New Wave of African Writers With an Internationalist Bent - NYTimes.com

New Wave of African Writers With an Internationalist Bent - NYTimes.com: More than a decade ago, when the young Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was struggling to get her first novel, “Purple Hibiscus,” published, an agent told her that things would be easier “if only you were Indian,” because Indian writers were in vogue. Another suggested changing the setting from Nigeria to America. Ms. Adichie didn’t take this as commentary on her work, she said, but on the timidity of the publishing world when it came to unknown writers and unfamiliar cultures, especially African ones.

These days she wouldn’t receive that kind of advice. Black literary writers with African roots (though some grew up elsewhere), mostly young cosmopolitans who write in English, are making a splash in the book world, especially in the United States. They are on best-seller lists, garner high profile reviews and win major awards, in America and in Britain. Ms. Adichie, 36, the author of “Americanah,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction this year, is a prominent member of an expanding group that includes Dinaw Mengestu, Helen Oyeyemi, NoViolet Bulawayo, Teju Cole, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Taiye Selasi, among others.

Should Saying Someone Is 'Off The Reservation' Be Off-Limits? : Code Switch : NPR

Should Saying Someone Is 'Off The Reservation' Be Off-Limits? : Code Switch : NPR: Off the reservation is a common phrase, which many people use without considering the context of its original meaning. Namely, that Native American peoples were restricted to reservations created by the U.S. government, and their freedom was severely limited by the terms of the treaties they were often forced to sign.

I did some searching in archival and current newspaper databases, for both literal and figurative uses of the phrase. It appeared frequently in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it's not unusual to find it in recent headlines and articles as well.

The Original Meaning Of The Term

In its literal and original sense, as you would expect, the term was used in the 19th century to describe the activities of Native Americans:

"The acting commissioner of Indian affairs to-day received a telegram from Agent Roorke of the Klamath (Oregon) agency, dated July 6, in which he says: 'No Indians are off the reservation without authority. All my Indians are loyal and peaceable, and doing well." (Baltimore Sun, July 11, 1878)

"Secretary Hoke Smith...has requested of the Secretary of War the aid of the United States troops to arrest a band of Navajo Indians living off the reservation near American Valley, New Mexico, who have been killing cattle, etc." (Washington Post, May 23, 1894)

"Apaches off the reservation...killing deer and gathering wild fruits." (New York Times, Sept. 7, 1897)

Many of the news articles that used the term in a literal sense in the past were also expressing undisguised contempt and hatred, or, at best, condescension for Native Americans — "shiftless, untameable...a rampant and intractable enemy to civilization" (New York Times, Oct. 27, 1886).

Confrontation Between Campus Security, Professor Puts Arizona State in Spotlight - Higher Education

Confrontation Between Campus Security, Professor Puts Arizona State in Spotlight - Higher Education: Dr. Ersula Ore, a Black rising-star professor at Arizona State University, had wrapped up her summer class for the evening last month and was heading home, when nearby construction had forced her and several other pedestrians to jaywalk across a busy thoroughfare near campus.

But before Ore could even make her way to the other side of the street last month, she was stopped by Officer Stewart Ferrin, an armed ASU police officer, who demanded to see her photo identification.

Ore, an expert in critical race theory who has held a tenure-track professor in the English department at ASU since 2011, questioned the officer over why he had singled her out over the others, said her Phoenix-based attorney Alane Roby, who added that Ore asked the officer not to speak to her in a disrespectful tone.

Freedom Summer Conference: Black Vote Still an Issue in Mississippi - Higher Education

Freedom Summer Conference: Black Vote Still an Issue in Mississippi - Higher Education: JACKSON, Miss. ― Last week’s Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary Conference at Tougaloo College brought national attention to the fight for Black voting rights in Mississippi just as a pivotal Republican Senate primary runoff election likely was decided by African-American Democrats.

Conference participants honed in on the significance of the election of Thad Cochran as the Republican nominee, in a closely contested race in which he defeated Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel in a state that resisted integration and Black voting rights long after federal law mandated equality.

Several political analysts broke down the voting patterns in the June 24 runoff compared to the primary, and concluded that Cochran’s well-funded courting of Black Democratic voters paid off. Because of the state’s open primary laws, Democrats were allowed to vote in the Republican runoff if they had not voted in their own party’s primary.

LBJ's second great battle: Enforcing the Civil Rights Act - Los Angeles Times

LBJ's second great battle: Enforcing the Civil Rights Act - Los Angeles Times: When Lyndon Johnson became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, so closely had he played his political cards that nobody was exactly sure what he believed in. Very quickly, the surprising answer became clear: civil rights. Johnson went all-in on Kennedy's stalled bill, declaring: "What's the point of being president if you can't do what you know is right?"

Eight months later, on July 2, after the defeat of the longest filibuster in Senate history, Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law. LBJ and his Senate allies, especially Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey and Montana's Mike Mansfield, deserve all the credit they get. But of course the real heavy lifting had been done by civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, Bob Moses, James Farmer and their weary, long-suffering foot soldiers. The Civil Rights Act was the culmination of decades of bitter struggle and very real sacrifice. Only 11 days before Johnson signed the act, three young Freedom Summer volunteers disappeared in Mississippi. The bodies of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman would not be recovered for another month.

Baltimoreans reflect on Civil Rights era and their struggles for equality - baltimoresun.com

Baltimoreans reflect on Civil Rights era and their struggles for equality - baltimoresun.com: This was the promise: No longer would African-Americans be forced to pick up their meals from the back door of restaurants. No longer would they need to fear being unable to find lodgings on their way home from a trip.

And no longer would those who denied them a seat in a theater or on a merry-go-round be able to cloak their prejudice with the law.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, the culmination of decades of struggle for racial equality.
The act, which banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national identity, had first been proposed by President John F. Kennedy several months before his assassination. Johnson urged Congress to speed passage of the law, which he said would honor Kennedy "more eloquently" than any "memorial oration or eulogy."

Student: My school district hires too many white teachers - The Washington Post

Student: My school district hires too many white teachers - The Washington Post: High school is full of, well, high schoolers. We are not naturally the most self-disciplined group. When the bell ending the lunch period rings, for example, students finish socializing and playing with their friends rather than rush to class. At Lake Area New Tech High School in New Orleans, from which I just graduated, we often talked to girls or texted each other instead of studying in our spare time.

But one day I started noticing exceptions. My fifth period history and civics teacher, Mr. Allen, was one of them. When chaos erupted at the end of the lunch hour, he simply opened his door and let his students into his classroom. They filed in respectfully, unlike in other classes. By the time the tardy bell rang, we’d all taken our seats and opened our history books, quietly awaiting further instructions.

Mr. Allen is one of too few black teachers in a school system where about 90 percent of students are black, and I think that shared background helped explain our behavior. Many other teachers cannot control their classes, let alone get their students interested in the work. Mr. Allen can do both.

A Black Male With A Degree And A White High School Grad Have The Same Chances Of Getting A Job

A Black Male With A Degree And A White High School Grad Have The Same Chances Of Getting A Job: Several studies have pointed out the evident racial achievement gap but recent research has revealed a sad truth -- an African-American male with an associate degree has the same chances of getting a job as a white male with a high school diploma.

