Huntsville police have charged three men with robbery after separate incidents involving a hijacked car and an apartment break-in. No one was reported injured in either case.
Deonte McCray, 20, and Tyler Powell, 20, no additional information given, were charged with first degree robbery after two men were robbed and taken hostage Saturday in Maplewood Park at 4943 North Memorial Parkway near Alabama A&M University. read more…
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Officials at the Southwestern Athletic Conference have released the men’s and women’s brackets for the 2015 Toyota SWAC Basketball Tournament set at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas March 10-14. Texas Southern University swept the top spots, earning the No. 1 seed in both the men’s and women’s brackets.
The Tournament opens Tuesday, March 10 with an evening doubleheader, beginning with the No. 8 Alabama A&M University women against No. 9 Mississippi Valley State University at 6 p.m. and ending with the No. 8 Alcorn State University men taking on No. 9 Grambling State University at 8:30 p.m.
Men’s Tournament • Bracket
The Texas Southern men won 11 of their last 12 conference games to finish 16-2 in league, 19-12 overall. They will face the winner of Alcorn State (5-25, 4-14 SWAC) and Grambling State (2-26, 0-18 SWAC) in the last quarterfinal game of the day on Wednesday, March 11 at 8:30 p.m. Alabama State University (18-9, 14-4 SWAC) defeated Jackson State University 11-20, 9-9 SWAC) to secure the No. 2 seed. They will take on No. 7 seed Mississippi Valley State University (6-25, 5-13 SWAC) Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. read more…
All five North Carolina Central University men’s basketball starters have been voted to All-MEAC Teams, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announced Friday (March 6).
Senior point guard Nimrod Hilliard garnered First Team All-MEAC honors, while senior forward Jordan Parks, senior center Karamo Jawara and senior guard Anthony McDonald achieved Second Team All-MEAC recognition, and junior guard Dante Holmes received Third Team All-MEAC merit.
Hilliard, a Lamar University transfer out of Madison, Wisconsin, tops the conference and is 10th in the nation in assists, averaging 6.4 helpers per contest with a total of 178 in 28 games. He is also 23rd in the league in scoring (11.6 points per game), 11th in field goal percentage (.483), and the best at the charity stripe (87.1 percent free-throw shooter).
Parks, a 6-7, 200-pound forward out of Queens, New York, is the MEAC’s third-leading rebounder (8.2 rebounds per game), ninth-leading scorer (14.9 points per game), 14th-leading shot blocker (0.9 rejections per game), and most accurate shooter with a field goal percentage of 64.2 percent, which places him third in the nation.
Jawara, the Eagles’ lone four-year senior and native of Bergen, Norway, averages 7.9 points, 6.5 rebounds (13th in MEAC), 2.3 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.8 blocked shots per game. He also ranks fifth in the conference in defensive rebounds (5.5 per game) and fifth in minutes played (33.8 per game).
McDonald, a Mississippi Valley State University transfer from Aberdeen, Mississippi, tops the MEAC and ranks 11th in the nation with an average of 3.2 three-point field goals made per game, shooting 37.9 percent from behind the arc, which ranks eighth in the conference. He is the 15th-leading scorer in the league with 12.9 points per contest.
Holmes, a Florida Gulf Coast University transfer in his second season with the Eagles out of Baltimore, Maryland, is among the MEAC leaders in scoring (10.5 ppg, 27th) and steals (1.4 spg, 10th), while also averaging 4.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
Read more here.
On March 20-22, Grambling students will come together to use their coding, design and business skills to build software and mobile apps. The hackathon is open to students of all majors who are interested in technology. Students can sign up to participate in the hackathon at www.hbcuhacks.com/grambling.
Black Founders has brought their hackathons to Howard University, Morgan State University, and the Atlanta University Center Consortium (Clark-Atlanta University, Morehouse University, and Spelman College).
Historically black colleges and universities graduate approximately 20 percent all black students with computer science degrees every year, but diversity reports from the top tech companies continue to find that fewer than 1 percent of their tech workforce is black. HBCUs represent an opportunity to find and support talented black students interested in technology careers and entrepreneurship.
About HBCUHacks:
HBCUHacks is a series of weekend hackathons that provide students at HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) the opportunity to flex their coding, design, and business skills and work together to build software and mobile apps. For more information, visit www.hbcuhacks.com.
“We are prepared to use all the power that we have … to ensure that the situation changes there,” Holder told reporters.
