Dear Reader,
In 2021, the impact of HBCUs continues to be undeniably significant across the nation and world. The recent inauguration of Howard University alumna Senator Kamala Harris as vice president, along with Joseph R. Biden as president; Morehouse alumnus Raphael Warnock, with John Ossoff, as the newest senators from Georgia; and Spelman graduate Stacey Abrams’ laudable leadership in the historic national and senatorial races are recent notable examples. Indeed, our pride is almost uncontainable.
In the new year, at least among some of the US citizenry, there is a modicum of hope for a future devoid of a potential total civic breakdown, even as we witnessed the recent shameful and dangerous insurrection at the US Capitol.
On the health front, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, and others, were developed to address the deadly worldwide impact of COVID-19. It is noteworthy that a black doctor,Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, University of Maryland Baltimore County graduate, was the leader of the Moderna vaccine research and development.
A new phase continues in this nation’s reckoning with the vestiges of social and economic injustice embedded into the fabric of its institutions. Institutions across the nation are addressing racial, social, and economic injustice in myriad ways.
Yet, the pandemic and the continuing racial divide continue to haunt the nation and will have devastating impacts for many years to come because of decades of entrenched health/social/economic disparities. As African Americans, we have a personal and a collective responsibility to advance and urgently demand the mitigation of these issues in our local communities, as well as on national and global levels.
This issue of HBCU Speakers Bureau and Research Magazine continues to focus on the achievements of African Americans, particularly those HBCU alumni, who are keeping the flames burning with hard-fought electoral accomplishments and others who are making or have made historic strides in their careers.
For example, this issue hails Victor Glover, the first African American pilot of a private spacecraft. It provides a religious colloquy on mercy on Mary of the Bible. It provides a brief history of two of the nation’s HBCUs, with a look at some recent groundbreaking accomplishments of others.
The issue chronicles the personal, inspiring story of Ellis Whitt, one of the first engineers/scientists whose expertise helped to develop the instrumentation that guided the first manned moon flight. Incidentally, Ellis’s younger sister and I graduated high school together in Trinity, NC.
It provides nutritional advice for a healthy start in the New Year. We note the partnership of Bethune-Cookman with Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice. Finally, the newly created organization, Blacks in Solar presents plans to seek a congressional hearing on erasing disparities in the solar industry.
I truly hope you enjoy this issue of the magazine. Please continue to stay safe for yourself and your loved ones. As always, we look forward to your contributions.
Sincerely,
Gwendolyn S. Bethea, Ph.D.
Editor
Georgia Dawn
– By Jacquelynn V. Thompson
The weather across the State of Georgia on Tuesday, January 5, 2021, was crisp and cool. Despite the temperatures, prospective voters seemed to exude a warmth as they headed to the polls that day. To the casual observer, the numbers of folks didn’t seem to be overwhelming but there was a steady stream—from ’morn until night. But here’s the key: By that date, early voters in the State were striking in number, some 3.1 million according to Reuters as reported by MSN.com. Similarly, nearly 3.9 went to the polls—or mailed in their ballots – prior to the November 2020 General Election Date, according to georgiavotes.com. Who did it bode well for? Surprisingly, Georgia turned BLUE in both November and January. Is this the heralding of a new day, a Georgia Dawn?
It’s been close to three decades, since 1992, since the Peach State voted for a Democratic presidential candidate; and it was 2005 when Georgians last elected a Democratic senator. This past November, it was the new Georgia that helped to secure a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris presidency and vice presidency for the country. The January 2021 runoffs produced two incoming Democratic senators – Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff, who won hard-fought campaigns against incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively. Young folks, seniors, first-time voters and all those in-between not only put blue into play but, ultimately, for the win!
Newly elected Senator John Ossoff, Atlanta major Keisha Lance Bottoms, who endorsed Ossoff and Warnock, Senator Raphael Warnock; and Stacey Abrams, former member, Georgia House of Representatives, Fair Fight grassroots organization
Behind every winning effort is a strategic plan, critical thinking and just plain rolling up of the sleeves for a purpose. Enter Stacey Abrams and her Fair Fight grassroots organization and other community groups that made Georgia Blue a reality. Abrams turned her loss of Georgia’s governorship run in 2018 into a continuous, relentless fight against voter disenfranchisement and a fight for voter rights, access, and education. Simply put, her work is a case study for how people power can be achieved when a mission is clearly defined and a sound plan is executed.
Gwendolyn Bush-Hodge, Georgia native and current Washington, D.C. resident and Career Director, was exuberant. “Georgia turning blue means more equality and an opportunity to take this country in a new direction for a ‘more perfect Union.’ ” She stated. “Coupled with what happened on January 6th in the Nation’s Capital, I thought about the blood, sweat and tears of my ancestors, who did not have the right to vote. But now the Deep South is sending one of its African American son’s to represent the State in Congress … That old adage, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby,’ comes to mind … This was years in the making … Georgians from every hamlet, small town, large city, county and rural area voted in record numbers.
“This time every vote did count and the suppression of votes was held at bay,” Bush-Hodge continued. “Yes … Finally, Georgia is blue … Hank Aaron could not have hit a bigger home run … Georgia, you are still on our minds!”
Jacquelynn V. Thompson, Howard University alumna, is an Educational Consultant originally from Buffalo, New York. She is a former public relations and alumni professional at the University of the District of Columbia. In her spare time, she is a visual artist.
Starting Fresh: Beginning with Me
– By Zenobia D. Bailey
Integrated Wellness Coach, Educator, and Author
We are well into a New Year. The last zipped by, leaving some of us with plans and goals that were left incomplete. As the contributing wellness coach, I’d like to ask a question.
Is it possible that you’ve been planning or even attempting to start a new personal care plan with an emphasis on better nutrition, but don’t know where to start?
If so, I would like to share a personalized nutrition assessment that you can take, without obligation. The products recommended are natural and proven, having been backed by both science and experience. In fact, they are products that I use.
In addition to healthy foods and supplements, exercise and recreation, the proper water intake, rest, and sleep are vital to our overall wellness. If we expect to get in front of the onslaught of large pockets of sick care, faced particularly by our African American populace, we must do all we can to own our personal health care plans.
Follow this link, to access and take your Meology, a complementary and personalized assessment. If you would like information and resources on food choices and meal planning, please feel free to email me, placing HBCUs research Inquiry in the memo area at:zenobiabailey1@aol.com.
Zenobia D. Bailey is a Howard alumna, and an Integrated Wellness Coach. She is a former public relations professional at the University of the District of Columbia, and a former professor at the University of Maryland.
A New Testament Colloquy on “Mercy: Mary the Magnificat”
– By Gail Scotton Baylor, Esq
Mary prophesied in Luke 1:50: “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.” Jesus, throughout His earthly ministry fulfilled this prophecy. The New Testament makes many references to those asking Jesus for mercy, and He always responded with mercy.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches of mercy when He says, “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36) Jesus teaches a parable of the prodigal son whose father was only too glad to show his repentant son mercy upon his return home (Luke15:11-32). In (Luke 18:35-38), a certain blind man begging on the side of the road, who after hearing that the Lord was nearby, cried out to Him saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus, showing mercy, healed him saying, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well” (Luke 18:42)
When the ten lepers in a certain village outside the city of Jerusalem (somewhere between Samaria and Galilee) saw Jesus, they said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Jesus had mercy and healed them all (Luke 17:13-14).
Mercy flowed from the throne of God through the cross of Jesus to humankind. It was a choice that Jesus and the entire Godhead (Father, Holy Spirit) made, but it was not easy. It became so unbearable that Jesus in His humanity cried out in prayer, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done”(Luke 22:42).
For each strike that drew blood when the Roman soldiers mercilessly whipped Jesus on the cross, mercy flowed. When they pressed a crown of thorns on His head tearing His flesh — for each drop of blood that fell, mercy flowed. When they nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross, for each drop of blood that fell, mercy flowed. When they pierced Jesus in His sides and blood came trickling down, mercy flowed. “Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Down through the ages, the mercy of Jesus has flowed from the cross to humankind and continues to flow today. Was Mary’s vision fulfilled? For those of us who are recipients of Jesus’ mercy, the answer is unequivocally and a resounding, “Yes!”
Mary proclaimed, “He has performed mighty deeds with His arm” (Luke 1:51). Surely, the Holy Spirit caused Mary to utter these revelatory words, and Jesus fulfilled them many times over throughout His earthly ministry. Jesus healed many: the demoniacs (Luke 4:35-4, Luke 8:26-36), a paralytic (Luke 5:18-24), the lepers and the lame (Luke 7:22), the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48), to name just a few of His mighty deeds.
Indeed, Jesus raised the dead, when He said to the lifeless daughter, “Little girl, arise.” And she arose immediately (Luke 8:54-55). And Jesus raised many others from the dead as well, e.g., the widow’s only son who had died (Luke 7:14).
The mighty acts that Jesus performed were too numerous to be recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The mightiest deed of them all, however, was Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead (Luke 24). Was Mary’s prophecy fulfilled? Again, the answer is “Yes”, for indeed, lives are still being changed by the mighty salvific acts of Jesus today.
Mary proclaimed, “He has scattered those who are proud, in their inmost thoughts” (Luke 1:5.1). Jesus did not hesitate to tell the rich young ruler what it would take for him to inherit eternal life: to sell all that he had and give to the poor (Luke18:18-24). Jesus called out and rebuked the proud Pharisees and Sadducees in their religiosity and hypocrisy (Luke 11:39-44). Jesus did not hesitate to reply to the Pharisees who told Him that Herod Antipas wanted to kill Him, “Go tell that fox…” (Luke 13:31-33). Jesus even left Pontius Pilate in a quandary about finding Him guilty, yet stating, “I find no fault in this Man” (Luke 23:4).
“He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.”( Luke 1:52-53).
Mary proclaimed, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty”(Luke 1:52-53). It is hard to see how Jesus brought down rulers from their thrones during His time on earth. Surely, that’s what they wanted Him to do.
One can be sure, however, that Jesus was not afraid of the rulers during that time and to speak out against the socio-political issues for the poor and humble, the oppressed and powerless.
“How many pages of the Gospel did St. Luke comment on this new order in the life of humanity inaugurated by Jesus? Those, for example, where he denounces selfish wealth: in particular, the parable of the rich glutton and the beggar Lazarus” (16:19-31). Those, too, which condemn the common understanding of political power as exploitation and oppression (11:24-27.) Or those again, where pride is reproved: especially the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (18:9-14). (Coste, The Magnificat The Revolution of God, p.104)
Jesus chose solidarity with the poor and the humble by choosing a lowly handmaid and a manger instead of a throne to make His entrance into the world. Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, He lifted the heads of the humble when He sat with them, fed them, ate with them, taught them, had compassioned on them, and healed them. Indeed, Jesus was moved with compassion every time He encountered the weak, the sick, the dying, the powerless. He lifted their hopes, their spirits, their dreams, forgiving their sins, extending them grace and humanizing and remembering “the least of these.” Mary proclaimed, “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” (Luke 1:54-56) When Mary spoke these words, it was as if she had seen a vision of Jesus standing in the synagogue:
“and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the LORD is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21)
In Sidney Callahan’s The Magnificat – The Prayer of Mary, p.98, Callahan notes that “Mary speaks as a daughter of Abraham and knows that God keeps His promises. The greatest promise of all has been kept with Mary’s new conception, a new beginning of liberation and help, the union of God and man.”
Gail Scotton Baylor practices Law in Stone Mountain, GA. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism/TV/Film and Juris Doctorate degrees from Howard University. She is expected to receive her MDiv degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in 2021. Her current practice areas are Wills and Probate, Uncontested Family Law matters, Adoptions, and Car accidents.
VICTOR GLOVER IS PILOT ON THE FIRST OPERATIONAL FLIGHT OF SPACEX CREW DRAGON
Victor Jerome Glover is a NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. He is the first African American pilot on the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. Glover is a commander in the U.S. Navy where he pilots an F/A-18. A graduate of the U.S. Navy academy, Glover Received a Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University. He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.
Navy Commander Victor Glover is the first Black astronaut on a long-term space station mission. The crew also includes physicist Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, who became the first person in almost 40 years to launch on three types of spacecraft. SpaceX has already launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on the first full-fledged taxi flight for NASA by a private company, Tesla. The flight lasted for a total of 27 1/2 hours and was entirely automated, although the crew could take control if needed.