The study, conducted by Young Invincibles, looks at the effect of race and education on employment, revealing the impact race can have on an individual's chances of getting a job.

The findings aren't incredibly surprising, considering that black millennials are more than two times more likely to face unemployment than their white counterparts, at 16.6 percent compared to 7.1 percent. But the study delves deeper, exploring hiring discrimination, high black male and female incarceration rates and the gap in generational wealth between whites and African-Americans.

In an interview with Think Progress, Tom Allison, one of the study's authors, pointed out the positive impact additional degrees can have on African-American earning and employment potential.

Shift in Law on Disability and Students Shows Lapses - NYTimes.com

Shift in Law on Disability and Students Shows Lapses - NYTimes.com: Fewer than a third of states and territories now comply with federal disability law under a change announced Tuesday in the way the Department of Education evaluates how well public schools educate students with disabilities.

Under the old system, nearly three-quarters of states and territories met the standards.

Until recently, the Education Department looked at requirements such as whether school districts had filed the appropriate paperwork or met timelines for the 6.5 million children who qualify for special education services under federal law. Now the department will compare the test scores of students with disabilities with those of students not designated as having special needs.

Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, said the shift was driven by the fact that far too few students with disabilities were reaching academic proficiency benchmarks. “In too many states the outcomes for students with disabilities are simply too low,” Mr. Duncan said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. “We can and we must do better.”

Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary Highlights Tougaloo College’s Civil Rights Role - Higher Education

Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary Highlights Tougaloo College’s Civil Rights Role - Higher Education: Jackson, Miss. — Hayat Mohamed, a Tougaloo College senior, and Laurel Oldershaw, a 2014 graduate of Brown University, recalled their experiences on each other’s campus — an African-American with roots in the Sudan, who spent a semester at the Rhode Island institution, and an Ivy Leaguer from a Jewish background who attended the Mississippi HBCU last fall.

Their conversation, joined by several current and former students from both schools, was part of Freedom 50, a conference on the Tougaloo campus commemorating the 50th anniversary of the bloody 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi. It also marked the 50th anniversary of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, which was sparked by the involvement of students and faculty at both schools in the civil rights struggle in the South.

International Universities Grappling With Global Growing Pains - Higher Education

International Universities Grappling With Global Growing Pains - Higher Education: Yusuf Adamu recognizes that he has a “problem” that most of the world’s colleges and universities would love to have.

Enrollment at Nigeria’s Federal University Dutse, a newly established college located in the country’s historic city of Dutse, is at an all-time high, and Adamu—the school’s registrar—now has to develop new strategies to accommodate students who want to use their education to become active participants in Africa’s emerging economy.

“We don’t want to duplicate efforts,” says Adamu, who made the 12-hour trek by plane in April to Miami to participate in the Going Global conference. The conference was sponsored by the British Council, an international organization that promotes educational opportunities and cross-cultural relations around the world. “We live in a global world, so we have to find innovative ways to partner with other institutions and learn from them. We see this as an absolute necessity.”

Facebook's Diversity Numbers Are Out, And They're What You Expect : All Tech Considered : NPR

Facebook's Diversity Numbers Are Out, And They're What You Expect : All Tech Considered : NPR: The summer of tech company demographic data dumps continues apace. Facebook is the latest big firm to share its staff's racial and gender breakdowns, following similar releases from Google and Yahoo. Other tech firms NPR has reached out to say they are having conversations about whether they will do the same.

The numbers look a lot like what we saw from Google and Yahoo — a white and Asian male-dominated staff, especially for technical jobs.

How Facebook, Google And Yahoo Compare On Gender Vs. The Overall Workforce

Category	U.S.	Google	Yahoo	Facebook
Men	53%	70%	62%	69%
Women	47%	30%	37%	31%

 

Notes

U.S. labor force numbers reflect civilian workers who are employed. Facebook, Google and Yahoo data are for all workers worldwide.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (2013 data), Google, Yahoo, Facebook

 

How Facebook, Google And Yahoo Compare On Race

Category	Google	Yahoo	Facebook
White	61%	50%	57%
Asian	30%	39%	34%
Black	2%	2%	2%
Hispanic	3%	4%	4%
2+ races	4%	2%	3%

 

Notes

Data are for U.S. workers only.

Source: Google, Yahoo, Facebook

The Map Of Native American Tribes You've Never Seen Before : Code Switch : NPR

The Map Of Native American Tribes You've Never Seen Before : Code Switch : NPR: Finding an address on a map can be taken for granted in the age of GPS and smartphones. But centuries of forced relocation, disease and genocide have made it difficult to find where many Native American tribes once lived.

Aaron Carapella, a self-taught mapmaker in Warner, Okla., has pinpointed the locations and original names of hundreds of American Indian nations before their first contact with Europeans.

As a teenager, Carapella says he could never get his hands on a continental U.S. map like this, depicting more than 600 tribes — many now forgotten and lost to history. Now, the 34-year-old designs and sells maps as large as 3 by 4 feet with the names of tribes hovering over land they once occupied.

Michelle Obama Challenges Students to Embrace Struggle - Higher Education

Michelle Obama Challenges Students to Embrace Struggle - Higher Education: WASHINGTON — Drawing from her own experience as a first-generation college student, first lady Michelle Obama encouraged several hundred graduates here to embrace struggle as a means of personal growth.

“Don’t ever, ever shy away from a good struggle,” the first lady said at a recent graduation ceremony for the District of Columbia College Access Program, more commonly known as DC-CAP, which provides counseling and scholarship aid to district students.

“Instead, I want you to seek it out and dive in head first, because that’s what truly successful people do,” she said, citing her husband Barack Obama’s rise to the White House as an example.

The first lady told the students that though they may have struggled to get through school, they had grown smarter as a result.

“Science actually shows that when you’re struggling to solve a problem or to understand a concept, you’re forming new pathways and connections in your brain,” Obama said. “So struggling isn’t a bad thing.

Experts Cite Strides, Struggles for Blacks in Higher Education Since Juneteenth - Higher Education

Experts Cite Strides, Struggles for Blacks in Higher Education Since Juneteenth - Higher Education: PHILADELPHIA ― Historically Black colleges and universities continue to be relevant in the 21st century, according to the director of a center that emerged in response to a history of inequality and lack of minority access to higher education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Marybeth Gasman, head of the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions and professor of higher education in the Graduate School of Education, refutes the notion that HBCUs are not an integral part of American higher education.

“Perfect students on paper do not always translate to perfect students,” Gasman said at The Library Company of Philadelphia’s annual Juneteenth Freedom program. “We have to stop comparing HBCUs to Ivy League institutions unfairly.”

The seminar theme, “Freedom and its Aftermath: Black Education from Emancipation to the Present,” commemorated one of the oldest known celebrations for the end of slavery in the United States by highlighting the overarching HBCU significance since 1865, and the fight for equal education post Brown v. Board of Education.

Panel: Community-Based Programs Vital for Black Male Educational Achievement - Higher Education

Panel: Community-Based Programs Vital for Black Male Educational Achievement - Higher Education: WASHINGTON — Raised in a series of foster homes in Connecticut, Sixto Cancel beat all of the odds that were stacked against him.

