There are not many times a college leader will be left utterly speechless on any given occasion.
But that’s what Winston-Salem State University Chancellor Elwood Robinson was after journalist and host of the ESPN show “First Take” Stephen A. Smith said he’s on board to helping to support his alma mater in the near future, pointing out how many black colleges are struggling financially.
At a WSSU fund-raising breakfast on Saturday, the proud WSSU alum officially said he’s committed to giving $50,000 to the university for each of the next five years.
That’s a huge statement:
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Smith, a 1991 graduate and former sportswriter who started at the Winston-Salem Journal as a part-time clerk when he was in college.
WSSU officials said the breakfast raised $33,000. This was the first year the fundraiser was held.
In addition, Smith also thanks his time at WSSU and the black college experience for having an impact on his career, but also said we need to support our HBCUs as must as we can:
“A lot of HBCUs are hurting financially, but I’m here to tell you they are needed in a big way,” Smith said.
After hearing the news, Robinson said he was kind of speechless, and also said he and school officials had no idea about Smith’s contribution prior to the breakfast.
Robinson said, “It’s just a testament to what kind of individual Stephen A. is that he cares about his former school.”
He continued, “It’s a big day for us, and it’s a special day because, as you know, any amount of dollars we can acquire helps everybody.”
Former North Carolina AT&T assistant coach Trei Oliver has been named Southern University’s new defensive coordinator.
Oliver helped lead NC AT&T to a 2015 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title and a 41-34 win over Alcorn State. Oliver spent four seasons with the Aggies, where he served as the outside linebackers coach.
Oliver served as the outside linebackers coach and special teams and recruiting coordinator for SWAC rival Grambling from 2007 to 2011.
From 2003 to 2007, Oliver was an assistant at N.C. Central, where he played his collegiate football as a defensive back.
During Thursday’s Oscar nomination announcement, Straight Outta Compton received one nod, and that was for best screenwriting. Unbeknownst to a lot of people, the screenwriters of the movie are white.
During an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, Ice Cube spoke about the snub, and like a lot of people, he wasn’t shocked.
“I’m not pissed … I’m not surprised. You know it’s the Oscars,” Ice Cube said. “They do what they do. The people loved the movie. The people supported the movie. No. 1 at the box office, over $200 million worldwide. I can’t be mad.”
And he definitely can’t. Of course, not everyone loved the movie. But as the saying goes, “Different strokes, for different folks.”
The Rev. James Lawson, a civil rights icon who was expelled from Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School because of his work helping desegregate Nashville lunch counters in 1960, will return to the university to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Lawson, a retired Methodist minister who King called “the leading nonviolence theorist in the world,” will speak Monday in Langford Auditorium, near the intersection of Garland Avenue and Stevenson Center Lane, according to a statement from the university. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m with a candlelight vigil and interfaith service.
During his time enrolled at Vanderbilt, Lawson taught classes in nonviolent resistance at Clark Memorial Methodist Church, where students prepared to participate in sit-ins. Students from Fisk, Tennessee State University, American Baptist College and Meharry Medical College participated.
When Lawson’s involvement in the sit-ins led to his expulsion from Vanderbilt in 1960, it prompted many professors to resign in protest, according to the university.
Over time, officials at Vanderbilt have come to recognize Lawson as one of the school’s most significant former students.
In 1996, Lawson received the Vanderbilt Divinity School’s first Distinguished Alumnus Award, according to the university. And the Vanderbilt Alumni Association named him as a Vanderbilt Distinguished Alumnus in 2005.
Lawson returned to Vanderbilt in 2006 as a visiting professor and taught there for three years. He has donated a significant portion of his papers to Vanderbilt’s library.
A smartwatch-like glucose alert system and applications that make it easier to get a haircut or print without a printer are some of the innovative ideas that three Claflin University students and one alumnus will share in Washington, D.C.
They will share their ideas Friday during the White House My Brother’s Keeper “I Have a Dream Innovation Summit.”
The summit, an initiative of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will bring together students with industry and policy leaders for a one-day networking session to spur innovation and entrepreneurship. Sixty-five students from around the country, many from minority-serving institutions, have been invited to participate.
Claflin students Meha Patel and twins Helen and Myrtle Bryant have an idea to create a smartwatch device that will alert diabetic patients when their blood glucose level becomes too low or too high.