The current three-men, one-woman crew named their capsule Resilience in homage to breakthroughs in facing the pandemic, and developments in social and political justice.
ELLIS WHITT AMONG FIVE ORIGINAL ENGINEERS/SCIENTISTS IN THE FIRST MANNED MOON LANDING
Ellis E. Whitt received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Applied Mathematics & Engineering Mechanics from NC State University (1963 & 1965). He was awarded the US Army Commendation Medal on May 14, 1968. He was a member of a team of five engineers/scientists who designed the onboard guidance for the first manned moon landing mission in July 1969. Whitt grew up on a tobacco farm and retired in 2005 after 34 years of US Government Civil Service in Huntsville, AL. Recently, Whitt discussed his groundbreaking activities related to the first manned moon landing experience.
I grew up on a tobacco farm in Randolph County, NC. My family had been tobacco farmers for generations. Tobacco farming was hard and dirty, with long hours. My parents encouraged me to get a good education and I figured that was the best way for me to not be a tobacco farmer the rest of my life. About the sixth or seventh grade, I was especially inspired with a little booklet we were given each week to push our imaginations. One such booklet was about the moon and what the moon’s surface might actually be like.
I imagined how the surface of the moon might be and wondered if we (the US) would eventually be able to go there.
I imagined how the surface of the moon might be and wondered if we (the US) would eventually be able to go there. Our teacher even told us about the motions of the earth and the moon in space. She told us about the earth rotating, revolving around the sun, and wobbling on its axis. I remember thinking about those motions day after day and wondering how that could be. About a year later, when Dad and I were in our tobacco fields during one of those long days, I decided to make it official; I said “Dad, I’m going to be an engineer.” I knew he didn’t know what engineers do but I wanted to see his reaction to my off-the-wall statement, and perhaps, to set a goal for myself. Our teacher had previously told us that engineering was hard and required a lot of math. I had also thought about pursuing a career as a doctor or lawyer, but this engineering thing highly intrigued me. After I had told Dad about my plans, I believed I had made a promise, and was committed to keeping it. I studied six years at NC State University, majoring in Applied Math and Engineering Mechanics.
During my two-year military service, I had the opportunity to teach math and engineering courses to Army career officers during the daytime and at the University of Texas in the evenings. At one point I was asked by my commanding officer to teach a course in propulsion, a course I had not taken, nor its perquisites, heat transfer and thermodynamics. I think that experience made me a bit tougher.
Upon departing from military service, I was offered an opportunity to work on the first moon-landing mission, a dream I had had since childhood. As a Boeing engineer, I was a member of a team of five engineers/scientists supporting NASA who did the targeting for the first moon-landing mission. This involved providing the onboard guidance commands for Apollo 11 as it was boosted from earth’s orbit to the moon and back. Precision was of utmost importance, especially with three astronauts onboard. For critical calculations, we used double-precision (fifteen decimal places) computer simulations. We realized the importance of what we were doing and knew it had never been done before. We were just trying really hard to not make any mistakes. Engineers were working twelve-hour shifts around the clock. We did it! When the US successfully landed men on the moon and returned them safely to earth in 1969, we had done what we had set out to do. I am still touched when I think about the opportunity that I had to fulfill one of my lifetime dreams in working on the first moon-landing mission.
After the moon landing, there continued to be many scientific questions about outer space, and many studies continued to be conducted, but not with quite the national resolve that had driven the first manned-lunar landing project. After the success of Apollo 11, I accepted a position as Research Scientist with Lockheed doing research on such things as HEAO (High Energy Astronomical Observatory), Space Tug Missions, and research into a project to Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons. Later, I worked for Computer Sciences Corporation before starting a three-decade career in ballistic missile research for the Department of the Army. As Senior Engineer, one of my positions was as the US Project Officer for Theater Missile Defense Architecture Studies with companies and agencies in the US and four allied countries.
I am happy that space launches are continuing. I can visualize future colonization of other planets.
I think the future of the space program is bright. With the advances in science and computer technology, we are limited only with our imaginations. I am happy that space launches are continuing. I can visualize future colonization of other planets. However, at some point, we must figure out how to shorten time and space in order to access distant heavenly bodies. That is, we must figure out how to employ some currently less familiar laws of physics because the distance is so great to those planets. Even for a near neighbor, say Mars, a trip from Earth would probably take about nine months. The travel time would be considerably longer for the outer planets in our solar system. A manned vehicle traveling outside our solar system would require many years unless we can unlock some less familiar laws of physics.
WE ARE RISING: THE STORY OF BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
– By Lopez D. Matthews
On December 1,2020, Dr. Lopez D. Matthews gave a virtual lecture on the topic, “We are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities.” The lecture was sponsored by Washington Metro Oasis in collaboration with HBCU Speakers Bureau and Research Magazine.
An excerpt from the lecture appears below.
What is an HBCU? An HBCU or Historically Black College or University is a school opened before 1964 that was developed for the express purpose of educating African Americans.
Since their founding, these institutions have nurtured, supported, and developed the minds of African American students regardless of class.
The term was developed in 1965 to support special funding provided in the Higher Education Act of 1965. Since their founding, these institutions have nurtured, supported, and developed the minds of African American students regardless of class. They have been responsible for helping African Americans strip away the vestiges of impoverishment. They have provided a space for many to learn about their culture and indeed themselves simply by being there. The HBCU is the essence of acclaimed African American Novelist Richard Wright’s statement “Tell them we are rising.”From their beginning, these institutions have always welcomed individuals from every nationality.
HBCUs developed similar to the way the entire education system for African Americans developed, as an avenue to build and support each other as a community. The first African American educators did so because they felt they had an obligation to support their community in the face of rampant racism in the United States. This obligation is encapsulated in a quote from Coppin State University namesake Fannie Jackson Coppin. Coppin stated: “I feel sometimes like a person to whom in childhood was entrusted some sacred flame…This is the desire to see my race lifted out of the mire of (sic) weakness and degradation; no longer to sit in obscure corners and devour the scraps of knowledge which (were) flung at him. I want to see him crowned with strength and dignity; adorned with the enduring grace of intellectual attainments.”
True to the mission of its namesake, in its early years, Coppin trained African American teachers to teach African American students in the Baltimore region and beyond.
Coppin State University
The school that bears Fannie Jackson Coppin’s name was opened in Baltimore, Maryland as the Colored High School in 1900. The teacher training program that would become Coppin State University was separated in 1902. The Colored High School went on to continue educating African American youth in secondary education as Frederick Douglass High School. True to the mission of its namesake, in its early years, Coppin trained African American teachers to teach African American students in the Baltimore region and beyond. It continued this singular mission when it became Coppin State Teachers College in 1950. In the 1960s, the university expanded into a liberal arts college and was renamed Coppin State College. Coppin has continued to educate and nurture the minds of African American students as a small liberal arts college of 3000 students in Baltimore, MD. Its campus stands as an oasis in the middle of crowded and busy city of Baltimore. In 2004, its status was changed from a college to a university.
In the same vein of “obligation,” the founders of Howard University wanted to develop a school to serve the African American community in freedom by creating professionals to serve them. Although they were white, the 17 men, all members of the First Congregational Church, felt an obligation to support the “Freedmen” as freed African Americans were then known. Nine of them, including namesake, Oliver Otis Howard, served in the Civil War as Generals. With their eye set on developing Black professionals, the university was not created as a school to train either preachers or teachers like many other HBCUs. The university was chartered as a liberal arts college and university on March 2, 1867. It opened to students on May 1, 1867. Almost immediately after its founding Howard began producing notable alumni including Charlotte Ray, the first African American woman to earn a Law Degree.
Howard University
The university elected its first Black President, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, in 1926. Under his leadership, the university deepened its roots in the African American community and expanded its service to the global Black diaspora. Its current enrollment stands at over 10,000 students, many coming from around the world.
In the mid-20th century…students from Howard helped found the Southern Negro Youth Congress, an interracial organization dedicated to Civil Rights.
Howard University and Coppin State University, while distinct from one another, are similar in that they each reflect the mission of HBCUs in developing Black leaders. This was especially obvious during the mid-20 century and the Civil Rights Movement. Students from Howard helped found the Southern Negro Youth Congress, an interracial organization dedicated to Civil Rights. In the 1940s, they also participated in sit-ins held in Washington, D.C. by the college students in the Congress of Racial Equality. In the 1960s at the height of the movement, students from North Carolina A&T revived the sit in movement.
Students at Coppin became active as well, supporting protests and boycotts throughout the city of Baltimore. HBCU students also lead the development of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The most well-known HBCU graduate of the movement is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a graduate of HBCU Morehouse College, considered by many to be the leader of the movement.
The work, leadership, and activism of HBCU students did not stop with the ending of the Civil Rights Movement. HBCUs have continued to produce leaders that have supported their community and changed the nation. The HBCU ecosystem has seen great success in the November election of 2020 and runoff election of January 2021.Cori Bush a Harris-Stowe State University graduate became the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress. Howard University alumna Kamala Harris recently became the first Black woman to become Vice President in U.S history. In January 2021, the Georgia runoff Senate races brought more success for HBCU alums. Morehouse College graduate Raphael Warnock became the first Black senator from Georgia and the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction. Warnock’s win can be attributed to the hard work of another HBCU graduate, Spelman College alumna Stacey Abrams. While we never needed proof before. The rising number of HBCU graduates on the national stage are the latest examples of the success of HBCUs. While HBCUs still face many challenges today, they continue to manifest the words of Richard Wright to Howard University namesake Oliver Otis Howard “Tell Them We Are Rising.”
Dr. Matthews is the Manager of the Digital Production Center for the Howard University Libraries and the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. He also teaches college-level courses on United States, African American, African and World History. Among his other positions, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore. Dr. Matthews holds a PhD in United States History from Howard University.
Positive Change Purchasing Cooperative, LLC. and the National Association of Blacks in Solar to Demand Congressional Hearing on Lack of Diversity in Solar Industry and Funding Targeted for African American Institutions and Communities Nationally
– By Ronald K. Bethea, President
The National Association of Blacks in Solar (NABS) is requesting that members of the Congressional Black Caucus hold an Executive Congressional Hearing on a Green Economic Development Plan for Black America. It will include members of the CBC who serve on oversight committees that play key roles on climate change and renewable energy. The organization will request that the Biden Administration invest 35% of the 1.7 trillion that his administration plans to invest in clean energy in black communities nationally.
The NABS hearing will also address the lack of diversity in the solar industry. The organization will establish a process for evaluating social, political, economic environments and priorities in the development of an individualized long-term solar strategy for HBCUs and African American Banks, churches, municipalities, county governments, business, and non-profits. For more information, contact Ronald K. Bethea, president of Positive Change Purchasing Cooperative LLC. and The National Association of Blacks in Solar:
website: www.positivechangepc.com
email: info@positivechangepc.com
Contact number: 202-246-4924
NABS Founding/Charter Members
Bethune-Cookman Will Continue Research on Juvenile-Justice Issues
Professor Randy Nelson with B-CU students in Department of Juvenile Justice program
Recently, Bethune-Cookman University (B- CU) began a partnership with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), which has the responsibility for administering juvenile delinquency services statewide. Professor Randy Nelson, director of the B-CU Center for Law & Social Justice and department chairperson of the master’s in criminal justice administration program, provided details on the partnership.
Professor Nelson stated, “The first BC-U students (3) interned with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice during the Fall 2020 term under our partnership agreement. They were assigned to the Office of Research & Data, the division responsible for collecting and analyzing recidivism and program data for the agency. B-CU was selected for the partnership because of our leadership role in developing and managing the Florida Historically Black Colleges & Universities Juvenile Justice Reform Project. This project was initially funded and supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and included all of Florida’s Historically Black Colleges & Universities (Bethune-Cookman University, Edward Waters College, Florida A & M University, and Florida Memorial University). The project was designed to introduce and prepare future juvenile justice professionals to serve as change agents and leaders in juvenile justice reform efforts in Florida and nationally.“
In an article that appeared in the E-Newsletter of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association, Professor Nelson discussed the importance of building positive relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve and the need to significantly increase the number of black law enforcement professionals. He explained, “The community must take on the responsibility of identifying bright young men and women within and of the community to serve as law enforcement professionals.” Additionally, he stated that such training will be necessary for “improved police-community relations and increased public safety.” He added that this will require “two-way accountability on the part of law enforcement and the communities they serve. To this end, it is paramount that these groups are aware of each other’s perceptions, lived and shared experiences, and realities. “
On a yearly basis, the Bethune-Cookman University Center for Law and Social Justice (CLSJ) and its partners sponsor numerous workshops and forums that address common misconceptions among law enforcement and communities of color.
