Elite winemaker shunned for calling Italy’s Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge a ‘dirty black monkey’ | The Raw Story

Elite winemaker shunned for calling Italy’s Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge a ‘dirty black monkey’ | The Raw Story: An award-winning Italian winemaker is being shunned by the sector after a bizarre racist tirade on Facebook against Italy’s first black government minister.

Fulvio Bressan took to the Internet to rant against Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge, an Italian citizen born in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo.

Bressan called the minister a “dirty black monkey” and other racist epithets, later defending his comments by saying he was angry the government was planning to use taxpayer money to house illegal immigrants in hotels.

The organic winemaker, based in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, has been praised for the traditional techniques used at his family farm.

But Monica Larner, the Italian reviewer for the prestigious industry publication the Wine Advocate, said: “In light of the unacceptable comments recently made by Fulvio Bressan, I will not taste his wine.”

Commenters on social media have called for a boycott and the global gourmet network Slow Food on Friday also said it was dropping him from its Slow Wine list.

Graphic Novel Depicts John Lewis' 'March' Toward Justice : Code Switch : NPR

Graphic Novel Depicts John Lewis' 'March' Toward Justice : Code Switch : NPR: John Lewis is the only person to have spoken at the 1963 March on Washington who is still alive. He was just 23 years old when he addressed the crowd of more than 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial 50 years ago.

Lewis is a pillar of the civil rights movement. The son of sharecroppers in rural Alabama, he went on to become the president of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and then eventually, a U.S. Congressman from Georgia.

His story has been told before in documentaries and books, but now he's putting his life story into the form of a graphic novel, March. Every superhero has an origin story — and so does the graphic novel of John Lewis' life.

A bunch of staffers on the Lewis' 2008 re-election campaign were sitting around, talking about what they would do next, including staffer Andrew Aydin.

"Unashamed, I said I would be going to a comic book convention. And there was a little teasing, but Congressman Lewis stood up for me," recalls Aydin.

Mandela Remains In 'Critical But Stable Condition' : The Two-Way : NPR

Mandela Remains In 'Critical But Stable Condition' : The Two-Way : NPR: Nelson Mandela is still in the hospital, despite reports to the contrary.

and the , quoting sources close to Mandela, reported Saturday that the ailing 95-year-old anti-apartheid leader and former South African president had returned to his Johannesburg home after a long hospitalization.

After the CNN report, which was cited by other media outlets, :

"The presidency has noted incorrect media reports that former President Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital," the statement said. Mandela, it said "is still in hospital in Pretoria, and remains in a critical but stable condition. At times his condition becomes unstable, but he responds to medical interventions."

CNN says Zuma's office declined to comment when the news organization first tried to confirm the information from its sources.

Can America Fulfill the Demands Made by Those Who Marched on Washington? | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 30, 2013 | PBS

Can America Fulfill the Demands Made by Those Who Marched on Washington? | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 30, 2013 | PBS: JUDY WOODRUFF: Now we wrap up our coverage of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

First, longtime civil rights activist Linda Chapin of Orlando, Fla., recalls coming to the Capitol as a 22-year-old.

LINDA CHAPIN, civil rights activist: It was, as much as anything -- for my group of friends who met up in Washington the day before, it was exciting. It was passionate. It was fun, all of those things.
(LAUGHTER)

LINDA CHAPIN: And we didn't know that it would come together to be one of the largest protests in the history of the United States.
And another thing that interests me greatly is that the organizers didn't all have the same goal. Some of them were there to support President Kennedy's Civil Rights Act. Some of them were going there to say, no, we don't support that; it's not strong enough. Some of them were there to say something different.
And, yet, it all came together in this incredibly symbolic and historic event.

JEFFREY BROWN: That was Linda Chapin of Orlando, Fla. You can find her story and other firsthand accounts at Memories of the March on the PBS Web site Black Culture Connection.
And now Gwen Ifill has the final installment of her series of conversations on the march.

GWEN IFILL: From James Madison's condemnation of slavery in 1813, to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in 1863, to Woodrow Wilson's endorsement of segregation in 1913, and to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s words at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, key moments in America's journey toward freedom have played out in what historian Taylor Branch describes as 50-year blinks.

N.D. Town Mulls Over Threat Of White Supremacist Takeover : The Two-Way : NPR

N.D. Town Mulls Over Threat Of White Supremacist Takeover : The Two-Way : NPR: A tiny town in North Dakota is considering handing its governance over to the county to prevent a small group of outsiders from declaring a "white supremacist haven."

and The Los Angeles Times report that Paul Craig Cobb, a 61-year-old who moved to the town of Leith a year ago, planned to secretly bring in enough like-minded people to tip a local election in favor of declaring the town a "White Nationalist international community."

Cobb, who moved to Leith in May 2012, said on a supremacist Internet chat forum: "I want people to move now and quietly get going here without letting the cat out of the bag."

On the message board, Cobb said with just 16 residents, it would be easy to take over the city.

The says:

"After a Southern Poverty Law Center researcher tracked Cobb to Leith and that Cobb had purchased more than a dozen lots of land in the area, the town government of Leith is now considering whether to self-destruct so that Cobb can't take control."

Dunkin' Donuts Thailand under fire for 'racist' ad campaign - latimes.com

Dunkin' Donuts Thailand under fire for 'racist' ad campaign - latimes.com: A human rights group on Friday criticized a Dunkin' Donuts advertising campaign running in Thailand that features a model whose face is painted black to sell a chocolate doughnut.

Dunkin' Donuts Thailand recently started running ads for its "Charcoal Donut," which features a model wearing blackface makeup and bright pink lipstick and holding up a bitten doughnut. The translated Thai slogan reads: "Break every rule of deliciousness."

Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said it's "rather incredible that an international company like Dunkin' Donuts" would run such an ad.

In a phone interview with The Times, he said the ad "fits into a long history of racist advertisements in Southeast Asia."

The Associated Press said it's common in Thailand for marketing to feature racist undertones. A Thai skin whitening cream, for instance, is advertised in television commercials as boosting job prospects for those who use it. According to the AP, the commercials say white-skinned people have a better chance of landing a job than those with dark skin.

There's also a line of household mops and dust pans sold under the "Black Man" label. Product labeling features a smiling black man in a tuxedo and bow tie.

U.S. Hispanics reside mostly in California, Texas and Florida - CNN.com

U.S. Hispanics reside mostly in California, Texas and Florida - CNN.com: The American Hispanic population is dispersing across the country, but is still anchored mainly in three states, according to a new study released Thursday.

More than half the U.S. Hispanic population resides in three states: California, Texas and Florida, according to the Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project.

California is home to the largest Hispanic population -- one in four U.S. Hispanics are also Californians.