The outspoken and inquisitive student, who has probably experienced more challenges than most adults twice his age, is now an honors student at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“I wasn’t raised by a mother or a father. It’s nonprofits and the government that raised me,” said Cancel, who shared his moving story with a packed audience that gathered at the National Press Club yesterday for the “Advancing Success for Black Men in College,” symposium sponsored by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF).

50 Years Ago, Students Fought For Black Rights During 'Freedom Summer' : NPR

50 Years Ago, Students Fought For Black Rights During 'Freedom Summer' : NPR: This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, a movement to open the polls to blacks in Mississippi and end white supremacy in the state.

Freedom Summer was organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, which recruited 700 college students — mostly white students from the North — to travel to Mississippi and help African-Americans register to vote. The organizers, the students and the black people trying to register were all risking their lives, a measure of how pervasive racism was at the time.

A new documentary about the movement, called Freedom Summer, airs on PBS Tuesday.

"It was so dangerous, there was actually a list of some do's and don'ts that I found to be really fascinating," Stanley Nelson, the documentary's director, tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "At night, don't stand with your back at the door of a house with the lights on, don't let people pass you on the highway — those kinds of things, which for me, as a filmmaker, showed visually the danger that was there."

Just as Freedom Summer was beginning, two white participants, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, and one African-American organizer, James Chaney, disappeared. It was later discovered they were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.

New York City’s Top Public Schools Need Diversity - NYTimes.com

New York City’s Top Public Schools Need Diversity - NYTimes.com: WASHINGTON — NEW YORK CITY’S elite public high schools were always meant to provide a quintessentially American blend of academic excellence and democratic accessibility. Unlike the city’s expensive private schools, they would be free and open to all who were academically qualified, irrespective of pedigree.

“You pass the test, you get the highest score, you get into the school — no matter what your ethnicity, no matter what your economic background is,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in 2012. But this year, only 5 percent of seats at those eight schools were offered to black students and 7 percent to Latinos, in a city where the public schools are 70 percent black and Latino. At Stuyvesant High School, just 3 percent of offered seats this year went to black and Latino students.

When the number of black and Latino students admitted to a public school is a tiny fraction of their share of the general population, it raises red flags about the fairness of the admissions system.

Shape-Up And Check-Up: LA Barbers To Start Testing Blood Pressure : Code Switch : NPR

Shape-Up And Check-Up: LA Barbers To Start Testing Blood Pressure : Code Switch : NPR: Barbershops are a traditional gathering place for African-American men — a place to talk politics, sports and gossip. Now, some doctors in Los Angeles are hoping to make the barbershop a place for combating high blood pressure among black men.

Death rates from hypertension are three times higher in African-American men than white men of the same age, says Dr. Ronald Victor, the director of Cedars-Sinai Center for Hypertension in Los Angeles.

"Hypertension is one of the biggest reasons why the life expectancy of African-American men is only 69 years," Victor says. "That's a full decade less than white men in this country."

Financial Help Not Likely on Horizon for Tribal Colleges - Higher Education

Financial Help Not Likely on Horizon for Tribal Colleges - Higher Education: When the president and first lady recently arrived by helicopter at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, they made history. President Barack Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to visit an Indian reservation in the past eight decades. The Obamas took part in a Flag Day ceremony and met with Dakota and Lakota nation youth during their June 13 visit.

Addressing the crowd, Obama promised a renewed commitment to American Indian interests, with a particular focus on education.

“Let’s put our minds together to improve our schools, because our children deserve a world-class education, too, that prepares them for colleges and careers. And that means returning control of Indian education to tribal nations with additional resources and support so that you can direct your children’s education and reform,” said Obama.

Course Correction Uncertain for Increasing Black Enrollment in Higher Ed - Higher Education

Course Correction Uncertain for Increasing Black Enrollment in Higher Ed - Higher Education: ATLANTA — While historically Black colleges and universities across the nation look to build a direct pipeline for Black high school students, mounting challenges continue to serve as a roadblock, said a veteran educator.

“The problem with our students is that they don’t go far enough,” said Erroll B. Davis Jr., the outgoing superintendent of Atlanta’s 48,400 person school district.

Of the 59 percent of Atlanta’s high school students who graduate each year, for example, only 35 percent enroll in college and about 17 percent of those students return to campus for their second year.

“Not only are we not doing enough,” he told attendees at the 2014 HBCU Student Success Summit sponsored by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, “but it may indicate that we don’t know what we’re doing.”

Some Of Us Sacrifice More To Stay In Home Sweet Home : Code Switch : NPR

Some Of Us Sacrifice More To Stay In Home Sweet Home : Code Switch : NPR: If it seems like we talk about housing a lot on Code Switch, it's because we do. But the fact is it's really hard to talk about all the ways race correlates to different outcomes — in health or education, say— without talking about where people live. Take household wealth, for example: The major reason whites have so much more of it is because of how much likelier they are not just to own homes, but to own homes in places where that property might appreciate in value. (Alas, that state of affairs was hardly an accident, while other, harder-to-detect fetters to housing for people of color still shape the market.)

It is not surprising that while many Americans are less than sanguine about the housing market, blacks and Latinos are particularly pessimistic. New research from the MacArthur Foundation found that respondents from those groups were much more likely than whites to say that the housing market was a serious problem for them.

Most Latino Workers Born in U.S., Study Says - NYTimes.com

Most Latino Workers Born in U.S., Study Says - NYTimes.com: Immigrants no longer make up the majority of Latino workers in the United States, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

Immigrants, which includes Latinos who have come to this country legally or illegally, made up 49.7 percent of Latino workers in 2013, down from 56.1 percent in 2007, the study found. Contributing to the decline, the report said, was a sluggish economic recovery, slowing immigration from countries such as Mexico, and tougher immigration policies including deportations and border control.

Much of the shift, the report said, was because of a decline in the housing industry. A prerecession boom in that sector created 1.6 million jobs for Latino immigrants from 2004 to 2007. Researchers do not expect many of those jobs to return.

“People are generally of the consensus that there is no imminent sign of the economic recovery picking up steam,” said Rakesh Kochhar, an author of the study and the associate director for research of the Hispanic Trends Project for the Pew Research Center.

Latino Jobs Growth Driven by U.S. Born | Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project

Latino Jobs Growth Driven by U.S. Born | Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project: For the first time in nearly two decades, immigrants do not account for the majority of Hispanic workers in the United States. Meanwhile, most of the job gains made by Hispanics during the economic recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-09 have gone to U.S.-born workers, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data.

 In 2013, 49.7% of the more than 22 million employed Latinos were immigrants. This share was down sharply from the pre-recession peak of 56.1% in 2007. Although Latinos have gained 2.8 million jobs since the recession ended in 2009, only 453,000 of those went to immigrants. Moreover, all of the increase in employment for Latino immigrants
happened in the first two years of the recovery, from 2009 to 2011. Since then, from 2011 to 2013, the employment of Latino immigrants is unchanged.

