From Black Enterprise -
GET ON THE GOOD FOOT AND MEET THE TALENTED TRIO OF SISTERS TAKING OVER TIKTOK
by Jeroslyn Johnson
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| Instagram |
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
This Couple Spent 60 Years Developing Animated Content For Black Children Around the World
By Black Enterprise Editors
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| Leo Sullivan and Ethelyn O. Stewart Sullivan (BlackNews) |
An excerpt from Readers' Digest -
How to Respond When Someone Says “All Lives Matter”
By Lorna Grisby
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| DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/GETTY IMAGES |
An excerpt from LoveWhatMatters -
This Teacher’s 3-Word System To Help Students Through ‘Bad Days’ Is Empathy At It’s Finest
Edited By Sophia San Filippo
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No matter how big or small, there are just some moments where we could use a little grace. Fourth-grade teacher Rachel Harder recognizes this, and she found an amazing way to help out both her students and their families.
A few years ago, the Kansas teacher attended a trauma conference. She learned that some police stations partner with schools so they can let teachers know when one of their students has a police encounter, something that could cause them to need extra care or attention.
“We loved this idea and figured there had to be a way to make this work within our own classroom community,” Rachel said.
A year after the conference, Rachel had a student with autism who frequently had tough days. To support her, Rachel told the student’s mom to simply text her “handle with care” to let her know when it was going to be one of those days.
An excerpt from Essence -
This Black Woman Master Captain Created A Paint, Sip and Sail Boating Experience
IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT A BLACK WOMAN FILLING A NICHE IN AN OVERWHELMINGLY WHITE LEISURE BOATING MARKET IS MAKING WAVES — LITERALLY.
BY KIMBERLY WILSON
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| CREDIT: NASHAWN TAYLOR |
From the LA Times -
Bruce’s Beach can return to descendants of Black family in landmark move signed by Newsom
BY ROSANNA XIA
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| From left, Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, Sen. Steven Bradford, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn and Anthony Bruce, great-great grandson of Charles and Willa Bruce, during Newsom’s signing of SB 796, authorizing the return of ocean-front land to the Bruce family. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times) |
In a history-making move celebrated by reparations advocates and social justice leaders across California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has authorized the return of property known as Bruce’s Beach to the descendants of a Black couple that had been run out of Manhattan Beach almost a century ago.
Senate Bill 796, signed into law Thursday by Newsom before an excited crowd that had gathered on the property, confirms that the city’s taking of this shorefront land — on which the Bruces ran a thriving resort for Black beachgoers — was racially motivated and done under false and unlawful pretenses.
“The land in the City of Manhattan Beach, which was wrongfully taken from Willa and Charles Bruce, should be returned to their living descendants,” the legislation declares, “and it is in the public interest of the State of California, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Manhattan Beach, and the People of the State of California to do so.”
An excerpt from the Montgomery Advertiser -
Harold Franklin broke through racist barriers as Auburn University's first Black student
By Derryn Moten
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| Dr. Harold Franklin, photographed in 2014 for an Auburn Univerity alumni publication became the university's first Black student when he registered for classes in 1964 under a federal court integration order. Jeff Etheridge / Auburn University |
Harold Franklin graduated from Alabama State College, now University, in the spring of 1962. In the fall of 1963, he made history becoming the first Black student ordered admitted to Auburn University by a federal court. Franklin is to Alabama State University and Auburn University what Autherine Lucy is to Miles College and the University of Alabama.
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U.S. Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall and the U.S. Justice Department joined the complaint against Auburn on behalf of Franklin. This was the administration of U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
Middle District Court of Alabama Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. handed down his opinion on November 5, 1963, three days after Harold Franklin’s thirtieth birthday. Judge Johnson wrote, “. . . the State of Alabama is as much to blame for the plaintiff’s inability to satisfy Auburn’s requirement for admission to its Graduate School as if it had deliberately set out to bar the plaintiff from Auburn because he is a Negro.”
On November 6, 1963, a headline in The Burlington Free Press read, “Wallace Calls Admitting Negro to Auburn ‘A Tragic Decision.’” Governor George Wallace made those remarks at Dartmouth College.
An excerpt from Comicsands -
Pastor Gives Christians Who Claim 'Religious Exemption' From Masks And Vaccines An Epic Bible Lesson
By Mike Walsh
https://www.comicsands.com/pastor-marshall-christian-religious-exemption-2655075172.html
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
MEET THE FORMER HOUSEKEEPER WHO IS NOW THE OWNER OF A 5-STAR LUXURY HOTEL
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
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| Souadou Niang (BlackBusiness.com) |
Meet Souadou Niang, a serial entrepreneur and the owner of Palms Luxury Boutique Hotel in Dakar, Senegal, who used to work as a housekeeper at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the United States.
“I started out cleaning toilets. Today, I am the manager of my own five-star boutique hotel with 60 employees,” Niang told BBC Africa.
Born and raised in Dakar, Niang moved to the U.S. at the age of 18. She went from New York to Washington, DC, where she applied for work at the Ritz-Carlton to help pay for her education.
For 10 years, Niang worked cleaning rooms at the hotel while also studying. Throughout those years, she always kept in mind that she would someday become more successful in the field. Sure enough, she eventually got a job with the management team at the same hotel she started working as a housekeeper.
“I rose through the ranks and that’s where I got the passion. I said one day I will go back to my country and show that luxury and quality of service can be achieved there,” Niang said.
