A Princeton dean and professor of literature and African American studies will lead Swarthmore College when the new academic year begins.
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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.
For the first time in its 75-year history, the Vulcan Society of Black Firefighters has elected a female president. Regina Wilson’s new role is the latest achievement for the pioneering firefighter from Brooklyn who joined the FDNY in 1999. “Being named president of such a wonderful organization is somewhat surreal,” Wilson, 45, told the Daily News on Friday.
A graduate of Tilden High School, Wilson joined the department as only its 12th African-American woman. It was a job she never imagined holding.
Wilson was working as an accountant at a utility company when she attended a job fair at the Javits Center. It was there that members of the Vulcan Society recruited her to join the FDNY. “I didn’t even think it was something that I could do,” Wilson said.
She’s now based out of Engine 219 in Park Slope and also works as an instructor at the Fire Academy on Randalls Island. “It’s a full circle experience for me,” said Wilson, of Crown Heights.
“I have the opportunity to help and to mold and nurture people that are trying to be firefighters.”
After 16 years in the department, Wilson said she’s finally seeing a concerted push to make it more inclusive.
“With the new administration, I, for the first time, feel hopeful,” Wilson said.
The FDNY, which was successfully sued by the Vulcan Society for discrimination last year, still has a long way to go.
Wilson remains one of only 10 African-African women on a force of more than 10,000 firefighters and officers, according to the Vulcan Society.
Former Vulcan Society President John Coombs hailed Wilson’s election as a historic moment for an organization dedicated to promoting diversity. “We stand for what we fight for, which is inclusion and diversity in the FDNY,” Coombs said.
article by Rich Schapiro via nydailynews.com
ABC News has tapped chief national correspondent Byron Pitts to replace Dan Abrams as one of “Nightline’s” three co-anchors.
Abrams will remain the Alphabet’s chief legal analyst, but ABC News president James Goldston said in a memo issued Thursday that Abrams intends to return to full-time work on his Abrams Media Network digital business. Pitts has been chief national correspondent since 2013.
“Byron is a truly passionate storyteller and deep thinker about the critical issues of our time, as his work from Soweto to Ferguson makes clear,” Goldston wrote.
article by Cynthia Littleton via Variety.com
Abrams will remain the Alphabet’s chief legal analyst, but ABC News president James Goldston said in a memo issued Thursday that Abrams intends to return to full-time work on his Abrams Media Network digital business. Pitts has been chief national correspondent since 2013.
“Byron is a truly passionate storyteller and deep thinker about the critical issues of our time, as his work from Soweto to Ferguson makes clear,” Goldston wrote.
article by Cynthia Littleton via Variety.com
An NYPD chief who made headlines when she was beaten by her husband is the new head of the Domestic Violence Unit, the Daily News has learned.
Deputy Chief Juanita Holmes, 50, was picked by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to replace Deputy Chief Kathleen O’Reilly, who was put in charge of Patrol Borough Manhattan North.
In 2011, Holmes was beaten by her husband on the front lawn of the home of an NYPD detective he accused her of having an affair with.
Holmes, who suffered broken ribs in the attack, told authorities her husband, retired Hempstead, L.I., Detective William Fowlkes, was mistaken. Fowlkes later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. An order of protection was also issued, but he avoided jail time under the condition he attend domestic violence classes.
Sources said the incident did not play much of a role in Bratton’s decision to transfer Holmes, a 27-year veteran.
“Does being a victim in a domestic incident give you perspective that might help?” one source asked. “Of course, but it’s not why she got the job.”
After the unseemly incident, some NYPD insiders predicted Holmes, then a deputy inspector, would not advance much further in her career. But she returned to her Brooklyn station house, the 81st Precinct, which she ran after her predecessor was transferred following corruption allegations by whistleblower Officer Adrian Schoolcraft.
While there, she testified on the city’s behalf during a civil trial over the NYPD’s controversial use of stop-and-frisk, which she said “can be used to deter a crime that’s about to happen.”
For a time, Holmes’ second-in-command at the 81st was Capt. Vanessa Knight. It’s believed to be the first time two black women ran an NYPD precinct. Holmes was subsequently promoted twice more and is now a deputy chief.
She took over the Domestic Violence Unit on Monday after a short stint as the No. 2 officer at the Training Bureau.
article by Rocco Parascandola via nydailynews.com
The American Legion has named Verna Jones its new executive director, making her the first woman to lead the veterans’ organization in its nearly 100-year history.Jones, an attorney and Army veteran who served as a personnel sergeant, stepped into her new role on Nov. 1. Legion spokesman Marty Callaghan said he believed that Jones is the organization’s first African-American executive director, but he couldn’t confirm it absolutely. Previously, she served as the director of the Legion’s veterans affairs and rehabilitation division.
