.

The development sets up the potential for the federal government to sue the county.

Young Undocumented Immigrants Seek Work Permits : NPR

Young Illegal Immigrants Seek Work Permits : NPR: It's been more than a month since the government began accepting requests for its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama administration's policy for young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Hundreds of thousands of people are eligible for the program. So far, only 82,000 have applied.

Carlos Martinez is one of the 29 people who have actually gotten deferrals. It means that he won't be deported, and that he can get a work permit. Martinez applied for the deferred action program the first day.

Sitting in his parents' home in Tucson, Ariz., he's especially excited about the two-year work permit.

"There's so much out there, opportunities — opportunities I've been waiting for 15 years, pretty much," Martinez says.

There's so much out there, opportunities — opportunities I've been waiting for 15 years, pretty much.

- Carlos Martinez, 30

Martinez was brought to Tucson from Mexico by his parents at the age of 9. As a high school junior, he realized he was in the country illegally. He graduated from high school and earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in software engineering from the University of Arizona. That was seven years ago. Now at 30, he says he can finally use his skills to apply for a job at one of his dream companies.

Ala. council stops work on Confederate statue – USATODAY.com

Ala. council stops work on Confederate statue – USATODAY.com: Council members in an Alabama city voted Tuesday to stop a group's work on a new monument honoring a Confederate general who was an early leader in the Ku Klux Klan.

The Selma City Council voted 4-0 with two members abstaining to stop all work on the monument to Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest until the courts decide whether the city or a Confederate heritage group owns the cemetery property where the monument would be rebuilt.

The vote came after a group of protesters marched to City Hall.

Demonstrations by civil rights groups about 10 years ago led to the relocation of a Forrest monument from outside a city building near downtown to a section of a city cemetery honoring Confederate war dead. But Forrest's bust was removed and apparently stolen from atop a 7-foot granite memorial earlier this year, and efforts to rebuild it have drawn protests and calls by civil rights activists not to replace it.

Program tries to get minority kids buckled up – USATODAY.com

Program tries to get minority kids buckled up – USATODAY.com: It's long been a vexing challenge for road safety advocates: how to increase the use of child safety restraints and seat belts among African Americans and Hispanics.

A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan shows there's still work to do: The study, published last month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, finds that black and Hispanic infants and toddlers are unrestrained at rates 10 times those of white children; among older children, there's a two-fold difference.

An 8-year-old, church-based, family-focused initiative by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and automaker Toyota is helping make a dent. The program, Buckle Up for Life, works through churches to overcome cultural, educational and economic barriers to restraint use by minorities.

Bank Of America Foreclosures Better Maintained, Marketed In White Neighborhoods: Complaint

Bank Of America Foreclosures Better Maintained, Marketed In White Neighborhoods: Complaint: A nonprofit group on Tuesday accused Bank of America Corp of maintaining and marketing foreclosed homes in white neighborhoods much better than those it owns in African-American and Latino neighborhoods.

The National Fair Housing Alliance and its member organizations said they filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It lodged similar complaints in April against Wells Fargo & Co and U.S. Bancorp.

The group reviewed 373 properties owned, managed or serviced by Bank of America in eight U.S. cities as part of its ongoing examination of how U.S. lenders maintain bank-owned properties. Investigators evaluated properties for problems such as broken windows, overgrown lawns, trash accumulation and a lack of "for sale" signs.

SAT Scores Dip Slightly, Test Taker Diversity Edges Upward - Higher Education

SAT Scores Dip Slightly, Test Taker Diversity Edges Upward - Higher Education: The more than 1.66 million students who took the SAT in 2012 were the most diverse group of students in the college entrance exam’s history, but the mean scores in critical reading and writing dropped by a single point, a College Board report released Monday shows.

The report, titled “The SAT Report on College & Career Readiness: 2012,” shows that 45 percent of SAT takers in the class of 2012 were minority students, up from 44 percent in the class of 2011 and 38 percent in the class of 2008.

Along similar lines, 28 percent of the SAT takers in 2012 were English-language learners, up from 27 percent the previous year and 24 percent in 2008, the report shows.

The mean scores for the SAT class of 2012 were 496 in critical reading, 514 in mathematics and 488 in writing, the report states.

The mean math score has remained stable in recent years, but scores in critical reading dropped four points since 2008, and writing scores dropped five points during the same period.

Bias Persists Against Women of Science, a Study Says - NYTimes.com

Bias Persists Against Women of Science, a Study Says - NYTimes.com: Science professors at American universities widely regard female undergraduates as less competent than male students with the same accomplishments and skills, a new study by researchers at Yale concluded.

As a result, the report found, the professors were less likely to offer the women mentoring or a job. And even if they were willing to offer a job, the salary was lower.

The bias was pervasive, the scientists said, and probably reflected subconscious cultural influences rather than overt or deliberate discrimination.

Female professors were just as biased against women students as their male colleagues, and biology professors just as biased as physics professors — even though more than half of biology majors are women, whereas men far outnumber women in physics.

SAT reading scores hit a four-decade low - The Washington Post

SAT reading scores hit a four-decade low - The Washington Post: SAT reading scores for graduating high school seniors this year reached a four-decade low as the number and diversity of students taking the college admissions tests hit an all-time high, the College Board reported Monday.

The average reading score for the Class of 2012 was 496, down one point from the previous year and 34 points since 1972.

“Our nation’s future depends on the strength of our education system,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton in a statement. “This report should serve as a call to action to expand access to rigor for more students.”

In writing, the average score was 488, down nine points since that subject was first tested in 2006. The average math score, meanwhile, was 514 — the same as last year and up five points since 1972.

Each of the SAT’s three subjects is worth a maximum of 800 points. Students who score at least 1550 out of a possible 2400 points on the test are more likely to attend a four-year college and earn at least a B-minus grade point average in their first year, according to the College Board.

Nationally, less than half the Class of 2012 met that benchmark score.