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
Former Goldman Sachs Executive Edith Cooper Elected As Amazon’s Only Black Board Member
By Jeroslyn Johnson
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| Edith Cooper (Amazon) |
An excerpt from Defense One -
Racial Division, Troops’ Role in Protests Has Hurt Minority Recruiting, Air Force Says
Black interest in military service plummeted after the George Floyd protests. Can the Pentagon undo the damage?
By Tara Copp
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| U.S. Air Force basic military graduation Apr. 16, 2020, at the 320th Training Squadron’s Airman Training Complex on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. U.S. AIR FORCE / JOHNNY SALDIVAR |
Years of racial tension, and the use of National Guard troops last June after the death of George Floyd, have hurt the military’s ability to recruit minorities, the head of Air Force recruiting said Wednesday.
That drop is part of a worrisome long-term trend that the military is fighting against: that fewer recruitment-age youth show an interest to serve.
According to the Defense Department’s latest twice-a-year Futures Survey, released in August, the share of eligible youth who reported they have an interest in military service has dropped about two percent overall in the last couple of years, said Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service.
Most concerning, Thomas said, was that “the biggest drop in propensity to serve is from Black males, Hispanic males, and females.”
The percentage of Black respondents who reported an interest in military service dropped from 20 percent in summer 2019 to 11 percent in summer 2020, according to the data. By fall 2020, the percentage of Black respondents interested in military service had dropped to 8 percent.
The percentage of Hispanics reporting an interest in military service dropped from 18 percent to 14 percent over the same time. Interest from recruitment-eligible whites remained steady, from 8 percent in summer 2019 to 9 percent in summer 2020.
“The last couple of years has done damage, there’s no doubt,” Thomas said. “The data shows us that the racial division in our nation has done damage to our recruiting efforts.”
An excerpt from AOL Sports -
J.R. Smith's HBCU journey is a shining example of Black excellence
By SHALISE MANZA YOUNG
J.R. Smith is a two-time NBA champion and a former Sixth Man of the year who earned millions of dollars over the course of his 16 seasons.
When he retired after his second title, with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, he could have done just about anything. Smith had enjoyed a long basketball career, had picked up a serious love of golf, and presumably had the means to travel the world pursuing that passion.
Instead, the 36-year-old, who jumped straight from Newark's famed St. Benedict's Prep to the NBA, entered college.
And not just any college, the largest HBCU in the country: North Carolina A&T.
What's more, he joined the Aggies golf team.
Best of all for the rest of us, he's basically live-tweeting his experience.
https://www.aol.com/sports/j-r-smiths-hbcu-journey-212019497.html
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
BLACK CHEF TURNED ENTREPRENEUR LAUNCHES LINE OF SOUL FOOD STARTER KITS IN GROCERY STORES NATIONWIDE
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
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| Claude Booker (Black News) |
Meet culinary expert and business leader Claude Booker, the CEO and founder of Booker’s Soul Food Starters which are now available in over 1,000 grocery stores across the country. His business providing Southern side dishes for buffets was decimated as a direct result of the pandemic, and most buffets remain closed.
He pivoted his business during the pandemic and went from ideation to grocery store shelves with Booker’s Soul Food Starters in nine months. He did not shy away from his commitments to building a supply chain filled with domestic Black-owned businesses. The partnership with other Black businesses encourages more opportunities for those businesses and allows them to employ other Black Americans.
“When the pandemic hit in 2020, I lost 90% of my hot food and steam table business during the shutdown,” said Claude. “We pivoted and created pantry-ready seasonings for soul food during the pandemic because more people were eating at home. We went from creation to 1,000 stores in the midst of a pandemic.”
Booker’s Soul Food Starters enables any home cook to create the traditional flavors of collard greens, mac and cheese, peach cobbler, and more by adding their own fresh ingredients to the starter. The products are now sold online and in over 1,000 locations nationwide, including at Meijer, Stop & Shop, KeHE, Cost Plus World Market, VW Roses, and Sam’s Club.
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
SENATE PASSES RESOLUTION TO HONOR FIRST BLACK NATIONAL SPELLING BEE FINALIST WHO WAS CHEATED OUT OF POSSIBLE VICTORY
by Ashantai Hathaway
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| Cox (Twitter) |
The U.S. Senate passed a resolution to honor the nation’s first Black National Spelling Bee finalist.
On Thursday, the Senate passed the resolution that would honor MacNolia Cox. In 1936, Cox, just 13-years old, was considered a spelling prodigy with an IQ that was off the charts. Cox was from Akron, Ohio, and became the First Black to qualify as a finalist for the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.
However, getting there was far from easy, and competing was met with racism. Because segregation and Jim Crow laws were still very much in place, Cox and another Black child, 15-year-old Elizabeth Kenny from New Jersey, were forced to travel to the National Spelling Bee in the “colored” car of the train.
The children could not stay at the hotel with the other contestants and were forced to use the back door to enter the Spelling Bee competition.
They also could not sit with the other contestants and instead were told to sit at a card table.
Despite it all, Cox went on to become the first African-American finalist in the Top Five. She was well on her way to win the competition, having thoroughly studied the 100,000 word list given to each speller.
But the judges, who were all white southerners, plotted against Cox and pulled a word that was not on the list.
A. Van Jordan, author of “M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, a book about Cox and the National Spelling Bee, “said that what happened next was a despicable move from the Bee’s judges.
“They pulled a word that was not on that list, and you can’t make this up: the word was nemesis,” Van Jordan said.
