December 22, 2024
POMONA, Calif. (AP) — Antron Brown became the first black auto-racing champion in any NHRA pro series when he won the Top Fuel title on Sunday at the season-ending event. Brown suffered minor burns to his hands when his engine popped in an opening-round loss during eliminations, then had to wait to celebrate his victory until the final, when teammate Tony Schumacher lost in a photo finish to Brandon Bernstein.
(Photo: Xavier University of Louisiana)Xavier University of Louisiana began its mission to educate Native American and Black students when St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament opened its doors in New Orleans on Nov. 11, 1915. After seeing the lack of Catholic schools for higher education that catered to Blacks in the South, Drexel used her inheritance to open the institution. It started as a small high school, and later became known as Xavier Prep A. Normal School. The school taught the few career fields open to Blacks at the time and grew into an institution that taught 47 major areas on the undergraduate, graduate and professional degree levels. The co-ed liberal arts college remains the only historically black Roman Catholic college in the country.
article by Dorkys Ramos via bet.com
BALTIMORE — In a fall art season distinguished, so far, largely by a bland, no-brainer diet served up by Manhattan’s major museums, you have to hit the road for grittier fare. And the Walters Art Museum here is not too far to go to find it in a high-fiber, convention-rattling show with the unglamorous title of “Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe.”
Visually the exhibition is a gift, with marvelous things by artists familiar and revered — Dürer, Rubens, Veronese — along with images most of us never knew existed. Together they map a history of art, politics and race that scholars have begun to pay attention to — notably through “The Image of the Black in Western Art,” a multi-volume book project edited by David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr. — but that few museums have addressed in full-dress style.
(Via Pasadena Star News) – Jackie Lacey made history Tuesday night, becoming the first African-American and first female chief prosecutor of Los Angeles County.Lacey, the chief deputy district attorney, won with a substantial lead over Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson Tuesday in the race to succeed Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley. By midnight, Lacey had all but officially declared victory and packed up her election night party at Union Station downtown. As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, with 95 percent of precincts reporting, Lacey had 55 percent of the vote, to Jackson’s 45 percent.
President Barack Obama has been re-elected to the Presidency of the United States tonight, defeating opponent Mitt Romney, 275 electoral votes to 203. The final tally on the popular vote still hasn’t been verified, but with 60% of the ballots counted, Mitt Romney leads 50% to 49% in that measure. More on this momentous victory as it comes.
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis plans to open the balcony where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to the public.
The museum was built around and includes the old Lorraine Motel, where King was checked in when he was assassinated in 1968. Visitors had been able to see the balcony where King was shot but couldn’t stand on it.
The museum’s main building will close at the end of the day Monday for renovations. Officials hope to open the balcony to the public on Nov. 19, and they’re installing a lift for disabled visitors.
A museum annex that includes the boardinghouse from which James Earl Ray shot at King also will be open during the renovation.
Read more at http://www.eurweb.com/2012/11/museum-to-open-balcony-where-mlk-was-assassinated/#xxt2qiuo4DerXQ3q.99
Brazil’s thriving African cultureRio de Janeiro (CNN) — From samba and carnival to food, music and religion, African culture is everywhere in Brazil. The cultural heritage stems from the estimated four million slaves who were brought to the country over a 300-year period, at least four times as many as to the United States. Brazil was the last country to abolish the slave trade in 1888. More than half of Brazilians now identify themselves as black or of mixed race, according to the latest census.
Rio de Janeiro now has the most famous carnival in the world, attracting an estimated 1.1 million visitors to the city this year and with 5.3 million people taking part in street parties, according to the English language newspaper The Rio Times.
Heritage Tourism Alliance of Montgomery County has committed to preserving the legacy of the church with a guide of African- American churches in the Washington D.C. area. Entitled “Community Cornerstones: A Selection of Historic African American Churches in Montgomery County, Maryland,” details the history of 21 historically African-American Montgomery churches. These churches, founded by free slaves, reflect the desire to create a new life after years of being in captivity and repeated violence. While most of the churches are still in use, three churches that are included in the guide are no longer standing.
Peggy Erickson, executive director of Heritage Montgomery, was inspired to create the guide after the tourism alliance filmed an Emmy Award-winning video on the Civil War last year. “This story needs to be told rather quickly because the congregations are vanishing and the people are growing old,” Ericksen told the Washington Post.
article by Brittney M. Walker via eurweb.com
History was made this past Tuesday (Oct. 16) when Judge Wilhelmina Wright was sworn in as the first African-American woman to serve on the state’s Supreme Court. Wright joins Justice Alan Page as the only two African-American Minnesota Supreme Court justices. Page was elected to the Court in 1992 by the votes of the state. Wright was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to fill the vacancy created with the stepping down of Justice Helen Meyer.
The University of Virginia recently installed a plaque in front of the University Chapel which honors Henry Martin.
Martin was born a slave in 1826. He was a free man when hired by the university in 1847 as a janitor and to ring the bell in the university’s Rotunda. He rang the bell at dawn and every hour for the remainder of the day. After a fire in the Rotunda, the bell was moved to the University chapel. All told, Martin was the university’s bell ringer from 1847 to 1909, a period of 62 years.
The plaque was sponsored by the IDEA Fund, a group founded to promoted diversity on campus. IDEA stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access.