South African Children's Hospital Closed Under Apartheid To Reopen : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

South African Children's Hospital Closed Under Apartheid To Reopen : Shots - Health Blog : NPR: A large children's hospital in Durban, South Africa, is being rebuilt two decades after it closed owing to apartheid. It opened in 1931 as a facility for all races, but racial tensions in the 1980s forced its closure.

Now with Durban and the surrounding province of KwaZulu-Natal extremely hard hit by AIDS and tuberculosis, local leaders are hopeful they can begin reopening the hospital early in 2013.

If the rehabilitation project is successful, it could restore one woman's dream from almost a century ago of having a multiracial hospital in Durban by the sea.


While child mortality rates almost everywhere else in the world have been falling, this part of South Africa has seen the rate rise. At some maternity clinics in the region, 50 percent of pregnant women are testing positive for HIV.

Forum: Scholars Explore Affirmative Action’s Impact on Higher Education - Higher Education

Forum: Scholars Explore Affirmative Action’s Impact on Higher Education - Higher Education: Irrespective of the outcome of the pending U.S. Supreme Court case on the use of race-conscious affirmative action in higher education, institutions should remain reflective about how to achieve diversity for the greater public good.

That was one of the major points made during a decidedly one-sided forum at the Brookings Institution titled “The Effects of Racial Preferences in Higher Education Student Outcomes.”

“I’m making a plea,” said Dr. Glenn Loury, an economics professor at Brown University.

“Let us not allow the adversarial process in which a court proceeding is necessarily embedded to cause us to forget the unfinished business of dealing with the consequences of our racial history,” Loury said during a panel roundtable titled “Research, Preferences, Reform, and Fisher v. University of Texas.”

“When our most prestigious institutions, which are venues for globally significant affairs and are a window for society, are devoid of active and effective participation of people of color, Blacks and Latinos, that’s a bad thing for us, especially given our history,” Loury said.

Study: 10M Latinos could be deterred from voting

Study: 10M Latinos could be deterred from voting: Up to 10 million Hispanics could be dissuaded from voting in the upcoming election because of changes to voting laws, a report from a civil rights group will say.

The Advancement Project says in a report to be released tomorrow that restrictions in 23 states -- such as photo identification laws, requirements to prove citizenship and attempts to remove non-citizens from voter rolls in states such as Florida -- will have a "disproportionate effect" on Latinos and people of color.

"The pattern is unmistakable," says Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project. "State after state has moved to obstruct the ability of millions of Latino citizens to participate in our democracy."

She said these voting laws impair "the fundamental American value of ensuring all citizens have an equal voice."

Rising Income Gap Shapes Residential Segregation : NPR

Rising Income Gap Shapes Residential Segregation : NPR: The income gap is receiving much attention lately as more Americans are isolating themselves around "people like us."

More accurately, they surround themselves with people who earn similar incomes, and it is now fueling a rise in residential segregation. One recent study suggests the income gap might be greater today than even during colonial times – even when you account for slavery.

"Thirty years ago, about 9 percent of all upper-income people lived in predominantly upper-income neighborhoods," says Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center. "That share has now doubled to 18 percent."

Taylor recently co-authored a study that tracked this income gap increase between 1980 and 2010.

He tells Jacki Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered, that this is a national trend. But, he adds, locally several factors can contribute to residential segregation by income, including in-migration, the nature of the local economy, housing discrimination and even a city's physical layout.

Towson U White Student Union Controversy Sparks Creation of Change.Org Petition | InTheCapital

Towson U White Student Union Controversy Sparks Creation of Change.Org Petition | InTheCapital: Last week Towson University became one of the most talked about schools within the D.C. area, causing for debate to spur about a new group on campus, the White Student Union. Though mostly acquiring negative attention, the club hopeful remains steady in its claim that it is similar to any other student union, a support system for white students attending Towson University. Though the declaration seems sound on paper, many remain skeptical of the group’s purpose with thoughts of white supremacy coming to mind.

Acting on their wish to denounce the creation of a “hate group” on campus, D.C.-based non-profit Center for Community Change developed their very own Change.Org petition geared towards stopping the establishment of the proposed White Student Union.

Their petition, which calls for 1,200 supporters to sign, is a request for newly appointed University President Maravene Loeschke to intervene, bringing to a halt the formation of the White Student Union. According to Alesia Lucas, one of the group’s members, the petition was “set up so that each time someone signed a petition, the President’s office would get an email about it, so even if the president doesn’t know about these petitions already, her secretary definitely does.” Though the Center for Community Change is not associated with Towson University, Lucas believes that since her group “supports low-income people of color in D.C.,” the proposed White student Union’s message would deeply conflict with what they stand for.

Finding classroom success in noisy mix of Spanish, English

Students in older grades spend large amounts of class time talking and arguing with one another in small groups. One third-grade teacher, Pamela Ochoa, encourages the children in her group of struggling readers to get out of their chairs and dance. Kindergartners in another room interrupt stories to predict what will happen next and ask about words they don’t understand.

Often at this majority-Hispanic school, the arguments and singing that spill out of classrooms are in a mix of Spanish and English.

“I don’t like quiet classrooms,” says Virginia Castro, the school’s principal. “Learning is noisy.”

During her four-year tenure at Geddes, Castro has led the school from struggling to highly successful. In 2008, less than a third of students scored at or above proficient on the state English language arts test. In the last school year, the percentage passing more than doubled to 62 percent. The gains are even more impressive when compared to students in the rest of the state.

That same year, 97 percent of Geddes students qualified for federally subsidized lunches and 42 percent were English Language Learners.. But, while 59 percent of elementary-age students in California were proficient or above on state tests for English language arts, 62 percent of Geddes students were.

In math, 67 percent of California elementary-age students were proficient or above on math tests. In the same year, the figure at Geddes was 77 percent.

Orphaned girl starts university in Zimbabwe at 14 - CNN.com

Orphaned girl starts university in Zimbabwe at 14 - CNN.com: She grew up in grinding poverty, losing both her parents at a tender age but 14-year-old whizz-kid Maud Chifamba has defied adversity and hardship to break academic records.

