black excellence
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Black Teen Who Won Full Ride to 20 Colleges Wants Apology From Reporter Who Called His Effort 'Obnoxious'
Wypipo: Quit making excuses. Work hard. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Go to college. No one’s just going to hand opportunities to you. Also wypipo: Wow, you applied to 20 colleges? And got into all of them?How obnoxious. Thankfully, Generation Z has demonstrated they’re not here for the funny shit. This includes Micheal Brown,…
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Why Howard University (and What’s Happening There Right Now) Matters So Much
A few weeks back, I attended a talk at Howard University in which my fiancee was guest-teaching a class on public relations and integrated marketing. Before I got to the class, I went to the bookstore and bought a Howard University crewneck sweater. I’m a huge advocate for and supporter of HBCUs—I make a monthly…
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17-Year-Old Houston Teen Gets Into 20 Top-Tier Colleges With Full Rides
We here at The Root love it when young black folk defy all of the low expectations, irrational fears and systemic oppression of this America. And so we salute young Mr. Micheal Brown, who was accepted to not one, not seven, but 20 of the best colleges in the nation. The 17-year-old from Houston applied…
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Remembering a Pioneer: Civil Rights Attorney and Activist Frankie Muse Freeman Dies at 101
She was a fearless fighter for our freedom, and one of the first of her kind: She was Frankie Muse Freeman, a brilliant civil rights attorney, activist and icon. She died Friday, Jan. 12, at the age of 101. Born in segregated Virginia in 1916, Freeman was raised in a college-educated family, ultimately attending Hampton…
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Stay Gold! 5 Wishes for the Golden Globes Red Carpet
It’s awards season—my favorite time of the year! Some butches may look forward to the Super Bowl (I’m personally planning to hate-watch Justin Timberlake’s halftime show), but I look forward to awards season because: red carpets! Listen, I’ve spent most of my life watching hundreds of hours of Project Runway and awards shows, so I…
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North Carolina Woman Who Began College at 12 Receives Doctorate at 23
Julia Nepper was just 12 years old when she began attending community college in Wilmington, N.C. The precocious and gifted young lady had been homeschooled for the previous four years because her parents realized that she was not being challenged in the traditional classroom. Nepper went on to receive her bachelor’s degree at 16 and,…
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Black Excellence: 10 African-American Students Named Rhodes Scholars
The Rhodes Trust has announced its newest Rhodes scholars, and 10 of the 32 American students selected (pdf) to attend the United Kingdom’s Oxford University for postgraduate studies are African American, the most ever to receive the prestigious honor. This is the first time that the number of African Americans in a single class to…
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Watch: Angela Rye Makes Power Moves at The Root 100 Gala
“I was being Taylor Swift and you just Kanye’d me,” Angela Rye said, scolding her The Root 100 gala co-host, Extra’s A.J. Calloway. Only someone as strong-willed as Rye could use “Kanye” as a verb. But what else do you do when you’re having your shining moment and A.J. Calloway comes up, attempting to take that…
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Take a Look at All This Black Genius the MacArthur Foundation Has Recognized
The best way to start any day is with some black excellence, and today that cup runneth the hell over. The list of MacArthur fellows is out, and this year, six of the recipients are black. Also known as the “genius” grants, the fellowship awards $625,000 directly to individual recipients. Previous winners include writer Ta-Nehisi…