Greene County Democrat

Tag: Ph.D.

  • Alpha Beta Nu Omega Chapter of AKA Sorority holds first Founders’ Day Celebration

    Alpha Beta Nu Omega Chapter’s inaugural Founders’ Day Celebration with Regional Director Dr. Tracey Morant Adams as Keynote Speaker 
    Reginald Director Dr. Adams delivers address and greets Sorors

    “We Carry the Light” was at the core of the messages shared at the inaugural Founders’ Day Celebration of the Alpha Beta Nu Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. The young chapter was chartered June 4, 2022 with 25 members, and now has 26. Mrs. Katie Jones Powell serves as President ands Mrs. Carolyn Branch is Vice-President.
    The speaker for the occasion, Southeastern Regional Director of AKA Sorority, Inc., Dr. Tracey Morant Adams, Ph.D., indicated that the Founders’ Day Celebration serves as a commemoration of the founders of the organization and a rededication of the members to the mission. She noted that under the leadership of International President and CEO, Dr. Danette Anthony Reed, the sorority has embraced the theme Soaring to Greater Heights of Service and Sisterhood.
    Dr. Adams stressed that the foundation initiative of the organization is Strengthening Our Sisterhood. The remaining Program Initiatives include Empowering Our Families; Building Economic Wealth; Enhancing Our Environment; Advocating for Social Justice and Uplifting our Local Community.
    Elaborating on the latter two, she noted that the organization’s focus in Greene County will surely endeavor to bring awareness to the disparities that exist in the local community. “We are certainly aware of the social and economic struggles and challenges in our community and will contribute to addressing these. Things that get measured get changed,” Dr. Adams stated.
    Dr. Adams lifted the newly chartered Alpha Beta Nu Omega Chapter exclaiming “I am so excited with this remarkable new chapter made up of extraordinary leaders, and I am so excited that they will extend our reach into a community made up of us – women of color serving in a community composed of more than 80% of people of color.”
    The inaugural Founders’ Day Celebration included the following components: Mrs. Precious Morgan Hallman served Mistress of Ceremony; Chaplain Vonnetta Gracie gave the Invocation; Mr. Marvin Turner rendered musical selections; Greetings were shared by Eutaw Mayor Latasha Johnson, County Commission Chair, Corey Cockrell, State Representative Curtis Travis, and Mr. Kenneth Webb, National Pan-Hellenic Council of Tuscaloosa/West Alabama Chapter. Mrs. Carolyn Branch expounded on the organization’s initiatives and Mrs. Mildred Morgan presented the Tribute to Founders. Special recognitions were led by Mrs. Karmelia Brown. Closing remarks were given by Dr. Rhinnie Scott, Founders’Day Program Chairperson and Mrs. Katie Jones Powell, Chapter President.
    Visiting Greek-Lettered Organizations were recognized and extended special appreciation for sharing in this inaugural Founders’ Day Celebration, including the Greene County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, Dr. Florence Williams, President.
    Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated ® (AKA), an international service organization, was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1908. It is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African American college-educated women. In March 2022, the South Eastern Region of Alpha Kappa Alpha elected Dr. Morant Adams to serve as their Regional Director. On July 14, 2022, she was officially installed into the office with responsibility for leading more than 116 Chapters and over 13,000 members in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. An accomplished business executive, Dr. Morant Adams serves as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer for Renasant Bank.

  • Newswire : Federation files motion for Summary Judgement in Black farmers debt relief lawsuit

    EAST POINT, Ga. – On Monday, July 18, 2022, attorneys for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (“the Federation”) filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. If granted, Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan could be implemented as originally passed by Congress and signed by the President. This would eliminate any on-going delay in the receipt of debt relief for the 17,000 farmers and ranchers of color, which includes 3,100 Black farmers, who have been waiting for this promise to be kept for over a year.

    The Federation’s Motion asks the presiding Judge to acknowledge the historical and ongoing discrimination against socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. Specifically, the Federation argues in the twenty-three years since the Pigford decision, Black and other socially disadvantaged farmers across the country have continued to experience discriminatory conduct at the hands of the USDA and FSA, including lack of outreach, lack of assistance, mistreatment, misinformation, lack of communication, arbitrary denials, unreasonable requests, delays in application processing, delays in application approval, and delays in loan disbursements.

    Supported by members and ally organizations, the Federation secured over a dozen additional Declarations which were submitted on behalf of farmers and ranchers who had either experienced race-based discrimination by a USDA agency or witnesses or had other personal knowledge of race-based discrimination by a USDA agency in the past 10 years. These brave farmers and ranchers boldly expressed the devastating impact of race-based discrimination in accessing credit to start, maintain, and expand their farming operations.

