DURHAM, N.C. (WPVI-TV) — The high school football coach whose story inspired many in “Remember the Titans” has died, according to North Carolina Central University officials. He was 84.
Herman “Ike” Boone
Herman “Ike” Boone, a Rocky Mount native, was a double-graduate of North Carolina Central University and NCCU Athletics Hall of Famer.
The cause of death was not immediately released.
As documented in the “Remember the Titans,” Boone was the head football coach at T.C. Williams High School in a racially divided Alexandria, Virginia, in 1971. Boone united and coached the diverse team and turned it into Virginia’s most powerful football team at the time, winning a state championship while navigating the early days of desegregation.
In December 1971, President Richard M. Nixon was quoted as saying “the team saved the city of Alexandria.” Read more via WPVI-TV.
It was freshman orientation at Hampton University in Virginia. As we filled Ogden Hall, student leaders greeted us with chants (“Rock the blue and white!”) to get us hyped for the journey ahead. We had anxious grins and coy smirks as the summer hits of 2014—“Hot Boy” by Bobby Shmurda, “CoCo” by O.T. Genasis—blasted. It was my first time away from home.
Going to an HBCU, or historically black college or university, felt magical. I’d be the first person in my immediate family to get an undergrad degree. Being in a place founded for my ancestors who weren’t allowed or couldn’t afford to attend other institutions gave me a sense of pride. I’m from a single-parent, lower-middle-class home in Petworth and went to predominantly black and Hispanic public schools. My grandmother and aunts have high-school diplomas or associate’s degrees. My mom attended Hampton but dropped out in her sophomore year to have the daughter who’s writing this. In a way, I chose Hampton to finish what she started.
During those first days, I asked classmates why they’d made their choice, and they usually said their parents had gone there or to another HBCU. Sometimes the conversation segued to high-school activities—sports, college-prep programs, their local Jack and Jill chapters. I nodded but, after the third time or so, decided to find out what that was. Once I Googled it, I realized why I hadn’t heard of it: Jack and Jill is an 81-year-old organization with a venerable pedigree in the black community, putting on cultural and educational programs targeted at young people. Or as a classmate said: It’s a club that “bougie” black moms join.
Graduates celebrate their degrees during commencement ceremonies at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., Sunday, May 9, 2010. President Barack Obama addressed the graduates at historically black university on Sunday. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
In other words, I realized, not a club my mom would have joined.
At Hampton, there were kids who sported designer bags and drove expensive cars you’d never see in my DC public school. I imagined that this might have been the first time some of them would be doing their own laundry.
When I’d moved in, I’d seen parents in caps and T-shirts marking them as alums of Hampton or members of the black sororities and fraternities with histories of service. Until then, I’d been oblivious to what I would come to understand as classism in the African American community. All I knew was I felt like an outsider. Not being able to bond through shared experiences can be lonely.
Later that week, we freshmen received a message from our big brothers and big sisters—upperclassmen assigned to help us navigate college: All of the “littles” were to meet at the football stadium for a photo of solidarity commemorating the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, black men who’d died in incidents of police brutality that summer. As we posed, I looked to my left and right and, for the first time, felt in a safe space. I wasn’t thinking about who lived in the suburbs or drove what car. I only saw us uniting for our community. Maybe I had something in common with Jack and Jill after all.
Over my four years, I joined a variety of organizations, including the school’s student leadership program and the National Association of Black Journalists. Eventually, Hampton became my place, too. I also started being honest about my background—and that’s how I found my tribe.
By Hampton tradition, commencement was on Mother’s Day, and 2018 was also the 150th anniversary of the school’s founding. The next day, my mom posted a Facebook photo of my graduation regalia hanging inside our apartment, with the following words: “And this will hang in my house for as long as I see fit.” It’s still there.
This article appears in theNovember 2019 issue of Washingtonian.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced the election of Morgan State University’s Willie E. May, Ph.D. as a 2019 AAAS Fellow. May, who serves as Morgan’s vice president for the Division of Research and Economic Development (D-RED), was among the more than 400 newly elected leading scientists from around the world to have earned the lifetime distinction of AAAS Fellow, in honor of their invaluable contributions to science and technology. Fellows are elected each year by their peers serving on the Council of AAAS, the organization’s member-run governing body, and May was selected for his international leadership in the measurement and standards infrastructure of science and technology.