Cornell University ‘National Treasure’ Points to Poverty as Root of World’s Turbulence - Higher Education

Cornell University ‘National Treasure’ Points to Poverty as Root of World’s Turbulence - Higher Education: As an international authority on African legal systems, human rights and development, Cornell University’s Muna Ndulo has keen insight into some of the conflicts and turbulent events that have dominated world news in recent months.

Ndulo is a professor of law and director of Cornell University’s Institute for African Development.

In 2009, he co-edited with Margaret Grieco the book “Power, Gender and Social Change in Africa,” a revelatory piece that explored issues related to the struggle for gender equality in Africa. In 2011, Ndulo published “African Customary Law, Customs, and Women’s Rights” in the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, which examined how traditional, customary laws in many African countries were contributing to the continued oppression and abuse of women and girls.

HBCUs Challenged to Address LGBT, Diversity Issues - Higher Education

HBCUs Challenged to Address LGBT, Diversity Issues - Higher Education: ATLANTA — Historically Black colleges and universities have to do a much better job in tending to the needs of their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students, according to the head of one of the nation’s largest civil rights organizations, whose mission is to eliminate racism and homophobia.

Sharon H. Lettman-Hicks, executive director and chief executive officer for the National Black Justice Coalition (NJBC), challenged HBCU college presidents to be more proactive in helping to eliminate bias against the LGBT community on their campuses.

“The public eye is on HBCUs,” she said during a keynote address at the 2014 HBCU Student Success Summit sponsored by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU). “We have to stop otherizing our LGBT community.”

Lettman-Hicks said that the 2011 hazing death of Robert Champion, a gay 26-year-old Florida A&M (FAMU) marching band drum major, forced a public spotlight on a spate of recent incidents that point to a “hostile” environment for gay and lesbian students on HBCU campuses.

On The Census, Who Checks 'Hispanic,' Who Checks 'White,' And Why : Code Switch : NPR

On The Census, Who Checks 'Hispanic,' Who Checks 'White,' And Why : Code Switch : NPR: We've been talking a lot lately about how who fills out the Census in what way. It's an ongoing preoccupation of Code Switch, and one shared by Julie Dowling. Dowling, a University of Illinois sociologist, whose book, Mexican Americans and the Question of Race, came out earlier this year. (As the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and Irish-American father, Dowling knows all about the complexities of filling out the race question on the Census form.)

I interviewed Dowling about her research, and she shared some fascinating insights about the gap between how people fill in Census forms and how they think of themselves

Still Learning From The 'Pearl Harbor' Of The Civil Rights Movement : Code Switch : NPR

Still Learning From The 'Pearl Harbor' Of The Civil Rights Movement : Code Switch : NPR: This weekend marks 50 years since three young civil rights workers went missing in Philadelphia, Miss., drawing the nation's attention to the brutal resistance to equal rights in the South at the time.

Justice came slowly, but the murders did help spur change. Today, young people are still learning about the activists' legacy, hoping to inspire further action.

Attack At The Church

Freedom Summer drew hundreds of young Americans to Mississippi in 1964. The goal was to register black voters and teach African-American students at makeshift Freedom Schools.

The rural Mount Zion Church in Neshoba County was supposed to host one of those teach-ins. But on June 16, the Ku Klux Klan made sure that would not happen.

"They burned the church down that night," recalls Jewel Rush McDonald, a longtime member of Mount Zion. Her mother and brother had been at a church board meeting that evening and were late getting home.

Plan To House Immigrant Teens Prompts A Backlash In Virginia Town : NPR

Plan To House Immigrant Teens Prompts A Backlash In Virginia Town : NPR: The influx of tens of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children to the U.S. has sparked a controversy in an unlikely place far from the U.S.-Mexico border: a tiny town in southern Virginia.

The federal government had struck a deal to house some of the migrants in an empty college in Lawrenceville, in the heart of Virginia's tobacco belt. The first busload was expected as early as Thursday, but a local backlash has put the plan on hold.

Word spread this week that the detention center was a done deal, and it didn't go over well that most in this town of 1,400 had heard nothing of plans for the shelter.

"I was just shocked," says Brunswick County Sheriff Brian Roberts. "The way this process has been handled puts more fear in our eyes, because it's been shoved down our throat," he says.

Report shows school disengagement among Latino youth - The Washington Post

Report shows school disengagement among Latino youth - The Washington Post: High dropout rates and school disengagement among Montgomery County’s fast-growing Latino population appear to stem from such factors as low expectations from teachers, a lack of parental involvement and not having regular computer access at home, according to a study released Thursday.

The findings, from surveys of 960 young Montgomery County residents, show how disconnected some students are from their public schooling. The report comes as the county’s Latino student population has experienced a significant achievement gap, a topic that has become a central concern for the school district of 151,000 students.

Latinos have the highest drop-out rates among racial and ethnic groups in Montgomery and make up more of the county’s kindergarten and first-grade classes than children from any other group, according to district and state data. Since 2000, Latino enrollment across all grades has jumped from 16 percent to 27 percent, district figures show.

Migration Policy Institute Details Impact of Funding Cuts on Immigrant Youth in California - Higher Education

Migration Policy Institute Details Impact of Funding Cuts on Immigrant Youth in California - Higher Education: After suffering what was arguably the most severe state budget crisis in the nation, California has begun to pull itself out of the recession. Its public school systems were particularly impacted by the loss of funds. As the state rebounds, the question remains of how to rebuild the public school system to best serve the needs of California’s current population.

The Migration Policy Institute released a report Wednesday, “Critical Choices in Post Recession California: Investing in the Educational and Career Success of Immigrant Youth,” addressing just that issue. A full 54 percent of youth in California are immigrants or children of immigrants—3.3 million youth between the ages of 16 and 26.

Though immigrant youth are heavily represented demographically, they were hit hard by the effects of the recession.

Latinos Onscreen, Conspicuously Few - NYTimes.com

Latinos Onscreen, Conspicuously Few - NYTimes.com: If you went to the movies in 1946, when Latinos constituted barely 3 percent of the American population, you might have caught Carmen Miranda, reportedly the highest-paid woman in the world at the time, dancing with her improbably tall fruit hat. By the 1950s, Desi Arnaz graced network TV as a star of “I Love Lucy.”

But it was more likely that the Latino actors seen on big and small screens occupied a narrow range of stereotyped background roles. Still, relative to the total population, the stardom of even a few prominent Latinos was culturally and statistically significant.

Today, Latinos make up 17 percent of Americans, but there has been little change in network television in the number of Latino lead actors and in Latino roles, according to a study, “The Latino Media Gap: A Report on the State of Latinos in U.S. Media,” released on Tuesday by Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.

Federal agency cancels Redskins trademark registration, says name is disparaging - The Washington Post

Federal agency cancels Redskins trademark registration, says name is disparaging - The Washington Post: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, calling the football team’s name “disparaging to Native Americans.”

The landmark case, which appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, was filed on behalf of five Native Americans. It was the second time such a case was filed.

“This victory was a long time coming and reflects the hard work of many attorneys at our firm,” said lead attorney Jesse Witten, of Drinker Biddle & Reath.

Federal trademark law does not permit registration of trademarks that “may disparage” individuals or groups or “bring them into contempt or disrepute.” The ruling pertains to six different trademarks associated with the team, each containing the word “Redskin.”