Those three states, plus New York, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey and Colorado, contain three-quarters of the nation's Latino population, according to Pew's analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

While those eight states retain a high Hispanic population, new opportunities are beckoning people to the West and South, said Mark Hugo Lopez, director of Hispanic Research at Pew.

Report: Public schools more segregated now than 40 years ago

Report: Public schools more segregated now than 40 years ago: Today, African American students are more isolated than they were 40 years ago, while most education policymakers and reformers have abandoned integration as a cause.

That reality is explained in a new report called “For Public Schools, Segregation Then, Segregation Since: Education and the Unfinished March” by Richard Rothstein of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, which looks at the reasons and the implications of continued school segregation.

HBCUs Step Up Efforts to be More Eco-Friendly Through Partnerships and Grants - Higher Education

HBCUs Step Up Efforts to be More Eco-Friendly Through Partnerships and Grants - Higher Education: It hasn’t been easy for historically Black colleges and universities to be green considering that many don’t have the resources to invest in an environmentally conscious strategy. But that’s changed thanks to partnerships with organizations that are encouraging sustainability efforts on HBCU campuses.

Now, more institutions are becoming eco-friendly by establishing conservation programs and updating their campus infrastructures. HBCUs are also raising awareness among students and training them to become good stewards of the environment.

In July, Clark Atlanta University signed an agreement with the Environmental Defense Fund to administer a grant to promote conservation, environmental protection and restoration. Originally held by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) Special Programs Corporation, transfer of the Building Green Initiative grant to CAU will expand eco-friendly opportunities for more HBCUs.

Georgetown Scholar to Lead Exploration of Black Washington for D.C. Government - Higher Education

Georgetown Scholar to Lead Exploration of Black Washington for D.C. Government - Higher Education: WASHINGTON – One might plausibly argue that Dr. Maurice Jackson, a Georgetown University history professor and longtime Washington, D.C., resident, has been destined to write a detailed history on African-Americans in the nation’s capital.

It turns out the former community activist and organizer who toiled for more than a decade in the city’s Black low-income and working class neighborhoods before becoming a professor has been diligently at work on “Halfway to Freedom: A History of the African-American Peoples in Washington, D.C.,” a book Jackson expects will fill a major void in scholarship on D.C. history.

What’s been less predictable for Jackson is that his visibility as a local scholar speaking publicly and writing about African-Americans in Washington has led to an unexpected opportunity. In July, Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray appointed Jackson to chair the city’s first-ever District of Columbia Commission on African American Affairs.

Photos: The Women of the March on Washington | Mother Jones

Photos: The Women of the March on Washington | Mother Jones: Women played a crucial role in the March on Washington—behind the scenes, on stage at the Lincoln Memorial, and in the crowd. But it was 1963, civil rights groups were run by men, and the contributions of the women who risked life and limb alongside them went largely unrecognized. Women almost didn't even make it into the official program—at the last minute, a "Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom" was added. Just one woman—Daisy Bates, who helped the Little Rock Nine integrate an Arkansas high school—spoke during the official program. She took the place of Medgar Evers' widow Myrlie, who had missed her flight.

Fifty years later, let's take a look at some of the women, from entertainer Lena Horne to unknown volunteers and protestors, who helped make the march historic.

What The Media Got Wrong (And Right) In Its March On Washington Coverage

What The Media Got Wrong (And Right) In Its March On Washington Coverage: It is an old cliché: that journalism is the "first rough draft of history," the immediate attempt to contextualize events and understand their possible place in our historical memory.

It's common to look back at a story and wonder why it was given so much play, or to question how reporters could have missed something monumental happening right in front of their faces.

For the most part, the March on Washington was not one of those moments. People knew it was something big.

In "The Race Beat," their history of the media's coverage of the civil rights movement, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff tally up the relatively vast amount of resources that newspapers and radio stations and television networks devoted to the march.

There were, they write, around 3,100 police or press passes given to journalists on the scene. The big three television networks, together with the Mutual Broadcasting radio service, sent 460 people to capture video and audio. NBC aired eleven special reports throughout the day. CBS ran the whole thing all the way through. It was broadcast live to six countries.

New Breed of HBCU Presidents Making Big Changes - Higher Education

New Breed of HBCU Presidents Making Big Changes - Higher Education: When the presidential elite at HBCUs nationwide began a precipitous churn two years ago through a revolving door of resignations, retirements and terminations, many in the higher education community wondered about the fragility and collective futures of these historic institutions.

The world around HBCUs is shifting at a dizzying pace, and most are having difficulty staying abreast of the changes. The turbulence has quieted, for a bit, on at least one important front—the selection of those responsible for the foreseeable future of HBCUs. This summer, nearly two dozen permanent or interim presidents have been appointed at HBCUs, reflecting a major turnover of leadership in such a short time.

But this new crop of presidents possesses qualifications that differ from the typical HBCU president. As a group, the new presidents are younger than their predecessors and consist of more women. They are less likely to be pure academics with rich backgrounds in higher education. They are savvier in the use of new technology and social media and keenly aware of the new emphasis on fundraising as a key to sustainability.

Diverse Docket: Jackson State Faculty Pursues Discrimination Claim for Denied Promotion - Higher Education

Diverse Docket: Jackson State Faculty Pursues Discrimination Claim for Denied Promotion - Higher Education: A federal judge has allowed an Egyptian-born Jackson State University faculty member, who won tenure but not a promotion, to pursue his claims of national origin discrimination and retaliation. The judge, however, threw out allegations that the university denied equal protection to Dr. Tarek El-Bawab and violated his civil rights.

JSU hired El-Bawab in 2005 as an associate professor of computer engineering, according to the decision. His first promotion application in 2009 was denied for being premature.

In 2010, he applied for promotion to full professor with tenure, and his grant productivity was criticized at various levels of the review process. During the lengthy review process, El-Bawab filed an internal university grievance and emailed the campus president complaining of discriminatory treatment.

JSU granted him tenure without a promotion in 2011.

El-Bawab’s lawsuit alleged violations of Sections 1981 and 1983, denial of equal protection under the Mississippi and U.S. constitutions, and discriminatory and retaliatory treatment under Title VII.

Schools Engage Their Campus Communities with March on Washington Events - Higher Education

Schools Engage Their Campus Communities with March on Washington Events - Higher Education: COLLEGE PARK, MD. – With President Barack Obama delivering a globally-televised speech Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, dozens if not hundreds of colleges and universities organized tributes to mark the most inspiring event in the American civil rights movement.

Recalling how the “soaring oratory” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech “gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions … [and] offered a salvation path for oppressed and oppressors alike,” Obama praised the late civil rights champion for the leadership he presented to the nation.

“His words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time,” the president said.

