DNA study traces ancestry of Native Americans to Beijing | The Raw Story

DNA study traces ancestry of Native Americans to Beijing | The Raw Story: Present-day Asians and Native Americans are descended from a group of people who were already in China 40,000 years ago, according to an analysis of fossil DNA published this week.

The genetic analysis showed that the early modern humans in Beijing had already diverged genetically from the ancestors of modern-day Europeans.

The researchers took nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from a leg bone found in the Tianyuan Cave in China in 2003.

Using this, they reconstructed the genetic profile of the leg’s owner, a person who lived at a very interesting time in the history of modern humans, the researchers said in a statement Monday.

“This individual lived during an important evolutionary transition when early modern humans, who shared certain features with earlier forms such as Neanderthals, were replacing Neanderthals and Denisovans, who later became extinct,” said lead author Svante Paabo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

10 Things You May Not Have Known About Martin Luther King Jr.

10 Things You May Not Have Known About Martin Luther King Jr.: Today is a historic day! As we celebrate the second-term of the country's first black president, we simultaneously remember the incredible life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

There's no doubt that we know a lot about the legendary Civil Rights icon, but there are indeed some facts that have slipped under the radar. In honor of Martin Luther King Day, we've rounded up 10 facts you may not have known about the iconic figure.

MLK Day 2013: Nation To Honor Martin Luther King Jr. As Obama Is Inaugurated

MLK Day 2013: Nation To Honor Martin Luther King Jr. As Obama Is Inaugurated: The nation was honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday – the same day it celebrated the inauguration of the first black president to his second term.

A quirk in the calendar pushed President Barack Obama's public swearing-in in Washington onto the national holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.

In Atlanta, an annual commemorative service was held at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference was the keynote speaker, marking the first time a Latino leader served in the role.

Latin American women face widespread violence: study | The Raw Story

Latin American women face widespread violence: study | The Raw Story: More than half of Bolivian women have suffered domestic violence, according to a report out Thursday that found such abuse widespread in Latin America, with partners usually the perpetrators.

In seven of the 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries surveyed by the Pan American Health Organization, more than one in four women reported having experienced such brutality in their lifetimes.

At 17 percent, women in the Dominican Republic reported the lowest level of domestic violence. It was followed by its neighbor Haiti, the poorest country in the region, with 19 percent.

Deferred Action Granted To More Than 150,000 Undocumented Immigrants

Deferred Action Granted To More Than 150,000 Undocumented Immigrants: The Obama administration has granted deferred action to 154,404 young undocumented immigrants, including more than 50,000 in the past month, according to data released on Friday by the Department of Homeland Security.

President Barack Obama announced in June 2012 that his administration would stop deporting some undocumented young people and instead grant them temporary work authorization and two years reprieve from deportation, a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

DHS began accepting applications Aug. 15, when thousands turned out to workshops across the country to learn how to apply, out of an estimated 1.4 million people who could be eligible for the program. As of Thursday, 407,899 undocumented young people had applied for deferred action, and 13,366 had been rejected.

Black Children Consume Sugary Drinks More Than White Peers, Study Shows

Black Children Consume Sugary Drinks More Than White Peers, Study Shows: Jan 18 (Reuters) - Black children and teens in the United States are almost twice as likely as their white peers to consume more than 500 calories a day of sugary beverages, according to a study that covered tens of thousands of people.

The results, which appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, also found a three-fold surge in the overall number of teens drinking sugar-spiked sports energy drinks.

The study comes of the heels of last year's passage of a landmark New York City ban on restaurant, concession and other venue sales of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces (473 ml)

"Some groups may be more at risk for soda, others may be more at risk for fruit drinks, all of which ... have the same sugar base that contributes to obesity and disease," said study co-author Lisa Powell, of the University of Illinois at Chicago Health Policy Center.

Black children, the study found, are more than twice as likely as whites on any given day to consume fruit drinks containing little actual fruit. Fruit juices, for example, range from 100 percent actual fruit juice to those with as little as 10 percent fruit juice and plenty of added sugars.

Baldwin-Woodville High School Student Suspended For Giving Noose, KKK Symbols To Peer

Baldwin-Woodville High School Student Suspended For Giving Noose, KKK Symbols To Peer: A student has been suspended from Baldwin-Woodville High School in Baldwin, Wis., for giving a small noose and KKK symbols to a classmate during an art class.

The male freshman placed the items, believed to be a macrame noose and miniature hat, on the desk of a female peer, who is one of three black students in the school of 450, the Star Tribune reports.

Principal Eric Russell told the paper the boy said his actions were meant to be a joke. But the girl and her family didn't find the prank funny. The 15-year-old's foster parents say they have been working to adopt her amid racist harassment.

"She has been experiencing racial comments since joining our family her eighth-grade year," foster mother Sarah Hitzeman told the Tribune. "Her freshman year stared out with students calling her 'Big Mocha' and making fun of her hair and breasts.'"

Washburn High School Students Hung Dark-Skinned Baby Doll, Posted Pictures Online

Washburn High School Students Hung Dark-Skinned Baby Doll, Posted Pictures Online: Minneapolis Public Schools officials say they are "deeply disturbed by an incident of racial intolerance" in which four students hung a dark-skinned baby doll by its neck with a piece of string at school last week.

The act was captured on Washburn High School surveillance cameras, but also documented by the students themselves. Images were then posted to social media sites.

Washburn Principal Carol Markham-Cousins notified parents of the incident n a letter to parents Wednesday, noting that she took "immediate action." The four students have been disciplined, though school officials have declined to release specific details. WCCO reports that one student has been expelled.

James Hood Dead: Man Who Defied Racial Segregation At University Of Alabama Dies At Age 70

James Hood Dead: Man Who Defied Racial Segregation At University Of Alabama Dies At Age 70: MONTGOMERY, Ala. — One of the first black students who enrolled at the University of Alabama a half century ago in defiance of racial segregation has died. James Hood of Gadsden was 70.

Officials at Adams-Buggs Funeral Home in Gadsden said they are handling arrangements for Hood, who died Thursday.

Then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace made his infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" in a failed effort to prevent Hood and Vivian Malone from registering for classes at the university in 1963.

Hood and Malone were accompanied by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach when they were confronted by Wallace as they attempted to enter the university's Foster Auditorium to register for classes and pay fees.

Civil War hero Robert Smalls seized the opportunity to be free - The Washington Post

Civil War hero Robert Smalls seized the opportunity to be free - The Washington Post: He sat at the conference table next to Frederick Douglass as they tried to convince President Abraham Lincoln that African Americans should be allowed to fight for their own freedom. He served five terms in Congress. He ran a newspaper and helped found a state Republican Party.

But first, he had to win his freedom. 

To do that, he conceived a plan that struck a blow against the Confederacy so significant that he was heralded across the nation. Carrying out his mission required bravery, intelligence and precision timing — attributes that many whites at that time thought blacks didn’t possess.

Robert Smalls proved them wrong and changed history in the doing.

Problem Solver: Dr. Ivory A. Toldson - Higher Education

Problem Solver: Dr. Ivory A. Toldson - Higher Education: Dr. Ivory A. Toldson wasn’t a proficient reader as a youth, but he recalls that he worked hard to strengthen this deficiency.

Toldson also began challenging stereotypes against Blacks and offering solutions to improve not only the Black community, but society as a whole.