“We are extraordinarily gratified to have prevailed in this case,” Alfred Putnam Jr., the chairman of Drinker Biddle & Reath, said. “The dedication and professionalism of our attorneys and the determination of our clients have resulted in a milestone victory that will serve as an historic precedent.”

Review: 80% of Teacher Prep Programs in U.S. Get Mediocre or Failing Grade - Higher Education

Review: 80% of Teacher Prep Programs in U.S. Get Mediocre or Failing Grade - Higher Education: In an effort to drive the ongoing discussion on the quality of educator preparation programs in the United States—or lack thereof—the National Council on Teacher Quality on Tuesday released a bigger and bolder version of its controversial Teacher Prep Review.

Like its inaugural predecessor that lamented an “industry of mediocrity,” the latest review paints what it calls a “grim picture” of teacher preparation in the United States: four out of five of the 2,400 teacher preparation programs in the United States are “weak or even failing.”

The review acknowledges, however, that many improvements—such as higher grade-point average requirements or college entrance exam scores for entry into teacher prep programs—are afoot throughout the nation and will take time to yield positive results.

Probably the most significant difference between this year’s review and the first review is that the new review ranks teacher prep programs numerically, whereas the first review just rated them with stars.

Georgia police chief resigns with clean record after he’s busted texting N-word to officers

Georgia police chief resigns with clean record after he’s busted texting N-word to officers: A Georgia police chief resigned last week after being suspended for sending racist text messages to his officers.

On Friday, Grantville Mayor Jim Sells announced that Police Chief Doug Jordan had been suspended for seven days, but did not explain why.

The city council was expected to take up the case during a closed meeting on Monday. But Jordan offered his resignation before the council meeting, allowing him to avoid an investigation.


The Times-Herald reported on Monday that the resignation had been connected to texts Jordan sent to officers, which included the N-word.

“When we approached the chief in regards to these allegations, he did not deny them and accepted some culpability,” Sells explained. “Following this revelation, he was immediately placed on suspension.”

Jordan’s resignation letter thanked city employees, who he said were “like family to me.”

Immigrant children continue to surge into South Texas

Immigrant children continue to surge into South Texas: MISSION, Texas – A group of around 250 immigrants, mostly children, trotted across the U.S. border near the Anzalduas International Bridge here earlier this month and climbed atop a river levee.

Then, instead of sneaking around Border Patrol checkpoints or cramming into vans for safe houses farther north, the group did something peculiar for those crossing illegally into the USA: They squatted on the levee and awaited their arrest.

The group was part of the recent surge of unaccompanied minors who are streaming into this hot, flat stretch of South Texas, overwhelming Border Patrol facilities and sparking heated debate in Washington over what's causing the crisis and how to handle it.

One key difference the recent arrivals are displaying from their predecessors: They're not bothering to sneak deeper into Texas, opting instead to turn themselves in and allow U.S. policy toward immigrant youth decide their fate, said Chris Cabrera, a McAllen-based Border Patrol agent and vice president of the local chapter of the National Border Patrol Council.

HBCU Education Deans Hope Brainstorming Proves Fruitful - Higher Education

HBCU Education Deans Hope Brainstorming Proves Fruitful - Higher Education: NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — For the third year in a row, education deans from historically Black colleges and universities across the nation gathered at Rutgers University to strategize on how best to strengthen teacher education programs at their respective institutions.

Amid deep financial cutbacks and mounting challenges over graduation and retention rates within higher education in general, the deans spent two full days last week engaged in discussions over how to improve academic standards, generate outside funding to support new programs and initiatives, and find ways—when necessary—to collaborate with each other.

Dubbed the HBCU Education Dean’s Think Tank, the annual event is the brainchild of Dr. Fred A. Bonner II, who currently holds the endowed Samuel DeWitt Proctor Chair in Education at Rutgers.

Intervention Programs Having Positive Impact on AAPI Educational Achievement - Higher Education

Intervention Programs Having Positive Impact on AAPI Educational Achievement - Higher Education: Educationally disadvantaged, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community college students who participate in federally funded intervention programs are likelier than their nonparticipating peers to earn associate’s degrees.

Furthermore, AAPI students in these programs are likelier to obtain those degrees faster than their peers, transfer to four-year institutions and attempt more for-credit courses even before finishing community college.

These are among the findings in a recently released report that explores the effectiveness of federal Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) grants. The awards support retention efforts at colleges and universities where at least 10 percent of students are AAPI and 50 percent are low-income.

East Haven Settles Suit on Civil Rights - NYTimes.com

East Haven Settles Suit on Civil Rights - NYTimes.com: EAST HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut town has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit by Latino residents and to adopt what a lawyer called some of the nation’s strictest limits on immigration enforcement by a local police force.

East Haven will not keep people detained at the request of immigration authorities unless they have a criminal warrant signed by a judge. The town will no longer hold a person solely because of a civil detainer, a request from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement that state or local authorities notify the agency before releasing someone, so that it can transfer the person to federal custody.

The East Haven Police Department “now has the strongest separation of policing and immigration enforcement of any law enforcement agency in Connecticut and, I believe, in the nation,” said Michael J. Wishnie, a Yale Law School professor who helped represent the plaintiffs through the school’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic.

For These Inner-City Dads, Fatherhood Comes With Homework : Code Switch : NPR

For These Inner-City Dads, Fatherhood Comes With Homework : Code Switch : NPR: About two dozen dads — all African-Americans, ranging in age from their early 20s to late 40s — are standing in a circle participating in a call-and-response exercise:

Call: You done broke them chains.
Response: From my body and my brain!
Call: But you was deaf, dumb and blind.
Response: 'Til I took back my mind!

It goes on, the resonant voices repeating strengths and goals in unison. Welcome to the start of the responsible-fatherhood class, a group that meets every Monday and Wednesday at the Center for Urban Families in West Baltimore.

This isn't your typical classroom setting. The tables are arranged to face one another. The teachers, like Edward Pitchford, are called fatherhood specialists. They don't lecture at the front, but sit with their students and engage them in discussions based on the day's curriculum: communicating calmly and effectively with the mother of their children; and nurturing their kids, not just paying child support. Today, they're talking about staying strong and positive during a job search.

Critics Renew Calls For More Diverse Video Game Characters : All Tech Considered : NPR

Critics Renew Calls For More Diverse Video Game Characters : All Tech Considered : NPR: There's a myth that only nerdy white guys play and make video games. At this week's video game extravaganza in Los Angeles called Electronic Entertainment Expo, Microsoft didn't do much to change that image.

At the company's E3 press conference, there was an unseen female announcer, but there was only one female who stood on stage and spoke. Bonnie Ross, who heads the Microsoft studio that produces its blockbuster game Halo, spoke for less than two minutes.

"When we think about the Halo universe, we think of it as a real place inhabited by real characters," Ross said during her brief appearance on the stage.

Remembering A Civil Rights Swim-In: 'It Was A Milestone' : NPR

Remembering A Civil Rights Swim-In: 'It Was A Milestone' : NPR: On June 18, 1964, black and white protesters jumped into the whites-only pool at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Fla. In an attempt to force them out, the owner of the hotel poured acid into the pool.