Campus events, ranging from rallies, lectures, brown bag lunch discussions, teach-ins to speech re-enactments, also paid homage to King and the powerful speech he delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

Annapolis unveils memorial to ‘foot soldiers’ in ’63 March on Washington - The Washington Post

Annapolis unveils memorial to ‘foot soldiers’ in ’63 March on Washington - The Washington Post: ...On Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, one of the country’s first memorials was unveiled, honoring the more than 200,000 “foot soldiers” — the regular people who endured the heat, threats and harassment to march in 1963.

The memorial, which includes the names of more than 500 “foot soldiers” etched on three slabs of granite, was erected at Clay and Calvert streets in Annapolis, the site of the bus depot from which marchers departed in 1963. The result of months of planning by the Annapolis-based Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, the memorial weighs tons and stands seven feet tall in Whitmore Park.

The first panel includes a brief history of the foot soldiers, “the seamstresses, the barbers, the teachers, the ordinary people from all walks of life who chose to be present that day in 1963.” The next panel includes a list of names: last, first, city, state. A final panel includes a quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change.”

Ten Ways Criminal Justice Is One Of The Great Civil Rights Crises Of Our Time | ThinkProgress

Ten Ways Criminal Justice Is One Of The Great Civil Rights Crises Of Our Time | ThinkProgress: The last few months have issued several potent reminders that racism still pervades our criminal justice system, as even some prominent and powerful American black leaders publicly professed that they had to warn their young sons about police profiling. Supporting these anecdotes is a U.S. record of racially skewed criminal justice policies that moved academic Michelle Alexander to declare in her seminal 2010 book that mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow. On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, here are some of the many reasons criminal justice is in fact one of the great civil rights crises of our time:

1. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. More than 60 percent of people in prison now are racial or ethnic minorities, according to the Sentencing Project. These minorities are part of a total prison population that eclipses that of any other nation in the world. At the federal level, more than half of these individuals are locked up for nonviolent drug or immigration offenses.

BBC News - Martin Luther King and the race riot that never was

BBC News - Martin Luther King and the race riot that never was: History remembers the speech, the huge numbers and the peaceful protest. Yet behind the scenes, the famous march on Washington in 1963 provoked suspicion, anxiety and deep-seated fears in the White House that the day would end in violence.

Across America, black fury had broken loose.

A swirl of protests, touched off by weeks of racial strife in Birmingham, Alabama, where police dogs had torn at the flesh of protesters and powerful fire hoses had been trained on children, now engulfed much of the country.

Between May and late August in 1963, there had been 1,340 demonstrations in more than 200 cities. Some were communities long splintered along racial lines. Others had never before been touched by violence. The randomness of the disturbances made it all the more terrifying. Now, with 200,000 protesters about to converge on the nation's capital, there were fears that Washington itself could witness the same chaos and disorder.

For the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr, the untitled leader of the civil rights movement, the events of the early summer had transformed the struggle for black equality from what he called a "Negro protest" into a "Negro revolution". America, he feared, had reached "explosion point".

Memorial Honoring March 'Foot Soldiers' to Be Unveiled | NBC4 Washington

Memorial Honoring March 'Foot Soldiers' to Be Unveiled | NBC4 Washington: A memorial honoring the 250,000 ordinary citizens who risked personal harm to march for civil rights 50 years ago will be unveiled in Annapolis Wednesday.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, Inc. will unveil the "Civil Rights Foot Soldier Memorial" at 10 a.m. at Whitmore Park. The park was the site of the bus depot from which Annapolis residents traveled to the march. The two and a half ton granite memorial features the names of 500 "foot soldiers."

Speakers at Wednesday's event include Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman and Annapolis Mayor Josh Cohen.

The memorial is the first to honor participants in the original march.

Aug. 28, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Thousands of people are expected to  gather on the National Mall to commemorate the anniversary and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

Wall Street an elusive dream for black Americans - NBC News.com

Wall Street an elusive dream for black Americans - NBC News.com: Fifty years to the day that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. told a crowd of 250,000 in Washington that "the Negro…finds himself an exile in his own land," Wall Street is mostly a foreign country for black workers.

The difficult road that blacks still face in the heart of America's financial capital was underscored by news on Wednesday that brokerage giant Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $160 million to settle racial discrimination claims by black brokers.

Despite what would be the biggest race-discrimination lawsuit payout ever by an American employer, Wall Street-based or otherwise, King's dream remains just that for blacks trying to get hired, promoted and paid well in the financial industry.

A lawyer for the 700 Merrill Lynch brokers who sued said the alleged pattern of under-hiring black brokers, and Merrill's practices of allocating customers that allegedly made it more difficult for those brokers to build business are not unique to that firm.

"They filed this lawsuit for all the right reasons. To not only change Merrill Lynch, but also to change Wall Street," said the lawyer Suzanne Bish of Chicago-based Stowell & Friedman. "It was not an issue that was limited to Merrill Lynch, the under-employment of African-Americans and revolving doors of African-Americans."

Struggle For Equality Continues 50 Years After March On Washington

Struggle For Equality Continues 50 Years After March On Washington: WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking stock of progress both made and still to come, Americans of all backgrounds and colors massed on the National Mall on Wednesday to hear President Barack Obama and civil rights pioneers commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the same spot where he gave unforgettable voice to the struggle for racial equality 50 years earlier.

It was a moment rich with history and symbolism: the first black president poised to stand where King first sketched his dream.

Marchers walked the streets of Washington behind a replica of the transit bus that Rosa Parks once rode when she refused to give up her seat to a white man. Midafternoon, the same bell was to ring that once hung in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., before the church was bombed in 1963.

Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were part of the lineup, too, with George W. Bush sending a statement of support. Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker and Jamie Foxx led the celebrity contingent.

David Marsters Visited By Secret Service For Offensive Obama Post | TPM LiveWire

David Marsters Visited By Secret Service For Offensive Obama Post | TPM LiveWire: A town official in Maine was visited by the Secret Service Tuesday after posting a message to Facebook referring to President Barack Obama with a racial slur and calling for him to be shot, the Portland Press Herald reported.

David Marsters, a retired Massachusetts police officer and a candidate for selectman in Sabattus, Maine, posted a photo of Obama along with a link to a story about a Republican push to impeach the president at 8:17 p.m. Friday, writing "Shoot the Nigger" above it, according to the newspaper.

Marsters told the Press Herald that after his Facebook post was flagged to local law enforcement by other residents, he was visited by both the Secret Service and the CIA. He said he told the Secret Service agents who questioned him that he didn't intend to threaten the president.

Marsters told the Press Herald in a telephone interview that his post was taken out of context.

"I think it's a lot of hogwash," he said. "I did not threaten the president. ... I might have used the wrong words. ... I didn't say I was going to do it."

"What I really meant to say is, 'When are we going to get rid of this (expletive),'" Marsters added. "I should have said, 'I hope the bastard dies.'"

Colorizing The March On Washington : The Picture Show : NPR

Colorizing The March On Washington : The Picture Show : NPR: Sure, color film existed in 1963. And sure, there are probably color photos of this day in history. But the vast majority of the imagery we're used to seeing is black-and-white — such as, for example, (LOC).

