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National
Morehouse College Has 3 Valedictorians For The First Time In School History
Liam Davis, Ian Niemeyer and Willie J. Thompson were the 2016 Class Valedictorians.
Cong. John Lewis’ Graphic Novel, ‘MARCH’ To Be Taught In NYC Schools
U. S. REP. JOHN LEWIS
NEW YORK --- The New York City Department of Education, the country’s largest (and most segre- gated) school system, will use Con- gressman John Lewis’ graphic novel series, MARCH, to teach its students about the Civil Rights Movement.
As part of the New York City De- partment of Education’s “Passport to Social Studies” curriculum, 8th- grade teachers will use MARCH to talk about that time, from Lewis’ start in the Civil Rights movement to his speech at the 1963 March on Washington.
MARCH is a graphic novel tril- ogy that has already hit #1 on the New York Times and Washington Post bestseller lists. Book 3 will be released in August of this year.
Pre-Schooler Dies After Shooting Self With Gun Found Under Grandmother’s Pillow
MARIAH DAVIS
DETROIT, MICHIGAN --- A Detroit family is grieving after a 5- year-old, Mariah Davis, found her grandmother's gun and fatally shot herself.
According to reports, the inci- dent happened around midnight last Tuesday.
Mariah's aunt, Shawnte McMichael, told the reporters that Mariah, her 1-year-old brother and another child, 3, were under the grandparents' care when the shooting occurred. Mariah found the gun under her grandmother's pillow, according to the report.
"They heard the shot and her granddaddy ran in there like, 'What was that?' And she was lay- ing on the bed with her dolls," McMichael said.
Mariah was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pro- nounced dead.
The news station reports that Mariah's grandparents "were questioned by police and released pending the completion of the in- vestigation."
Ivy League Sophomore Has Been Missing For More Than A Week
ATLANTA, GA ----Sunday, as the Morehouse College Class of 2016 celebrates its 132nd gradu- ation ceremony, it will honor three young men who collectively have been named its valedicto- rian—including one young man who is not Black.
Liam R. Davis, Ian Niemeyer and Willie J. Thompson each graduated with a 4.0 grade point average from the nation’s largest liberal arts college for men. Founded in 1867, Morehouse enrolls approx- imately 2,100 students and his- torically has conferred more bachelor’s degrees on Black men than any other institution in the world.
“The honoring of three of our graduating seniors jointly as vale- dictorian serves as one proud and significant example of More- house College’s commitment to academic excellence—which also ties to one of the College’s strate- gic focuses of acuity,” said John Silvanus Wilson Jr., president of Morehouse College to the
Morehouse NewsCenter.
Davis, a 22-year-old native of
Nassau, Bahamas, was a business administration major with a con- centration in accounting, and is a Joseph E. Lowery International Scholarship recipient.
Niemeyer was an economics major with a minor in mathemat- ics, who served as president and portfolio manager of the More- house Investment/Finance Club, a student-run investment fund with more than $115,000 assets under management. Niemeyer followed his best friend, Mar- shall Lewis to Morehouse.
Griffin, Georgia native Thompson, 22, was an econom- ics major and Chinese studies minor. He is a Fulbright Scholar who will spend 11 months in Tai- wan and TaiChung. He initially didn’t want to attend an HBCU, but says that his mother, who graduated from Alabama State University, convinced him. “I came kicking and screaming, but I’m leaving happy and rejoicing,” he said.
NEW YORK ---- A Columbia University student has not been seen since she was seen study- ing for her finals on the Ivy League campus in New York City, according to the Washing- ton Post.
Nayla Kidd, described as a “loving and sweet-spirited” young woman who taught a popular belly dancing class on campus, has been published in several scientific journals.
Kidd, a sophomore in the School of Engineering and Ap- plied Science, had not spoken to her mother, La Creis Kidd, of Louisville, Ky., since late April. Her mother didn’t think any- thing of it initially, because she assumed her daughter was preparing for final exams.
