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.
Good Black News
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
Oakland Mills resident Ambrose Lane Jr. tightens the bolt on the newly named April Wind Court on Monday. A name change for the street, previously called Coon Hunt Court, was approved by the County Planning Board in September. (Photo by Jon Sham, The Baltimore Sun)
After seven months of petitioning, a group of Columbia, Maryland residents gathered Monday for an official ceremony revealing their neighborhood’s new street name. Coon Hunt Court has now been changed to April Wind Court, the Baltimore Sun reported.
“For more than 175 years, the word ‘coon’ represented racism and bigotry against African-American people,” April Wind Court resident Ambrose Lane Jr. said at the ceremony. “We come here today to right the wrong, to correct the mistake, to continue James Rouse’s vision and dream of an inclusive, neighborly, and multiracial Columbia community.”
Oakland Mills resident Ambrose Lane Jr. tightens the bolt on the newly named April Wind Court on Monday. A name change for the street, previously called Coon Hunt Court, was approved by the County Planning Board in September. (Photo by Jon Sham, The Baltimore Sun)
After seven months of petitioning, a group of Columbia, Maryland residents gathered Monday for an official ceremony revealing their neighborhood’s new street name. Coon Hunt Court has now been changed to April Wind Court, the Baltimore Sun reported.
“For more than 175 years, the word ‘coon’ represented racism and bigotry against African-American people,” April Wind Court resident Ambrose Lane Jr. said at the ceremony. “We come here today to right the wrong, to correct the mistake, to continue James Rouse’s vision and dream of an inclusive, neighborly, and multiracial Columbia community.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JtRl1UBESI&w=560&h=315]
Idols SA first launched in 2002, and eight seasons later, the South African television show, based on the popular British show Pop Idol (the inspiration for the U.S.’ American Idol), finally crowned its first black winner.
Khaya Mthethwa (pronounced KYE-yam-TET-wa), 25, went home with the top honors and a prize package of 1 million South African rand ($114,000 in U.S. dollars) and a recording contract with Universal Music South Africa.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JtRl1UBESI&w=560&h=315]
Idols SA first launched in 2002, and eight seasons later, the South African television show, based on the popular British show Pop Idol (the inspiration for the U.S.’ American Idol), finally crowned its first black winner.
Khaya Mthethwa (pronounced KYE-yam-TET-wa), 25, went home with the top honors and a prize package of 1 million South African rand ($114,000 in U.S. dollars) and a recording contract with Universal Music South Africa.
Sidney Poitier attends the 40th AFI Life Achievement Award honoring Shirley MacLaine held at Sony Pictures Studios on June 7, 2012 in Culver City, California. The AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to Shirley MacLaine will premiere on TV Land on Saturday, June 24 at 9PM ET/PST. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — A bridge in the Bahamas is being renamed to honor Sidney Poitier, who spent part of his childhood in the island chain east of Florida. Prime Minister Perry Christie says the Paradise Island Bridge will be rechristened as part of next month’s 40th anniversary celebration of Bahamian independence. Christie says the 88-year-old film star is being honored because of his life story and diplomacy. Poitier has been Bahamian ambassador to Japan and UNESCO.
The Oscar-winning Poitier was born in the United States but spent much of his childhood on Cat Island, a sparsely populated island in the central Bahamas. The Paradise Island Bridge is the largest in the Bahamas. It connects the capital to the Atlantis resort, one of the region’s top tourist destinations. The renaming was announced Tuesday.
story by The Associated Press via thegrio.com