But what if we could see them in color?

The act of colorizing photographs is as old as photography itself. Magic lanterns, autochromes, etc.: It was all done by hand. For some reason, though, my jaw dropped when a coworker directed me to a group on Reddit called . Only a few months old, it has about 16 regular contributors — and approximately 24,000 subscribers. Their work has been a lot lately, and they're not the only people doing this, but they're really good.

I'd been doing a lot of image research for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington when I first came across the Reddit group — and had the LOC photos in the back of my mind. On a whim, and not expecting to ever hear back, I posted in the forum. I was curious to see if they'd be willing to experiment with these March on Washington photos.

Joining The '63 March, Despite Parents' Racial Biases : NPR

Joining The '63 March, Despite Parents' Racial Biases : NPR: There would be no last call on the day of the March on Washington, and Manny and Mitzie Landsman had no choice in the matter. Their D.C. shop, Metro Liquors, was closed for business on Aug. 28, 1963, just one of 1,900 businesses ordered by local authorities not to sell, pour or wrap any alcoholic beverage from 12:01 a.m. that morning until 2 a.m. the next day.

Maury Landsman, whose parents ran Metro Liquors, doesn't think his parents actually minded the order that much. For one, his father rarely got vacations, Landsman says. Manny Landsman worked six days a week at the store in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, which was a largely poor and black community back then — not the trendy spot it is today.

The second reason, Landsman says, stemmed from his white father's typical, even stereotypical, views — views he held despite having some African-American employees. "I recall my father used to say black men always had mustaches and drank a lot."

For King's Adviser, Fulfilling The Dream 'Cannot Wait' : NPR

For King's Adviser, Fulfilling The Dream 'Cannot Wait' : NPR: Aug. 28, 1963, was a tense day for Clarence B. Jones. As the longtime attorney and adviser for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jones had a long list of worries as people started to fill the streets around the monuments on the National Mall. Were the right permits filed? Would the speakers veer off script? Would enough people show up?

"I had this feeling that we were going to throw a big party and nobody comes," Jones recalls.

But people did come — at least 250,000 of them. Still, Jones also worried that the crowd might also include agitators, "some of what I called 'agent provocateurs' — white as well as black," Jones says. "I didn't know whether some of the black nationalists who were opposed to Dr. King's non-violence, or whether some of the people from the right wing, the Klan ... would provoke something."

And then there was the delicate and thorny issue of wrangling all those celebrities, Jones says, like Marlon Brando, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Joan Baez, Odetta and Bob Dylan, to name just a few.

Modernizing New ‘Bookumentary’ on Race: (1)ne Drop - Higher Education

Modernizing New ‘Bookumentary’ on Race: (1)ne Drop - Higher Education: As a teacher, I am regularly thinking of new ways to meet my students where they are and guide them down an intellectual path. But my traditional pedagogy is holding me back.

Despite my relative youth (31 years old), I am an old-school instructor. During my four years as an Africana Studies professor, I have trained by the mantra: the text, our thoughts, our imaginations, our voices are all we need in the classroom.

For me, it is difficult to meet today’s students where they are through our cherished 100,000-word academic books. My students are more used to the sound bites, five-word texts, 500-word blogs, 140-character tweets, short Facebook posts, and page-turning, juicy novels.

I would not jump off the cliff of reality and lament that my students do not read. They read—they read a lot of texts, blogs, posts, stories and tweets. How they read, though, conflicts almost totally to the traditional non-fiction academic book.

1963 March on Washington Inspired Latinos in Civil Rights Fight - Higher Education

1963 March on Washington Inspired Latinos in Civil Rights Fight - Higher Education: ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As thousands of marchers made their way to the nation’s capital in August 1963 for what was officially billed as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Maria Varela stayed put in the Deep South with no plans to participate.

Many of her fellow activists in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee felt the march was largely symbolic and would do little to change things, Varela said. She continued her work in Alabama and eventually moved on to Mississippi.

“A lot of us in SNCC did not support the march at the time,” said Varela, 73, who now lives in Albuquerque. “So we were going to have this huge gathering of people. Then what?”

Latinos were scarce among the 250,000 people who turned out in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, mainly because they were caught up in pursuing their own causes. Some of the larger Hispanic civil rights organizations even considered publicly denouncing the mass protest. But after seeing the heavily Black throngs gathered around the Lincoln Memorial, they learned some lessons from that show of political force, historians say.

Teens reflect on changes since the March on Washington - baltimoresun.com

Teens reflect on changes since the March on Washington - baltimoresun.com: Much has changed for the last three generations of 17-year-old Charles Evans' family. His grandfather participated in the March on Washington, but he still dared not dream that a black man would become president, Evans said. When Evans' father later joked that he wanted to be the first African-American president, his grandfather dismissed the idea.

The election of Barack Obama has convinced Evans that for his generation, anything is now possible.

"It was beyond what anyone in the civil rights movement could have envisioned," he said Wednesday.

Fifty years to the day after his grandfather made the trip to Washington, Evans was one of a small group of students at Randallstown High School gathered to hear a re-enactment of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech and reflect on their futures, just as other students in schools in Howard, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties discussed the anniversary in social studies classes. One city school, KIPP, took students to the march Wednesday.

Despite the recent harsh political rhetoric after court decisions on the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and voting rights, these Randallstown students said they remain optimistic about the trajectory the country has taken since the march.

O'Malley speaks at 50th anniversary of March on Washington - baltimoresun.com

O'Malley speaks at 50th anniversary of March on Washington - baltimoresun.com: WASHINGTON -- Gov. Martin O'Malley used a brief speech as part of Wednesday's 50th anniversary of the March on Washington to tie the civil rights movement to a wide range of domestic policy issues, from gun control and immigration to education, gay marriage and the economy.

The Maryland Democrat, who has said he is considering a run for president in 2016, encouraged the thousands assembled on the National Mall to view the event as a call to action for college affordability, an increase in the minimum wage and the protection of an individual's right to vote.

It was among the highest-profile addresses O'Malley has given since he spoke at last year's Democratic National Convention. President Barack Obama will also speak at the event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a Dream" speech.

Obama: 'Because they marched America became more free, more fair' - baltimoresun.com

Obama: 'Because they marched America became more free, more fair' - baltimoresun.com: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America is still struggling to fully realize the vision that civil rights leader Martin Luther King described in his famous "I have a dream" speech 50 years ago, as the goal of economic security for all remains elusive, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.

Obama, the first black U.S. president, spoke to thousands of marchers on Washington's National Mall on Wednesday to commemorate King's landmark address, which came to symbolize the struggle for equality among blacks and whites in America.

Obama said King's speech inspired millions of Americans to fight for a more just society and rights that people now take for granted.

