Award-winning rapper and actor Common has partnered with Burlington Stores to give away coats for the holidays. For more than a decade, Burlington customers donate new and gently worn coats to their local Burlington store. This year, the Oscar-winning actor along with his Common Ground Foundation launched the campaign in his hometown of Chicago.
“As a caring company, our Coat Drive is part of our heritage and Burlington is pleased to give back to those in need within our local store communities. Over the past 12 years, we’ve collected more than 2.2 million coats to help our neighbors stay warm. To launch this year’s campaign, we are thankful to be joined by Common and students from his Foundation, as well as our long-standing partner Delivering Good,” said Michael O’Sullivan, CEO of Burlington Stores in a press release. “We look forward to continuing our tradition of keeping people warm.”
All donated coats are distributed to those in need of warmth within store communities. Customers who donate a coat receive 10% off their entire Burlington purchase through January 20, 2020.
“I am committed to supporting and uplifting the people of Chicago through any way possible. The Common Ground Foundation has been one of the greatest and most impactful ways to give back to my hometown. I am excited to team up with Burlington and Delivering Good and bring it home so that we can give Chicagoans a sense of hope, keep them warm and make a difference in their lives, “ said Common.
“Coats are one of, if not, the most, important products we receive at Delivering Good. For many, getting a coat during the colder months is a matter of life and death. Every year, through our partnership with Burlington Stores, we provide tens of thousands of coats to people who need them most. It is an honor to work with the Burlington team and this year, with Common Ground Foundation, to ensure that children and families receive the warmth they need, and a sense of hope during the holiday season, which can be a challenging time for so many,” said Lisa Gurwitch, president and CEO of Delivering Good.
This post was written by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton, a writer at Black Enterprise, where it was originally published. It is published here with permission.
Howard University Grad, Kamala Harris dropped her presidential campaign on Tuesday after months of failing to lift her candidacy from the bottom of the field — a premature ending for a California senator once heralded as a top-tier contender for the nomination; says Christopher from Politico.
She wants to make one thing clear:
” And I want to be clear: although I am no longer running for President, I will do everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump and fight for the future of our country and the best of who we are. ”
Kamala Harris
To my supporters, it is with deep regret—but also with deep gratitude—that I am suspending my campaign today.
But I want to be clear with you: I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the People. All the people.https://t.co/92Hk7DHHbR
And that’s what I have tried to do every day of this campaign. So here’s the truth today.
I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life.
My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue.
I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.
Starting off beating on his ABC blocks as a baby and just naturally growing into drumming, 5-year-old Jeremiah Travis just discovered that he has received a full band scholarship to Alcorn State University, when he graduates from high school in 13 years.
“To know that he is five and has a full scholarship made me feel so good. I am just amazed at his playing level with him being so young,” his mother, Nicole Jackson said, speaking to USA Today about her son’s scholarship.
The kindergarten is also a snare drummer in the band at St. Helena College and Career Academy in Greensburg, Louisiana and gets to play everyday in a group with band members who are at least 10 years older than him.
“He’s 5 years old but he’s always working on his skills. Any free time in the band room or when we go on break, he’s drumming on the floor, getting other drummers to come and just asking them ‘can we play, can we play,’” Chesteron Frye, the band director at St. Helena College and Career Academy.
We hope that this prodigy seizes his opportunity for a full ride at Alcorn State and we’re looking forward to his progress.
Brown skin. Black thought. Afrofuturistic brilliance, building, and belonging. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are not replicas of the institutions that many Black children have been taught to strive toward; no, they offer another way of existing in the world. They offer nurturing and respite from a white supremacist world gnashing its teeth to eat Black children up and spit them out broken, bruised, and bloodied.
Of course, there are still issues of class hierarchy and the need to destroy the Talented Tenth logic that would have some Black people thinking that a degree places them above their communities, instead of better positioning them to be of service to them. Still, HBCUs were conceived in love, revolution, and resistance. They are brick and mortar responses to the miseducation of the negro; the sustaining evidence that Black people have always attempted to decolonize education—to tell the truths that the U.S public school system tries to keep hidden.