On Friday, Columbia’s De- partment of Public Safety re- leased a flier asking people to
Nayla Kidd has not been seen since early May.
watch for the 19-year-old, de- scribed as 5’9” and 120 pounds. Columbia’s statement read: “Our community is deeply con- cerned whenever a student is missing. The University is in contact with Nayla Kidd’s family and is cooperating with the New York Police Depart-
ment.
Pastor Is Suing Chicago Police Dept. After Being Assaulted In Front Of Her Children
REVEREND CATHERINE BROWN
New Jersey Mother Of 7 Wins $429 Million Powerball
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS --
Reverend Catherine Brown
is suing the Chicago Police De- partment when two police offi- cers can be seen on camera assaulting her in front of her children during a road rage in- cident. Brown says she was driving home through a narrow alley that she always goes down, when suddenly she was encoun- tered by a police car heading straight toward her.
She says that one of the offi- cers, Officer Michelle Morsi Murphy, jumped from the other vehicle and immediately began yelling obscenities and foul words at her. Brown says she was shocked and reached for her driver’s license when the second officer, Jose Lopez, got out of the squad car and pointed a gun at her head.
Scared for her life, Brown called 911 and requested that a supervisor be sent to the loca- tion, and that’s when the inci- dent really went sour.
Officer Murphy reportedly jumped onto Brown’s car yelled, “B****, move that f***ing car back.” And instead of waiting for a supervisor to arrive as Brown had requested, both Murphy and Lopez can be seen on camera attempting to force the door of Brown’s vehi- cle open. Lopez can even be seen on the video laughing.
Brown says, in an effort to
be visible to witnesses, she put the car in reverse and backed out of the alley. The police got back into their own car and chased after Brown. Brown stopped on the main street only to have her car rammed by the Chicago Police car. Brown got out of her car and started shout- ing for her neighbors to help. Murphy then pepper-sprayed Brown while Lopez laughed. Murphy then turned her gun on Brown. Lopez stuck her car with a metal stick, and then both officers participated in the beating. "They Beat me down to my underwear, pulled my skirt off me," Brown says. "They beat me with the sticks and hit me with their boots in my head."
Brown was charged with at- tempted murder because Mur- phy claimed she dragged her while backing out of the alley. She was acquitted on the at- tempted murder charge, but was convicted of reckless con- duct a misdemeanor, for driving in reverse. She's appealing.
Meanwhile, during all of this, her children can be heard in the back seat screaming and crying.
It was discovered that both officers, have received multiple complaints from others. In fact, according to the The Citizens Police Data Project, Morsi Murphy has received 19 com- plaints and Lopez has received 21.
TRENTON, NJ -- A 70-year- old New Jersey mother and her seven grown children pooled $6 dollars and bought a lottery ticket in Trenton, N.J. That ticket hit the Powerball for $429.6 million dollars.
Valerie, Marcia, Steven, Jacqueline, Tracy, Kathy, Renee and their mother, Pearlie, revealed themselves as the eight winners of the Power- ball jackpot on Thursday, accord- ing to Lawrenceville Patch.
Oldest sibling Valerie Arthur, a retired administrator from the N.J. Department of Cor- rections, spoke for the family during a Friday press conference.
Arthur said that her mother, Pearlie Smith, a pastor at a Trenton church, said that the winning numbers were “divine intervention” and came to her in a dream. She noted that none of the numbers were birthdays or anniversaries, and although her mother rarely gambles, the ma- triarch, who bought the ticket, felt “compelled to listen to the in- tuition.”
The family says it will use the money to pay off student loans and their mortgages, and plan to tithe 10 percent and give some to charity.
One of their siblings, Kathy,
Pastor
played numbers that came to her in a dream.
plans to use some of her winnings to help mentor young women. She had been struggling to get fi- nancing for her program dedi- cated to just that.
“Now she has her own fund- ing where she can help these young women at-risk,” Arthur said. “She can go and change lives on her own accord.”
USA Today reports that the family took a few days to an- nounce themselves because they had their family lawyer secure fi- nancial advisers to help them manage the huge influx of funds.
The ticket win was the seventh largest Powerball jackpot in his- tory. The family chose a cash- payout of $284 million, according to lottery officials.
Pearlie
Smith
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