"To dismiss the magnitude of this progress, to suggest, as some sometimes do, that little has changed, that dishonors the courage, the sacrifice of those who paid the price to march in those years," Obama said.

Report: Gaps between R.I.’s Latino and white students’ achievement are among worst in nation | Breaking News | providencejournal.com | The Providence Journal - The Providence Journal

Report: Gaps between R.I.’s Latino and white students’ achievement are among worst in nation | Breaking News | providencejournal.com | The Providence Journal - The Providence Journal: PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s English-language learners are facing a crisis. They have some of the lowest scores in the country, and they face some of the nation’s largest achievement gaps, according to a study by the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University.

“We’re not a special population anymore,” said Latino Policy Institute director Anna Cano Morales. In Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls, “we are the population.”

Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic group in Rhode Island, and they are responsible for all of the state’s population growth between 2000 and 2010. The state proportionally has the 13th-largest Latino population in the nation.

And yet the gaps between Latino and white achievement in Rhode Island are among the worst in the country. Latino student performance also lags behind national averages for the same population, according to the study.

Income Gap Between White And Black Americans Is $8000 Worse Than It Was 40 Years Ago | ThinkProgress

Income Gap Between White And Black Americans Is $8000 Worse Than It Was 40 Years Ago | ThinkProgress: On the eve of this week’s activities commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, the Pew Research Center offers some daunting facts demonstrating that America still has a long way to go until it achieves true racial equality. Among other things, the income and wealth gaps between white and black Americans has actually grown over the last 40 years:

 

This is not to say that no progress has been made — the gap has shrunk both on high school completion and life expectancy, and African American voter turnout exceeded white turnout in the last election. But the dream of equal economic opportunity regardless of race remains elusive.

 

The Essential Civil Rights Reading List - The Daily Beast

The Essential Civil Rights Reading List - The Daily Beast: When the sculptor Lei Yixin recently removed a condensed and altered quotation from his monument to Martin Luther King Jr., his action attested to the power of words in the civil-rights movement. Not coincidentally, the outraged reaction to that editing of King’s “drum major” speech was led by a writer, Maya Angelou.

Certainly, the civil-rights era supplied memorable tableaux of physical courage: the child protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, braving water hoses and police dogs, the marchers at Selma striding straight into the horses and clubs of a law-enforcement mob. But, decades later, the words still echo. This year marks the 50th anniversary of two of the most enduring expressions of the quest for racial equality: King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” and his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Given the centrality of language to the movement, then, it is only natural that the civil-rights narrative has inspired so many books, and some of those volumes form the literary version of monuments. I’m thinking here of Taylor Branch’s trilogy, David Garrow’s Bearing the Cross, and Diane McWhorter’s Carry Me Home. All have been celebrated and honored; all are known to many readers of history and narrative nonfiction.

Louisiana's Voucher Program Is Making Segregation Worse, Justice Department Finds | ThinkProgress

Louisiana's Voucher Program Is Making Segregation Worse, Justice Department Finds | ThinkProgress: Louisiana school districts with a long history of racial segregation are becoming more segregated because of the state’s voucher program, according to a motion filed by the Department of Justice this week.

In at least 13 districts still under federal monitoring because of continuing segregation, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) program to use public funds toward tuition for private schools is sending kids who had diversified the schools to those with more similar racial make-up, the DOJ explains in its filing. The state’s voucher program has been implemented amidst much controversy. A state court held in May that the funding mechanism for the voucher program violated the state Constitution, because it allocated funds budgeted for public education to private schools instead, rather than specifically budgeting funds for vouchers. But Jindal found funds for what is known as the Louisiana Scholarship Program elsewhere, and proceeded with implementation. Another court had temporarily suspended the voucher program over concerns it was interfering with desegregation, but it allowed the program to proceed while the desegregation challenge continued.

Now That We Have Marched, Let's Get to Work | Rev. Al Sharpton

Now That We Have Marched, Let's Get to Work | Rev. Al Sharpton: This past Saturday, approximately 175,000 to 200,000 people gathered and marched in Washington, D.C. to call attention to the civil rights challenges of our time. When Martin Luther King III and I called for this rally, it was widely assumed that we would not be able to get even 100,000 to participate. Those naysayers couldn't have been more wrong. At a time when so many Americans are gravely concerned about voting rights, jobs, gun violence and safety, hundreds of thousands traveled from across the country to join us because they understand the fierce urgency of now. While we acknowledge progress achieved during the last 50 years, we are not blind to the great injustices of today. On Wednesday, President Obama and others will commemorate the 'March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.' We will be a part of that celebration, but we remain passionate about the continuation of the actualization of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream that was represented on Saturday. Our work is far from over, but we, the people, are re-energized to tackle injustice head on.

Two Officers, Black And White, On Walking The '63 March Beat : NPR

Two Officers, Black And White, On Walking The '63 March Beat : NPR: For the month of August, Morning Edition and The Race Card Project are looking back at a seminal moment in civil rights history: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream Speech" Aug. 28, 1963. Approximately 250,000 people descended on the nation's capital from all over the country for the mass demonstration.

Through 's six-word stories, we'll meet some of the people who witnessed that history and hear their memories and reflections on race relations in America today.

With hindsight, we now know the March on Washington was a peaceful event. But two former D.C. police officers who worked the event that day remember that there was no guarantee that the day would go smoothly.

Back in 1963, Joseph Burden, who is black, and Martin Niverth, who is white, were both rookie cops with the D.C. police department, living in a highly segregated city and working for a segregated police force.

"If you walked a foot beat, you walked with another white officer," Niverth says. "If you were assigned to a car, you were assigned to a car with another white officer."

"I do recall, at one time, they passed out 3x5 cards and ... instructed us to write down whether you would like to work with an integrated partner," Burden remembers. "The 'noes' were overwhelming. So it was quite obvious that, as far as they [the white officers] were concerned, they didn't want to work with us. And I guess they really had very little use for Martin Luther King."

Latest March on Washington Focuses on Not Going Backward - Higher Education

Latest March on Washington Focuses on Not Going Backward - Higher Education: WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people packed the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall on Saturday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech.”

One by one, 50 speakers called attention to contemporary issues like policing tactics and voter disenfranchisement to argue that in so many ways the country continues to struggle, as civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton put it, with “issues that have stood in the way” of fulfilling King’s dream.

Sharpton, the co-organizer of the march along with Martin Luther King III, the son of the slain civil rights leader, said that the Supreme Court’s decision in June to strike down a key anti-discrimination provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was an example that the nation is moving in the wrong direction when it comes to civil rights.

'Meet The Press' Airs Historic Martin Luther King, Jr. Interview (VIDEO)

'Meet The Press' Airs Historic Martin Luther King, Jr. Interview (VIDEO): "Meet the Press" marked the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington by airing its interview with Martin Luther King, Jr., which was originally broadcast three days before his historic "I have a dream" speech.

The re-airing was part of a special two-hour edition of "Meet the Press" on Sunday. In the interview, King defended Bayard Rustin, organizer of the march, against allegations that he was a Communist, and reacted to one panelist's suggestion that civil rights activists were asking for too much too quickly.

"I cannot agree with this at all because there can be no gainsaying of the fact that the Negro has been extremely patient," King responded. "We have waited well-now 345 years for our basic constitutional and God-given rights and we still confront the fact that we are at the bottom of the economic ladder."

Viewers, including MSNBC's Chris Hayes and the Nation's Ari Berman, noted how "hostile" the roundtable was towards King and his fellow guest NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins.

The Books That Bring The Civil Rights Movement To Life : Code Switch : NPR

The Books That Bring The Civil Rights Movement To Life : Code Switch : NPR: If you've been browsing bookstores this summer, you'll probably notice there are, in some places, whole tables devoted to books about the civil rights movement. The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington has focused national attention on movement history and most everything related to it.

Here at NPR, we've been doing our bit with a series called , which looks at a number of pivotal moments in the evolution of the movement. In addition to broadcast stories and a lot of interesting work on the Web (blogs, commentary, even photographs), there's a wonderful selection of .

And then there are the books. This is a partial compilation of my personal list, and I'm re-reading some of them over the summer, for obvious reasons.

John Lewis At March On Washington: 'I'm Not Going To Stand By And Let The Supreme Court Take The Right To Vote Away' | ThinkProgress

John Lewis At March On Washington: 'I'm Not Going To Stand By And Let The Supreme Court Take The Right To Vote Away' | ThinkProgress: Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) — who was the youngest speaker during the March on Washington in 1963 — delivered a passionate address about the importance of protecting voting rights at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial fifty years later, as thousands gathered to celebrate the anniversary of the historic event on Saturday.

“When I stood here 50 years ago, I said one man, one vote is the African cry. It is ours, too. it must be ours,” he began, before connecting the demands of 1963 to today’s struggles. “Almost 50 years ago, I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the right to vote. I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us!”

Minority Students At University of Texas Attacked By An Epidemic Of 'Bleach Bombs' | ThinkProgress

Minority Students At University of Texas Attacked By An Epidemic Of 'Bleach Bombs' | ThinkProgress: On Wednesday, University of Texas student Bryan Davis, who is African American, was struck by a bleach-filled balloon while he was walking to visit a friend in a neighborhood populated by UT students. Moreover, this attack appears to be part of a chain of similar assaults targeting students of color on the Texas campus. Last October, Austin police launched an investigation into four similar attacks on UT students, all of which targeted Asian or African Americans.

The October incidents sparked a wave of protests on Texas’ campus.

Davis told the Burnt Orange Report’s Ben Sherman that he doesn’t “feel safe walking around West Campus by myself” after the incident, and worried that incidents such as this one can poison the entire campus. “I talked to my sister an hour ago,” said Davis. “She’s a freshman at Xavier University. I always tease her about how she should come to UT, but when I was talking to her on the phone about it, I was talking about why that was no longer a good idea, for her physical safety. UT is supposed to have the atmosphere of the entire city, it’s supposed to be progressive and forward-thinking, and here we are with hate crimes still taking place.”

South Carolina restaurant ejected African-American customers when white person felt ‘threatened’ | The Raw Story

South Carolina restaurant ejected African-American customers when white person felt ‘threatened’ | The Raw Story: A group of customers at a Wild Wing restaurant in Charleston, SC were forced to wait two hours for their table and then were ultimately denied service on the basis of their race. According to Charleston’s WNEW Channel 5, the group of 25 African-Americans were asked to leave because a white customer felt “threatened.”

Michael Brown and a group composed of family and friends were gathered in July at the North Charleston Wild Wing Caféto say farewell to a cousin who was moving away. The party waited for two hours for a table only to be told by a manager that there was “a situation.”

“She said there’s a situation where one of our customers feels threatened by your party, so she asked us not to seat you in our section, which totally alarmed all of us because we’re sitting there peaceably for two hours,” Brown told Channel 5. “Obviously, if we were causing any conflict, we would have been ejected out of the place hours before.”

A member of the party began to film the discussion between Brown and the restaurant manager with a camera phone.

Thousands turn out at march, rally honoring MLK's legacy, organizers say - U.S. News

Thousands turn out at march, rally honoring MLK's legacy, organizers say - U.S. News: Tens of thousands of people flooded the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall on Saturday, the first stop in a week of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s watershed “I Have A Dream” address and the March on Washington.

A chorus of speakers rallied the massive crowd with prayers for peace and calls for justice that were at once testaments to King’s historical legacy and nods to contemporary issues, from hotly debated policing tactics to voting rights.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who co-organized Saturday’s march with King’s son, Martin Luther King III, gave a fiery keynote address that carried out his earlier promise to focus the day’s observances on the “issues that have stood in the way” of fulfilling King’s goals.

Sharpton, who founded and heads the National Action Network and also hosts a program on MSNBC, aimed squarely at the Supreme Court’s decision in June to strike down a key anti-discrimination provision of 1965’s Voting Rights Act, which triggered a wave of restrictive voting laws in several states.

While Unsung in '63, Women Weren't Just 'Background Singers' : Code Switch : NPR

While Unsung in '63, Women Weren't Just 'Background Singers' : Code Switch : NPR: On that sweltering August day in 1963, almost a quarter-million people thronged the National Mall, from the Washington Monument to the columned marble box that is the Lincoln Memorial. The crowning moment, of course, was Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

Looking out upon the packed Mall, King told the integrated crowd that the nation's black citizens would not be satisfied until they were equal in every way, as thunderous applause broke out around him: "We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream!"

In addition to King, vintage photos from the day prominently show Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Asa Philip Randolph — the architect of the march — and a very young John Lewis,who is one of the few original speakers still living.

Women were relegated to the background, even one as eminent as Dorothy Height, the president of the National Council of Negro Women. Or they were cultural adornments, like the iconic mezzo-soprano Marian Anderson, who serenaded the crowd with an elegant rendition of the old Negro spiritual, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hand."

John Lewis: 'We're Better People' 50 Years After March On Washington

John Lewis: 'We're Better People' 50 Years After March On Washington: Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March On Washington, discussed the continuing battle for civil rights on Friday, telling MSNBC's Rev. Al Sharpton that Americans are "better people" 50 years after the original event.

Speaking ahead of Saturday's commemoration of the historic march, Lewis said "we have come too far to stop" the fight for equality.

"I must say, I feel more than lucky but very blessed to be able to stand here 50 years later and to see the progress we have made," Lewis said. “And just to see the changes have occurred. If someone had told me 50 years ago that an African-American would be in the White House as the president, I probably would have said 'you’re crazy. You are out of your mind. You don’t know what you’re talking about.' The country is a different country, and we’re better people.”