Martin Luther King, Jr. had planned the sit in during the St. Augustine Movement, a part of the larger civil rights movement. The protest — and the owner's acidic response — are largely forgotten today, but they played a role in the passing of the Civil Rights Act, now celebrating its 50th anniversary.

J.T. Johnson, now 76, and Al Lingo, 78, were two of the protesters in the pool that day. On a visit to StoryCorps in Atlanta, the pair recalled the hotel owner, James Brock, "losing it."

"Everybody was kind of caught off guard," J.T. says.

International Students Being Made to Feel at Home in U.S. - Higher Education

International Students Being Made to Feel at Home in U.S. - Higher Education: When Emmanuel Abu arrived in Huntington, West Virginia, from his native Nigeria to begin college at Marshall University last fall, everything seemed to have been planned out to ensure a smooth matriculation.

A representative from the college picked him up at the airport. Like other international students, Abu’s orientation lasted several days. He received an extensive tour of the campus that made him feel comfortable and intimately familiarized him with it. Through a special program for international students, Abu received comprehensive support that helped him to successfully acclimate to an American college classroom.

“It helped me in all ramifications,” says Abu, a rising sophomore majoring in public health. “It helped me settle down as a student. It helped me adapt to the American way of living. It also helped me blend in academically.”

Ruby Dee: An Actress Who Marched On Washington And Onto The Screen : Code Switch : NPR

Ruby Dee: An Actress Who Marched On Washington And Onto The Screen : Code Switch : NPR: Born Ruby Ann Wallace in the early 1920s in Cleveland, actress and civil rights activist Ruby Dee most identified with the part of New York City where she was raised.

"I don't know who I would be if I weren't this child from Harlem, this woman from Harlem. It's in me so deep," Dee told NPR's Tell Me More in 2007.

She died Wednesday of natural causes at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y., surrounded by her children and grandchildren. She was 91.

Dee, who took the surname of her first husband, blues singer Frankie Dee, grew up in Harlem's rich cultural neighborhood, writing poetry. Over the years she would become a playwright, screenwriter, journalist and one of the most prominent actresses of her time, known for her roles in the 1961 film A Raisin in the Sun and the 2007 film American Gangster, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.

Ruby Dee, a Ringing Voice for Civil Rights, Onstage and Off, Dies at 91 - NYTimes.com

Ruby Dee, a Ringing Voice for Civil Rights, Onstage and Off, Dies at 91 - NYTimes.com: Ruby Dee, one of the most enduring actresses of theater and film, whose public profile and activist passions made her, along with her husband, Ossie Davis, a leading advocate for civil rights both in show business and in the wider world, died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She was 91.

Her daughter Nora Davis Day confirmed the death.

A diminutive beauty with a sense of persistent social distress and a restless, probing intelligence, Ms. Dee began her performing career in the 1940s, and it continued well into the 21st century. She was always a critical favorite, though not often cast as a leading lady.

Her most successful central role was Off Broadway, in the 1970 Athol Fugard drama, “Boesman and Lena,” about a pair of nomadic mixed-race South Africans, for which she received overwhelming praise. Clive Barnes wrote in The New York Times, “Ruby Dee as Lena is giving one of the finest performances I have ever seen.”

BBC News - The pioneering woman the world forgot

BBC News - The pioneering woman the world forgot: The name Nokutela Dube is not well known - but a century ago she made a big contribution to South Africa's black-empowerment movement helping to form the country we know today. Now, the director of a film about her is hoping to set the record straight and give her the recognition he feels she deserves.

"Mr President, I have come to report to you that South Africa is free today" - the words of Nelson Mandela on the day he cast his vote in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.

He was paying homage at the grave of John Dube, the founding president of the group that became today's governing African National Congress (ANC).

But while Dube is remembered by many South Africans today, his first wife is far from a household name. Even if he had wanted, Mandela could not have paid tribute at her grave too - it was unmarked and she had been virtually forgotten. And yet she worked hand in hand with her husband in all his major endeavours.

Rockin’ or Rowin’ the Boat: 10 Responses to Institutionalized Racism - Higher Education

Rockin’ or Rowin’ the Boat: 10 Responses to Institutionalized Racism - Higher Education: Several years ago, Lamara Warren, diversity expert and inventor of the Game of Oppression, delivered a talk to a standing room only crowd. During that conversation she noted that if you are not rocking the boat, then you must be rowing the boat. Her comment was in reference to how people tend to respond to unpopular or sensitive topics.

I revisited her comment recently. I thought about it in terms of how people in organizations navigate structural and institutionalized racism ― specifically within educational organizations. I quickly jotted down my historical observations.

The responses that I have observed and heard included a broad list of general characteristics that I would wager many of us have witnessed or experienced as members of any organization, and of course, as members of a racist society.

Furious Flower Poetry Center Ensures Voices Like Angelou’s Continue to Be Heard - Higher Education

Furious Flower Poetry Center Ensures Voices Like Angelou’s Continue to Be Heard - Higher Education: Serenaded by a single voice, two elderly women sat in wheelchairs on stage before a crowd at Virginia Tech University. As Lisa Winn sang “Still I Rise,” one of the women, Maya Angelou, reached out to catch hold of the hand of her companion, Toni Morrison.

The moment represented the culmination of many tumultuous years, not just for Angelou and Morrison, but the African-American community at large. The pair was being honored with the Furious Flower Poetry Center Lifetime Achievement Award at Virginia Tech on Oct. 16, 2012.

Thinking back on that moment, Dr. Joanne Gabbin of James Madison University, founder and director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, says she is grateful that she had the “wisdom and foresight” to honor Angelou before her passing last month.

Judge Strikes Down California Teacher Tenure - ABC News

Judge Strikes Down California Teacher Tenure - ABC News: A judge struck down tenure and other job protections for California's public school teachers as unconstitutional Tuesday, saying such laws harm students — especially poor and minority ones — by saddling them with bad teachers who are almost impossible to fire.

In a landmark decision that could influence the gathering debate over tenure across the country, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu cited the historic case of Brown v. Board of Education in ruling that students have a fundamental right to equal education.

Siding with the nine students who brought the lawsuit, he ruled that California's laws on hiring and firing in schools have resulted in "a significant number of grossly ineffective teachers currently active in California classrooms."

He agreed, too, that a disproportionate number of these teachers are in schools that have mostly minority and low-income students.

The judge stayed the ruling pending appeals. The case involves 6 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

The California Attorney General's office said it is considering its legal options, while the California Teachers Association, the state's biggest teachers union with 325,000 members, vowed an appeal.

Are Reparations Due to African-Americans? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Are Reparations Due to African-Americans? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: To address the terrible human and economic costs of slavery and racial injustice in the United States, many have proposed that reparations be paid to African-Americans.

Would this compensate for the wrongs that have been done? Is it fair or practical to consider it? And if reparations were approved, how would they be implemented?

Don't Call Me 'Mamacita.' I Am Not Your Mommy. : Code Switch : NPR

Don't Call Me 'Mamacita.' I Am Not Your Mommy. : Code Switch : NPR: One of the very few things I don't miss about my native Mexico City is fending off sleazy guys calling you sabrosa (tasty) or rica (delicious) or some other insult disguised as a compliment. It's an unfortunate but everyday aspect of life in a machista country like Mexico.

