Bloomberg Businessweek Goes Racist-Chic For Housing Bubble Cover

Bloomberg Businessweek Goes Racist-Chic For Housing Bubble Cover: Now that Newsweek is out of print, there's a vacuum to be filled in the whole "trollgaze" cover game. Bloomberg Businessweek has apparently decided to fill it with a cover story on the return of the housing bubble, which they've chosen to doll up in the style of "How Rastus Got His Turkey" by filling their cover image with a collection of vile depictions of blacks and Hispanics:

Tennessee HBCUs Take On Obesity - Higher Education

Tennessee HBCUs Take On Obesity - Higher Education: As a pre-med student and biology major, Fisk University junior Contessa Davis has learned largely through volunteering as a Student Health Ambassador in public health initiatives that it often takes the dedicated work of “door-to-door canvassing” and other direct communication with individuals to persuade them to adopt healthy lifestyles.

“The bottom line is that, whether it’s research or interventions to help individuals learn about healthy eating, the goal is to decrease the health disparities within our communities,” she says.

This spring, Davis will be among a number of Fisk students and staff participating in an obesity awareness campaign at the Nashville-based historically Black private university. Last week, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) announced that Fisk and four other historically Black institutions are part of a grant program aimed at the schools educating their respective campus communities about the dangers of obesity. In addition to Fisk, the campaigns are under way at Tennessee State University in Nashville, LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Knoxville College in Knoxville and Lane College in Jackson.

Holmes Scholars: The Next Generation of Higher Education Faculty - Higher Education

Holmes Scholars: The Next Generation of Higher Education Faculty - Higher Education: When Saron LaMothe served as counselor for several K-12 schools in some of this city’s most impoverished areas, she used to pick up on cues from Black students indicating that they felt they weren’t meant for certain careers.

Sometimes, she said, the cues were explicit, such when top-performing Black high school students expressed that they felt they were “acting white” for wanting to take advanced studies and pursue certain high-status professions.

Other times, LaMothe said, she got the subtle sense that some Black students—often as young as elementary school—could not envision themselves as doctors or in similar professions

“And I would want to explore: Why is that?” LaMothe said.

LaMothe is getting the chance to explore those questions and others as doctoral student through the Holmes Scholars program in the College of Education at the University of Central Florida, or UCF.

A Channel Reflects the Reshaping of TV Demographics - NYTimes.com

A Channel Reflects the Reshaping of TV Demographics - NYTimes.com: A TELEVISION network that offers programming aimed at African-Americans is stepping up advertising sales operations as it attracts a growing roster of blue-chip marketers.

The network, Bounce TV, part of Bounce Media, has hired Dennis Ray for the new post of executive vice president for advertising sales. Mr. Ray, whose resume includes stints at Fox Broadcasting and NBC, is based in a new New York sales office for Bounce TV, which has headquarters in Atlanta. He is overseeing a staff of three sales executives, with plans to add additional employees in the office.

Bounce TV, which began its digital over-the-air broadcasts in September 2011, is indicative of the multiplying media choices for multicultural consumers like African-Americans and Hispanics, whose increasing numbers and buying power make them attractive audiences for marketers.

MAKERS: Women Who Make America | PBS

MAKERS: Women Who Make America | PBS: MAKERS: Women Who Make America tells the remarkable story of the most sweeping social revolution in American history, as women have asserted their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy. It’s a revolution that has unfolded in public and private, in courts and Congress, in the boardroom and the bedroom, changing not only what the world expects from women, but what women expect from themselves. MAKERS brings this story to life with priceless archival treasures and poignant, often funny interviews with those who led the fight, those who opposed it, and those first generations to benefit from its success. Trailblazing women like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey share their memories, as do countless women who challenged the status quo in industries from coal-mining to medicine. Makers captures with music, humor, and the voices of the women who lived through these turbulent times the dizzying joy, aching frustration and ultimate triumph of a movement that turned America upside-down.

Teachers face discipline over homework referencing whipping, killing of slaves - TODAY News

Teachers face discipline over homework referencing whipping, killing of slaves - TODAY News: A pair of elementary school teachers in Manhattan are facing disciplinary action stemming from a homework assignment that involved word problems using examples of slaves being whipped and dying on slave ships.

A student teacher at P.S. 59 in Manhattan brought the issue to school officials after she was asked to photocopy a worksheet to be given as homework for a fourth-grade class taught by Jacqueline Vitucci. The assignment featured questions such as “One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?"

The student teacher, Aziza Harding, refused to photocopy the worksheet and used another one instead while bringing the issue to administrators. The worksheet also included a question about a ship filled with 3,799 slaves, asking "One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?"

Numéro Magazine Blackface Apology For 'African Queen' Editorial Responds To Backlash (UPDATE)

Numéro Magazine Blackface Apology For 'African Queen' Editorial Responds To Backlash (UPDATE): NuméroMagazine has found itself in the middle of a racially-charged firestorm after using a highly bronzed white model in one of its fashion editorials entitled "African Queen."

In the spread, Ondria Hardin, a 16-year-old, blond-haired, blue-eyed model is seen with darkened skin, striking a pose for the glossy.

The Huffington Post reached out to the magazine for comment and received the following statement Wednesday morning via email:

Some people have declared that they have been offended by the publication in Numéro magazine of March 2013, of an editorial realized by the photographer Sebastian Kim called “African Queen”, featuring the American model Ondria Hardin posing as an “African queen”, her skin painted in black.

The artistic statement of the photographer Sebastian Kim, author of this editorial, is in line with his previous photographic creations, which insist on the melting pot and the mix of cultures, the exact opposite of any skin color based discrimination. Numéro has always supported the artistic freedom of the talented photographers who work with the magazine to illustrate its pages, and has not took part in the creation process of this editorial.

'Mighty in courage': Rosa Parks statue unveiled in US Capitol - U.S. News

'Mighty in courage': Rosa Parks statue unveiled in US Capitol - U.S. News: More than half a century after she sat defiantly on an Alabama city bus, Rosa Parks has a permanent place in the U.S. Capitol — the first black woman to be honored with a statue there.

President Barack Obama, congressional leaders and more than 50 of Parks’ relatives took part Wednesday in the unveiling of a 9-foot bronze statue of Parks in Statuary Hall.

“This morning, we celebrate a seamstress slight in stature but mighty in courage,” the president said. “In a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America and change the world.”

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. and the highest-ranking black member of Congress, called Parks “the first lady of civil rights, the mother of the movement, the saint of an endless struggle.”

For '60s civil rights leader, the march isn't over

For '60s civil rights leader, the march isn't over: WASHINGTON — John Lewis has been marching for voting rights for more than half a century — not long enough, he says, for the Supreme Court to decide that the finish line has been reached.

When he helped lead 600 people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965, his fractured skull from an Alabama state trooper's nightstick served as a reminder that the march wasn't over.

When he was elected to Congress from the Atlanta area in 1986, African Americans' 4% representation served as a reminder that the march wasn't over.

Even when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and re-elected last year, new laws in the South that made voting more difficult were proof to him that the march still wasn't over.

