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Posts tagged as “South Carolina”

HERO: Driver Teresa Stroble Leads 56 Students to Safety from School Bus Fire

By goodblacknews on May 10, 2017

Hero bus driver Teresa Stroble; school bus that caught fire (photos via cbsnews.com)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
South Carolina school bus driver Teresa Stroble is being hailed as a local hero after leading fifty-six students to safety when the vehicle caught fire on Tuesday morning, cbs46.com reports.
Melissa Robinette, a spokesperson for the Spartanburg County School District, said the bus was carrying students to Duncan Elementary, Beech Springs Intermediate, and then eventually to Byrnes High School.
“From what we’ve been able to gather initially, two students seated at the rear of the bus noticed the smoke and notified their driver immediately,” Robinette said.  “She did exactly as trained, reacted quickly and got all kids off the bus safely.  Luckily, no one was injured.”
Superintendent Scott Turner said he was incredibly proud of driver Stroble.  “She is our hero today,” Turner said of the driver. He said Stroble stayed calm, made student safety her first priority, and followed her training.
https://twitter.com/STSpart5/status/861925553569505280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxcarolina.com%2Fstory%2F35378672%2Ffirefighters-respond-to-school-bus-fire-in-spartanburg-co
Read more at: http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/35378672/firefighters-respond-to-school-bus-fire-in-spartanburg-co#ixzz4gjGfQxda
Or: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teresa-stroble-school-bus-driver-hailed-as-hero-56-students-bus-bursts-into-flames/

HBCU South Carolina State University Creates Program for its Dropouts to Finish Degrees at Lower Tuition Rate

By goodblacknews on April 6, 2017

(photo via counton2.com)

article via jbhe.com
South Carolina State University, the historically Black educational institution in Orangeburg, South Carolina, has announced a new effort to get students who had begun studies at the university but had not completed their degree for some reason to come back and complete what they had started.
The Bulldog Academic Resumption Covenant (BARC) Program enables students to complete their degree program through study with the University of Phoenix. Some 2,500 students in 20 degree programs who dropped out between 2010 and 2015 have been invited to join the BARC program.
These students will receive a 50 percent reduction in tuition costs and take online courses through the University of Phoenix that have been approved by the South Carolina State University faculty. These credits can then be used to satisfy degree requirements at South Carolina State. No more than 24 percent of all credits toward the South Carolina State University degree can be taken through the University of Phoenix.
James E. Clark, president of South Carolina State University, said that “the bottom line is we miss our students, and we want them to return home.”
To read more: South Carolina State University Invites Dropouts to Come Home : The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

Yale University to Drop White Supremacist John Calhoun’s Name From Building

By goodblacknews on February 11, 2017

People blocked an intersection during a demonstration on Friday in favor of changing the name of Yale’s Calhoun College. (PETER HVIZDAK / NEW HAVEN REGISTER, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)

article by Noah Remnick via nytimes.com
After a swelling tide of protests, the president of Yale announced today that the university would change the name of a residential college commemorating John C. Calhoun, the 19th-century white supremacist statesman from South Carolina. The college will be renamed for Grace Murray Hopper, a trailblazing computer scientist and Navy rear admiral who received a master’s degree and a doctorate from Yale.
The decision was a stark reversal of the university’s decision last spring to maintain the name despite broad opposition. Though the president, Peter Salovey, said that he was still “concerned about erasing history,” he said that “these are exceptional circumstances.”
“I made this decision because I think it is the right thing to do on principle,” Mr. Salovey said on a conference call with reporters. “John C. Calhoun’s principles, his legacy as an ardent supporter of slavery as a positive good, are at odds with this university.”
Mr. Salovey and the other members of the Yale Corporation, the university’s governing body, made their decision after an advisory committee unanimously recommended the renaming. The school is still determining when exactly the change will be carried out, but Mr. Salovey said it would be by fall at the latest.

