Texas Southern University Teams Up With NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Historically Black Texas Southern University and the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston signed an agreement that will expand opportunities for education, workforce development, and research for students at the university.

Under the agreement, the university and NASA will work collaboratively to facilitate joint research, technology transfer, technology development, and educational and outreach initiatives. The goal is to create a sustained pipeline of diverse talent for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers at the Johnson Space Center and the surrounding companies that provide support for its operations.

As part of the agreement, the universty will host the NASA Technology Infusion Road Tour in September 2022. During this event, faculty and students will have the opportunity to showcase their research capabilities and speak directly with federal agency representatives from around the country. Faculty will also have the opportunity to engage with NASA’s Small Business Innovative Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Program directors and participate in prime contractor briefings. Also, the Space Center will host a one-day Minority University Research and Education Project Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition for university students.

“This agreement is an embodiment of Texas Southern University’s commitment to its guiding principles of innovation, transformation, and disruption,” said Lesia L. Crumpton-Young, president of Texas Southern University. “This partnership will make a difference in the lives of our students and faculty. As the university continues to work tirelessly to provide opportunities for students and achieve unprecedented success at an accelerated pace, it is our belief that this partnership can be a model for other HBCUs throughout the country in changing the landscape of engineering and other STEM disciplines. “

National Black Farmers Association Statement on removal of Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color from Inflation Reduction Act

John Boyd, Founder an President, National Black Farmers Association released the following statement on the removal of Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color from Inflation Reduction Act:

After fighting for debt relief for over 3 decades, Boyd was elated when the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color was passed and signed into law by President Joe Biden last year in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Boyd met with Biden during the SC primaries to discuss the plight of Black Farmers and it was agreed upon that Biden would address Black Farmer issues. Again, last July (2021), Biden reaffirmed to Boyd he would have a face time meeting with him to discuss the ongoing struggles and delay of America’s Black Farmers getting the long sought-after debt relief.

What could be worse than having another President to overturn legislation you enacted to help Black and other Farmers of Color during a pandemic; repealing your own legislation to take it away while they are being served foreclosure notices in a recession with the highest record of input costs in 40 years while sending hundreds of millions in aid to Ukraine farmers.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Section 22008 repeals the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 Section 1005 which provided Black, Native and other Farmers of Color debt relief.

“I’m very, very disappointed in this legislative action,” he said in response to reading the final bill passed by the Senate. “I’m prepared to fight for debt relief for Black, Native American and other farmers of color all the way to the Supreme Court. I’m not going to stop fighting this.”

“Discrimination at USDA against Black Farmers was rampant and severe. Section 1005 Loan Repayment program was a necessary step towards fixing those harms. To acknowledge and correct racism is not unconstitutional or racist.”>

Olympic Gold Medalist, Kenny Monday Selected to Lead Revived Wrestling Program at Morgan State University

Leading the return of NCAA Division I, Varsity-level men’s wrestling to Maryland’s largest Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Morgan State University today announced the hiring of Kenny Monday as the Athletics Department’s new men’s wrestling coach, effective Aug. 24, 2022. Monday, the first Black wrestler in history to win an Olympic gold medal, is a National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee, three-time Olympian and former NCAA All-American standout, who brings a championship-level coaching pedigree and an expansive yet impressive resume to a Bears’ wrestling program looking to restart after a 25-year hiatus. Monday comes to Morgan after serving as the director of wrestling and head wrestling coach at Spire Academy, since 2021.

To date, Morgan remains the only HBCU to offer NCAA Division I Varsity-level wrestling. The first full season of Morgan’s new wrestling program is slated for 2023–24.

“Wrestling is officially back at the National Treasure, Morgan State University! With the hiring of Coach Monday and the vast, winning experience he brings from competing at the highest echelons, we are certain to return to our championship glory and become a destination for student-athletes desiring top-level coaching and exceptional academic programs,” said David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University. “It isn’t every day that you can bring in a leader the caliber of Coach Kenny Monday…someone who has successfully competed and coached at the high school, collegiate and professional levels and has won throughout his career. So, when there was a mutual interest in having him become a part of the Morgan family, we made it happen without hesitation.”

