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Posts tagged as “HBCU”

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Harlem Renaissance Visionary Aaron Douglas – “The Father of African American Art” (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Learn About Harlem Renaissance Visionary Aaron Douglas – “The Father of African American Art” (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 23, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Wednesday, February 23 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 and offers a quote from renowned Harlem Renaissance artist and arts educator Aaron Douglas:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today we offer a quote from Kansas-born artist and arts educator Aaron Douglas:

“Labor has been one of the most important aspects of our development . . .  It is a thing that we should be proud of, because we have that part of our life that has gone into the building of America. Not only of ourselves, but in the building of American life.”

As a young artist in the 1920s, Douglas illustrated Alain Locke’s The New Negro: An Interpretation as well as James Weldon Johnson’s collection of poems, God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. Douglas established an expressive, geometric style that drew upon his study of African art and his understanding of the intersection of cubism and art deco.

Douglas created a style that soon became the visual signature of the Harlem Renaissance and earned him the moniker “The Father of African American Art.”

Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers by Aaron Douglas, 1934 (courtesy nypl.org)

Douglas went on to paint several public murals including the Aspects of Negro Life mural series at the Countee Cullen branch of the New York Public Library, which is still there today.

Douglas influenced artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, and he schooled countless others while serving as chair of the art department and HBCU Fisk University for over 25 years.

To learn more about Douglas’ life and work, you could read the 1995 biography Art, Race and the Harlem Renaissance by Amy Helene Kirschke, take a look at several of his works on wikiart.org, watch the New York Met’s video about his work on YouTube and check out the links to other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

Sources:

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

(paid links)

HBCU Talladega College Receives Anonymous $2.5 Million Donation to Support Student Scholarships

HBCU Talladega College Receives Anonymous $2.5 Million Donation to Support Student Scholarships

By goodblacknews on December 12, 2021

Talladega College in Alabama recently received an anonymous and historic donation of $2.5 million in support of student scholarships.

With these funds, the HBCU plans to expand its ‘Angel Award’ scholarship program which will tremendously impact the lives of current and incoming students.

“These funds will enable us to continue our path of success and our unwavering journey to remain an institution of excellence,” said Dr. Lisa Long, acting president of Talladega College. “Our mission is to equip our graduates for the global community through academic excellence, moral values, community service, and professional development.”

Earlier this year in August, the College received an anonymous donation of $250,000, which was used to create the ‘Angel Award.’ This scholarship has provided financial assistance to nearly 100 students who were facing economic struggles.

According to Long, she is not certain about the identity of the College’s ‘angel in disguise,’ but she is exceedingly grateful for their generosity.

“Our College’s most important asset is our people,” said Long. “This donation is yet another validation that we’re on the right track with facilitating the needs of our students.”

The College also recently cleared $925,666 in debt for students with balances for the terms of Spring 2020 through Summer 2021, and was recently ranked in the top 100 most affordable public administration colleges.

Talladega College is Alabama’s first private historically black liberal arts college, and has been known for academic excellence for over 150 years.

ABOUT TALLADEGA COLLEGE
The mission of Talladega College is to equip its graduates for the global community through academic excellence, moral values, community service, and professional development. The campus is on a plateau about 700 feet above sea level in the heart of a fertile valley in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a quiet place – away from the distractions and fast pace of urban living, yet conveniently close to neighboring cities that offer extensive cultural and entertainment outlets as well as shopping, restaurants, and theaters. The college is just 25 miles south of the city of Anniston, Alabama, 50 miles east of Birmingham, Alabama, 85 miles north of Montgomery, Alabama, and 100 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia. The College has an aggressive tradition of bringing the world to Talladega via workshops, forums, and lectures presented by acclaimed artists, scientists, and political, business, and civic leaders. 

[Photo: Courtesy of Talladega College]

Designer Debra L. Mars Offers HBCU Santas and Black Nutcrackers for the Holidays

Designer Debra L. Mars Offers HBCU Santas and Black Nutcrackers for the Holidays

By goodblacknews on November 26, 2021

Designer and long-time Black Santa collector Debra L. Mars has added her own contribution to the canon by partnering with several HBCUs to offer Black Santas this holiday season.