“There are over 100 HBCUs, and there used to be more—big ones, small ones, private ones, and public ones, ones with more bougie reputations, ones with more ratchet reps, ones with more country reps, liberal arts, as well as technical/mechanical. Some are big on athletics, and some not,” J. Ama Mantey, Ph.D., an environmental justice policy professional, tells ESSENCE.
“There is an HBCU for every Black child based on their educational desires and goals, personality, and what they look for in a campus climate. As flawed as they can be, HBCUs literally were made to nurture and grow Black people. ALL Black people,” Mantey, who earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and doctorate from Meharry Medical College, continued. “And, if you as a Black person (from anywhere) don’t feel welcome anywhere else in this world, know that HBCUs are for you, even if you have to take and make the space for your version of Blackness. Like, for real, add it to the HBCU cultural rolodex, so others can learn to love and appreciate it, too.”
“I spent K-12 in private, predominantly-white schools where I was often one of only a few Black students. Everything about the culture at those schools was exclusionary, but the academics were superb. My parents and all of my aunts and uncles went to HBCUs in the SWAC and I enjoyed attending football games with them because it felt like a big family reunion and I knew I wanted that same experience. I chose Spelman College because it felt like home. I was surrounded by people who embraced me and didn’t treat me as an ‘other.’ I remember being in awe my entire freshman year as we studied some of the same topics I learned in high school, but with a afrocentric focus. I never imagined that my history and my heritage would be important enough to be addressed and discussed andincluded in a typical classroom lecture. Going to an HBCU literally saved me and gave me the boost and confidence I needed.” — Dr. Kia Baldwin, Attorney & Professor – Spelman College
“All those years of Quaker school??!! I earned my place at Howard University and a chance to experience a Marion Barry DC!!! #youknow” — Erica McCloud Carruth, Howard University
“I went to visit Morehouse my junior year in high school. The immersion into that beautiful, Black space—it was overwhelming to me. I’m from Southern California, so I’d never, ever been in a space like that before. Interacting with professors, administrators and students who all looked like me, who assumed I was there to be a student and not an athlete, it was intensely compelling.” — Dr. Charles McKinney, Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies, Associate Professor of History, Rhodes College. Most importantly: Morehouse College, c/o ‘89
“The shorter answer would be, ‘Why not?!’ There are so many reasons but the most profound for me was the opportunity to surround myself with every shade, and every cultural nuance of US. To be embraced by, inspired by, and educated by the US that I only got to see on TV in the evenings. To find a community that acknowledged the Afro in my Afro-Latina roots.” — Genese Lapaix, Clark Atlanta University
“I choose North Carolina A&T State University because I wanted an environment that was going to prepare me to be great, not only in my profession, but personally as well. I encountered so many professors and administrators who were concerned with not just my grades, but how I was doing so far from home (I’m originally from Chicago). They made sure I had well-rounded experiences, from volunteer work to traveling abroad. Aggie Pride is a love that’s hard to describe, but I instantly saw it the moment I stepped on the campus as a touring high school student, and left not wanting to go anywhere but there!” — LaRia Land, North Carolina A&T University, Class of 2012, B.S. Journalism and Mass Communication
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff women’s basketball team played last week’s Tuesday night game with heavy hearts, mourning the death of freshman ROTC cadet and student-athlete Sierra’li Wade, who died after being shot in her hometown of Lake Village.
UAPB stated on a Facebook post that Wade was shot while playing basketball.
It is the black university’s 5th student death this semester.
“It’s a sad day for all of us,” Wade’s advisor Cedric Jackson said, adding that “She was the person who loved life and she was going to live it to the fullest.”
“Miss Wade would always come into the office [and] she demanded attention,” Jackson said.
“She maximized her life. I mean, she was the type of person that, she wasn’t going to, you know, neglect whatever she had to do. She was going to always be, you know, on top of everything.”
School counselors said that they have set up support for students mourning the death of their colleague(s).
