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100 Black Men of Birmingham holds 1st Mentoring Awards Program
THE BIRMINGHAM TIMES — 100 Black Men of Metro Birmingham held its First Annual Mentoring Awards Program last week at Oxmoor Valley Elementary School.
The Birmingham Times
100 Black Men of Metro Birmingham held its First Annual Mentoring Awards Program last week at Oxmoor Valley Elementary School.
Nine students were recognized for their accomplishments while in the program. They were Samuel Craig, Oxmoor Elementary; Adrian Whitely, Oxmoor; DeShawn Cook, Oxmoor; Kayleb Henley, Oxmoor; Emanuel Kelly, Oxmoor; Xavier Murphy, Hoover High School; Antonio Pippens, Ephesus Academy; Gabriel Davis, Ephesus and Brandon Bryant, Ephesus.
Mentors with 100 Black Men addressed students and parents during the program. Attorney Ronnie Rice, who serves as president of the 100 Black Men of Metro Birmingham and works with Alexander Shunnarah Injury Lawyers, P.C. at the firm’s Birmingham headquarters, spoke during the program.
“My message to you guys is ‘break the mold,’” he told the young men. “A good friend of mine . . . always talks about [how] sometimes we get caught up in the complacency of life and the only way to move to the next level is ‘break the mold.’ And you have to shock yourself. You have to do things you haven’t done before. . . I know society throws a lot of curve balls at you whether it’s a family member dying, getting a bad grade . . . but keep your head up. Don’t be scared to step out of what society has painted you to be. That’s not who you are. You determine who you are.”
Rice was joined by members of the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists (BABJ) and told students it was important for the mentors to give back because “we once sat in the same chairs as you guys. Somebody once came to us and said, ‘I see the potential in you’ . . . Don’t be afraid to break the mold because that’s what all of us did.”
Students also heard from Melvin Love, principal, Oxmoor Elementary and Eddie Bradford, Mentoring Chairman of 100 Black Men of Metro Birmingham.
100 Black Men of America, an Atlanta-based men’s civic organization, whose motto is “What They See is What They’ll Be”, has more than 100 chapters across the country including one in Birmingham. Its goal is to educate and empower children and teens and provide positive role models and leaders to guide the next generation of African Americans and other youth.
Full Disclosure: Barnett Wright, The Birmingham Times executive editor, was part of the BABJ group that worked with students.
This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.
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Fighting to Keep Blackness
BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

By April Ryan
As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum
Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.
Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025

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Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

By Lauren Burke
In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.
On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.
All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.
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