Celebrated Morehouse College Glee Club Brings 100 Years of Its History To Los Angeles

Halfway through rehearsal, the basses got an earful.

"Your start is too aggressive! Like boom, boom, flap, flap, upside the head," conductor David Morrow shouted Sunday from a dark spot offstage in Club Nokia at L.A. Live. "It's not about the volume, it's about the quality."

And with that, the Morehouse College Glee Club — the world-renowned, historically black, all-male choir that has sung at the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — humbly cleared their throats and gave perfection another try.

The group was to perform its 100-year celebration concert to a sold-out audience in just a few hours. Among the songs they'd rehearsed for the occasion had the lyrics: "Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead and no man yet to be born can do it better."

Judging by the way the young men locked focus on Morrow — on his hands, on his eyes, on his faintest muttering and slightest facial expression — their aim was precisely that.

With a repertoire that encompasses spirituals, adapted operas and the work of contemporary composers, the Morehouse glee club has stayed in demand year after year, performing on national and international tours. It has become the principal ambassador of Morehouse, the prestigious, historically black, all-male college in Atlanta.

Now, if only they could get people to quit comparing them to "Glee," the television hit about a group of misfit teenagers who dance and sing in a high school choir. Ever since the show started airing in 2009, audiences have expected the Morehouse group to deliver jazzy, over-the-top musical routines.

"I get asked a lot, 'Who's your choreographer?,'" Morrow said. "And I say, 'What?' We only have one number where we move."

Still, the Morehouse glee club doesn't lack style: The men wear sharp suits even on plane flights, and they walk onstage with short, brisk steps.

Then there's its tight-knit history. Since its formation in 1911, the club has had only three official directors (Morrow is the latest). Each was taught by his predecessor.

Around their Atlanta stamping grounds, the men are a high-profile bunch.

"You come to expect that each time you see them walking across campus in their full regalia, something big is about to happen," said Darnell Holcomb, president of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Morehouse alumni association.

Joining the choir, senior baritone Justin Shaw said, is not nearly as difficult as staying in it. There are four rehearsals a week, and the tour schedule is demanding. Some students quit within weeks of joining. Those who remain hold fast to the club's motto, which is repeated after every rehearsal: "The Morehouse College Glee Club is an eminent expression of brotherhood, a united force of dedication and commitment, and an unselfish labor of love."

"It's very much, 'no pain, no gain,'" Shaw said. "But those who commit are fully committed."

A good number of the songs they perform were born in slavery. Their writers are mostly unknown, but their messages of desperation, hope and survival continue to resonate.

Keep reading...

Spelman Coeds Win AT&T Mobile Campus Challenge, Besting MIT & Harvard

Sisters Are Getting Their Tech On!

Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller of Spelman College have won the 2010 AT&T Big Mobile on Campus Challenge^SM with their next generation e-learning mobile application, HBCU Buddy.

HBCU Buddy is a mobile application created to educate and inform users, including both prospective and current college students, about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) across the United States. It is a fully-fledged mobile service application that provides detailed information about HBCU's and integrates all facets of college life.

The application opens with a directory profiling each HBCU with information on academics, admissions, research, student life, alumni, among other details. After selecting a school, students can navigate through the school – literally – by accessing virtual tours of buildings, on-campus videos, and local GPS and directions.

HBCU Buddy can also provide students with customizable social networking features to connect with each other, their school and community. The application connects to social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and integrates tools such as chat and calendar to help students stay informed. Students can use the application to follow the latest on school club and campus happenings, local events, hot spots around the community, and more.

Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller were recognized and awarded a $10,000 scholarship (divided between them) and a mobile device of their choice each at the Higher Ed Board of Advisors Meeting in Miami, Florida, on October 7, 2010.

The President has been keen to foster stronger STEM education for all American students (science, tech, engineering and math) because the jobs of the future will require strong skills in these disciplines.

Source: Jack & Jill Politics

Black Colleges Struggle For Relevancy As Opportunities, Money Change The Game

Historically black colleges and universities, like many other schools, are struggling with both fewer resources and a growing demand from students for financial aid.

But the institutions known as HBCUs have another problem that some leaders contend is theirs alone: Many African-American students are finding their needs met elsewhere.