Against all odds, the extremely bright teenager has written history as last week she became the youngest ever university student in Zimbabwe -- as well as the whole of southern Africa, according to education officials.

Maud, who was born on November 19, 1997, has just started her studies toward a Bachelor of Accountancy Honors Degree at the University of Zimbabwe, the country's oldest and most esteemed educational institution. Her intellectual prowess and hard work have earned her a four-year scholarship of nearly $10,000 after she excelled at last year's Advanced Level exams.

Africa’s Khoe-San were first to split from other humans | The Raw Story

Africa’s Khoe-San were first to split from other humans | The Raw Story: Southern Africa’s bushmen, and their relatives the Khoe, veered off on their own path of genetic development 100,000 years ago, according to a new study this week.

The split, gleaned from an analysis of genetic data, is the earliest divergence scientists have discovered in the evolution of modern humans.

The Khoe and the San peoples — who speak click languages, and live across a wide swath of southern Africa from Namibia to Mozambique to South Africa — have long fascinated scientists.

The San, in particular, were one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer societies, living well into the 20th century in a style anthropologists think was similar to humans’ most ancient ancestors.

The study published in the journal Science on Thursday analyzes the genes of 220 members of the Khoe and San groups. Researchers looked at 2.3 million genetic variations for each participant, an unprecedented number, learning important information about the Khoe-San and, more generally, the origins of modern humans.

Harlem Hosts First Strokes Of Emancipation : NPR

Harlem Hosts First Strokes Of Emancipation : NPR: Saturday marks the 150th anniversary of a crucial moment in U.S. history. On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, announcing his intention to free the slaves in the states rebelling against the Union.

Lincoln didn't officially free the slaves in the Confederacy until the formal Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. But he announced his intention to do it 100 days earlier, in what historians call the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This — and Lincoln's hand-written manuscript — are both on display starting this weekend in Harlem.

"There's a simple way to remember it, as this moral moment of freedom. But as always with politics, there's actually a complicated history behind it," says John King, New York State's commissioner of education.

Ten Of The Best Communities For Hispanic Youth (PHOTOS)

Ten Of The Best Communities For Hispanic Youth (PHOTOS): Not all cities are created equal -- especially when you’re a Latino student. America’s Promise Alliance, a partnership of over 400 organizations dedicated to improving the lives of the country’s youth, has released their 2012 winners of the ‘100 Best Communities For Young People.’ The annual competition aims to recognize “communities making extraordinary efforts to reduce dropout rates and provide outstanding services and supports to their youth.”

With a 15.1 percent dropout rate in 2010, higher than any other minority group for students ages 16 and 24, Hispanic youth remains a key focus group in the Obama administration’s attempt to lower dropout rates nationwide.

As reported by NBC Latino, these ten communities (see slideshow below) stand out from America’s Promise Alliance 2012 list for having a high Hispanic student population as well as a high overall graduation rate. California communities make up half of the list, many making their way onto the list for the second time.

Terry S. Johnson, North Carolina Sheriff, And Deputies Accused Of Discrimination And Targeting Of Latinos For Deportation

Terry S. Johnson, North Carolina Sheriff, And Deputies Accused Of Discrimination And Targeting Of Latinos For Deportation: A two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice has found that a North Carolina sheriff and his deputies routinely discriminated against Latinos by making unwarranted arrests with the intent of maximizing deportations.

In an 11-page report issued Tuesday, the federal agency said Alamance County Sheriff Terry S. Johnson and his deputies violated the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and legal residents by illegally targeting, stopping, detaining and arresting Latinos without probable cause.

The agency also said that Johnson obstructed the federal investigation launched in 2010 by withholding requested documents and falsifying records. Federal investigators say members of the department also feared retaliation if they cooperated.

Latino Poverty Declines Slightly, Only Ethnic Or Racial Group To Register Improvement In Latest Census Bureau Report

Latino Poverty Declines Slightly, Only Ethnic Or Racial Group To Register Improvement In Latest Census Bureau Report: Little in the nation’s annual tabulation of disadvantage released by the Census Bureau last week can be described as encouraging. But, there was one sliver of good news for a population very hard hit by the Great Recession.

Latinos were the only ethnic or racial group in the United States that saw the share of people living in poverty decline. Latino poverty slid to 25.3 percent in 2011 from 26.5 percent in 2010. The difference, while statistically slight, means that 278,000 fewer Latinos were living in poverty in 2011 than in the prior year.

But nearly all of that progress was concentrated in one group, childless Latino adults, according to a National Council of La Raza analysis. Of the 13 million Hispanics living in poverty, 6 million or 46 percent of these people were under the age of 18.

Keija Minor Named 'Brides' Editor-In-Chief, First African-American To Head Up A CondeNast Magazine

Keija Minor Named 'Brides' Editor-In-Chief, First African-American To Head Up A CondeNast Magazine: Keija Minor has been named the editor-in-chief of Brides, making her the first person of color to ever hold the title at a CondeNast Publications (CNP) magazine.

To put it simply--Minor's new appointment is major news.

CNP, the privately owned company that produces 18 magazines including Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair and GQ, has been in existence since 1909. That's 103 years that no black editor has ever been named to the top of an editorial masthead at the company--until now. Yikes!

Minor fills the top spot at Brides that was left vacant after the announcement earlier this month that Anne Fulenwider would be leaving the title to become the new editor-in-chief of Marie Claire.

Minor's new gig got us wondering: Are there or have there ever been any other black editor-in-chiefs at mainstream publications?

Life Expectancy for Less Educated Whites in U.S. Is Shrinking - NYTimes.com

Life Expectancy for Less Educated Whites in U.S. Is Shrinking - NYTimes.com: For generations of Americans, it was a given that children would live longer than their parents. But there is now mounting evidence that this enduring trend has reversed itself for the country’s least-educated whites, an increasingly troubled group whose life expectancy has fallen by four years since 1990.