The honor of being elected an AAAS Fellow began in 1874 and is officially acknowledged with the presentation of a certificate and rosette. Dr. May will receive his certificate and rosette this February in Seattle, Washington during the AAAS Fellows Forum, a part of the Association’s Annual Meeting.
“It is with the deepest gratitude and humility that I accept this appointment as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,” said Dr. May. “I look forward to a continued commitment in support of the global leadership needed in the advancement of measurement standards and science and technology infrastructure.”
As the policymaking body of the AAAS, the Council annually elects Fellows with the expressed intent on preserving the integrity of the Association and the esteemed honor conferred upon those who have been granted fellowship in the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society. Collectively, AAAS Fellows represent an exclusive body of diverse scientific thought-leaders whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.
The 443 newly elected Fellows represent each of AAAS’s 24 sections, from neuroscience and psychology to social, economic and political sciences. The honor recognizes diverse accomplishments, including pioneering research, leadership within a given field, teaching and mentoring, fostering collaborations and advancing public understanding of science.
In order to be considered for the rank of Fellow, an AAAS member must be nominated by three previously elected Fellows, the steering group of an AAAS section, or the organization’s CEO. Nominations go through a two-step review process, with the relevant steering group reviewing nominations in their section and the AAAS Council voting on the final list.
At Morgan, in his role as vice president for D-RED, Dr. May supports research throughout the University and oversees IP and commercialization efforts. He previously served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and as the director of Major Research and Training Activities at the University of Maryland, College Park. His laboratory-based research is described in more than 90 peer-reviewed technical publications. Recently, he was selected to become a member of the Consumer Reports Board of Directors. Dr. May joined the University in May of 2018.
The entire list of all 2019 AAAS Fellows can be viewed online.
About Morgan
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 125 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.
College acceptance letters are being mailed to prospective students just in time for them to celebrate and share the exciting news with their families. Lil Mo’ is among the proud mothers who will be bidding her daughter, Heaven Love’on Stone, a temporary farewell next year as she sends her off to college.
First of all, let us just applaud this young queen for choosing to pursue a college education. Especially when you live a life of glitz and glam, going to college can seem somewhat “unnecessary.”
Lil Mo’ excitedly announces the news via Instagram:
I’ve failed at ALOT of things. But 1 thing you can’t take from ME is that when it comes to MY CHILDREN, they will NOT LOSE nor FAIL!! We not taking no L’s on this side. Congrats to my 1st born HEAVEN, Being accepted into A&T. AGGIE PRIDE!! Major in psych.
-Lil Mo’ (Cynthia Karen Loving)
If she chooses to join the HBCU family, her eldest baby girl Heaven Love’On Stone is going to not only have a plethora of excellent learning opportunities, she’ll be front row to the Greatest Homecoming On Earth (GHOE), at North Carolina A&T State University.
We wonder if Lil Mo will perform at GHOE or any of the numerous concerts and events that happen at NCA&TSU. Pull. Up. Ma! Either way, we’ll be there!
WJAX-TV — Jamee Johnson, the man who was shot and killed in an officer-involved shooting Saturday night, was a former student at Florida A&M University, sources confirmed with Action News Jax.
According to FAMU’s Communications Department, Johnson attended FAMU as a Business Administration major from Fall 2015 to Spring 2019. He was not awarded a degree.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a suspect was killed in an officer-involved shooting northeast of Springfield Saturday evening.
Police said the suspect was shot after a traffic stop turned up a pistol. At first, the suspect cooperated with police, but when officer Garriga tried to arrest him, a struggle started.
The suspect jumped into his car and tried to get away. Read more via WCTV.
EAST GREENSBORO – NCA&TSU Aggies share, Former North Carolina A&T baseball standout Adan Ordonez has been named player development coach for the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system.
Ordonez was a four-year starter for N.C. A&T from 2015-2018 and played for the Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers of the United Shore Professional Baseball League last season.
“Really happy for Adan and his opportunity to work in baseball,” said N.C. A&T coach Ben Hall. “He will do an outstanding job with the Phillies in his new role. It truly fits his personality. He was a tireless worker here and always displayed care to help others develop.”