“I’ve been in higher ed for over 40 years and I’ve never experienced this number of tragedies in one semester,” UAPB’s Director of Counseling, Joyce Bracy Vaughan, told KARK.com.
Our sympathy is with the UAPB community in their time of grieving.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for failing to give her seat in the front of a public bus to a white man, which led to a protest and boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama bus system, ending December 21, 1956.
A city ordinance stated that all persons of color must sit in the back half of the bus, and in the instance the back half of the bus was full, they must give up their seats to white people if they wanted to sit down.
For more than a year —381 days— Martin Luther King Jr. organized people of color in Montgomery, Alabama in a city rebellion, raising awareness across the globe about the unfair treatment of African Americans in that city and across the nation.
Rosa Parks sat in jail for 4 days. But she shouldn’t have had to. Yes, there was a city ordinance in place, but was it just? The answer is no. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the segregation laws in Montgomery were unconstitutional. Here, Rosa Parks can be sitting on the front of the bus in the days following that ruling.
This year the country celebrated the second annual Rosa Parks Day. On Sunday, December 1, a statue was revealed in her honor in Montgomery, Alabama.
“Today, on the second official Rosa Parks Day, we honor a seamstress and a servant, one whose courage ran counter to her physical stature,” said Mayor Steven Reed, the city’s first African American mayor. “She was a consummate contributor to equality and did so with a quiet humility that is an example for all of us,” shares CNN.
Bobby Beers of Tech Ballard shares, Megan Thee Stallion has had a whole year and every feat is well deserved. Between each studio session, photo shoot, red carpet event or festival performance, Megan hits the books since she’s a student at Texas Southern University. The rapper “Cash Shit” is studying the health administration in order to open an assisted living center.
“Just looking [my grandmother] taking care of my [great-grandmother] has made me want to create a facility for older people and ask someone to look at it.” Help her as part of her end-of-life care, “Megan told Vulture.
Megan recently spoke of a small conflict that has now earned her a household name and having to make her celebrity life easier while remaining a student. “I have a 6-page research report to come out tonight and a multi-functional photo shoot today … let’s see how that goes,” she wrote on Twitter.
A fan jokingly replied, mocking Megan, stressing on just six pages. “Lol whore I would like to be perfect like you,” she replied.
“I’m trying not to make me a rapper a big problem,” Megan once told Rolling Stone about her student life. “Just as I sometimes miss classes because I have to do a show, someone [if not] has missed a class because they do not want to be there. They can not treat either of us. I’m just trying to finish all my work and make it as soon as I can. Read more.
Yesterday, on Sunday, December 1, 2019, outside of typical practice and policy, the following article was re-published minus proper attribution to the original journalist, Candice Dixson of Grambling State University Athletics. We apologize for the error. Click here to view the full, original story.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Grambling State University football team led by as much as 18 points but a turnaround second quarter for Southern University left the G-Men ending their season with a 30-28 loss at the 46th Annual Bayou Classic.
“Our kids showed the heart of a champion. My hat’s off to Southern University. They played an awesome game; both teams played awesome… A really good and clean ball game” said Grambling State head coach Broderick Fobbs.
With an attendance of 68,314 in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Southern received the ball after Grambling State’s decision to defer in the second half.
ATLANTA (November 26, 2019) — Spelman and Morehouse Colleges will usher in the holiday season with the 93rd annual Spelman-Morehouse Christmas Carol Concert series.
This festive choral presentation brings together the mellifluous tones of the Spelman College Glee Club and the Morehouse College Glee Club, two historically Black college choirs that have performed for national and international audiences.
Mashaun D. Simon Spelman College 404-270-5893 msimon5@spelman.edu Twitter:@SpelmanMedia
The combined choirs of more than 100 talented students will perform a variety of traditional carols, contemporary interpretations of holiday music, and other signature songs for audiences from across the city of Atlanta and the country.
“The annual Spelman and Morehouse Christmas Carol Concert marks the official entry into the holiday season here at Spelman and throughout the metro Atlanta community,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman. “Each year, this joyous occasion affords our students and faculty the opportunity to showcase their talents in celebration of the unforgettable music of the season. The Christmas Carol Concert is a gift we all look forward to giving every year.”