R.I.P. Grammy Nominee Sharon Jones of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

By goodblacknews on November 18, 2016
Sharon Jones Dead: Dap Kings Leader
Sharon Jones (PHOTO COURTESY OF TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL)

article by Pat Saperstein via Variety.com
Singer Sharon Jones, the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings who found success after working for years as a prison guard, died Friday of pancreatic cancer, according to her Facebook page. She was 60.
The soul and funk singer was recently the subject of the documentary “Miss Sharon Jones!” directed by Barbara Kopple. Jones released her first album at the age of 40, and was nominated for her first Grammy in 2014 for best R&B album for “Give the People What They Want.”
Born in North Augusta, South Carolina, she moved to Brooklyn as a child. Though she worked sporadically as a session singer, she worked for many years as a corrections officer at Rikers Island and an armored car guard for Wells Fargo Bank.
In 1996, she appeared on a session backing soul singer Lee Fields, recording the song “Switchblade” which appeared on the Soul Providers’ album “Soul Tequila.”
To read more, go to: http://variety.com/2016/music/news/ssharon-jones-dead-dies-dap-kings-1201922559/

Donella Wilson, 107-Year-Old Daughter of a Slave, Ready to Cast Her Vote Once More

By goodblacknews on November 8, 2016
Donella Wilson
Donella Wilson WISTV SCREENSHOT (photo via theroot.com)

article by via theroot.com

Donella Wilson, at 107 years old, has never missed a local or national election since she cast her first vote in the 1940s.  And Wilson, who was born in South Carolina to parents who were former slaves, says she is ready to cast her vote one more time and perhaps make history once again.

“I never thought I would live to see a day like this,” Wilson told WISTV.com. “I’m over 100 years old!”
Wilson has had to struggle some recently to retain her right to vote. She had to secure a new ID and registration card, but now she is ready and prepared for her opportunity to say something, and is heading to the polls, not just to back up her beliefs, but to remember those who came before who fought for the right she currently has.
“We couldn’t spell ‘vote,’” Wilson told the news station. “We didn’t know what the word meant other than we had an opportunity to say something and cast a vote, praying as we go along, that the vote could count to help us as a Negro race.”
Wilson said she remembers President Barack Obama’s historic election, expressing how “proud and thankful” she was to witness it.
And she hopes to witness history once again on Tuesday, saying that she planned to cast her vote for Hillary Clinton.  “I’m looking for her to be our first female president,” she said. “I think it’s an honor, a precious gift from God.”
To read more, go to: http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/11/107-year-old-daughter-of-a-slave-ready-to-cast-her-vote-once-more/

New College Scholarship Program for African American Students to Honor Rev. Clementa Pinckney

By goodblacknews on March 31, 2016

Rev. Clementa Pinckney (photo via postandcourier.com)
Rev. Clementa Pinckney (photo via postandcourier.com)

article via jbhe.com
A group of anonymous donors has endowed a scholarship fund to honor the late Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney. Rev. Pinckney, who was a member of the state Senate in South Carolina, was murdered at the Mother A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, along with eight other parishioners.
The $3.2 million fund will be administered by the Coastal Community Foundation in Charleston. Proceeds from the endowment will fund scholarships for African American college students. The Reverend Pinckney Scholars Program will award scholarships for students in need and provide them with other support services.
Scholarships will range from between $5,000 and $10,000 and will be renewable for up to four years. Preferences will be given to students of substantial financial need, high academic achievers, and those with leadership qualities. Immediate family members of the victims of the massacre at the Mother A.M.E. Church will also be given preference.

BHM: Meet Charles Bolden Jr., Former Astronaut and NASA's 1st Black Administrator

By goodblacknews on February 16, 2016
NASA Administrator and former astronaut Charles Bolden Jr. (photo via blackamericaweb.com)
article by Tonya Pendleton via blackamericaweb.com
Charles Bolden Jr., NASA’s first Black administrator, was nominated for the post in 2009 by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate that same year. Bolden nearly saw his career take another course in the early ’60’s, but he used his connections and a bit of humility to aid his quest to enter the U.S. Naval Academy.
Born August 19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina, Bolden was a football player at C.A. Johnson High School. Bolden was determined to enter the Academy. When he found out that a vice president can nominate anyone to the Academy while the president can only nominate the children of military personnel, he wrote a letter to then V.P. Lyndon B. Johnson to request his nomination.
Bolden saw his dreams dashed in November of 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. With Johnson elevated to president, Bolden moved to request that his state representatives nominate him for the Academy. But the elected officials in South Carolina, including notoriously racist Sen. Strom Thurmond, didn’t endorse Bolden due to his race.
Bolden then contacted Johnson and reminded the sitting president of their earlier correspondence. Eventually, Bolden was nominated by Rep. William Dawson of Chicago and he entered the Academy in 1964. After earning his degree in Electrical Science in 1968, he became an aviator with the U.S. Marine Corps and flew over 100 missions.
The Omega Psi Phi fraternity member earned his master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1977. Two years later, Bolden completed courses at the United States Naval Test Pilot School and was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1980. In 1981, Bolden’s astronaut appointment was official and he flew four space missions between 1986 and 1994.
To read more, go to: http://blackamericaweb.com/2016/02/17/little-known-black-history-fact-charles-bolden-jr/
 

