Talented Academy Award winning actress, Octavia Spencer is giving back to underserved communities by buying out a theater to allow families to see Black Panther who otherwise may not have been able to.
Via Instgram Spencer announced her plan to buy out a theater in Mississippi when Black Panther opens on Instagram Wednesday, saying she'll be in the state when the movie opens on Feb. 16.
Florida could soon help diversify the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall, by replacing a Confederate general's likeness with the hall's first statue honoring an African-American woman.
The state Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to install a statue of educator Mary McLeod Bethune in the spot where a statue of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith still stands.
"It's a way of recognizing our history, but also our diversity. It shows Florida in our best light," said the bill's sponsor, Democratic Sen. Perry Thurston. "It's a major message. It shows not only Florida, but the nation that we are coming together and trying to recognize all of our history."
Bethune founded Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904, which eventually became Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach.
Two years ago the state Legislature voted to remove Smith's statue from the U.S. Capitol over the objection of some members who said that was an effort to erase Southern history.
Smith is famously remembered as the last Confederate officer to surrender a significant force at the end of the Civil War, nearly two months after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia and formally ended the war on April 9, 1865.
The law requiring the removal of the Smith statue set up a process to replace it.
An independent committee reviewed 130 recommendations from Floridians and presented the Legislature with three choices: Bethune; Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who wrote "The Everglades: River of Grass" and is credited with helping create that national park preserving 1.5 million acres (607,000 hectares) of wetlands in southern Florida; and George Washington Jenkins, who started the Publix supermarket chain.
Bethune was the committee's only unanimous choice.
President Donald Trump opened his first State of the Union address Tuesday night touting low unemployment rates among black Americans.
The Congressional Black Caucus was not very impressed and released the following tweet in response:
Much like the money he inherited from his father to start his business, @realDonaldTrump inherited the low black unemployment rate from @BarackObama. #SOTU #ThanksObama
— Black Caucus (@OfficialCBC) January 31, 2018
The CBC also showed their lack of enthusiasm for Trump's remarks about the African American unemployment rate by giving little to no response:
Members of Congressional Black Caucus offer no reaction as Pres. Trump says "African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded" in #SOTU address https://t.co/q18EZzVe9p pic.twitter.com/Xxkqc7hFt9
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 31, 2018
Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup’s Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. has been selected as the winner of the Beazley Design of the Year for 2017.
Presented by the Design Museum in London, the award is given to the project that best meets the criteria of design that “promotes or delivers change, enables access, extends design practice or captures the spirit of the year.”
In being named both overall winner and winner of the architecture category, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture outpaced impressive shortlisted projects from OMA, Zaha Hadid Architects, and more, as well as winners from five other categories: Digital, Fashion, Graphics, Product, and Transport.
'We couldn’t look any further than the Smithsonian for the overall award. It is a project of beautiful design, massive cultural impact, delivers an emotional experience and has a scale deserved of this major award,” said jury member Ozwald Boateng OBE. “You enter the building clouded in darkness and work your way through the displays and end bathed in light - this is a project that feels like a major turning point.’
Read more: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History Wins 2017 Design of the Year.
“This nation has always been a melting pot of people from different countries, different ethnicities and different races. Rather than celebrating this diversity, the current Administration continues to attack immigrants and people of color, many of whom have spent their entire lives in the U.S. and do not know another home. Nearly 44 million immigrants currently reside in the U.S. Over 20 million of them are naturalized citizens. Thirty six percent of U.S.-born children of immigrants are college graduates— 5 percent higher than the national average —and 64 percent are homeowners, which is on par with the national average. Immigrants are our neighbors, colleagues and friends and are productive members of our society.
“Mayors have an obligation to defend the cities they are elected to serve, and protect society’s most vulnerable citizens. The rhetoric coming out of the White House is disheartening and offensive to the hardworking immigrants living and working legally across the country. The cities we represent are not ridden with gangs, cartels and criminals as this Administration claims. In fact, a 2017 Cato Institute study found that the 2014 incarceration rate for 18 to 54 year-old immigrants — both authorized and unauthorized — was considerably lower than that of the U.S.-born population.
“It’s time this Administration holds itself to a higher standard. This is not a country of racists and bigots. We are a country that proudly houses a diverse population, each with a unique background and story. It is un-American to attack immigrants and the people seeking to protect them. We stand with the hundreds of mayors who want their cities to remain safe places for immigrants to call home. Our communities will continue to safeguard American values, and remain welcoming places for all, for the sake of our security and our national character.”
