Page 20 - Florida Sentinel 1-31-17

National
Woman Responsible For Emmett Till Being Murdered In 1955 Says She Lied
Emmett Till and Carolyn Bryant Donham in 1955. Donham now 82 has been in hiding since divorcing her husband who killed Till.
Melissa Harris- Perry Develops College Around Solange’s Album
Melissa Harris-Perry and Solange.
Melissa Harris-Perry
wants to develop a college course at Wake Forest Univer- sity inspired by Solange’s September release, A Seat at the Table.
The course would cover such topics as racism, gender, sex- uality, self-care, resistance and others.
“Solange Knowles’ A Seat at the Table has been one of the most reflective and pop- ular albums produced by a young black woman that speaks to issues of race, wom- anhood and equality,” said a statement on the website.
Millenial women of color are invited to contribute text, music and visual art as well as experiences to seatsyllabus.com until Jan. 31, 2017, at which point submis- sions will be closed.
Malcolm X’s Daughter And Granddaughter Arrested
Malikah and Beth Shabazz. Malcolm X’s daughter and
granddaughter have been ar- rested after allegedly stealing a U-Haul that carried a group of mistreated dogs, reports TMZ.
Malikah Shabazz and her daughter, Beth Shabazz, were in Maryland Wednesday when police found in their possession a box in the truck containing dogs with injuries.
Officers noted that the dogs were “kept in inhumane con- ditions,” according to TMZ.
Mother and daughter have been charged with seven counts of animal cruelty, vehi- cle theft and an additional charge of theft between $10,000 and $100,000.
They’ve been released on bail.
UNCF STEM Scholarship Deadline February 23, 2017
The woman at the center of the Emmett Till murder case has spoken out for the first time, more than 60 years later, admitting that part of her story about the black teenager were lies, a new book claims.
Till’s brutal beating death in Mississippi in 1955, the acquit- tal of his professed killers by an all-white jury and the photos of his dead body sparked outrage outside the state — becoming a catalyst for the national civil rights movement.
Authorities say the 14-year- old from Chicago was killed during a visit to Mississippi after Carolyn Bryant Don- ham, a white woman then named Carolyn Bryant, re- portedly accused him of grab- bing her by the hand and waist and acting lewdly at her shop.
Till was kidnapped days later from a relative’s home and then beaten and mutilated, before being shot, by Donham’s shop-owner husband at the time, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam.
Till’s body was sunk in the
Tallahatchie River, where it was eventually found floating.
After a highly publicized trial, Bryant and Milam were ac- quitted of Till’s kidnapping and murder in September 1955 by an all-white, all-male jury. They deliberated for an hour.
Donham testified at the trial and, according to Vanity Fair, her allegations were entered into the record and shared with reporters by her attorneys — but they were not heard by the jury, who had been excused from the courtroom.
Author Timothy Tyson, a senior research scholar at Duke University, shared with Vanity Fair exclusive details behind the conversation he had in 2007 with the elusive woman. Donham was 72 at the time, and couldn’t remember much of what happened that fateful day in 1955 but did admit Till never made verbal or physical advances.
Tyson’s upcoming book, The Blood Of Emmett Till, goes into greater detail of the case and Donham’s comments.
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has partnered with The Fund II Foundation to establish a scholarship pro- gram to help African American students seeking careers in STEM fields - science, technol- ogy, engineering and mathe- matics.
The Fund II Foundation UNCF STEM Scholars Program will identify 100 African Amer- ican high school students who are determined to pursue ca- reers in STEM fields. These students will receive scholar- ships, internships, mentoring and other tools to help them reach their goals.
The Fund II Foundation UNCF STEM Scholars Program will create a robust pipeline of African American students well
prepared to have careers in the tech industry and to become the next generation of innova- tors and entrepreneurs.
The deadline for this scholar- ship is FEBRUARY 23, 2017.
Scholars will receive $2,500 per academic year as freshmen and sophomores, $5,000 a year as juniors and seniors, an additional $5,000 for students whose academic programs re- quire a fifth year, and a $5,000 stipend based on a STEM-re- lated project/internship of the student’s interest.
For more details, visit https://scholarships.uncf.org/ program/details/c0c83a41- abc6-42ef-a607- fd59560fc229?_ga=1.2281890 21.1189024162.1485.
Bessie Coleman Honored By Google
Bessie Coleman was first Black female pilot. Google honored her last Thursday.
Alabama Attorney Makes History
Bessie Coleman took women of color to new heights, even when many were trying to keep her down.
On last Thursday, on what would have been Coleman's 125th birthday, Google pub- lished an animated doodle highlighting the life of the American civil aviator who was the first female pilot of African- American descent and the first woman of Native American de- scent to earn a pilot's license.
The 10th of 13 children born to an interracial couple who worked as sharecroppers, Coleman walked four miles each day to a segregated, one- room school. She helped out with cotton harvests while managing to excel at reading and math. But she had a loftier future in store.
In 1916, when she was 23, she fell in love with the idea of being a pilot after hearing pi- lots' tales of flying during World War I. She worked two jobs to save up money to train to be a pilot, but no American flight school would admit ei- ther women or Blacks.
Coleman moved to Paris to study, and a year later she be- came the first female pilot of African-American and Native American descent, and the first to earn an international avia-
As Lynneice Washington steps into the Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney's Office to take the helm of that agency for the first time, she will also be walking into history.
Washington, 49, is the first African American woman elected district attorney in Ala- bama.
"I am honored," Washing- ton said. "It has been a hum- bling experience."
But when she began her cam- paign more than a year ago she had not even thought of the po- tential significance if she were elected, Washington said. "I had no clue of the history I was making," she said.
Washington said she stands on the shoulders of oth- ers who helped lift her up - those in her faith-based com- munity, her family, and cam- paign team. "And I promise to make them and my community proud," she said in an interview Monday with AL.com.
Washington, a Democrat,
Lynneice Washington is the first Black District Attorney in Alabama.
won the November General Election by a narrow margin - 299 votes - in her race against Republican Bill Veitch, a long-time deputy district attor- ney who was appointed to the top spot in that office in early 2016 on the retirement of for- mer D.A. Arthur Green Jr.
BESSIE COLEMAN
tion license from the Fédéra- tion Aéronautique Interna- tionale.
She returned to the U.S. as a stunt pilot, performing com- plex maneuvers that earned her the nickname "Queen Bessie." She dreamed of es- tablishing a school for Black aviators, but didn't live long enough to fulfill her goal. She died in 1926 at the age of 34 when the plane she was flying experienced an equipment fail- ure and crashed.
Her achievements inspired a generation of African-Ameri- can men and women. Lt. William J. Powell dedicated his 1934 book "Black Wings" to Coleman, saying that because of Coleman, "we have over- come that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.”
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