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5 Year-Old Jaylee Monteith Calls 911, Helps Save 90 Year-Old Caregiver

By goodblacknews on May 18, 2014
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90-year old Mildred Morris has been a life long caregiver of children and now she’s thanking one 5-year-old for caring for her. Morris, of Asheville, N.C., fell down a flight of stairs while transporting laundry in her home, but 5-year-old Jaylee Monteith, whom Morris has watched since Jaylee was 1, called 911 as soon as she saw Morris fall.
“Jaylee called 911 and said I needed help because I had fallen down the steps,” Morris told ABC News. “Then she went next door and said, ‘Wake up, wake up’ and my neighbor came over and helped.”
Thankfully Morris only ended up needing stitches.  “I think if I had stayed much longer, the blood was coming so quickly from my head, if they had not heard Jaylee, I probably would have been weakened or unconscious,” Morris said. “She’s a miraculous little girl.”
Morris says she watches Jaylee almost daily while her mother, Jazmyn Williams, studies to be a nurse.  “She’s never been to kindergarten so everything she learned is from me and her mother and father,” Morris said. “I knew she was capable but I didn’t know she’d be able to think that quickly.”
Morris has some notoriety under her belt. In the 1980s she was honored by Nancy Reagan for her commitment to children.  “It’s great to know that they remember something I have done for them,” Morris said of the kids she’s touched in her lifetime, which include both Jaylee and her mom. “It’s from my heart for all of them.
“You have to be sincere with kids and let them know that you love them.”
To see video of this story, click here.
article via clutchmagonline.com

Cornell William Brooks Named New NAACP President And CEO

By goodblacknews on May 17, 2014

Cornell William Brooks
Roslyn Brock, right, chairman of the national board of directors for the NAACP, puts a NAACP pin on new national president and CEO, Cornell William Brooks on Saturday, May 17, 2014, in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The selection of Brooks came as the United States marked the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which outlawed segregation in public schools. The lawsuit was argued by the organization’s legal arm. (AP Photo/NAACP, J. Adams)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a Head Start and Yale Law School graduate, Cornell William Brooks calls himself a direct beneficiary of Brown v. Board Education.  Now the lawyer and activist is taking over as the next national president and CEO of the NAACP, whose legal arm brought that landmark legal case challenging segregation in public schools.
On the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision that said separating black and white children was unconstitutional, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization announced Brooks’ selection.  The NAACP’s board made the final decision Friday night, and chair Roslyn Brock told The Associated Press about Brooks’ new position on Saturday morning.  Brooks will be formally presented to the Baltimore-based organization’s members at its national convention in Las Vegas in July.
“I am a beneficiary, an heir and a grandson, if you will, of Brown versus Board of Education,” Brooks told the AP.
“My life is the direct product, if you will, of the legacy of the blood, sweat and tears of the NAACP and so today I’m particularly mindful that the NAACP has made America what it is, and certainly made my life possible and we are all grateful heirs of that legacy.”
Brooks, 53, of Annandale, New Jersey, will become the NAACP’s 18th national president, replacing interim leader Lorraine Miller. Miller has served in that position since Benjamin Jealous ended his five-year tenure last year.
“I am deeply humbled and honored to be entrusted with the opportunity to lead this powerful historic organization,” Brooks said in an interview. “In our fight to ensure voting rights, economic equality, health equity, and ending racial discrimination for all people, there is indeed much work to be done.”
Brooks, a minister, is originally from Georgetown, South Carolina. He currently is president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, a Newark, New Jersey-based urban research and advocacy organization.  He graduated from Jackson State University, received a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology and got his law degree from Yale.
Brooks has worked as a lawyer for the Federal Communication Commission and the Justice Department. He also ran for Congress as a Democrat in Virginia in 1998. He still owns a home in Woodbridge, Virginia.
“Mr. Brooks is a pioneering lawyer and civil rights leader who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the association,” Brock said. “We look forward to leveraging his legal prowess, vision and leadership as we tackle the pressing civil rights issues of the 21st century.”
The organization had hired The Hollins Group Inc., of Chicago to lead its search for a new CEO, and Brooks was selected from more than 450 applications, Brock said. The organization held more than 30 interviews, she said.
Brooks said he would start talking to and listening to the NAACP’s membership to plan for the organization’s future.
He said he would present his vision for the NAACP at the organization’s convention after he’s held conversations with the members.
“As long as America continues to be a great, but imperfect nation, there will be a need for the NAACP,” Brooks said.
Jealous called Brooks’ selection “the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for the NAACP.”
article via newsone.com

