article via naacp.org
Yale University is naming a new residential college after African-American Yale alumna and civil rights activist Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray. Pauli Murray is best known as a staunch civil rights and women’s rights advocate, lawyer and ordained Episcopal priest. Ms. Murray’s lifelong commitment to ensuring a fair and just society for everyone serves as an inspiration and role model to NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks as well as many civil rights lawyers.
In 1938, Ms. Murray was denied admission to the University of North Carolina’s law school because she was African American – all schools and public facilities in the state were segregated. Influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and his practice of nonviolent civil disobedience, she joined with Bayard Rustin, George Houser and James Farmer to form the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). While a student at Howard Law School, she participated in sit-ins to challenge the discriminatory seating policies of area restaurants. These sit-ins preceded the more widespread and well-known sit-ins of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
After graduating from law school, Ms. Murray sought to continue her study of the law at Harvard University but was rejected because of her gender. Her experiences with racism and gender inequality fueled her activism in the civil rights and women’s rights movements. She authored a book, “States Laws on Race and Color” in 1951. Thurgood Marshall, then chief counsel at the NAACP, described her book as the Bible for civil rights lawyers. Upon completion of her doctorate in 1965, she became the first African American woman to be awarded a J.D.S from Yale University.
Posts published in “Education”
article by Angela Bronner Helm via theroot.com
After much speculation, Malia Obama, the eldest daughter of the President and First Lady has announced her plans to attend Harvard University, but not until 2017.
The White House announced her plans on Sunday, as well as her intention to take a “gap year” so that when she begins, her father will be out of office.
Malia is continuing the tradition of the Obamas who were both Ivy League graduates. Harvard is where both of her parents attended law school, and President Obama graduated from Columbia undergrad and Michelle Obama attended Princeton.
Malia will join a long list of presidential children who have attended the Ivy League school, including John Quincy Adams and his son, John Adams II; Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert; the sons of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt; Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy; and George W. Bush, who went to business school there.
The New York Times reports that Malia visited Harvard and a handful of other Ivy League and liberal arts schools last March on the East Coast, but because she accompanied her father to California last month, many believed Stanford was at the top of her list. Apparently Crimson won her heart.
Read more at the New York Times.
Malia is continuing the tradition of the Obamas who were both Ivy League graduates. Harvard is where both of her parents attended law school, and President Obama graduated from Columbia undergrad and Michelle Obama attended Princeton.
Malia will join a long list of presidential children who have attended the Ivy League school, including John Quincy Adams and his son, John Adams II; Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert; the sons of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt; Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy; and George W. Bush, who went to business school there.
The New York Times reports that Malia visited Harvard and a handful of other Ivy League and liberal arts schools last March on the East Coast, but because she accompanied her father to California last month, many believed Stanford was at the top of her list. Apparently Crimson won her heart.
Read more at the New York Times.
article via jbhe.com
Tavis Smiley, author and television and radio broadcaster, has established a new scholarship at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington. The scholarships will be earmarked for African American students, with preference given to those who are the first in their family to attend college.
For students to be eligible, they must be accepted into the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, demonstrate financial need, and to have shown leadership in their schools and communities.
Smiley said that “my education at Indiana University and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs continues to contribute so much to what I’ve accomplished in life. I want to make sure students from backgrounds like mine can enjoy the same opportunities I did.”
article by Michael Melia via abc7ny.com
A Connecticut high school history teacher chosen as the National Teacher of the Year on Thursday says she was surrounded by poverty, drugs and violence as a child but imagined other possibilities for her life with help from educators.
Jahana Hayes, who teaches at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury, CT, was selected for the honor by the Council of Chief State School Officers. She will be recognized by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony this coming Tuesday.
Hayes, 44, grew up in a Waterbury housing project and became a teenage mother while still in high school. She said the influence of her own teachers taught her that a school’s job sometimes overlaps with the job of parents, and she wants her students to know there are no dead ends.
“No matter where you are or how bad you think it is, there’s always opportunities for growth and opportunities for improvement,” she said. “I think too often, especially at the high school level, people deal in absolutes and students get the message that, ‘If I mess up or I don’t do everything exactly right right now, that that’s the end of my story.'”
At an urban school with a widely diverse student body, she said she has found teaching is a lifestyle that extends beyond the contracted hours. She finds herself serving not only as a teacher but also as a counselor, a confidant and a protector of her students.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
New Haven, Conn.—A screening of the documentary film “Black Women in Medicine” by producer/director Crystal Emery will take place on Tuesday, April 26 at 4 p.m. at the Yale School of Medicine’s Anlyan Center (TAC), Rm. N107, 300 Cedar St.