Researchers have long documented that the most educated Americans were making the biggest gains in life expectancy, but now they say mortality data show that life spans for some of the least educated Americans are actually contracting. Four studies in recent years identified modest declines, but a new one that looks separately at Americans lacking a high school diploma found disturbingly sharp drops in life expectancy for whites in this group. Experts not involved in the new research said its findings were persuasive.

Perspective: Linking STEM Women Online to Students - Higher Education

Perspective: Linking STEM Women Online to Students - Higher Education: nnovative, impactful ideas using today’s technology to meet today’s educational needs always need applauding.

One of the great needs of our time is for more of our students to enter the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. An even greater need of our time is for more women to enter the STEM fields.

Beginning next month, college students will receive online mentorship from hundreds of prominent women working in the STEMs. WitsOn (Women in Technology Sharing Online) is a six-week pilot program sponsored by Harvey Mudd College and the Piazza college course discussion platform company to encourage female students to enter the STEM fields.

50th Anniversary of the integration of the University of Mississippi: James Meredith barred from Ole Miss - UPI.com

50th Anniversary of the integration of the University of Mississippi: James Meredith barred from Ole Miss - UPI.com: For 16 months, James Meredith's case was fought in the courts.

A 28-year-old married veteran of the Air Force, Meredith had studied for two years at Jackson State University. But Meredith wanted a better legal education than the historically black university could offer, and he wanted to get it at Ole Miss.

Even though the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. the Board of Education had come more than eight years earlier, forbidding "separate but equal" public schools, no university in the South--the great bastion of segregation--had yet integrated.

After twice being denied admission, with advice from the NAACP, Meredith took his case all the way to the Supreme Court, where he was finally granted the right to attend the all-white university.
"Nobody handpicked me," Meredith would later recall, crediting President John Kennedy's inaugural address as inspiring him to attempt what had never before been achieved. "I believed, and I believe now, that I have a divine responsibility to break white supremacy in Mississippi, and getting in Ole Miss was only the start."

Educational Segregation Report: Black Kids in Apartheid Schools

Educational Segregation Report: Black Kids in Apartheid Schools: The authors of a new Civil Rights Project report on education with findings about deepening segregation in American schools want to be clear about one thing: Simply sitting next to a white student does not guarantee better educational outcomes for students of color. Rather, they say, the research they've summarized shows that segregated schools are systematically linked to unequal educational opportunities as well as high dropout rates and fewer resources.

That's bad news for black students, according to "E Pluribus ... Separation: Deepening Double Segregation for More Students." Released this week, the report on national trends shows that, although residential segregation has declined for African-American families, school segregation remains high, with the greatest increases in the Southern states that led the national school integration efforts of the 1960s.

That leaves 15 percent of black students and 14 percent of Latino students in what the Civil Rights Project calls "apartheid schools," where whites make up only 0 to 10 percent of students.

The Root 100 2012 List: Black Influencers to Know

The Root 100 2012 List: Black Influencers to Know: One core mission of The Root is to reveal and recognize African Americans who are breaking ground, raising the bar and effecting meaningful change in the world. We do that in many ways throughout the year, but our signature means of recognizing our community's best and brightest, since 2009, is through The Root 100 annual list of black achievers and influencers, ages 25-45. The Root 100 honorees not only excel in their fields but also are people who use their influence to shape the world and make it a better place. Otherwise, what is all that influence really good for?

It's in that spirit that we reveal our top-ranked honoree for 2012: scholar, author and MSNBC television-show host Melissa Harris-Perry. "For me, success is when I'm making a contribution and fully engaging all of my talents," Harris-Perry once said. Evidence of that success over the past year is clear in how the Tulane University political science professor has handled the national platform that came with her new MSNBC news show, Melissa Harris-Perry. She has used it not only to air the typical hot-button issues that feed the cable-news beast, like the latest politician's gaffe, but also to discuss the tough topics that many would rather not face, like felon voter rights, anti-Muslim bigotry and the way the poor are being ignored and vilified in politics.

U.S. Income Inequality Worse Now Than In 1774: Study

U.S. Income Inequality Worse Now Than In 1774: Study: Believe it or not, income inequality in the United States is worse today than it was back in 1774.

That’s what a recent report from the National Bureau of Economic Research has found. In “American Incomes 1774 to 1860,” authors Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson argue that the American colonies were exceptionally egalitarian, compared to both other nations at the time and the U.S. today. And their data even factors in slavery.

As the Atlantic’s Jordan Weissman points out, such studies should be taken with a grain of salt, given that making historical economic analyses is like “making a messy collage, collecting the disparate bits and pieces of information we have available and fashioning them into a coherent picture,” Weissman writes.

Rural Minorities Ponder The American Dream From The Bottom Rung Of The Economic Ladder

Rural Minorities Ponder The American Dream From The Bottom Rung Of The Economic Ladder: About 22 miles northeast of Laredo, Texas, in an otherwise desolate and unincorporated stretch of Webb County, a roughed-out grid of unnamed dirt roads cuts through a maze of half-built cinderblock homes and dilapidated trailers.

Israel Reyna, a local attorney and advocate for the poor, has been driving me through this and similar communities, and we've stopped amid a haphazard cluster of residences a few hundred yards off the main highway. As I linger at the side of the road, a yellow school bus inches past, taking care not to savage its struts on a path rutted by poor drainage and cycles of fierce, mud-churning rain and baking prairie sun.

Reyna calls from the side of a tidy trailer where he is chatting with its owners, Elia De La O and her husband, Rogelio. The couple invites us inside.

Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds - NYTimes.com

Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds - NYTimes.com: The United States is increasingly a multiracial society, with white students accounting for just over half of all students in public schools, down from four-fifths in 1970.

Yet whites are still largely concentrated in schools with other whites, leaving the largest minority groups — black and Latino students — isolated in classrooms, according to a new analysis of Department of Education data.

The report showed that segregation is not limited to race: blacks and Latinos are twice as likely as white or Asian students to attend schools with a substantial majority of poor children.