During his time as an Aggie, Ordonez racked up the accolades that included Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Rookie of the Year, Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and N.C. A&T Male Rookie Athlete of the Year. Read more via North Carolina A&T State University Athletics.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The nation‘s historically black colleges and universities are pushing for President Donald Trump to set aside more federal contracts and grants for their schools, and take a greater hand in their welfare by moving responsibility for a key program for those colleges to the White House.
The presidents of the nation‘s 100-plus HBCUs, pressing their case for greater attention from the new Republican-controlled government, met with Trump briefly in the Oval Office and later with Vice President Mike Pence. On Tuesday, they planned to meet with GOP lawmakers.
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn upon arrival at the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, after attending the casualty return at Dover Air Force Base, Del., for the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack in Syria. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“Know that beginning today, this administration is committed to ensuring that historically black colleges and universities get the credit and the attention they deserve,” Pence said after the meeting. “Our administration at the president‘s direction is working to find new ways to expand your impact so that more students, especially in the underserved communities of this country, have a chance at a quality education.”
The college presidents, as well as the United Negro College Fund, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and other HBCU advocates, planned to express their support for migrating the White House Initiative on HBCUs from the Education Department to the White House itself.
Such a move would give the initiative “greater impact for our institutions,” said Johnny Taylor, head of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, a nonprofit organization that has supported public historically black colleges and universities since 1987.
“Anything that the Trump administration could do to channel more federal dollars in form of grants and contracts to and through the HBCUs would really benefit our institutions and in many cases, our communities, as well,” said Mickey L. Burnim, president of Bowie State University, in Bowie, Md.
Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, who donated $250,000 to his alma mater, South Carolina State University, said Monday night: “When you have it in the White House, you have that creditability, that weightiness that goes with it.”
Everyone’s favorite female rapper Missy Elliot is back, dropping a new Drip Demeanor video that features “The Divine Nine” entertaining the audience with their steps and strolls.
We’re here for it!
You can check out the video below. Let us know what you think and leave a comment.
You could tell the story of Lamba Tau Omega through numbers. $25,000 in scholarships for African-American youth. 700 pairs of eyeglasses donated. 230 cases of water sent to the Bahamas. 400 non-perishable items donated to Rich Township Food Pantry.
Even with those impressive figures, the story of LTO rests on the shoulders of the 256 members, the local women who dedicate their time and resources to giving back to the community in the name of sisterhood.
A large mission made local Lambda Tau Omega is the local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, an international organization comprising 300,000 members, according to the AKA website. AKA was established in 1908 by nine female undergraduate students at Howard University in Washington D.C.
An AKA Lambda Tau Omega Chapter member sews a pillowcase shirt to donate as part of the group’s 2019 MLK Day of Service activities.
“It was the first sorority for college educated African-American females. Because, of course, we weren’t allowed to join the others,” said Marilyn Hamb, president of LTO and an AKA member since her freshman year at Northwestern University.
Hamb later graduated with a degree in chemistry; she went on to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Illinois Institute of Technology and worked at IBM for 33 years until her recent retirement.
Joining AKA was an outlet for finding community and a sense of cultural camaraderie. As a new college student in a predominantly white institution, “the music at a dance wasn’t what I would listen to or dance to,” Hamb said.
Joining AKA allows African-American women to socialize, connect and network. However, from its founding, Hamb said AKA was conceived as an organization focused on providing service and promoting scholarly achievement.
AKA now boasts nearly 400 undergraduate chapters at colleges and universities, mostly concentrated in the eastern United States.
“As the women graduated from college, they wanted to continue to serve, so they created graduate chapters,” Hamb said. “All of our members are college educated, graduated professionals.”
These members comprise nearly 600 chapters, located in more varied areas of the country than their undergraduate chapters, reflecting the movement of AKA members as they become working professionals and influencers around the country.
Several chapters operate in the South Suburbs, including LTO, which has members from Homewood, Flossmoor and several surrounding towns.
“We serve the community in which we live, and we’re very proud of that,” said Hamb, a Homewood resident.
More Than Basketball, the brand, was founded in 2009, by then 21-year-old Arize Ifejika and it is set to release its next film “Wicked Jumpshot” on December 16.
Over the last 10 years Ijefika’s company has produced short films, docuseries, web series, documentaries, event recaps and more!
The company shares, “we have long believed that the games of basketball has always been about more than what happens on the court. It’s a culture, a lifestyle, a tool for life lessons, an art, a business and most importantly a means to unite people from all different walks of life. The platform that is created from our events has allowed us to leverage the other verticals of our business!”
