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National
Black Mom’s Book Warns Children About Police Brutality
Bennett College Granted Temporary Accreditation While Legal Challenge Persists
This past week, the Appeals Committee of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Col- lege (SACSCOC) upheld an earlier ruling made on Dec. 9 by its Board of Trustees to re- voke the small, historically Black women’s college’s ac- creditation because of con- cerns about Bennett’s finances – in spite of a massive fundraising campaign that brought in about $9 million, nearly doubling the college’s fundraising goal.
The college had appealed the December ruling, arguing to the board that its outcome was “arbitrary and unreason- able and not based on, or con- sistent with, the published Principles of Accreditation of SACSCOC policies.”
On Friday evening, Bennett announced it was granted a federal court order allowing accreditation to remain in
Bennett College
place while the college legally challenges SACSCOC’s appeal ruling. While the process is on- going, the news guarantees that students will be allowed to continue receiving federal aid, My Fox 8 reported.
SACSCOC’s decision was rendered “with no remand for consideration of additional fi- nancial information made available after December 9, 2018,” which means they did not consider the $9 million the college was able to raise after the board’s December ruling. Bennett is in this predicament after SACSCOC sanctioned the school due to dwindling fi-
nances. According to the SAC- SCOC, the institution’s only problem was “failure to com- ply with Core Requirement 13.1 (Financial resources) of the Principles of Accredita- tion,” according to My Fox 8.
The requirement states, “The institution has sound fi- nancial resources and a demonstrated, stable financial base to support the mission of the institution and the scope of its programs and services.”
Bennett was put on a two- year probationary period to achieve compliance, but that period has ended. Realizing it needed to raise money in a hurry, Bennett College worked for six weeks with an initial goal to raise $5 million for its financial reserves. The wildly successful fundraising cam- paign pulled in more than $9 million with the help of over 11,000 donors, according to My Fox 8.
It is known as “The Talk,” a conversation nearly all African- American parents have with their children; more specifically their sons. Sanya Whittaker Gragg has written a book to help facilitate that very important conversation.
SANYA GRAGG AND HER “Momma, Did You Hear the BOOK
News?“ is centered around 10- year old Avery who is disturbed by yet another unarmed black man being shot. This prompts his parents to sit down with him and his brother to talk about what to do if approached by po- lice officers. Their Dad refer- ences a catchy chant taught to him by his mother to help re- member the five things to do to “come home ALIVE.” A to the L to the I-V-E! Come home ALIVE... That is the key!
Gragg says her past experi- ence working with kids taught her that when you add music or song and dance to a lesson, young people are more likely to engage; and more importantly, they are more likely to remem- ber. Each letter corresponds with a reminder. For example, “V” is for VISIBLE hands always and “E” is for EXPLAIN any move- ment. The book encourages
readers to “Memorize the 5” and mirrors what Gragg and her husband repeatedly preached to their own sons.
Gragg knows this book will not guarantee the end of un- armed black male fatalities. “Our community will continue work- ing to educate our kids on ‘The Talk’,” Gragg states, “but we need law enforcement to con- tinue working to educate and train officers too.” The book fur- ther stresses that “all policemen are not bad”, and we should “pray for those in blue”. She adds her book is not anti-police, but it is anti-police brutality. Her self- published book can be purchased now on Amazon.com.
She is committed to using her talents to make a difference in the lives of others. Learn more at
her official web www.sanyagragg.com.
site at
TV One And Cleo TV Announce Diverse Programming Slate And Unveil NAACP Nominations At TCA Winter Press Tour
At the Television Critics As- sociation’s Winter Press Tour, TV One presented its premiere 2019 programming lineup for the cable network and its re- cently launched digital net- work, CLEO TV.
Kicking off the morning, the nominees for the NAACP Image Awards 50th Anniver- sary show were announced by the President of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, Logan Browning (Dear White Peo- ple) and Winston Duke (Black Panther).
Netflix led the nominations in the Television categories
Actors Winston Duke and Logan Browning announced the NAACP Nominations at the TCA Winter Tour
with 22 nominations and had 4 film nominations followed by HBO and ABC with 20 and 18
respectively. Marvel led the motion picture category with 13 nominations followed by Annapurna with 11 nomina- tions. In the recording cate- gories, RCA leads with 11 nominations followed by Inter- scope with 8 nominations and Atria led the literary category with 4 nominations.
NAACP’s official nomina- tion release and full list of nominees is available on its website. The NAACP Image Awards will air on TV One live from the Dolby Theater in Hol- lywood Saturday, March 30 at 9 p.m. ET/8 CT.
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