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Marie Holmes, 26 Year-Old Mother of Four, Wins $188 Million of Powerball Jackpot

By goodblacknews on February 13, 2015
holmes

Marie Holmes (pictured) is one very lucky lady. The mother of four just happened to be one of Wednesday’s huge Powerball winners, and will share the $564 million jackpot. Holmes’ reported cut from the mega winnings will be a not-too-shabby $188 million before taxes, according to WGN-TV.

The 26-year-old Wilmington, North Carolina woman, who has a special needs child with cerebral palsy, is still reeling from the news. “I don’t think it’s really hit me,” she said. “I guess when it hits my account is when it’s really going to hit me, but I’m thankful that I can bless my kids with something that I didn’t have.”

Holmes, who does not regularly purchase lottery tickets, said she was struggling before her win.  Upon seeing that her numbers matched the winning Powerball drawing ones, Holmes thought she was going to have a heart attack and screamed so loudly, she scared her children, one boy and three girls.
So what will the young mom do with all of the money?  “First I ‘m going to pay my tithes because I wouldn’t have none of it if it wasn’t for God.  After that I’m going to set up accounts for my kids,” she told WGN-TV.   “And when we figure out where we’re going to live, I’m going to buy a house for me and my kids, then make sure my family is all good.”
Holmes, whose uncle actually sold her the winning ticket, was unemployed and looking for a job.  She is only too glad that now she no longer has to depend on anyone financially. “I don’t have to worry about the word struggle no more and neither do they (her children).”
Does Holmes have any trepidation with regards to how her entire life will now drastically change?
“I am ready for it, ready to embrace the change!  I am very grateful for what is about to happen to my family,” she told WGN-TV.  “Everything is all for them.  My kids can go to college, all on me, and they don’t have to worry about nothing.  My granddaddy, my daddy, my sisters, they don’t have to worry about nothing, we made it.”
article by Ruth-Manuel Logan via newsone.com

USPS Honors Architect Robert Robinson Taylor With Stamp

By goodblacknews on February 13, 2015
Screen Shot 2015-02-13 at 11.00.31 AMSince 1940, the United States Postal Service has paid homage to the countless achievements made by African-American men and women through stamps that immortalize those individuals who had an impact on this country’s history.

Now Robert Robinson Taylor (pictured), the first academically trained black architect in the U.S. and, coincidentally, the great-grandfather of Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, was honored on USPS’ 38th Black Heritage stamp, issued yesterday, February 12.
Taylor was born in Wilmington, N.C. 1868 to a middle-class family.  Taylor’s grandfather was a white slave owner, who freed his son, Henry Taylor, in 1847. Robert’s mother was descended from free blacks since before the Civil War. Upon graduating high school, Taylor worked for his father a bit but then attended the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where prejudice awaited him and the other handful of blacks who dared to attend.

During his four years at MIT, Taylor worked hard and managed to maintain an above average grade point average. He went on to graduate from MIT in 1892 becoming the first black person to receive a degree from the university.
Upon graduating MIT, Taylor married his wife, Nellie and landed a job at Tuskegee as an architect and educator through a close relationship he forged with Booker T. Washington. Taylor designed most of the university’s buildings built before 1932.  He retired from his university posts in 1935.
Taylor collapsed and passed away in 1942 while attending a service at the Tuskegee chapel which he had designed.
Last year the USPS honored the meritorious works of such African-American greats as Shirley Chisholm, Ralph Ellison, Jimi Hendrix, C. Alfred “Chief” Anderson, Edna Lewis and Wilt Chamberlain through stamps.
article by Ruth Manuel-Logan via newsone.com

Dartmouth College to Launch 10 Week #BlackLivesMatter Course

By goodblacknews on February 7, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-02-07 at 5.46.17 PM
#BlackLivesMatter grew from a hashtag to a movement and is now a college course at Dartmouth College.

This spring, the Ivy League college will offer a new class, “10 Weeks, 10 Professors: #BlackLivesMatter,” which will examine race, violence and inequality through current events and throughout history.

The 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York during confrontations with police sparked conversations on social media and protests around the world, including Dartmouth’s Hanover, New Hampshire, campus.