The Undefeated Players pictured with Arize Ijefika, center
The decade-old company is just getting started and has been featured in ESPN’s “Undefeated,” The Washington Post and Channel 8 News.
Wicked Jumpshot features basketball stars such as Quinn Cook, Isaiah Thomas, John Wall, Carmelo Anthony, Kyle Anderson, Jayson Tatum, Max Kellerman and Wayno. The film explores a dynamic relationship between basketball players, their love for the game and a conflicting resistance to the environment around them, often being drug and gun related. The official trailer says,
“The relationship between the rapstar, the trapstar and the hooper it’s nothing new; whether in the booth, on the court, or on the Ave… it all begins in the neighborhood.
Watch the official trailer:
The company More Than Basketball consists of 6 verticals:
Elite Youth Basketball Events
Film & Media
Technology
Merchandising & Apparel
Public Speaking
Community Outreach.
Learn more about Arize Ifejika, More Than Basketball and its latest press and projects at morethanbasketball.com.
Source: University of Maryland Police & Facebook / University of Maryland Police & Facebook
According to WJLA, Prince George’s County prosecutors are saying Sean Urbanski
killed Collins, who was visiting UMD’s campus, because Urbanski was
biased against Black people. Meanwhile, the defense seems to be playing
the old white sympathy card, saying Urbanski was drunk and upset about
his friends graduating a year ahead of him.
Prosecutors kicked off the trial Wednesday, telling jurors that Urbanski had “poisoned” his mind beginning in 2016 with offensive humor and racist imagery. They argued that when he saw newly commissioned Army 2nd Lt. Richard Collins with a white man and an Asian woman at a University of Maryland bus stop, he carried out a targeted, premeditated murder.
They directly said in court that Urbanski “killed Collins for no reason other than he was Black.” The evidence they cited included racist memes on his phone and his apparent Facebook membership to a racist White Supremacist group called “Alt-Reich: Nation.” Read more via Newsone.
In a report shared by the Government Accountability Office: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) educated more than 226,000 African-American students pursuing a college degree in 2017.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) worked with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to foster entrepreneurship, primarily through its Small Business Development Center program (which provides counseling and training), strategic alliance memorandums, and co-sponsorship agreements.
Two HBCUs—Howard University and the University of the Virgin Islands—have hosted SBDC “lead centers” since the 1980s. SBA also signed at least 35 strategic alliance memorandums with HBCUs and at least 16 co-sponsorship agreements in 2013–2018.
Rep. Frederica Wilson is an politician, but one may questions if she is also an educator, because she schooled Secretary of Education, DeVos.
Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida is a proud graduate of Fisk University. Earlier this week, Wilson posed many questions for Secretary Betsy DeVos… many of which received no substantive answer.
Watch the entire video:
Rep. Frederica Wilson to Betsy DeVos: "I've had some honest disagreements with my friends in the Republican party about how to move education forward but I've never, not one time, believed that they were out to destroy public education until I met you." pic.twitter.com/GYQnk3XDGP
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is running for president, introduced a bill Thursday that would invest billions more dollars in affordable housing and other initiatives to prevent homelessness.
The “Ending Homelessness Act,” which was co-sponsored by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would give an additional $13.27 billion over five years to create an estimated 400,000 affordable housing units.
The funds would go to supportive housing, including homeless shelters and transitional housing, as well as housing vouchers for low-income families and local outreach services to homeless residents.
“Too many people don’t have a safe place to call home. We must act quickly to tackle our country’s homelessness crisis head on,” Harris said in a news release. “The women and men who woke up this morning on a bench or under an overpass cannot afford to wait.”
The lack of affordable housing is a nationwide crisis, and California has one of the highest rates of homelessness. On any given day in January 2018, more than 500,000 people were homeless in the U.S., according to a federal report.
Nearly a quarter of the nation’s homeless residents live in California. In the past two years, homelessness has spiked in Los Angeles, parts of which Waters represents, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where Harris is from and had served as district attorney.