Don't try to tell Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., an icon of the civil rights movement, that the key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 can be retired in 2013 — something the Supreme Court will consider Wednesday.
"People ask me all the time whether the election of Barack Obama is a fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. I say no, it's just a down payment," Lewis, 73, says during an interview in his Capitol Hill office, cluttered with photos and memorabilia from the 1960s civil rights movement.

Landmarks to civil rights converge on Capitol Hill

Landmarks to civil rights converge on Capitol Hill: More than a half-century of landmark civil rights history collides Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

President Obama travels to the U.S. Capitol to help unveil a statue of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks — shortly after, across the street, the Supreme Court holds a hearing on a law that Parks partly inspired and which made Obama's political career possible, the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The nation's first African-American president told radio talk show host Joe Madison last week it will be "a great honor" to pay tribute to Parks, whose defiance of Alabama's segregation laws inspires global freedom movements to this day.

"She was an inspiration not just to African Americans but to all people looking for justice," Obama said.

Parks, who died in 2005, refused the demands of a white bus driver in Montgomery, Ala., to vacate her seat on Dec. 1, 1955. Her arrest inspired an ultimately successful boycott of Montgomery's segregated buses, led in part by a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr.

Nettles: Multiple Factors Determine Student Success

Key factors in a student’s chance for school success include one’s home environment, the quality of the school, and enriching after-school activities, said Dr. Michael T. Nettles, senior vice president of policy, evaluation and research at the Center of Educational Testing Services (ETS). Dr. Nettles was the inaugural speaker in North Carolina Central University School of Education’s new Excellence in Education Speaker Series on Feb. 22. 
Though there has been some progress, substantial gaps remain, including opportunity, achievement, and education, he said. Black students are more likely than White students to have lower-quality teachers. In high schools with 50 percent or more Black enrollment, 25 percent of the teachers have neither a college major nor standard certification in the subject that they are teaching. In high schools with 50 percent or more White enrollment, the percentage of teachers who do not have a college major nor standard certification in the subject that they are teaching is only 8 percent.

• Approximately 18 percent of Black males over the age of 25 have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 34 percent of White males. Also, 39 percent of Blacks in this age group have only a high school degree, compared to 32 percent of Whites.

• The average Black student attends a school where the percentage of low-income students is 59 percent. The average White student attends a school where the percentage of low-income students is 32 percent.

• The average high school graduation rate for Black students is 62 percent, compared to 81 percent for White students.

Summit Drills In on America’s Dropout Rate - Higher Education

Summit Drills In on America’s Dropout Rate - Higher Education: ...According to the Powell Report, which was released early during the summit, the national high school graduation rate is currently 78.2 percent and one of every five students do not graduate high school with their compatriots. In addition, 25 percent of African-American students and 20 percent of Latinos still attend high schools where graduating is not the norm. Among students who do make it to college 20 percent require remedial courses and significant numbers end up not earning a college degree. Meanwhile, it’s clear that well over half of the new jobs that will become available in the next decade will require some postsecondary education.

“National leaders in the past have set up goals and not met them,” said John Bridgeland, CEO and president of Civic Enterprises. “And three successive presidents after the Nation at Risk report was published challenged the nation to reach the 90 percent goal.”

“This is like being in the Super Bowl, being up by two touchdowns and the lights go out,” he added.

Yet, in the midst of these sobering statistics was good news.

Study ties black-white wealth gap to stubborn disparities in real estate - The Washington Post

Study ties black-white wealth gap to stubborn disparities in real estate - The Washington Post: The large and growing wealth gap separating white and black families is the product of stubborn barriers that disproportionately consign African Americans to less-valuable real estate and lower-paying jobs, according to a new study.

A long-term examination of the financial lives of black and white Americans revealed that African Americans typically face a subtle but persistent opportunity gap that has served to widen financial disparities remaining from a long history of overt discrimination, according to a report to be released Wednesday by Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy.

The report, which researchers called the most detailed look ever at the roots of the racial wealth gap, is drawn from the life experiences of nearly 1,700 working Americans between 1984 and 2009. That quarter-century was an era of significant racial progress in the country. The black middle class expanded, black college graduation rates tripled, and black elected officials moved into a broad range of public offices, including the presidency.

The Voting Rights Act’s work isn’t finished - The Washington Post

The Voting Rights Act’s work isn’t finished - The Washington Post: THE 1965 VOTING RIGHTS ACT remains one of this country’s foremost accomplishments. Constitutional amendments following the Civil War barred states and localities from abridging the right to vote on the basis of race, yet for the better part of a century, white racists managed to stay a step ahead of the federal government’s enforcement of these protections. The Voting Rights Act was designed to stamp out the varied and shifting strategies local officials used to prevent African Americans from voting.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court will consider whether the Voting Rights Act has worked so well that its toughest rules have now outlived their time.

Numéro Magazine 'African Queen' Editorial Uses White Model Ondria Hardin (PHOTO)

Numero Magazine 'African Queen' Editorial Uses White Model Ondria Hardin (PHOTO): It was bad enough we had to report on T Magazine's glaring lack of diversity in its relaunch issue, which was followed with an apology from its Editor-in-Chief Deborah Needleman.

Now comes this racially-insensitive gem. Jezebel's Laura Beck has pointed out Numéro magazine's use of a highly bronzed white model in one of its fashion editorials entitled "African Queen."

We'll give you a moment to process that information and pick up your jaws.

Moment over. The young lady in the spread is 16-year-old, blond-haired, blue-eyed Ondria Hardin, who is seen with her skin darkened and striking a pose for the French glossy. To start, we know there are plenty of white people living in Africa -- but Ondria is from North Carolina and we're pretty sure white people in Africa don't walk around in what could be considered a light application of blackface.

With that said, the editorial serves as another sad example of how the fashion industry continually ignores or exploits ethnic diversity rather than celebrating it. And to think how easy it would have been for Numéro to select one of the countless beautiful black models  and avoid this justifiable backlash and contribution to an unrelenting problem.

HBCUs Produce Leaders Not Only Domestically, But Also Abroad - Higher Education

HBCUs Produce Leaders Not Only Domestically, But Also Abroad - Higher Education: In the late 1950s and early 1960s, alumni and officials of Black colleges like Lincoln and Howard became a familiar presence at independence celebrations of several African countries.

While some attended out of mere curiosity and sentiments of Black pride, the majority were there to support alumni who had, against difficult odds, fought for the independence of these new nations and were now running them.

They included alumni like Nnamdi Azikiwe, a classmate of Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall and member of Lincoln’s class of 1930, who became Nigeria’s first president in 1963; Kwame Nkrumah, prime minister of Ghana, Black Africa’s first country to gain independence and a member of Lincoln’s class of 1939; and Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a graduate of Meharry Medical College and Malawi’s first president.

Throughout the continent, alumni of leading Black colleges like Fisk, Howard, Lincoln and Tuskegee held prominent positions in government right after independence and in the years leading up to independence.

‘Negro’ will no longer be used on US Census surveys | theGrio

‘Negro’ will no longer be used on US Census surveys | theGrio: After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word “Negro” to describe black Americans in surveys.

Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels “black” or “African-American”.

The change will take effect next year when the Census Bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau’s racial statistics branch, said in an interview.

He pointed to months of public feedback and census research that concluded few black Americans still identify with being Negro and many view the term as “offensive and outdated.”

Sotomayor chides prosecutor for ‘racially charged’ question - The Washington Post

Sotomayor chides prosecutor for ‘racially charged’ question - The Washington Post: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused a Texas federal prosecutor Monday of tapping into a “deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice” in his questioning of a black man facing a drug charge.

The justices did not accept Bongani Charles Calhoun’s request that the court review his conviction, but Sotomayor appended a scathing statement to make sure that the court’s denial was not be seen as a signal of “tolerance of a federal prosecutor’s racially charged remark.”

Sotomayor did not name Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam L. Ponder in her statement, but she denounced his questioning of Calhoun, who maintained in court that he did not know that the friends with whom he was traveling were planning a drug deal.

New York Assemblyman Defends Wearing Blackface, Afro Costume

New York Assemblyman Defends Wearing Blackface, Afro Costume: ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A veteran New York Assemblyman on Monday stood by his decision to wear blackface makeup, an Afro wig and a basketball jersey to a costume party in the face of criticism he called “political correctness to the absurd.”

Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind wrote on his blog Monday that he doesn’t understand the criticism swirling around Albany and doesn’t know why anyone would be offended by the costume he wore to a party he recently held at his home in Brooklyn to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Assemblyman Karim Camara of the state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus called Hikind’s actions “callous and repugnant” and said his fellow lawmaker should apologize.

“The history of the blackface minstrel show is something deeply painful in the African-American community,” said Camera, a Brooklyn Democrat. “It brings back the memories of African-Americans being reduced to buffoonery just to gain access to the entertainment industry.”

Why we still need the Voting Rights Act - The Washington Post

Why we still need the Voting Rights Act - The Washington Post: On “Bloody Sunday,” nearly 50 years ago, Hosea Williams and I led 600 peaceful, nonviolent protesters attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery to dramatize the need for voting rights protection in Alabama. As we crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we were attacked by state troopers who tear-gassed, clubbed and whipped us and trampled us with horses. I was hit in the head with a nightstick and suffered a concussion on the bridge. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized that day.

In response, President Lyndon Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act and later signed it into law. We have come a great distance since then, in large part thanks to the act, but efforts to undermine the voting power of minorities did not end after 1965. They still persist today.

This week the Supreme Court will hear one of the most important cases in our generation, Shelby County v. Holder. At issue is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires all or parts of 16 “covered” states with long histories and contemporary records of voting discrimination to seek approval from the federal government for voting changes. The court is questioning whether Section 5 remains a necessary remedy for ongoing discrimination. 

High School Graduation Rate In U.S. On Pace To Reach 90 Percent By 2020: Powell Report

High School Graduation Rate In U.S. On Pace To Reach 90 Percent By 2020: Powell Report: ...Graduation rate trends matter because dropouts without a high school or college diploma face an increasingly tough job market. But while the progressing high school graduation rates show promise, they're not enough to push students all the way through the finish line at the end of college. Though more students may be graduating high school, fewer than half of those in the class of 2012 were "college ready," according to the College Board last fall. This means that without changes in the rigor of high school and the significance of a high school diploma, it will be hard for the nation to achieve President Barack Obama's aspirations to increase the number of America's graduates by 50 percent by 2020.

The gains in graduation rates have been driven largely by minority students in large, Southern states: Between 2006 and 2010, African-American students saw a 6.9 percent increase in graduation rates, and Hispanic students had a 10.4 percent increase.

Urban Male Initiative: Seeing Students Where They Are To Get Them To Where They Need To Be - Higher Education

Urban Male Initiative: Seeing Students Where They Are To Get Them To Where They Need To Be - Higher Education: The Urban Male Initiative program at Community College of Denver wasn’t around to answer the Black, Brown and College Bound Conference’s first call to action seven years ago to rescue Black and Latino males from consistently ranking at the bottom of all indicators of educational attainment. However, it has certainly made up for lost time since its creation in 2011.

Spurred by statistics showing that 44.5 percent of Black males between the ages of 15 and 24 were enrolled in post-secondary education programs in 2011 and 45.7 percent of Hispanic males, leaders on CCD’s campus realized that neither group topped 10 percent of their student population despite the school’s mission to support the underserved and at-risk population. Sixty-three percent of Black males and 52 percent of Latino males are taking remedial classes at CCD, which actually shares campus space with Metropolitan State College and the University of Colorado-Denver.

Role of Race in Winning Shed Light on the Need for Integration - Higher Education

Role of Race in Winning Shed Light on the Need for Integration - Higher Education: Watch any major college sporting event these days, and you’re almost guaranteed to see at least one African-American face competing, if not a majority. It’s so commonplace these days, no one even thinks about it anymore. But that wasn’t always the case.

Can you imagine Auburn beating Oregon in the BCS Title game in 2010 without Cam Newton under center? Or John Calipari winning a championship with no Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrest or any other player you can name from last season’s championship crew. Or what would Dean Smith’s legacy look like without players like Phil Ford, James Worthy and Michael Jordan?

For much of the 20th century, colleges from the Southwest to the Mid-Atlantic competed in an athletic world that was devoid of any diversity. That list includes perennial powerhouse programs Alabama and Florida of the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference schools from South Carolina to Maryland.

Forum: Black Male Incarceration Adds to Social Woes Predicted in Moynihan Report - Higher Education

Forum: Black Male Incarceration Adds to Social Woes Predicted in Moynihan Report - Higher Education: In 1965, a growing tide of Black male joblessness spurred the prediction by then Assistant U.S. Labor Secretary Daniel Patrick Moynihan that the Black family would experience considerable disruption in the coming years. Moynihan’s famous analysis, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” had stated that the Black family, “battered and harassed by discrimination,” was “the fundamental source of the weakness of the Negro community.”

For law professor and author Michelle Alexander, the mass incarceration of Black men stemming from the prosecution of the “War on Drugs” has created social conditions among African-Americans far more devastating than what Moynihan predicted 48 years ago. “It’s been said that things have worsened since the Moynihan Report was released, and I would say that is a considerable understatement,” she said Friday at the Urban Institute think tank and Fathers Incorporated organization policy forum, “Black Families Five Decades after the Moynihan Report.”

Do You Remember When the Voting Rights Act Passed? Tell Us Your Story | PBS NewsHour

Do You Remember When the Voting Rights Act Passed? Tell Us Your Story | PBS NewsHour: For 48 years, the Voting Rights Act has been one of the most prominent pieces of Civil Rights legislation. Its aim: to ensure that people in areas with a history of racial discrimination receive fair treatment when they vote.

The Supreme Court will examine a constitutional challenge to the act in one of the most-watched cases this year. The case asks whether the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is still necessary and whether voters still risk disenfranchisement in certain parts of the country. The Court will hear arguments from Shelby County, Ala., which challenges the law, and from U.S. government attorneys and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, on Feb. 27.