In 1977, 35 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded to black students were from historically black colleges. By 2002, the share was down to 22 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, even though the number of African-American students earning bachelor’s degrees from historically black colleges actually grew.

In the days of segregation, African-American students had limited options. Now, with a wide range of choices, only 13 percent of African-American college students are enrolled in HBCUs.

Kristin Mason, a junior English major at Atlanta’s Spelman College, is one. Mason, who is from Colorado, chose Spelman, she said, because of the “sense of belonging” she felt surrounded by smart black women.

Morehouse College senior Shaun Harris, a business major from Illinois, said he was “looking for brotherhood” at the Atlanta men’s school whose alumni include the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

But Mark Gamble of Columbus said he “embraced the diversity” at Georgia State University, where about 60 percent of the students are white, 26 percent African-American, and the rest are other ethnicities or identify themselves as multiracial.

“I like being around whites, blacks, Asians and all the other minorities,” said Gamble, a sophomore film major.

Georgia State freshman Mercedes Callaway of Atlanta said she chose the state research university over Spelman, a private women’s HBCU, because of money. A friend at Spelman is “getting a good education,” said Callaway, who is on the HOPE scholarship. “But she’s in debt to pay for school.”

HBCUs are losing students to a range of institutions, said William “Sonny” Walker, who graduated from a historically black college in Arkansas and has served on the boards of three others, including, currently, Atlanta’s Morris Brown College.

“Many of the students who came from middle- and upper-income families, whose parents could afford to pay tuition, are going to Harvard, are going to Georgia, are going to Georgia Tech, are going to Vanderbilt,” Walker said.

Many historically black schools have lower endowments than other colleges, making less money available for scholarships, school officials say. But those institutions play an important role, said Leonard L. Haynes, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

At historically black institutions, he said, students of color can “get an education, get nurturing, get to mature and get to be good citizens after they graduate” in an environment that celebrates their cultures. “If they didn’t exist today, they would have to be created,” Haynes said.



The current economic climate —- which is hitting universities across the country, public and private —- is making it harder to pay the bills, exacerbating problems both for families of students and for the schools themselves, officials of local colleges say.

Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse and Spelman all revealed this month that they are cutting back on expenses.

Clark Atlanta President Carlton E. Brown said 70 faculty members and 30 other staffers were being laid off because of an “enrollment emergency” after years of declining numbers. At least 200 students recently dropped out or transferred to state colleges because they could no longer afford Clark Atlanta, Brown said.

Morehouse officials confirmed that they had not renewed the contracts of about 25 adjunct professors, about a third of the school’s part-time instructors.

And Spelman officials announced that they are eliminating 35 positions, 23 of them staffed, phasing out the college’s department of education and discontinuing some programs.

Spelman, whose donors include Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey, is in high demand among black women, said its president, Beverly Tatum.

“Students want to go to Spelman,” she said. “The issue is whether they can afford to go to Spelman.”

Morris Brown has struggled for years. It faces a Feb. 17 deadline to pay the remaining $214,000 of past-due water bills to the city of Atlanta. The college lost its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 2002, largely because of financial instability.

The Morris Brown board and its president, Stanley Pritchett, say they are looking at specialty programs and projects that might save the school, which, he said, would probably not be able to continue as a traditional liberal arts college.

Despite their troubles, historically black colleges and universities have fierce defenders.

“We need to find a way to preserve these institutions,” said state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), chairman of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. “Our universities have struggled to survive just as we as a people have struggled to survive.”

Historically black colleges “speak to the legacy of our forefathers,” he said.

Jones, whose degrees are from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, packed his oldest child off to college this fall.

He’s a freshman at Johns Hopkins University.

ATLANTA’S HBCUs

Clark Atlanta University Research university Enrollment: 3,900 Founded: 1988, merging Clark College and Atlanta University

Morehouse College Traditional men’s college Enrollment: 2,800 Founded: 1887 as Augusta Institute

Morris Brown College Liberal arts college Enrollment: About 200 Founded: 1881

Spelman College Traditional women’s college Enrollment: 2,200 Founded: 1881

By Gayle White, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nick Cannon And Actress Jennifer Freeman Want You At The 2008 Farmers Angel City Classic

Flanked by notable business, community and political leaders, Black Educational Events CEO John T. Fleming officially announced today at the famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that the Farmers Insurance Group Angel City Classic will be held Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 2:00p.m.(PDT).