Today, Toldson is a tenured professor at Howard University, as well as a researcher, lecturer, author, writer and editor on the achievements made in the Black community.

Known as a certified “myth buster,” Toldson has written and published hundreds of articles and has spoken about the state of education for Blacks in national media outlets.

One of his main projects is the “Breaking Barriers” series that focuses on high school Black males achieving academic success, which consists of four reports published beginning in 2008, with the fourth coming out this year.The reports analyze academic success through personal, social, environmental and school-related factors, highlight how the juvenile justice system intersects with the public school system, “(challenge) the status quo” in the school system and focus on college and career readiness.

Report: National Pool of High School Graduates to Shrink, Grow More Diverse - Higher Education

Report: National Pool of High School Graduates to Shrink, Grow More Diverse - Higher Education: With a predicted decline in the number of U.S. students attending and completing high school over the next several years, the nation’s colleges and universities can expect to recruit among a smaller yet a decidedly more diverse pool of students, according to a new report.

In “Knocking at the Door: A Projection of High School Graduates,” the latest annual report by the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE), it is projected that the number of Asian American/Pacific Islander and Latino public high school graduates will markedly increase over the next several years, while coinciding with decreases among Blacks and Whites attending and completing high school. By 2020, however, minorities will make up 45 percent of U.S. public high school graduates, up from 38 percent in 2009.

“There have been two overarching story lines in the report,” which is in its eighth edition, according to Dr. Brian T. Prescott, the WICHE director of policy research and a report co-author.

Solving Kathy Mabry's Murder: Brutal 15-Year-Old Crime Highlights Decades-Long Mississippi Scandal

Solving Kathy Mabry's Murder: Brutal 15-Year-Old Crime Highlights Decades-Long Mississippi Scandal: BELZONI, Miss. -- J.D. "Bubba" Roseman, the first black sheriff of Humphreys County, is a convivial man. In his office and in casual conversations on the street in this town of 2,200, he engages people quickly and easily, inquiring about a son on the football team, a niece in college or a grandmother in the hospital. He talks loud and fast, always smiling, and works a deep, infectious laugh into just about every conversation.

But when Roseman, 57, talks about Kathy Mabry, the mirth drains from his face. His brow straightens. He speaks softly. He pauses from time to time to swallow the catch that latches onto his words, and his eyes sometimes well up. It's an unexpected thing from a stout man wearing a gun.

Mabry was murdered here in 1997 at the age of 39. This part of America once produced murder ballads about brutal crimes like this one -- blues greats like Pinetop Perkins, Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson have all called Humphreys County home.

Low Bono Life: Dr. Luz E. Herrera - Higher Education

Low Bono Life: Dr. Luz E. Herrera - Higher Education: As a young girl in the 1970s, Luz Herrera accompanied her parents to flea markets, where they sold Mexican foodstuffs. There, she sometimes overheard other working-class vendors discussing their legal problems.

Those childhood experiences have germinated into Herrera’s twin mission as a law professor, and before that, a community lawyer in a solo practice — access to justice and entrepreneurialism.

The assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, has emerged as a national leader on extending “low bono” legal services to working-class people who cannot afford to pay customary rates and don’t qualify for free legal aid because they earn too much.

Study Links Segregation and Lung Cancer Deaths in Blacks - NYTimes.com

Study Links Segregation and Lung Cancer Deaths in Blacks - NYTimes.com: African-Americans who live in highly segregated counties are considerably more likely to die from lung cancer than those in counties that are less segregated, a new study has found.

The study was the first to look at segregation as a factor in lung cancer mortality. Its authors said they could not fully explain why it worsens the odds of survival for African-Americans, but hypothesized that blacks in more segregated areas may be less likely to have health insurance or access to health care and specialty doctors. It is also possible that lower levels of education mean they are less likely to seek care early, when medical treatment could make a big difference. Racial bias in the health care system might also be a factor.

“If you want to learn about someone’s health, follow him home,” said Dr. Awori J. Hayanga, a heart and lung surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who was the lead author of the study.

Call for Nominations: Know a Creative Science or Math Teacher? | PBS NewsHour

Call for Nominations: Know a Creative Science or Math Teacher? | PBS NewsHour: NewsHour is launching a new series highlighting science and math teachers, kindergarten through high school, across the country who are using innovative teaching methods in the classroom.

Each month, we'll publish an original video feature of a teacher who uses creativity in the classroom in order to inspire their students.

Do you know an inventive elementary school or high school teacher who's inspiring students with creative learning lessons? Nominate them here and they could be featured in our online coverage. Please contact Rebecca Jacobson if you have any questions at rjacobson@newshour.org.

AP Source: Duncan to Stay at Education Department - Higher Education

AP Source: Duncan to Stay at Education Department - Higher Education: WASHINGTON — An Education Department official says Secretary Arne Duncan will remain in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet into a second term.

The official disclosed the decision Monday on the condition of anonymity because a public announcement has not been made.

Duncan, a former head of Chicago public schools, was widely expected to stick around. He is a former college basketball player who often joins Obama on the court.

During his first term, Duncan put in place the Race to the Top program that encouraged schools to compete for education dollars. Duncan’s department also gave most states exemptions to the No Child Left Behind law when it became clear that they would not be able to meet the requirement that all students be proficient at grade level in math and reading by 2014.

Study: Parental Support Sends Down College GPA - Higher Education

Study: Parental Support Sends Down College GPA - Higher Education: Parents who are footing more of the college tuition bill for their children give them a better chance of graduating. But a surprising new study finds they may not be doing them any favors in another area as generous financial support appears to lead to lower grades.

The study, published in this month’s American Sociological Review, suggests students with some of their own “skin in the game” may work harder, and that students with parents picking up more of the tab are free to take on a more active social and extracurricular life. That may be fun and even worthwhile, but comes at a cost to GPA.

“It allows for a lot of other activities in college that aren’t academic,” said author Laura Hamilton of the University of California, Merced. “Participation in the social scene is expensive money to hang out, drink.” But “the more you have all these extras, the more you can get dragged into the party scene, and that will drag down your GPA.”

A Passion from the Philippines: Dr. Ethel Nicdao - Higher Education

A Passion from the Philippines: Dr. Ethel Nicdao - Higher Education: Dr. Ethel Nicdao was a late bloomer when it came to choosing her field. In her junior year at the University of California, Davis, she took a seminar taught by Dr. Debora Paterniti, who was on Nicdao’s dissertation committee at the University of New Mexico years later.

“It exposed me to this very exciting field that I honestly didn’t know existed. I didn’t realize there were other ways to look at medicine and health,” says Nicdao, an associate professor at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

Her work in medical sociology includes the study of health disparities, mental health, physician and patient interactions, access and delivery of health care services, quality of care and chronic illness. Her research explores low-income rural communities and focuses on Asian-Americans, who researchers say are insufficiently studied by the social sciences.

Her research is connected to her “lived experience,” says Nicdao, whose family immigrated to San Francisco from the Philippines when she was 8 years old.

Junot Diaz is finalist for short story prize

Junot Diaz is finalist for short story prize: NEW YORK — Junot (JOO'-noh) Diaz's "This Is How You Lose Her" is among three finalists for a $20,000 prize for short story collections.

Other nominees announced Tuesday for the Story Prize are Dan Chaon's (shawnz) "Stay Awake" and Claire Vaye Watkins' "Battleborn." The winner will be announced March 13.

