Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Awards/Honors”

Families of Charleston Church Massacre Victims Reach $88 Million Settlement with U.S. Justice Department

Families of Charleston Church Massacre Victims Reach $88 Million Settlement with U.S. Justice Department

By goodblacknews on October 28, 2021

The U.S. Department of Justice announced today it has reached an agreement to settle the civil cases arising out of the June 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

Nine people were killed when 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof entered Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during Bible study and began shooting the congregants. He later confessed, saying he acted in hopes of igniting a race war.

Plaintiffs agreed to settle claims that the FBI was negligent when it failed to prohibit the sale of a gun by a licensed firearms dealer to Roof, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, who specifically targeted the 200-year-old historically African-American congregation.

The settlement provides $63 million for families of those killed in the shooting rampage and $25 million for survivors, according to lawyers involved in the agreement. For those killed in the shooting, the settlements range from $6 million to $7.5 million per claimant. For the survivors, the settlements are for $5 million per claimant.

The parties have been in litigation since 2016, including before the district court and the federal court of appeals.

“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”

On June 17, 2015, Mother Emanuel congregants welcomed a stranger who had entered their church. They invited him to participate in their Wednesday night bible study.

Tragically, at the close of the bible study, Roof shot and killed Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Tywanza Sanders, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Daniel L. Simmons, Ethel Lee Lance, Myra Thompson, Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor and Mother Emanuel’s pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, also a South Carolina State Senator.

The families of the Emanuel Nine, as well as the five survivors who were inside the church at the time of the shooting, sued the government. They sought to recover for wrongful death and physical injuries arising from the shooting.

Plaintiffs asserted that the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS) failed to timely discover that the shooter was a person prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm. Plaintiffs alleged that because of this delay, the shooter was able to purchase the handgun that he used to commit the atrocity.

The families sued after the FBI revealed that its system for conducting background checks failed to catch a fact that should have blocked the sale of the gun Roof used in the shooting. He bought the Glock 41 two months earlier at a shopping mall in West Columbia.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050035997/charleston-church-shooting-doj-settlement-families

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-multi-million-dollar-civil-settlement-principle-mother-emanuel

Poet and Activist Sonia Sanchez, 87, Wins the $250,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for 2021

Poet and Activist Sonia Sanchez, 87, Wins the $250,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for 2021

By goodblacknews on October 22, 2021

Esteemed poet, professor and activist Sonia Sanchez, 87, has been awarded the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for being an artist who “has pushed the boundaries of an art form” and “contributed to social change.” The prize includes a cash award of $250,000.

Sanchez has been a leading figure of the 1960s Black Arts Movement, having written more than 20 books including Homecoming, We a BaddDDD People, I’ve Been a Woman, A Sound Investment and Other Stories, Homegirls and Handgrenades, Under a Soprano Sky, Wounded in the House of a Friend (1995), Does Your House Have Lions? (1997), Like the Singing Coming off the Drums (1998), Shake Loose My Skin (1999), Morning Haiku (2010) and most recently, Collected Poems (2021).Her subjects range from Black culture, feminism, civil rights, philosophy and peace, and Sanchez, according to the New York Times, “is known for melding musical formats like the blues with traditional poetic forms like the haiku and tanka, using American Black speech patterns and experimenting with punctuation and spelling.”“When we come out of the pandemic, it’s so important that we don’t insist that we go back to the way things were,” Sanchez said to the New York Times. “We’ve got to strive for beauty, which is something I’ve tried to do in my work.”

Other notable recipients of the Gish Prize include artists such as Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee, Suzan-Lori Parks, Walter Hood and Chinua Achebe.

Among dozens of distinguished honors that Sanchez has received throughout her life Sanchez has also received the 1985 American Book Award for Homegirls and Handgrenades, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Humanities for 1988, the Langston Hughes Poetry Award for 1999, the Wallace Stevens Award of the Academy of American Poets, the Robert Frost Medal and the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, and the Academy of American Poets’ inaugural Leadership Award.

Maya Angelou to Appear on U.S. Quarter as Part of the 2022 American Women Series

Maya Angelou to Appear on U.S. Quarter as Part of the 2022 American Women Series

By goodblacknews on October 11, 2021

The Maya Angelou Quarter will be the first coin to be issued from in the American Women Quarters™ Program in 2022.

Other women being honored in the series include Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools, Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood and Dr. Sally Ride, physicist, astronaut, educator, and the first American woman in space.

Each woman will appear on the reverse (tails) side of the quarter, with George Washington’s image remaining on the obverse (heads) side of the coin.

A celebrated writer, performer, and social activist, Maya Angelou rose to international prominence  after the publication of her groundbreaking 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou’s published works of verse, non-fiction, and fiction include more than 30 bestselling titles.