Michael DeVore, who graduated from Claflin last May, is the CEO of Live Chair Mobile App. He has developed one application that allows users to locate a barber and another that makes it possible for smartphone users to print even when they don’t have a printer with them.
The current students and DeVore won Claflin’s annual business competition last year. One of the young ladies attending the Claflin event shared the results with the White House and thus both groups were invited to the summit, said Dr. Robin Davis, director of Claflin’s three-year-old Center for Entrepreneurship.
Patel and the Bryants won first place with their glucose alert device, which they call GlucAlert.
Although GlucAlert is still in the idea stage, the students are convinced there is a need for a non-invasive detection system, Helen Bryant said.
“We didn’t want people to look at you and tell that something was wrong,” she said.
“We wanted something that was non-invasive, looked normal but would still help the patient.”
The trio, who call themselves PreSense, Inc., after a Claflin faculty member, first developed the idea one evening while sitting in the library.
“Our mother is a nurse who works with diabetic patients and she talks often about people who suffered from hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia,” Helen Bryant said. “When our professor asked us to come up with a project, we knew about the concerns of diabetics. This provided us excellent opportunity to do something related to that.”
GlucAlert will be worn like a watch and contain sensors that can detect high and low blood sugars and alert the wearer if there is a problem.
The students are in the Claflin University Alice Carson Tisdale Honors College and are senior biochemistry majors. While they were familiar with the technical side of the idea, they knew little about the business side.
As a result, they worked with Davis at the Center for Entrepreneurship to develop a plan to move their idea from concept to reality. And it was the center that shared information about the summit with them.
And while they don’t have a prototype, they are hoping they will attract investors during the summit willing to commit to developing their idea.
DeVore was an Honors College student while enrolled at Claflin. He has won several business competitions for young entrepreneurs including the 2015 International Qzy Genius Award and the 2014 Shark Tank Business Competition.
Howard University said Wednesday that it would join other broadcasters in taking part in a Federal Communications Commission auction that could entail selling the rights to the spectrum on which it broadcasts the nation’s only black-owned public television station.
Citing confidentiality rules surrounding the auction, Howard did not detail its bidding strategy or intentions. According to F.C.C. rules, the university may choose to completely cede its spectrum rights for a premium payout or to trade them for a less-valuable frequency type and a smaller payment. If it elects to cede its rights, Howard may take its 35-year-old station, WHUT, off the air or try to share spectrum space with another broadcaster.
The auction has stirred vociferous debate at Howard, a historically black university, as students, faculty and alumni have called on trustees to weigh the station’s symbolic, educational and financial value. Giving up its spectrum could fetch Howard, which has struggled financially in recent years, up to $461 million, though people who have studied the auction, the first of its kind, say they expect a much lower final buyback bid.
Howard’s president, Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick, wrote on Wednesday in a letter to the university community that Howard could still walk away from the auction at any point and would continue to contemplate “an overarching Media and Communications strategy.”
The lives of identical twin sisters Shera Grant and Shanta Owens have often mirrored each other.
Both of the Birmingham natives graduated from Alabama State University. Both graduated from law school at Louisiana State University. While Grant went to Atlanta after law school and Owens came back to Birmingham, both ended up with jobs as prosecutors.
Their girls are both 6 years old and were born four months apart. Their sons are 3 years old and also born four months apart. Their husbands, who they married two months apart in 2003, also have been best friends since kindergarten.
Shanta has been a district court judge since her election in 2008. She won a second term and is up for re-election in 2020.
Now Shera too is a district court judge after Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley on Friday appointed her to fill the seat of Jack Lowther.
“Ms. Grant is highly qualified, motivated and prepared to be a district judge,” according to a statement from Jennifer Ardis, communications director for Bentley. “The governor’s office found out about her twin sister during the interview process. Public service seems to be a trait that runs in her family.”
Grant, 38, Vestavia Hills, said she was “super excited” to be appointed to the judgeship, which handles small civil cases.
Shera Grant (Courtesy Taneisha Tucker)
“I’m just overwhelmed, overjoyed. … I think this is a wonderful opportunity to serve the citizens of this county,” she said.
Grant starts her new job Jan. 25.