Diaz's book was a nominee last fall for the National Book Award.

Organizers of the Story Prize, established in 2004, also announced a new award: the Story Prize Spotlight Award for collections "worthy of additional attention." This year's winner, Krys Lee for "Drifting House," will receive $1,000.

Pakistan, India Incidents Underscore Need to Confront Violence Against Women - Higher Education

Pakistan, India Incidents Underscore Need to Confront Violence Against Women - Higher Education: Gang rapes, acid throwing, honor killings, domestic violence, dowry deaths, human trafficking, and the fear of being captured by religious extremists are just some of the fears that women in South Asia encounter daily.

In a 2011 poll by the Thompson Reuters Foundation, India (4th) and Pakistan (3rd) were ranked the most dangerous countries in the world for women to be born in, along with Congo (2nd), and Afghanistan (1st). Reuters asked 213 experts from five continents to rank the world’s nations on their overall perception of danger as well as six high-risk categories: “health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, harmful practices rooted in culture, tradition and/or religion, lack of access to economic resources and human trafficking.”

In One School, Students Are Divided by Gifted Label — and Race - NYTimes.com

In One School, Students Are Divided by Gifted Label — and Race - NYTimes.com: ...There are 652 students enrolled at P.S. 163 this year, from prekindergarten through fifth grade. Roughly 63 percent of them are black and Hispanic; whites make up 27 percent; and Asians account for 6 percent.

This reflects the flavor of the neighborhood, and roughly matches the New York City school system’s overall demographics.

Yet in P.S. 163’s gifted classes, the racial dynamics of the neighborhood, the school itself and the school system are turned upside down.

Of the 205 children enrolled in the nine gifted classes, 97, or 47 percent, are white; another 31 of the students, or 15 percent, are Asian. And a combined 65 students, or 32 percent, are black and Hispanic.

Sentencing set for gang leader, son in attacks on blacks in Azusa - latimes.com

Sentencing set for gang leader, son in attacks on blacks in Azusa - latimes.com: A leader of the Azusa 13 street gang and his son are scheduled to be sentenced Monday in federal court after pleading guilty to conspiring to attack blacks and force them to leave the city.

Santiago Rios faces a maximum of 30 years in prison when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess. His son, Louie Rios, faces up to 20 years in prison.

The Rioses and 49 other Azusa gang members were arrested in 2011 and charged with a conspiracy to “cleanse” Azusa of its black residents, according to prosecutors.

All 51 members of the gang arrested in that case have been convicted. Only 10, including the Rioses, remain to be sentenced, said Reema El-Amamy, the federal prosecutor in the case.

Santiago Rios was a reputed Azusa 13 “keyholder” -- a shotcaller anointed by the Mexican Mafia prison gang to tax drug dealers, sell drugs himself and funnel the proceeds to Mafia members, according to a federal plea agreement.

In that position, he implemented an Azusa 13 policy dating to 1992 of targeting and harassing black people in Azusa, according to the agreement. The push to attack blacks was allegedly instigated by Ruben Rodriguez, a Mexican Mafia member from Azusa who has since died.

6th Miss. man pleads guilty in attacks on blacks | theGrio

6th Miss. man pleads guilty in attacks on blacks | theGrio: JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A sixth man has pleaded guilty in connection with racially motivated attacks by young whites against blacks in Jackson.

Joseph Paul Dominick, 21, of Brandon pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit a hate crime. He faces up to five years in prison. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves will sentence him later.

Prosecutors say that starting about April 2011, the group drove from mostly white Rankin County into the city of Jackson, where they verbally harassed and physically assaulted blacks and later boasted about the attacks.

The attacks culminated in the death of James Craig Anderson in June 2011, which sparked the investigation. Prosecutors say Dominick did not participate in the slaying but was part of other group attacks.

Prosecutors say Dominick threw bottles and used sling shots against blacks.

Virginia teen pleads guilty to setting black church on fire | theGrio

Virginia teen pleads guilty to setting black church on fire | theGrio: On Tuesday morning a Virginia teen admitted in court to setting a church on fire that was home to a predominantly black congregation, according to WDBJ.

Jean-Claude Bridges, 18, pleaded guilty to starting a fire at the New Holy Deliverance Outreach Ministry in Axton, Virginia last May.

Bridges was 17 at the time of the incident and said that he and another male, 16, were responsible for the fire that happened on May 20 at 1:20 a.m.

According to a recent release by the Martinsville Bulletin, U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy said that Bridges admitted that ”he burned down the church because of the race, color and ethnicity of its congregation. Mr. Bridges’ racial bias led him to commit the dangerous crime of arson.”

Boston’s first black police officer honored by the city for breaking barriers in 1878 | theGrio

Boston’s first black police officer honored by the city for breaking barriers in 1878 | theGrio: Sergeant Horatio J. Homer broke barriers by becoming the first African-American police officer in Boston’s history in 1878, but over the decades his legacy was largely forgotten. While serving on the force for more than 40 years, Homer made efforts that led to five additional black men becoming officers. He died in 1923 at the age of 75 after living what the Boston Globe has described as a life filled with varied activities including music, politics, and a fondness for poetry.

Yet this pioneering Renaissance man was laid to rest in a grave that remained unmarked until 2010, when a Boston police archivist and current department officer uncovered a record referring to “the first colored officer.” This finding kindled a new interest in Homer’s life.

NY Museum plans exhibit of Gordon Parks photos | theGrio

NY Museum plans exhibit of Gordon Parks photos | theGrio: ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The State Museum is marking the 100th birthday of photographer Gordon Parks with an exhibit of his works.

The show opening on Jan. 26 showcases six decades of Parks’ photographs. It will include his most famous photo, “American Gothic, Washington, D.C.,” which shows a black cleaning woman standing in front of an American flag with a broom and a mop.

State Education Commissioner John King says Parks’ work helped drive the Civil Rights movement by exposing the stark realities of life faced by many African Americans.

The State Museum display is organized by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The exhibit includes images from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information collections at the Library of Congress.

Alabama Schools Form Consortium to Boost Health Care Workforce Diversity - Higher Education

Alabama Schools Form Consortium to Boost Health Care Workforce Diversity - Higher Education: Late last week, university and college leaders representing more than a dozen Alabama institutions entered their respective schools into a consortium organized to increase the number of minorities in the health care professions. Known as the Alabama Alliance, the consortium includes both community colleges and historically Black institutions and is based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Medical Center.

“What we’re doing in Alabama today (to increase underrepresented minorities in health professions) will have an impact today, 10 years from now and 30 years from now,” said Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, an alliance organizer and a former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, on Friday during the meeting at which the Alabama Alliance was formally launched.

Margaret A. Brewer, first female general in Marine Corps, dies at 82 - The Washington Post

Margaret A. Brewer, first female general in Marine Corps, dies at 82 - The Washington Post: Margaret A. Brewer, 82, a retired brigadier general who was the first woman to hold the rank of general in the Marine Corps and who led the Marines’ public affairs division late in her career, died Jan. 2 at Greenspring retirement community in Springfield. She had Alzheimer’s disease.

Her death was confirmed by retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma L. Vaught, president of the Women in Military Service for America Foundation.

Gen. Brewer joined the Marine Corps in 1952 and held a variety of roles in officer recruiting and training, personnel management, and public affairs before she was named a brigadier general in 1978.

