Michael Tubbs, a 22 year-old Stanford graduate, is the youngest-ever city councilman to be elected in his hometown of Stockton, C.A.
Born into poverty to a teenage mother and father who is in prison, Tubbs grew up determined to make a difference.
Upon graduating from high school, Tubbs attended Stanford, where he earned a bachelor’s in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and a master’s in Policy, Organization and Leadership Studies.
While in college, Tubbs interned for both Google and the White House. With multiple high-paying job offers, Tubbs decided to turn them down and return to his hometown to run for city council.
The struggling city of Stockton, CA. is in need of serious change. In June of 2012, Stockton became the most populous U.S. city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The city also has a record high number of homicides in 2012 with 71.
Tubbs first made headlines last spring when he received a campaign endorsement form Oprah Winfrey after meeting her on campus at Stanford. Winfrey donated $10,000 to the then-college senior.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
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The University of Michigan has announced a four-month initiative called the Understanding Race Project. From January through April, the university will feature public exhibits, lectures, performances, symposia, and other events examining the role of race in American society. Among the lecturers who will be visiting campus to participate in the project are Angela Davis, Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. During the spring semester, 130 courses dealing with racial issues will be offered students in a wide variety of disciplines.
“The Understanding Race Project is as broad and varied as the cultural and ethnic groups that constitute and sometimes divide the human family here and around the globe,” explains Amy Harris, co-chair of the project and director of the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. She states that the goal of the project is “to learn more about how social constructs like race have defined substantial portions of our history and continue to impact our lives today.”
article via jbhe.com
Alvin Hill, Student Government Association vice president at Morgan State University. (Photo L. Kasimu Harris)
It was just a month ago when the board of regents of Morgan State University, the historically Black school in Baltimore, voted not to renew the contract of its president, David Wilson. Wilson had served as president for two years and his three-year contract was set to expire in June of this year.
But then something unusual happened. The board’s decision unleashed a torrent of criticism by the school’s faculty, staff and, most notably, Morgan State’s students, who held protest rallies on behalf of retaining President Wilson.
Since then, the board announced something of a reversal, saying it was reconsidering its initial decision. It agreed to negotiate a new one-year contract covering the period from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. The terms of the one-year deal have yet to be negotiated.
Cleaning service worker Patrick Morgan was honored for his honesty at an award ceremony Wednesday morning. He talked about finding a big wad of cash in an iPad case.
Patrick Morgan was working an early shift at the airport last month when he came across the iPad that had been left behind at a bar in one of the terminals at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. When he opened the case, he spotted the big wad of cash. “I opened it first and I see the money and I closed it back,” he said.
Morgan, of Patrick’s Cleaning Service which works for Sunshine Cleaning Systems Inc., immediately turned in the iPad and $13,000 cash to the airport communications center and Broward Sheriff’s Office substation. Minutes later, the owner, who had returned from a trip to Las Vegas, came back to the bar and Morgan told him where he could find the money and iPad. The iPad owner gave Morgan a $60 reward, which Morgan passed on to a homeless woman.
The Broward County Aviation Department honored Morgan for his honesty and hard work, and Sunshine Cleaning awarded him $625, which is equal to one week paid vacation. He says he’ll keep it.
article by Julia Bagg via nbcmiami.com
To Randall Halstead and other minority officers in the Boston Police Department, the story of Sergeant Horatio J. Homer serves as a beacon of hope and of the power of perseverance.
Homer, who in 1878 became the department’s first African-American officer, ushered in a new era in the city over a 40-year career. In the decade after his appointment, the force hired as many as a half-dozen additional black officers, in large part on his recommendation.
Last week, the department unveiled a plaque honoring Homer at the Area B-2 police precinct in Roxbury, a neighborhood where he once resided. Halstead, a deputy superintendent, presided over the ceremony, which some of Homer’s descendants attended.
“This man set a precedent,” said Halstead. “To move forward, you have to know where you come from.”
The tribute is the latest honor bestowed upon Homer by the Police Department.
Singers Jill Scott (L) and Maxwell arrive at the 41st NAACP Image awards held at The Shrine Auditorium on February 26, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NAACP)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Essence Music Festival is dropping the music — from its name, that is.
The festival held in New Orleans every July 4th weekend for the past 18 years has rebranded itself The Essence Festival. Organizers say the change is designed to showcase the event as more than a music festival.
Still, music will remain a focus for the 19th annual festival, which is July 4-7.
The lineup includes more than 30 acts — a number of them Essence veterans. On the roster are Jill Scott, Maxwell, New Edition, Charlie Wilson, Keyshia Cole, LL Cool J and Brandy.
As in past years, concerts will be held at the Superdome while empowerment seminars on health, beauty, careers, education and relationships are held at a nearby convention center.
article by Stacey Plaisance via thegrio.com
Toby Tolbert (CBS News)
“You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or Oprah,” Tolbert told CBS News. ”We can do it wherever we are, with whatever we have, and for me, I have a home that I can make available.”
Over the last 20 years, the channels for discovering new books, especially books by first-time and emerging authors, have shrunk or disappeared. Newspapers and magazines dedicate mere slivers of arts sections to book reviews — if at all. Those papers like the New York Times that do devote more space to book coverage rarely review debut authors. Likewise, bookstores prefer to invite already established, bestselling, or celebrity writers to do readings and signings. That leaves Oprah — and the Queen of Talk has endorsed only 72 books since she started her eponymous book club in 1996, including the two she has recommended since her 2.0 reboot.
It’s even more difficult for black authors — new and established — to get their books on readers’ radars. As it is, African-American interest books receive a mere fraction of the coverage noted above, and with the closing of more than 100 black-owned independent bookstores in the last 15 years, as well as the shuttering of Black Issues Book Review there are even fewer places for black authors’ work to gain visibility. Mosaic, African Voices, and the new Spook can only review so much. “The last [issue of] Essence covered the same book Oprah covered,” observed Troy Johnson, founder of the African-American Literature Book Club better known as AALBC.com.
In this landscape, black book clubs offer authors a valuable — albeit extremely competitive —promotion and sales channel. “[Book clubs] have advanced far beyond the small get-togethers in someone’s living room,” says Carol Mackey, editor-in-chief of direct-to-consumer book club Black Expressions.
“Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.” — Oprah Winfrey, Founder and CEO of the OWN Network
Members of the “Wilmington 10” hold a brief communion service before boarding a prison bus on Feb. 2, 1976 in Burgaw, North Carolina, as they surrendered to start prison terms on convictions growing out of 1971 racial disorders in Wilmington, N.C. Four of the group shown from left are Connie Tindall, Rev. Ben Chavis, Jerry Jacobs and Anne Sheppard. (AP Photo)
After decades of claims that they were wrongly convicted, nine African-American men and one white women who were imprisoned for an arson fire in North Carolina that stemmed from racial unrest over integrated schools have been pardoned. North Carolina Gov. Bev Purdue, who is leaving office in just one week, issued the pardons Monday.
Purdue’s office issued a statement, saying she had spent “a great deal of time over the past seven months reviewing the pardon of innocence requests of the persons collectively known as the Wilmington Ten.”