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American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault to Join Facebook, 1st African-American to Sit on FB's Board of Directors

By goodblacknews on January 18, 2018
NEW YORK, NY: Kenneth I. Chenault speaks onstage at The New York Times 2017 DealBook Conference at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 9, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times)

by , via usatoday.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has named one of the nation’s most prominent black corporate leaders, American Express‘ Kenneth Chenault, to its board of directors.

The appointment, which gives the social media giant the guidance of a highly regarded finance executive and the first black director on its all-white board, was the culmination of years of recruitment efforts, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. “I’ve been trying to recruit Ken for years. He has unique expertise in areas I believe Facebook needs to learn and improve — customer service, direct commerce, and building a trusted brand,”  Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Ken also has a strong sense of social mission and the perspective that comes from running an important public company for decades.”

Chenault announced in October that he would retire as chairman and CEO of American Express on Feb. 1, capping a 16-year run.

Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg told the Congressional Black Caucus in October that the social media giant was in talks to bring aboard its first black board member but she did not disclose the person’s identity.

The striking lack of people of color in the executive suite and on the boards of Silicon Valley companies won’t come as a culture shock to Chenault, one of the longest-serving black CEOs of a major U.S. corporation and a veteran of an industry dominated by white men in its top management ranks. The appointment to the Facebook board, effective Feb. 5, comes after years of lobbying by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson to add people of color to the company’s directors.

Diversity remains a top challenge for Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies that are mostly staffed by white and Asian men. Top universities turn out black and Hispanic computer science and computer engineering graduates at twice the rate that leading technology companies hire them, USA TODAY research showed.

Minorities are also sharply underrepresented in non-technical jobs such as sales and administration, with African Americans faring noticeably worse than Hispanics, according to USA TODAY analysis of the employment records of Facebook, Google and Yahoo in 2014.

Women now make up 35% of Facebook’s global workforce, up from 33%, and hold 19% of technical roles, up from 17%, the Menlo Park, Calif. company said last year.

In the U.S., Facebook has brought aboard more people of color. Three percent of Facebook workers are African American, up from 2%, and 5% of them are Hispanic, up from 4%.

But Facebook fell short where the lack of diversity is most acute, in the proportion of African-American and Hispanic workers in technical roles, which has stayed flat at 1% and 3% respectively since 2014. The percentage of African Americans and Hispanics in senior leadership positions at Facebook has also remained largely unchanged.

Chenault was the second black Fortune 500 CEO to announce plans to step down in 2017, along with Xerox Corp.’s Ursula Burns. Less than 5% of the 200 largest U.S. companies are led by African Americans, according to a 2016 report from recruitment firm Spencer Stuart.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Chenault, 66, has been with American Express since 1981. He serves on the boards of IBM, Procter & Gamble and non-profit groups including the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. He’s also a philanthropist who took a lead role in raising money for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

When Chenault announced he was stepping down from American Express, Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is the largest AmEx shareholder, said in a statement that he was the “gold standard for corporate leadership and the benchmark that I measure others against.”

To read full article, go to: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/01/18/facebook-names-american-express-ceo-kenneth-chenault-first-african-american-all-white-board/1043015001/

Tiffany Haddish's Hilarious Groupon Story Lands Her Spokesperson Gig and Super Bowl Ad

By goodblacknews on January 18, 2018
Tiffany Haddish announces she is new spokesperson for Groupon (image via youtube.com)

by Natasha Bach via fortune.com

Tiffany Haddish’s love for Groupon is sending her to the Super Bowl. The Girls Trip actress went viral last summer, when she told Jimmy Kimmel a story about taking co-star Jada Pinkett-Smith and husband Will Smith on a Groupon swamp tour while filming in New Orleans (watch below).

