Charles Barkley donates $1 million to HBCU, Miles College

NBA Hall of Famer and Auburn alum Charles Barkley making a huge donation to Miles College.

Miles head football coach and Athletic Director Reginald Ruffin says Sir Charles donated $1 million to the college in Fairfield.

It’s the single largest gift by a donor of $1 Million in Miles College’s 122 years.

Barkley was the donor of this large historic gift made under the helm of President Bobbie Knight, Interim President of Miles College and first woman in history to lead the historic institution.

“It’s great that Mr. Barkley thinks enough of Miles College to donate a million dollars. This gift lays the foundation to launch our $100 million dollar comprehensive campaign,” said President Bobbie Knight, Interim President of Miles College.

“I’ve gotten to know Bobbie Knight over the last year and it was something I really wanted to do,” said Barkley. “To have a female president is a big deal. I want to help Bobbie be as successful as she can be.”

Black News Channel to launch during Black History Month

BLACK NEWS CHANNEL TO LAUNCH DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Tallahassee, Florida—December 31, 2019--Black News Channel (BNC) announced today that it has updated the launch of the nation’s only African American news network to Black History Month on February 10, 2020. Network executives previously announced plans to launch to an audience significantly larger than its original projections. The Black History Month launch provides the time necessary to build out the distribution platforms, apps, and other infrastructure necessary to accommodate this historic event.

“Black History Month is an appropriate time to launch the Black News Channel”, Bob Brillante, co-founder and CEO for BNC shared. “We are committed to make sure that when our viewers tune in they are witness to a quality viewing experience.”

J.C. Watts, chairman and co-founder for BNC added, “Our technicians, crew and launch partners are working overtime to make sure that the additional pieces are in place to provide our African American audience with the programming that tells more of our story in a way that is not provided by current news outlets. We will make history together as we launch February 10, 2020 to more than 70 million homes and devices.”

BNC plans to release more information in January about how and where customers can view the network’s programming.

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About BNC

Black News Channel is an independent network that is minority owned and operated, and it will be the nation’s only provider of 24/7 cable news programming dedicated to covering the unique perspective of African American communities. BNC is the endeavor of the network’s visionaries and co-founders, Chairman J.C. Watts, Jr. and CEO Bob Brillante. BNC will provide access to information and educational programming to meet the specific needs of this growing and dynamic community that is a major consumer of subscription television services. BNC will provide an authentic, new voice that represents African Americans in mainstream media and fosters political, economic, and social discourse; the network will be one voice representing the many voices of African Americans. BNC’s programming will illuminate truth about the unique challenges facing urban communities and help close the “image gap” that exists today between the negative black stereotypes perpetuated by mainstream media news and our enterprising African American communities.

Morris Day book: On Time A Princely Life In Funk

A memoir by Morris Day of The Time centering around his lifelong relationship and association with Prince.

Brilliant composer, smooth soul singer, killer drummer, and charismatic band leader, Morris Day, has been a force in American music for the past four decades. In On Time, the renowned funkster looks back on a life of turbulence and triumph. He chronicles his creative process with an explosive prose that mirrors his intoxicating music. Morris' story is a fast-paced page-turner replete with unexpected twists and shocking surprises.

A major and fascinating theme is his lifelong friendship and years of musical partnership with Prince, from their early days on the Minneapolis scene to selling out stadiums and duking it out as rivals in Purple Rain. Eventually, Morris went on to release four albums with a new band of his very own, the legendary Time. He battled his addictions and came out victorious. But not before increasing tensions and embittered rivalry between Prince and the Revolution and Morris Day and the Time led the two performers towards separate paths. Through the years, the fierce brotherly love between Morris and Prince kept bringing them back together, over and over again-until pride, ego, and circumstance interfered. Two months before Prince's untimely death, the two finally reconnected and started to make amends. But Morris could've never imagined it would be the last time he'd ever see his friend again.

This is Morris Day's singular story in which the magic of music is the ultimate healer. On Time is also a deep meditation on friendship, Morris' poetic method of reconciling the loss of his close friend and longtime collaborator, and a way to commemorate an incendiary life cut short. But this book is more than just a walk down memory lane-it's a metaphorical means to bring Prince back to life. Throughout the narrative, Morris allows Prince's "voice" to protect his own legacy, to counter Morris's interpretations of events, and to essentially breathe new life into a tale as old as time-of two brothers, two bands, and a musical culture that even today pulsates with fresh energy.

BUY THE BOOK

In a movement to stop violence, African American men stage walks through Baltimore neighborhoods

About 60 strong, the group of mostly African American men walked the streets of East Baltimore on Saturday, talking with residents on porches, greeting drivers at stoplights, handing out flyers about jobs, drug treatment and family support. They invited passers-by to join their growing ranks.

“We’re all we’ve got,” they chanted as they left Faith United Baptist Church on The Alameda. “We’re all we need.”

The men — pastors, activists, residents and others — have been walking three times a week for several months now through different parts of the city. It’s not a march, they say, but a movement. Their mission is to save lives in a city beset by violence.

“We have to be at the center of the change of saving lives,” Dr. Andrey Bundley, an organizer and director of African American Male Engagement, a division of the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success, told the group setting out from the church. “If the state of black men is going to change, it’s going to take black men to inspire and guide black men, first, and then other people of good will.”

Read more:In a grass-roots movement to break the cycle of violence, African American men stage walks through city neighborhoods

Michelle Obama named the "most admired woman" for second year in a row

Former first lady Michelle Obama has been named the "most admired woman" in the world for the second year in a row.

Obama, 55, bested current first lady Melania Trump in the 2019 results of an annual poll released Tuesday by Gallup.

Obama was the only woman to rank in double digits, with 10%, according to Gallup. After Obama and Trump (who garnered 5% of votes), former talk show host Oprah Winfrey and teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg tied for fourth place with 3% each on the most admired women list.

Historically, it has been more common for a former first lady to be named the most admired woman than for a former president to be named most admired man. Michelle Obama is the sixth former first lady to win, along with Eleanor Roosevelt (1948-1950 and 1952-1961), Jacqueline Kennedy (1963-1966), Mamie Eisenhower (1969-1970), Betty Ford (1978) and Hillary Clinton (2002-2017).