Of course, women everywhere, are on the receiving end of catcalls but it happens less often in the U.S. than Mexico.

However, as my New York City neighborhood (Hamilton Heights) continues its transformation into "The Little Mexico of West Harlem," the unthinkable happened last summer.

"Mamacita!" yelled a young man -a fellow Mexican, I'm sure- as I walked by a local fruit stand.

What Is Your Race? For Millions Of Americans, A Shifting Answer : Code Switch : NPR

What Is Your Race? For Millions Of Americans, A Shifting Answer : Code Switch : NPR: Race is a much more elastic concept than we tend to acknowledge. American history has seen lots of immigrant groups that were the targets of suspicion and even racial violence — Jews, the Irish, Germans — gradually subsumed into the big, amorphous category of whiteness. The trajectory of that shift has been a little different for each of those groups — and, notably, was informed by the fact that they were not black — but that's been the general template of immigrant assimilation. For much of our history, the process of becoming American has meant becoming white.

Watch: First Lady Michelle Obama Delivers Eulogy For Maya Angelou : The Two-Way : NPR

Watch: First Lady Michelle Obama Delivers Eulogy For Maya Angelou : The Two-Way : NPR: his morning at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., family, friends and dignitaries gathered to pay their final respects to .

President Clinton and Oprah were two of the featured speakers. She was remembered remembered as humanist who taught others the "poetry of courage."

But in our estimation, first lady Michelle Obama delivered an outstanding tribute to the poet.

Thousands turn out for Angelou's memorial service

Thousands turn out for Angelou's memorial service
In a moving tribute to Maya Angelou on Saturday, former president Bill Clinton said that her greatest gift during her action-packed lifetime was paying attention to life around her and sharing it with everyone. "She called our attention to the fact that things that really mattered — dignity, work, love and kindness — are things we can all share and don't cost anything,'' Clinton said.

Family, friends and famous admirers gathered Saturday in North Carolina for a memorial service and weekend-long tribute to the poet, orator and sage. There were tears and laughter and spiritual revival-style singing to honor Angelou at the private service at Wake Forest University that included more than 2,000 people. Angelou died May 28 at age 86 after a remarkable life with important roles in civil rights and the arts.

"She just kept calling our attention to things, like the little fireflies that come on at unpredictable times and make you see something you might have missed," Clinton said.

The American Story, As It Was Reported To The Rest Of The Nation : Code Switch : NPR

The American Story, As It Was Reported To The Rest Of The Nation : Code Switch : NPR: The first draft of American history has many authors.

And they include journalists from ethnic media: newspapers, websites, radio and TV stations dedicated to reporting news for immigrant and ethnic communities.

A new exhibit called "One Nation With News For All" opening this weekend at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., explores the role ethnic media has played since the country's founding.

Sharon Shahid is the lead writer of the exhibit, which features some unexpected icons of American history. Like Abraham Lincoln, who owned a German-language newspaper.

Shahid says Lincoln bought the paper to court German-American voters in Springfield, Ill. More than a century earlier, the country's first German-language newspaper was founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin.

A video in the exhibit shows journalists and artists reading excerpts from some of the country's oldest Latino, Native American and Asian-American publications.

The Modest Bus Station At The Center Of A World-Changing Confrontation : Code Switch : NPR

The Modest Bus Station At The Center Of A World-Changing Confrontation : Code Switch : NPR: The Montgomery Greyhound Station, Montgomery, Ala.

It seems odd to suggest that folks should visit a bus station if they're in the area; most people are trying to get out of a bus station as quickly as possible. But the small, one-story Montgomery bus station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places because it was the site of one of the most harrowing moments of the civil rights movement. In 1961, the Freedom Riders, a group of young activists, were trying to test whether Southern states were adhering to Supreme Court orders to integrate interstate travel, including buses and bus stations. People were not happy about this, and the Riders were harassed and intimidated. Even Martin Luther King Jr. warned them before they began. "You'll never make it through Alabama," he told them.

And it appeared for a while that King's admonition was going to prove soul-crushingly true. In Anniston, Ala., segregationists set one of the Riders' buses on fire and brutally beat them as they fled the flames.

Mississippi Marks 50 Years Since History-Changing 'Freedom Summer' : Code Switch : NPR

Mississippi Marks 50 Years Since History-Changing 'Freedom Summer' : Code Switch : NPR: A new exhibit at the Mississippi state archives takes you back in time. The facade of a front porch, complete with screen door, invites you to imagine what it was like for some 900 activists, mostly white college students, who in 1964 came to the nation's most closed society.

Robert Moses was an organizer of what was at the time formally known as the Mississippi Summer Project.

"That's sort of what was nice about it. There was no pretension that we were going to change history," Moses says. "We were just going to have our little summer project."

But in reality, Moses says, it was guerrilla warfare coordinated by several civil rights groups, motivated in part by the assassination of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers the year before. Moses says the concept was to have the young workers spread throughout the black community, living with families.

Chicago’s Urban Prep Applauds Its First College Graduates - Higher Education

Chicago’s Urban Prep Applauds Its First College Graduates - Higher Education: CHICAGO ― Jamil Boldian headed to college four years ago, arriving in small-town Ohio with a one-way Megabus ticket and $17.91 to his name.

Krishaun Branch moved to Nashville to start his college career, far from the gangs that had surrounded him much of his life.

Rayvaughn Hines settled on school in Virginia, determined to defy the fate of many young Black men in his community who end up behind bars—or worse.

The three were graduates from Urban Prep, a charter high school for young Black men that opened in 2006. Most students were poor, way behind in school and living with their mothers in gang-ravaged neighborhoods. But founder Tim King had made a pledge: If they stayed disciplined and dreamed big, they’d get into college. And sure enough, every member in the Class of 2010, the school’s first, was accepted into four-year schools.

Elliot Rodger at the Sometimes Troubling Intersection of Race and Gender - Higher Education

Elliot Rodger at the Sometimes Troubling Intersection of Race and Gender - Higher Education: Many have now heard of Elliot Rodger, the self-hating, misogynistic 22-year-old man who shot more than a dozen people and murdered six in Isla Vista, Calif., before turning the gun on himself and ending his own life. After this latest chapter of “angry young White male gone mad,” columnists, bloggers, psychologists and others weighed in with their views. Predictably, there were some websites ― primarily right of center ones like Paul Bois of Truth Revolt ― that tried to promote the argument that, since the majority of Rodger’s victims were male, critics who were denouncing his behavior by pointing out his history of misogyny were misguided in their viewpoints.

Others argued that certain feminists and some other women were playing the “gender card.” Some political commentators like RedState founder Erick Erickson offered the explanation that tragedies like the irrational shooting and the behavior of young millennial men like Elliot Rodger are a result of the “decline of chivalry” as well as society’s rejection of Victorian values.