The hilarious re-telling, which included the revelation that the Smiths had no idea what Groupon was, apparently spread quickly through the ranks of the discount e-commerce site. The company decided that they wanted to work with the actress and offered her a role as spokesperson. Now, she’ll be featured in a series of ads for the company, including its first Super Bowl commercial in seven years, which will air during the fourth quarter of the game.
According to Groupon’s head of marketing for North America, Jon Wild, when the company looked into Haddish, they not only found that the actress is a bonafide fan of its service, but that she is actually in the top 1% of most frequent purchasers. “She knows our product better than a lot of Groupon employees,” Wild said. “She could name what she’d done, the experience she had and how much she’d saved.”
https://youtu.be/ewNEBVwZuxw
That expertise not only landed Haddish the spokesperson gig, but also effectively made her an honorary employee. Groupon has also given Haddish her own section of the site, given her access to the employee app, and “put some Groupon bucks in her account.”
Source: http://fortune.com/2018/01/16/tiffany-haddish-super-bowl-ad-groupon/

African American Heritage Commission of South Carolina Launches New 'Green Book,' Names State's Top Black History Sites

By goodblacknews on January 16, 2018

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The African-American History Monument on grounds of Statehouse in Columbia, SC (photo via postandcourier.com)

by Adam Parker via postandcourier.com
Many — perhaps most — African Americans can trace family roots back to Charleston. About 40 percent of enslaved Africans brought to North America arrived on ships that docked in Charleston Harbor.
Slaves then were sold to plantation owners throughout the Antebellum South. During the “Great Migration,” about 6 million blacks moved from the South to the Northeast, Midwest and West between 1916 and 1970, chastened by the ghosts of their oppressed ancestors and motivated by the prospect of a better life.
On the cusp of the Civil War, the U.S. was home to 4 million slaves, 400,000 of whom lived in South Carolina. Their labor created enormous wealth for white rice and cotton planters, and it built whole cities, including Charleston.
Now, 50 years since the death of Martin Luther King Jr., the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission has named 10 top black history sites to visit in the state, including several associated with King and the civil rights movement. The commission also has compiled a much larger list of about 300 sites for its new online travel guide, Green Book of South Carolina (www.GreenBookofSC.com).
Dawn Dawson-House, an ex officio board member who works for the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, said the initiative is meant to raise awareness of black history and to assist the commission’s efforts to identify, preserve, mark and protect the state’s many sites connected to black history and heritage.
Black history sites abundant in Charleston
“In the past 24 years, more than 200 markers have been added to the official state markers program,” Dawson-House said. “When the commission started, there were only about 35 markers dedicated to black history.”
She said historical sites can be found throughout the state, and many local people know about the ones near them.
“No matter where you are in South Carolina, there is an important African-American heritage element or place to visit,” Dawson-House said. “But the entire story is not told collectively. It’s told in bits and pieces in everybody’s community. At the commission we’ve decided we have to pull together an entire portrait of this history.”
Michael Allen, a founding board member of the commission, said the Green Book — “a manifestation of out 24-year journey” meant to assist anyone interested in black history — is a reference to the Jim Crow-era guide that African Americans used when traveling through the South. The old guide provided information about black-owned businesses (gas stations, hotels, restaurants, hospitals) that were safe for black travelers during the period of legal segregation.
“When you went traveling some place, you cooked your food, packed your food, the food was in your car,” Allen said. “You planned visits according to where relatives lived, or drove straight to where you needed to be.”
The modern iteration of the Green Book, instead, is meant for everybody, Allen said. “We think this is a great opportunity to connect the community, the history, the legacy and the African American experience of South Carolinians and the traveling public,” he said.

"Girls Trip, "Get Out," "Black-ish," Garner Multiple Wins at 49th NAACP Image Awards

"Girls Trip, "Get Out," "Black-ish," Garner Multiple Wins at 49th NAACP Image Awards

By goodblacknews on January 16, 2018
The cast and crew of “black-ish” accepts award for outstanding comedy series at the 49th annual NAACP Image Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, in Pasadena, Calif. Pictured from left are Laurence Fishburne, Anthony Anderson, Jeff Mecham, Jenifer Lewis, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kenya Barris, Yara Shahidi, Miles Brown, Peter Mackenzie, Marsai Martin, and Marcus Scribner (Credit: Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/Shutterstock)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

The winners of the 49th NAACP Image Awards were announced last night during the live broadcast from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium which aired on TV One. The two-hour live special was hosted by Anthony Anderson and opened with a powerful moment in support of #TIMESUP featuring Angela Robinson, Kerry Washington, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Laverne Cox, Lena Waithe and Tracee Ellis Ross.

