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Los Angeles County Leaders Honor McNair as Tuskegee University’s First Female President
LOS ANGELES SENTINEL — Met with cheers from dozens of Tuskegee University alumni clad in crimson and gold, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, as “Dr. Lily D. McNair and Tuskegee University Day.” The Board of Supervisors presented McNair with a scroll commemorating her day of honor at its regularly scheduled meeting at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in Downtown Los Angeles. The document and specially proclaimed day celebrated the university’s impact on its students and the nation. It also marked McNair’s milestone as the first female president in the university’s 138-year history.
By Michael Tullier, Tuskegee University
Met with cheers from dozens of Tuskegee University alumni clad in crimson and gold, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, as “Dr. Lily D. McNair and Tuskegee University Day.”
The Board of Supervisors presented McNair with a scroll commemorating her day of honor at its regularly scheduled meeting at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in Downtown Los Angeles. The document and specially proclaimed day celebrated the university’s impact on its students and the nation. It also marked McNair’s milestone as the first female president in the university’s 138-year history.
Supervisor Janice Hahn, who chairs of the five-person Board of Supervisors, commended McNair for her leadership and her focus on providing Tuskegee students — specifically those from California — with a quality education.
“Los Angeles is home to thousands of Tuskegee University alumni, and apparently the graduating class of 2019 was dominated by students from Los Angeles,” Hahn said.
Along an honorific scroll, Hahn presented McNair with a letter penned and signed by Tuskegee’s founding president, Booker T. Washington, on Oct. 17, 1910. Hahn’s father Kenneth, who served as a county supervisor for 40 years and is the namesake of the county’s governmental headquarters, acquired the letter, which he framed and hung in his office during his tenure with the county.
Fellow county supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas joined Hahn in touting the university’s noteworthy achievements — the nation’s only center for bioethics in health care and research of its kind included among those. He also mentioned the acclaimed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II and noted the Board of Supervisors recently celebrated some of the nation’s longest-living Tuskegee Airmen who resided in Los Angeles.
“Such an esteemed institution deserves an esteemed educator and leader at the helm. Thank you for that which you have done and that which you will do in the future for this great university and beyond,” Ridley-Thomas told McNair.
“I build on the legacy of Booker T. Washington, who said that ‘excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.’ We can thank Dr. Washington and Dr. George Washington Carver for their efforts and vision,” McNair stated after accepting the Board of Supervisors’ commendations. “We are destined to become even better than Booker T. Washington imagined we could be more than 100 years ago.”
That vision, she noted, translates into excellence across many academic disciplines, including aerospace engineering and aviation education, veterinary medicine, architecture and agriculture — professional practice areas where the university is continually cited as being a top producer of minority graduates. She also highlighted areas such as food sustainability and bioenergy where the university seeks to expand its scope of influence.
The historically black university enjoys strong student representation from California. With 10% of its student body hailing from the “Golden State,” California ranks third behind Alabama and Georgia in terms of where its nearly 3,000 students reside. Likewise, 10% of the 642 graduates who comprised the class of 2019 had ties to the state.
California also is home to two chapters of its Tuskegee National Alumni Association Inc.: the Los Angeles Tuskegee Alumni Club and the Bay Area Tuskegee Alumni Club. Both are vital to the university’s alumni relations and student recruitment efforts in their local communities and throughout the state. In addition, some of these local club members serve the association in key district and national positions of responsibility.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the governing body of the County of Los Angeles, which encompasses 88 incorporated cities and 4,084 square miles. Serving more than 10.1 million residents, the board, comprised of five members elected to serve their respective districts, is the largest local government in the nation.
This article originally appeared in The Los Angeles Sentinel.
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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.”
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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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Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
The Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. While the president lacks the authority to unilaterally shut down the agency—requiring congressional approval—McMahon has been tasked with taking “all necessary steps” to reduce its role “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The administration justifies the move by claiming the department has spent over $1 trillion since its 1979 founding without improving student achievement. However, data from The Nation’s Report Card shows math scores have improved significantly since the 1990s, though reading levels have remained stagnant. The pandemic further widened achievement gaps, leaving many students behind.
The Education Department provides about 10% of public-school funding, primarily targeting low-income students, rural districts, and children with disabilities. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 61% of voters oppose Trump’s efforts to abolish the agency, while just 34% support it. In Washington, D.C., where student proficiency rates remain low—22% in math and 34% in English—federal funding is crucial. Serenity Brooker, an elementary education major, warned that cutting the department would worsen conditions in underfunded schools.
“D.C. testing scores aren’t very high right now, so cutting the Department of Education isn’t going to help that at all,” she told Hilltop News. A report from the Education Trust found that low-income schools in D.C. receive $2,200 less per student than wealthier districts, leading to shortages in essential classroom materials. The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.
The Office for Civil Rights also plays a key role in enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination. Moving it to the Department of Justice, as proposed in Project 2025, would make it harder for families to file complaints, leaving vulnerable students with fewer protections. Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and loan repayment plans, could face disruption if the department is dismantled. Experts warn this could worsen the student debt crisis, pushing more borrowers into default. “With funding cuts, they don’t have the materials they need, like books or things to help with math,” Brooker said. “It makes learning less fun for them.”
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