WASHINGTON, DC — McDonald’s launched the Round Up for RMHC campaign to make it easier than ever for customers to donate to the Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Round Up is an exciting initiative that embraces the holiday spirit of giving all year long. When customers make a purchase at McDonald’s, they are presented with the option to “round up for charity,” and donate the change left to form a full dollar, to The Ronald McDonald House Charities. According to McDonald’s website there are also other ways you can give. “Every time you buy a Happy Meal®, we donate a penny to support RMHC programs and services, including Ronald McDonald House®, Ronald McDonald Family Room® and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile®.”
Attendees were able to order their lunch and try out the new kiosks to round up for charity. Team members from healthcare partner, MedStar, Division Chief of Community Pediatrics at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Dr. Janine Rethy and Program Administrator, Community Pediatric Joanne Odom also guided attendees on a personal tour inside the surprisingly spacious and doctors office-reminiscent mobile unit, showing how they administer services to patients:
The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile is a mobile unit that brings medical, dental and health care resources to under-served communities. Many of these underserved neighborhood are home to the nation’s historically black colleges and universities. In the Greater Washington area, a partnership with MedStar was established in 1992, providing excellence and quality care. There are over 38 Ronald McDonald Care Mobile programs in the U.S.
The Hudson family shared their appreciation for the Ronald McDonald House. With tears in her eyes, Kristie shared testimony of how it impacted her family. Kristie and Kevin do not have access to specialized pediatric care where they live in Delaware so they had no choice but to travel. After driving 3 hours each day to Washington DC so their then one-year-old son Merrick could receive medical care he needed, it was not feasible to drive another 3 hours to return to their home. The Hudson’s were able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House which is about 5 minutes away from the hospital, free of charge! This is why programs like RMHC are so important!
The Hudson family stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Northeast DC.
In the DC, Maryland and Virginia area alone, McDonald’s owners/operators and customers have donated more than $13.5million to the RMHC-DC over the last 20 years. This is a substantial amount, but last year McDonald’s saw a 15% drop in the amount of spare change collected in its RMCH Donation Boxes inside the restaurants. Now customers can create change without a single coin!
The House has reached several impressive milestones, last year funding care for the families of more than 10,000 children and covering care costs for more than 884 family members of sick children at RMHC-DC.
McDonalds’ team members including Angele Busch of McDonald’s Brand Reputation and Julia More of Lee St. PR Agency along with owners and operators Isaac Green, Carlos Mateos Jr. and Bryan Cleghorn showed their support by attending.
Green shares, “. . .we as McDonald’s, by using technology to our advantage, give the customer an opportunity to give back and help donate to the Ronald McDonald House. It may not be you today, but it could be you tomorrow that has a child that may need to utilize the Ronald McDonald House in the future.”
Ronald McDonald House Charities, Greater Washington executives were also in attendance, VP of Development and Marketing Sarah Quillen and Asst. Director of Marketing and Communications, Rachel Taninecz, smiling as big as the smiley faces on happy meals.
The weather may have been a bit rainy outside, but the with all of the cheer and excitement in the air, the forecast inside the restaurant was 100% sunny and very warm.
Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer speaks at Allen University in Columbia on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. Jamie Lovegrove/Staff
COLUMBIA — Jamie Lovegrove of The Post and Courier reports, Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer on Tuesday proposed investing $125 billion over 10 years in historically black colleges and universities as he works to gain ground in the early-voting primary state of South Carolina.
By spending millions
of his own personal fortune on the campaign, the billionaire former
hedge fund manager and longtime liberal activist has risen from a
little-known outsider to become a credible contender in the polls and a
fixture on the Democratic debate stages.
His HBCU proposal would also promote studies in innovation, foster community partnerships and establish a Board of Regents to oversee all 101 institutions nationwide — eight of which can be found in the Palmetto State.
Steyer sat down with The Post and Courier to talk more about his proposal and campaign. The following transcript has been edited and condensed.
Why do you believe it is important to spend this much money on HBCUs?
These are institutions that were designed specifically to combat historic racism and prejudice, that do fulfill those roles and that have been starved for capital. If you take a look, they have seen 42 percent of their federal funding disappear from 2003 to 2015. These are schools that have relied traditionally disproportionately on tuition. So we have the poorest people with institutions that don’t have great state support or equivalent state support, don’t have great federal support and don’t have huge endowments. So they’ve really been struggling economically at the same time that they’re at least as critical as they’ve ever been in terms of offering that opportunity to low-income African Americans. So it’s really important that these institutions for a variety of reasons be supported and strengthened. Read more via The Post and Courier.