Angelou’s remarkable career encompasses dance, theater, journalism, and social activism. She appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including Cabaret for Freedom, which she wrote with Godfrey Cambridge.

At the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Angelou served as northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.Angelou read “On the Pulse of Morning” at the 1992 inauguration of President Clinton. Angelou’s reading marked the first time an African American woman wrote and presented a poem at a presidential inauguration.

Angelou received more than 30 honorary degrees and was inducted into the Wake Forest University Hall of Fame for Writers. In 2010, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She was also the 2013 recipient of the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community.

(paid amazon links)

East African Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature

East African Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature

By goodblacknews on October 8, 2021

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2021 was awarded to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents,” according to the Swedish Academy.

He is the first Black writer to win in the Literature category since Toni Morrison in 1993.Gurnah was born in 1948 and grew up on the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean but arrived in England as a refugee in the end of the 1960s.

He has published ten novels, including Gravel Heart (2017), 1994’s Paradise, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a number of short stories. The theme of the refugee’s disruption runs throughout his work.

The award comes with more than $1 million in prize money.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1043436576/nobel-prize-literature-2021

Ibram X. Kendi, Jordan Casteel, Desmond Meade Among 2021 MacArthur “Genius” Fellows Awarded $625K Grant

Ibram X. Kendi, Jordan Casteel, Desmond Meade Among 2021 MacArthur “Genius” Fellows Awarded $625K Grant

By goodblacknews on October 2, 2021

Every year, the MacArthur Fellows Program awards its recipients a $625,000 “no strings attached” grant, an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential so they may continue to “exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society.”

In 2021, 12 of the 25 “geniuses” that have been selected and were announced this week identify as Black.

Among them are historian Ibram X. Kendi, who founded and directs the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University as well as wrote the best-selling books How to Be an Anti-Racist (2019) and Stamped From The Beginning (2016), and civil rights activist Desmond Meade who helped strike down restrictive voting laws for formerly incarcerated citizens in Florida.

Artist Jordan Casteel, internet studies and digital media scholar Safiya Noble, biological physicist Ibrahim Cissé, art historian and curator Nicole Fleetwood, film scholar, archivist and curator Jacqueline Stewart, and choreographer and dance entrepreneur Jawole Willa Jo Zollar are among the other 2021 MacArthur Fellows.

A full list (in alphabetical order) of the Black fellows and summaries of their work follow below:

Hanif Abdurraqib is a music critic, essayist, and poet using the lens of popular music to examine the broader culture that produces and consumes it. Many of the essays in Abdurraqib’s first collection, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (2017), grew out of reviews and articles he wrote while a journalist; taken together, they form a deeply personal consideration of self-identity and the continued suffering inflicted on Black bodies at the hands of police and others. For example, he writes about attending a Bruce Springsteen concert days after visiting a memorial for Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and struggling to reconcile his technical appreciation of the music with the racialized and gendered stories told by the lyrics.In his book Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (2019), Abdurraqib traces the three-decade history of the pioneering hip-hop group and its impact within the larger hip-hop movement. He writes with clear affection for the group, and his assessment of the social and political atmosphere in which it operated includes reflections on how those same forces shaped his childhood and his experience of the music.

Abdurraqib delves more deeply into historical research for his most recent book, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance (2021). His thought-provoking observations on key artists and cultural moments in music, film, dance, and comedy—ranging from William Henry Lane, a nineteenth-century minstrel dancer who performed for White audiences in blackface, to Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl appearance and the dance and music television show Soul Train—form a focused analysis of Blackness and a celebration of Black identity.

Katori Hall, Les Payne and Tamara Payne, Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris and More Win Pulitzer Prizes in 2021

Katori Hall, Les Payne and Tamara Payne, Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris and More Win Pulitzer Prizes in 2021

By goodblacknews on June 11, 2021

Mitchell S. Jackson’s winning essay from June 2020, Twelve Minutes and a Life, offered a deeply affecting account of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery that combined vivid writing, thorough reporting and personal experience to shed light on systemic racism in America.

A formerly incarcerated person, Jackson is also a social justice advocate who engages in outreach in prisons and youth facilities in the United States and abroad.

Georgetown University professor Marcia Chatelain’s Franchise offers a nuanced account of the complicated role the fast-food industry plays in African-American communities, a portrait of race and capitalism that masterfully illustrates how the fight for civil rights has been intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.

Hall’s Hot Wing King is a deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.

Tania Leon’s Stride premiered at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City on February 13, 2020, a musical journey full of surprise, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate Black music traditions from the US and the Caribbean into a Western orchestral fabric.

To see the complete list of 2021 Pulitzer Prize recipients and more details about them, click here.