In October 2021, the University announced its plans to revive the men’s wrestling program at Morgan with the support a $2.7-million gift from HBCU Wrestling (HBCUW), a new initiative reestablishing wrestling programs on HBCU campuses. The gift, which is among the largest received from a private donor to the University, provides funding for the program and supports up to nine full scholarships annually.

“I am incredibly proud of how we were able to work together with Morgan State to secure such an incredible leader for the program,” said Kerry McCoy, president of HBCU Wrestling. “Kenny Monday is an icon in the world of wrestling and has inspired so many. He has the ability to mobilize the Morgan alumni and the local community to generate support for the program. We look forward to continuing to support him and the program in any way we can.”

Following the announcement, the University embarked on a national search for a head wrestling coach. An inclusive process, the search included input from key internal and external constituents including university leadership, alumni, former wrestling student-athletes, and supporters. The process was comprehensive and competitive, generating huge interest from a variety of qualified candidates vying for the job.

“After conducting a nationwide search of the best talent in wrestling coaching, we are confident that in Coach Kenny Monday, we have selected the right person to restore Morgan’s wrestling program,” said Dena Freeman-Patton, vice president and director for intercollegiate athletics at Morgan. “Coach Monday brings the gravitas and experience to lead a Division I program and attract the top talent in the nation to come to Morgan. We look forward to having him start as soon as possible and build a championship-ready wrestling team.”

Monday’s hire marks the second major coaching selection Freeman-Patton has announced since coming aboard at Morgan last May. The University recently announced the hire of Bears Football head coach Damon Wilson. Next up is the search for a new coach for acrobatics and tumbling, which Morgan added to its sports offerings this past spring.

The University will host a press conference during the week of Aug. 22 to officially introduce Coach Monday. Additional details and confirmation of the day, time and location will be shared as soon as they become available.

“I'm extremely grateful and honored to be named as the head wrestling coach at Morgan State University. Bringing the wrestling program back to an HBCU after 25 years is exciting for me and the entire wrestling community,” said Coach Monday. “I want to thank President Wilson and Athletic Director Dena Freeman-Patton for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to build an incredible program. Every experience in my career has prepared me for this moment, and I can’t wait to get started. Go Bears!”

Before coming to Morgan, Monday served as Spire Academy’s director of wrestling and head wrestling coach. Spire Academy is an international high school and postgraduate sports performance training and education complex. Before his time at the academy, he held positions as head freestyle wrestling coach at the UNC Chapel Hill Training Center; head wrestling coach for the UFC’s Team Takedown MMA and Blackzillion MMA; co-head coach at Oklahoma State University, where he was also a student from 1981–1985; assistant wrestling coach for the 2012 Summer Olympics; and assistant wrestling coach at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Texas. In all, Monday has coached 30 national champions and 50 All-Americans.

As an athlete, his accolades include Olympic gold medalist (1988) and silver medalist (1992), World Champion (1989), USA Free Style Champion (1985, 1988, 1991 and 1996) and three-time All-American and NCAA Champion (1984). He has been inducted into the National Wrestling (2001), Oklahoma Sports (2003) and United World Wrestling International (2016) Halls of Fame.

Individuals interested to learn more about Morgan State Athletics and ways to support Morgan State Wrestling can visit: www.morganbearclub.com or www.morganstatebears.com.

Dr. Ezra Griffith receives Cato T. Laurencin M.D., Ph.D. Lifetime Research Award

At the Opening Ceremony and Awards Program on July 30th 2022, the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute recognized a stellar individual with its highest annual research award. Dr. Ezra Griffith was the recipient of the Cato T. Laurencin M.D., Ph.D. Lifetime Research Award.

Dr. Ezra Griffith is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and African American Studies at Yale University. He was born in Barbados and received his undergraduate education at Harvard University and his medical education in France at the University of Strasbourg. He is presently a monthly columnist of the American Psychiatric Association’s Psychiatric News.

In 2001, the Morehouse School of Medicine conferred on him the honorary degree, Doctor of Science. He was on the faculty at the Yale School of Medicine from 1977 until 2016. He also taught classes on Black narrative in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Griffith is a former president of the Black Psychiatrists of America, the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

He has a significant history of administrative leadership in health care settings. From 1989 to 1996 he was Director of the Connecticut Mental Health Center, a collaborative endeavor of the Yale School of Medicine and the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. He was Deputy Chairman for Clinical Affairs in Yale’s Department of Psychiatry (1996–2009) and its Deputy Chairman for Diversity and Organizational Ethics (2009–16).

