May 10, 2026
The University of Arizona has announced that it has created a “Hip-Hop Concentration” minor under the Africana Studies department, the first of its kind for any institution, according to the school’s website.
The course’s objectives are to “provide students with a solid introduction and broad understanding of the origins and developing of the forms of expression that make up hip-hop culture throughout the world: hip-hop dance, rap music, graffiti/tagging, fashion, business, and film.
Earlier this month Olaolu Ogunyemi graduated from Grambling State University in Louisiana. He also was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. He is the first Grambling student to receive a Marine Corps commission in nearly 40 years. Grambling State University does not have a Marine ROTC program, so Lt. Ogunyemi had to navigate the program on his own.
Ogunyemi is a native of Simsboro, Louisiana. His father is director of institutional research at Grambling and his mother is the acting chair of the department of educational leadership at the university.
Ogunyemi will now report for additional Marine Corps training in Quantico, Virginia.
article via jbhe.com
In December 2012, Polite Stewart Jr. earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While a very small percentage of bachelor’s degree awards in physics go to African Americans, Stewart’s achievement is all the more remarkable given that he is only 18 years old.
Stewart got offers from colleges and universities across the country but decided to attend college near his home, about 10 miles from the Southern University campus. When he was high school age, Stewart took college-level classes at Southern University’s Timbuktu Academy. He had been home schooled.
During college he conducted summer research at North Carolina State University. He plans to start graduate school in the fall and pursue a career in biological and physics engineering.
article via jbhe.com
Philanthropists Joanna and Daniel Rose have donated funds to Yale University to create the Henry Louis Gates Jr. Lectures. Professor Gates is a 1973 alumnus of Yale and currently serves as Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and is director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
The first Henry Louis Gates Jr. Lecture was delivered by Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Laurence S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, and a close friend of professor Gates. Speaking at the inaugural event, Dr. Gates stated, “It is difficult for me to think of a greater honor in the life of a Yale alumnus than to have one’s alma mater create a lecture in one’s name.”
article via jbhe.com
Remember how good you felt when Black History Month rolled around and you finally got to learn and talk about significant African American historical figures in school? Well, according to new research published in the Journal of Child Development, affirming a black child’s desire to learn about their race does more than just give them a personal boost, it helps them academically as well.
The study, conducted by Ming-Te Wang and James P. Huguley of the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University respectively, found that “racial socialization”—teaching kids about their culture and involving them in activities that promote racial pride and connection—helps to offset the discrimination and racial prejudices children face by the outside world.
Olivia Stinson, a sophomore at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina was recognized as a 2012 L’Oreal Paris International Woman of Worth. Stinson, a business administration major from Charlotte, was honored for creating the Peers Engaged and Networking (PEN) Pals Book Club for the children of incarcerated parents. At age 13, Stinson used a $500 grant to start the project for children aged 12 to 19. The PEN Pals Book Club has evolved into a full support group for the children of parents who are in prison. She has now added a Be a Reader (BEAR) Book club for children aged 2 to 11. The clubs now not only provide books and other school supplies, but also food and other support. Since the program was established, more than 4,000 children have received benefits from the program.
For winning the Woman of Worth distinction, Stinson’s book clubs will receive a $10,000 contribution from L’Oreal Paris. To learn more, check out Stinson’s Huffington Post blog here.
article via jbhe.com
Linza Ford (pictured), a 19-year-old Brooklynite who had to drop out of college and work to help her family makes ends meet, won a $1 million jackpot this week, the New York Daily News reports. She was one of ten New Yorkers who won a share of $13 million in winnings.
Ford had just finished her freshman year at Hofstra University when her father had to go on disability, forcing her family to make tough choices. “I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “That’s one of the colleges I really wanted to go to. I was sobbing.”
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.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington for Civil Rights were 100 years apart, but both changed the nation and expanded freedoms.
Beginning Friday, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is presenting a walk back in time through two eras. A new exhibit, “Changing America,” parallels the 1863 emancipation of slaves with the 1963 March on Washington.
Brittney Exline is special, very special. She’s the Michael Jordan of intellectuals, and getting the attention that she deserves. Brittney has been named, according to Ebony.com and other sources, to be the young black engineer in the entire United States. At 19 years old, the University of Pennsylvania grad has achieved more than most will achieve in their lifetime.
In addition to being an extraordinary engineer, Brittney also speaks five languages. She graduated with minors in five different fields, including Math, Psychology and Classical Studies. She has worked on Wall Street and also participated in numerous beauty pageants.