Dr. Kerry Anne Simon, Mississippi Valley State University’s first female band director, and Dr. Nikole Moore Roebuck, the first female director of bands at Grambling State University, recently made history when their bands both performed during a football game. It was the first time in the history of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) that two […]
Morgan State University became the first HBCU band from Maryland to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. That honor marked just another first in a long line of them, for HBCU bands. In 1955, the Tennessee State University Aristocrat of Bands (A.O.B.) was the first HBCU band to appear on national television with their performance […]
Venture capitalists (VCs) are among the most powerful people on the planet. VCs provide the capital to launch and scale the ideas of tomorrow and ultimately, the jobs and industries that will sustain communities. Only 1 percent of VCs are Black and 81 percent of VC firms don’t have a single Black investor. Those disparities, […]
Photo: iamhiphopmagazine The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) has partnered with Hennessy to bring us the Hennessy Fellows Program. The program is a $10M initiative that will award “high-achieving graduate students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with curated corporate development experiences, as well as financial assistance.” Nas happily used his voice to narrate […]
PHOTOGRAPH BY RADCLIFFE “RUDDY” ROYE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC On October 1st more than $250 million in annual funding mandated by federal educations laws for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions expired. The reason? The Senate did not approve it, after the measure was approved in the House of Representatives. HBCUs across the country are operating in a […]
Photo: Human Jukebox Media They are world renowned and for millions, the absolute embodiment of what a Black woman is. They are the Southern University ‘Dancing Dolls.’ You see beautiful faces, sensual dance moves and precise choreography but we see something very different — accomplished Black women entrepreneurs. The Dancing Dolls are not just women […]
Oprah Winfrey came to Charlotte to help raise money at a United Negro College Fund (UNCF) event and left an unexpected gift behind — a donation of $1.15 million dollars. Winfrey came to Charlotte to give a talk at the 17th annual Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon this past weekend. The UNCF set a goal […]
Photo: CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 15, 2018: Spike Lee attends the photocall for ‘Blackkklansman’ during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival Spike Lee graduated from Morehouse College — a Historically Black College (HBCU) — and he’s doing his part to make sure other young people get the same opportunity. Lee, with the help of others, […]
Photo Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Coachella Homecoming at HBCUs means everything — seriously, EVERYthing. If you didn’t attend an HBCU you might not understand that the actual football game is secondary. It’s something like a big family reunion, highlighted by celebrations, concerts and of course, the bands. For the schools, however, it is a […]
Soul Food Market will become reality because we will make it so. We are crowdfunding to produce a supermarket filled with Black owned products but this shouldn’t be strange or new to us. Black people have a rich history of crowdfunding and we’ve successfully used it to build many amazing institutions. Crowdfunding is simply us […]