Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “U.S.”

Obama Honors Three African-American Women with Presidential Citizen's Medal

By goodblacknews on February 8, 2013

Patience Lehrman; Janice Jackson; Pamela Green-Jackson
The Presidential Citizens Medal is the nation’s second-highest civilian honor. This year, three African Americans made the list of recipients, thanks to the serious and selfless work they do for their communities — from promoting childhood health to mentoring women and girls to helping immigrants live the American dream.  It’s always great to give back, but it must be even better when the White House notices. Each of them will receive the medal during a Feb. 15 ceremony. Meet the honorees:
Pamela Green-Jackson (Albany, Ga.)
Green-Jackson is the founder and CEO of the Youth Becoming Healthy project, a nonprofit organization committed to reducing the epidemic of childhood obesity through nutrition, fitness education and physical-activity programs. YBH was created in memory of Pamela Green-Jackson’s only brother, Bernard Green, who died in 2004 from obesity-related illnesses. YBH provides resources for wellness programs, both during and after school, for elementary and middle school students as well as a summer wellness camp where students learn about exercise and nutrition and can participate in martial arts, a walking club and dance programs.
Janice Jackson (Baltimore)
Jackson is the creator and program director of Women Embracing Abilities Now, or W.E.A.N., a nonprofit mentoring organization serving women with varying degrees of disabilities. She is also a professor at the University of Baltimore. Jackson has actively advocated on behalf of people with disabilities and currently sits on the board of directors for the League for People With Disabilities, the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics at the University of Baltimore and the Image Center of Maryland. She is also a member of the Community Advisory Council at the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities at Kennedy Krieger Institute and is a counselor at Kernan Rehabilitation Center. In addition, she founded two support groups: We Are Able People, or W.R.A.P.; and Women on Wheels & Walking, or W.O.W.W.
Patience Lehrman (Philadelphia)
Lehrman, an immigrant from Cameroon, is the national director of Project SHINE (Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders), an immigrant-integration initiative at the Intergenerational Center of Temple University.  SHINE partners with 18 institutions of higher learning, community-based organizations and county and city governments across the country. It also engages college students and older adults to provide language and health education, as well as citizenship and civic-participation lessons, to immigrant communities. Lehrman mentors inner-city high school students, provides free meals to low-income children in the summer and serves as an election official. She holds three master’s degrees from Temple University.
article by Jeneé Desmond-Harris via theroot.com

Alabama Legislation Proposing to Finally Exonerate Scottsboro Boys

By goodblacknews on February 5, 2013

scottsboro(3)MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — In 1931, Alabama wanted to execute the black Scottsboro Boys because two white women claimed they were gang-raped. Now, state officials are trying to exonerate them in a famous case from the segregated South that some consider the beginning of the modern civil rights movement.
Two Democratic and two Republican legislators unveiled proposals Monday for the legislative session starting Tuesday. A resolution labels the Scottsboro Boys as “victims of a series of gross injustice” and declares them exonerated. A companion bill gives the state parole board the power to issue posthumous pardons.
Republican Sen. Arthur Orr of Decatur said Alabama can’t change history, “but that does not that mean we should not take steps today to address things that we can here in the 21st century that might not have been as they should have been.”
Gov. Robert Bentley’s press secretary, Jennifer Ardis, said he supports the effort to pardon the Scottsboro Boys and believes “it’s time to right this wrong.”
Sheila Washington, founder of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center in Scottsboro, started organizing the effort after the museum opened in 2010.

Highway Marker in Kentucky Honors First African-American Civil War Recruits

By goodblacknews on February 4, 2013

Colored Re-Enactment RegimenThe First U.S. Colored Troops Recruits at Camp Nelson in Danville, Kentucky were honored at a dedication ceremony Monday. A historical highway marker was unveiled by re-enactors from the 12th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment from Camp Nelson for the men.

On May 23, 1864, nearly 150 African-American men, mostly slaves, left Boyle County to march to Jessamine County to enlist in the Union Army. On the way, people from Danville threw stones, and shot pistols at the recruits. When they reached Camp Nelson, they were initially turned away by Union Col. Andew Clark because there was no policy for the recruitment of slaves. 

The men were accepted into the Army, which prompted a Union policy change allowing able-bodied African American men into the service. More than 5,000 U.S. colored troops were eventually recruited at Camp Nelson.  To see a video of the dedication, click the link below:
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/3927877?wpid=11176

Rosa Parks' Stamp on American History

By goodblacknews on February 4, 2013

George Bridges/Getty Images
Today, to honor the Feb. 4 centennial of the birth of Rosa Parks, the United States Postal Service has issued a Rosa Parks stamp. Last year, a stone carving of Parks was added to the National Cathedral. In 2005, she became the first woman and second African American to lie in honor in the nation’s Capitol and, through a special act of Congress, a statue of her was ordered placed in the Capitol.
Yet these tributes to Rosa Parks rest on a narrow and distorted vision of her legacy. As the story goes, a quiet Montgomery, Ala., seamstress with a single act challenged Southern segregation, catapulted a young Martin Luther King Jr. into national leadership and ushered in the modern civil rights movement. Parks’ memorialization promotes an improbable children’s story of social change — one not-angry woman sat down, the country was galvanized and structural racism was vanquished.
This fable diminishes the extensive history of collective action against racial injustice and underestimates the widespread opposition to the black freedom movement, which for decades treated Parks’ political activities as “un-American.” Most important, it skips over the enduring scourge of racial inequality in American society — a reality that Parks continued to highlight and challenge — and serves contemporary political interests that treat racial injustice as a thing of the past.

The 13th National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Is February 7

By goodblacknews on February 2, 2013

NBHAAD_2013_Postcard_FRONTObserved each year for the past thirteen years on February 7, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD) is a day to promote HIV testing and raise awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS in the Black community, one of the communities hardest hit by the disease. This year’s NBHAAD theme, “I am my brother/sister’s keeper: Fight HIV/AIDS,” reminds us that to effectuate change in any movement, we must work together for the collective good and sometimes this work requires us to put up a good fight.
More than any other racial/ethnic minority group, the Black community, and Black gay men in particular, continue to be disproportionately affected by this disease. In young, Black gay men, the numbers are especially staggering with approximately 1 in 4 new HIV infections occurring among this group according to the CDC.
There are four specific focal points of NBHAAD: education, testing, involvement, and treatment. Educationally, the focus is to get Blacks educated about the basics of HIV/AIDS in their local communities. Testing is at the core of this initiative, as it is hoped that Blacks will mark February 7 of every year as their annual or bi-annual day to get tested for HIV. This is vital for those who are sexually active and those at high risk of contracting HIV. When it comes to community and organization leadership, getting Blacks involved to serve is another key focus. Black people from all walks of life, economic classes, literacy levels, shades and tones as well as communities (large and small) need to get connected to the work happening on the ground in their local areas. And lastly, for those living with HIV or newly testing positive for the virus, getting them treatment and care services becomes paramount. 
To find a testing location close to you, go to http://hivtest.cdc.gov

African-American Chosen as Miami-Dade’s Most Senior Police Officer

By goodblacknews on February 1, 2013
J.D. Patterson, Jr.
J.D. Patterson, Jr.

MIAMI – An African-American has been selected to lead the Miami-Dade Police Department. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez made a formal announcement Friday morning during a press conference.

The new director, J.D. Patterson Jr., was one of six candidates in the running for the county’s most senior cop. He has been the department’s acting head since November.
The mayor had whittled down the applicants to six possible successors following the early retirement of director Jim Loftus last October. All of the finalists came from within the department.
Patterson, a 28-year veteran of the department, has risen through the ranks from patrolman to assistant director and now this latest post as director. The 52-year-old has overseen a variety of units including auto theft, sexual batteries, and internal affairs.