Across the country, 43 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of blacks attend schools where fewer than 10 percent of their classmates are white, according to the report, released on Wednesday by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Census: In 2011, Number Of Poor Americans Increased : The Two-Way : NPR

Census: In 2011, Number Of Poor Americans Increased : The Two-Way : NPR: It's a lot of data, so analysis of it will trickle in throughout the day. We'll share with you highlights on three important facets:

— The number of Americans living in poverty grew to 15.9 percent in 2011. It was 15.3 in 2010. That means that 48.5 million Americans had an income below the poverty level.

The Census reports:

"This was the fourth consecutive increase in the poverty rate, but the percentage point increase between 2010 and 2011 was smaller than the change between 2008 and 2009, and between 2009 and 2010."

— Young Americans are one of the first to feel the effects of the Affordable Care Act, which is known colloquially as Obamacare.

According to the Census, once young Americans aged 19 to 25 could be added to their parents' plans, there was a 3.5 percent increase in the number insured.

The Census compared that number to to those aged 26 to 29, who saw a decline of almost 1 percent in the number of those insured during the same period.

— Household incomes continue to fall.

"Real median household income in the United States fell between the 2010 ACS and the 2011 ACS, decreasing by 1.3 percent from $51,144 to $50,502," the Census reports.

Public University Leaders Tout Value of College, Affirmative Action - Higher Education

Public University Leaders Tout Value of College, Affirmative Action - Higher Education: With the U.S. Supreme Court soon expected to hear arguments in an affirmative action case, two leaders of public colleges and universities outlined their strong support for the continued use of race as a factor in admissions at a Washington, D.C. forum on Wednesday.

“I’m a huge believer in affirmative action,” said Dr. Mary Sue Coleman, University of Michigan president, at the National Press Club forum. Although Michigan has banned the use of racial preferences in the state, she said a similar decision nationally would be “a huge loss” in advancing diversity.

“It’s a complete falsehood that it’s depriving qualified people of an education,” she added.

HBCUs Putting Special Emphasis on National Hazing Prevention Week - Higher Education

HBCUs Putting Special Emphasis on National Hazing Prevention Week - Higher Education: With the issue of hazing transformed in the past year into a major topic of discussion on college campuses from an activity that typically draws restrained concerns at critical moments, more historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) are planning special events on the issue built around National Hazing Prevention Week.

At Florida A & M University (FAMU), where the hazing-related death of a university band drum major last fall sparked heightened attention nationally on campus hazing activities, the university plans to stage a Town Hall meeting on the topic Thursday. The meeting will include a panel of nationally known researchers and FAMU student and faculty leaders in a discussion about what campuses can do to rid themselves of hazing cultures.

Book Review: 'The Black Count' By Tom Reiss | The Real-Life Count Of Monte Cristo : NPR

Book Review: 'The Black Count' By Tom Reiss | The Real-Life Count Of Monte Cristo : NPR: The novelist Alexandre Dumas — the one known for penning The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers — is often referred to as "Alexandre Dumas, pere." This is to distinguish him from his son, also a writer, who is identified as "Alexandre Dumas, fils." The thing is, there is an even older Alex Dumas who, while not a professional writer, made quite a name for himself in Revolutionary France. For the father of Alexandre Dumas, pere, the sword was mightier than the pen, and this larger-than-life figure's story heavily influenced the fiction of his literary offspring.

Historian Tom Reiss went to France specifically to uncover the papers and tell the story of this forgotten Dumas, the titular "Black Count" of Reiss' fascinating new book. Thomas-Alexandre (later, simply Alex) Dumas was born in 1762 in Saint-Domingue to a blackguard French aristocrat named Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie and one of his black mistresses. According to Reiss, the island colony — known as the "pearl of the West Indies" — accounted for two-thirds of France's overseas trade in the late 18th century.

For Liberian Youth, A Creative Outlet In Krumping : NPR

For Liberian Youth, A Creative Outlet In Krumping : NPR: The music starts up, masking the blare of the generator needed to power the stereo. The dancers begin, and almost like a relay, they take turns showing their moves. Their bodies shake and contort to the beat. Their eyes are fixed in a stare with a fierce look of anger as they lose themselves in the music.

"For me, when I'm krumping like if I'm mad about something, or like I'm not feeling easy, it takes a lot of stress out," says 17-year-old Franklyn Dunbar. "It really drains out all the anger or any personal problem you have."

Krumping is a form of dance that originated in California and — with the help of DVDs and the Internet — has made its way to Dunbar and other kids in the West African nation of Liberia. Founded by freed American slaves, the country embraces all things American.

Do Scores Go Up When Teachers Return Bonuses? : NPR

Do Scores Go Up When Teachers Return Bonuses? : NPR: In Chicago, parents were fuming over a weeklong strike by teachers. Around the rest of the country, in the face of growing evidence that many U.S. students are falling behind, administrators have tried to devise different ways to motivate teachers.

Among the contentious issues is whether teachers should be held accountable for their students' performance on standardized tests. Such efforts have produced enormous conflicts between school districts and teachers. In many parts of the country, administrators and teachers have fought one another to a standstill.

That's where a novel social science study may have the potential to shift the conversation.

Economist John List at the University of Chicago recently conducted an unusual field experiment in Chicago Heights, a school district near Chicago. List and his colleagues found a struggling school district: Only 64 percent of students met minimum state requirements on achievement tests. Nearly all the kids qualified for free or reduced-price school lunches, a measure of straitened socio-economic conditions.

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Hires First African-American Woman as Commissioner - Higher Education

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Hires First African-American Woman as Commissioner - Higher Education: Though the position of Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) commissioner was filled as recently as last November, Jacqie Carpenter has had her sights on it for close to a decade.

In one of her first days as an administrator for the NCAA in 2003, the Hampton University alumna was asked about her dream job by her new boss.

“I told them I’d love to be a commissioner in a conference,” she said. “I had worked in the conference and at the institutions, but when I went to the NCAA, I got to see it from another perspective. I realized that although I loved working on the campus, I was more interested in working with a larger group of administrators.”

Little did she know, less than a decade later she would be named the conference’s first full-time female commissioner. Carpenter was hired in August and assumed her duties as head of the nation’s oldest HBCU conference Sept. 4.