As a colonel, she had been director of women in the Marine Corps since 1973, but her position was eliminated in 1977, as women were integrated more fully into the corps. After serving as deputy director of the information division, she was nominated to lead the division — but the director was required to be a general.

Because the Marine Corps did not allow women to be generals at the time, Gen. Brewer received her star by special appointment from President Jimmy Carter and approval of both houses of Congress. (In 1985, Gail M. Reals became the first woman promoted to general through the Marine Corps ranks.)

Speaking More Than One Language Could Prevent Alzheimer's : Shots - Health News : NPR

Speaking More Than One Language Could Prevent Alzheimer's : Shots - Health News : NPR: Not so long ago bilingualism was thought to be bad for your brain. But it looks more and more like speaking more than one language could help save you from Alzheimer's disease.

The latest evidence from the bilingualism-is-good-for-you crew comes from Brian Gold, a neuroscientist at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington. To test the idea, he had older people who grew up bilingual do an attention-switching task, a skill that typically fades with age. Earlier research has found that people bilingual since childhood are better at the high-order thinking called executive function as they age.

Gold found that his bilingual seniors were better at the task, which had them quickly sorting colors and shapes, than their monolingual peers. He then added an extra dimension by sticking the people's heads in scanners to see what was happening inside their brains. The brains of the monolingual seniors were working harder to complete the task, while the bilingual seniors' brains were much more efficient, more like those of young adults.

Tensions rising in Canada over aboriginal living conditions | The Raw Story

Tensions rising in Canada over aboriginal living conditions | The Raw Story: Canada’s governor general on Thursday invited native chiefs to meet with him amid growing tensions with aboriginal peoples over squalid living conditions on reserves.

The “ceremonial meeting” at Rideau Hall, the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in this former British colony, is scheduled for Friday evening after planned talks between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the chiefs.

Harper previously agreed to demands for emergency talks to discuss treaty rights and ways to raise living standards on reserves after a four-week hunger strike by one northern Ontario chief put a spotlight on their plight.

Dr. Gerardo Dominguez’s Work Explores Natural Phenomena - Higher Education

Dr. Gerardo Dominguez’s Work Explores Natural Phenomena - Higher Education: Dr. Gerardo Dominguez says that one cannot ignore one’s own personality. His push to excel academically was fueled by a desire for respect, something not necessarily afforded to a poor Hispanic kid growing up in Los Angeles – except from his teachers, who as a whole, granted him respect due to his academic successes. It was a 6th-grade science teacher who nurtured his sense of wonder about the natural world.

According to Dominguez, “He taught me that science is weird and fun, and it was then that I was hooked!” In high school, he encountered only very basic quantum mechanics in an AP chemistry class. He read a textbook for fun and was eager to learn where the formula for the energy levels of hydrogen came from. The footnote about the solution to a wave equation was beyond the scope of the book and the seed for majoring in physics had been planted.

Maryland ranks No. 1 in education for fifth year in a row; Virginia ranks fourth - The Washington Post

Maryland ranks No. 1 in education for fifth year in a row; Virginia ranks fourth - The Washington Post: For the fifth year in a row, Maryland’s public school system took the top ranking in an annual study that examines state education policies and student achievement across all 50 states and the District.

Education Week gave Maryland a B-plus in its “Quality Counts 2013” assessment. Maryland was the only state to earn the grade.

Massachusetts, New York and Virginia trailed immediately behind Maryland, with overall grades of B. These four states maintained the same rankings they held in last year’s report.

Although the District is not a state, Education Week included it in the evaluation and ranked it 45th overall with a C-minus.

Lifelong bilinguals may have more efficient brains – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

Lifelong bilinguals may have more efficient brains – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs: Neuroscientists have been discovering mounting evidence that being fluent in more than one language protects against age-related cognitive declines. But there's still the major question: Why?

Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to get a closer look at the brains of both bilinguals and monolinguals, comparing how their activity differs during specific tasks. This new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Neuroscience, expands upon previous ideas that bilinguals tend to show superior task-switching abilities compared to monolinguals. The study was led by Brian Gold of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

VA KKK claims enrollment will triple in Obama’s second term | The Raw Story

VA KKK claims enrollment will triple in Obama’s second term | The Raw Story: Residents in Richmond, Virginia have reported seeing more recruitment flyers from the Ku Klux Klan, in part of what one Klan member told WTVR-TV is a push for a membership surge fueled by opposition to President Barack Obama.

“Since Obama’s first term our numbers have doubled,” said the hooded man, who identified himself as a “Grand Dragon,” a leader of the state network. “And now that we’re headed to a second term it’s going to triple, this is going to be the biggest resurgence of the Klan since 1915.”

Think Progress reported that hate group membership is on the rise around the country, with racial animus against Obama cited as a reason.

However, the Klansmen told the station they see their group as the “white separatist” equivalent to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples.
“Everyone thinks that we’re a hate group,” he said. “We’re not a hate group, we don’t hate anyone, and we want to see good things come to our race.”

Elite Colleges Struggle To Recruit Smart, Low-Income Kids : NPR

Elite Colleges Struggle To Recruit Smart, Low-Income Kids : NPR: Across the United States, college administrators are poring over student essays, recommendation letters and SAT scores as they select a freshman class for the fall.

If this is like most years, administrators at top schools such as Harvard and Stanford will try hard to find talented high school students from poor families in a push to increase the socioeconomic diversity on campus and to counter the growing concern that highly selective colleges cater mainly to students from privileged backgrounds.

Top schools often offer scholarships that not only include free tuition, but also free room and board for top students from poor families — meaning it can be less expensive for these students to attend Harvard than a state school or a community college, says Caroline Hoxby, an economist at Stanford who tracks these students.

How One STEM School Aims to Lower the Achievement Gap | PBS NewsHour

How One STEM School Aims to Lower the Achievement Gap | PBS NewsHour: The U.S. is suffering from a shortage of applicants in the science, technology, engineering and math fields -- or STEM. This is especially true for non-Asian minorities and low-income students, who are statistically less likely to be exposed to STEM professionals, have access to STEM education and hold STEM jobs. According to a recent study by Change the Equation, a non-profit initiative to improve STEM education in the United States, there are two job openings for every unemployed STEM professional. A 2011 report from the Department of Commerce projects that STEM jobs will grow by 17 percent by 2018, compared to 9.8 percent for non-STEM occupations.

The achievement gap between low-income and high-income students has been a persistent problem in American public education system. The problem is exacerbated as technology becomes more integral to 21st century professions, and urban American schools struggle to prepare students for this new job market.

Widow of civil rights leader to deliver inaugural invocation - First Read

Widow of civil rights leader to deliver inaugural invocation - First Read: The widow of civil rights icon Medgar Evers will deliver the invocation at President Barack Obama's second inauguration, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Tuesday.

Myrlie Evers-Williams, who headed the NAACP from 1995-1998, fought tenaciously for justice for her husband, the famed Mississippi activist killed in the driveway of their home in 1963. The man immediately suspected of murdering Evers was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1994, more than three decades after the crime.

"I am humbled to have been asked to deliver the invocation for the 57th inauguration of the President of the United States—especially in light of this historical time in America when we will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement,” she said in a statement. “It is indeed an exhilarating experience to have the distinct honor of representing that era."

Court strikes down NYPD’s ‘stop and frisk’ policy | The Raw Story

Court strikes down NYPD’s ‘stop and frisk’ policy | The Raw Story: In an interim order issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, the New York Police Department is required to immediately halt its controversial “stop and frisk” policy unless officers have a specific cause to initiate a search.

The ruling comes ahead of a full trial for two lawsuits filed by blacks and Latinos living in the Bronx who say the policy makes them feel like second-class citizens.

“While it may be difficult to say when precisely to draw the line between constitutional and unconstitutional police encounters such a line exists, and the NYPD has systematically crossed it when making trespass stops outside buildings,” the judge wrote.

Perceived Factors that Contribute to Low Persistent Rates of Minority Males in Community Colleges - Higher Education

Perceived Factors that Contribute to Low Persistent Rates of Minority Males in Community Colleges - Higher Education: There is significant emphasis placed on the retention and success rate in community colleges among African-American and Hispanic males. Many are experiencing great problems in our society and within the social structure.

It is common knowledge that community colleges are growing by leaps and bounds, spurred on by the persistence of an economic downturn. Therefore, even with most colleges increasing enrollment, an emerging question is: How effective are community colleges in coping with minority males in retaining them in their institutions through graduation, specifically, by implementing several male initiatives and minority programs that links to the urban high schools: secondary and post- secondary schools?

Many African-American and Hispanic males experience academic distress in community colleges and have frequently been described in research studies as: (a) being from a low social academic background; (b) being a minimal academic achiever; and (c) possessing a general low self-concept. The fact is a large number face depressed socio-economic conditions. In contrast, a number of minority males drop out of community colleges after demonstrating average and above-average academic ability; yet, they make the decision to discontinue their education in most institutions of higher of learning.

Semester-long Exploration of Race Underway at University of Michigan - Higher Education

Semester-long Exploration of Race Underway at University of Michigan - Higher Education: Already accustomed to the national spotlight over affirmative action and diversity, the University of Michigan is tackling the issue of race in a new project.

From this month through April, the Ann Arbor-based flagship university is undertaking a campus-wide initiative known as the Understanding Race Project that will showcase a wide-ranging selection of public exhibitions, lectures, performances, symposia and other events exploring the role of race in American society. In addition, more than 130 university courses are being offered in a number of disciplines that examine race and its social impact.

The project, which is also called the Understanding Race Theme Semester, is presented by the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts, which has organized university-wide theme semesters in the past.

Alabama white supremacist charged for plot to blow up black and gay students | The Raw Story

Alabama white supremacist charged for plot to blow up black and gay students | The Raw Story: A 17-year-old student in Alabama was arrested last week for allegedly plotting to use dozens of homemade grenades to kill at least fellow six students and a teacher at Russell County High School.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor on Sunday said that Derek Shrout had been arrested after a teacher turned over a journal which indicated that his homemade grenades were just “a step or two away from being ready to explode,” according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

A Friday search of Shrout’s home turned up bomb-making materials, including dozens of tobacco cans and two large cans filled with pellets to be used as shrapnel. The two large cans were labeled “Fat Boy” and “Little Man,” a reference to the atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on Japan during World War II.

Crisis Management: Leaders Reflect on High Presidential Turnovers at HBCUs - Higher Education

Crisis Management: Leaders Reflect on High Presidential Turnovers at HBCUs - Higher Education: So many challenges, so little time, and even fewer resources.

For many of the nation’s 105 historically Black colleges and universities, these factors have led to an unprecedented number of presidential vacancies resulting in instability and even turmoil on some of the campuses. By the end of 2012, at least 20 permanent HBCU presidencies were either vacant or recently filled.

Adding to the overall uncertainty surrounding the resignations and dismissals, an interesting phenomenon began to occur. Some presidents who had not completed their first contract terms abruptly resigned or were ousted by their governing boards. Most recently, at two public HBCUs — Alabama State in Montgomery and Morgan State in Baltimore, Md. — two popular presidents were cast aside.

Lord D. Nickens, civil rights leader in Frederick, dies at 99 - The Washington Post

Lord D. Nickens, civil rights leader in Frederick, dies at 99 - The Washington Post: Lord D. Nickens, a prominent civil rights leader in Frederick whose decades-long activism helped integrate schools, open bars and restaurants to blacks, and combat the Ku Klux Klan, died Jan. 4 at Frederick Memorial Hospital. He was 99.

He had pneumonia and kidney failure, his son Gregory Nickens said.

The son of a former slave, Mr. Nickens served as president of the Frederick branch of the NAACP from the early 1970s until he stepped down in 1992. He had joined the civil rights movement years earlier and spoke out on issues ranging from fair housing to the scourges of drugs and violence.

He said he received death threats from the Klan, whose white supremacist activities he helped challenge in court and at rallies. Once, when a Klan grand dragon infiltrated an NAACP meeting and unleashed a diatribe, Mr. Nickens responded calmly: “We are all one people under one flag.”

Nelson Mandela Recovered From Lung Infection, Surgery: South Africa

Nelson Mandela Recovered From Lung Infection, Surgery: South Africa: South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has recovered from his recent lung infection and a surgical procedure to remove gallstones, according to an announcement Sunday by President Jacob Zuma.

Doctors say that Mandela, 94, has made "steady progress and that clinically, he continues to improve," according to a statement issued by Zuma's office. Mandela was hospitalized for nearly three weeks in December before going home on Dec. 26.

Zuma's statement said Mandela "continues to receive high care" at his home in the Houghton suburb of Johannesburg and that "his daily routine is being gradually re-established."

Zuma congratulated Mandela on his recovery and said the anti-apartheid icon has "the love and support of all South Africans."

Study: Desegregation Has Slowed On College Campuses -CBS DC

Study: Desegregation Has Slowed On College Campuses  CBS DC: The growing diversity of the U.S. population is not being reflected in America’s college campuses.

A recent study from professor Peter Hinrichs of Georgetown University finds that while desegregation has led to massive changes on college campuses since the 1960s, diversity has actually slowed down in the decades since then.

“There’s basically less segregation over time, but it was falling faster in the late ’60s and early ’70s,” Hinrichs, an assistant professor of public policy, told The Huffington Post. “Now it’s a little bit closer to the case of perfect integration, but still not anywhere near that,” he said.

The study focuses on black and white students, not those in other racial and ethnic groups, and he examines “exposure” and “dissimilarity” of black and white students as two measures of desegregation. Hinrichs uses federal data from every college, filed since the era in which desegregation started in the 1960s.
The study used a two-pronged method of analysis to derive its diversity data.

Mamie Rearden, America's Oldest Living Citizen, Dies At 114

Mamie Rearden, America's Oldest Living Citizen, Dies At 114: A 114-year-old South Carolina woman who was the oldest living U.S. citizen has died.

Two daughters say Mamie Rearden of Edgefield, who held the title as the oldest person in the country for about two weeks, died Wednesday at a hospital in Georgia.

Sara Rearden of Burtonsville, Md., said Saturday that her mother broke her hip after a fall about three weeks ago.

Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group said Mamie Rearden's September 1898 birth was recorded in the 1900 U.S. Census. The group, which verifies age information for Guinness World Records, listed Rearden as the oldest living U.S. citizen after last month's passing of 115-year-old Dina Manfredini of Iowa.

Escaping Slavery - NYTimes.com

Escaping Slavery - NYTimes.com: America has slavery on the brain these days.