The Inglewood, CA resident and entrepreneur has created Black Santas repping Howard University, Morehouse College, Grambling and FAMU, in addition to offering Black nutcrackers, Santa-themed bracelets and other holiday swag through her etsy.com store, Restore The Hope.

Mars, who has worked in marketing and supplier diversity for Frito-Lay, began collecting Black Santas over 35 years ago.

“I traveled the country and would pick them up whenever I saw them, especially in the Southern states,” Mars said. “My fascination came about when I reflected on how my mother only had one childhood toy; it was a white doll that looked nothing like her—that was triggering for me.”

Debra L. Mars (photo courtesy Debra L. Mars)

Designing and selling Black Santas is about more than the bottom line for Mars.”[It’s] more about storytelling than the product itself. They are designed as triggers to hopefully remind people what a precious gift they are to this world,” Mars said.

“The Santa to me is symbolic of spiritual gifts and talents rather than what’s in the box under the tree. It saddens me that so many people feel worthless and undervalued. That is why our branding tagline for the Black Santa Cause Collective is ‘unwrap your gifts’.”

Mars also has a goal to align and partner with other creators to tell the Santa “Cause” story.

“I am most proud of a woman I found who is exclusively making Black Santa leather bracelets for our line,” Mars stated. “Each one is hand crafted and features a lighter skinned and darker skinned Black Santa in the design to communicate the variety of melanin in the African American race. This alliance with her has created a stream of supplemental income for her and more importantly, a clear validation of her gifts and talents.”

Even though she’s had to work through several obstacles and supply chain challenges, Mars feels she is finally dwelling in her passion.

“This dream was planted in me over 25 years ago to create this line. This has been a master class on perseverance. Having the opportunity to represent our sacred jewels: The HBCUs is an honor that I do not take lightly,” Mars said.

“When I did the research on the game changers that attended these iconic institutions from Thurgood Marshall to Kamala Harris to Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, I am so proud and a little remorseful that I did not attend a HBCU.”

Clinton College, a South Carolina HBCU, Offers Full-Time Students Free Tuition

Clinton College, a South Carolina HBCU, Offers Full-Time Students Free Tuition

By goodblacknews on August 22, 2021

Clinton College, a small historically Black college (HBCU) located in Rock Hill, South Carolina is offering all full-time students free tuition for the upcoming 2021-22 academic year.

According to the Associated Press, Clinton College President Lester McCorn announced in early August that qualifying full-time students could attend at no cost for tuition.

The College had earlier committed to slash fall tuition by 50 percent for its students, and offer every student a new tablet, but with the continued financial strain of the pandemic, decided to do away with tuition altogether.

“It has been taxing for each and everyone of us,” McCorn said of the pandemic. “At Clinton College, we have done our best to keep the school moving forward and providing a quality education, even in a virtual environment.”

The cost of tuition for full-time students is listed as  $4,960 per semester, while a full year costs $9,920. Vaccinated students are permitted to live on campus and will still be responsible for the costs of room and board. Those who attend full-time and live off campus can take their courses online free of charge.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna1662

HBCU Lincoln University Now Offers Law Enforcement Training Academy With Goal of Community-Based Policing

HBCU Lincoln University Now Offers Law Enforcement Training Academy With Goal of Community-Based Policing

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2021

Lincoln University in Missouri has become the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to train police recruits on campus at the Lincoln University Law Enforcement Training Academy (LULET) established earlier this year.

Led by Lincoln University police chief Gary Hill, the program allows its students to spend their final semester at the university doing full-time police training, in addition to viewing and analyzing bodycam and cellphone footage of incidents as part of the curriculum.

According to time.com, the program runs for 22 weeks on evenings and Saturdays. Students learn how to shoot a firearm and when to use force, as well as how to respond to domestic-violence and child-abuse calls and how to deal with death encountered on the job.

Hill says the academy steers away from the military-style teaching methods that traditional police academies have been criticized for using. He says a chunk of the curriculum focuses on de-escalation strategies and that he has personally vetted the instructors, who are all local law-enforcement officers.