Hispanic Heritage Art Exhibit at HBCU Aims to ‘Pull the Walls Down’ - Higher Education

Hispanic Heritage Art Exhibit at HBCU Aims to ‘Pull the Walls Down’ - Higher Education: With the opening of Colores, the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Art Museum’s first exhibit featuring Latino artists, the school aims to do several things, said the museum’s art director, Kenneth Rodgers.

Acknowledging both the state’s rapidly changing demographics and the absence of a venue to recognize the artistic contributions of that community, Rodgers said, “It seems natural that we would reach out and pull the walls down.”

Rodgers said for several years, the museum has looked forward to presenting an exhibition devoted to the work of Hispanic artists who live in North Carolina and have worked in the state extensively.

“Few inclusive exhibitions of the work of Latino artists have been presented in North Carolina,” said Rodgers. “An objective here is to explore the work of some of the artists who have been overlooked and have not been shown in any great measure to Triangle audiences.” North Carolina’s Triangle area encompasses the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

Film about Mississippi School Integration Premieres at Barnard College - Higher Education

Film about Mississippi School Integration Premieres at Barnard College - Higher Education: NEW YORK – The documentary Forty Years Later: Now Can We Talk?, the story of the first African-American students to integrate a White high school in Batesville, Miss. in 1967, premiered with exactly the dialogue the filmmakers hope to promote.

Dr. Lee Anne Bell, the director of education at Barnard College, has taught and written about storytelling as a means of teaching about racism. Several years ago, when Cheryl Johnson, a 1969 graduate of South Panola High School in Batesville, Miss., received an invitation to a high school reunion for the very first time, she searched the Web to find someone who could help her and her African-American classmates tell the story of their experiences. Johnson found information about Bell’s book Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in Antiracist Teaching and contacted Bell.

Student achievement targets vary by race, income in D.C. and many states - The Washington Post

Student achievement targets vary by race, income in D.C. and many states - The Washington Post: Every public school in the United States has aimed for the same goal over the past decade: that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

But that noble ambition, educators and experts almost universally agree, was never realistic. Now, in the District and many states, goals over the next five years tend to be lower for black, Hispanic and poor children than they are for white and Asian students, and in the District, they tend to be higher at schools in affluent areas than in poor neighborhoods. It’s a policy shift that strikes some parents as a form of prejudice.

Officials say the new targets account for differences in current performance and demand the fastest progress from students who are furthest behind. The goals vary across much of the country by race, family income and disability, and in Washington, they also vary by school.

At Anacostia High, which draws almost exclusively African Americans from one of the District’s most impoverished areas, officials aim to quadruple the proportion of students who are proficient in reading by 2017, but that would still mean that fewer than six out of 10 pass standardized reading tests. Across town at the School Without Walls in Northwest Washington, a diverse and high-performing magnet that enrolls students from across the city, the aim is higher: 99.6 percent.

NAACP wants to investigate number of women, African-Americans replaced in city schools - baltimoresun.com

NAACP wants to investigate number of women, African-Americans replaced in city schools - baltimoresun.com: The local chapter of Baltimore's NAACP has taken an interest in the recent tensions brewing between Baltimore city principals and city schools CEO Andres Alonso's administration, denouncing the recent moves concerning two principals whose school was cleared of cheating, and announcing that it wants to investigate the racial and gender makeup of principals who have been dismissed from the system.

The city's NAACP President Tessa Hill-Alston attended a picket protest held by the city's administrators union last week outside of city school headquarters. The union protested the school board's recent decision to dismiss Abbottston Elementary Assistant Principal Marcy Isaac for failing to follow testing protocols in 2010, and deny pay and placement for its Principal Angela Faltz until 2013.

Former Va. Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s slavery museum project stalled in Fredericksburg - The Washington Post

Former Va. Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s slavery museum project stalled in Fredericksburg - The Washington Post: A decade ago, a real estate company donated 38 acres of prime land near Interstate 95 in Fredericksburg to a nonprofit group designing a slavery museum. The Silver Cos. built hotels and a conference center on land nearby and worked to attract other tourism businesses, banking on the powerful draw of a national museum envisioned by former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder.

All that’s on the land now is a small garden, long since overgrown with weeds.

The museum was never built. An attorney acting for the museum filed for bankruptcy last September, after the city stepped in to seize the land for unpaid taxes. In August, she asked that the bankruptcy case be dismissed.
The full payment of the debt to the city “can be achieved in days,” Sandra Robinson wrote in court documents, and the museum project would begin fundraising again. The judge granted the request to dismiss the case.
A month later, Fredericksburg Treasurer Jim Haney has not heard from anyone associated with the museum or received any money toward the more than $300,000 owed to the city.

Keystone XL pipeline raises tribal concerns - The Washington Post

Keystone XL pipeline raises tribal concerns - The Washington Post: CUSHING, Okla. — In energy circles, the town of Cushing is well known as the hub used by New York oil traders to set the benchmark price for all U.S. crude oil. Row after row of giant oil storage tanks are lined up around a moribund downtown and a shopping strip. At the edge of town stands a sign made of white pipes declaring: “Pipeline Crossroads of the World.”

This is also where TransCanada’s existing Keystone pipeline ends and the southern leg of its new Keystone XL pipeline will begin.

Less well known is the fact that Cushing sits in the Sac and Fox Nation, part of a patchwork of land belonging to Oklahoma’s 38 tribes, each with sovereignty over its own affairs and land.
TransCanada’s plan to dig a trench and bury part of its $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline right through this land has unearthed a host of Native American opposition, resentments and ghosts of the past. Winning support in Indian country is one of the last hurdles for the project, which is touted as a key to North American energy security. The question is whether gaining tribal support is a courtesy, as the company puts it, or a legal obligation.

Sign language that African Americans use is different from that of whites - The Washington Post

Sign language that African Americans use is different from that of whites - The Washington Post: Carolyn McCaskill remembers exactly when she discovered that she couldn’t understand white people. It was 1968, she was 15 years old, and she and nine other deaf black students had just enrolled in an integrated school for the deaf in Talledega, Ala.

When the teacher got up to address the class, McCaskill was lost.

“I was dumbfounded,” McCaskill recalls through an interpreter. “I was like, ‘What in the world is going on?’ ”
The teacher’s quicksilver hand movements looked little like the sign language McCaskill had grown up using at home with her two deaf siblings and had practiced at the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and Blind, just a few miles away. It wasn’t a simple matter of people at the new school using unfamiliar vocabularly; they made hand movements for everyday words that looked foreign to McCaskill and her fellow black students.

So, McCaskill says, “I put my signs aside.” She learned entirely new signs for such common nouns as “shoe” and “school.” She began to communicate words such as “why” and “don’t know” with one hand instead of two as she and her black friends had always done.

Neurocysticercosis, Disease Caused By Brain Parasite, Attacking California's Latino Population

Neurocysticercosis, Disease Caused By Brain Parasite, Attacking California's Latino Population: Despite all of man's efforts to tame nature, nature often fights back. That fight can take unexpected forms. For example, a deadly tapeworm living inside your brain.

A recent article in Scientific American revealed that neurocysticercosis, a disease caused by a brain parasite common in developing countries around the world but rare in the United States, has increasingly become prevalent in California.

While the disease is preventable by practicing basic good hygiene and simple to treat if discovered early on in the process, since the condition is relatively rare in the United States, it often goes undiagnosed until it becomes potentially life-threatening.

A study published in the Journal of Neglected Tropical Diseases found that in 2009, California saw 304 cases of neurocysticercosis. Additionally, Californians comprised a full 60 percent of all fatalities resulting from the condition.

Hispanic Heritage: Latino Contributions To American History (PHOTOS)

Hispanic Heritage: Latino Contributions To American History (PHOTOS): The United States is a melting pot -- a stew concocted from different flavors found around the world; a dish made to be savored. And Hispanic Heritage Month is a time when the country celebrates one of those ingredients: Latin flavor. So what's there to celebrate?

How about the answer to a prehistoric mystery, an 'America's pastime' legend, or simply the tortillas or arroz y habichuelas that await you back home?

Latinos have done many things throughout American history and this is the time to celebrate them en grande!

Latinos Believe in the American Dream, Poll Says | Fox News Latino

Latinos Believe in the American Dream, Poll Says | Fox News Latino: Even with an unemployment rate hovering at around 10 percent, a struggling economy and a slew of states implementing strict immigration law, Latinos still have faith in the American Dream, according to an exclusive poll released by Fox News Latino.

The poll, which surveyed 887 likely Latino voters, found that 73 percent believe that their families will achieve the American Dream, compared to only 7 percent who don’t think they’ll attain the American Dream.

“When they come to this country, they are like someone who has converted to another religion,” said Vincent Parrillo, a professor of sociology at William Paterson University, about the immigrant experience in the U.S. “They are a little more devout than those who are born here.”

Brazil: Cemetery Of African Slaves Honored (PHOTO)

Brazil: Cemetery Of African Slaves Honored (PHOTO): Wearing full-skirted white dresses and turbans, the religious leaders chanted blessings and sprinkled water on the concrete floor of a modest house near this city's port. Beneath their feet were the remains of tens of thousands of African slaves who had died shortly after arriving from their horrific sea voyage.

The bodies had been dumped into a fetid, open-air cemetery, often chopped up and mixed with trash. With the 15-minute ceremony this week, the Afro-Brazilian priests were finally giving the slaves at least the semblance of a proper burial centuries later.

"I thank God for this opportunity," said Edelzuita Lourdes de Santos Oliveira, or Mother Edelzuita, a well-known leader of a house practicing the candomble religion. "We honored our ancestors today with songs left by them."

Black Children's Books: Our Favorite Stories For African American Youngsters

Black Children's Books: Our Favorite Stories For African American Youngsters: Bedtime reading is one of our favorite childhood memories. There was nothing better than being told stories about princesses, magical adventures, mythical creatures, and fun loving animals as we slowly drifted into dream land with our trusty blanket in tow.

As children, we loved to hear stories featuring characters who looked just like us. Even the most incredible tales and adventures became more believable when our little eyes gazed on characters with our texture of hair, our skin color, and parents with the same warm smiles.

Here are five children's books that let us relive the beautiful tradition of storytelling and bedtime tales.

A Look Black: Vanessa Williams Crowned Miss America In 1983 (PHOTOS)

A Look Black: Vanessa Williams Crowned Miss America In 1983 (PHOTOS): It was 29 years ago today that Vanessa Williams became the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss America--a fantastic feat that was sadly short lived.

The historic moment was marred by scandal involving nude pictures of the beauty published in Penthouse magazine, which ultimately lead to Williams having to give up her crown. However, crown or no crown, nothing was going to keep this gal from making it big.

The superstar, who is now 49-years-old, turned her scandal into mega success by taking the music, acting and beauty worlds by storm. Between launching a new skincare line and starring in ABC's upcoming series "666 Park Avenue," Williams is still super hot.

Here's a look at Williams' history-making Miss America crowing and her age-defying beauty evolution.

Cancer leading cause of death for U.S. Hispanics-study

Cancer leading cause of death for U.S. Hispanics-study: Cancer has replaced heart disease as the leading cause of death among U.S. Hispanics, likely reflecting the large number of young, working-age Hispanics in America, according to a report by the American Cancer Society released on Monday.

The shift mirrors a larger national trend as death rates from cancer and heart disease start to converge, Becky Siegel, an epidemiologist for the organization, said in a telephone interview.

Siegel said death rates for heart disease have been declining more rapidly than for cancer, helped by better treatments for heart problems such as cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Panel: American Society Not ‘Post-Racial,’ despite African-American President - Higher Education

Panel: American Society Not ‘Post-Racial,’ despite African-American President - Higher Education: Despite the fact that an African-American occupies the Oval Office, negative Black male images persist in the American media, making everyday encounters for Black men drastically more dangerous than they would otherwise be.