Lewis, the last surviving speaker from the 1963 event, was 23 when he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial on the same day of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. Lewis will speak at Saturday's commemorative march, which over 100,000 people were expected to attend.

U.S. Is Suing in Texas Cases Over Voting by Minorities - NYTimes.com

U.S. Is Suing in Texas Cases Over Voting by Minorities - NYTimes.com: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday escalated its efforts to restore a stronger federal role in protecting minority voters in Texas, announcing that the Justice Department would become a plaintiff in two lawsuits against the state.

The Justice Department said it would file paperwork to become a co-plaintiff in an existing lawsuit brought by civil rights groups and Texas lawmakers against a Texas redistricting plan. Separately, the department said, it filed a new lawsuit over a state law requiring voters to show photo identification. 

In both cases, the administration is asking federal judges to rule that Texas has discriminated against voters who are members of a minority group, and to reimpose on Texas a requirement that it seek “pre-clearance” from the federal government before making any changes to election rules. In June, the Supreme Court removed the requirement by striking down part of the Voting Rights Act. 

“Today’s action marks another step forward in the Justice Department’s continuing effort to protect the voting rights of all eligible Americans,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement, adding, “This represents the department’s latest action to protect voting rights, but it will not be our last.”

Following in the Footsteps of King, and Looking to Galvanize a New Generation - NYTimes.com

Following in the Footsteps of King, and Looking to Galvanize a New Generation - NYTimes.com: WASHINGTON — Half a century after the emotional apex of the civil rights movement, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech, many thousand of people are retracing his footsteps on Saturday, and his successors in the civil rights movement plan to speak where he did, in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

The anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington is less a commemoration, organizers say, than an effort to inject fresh energy into issues of economics and justice that, despite undeniable progress in overcoming racial bias, still leave stubborn gaps between white and black Americans. 

The speeches that carry out over the Reflecting Pool, which 50 years ago prodded Congress to pass landmark laws, are expected to take hard aim at racial profiling in police tactics, high prison rates of black men and current efforts in Republican-led states to restrict voting access.

“We are still confronted with some of the same problems, and there are new problems,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, an organizer of the event, officially the National Action to Realize the Dream March. “People are asking me why are we marching? The issue is why did we wait till now to come and march in Washington?” 

A lineup of past civil rights heroes, current leaders and Democratic officials are scheduled to speak, including Mr. Sharpton; Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who on Thursday sued Texas over a strict voter ID law; Representative John Lewis of Georgia, an organizer of the original 1963 march; and family members of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager shot last year.

BBC News - Nelson Mandela showing 'great resilience' in hospital

BBC News - Nelson Mandela showing 'great resilience' in hospital: South Africa's ailing former leader, Nelson Mandela, is said to be showing great resilience though his condition becomes unstable at times.

The state of the 95-year-old is "still critical but stable", according to a statement from the South African president's office.

He remains in hospital in Pretoria two-and-a-half months after being admitted with a recurring lung infection.

The statement largely squares with comments from members of his family.

"Critical but stable" is the phrase used by the government for weeks now, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports from Johannesburg.

However, Saturday's statement does provide some fresh insight into the precariousness of the health of the global icon and the reserves he still appears able to call upon, our correspondent adds.

The statement said doctors were still working hard to bring about a turnaround in his health and, as a result of medical interventions, his condition tended to stabilise.

Did The March On Washington Improve Blacks' Economic Outlook? : Code Switch : NPR

Did The March On Washington Improve Blacks' Economic Outlook? : Code Switch : NPR: This week marks the 50th celebration of the March on Washington — perhaps you've heard something about it? — and it's a little hard to resist the urge to compare the America of 1963 to 2013, to see how they've diverged.

Although the "I have a dream" and the "content of their character" bits tend to get top billing in these remembrances, the event was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom — and it's worth noting that the word "jobs" comes before "freedom." Martin Luther King, Jr., the NAACP, and the march's organizers were calling for some very specific economic policies they thought would improve the material well-being of black folks in America.

Well, according to a report released by the Census Bureau on the eve of the march's anniversary, the median income of blacks has nearly doubled, the poverty rate has fallen by 14 percent. Twenty-six percent of blacks had high school diplomas in 1964; 85 percent did in 2012. And over that span, the number of black folks who completed four years of college jumped from 4 percent to 21 percent.

Anniversary march takes on a serious tone

Anniversary march takes on a serious tone: Fifty years ago, crowds came together in the 95-degree Washington heat to push for civil rights legislation and draw attention to the need for jobs, equality in the work industry and a better minimum wage.

Now, 50 years after the 1963 March on Washington, civil rights advocates are reeling from the death of one major part of the Voting Rights Act and the acquittal of a former neighborhood watch volunteer in the shooting death of an unarmed black teen in Florida. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission now exists, but its workload remains busy. The minimum wage is higher, of course, but advocates maintain it's not high enough for people to earn a living.

People have a spirit of action in them for the anniversary march, said Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and participant in the original march.

2013 US Open: Tennis Legend Althea Gibson Recognized with Commemorative Stamp | Bleacher Report

2013 US Open: Tennis Legend Althea Gibson Recognized with Commemorative Stamp | Bleacher Report: The Althea Gibson commemorative stamp went on sale today.

The stamp is part of the United States Postal Service's Black Heritage Series. It recognizes Gibson, the first African American to win a Grand Slam.

Tennis great Billy Jean King was on hand this morning to unveil the stamp on the grounds of the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

It also comes on the anniversary of Gibson's debut at the U.S. Open.

After intense lobbying on the part of the American Tennis Association, on August 22, 1950, Gibson was invited to compete in the United States National Championships, now the U.S. Open.

The ATA is the oldest African American sports organization in the U.S. The organization traces its origins back to the late 1800s when historically black universities such as Tuskegee and Howard offered tennis to their students.
However, it wasn't until after the United States Lawn and Tennis Association (now the USTA) barred blacks from participation that the elite among blacks involved in tennis established the ATA.

US Postal Service Stamp Commemorates March on Washington

US Postal Service Stamp Commemorates March on Washington: WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service unveiled a commemorative postage stamp on Friday for the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights march and his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington. “And now, with the help of people across the nation, we are honored to reveal the 1963 March on Washington Forever Stamp!" said the statement.

The postage stamp was unveiled after an online campaign in which thousands of Americans showed their support for civil rights.

One of the speakers at the ceremony was John Lewis. Now a Democratic congressman from Georgia, he was a black student leader in the 1960s. He recalled the mass of people assembled on the National Mall as he spoke just before Martin Luther King Jr.

“And on that day when you looked to your right you saw all of these young people standing there. You looked to your left up in the tree you saw young men. Young people, black and white, trying to get a better view. The March on Washington, in my estimation, was one of the finest hours in modern American history,” said Lewis.