To the hot beats of the Dorsey High School Drumline, Fleming went on to say that a major network has expressed "very strong interest" in nationally televising the game.

"In the Los Angeles Unified School District alone, there is a 40% dropout rate among African Americans and over 30% for Latinos. We are here to spotlight the importance of education for our youth," according to Fleming. "This is about more than just a football game. It's about a generation that needs to see for themselves what Historically Black Colleges and Universities truly have to offer."

While his younger brother is on board to sing "Lift E'vry Voice" at the event, acclaimed actor, writer and producer Nick Cannon will also be touting the exciting match-up between Morehouse College and Prairie View A&M University through his "Stop Hating" campaign. "My organization's goal is to erase all negativity in the minds and hearts of our communities. To stop the hating of ourselves, other races, classes and cultures," said Cannon.

"My Wife And Kids" star Jennifer Freeman was also at the press conference to lend her support.
3BAAS Media Group put on the press conference at the Coliseum and is now planning a community breakfast to garner additonal support from the local churches and schools.

The 3rd annual Classic will feature a championship Pop Warner football match-up, a tailgate party co-sponsored by Coors, vendor booths, a $5,000 King and Queen Scholarship Competition, the highly anticipated McDonald's "Battle of The Bands" halftime show, and the newly added 5th Quarter concert featuring Oscar-winning music icon Isaac Hayes, courtesy of Stax Records -- a division of Concord Music Group.

With a history of community outreach and activism such as the 1970's Wattstax music festival,Stax has lined up several surprise artists to pay tribute to Hayes. The label is also joining forces with "Declare Yourself" to ensure that the 80,000 people in attendance participate in the upcoming November presidential election. The organization's founder, legendary television producer/philanthropist and Concord Music Group Co-Owner Norman Lear, created Declare Yourself specifically to empower and encourage young people to vote.

Other entities endorsing the Classic include KJLH 102.3, KDAY 93.5, Hot 92 Jamz, 94.7 The Wave, KTLA Channel 5, Time Warner, Tri Destined Studios and both the Los Angeles Sentinel and Our Weekly newspapers.

Popular LA radio personality Cliff Winston will be providing play-by-play commentary of the game, as well as announcing the winner of the Farmers BMW which will be given away to one lucky person who joins the sweepstakes.

"We are honored to be the title sponsor of the Angel City Classic, particularly the Scholarship Gala September 26," noted Farmers Insurance Group CEO Paul Hopkins. "Farmers National United Negro College Fund Scholarship program will announce three scholarships for college students who are in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year attending an HBCU or UNCF school at the gala."

"It is Farmers' way of saying we care about young people who could use a helping hand as they pursue a college education. What better way to let them know that they deserve a good education and can achieve their goals in life because scholarships are available to help. We couldn't be more proud about helping these students achieve their dreams in life," explained Faye W. McClure, Farmers Vice President of Strategic Marketing.

Tickets for the event are available through Inglewood Tickets, Nix Check Cashing, Ticketmasters and the Los Angeles Coliseum. For a full list of sponsors, information concerning dates, times, activities as well as important updates, go to Angel City Classic.

The 3rd Annual Angel City Classic Is Coming To Los Angeles September 27th

3BAAS Media Group has been retained to do all media and branding for the upcoming Black collge football event in Los Angeles that will have Southern California buzzing. Please help us get the word out in our effort to support HBCU's.

White Boy Lands Valedictorian Spot At Morehouse: You Got A Problem With That?

Meet The Tom Cruise Of Black Harvard

In its 141-year history, Atlanta's Morehouse College has managed to do something it has never done before. In 2008, "Da' House" has ended up with it's first white valedictorian.

The only all-male, predominantly Black campus in the country, where are the brothas with the perfect 4.0 g.p.a.'s and the extensive study abroad experiences? Where are the brothas interning on Wall Street and being Rhodes Scholar finalists? Where are the brothas with the same grades, same experiences, and the same opportunities "fighting" to become valedictorian of their alma mater?

Granted, Joshua Packwood deserves to be highly celebrated for his achievements at Morehouse. He put in the hard work and the dedication necessary to succeed in college. But should this be celebrated?

