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Miles College Head Drum Major Markelle Ross: Leader On and Off the Field

By Keisa Sharpe-Jefferson The Birmingham Times From the stands the role of a drum major may look like sheer fun and entertainment but those few hours on the field provide only a small glimpse of the discipline, practice and rehearsal that goes into performances eagerly anticipated by tens of thousands. Ask Markelle Ross, lead drum […]
The post Miles College Head Drum Major Markelle Ross: Leader On and Off the Field first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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2 years ago

October 27, 2023

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As head drum major at Miles College in Fairfield AL,, Markelle Ross has the Purple Marching Machine flying high. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)

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By Keisa Sharpe-Jefferson

The Birmingham Times

From the stands the role of a drum major may look like sheer fun and entertainment but those few hours on the field provide only a small glimpse of the discipline, practice and rehearsal that goes into performances eagerly anticipated by tens of thousands.

Ask Markelle Ross, lead drum major for the Miles College Purple Marching Machine, a 22-year-old business major in his senior year.

As the team prepares for their final road trip of the 2023 season on Saturday Oct. 28 when Miles visits Albany State in a Southern Intercollegiate Association (SIAC) matchup Ross will be on campus tending to his daily schedule that goes far beyond what many would consider the standard business hours of 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

“Studying before practice, studying after practice, studying before you go to sleep, studying when you wake up. It’s just about incorporating all those things into your daily routine …,” said Ross, who’ll wake up as early as 6:45 a.m., if he was an 8 a.m. class and who will go to sleep on some nights as late as 12:30 a.m. “With school work, it can be stressful, but also, learning how to process all those things,” he said.

And, as head drum major, his leadership leads him to be the first on the football field for daily (Monday through Friday) practices at Albert J. Sloan – Alumni Stadium.

“Practice starts at 5 p.m., but we’re here usually around 4:30 p.m. before anyone else gets here. And we [drum majors] are the last to leave. Then we go back to our rooms to study. Then the next day, we do it all over again.”

A Trio of Excellence

Click to view slideshow.

Ross is one of the school’s three drum majors. The other two are Nathan (Nate) Jackson and Devante Overstreet, both from Birmingham while Ross is from Dawson, Georgia.

Being drum majors means more than providing direction on the field, he said. “They make sure band members get in on time and get their music together.

“It’s [that we are] always inside the band room helping out one another, trying to catch the rhythms [of the band], getting new music, passing out new music. [We are] trying to help in any way,” he said.

In other words, making sure the band is operating as smoothly as possible and keeping everyone on task is what Ross considers one of his main jobs.

Saturday is game day and rest, in some form, usually comes on Sunday.

Ross says excellence in their studies is a requirement, as well as being in top physical shape for the demands of practice and game day performances.

With his two other drum majors alongside him, Ross stressed the importance of personal character, excellence and integrity.

“This is a major leadership role,” he said. “We are accountable for anything that’s happening with the band. If anybody is confused or doesn’t know what’s going on, it’s basically our fault.”

“Whatever we do, people are watching us so we know we can’t do what everyone else does. People recognize us.”

With graduation set for next spring, the main task for Ross now involves being an example to his fellow band members and grooming Jackson to be Miles’s next drum major.

As a music major, Jackson, gets very little “free time.” He graduated from Center Point High School (where he was also a drum major) and plays drums for Faith Deliverance Overflow Ministries, instrument on Sundays.

BCS Grad

Overstreet, 23, is a graduate of Birmingham’s Jackson Olin High School where he was a drum major in high school as well. While attending Miles, he also works and attends classes when he’s not practicing or performing as a drum major and is set to graduate in the spring like Ross.

Post-graduation, Ross said he would like to teach. Being a drum major is not just what he does, it’s who he is.

“I’d love to go to a school helping out with drum majors,” said Ross.

“I also have a clothing line as well, so I’m really big on business and fashion.”

Ross said he had plans of being a drum major going back to when he was 10-years-old at Terrell Middle School in Georgia new I wanted to be a drum major when I saw the person with the tall hat. I wanted to understand this role, what this position was – anything about it just to get an understanding.”

That curiosity and deep desire led him to become a drum major at his high school which he continues at Miles.

And while this is the high season with weekly Saturday football games, his work extends into spring with continued training to build endurance while participating in parades and other events to showcase the discipline, leadership, talent and school pride drum majors exude.

Can just anyone audition for the role of drum major? “If you’ve got a 1-2 step, you can be a drum major,” said Ross with a smile as he recently walked across the field at the Albert J. Sloan Alumni Stadium.

And yes, Ross says, drum majors do need to know how to dance.

Edited at 9:43 a.m. on 10/27/2023 for clarifications.

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

The post Miles College Head Drum Major Markelle Ross: Leader On and Off the Field first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

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PRESS ROOM: NBA Hall of Fame Nominee Terry Cummings Joins 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to Launch Victory & Values Initiative

NNPA NEWSWIRE — NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th.

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1 week ago

February 27, 2026

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Cummings becomes an honorary member, joining other role model sports stars

NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings has officially become an honorary member of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County, marking a powerful new chapter for the 100 Black Men and youth development across the region.

Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th. The moment signified more than membership — it marked the launch of the organization’s transformative new platform, the Victory & Values Initiative.

The Victory & Values Initiative is a groundbreaking youth development program designed to empower elementary and middle school students through a dynamic blend of sports, mentorship, and STEM exposure. The initiative focuses on building health, discipline, character, leadership, and access to opportunity — creating pathways for long-term academic and personal success.

“This is about more than sports,” said Cummings during the ceremony. “It’s about using the platform of athletics to teach life lessons, create access, and build the next generation of leaders.”

The induction ceremony also featured notable guests including NASCAR’s newest Star Driver, Lavar Scott and NASCAR Director of Athletic Performance, Phil Horton, who joined Cummings for a powerful Victory & Values Town Hall discussion. The Town Hall was moderated by renowned Sports Emcee John Hollins and focused on leadership, resilience, discipline, and the importance of mentorship in shaping young lives.

A “Day at NASCAR” for 75+ Youth

Cummings wasted no time getting to work. On his first full day as an honorary member, he joined his new brothers of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to host a “Day at NASCAR,” escorting more than 75 youth to a once-in-a-lifetime experience at EchoPark Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).

The youth participants received behind-the-scenes access including: an exclusive tour of Pit Row, access to the Garage Area and exploration of the interactive Fan Zone.

The experience culminated with a surprise meet-and-greet and Q&A session with NASCAR Superstar Bubba Wallace, who shared insights on perseverance, preparation, and breaking barriers in professional sports.

The day served as a living example of the ‘Victory & Values’ Initiative in action — exposing youth to new industries, expanding their vision for the future, and connecting them directly with high- level mentors and role models.

Building Leaders Through Access and Mentorship

The 100 Black Men of DeKalb County – a chapter of the largest, national mentoring organization in the county – continues to expand its footprint with programs focused on academic excellence, economic empowerment, leadership development, and health & wellness.

The launch of ‘Victory & Values’ represents a strategic expansion of the organization’s impact

intentionally integrating athletics and STEM to engage youth at an early age while reinforcing core principles such as integrity, accountability, teamwork, and perseverance.

“Our mission has always been to mentor the next generation,” said Vaughn Irons, President-Elect of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County. “With Terry Cummings joining the brotherhood, along with partners in NASCAR and professional sports, we are creating unprecedented access and exposure for our youth. Victory & Values is about turning inspiration into structured opportunity.”

By connecting elementary and middle school students to professional athletes, executives, STEM professionals, and community leaders, the initiative aims to:

Increase youth exposure to careers in sports business, engineering, and performance science
Strengthen mentorship pipelines
Promote physical wellness and mental resilience
Build character-driven leadership at an early age

Open Invitation to Youth and Families

All youth are invited to participate in the Victory & Values Initiative, along with the other countless, impactful programs offered by the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County.

Parents and guardians seeking mentorship, leadership development, academic enrichment, and transformative exposure opportunities for their children are encouraged to connect with the organization.

As NBA Legend Terry Cummings’ induction demonstrates, Victory & Values is more than a program — it is a movement designed to build champions in life, not just in sports.

For more information about the Victory & Values Initiative or to enroll a student, contact: 100 Black Men of DeKalb County at Phone at 404.241.1338, info@100bmod.org or Tee Foxx at 404.791.6525,