There were the recent releases of the movies “Lincoln” (which I found enlightening and enjoyable) and “Django Unchained” (which I found a profound love story with an orgy of excesses and muddled moralities). I guess my preferences reflect my penchant for subtlety. Sometimes a little bit of an unsettling thing goes a long way, and a lot goes too far. Aside from its gratuitous goriness, “Django Unchained” reportedly used the N-word more than 100 times. “Lincoln” used it only a handful. I don’t know exactly where my threshold is, but I think it’s well shy of the century mark. 

And there was this week the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important documents in this country’s archives.

STEM Initiative Aims to Broaden Minority Student Access to AP Science, Math Courses - Higher Education

STEM Initiative Aims to Broaden Minority Student Access to AP Science, Math Courses - Higher Education: With the aim of increasing underrepresented minority and female participation in Advanced Placement (AP) STEM courses, the College Board has announced the launch of the AP® STEM Access program.

The initiative is targeting more than 800 public U.S. high schools to start new AP science and math courses while encouraging “traditionally underrepresented minority (Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/Alaska Native) and female students who demonstrate strong academic potential to enroll and explore these areas of study and related careers,” according to the College Board, which administers the SAT and the AP course and exam program.

The AP® STEM Access Program is being funded by a $5 million grant from Google to DonorsChoose.org as part of the search engine company’s Global impact Awards. DonorsChoose.org and the College Board will be collaborating to work with AP teachers in participating schools to enable them to secure the classroom resources and professional development necessary to begin the new courses.

MLA Annual Convention Makes Faculty Diversity Issues a Priority - Higher Education

MLA Annual Convention Makes Faculty Diversity Issues a Priority - Higher Education: Nearly 8,000 literary scholars of all stripes braved sub-zero wind chills here to attend the 128th Modern Language Association Annual Convention which got underway Thursday. Among the hundreds of sessions covering a variety of topics related to American and European literature was one held yesterday titled, “Owing: On Students (and Other) debt.” Such a session seemed timely, given the immediate past and future threats to a still-recovering economy posed by “Fiscal Cliff” skirmishes on Capitol Hill.

“I tried to put that question, the economics of the profession, front and center, so it’s not just hallway talk,” said MLA President Michael Bérubé.

In the “Owing” session, Dr. Richard Dienst, associate professor of English at Rutgers University, gave a lively presentation on the outsize impact of debt in the academy, and on American culture. Interestingly, Emory University’s Dr. Marc Bousquet, the other presenter for the “Owing” session, made the argument that relatively low wages are a high obstacle for English departments seeking to recruit to their faculties scholars who are African-American or Hispanic and hail from less-than-privileged backgrounds.

Congress now has more women, minorities than ever - The Washington Post

Congress now has more women, minorities than ever - The Washington Post: A record number of women and racial minorities were elected to the 113th Congress, which was sworn in Thursday. Among them were the first Buddhist to join the Senate, and the first Hindu and the first openly bisexual woman in the House.

House Democrats became the first caucus in the history of either chamber not to have a majority of white men. It was a watershed moment for the Democratic Party, which has adopted diversity as one of its chief selling points and has marketed itself as the party that looks more like a fast-changing United States.

Florida man who shot victim asked: ‘Are you Muslim?’ | The Raw Story

Florida man who shot victim asked: ‘Are you Muslim?’ | The Raw Story: A Florida man was shot in the face twice with a pellet gun during the early hours of Wednesday morning after being confronted by another man in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Lutz, near Tampa Bay.

The shooter allegedly asked his victim, “Are you of Middle Eastern descent?” and “Are you Muslim?” before shouting a racial slur and opening fire.

Police told a reporter with MyFox Tampa Bay that the suspect is still at large, and that they are investigating the incident as a hate crime. The shooter is described as a white male between 18 and 30 with short blond hair, standing about 6 feet tall and weighing about 180 pounds.

Soccer Team Walks Out on Racist Fans in Italy - NYTimes.com

Soccer Team Walks Out on Racist Fans in Italy - NYTimes.com: As my colleague Jack Bell reports, an exhibition match between one of Italy’s leading soccer teams and a lower division club was abandoned on Thursday after a black player responded to racist chanting from fans by kicking a ball into the stands and walking off the field in Busto Arsizio, outside Milan.

Video of the incident, which took place in the small stadium of Pro Patria, a club in one of Italy’s lower leagues, showed Kevin-Prince Boateng, a Ghanaian-German midfielder for the visitors, A.C. Milan, stopping play and launching the ball in the direction of fans of the home team who were chanting like monkeys. He then pulled off his shirt and walked to the locker room, followed by his teammates.

Fans in the same part of the stadium had directed monkey chants at another Ghanaian player, Sulley Muntari, just minutes earlier, another YouTube clip showed.

'Rise Of The Guardians' Director Peter Ramsey, First African American to Direct Animated Film Talks Historic Milestone (VIDEO)

'Rise Of The Guardians' Director Peter Ramsey, First African American to Direct Animated Film Talks Historic Milestone (VIDEO): With Black History Month just a month away, director Peter Ramsey has etched his name in history as the first African-American to direct a major animated film with “Rise of the Guardians.”

While speaking with CNN, the fellow storyboard artist-turned-director opened up on manifesting his childhood dreams into a reality.

“I had a head full of dreams, it was like, ‘how do you go the step of making those dreams a reality,” he recalled. “Even though I grew up five, six miles away from Hollywood I had no idea real people made movies…There were no uncles who were actors or no directors or producers, nothing like that…we were just the Ramseys.”

Despite not having any kinfolk in the industry, the Los Angeles native received a tremendous amount of support from his parents.

Strength training improves vascular function in young black men | News Bureau | University of Illinois

Strength training improves vascular function in young black men | News Bureau | University of Illinois:  CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Six weeks of weight training can significantly improve blood markers of cardiovascular health in young African-American men, researchers report in the Journal of Human Hypertension.

 The researchers measured blood markers associated with inflammation, immune response or the remodeling of arteries that normally occur after tissue damage, infection or other types of stress. They found that levels of two of these markers dropped significantly in African-American men but not in Caucasian men after six weeks of resistance training.

“This suggests that resistance exercise training is more beneficial in young African-American men than in Caucasian men of the same age,” said Bo Fernhall, the dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Fernhall led the study as a professor in the department of kinesiology and community health at the Urbana-Champaign campus. The 14 African-American and 18 Caucasian study subjects were matched for body mass index, cardiovascular fitness and age. None had previously been trained in endurance or resistance exercise.

Baldwin-Woodville High School Student Suspended For Giving Noose, KKK Symbols To Peer

Baldwin-Woodville High School Student Suspended For Giving Noose, KKK Symbols To Peer: A student has been suspended from Baldwin-Woodville High School in Baldwin, Wis., for giving a small noose and KKK symbols to a classmate during an art class.

The male freshman placed the items, believed to be a macrame noose and miniature hat, on the desk of a female peer, who is one of three black students in the school of 450, the Star Tribune reports.

Principal Eric Russell told the paper the boy said his actions were meant to be a joke. But the girl and her family didn't find the prank funny. The 15-year-old's foster parents say they have been working to adopt her amid racist harassment.

"She has been experiencing racial comments since joining our family her eighth-grade year," foster mother Sarah Hitzeman told the Tribune. "Her freshman year stared out with students calling her 'Big Mocha' and making fun of her hair and breasts.'"