From his first day at Morehouse, Packwood has been a standout. His popularity got him elected dorm president as a freshman. His looks and physique made him a fashion-show favorite. His intellect made him a Rhodes Scholar finalist. His work ethic landed him a job at the prestigious investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in New York City.

But it's his skin that has made all of this an anomaly. The 22-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., will graduate on May 18 with a perfect 4.0 GPA and a degree in economics.

He could have gone elsewhere, to a school like Columbia, Stanford or Yale, but his four-year journey through Morehouse has taught him a few things that they could not, and he makes it clear that he has no regrets.

"I've been forced to see the world in a different perspective, that I don't think I could've gotten anywhere else," he said. "None of the Ivies, no matter how large their enrollment is, no matter how many Nobel laureates they have on their faculty ... none of them could've provided me with the perspective I have now."

When Packwood applied to Morehouse, he had frequent conversations with George Gray, an alumnus who was a recruiter at the school. Gray was impressed by Packwood's credentials and spent months trying to talk the sought-after senior into choosing Morehouse over other elite schools.

"He had outstanding numbers," said Gray, now director of admissions at historically black Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. "He was the kind of kid we were looking for to be a presidential scholar."

After several conversations, Packwood began to suspect that Gray had no idea that he was white. His suspicions were confirmed when one of Gray's calls caught Packwood in the middle of track practice.

"Don't let the white kids walk you down," Gray quipped. "Wait," Packwood responded. "You know I'm white, right?" Silence. Uneasy laughter. Confirmation.

"The challenge was to get the best student that we could, and Josh definitely fit that," Gray said.
And for Packwood, knowing that he had been picked on his merits, and not as a token white recruit, made the difference.

"That said I could come here and, ironically, be accepted for who I am," Packwood said. "I thought I made the right decision then, and I know I made the right decision now."

It was not as if this was the first time Packwood experienced life in the minority. He was among the few white students in his class at Grandview Senior High School in Kansas City, Mo. He has mixed-race siblings and his mother was married to a black man. Packwood's experiences growing up have helped him navigate black culture while remaining comfortable with his own complexion.

Packwood's mere presence on campus wouldn't make history at this school founded by a black minister and cabinetmaker two years after the end of the Civil War. Howard Zehr, Morehouse's first white student, graduated in 1966, and there have been dozens of other whites on campus since.

And so Packwood turned down Columbia University, postponing his dream of living in New York City. He ignored some in his family who warned that he might not have the same opportunities he would have as a Columbia graduate, and headed South.

When he came to Morehouse, Packwood was sweating a bit under his swagger, which is why he was reluctant to run for president of his dorm at the end of his freshman year. The novelty was wearing off, but Packwood didn't want his new friends to think he was the white guy trying to "act black" or take over their school.

Classes proved to be a challenge socially and academically when the discussions shifted to issues of race. Once, Packwood was asked to sit on a panel about interracial relationships. Though he had dated black girls since high school, he spent the first hour of the panel getting warmed up, feeling out the crowd and trying to couch his thoughts.

"It was kind of heated, and there were very strong views on both sides," he said. "But eventually I realized they put me on the panel not to just pander to the crowd, but to voice my opinion."

Packwood said such exchanges taught him a lesson.

With each semester, Packwood's grades remained high, his confidence grew and his resume became more impressive. Summers were spent on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, he studied abroad in London and Costa Rica, and his studies have taken him to China and Switzerland.

He also drew attention with his looks — some Atlanta University Center coeds took to calling him "Tom Cruise." His photo album on Facebook shows a smiling Packwood posing with dozens of young, black women who fill his page with notes.

As Morehouse embraced him, Packwood became an unlikely ambassador for the school.

"Josh Packwood is Morehouse," the college's president, Robert Franklin, said in his inauguration speech in February. "He happens to be Euro-American and brings much appreciated diversity to our campus."

Wendell Marsh, a junior English and French major who is black, said talking to Packwood as a high school senior helped make up his mind to come to Morehouse.

"Right now we live in a time where people say the black institution is obsolete, that you can get a better education at a majority institution," Marsh said. "To see a white guy who had declined Harvard for Morehouse, I figured it was good enough for me."

WATCH VIDEO OF JOSHUA PACKWOOD

Packwood raised "the bar for everyone," said Stanton Fears, a senior economics major.