“I’m really elated … I’m excited for her,” said Owens, who is four minutes older than Grant. “We’re grateful to God and grateful to the Governor.”
Owens said she had one piece of advice for her sister — to remain the person their mom raised them to be, respectful of everyone and work hard.
“I know she’ll (Grant) continue to be that person because that’s how we were raised,” she said.
‘Grew up reading’
Owens and Grant were raised by a single mom, Loretta Bitten, who has worked as a librarian at the Birmingham Library since they were 9 years old. Their father had died when they were young.
“We grew up reading,” Owens said.
Grant is currently a deputy Jefferson County Public Defender. She also serves on the Vestavia Hills Board of Education.
Identical twins on the bench in Jefferson County might be a first.
Tennessee State University President Glenda Glover urged faculty and staff to stay focused on helping students succeed amid university challenges.
Glover, now in her third year at TSU, on Monday addressed the Faculty and Staff Institute for the spring 2016 semester. She noted some of the challenges the university is facing, but said they shouldn’t distract from the university’s main objective, which is to improve retention and graduation rates.
“We’re here for the purpose of educating our students, and enhancing their well-being,” she said. “That’s our one fundamental overriding goal.”
She said steps being taken to help in that endeavor include the formation of a completion committee that will meet twice a month, and requiring teachers to have an assessment measure in place to evaluate students two weeks into the year so that those who are struggling can get assistance.
“By the time it gets to mid-terms, it’s too late,” Glover said. “If we catch students early enough, we can put them in tutoring.”
The president’s speech also highlighted some of the university’s successes, such as the Tennessee Board of Regents’ approval to build a $39 million Health Sciences Building, and the record amount of money it received last year for research grants.
Last year, the university set a goal to get $50 million in grants and received $51 million. This year the goal is $60 million.
“Research grants are very important to the university because they allow faculty members to work on quality solutions that help to meet needs in our country, and give students an opportunity to get engaged in cutting edge ideas,” Dr. Lesia Crumpton-Young, associate vice president and chief research officer, said after the president’s speech.
During her speech, Glover also discussed university challenges. She said one task is getting money to adequately fund security upgrades, and another is a proposed governance plan that could adversely affect the university.
Nevertheless, Glover said she’s optimistic about TSU’s future.
“We will fight through our difficulties,” she said. “We will roll up our sleeves and persevere.”
Wilbert W. (Wil) James will be the keynote speaker at The Urban League of Hampton Roads 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Leaders’ Breakfast Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, 7:30 a.m., atNorfolk State University’s Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall. The breakfast, created to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., recognizes and presents awards to those dedicated to community service/volunteerism, education, employment, health and housing.
A Norfolk native, James, who became the seventh president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. in July 2010, leads Toyota’s largest automotive manufacturing plant in North America. The plant manufactures the Camry, America’s best-selling car, and is expected to become the home of the first U.S.-produced Lexus. In this role, James also champions quality initiatives for Toyota’s 14 North American manufacturing operations.
James began his career with Toyota in 1987, supervising a team of about 20 people. He has since served the company in multiple leadership roles, including senior vice president of Toyota’s vehicle plant in Indiana, president of the automaker’s Long Beach, California, subsidiary plant, and vice president of manufacturing at Toyota Kentucky.
James has been named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America. While serving as Toyota’s North American diversity champion, he led diversity and inclusion efforts for the company in plants across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, which directly employ more than 40,000 people.
Begun in 1984, the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Leaders’ awards are presented to individuals or groups who promote positive images, exemplify community service, demonstrate the values that model those of Dr. King and show evidence of the impact their contributions make in the lives of others. This Urban League of Hampton Roads signature event is also co-sponsored by Eastern Virginia Medical School, Old Dominion University and Tidewater Community College.
The president’s State of the Union address failed to address our issues.
Tuesday night, I sat as the guest of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) at President Obama’s final State of the Union. I waited for him to discuss or even announce a plan to address the needs of black people in America—especially black cisgender and transgender women and black immigrant women, who continue to be overlooked, underpaid, undervalued and in the midst of continual attacks on our lives.
I was deeply disappointed, and, unfortunately, not surprised.
We heard about the economy and giving people a fair shot at opportunity. The president said that “we’re in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history.” But he didn’t acknowledge that black women aren’t advancing. Black women are more likely to experience wage theft and they are making 64 cents, compared to the 77 cents white women make, to every dollar made by white men in our economy.
We heard about climate change. The president acknowledged that clean energy, especially solar, is “saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills, and employs more Americans than coal .” But as environmental advocate Van Jones told us, “pollution is not colorblind.” Black communities across the world continue to be disproportionately affected by the environmental and climate injustices, and that nuance is key for policy implications.
We heard about foreign policy and security and winning the war against terrorism. President Obama’s elevation of American exceptionalism rang clear: “The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth.” But this is still the nation where 11 million undocumented immigrants, including an estimated half-million undocumented black immigrants, are forced to live in the shadows under the looming fear of deportation and no pathway to citizenship. Let’s not forget that under President Obama’s leadership in the last seven years, more than 2 million immigrants have been deported, and, in many cases, sent back to the same violence they sought refuge from. There was no acknowledgment of the recent raids on Central American immigrant families.
President Obama talked of better politics and better citizenship. The president made a poignant point: “Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention.” But we also know that some voices, especially those of black women, get little to no attention. The recent years have seen, and will continue to see, a failure in our participatory democracy through the enactment of voter suppression laws all over the country that disproportionately affect low-income people and people of color. Despite this fact, women of color have been a key, emerging voting bloc with more than 2 million joining the voter-eligible population.
Black women seem to participate the most actively in democracy, and get the least from it. Our issues tend to be the afterthought and our voices continue to be ignored.
On Monday, Jan. 4 VH1’s original movie “The Breaks”, written, directed and executive produced by Morehouse grad Seith Mann and also with a story by Mann and journalist Dan Charnas, debuted with 2.6 million total viewers watching across the country.
The two-hour film had also trended on social media “as the number two topic during its premiere time period,” according to Nielsen SocialGuide.
In a statement, Chris McCarthy, general manager of VH1 and Logo, pointed out that “‘The Breaks’ is VH1 at its best, intersecting 90s nostalgia with hip hop for the masses.”
McCarthy added, “We combined those elements to create a breakout film that successfully continues our efforts in original movies which include ‘Crazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story’ and ‘Drumline: A New Beat.’”
VH1’s original movie “The Breaks” delivered 2.6 million total viewers upon its debut on Monday night, the network announced Wednesday.
The film scored 1.8 million total viewers in its 9 p.m. debut. An additional 800,000 tuned in for the 11 p.m. encore. It also delivered a 1.3 rating in the advertiser coveted adults 18-49 demographic. “The Breaks” also surged on social media, trending as the number two topic during its premiere time period, according to the Nielsen SocialGuide.
In an article that appears in The New York Times, writer Jon Pareles says “The Breaks” is loosely based on “Yo! MTV Raps”. In 1988, also the year “Yo! MTV Raps” was created, the music video program—with its signature rap videos, and interviews with rap artists and live in studio performances and comedy—started something that would eventually take off beyond its niche audience:
“Yo! MTV Raps,” which started in 1988, was expanding the hip-hop audience beyond its urban core, and MC Hammer had a worldwide hit with “U Can’t Touch This.”
Seith Mann
“But at the same time the crack epidemic was closing down the New York City clubs that had been hip-hop laboratories, while radio stations still resisted hip-hop’s genuine innovators and major labels considered hip-hop a novelty that would run its course,” Parales continued. “Everyone involved was inventing the music and the business on the spot.”
That’s the backdrop for “The Breaks,” a TV movie produced by VH1 that has its premiere on Monday. It’s an affectionate, determinedly credible period piece with lightly fictionalized versions of people and places from the era. It’s also what one of its executive producers, the journalist and author Dan Charnas, describes as a “backdoor pilot,” a two-hour film introducing characters and plotlines that, if well received, could be the basis for a continuing series. VH1 will make that decision after the premiere. “Within a week we should probably have a good idea of whether it goes forward or not,” Seith Mann, its screenwriter and director, said.
In addition, “The Breaks” could turn out to be a continuing series, but that depended on how the filmed performed during its debut, of course.
“Within a week we should probably have a good idea of whether it goes forward or not,” Mann told The New York Times at the time.
The Pirates tallied 157 points, finishing 22 points better than second-place Norfolk State. VCU had 74 points.
The Lady Pirates wound up with 149 points, six shy of women’s team champion VCU. Norfolk State tallied 91 points.
Senior Trey Holloway, the reigning MEAC Men’s Track Athlete of the Week, won two events – taking the 60-meter hurdles with a season- and national-best time of 7.78, while also winning the 200-meter dash with a season-best 21.66.
Senior Jasper Savoy won the 60-meter dash with a season-best 6.71.
Sophomore Justin Beatty and junior Rayon Black each won an event; Beatty took the 300-meter dash after turning in a 35.85, and Black ran a season-best 48.89 in winning the 400-meter dash.
The Pirates’ 4×400-meter relay squad turned in a season-best 3:18.32 to take the gold.
Freshman Trey Clark posted the top mark in the men’s pole vault at 4.20 meters (13 feet, 9.25 inches).
Senior Ce’aira Brown, who earlier on Wednesday was named MEAC Women’s Track Athlete of the Week, won the 500-meter run with a season-best 1:13.96. She was also part of the 4×400-meter relay team that took gold with a 3:53.74.
Senior Tanisha Greene, who was also on that relay team, won the 300-meter dash after running a 39.65.
Senior Kristian Young won two events, taking the 60-meter dash with a 7.60 before running a 25.15 to take the 200-meter dash. Freshman Kylie McMillan ran a season-best 8.74 to win the 60-meter hurdles.
Reigning MEAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week Siobhan Ford-Holland, a graduate student, won the long jump with a season-best mark of 5.62 meters (18 feet, 5.25 inches).
The Pirates and Lady Pirates will compete in the Captain’s Invitational at Christopher Newport on Jan. 22-23.
In addition, senior wideout Twarn Mixson and senior offensive lineman Torrian White were each named Second Team All-State.
The teams were voted on by VaSID’s member sports information directors.
Grooms was a First Team All-MEAC selection after ranking second in the MEAC in sacks this season with 8.5, and his 46 tackles were fifth-most on the team. The Preseason First Team All-MEAC selection was a terror in the backfield for much of 2015, racking up two sacks each in wins over Delaware State and Morgan State.
Grooms also had a team-high 15 quarterback hurries and 16.0 tackles for loss on the season.
Mixson was named First Team All-MEAC for the second straight year, leading the conference in both receiving yards (93.4 per game) and receptions per contest (5.4). Mixson’s 1,027 receiving yards are the second-most in a single season in program history, and he is only the second Pirate receiver to have 1,000 yards in a season.
His 59 receptions are tied for the second-most in a single season in program history, and Mixson had five 100-yard receiving games – including a career-high 172 yards on nine catches in the season finale at Savannah State.
Mixson was also named a BoxToRow All-American.
White, who was also named First Team All-MEAC, helped the Pirates boast the second-best total offense in the MEAC, averaging 359.1 yards per game, and he was part of an offensive line that helped Hampton average more than 131 yards on the ground per contest.
White was also a BoxToRow All-America Honorable Mention.
James Madison’s Vad Lee was named VaSID Offensive Player of the Year, while DeAndre Houston-Carson of William & Mary was named Defensive Player of the Year and Virginia Tech’s Travon McMillian was named Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Richmond took the Defensive Rookie of the Year (Andrew Clyde) and Coach of the Year (Danny Rocco) honors.
King was voted to the all-state first team, while Williams earned a spot on the second team. The University Division team consists of players from all state Division I FCS institutions as well as FBS schools Virginia and Virginia Tech.
A 6-1, 235-pound linebacker, King was a consensus FCS All-American this year, earning first-team honors from STATS, The Associated Press, the Walter Camp Foundation and the American Football Coaches Association. He was also selected as the winner of the Buck Buchanan Award as the top defender at the FCS level. King amassed a Division I-best 163 tackles, 11 for loss, with three sacks, one interception and one forced fumble in earning All-MEAC first-team accolades for the second straight year.
Williams (6-0, 200) totaled 41 tackles, two interceptions and a MEAC-high 12 pass deflections from his cornerback spot. His 14 passes defended tied for the most among conference players. Williams also forced a team-leading three fumbles and made two stops behind the line of scrimmage. Like King, Williams was also a first-team All-MEAC selection in 2015.
James Madison quarterback Vad Lee was named the VaSID Offensive Player of the Year and William & Mary defensive back DeAndre Houston-Carson was voted Defensive Player of the Year. Virginia Tech running back Travon McMillian was tabbed Offensive Rookie of the Year, while Richmond defensive lineman Andrew Clyde took Defensive Rookie of the Year accolades. Danny Rocco of FCS semifinalist Richmond was voted Coach of the Year.
Two Grambling State University students, Jimmitriv Roberson and LaTerra Smith, have been awarded a $5,000 scholarship in recognition of their community leadership and academic excellence from the Lexus Verses and Flow Scholarship.
The winners were Jimmitriv Roberson of Arcadia and LaTerra Smith of Omaha, Nebraska.
Roberson said, “I honestly cannot explain how I felt about winning the scholarship, but to best describe my feelings, I was overjoyed and pleasingly surprised.”
Roberson added, “I never thought that I would be chosen to receive such an esteemed award. I am so thankful and grateful to be a recipient of the Lexus Verses and Flow Scholarship, to represent GSU, and to help me to continue to further my education.”
Roberson is a junior majoring in biological sciences. She is the daughter of Jimmy and Triveria Roberson. She is currently vice president of the sophomore class and chair of the Hospitality committee on the Favrot Student Union Board.
After graduating from Grambling, Roberson plans to attend medical school and become a family doctor.
Smith, a sophomore chemistry major, is the daughter of June Smith and Wilbur Jackson. She is a member of the Center for Mathematical Achievement in Science and Technology, Favrot Student Union Board, Chemistry Club, Midwest Association Club and Fresh Company Club.
After graduation, Smith plans to become a doctor and surgeon.
Smith said, “I was up against the best of the best in the science, technology, engineering and math departments at Grambling State University.”
Smith added, “To be chosen is not only a humbling experience but a monumental moment in my life. None of it would have been possible without God. I feel like all the good I do is being acknowledged through organizations’ and companies’ willingness to support my post-secondary education endeavors.” read more
There is a story behind every Delta who makes a lifetime commitment to our beloved sisterhood, but let me start with some of the facts about Delta that explain that dedicated loyalty.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded as an organization on Howard University’s campus in 1913 by a group of 22 collegiate “rebels” who broke ties from one of our other sister organizations because they had a thirst for more involvement in social action and decided to take “road less traveled” that Robert Frost would write about a few years later.
They saw nothing wrong with the organization from which they came and loved but, because they differed in their focus on social action, they broke ties to form another sorority of those with like minds.
Smith was initiated at Epsilon Omicron Chapter at Bowling Green State University and has been an active member of the Marietta-Roswell Alumnae Chapter for 30 years.
To show evidence of that fact, their first public act as a sisterhood was to march with the white suffragettes in Washington on March 3, 1913.
Now understand, even if their white sisters got the right to vote, they still had no chance for that same privilege. None-the-less, they saw a cause for which women should stand and, even though it would be a daring act for them in 1913, they convinced a campus advisor at Howard University to be their chaperone so that they could participate and live their vision for the support of social causes.
To define the significance of their act, let me take you on a trip back to 1913 – the era in which these young college women lived.
From the 22 black women who formed Delta Sigma Theta, it has now grown to the largest black sorority in the country having initiated more than 300,000 women, who proudly were crimson and cream and believe that “Intelligence is the Torch of Wisdom.” Here are some of their brightest.
In the United States, African Americans made up about 11 percent of the population — almost 10 million people.
Fifty-one of those people were publicly lynched that year.
Even though 1913 saw celebrations all over the country for the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, on April 11 President Woodrow Wilson’s administration began government-wide federal segregation of work places, rest rooms and lunchrooms.
One step forward.
Two steps back.
And, interestingly enough, 1913 also marked the death of Harriet Tubman and the birth of Rosa Parks.
One female civil rights legend beginning where the other left off.
Even in those times, these young women decided to risk their lives and very few liberties to be political activists breaking ties with the establishment to form something new and focus on a cause whose realization for them, at that time, could only be a dream.
Delta continues to actively engage in its five-point programmatic thrust with 1,000 collegiate and alumnae chapters located in the United States, Japan (Tokyo and Okinawa), Germany, the Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Republic of Korea.
From those 22 Founders, and the strength of our beginning, Delta has produced educator and presidential advisor Mary McCloud Bethune and civil and woman’s rights activist Mary Church Terrell.
Our incomparable congresswomen Shirley Chisholm, and Barbara Jordan and the four black women in Congress who call themselves our sorors: the honorable Yvette Clarke of New York, Brenda Lawrence of Michigan, and the two dynamo’s from Ohio Joyce Beatty and immediate past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (who happens to be also have been Delta’s 21st National President) Marcia Fudge.
We claim dance legend Judith Jamison; polio survivor Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win not one, but three Olympic gold medals; and Brigadier General Hazel Johnson Brown.
Legendary singers Lena Horne and Natalie Cole; journalist Soledad O’Brien; the late Ruby Dee and actresses Cecily Tyson, Angela Bassett, Suzanne Douglas Cobb and Daphne Maxwell Reid.
Delta’s first executive director Patricia Roberts Harris was the first black woman to be appointed ambassador to a European country.
And not one or two, but all three of the African-American women to serve as United States surgeon generals — Jocelyn Elders, Audrey Forbes Manley and Regina Benjamin — are Deltas.
Also in civic service are one of our national treasures, National Council of Negro Women’s founding CEO Dorothy I. Height and the former Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman.
The indomitable civil rights icon Frankie Muse Freeman is a Delta as well as the current phenomenal United States Attorney General Loretta Elizabeth Lynch…. whew!!!!
Closer to home, Delta’s outstanding community leaders include former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin; Carolyn Young; Coca-Cola executive and current chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women Ingrid Saunders Jones; Big Brothers-Big Sisters President-CEO Janice McKenzie-Crayton; former Girls, Inc. CEO Janet Street; Juanita Baranco, the executive vice president of Baranco Automotive Group; Georgia State Rep. Dee Dawkins Haigler; and the late Pota Coston, who was the first African American elected to the Fayette County Commission.
And the list goes on to many movers and shakers right here in our fair city.
As the largest African-American sorority/minority female-owned corporation in the world with over 250,000 initiated members, Delta Sigma Theta has 16 alumnae and collegiate chapters in the Metro-Atlanta area with approximately 5,000 active members working in social action and community service in every walk of life.
The power of Delta was evident in 2002 when Atlanta hosted (and I chaired) our national convention of 15,000 Deltas at the World Congress Center seating the facility’s largest sit-down dinner served to that date.
So back to why I made Delta a lifetime commitment.
The way Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. realizes its mission speaks to me!
When I was a college freshman umpteen years ago, Delta Vivian Lawyer approached me on my white campus to talk about Delta Sigma Theta and the Epsilon Omicron chapter.
I jumped at the chance to meet other black women at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University.
You see my dad was a civil rights activist in the 1950’s and 1960’s. When I was growing up in northern Ohio my family integrated everything in my town: our neighborhood, our church and our schools. As a matter of fact, when my father died in the 1999, he integrated the local cemetery where he was buried!
He believed that prejudice was born of ignorance and if we just learned to know one another as individuals we could end racism.
But I have to tell you, growing up as the “only one” in most places and going where you aren’t sure you are wanted day-after-day from the age of eight makes for an interesting childhood. But that’s another story altogether!
As I learned more about Delta this sorority did two things for me: First it gave me a group of Black women with whom to connect and find my identity, and secondly, Delta reinforced the values of social activism and community service I had known all my life.
Delta spoke to me!
When I raised my hand to take that oath, I knew Delta Sigma Theta was the right sorority for me.
It is a decision of which I am proud and I have not regretted in my 48 years of membership.
Beverly E. Smith is the Assistant Commissioner and Georgia State Director for Adult Education and GED Testing through the Technical College System of Georgia. She is also the senior vice-president of The HR Group, Inc., a management-consulting firm which she co-owns with her husband, Stephen. A Delta for close to 50 years, she is the 2013-2017 National First Vice President for the sorority and a member of the Marietta-Roswell Alumnae Chapter.
And he definitely can’t. Of course, not everyone loved the movie. But as the saying goes, “Different strokes, for different folks.”
AL.com
HAMPTON, Va. – The Hampton University men’s track & field team won the Tri-Meet, which was held on Wednesda
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Hampton University senior defensive end Miles Grooms has been named First Team All-State by th