12 Scholarships for Hispanic Students Interested in STEM - STEM Education (usnews.com)

12 Scholarships for Hispanic Students Interested in STEM - STEM Education (usnews.com): Like women, Hispanic people are severely underrepresented in STEM fields. Latinos make up 16 percent of America's population, but just 6.2 percent of the engineering workforce. Luckily, there are a host of organizations trying to close this gap by helping Hispanic students who are interested in STEM get through college. For a list of more organizations supporting Hispanics in STEM, check out U.S. News partner STEMConnector.

Blackfeet Student Fights Fracking by Studying Alternative Energy Solutions - ICTMN.com

Blackfeet Student Fights Fracking by Studying Alternative Energy Solutions - ICTMN.com: She boxes. She beads. She reads (environmental engineering textbooks.) Her name: Mariah Gladstone.

Gladstone, 19, is a sophomore at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in New York City. Yet, when she’s not fulfilling the requirements for her earth and environmental engineering major, Gladstone will lace up her knuckles in her tattered, red Everlast hand straps and take to the punching bag.

On other less physically demanding evenings, Gladstone sits in her dorm room, which overlooks the Hudson River, and beads her custom-made Native American jewelry. Gladstone will then sell those earrings at Native American events around New York City as well as in her Etsy store.

Born and raised on the Blackfeet Reservation located in northwestern Montana, Gladstone graduated in three years from Glacier High School in Kalispell, Montana in 2011. By 17, she was already an Ivy League student.

Reorganized Student Group Is for Natives and Allies at University of Missouri - ICTMN.com

Reorganized Student Group Is for Natives and Allies at University of Missouri - ICTMN.com: The University of Missouri is known for its rigorous academia and celebrity alumni like Brad Pitt, Sheryl Crow and Jim Lehrer, however, it is not celebrated for being a mecca for American Indian students.

A group of current students wants to change that.

A Native student organization is back at the university’s Columbia campus after a nine-year absence. The university in October officially recognized Four Directions: Indigenous Peoples & Allies, a group of 12 students with a growing list of supporters.

“Native American students encounter unique experiences, issues and concerns on college campuses across the United States,” Four Directions President Anastacia Schulhoff, said in a news release. “The purpose of Four Directions is to unify students at the University of Missouri and to act as an ally to any student who is interested in Native issues,” said Schulhoff, who is Sioux, Apache and Mohawk. “We hope to be a place of support and encouragement for underrepresented students while, at the same time, working for social change.”

Discarded integration method sees new life - Class Struggle - The Washington Post

Discarded integration method sees new life - Class Struggle - The Washington Post: Few education experts have been as true to a seemingly unworkable idea as Richard D. Kahlenberg, author and senior fellow at the Century Foundation. Since the 1990s, he has been the nation’s leading exponent of socioeconomic integration. That means he wants as many low-income students as possible to attend schools with a majority of middle-class children.

As Kahlenberg says in an illuminating new piece in American Educator magazine, research shows that poor kids transferred to schools with middle-class majorities do better academically, on average, than in schools with low-income majorities. Why? Kahlenberg offers three reasons: predominantly middle-class schools have student peers with better study habits and behavior, parents who are more involved in the school and more likely to complain about problems and stronger teachers with higher expectations for their students.

NFL’s Griffin, Wilson Following Ashe’s Lead - Higher Education

NFL’s Griffin, Wilson Following Ashe’s Lead - Higher Education: n 1989, trailblazing tennis player and activist Arthur Ashe said that he knew there were Black athletes “perfectly capable of simultaneously excelling on the athletic and academic fields.”

He knew, well, because he had done so himself.

Perhaps the two most prominent current athletes who embody that vision will face each other Sunday in the NFL playoffs: dynamic quarterbacks Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks and Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins. Aside from sharing the common bond of being rookies, they also finished 1 and 2, respectively, as male selections for the 2011 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar Award as selected by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine.

In almost every sense, Wilson and Griffin’s careers would be more appropriately ranked 1 and 1A. You couldn’t possibly go wrong, it seems, no matter which you choose.

‘Whiz’ Doesn’t Begin to Describe This Kid - Higher Education

‘Whiz’ Doesn’t Begin to Describe This Kid - Higher Education: Although Cameron Clarke is the 18-year-old Philadelphia student who scored a perfect 2400 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it is his father, Peter Clarke, who, after months of telling only close family and friends, decided it was time to go public with the news.

Peter, who owns The Reef, a Caribbean restaurant in Philly’s South Street District, says he was talking to a local reporter about the daily topic of youth crime, when he decided to ask why there was no positive news being reported about Black teens. Such as? The reporter wanted to know. Such as a local African-American student scoring a perfect 2400 on the SAT.

So he began relating the story of his son’s achievement. Peter Clarke says several weeks passed before the story appeared, as more pressing news took over the headlines.

Reliving the Black Campus Movement with Dr. Ibram Rogers - Higher Education

Reliving the Black Campus Movement with Dr. Ibram Rogers - Higher Education: In the award-winning book, The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972, Dr. Ibram H. Rogers documents

the groundbreaking impact that African-American students had on U.S. college and university campuses through their activism. By demanding and protesting for Black studies, Black cultural centers, Black faculty members and respectful treatment, Black students challenged both historically White and historically Black institutions and inspired the ideals that American colleges and universities today strive for as they pursue 21st century campus diversity.

Rogers, a Diverse blogger and an assistant professor of Africana Studies at the University at Albany, SUNY, crafted this national study with records from more than 300 colleges and universities, including documents from 163 college archives. Recognized with the Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement 2012 Best Scholarly Book Award, The Black Campus Movement was published this past March by Palgrave MacMillan.

Seven Lessons Americans Can Learn From Immigrants to Live Longer | PBS NewsHour

Seven Lessons Americans Can Learn From Immigrants to Live Longer | PBS NewsHour: It's a phenomenon that's stumped social scientists for years. Hispanics in the U.S. are worse off than their white neighbors by almost every economic measure: poverty rates, dropout rates, access to health care.

Yet they live longer -- two years more than non-Hispanic whites and nearly seven years more than blacks. Other immigrant groups also seem to have better physical and mental health, especially in the first generation after moving to the U.S.

In her latest book, "The Immigrant Advantage, journalist Claudia Kolker looks at how some of the customs imported by America's newest residents could benefit the rest of the nation.

On Tuesday's PBS NewsHour, senior correspondent Ray Suarez talks with Kolker about some of the imported advice -- everything from saving money and after-school tutoring to staying healthy after pregnancy -- and how those tips can translate to American culture

Emancipation Proclamation at 150: A Slave's Revealing Letter

Emancipation Proclamation at 150: A Slave's Revealing Letter: On April 25, 1864 -- 15 months after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863 -- Annie Davis sent this letter to the White House:

Mr. President
It is my Desire to be free. To go to see my people on the eastern shore.
My mistress wont let me.
You will please let me know if we are free. And what I can do.
I write to you for advice.
Please send me word this week. Or as soon as possible, and oblidge.
Annie Davis

My heart breaks -- and breaks again -- every time I read Annie's letter. I do not know her age. Or how she dressed. Or what she saw outside her window each morning.
But my soul tells me that by the time the enslaved woman mustered the courage to dispatch this missive, she had spent every waking moment for a very long time yearning for liberty. Her envelope traveled just 70 miles from Bel Air, Md., to Washington, D.C., but her anguish endures through the ages.