"The best man got it, that's how I look at it," Fears said. "It's about equality here, too. If he wants to come here and make a name for himself, he should be allowed the same types of things we're allowed."

Being surrounded by black men for his undergraduate career has taught him more about diversity, Packwood said.

"I've been here for four years and yet, I cannot give you the definition of black," he said. "I cannot tell you what a black man is. I really learned to look much deeper. It takes a lot of effort to know people."

As a graduate of Morehouse who was dorm treasurer, sophomore class president, writer for the campus newspaper and ultimately, student body president, I'm cool with this young man doing his thing. You don't come to Morehouse to "get by". You go to become the best you can be. Taking issue with Packwood for actually "believing the hype" of a Benjamin Elijah Mays. It was Mays, one of the most influential presidents the college has ever had, who once said that "Morehouse puts a crown above the heads of its student and challenges them to grow tall enough to wear it.

Just like Barack Obama becoming the first African American student to become the editor of the Law Review at Harvard University, we expect nothing less of Packwood.

I have two sons and trust me, I will do everything in my power to make sure they end up wearing the maroon and white. And if a white guy is running the show ten years from now, then that's who I want my boys running with.

Because when it comes to education, it's not about race family. It's about excellence! [Newsweek]

Dying A Slow Death, Put Fisk University Out Of Its Misery... NOW!

If We're Not Going To Support These Black Schools,

What's The Point?

Reporting operating losses that totaled more than $7 million in 2005 and 2006, Fisk University has still not been able to turn any of the valuable art donated by painter Georgia O'Keeffe into cash after two years. Already dealing with donor fatigue, the historically black college in Tennessee is on its last leg.


Although a legal fight over the latest $30 million proposal to share the 101-piece art collection with an Arkansas museum is scheduled for trial in February, African American leaders acknowledge that it could be years before any money changes hands.

So the Nashville school that was founded in 1866 to educate former slaves has had to look elsewhere to keep its doors open -- a difficult task in a community that has been asked to come to the school's financial rescue several times before.

"There is a fatigue factor there," said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat and a former Nashville mayor. "There's a lot of people who give money traditionally for valuable projects who have given money to Fisk in the past, who don't think they've necessarily fixed the underlying problems. "They are really in the mode of 'I'm kind of through with that.' "

Fisk President Hazel O'Leary this month set a goal of raising $6.2 million by June 30, an effort that got a big boost this month when the New York-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced it would give the school grants worth as much as $3 million. The Mellon Foundation, which awards grants to historically black colleges and universities among several other endeavors, said Fisk will receive $1 million up front.

A separate fundraising effort by black churches in Nashville has netted about $25,000 so far.
Fisk's board of trustees in December 2005 voted to try to sell off two signature pieces of the art collection to help keep the school afloat. Those efforts became bogged down in court battles over whether the sale of paintings violated the terms of O'Keeffe's bequest, and a Fisk lawyer told the judge that the school was likely to run out of cash before the end of the year.

The Mellon grant has halted that cash-flow crisis, but some feel that the school waited too long to focus on fundraising efforts because of a preoccupation with selling the art that was donated in 1949. "Why opt for the strategy of selling your art rather than developing a capital campaign?" asked Lucius Outlaw Jr., a Vanderbilt professor and Fisk alumnus. "The normal way of managing an institution is to have developed and implemented a plan for substantial fundraising to build an endowment." Davis Carr, a former member of the school's board, said donors are frightened off by Fisk's decades of financial problems.

The bad news keeps coming>>>

We Are Losing Black People All Over The World To Aids: What Are YOU Doing To Help?

Black College Students Make Sure Our People Are Memorized In National Quilt For World Aids Day

As the room echoes with R&B music, students from Clark Atlanta, Morehouse and Spelman colleges laugh, talk and work on brightly colored pieces of cloth on long tables.

The group of Call My Name volunteers is at Clark Atlanta University in Georgia to create panels for the national AIDS quilt. Their goal is to make 100 new panels memorializing African-Americans who have died from AIDS by World AIDS Day on December 1.

Since the epidemic began, about 42 percent of those diagnosed with AIDS in the United States have been black, but, according to the quilt's curator, fewer than 400 of 47,000 quilt panels honor African-Americans.

Read on over at CNN

Bats At Texas Southern University: I'm Down With Black Colleges But C'Mon, Can't We Do Better?

We had some ghetto moments at Morehouse College back in the day, but this takes the cake!

It's obvious these brothers are just having a good time with this. I just wish they sounded a little more like "college students."

The Obama Web Effect: Howard U Students Get Political Over Jena 6, While Nas Holds His Own With Fox's Bill O'Reilly

Nas Slams Bill O'Reilly Over Virginia Tech Comments

Obama Leads in Campaign Web Site Visits

KKK Leaves Chilling Card in Kentucky Driveways
Jay-Z Announces Third 40/40 Club
Call Centers Booming in Caribbean

Video: Thousands Rally at H U to support 'Jena Six'

Thank God! Nagin Won't Run for Louisiana Governor
'Operation Gangbuster' Targets Little Haiti Gang Activity
8th-Grader in a Knot Over His School's Ban on Braids
Record Enrollments Causing Housing Crisis at HBCU's

DESPITE BUSH, BLANCO & NAGIN, BLACK COLLEGES GET SOME KATRINA LOVE

JACKSON, Miss. -- Four historically black colleges -- one in Mississippi and three in New Orleans -- are getting almost $400 million in ultra-low-interest federal loans to recover from Hurricane Katrina's destruction.

James Manning of the Education Department presented checks Wednesday to the leaders of Southern University at New Orleans, which is still operating out of temporary buildings, Dillard and Xavier universities and Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Miss.

Xavier is getting $165 million; Dillard is getting $160 million; SUNO is getting $44 million; and Tougaloo is getting $28.6 million.

SOURCE

WHITE BASKETBALL COACH AT BLACK COLLEGE ACCUSED OF STALKING

Florida A & M's Hoops Coach Charged

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — College basketball coach Mike Gillespie Sr. was arrested Friday on a stalking charge and later released from jail on bond.

Police were called Friday morning by a woman, who said she was stalked at work twice.The report said police have investigated Gillespie several times since March 2005 on stalking complaints and warned the 56-year-old about his behavior.

Gillespie completed his sixth season at Florida A&M with its first 20-win season since 1988-89 and its second NCAA tournament appearance during his tenure.

The historically black university, struggling with financial issues and a recent controversy involving a Kappa Fraternity hazing incident, released a statement saying it was reviewing the charges against Gillespie.

SOURCE

ARE BLACK COLLEGES STILL 'BLACK' WHEN THEY RECRUIT WHITES?

White Students At Black Colleges

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Michael Roberts has done more than study finance at historically Black Benedict College. He’s played football, joined a frat and proposed to his girl.

Pretty typical, except that Roberts is White.

“When I tell people I attend Benedict, they comment, ’Well, you’re not Black,”’ Roberts said. “But it’s still a school, I’m still getting an education. You don’t have to be Black to attend.”

Officials for the nation’s historically Black schools say Roberts’ experience is typical. Whites (males especially) are being enticed with offers of scholarships, and tuition's costing sometimes $10,000 less than their White counterparts at comparable private institutions.

The first Black college was Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1837 so that Blacks — barred from attending many traditional schools — could get advanced educations. Since then, more than 100 such institutions have been established in the U.S. and about 285,000 students attend the schools each year.

In the 2005-06 school year, however, nearly 10 percent of students at HBCU's were White. Lawsuits have forced many of the schools — about half of them are public — to diversify their student bodies. Couple that with the percentage of Black men declining on campuses, and you have a perfect storm for these institutions becoming increasingly White, Latino, and Asian.

Steven Schukei, a White Morehouse alumnus who now works as a vice president for investment firm Goldman Sachs, said he gained a perspective that he wasn’t offered while growing up and going to school in Nebraska, Colorado and South Carolina.

Schukei, 30, remembers Morehouse as a “refuge from the rest of the world where what race you are doesn’t really matter.”

While I have nothing against other races going to Black schools, we need to keep it real family. Sisters represent as much as 70 percent of the students on some of these campuses. And I've heard some frank discussions about the dramatic rise in lesbian relationships - some of it having to do with the lack of quality brothers to choose from. Is there reason to be concerned?

You tell us!