The opening night performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6, at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, on the campus of Morehouse. Spelman will host the second performance at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, in Sisters Chapel. A third concert will take place at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 8, at Morehouse’s King Chapel. Performances are free and open to the public.
This year’s concert includes the return of an audience favorite, the majestic hymn “Glory to God,” arranged by Kevin Johnson, who is in his 21st year as director of the Spelman Glee Club. The angelic “Ave Maria” by Cesár Alejandro Carillo will be showcased, and the glee clubs will also perform favorites, including Morehouse’s popular rendition of “Betelehemu” and Spelman’s “We Are Christmas.” Songbooks will be provided so that audience members can sing along with the combined choir.
“Excellence abounds at the Atlanta University Center,” said David A. Thomas, Ph.D., president of Morehouse. “The annual Christmas Carol Concert shows the music mastery that students at Morehouse and Spelman possess. The concert has attracted thousands of people over the years. It is our gift to Atlanta to show our appreciation for the city and its residents who visit our colleges and support our programs.”
The Christmas Carol Concert dates back nearly a century. It began in December 1927—two years before Morehouse graduate Martin Luther King Jr. was born, and a year before the founding of the venerable African American newspaper; the Atlanta Daily World. The idea for the concert was developed by Florence Matilda Read, former Spelman president, and John Hope, then president of Morehouse. The first concert was held in Spelman’s Sisters Chapel, which at that time was the largest venue on the two college campuses. The tradition grew as crowds grew, with the concert becoming a three-night affair. When Morehouse’s King Chapel was built in 1978, the concert partially moved into the larger venue. For the last 41-years the colleges have maintained the tradition of ushering in the holiday by performing two nights at Morehouse and one at Spelman.
About Morehouse College Morehouse College is the nation’s largest liberal arts institution for men. Founded in 1867, the College enrolls approximately 2,200 students and is the nation’s top producer of Black men who go on to receive doctorates. Morehouse is also the top producer of Rhodes Scholars among HBCUs with five Morehouse Men receiving the honor. Historically, Morehouse has conferred more bachelor’s degrees on Black men than any other institution in the world. Prominent alumni include: Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General; Shelton “Spike” Lee, award-winning American filmmaker; Maynard H. Jackson, the first African American mayor of Atlanta; and Jeh Johnson, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. Morehouse currently has more than 17,000 alumni in 40 states and 14 countries. For more information visit www.morehouse.com
About Spelman College Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the country’s leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by U.S. News and World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 57 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 22 for undergraduate teaching and No. 6 for both innovation and social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 13th year among historically Black colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU, and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, and partnerships have been established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, Starbucks Group President and COO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. For more information, visit www.spelman.edu.
In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, PVAMU’s Media Relations Team shared the following release: As the Houston Food Bank (HFB) continues to recover from being forced to toss 1.8 million pounds of food last week due to an ammonia leak, a group of Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) students has jumped into action.
Sophomore agriculture major Lenaye Palmer is a member of the College
of Agriculture and Human Sciences’ (CAHS) Garden Club. She helped
organize a donation to the HFB that consisted of vegetables from PVAMU’s
Governor Bill and Vara Daniel Farm, along with canned goods.
“Our school was founded on agriculture, so it’s part of our mission to give back to the community,” said Palmer.
So far, the students’ donations, along with donations from PVAMU’s
partners, has resulted in a contribution that exceeds 1,800 pounds of
food, which is enough to feed 1,000 families over the next three days.
CAHS Dean and Director of Land-Grant Programs Gerard D’Souza, Ph.D.,
said the combined effort aligns perfectly with the university’s
land-grant mission.
“As the only Houston area agricultural university with a farm, it was
our duty to step up and help the food bank provide for families in
need. We are fulfilling the part of our mission that focuses on helping the underserved.”
The initiative also follows the growing emphasis in the college on food security, one of its signature areas.