Hispanic Pregnancies Fall in U.S. as Women Choose Smaller Families - NYTimes.com

Hispanic Pregnancies Fall in U.S. as Women Choose Smaller Families - NYTimes.com: Hispanic women in the United States, who have generally had the highest fertility rates in the country, are choosing to have fewer children. Both immigrant and native-born Latinas had steeper birthrate declines from 2007 to 2010 than other groups, including non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians, a drop some demographers and sociologists attribute to changes in the views of many Hispanic women about motherhood.

As a result, in 2011, the American birthrate hit a record low, with 63 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, led by the decline in births to immigrant women. The national birthrate is now about half what it was during the baby boom years, when it peaked in 1957 at 122.7 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. 

The decline in birthrates was steepest among Mexican-American women and women who immigrated from Mexico, at 25.7 percent. This has reversed a trend in which immigrant mothers accounted for a rising share of births in the United States, according to a recent report by the Pew Research Center. In 2010, birthrates among all Hispanics reached their lowest level in 20 years, the center found.

Census shows it’s time to invest in Latino children, say experts

Census shows it’s time to invest in Latino children, say experts: By 2060 Latinos will be nearly one of every three Americans, according to the latest Census report released today. As the immigration and globalization expert Marcelo Suarez-Orozco said to the Associated Press, “the fastest growing demographic is the children of immigrants.” Even though immigration and birth rates have slowed down significantly, Latino and other minority children are now almost half of all schoolchildren k-12, and they are the majority of students in states like Texas and California.

“How Hispanic youth come of age and what types of education and jobs they get will have implications for how the country will be in 2060,” says Mark Hugo Lopez, Associate Director of the Pew Hispanic Center.

As jobs increasingly require more education and technical skills, some argue we are not focusing our efforts — and dollars — in the right direction.

Black, Hispanic students in Illinois drop out of school at alarming rate compared to white students, study reveals | abc7chicago.com

Black, Hispanic students in Illinois drop out of school at alarming rate compared to white students, study reveals | abc7chicago.com: Students of color in Illinois are dropping out of school at an alarming rate compared to their white counterparts, according to a new study commissioned by the Chicago Alternative Schools Network.

The study reveals nearly a quarter of all drop outs are Hispanic, followed by blacks. It also found males are more likely to quit school than females.

Researchers say those who dropped out of school experience a higher poverty rate, higher unemployment rate, lower annual earnings, lower marriage rate and are jailed more frequently.

Media drive negative Hispanic narrative - San Antonio Express-News

Media drive negative Hispanic narrative - San Antonio Express-News: Judging by news coverage of the nation's fastest-growing ethnic minority, you'd think that “the Hispanic condition” was a pathology. With the exception of growing power in the voting booth, the news makes it seem as though we're all poor, sick and generally unable to cope with life as well as others.

There are too many examples of the negativity that seems to drive reporting on — and perceptions of — the health and economic well-being of Hispanics to list here. But let me illustrate my point with some recent coverage surrounding Latino learners.

“Mexican-American children lag in pre-literacy skills, but not social strengths, study reveals” was a popular headline based on research from the University of California.

Minnesota and Massachusetts Have the Largest Latino Achievement Gaps - ABC News

Minnesota and Massachusetts Have the Largest Latino Achievement Gaps - ABC News: This year, one-in-four public elementary school students is Latino, an indication that the young Latino population is growing quickly. But, Latino students still lag behind their white peers in high school graduation rates across the country, according to preliminary data released last week by U.S. Department of Education.

The report shows that in a state-by-state breakdown of high school graduation rates, Hispanic students were less likely to graduate from high school than whites and Asians in all but two states over the 2010-2011 school year. Maine and Hawaii, where Hispanic students had slightly higher graduation rates than their white peers, are the only exceptions to the troubling data. While the department of education says the estimates are more reliable than prior data, because all states had to use the same "rigorous measure" for the first time, Idaho, Kentucky, and Oklahoma did not meet the deadline for data submission, making the dataset for the entire nation technically incomplete. Puerto Rico also was not included.

Black Girls CODE adds cities, and maybe boys

Black Girls CODE adds cities, and maybe boys: Kimberly Bryant found it ironic that in 2011 the African-American girls in an impoverished neighborhood just miles from Silicon Valley had few opportunities to learn about technology.

Bryant had left a 20 year career in engineering at Fortune 500 companies like Genentech, Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) intent on starting a company. But those girls stuck with her, reminding her of the 1980s when she was one of a whopping five female electrical engineering majors in her class at Vanderbilt University.

"I was really surprised to come out and take a look again and see that numbers of women in engineering are even less," Bryant said. The percentage of women earning computer science degrees has dropped from 27 percent in 1984 to 18 percent today. Yet, computing and mathematics are among the fastest growing occupations. The Association for Computing Machinery projects 150,000 new computing jobs annually during the next eight years.

"That's what really drove me to refocus my efforts," Bryant said.

The nonprofit Black Girls CODE was soon born.

ABQJournal Online Returning NAACP President Seeks Partnerships

ABQJournal Online Returning NAACP President Seeks Partnerships: Starting Tuesday, a familiar face will head Albuquerque’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Harold Bailey, who led the organization from 2000 to 2003 before he was tapped to serve in then-Gov. Bill Richardson’s cabinet, is resuming the job of NAACP president.

Bailey, who has a long history in education and as an advocate for racial equality, said his key message will be that the NAACP is not just about black issues. He said he is committed to advocating for all ethnicities, women and other historically disenfranchised groups.

“One of the initiatives I want to implement is to establish partnerships and coalitions with other groups,” Bailey said during a recent interview. “We’re all adversely affected by a lot of problems: the achievement gap, the incarceration rate. We need to develop a collective strategy, as opposed to individual groups doing their own thing.”...

Black educators working to keep violence out of schools - Sun Sentinel

Black educators working to keep violence out of schools - Sun Sentinel: In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy, educators in African-American and Haitian-American communities are trying to calm ethnic tensions to make sure gunplay doesn't overflow into some of the county's most at-risk academic centers.

"I don't want the same thing that happened in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, to happen in Palm Beach County," said Ronald Leonard, a retired Palm Beach County educator and leader of the Black Educators Caucus. "The tension is bubbling between these two groups — this is a preventative measure, what we don't want is the violence in our community to spill over into our schools."

African American Leadership Program Offers Community Networking, Mentoring and Unity for Students at Westminster College - SFGate

African American Leadership Program Offers Community Networking, Mentoring and Unity for Students at Westminster College - SFGate: All new college students grapple with the adjustments of their new lives and new environment, but Westminster College in Fulton, MO has established a new leadership program for African American men and women to help them cope with college life and strengthen community bonds.

The Bagby and Pasley-Taylor Leadership Programs are new initiatives from the Office of Intercultural Engagement under the Emerson Center for Leadership and Service on campus. They offer Westminster African American students the opportunity to interact and learn from African American leaders in local Callaway County and the Fulton communities. Both programs meet once a month in order to encourage networking, mentoring and unity between the College and the community.

Futurity.org – Proud Black teens do better in school

Futurity.org – Proud Black teens do better in school: New research shows that when parents use racial socialization—talking to their children or engaging in activities that promote feelings of racial knowledge, pride, and connection—it offsets racial discrimination’s potentially negative impact on students’ academic development.

Preparing adolescents for possible bias is also a protective factor, though a combination of this preparation and racial socialization is ideal in moderating the possible damaging effects of racial discrimination by teachers or fellow students, according to a study published in the journal Child Development.