Spike Lee To Adapt His Feature "She’s Gotta Have It" As Series For Showtime

By goodblacknews on May 15, 2014

She's_Gotta_Have_It_film_posterSpike Lee is revisiting his debut feature, 1985′s She’s Gotta Have It, on the small screen. Showtime has put in development a half-hour series adaptation that updates the film, with Lee set to write and attached to direct. The project is taking a new, contemporary look at the characters and willspike leeexplore Lee’s unique and provocative points of view about race, gender, sexuality, relationships, and the gentrification in Brooklyn.

Showtime is a fitting home for the project as the pay cable network has built a whole slate of half-hour series that straddle comedy and drama in the tone of She’s Gotta Have It.

Lee made his breakthrough with She’s Gotta Have It, which he shot in 12 days during the summer of ’85 on a budget of $175,000.  The film, starring Tracy Camilla Johns as a young, sexually independent Brooklynite who juggles three suitors (Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Lee), ended up grossing $7,137,502 at the U.S. box office. It helped usher in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and paved the way for other black filmmakers.

article by Nellie Andreeva via Deadline.com

Dean Baquet Becomes NY Times’ First African American Executive Editor

By goodblacknews on May 15, 2014

 

dean-baquet-300x208Dean Baquet, managing editor of the New York Times and former top editor at the Los Angeles Times, was named Executive Editor on Wednesday after Jill Abramson stepped down from the New York newspaper’s top editorial job.  Baquet, 57, becomes the first African American in the job.

“It is an honor to be asked to lead the only newsroom in the country that is actually better than it was a  generation ago,” he said in a New York Times account of the development, “one that approaches the world with wonder and ambition every day.”

Baquet’s ascension was big news for black journalists, whose ranks have been buffeted by newspaper staff contractions and indifference to diversity concerns.

“He has reached a height many can only dream about,” messaged Don Hudson, the executive editor of the Decatur (Ala.) Daily who tracks the number of black top editors for the National Association of Black Journalists. “He’s an inspiration to all of us editor types out here in the trenches. I know I’m proud of him.”

Hudson added, “It’s a good day. God is good. First a president and now the top journalist.”

Get the rest of this story at Journal-isms.

American Black Film Festival Moves from Miami to New York With "Think Like a Man" Sequel and Spike Lee Film

By goodblacknews on May 14, 2014

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Romany Malco and Meagan Good in “Think Like a Man Too.” (Screen Gems)

The 18th edition of the American Black Film Festival will make its New York debut next month with films directed by Tim Story and Spike Lee bookending the June 19-22 event, organizers announced last week.
The festival, which promotes work by and about people of African descent, is presented by Film Life, a New York City-based entertainment company. The Miami area was home to the festival for most of its existence. Now, Jeff Friday, the festival’s founder and Film Life chief executive, said in a phone interview that he hoped the move will be a permanent one, with the goal of reaching a larger, more diverse audience.
“Last year proved if nothing else, that black films can be more mainstream,” Mr. Friday said. “We want to encourage audiences to consume, ingest and enjoy black cinema as much as multicultural audiences enjoy other forms of black culture.”

San Jose State College Expels Three Students Who Racially Harassed Black Freshman

By goodblacknews on May 14, 2014

San Jose State UniversitySAN JOSE — San Jose State has expelled three of the students charged with the racially-tinged bullying of a freshman and extended one other student’s suspension, requiring him to go to counseling and to remain on probation for the rest of his college career if he returns to school.

All four had been suspended pending final disciplinary action for allegedly subjecting then-17-year-old Donald Williams Jr. to repeated abuse, including wrestling him to the ground and fastening a bike lock around his neck, calling him racially derogatory names, locking him in his room and displaying a Confederate flag.
The university’s move comes after news surfaced in November that the freshman reported being tormented relentlessly for weeks. The revelation sparked community outrage, an internal investigation, an apology from the college president, criminal charges and the creation of a task force. All four suspects have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor battery and hate crime charges.
African-American leaders were pleased to learn Friday that the university had taken stern disciplinary action. The expelled students are banned for life from enrolling in any California State University college, according to university documents and sources familiar with the investigation.
“It’s a no-brainer,” said LaDoris Cordell, a retired judge and city police watchdog who chaired the task force. “They have no business being enrolled at SJSU.”