Obama Makes National Black History Month Proclamation

By goodblacknews on January 31, 2013
 
 “In America, we share a dream that lies at the heart of our founding: that no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter how modest your beginnings or the circumstances of your birth, you can make it if you try. Yet, for many and for much of our Nation’s history, that dream has gone unfilled. For African-Americans, it was a dream denied until 150 years ago, when a great emancipator called for the end of slavery. It was a dream deferred less than 50 years ago, when a preacher spoke of justice and brotherhood from Lincoln’s memorial. This dream of equality and fairness has never come easily — but it has always been sustained by the belief that in America, change is possible. 
Today, because of that hope, coupled with the hard and painstaking labor of Americans sung and unsung, we live in a moment when the dream of equal opportunity is within reach for people of every color and creed. National African American History Month is a time to tell those stories of freedom won and honor the individuals who wrote them. We look back to the men and women who helped raise the pillars of democracy, even when the halls they built were not theirs to occupy. We trace generations of African-Americans, free and slave, who risked everything to realize their God-given rights. We listen to the echoes of speeches and struggle that made our Nation stronger, and we hear again the thousands who sat in, stood up, and called out for equal treatment under the law. And we see yesterday’s visionaries in tomorrow’s leaders, reminding us that while we have yet to reach the mountaintop, we cannot stop climbing. 
Today, Dr. King, President Lincoln, and other shapers of our American story proudly watch over our National Mall. But as we memorialize their extraordinary acts in statues and stone, let us not lose sight of the enduring truth that they were citizens first. They spoke and marched and toiled and bled shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary people who burned with the same hope for a brighter day. That legacy is shared; that spirit is American. And just as it guided us forward 150 years ago and 50 years ago, it guides us forward today. So let us honor those who came before by striving toward their example, and let us follow in their footsteps toward the better future that is ours to claim. 
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2013 as National African American History Month. I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.  IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.”

article via bet.com

William "Mo" Cowan Appointed to Fill John Kerry's US Senate Seat

By goodblacknews on January 30, 2013
William 'Mo' Cowan, speaks to the media after begin named interim U.S. Senator January 30, 2013 at the Statehouse in Boston, Massachusetts. Cowan, a senior advisor to Governor Deval Patrick, will fill the position until a successor can be named for the departing John Kerry, who was recently named Secretary of State. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

William ‘Mo’ Cowan, speaks to the media after begin named interim U.S. Senator January 30, 2013 at the Statehouse in Boston, Massachusetts. Cowan, a senior advisor to Governor Deval Patrick, will fill the position until a successor can be named for the departing John Kerry, who was recently named Secretary of State. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has appointed one of his senior advisers, Mo Cowan, as John Kerry’s interim replacement in the United States Senate, meaning that two African-Americans will serve in that chamber simultaneously for the first time ever.
Cowan is expected to serve in the Senate until June 25, when a special election will be held to replace Kerry, who was confirmed this week as secretary of state. The longtime Patrick adviser says he will not run for the seat himself, as Patrick had been looking to appoint a Democrat who would serve as a caretaker while others campaign to permanently replace Kerry.

Obama on Immigration Overhaul: "Now is the Time"

By goodblacknews on January 29, 2013

President Obama Speaks On Immigration Reform
President Obama Speaks On Immigration Reform

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Declaring “now is the time” to fix broken immigration laws, President Barack Obama today heralded a rare show of bipartisanship between the White House and Senate lawmakers on basic plans for putting millions of illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship, cracking down on businesses that employ people illegally and tightening security at the borders.

But both the White House and Senate proposals for tackling the complex and emotionally charged issue still lack key details. And potential roadblocks are already emerging over how to structure the road to citizenship and whether a bill would will same-sex couples — and that’s all before a Senate measure can be debated, approved and sent to the Republican-controlled House where opposition is likely to be stronger.

Boy Scouts of America Considering Retreat From No-Gays Policy

By goodblacknews on January 28, 2013

boy-scoutsNEW YORK (AP) — The Boys Scouts of America is considering a dramatic change in its controversial policy of excluding gays as leaders and youth members.
Under the change being considered, the different religious and civic groups that sponsor Scout units would be able to decide for themselves how to address the issue — either maintaining an exclusion of gays or opening up their membership.
The announcement of the possible change came Monday after years of protests over the policy — including petition campaigns that have prompted some corporations to suspend donations to the Boy Scouts.
Under the proposed change, said BSA spokesman Deron Smith, “the Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents.”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com