Good Black News
Olympic gymnast Gabrielle Douglas attends the 33rd Annual Salute To Women In Sports Gala at Cipriani Wall Street on October 17, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (AP) — Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas has won Sportswoman of the Year honors from the Women’s Sports Foundation. The gymnast won the award Wednesday night, beating out Lindsey Vonn, London Olympians Serena Williams, Missy Franklin, Allyson Felix, and Paralympians Jessica Long and Tatyana McFadden. Douglas is the third gymnast to win the award, joining fellow Olympic gold medalists Mary Lou Retton (1984) and Nastia Liukin (2008). Liukin presented Douglas with the award, given to an individual athlete who exhibits exceptional performances. Douglas won the all-around gold at the London Olympics, the fourth American — and first African-American — to win gymnastics’ biggest prize. She also helped the U.S. women to the team title, their first since 1996 and second overall.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press via thegrio.com
Courtney Roxanne Pearson, 21, is the first African American Homecoming Queen at the University of Mississippi crowned during halftime, Satuday, October 13, 2012.
Courtney Roxanne Pearson is the first African American Homecoming Queen at the University of Mississippi affectionately known as Ole Miss. Pearson, 21, is a senior English education student from Memphis, Tennessee, that won the royal post by a vote of 1,477 to 1,387, according to the Daily Mail:
The Million Man March (pictured throughout), one of the most moving and emotional moments ever in African-American history, took place on the grounds of the National Mall on this day in 1995. The symbolic importance and cultural impact of the huge gathering signified a shift in the attention on issues that plagued urban environs and minorities. The National African American Leadership Summit and the Nation of Islam worked in tandem alongside local chapters of the NAACP to make the March a reality.
Johns Hopkins University recently received a five-year, $7.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to boost STEM education programs in the predominantly Black public school system in Baltimore. The program, called STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools — or SABES for short — will benefit more than 1,600 students in grades three through five in nine city elementary schools and could eventually become a national model for STEM education programs. More details provided in the video below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENXExkxe0NU&w=560&h=315]
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Recently, Tennessee State University, the historically Black educational institution in Nashville, held its homecoming weekend. At the football game that weekend, 97-year-old alumna Burnece Walker Brunson joined the cheerleading squad on the sidelines. “Cheering for your favorite players and entertaining your fans feels like you are also part of the game,” Brunson said.
Brunson was a member of the university cheerleading team from 1934 to 1935 when the institution was known as Tennessee A&I College. “We didn’t do all of those fancy stuff back then,” Brunson recalls. “We did some jumps here and there but we did not do all that tossing and throwing. It fulfilled my desire to stay physically active since there were not many sporting activities for girls during those days.”
Brunson is a native of Tennessee but grew up in Chicago. She turned to her home state for college in 1933 and joined the cheerleading team the next year. After obtaining her teaching certificate, she went back to Chicago and earned a bachelor’s degree from Chicago Teacher’s College and a master’s degree from the National College of Education in Evansville, Illinois.
EXCLUSIVE: America’s Next Top Model executive producer/star Tyra Banks is making her first foray into scripted series with Fivehead, a single-camera comedy for ABC based on her teen years. Banks is co-creating/executive producing Fivehead withKenya Barris (Fox’s I Hate My Teenage Daughter), a childhood friend and longtime business partner with whom Banks also co-created America’s Next Top Model, now in its 19th cycle.
Fivehead, produced by ABC Studios, chronicles the impressionable teenage years of Banks in the halls of her high school and at home, focusing on her family and the long journey that took Banks from awkward teen to one of the world’s most recognizable supermodels. “In high school, if you have glasses, you’re a ‘four eyes’, if you have braces, you’re a ‘metal mouth’ but if you had my forehead? You’re a FIVEHEAD,” said Banks.
Barris and Banks will co-create together the characters and the story for Fivehead, and Barris will write the script. The two first met when they were 6-year-olds and attended school together, which gives Barris a first-hand account of the very times Banks and he will be reminiscing about in Fivehead. “To be able to witness her career was wild, but to be able to watch Tyra grow up was nothing short of nutty,” said Barris. “I am blown away by the opportunity to tell not just a great story but a story that I remember so fondly.” Banks is repped by WME. Barris is repped by Paradigm and Principato-Young.
article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com
Barris and Banks will co-create together the characters and the story for Fivehead, and Barris will write the script. The two first met when they were 6-year-olds and attended school together, which gives Barris a first-hand account of the very times Banks and he will be reminiscing about in Fivehead. “To be able to witness her career was wild, but to be able to watch Tyra grow up was nothing short of nutty,” said Barris. “I am blown away by the opportunity to tell not just a great story but a story that I remember so fondly.” Banks is repped by WME. Barris is repped by Paradigm and Principato-Young.article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com
On Oct. 14, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the civil rights movement at age 35, making him the youngest person to receive the honor. By the mid-’60s, King was known internationally for his work in advocating racial equality through nonviolent civil disobedience. King was influenced by Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and appropriated many of his theories about nonviolence in his organization of peaceful protests that were often met with brutal violence by whites.
Upon notification of his Nobel win, King announced that he would donate the $54,123 in prize money to further the civil rights movement. King continued to work as an activist and an outspoken advocate of civil rights until he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee.
article by Naeesa Aziz via bet.com (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)
article by Naeesa Aziz via bet.com (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) today announced the formation of the Regions HBCU Partnership, a collaboration with six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States supporting financial education, academics, athletics, and alumni engagement. The Regions HBCU Partnership kicks off during the fall of 2012 at the following institutions, with plans to expand the program to additional HBCUs in the future:
Octavia Spencer, a cast member in the film “Smashed,” posing for a portrait at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival in Toronto. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, file)
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press via thegrio.com