We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Calpurnyia Roberts, PhD, is Director of A Place to Live, a new initiative at MHSA, that will advocate for new models to house chronic and long term homeless persons. Before arriving at MHSA, Calpurnyia led Rising Together, a coordinated effort among Boston’s lead organizations on youth homelessness to improve job outcomes for young people in need of housing. She has more than a decade of experience in launching, coordinating, and evaluating public health programs with an equity-infused lens to improve outcomes for marginalized populations. Calpurnyia graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology and Human Biology from Emory University. She received a Master of Science and a Doctorate in Epidemiology from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively.

https://mhsa.net/team/calpurnyia-roberts/

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

BRATTLEBORO — Organizers of annual Fourth of July festivities couldn’t let another year go by without having Alfred Hughes Jr. parade through downtown, sharing his love for the community. 

As Hughes got ready to leave the Brattleboro Union High School in the back of Downtown Brattleboro Alliance’s new pickup truck used for watering flowers and known as Bloom, he expressed joy about vaccinations against COVID-19 allowing Brattleboro Goes Fourth to go forth in a small but meaningful way. 

“I like to laugh,” he said in back of the pickup during the parade. “I’m an American.”  

Usually, the annual parade begins with a massive American flag and ends with Hughes in some kind of gown. Last year, event organizers had to cancel all activities due to the pandemic and released a video compilation showing Hughes throughout the last decade in which he participated in the parade. 

This time around, Hughes wore a silver sequined gown and feather headdress. He spoke about the importance of community and openness as cars honked from the road, and people cheered from the sides of Canal Street and Main Street. 

Love for Hughes, known simply as Alfred in the community, also came via comments on a livestream video posted on facebook.com/BrattleboroGoesFourth. His creativity and enthusiasm were commended. 

Behind the wheel of Bloom was Dick DeGray, who helps run the downtown flower program. The town police and fire departments escorted. 

In a Facebook post, the Brattleboro Goes Fourth committee and Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Department saluted their longtime sponsors — including the Elks, C&S Wholesale Grocers, G.S Precision, Holstein Association USA and the Richards Group. They said they hope to return to their regular offerings next year.

In a statement regarding the holiday, Gov. Phil Scott said, “After 16 long and difficult months dealing with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this Independence Day, Vermonters are together once again, celebrating the birth of our great nation with friends and family. Many around the state will be attending parades, cookouts and firework displays — heading to state parks, the lake or downtown, with a new sense of independence, born from our collective efforts, hard work and determination in our battle against COVID-19.”

Since the founding of the United States, Scott said, “Vermonters have served as an example. Our response these past months has been no exception. As we enter our recovery phase, let us be inspired by the words of our founders, build on the progress we’ve made and have the courage to do things differently and boldly in pursuit of a more perfect union.”

https://www.reformer.com/local-news/going-fourth-with-more-freedom/article_666164a4-dcc4-11eb-99e0-13fba5a202d3.html

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Daisy Bates

1914-1999 By Arlisha Norwood, NWHM Fellow | 2017

When Daisy Bates was three years old her mother was killed by three white men. Although Bates, was just a child, her biological mother’s death made an emotional and mental imprint on her. The unfortunate death forced Bates to confront racism at an early age and pushed her to dedicate her life to ending racial injustice.

Daisy Bates was born in Huttig, Arkansas in 1914 and raised in a foster home. When she was fifteen, she met her future husband and began travelling with him throughout the South. The couple settled in Little Rock, Arkansas and started their own newspaper. The Arkansas Weekly was one of the only African American newspapers solely dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement. The paper was circulated state wide. Bates not only worked as an editor, but also regularly contributed articles.

Naturally, Bates also worked with local Civil Rights organizations. For many years, she served as the President of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her work with the NAACP not only transformed the Civil Rights Movement but it also made Bates a household name.

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional. After the ruling Bates began gathering African American students to enroll at all white schools. Often the white schools refused to let black students attend. Bates used her newspaper to publicize the schools who did follow the federal mandate. Despite the continuous rejection from many Arkansas public schools, she pushed forward.

When the national NAACP office started to focus on Arkansas’ schools, they looked to Bates to plan the strategy. She took the reins and organized the Little Rock Nine. Bates selected nine students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She regularly drove the students to school and worked tirelessly to ensure they were protected from violent crowds. She also advised the group and even joined the school’s parent organization.

Due to Bates’ role in the integration, she was often a target for intimidation. Rocks were thrown into her home several times and she received bullet shells in the mail. The threats forced the Bates family to shut down their newspaper.

After the success of the Little Rock Nine, Bates continued to work on improving the status of African Americans in the South. Her influential work with school integration brought her national recognition. In 1962, she published her memoirs, The Long Shadow of Little Rock. Eventually, the book would win an American Book Award. Bates was invited to sit on the stage during the program at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Due to a last-minute change, Bates was invited to speak at the march.

In 1968, Bates moved to Mitchellville, Arkansas. The majority black town was impoverished and lacked economic resources. When Bates arrived, she used her organizational skills to pull together residents and improve the community.

Bates died on November 4^th, 1999. For her work, the state of Arkansas proclaimed the third Monday in February, Daisy Gatson Bates Day. She was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1999.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/daisy-bates

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Meet the first Black skeleton athlete to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics

BEIJING — Skeleton is a heart-racing, adrenaline-fueled event where a single racer flies face-first down a frozen track, sometimes going more than 80 mph, belly-down on a sled.

Kelly Curtis is quick to acknowledge this sport is “crazy.” That doesn’t make her love it any less.

The event has been a mainstay at the Winter Games since 2002. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, just three Americans will compete for a medal — and Curtis is one of them.

As soon as Curtis shot herself down a topsy-turvy track in Beijing on Friday, she made history.

Curtis is the first Black athlete, man or woman, to represent the U.S. at the Olympics in skeleton. The 33-year-old is also the only member of the U.S. Air Force at this year’s Winter Games.

Curtis joins a small group of Black athletes competing for the U.S. at the Beijing Olympics.

The inherent pressure of being “the first” and “only” isn’t fazing her, she said.

“I am treating this like every race,” she said.

After the start of her two-day event Friday morning, Curtis stands 18th. Her teammate Katie Uhlaender is eighth. They are scheduled to next compete for the final round of skeleton runs at 9:55 p.m. Beijing time (8:55 a.m. EST) on Saturday.

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/10/1079798400/kelly-curtis-first-black-skeleton-olympian

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

After an enrichment program at Sally Ride Elementary School, a young Jessica Watkins realized what she wanted to do when she grew up: study the geology of other planets.

Today, at 33 years old, Watkins is training for a mission to do just that.

This April, Watkins is set to become the first Black woman to live and work on the International Space Station for an extended mission. She will arrive there onboard a SpaceX capsule and then spend six months on the ISS as part of NASA’s Artemis program, a multi-billion dollar effort designed to return humans to the surface of the moon in 2025.

“We are building on the foundation that was laid by the Black women astronauts who have come before me,” Watkins told NPR’s Morning Edition. “I’m definitely honored to be a small part of that legacy, but ultimately be an equal member of the crew.”

Of the roughly 250 people who have boarded the ISS, fewer than 10 have been Black. Prior to the inception of the space station, Mae Jemison, an engineer and physician, became the first Black woman to travel to space in 1992. Other Black women have followed, including NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Joan Higginbotham.

NASA selected Watkins for its astronaut program in 2017. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Watkins will cover a lot of ground on her mission: earth and space science, biological science and human research into things like the effects of long-duration spaceflight for humans. That’s when the astronauts themselves become “the lab rats,” Watkins told NPR.

Over the course of her six-month mission, Watkins will also observe and photograph geological changes on Earth.

Ahead of her journey, Watkins said she’s done training on the systems of the International Space Station and how to fix anything if it isn’t working properly. She’s also practiced walking in space by wearing a puffy white suit in an underwater ISS mockup that’s housed in a giant pool.

Watkins said the journey to space has wide-ranging implications on everything from medical research “with direct impacts into our daily lives,” to international collaboration. Even amid tensions here on Earth between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine, she notes, the U.S. portion of the ISS is docked to the Russian segment.

“We are all coming together to accomplish this really hard thing that none of us would be able to do on our own,” Watkins said. “I think that is just such a beautiful picture of what we can all do if we come together and put all of our resources and skill sets together.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/31/1077009955/jessica-watkins-nasa-astronaut-international-space-station-artemis

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Ray Berry is the founder of White Lion Brewing Company in Springfield. He was one of the recipients of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts – Massachusetts Next Century Award for 2021. He is a member of the first class of Leadership Pioneer Valley 2011-2012.

RAYMOND BERRY: RENAISSANCE MAN