Michael Sam’s Jersey Is #2 Among Drafted Rookies

By goodblacknews on May 14, 2014

Michael SamAlready making a splash without starting his first NFL game, St. Louis Rams draft pick, Michael Sam, the first openly gay player in the National Football League is making some more news.
According to the NY Daily News, Sam’s rookie jersey is outselling every other draft pick but Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel. Although he was the 249th player selected in the draft, he is doing better than anyone picked in that position or ones picked earlier.
RELATED: Jason Collins Brooklyn Nets Jersey Top Seller on NBA.com
“This is unprecedented for a day-three pick, let alone a seventh round pick, to crack the top five rookies sold following draft weekend,” NFL spokesperson Joanna Hunter told Outsports.com.
Here is the order, as of Monday, May 12:
1. Johnny Manziel, Cleveland Browns
2. Michael Sam, St. Louis Rams
3. Jadeveon Clowney, Houston Texans
4. Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota Vikings
5. Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars
article by Cedric “Big Ced” Thornton via blackenterprise.com
 

Ras Baraka Declares Victory in Newark's Mayoral Race

By goodblacknews on May 13, 2014

Ras Baraka
Newark, NJ Mayor-Elect Ras Baraka (AP Photo)

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Ras Baraka, son of late poet and activist Amiri Baraka, declared victory Tuesday in the race to succeed Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker as mayor of the state’s largest city.  Baraka, who served on Newark’s City Council, was a staunch critic of Booker, who stepped down last year to run for the Senate. He declared victory with nearly all districts counted and with a 54 percent to 46 percent lead over former State Assistant Attorney General Shavar Jeffries.
Baraka inherits a fiscal crisis that has left Newark in danger of being subject to state monitoring.  His supporters held a raucous celebration at a downtown hotel after he announced his victory.
Speaking to the crowd, Baraka wished his mother a happy Mother’s Day and said he knew his father, who died in January, was “in the room tonight.” He urged the crowd to “be the mayor” and work for positive change, a reference to one of his campaign slogans, “When I become mayor, we become mayor.”
“We have a great city, an international city,” he said. “Watch out, America, here comes Newark!”

Happy 64th Birthday, Music Legend Stevie Wonder (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on May 13, 2014

stevieAccording to Wikipedia.org, Stevie Wonder was born May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michgan, and has spent over fifty years as a revered, award-winning musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. A child prodigy, he has become one of the most creative and loved musical performers of the late 20th and early 21st century.  Wonder signed with the Motown label at the age of eleven and continues to perform and record for Motown as of the early 2010s. He has been blind since shortly after birth.

Among Wonder’s works are singles such as “Superstition”, “Sir Duke”, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You”; and albums such as Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist, and has sold over 100 million albums and singles, making him one of the top 60 best-selling music artists. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a holiday in the United States.

In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart’s 50th anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

To learn more about Wonder’s life and music, click here.  To hear him do a live version of “As” with a moving speech towards the end, click below:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCHJ_UFSaes&w=560&h=315]

article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson).

Shonda Rhimes Renews with ABC Studios Through 2018

By goodblacknews on May 13, 2014
Shonda Rhimes Renews with ABC Studios
According to Variety.com, “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes has set a long-term extension of her overall deal with ABC Studios through May 2018.
Rhimes’ deal extension has been a long time in the works, given the amount of business she has in play at ABC and her status as an uber-showrunner.  “Grey’s Anatomy”, Rhimes’ initial breakout hit, remains a Thursday workhorse for the network as it heads into its 11th season.  “Grey’s” spinoff “Private Practice”, although not as highly-rated, lasted seven seasons in the ABC lineup.  “Scandal” blossomed into a bona fide hit for ABC this past season, and will kick off its fourth season this fall.
Next up for ABC under the Shondaland banner is the Viola Davis-starrer “How to Get Away with Murder.” The series was was created by “Grey’s Anatomy” vet Peter Nowalk and is executive produced by Rhimes and her longtime producing partner Betsy Beers.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)