“In the end, we want to make sure everyone has access to healthy food,” Palmer added.
Donations from PVAMU partners included Eden Green Technology’s
vertical greenhouse in Cleburne, Texas, which donated 1,400 pounds of
food from its warehouse in Dallas. Area Congressional Representative Dan
Crenshaw (R-TX 2nd District) arranged to cover transportation costs.
In Prairie View, CAHS Cooperative Extension Program Specialist Angela
Moore organized a canned food drive, which included students from
nearby H.T. Jones Elementary School. The drive was coordinated by The
Garden Club’s Research Assistant, Debra Bradford.
“Once [PVAMU Research Scientist] Dr. Laura Carson sent out the email
for help, CAHS Program Assistant Chandra Adams helped secure a pallet
for the produce, and our Greenhouse Manager, Mr. Rafash Brew, organized
the students to harvest the produce,” said Bradford.
An initial drop-off to the HFB took place Nov. 22, followed by another delivery on Nov. 26, just in time for Thanksgiving.
“It warms my heart. It goes back to agriculture and our mission to make sure people have the food they need,” Palmer said.
ATLANTA (AP) — Three historically Black colleges are each getting $1 million grants to aid faculty development.
Atlanta’s all-male Morehouse College is getting $1 million from the Carnegie Corp. of New York, while neighboring all-female Spelman College is getting $500,000 from Carnegie and $500,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation. Prairie View A&M University in Texas is getting $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The schools say they face increasing competition for teachers from other universities.
Spelman says it will develop new curriculum areas, provide research grants and help young faculty complete scholarly and creative works.
Morehouse says will provide start-up funding for new professors, reduce teaching loads and provide research money.
Prairie View says it will identify better ways to recruit and retain faculty and create a center to track scholarly output.
The Celebration Bowl, in its fifth year, will be televised live on ABC for the fifth consecutive year, kicking off at noon ET, on Saturday, Dec. 21, from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Celebration Bowl, which showcases the heritage, legacy, pageantry and tradition of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), features the conference champions from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The MEAC leads the series 3-1 with all three wins coming from North Carolina A&T, who held off Alcorn State to win the 2018 Celebration Bowl 24-22. The Aggies also captured their last minute 21-14 win over Grambling State in 2017 capping the first unbeaten season in MEAC history. Grambling won the SWAC’s first title in 2016 with a thrilling 10-9 victory over North Carolina Central.
Tickets for the game, a full ancillary
event schedule and discounted rates at downtown Atlanta hotels will be
available this summer. To stay up to date on Celebration Bowl
announcements, sign up for updates on www.TheCelebrationBowl.com and follow the event on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, also
manages the season-opening MEAC/SWAC Challenge on Labor Day weekend,
another game that showcases these two conferences. The 2019 Challenge
will be played in Atlanta, featuring Bethune Cookman from the MEAC and
Jackson State from the SWAC. The game is set for Sunday, Sept. 1, at
Georgia State Stadium, at 3 p.m.
The Celebration Bowl is one of this year’s 14 bowl games owned and operated by ESPN Events.
ESPN Events ESPN Events,
a division of ESPN, owns and operates a large portfolio of 34
collegiate sporting events worldwide. The roster includes three Labor
Day weekend college football games, the FCS opening-weekend game, 15
college bowl games, 11 college basketball events, a college softball
event, an esports event and two college award shows, which accounts for
approximately 375-plus hours of live programming, reaches almost 64
million viewers and attracts over 800,000 attendees each year. With
satellite offices in Albuquerque, Birmingham, Boca Raton, Boise,
Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Montgomery and Tampa, ESPN
Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local
communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans.
More honors for North Carolina A&T State University as the U.S. News and World Report said the school is the nation’s number one public historically black school for “Best Colleges 2020.”
WXII reports: Money magazine’s “Best Colleges for Your Money” ranked N.C. A&T as the most affordable and the school remains the nation’s largest HBCU for the sixth consecutive year with more than 12,000 enrolled.
N.C.