Innovation is Focus of Hampton Digital Media Center - Higher Education

Innovation is Focus of Hampton Digital Media Center - Higher Education: With the recent announcement that Hampton University is establishing a Center for Digital Media Innovation, the Hampton, Va.-based historically Black institution joins a growing number of U.S. colleges and universities that have developed specialized academic centers and degree programs to prepare their students to become innovators in journalism and digital media production.

The center, as Brett A. Pulley, dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton, has envisioned it, should prepare students to be “among those who are pioneering the future of the media industry.”

“People are innovating and creating [digital media] platforms and I need our students …to be among the young people who are in the game and among those who are innovating,” Pulley told Diverse.

Last month, the Miami-based John and James Knight Foundation announced the foundation is providing a $245,000 grant to get the center established at the Scripps Howard School this fall as a two-year pilot program. The center’s programs will enable students to work on digital media research projects, build digital media tools such as mobile device apps, develop digital media business plans, and attend cross-disciplinary classes.

Yuri Kochiyama, Human Rights Advocate and Malcom X Ally, Dies - Higher Education

Yuri Kochiyama, Human Rights Advocate and Malcom X Ally, Dies - Higher Education: Human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama — one of the most visible Asian Americans to fight alongside Blacks for equality in the 1960s and an ally of Malcolm X who comforted him as he lay dying — has died. She passed away in her sleep Sunday at age 93 in her Berkeley, Calif., home.

Kochiyama is perhaps most famous for cradling Malcolm X’s head in her lap as he died from gunshot wounds in 1965, an image captured in a Life magazine photo. She had been attending his appearance at New York City’s Audubon Ballroom when an assassin shot him, and she rushed to the stage. A Life magazine photo showed her fear.

A University of California, Santa Barbara professor of Asian American studies, Dr. Diane C. Fujino authored a biography titled “Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama.”

Last Of The Navajo 'Code Talkers' Dies At 93 : The Two-Way : NPR

Last Of The Navajo 'Code Talkers' Dies At 93 : The Two-Way : NPR: The last of the Navajo "Code Talkers" who used their native language as the basis of a cipher that confounded the Japanese military during World War II has died at age 93.

Chester Nez, of Albuquerque, N.M., died Wednesday of kidney failure, member station KPCC reports. He was the last of the 29 U.S. Marine Code Talkers who were the subject of the 2002 film Windtalkers, starring Nicolas Cage.

According to azcentral.com, Nez was in the 10th grade when he was recruited in the spring of 1942 by representatives of the the U.S. Marines, who came to his Arizona boarding school looking for Navajo speakers.

Azcentral.com says:

"The military, ferrying troops to battle sites across the Pacific, was urgently seeking an undecipherable code to transmit classified information. It had attempted to use various languages and dialects as code, but each was quickly cracked by cryptographers in Tokyo."

#WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign Comes To Inaugural BookCon : Code Switch : NPR

#WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign Comes To Inaugural BookCon : Code Switch : NPR: When the organizers of the publishing industry's annual trade convention in New York City announced that one day would be open to the public, they hoped to build buzz and excitement for books in the social media age. The inaugural BookCon last Saturday would be filled with panels, author stalking and autograph opps for the Twitter set. What the organizers didn't anticipate was a firestorm over their all-white lineup.

The initial list of invited speakers included James Patterson, Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) and even Internet superstar Grumpy Cat. But for author Grace Lin, the fact that there were more cats than people of color speaking at the industry's most high-profile gathering was "disappointing and incredibly insulting." But Lin says it was also not surprising given the publishing industry's disconnect with the next generation of American readers.

Honoring An Activist And Fashion Industry Role Model : Code Switch : NPR

Honoring An Activist And Fashion Industry Role Model : Code Switch : NPR: The Council of Fashion Designers of America awards (the CFDA) are the fashion industry's equivalent of the Oscars: big, glittery, hugely prestigious. The red carpet before and after the ceremony is avidly watched. Unlike the Chambre Syndicale, which regulates France's couture and related industries, the CFDA is more of a reflector, an influencer — and, perhaps, a bellwether.

On Monday night, fashionable celebrities and celebrity designers walked the red carpet in front of Lincoln Center to celebrate the industry's best. Awards were handed out to myriad designers (Raf Simons of Dior, Joseph Altuzarra, the Olsen twins, Ashley and Mary-Kate, whose fashion house The Row has become influential). One of the most significant was given to someone who is in and of the industry, but she's an activist and advocate, too.

The Founder's Award was given to Bethann Hardison, a former couture model, model agency owner and now, activist for diversity in an industry that is periodically criticized for having little or none. (There is a smattering of Asian and pale Latina models on runways and in print ads, but proportionately speaking not many.)

Pharrell wore a headdress on the Elle UK cover. Native Americans are #NotHappy. He now says he’s sorry.

Pharrell wore a headdress on the Elle UK cover. Native Americans are #NotHappy. He now says he’s sorry.: So much for Pharrell’s happy world.

The “Happy”-singing music star, apparently tired of Mountie culture, traded his signature Smokey the Bear chapeau for a Native American headdress on the cover of Elle UK.

The cover photo has incited anger and disappointment — and prompted Pharrell to apologize.

“I respect and honor every kind of race, background and culture. I am genuinely sorry,” he said Wednesday morning through his publicist.

It’s unclear what prompted Pharrell’s fashion change, but in a promotional blurb on the Elle UK site, it appears the impetus might have come from the magazine’s staff.

[W]e persuaded ELLE Style Award winner Pharrell to trade his Vivienne Westwood mountie hat for a native American feather headdress in his best ever shoot.

Moving North Carolina’s HBCUs From the Back of the Bus to the Front - Higher Education

Moving North Carolina’s HBCUs From the Back of the Bus to the Front - Higher Education: Here’s a little known fact: if you are trying to reduce your state’s higher education appropriations, and you immediately look to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in your state as places to cut or eliminate, that’s the definition of systemic racism.

On May 29, 2014, the North Carolina senate debated a plan that would require the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina System to study “the feasibility of dissolving any constituent institution whose fall full-time equivalent student enrollment declined by more than twenty percent (20%) between the 2010-2011 fiscal year and the 2013-2014 fiscal year” and to develop a plan for its dissolution. One of the state’s HBCUs ― Elizabeth City State University ― was on the potential chopping block due to recent drops in enrollment until May 30 when the Senate changed its mind due to outrage.

Baltimore Police dispatch officers to head off racial tensions at schools - baltimoresun.com

Baltimore Police dispatch officers to head off racial tensions at schools - baltimoresun.com: Baltimore police plan to deploy officers around city schools until the school year ends to ensure student safety amid recent racial tensions, while school officials joined civil rights leaders to urge students of different races to peacefully resolve differences.

The actions followed recent threats and violent attacks on Latino students as well as the Memorial Day robbery and murder of a 15-year-old Mexican student who had dropped out of high school to help his family.

Black and Hispanic leaders called for peace at a news conference Monday afternoon, before police deployed several officers to Federal Hill near Digital Harbor High School to deter groups of students from fighting in the streets.

"We demand and we ask for everyone to stop the violence going on in our city, especially in our schools," Missael Garcia, a board member of Casa de Maryland, a Latino advocacy group, said at a news conference Monday with members of the NAACP, National Urban League and other groups.