“We’re still focused on the [Department of Veterans Affairs], the quality of health care, timeliness, the backlog, benefits — all the things that we’ve been focusing on, and the things that veterans need. Access to health care is huge for us,” Jones said in an interview with The Huffington Post in her new office.
Jones became the most animated when asked about sexual assault in the military, an issue that several members of the Legion, including Jones, have testified about before Congress. The organization has said the military needs to have a “zero tolerance policy” on the issue.
“To those people who may assault people, [we need to] let them know that we’re not going to stand for that, and there are some very serious consequences the first time,” said Jones. “So we’ve got to create programs, we’ve got to create awareness, and we have to be willing to say that military sexual trauma exists. Stop sweeping it under the rug and pretending it’s a small thing, because it’s not.
“There needs to be punishment,” she added. “Something punitive needs to happen. If you’re in the military and you sexually assault somebody, then you don’t need to be in the military anymore.”
According to Variety.com, NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” has added Leslie Jones, a member of its writing staff, to the cast. She’ll begin in this role as regular performer starting with this week’s Jim Carrey-hosted episode.
The comedian was a contender in the search for a new cast member of color last fall. The spot went to Sasheer Zamata, but producers decided to bring Jones on as a writer. Jones is the latest “SNL” cast member to be plucked from the writing staff. Michael Che, the new Weekend Update co-anchor, was also upped from his spot as a writer earlier this season.
Jones has appeared several times on SNL’s Weekend Update segment, including one in the 40th season premiere, proving her onscreen chops. She also starred in her own comedy special, “Problem Child,” for Showtime.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
Jones has appeared several times on SNL’s Weekend Update segment, including one in the 40th season premiere, proving her onscreen chops. She also starred in her own comedy special, “Problem Child,” for Showtime.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
J. C. Penney on Monday named a Home Depot executive, Marvin Ellison, as president and as its next chief executive, tapping a seasoned retail hand as it struggles to assure investors that a nascent turnaround after two years of heavy losses will be lasting.
Mr. Ellison, currently executive vice president for stores at Home Depot, will join Penney on Nov. 1 and will also be a board member, the company said. He will succeed Myron E. Ullman III as chief executive on Aug. 1, 2015, when Mr. Ullman will become executive chairman for one year — a carefully coordinated handover that appeared to stress stability and continuity after a rocky succession at the retailer last year.
Penney’s losses have slowed under Mr. Ullman. But Mr. Ellison, 49, is now charged with expanding the retailer’s business — a tough task in a market under siege by “fast fashion” juggernauts like H&M and Forever 21 and online retailers, as well as reinvigorated rivals like Macy’s and T.J. Maxx.
Mr. Ellison’s background suggests he will start with the fundamentals. An operations expert who oversaw Home Depot’s 2,200 stores in the United States, Mr. Ellison led a largely successful bid to cut costs and raise store productivity at Home Depot, analysts noted. Before his 12-year tenure there, Mr. Ellison served for 15 years in various positions at Target.
“Over the course of his career, he has proven his ability to produce results by improving operations, building customer loyalty, and motivating his teams,” Mr. Ullman said of Mr. Ellison in a news release. For his part, Mr. Ellison said that Penney was “moving in the right direction” and that as chief executive he would focus “on positioning the company to compete in a rapidly changing retail environment.”
Penney has been trying to chart a growth path by undoing many of the changes introduced by its former chief, Ron Johnson, who was hired from Apple to try to inject pizazz into the 112-year-old Penney. When his turnaround bid — built on a strategy that stressed designer boutiques and fewer discounts — backfired, and saddled Penney with heavy losses, the company abruptly fired Mr. Johnson and brought back Mr. Ullman, who had led the chain from 2004 to 2011.
The New York City Fire Department promoted a black woman to the rank of lieutenant for the first time in 12 years. Tracey Lewis was promoted Wednesday. She’s the second-ever black female firefighter to be promoted to lieutenant in the department’s history.
Lewis has been a firefighter for 17 years, starting off as a cadet. She was an emergency medical technician and later worked on Engine 222 in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn.
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There are only nine black women firefighters at the FDNY. There are about 40 women total at the department of nearly 10,400 people. The department said it has promoted three women to lieutenant and one to captain this year.
Ella McNair was the first black woman promoted to rank of lieutenant in 2002.
article via nbcnewyork.com