“Even though we might be sort of cloistered away in the ivory tower or something, we felt very much moved by, incited by, inspired by a lot of the activists’ work following the failure to indict Darren Wilson after the events in Ferguson,” said Aimee Bahng, an assistant professor of English at Dartmouth. “We wanted to not leave this behind after winter break.”

Then, around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Missouri Rev. Starsky Wilson, co-chairman of the Ferguson Commission, spoke with Dartmouth faculty about “teaching Ferguson.” By the end of Wilson’s two-hour workshop, faculty members were already brainstorming how to integrate the events and the response into coursework and campus life.

The result was a teaching collective that draws faculty from geography, history, English, math and other areas, and the idea for an interdisciplinary course crafted and taught by all of them. The course is also expected to draw outside speakers and to explore ways to engage the community beyond parading professors in front of lecture halls.

“There is a special energy around this,” said Abigail Neely, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth. “It’s designed to transgress the boundaries between disciplines in an effort to do some really deep, sustained critical thinking about some of the most important issues in the country and world at this moment.”

The course came together quickly with support from college leaders and Dartmouth’s African and African-American Studies Program, Neely and Bahng said. Enrollment opened on Friday, but faculty members are still finalizing the syllabus and deciding how many students will be admitted.

An early lesson is expected to focus on St. Louis and its racial history. Another will consider poetry, prose, music and religious sermons. Still others will look at how events in Ferguson were documented through different media and how black activism has evolved, “from hip-hop to hashtags.”

As word spread about the course, there’s been an outpouring of support on campus, Bahng and Neely said. Far more than 10 faculty have signed on — as of Wednesday, 21 are “thinking together, teaching together, working together” — and students have approached to ask whether they can sit in on the course, even if they aren’t enrolled.

In planning the course, “we’ve already begun the work as a teaching collective,” Neely said. “I’m so excited to see what happens when the students join.”

article by Jamie Gumbrecht via cnn.com

More Than $300,000 Raised In Five Days For James Robertson, Man Who Walks 21 Miles To And From Work

By goodblacknews on February 6, 2015

James-Robertson
The story of James Robertson, the 56-year-old man who walks 21 miles, five days a week, to and from Schain Mold & Engineering In Rochester Hills, Michigan, continues to inspire. His Honda broke down a decade ago and Detroit’s public transportation system doesn’t extend to that area. So every day, for the last 10 years, Robertson would walk to and from work–no matter the weather, and has yet to miss a day of work.
Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press shared Robertson’s story on Sunday, and a GoFundMe page was immediately put together by Wayne State University student, Evan Leedy. The title? Help James Robertson Get a Car. The goal on the page says $25,000, but as of the time of this report, the account has far exceeded that goal, bringing in $307,497 thanks to 11,781 people donating in only five days.
And now, Robertson, according to the Detroit Free Press, is preparing to get a shiny red, 2015 Ford Taurus. And the good news is, he won’t even have to use that $307,497 towards the purchase of it. A Suburban Ford dealership in Sterling Heights is giving Robertson the Taurus, because as manager Jim Elder put it, “There’s nobody who deserves it more than him.”
And Robertson’s story has even opened the eyes of CEO of Regional Transit Authority, Michael Ford, who said that residents of metro Detroit need a better way to get around:
“That story is heartbreaking and it’s not necessary. There’s more that we can do.”
Robertson is grateful for all the love and support, both financial and emotional, telling all those who have donated, “you guys are the heroes.”
article by Victoria Uwumarogie via madamenoire.com 

Story of James Robertson, Who Walks 42 Miles to Factory Job Every Day, Inspires Crowdfunding for New Car

By goodblacknews on February 2, 2015

ROBERTSON
When James Robertson’s (pictured) story appeared in the Detroit Free Press about how he walks 42 miles a day roundtrip to get to his $10.55 per hour factory job in Rochester Mills, Mich., because he can’t afford to buy a car, hordes of readers sprung in to action by contributing to a GoFundMe account so that he can buy a car, according to the New York Daily News.
The 56-year-old injection molder, who does not appear to be physically fit, has somehow managed to trek to his job every day since his car broke down back in 2005 to faithfully complete his 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. shift.
Since none of Robertson’s co-workers live near him, he is unable to hitch a ride to or from work. Robertson — who is yet to miss one day of work — begins his day at 8:00 am, even walking along some treacherous areas along the famed 8 Mile and through all kinds of bad weather with rain, sleet, hail or snow.

The Motor City received more than 16 inches of snow on Monday and not even this fact kept Robertson from walking his daily trek in order to maintain his perfect work attendance.  “I’ve had worse. This is reminiscent of those snowstorms last year, and I made it then,” he told The Detroit Free Press.

Since Robertson’s story broke, he has reportedly had hundreds of offers to donate free vehicles, bus tickets, bicycles, and even a daily chauffeur service.
Robertson’s GoFundMe account, which is now at nearly $50,000 in donations, was started by Evan Leedy, 19, a Wayne State University student, who was moved by the conscientious employee’s plight.  After Robertson’s article was published and Leedy read through various online comments from folks who wanted to reach out and help the man, Leedy decided that a fund would be just the right move, saying, “I just used my phone. I created the go-funding site and within an hour we had $2,000.  I set the goal at the beginning of $5,000.”
Leedy wants to make sure that Robertson receives all of the money so that he won’t be forced to share with others and that the money will also cover insurance and maintenance of the vehicle.
article by Ruth Manuel-Logan via newsone.com

NYC Awards $3.9M In 2012 Police Killing Of Unarmed Bronx Teen Ramarley Graham

By goodblacknews on January 31, 2015
Frank Graham (C), father of Ramarley Gragam, who was shot and killed by police officers in New York in 2012, speaks outside the New York Police Department Headquarters after marching in the National March Against Police Violence, which was organized by National Action Network, on December 13, 2014 in New York City. The march coincided with a march in Washington D.C. and comes on the heels of two grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of two unarmed black men. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Frank Graham (C), father of Ramarley Gragam, who was shot and killed by police officers in New York in 2012, speaks outside the New York Police Department Headquarters after marching in the National March Against Police Violence, on December 13, 2014 in New York City. The march coincided with a march in Washington D.C. and comes on the heels of two grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of two unarmed black men. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

New York City agreed Friday to pay $3.9 million to the family of a Bronx teenager shot to death by a white police officer in 2012.  The deal settled a federal lawsuit brought by the family of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham (pictured below).

“This was a tragic case,” said New York Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci. “After evaluating all the facts, and consulting with key stakeholders such as the NYPD, it was determined that settling the matter was in the best interest of the city.”

Attorney Royce Russell said the family will comment Monday.

Graham died after he was shot once in the chest in February 2012 in a tiny bathroom in the three-family home where he lived with his grandmother and other relatives.  Richard Haste, the officer who shot him, said he fired his weapon because he thought he was going to be shot. No weapons were found in the apartment.

Haste was indicted on manslaughter charges in the summer of 2012, but charges were dismissed by a judge who said prosecutors improperly instructed grand jurors to imply they should disregard testimony from police officers that they radioed Haste in advance to warn him that they thought Graham had a pistol. A second grand jury declined to re-indict the officer.

Manhattan federal prosecutors are conducting a civil rights investigation.

Ramarley Graham story

The Graham shooting has been cited during demonstrations after grand juries in Missouri and New York declined to indict police officers in the deaths last year of 18-year-old Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson and 43-year-old Eric Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk after he was put in a chokehold when he was stopped on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The deaths fueled a national conversation about policing and race.

The Graham deal adds to a series of settlements in high-profile civil rights claims against police, jail officers and the city under first-term Mayor Bill de Blasio.

African-American Racer Wendell Scott Officially Inducted into NASCAR Hall of Fame Tonight

By goodblacknews on January 30, 2015

Wendell Scott
NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee Wendell Scott

Announced last May, the news finally became official: as of tonight, African-American race car driver Wendell Scott is the first black man inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Scott drove during the Jim Crow era, and he was the first African-American to win a race at NASCAR’s elite major league level. He died in 1990.  His career began in 1952, and his racing team was his family. They would travel to races together from their home in Virginia, and his sons served as his pit crew.
Wendell Scott's son Frank Scott (left) and grandson Warrick Scott at StoryCorps in Danville, Va. Wendell Scott, who died in 1990, was one of the first African-American NASCAR drivers to win a race at the elite level.
Wendell Scott’s son Frank Scott (left) and grandson Warrick Scott at StoryCorps in Danville, Va. Wendell Scott, who died in 1990, was one of the first African-American NASCAR drivers to win a race at the elite level.