Since its founding in 2015, the CLSJ and its associates have trained more than 1,000 law enforcement and other criminal justice professionals from around the country and more than 500 local and regional community residents and stakeholders.
For more information, contact Professor Randy Nelson at
nelson@cookman.edu.
Prison Inmates Helped Launch Me on a Lifetime Love of Black History
McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary (now closed) in Puget Sound, Washington showing the pier for the ferry
FIFTY YEARS AGO, I met some of the most learned and intelligent men I have encountered in my life.
I “taught” a class in Black History at McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary, near Tacoma and Seattle, Washington. I should probably make clear I was a “visiting instructor” while a Captain stationed at McChord Air Force Base. And taught is in quotes because at the time my knowledge of African history was limited to a smattering of information I had picked up and from reading two books ONLY: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and the inimitable Lerone Bennett’s “They Came Before the Mayflower.”
My “Part-Time Teacher” identity card
In contrast, the 20+ Brothers in my class were true students — most of them — of our People’s history. The only Black History I recall being taught in school was a photo in an elementary school textbook of enslaved Africans picking cotton and fragmentary mentions of Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver’s experiments with peanuts.
Five decades later, I researched, and my wife Ife and I wrote and recently published a historical novel — “CLANDESTINE: The Times and Secret Life of Mariah Otey Reddick,” so….
I WANT TO THANK YOU, THE BROTHERS OF MCNEIL ISLAND, for mentoring me in the early days of my fifty-year search to uncover the historical knowledge of my People and my Ancestors that was denied to and hidden from me and others in public school and higher education, popular culture (TV, movies, etc.), church, professional, scholarly, and fraternal associations, and other institutions of society.
Most of the Brothers’ names have now faded from memory, but wherever you are — alive or not, still incarcerated, or free — you ALL have my endless GRATITUDE! Those men include:
– ‘Pep’ Young (the poet),
– Raymond Beckles (whose son managed the Black Front grocery store on 20th Ave. in the Central District of Seattle, and whom we coincidentally met “on the outside.”),
– Leo 10X (reputedly serving time for double murder),
– the CPA serving time for tax evasion,
– the Brother who made a long, curved Afro comb for my wife Ife,
– the artist whose gift, a painting on velvet of a dignified Black woman with a big Afro, still adorns our home,
I repeatedly asked the McNeil Island inmate artist, name unknown, to give us a title for his unsigned work. He ultimately said, “Esteem.”
…as well as
– Acosta, the Puerto Rican from New York via California, who was weary of being referred to as a Mexican (Chicano was the preferred term then),
– the members of:
- Descendants of Angola African Society,
- Nation of Islam
- US, and
- Black Panthers
and most especially…
– Ronald Benjamin Jarrett, better known as Ron Ben Jar, the star of the class.
Other than “Pep” Young, with whom I briefly corresponded, I never had any further contact with my “students.”
Near the end of 2019 upon making inquiries, I learned that Brother Ron, originally from California, was released a couple of years after I left Tacoma. He moved to Seattle and became an inspirational cultural leader in the community working with alcoholics (he was, I found out, in recovery) and with children’s theater.
Here’s a snippet from a local newsletter in the 1970s for a scheduled radio interview.
Theatre is life! An interview with actor, director, writer Ron Ben Jarrett. Besides appearing in films, television and radio programs, and many Seattle theatre productions through the Seattle Rep., Second-Stage, Black Arts West, La Pensee, and others, Mr. Jarrett has taken theatre techniques to youth groups and alcoholics helping them to discover how to develop their potentials and arrest their addictions.
The above is from the archive of KRAB, an educational listener-supported Seattle radio station that ended its broadcasting in 1984.
Note: Black Arts West is now Nu Black Arts West Theater.