Ava DuVernay was honored as the NAACP Entertainer of the Year. NAACP Chairman Leon W. Russell presented the NAACP Chairman’s Award to William Lucy, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson presented the NAACP President’s Award to Danny Glover and several members of the Memphis Sanitation “I Am A Man” Workers were also in attendance – they were presented with the NAACP Vanguard Award earlier in the week during a press conference at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN.

Gap Band leader Charlie Wilson was honored with the Music Makes a Difference honor which is bestowed upon an individual within the recording industry who has achieved worthwhile success and inspiration for civic engagement, criminal justice, education, economic opportunity, or criminal justice.

“Girls Trip” triumphed as the winner in the Outstanding Motion Picture category, and picked up a second award for its breakout star Tiffany Haddish in the Supporting Actress category.

Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele‘s horror opus “Get Out” received three awards, including Best Actor honors for lead Daniel Kaluuya, and Best Director and Best Writing wins for Peele. “Black-ish” took home the award for best television series, while host Anderson won Best Actor, Tracee Ellis Ross repeated as Best Actress and Marsai Martin won for Best Supporting Actress in a TV series.
In recording, Bruno Mars took home awards for Outstanding Male Artist, Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album  and Outstanding Song – Traditional for “That’s What I Like.” Kendrick Lamar owned the Outstanding Album, Outstanding Song – Contemporary and Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration categories (the latter with Rihanna).

The winners of the 49th NAACP Image Awards in the non-televised categories were announced during a gala dinner celebration that took place Sunday, January 14, 2018, at the Pasadena Conference Center – the event was hosted by The Real’s Adrienne Houghton, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai and Tamera Mowry-Housley.

The NAACP Image Awards is the premiere multicultural awards show. It celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film, and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.

For all information and the latest news, please visit the official NAACP Image Awards website at: http://www.naacpimageawards.net.

Below are all of the winners for the 49th NAACP Image Awards:

MOTION PICTURE

Outstanding Motion Picture – “Girls Trip” (Universal Pictures)

Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture – Jordan Peele – “Get Out” (Universal Pictures)

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture – Daniel Kaluuya – “Get Out” (Universal Pictures)

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture – Octavia Spencer – “Gifted” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture – Idris Elba – “THOR: Ragnarok” (Marvel Studios)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture – Tiffany Haddish – “Girls Trip” (Universal Pictures)

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture – “Detroit” (Annapurna Pictures)

Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture – Jordan Peele – “Get Out” (Universal Pictures)

GBN Celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018 With Closer Look at Memorial in D.C.

GBN Celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018 With Closer Look at Memorial in D.C.

By goodblacknews on January 15, 2018


by Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Editor-in-Chief

In April of 2017, I had the good fortune to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture as part of a business trip. Once in Washington D.C. and at the National Mall, I was thrilled to learn that the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was only a ten-minute walk away, so after my work was done, I headed over. Photos don’t do it justice, but it is an awesome space, and one I’d encourage every American to visit it if ever in our nation’s capital.  It’s the quotes that strike you first – the aesthetic beauty of the words coming out of the granite, then the meaning, then the context of each one of them. Like the MLK we know publicly, it is equal parts solemn, potent, righteous and wise.
I’ve since read that the grounds of the Memorial, which opened to to the public on August 22, 2011, cover four acres and includes the Stone of Hope, a granite statue of Dr. King carved by sculptor Lei Yixin. The inspiration for the memorial design is a line from King’s “I Have A Dream” speech: “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”  In a word, it is formidable. MLK stands as a beacon of strength, hope and possibility, despite seemingly insurmountable challenges and inequity and injustice. Reflecting upon the man, his journey and his words is of course doable from anywhere in any space, but there is something incredibly special about being to do it where he is honored in the same area as other lauded architects of this country such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
There are fourteen quotes around the memorial – above are photos of the ones that I was able to get clear photos of before it started getting dark on my day. Enjoy and Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Philadelphia Museum of Art Acquires Quilts, Sculptures, and Other Works by African American Artists from the South

By goodblacknews on January 14, 2018
by Stephan Salisbury (@spsalisbury) via philly.com
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has acquired a significant group of works by self-taught African American artists, deepening the museum’s already rich holdings of so-called outsider artists and strengthening its overall collection of art by American people of color. The 24 works include three major assemblages by Thornton Dial, an iron and steel worker, pipe fitter, carpenter, and house painter who lived in Bessemer, Ala., near Birmingham.
Thornton Dial’s “The Old Water” (2004), one of the new acquisitions, (Estate of Thornton Dial/Artists Rights Society [ARS], New York.)  (STEPHEN PITKIN /PITKIN STUDIO/ART RESOURCE (AR), NEW YORK.

The museum also acquired a number of works from Dial’s friends and relatives, and 15 quilts made by several generations of women from Gee’s Bend, a rural Alabama community near Selma. The quilts and assemblages were part of the 1,200-work collection of the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an organization devoted to documenting, preserving, and promoting the work of self-taught African American artists from the Deep South.“I think it’s a spectacular addition to the collection and another piece to add to our growing holdings of work by self-taught artists,” Timothy Rub, head of the museum, said Wednesday.

“No Light on the Crosses” (1994). Lonnie Holley, American, born 1950. Wood, metal fencing, headlight, ceramic lamp, electrical cords, ice cream scooper, metal drain cover, wire, drill bit, rope, and drum head. (© Lonnie Holley/Artists Rights Society [ARS], New York. Philadelphia Museum of Art, museum purchase, and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017. (RON LEE/THE SILVER FACTORY.)
Rub said the acquisition, a partial gift from Souls Grown Deep and partial purchase, “fills in … an important piece of the story of American art, broadly understood.”

Maxwell L. Anderson, president of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, said the acquisition fit with the organization’s overall strategy for gaining wider appreciation for the work of the artists. He noted that now “important works by African American artists who represent a distinctive voice in contemporary art are represented in [the Art Museum’s] permanent collection.”
“Partnering with the PMA and a growing number of other museums will ensure that the work and history of these artists is accessible to a broad audience,” said Anderson.
Ann Percy, the museum’s curator of drawings, said the museum considered the works to be representative of a “huge part of American art.” “But we didn’t have any,” she said, referring to pieces by self-taught or outsider African American artists from the Deep South. “We think it’s an important aspect of American art that we didn’t have represented in the collection.”
Thornton Dial, who died two years ago, was first inspired as a teenager by the “yard art” displayed on lawns throughout the area. He began constructing sculptural assemblages out of whatever he could find, strongly motivated to express his ideas and feelings about history, slavery, racism, politics, war, spiritual matters, economic dislocation, and homelessness.
The three Dial assemblages acquired by the museum – The Last Day of Martin Luther King (1992), High and Wide (Carrying the Rats to the Man) (2002), and The Old Water (2004) – combine found materials such as steel, tin, wood, carpet, barbed wire, upholstery, driftwood, goat hides, metal pans, broken glass, a stuffed-animal backpack, mop cords, and a broom.
Dial’s assemblages, and the two assemblages each by Lonnie Holley and Ronald Lockett, plus one piece by Hawkins Bolden and another by sculptor Bessie Harvey, provide ample evidence of the “profound subjects” at the heart of the work by these artists.

Housetop Quilt: Fractured Medallion Variation, c. 1955. Delia Bennett, American, 1892 1976. Cotton, 79 inches × 79 inches. (© Estate of Delia Bennett/Artists Rights Society [ARS], New York. Philadelphia Museum of Art, museum purchase, and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017). (STEPHEN PITKIN/PITKIN STUDIO/ART RESOURCE (AR), NEW YORK.

The celebrated quilt makers of Gee’s Bend have been practicing the art since the 19th century. They have became known in the 21st century as the result of two major traveling exhibitions: “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend,” in 2002, and “Gee’s Bend, the Architecture of the Quilt,” which visitors to the art museum enthused over in 2008.
Work by Mary Lee Bendolph and her daughter Louisiana P. Bendolph is contained within the acquisition. Quilt makers now represented in the collection are Delia Bennett, Nellie May Abrams, Annie E. Pettway, Henrietta Pettway, Loretta Pettway, Martha Jane Pettway, Sue Willie Seltzer, Andrea P. Williams, Irene Williams, Magdalene Wilson (1898-2001), and Nettie Young. The 15 quilts were made between 1930 and 2005. Rub said the works will be on display in the near future.

Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/philadelphia-museum-of-art-acquires-quilts-sculptures-and-other-outsider-works-by-african-american-artists-from-the-south-20180110.html

Michigan State University Receives $1.5 Million Grant to Build Slave Trade and Ancestry Database

By goodblacknews on January 14, 2018

MSU African Studies Center Facebook Cover Photo (via facebook)

via newsone.com
$1.5 million grant gifted to Michigan State University by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will go towards the cultivation of a database that harbors information about former slaves, MSU Today reported.
The database, which is part of the institution’s Enslaved: The People of the Historic Slave Trade initiative, will encompass data surrounding those who came to America during the Atlantic slave trade; giving individuals the opportunity to explore their ancestry, the news outlet writes. Individuals who utilize the database will also be able to view maps, charts, and graphics about enslaved populations.
The project is being spearheaded by Dean Rehberger, director of Matrix: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at MSU, Walter Hawthorne, professor and chair of MSU’s Department of History and Ethan Watrall, who serves as an assistant professor of anthropology at the university.
MSU Today reports that the project will go through several phases and take nearly a year and a half to be completed.
Hawthorne believes that the database will allow scholars to delve deeper into the dark history of slavery. “By linking data compiled by some of the world’s foremost historians, it will allow scholars and the public to learn about individuals’ lives and to draw new, broad conclusions about processes that had an indelible impact on the world,” he said in a statement, according to the source.
Michigan State University has one of the top African history graduate programs in the country and leaders at the institution believe that this new project will further its impact in this space. Institutions who have partnered with MSU for the project include Emory University, Vanderbilt University, Harvard University, the University of Maryland and others.
Slavery has been a common topic at colleges and universities across the country with many institutions coming forward to acknowledge and come to terms with their ties to slavery. Rutgers University recently paid tribute to former slaves by renaming parts of its campus after individuals who built the university from the ground up.
Source: MSU Today

Jordan Peele's 'Get Out' Wins Two Critics' Choice Awards; Sterling K. Brown and RuPaul win in TV Categories

By goodblacknews on January 12, 2018
Daniel Kaluyaa, Lil Rel Howery and Jordan Peele at 2018 Critics Choice Awards (photo: Getty Images)

by Cortney Wills via thegrio.com
The 23rd Annual Critics’ Choice Awards went down in Los Angeles on Thursday evening. Jay Pharaoh presented the first award of the night for Best Comedy to The Big Sick after opening the show with a freestyle rapping skit alongside host, Olivia Munn.
Jordan Peele’s hit horror film, Get Out won the award for Best Screenplay. The film also won Best Sci-Fi or Horror Movie.
TheGrio caught up with one of the film’s stars on the red carpet and he had a lot to say about the provocative project.
Lil Rey Howery, admitted he was pleasantly surprised by the world’s reaction to Peele’s groundbreaking film, Get Out.
“It’s surreal. When I read the script I looked at Jordan and said, ‘Are they really gonna let you do this, brother? I’m in!’ It’s really dope. I’m really proud of Jordan for taking his time. It took him eight years to write it. He’s the only one who could execute what was in his brain,” he said before revealing that his character, Officer Rod Williams, was written just for him.
“So many experiences in the movie felt like experiences I have had before. It’s just genius. He wrote the character in my voice and I knew it. It sounded just like me.”
Aside from Peele being honored for Get Out, there were only a few people of color who came out on top.
Sterling K. Brown took home the award for Best Actor in a Drama Series for his role in This Is Us. 
During his acceptance speech, he joked about the crowd not being able to tell that he was blushing before revealing one of the reasons he’s so grateful to work on the hit NBC series.
“I speak on behalf of my show that’s not the darkest, or the sexiest, but we have a lot of heart,” he said. “And in some dark times right now, it’s nice to be a part of something that reminds us that we’re all in this thing called life together.”
RuPaul won Best Reality Show Host for RuPaul’s Drag Race, rounding out the short list of African American winners for the night.
Source: https://thegrio.com/2018/01/12/jordan-peeles-get-out-wins-best-original-screenplay-at-critics-choice-awards/
 

Ex-NFL Player and Teacher Aaron Maybin Raises Money to Keep Freezing Baltimore Public School Students Warm

By goodblacknews on January 10, 2018
Ex-NFL Player Aaron Maybin Raises Money to Keep Freezing Baltimore Students Warm
(Instagram/Aaron Maybin)

by Selena Hill via blackenterprise.com
Former NFL linebacker-turned-educator Aaron Maybin has raised money and national awareness about Baltimore students in desperate need of heat and warm gear.
Last week, Maybin, who currently works as a teacher at Baltimore’s Matthew A. Henson Elementary School, shared on Twitter a video of young students complaining about the frigid conditions inside of their classroom. “I’m super, super cold,” said one boy. “Yesterday, I had frostbite,” revealed another little boy who appeared to be wearing a winter coat. “This is unacceptable,” wrote Maybin as the caption of the tweet, which went viral.
In another tweet, the former player and Baltimore native expressed outrage about the way taxpayer dollars are allocated and prioritized.
According to BaltimoreBrew.com, the temperature inside of his classroom hovered around 40 degrees. “How would your kids concentrate if you sent them to school in a refrigerator for eight hours? With failing lighting. Two classes in one room?” Maybin told the site. “We tried our best as educators. They tried their best as scholars. But they are dealing with a lot already. And now they are supposed to learn in the dark and in the cold.” He added that about half of the school has been without electricity since the beginning of the month. “I’m told it was due to nobody being there during the holidays to make sure the heat stayed on and pipes didn’t freeze.”
In addition to voicing concern about the horrid conditions, the 29-year-old artist and activist also encouraged his Twitter followers to donate to a GoFundMe campaign, titled We Need Heat In Our Public Schools, that aimed to raise $20,000 to purchase 600 space heaters and winter clothes for students.

“Baltimore City Public Schools are currently operating with an inadequate heating system,” reads the GoFundMe page. “Students are still required to attend classes that are freezing and expected to wear their coats to assist in keeping them warm. How can you teach a child in these conditions?”

On Thursday, Maybin tweeted that the page raised over $8,000 after he shared a link on Twitter. That same day, he shared a photo of himself picking up clothing and other donations for the children. By Monday afternoon, the page had raised more than $76,000.
In response to the crisis, the Baltimore City Public Schools system released a statement on Sunday assuring that the heating issues were addressed late last week when city schools were closed. The statement also promised that “every student will be in a safe, warm learning space, or the school won’t be open.”
Source: http://www.blackenterprise.com/aaron-maybin-freezing-students-baltimore/

Jordan Greenway Becomes 1st Black Athlete to Make U.S. Olympic Hockey Team

By goodblacknews on January 9, 2018

Team USA Hockey Team Member Jordan Greenway (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)

by Bruce C.T. Wright via newsone.com
African-American athletes are displaying Black excellence on the ice. Nearly a month after it was announced that 17-year-old Maame Biney made history as the first Black woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic speedskating team, Jordan Greenway broke a similar racial barrier by becoming the first African-American man to be on Team USA’s hockey roster at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Korea, The Undefeated reported.
Greenway, 20, has had a standout athletic career at Boston University. He was selected in the 2015 NHL draft by the Minnesota Wild, but made the decision to stay in school and continue to pursue his degree. During the winter Olympic games—which are slated to take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea next month—Greenway will be one of four college students who will play for the United States. It’s the first time in three decades that the USA men’s hockey team is comprised of college athletes, players from overseas and some retired athletes since the NHL didn’t send any of its players to compete in the Olympics.
Greenway—who hails from Canton, New York—said he was humbled by the honor and wanted to use his platform as an avenue to increase the racial representation in the sport and encourage Black youth to play hockey.
“I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of good things and just allowing a lot of African-American kids who are younger than me who see kind of what I’m doing, I hope that can be an inspiration for them,” he told the Undefeated. “Go out and do something different against the typical stereotypes that most African-Americans play basketball, or whatever the case is.” There are only 13 Division 1 players who are Black, according to The Undefeated.
Black athletes will be making historic moves during the next Winter Olympics. Prior to Greenway and Biney’s milestones, Nigeria’s women’s bobsled team became the first group of Africans to qualify for that category in the Olympics.
Source: https://newsone.com/3767720/2018-olympic-hockey-jordan-greenway-black-usa-african-american-member/