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National Society of Black Engineers Supports and Promotes Next Generation of STEM Hopefuls at 41st Annual Convention

By goodblacknews on March 27, 2015
NSBE Convention Attendees (Photo Courtesy Christina Sykes)
NSBE Convention Attendees (Photo Courtesy Christina Sykes)

The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), an organization that seeks to increase the number of black engineering professionals, is currently holding its annual convention in Anaheim, California through March 29.  The 41st Annual Convention is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center and neighboring facilities, and is expected to draw more than 8,000 attendees.

NSBE’s largest event, the Annual Convention has been a turning point in the lives of countless black college and pre-college students over the past four decades. The convention showcases black students and professionals who have a passion for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), who are high-achievers in these fields and who are channeling their passion to advance their communities and society at large.
NSBE’s members will be joined by local leaders and celebrities such as Devon Franklin and Laz Alonzo, in activities and events spotlighting the next phase of engineering and centered on the conference theme: “Innovation & Excellence: Reimagining Your Future.”

NSBE
NSBE 41st Convention Attendees (Photo: nsbe.org)

As the convention prepares to get underway, the Society’s executive director says NSBE’s chief focus is achieving one goal of its new strategic plan: to graduate 10,000 black engineers with bachelor’s degrees, annually, by the year 2025.
“We view our Annual Convention as a time to show the world what excellence in engineering looks like,” says Karl W. Reid, Ed.D.  “As we continue to advance NSBE’s mission to increase the number of black engineers, we are also focusing on making engineering the career of choice for many more black children around the world.  We are committed to reimagining our children’s futures.”
Sossena Wood, a Ph.D. student in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, is NSBE’s national chair, the organization’s top-ranking officer.
“NSBE’s Annual Convention has been a big part of my personal development,” she says. “Six years ago, in Las Vegas,  as a first-time member of the NSBE Senate, I was actively involved in deciding what path the Society would take in the coming year. Now, as we prepare for our convention in Anaheim, I have come full circle, as I share with the Senate the path the Society should take until 2025.”

Five Years Ago Today: Good Black News was Founded

By goodblacknews on March 18, 2015

copy-gbnthumbnail.jpegGOOD BLACK NEWS proudly celebrates its fifth anniversary today, with 8,941 Facebook followers, 5,073 Twitter followers, 3,938 Tumblr followers, 1,043 via Pinterest, and thousands more via Instagram, Google+, YouTube, WordPress, our RSS feed, and LinkedIn.  Although initially launched on March 18, 2010 as a Facebook page (read the detailed story behind GBN’s creation here), in September 2012, GBN created this dedicated website, goodblacknews.org, which has allowed us to expand our presence on the internet and provide archives and search functions to you, our loyal readers.
In the past year, we were greatly honored to be featured on NewsOne’s list of the 15 Most Share-Worthy Black Blogs and Sites of 2014. GBN also successfully managed our first-ever giveaway contest, and will most definitely offer more in the coming months. The outpour of appreciation you’ve shown us via likes, comments, shares, reblogs and e-mails means the world to us, and only inspires GBN to keep getting bigger and better and create more original content.
Good Black News remains a labor of love for our Founder/Editor-In-Chief (Lori Lakin Hutcherson) and Lifestyle/Fashion Editor (Lesa Lakin), and we must gratefully acknowledge this year’s contributors (Susan Cartsonis, Julie Bibb Davis, Ashanti Hutcherson, Warren Hutcherson, Brenda Lakin, John Levinson, Jeff Meier, Minsun Park, Gabriel Ryder, Terry Samwick, power stringer Becky Schonbrun, Teddy Tenenbaum, Arro Verse, Joshua A.S. Young, and venture capitalist/business advisor Darryl Wash), who are all unpaid volunteers, and deeply, greatly appreciated.
We’d also like to shout out a few of our power users across the web:  Thank you to Ms. Charmian Neary (@CharmianNeary) for being our top Twitter follower and contributor, Heidi Durrow (@mixedremixed) for the most Twitter mentions of @goodblacknews, Mr. Militant Negro at theobamacrat.com for being our number-one reblogger, and to Mrs. Shawna B. (MrsShawnaB) for being our most prolific repinner on Pinterest.  Your active interest and sharing mean everything!
Please continue to help us spread GBN by sharing, liking, re-tweeting and commenting, and consider joining our e-mail list via our “Contact Us” tab on goodblacknews.org.  We will only use this list to keep you updated on GBN and send you our upcoming e-newsletter — nothing else. And, of course, you may opt out at any time.
GBN believes in bringing you positive news, reviews and stories of interest about black people all over the world, and greatly value your participation in continuing to build our shared vision.
Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to providing you with more Good Black News in the coming year, and beyond!
Warmly,
The Good Black News Team

Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Founder/Editor-In-Chief
Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Founder/Editor-In-Chief

by Lesa Lakin
Lesa Lakin, GBN Lifestyle/Fashion Editor

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity to Announce Plan to Combat Racial Intolerance

By goodblacknews on March 18, 2015
CHICAGO (AP) — A fraternity under scrutiny because of a racist chant caught on video plans to announce an extensive review of its chapters around the country.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity said it will unveil Wednesday what it calls a “national plan to combat racial intolerance.” The Evanston, Illinois-based organization is holding a news conference in Chicago to announce its plans to eliminate insensitivity among its members.
The fraternity is responding to a video that surfaced last week. It showed University of Oklahoma fraternity members engaging in a racist chant that referenced lynching and indicated that black students never would be admitted to that university’s chapter.
SAE has disbanded the local chapter for the video. The university has expelled two students and banned SAE. Two students identified in the video have apologized publicly.
article via blackamericaweb.com