Our coverage this month will examine the questions this case raises.

Civil Rights Exhibit Highlights Successes, Work Left To Be Done : NPR

Civil Rights Exhibit Highlights Successes, Work Left To Be Done : NPR: A new exhibit on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta is bringing civil rights leaders together.

Curators have worked for more than three years to catalog roughly 1,000 boxes of historic documents that tell the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an early civil rights group first presided over by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

One person who shows up in several of the photographs in the exhibit is Dorothy Cotton, who was head of the SCLC's Citizens Education Program beginning in the 1960s. Cotton, now in her 70s, trained thousands of mostly Southern blacks on how to organize their communities, increase voter registration and stand up for their constitutional rights.

Cotton is still passionate about the movement, and walking through the gallery at Emory's Woodruff library she recognizes early images of civil rights leaders and foot soldiers: Andrew Young, Joseph Lowery, James Orange, Rosa Parks and many unnamed faces who participated in SCLC campaigns. She says many don't understand what went on behind the demonstrations.

Civil Rights Sit-Ins Helped Desegregate Restaurants Nationwide: Black History Photo Of The Day (PHOTO)

Civil Rights Sit-Ins Helped Desegregate Restaurants Nationwide: Black History Photo Of The Day (PHOTO): Today's photo was taken in 1958, showing a white police officer reprimanding black students during a sit-in at Brown's Basement Luncheonette in Oklahoma.

Sit-ins were an integral part of the nonviolent strategy of civil disobedience, ultimately leading to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It was a method, largely utilized by students, where participants would sit at a lunch counter until they were served. If they were taunted, they did not respond; if they were hit, they did not retaliate, and they oftentimes dressed in their Sunday best. By August 1961, more than 3,000 students across the country were arrested.

Several sit-ins gained national attention and notoriety, such as the demonstration at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960, when four students from North Carolina A&T refused to leave the premises until they were served. The men, who eventually became known as the Greensboro Four, were joined by hundreds of demonstrators and attracted attention from television stations and newspapers, helping to spread the movement across the country.

Whitney Young Documentary On PBS Tells Story Of Unsung Civil Rights Leader

Whitney Young Documentary On PBS Tells Story Of Unsung Civil Rights Leader: WASHINGTON -- Just before the March on Washington in 1963, President John F. Kennedy summoned six top civil rights leaders to the White House to talk about his fears that civil rights legislation he was moving through Congress might be undermined if the march turned violent.

Whitney Young Jr. cut through the president's uncertainty with three questions: "President Kennedy, which side are you on? Are you on the side of George Wallace of Alabama? Or are you on the side of justice?"

One of those leaders, John Lewis, later a longtime congressman from Georgia, tells the story of Young's boldness in "The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights," a documentary airing during Black History Month on the PBS series "Independent Lens" and shown in some community theaters.

Emory University President Revives Racial Concerns - NYTimes.com

Emory University President Revives Racial Concerns - NYTimes.com: ATLANTA — A reception on Friday at Emory University to celebrate the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the years after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could have been more poorly timed, but not by much.

All week long, the president of Emory, James W. Wagner, had been trying to control the damage done by a column he wrote for the university magazine. In it, he praised the 1787 three-fifths compromise, which allowed each slave to be counted as three-fifths of a person in determining how much Congressional power the Southern states would have, as an example of how polarized people could find common ground. 

It was, he has since said, a clumsy and regrettable mistake. 

A faculty group censured him last week for the remarks. And in a speech at Friday’s reception for the campus exhibition, “And the Struggle Continues: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Fight for Social Change,” Dr. Wagner acknowledged both the nation’s continuing education in race relations and his own.

“I know that I personally have a long way to go,” he said.

‘No black nurses’ lawsuit: 2nd nurse says she was asked not to touch infant | The Raw Story

‘No black nurses’ lawsuit: 2nd nurse says she was asked not to touch infant | The Raw StoryWhere there is one, there is more. 

Just days after news spread of a nurse at a Flint, Mich. hospital who had filed a lawsuit claiming her employer granted a patient’s request not to have African-American nurses treat his baby, a second nurse has corroborated the claim in another lawsuit.

The nurse, Carlotta Anderson, claims in her lawsuit that a notice was posted on the assignment clipboard in the neonatal unit of the Hurley Medical Center on Oct. 31 that said, “No African American nurse to take care of baby.” 

Anderson’s lawyer, Tom Pabst, tells The Christian Science Monitor that the notice is unambiguous discrimination.

“There’s no misunderstanding. They gave an instruction. No black hand touches a white baby,” he says.

Fans Allegedly Dress Like KKK Members At High School Hockey Game In North Dakota (PHOTO)

Fans Allegedly Dress Like KKK Members At High School Hockey Game In North Dakota (PHOTO): This week, a group of hockey fans in North Dakota raised eyebrows after they showed up at a game apparently dressed like members of the Ku Klux Klan, according to several media reports.

The three fans, who were photographed in the stands at the state high school semi-final game between Grand Forks Red River High School and Fargo Davies on Friday, were seemingly dressed in typical Klansman regalia -- white robes and pointed hats covering their bodies and faces.

According to North Dakota news website Inforum, the trio was sitting with a crowd of Red River students, who were also dressed in white.

Shane Schuster, a student at the University of North Dakota, posted a photo of the three Red River supporters on Twitter early Saturday morning:

Analysis of Student Performance in 5 Biggest States - NYTimes.com

Analysis of Student Performance in 5 Biggest States - NYTimes.com: Of all the changes sweeping through the American public education system, one of the most significant is simply demographic: the growing population of Hispanic students.

A new analysis released Thursday of nationwide test results in the five most populous states — California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas — shows that depending on where they live, Hispanic students’ academic performance varies widely.

According to the report, which examines data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often cited as the most reliable standard in academic testing, Hispanic students accounted for more than half of all eighth graders in California in 2011, the highest proportion in the country. But only 14 percent of those students were proficient on eighth-grade reading tests administered by the United States Department of Education.

In Florida, 27 percent of Hispanic students (who represent just over a quarter of its public school students) scored at the proficient level or above. And in Illinois, 23 percent of Hispanic eighth graders were proficient in reading.

How The Voting Rights Act, Now In Danger, Came To Pass And Shaped History | TPMDC

How The Voting Rights Act, Now In Danger, Came To Pass And Shaped History | TPMDC: On March 15, 1965, a week after Alabama state troopers brutally attacked civil rights protesters in Selma, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a stirring speech to a joint session of Congress introducing a bill to end voter discrimination against blacks.

The law that it gave birth to, the Voting Rights Act, now hangs in the balance, with oral arguments next week before the Supreme Court. Five conservative justices are skeptical that a centerpiece of the nearly-half-century-old law is constitutional.

“I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy,” Johnson said that night, nearly half a century ago. “A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal. A century has passed since the day of promise. And the promise is unkept. The time of justice has now come.”

Days later, he submitted legislation to Congress aimed at taking stringent, unprecedented steps to end voter discrimination and disenfranchisement. As Congress took it up, opponents rebelled.

Cruz Says ‘Land of Opportunity’ Facing Crisis - Higher Education

Cruz Says ‘Land of Opportunity’ Facing Crisis - Higher Education: As he looked around the ballroom at the participants in the Black, Brown & College Bound conference, Dr. Jose L. Cruz struck an almost somber tone to start his remarks.

He spoke of 16.4 million children in the USA living in poverty and how the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans take home half of all income while the poorest 20 percent earn almost none. He noted that the nation’s income disparity is at an all-time high, rivaling that of countries such as Tunisia, Sri Lanka and Morocco.

“This is a land of opportunity,” said Cruz, the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Cal State Fullerton. “We say to ourselves and to the rest the world that regardless of your socio-economic background, ethnicity and your race, if you work hard and you play by the rules, you will make it. It’s also part of our national narrative that if parents work hard, and they save, and they instill the right values in their children, this will ensure that their children are better off than they were.

Photographic Artifacts of Black Civil War Troops - NYTimes.com

Photographic Artifacts of Black Civil War Troops - NYTimes.com: In the year’s most haunting image of black Civil War soldiers, the opening battlefield sequence in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” Confederate forces massacre many fallen former slaves.

In reality, African-American prisoners of war were killed en masse. Black troops in action endured lower wages and poorer medical care and living conditions than their white counterparts. But soldiers of both races did have surprisingly easy access to the luxury of photography. 

Photographers ran government-sanctioned booths near encampments, selling souvenir portraits. The images of black personnel, from officers to gravediggers, are now on view widely in 150th-anniversary commemorations of the Emancipation Proclamation. They provide a nuanced view of African-American life at the front, even though some of the subjects can no longer be identified.

Obama to attend unveiling of Rosa Parks statue at Capitol

Obama to attend unveiling of Rosa Parks statue at Capitol: President Obama will head to the Capitol next week for the dedication of a new statue honoring civil rights icon Rosa Parks, a White House official confirmed Wednesday.

The statue – which will be the first of an African American woman to be placed in the Capitol — will be unveiled next Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Statuary Hall, the exhibition space that sits just south of the Capitol Rotunda.

“As you know, most statues in the Capitol are donated by the individual states,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) recently wrote in a letter inviting Obama to the unveiling. “This tribute, however, was unanimously authorized by the 109th Congress.”

They added: “Indeed, this is a national statue and this ceremony will be a national moment, an occasion to recount a watershed event in our history and reaffirm our capacity to confront injustice and lift each other up.”

Advocates Warn Of Dire Consequences If Voting Rights Act Loses In Supreme Court | TPMDC

Advocates Warn Of Dire Consequences If Voting Rights Act Loses In Supreme Court | TPMDC: Supporters of the Voting Rights Act are painting a bleak picture of what it would mean for the rights of minority voters if the Supreme Court were to strike down the landmark 1965 law’s Section 5, which requires state and local governments with a history of disenfranchising minority voters (i.e. mostly in the south) to receive preclearance from the Justice Department or federal court before changing laws that affect voting.

“Broadly speaking, if we didn’t have Section 5 we would find that minority voters are in many places around the covered jurisdictions will have their ability to equally participate in the political process severely compromised,” Julie Fernandes, a civil rights activist and former deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said this week. “We’ll see a lot more of the diluting tactics that we used to have.”

Why promising minority students aren’t signing up for AP exams | The Raw Story

Why promising minority students aren’t signing up for AP exams | The Raw Story

The number of high school students passing at least one Advanced Placement (AP) exam is up overall this year, but students from minority groups still lag behind their white peers, particularly in math and science.

Among members of the class of 2012, more than 32.4 percent (950,000 students) took at least one AP exam, up from 30.2 percent in 2011. A decade ago, the number was 18 percent, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the College Board, which administers the tests.

But the College Board also finds that many minority and low-income students, even those with a high likelihood of succeeding on AP exams, aren’t taking them. For students deemed likely to pass an AP mathematics exam, only 30 percent of African-American and Hispanic students and 20 percent of American-Indian students signed up for the test, compared with 40 percent of white students and 60 percent Asian and Pacific Islander students.

Colleges and Universities Continue to Increase Diversity in Post-Segregation Era - Higher Education

Colleges and Universities Continue to Increase Diversity in Post-Segregation Era - Higher Education: When the walls of racial segregation in higher education in the South began to fall in the early 1950s, it signaled the end of an era in American society that would go on to shape the memories and experiences of many for decades to come.

In Texas, at what is now the University of North Texas; in Louisiana, at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; in Arkansas, at what is now Henderson State University; and a handful of other small institutions, integration opened new doors to Blacks in the region and set the stage for others to follow.

It was not until the early 1960s, when the larger Southern schools still holding on to segregation — Clemson, Ole Miss and Alabama — and scores of their lesser-known peers reluctantly surrendered to the future that the nation really took note. How could they miss it, given the political drama, racial strife and ofttimes hateful conduct that marked some of these final stands?

Black men in schools lead by example - The Washington Post

Black men in schools lead by example - The Washington Post: Where are the African American male schoolteachers and administrators?

It has been pretty obvious for years that if you really want to do something about high rates of truancy and suspensions among black students — to cap that “school-to-prison pipeline” — put more black men in classrooms and principals’ offices.

Bakari Ali Haynes is a case in point. He’s an assistant principal at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring. Seven years ago, he started an after-school group for African American and Hispanic boys called Gentlemen of Distinction. The boys are eager to spend extra time with Haynes, who is for many the first black male authority figure they’ve met.

Maryland continues to lead in Advanced Placement - baltimoresun.com

Maryland continues to lead in Advanced Placement - baltimoresun.com: More African-American students in Maryland successfully passed a rigorous Advanced Placement exam in 2012 than ever before, as the state continues to lead the nation in the percentage of students deemed college- and career-ready, according to data released by the national College Board on Wednesday.

The 11.4 percent of black students who earned a score of 3 or better on an exam still comprises a small fraction of the 29.6 percent of all of Maryland's seniors who passed a test. But it is among the highest percentages in the nation, reflecting the increased access and success of black students on the exams.

Poverty rates higher for blacks and Hispanics than whites and Asians - The Washington Post

Poverty rates higher for blacks and Hispanics than whites and Asians - The Washington Post: Blacks and Hispanics in Maryland and Virginia are much more likely to be poor than whites or Asians in the two states, but their poverty rates are still lower than the national average, the census said Wednesday.

A census report on poverty rates for various racial and ethnic groups said poverty was widespread among American Indians, blacks and Hispanics.

Nationwide, during the recession-stricken period between 2007 and 2011, 43 million Americans, or slightly more than 14 percent, lived in poverty. But not every group was impacted equally. The poverty rate was 27 percent for American Indians, 26 percent for African Americans and 23 percent for Hispanics. Among whites and Asians, less than 12 percent were poor.

The Washington metro area has some of the most affluent counties in the country. The recession had less of an impact here than in most places in the country, largely because of the prevalence of college-educated, two-income households and the stability created by federal jobs and contracting. But even in Washington, the recession bred an unusual degree of unemployment, job loss and poverty.

White supremacist sentenced in jury case 'misunderstanding' - chicagotribune.com

White supremacist sentenced in jury case 'misunderstanding' - chicagotribune.com: A 35-year-old self-avowed white supremacist convicted of soliciting an attack on a jury foreman who served on a federal trial in Chicago was sentenced to 3 and 1/2years in prison this morning at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

William White, found guilty in 2011 of one count of solicitation, targeted the juror on his website, overthrow.com, because he had served as foreman on the jury that convicted downstate white supremacist Matthew Hale of soliciting the murder of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow after she ruled against him in a trademark-infringement case.

In a 2008 posting, White, of Roanoke, Va., named the foreman as the "gay Jewish anti-racist'' juror who had helped convict Hale, and also made references to his longtime partner. He then splashed personal details about the juror — who is not Jewish — on the website, including his color photo, home address, phone numbers and even his cat's name.

Report: Opportunity for AP classes uneven in U.S.

Report: Opportunity for AP classes uneven in U.S.: More students than ever are taking Advanced Placement courses in high school – about one in five now earns at least three out of five possible points on an AP test before graduating.

In 2002, 471,404 students took an AP exam of any sort. By last year, it was 954,070.

But a new report by the College Board, the non-profit group that creates the tests, finds that opportunities to do advanced work are uneven across the USA. Nearly 30% of high school students in Maryland pass an AP test in high school, for instance, but fewer than 5% in Mississippi do. (A score of 3 or higher is considered passing.)

Education panel: To close achievement gap, urgent state, federal action needed - The Washington Post

Education panel: To close achievement gap, urgent state, federal action needed - The Washington Post: he nation must act urgently to close the achievement gap between poor and privileged children by changing the way public schools are financed, improving teacher quality, investing in early-childhood education and demanding greater accountability down to the local school board level, according to a report issued Tuesday by an expert panel.

Created by Congress in 2010 — with legislation sponsored by Reps. Michael M. Honda (D-Calif.) and Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) — the Equity and Excellence Commission aimed to propose ways to improve public education for poor American children. The 27-member panel included state and federal officials, civil rights activists and academics.

For NCAA, a Golden Opportunity to Make a Statement on Diversity - Higher Education

For NCAA, a Golden Opportunity to Make a Statement on Diversity - Higher Education: With several new executive-level vacancies as the result of termination of enforcement division staff, the pressing question arises as to whether the NCAA will implement a Rooney Rule of its own to fill these positions with minority candidates who have been waiting in the wings for many years.

In the wake of the debacle surrounding the mishandling of the University of Miami investigation, much of the attention has centered on whether the NCAA and President Mark Emmert should be held to the same “institutional lack of control” standard for which schools get penalized and head coaches often get fired, due to actions often beyond their knowledge. Some have argued that for them to do anything less would represent the height of hypocrisy.

That same logic could apply to the ongoing effort to achieve meaningful diversity at all levels of college sports and especially among their governing organizations.

Ifill Ready to Resume Fight for the Marginalized - Higher Education

Ifill Ready to Resume Fight for the Marginalized - Higher Education: Sherrilyn Ifill wanted to be a civil rights lawyer since she was a little girl.

But at no point during her childhood did she ever think she would someday lead the historic NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the organization that successfully fought and won the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

“From Thurgood Marshall to Sherillyn Ifill does not feel like a logical trajectory,” says Ifill in a recent interview before she took the helm of the 72-year-old organization this month. “But it’s an honor.”

For the last 20 years, Ifill has been a high-profile law professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where her research and scholarship have broken new ground and have been lauded by other academicians in her field.

Panel Outlines Strategies to Promote Educational Equity - Higher Education

Panel Outlines Strategies to Promote Educational Equity - Higher Education: A blue-ribbon federal advisory panel outlined an ambitious plan Tuesday to combat achievement gaps, focusing on improved teacher preparation and a stronger education and support services pipeline to help meet the needs of high-poverty students.

The Equity and Excellence Commission concluded its two-year effort with a report with five key recommendations to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Commission Co-chair Mariano-Florentino Cuellar called the report “unprecedented,” since all members agreed to the final plan. In addition to teacher prep and services to high-poverty students, the panel also called for school finance reforms, improved access to high-quality early childhood education and governance changes to improve accountability and excellence.

In For Each and Every Child: A Strategy for Education Equity and Excellence, Cuellar and Co-chair Christopher Edley Jr. noted that U.S. leaders “decry but tolerate disparities in student outcomes that are not only unfair, but socially and economically dangerous.”

Research Shows Grit Plays Key Role in Black Males’ College Success - Higher Education

Research Shows Grit Plays Key Role in Black Males’ College Success - Higher Education: A new article is suggesting a student’s determination could be the key to helping shape their outcome in college.

Dr. Terrell L. Strayhorn says it has long been known that a student’s grade point average and test scores from the SAT and ACT foreshadow the level of academic achievement in college. He sought to test what role a noncognitive trait — grit — plays in predicting successful outcomes, as well.

In the article, “What Role Does Grit Play in the Academic Success of Black Male Collegians at Predominantly White Institutions?” Strayhorn takes a look at a student’s social background, as well as his academic performance. In it, grit is defined as “the tendency to pursue long-term, challenging goals with perseverance and passion.”

Indiana school sorry for encouraging racist ‘Obama’ and gorilla masks at game | The Raw Story

Indiana school sorry for encouraging racist ‘Obama’ and gorilla masks at game | The Raw Story: Officials at a predominantly-white school in Indiana are apologizing after students wore racist costumes to a recent basketball game because they were instructed to dress in all black for school spirit.

The Associated Press on Monday reported that New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. officials had promised to write a letter to Parkview Middle School expressing regret for the costumes.

According to the News and Tribune, Highland Hills Middle School students were encouraged to create a “blackout” by wearing all black to the game against Parkview Middle School earlier this month. The Highland Hills team was mostly white, while Parkview had a number of African-American players.

Future of HBCUs Hinges on Ability to Evolve - Higher Education

Future of HBCUs Hinges on Ability to Evolve - Higher Education: For more than half a century, historically Black colleges and universities educated thousands of teachers, social workers, ministers, physicians, lawyers, scientists in all fields, aviators and business men and women. Now, the institutions, most of them historically poorly funded, with limited wealthy alumni and limited academic offerings, have to face a new future, one they had once championed to replace the evils of racial segregation.

As previously closed doors across the South opened, HBCUs discovered they had no real plan for maintaining and growing in the post-segregation era.

Today, with as many college-bound Black students headed to majority institutions as HBCUs, many HBCUs are struggling. Thousands of once-captive college-bound students are beyond their competitive reach. Only a handful of HBCUs have successfully navigated the transition, while most have become more marginal than they were during the days of segregation. Most are scrambling to reinvent in order to not only retain their traditional audiences, but to broaden their appeal to other minority and non-minority groups.

Prince George’s school counselor wins national award - The Washington Post

Prince George’s school counselor wins national award - The Washington Post: James Okoro looks back on his early teen years and can imagine himself dropping out of school, landing in prison or meeting an untimely death — the path that too many African American males follow.

“I was headed down the wrong path,” said Okoro, 17, a senior at Charles H. Flowers High School in Prince George’s County. “I’m not going to say I was bad, but I was a little rascal.”
 
Okoro said a mentoring program with William Clay, his elementary school counselor, made him realize he didn’t want his life to take a wrong turn.

“I would say he played a big part in the young man that I am today,” said Okoro, who has plans to attend Coppin State University.

Clay, who has served as a school counselor for 14 years, was recently honored for his work with students such as Okoro, receiving the 2012 Marcus Foster Distinguished Educator award from the National Alliance of Black School Educators, a nonprofit that aims to improve academic achievement among black students. Clay said he was “amazed” when he learned about the recognition.

Joe Rickey Hundley, Delta Passenger Accused Of Slapping Toddler, Faces Charges (VIDEO)

Joe Rickey Hundley, Delta Passenger Accused Of Slapping Toddler, Faces Charges (VIDEO): A recent Delta Air Lines flight turned sour when a 60-year-old passenger allegedly struck a crying toddler, the Smoking Gun first reported.

Joe Rickey Hundley, accused of slapping another passenger's 2-year-old boy, is facing federal assault charges, CNN and 11alive.com reported.

The high-level manufacturing executive -- president of Idaho-based Unitech Composites and Structures -- was also suspended from his job, pending the outcome of an investigation.

Hundley "told her to shut that (N-word) baby up," FBI special agent Daron Cheney said in a sworn statement obtained by the Associated Press. "Ms. Bennett received assistance from several people on the plane."

The alleged incident took place on Feb. 8 when a Delta flight from Minneapolis was preparing to land in Atlanta.

Montgomery Bus Boycott: Black History Photo Of The Day (PHOTO)

Montgomery Bus Boycott: Black History Photo Of The Day (PHOTO): A picture is certainly worth a thousand words. What better way to celebrate Black History Month than by taking a moment to acknowledge the snapshots of time that represent the struggle and triumph of African-Americans through the years?

As part of our Black History Month coverage, we will be featuring one photo a day that honors years of groundbreaking achievements within the black community. These photos bring tears to our eyes, instill pride in our hearts and motivate us to carry on the legacy of strength and perseverance.

Today's photo was taken on December 5, 1955, the first day of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The movement, an immediate reaction to Rosa Parks' arrest on Dec. 1, after she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, was initially planned as a one-day protest to mark Parks' appearance in court. It ultimately lasted 381 days.

To this day, the protest is seen as the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement and the first step in realizing the monumental goals of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case.

Mississippi Ratifies Slavery Ban After 'Lincoln' | TPM LiveWire

Mississippi Ratifies Slavery Ban After 'Lincoln' | TPM LiveWire: Earlier this month, Mississippi finally ratified the 13th Amendment banning slavery, after a specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center saw the movie "Lincoln" and started digging into the states' ratification of the legislation.

Georgia gave the amendment the three-fourths' vote it needed in December 1865, according to the Clarion-Ledger. Mississippi, Delaware Kentucky and New Jersey rejected the amendment. Kentucky ratified the amendment on March 18, 1976 after rejecting it on Feb. 24, 1865.

The specialist, Ken Sullivan, found out that Mississippi lawmakers voted to ratify the amendment in 1995, but never sent the necessary paperwork to the Office of the Federal Register, according to the Clarion-Ledger report published Sunday.

Sullivan contacted the Mississippi Secretary of States' office in late January, and the Senate resolution was sent to the federal government. On Feb. 7, the Federal Register wrote back: "With this action, the State of Missippi has ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States."

Do You Remember When the Voting Rights Act Passed? Tell Us Your Story | PBS NewsHour

Do You Remember When the Voting Rights Act Passed? Tell Us Your Story | PBS NewsHour: For 48 years, the Voting Rights Act has been one of the most prominent pieces of Civil Rights legislation. Its aim: to ensure that people in areas with a history of racial discrimination receive fair treatment when they vote.

The Supreme Court will examine a constitutional challenge to the act in one of the most-watched cases this year. The case asks whether the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is still necessary and whether voters still risk disenfranchisement in certain parts of the country. The Court will hear arguments from Shelby County, Ala., which challenges the law, and from U.S. government attorneys, on Feb. 27.

Our coverage this month will examine the questions this case raises.

Model Cameron Russell: I get what I don't deserve - CNN.com

Model Cameron Russell: I get what I don't deserve - CNN.com: Last month the TEDx talk I gave was posted online. Now it has been viewed over a million times. The talk itself is nothing groundbreaking. It's a couple of stories and observations about working as a model for the last decade.

I gave the talk because I wanted to tell an honest personal narrative of what privilege means.

I wanted to answer questions like how did I become a model. I always just say, " I was scouted," but that means nothing.

The real way that I became a model is that I won a genetic lottery, and I am the recipient of a legacy. What do I mean by legacy? Well, for the past few centuries we have defined beauty not just as health and youth and symmetry that we're biologically programmed to admire, but also as tall, slender figures, and femininity and white skin. And this is a legacy that was built for me, and it's a legacy that I've been cashing in on.

Some fashionistas may think, "Wait. Naomi. Tyra. Joan Smalls. Liu Wen." But the truth is that in 2007 when an inspired NYU Ph.D. student counted all the models on the runway, of the 677 models hired, only 27, or less than four percent, were non-white.

A seat in the house, 50 years later - baltimoresun.com

A seat in the house, 50 years later - baltimoresun.com: Movie tickets at the Northwood Theatre cost just 90 cents back in 1963. But for some, the price of admission was considerably higher.

It took years of picketing and nights in jail for hundreds of African-American college students and their supporters before the theater in the Hillen neighborhood of Baltimore dropped its whites-only policy. Fifty years ago this week, the matinee of the Disney movie "In Search of the Castaways" played to the Northwood's first-ever integrated audience.

"It was just something in my opinion that needed to be done," said Joyce I. Dennison, 71, who, as a student at Morgan State College, joined the protests that led to the theater's desegregation on Feb. 22, 1963.

"You say you want to open a facility to the public — we are part of the public."

Half a century later, the integration of a small neighborhood movie house that closed in 1981 might seem a minor footnote in the sweep of civil rights history. It was not Brown v. Board of Education or the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Yet, for those who pounded the pavement, staged sit-ins or languished in jail for the simple, day-to-day access to movie theaters or lunch counters, the Northwood victory remains a sweet one.

The March On Washington In Pictures : The Picture Show : NPR

The March On Washington In Pictures : The Picture Show : NPR: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. Documentary photojournalist Leonard Freed was one of the 200,000 people in the crowd that day. He died of prostate cancer in 2006, but a new book of his photos from that day, This Is The Day: The March On Washington, was released in February.

Scott Simon talks with Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of sociology at Georgetown University, who wrote the essay in the book — as well as Freed's wife, Brigitte, who was also there on that hot summer morning:

"It was a self-assigned story," she recalls. "Nobody asked him to do this story."

Although most Americans were hearing King's words for the first time, he had actually delivered some of the same phrases in a Detroit speech a couple of months before.

"That having been said, it doesn't mean that his charisma wasn't extraordinary," says Dyson. "King ... stood at the sunlit summit of expectation and articulated a dream as golden and as powerful ... now as it was then — and Leonard Freed captures those people who King felt were worth fighting for."

University president: ‘Three-Fifths’ slavery agreement example of ‘pragmatic’ compromise | The Raw Story

University president: ‘Three-Fifths’ slavery agreement example of ‘pragmatic’ compromise | The Raw Story: The president of Emory University, James Wagner has drawn criticism for using the Three-Fifths Compromise of 1787 as an example of what he called “pragmatic half-victories” in his latest column for the university’s magazine.

“Some might suggest that the constitutional compromise reached for the lowest common denominator — for the barest minimum value on which both sides could agree,” Wagner wrote about the agreement between Southern and Northern states to count slaves as three-fifths of a person. “I rather think something different happened. Both sides found a way to temper ideology and continue working toward the highest aspiration they both shared—the aspiration to form a more perfect union. They set their sights higher, not lower, in order to identify their common goal and keep moving toward it.”

Wagner’s invocation of the agreement as a “lesson of our forebears” was immediately criticized on social media on Saturday; Salon also called “shockingly horrible” ; and Gawker suggested that same day that The Affordable Care Act, the Voting Rights Act, or “Do all homework, you get to watch The Simpsons” would have been more appropriate examples of political compromise.

Why Gender Equality Stalled - NYTimes.com

Why Gender Equality Stalled - NYTimes.com: THIS week is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan’s international best seller, “The Feminine Mystique,” which has been widely credited with igniting the women’s movement of the 1960s. Readers who return to this feminist classic today are often puzzled by the absence of concrete political proposals to change the status of women. But “The Feminine Mystique” had the impact it did because it focused on transforming women’s personal consciousness.

In 1963, most Americans did not yet believe that gender equality was possible or even desirable. Conventional wisdom held that a woman could not pursue a career and still be a fulfilled wife or successful mother. Normal women, psychiatrists proclaimed, renounced all aspirations outside the home to meet their feminine need for dependence. In 1962, more than two-thirds of the women surveyed by University of Michigan researchers agreed that most important family decisions “should be made by the man of the house.” 

From The Inner City: Leading A New Generation Of Muslim Americans : NPR

From The Inner City: Leading A New Generation Of Muslim Americans : NPR: This summer on the South Side of Chicago, thousands are expected to gather for an outdoor festival sponsored by the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, or IMAN.

The festival, Takin' It to the Streets, attracts well-known musicians, like hip-hop artist Mos Def in 2010 and Chicago native Lupe Fiasco. The goal of the festival's organizers is to promote cooperation between the city's residents, regardless of their backgrounds.

IMAN's leader, Rami Nashashibi, originally came to Islam as a convert. Born in Jordan, he says he had a largely secular upbringing as the child of a diplomat father and a Palestinian mother who grew up in Chicago.

Then in 1990, he moved to Chicago as a student at a time when the city was changing. Ethnic white neighborhoods were absorbing Latinos, African-Americans and, after the First Gulf War, a new wave of Arab immigrants. Nashashibi found himself drawn to social activism in those communities.

Lawsuit: Race-based request sidelined Michigan nurse - CNN.com

Lawsuit: Race-based request sidelined Michigan nurse - CNN.com: A nurse is suing a hospital, claiming it agreed to man's request that no African-Americans care for his baby.

The lawsuit accuses managers at Hurley Medical Center in Flint of reassigning Tonya Battle, who has worked at the facility for 25 years, based on the color of her skin.

The man approached Battle, while she was caring for his child in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, asking to speak to her supervisor, according to the complaint filed in January by Battle's attorney.

She pointed the charge nurse in his direction.

The man, who is not named in the filing, allegedly showed her a tattoo that may have been "a swastika of some kind" and told her that he didn't want African-Americans involved in his baby's care.

Jupiter Hammon, First African-American Writer, Poem Discovered By Student

Jupiter Hammon, First African-American Writer, Poem Discovered By Student: Firsthand accounts of American slavery are certainly a limited treasure. Any opportunity to read a description of what being subjected to the institution was like is not only hard to come by, but also a gem of African American history.

That's why a University of Texas student was so delighted, when she discovered one of the earliest poems by Jupiter Hammon, the country's first published black writer.

Julie McCown, a doctoral student, found the poem while researching Hammon.

"It's both really exciting, but then it's also hard to believe," McCown said. "Who am I to happen across this?"

Hammon, who was born a slave in 1711 and owned by multiple generations of a family in Long Island, New York, is known for his 1787 essay "An Address To The Negroes Of The State Of New York" that includes the famous line: "If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves."

The Origin and Purpose of Black History Month - Higher Education

The Origin and Purpose of Black History Month - Higher Education: History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they have been and what they have been, where they are and what they are. Most important, history tells a people where they still must go, what they still must be. The relationship of history to the people is the same as the relationship of a mother to her child.

– J.H. Clarke

February is observed as “Black History Month” in America.

Its precursor, “Negro History Week,” was created by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926 and observed on the second week of February.

A staunch Republican, Woodson chose that week in that month to honor the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Woodson created Negro History Week because Black Americans and their accomplishments were largely left out of the educational curricula of that time. Where Blacks were mentioned, it was usually very demeaning imagery or discriminatory ideas.

Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro (now African-American) Life and History in 1915 and the Journal of Negro History in 1916. He was dedicated to helping educate Black and White Americans about Blacks and their accomplishments and potential in a way that would benefit everyone.

Angela Davis Electrifies Gallaudet University - Higher Education

Angela Davis Electrifies Gallaudet University - Higher Education: She has been a seminal figure in the civil and women’s rights movements for decades, but educator, feminist and human rights activist Dr. Angela Davis still remains deeply involved in movements for social justice globally.

Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita of History and Consciousness and Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Clara, told a standing-room-only crowd at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., that democracy cannot work if it’s confined only to a small segment of the population.

Throughout her more than hour-long lecture on February 14, Davis linked the social, racial and political environments in the United States in the 1860s, the 1960s and the present day, showing the continuous thread and threat of racism, violence, sexism and discrimination to women and people of color.

New Class Heading Into Black College Football Hall of Fame - Higher Education

New Class Heading Into Black College Football Hall of Fame - Higher Education: When it comes to football at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, most people are probably more familiar with the marching bands in the stands than the players on the field. Though these programs have struggled to build nationally viable programs in recent years, at one time some of the greatest professional football players of all time called many of them home.

Located in Atlanta, Ga., the Black College Football Hall of Fame was founded in 2009 to honor the contributions of players who participated in HBCU football over the past century. The first class in 2010 included Jackson State’s Walter Payton, Mississippi Valley State’s Jerry Rice and Grambling coach Eddie Robinson. Since then, players inducted include Grambling State’s Doug Williams, Alcorn State’s Steve McNair and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore’s Art Shell.

The 2013 class is as star-studded as any of them, including six players who have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.