Sincere thanks to Charles Reinsch, who maintains the archive: http://www.krabarchive.com/
Sadly, Charles Reinsch informed me that Ron Ben Jar died peacefully — a free man — in his sleep in the late 1990s. I wish we could have hung out together in “minimum security” – the inmates’ sardonic term for life outside prison walls for Black people.
Photo from an article in the June, 1979 Seattle Times, which I saw in 2019, stating that Ron Ben Jar had college degrees in agriculture, social psychology, and drama.
RIP, my dear Brother. Rise In Power!
On the first day of class, Ron Ben Jar asked me, and I recall it word for word, “Brother Bill, what epoch of Black history will you be teaching us?” He then listed several periods of ancient and modern Black history that I had never even heard of! Wisely, I responded that I would be trying to be a resource for them.
I had visited the previous semester’s Fort Steilacoom Community College (now Pierce College) class taught by my then-mentor, the courageous and wise Carl Brown from Tacoma. So, I knew many of “my students” were more knowledgeable of history than I was. My interaction with those Brothers had a great impact on my life and my perspectives.
A cell block in the 1800s
How’s this for irony?
Back then I did not know that – exactly 100 years after – my own once-enslaved great-grandfather Bolen Reddick spent time “inside” in the late 1860s at the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville (per the 1870 US Census). I am certain the McNeil Island Brothers would have gotten a huge chuckle out of that! I hope some of them will see this essay and read our book to:
- see how Bolen sought successfully to have the prosecutor removed because he was a KKK member (per the handwritten court transcript),
- find that he protested that he should have a “jury of his peers,”
- discover why Bolen was sentenced to 15 years for murder and … whether he was guilty, and whether it was related to the deadly 1867 Franklin Riot about which his wife gave a deposition, and
Bolen and Mariah Reddick in Franklin, Tennessee
- learn that his wife Mariah (1838-1922), given as a wedding gift at ten-years-old, would grow up to work in the household of Jefferson Davis and, per family lore, would become a spy for the Union.
It turns out that McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary, unbeknownst to me until 2014, closed in 1976, just six years after I was discharged from the US Air Force. I then went back east, first to work in Brooklyn in my New York City hometown and then to go to graduate school. While pursuing my degree in counseling, I enrolled in classes at Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center, directed by Dr. James Turner to buttress my self-education propelled by my interaction with the men — the prisoners — on an island in Puget Sound.
To my esteemed and dear McNeil Island Brothers, you prepared me well and sent me on my journey. Wherever you are, RESPECT! And, Asante Sana! (Kiswahili) Adupe o! (Yoruba) Daalu! (Igbo) Thank You!
Asé
Damani (Bill) & Ife Keene are authors of CLANDESTINE – The Times and Secret Life of Mariah Otey Reddick, which is available in paperback:https://amzn.to/2QM2LFX. The eBook (pdf) is available at Clandestine-Life.com
In Memoriam
– By Gwendolyn S. Bethea
Dr. Teresa Ernestine Scotton Williams, beloved wife, mother, sister, professor, and friend was born on January 7, 1946 to the late Reverend Harry Franklin Scotton and Lina Bernice Rivers-Scotton in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Williams was a stellar student throughout elementary and high school, attending Fairview Elementary School and William Penn High School. In high school, among her many achievements, she was president of the Student Council and graduated valedictorian in 1964.
She won a four-year, full scholarship to Howard University. She graduated cum laude from Howard in 1968, with a degree in Microbiology. She went on to earn her master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, and her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Iowa. She was one of few women to achieve this accomplishment in her graduating year. Her thesis, “Some Issues in the Standardized Testing of Minority Students” (1983) was published in the Journal of Education.
Dr. Williams taught Marketing Research at the School of Business at Howard University and Statistics and Measurements at Oral Roberts University for over twenty years combined.
Dr. Williams’ students sought out her personal and academic advice. Her pioneering research and teaching in testing and statistical analysis; and her extraordinary love for her students will be fondly remembered. She was married to Newman Williams of Iowa, the mother of three adult children, Zahra, Jamila, and Khary, and the grandmother to four grandchildren whom she adored.
Dr. Williams was my beloved sister.