“Black Women in Medicine” chronicles the unsung journeys of black women doctors who have risen above inequality to excellence while becoming leaders in their fields.
The event will feature a reception and book signing for “Against all Odds: Celebrating Black Women in Medicine.” Yale School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern, New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, and Yale School of Medicine Professor and Interim Chair of Internal Medicine Gary Desir, will deliver opening remarks. Registration is encouraged.
Click through below to see the trailer on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/153400553
The event is an initiative of URU The Right to Be Inc., in collaboration with The Minority Organization for Retention & Expansion (MORE), the Committee on the Status of Women in Medicine (SWIM), the Office of Women in Medicine, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Guests can attend one of two breakout workshops, titled “Changing the Face of Medicine: From Conversation to Action” and “Retention and Recruitment.”
article by Elizabeth Winston via thedp.com
After the votes were tallied on Friday night, small town Floridian and College sophomore Makayla Reynolds was elected as the first black female class president in Penn’s history.
“I tried to sell myself as the outsider,” Reynolds said. “My background and where I come from and what I stand for is very underrepresented at Penn.”
Reynolds will be replacing the previous class president College sophomore Vadim Ordovsky-Tanaevsky. After having the experience of being a class president in high school, Reynolds decided to pursue the same position in college. “I don’t think that Vadim has done bad at all,” Reynolds said. “I think he’s done great. People just wanted a change.”
Many students have expressed concern that the class board has little impact on student lives. Reynolds speaks to this concern. “If you aren’t involved, it’s hard to see what the class board is doing,” she said. She hopes that she will be able to make a tangible difference.
Reynolds said that “the hardest part is getting people to be interested in voting.” Only about 800 of the over 2400 students in the sophomore class voted in the election.
Over the past weeks, Reynolds worked tirelessly to get her name out to other sophomores. She wanted to make an impression online as well as face-to-face with voters. Her Facebook and website served as a platform to inform the Class of 2018 about why she was a good candidate.
Reynolds said that a lot of her campaigning was talking one-on-one with friends and acquaintances she knows from activities she’s involved with on campus.
Outside of class board, Reynolds is part of MedLife Penn, a group that promotes health equity both locally and globally, and a public speaking advisor for communication within the curriculum.
Reynold’s favorite extracurricular is being a Big Sister for Big Brothers Big Sisters. This gives her a chance to make a difference in the community.
In her time as president, she hopes to inspire other students and have an impact. Reynolds wants to maintain Penn traditions, but also start new programs and initiatives within the student body.
One of the challenges of being president is the expectation to bring together a group of students with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Reynolds hopes to work with some of the many cultural groups at Penn to create events that appeal to students who identify with different cultural backgrounds.
Another goal is to bring greater awareness to mental health. Reynolds is passionate about making an impact. She hopes to make Penn a less stressful environment, but realizes that most mental health problems are deeper than that.
To read more, go to: http://www.thedp.com/article/2016/04/makayla-reynolds-first-black-class-president?utm_content=buffer2d1e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Before Oprah Winfrey and Madame C.J. Walker, there was Annie Turnbo Malone (aka Annie Minerva Turnbo Pope Malone and Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone), an African American entrepreneur and philanthropist during the early 20th century.
Malone is recorded as the U.S.’s first Black woman millionaire based on reports of $14 million in assets held in 1920 from her beauty and cosmetic enterprises, headquartered in St. Louis and Chicago.
On August 9, 1869, Robert Turnbo and Isabella Cook became parents to Annie in Metropolis, Illinois. Annie attended school in Illinois where she apprentenced with her sister as a hairdresser. By 1889, Malone had developed her own scalp and hair products that she demonstrated and sold from a buggy throughout Illinois.
By 1902, Malone’s business growth led her to St. Louis, Missouri, which at the time held the fourth largest population of African Americans. In St. Louis she copyrighted her Poro brand beauty products. In 1914, in a St. Louis wedding, Malone married the school principal Aaron Eugene Malon.
By 1917, Malone opened the doors of Poro College, a beauty college which was later attended by Madam C.J. Walker. The school reportedly graduated about 75,000 agents world-wide, including the Caribbean. By 1930, the first full year of the Great Depression, Malone had moved from Missouri after divorcing her second husband and settled on Chicago’s South Side.
