October 9, 2024
History was made this past Tuesday (Oct. 16) when Judge Wilhelmina Wright was sworn in as the first African-American woman to serve on the state’s Supreme Court. Wright joins Justice Alan Page as the only two African-American Minnesota Supreme Court justices. Page was elected to the Court in 1992 by the votes of the state. Wright was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to fill the vacancy created with the stepping down of Justice Helen Meyer.
At first glance the modest living room with parquet floor and track lighting resembles any space with an indifferent housekeeper: papers abound, stacks of paintings lean against walls, an indistinct jumble of items swallows a small table. But then Russell L. Goings starts pulling out what he calls his “stuff,” and his home improbably transforms into a personal art gallery, one brimming with his extensive collection of work by Romare Bearden, the 20th-century artist best known for his soulful collages of African-American life. Bearden also happened to be Mr. Goings’s longtime close friend.
A homeless South Carolina man (pictured) is $200,000 richer after spending $10 on a lottery ticket in Greenville, Fox affiliate KEYC-TV reports. The South Carolina Education Lottery confirmed the win. The winner declined to be identified. He bought the winning ticket at a Simon’s Liquors last week and jumped for joy after realizing that he had the winning numbers.
The man plans on purchasing a home with his winnings. “To see a person, you know he gets $200,000 he doesn’t have a penny in his pocket but $20,” said Simon Sfeir, owner of Simons Liquors, who sold the winning ticket, according to the Associated Press. Sfeir gets $2,000 of the winnings for selling the ticket.
article by Terrell Jermaine Starr via newsone.com
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Ninety-five years ago today, jazz trumpet innovator and bebop pioneer John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. Gillespie, who famously lead his own orchestra as well as recorded with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, is best known for his compositions “Salt Peanuts,” “Woody N’ You” and “A Night In Tunisia,” as well as popularizing Afro-Cuban jazz in the United States. Learn more about his life and music by clicking here and watch his “Manteca” above.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Flakes of green paint are peeling from the third-floor windowsills. Some desks are patched with tape, others etched with graffiti. The view across the street is of a row of boarded-up brownstones. Students attended an Introduction to Computer Systems class at Pathways in Technology Early College High School in Brooklyn. The building and its surroundings in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, may look run-down, but inside 150 Albany Avenue may sit the future of the country’s vocational education: The first 230 pupils of a new style of school that weaves high school and college curriculums into a six-year program tailored for a job in the technology industry.
By 2017, the first wave of students of P-Tech — Pathways in Technology Early College High School — is expected to emerge with associate’s degrees in applied science in computer information systems or electromechanical engineering technology, following a course of studies developed in consultation with I.B.M.
LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 21 (UPI) — Venus Williams earned her first victory since February 2010 Sunday, downing Romania’s Monica Niculescu in the final of the Luxembourg Open. Williams dispatched Niculescu 6-2, 6-3, snapping the longest victory drought in the 32-year-old former world No. 1’s career. Her previous victory came at the 2010 Acapulco event.
“Coming to the tournament this week I was just trying to play well,” Williams said. “I didn’t know if I could win this event, so to stand here as the winner is a wonderful way for me to end the year, and it really makes me look forward to next year as well.” Niculescu was appearing in just her second career final after falling to Victoria Azarenka at the 2011 Luxembourg event.
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As was announced at the end of September, ahead of the film’s theatrical opening, RZA has released a short animated version of the film on Machinima’s YouTube channel, which he worked on with Eric Calderon (writer/producer of Afro Samurai). The Man With The Iron Fists will see a USA theatrical release on November 2. It stars RZA himself, Russell Crowe, Pam Grier, Lucy Liu and others; Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth served as producers on this $20 million project.
The University of Virginia recently installed a plaque in front of the University Chapel which honors Henry Martin.
Martin was born a slave in 1826. He was a free man when hired by the university in 1847 as a janitor and to ring the bell in the university’s Rotunda. He rang the bell at dawn and every hour for the remainder of the day. After a fire in the Rotunda, the bell was moved to the University chapel. All told, Martin was the university’s bell ringer from 1847 to 1909, a period of 62 years.
The plaque was sponsored by the IDEA Fund, a group founded to promoted diversity on campus. IDEA stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access.
