Good Black News would like to thank all of our fans and followers, old and new, for making 2012 a fantastic, expansive year for us. Please continue to read, share and spread the word as we will do our best to bring you more positive news in 2013 and beyond. Happy New Year!
Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Founder and Editor-In-Chief
Posts published in “Commemorations”
Two African-American scientists have been named as part of a group that will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation Award by the Obama Administration, the White House announced. Among the 12 recipients are James Gates, a physicist at the University of Maryland, and George Carruthers, an inventor, physicist, space scientist and professor at Howard University.
“I am proud to honor these inspiring American innovators,” President Obama said, in a statement.
“They represent the ingenuity and imagination that has long made this Nation great — and they remind us of the enormous impact a few good ideas can have when these creative qualities are unleashed in an entrepreneurial environment.”
Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson is on the cover of the latest installment of the Madden series (’13), appropriate because he is putting up video game type numbers in real life. Johnson, highly regarded as one of the best receivers in the NFL, surpassed the legendary Jerry Rice in receiving yards gained in a season on Saturday (12/22) in a loss to the Atlanta Falcons. A highlight in an otherwise disappointing season for the Lions, Johnson currently has 1892 yards and can go for the 2000 yard mark.
article by Jamiyl Samuels via theurbandaily.com
Every year teens struggle to study and get through the nation’s most-widely-used college admission exam, the SATs, and only a small handful ever achieve a perfect score. Cameron Clarke (pictured), a senior at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pa., just happens to fall in to the category of “perfect scorer,” according to the Huffington Post.
Clarke scored 2400, a perfect score, this past spring, and according to SAT officials, out of the 1.6 million of its test-takers this year, a mere 360 were able to achieve the grade.
President Barack Obama has been named Time’s Person of the Year.
Managing editor Richard Stengel unveiled the magazine’s choice on Wednesday’s “Today.” He said it was remarkable that the president won two terms with over 50 percent of the popular vote as a Democrat. He also noted that Obama took office in an economic crisis, and credited him with creating a new political “alignment like Ronald Reagan did forty years ago.”
This is the second time that Time has chosen Obama. The magazine said it named him Person of the Year in 2008 for winning against the odds and becoming the first black president of the United States.
“For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year,” Stengel explained in his note this year.
Time’s Michael Scherer wrote in a profile of the president:
Beyond the Oval Office, overwhelming challenges remain: deadlocked fiscal-cliff talks; a Federal Reserve that predicts years of high unemployment; and more unrest in places like Athens, Cairo and Damascus. But the President seems unbound and gives inklings of an ambition he has kept in check ever since he arrived at the White House to find a nation in crisis.
article via huffingtonpost.com
*The Trumpet Awards Foundation announced the 2013 Trumpet Awards honorees at a press conference in Atlanta.
The Trumpet Awards Ceremony is one of the most respected televised award shows saluting African American achievement in the world. The following Trumpet Award honorees will attend and receive their award at the ceremony on Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 4pm.
Chaka Khan – Legend Award
Debra Martin Chase – Entertainment Award
Michael McMillan – Community Service Award
Alonzo & Tracy Mourning – Humanitarian Award
Mayor Kasim Reed – Public Service Award
Charlie Wilson – Lifetime Achievement Award
Edward Welburn – Corporate Award
James ‘Zimp’ Smith smiles as he greets his nephew, LeRoy Minnatee, after the street-renaming ceremony honoring Smith on Dec. 8, 2012 at the southeaster corner of Ocean and Dwight in Jersey City. (Alyssa Ki/The Jersey Journal)
A former Tuskegee Airman who became a prominent local African-American entrepreneur was honored today by town residents and local civic leaders during a street naming ceremony held in Jersey City this afternoon.
Roughly a hundred people gathered at the southeastern corner of Ocean Avenue and Dwight Street around 12 p.m. to celebrate the achievements of James “Zimp” Smith, the first successful African-American businessman to own his own franchise in Hudson County during an era when minority owned businesses were rare.
Bassist Esperanza Spalding is still wooing crowds with her peculiar style of music; blending jazz, R&B, and classical for one phenomenal sound.
She was awarded for her groundbreaking compositions at the first annual Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Awards. Artists in all categories, including technology, performing and visual arts, natural and physical sciences, education, historical scholarship, social progress and youth achievement were also recognized at a gala event at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. on November 28.
Herbie Hancock presented the award to Spalding, and said, “She is magnificent and poetic.”
Since stepping out onto the scene, Spalding has created a genre all her own, fascinating millions and winning over audiences with all types of musical interests. She’s been recently dubbed the “First Lady of Jazz,” and has played with Stevie Wonder for President Barack Obama.
article by Brittney M. Walker via eurweb.com
LeBron James has taken his talents to the cover of Sports Illustrated as the magazine’s newly-crowned 2012 Sportsman of the Year.
“He was the most dominant athlete this year – MVP of the NBA regular season, MVP of the NBA playoffs, led the Heat to the NBA championship and Team USA to the gold medal in London,” Paul Fichtenbaum, Editor of Time Inc.’s Sports Group tells People.com.
At just 27, the eight-time NBA All-Star and former all-time leading scorer of the Cleveland Cavaliers joins such past Sportsman of the Year athletes as teammate Dwayne Wade, Brett Favre, Michael Phelps, Derek Jeter and Drew Brees.
“The intangibles [James] brought to the court were significant in leading his teams to victory. He was a selfless player, doing whatever it took to will the Heat and Team USA, making all of his teammates better,” Fichtenbaum says.
In addition to his on-the-court accolades, his off-court charitable endeavors also contributed to his new title. The basketball player – who is dad to LeBron Jr., 8, and Bryce, 5, with finacée Savannah Brinson – established a program to benefit children in Akron, Ohio.
Fichtenbaum says: “The program he built and developed in [the] Akron school district for young kids had a profound effect on children who ordinarily might fall through the cracks of an educational system,” he says. “He didn’t just lend his name to a cause, he was directly involved.”
Read more at http://www.eurweb.com/2012/12/lebron-james-is-sports-illustrateds-sportsman-of-the-year/#ZKeM5uudHPsh0fZG.99
(L to R) Joy A. Buolamwini, Rhiana E. Gunn-Wright, and Nina M. Yancy
The Rhodes Scholarships, considered by many to be the most prestigious awards given to U.S. college students, were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, an industrialist who made a vast fortune in colonial Africa. Each year, 32 Americans are named Rhodes Scholars. The scholarships provide funds for two or three years of graduate study at Oxford University in Britain. Rhodes Scholars from the United States join students from 14 other jurisdictions including Australia, southern Africa, Kenya, India, and Canada. All told, about 80 Rhodes Scholars worldwide are selected each year for study at Oxford. In 1978 Karen Stevenson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first African-American woman selected as a Rhodes Scholar. This year, three African American women were among the this year’s group of Rhodes Scholars.
Joy A. Buolamwini is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she majored in computer science. She is currently working at the Carter Center in Atlanta. She has founded or co-founded three businesses. She plans on a degree in African studies at Oxford.
Rhiana E. Gunn-Wright is a 2011 graduate of Yale University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in African-American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. She has been working at Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Her plan is to obtain a master’s degree in comparative social policy at Oxford.
Nina M. Yancy is a senior at Harvard University where she majors in social studies. Yancy grew up in the Dallas area but her family recently moved to Chicago. Yancy has had internships at CNN, the Center for American Political Studies and in the British House of Commons. She is a member of the Harvard Ballet Company. She plans on pursuing a master’s degree in global health science as a Rhodes Scholar.