Asked if that included dismantling the Ferguson Police Department, Holder said, “If that’s what’s necessary, we’re prepared to do that.”
Civil rights lawyers have previously said the county could absorb the functions of the Ferguson Police Department.
The Justice Department issued a report this week that found that police in Ferguson overwhelmingly arrested and issued traffic citations to black residents, creating a “toxic” environment with its policing practices.
That culture of distrust erupted in August, when white Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed. The incident triggered months of protest and a national debate about race and police behavior. Read Full Huffington Post
According to NFL Draft Diamonds, recent graduates from the Jackson State football team, wasn’t able to complete pro day for scouts after allegedly failing to “preform well” in the 40-yard Dash.
[quote_box_center]
Jackson State University, the prestigious black college, turned their players away after they did not perform a fast enough forty.
The weather was 28 degrees and after all the players ran their forty only one player was able to perform drills in front of the scouts. Get this, the player was not even from Jackson State.
It is very difficult to make it to the NFL, but if you are judged by your forty alone, several greats wouldn’t be in the NFL.
This is a real shocker, but the NFL is on a clock people. Their time is valuable, but what about the kids who worked four years for this day? It is a shame. [/quote_box_center]
“Yeah, I pretty much knew they would’ve cut if you didn’t run a good enough time and you didn’t finish all the drills at a good enough time,” said McCree, whose unofficial best was 4.84. “But just one drill, maybe I could’ve understood they’d give us two or three more drills. But one drill, it’s just — there are a lot of guys out there who can run fast but they can’t jump. … You can’t just eliminate one guy who doesn’t do one thing right.”
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said during a news conference that the shooting happened after officers responded to reports of a man “jumping in and out of traffic, dodging cars and the like.” Police also received a report that the same man had been involved in a battery.
When the first officer arrived at an apartment the suspect had entered he heard what “sounded like a disturbance coming from within the home,” Koval said. The officer then forced his way into the apartment, Koval said, where the teen assaulted the officer.
Gray averaged 12.4 points and 12.4 rebounds, while starting all 30 games.
He leads the nation in total rebounds, defensive rebounds and rebounds per game, hauling in a total of 371 boards this season, including 106 on the offensive end.
He also ranks seventh in the NCAA in double-doubles with 17.
Gray concluded the season with 83 blocks, 33 assists and 13 steals. In his final game of the season he recorded 33 points and 30 rebounds in a 104-92 victory over Coppin State.
This is the second time in conference history that a player earned both honors during the same season.
In 2011-12, Norfolk State’s Kyle O’Quinn became the first MEAC player to earn both honors in the same season.
MEAC Media Relations
Madarious Gibbs and Deverell Biggs each scored 21 points to help lead TSU and give head coach Mike Davis his second regular season crown with the Tigers.
Malcolm Riley and David Blanks both added 15 points, with Riley also grabbed 15 rebounds for Texas Southern (18-12, 15-2), which shot a season best 63.5 percent from the field to go along with its season-high 94 points. The Tigers, winners of seven straight and 10 of 11, had already clinched a share the SWAC regular season title with a win over Alabama A&M on Monday.
Texas Southern had an 18-4 run in the first half and led 40-30 at the break. After Alcorn State’s Michael Davis cut the deficit to two with 13:02 left, the Tigers outscored the Braves 26-10 over the next eight minutes to put the game away.
Marquis Vance scored 26 points to lead Alcorn State (5-24, 4-13).
Terrence J is a proud graduate of North Carolina A&T. Terrence says in response to Larry King’s question about their being less HBCU’s, “It’s tough because these institutions when they were implemented were to help all people of color. Its really important that we keep them going and keep funding them.”
He goes further to say, “These colleges make-up 3% of colleges but graduate 23% of minorities. It’s really important to keep them going.”
Lastly, he says, “NC A&T’s family environment helped me turn my life around.”
President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit South Carolina today for the first time since winning the presidency, holding a town hall at a private historically black college to address young leaders about expanding opportunities in their communities.
The president is scheduled to arrive at Columbia Metropolitan Airport around noon where he will be greeted by Gov. Nikki Haley and then travel to the campus of Benedict College in downtown Columbia for the town hall.
“The President will speak with young leaders about how they are working to expand opportunity in their own communities, and discuss how we can work together to ensure that young people have the tools they need to compete in a global economy and that all Americans benefit from our economic resurgence,” the White House said in a statement.
Read more here.
TSU (16-12, 12-4 OVC) entered the tournament with the best conference record in the East division, and the fourth best record overall, earning them the number three seed in the conference tournament.
The Lady Tigers have been standing behind their tough defense, in addition to making high percentage shots, which helped them to overcome three straight losses against conference foes.
In the game against the Eagles, TSU shot 30% from the field and 44% from behind the arch in the first half. This low shooting performance would set TSU back, as they went into half down three points.
The Lady Tigers would bounce back however, behind the leadership of senior guard Rachael Allen and second team OVC member Chelsea Hudson who would put TSU on top 59-58 midway through the second half, and never let up.
Hudson and Allen both scored 20 a piece for the Lady Tigers as they turned the second half into a trouncing of the MSU team, and would go on to win by 15 points.
This win pits TSU against a the strong number two seed, South Illinois University- Edwardsville, to determine who goes to the OVC Championship game.
There have been ongoing programs and initiatives set in place to close the STEM gender gap. Men dominate the field, and black women in particular are few and far in between the numbers. But things are changing, and young women like Maci Peterson make us very optimistic about the future.
Maci is the brainiac behind On Second Thought. The cleverly named innovation is an app that lets you take back text messages before the content is delivered to the receiving party. This app is a prayer answered to every college student who’s accidentally hit “send” to their moms and not their BFFs after a late Friday night/early Saturday morning.
BlackEnterprise.com caught up with the young innovator and former Spelman student to get all the details behind On Second Thought, her marketing and financing strategy for the new business, and how we can attract more girls of color to STEM. Read on.
So tell us exactly how On Second Thought works, and share some of the app’s cool features.
On Second Thought is very easy to use. After downloading the app from the Google Play Store, you go to the app’s settings, set On Second Thought as your default SMS app and determine the length of your “grace period”—up to 60 seconds. The “grace period” is the amount of time you have to swipe left and Ost (recall) a message after hitting “send.”
Another feature in development is “curfew.” It’s for those nights on the town when you know you might have a bit too much to drink. Just go to your On Second Thought settings, determine the time you’d like your “curfew” to start, and all messages you try to send after that time will be held until the next morning. Once the “curfew” expires, you can look back and see which messages you still want to send, and which ones you’re thankful didn’t go through.
How is On Second Thought performing?
We currently have over 4,200 users, expected to reach 5,000 very soon.
Read more here.
St. Croix native Hubert Harrison is widely considered a leader in the movement for equality and justice for African Americans during the early 20th century. Harrison worked closely with W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and other activists, but never received the acclaim or notoriety as those leaders.
His story will now be told in a new play “Hubert Harrison,” written and directed by David Edgecombe, UVI associate professor of Communication.
The play will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21, and 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, at the University of the Virgin Islands Little Theater on the St. Thomas campus. On St. Croix, the play will be staged at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, at the Savage Theater on the former Good Hope School campus, as part of UVI’s first Literary Festival and Book Fair.
Read more here.
Repeat selection Whitney Gathright is Xavier University of Louisiana’s lone representative on the 2014-15 All-Gulf Coast Athletic Conference women’s basketball team.
Gathright, a 5-foot-4 junior guard from New Orleans and a graduate of John Curtis Christian School, leads the Gold Nuggets in a slew of statistical categories, including scoring (13.1 points per game), assists (111), steals (59), free-throw percentage (.785) and 3-point field goal percentage (.418).
Gathright also has climbed steadily up several XU career lists. She is the Gold Nuggets’ all-time leader in 3-point accuracy (.386), second in free-throw percentage (.769), fifth in made 3-pointers (110) and seventh in made free throws (269). She is 25th with 895 career points and will take aim at becoming the 20th Gold Nugget to reach 1,000.
If Gathright maintains her team scoring lead, she’ll become the fourth Gold Nugget to lead the team in scoring as a sophomore and junior. The others were Kay Williams (1978-79 and 1979-80), Henrietta Mitchell (1987-88 and 1988-89) and Jarryn Cleaves (2004-05 and 2006-07).
The All-GCAC women’s and men’s teams were announced Thursday at a GCAC team luncheon at the Crowne Plaza New Orleans Airport hotel in suburban Kenner, La. The GCAC Tournament will begin Friday in New Orleans.
The Gold Nuggets (16-14), the defending champion and winner of four of the past five GCAC tourneys, are seeded second. They’ll play seventh-seeded Tougaloo (4-22) at 5 p.m. at Dillard’s Dent Hall in the opening round.
Read more here.