Source

STOMP THE YARD: WHAT'S GOING DOWN ON CAMPUS FELLOW GREEKS

Kappas Do Their Thing At Washington Step Show

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Members Charged in Hazing Case

Former TSU Official Gets 10 years for Misusing School Funds

Crowds At Morehouse Greet End of King Papers' Exhibition

The Storm Over Hampton University's Jamaica Cruise /Jesse "Omega" Jackson Addresses Graduates

FOLKS WHO GET IT: MOTHER OPRAH INSPIRES HOWARD GRADS IN DC

"Don't be a slave to any form of selling out"

Oprah Winfrey, whose eponymous show has remained the top-rated TV talk show for 20 consecutive seasons, truly believes her success comes from maintaining her principles and serving others.

"My integrity is not for sale, and neither is yours," Winfrey said at ceremonies Saturday for Howard University, recalling times when she was under pressure to change course or avoid topics to boost ratings or appease advertisers.

"There's no such thing as failure. Failure is God's way of saying take another direction"

Awarded a honorary doctorate at the commencement where she was the keynote speaker, Winfrey reflected on how early in her career at a TV station in Baltimore, executives told her she was "too black" and "too emotional."

They tried to have her TV name changed to something more recognizable. She refused. Finally, Winfrey was put on a talk show, she said, to run out her contract.

"And that was the beginning," she told 30,000 people who crowded onto the Howard campus.
Winfrey drew repeated big cheers from the moment she took the stage. She called on the predominantly black graduates to maintain their integrity and to "go forth and serve."

For more, click here.

SPARKS FLY AT "THE HOUSE" OVER BLACK ATHLETES

Negative images of Black athletes stem from societal issues, not something inherent to the athletes, per an A-list panel on the Black athlete at Morehouse College.

“We have not stood up and taken ownership of ourselves,” said National Football League Hall of Fame running back, actor and activist Jim Brown. “We have a Willie Lynch concept. Whose responsibility is it to change that? It’s ours.”

Brown was part of a star-studded group on a panel about the Black athlete, a forum put together by filmmaker and Morehouse alum Spike Lee. The panel included Rutgers University women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer, Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning, and Kansas City Star and AOL Black Voices sports columnist Jason Whitlock.

The discussion was part of the introduction of journalist Ron Thomas as head of Morehouse’s new sports journalism program — a program Thomas said will focus on research, writing and interviewing techniques with the goal of increasing the number of minority sports journalists.

The most highly charged 15 minutes of the spicy forum came when Stringer questioned Whitlock about a column he wrote in the wake of former talk radio host Don Imus’ labeling of Rutgers players as “nappy headed ‘hos.”

In his April 11 column, Whitlock labeled Stringer an opportunist for holding a “nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference” and questioned the motives of Reverend's Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Monday at Morehouse, Stringer’s anger at Whitlock’s column was on full display.

“I just want to understand your mindset. I want to understand people like you" she said. “I’ll be doggoned if I sit back and let that man speak of them as he did,” Stringer went on. “The truth of the matter is [Jackson and Sharpton] were the only people who spoke up. I didn’t care if they fired Imus or not. But I know this — I was going to defend those young ladies."

Source

President Leaves Quite A Legacy At The Historically Black, All-Male College. Read Here

ROBERT FRANKLIN: THE BLACK MAN'S NEW COMMANDER AND CHIEF

BEACON FOR LEADERS SELECTS NEW BROTHER TO HELM THE SHIP

ATLANTA (AP) -- Morehouse College, the only all male, historically black college in the country has selected Robert Franklin as the school's tenth president.

A Morehouse man himself, Franklin is a 1975 graduate with a master of divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School and a doctorate from the University of Chicago.

Clearly coming correct, Franklin has been director of black church studies at Emory University's Candler School of Theology and is Emory's Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics. He is also former president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in the same Atlanta University Center that includes the Morehouse campus.

He will succeed Walter E. Massey, a physicist and 1958 alumnus who became president of Morehouse in 1995.

Founded in 1867 and with an enrollment of about 2800 students, Morehouse has produced the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Director Spike Lee, Olympian Edwin Moses, Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, Historian Lerone Bennett Jr., Congressman Sanford Bishop NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond, former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, Congressman Major R. Owens, Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan, actor Samuel L Jackson, and two of the brothers from this blog.

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