WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tennessee State University, led by its mighty Tigers football team supported by an entourage of students, faculty and alumni, converged on the nation’s Capitol city this past weekend, harvesting a 27-14 victory over Howard University’s Bisons, an environment which may have created opportunities for students, job seekers and internship possibilities and much chatter about the upcoming elections. Like TSU’s homecoming weekend events, Howard University’s homecoming was highlighted by a football game, parades featuring marching bands, floats, step shows by Greek-lettered organizations, myriad food tables, music by guest bands and collections of old friends. Thousands of people of…
Author: Reginald Stuart
When Vanderbilt University rewrote college football history early this month, soundly defeating the No.1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide watched by a 28,934-person capacity crowd at the First Bank campus football stadium, the post-game victory celebration spread to the end of Broadway to the banks of the Cumberland River where a small jubilant growing crowd left the winning game Goal Post. Amid the celebratory jubilation at the moment, little thought had apparently been given to getting the goal post out of the water, whether polluting the river would be an issue or whether people on the riverbanks were injured or property…
WASHINGTON—This year’s highly divisive election campaigns to run the nation’s government enter the home stretch this fall as Democrats recently staged a national convention in Chicago last week, officially giving resounding support to the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to succeed President Joe Biden after national elections this fall. Harris, a native of Oakland, Calif., spent last week campaigning with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school geography teacher, football coach, member of the national guard, and congressman. Thousands of people have voted early, getting a head start on the anticipated crowds,…
WASHINGTON – The re-energized national campaigns for the nation’s top political job were thrust into even higher gear this week as Vice President Kamala Harris began a nationwide campaign tour introducing her surprise running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a 60-year-old former schoolteacher, backed by a wide range of service in elected state and federal responsibilities. He is no stranger to tough challenges in his personal and professional life. Walz, the father of two children, son Gus and daughter Hope, born after seven months of IVF birth challenges, is a graduate of Chadron State College in Nebraska. One of four…
By Reginald Stuart WASHINGTON, D.C. — Scores of presidents of historically Black colleges across the country, including Dr. Glenda Glover, retired president of Tennessee State University (TSU), have joined a growing chorus of leading educators expressing their appreciation to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their work on be-half of the institutions, oft-times bypassed year-after-year by federal funding agencies and despite luke-warm support from conservative politicians. In a letter to the two national political leaders cheering Biden, who stunned the nation late last month by declaring he was stepping down from his bid for re-election and passing…
By Reginald Stuart Two of the state’s education champions –former Governor and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander and noted attorney Rita Geier – were saluted this summer by the University of Tennessee board of trustees with honorary doctorate degrees. The actions, taken at a late June board meeting, came amid a packed board agenda that included raising tuition for the first time in four years to attend the multi-campus institution, based in Knoxville, and updating the guaranteed admissions policy. In a statement from the UT Board, announcing the honorary degrees, the board members said Alexander and Geier “have devoted their lives…
By Reginald Stuart Dr. Valerie White, one of the nation’s leading journalism educators, is leaving her post later this year at Florida A & M University, after 23 years in service to the institution, education colleagues say. White, who headed the Black College Communications Association (BCCA) for more than 10 years before its decline earlier this century, helped marshal the campus newspaper through several traumatic years, including the tragic death of the university’s drum major at the hands of fellow band members in what was described as a hazing incident on a chartered bus trip to perform at a neighboring…
By Reginald Stuart WASHINGTON, DC — Lawmakers from around the nation gathered on Capitol Hill this week to resume their congressional battles with Middle Tennessee’s freshman Congressman Andy Ogles standing firm championing the causes of conservatives Republicans. Ogles, a former Mayor, and state lawmaker in middle Tennessee, acknowledges the challenges of turning a traditionally Democratic seat in the House back to Republicans after more than a century. Still, he believes the agendas of progressives has been wrongheaded and he senses he’s on to something. “To date, I have introduced 99 pieces of legislation,” said Rep. Ogles, who boasts of his…
By Reginald Stuart WASHINGTON, DC — John J. Britton, a Nashville native who graduated from Pearl High School in 1954 and went on to earn a variety of assignments in the news industry and served as public relations spokesman and executive assistant to the president of Meharry Medical College for more than a decade, was laid to rest this week, having passed from heart disease. Britton’s seemingly never-ending careers included reporting for the Atlanta Daily World and Jet Magazine, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Washington-based Joint Center of Political and Economic Studies. In college, he attended Lincoln University…
By Reginald Stuart TALLAHASSEE, FL — The assault on Florida’s state controlled higher education by southern conservative advocates got a major political boost this month when the University of Florida said it was eliminating all positions focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a move hailed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The decision was among a variety of state actions championed by Gov. DeSantis who again voiced his support for challenging long established higher education governing boards, such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SASCOC) in Atlanta. That higher education standards organization, in the past few…