Marching For Jena 6 Justice in Louisiana

By Howard Witt | Tribune senior correspondent

10:21 AM CDT, September 20, 2007

JENA, La. – In a mile-long procession, tens of thousands of civil rights demonstrators from around the nation marched this morning from the courthouse of this racially embattled town to the schoolyard where nooses were hung from a tree last year as a warning to black students.

Chanting “No justice, no peace,” the black-clad demonstrators walked down quiet residential streets as homeowners somberly watched from their front steps, their arms crossed in front of them.

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The Black Academy of Arts and Letters – Vocal Sensation TRAMAINE HAWKINS Celebrates 40 Years in Gospel Music

Vocal Sensation TRAMAINE HAWKINS Celebrates 40 Years in Gospel Music at The Black Academy of Arts and Lettersin partnership withFirst Baptist Church of Hamilton Park-Dallas,St. John Baptist Church-Grand Prairie and Maryland Family Christian Center-Washington, DC

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, Inc. Dallas Convention Center Theatre Complex Corner of Canton and Akard Streets Dallas, Texas 75202 You can pay for your tickets by phone with Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express by calling TBAAL’s Box Office at 214-743-2400. If you pay by phone, your tickets can be held for you at our Will Call Window one hour prior to program. Or you can purchase your tickets at TBAAL’s Box Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday – Friday or Saturdays Noon – 4 p.m. The Box Office is closed every Tuesday from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. for weekly staff meeting. Cash only is accepted at the Box Office the day/night of a performance.

NABSW Dallas Chapter Meeting

ANNOUNCEMENT

The monthly business meeting of National Association of Black Social Workers – Dallas Chapter will be held on Thursday, September 20, 2007 from 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. at the Urban League of Greater Dallas, 4315 South Lancaster Rd. Dallas , Texas 75216, (214) 915-4610.

AGENDA TOPICS

· SOUTHWEST REGIONAL CONFERENCE – OCTOBER 4-6, 2007, LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

· ANNUAL RECOGNITION LUNCHEON, MARCH, 2007

· PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

· FUND RAISING ACTIVITIES

· CLINICAL CERTIFICATION

· WEBSITE/NEWSLETTER

· MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

New York City Wins 2007 Broad Prize in Education

By ELIZABETH GREEN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 18, 2007 updated 10:25 am EDT

New York City has won the nation’s most prestigious prize for urban education, known as the Broad Prize.

The announcement by the Broad Foundation is expected at noon today in Washington, D.C. Mayor Bloomberg, the city schools chancellor, Joel Klein, and the president of the city teachers union, Randi Weingarten, are scheduled to attend the announcement, spokesmen for the leaders said.

The prize was established in 2002 by the Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad to honor urban school systems that narrow gaps between racial groups and boost the performance of poor students. It relies heavily on test score data to determine which school systems are named finalists.

A member of the prize’s jury told The New York Sun that he favored the city above the four other finalists because of its sheer size — with 1.1 million students and 1,450 schools, the public school system here is the largest in the nation — and its progress in closing the racial achievement gap.

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The Black Academy of Arts and Letters Kicks Off Season 31 with Publishers’ Luncheon!

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters     Kicks Off Season 31 with Publishers’ Luncheon! Spend an afternoon with writers BERNESTINE SINGLEY, JOYCE KING, DAVID HAYNES, ROSLYN STORY &FRANCIS RAY Learn about the ups and downs of writing and publishing from the insiders. If you love writing, have an interest in publishing, or just enjoy reading great books, this is for you! $15 – Individual Ticket $150 – Table of Ten Please RSVP 972-743-2506 or/before Thursday,9-20 at 5p.m. Tickets on sale now at TBAAL’s Box Office   Call 214 743-2400   You can pay for your tickets by phone with Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express by calling TBAAL’s Box Office at 214-743-2400. If you pay by phone, your tickets can be held for you at our Will Call Window available one hour prior to program. Or you can purchase your tickets at TBAAL’s Box Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday – Friday or Saturdays Noon – 4 p.m. The Box Office is closed every Tuesday from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. for weekly staff meeting. Cash only is accepted at the Box Office the day/night of a performance. # # # The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, Inc. 2007-2008 31st season programs are supported in part by the City of Dallas, Office of Cultural Affairs, Adam’s Mark Hotel, American Airlines, AT&T, Blockbuster, McDonald’s Restaurants of Greater North Texas, Centerplate, The Dallas Examiner, The Dallas Weekly, Downtown Business News, Evans Engraving, FedEx Corporation, Hotel Indigo, KKDA-AM/K104 FM Radio, KHVN-AM Radio, KSOUL 94.5 FM, 97.9 FM Radio The Beat, WRR 101.1 FM, M Barnes Design, MON-The Gazette, NBC 5, Office Machines, Inc., Peachez, Inc., The Design Factory and Rolling Out. American Airlines is the official air carrier for TBAAL Season 31.

Charles Hamilton Houston Institute Hosts Panel On Racial Integration In Public Schools

September 7, 2007

Lawyers George Hayes,
Thurgood Marshall,
and James M. Nabrit
join hands outside
the U.S. Supreme Court
to celebrate Brown vs. Education.

The Supreme Court’s recent rulings overturning desegregation plans by school districts in Seattle and Louisville were the focus of a special panel discussion sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice on September 6.

In June, a sharply divided Court restricted the ability of public school districts to use race to determine which schools students can attend, a decision that could severely limit integration programs nationwide. The justices split along ideological grounds, with five justices ruling that the school placement schemes under review violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.

Like most of the analysis since the decision, the panel discussion focused on the concurring opinion filed by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy ’61, who cast the deciding vote with the court’s conservatives to strike down the school plans but specifically declined to follow key parts of the plurality opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. ’79.

Kennedy wrote: “Parts of the opinion by the Chief Justice imply an all-too-unyielding insistence that race cannot be a factor in instances when, in my view, it may be taken into account. The plurality opinion is too dismissive of the legitimate interest government has in ensuring all people have equal opportunity regardless of their race.”

Justice Kennedy’s concurring opinion has become a source of hope for those who support racial integration efforts, said panelist Nadine Cohen, staff counsel on the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association. “The idea that we can be color-blind in our education policies really ignores the reality of life and race in America today,” she said. “I think Justice Kennedy has left a window open for us, and we need to climb through that window, but not by contorting desegregation programs we know have worked.”

Another panelist, Anurima Bhargava, director of the education group in the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, said Kennedy’s opinion served as a “stop-gap” against the majority opinion, which would have otherwise gone a lot further towards outlawing desegregation efforts in public schools.

Cynthia Valenzuela, director of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, admitted that the Court’s decision has already made it more difficult for public school districts in Arizona and California to implement desegregation policies. Latinos in particular have already faced more public school segregation since the ruling, she said.

Other panelists included: Dennis Parker from the American Civil Liberties Union, Khin Mai Aung from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and john a. powell from the Kirwan Institute for Race and Ethnicity.

The panel event also commemorated Charles Hamilton Houston’s 112th Birthday. Professor Charles Ogletree, the Houston Institute’s executive director, and Charles Hamilton Houston, Jr. were on hand to unveil a portrait of the Institute’s namesake. It will hang at Harvard Law School.

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Harvard’s Black Law Student Association Receives The National Johnny Cochran Award for Social Consciousness

September 14, 2007

Members of the Harvard BLSA
accept the national award

Last spring Harvard Law School’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) was selected by a committee of individuals from around the country to receive the national Johnny Cochran Chapter Award for Social Consciousness.

“Given all that we did last year it was a wonderful acknowledgement,” said Stacey Moore ’08, historian of Harvard’s BLSA chapter last year. “This award was very exciting and we were humbled and proud.”

The Johnny Cochran award is given annually at the district and national level. Harvard received the award at both levels last spring for the chapter’s participation in community service programs and for increasing awareness about issues affecting the black community.

With nearly 150 members, the Harvard BLSA is the largest Black Law Students chapter in the country. Each year, the Harvard group organizes events on campus with the goal of assisting members in the development of their legal careers. The National Black Law Students Association is comprised of over 200 student chapters around the country.

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Race Cannot Be Ignored In Closing The Achievement Gap In Public Education

Narrowing the achievement gap in schools requires acknowledging race, not ignoring it.

September 16, 2007

The achievement gap between African American and Latino students and their white peers is stark and persistent. It has existed for decades, and it’s growing more pronounced. The data refute what would be reassuring explanations. The gaps in reading and math test scores are not due to income disparities, nor are they attributable to parents’ educational levels. The simple fact is that most black and brown children do not do as well in school as most whites.

The data also show, however, that African American and Latino children are excelling in schools scattered throughout California and the nation, suggesting that the achievement gap is not intractable. Rather, there is a profound disconnect between what we say are high expectations for children of color and the quality of education delivered to them in the classroom.

All of which leads to an uncomfortable but important conclusion: If a less-stratified society is desirable, we must be prepared to design educational programs that explicitly take race into account, that address African American and Latino students specifically and that openly recognize that we are not a single society when it comes to the needs of our children.

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TAVIS Smiley – Republican Presidential Candidates Ignore Minorities

By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Three of the four leading Republican presidential candidates turned down invitations to a PBS debate this month at a historically black college in Baltimore, leading moderator Tavis Smiley on Thursday to accuse them of ignoring minority voters.

Smiley told USA TODAY the rejections are part of a pattern, noting most GOP candidates declined invitations to address several black and Hispanic groups, including a Univision debate for a Latino audience.

“No one should be elected president of this country in 2008 if they think that along the way they can ignore people of color,” said Smiley, host of radio and TV talk shows. “If you want to be president of all America, you need to speak to all Americans.”

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Prosecutors Say Former Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade Charged TSU for $100,000 Bar Tab

By BRIAN ROGERS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Ousted TSU President Priscilla Slade racked up a $100,000 bar tab at Scott Gertner’s Skybar and Grille during her tenure and stuck Texas Southern University with the bill, prosecutors said Wednesday.TSU routinely paid for $100 bottles of wine for Slade and drinks for her friends and staff, despite a prohibition at that time on state monies being spent on alcohol, Assistant District Attorney Donna Goode said.

Slade’s former executive assistant, Erica Vallier, said that the rules for purchasing have since changed, but at the time, Slade told her not to worry about the prohibition. She said her boss drank bottles of Far Niente with her friends and staff at expensive bars, such as the Four Seasons bar and the Skybar.

Slade led the historically black university from 1999 to 2005, after being pressed into service from her post as the dean of the business school.

Slade is on trial on charges of misapplication of fiduciary property of more than $200,000, accused of spending school money on personal expenses. If convicted, she faces a punishment ranging from probation to life in prison.

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