A new study published this February in the journal Science found that Black and Hispanic officers use force less frequently than white officers, especially against Black people, evidence that diversity can improve police treatment of communities of color.

To watch an MSNBC segment on the academy, click below:

Learn more:

Robert F. Smith to Donate $50 Million to Support STEM Students at HBCUs Via the Student Freedom Initiative

Robert F. Smith to Donate $50 Million to Support STEM Students at HBCUs Via the Student Freedom Initiative

By goodblacknews on October 22, 2020

The Student Freedom Initiative announced today a $50 million personal gift from Robert F. Smith, philanthropist and Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. This gift matches the initial funding of $50 Million provided by the Fund II Foundation, announced in June 2020.

Student Freedom Initiative is a public charity whose mission is to serve as a catalyst for freedom in professional and life choices for students attending Minority Serving Institutions.

The Initiative will offer a student and family centric income-contingent payment alternative to the crushing burden of high cost, fixed payment debt in the context of our commitment to a program that provides holistic support to students and capacity building support for participating institutions. Equally important, the Initiative offers paid internships in a student’s area of study, tutoring/mentorships, and targeted HBCU capacity building.

“Each year, thousands of black graduates from HBCUs across America enter the workforce with a crushing debt burden that stunts future decisions and prevents opportunities and choices,” said Robert F. Smith, who is also the Board Chair of the Student Freedom Initiative.

“A college education should empower and prepare our next generation for a limitless future. The Student Freedom Initiative is a culmination of work that followed my gift to the Morehouse College Class of 2019. The $1.6 trillion student debt crisis in our country is a human rights crisis. The Initiative is purposefully built to redress historic economic and social inequities and to offer a sustainable, scalable platform to invest in the education of future Black leaders. I urge others to join this important cause so that together we can liberate the human spirit.”

With 65% of Black wealth consumed by the intolerable burden of student debt, the Initiative was initially established to create onramps to jobs of the 21st century. Following Smith’s historic gift to eliminate the student debt of all 2019 Morehouse College graduates and their parents, the team identified the systemic problems with the current student loan structure.

Delta Sigma Theta Helps Create Anna Pearl Barrett Memorial Scholarship at Texas Southern University for Students to Study Abroad

By goodblacknews on February 20, 2020
Source: Nell Reed / Delta Sigma Theta

Anna Pearl Barrett, an alumna of Texas Southern University, along with the Houston Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta are creating new opportunities for students to study abroad in the future.

According to blackamericaweb.com, the sorority presented TSU with $150,500 from Barrett’s bequest to DST, which Texas Southern University’s Foundation matched to create one of the HBCU’s largest endowments: the Anna Pearl Barrett Houston Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Memorial Endowed Scholarship.

To quote Black America Web:

The $301,000 investment will financially assist students who desire to study in other countries and happens to fulfill one of the goals of International Awareness and Involvement, part of DST’s Five-Point Programmatic Thrust.

Barrett, a career educator who passed in 2014, was the first TSU exchange student to study in Spain. The school’s study abroad program began its initial journey to Tanzania in 2001 and today, more than 100 students travel abroad every year, per Gregory Maddox, Ph.D., Dean of the Graduate School and Director of International Programs.

The scholarship helps raise the profile of studying abroad. According to the Institute of International Education, undergrad students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities participate in study abroad programs at lower rates than their counterparts across the U.S.

The Anna Pearl Barrett Memorial Endowed Scholarship was celebrated with a reception hosted earlier this month at TSU and attended by more than 200 Deltas as well as Barrett’s relatives, Mayor Sylvester Turner, TSU Acting President Ken Huewitt, TSU Vice President of University Advancement Melinda Spaulding, and a representative from the Office of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

To read more: https://blackamericaweb.com/2020/02/20/delta-sigma-theta-gift-creates-301000-endowed-scholarship-at-texas-southern-university-2/

Tech Investor Arlan Hamilton to Fund Scholarships for Black Students at Oxford & Dillard Universities

By goodblacknews on December 4, 2019
Arlan Hamilton (photo via backstagecapital.com)

According to USA TODAY, technology investor and entrepreneur Arlan Hamilton is funding a brand new scholarship for black undergraduate students at Oxford University in the U.K., a first for the world-renown educational institution.

To quote the article:

The scholarship, partly named for Hamilton’s mother, will cover fees and living costs for one undergraduate student a year for three years beginning in 2020. The value of the scholarship fund is about £220,000 (or nearly $300,000), Oxford said.

Hamilton is a former music tour manager without a college degree who bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco with the goal of backing underrepresented entrepreneurs. She was so broke that she met with tech investors by day and slept on the floor of the San Francisco airport at night until one of them cut her a check.

Today she runs Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm that backs women, minority and LGBTQ founders who are overlooked by Silicon Valley and reflects Hamilton’s determination to overcome the complex set of biases and barriers that begin in preschool and persist in the workplace that keep women and people of color from gaining equal access to some of the nation’s highest-paying jobs.

Howard University Partners With Amazon Studios to Promote Diversity in Entertainment Industry

By goodblacknews on November 7, 2019

According to jbhe.com and deadline.com, Howard University and Amazon Studios have announced the launch of Howard Entertainment, a program designed to diversify the entertainment industry by creating a pipeline for African-American students and other under-represented populations to train and study with entertainment executives.

The Howard Entertainment program will be an immersive two-semester experience located in Los Angeles, California, that offers Howard students the opportunity to take academic courses during the spring semester and participate in a fellowship in the entertainment industry during the summer semester.

The coursework will be applied toward the student’s graduation requirements and the fellowship provides much needed hands-on experience and an opportunity to make invaluable networking connections.

“The vision of Howard Entertainment is to offer a one-of-a-kind experience for students interested in all aspects of entertainment, from project greenlighting, to PR and marketing, to entertainment law and finance,” said Wayne A. I. Frederick, president of Howard University. “This relationship aligns with Howard’s strategic goals of enhancing academic excellence and inspiring new knowledge.

Collaborating with Amazon Studios will enable us to marry academia and industry efforts to build a robust workforce of diverse entertainment industry leaders. With Howard’s proven track record of developing some of Hollywood’s most notable actors, comedians and musicians, this next-level collaboration will enable us to have even greater impact.”

To qualify, students must be enrolled as a Howard University student, must be an upperclassman or graduate student and will have to complete an application and interview to be considered for the program.

Students will be taught by Howard faculty who will be supported by Amazon Studios employees and other industry professionals invited by Amazon. This will give students to work in projects that offer “real world” application and will help students develop “work ready” skills prior to graduating.

The new program is scheduled to begin with the Spring 2020 semester.

Oprah Winfrey Donates $13 million to Morehouse College

By goodblacknews on October 8, 2019
Oprah Winfrey at Morehouse (photo via twitter.com)

According to cnn.com, Oprah Winfrey now has the largest endowment ever at all-male HBCU Morehouse College in Atlanta after donating $13 million.

Winfrey visited Morehouse on Monday for the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, the release said. The program started in 1989 and the fund stands at $12 million. Monday’s donation of $13 million pushed her total investment to $25 million.

“Seeing you young Oprah Winfrey scholars here today has moved me deeply,” Winfrey said Monday before announcing her donation. “I am so proud of you, I’m proud of everybody in attendance at this school who is seeking to know more clearly who you are, the value you hold and how you will share that value with the rest of the world.”

Winfrey’s donation comes after billionaire Robert Smith promised to pay off the student loan debt of the 2019 Morehouse graduates in May. Smith donated $34 million to the school last month, making good on his promise.

“I’m grateful to Oprah Winfrey for her generosity,” said Morehouse President David A. Thomas. “I am also feeling hopeful for Morehouse and what it has garnered in terms of philanthropic support with gifts like Oprah’s and Robert Smith’s. I am hopeful that this will also get others to step up with their support of Morehouse, but even more broadly, historically black colleges and universities.”

To read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/us/oprah-winfrey-morehouse-donation-trnd/index.html