Black History Month: Then and Now in Education with Charlotte Grimké and John B. King Jr.

By goodblacknews on February 10, 2016

Charlotte Forten Grimké (Image: Wikipedia.org)

article by Robin White Goode via blackenterprise.com
For Black History Month, we are honoring pioneers and their heirs apparent.
There are so many black pioneers in the arena of education, but one who stands out is Charlotte Forten Grimké, who was born into an affluent family that had fought for racial equality for generations.
THEN
Charlotte Forten Grimké   (1837-1914)
Charlotte Forten Grimké was the first northern African American schoolteacher to go south to teach former slaves.
Grimké was born in Philadelphia in 1837 into an influential and affluent family. Her grandfather had been an enormously successful businessman and significant voice in the abolitionist movement. The family moved in the same circles as William Lloyd Garrison and John Greenleaf Whittier: intellectual and political activity were part of the air Charlotte Forten Grimké  breathed.
She attended Normal School in Salem, Massachusetts, and began her teaching career in the Salem schools, the first African American ever hired. But she longed to be part of a larger cause, and with the coming of the Civil War Grimké found a way to act on her deepest beliefs. In 1862, she arrived on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, where she worked with Laura Towne.
As she began teaching, she found that many of her pupils spoke only Gullah and were unfamiliar with the routines of school. Though she yearned to feel a bond with the islanders, her temperament, upbringing and education set her apart, and she found she had more in common with the white abolitionists there. Under physical and emotional stress, Grimke, who was always frail, grew ill and left St. Helena after two years.
Today, Grimké is best remembered for her diaries. From 1854-64 and 1885-92, she recorded the life of an intelligent, cultured, romantic woman who read and wrote poetry, attended lectures, worked, and took part in the largest social movement of her time. She was determined to embody the intellectual potential of all black people. She set a course of philosophical exploration, social sophistication, cultural achievement and spiritual improvement. She was, above all, dedicated to social justice.
NOW

John B. King Jr.

John B. King Jr. (Image: Wikipedia.org)

John B. King Jr., (1975–)
John King Jr. is the first person of African American and Hispanic descent to be appointed Acting Secretary of the Department of Education. Previously he was Acting Deputy Secretary, and before that, the first African American and first Puerto Rican to be appointed Commissioner of Education of the State of New York.
Before King assumed these high-profile leadership roles, he was an award-winning teacher, receiving the James Madison Memorial Fellowship for secondary-level teaching of American history, American government, and social studies. He also co-founded a high-performing charter school in Boston, the Roxbury Preparatory Charter School.
King received a B.A. in government from Harvard, a Juris Doctor from Yale, and a Ph.D. in educational administrative practice from Columbia University Teachers College.
Although King was born into a well-educated and accomplished family (his father was the first black principal in Brooklyn, New York; he later became executive deputy superintendent of schools; his grandfather had attended New York University Law School), he experienced devastating loss and instability as a youngster, losing both his parents by the time he was 12. Seeing school and teachers as an anchor, he himself became a teacher and education leader, perhaps living out the potential that Charlotte Forten Grimké foresaw for all people of African descent more than a hundred years earlier.

Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina Pageant Celebrates both Natural Hair and Black Female Entrepreneurs

By goodblacknews on January 26, 2016

2014 and 2015 Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina Pageant Contestants
2014 and 2015 Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina Pageant Contestants (photo via madamenoire.com)

Most beauty pageants claim they’re about celebrating brains and beauty. But the beauty (and body) part often gets a majority of the shine while the brains get whittled to one or two questions on stage.
That’s what best friends Maureen A. Ochola and Jessica E. Boyd hope to change. The two created the Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina pageant, a natural hair celebration also focused on business that’s been disrupting the Southern pageant scene since its 2013 debut in their hometown of Columbia, S.C. It has proven to be a success, so much so that they’re putting on their third exhibition on April 16.
“I had a high-level overview of pageants when we started, and they all seemed to be focused on the just physical aspect,” Ochola said. “What I like about what we’re doing is we’re highlighting natural hair. We take that confidence and add on the business element because that’s really what you need to be successful in business. Confidence.”
The pageant focuses on the beauty of natural hair and the beauty of Black female business owners. Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina started as a program to grow interest and a customer base for the co-founders’ original business idea: a brick-and-mortar natural haircare beauty supply store. They started social media accounts to test their idea first, and the accounts gained popularity.
“The money that it takes to start a store, we really didn’t have,” Boyd said. “We thought: How can we stay relevant and make people continue to be excited until we can get the store open?”
The two chose to think outside the box and celebrate two things they love: natural hair and business. “We thought about a pageant,” Boyd said. “In December of 2013, we announced we would have it.”

Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina Pageant Co-founders Jessica E. Boyd and Maureen A. Ochola
Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina Pageant Co-founders Jessica E. Boyd and Maureen A. Ochola (photo via madamenoire.com)

The organic success of the pageant was a pleasant surprise to Boyd and Ochola. It gave them the initiative to explore the pageant as a legitimate extension of their original idea. It was clear that such celebrations were needed and gaining quite the following.
“After the first pageant, it kind of took off. We sold out of tickets,” Boyd said. “The impact it had on the girls and the community, in general, took on a life of its own. It wasn’t a question. We had to bring it back and do it bigger and better.”
It’s not a surprise that creativity in business is also one of the pageant’s key themes. Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina contestants learn firsthand about entrepreneurship and small business.
“Last year we added a twist: a business pitch idea because that’s essentially what we’re doing,” Ochola said. “Why not introduce that to these girls as well?”

$29 Million-Dollar, Family-Owned Construction Firm Celebrates 30 Years of Business

By goodblacknews on November 30, 2015

10-BE100S-LOUIS-LYNN-LIVE-208x300
ENVIROAg Science, Inc. founders and leaders, The Lynn Family

One of the nation’s largest black-owned companies, ENVIRO AgScience, Inc., is celebrating 30 years of business. The family-owned business has grown from a mom-and-pop landscaping business into a $29 million-dollar construction management and commercial landscaping firm.
In addition to its Columbia, South Carolina, headquarters, ENVIRO has offices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles and is looking to expand its offerings globally. The company is ranked No. 92 on the 2015 BE 100s Industrial/Services List.
ENVIRO is best known for building schools and community centers in the Columbia area, but has also been involved in military structures, jails, mess halls, warehouses, and historic, municipal and airport renovations throughout Georgia and North and South Carolina. Currently, ENVIRO is part of the team helping to build a new minor league baseball stadium, Spirit Communications Park, completing bond referendum projects with the Richland County Recreation Commission and annual grounds maintenance for Richland Two School District.
ENVIRO began as a commercial lawn care business that has grown into a full-service construction and landscape company servicing government, military, schools and universities, along with private sector firms. It was founded by Louis B. Lynn in 1985 after a successful career at one of the nation’s largest agrichemical companies.  With a legacy of business excellence and ownership, including his grandfather, who owned a grocery store and his father, who ran a butcher shop, Lynn also chose the path of entrepreneurship. Lynn has parlayed a ‘golden handshake’ from Monsanto Corporation into a multi-generational, black-owned business.
Earlier this year, ENVIRO executed its succession plan and Lynn assumed the role of chairman, leaving his children to manage daily operations and strategy of the family’s construction management and commercial landscape firm. Now it is the next generation, Lynn’s children, who are spearheading plans to make ENVIRO a multinational company. His daughters Adrienne Lynn Sienkowski, 41 and an engineer, is chief operating officer, and Krystal Conner, 38 and a pharmacist, is CEO. His son, Bryan Lynn, 30, is a facilities manager.