March On Washington Anniversary Quiz: Was This Said In 1963 or 2013?

March On Washington Anniversary Quiz: Was This Said In 1963 or 2013?: 013 has been filled with racially charged moments. From the Zimmerman Trial to stop-and-frisk laws, race relations and the progress of Black America has come to the forefront of conversations all over the country.

This year, as we commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the "March on Washington For Jobs & Freedom" and a new march mobilizes, many questions rise about how far we have come.

We decided to select a few quotes and statements made in 1963 and in 2013, mix them up and remove the speaker's name to see if readers would be able to distinguish statements made 50 years ago and statements made today.

Take our quiz below to see if you can tell which statements were made in 1963 and which statements were made in 2013.

March On Washington: Photos From The Original Demonstration (PHOTOS)

March On Washington: Photos From The Original Demonstration (PHOTOS): Fifty years ago, thousands of Americans came together for The March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, making it one of the largest political demonstrations in United States history.

Not only did Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his historic "I Have A Dream" speech, civilians and celebrities, both white and black, came together to demand civil and economic rights for African Americans.

As the country looks back and ponders how far we have come and where we're going, we revisit the power and promise the nation demonstrated on August 28, 1963. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the march, we've compiled photos from the day of the original demonstration.

March On Washington 50th Anniversary: How Much Has Black Life Really Changed Since 1963? (INFOGRAPHIC)

March On Washington 50th Anniversary: How Much Has Black Life Really Changed Since 1963? (INFOGRAPHIC): With Jim Crow segregation, voting discrimination and rampant joblessness not yet in rear view, 1963 was a tough time to be black in America.

In January, Alabama governor George C. Wallace would defiantly proclaim in his inaugural speech: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!," sending a wave of intolerance across the south that would lead to the death of four young girls at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church and the shooting death of civil rights activist Medgar Evers at his home in Jackson, Mississippi later that year.

And though there were bright spots -- African-American student Harvey Gantt entering Clemson University in South Carolina, the last U.S. state to hold out against racial integration, and James Meredith becoming the first black person to graduate from Ole Miss -- it would be a while before true change would come (as soul singer Sam Cooke's 1963-inspired hit proclaimed).

But has it?

By some estimates, no, with African Americans only barely better off in the war on poverty and imprisonment that pervades the news today. By other summations, the black community is leaps and bounds beyond where it was back in 1963.

Thousands from Baltimore expected to travel for March on Washington events - baltimoresun.com

Thousands from Baltimore expected to travel for March on Washington events - baltimoresun.com: Thousands of people are expected to descend on Washington this weekend to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington civil rights event. Several events are planned for the weekend and on Wednesday, Aug. 28, the anniversary of the day of the march. Baltimore-area civil rights groups are scrambling to keep up with the demand for bus reservations.

Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that "the phones are jumping off the hook" with requests for transportation to Washington. She recommends that Baltimoreans take the train if they plan on visiting Washington for the weekend events.

Events open to the public:

•50th Anniversary March on Washington National Action to Realize the Dream March and Rally for "Jobs, Justice and Freedom."
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday
Speakers include the Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, Charles Steele, Jr., the families of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till, and Rep. John Lewis.

Redeem the Dream National Summit and Reception
National Building Museum, 401 F Street NW, Washington, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday
Hosted by National Urban League

National Town Hall Meeting on Poverty and Economic Empowerment
"Moving Together, Moving Forward: Jobs and Freedom"
57th Annual SCLC International Convention Race and Poverty Panel, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday, Voting Rights Panel from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Friday
Grand Hyatt, 1000 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
Hosted by Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC Poverty Institute, Rainbow PUSH

"Let Freedom Ring" Commemoration and Closing Ceremony
The Lincoln Memorial, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday
Bells will ring across the nation at 3 p.m.

Unveiling of first U.S. memorial for "foot soldiers"
Whitmore Park on the corner of Clay and Calvert Streets, Annapolis, at 10 a.m. Wednesday
Annapolis-based Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Inc. will unveil the nation's first memorial to the 250,000 "foot soldiers" of the March on Washington.
Speakers include U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes, U.S. Rep. Donna F. Edwards.

Race Equality Is Still a Work in Progress, Survey Finds - NYTimes.com

Race Equality Is Still a Work in Progress, Survey Finds - NYTimes.com: Fewer than one in three black Americans and not even half of whites say the United States has made “a lot” of progress toward achieving racial equality in the half-century since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared he had “a dream” that one day freedom, justice and brotherhood would prevail and that his children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

As the nation is poised to observe the 50th anniversary next week of the March on Washington that Dr. King led, the poll and an analysis of racial disparities by the Pew Research Center conclude that while five decades’ progress has been palpable on some fronts, Dr. King’s goal remains elusive on others. 

Blacks and whites generally agree that the two races get along well, but about 7 in 10 blacks and more than 1 in 4 whites also concur that blacks are treated unequally by the criminal justice system. A majority of blacks also say they are treated less fairly than whites in public schools and in the workplace. Fully 1 in 3 blacks, 1 in 5 Hispanic Americans and 1 in 10 whites said they were treated unfairly within the last year because of perceptions of their race.

Neo-Nazi plans to build an all-white city of racists in North Dakota | The Raw Story

Neo-Nazi plans to build an all-white city of racists in North Dakota | The Raw Story: A man living in North Dakota plans to turn his small town into a bastion of white supremacists, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“I didn’t have a clue who the guy was until he showed up. All I know is he bought that house sight unseen, $5,000 cash, and had no idea what it looked like, where it was, other than he knew the directions to get to Leith,” Mayor Ryan Schock told the Hatewatch blog.

Craig Paul Cobb, 61, has been buying up abandoned property in Leith, a town of only 19 people. He has invited other white supremacists to live on his properties and help take over the city.

In a post last year on the Vanguard News Network forum, Cobb said anyone who lives on his property would be required to fly a “racialist banner” — such as a Nazi flag — 24-hours a day. They would also be required to try to “import more responsible radical hard core [white nationalists]” and become a legal resident of the state so they could vote in local elections. He plans to rename the city “Cobbsville.”

Reflections of the March on Washington - Higher Education

Reflections of the March on Washington - Higher Education: On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people endured the sweltering sun and heat to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The march — held on the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery in the USA — still ranks as one of the country’s largest political rallies in support of human rights. It was where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech that is often considered one of his most powerful orations.

The march is also credited for helping create the momentum for passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Both pieces of legislation helped transform this nation.

Barack Obama, our first black president, was elected in 2008 and re-elected four years later. We have made much progress in achieving Dr. King’s dream where “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

But these achievements are not sufficient to say that we are free from racism and prejudice. There is much to make us feel discouraged. We are once again facing issues that we thought were behind us. The future does not look as promising as it once did; in many areas it feels like we are moving backward.