Earth, Wind & Fire First African American Group Inducted Into Kennedy Center Honors

Earth, Wind & Fire made history on Dec. 8 as the first African American Group to be inducted into Kennedy Center Honors, which recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts.

The group were announced as recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors over the weekend at its 42nd event, which took place at Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Earth, Wind & Fire’s original members Verdine White, Philip Bailey, and Ralph Johnson, paid tribute to the group’s late founder and co-lead singer Maurice White, who passed away in February 2016 at his home in Los Angeles, California, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

“You can’t play any Earth, Wind & Fire songs without Maurice’s DNA being on it, so he’s always here and we’re always celebrating him and his vision,” Johnson, 68, told Billboard. “People are still coming together and having fun.”

Hinting toward a possible duets album in the future, Bailey said: “We’re making a list, and checking it twice. And you’ll hear about it soon.”

“There are so many more African American acts that are deserving and perhaps this can be the first of many more to come,” he added.

Other honorees recognized at the event included Oscar-winning actress Sally Field, singer Linda Ronstadt, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and the long-running children’s TV show “Sesame Street.”

[SOURCE: EpochTimes]

UNCF to Award $1.2 Million to four HBCUs

UNCF (United Negro College Fund) announces the awarding of Liberal Arts Innovation Grants to four institutions participating in the UNCF Career Pathways Initiative (CPI). The initial investment from UNCF provides up to $300,000 to each institution to create a campus-based or virtual liberal arts innovation center that focuses on merging the technical discipline of STEM, healthcare, education, and finance into the liberal arts. The development of these Liberal Arts Innovation Centers (LAIC) will enable the institution to expand the research, provide training and development opportunities to faculty and staff and to incubate and test approaches to implementing embedding technical disciplines into the liberal arts.

STEM Liberal Arts Innovation Center

Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, will foster collaboration with industry and intuitional partners; promote interdisciplinary instructional strategies across STEM and liberal arts disciplines; and drive improved liberal arts student development of digital literacy skills and improved STEM student development of liberal arts/human-centered skills.

Healthcare Liberal Arts Innovation Center

UNCF-member institution Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina, will proactively identify the intersections and highlight the critical impact that liberal arts and multidisciplinary studies theory and practice have on healthcare access and equity for minority and rural populations. Through their center, Voorhees will offer online certificate programs such as Abuse Prevention and Education Certification, HIV Prevention Counselor I, SC Community Health Worker Certification, etc.

Education Liberal Arts Innovation Center

Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, a UNCF member-institution, will institute an interactive professional learning process for faculty, which will lead to increased student learning and retention. Professors will study student responses to active learning strategies during technology-enhanced lessons using a variety of techniques to include training models focusing on critical‐thinking, communication, and problem‐solving skills.

Finance Liberal Arts Innovation Center

Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, which is also a UNCF member-institution, will introduce a new learning model, Humantics, that blends technical and social skills to develop higher-order mental skills in students that will prepare them to effectively function in and move between jobs and tasks. Professors at Dillard will embed lessons on conflict negotiation and resolution, verbal and written communication, content creation, empathy, planning, teaching and leadership into their courses while also teaching students how to fully utilize programs necessary for data analytics.

We’re extremely excited to begin the work that will result in innovations from each of our participating institutions to advance the knowledge and skillsets of their students and their transition from post-secondary education to careers in their chosen fields,” said Dr. Samaad Wes Keys, strategist for UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building. “Higher education has forever been a foundation for innovative thought, entrepreneurial action and the building of best practices. The LAICs are UNCF’s response to the liberal arts community that will strengthen the influence that liberal arts have on other professions and career paths. We look forward to working together with these institutions to build their capacity to provide mentorship, solutions-based career pathways, and experiential learning to their students.”

“The economic mobility for students who have a base in a liberal arts education is evident. UNCF is eager to cross-pollinate liberal arts pedagogy into professions that will provide the all-encompassing skill sets that 21st-century employers value,” said Dr. Michael L. Lomax, UNCF president and CEO. “These critical skills that can fuel students’ careers forward with higher earning potential. Thank you to the Lilly Endowment for entrusting UNCF with this very important initiative.”

Since their inception, liberal arts institutions have provided a broad-based education that adequately prepares students for a wide range of professions.

The UNCF CPI, funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., is a three-pronged comprehensive approach to delivering career pathways for students: guided pathways, curricular enhancements, and integrated co-curricular engagement. The goal of the CPI is to help students find meaningful employment in their desired career fields. Awarded to UNCF in 2015, the $50 million Lilly Endowment gift marked the second largest gift in UNCF history. Currently, 24 HBCUs or predominantly black institutions actively participate in the UNCF CPI.

Learn more about CPI, visit UNCF.org/cpi

Eric Holder: William Barr is unfit to be the US Attorney General

In a Washington Post op-ed, former US Attorney General Eric Holder took current US attorney, William Barr, to task for not only being partisan but unfit to hold the office itself.

Read excerpts of the piece below:

As a former U.S. attorney general, I am reluctant to publicly criticize my successors. I respect the office and understand just how tough the job can be.

But recently, Attorney General William P. Barr has made a series of public statements and taken actions that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America’s chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office.

...Virtually since the moment he took office, though, Barr’s words and actions have been fundamentally inconsistent with his duty to the Constitution. Which is why I now fear that his conduct — running political interference for an increasingly lawless president — will wreak lasting damage.

The American people deserve an attorney general who serves their interests, leads the Justice Department with integrity and can be entrusted to pursue the facts and the law, even — and especially — when they are politically inconvenient and inconsistent with the personal interests of the president who appointed him. William Barr has proved he is incapable of serving as such an attorney general. He is unfit to lead the Justice Department.

Read the entire op-ed here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eric-holder-william-barr-is-unfit-to-be-attorney-general/2019/12/11/99882092-1c55-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html

Rep. Payne Jr’s statement on shootings in Jersey City

Washington, D.C. — Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. issued the following statement regarding the gun violence on December 11, 2019, in Jersey City, NJ.

“My condolences and prayers go out to the families and friends of the victims of the horrific mass shooting in Jersey City yesterday. But I want to thank and commend the brave men and women of the Jersey City Police Department and all the law enforcement agencies who came together to protect the city from further violence.

This is a very personal tragedy for me. Not only are these my constituents, but our Jersey City office is located on the same block where this violence occurred. It is difficult to express my anger and upset when I hear about another senseless tragedy. In the House, we have passed bills to keep guns out of the hands of hateful people, such as the two murderers who targeted the owners and customers of the Jewish delicatessen in Jersey City. House-passed bills have been sent to the Senate, but Republicans have refused to even consider them.

There have been almost 400 mass shootings and 31 mass murders this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It’s disgraceful that the inaction of President Trump and his Senate allies continues to allow attacks on American citizens.

That won’t stop me from working to keep Americans safe from gun violence. I will continue to encourage my House colleagues to support my Safer Neighborhoods Gun Buyback Act (H.R. 1279) to help me get guns off the streets. We have to stop this senseless violence and put an end to these preventable deaths.”

Sen. Cory Booker statement on Jersey City shootings

U.S. Senator Cory A. Booker (D-NJ) released the following statement on the killings in Jersey City in which six people died, inclusive Jersey City Police Officer:

“Once again, our nation is faced with scenes of carnage, fear, hopelessness, and loss. There should be no place in America where residents are gunned down while shopping for groceries, officers are slain while protecting our communities, and children are sheltering in place at school. These tragedies cannot become our new normal.

“I am thankful to the Jersey City Police Department, first responders and law enforcement officers from across New Jersey and neighboring areas that bravely ran toward danger to steer their neighbors to safety. My prayers and deepest sympathies are with the victims of today’s horrific and senseless tragedy in Jersey City. Our focus now should be continuing the investigation, honoring the sacrifice of Detective Seals and our other fallen New Jerseyans, praying for the full recovery of the injured officers, and doing everything we can to protect our communities from gun violence.”