To read more, go to: Black History Heroes: Annie Turnbo Malone: A Black Philanthropist and Entrepreneur
article by qwest7 via eurweb.com
This year’s graduating class at the Indiana University School of Education will be noted for making history as eight African-American women from the class are candidates to receive their PhD’s in Education together.
Demetrees Hutchins, Nadrea Njoku, Jasmine Haywood, Johari Shuck, Tiffany Kyser, Jada A. Phelps-Moultrie, Juhanna N. Rogers and Shannon McCullough, known as “the great eight,” weighed in on the achievement in an interview with Fox 59. The station noted that the weight of the moment hit the ladies after beginning the education program when they realized that not many women of color had come before them or at least not at the same time.
“We understood very early on that we had a distinction, a commonality, a thread between all of us and so we began to meet as a group,” PhD candidate Nadrea Njoku told Fox 59.
Although they were on different paths at different times, but the women unified in cheering each other on in a field that sees less than two percent of African-American women. The group will walk across the stage in May to get their well-deserved degrees.
“We often deal with this idea that we always have to do more. And our collective black female community here we were able to tell each other you’re enough,” said PhD candidate Jasmine Haywood.
As things got tough, the great eight found themselves leaning on them each other to stay sane. “We really value the fact that we need each other to deal with emotional expression,” PhD candidate Johari Shuck shared with Fox 59.
Despite their collective accomplishment, the group admits that some anxiety can come with the being singled out often, which can become burden. “When you’re the only or one of a handful of people of color in the classroom particularly when it comes to speaking about issues of race. You can often become the token or spokesperson,” Haywood said.
Overall, the great eight wants to send a message that the bond they have isn’t just about them. It’s for all groups who share the same feelings. “Standing in solidarity with each other as women and as black women but also opening up a space where we’re standing in solidarity with other historically underrepresented marginalized groups in the university,” PhD candidate Tiffany Kyser explained.
As for all the attention they’ve received for their journey to making history with receiving their PhD’s together, the ladies state they ere surprised by it all as they look toward the future where other women of color can flourish after them. Coming up for the group is a scheduled meeting with school leadership to discuss ways to make the school of education more inclusive, with plans to discuss mentor programs and recruitment efforts.
In addition, the group will spend this summer defending their dissertations. “If we get more images of showing us in these positive lights. Then we can truly say this is nothing special because it happens all the time. So until we get to that point we’ll be the great eight and we’ll shine that light on it,” said PhD candidate Demetrees Hutchins.
To see video of this story, go to: http://www.eurweb.com/2016/04/eight-black-women-make-history-receiving-phds-together/
article via clutchmagonline.com
Melonie Wright had tons of obstacles set up against her when she was younger. As a child in school, she was considered a special education student. Then in her adult life, she was faced with getting pregnant at a young age, and was also homeless. But that didn’t stop Melonie from achieving her goals. Next month, Melonie will graduate from Emory University Law School!
Source: Yes She Can: Woman Who Was Considered “Special Ed” Graduates from Law School – Clutch Magazine
article by Angela Bronner Helm via theroot.com
Morris Brown College, which has in recent years fallen on some hard times, seems to be back on the mend with a three-year, $900,000 grant to stem HIV/AIDS infections among young black adults, reports HBCU Digest.
Morris Brown College, which has in recent years fallen on some hard times, seems to be back on the mend with a three-year, $900,000 grant to stem HIV/AIDS infections among young black adults, reports HBCU Digest.
The site reports that this is the second such award for the college in the last two years and the money will be used to launch seminar-styled education sessions on campus, with a focus on substance abuse prevention among college-age youth to prevent risky sexual behaviors.
The grant is reportedly part of a national initiative launched by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration targeting HBCUs as service delivery partners in vulnerable areas.
Morris Brown, founded in 1816 as one of only a few historically black colleges and universities founded by African Americans, has served as a lead institution in the program since 2014 to help improve public health outcomes among youth in Fulton and Dekalb Counties.
Greater Atlanta has alarming rates of HIV infections and the state of Georgia ranks second among U.S. states in the rate of new HIV diagnoses. Only 73 percent of the people in the Atlanta metro area who have HIV know it, because not enough people are getting tested for the virus. (The national average is 87 percent.)
The program at Morris Brown hopes to reach more than 400 participants by 2017.
Read more at HBCU Digest.