    In addition to the experiences shared by farmers and ranchers of color, several experts provided reports to contextualize the broader implications of race-based discrimination on the
    these farmers including the financial impact. Associate Professor at the College of William & Mary, Adrienne M. Petty, Ph.D., stated- “The Pigford decision was not the turning point that it could have been. The USDA has not taken deep and lasting steps to combat discrimination in the administration and thrust of its programs. It continues to vest administration of its loan programs in county committees despite the Pigford case establishing the discriminatory impact of these committees.”
    Upon learning the Federation’s Motion was filed, Dãnia Davy, Director of Land Retention & Advocacy, said, “We are
    grateful to our attorneys for their exceptional representation. This Motion for Summary Judgment comprehensively outlines the unrelenting impact of discrimination in credit access and its role on the persistent loss of Black farmers, farms, and land. We are exceedingly grateful for the farmers and ranchers who courageously shared their stories as well as the outpouring of support from the ally organizations that have helped spread the word on the on-going debt relief and credit access needs of Black farmers.”

    This year, as part of this administration’s focus on equity and the Secretary of Agriculture’s commitment to transforming the USDA, the Federation signed multiple agreements with USDA to provide outreach and technical assistance to Black farmers, landowners and cooperatives.

    “The Federation has and will continue to work with USDA to ensure the government benefits it is authorized to administer are accessible to the Black farmers and landowners who heroically persist in the noble profession of feeding our communities and protecting our environment,” said Cornelius Blanding, Executive Director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund.

    Counsel for the USDA and Plaintiffs previously filed their respective Motions for Summary Judgment. A ruling on all three (3) motions can be expected any day now.

    Any questions about the Federation’s filing or case status can be directed to: daniadavy@federation.coop

  • Newswire: New Smithsonian exhibit shows racism against Emmett Till continues today

    Emmett Till and Desecrated sign from site where his body was found

    By Hamil R. Harris

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – In the middle of the night, 14-year old Emmett Till was snatched from his great uncle’s home in Drew, Mississippi. Then an angry White mob beat, tortured and then shot Till before they used wire to connect a fan blade to his head to sink his young body to the bottom of the Tallahatchie River. The brutal lynching of Emmett Till on August 28, 1955 was on the mind of 13-year-old Yolanda Rene King at the March On Washington for Voting Rights rally Saturday, Aug. 28. During her speech, Martin Luther King’s only grandchild asked for a moment of silence in honor of Till, who she said, “was about my age.” Only blocks away from where she stood, a brand new exhibit was about to pay homage to that same memory. Although thousands have filed past the casket of Emmett Till displayed at the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Culture, on September 3, a new exhibit was set to open in “Flag Hall” of the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History that shows the recently bullet-riddled road markers where Till’s body was found. This is desecration that starkly indicates the level of racism and White supremacy still infesting America. “These signs were part of a long-standing history that has intentionally been suppressed and in some ways attacked,” said Tsione Wolde-Michael, 34, the Smithsonian’s curator for African American Social Justice. She added, “The community has shown its resilience in erecting a new sign every time it is shot up.” Wolde-Michael continues, “Till’s murder and open-casket funeral became a catalyst for the civil rights movement…And now in what would have been Emmett Till’s 80th year, this vandalized sign demonstrates the ways histories of racism and violence continue into the present. Our Mississippi community partners have continuously risked their lives to commemorate and interpret this history, and we are honored with the trust they have placed in the Smithsonian to steward the sign and bring its story along with Emmett’s to the public.” The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will open “Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice and the Murder of Emmett Till” as a monthlong display of the bullet-ridden sign that was placed by the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi in remembrance of Emmett Till beginning Sept. 3. Smithsonian Curator Nancy Bercaw said Jerome G. Little, who died in 2011, pioneered the effort to preserve the Till story and the signs. He was the first African-American to serve as the president of the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors. “The signs were shot up, people defaced them with acid. But every time the Emmett Till Memorial Commission pulled themselves together and raised the funds and put up another sign,” Bercaw said. After Little died, his friend, Jesse Jaynes-Dimming has been working with the Emmett Till Memorial Commission to keep Till’s legacy alive. Anthea M. Hartig, Ph.D., Elizabeth MacMillan director of the National Museum of American History, said the museum will present a program on Sept. 2 entitled, “The Long Battle: The Work of Preserving Emmett Till’s Memory, a Conversation with Community Leaders from Tallahatchie County, Mississippi.” Reverend Wheeler Parker, a civil rights activist and Till family member and Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Money, Mississippi, teamed up with curators and officials from the Smithsonian to hold the conversation and present the exhibit which will go on public display Sept. 3. The Museum is located on D.C.’s Constitution Avenue N.W. between 12th and 14th streets. Access information can be found at Americanhistory.si.edu or by calling 202-633-1000. Wolde-Michael said that In 2019 she and a group of historians traveled across Mississippi looking to learn more about the Emmett Till sign story. The reception was positive toward having the national exhibit. “This is about establishing long-term relationships in the community. This is just the beginning.” The sentiment is mutual. “We are thrilled to partner with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History,” said Weems. “The citizens of Tallahatchie County have struggled to keep Till’s memory on the physical and cultural landscape. We are honored that the Smithsonian has taken an interest in this important American story.” The exhibit is deliberately placed in the museum’s most prominent location, across from the Star-Spangled Banner exhibition at the building’s center. The Till sign works to preserve the memory of an African American boy’s murder while demonstrating the ongoing nature of anti-Black violence in America. A companion webpage will also become available Sept. 3. In 2008, the Emmett Till Memorial Commission erected nine historical markers to commemorate Till, but the signs have been stolen, riddled with bullets or thrown in the river. The 317 bullet punctures on the sign collected by the museum, the second of four placed at the river site, serve as a reminder that the racism that caused Till’s death still exists today. The commission erected a new bullet-proof marker in 2019 and donated this historical marker to the museum. “The National Museum of American History is deeply honored to collaborate with the Tallahatchie community to preserve and present the legacy of Emmett Till,” said Hartig, “The history of racial violence is often erased and highly contested in the battle to define American memory, and this vandalized sign demonstrates the ramifications of ongoing efforts of remembrance and social justice. Racism does not only reside in the past. It inhabits our lived reality.” The installation of the Till Historical Marker is part of the museum’s new vision outlined in its strategic plan, which is centered in outreach and commitment to communities and provides a place for people to explore the complexity of the country’s shared history. “The Emmett Till Memorial Commission has been working for 15 years to change the physical and cultural landscape of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, and the road to remember has not been easy,” said Weems. “So it is with great appreciation that we are partnering with the Smithsonian to honor and remember Emmett Till and the struggle that our community has faced to commemorate his life and legacy and to create the conditions for racial healing.” As Delta variant cases surge, 221 Community Health Workers reach out to 1.8 million people in rural underserved areas to promote vaccination Special to the Greene County Democrat Insert photo of Black man getting COVID 19 vaccnation

  • Newswire: Is there more to Teaching and Learning Than Testing’?

    By Barbara D. Parks-Lee, Ph.D., CF, NBCT (ret.), NNPA ESSA Awareness Campaign

    Classroom scene

    Teaching is a multi-faceted calling for many and an occupation for some, but how can teaching and learning effectiveness be measured without testing?
    There must be some way—or ways—to measure what and whether students are learning, and teachers are teaching. Rigor, high standards, curriculum design, learning and teaching styles, and external demands all must be considered in any teaching and learning situation, regardless of location and resources.
    As the teaching population becomes more monocultural and the school-aged population becomes more multicultural, teaching materials, beliefs, and techniques tend to rely too heavily on standardized tests and testing materials. In order for education to capitalize on the strengths and talents of learners and the skills and professionalism of their teachers, what kinds of additional progress measures might be employed?
    Different kinds of professional development programs and materials may be needed to provide more sufficient and culturally responsive information about the teaching and learning process.
    One way of assessing whether students are actively engaged in learning on a high level might be using multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary materials such as those in an original textbook of poems, shorts stories, and essays.
    The book, Connections: A Collection of Poems, Short Stories, and Essays with Lessons,became part of a study in the Washington, D. C. schools and surrounding Metropolitan areas of Prince George’s County, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia, from 1996-2001. (Parks-Lee, 1995)

    It addresses some of the challenges Gloria Ladson-Billings pointed out when she quoted Jonathan Kozol, saying that “…Pedagogic problems in our cities are not chiefly matters of injustice, inequality, or segregation, but of insufficient information about teaching strategies.”(Ladson-Billings*, 1994, p. 128)

    Both neophyte and experienced teachers participated in a study that provided them with information, materials, and teaching strategies to employ with urban, poor, and predominantly, but not exclusively, African American youth.
    The idea for the study originated with a concern that an increasingly middle class or suburban teaching force often seems unable to meet the needs of diverse students who are different from them in class, socioeconomic status, geography, ethnicity, and/or culture.
    The Connections materials were intended to help address ways to foster a positive impact upon all children, but particularly upon children of color. In addition, teachers using these materials might also feel more empowered to think creatively and to utilize students’ strengths and talents as they incorporate high and rigorous interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary lessons and higher order thinking skills in order to increase academic achievement.
    Effective teachers believe that we must produce and use materials that encourage students to be able to read, to write, to speak, to be creative, to understand, and to interpret what they hear and read. If students can develop these proficiencies, they may experience greater success on standardized tests.
    Success breeds success, and if our students are to be involved learners and thinkers, we cannot keep doing the same things the same ways and then blaming students and teachers if standardized test scores are not optimal. There must be more inclusive ways of tapping into and measuring what is taught and what is learned. Standardized tests are but one way and should not be the onl y way to validate the teaching and learning processes.
    There are three domains to teaching, the cognitive, the affective, and the psychomotor. The one that is not easily addressed by standardized testing is the affective domain.
    As Sharon M. Draper says, “You must reach a child before you can teach a child.” (Draper, S., November 2002). The challenge comes when trying to measure the affective domain. However, affective success is often reflected in student attendance and behaviors that are involved, on-task, and diligent.
    There is often a spirit of collaboration and cooperation between the teacher and the students. Fewer discipline problems are observed when there is a positive classroom community involved.
    When diverse students are allowed to utilize their talents and skills, they often become self-motivated, because they feel affirmed, valued, and respected.
    *Ladson-Billings, G. (1999). (Notes from speech delivered at Howard University).