Duke University Debuts Website Documenting SNCC & the Voting Rights Struggle

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2015

Vq1ywrurDuke University in Durham, North Carolina, has just debuted a new website documenting the struggle of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to secure voting rights for African Americans. The site, entitled “One Person, One Vote: The Legacy of the SNCC and the Fight for Voting Rights,” went live one week before the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights march in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965.
Students and faculty at Duke University worked with veterans of SNCC and other civil rights leaders to develop the website. The site includes a timeline, profiles of the key figures in the struggle to secure voting rights, and stories relating to the struggle.
5193ppoofzL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Wesley Hogan, the director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and the author of Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC’s Dream for a New America (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), stated that “this is an enormous achievement, to find ways to bring these experts who were so central to the voting rights struggle, into the formal historical record through their own words and on their own terms. The project comes at a moment when our nation is both commemorating key victories of the civil rights movement and seeing those victories challenged by new restrictive voting laws in many states.”
 
[vimeo 87707071 w=500 h=281]
article via jbhe.com

Talib Kweli’s Action Support Committee Raises Over $100,000 For Ferguson Activists

By lorilakinhutcherson on February 17, 2015

Talib Kweli Rare Portraits Gravitas
In the wake of former officer Darren Wilson’s shooting of Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown that left Brown dead and Wilson a free man, dozens of protestors and organizers took to the Missouri streets. Some were pepper sprayed and even arrested, and in the midst of the unrest, hip hop artist and activist Talib Kweli helped establish a The Action Support Committee. The Committee aimed to raise $25,000 and disperse the money in the form of grants to those in need. Kweli addressed the Committee’s goals via the following written statement:

These are young men and women who have put their lives on hold to stand up for all of our freedoms. The overly militarized police force in Ferguson has attempted to criminalize them by harassing and throwing them in jail for exercising their right to peaceful protest. We hope these funds help to empower.

Led by Kweli, Donna Dragotta, and Autumn Marie, the Committee’s GoFundMe campaign surpassed the $25,000 goal and raised $112,052 before the fundraising campaign ended in January. The first $48,800 funding phase will be distributed as follows:
Jail & Bail Fund ($35,000), Artists as Tutors ($2,000), Revolutionary Reading Program ($2,000), Tech Impact Initiative ($2,000), Latino youth leadership program Juventud Raza Unida ($2,000), The Transitional Housing Program ($2,000) and Bereavement Fund ($3,800).
Additional funds are scheduled to be distributed to the Action Support Committee’s Revolution School and programs “committed to sustaining the recent momentum of social justice organizing.”
article by Omar Burgess via elev8.hellobeautiful.com

Sly Stone Wins $5 Million Verdict in Lawsuit Against Former Manager and Attorney

By goodblacknews on January 28, 2015
Sly Stone Wins $5 Million Verdict
Sly Stone (TIM MOSENFELDER/GETTY IMAGES)

Legendary singer/songwriter Sly Stone has been awarded $5 million by a Los Angeles jury in his lawsuit against a former manager and attorney he claimed diverted royalties from his music for their own benefit.  The Los Angeles Superior Court announced its verdict on Tuesday, after two days of deliberations.
Stone’s litigation, filed under his real name Sylvester Stewart, involved millions of dollars in royalties and stretched over almost five years.
He filed suit in 2010, claiming that manager Gerald Goldstein and attorney Glenn Stone in the late 1980s induced him to sign an employment and shareholder agreement with Even Street Prods., but that they instead used the arrangement to divert millions in royalties, leaving him unable to get the money he said was due him.
The jury awarded $2.5 million in damages against Even St. Productions, $2.45 million against Goldstein and $50,000 against attorney Glenn Stone.
“It was a classic case of Hollywood accounting, but I guess it would have to be called record industry accounting,” said Nick Hornberger of Hornberger Law Corp., the lead attorney for the singer.
The jury, he said, “sent a very clear message.”
Gregory Bodell of Kozberg & Bodell, lead attorney for the defendants, said via e-mail that the jury found that Sly Stone was underpaid by $2.5 million under the employment agreement with Even St. Prods., and that the money was paid instead to Goldstein and Stone.
“We are disappointed in the finding and believe it will be changed by further proceedings,” Bodell said.
Stone, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, testified that he had not received any royalty payments between 1989 and 2000.
But attorneys for Goldstein and Glenn Stone contended that the singer was paid millions, but broke an agreement to make new records. They claim that the singer was not tricked into signing the contract, but was aware of the terms and renewed the agreement 40 times over 15 years between 1994 and 2006.
article by Ted Johnson via Variety.com

Loretta Lynch’s #DeltaSigmaTheta Sorority Sisters Came to Support Her Attorney General Confirmation Hearing

By goodblacknews on January 28, 2015

Loretta Lynch Howard Sorority Sisters
Congresswoman Alma S. Adams posted this photo on Jan. 28, 2014. “Supporting Greensboro native, Loretta Lynch, in her confirmation hearing for U.S. Attorney General. #NC12” Alma S. Adams (@RepAdams) via Twitter

Women of the storied African-American sorority Delta Sigma Theta flooded a Senate hearing room on Wednesday to support their fellow sorority sister and Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch.
Lynch, who is set to face a tough hearing for the post, started a chapter of the sorority at Harvard with current Attorney General Eric Holder’s wife, Sharon Malone. Though the connection was seen as controversial to members of the right-wing media, her sorority sisters proudly donned the organization’s signature colors—crimson and cream—in the hearing room.
https://twitter.com/RepBeatty/status/560457534004531200/photo/1
The sorority was founded in 1913 at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University on tenets of empowerment, justice, and community service. Several current and former members of Congress are members, including Reps. Joyce Beatty and Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Rep. Yvette Clark of New York, and former Congresswomen Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm.