LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Authorities are asking for the public’s assistance in locating a woman who has been missing since Wednesday.
30-year-old Kaniya Weddle may be traveling in a 2019 Black Jeep Cherokee, license plate: 550 -YVI.
She was last seen around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
If you have any information regarding where Kaniya Weddle may be, call investigators at 501-371-4829.
The board of trustees of the City University of New York appointed Patricia Ramsey as the sixth president of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. The CUNY senior college, a predominantly Black institution that was established in response to community advocacy in 1970 and named for the iconic civil rights leader who was slain seven years earlier in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. His murderer was not convicted for more than three decades.
Medgar Evers College enrolls nearly 5,800 students, according to the most recent data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 76 percent of the student body.
Dr. Ramsey, whose appointment is effective May 1, will be the first woman to serve as the president of Medgar Evers College. A biologist by training, she comes to CUNY from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund in Washington, D.C., where she spent the past year as a senior executive fellow. She previously served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of the slain civil rights leader and noted social activist, said that “Dr. Ramsey is a passionate, courageous, and innovative educator with a well-established track record of inspiring students, faculty, and administration at historically Black colleges and universities. Dr. Ramsey is committed to creating an environment in which students know they are valued for their pursuit of excellence in their educational endeavors, and where their success is understood to be inextricably linked to that of the community. Our family is very grateful to the MEC family, community, and CUNY for their dedication to this new beginning, which will truly honor the life and legacy of Medgar Wiley Evers and brings a promising new future to the college that was named for him.”
In accepting the appointment, Dr. Ramsey stated that “during these times of heightened awareness of social justice issues, I have the unique opportunity to lead Medgar Evers College, an institution with social justice in its DNA. It is my firm belief that if we work together, we can move Medgar Evers College to a new level of excellence.”
Dr. Ramsey earned a bachelor’s degree in biology education from Norfolk State University in Virginia. She holds a master’s degree in botany from Howard University, a master’s degree in biology from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in biology from Georgetown University.
NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson, released the following statement in response to the reckless killing of Daunte Wright:
“Daunte Wright was shot and killed yesterday, just north of where George Floyd was suffocated less than a year ago. Both were fathers, both were Black men, both died at the hands of police. Whether it be carelessness and negligence, or a blatant modern-day lynching, the result is the same. Another Black man has died at the hands of police.”
An Atlanta high school that bears the name of a Confederate Army general who was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan will be renamed for Hank Aaron, the Hall of Famer who broke baseball’s career home record and challenged racial barriers.
The Atlanta Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to change the name of Forrest Hill Academy, named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, to Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy. School district policy requires a five-year waiting period after the death of a notable person unless the vote to change the name of a school building is unanimous. Aaron died in January at age 86, and the name of the public alternative school for middle and high school students will occur sometime this year.
“It is very important that we understand our history,” board member Michelle Olympiadis said during the Monday meeting. “It’s very important that we understand where we are coming from.”
A 74-year-old grandmother has filed a lawsuit against three Oklahoma City police officers who she says broke her arm and illegally entered her home during an encounter last summer.