One of Dr. Griffith’s principal academic interests over the years has been in cultural and cross-cultural psychiatry. A measure of his stature in this area is reflected in his being Chairman of the Committee on Cultural Psychiatry of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP). His GAP Committee’s publication on suicide among ethnic groups in the United States has received significant praise and recognition, as has the coauthored review on trends in black homicide and suicide. Dr. Griffith has contributed several innovative articles to the literature that have analyzed psychological aspects of religious rituals in Black churches, both in the United States and in the English speaking Caribbean. In the United States, Dr. Griffith’s work on the Black church has been unusual, and it has represented an important beginning in a little-studied area. Curiously enough, until recently, few psychiatrists have been interested in the intriguing healing dimension of the Black church. His work in the Caribbean led to the book, 'Ye Shall Dream' (University of the West Indies Press, 2010), about the Spiritual Baptist religious movement in Barbados.

Dr. Griffith’s interest in Caribbean psychiatric practice has not simply been a theoretical interest. He has consulted to the Governments of St. Kitts and Grenada and has been a Pan American Health Organization consultant in Antigua and Jamaica. He has served as an advisor to Project Hope as they designed psychiatric services for the people of Grenada. Such activity reflects Griffith’s serious interest in Caribbean psychiatry. Dr. Griffith has served as an External Examiner at the University of the West Indies Faculty of Medicine. He delivered Barbados’s first Annual Dr. George Mahy Lecture in 2021.

The area of forensic psychiatry has been a second important interest of Dr. Griffith. He has served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Council of Law and Psychiatry and has chaired their Ethics Committee. He authored several major articles in the field and has written most recently on narrative in forensic psychiatry and the forensic report as performative narrative, as well as about ethics matters. Dr. Griffith served for 20 years as editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. He was also that association’s president. The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law named him in 2005 their Seymour Pollack Awardee in recognition of his distinguished contributions to forensic psychiatry. In 2010, the American Psychiatric Association presented him its Isaac Ray Award for distinguished achievements in forensic psychiatry. He is the editor of Ethics Challenges in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology Practice (Columbia University Press, 2018).

Dr. Griffith has written most recently on ethics and matters of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. He has proposed human dignity as a significant factor in rendering social spaces more therapeutic. He is the author of Race and Excellence: My Dialogue with Chester Pierce (University of Iowa Press, 1998) and Belonging, Therapeutic Landscapes, and Networks (Routledge, 2018). He is a co-editor of Black Mental Health (American Psychiatric Publishing, 2019). Race and Excellence is being reissued in 2022 by the American Psychiatric Press. In May 2007, a special presidential commendation of the American Psychiatric Association was awarded to him in recognition of his strong dedication to the well-being of African American patients and his excellent contributions to the field of cross-cultural psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, and African American studies.

He has been the Mossell Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, the Dana African American Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland, the Earline Houston Memorial Lecturer in Public Psychiatry at Hahnemann University, as well as the Jeanne Spurlock Memorial Lecturer at the George Washington University School of Medicine. In 1997, he presented the Lundbeck Lecture to the Forensic Psychiatry Section of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK. In 1999 he delivered the Roy Cooke Memorial Lecture in Kingston, Jamaica. Dr. Griffith presented the Solomon Carter Fuller Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in May 2001. He has been the 1998 Ernest Y. Williams, MD Distinguished Senior Clinical Scholar of the National Medical Association. He was the Charles Steinberg Visiting Professor of Psychiatry and the Law at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 2012.

From 2013 to 2015, he served as a Gubernatorial Appointee to the Sandy Hook Commission investigating the Sandy Hook School violence. He received the American Psychiatric Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2021.

Byron Allen Talks Buying Black News Channel, TheGrioTV, and HBCU Football

Entertainment Studio's Byron Allen talks to Reliable Sources anchor Brian Stelter about buying the Black News Channel assets for $11 Million months after the company went bankrupt, changing it to TheGrio.tv and even talked about his plans to showcase HBCU Football on the platform.