A&T State University is a public institution that was founded in
1891 and is located in Greensboro. It’s #281 in the National
Universities ranking in the 2020 edition of Best Colleges.
Monique Judge of The Root shares a very eye-grabbing story for every college student who has loans:
As you struggle to make that outlandish student loan payment this month, here is something for you to chew on: In August, Sallie Mae flew more than 100 employees on its sales team to Maui to celebrate them making more than $5 billion in sales.
NBC News reports that 1 in 5 adults in the United States owes a combined total of $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. This was a cause for celebration for Sallie Mae executives and their teams, who sold $5 billion worth of student loans to just 374,000 borrowers.
The
employees stayed at the upscale Fairmont Hotel in Maui for a 5-day
all-expenses-paid trip, but don’t despair; the company didn’t pay for
their spouses and families to attend as well—the employees had to bear
that cost for themselves.
“We said,
‘Hey, look, Maui is a pretty nice spot.’ And so if you wanted to stay a
few days or want to bring family, that’s up to you,” Ray Quinlan, CEO of
Sallie Mae, told NBC News.
Quinlan
also claimed that the trip was not an incentive for his sales team, but
rather “a sales get-together for all of our salespeople” that the
company has been sponsoring since the company started in the 1970s.
Whew, what a relief.
According to NBC, the company was started to service federal student loans, but since its inception:
the lender’s trajectory has changed, now offering private loans. But in 2014, the company split into two: Sallie Mae Bank, which offers private loans, and Navient, a newly formed offshoot which services and collects loans, including those that Sallie Mae sold. Sallie Mae’s borrowers, however, have said the company doesn’t treat them nearly as well as it does its sales team.
NBC reports that student loan debt has “skyrocketed” in the last decade.
can prevent people from doing things such
as buying homes or starting small businesses. It can even have an impact
on the debtor’s children being able to afford college.
So what exactly was Sallie Mae celebrating in Hawaii? The spoils of their riches, I guess.
NBC
reports that in Sallie Mae’s eyes, the conference was a “recognition of
the hard work” of the sales team. They sat beachside and “planned and
strategized for the upcoming year, were awarded prizes, and soaked up
the sun.”
The Undefeated’s Martenzie Johnson@martenzieshares, U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has a lot of enemies. From billionaires to Republicans to even members of her own party, Warren has ruffled a lot of feathers throughout her career as a public servant.
But what the senator from Massachusetts may not know is that there is an NBA executive who has a bone to pick with her as well.
When Sashi Brown, the chief planning and operations officer for
Monumental Basketball, part of Monumental Sports & Entertainment,
which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics and Washington
Capitals, was a first-year law student at Harvard University, Warren was
his contract law professor. Brown, 43, said that while Warren promoted
stimulating discussions in the classroom and was one of the top
professors he had before graduating in 2002, there’s still one nagging
thing that sticks out to him about the then-future presidential
candidate.
“All I saw of her was giving me a grade that I didn’t want at the
time,” Brown said with a slight grin. “Fortunately I got a grade that
was decent.”
Brown was hired by Monumental Sports in July after spending 12 years
in the NFL as both general counsel and a front-office executive for the
Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns. In 2016, Brown took over
player personnel decisions for the Browns as the team’s executive vice
president of football operations, freeing up tens of millions of dollars
in cap space and either making draft picks (pass rusher Myles Garrett)
or stockpiling picks that eventually became centerpieces of the current
roster (cornerback Denzel Ward, running back Nick Chubb and quarterback
Baker Mayfield). But at the same time, Brown passed on drafting quarterbacks Carson Wentz, Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes, and the team was a dreadful 1-27 during his two seasons at the helm.
The Hampton University alum recently sat down with The Undefeated at the Wizards’ practice facility in Washington to discuss his historically black college roots, the Wizards, and what the future holds for stars Bradley Beal and John Wall.
Growing up in Boston, what drew you to Hampton?
Family legacy. For my family, which comes from Kentucky and Ohio, there was a long legacy of success for folks going to HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities.
. I think just the quality
of [Hampton’s] program. They had a great broadcast journalism program
and that’s what I thought I wanted to do, is be on air at ESPN. So I got
to go down there and study and get a little bit out of the Northeast,
which was a good thing, see a different part of the country.
As an 18-year-old, what did it mean to go to the HBCU?
I think there’s stigmas attached to HBCUs, but I think for a large
swath of the community there’s a lot of pride in the institutions that
have been built and really been the catalyst for a lot of success within
the black community. I think people underestimate them still to this
day. So pride drove some of it, pride and what those institutions
represent, what Hampton represented.
Some are in precarious situations. I think there’s a lot of pressure
and a lot more competition across the industry in terms of the colleges
and universities across the country. My mom’s college that she taught at
for a long time, Wheelock College in Boston, just was acquired by
[Boston University]. When you look at what the history of a lot of these
schools have been, it’s a shame to see them wrap up.
But it’s also a call. I think it’s a call to the nation [and] in
particular, alumni of those schools. I sit on the board of trustees at
Hampton and we spend a lot of time focused on how we’re going to forge
forward. There are some schools that are really in a great financial
state. Hampton’s fortunate to be one of those. I do think there’s a
consciousness that’s awakening, but there’s a lot more to be done.
What do these schools need to do to get more students to want to
attend and make it more affordable for those who can’t afford to go?
First, one thing you will see is that HBCUs have had a greater consciousness about making sure that college remains affordable. And I think they’ve been a champion on that. This is obviously a big issue for the country, but a lot of colleges have priced the vast majority of students out. In particular, HBCUs had been … thoughtful about how they price themselves.
I think the other thing is continue — and I emphasize the word continue — providing high quality education. There is an assumption that the education is lesser, but if you really look at the leadership across this country coming out of the African American community, a significant, significant percentage of it is coming from HBCUs. And I think that there’s a lot of reasons for that. If you look at Xavier in New Orleans, for instance, where my sister went, on a per capita basis, there’s probably not a school in the country that’s more successful at preparing doctors, doesn’t matter the ethnicity, gender or what have you.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I have to ask: Which is the real HU?
You can look at the schools, the rankings, all the things you need to
do. But I don’t need to bother with that. I’m always between Harvard
and Hampton, I’m not quite sure, but it’s one of them, it’s one of them,
for sure.
What was that like for you to go from an HBCU to Harvard, which is kind of the antithesis of HBCUs?
In some ways, right? Harvard has got a tremendous legacy. Part of the reason HBCUs proliferated in the South and you didn’t see so many North is because a lot of the schools up North had begun to open their doors to African Americans far earlier than what you saw in the South. My dad couldn’t go to the University of Kentucky, period. My grandfather was a coach at Kentucky State across town from Kentucky when [basketball coach] Adolph Rupp was championing that he would never have black players. I think when you put everything in context there’s great opportunity for these schools to bring people together and provide a great education. Read the rest of the article.
WBAL-TV’s Theo Hayes writes: Herald Square is about to get a dose of the Magnificent Marching Machine. The Morgan State University band is heading to New York to showcase their talents at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Their excitement was hard to contain Tuesday morning as the marching band of over 100 members headed to the 93rd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“I’ve always wanted to be in the Macy’s Day parade and when I got in. My mind was blown,” said trumpeter Arthur Crowner.
The
experience has been intense for the past few weeks. The band has been
practicing every day for three hours to get ready for the big show.
They’ll perform five songs, but they’re bound by contract not to reveal
which ones. However, they promise will be a hit.
The parade course is two and a half miles, so practice, which included plenty of physical endurance workouts, was crucial.
“What
we are doing now is just trying to spend some time marching around the
track so that we get used to just being in parade formation for that
amount of time,” said Melvin Miles, director of the Morgan State
University Band.
Morgan State University is the first historically black university in Maryland to play at the parade and the fifth in the country. It’s an honor that Miles, who has been a part of the group for 46 years, said they’ll cherish for a lifetime.
“At the end of the day, all you have is your memory, and this is one of those things that you should hold on to always, and they will,” Miles said. Read more.
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