[Photo collage: top l-r are Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris, Tania León; bottom l-r are Katori Hall, Michael Paul Williams, Marcia Chatelain via pulitzer.org]

(paid links)

Basketball Hall of Fame Kobe Bryant Exhibit Designed with Vanessa Bryant’s Input

Basketball Hall of Fame Kobe Bryant Exhibit Designed with Vanessa Bryant’s Input

By goodblacknews on May 15, 2021

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has created a special exhibit honoring the late Kobe Bryant, a 2020 Hall of Fame inductee, that has been co-designed and approved by his wife and widow, Vanessa Bryant.

According to the Hall of Fame’s President and CEO, John Doleva, the Bryant exhibit is predicted to become the “most talked about” exhibit inside the Springfield, Massachusetts landmark.

“The family had time to think about what they wanted to do,” Doleva said [as reported by espn.com] during Friday’s news conference for each of the 2020 inductees. “[It’s] about Kobe’s accomplishments but also about what Kobe was after he left the Lakers, after he left basketball.”

Vanessa Bryant and her oldest daughter, Natalia, accepted Bryant’s Hall of Fame blazer on his behalf and joined the other 2020 inductees at Friday night’s Hall of Fame awards tipoff celebration and awards gala.

NBA Legend Michael Jordan, at the request of Vanessa Bryant, will introduce Kobe Bryant into the Hall this Sunday. Other members of the star-studded 2020 class that will be inducted include Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.

Read more: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31445551/basketball-hall-fame-prepared-special-exhibit-kobe-bryant-wife-vanessa-input

Tina Turner, Jay Z Among Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees for 2021

Tina Turner, Jay Z Among Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees for 2021

By goodblacknews on May 12, 2021

[Photos: Jay Z / Tina Turner via wikipedia.commons.org]

Among the six inductees who’ll be formally inducted as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of are rock and R&B legend Tina Turner, and hip hop artist and impresario Jay Z. This will be Turner’s second induction — she was voted in in 1991 as part of the Ike & Tina Turner duo.

Additionally, LL Cool J, who has been nominated six times since 2010, is being honored with a “Musical Excellence Award.”

Joining LL Cool J in getting that Musical Excellence honor is solo star and “fifth Beatle” Billy Preston, and jazz/soul visionary Gil Scott-Heron is being recognized with an Early Influence Award along with early 20th century blues musician Charley Patton.

Finally, the Ahmet Ertegun Award, usually given to record industry executives or other non-performing figures, goes to Clarence Avant this year, the trailblazer who was subject of the 2019 Netflix documentary The Black Godfather.

The four other main inductees this year are the Go-Go’s, Todd Rundgren, Carole King and Foo Fighters.

The 36th annual ceremony is set for October 30 at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, a return to a live event with performances. Due to the pandemic, last year’s class was inducted virtually in pre-recorded segments that aired on HBO.

SiriusXM subscribers will be able to hear a live simulcast with edited version to be aired later on HBO and HBO Max.

Beyoncé Breaks Record to Become Singer with Most Grammy Award Wins of all Time

Beyoncé Breaks Record to Become Singer with Most Grammy Award Wins of all Time

By goodblacknews on March 14, 2021

As she won her 28th Grammy Award for R&B performance for Black Parade, Beyoncé made history as she surpassed country-bluegrass artist Alison Krauss’ former record of 27 Grammys and became the most honored singing artist of all time.

Beyoncé has also tied legendary producer and musician Quincy Jones for second-most Grammy wins ever.

Jones, who turned 88 on Sunday, has won 28 Grammys during his career. The late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti holds the all-time record with 31 Grammy Awards.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-03-14/beyonce-breaks-record-grammys-female-artist?utm_id=25322&sfmc_id=2415824

Academy Award-Winning Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Honored with Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

Academy Award-Winning Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Honored with Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

By goodblacknews on February 25, 2021

In 2019 when Ruth E. Carter won the Academy Award for her work on Disney/Marvel’s 2018 global box-office smash Black Panther, she made history as the first Black woman to receive the Oscar for costume design.

Carter made history again today as she became the first Black and only the second costume designer ever (Edith Head was the first) to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Carter started her costume design career on films with Spike Lee including School Daze, Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X. Carter also worked on Amistad, The Five Heartbeats, What’s Love Got to Do With It, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Selma and most recently, Coming 2 America, which debuts March 5 on Prime Video.

Carter currently sits on the Academy of Arts and Sciences Board of Governors and recently started the Mildred Blount Scholarship Fund in honor of “the Black woman who did the millinery work in Gone With the Wind” who was the first African American member of the Motion Pictures Costumers Union.

You can watch a recap of Carter’s career, tributes from Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy and the virtual Walk of Fame ceremony below: