OneUnited Bank Announces 15th Annual "I Got Bank" Contest for Youth

OneUnited Bank, an award-winning Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and America's largest Black-owned bank, is proud to announce its 15th Annual "I Got Bank!" National Financial Literacy Contest, where ten children will win a $1,000 savings account. To make financial literacy a core value for children, the Bank is offering a free "I Got Bank" E-Book.

Children between the ages of 8 and 12 are encouraged to read a financial literacy book of their choosing, and either write a 250-word essay or create an art project to show how they would apply what they learned from the book to their daily lives. Submissions must be emailed or postmarked by June 30, 2025. The Bank will choose ten winners and award each winner a $1,000 savings account at OneUnited Bank by August 31, 2025. For more information, please visit: www.oneunited.com/book.

Teri Williams, OneUnited Bank President and author of "I Got Bank! What My Granddad Taught Me About Money", wrote the book when she discovered that there weren't enough books geared toward educating urban youth about finances. "We did a survey of previous I Got Bank participants and found that 100% of them found the experience valuable to extremely valuable and 100% stated the experience increased their financial awareness," states Williams. "We want to thank the parents and schools for encouraging their children and students to participate in the contest. We continue to advocate for financial literacy to be taught in K-12 schools across America!"

The 2024 winners are Alana Williams, 10, Charlotte, NC, Dylan Prakash, 11, Duarte, CA, Malia Spurlin, 12, Cerritos, CA, Zora Rae Darby, 11, Baldwin, NY, Serenity Earth, 12, Burlington, NJ, Carter M. Lang, 8, Los Angeles, CA, Laila Zellers, 10, Los Angeles, CA, Grant Booker, 11, Gardenia, CA, McKinley Sabrina Murphy, 10, Baldwin, NY, Kali Baker, 10, Hawthorne, CA.

"I Got Bank! What My Granddad Taught Me About Money" is published by The Beckham Publications Group, Inc. (Beckham House). For more information about the official contest rules, please visit: www.oneunited.com/book.

Carnegie Mellon University Professor Edda L. Fields-Black wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History

Carnegie Mellon University Professor Edda L. Fields-Black on has won a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History for her book “Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War.”

Fields-Black is a professor of history and director of The Humanities Center at CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Pulitzer judges named two books as winners in the History category this year. The other winner is “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America” by Kathleen DuVal, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Combee” was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press. The publisher describes the book as “the story of the Combahee River Raid, one of Harriet Tubman’s most extraordinary accomplishments, based on original documents and written by a descendant of one of the participants.”

The Combahee River Raid was an operation in the Civil War. “On June 2, 1863, Tubman and her crew piloted two regiments of Black U.S. Army soldiers, the Second South Carolina Volunteers, and their white commanders up coastal South Carolina’s Combahee River in three gunboats. In a matter of hours, they torched eight rice plantations and liberated 730 people,” the text from the publisher reads, noting that Fields-Black’s book focuses on an aspect of Tubman’s life that doesn’t get much attention: “During the Civil War, hired by the Union Army, she ventured into the heart of slave territory — Beaufort, South Carolina — to live, work, and gather intelligence.”

The Combahee River Raid was meant “to attack the major plantations of Rice Country, the breadbasket of the Confederacy.”

Fields-Black has made her academic career at CMU, joining the university in 2001 after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. She became a full professor in the Department of History in 2024, assuming the leadership of the Dietrich College Humanities Center at the same time.

Check out COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War here: https://amzn.to/4iMX30Y

Invesco QQQ Named Title Partner of the Orange Blossom Classic

The Orange Blossom Classic Committee proudly announces that Invesco QQQ has signed on as the Title Partner in a new multi-year agreement, ushering in a dynamic new era under the name Invesco QQQ Orange Blossom Classic.

This partnership marks more than just a naming rights milestone—it represents a shared commitment to innovation, empowerment, and financial education. As part of the agreement, Invesco QQQ will also serve as the exclusive partner in the asset, wealth, and investment management products and services category, strengthening its position as a national leader in financial empowerment and collegiate engagement.

"The Orange Blossom Classic is more than a football game—it's a celebration of education, culture, and community impact," said Kendra Bulluck, Executive Director of the Orange Blossom Classic. "We're proud to partner with Invesco QQQ to bring these values to life through meaningful programming that equips students and student-athletes for success on and off the field. Together, we're building a legacy that's rooted in empowerment, access, and long-term growth."

A leading investment management firm, Invesco is dedicated to delivering value and long-term positive outcomes for clients through a broad range of investment strategies and a culture of innovation. As the official ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) of the NCAA, Invesco's presence within college athletics continues to grow. Through this expanded relationship with the Orange Blossom Classic, Invesco deepens its commitment to students and student-athletes of all backgrounds by promoting investment education and championing financial independence.

Beyond the football field, Invesco QQQ will also serve as the title partner of two cornerstone OBC professional development programs that empower the next generation of leaders. Through the Professional Business Combine, participants will engage in immersive sessions with top business executives and industry leaders focused on financial planning, innovation, and market insights.

In addition, Invesco QQQ will be the title partner of the Careers in Sports & Entertainment Symposium, a marquee experience designed to expose students and early-career professionals to the business side of the sports and entertainment industries—including marketing, management, media, and operations—through networking, mentorship, and career exploration.

Now entering its fifth year since re-establishment, the Invesco QQQ Orange Blossom Classic continues to serve as a premier HBCU football and cultural celebration. The 2025 edition will feature Howard University and Florida A&M University, two of the most storied institutions in HBCU history, as they face off at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday, August 30, 2025, during Labor Day Weekend. Official ancillary events begin on Tuesday, August 26.

For details on tickets, hotels, and official events, visit The Orange Blossom Classic | Orange Blossom Classic Returns | Purchase Tickets Today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter at @OrangeBlossomFC.

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center announces 2025 International Freedom Conductor Awards

This spring, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will bestow its highest honor to modern-day freedom heroes and equity advocates during their International Freedom Conductor Awards program, presented by Procter & Gamble. The program coincides with the Freedom Center’s 30th anniversary and will be a celebration of three decades of social justice education, advocacy and heroes who are leading the fight for justice today.

The Freedom Center’s International Freedom Conductor Awards will be presented during the honors program May 24 at the Aronoff Center. The program will feature live music performances and reflections from award honorees. Limited seats will be available, but the honors program will be taped live and rebroadcast nationally.

The International Freedom Conductor Award is the Freedom Center’s highest honor, awarded to recognize the contributions of contemporary individuals who, by their actions and personal examples, reflect the spirit and courageous actions of conductors on the historic Underground Railroad, the nation’s original social justice movement. Award recipients reflect positive impact on contemporary freedom issues and inspire others to act.

“Freedom calls to each of us. For generations, individuals have answered the call, risking their lives to light the way for the oppressed and the unfree. But as freedom conductors persist, so, too, do old systems and hardened hearts rise to challenge them,” said Woodrow Keown, Jr., president and COO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “Our International Freedom Conductors remind us that we are all worthy of being torchbearers and we must all answer the call to lead through the darkness, moving ever closer to the brilliant light of freedom.”

The 2025 International Freedom Conductor Award will be presented to:

Opal Lee, the Grandmother of Juneteenth

Opal Lee campaigned for decades to make Juneteenth a federal holiday – the date news reached Galveston, Texas that the Civil War was over and enslaved African Americans were now free on June 19, 1865. Each year, she walked 2.5 miles, representing the 2.5 years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas. At the age of 89, she conducted a symbolic five-month walk from Fort Worth to Washington, DC. Largely through her efforts, Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden in 2024 and was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2022. She is just the second African American to have her portrait hung in the Texas State Senate.

Lonnie G. Bunch III – First African American Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian, a position that oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers and several education units and centers. Previously, Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. When he started as director in 2005, he had one staff member, no collections, no funding and no site for a museum. Driven by optimism, determination and a commitment to build “a place that would make America better,” Bunch transformed a vision into a bold reality. The museum has welcomed more than 11 million visitors since it opened in September 2016 and has compiled a collection of 40,000 objects that are housed in the first “green building” on the National Mall. In 2019, the creation of the museum became the first Smithsonian effort to be the topic of a Harvard Business Review case study.

Toni Morrison*, Pulitzer Prize- and Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved
Toni Morrison was one of the most celebrated authors in the world. In addition to writing plays and children’s books, her novels earned her countless prestigious awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. As the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison’s work has inspired a generation of writers to follow in her footsteps. Her award-winning novel Beloved is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner who, after escaping enslavement in Northern Kentucky, crossed the Ohio River in Cincinnati with her young children. Pursued by slave catchers, Garner killed one of her children before capture, an act of love to spare her child from enslavement, a fate worse than death.

Isabel Wilkerson – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author
Isabel Wilkerson, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, has become a leading figure in narrative nonfiction, an interpreter of the human condition and an impassioned voice for demonstrating how history can help us understand ourselves, our country and our current era of upheaval. Through her writing, Wilkerson brings the invisible and the marginalized into the light and into our hearts. Through her lectures, she explores with authority the need to reconcile America’s karmic inheritance and the origins of both our divisions and our shared commonality. Her debut work, The Warmth of Other Suns, won multiple awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Lynton History Prize from Harvard and Columbia universities.

 

*Awarded posthumously.

 

The 2025 honorees will join a legacy of International Freedom Conductors that includes:

• Rosa Parks, 1998
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 2000
• Dorothy Height and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, 2003
• President George H.W. Bush, 2007
• President Bill Clinton, 2007
• His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, 2010
• Fred Shuttlesworth, 2013
• Nicholas Kristof, 2013
• Lech Walesa, 2014
• Nelson Mandela, 2014
• Nathaniel R. Jones, 2016
• Amal Clooney, 2021
• George Clooney, 2021
• Congressman John Lewis, 2021
• Bryan Stevenson, 2021

Tickets for the 2025 International Freedom Conductor Awards will go on sale April 11. For more information visit freedomcenter.org/ifca25.

National Bar Association President Issues Statement Condemning Trump Administration’s Attempt to Erase Black History

Wiley S. Adams, President of the National Bar Association, issued a firm and unequivocal statement condemning the Trump administration’s directive to remove pivotal artifacts from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“The National Bar Association is outraged and deeply disturbed by Trump Administration’s attempt to erase Black History. This decision is more than a bureaucratic act—it is a deliberate assault on truth, history, and the dignity of Black Americans,” said Adams. “We are deeply disturbed by the effort to strip from public view the very items that chronicle our nation’s long, painful, and triumphant journey toward justice.”

Adams underscored that museums are not political tools, but spaces of collective learning and remembrance.

“The African American Museum preserves artifacts that bear witness to generations of struggle and progress. Removing them is an attempt to silence the voices of those who fought to shape this country.”

He further emphasized the connection between this act and a broader erosion of democratic values.

“At a moment when the rule of law, free expression, and institutional independence are under attack, this move represents yet another effort to marginalize Black Americans and distort the narrative of who we are as a nation.”

President Adams reiterated that The NBA stands in full solidarity with the Smithsonian, its curators, and all Americans who recognize the urgent need to protect historical truth.

“We call on the public to demand the immediate restoration of these cultural artifacts. The full story of America must be preserved—not selectively edited.”

Adams closed with a powerful affirmation:

“History cannot be hidden. The legacy of Black Americans cannot be erased, and we will not stand idle as our stories, struggles, and triumphs are pushed into the shadows.”