“It was like Picasso, like a great artist doing his work,” says Scott’s son, Frank, 67, at StoryCorps. “And he was in that car, he was doing his work. And as children we didn’t have that leisure time, you know, we couldn’t go to the playground. He said to us, ‘I need you at the garage.’ I can remember him getting injured, and he’d just take axle grease and put it in the cut and keep working.”
But Scott wasn’t allowed to race at certain speedways. When he planned to go to Atlanta, he even received death threats.
“Daddy said, ‘Look, if I leave in a pine box, that’s what I gotta do. But I’m gonna race,’ ” Frank says. “I can remember him racing in Jacksonville, and he beat them all, but they wouldn’t drop the checkered flag. And then when they did, they had my father in third place. One of the main reasons that they gave was there was a white beauty queen, and they always kissed the driver.”
“Did he ever consider not racing anymore?” asks Scott’s grandson, Warrick, 37.
“Never,” Frank says. “That was one of my daddy’s sayings: ‘When it’s too tough for everybody else, it’s just right for me.’ ”
Before the Atlanta 500 in 1964, Scott was sick and needed an operation, but he refused not to race.
“And so, I said, ‘Daddy, we don’t have to race,’ ” Frank says. “He whispered to me and said, ‘Lift my legs up and put me in the car.’ So, I took my arms and put them behind his legs and kind of acted like I was hugging him and helped him into the car. He drove 500 miles that day.”

Wendell Scott (right) and his son Frank in Darlington, S.C., in 1970. Wendell Scott becomes the first African-American driver inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Friday.
Wendell Scott (right) and his son Frank in Darlington, S.C., in 1970. Wendell Scott becomes the first African-American driver inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Friday. (Courtesy of the Scott family)
“How did his racing career officially end?” Warrick asks.

Scott’s career ended only because he couldn’t afford to race anymore. No one would financially support his career.
“Where other drivers that we were competing against had major sponsorships, providing them engineers, as many cars as they needed,” Frank says, “he did everything that he did out of his own pocket.
“He always felt like someday he’s going to get his big break,” Frank adds. “But for 20 years nobody mentioned Wendell Scott. At one point it was like he never existed. But he didn’t let it drive him crazy. I think that’s what made him so great. He chose to be a race car driver, and he was going to race until he couldn’t race no more.”
Produced for Morning Edition by Jud Esty-Kendall and John White.  To hear audio of this story, click through to npr.org.

Comedian and Activist Dick Gregory to be Honored with Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

By goodblacknews on January 29, 2015

dick gregory (walk of fame)The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced that comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory will be honored with the 2,542nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, February 2, 2015.
The star in the category of Live Theatre/Performance will be dedicated at 1650 Vine Street near Hollywood & Vine.
“We are proud to honor Dick Gregory with a star on the Walk of Fame during Black History month. He has given so much to the world with his wisdom through his work in entertainment,” stated Leron Gubler, President of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and emcee of the ceremonies.
The star ceremony will be streamed live exclusively on www.walkoffame.com
The day after the ceremony the celebration will continue with the Dick Gregory & Friends All Star Tribute and Toast on Tuesday, February 3, at 8:00 p.m. at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre, 1615 N. Vine Street in Hollywood.
Richard Claxton Gregory aka Dick Gregory is a comedian, civil rights activist, author, recording artist, actor, philosopher and anti-drug crusader. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Gregory, 82, began his career as a comedian while serving in the military in the mid-1950s. He was drafted in 1954 while attending Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. After being discharged in 1956, with a desire to perform comedy professionally, he moved to Chicago.
Gregory attributes the launch of his career to Hugh Hefner, who watched him perform at Herman Roberts Show Bar. Hefner hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club as a replacement for comedian Professor Irwin Corey.
By 1962, Gregory had become a nationally-known headline performer, selling out nightclubs, making numerous national television appearances, and recording popular comedy albums. Gregory, whose style was detached, ironic, and satirical, gained the attention of audiences with his political and controversial stand up acts. By being both outspoken and provocative, he became a household name and opened many doors for Black entertainers.

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.