That was the heart of the message delivered by two legal experts who spoke here during a recent forum titled “Racial Anxiety and Unconscious Bias: How It Affects Us All.”

“This is not a matter of one group being affected and one being victimized,” said Alan Jenkins, a former law professor who now serves as executive director and co-founder of The Opportunity Agenda, a nonprofit that focuses on matters of racial equality and other issues and rights.

“We’re all affected and all victimized by this media onslaught,” Jenkins said, maintaining that research shows Black men are disproportionately overrepresented as the face of seemingly intractable social problems such as homelessness and crime.

“The first big headline is the media depictions are distorted, but they are distorted in particular ways that are particularly harmful and they’re potentially so harmful that they’re life threatening,” Jenkins said, speaking to a capacity-filled auditorium at a downtown library.

Lia Lee dies; daughter of Hmong refugees changed American views of medicine - The Washington Post

Lia Lee dies; daughter of Hmong refugees changed American views of medicine - The Washington Post: Foua Yang crumpled in tears on the staircase in her south Sacramento home, just feet from the empty hospital bed where her daughter Lia Lee lived most of her life.

“I’m deeply saddened that Lia’s no longer of this world, I love her very much,” said Yang, clutching a picture of Ms. Lee as a lively 4-year-old in traditional Hmong finery, running from her mother.

Ms. Lee — who in July celebrated her 30th birthday in that bed, surrounded by her mother, brother, seven sisters and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins — died Aug. 31 after a lifelong battle against epilepsy, cerebral palsy, pneumonia and sepsis, a toxic reaction to constant infection.

Her family’s struggles with hospitals, doctors and social workers were chronicled in Anne Fadiman’s best-selling 1997 book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” which altered Americans’ views on cross-cultural medical treatment. She became a symbol for disabled children and immigrants intimidated and confused by Western medicine.

Teachers' Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

Teachers' Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform : Shots - Health Blog : NPR: In my Morning Edition story today, I look at expectations — specifically, how teacher expectations can affect the performance of the children they teach.

The first psychologist to systematically study this was a Harvard professor named Robert Rosenthal, who in 1964, did a wonderful experiment at an elementary school south of San Francisco.

The idea was to figure out what would happen if teachers were told that certain kids in their class were destined to succeed, and so Rosenthal took a normal I.Q. test and dressed it up as a different test.

"It was a standardized I.Q. Test," he says, "Flanagan's Test of General Ability, but the cover we put on it, we had printed on every test booklet, said 'Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition.'"

Rosenthal told the teachers that this very special test from Harvard had the very special ability to predict which kids were about to be very special — that is, which kids were about to experience a dramatic growth in their I.Q.

Youth Disconnection Rampant In 25 Largest Metro Areas, Black Teens Impacted Most: What Is It?

Youth Disconnection Rampant In 25 Largest Metro Areas, Black Teens Impacted Most: What Is It?: Getting teens to disconnect may sound like a noble effort in these technology-driven times, but for social scientists like Sarah Burd-Sharps, being disconnected isn't always a good thing.

“At precisely the time in life when young people form their adult identities and move towards self-sufficiency, 5.8 million young Americans are adrift at society’s margins," Burd-Sharps said in a release for a study she co-authored examining the rate of disconnectedness -- not working and not being in school -- among youths in 25 metro areas across the U.S. "Disconnection can affect everything from earnings and financial independence to physical and mental health, and even marital prospects,” she said.

In the study, "One in Seven: Ranking Youth Disconnection in the 25 Largest Metro Areas," Burd-Sharps and her colleagues found that some 14 percent of teens are currently "disconnected" nationwide. That number has swelled by more than 800,000 from 2007 to 2010 as a result of the Great Recession, researchers say, with African-American youths accounting for the largest share.

Smithsonian Education - Hispanic Heritage Month 2012

 
Smithsonian Education - Hispanic Heritage Month 2012: View the online calendar for a listing of events in Washington, D.C. and New York, for Hispanic Heritage Month 2012.

These resources have been selected for their relevance to classroom curriculum and standards of learning.

View the collection of heritage articles on Smithsonian Magazine. 


Register and receive news and updates on Smithsonian heritage month events.

About - National Hispanic Heritage Month

About - National Hispanic Heritage Month: About National Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Dia de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30 day period.

White supremacists to gather in Tenn. – USATODAY.com

White supremacists to gather in Tenn. – USATODAY.com: A Caucasian heritage and $75 are the price of entry into this weekend's international conference for white supremacists in East Tennessee organized by Stormfront, the oldest website devoted to the "white pride, white power" movement.

Like a Facebook for white supremacists, Stormfront is the virtual gathering space for like-minded people to meet, post and respond to messages, tell jokes and offer political commentary in a variety of labeled discussion groups that range from "fighting white genocide" to poetry.

The Tennessee conference represents a rare offline gathering for Stormfront members. The two-day agenda includes a luncheon and workshops on immigration, political organizing and communications by some of the movement's best-known contemporary leaders.

Scholars, Lawmakers Call for Greater Focus on Recruiting, Preparing Engineers of Color - Higher Education

Scholars, Lawmakers Call for Greater Focus on Recruiting, Preparing Engineers of Color - Higher Education: Engineering deans at many minority-serving institutions are among those calling for a new national initiative to help MSIs and urban public universities increase the number of engineers of color, whom they say are critical to the nation’s future economic growth.

“Without diversity, we will not be able to reach our goals and targets,” said Amir Mirmiran, engineering dean at Florida International University, a Hispanic-serving institution based in Miami. Through their innovations, he told Diverse, engineers are critical “job multipliers” whose work can create more high-paying jobs in the nation’s economy.

Among other ideas, Mirmiran called for a “GI Bill for STEM” that would provide scholarships, low-interest loans and other financial aid to increase enrollment in higher education science, technology, engineering and math programs. The idea was among several outlined in a new report outlined at a Capitol Hill briefing on Wednesday by stakeholders who convened earlier this year at a National Science Foundation-supported meeting in Florida.