Dominique Dawes: First African American Olympic gymnastics medalist

Before Simone Biles and Gabby Douglass there was Dominique Dawes.

Born on November 20, 1976, in Silver Spring, Maryland, Dominique Dawes began taking gymnastics lessons at age 6. She participated in the Olympic Games as part of the U.S. women's gymnastics team in 1992, 1996 and 2000, winning a team medal each time. In 1996, Dawes's team won Olympic gold and Dawes won an individual bronze medal—becoming the first African American to win an individual Olympic medal in women's gymnastics. She retired from gymnastics after the 2000 Games.

North Carolina A&T to leave MEAC

HBCU football powerhouse North Carolina A&T announced Friday it will move to the Big South Conference in 2021, a major blow to the shrinking Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

The Greensboro university, which announced the move during an on-campus news conference, will join the Big South on July 1, 2021 as the conference's 12th full-time member. It will have the largest enrollment in the conference and return football to eight teams (Presbyterian is departing this year), including three associate members.

N.C. A&T teams will be immediately eligible for Big South titles upon entry to the conference.

"We have been looking carefully at our opportunities in athletics for five years and more intensively over the past year," North Carolina A&T chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. said in a statement. "We're pleased to have brought that process to fruition and excited to be ushering in a new alliance with the Big South. This move makes great sense for our student-athletes, for our fans and for our bottom line. We will always have a place in our hearts for the MEAC, and we look forward to what the new conference will make possible for the Aggies."

The most significant ramifications are in football. N.C. A&T has developed into the leading power among HBCU football programs (historically black colleges and universities). It has won at least a share of three straight and five of the past six MEAC titles and four of the first five Celebration Bowls, which match the MEAC and Southwestern Athletic Conference champs, and generally decide the Division I black college football national title. The Aggies have gone 72-21 over eight straight winning seasons, including a 12-0 record in 2017.

[SOURCE: ESPN]

NAACP CONDEMNS SENATE VOTE ON DONALD TRUMP IMPEACHMENT

Today, the NAACP condemned the Senate’s votes on the impeachment of Donald Trump. Derrick Johnson, President and CEO, made the following statement:

“Today’s votes to cover up Donald Trump’s crimes against our democracy will be a permanent stain on our nation’s history. This is the same democracy for which many of us have sacrificed in order to participate fully and equally.

The Senate votes constitute a dereliction of duty of the highest order. Our Constitution was designed to address precisely this crisis. Donald Trump abused the powers of the presidency by sacrificing his own country for personal political gain and then obstructed the investigation by Congress. Yet a majority of Senators defied their oaths to the Constitution by refusing to protect the integrity and security of our elections and to remove Donald Trump from office.

Donald Trump is not acquitted. Donald Trump is not exonerated. The Senate refused to hold the type of trial required by the Constitution. Therefore, there can be no verdict. Donald Trump will be remembered by history as an impeached president who believed he was above the law. Of course, no one is above the law, not even the president.

For months, the NAACP has been on record in support of impeaching and convicting Donald Trump. He represents a clear and present danger to the nation for a host of reasons. From his reversals of civil rights policies and positions, to telling congresswomen of color to go back to their countries, to separating families and caging immigrant children without food or water, to his attempts to not count everyone in the Census, to his failure to enforce the Voting Rights Act, to his installing the most ideologically extreme and least diverse federal judges, this president has led the most racist and xenophobic administration since the Jim Crow era. We will continue to hold Donald Trump accountable for all of his offenses and encourage everyone to do the same.

Elections are the core of our democracy, and they are still under threat. To reclaim our democracy, we must work harder than ever to protect the integrity and legitimacy of our elections and to ensure that everyone can cast a vote and have that vote count. It’s on us now. And we are up to the task. We have no choice.

Meet Kamali Thompson, the medical student with dreams of Olympic gold in fencing

Kicking off “Breaking Through,” a month-long series marking Black History Month, TODAY’s Craig Melvin spotlights Kamali Thompson, a medical student with big dreams of competing in Tokyo this summer as a fencer. She acknowledges there are not a lot of African-Americans in fencing yet, “but it’s growing” – and she gives Craig a lesson in the sport.

Sen. Booker's full statement on Trump's impeachment trial

On Feb. 4, senators weighed in for a second day on whether they would vote to remove President Donald Trump from office. The speeches come one day before the Senate decides whether to convict or acquit Trump on two articles of impeachment -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said impeachment is a "profoundly sad time" for the country, saying that President Donald Trump is "guilty of committing high crimes and misdemeanors." He asked how the United States would heal from such a dark day, but that the hopes of the nation would lie with its people.

Watch his speech below: