By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia WASHINGTON, DC — The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) 2019 Mid-Winter Training Conference kicked off on Wednesday, Jan. 23 at the Hilton Orlando in sunny Orlando, Florida. The conference, themed “Innovation Training and Global Expansion of the Black Press of America,” will include training workshops, panel discussions and presentations. Highlights include a luncheon address and fireside chat with former Tallahassee Mayor and 2018 Florida gubernatorial candidate, The Honorable Andrew Gillum. The four-day conference will also feature nationally-known civil rights attorney Benjamin L. Crump, Esq. of Ben Crum PLLC, who will lead what…
Author: Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia Although she acknowledges setting “big goals,” Sherrexcia “Rexy” Rolle said the magic really happens in the small steps it takes to reach those ambitions. “That’s where the victories are won, in your daily to do list,” said Rolle, whose boardroom and classroom accomplishments likely turn as many heads as her modelesque looks. At 30, Rolle serves as vice president of operations and general counsel of Western Air Limited, her family’s company and the largest privately-owned airline in the Bahamas. She’s climbed the corporate ladder, but nothing was handed to her – Rolle…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia For many, when there’s mention of singer Monica Brown, her hit songs like “The Boy is Mine,” and “Miss Thang,” might come to mind first. For others, her stellar acting career with small and big roles in “New York Undercover,” “Living Single,” and the 2018 reality television show “T.I. and Tiny Family and Friends Hustle,” also come to mind. But, it’s Brown’s other profession that – until recently – received little fanfare. “When I’m there, I’m not ‘Monica the artist,’” Brown said on a recent broadcast of her reality show. “I’m a…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia After more than a decade in business, Airbnb has gone beyond being recognized as just a worldwide accommodations platform that folks use as an alternative to hotels. The company was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nate Blecharczyk; it’s very first listing was Chesky and Gebbia’s Rausch Street San Francisco apartment. During a weekend where hotel rooms were completely sold out for a design conference, the duo decided to host guests on air beds and serve them breakfast in order to make enough money to pay their rent. Today,…
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia For family caregivers, the holidays can be a joyful time when spirits are lighter and it feels good to care for loved ones and enjoy time together, celebrating with family traditions. But for most family caregivers, the holidays also bring stress, according to Amy Goyer, a family and caregiver expert at AARP, the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. “We’re already very busy with caregiving, and there’s even more to do during the holidays,” Goyer said. A major…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent WASHINGTON, DC — The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies has released six detailed reports on the troubling lack of racial diversity among the 167 top staff in the Washington, D.C. offices of six congressional delegations – Delaware, Maryland, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia. Of the 12 U.S. Senators in the six states, none had an African American top staffer despite representing significant Black populations. In fact, the reports note that the only top staffer of color for any of the senators was a Latino top staffer for Mississippi GOP Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. The…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia Much is known about many aspects of the history of the civil rights movement in America. However, the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America provided one of the least often heralded but most essential roles in the movement’s success. Better known as the United Automobile Workers or UAW, the union was responsible for, among other things, posting the cash bond needed to have Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. released from a Birmingham jail and later, called attention to Apartheid in South Africa and the incarceration of freedom…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor @StacyBrownMedia The genius, intelligence, beauty and spirit of Black women, which continues to transform the world, shined brightly again Sunday as Nia Franklin became the first Miss America in the post-swimsuit era. “It took a lot of perseverance to get here,” Franklin, the freshly crowned beauty queen, said after her win. “I want to thank my beautiful family, my mom and my dad, who is a survivor of cancer.” An opera singer, Franklin is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and earned her master’s degree in music composition from UNC School of the…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor WASHINGTON, DC — While there’s at least a perceived growing number of Democrats who say they want to replace California Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn has emerged as a favorite among his peers to become the first African American to hold that position. In an exclusive interview with the NNPA Newswire, the 25-year congressman said that, while he’s ready for the challenge, Democrats currently have much bigger fish to fry. “The first order of business is to win the [midterm] elections on…
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Contributor Karen Carter Richards, the publisher and CEO of the Houston Forward Times, was born in a small town in Arizona; her family moved to Houston when she was just one month old. “I went to elementary, junior high and high school in Houston. After high school, I realized that I had an interest in the medical fields, so I applied for and got accepted to the DeBakey High School for Health Professions,” said Richards, who serves as 1st Vice Chair of the NNPA Association Executive Board. “I’ve spent my entire life in Houston.” Fifty-eight…