Chattanooga News Chronicle - March 11, 2021 Page 9 Chattanooga News Chronicle - March 11, 2021 NATIONAL U.S. News & World Social Justice Organizer Report Ranks Fisk 3rd Spearheads Grassroots among HBCUs with The Campaign to End Highest Graduation Rates Mass Incarceration

Nashville, TN (TN Tribune)- US News and By Ben Jealous World Report has ranked Fisk University third It is time for a maxi- among HBCU’s with the highest 4-year graduation mum push for a new rates. Fisk was ranked ahead of Universities like minimum wage. Morehouse and Hampton on the list and fell only two tions in the country. This is an exciting time for Fisk The federal mini- percentage points behind the #2, Howard University. on a host of fronts and we are thrilled to receive this mum wage has not Fisk President Dr. Vann Newkirk Sr., said, “The national recognition.” budged for more than a U.S. News rankings has recognized Fisk Universi- Fisk was also recognized as a top ten HBCU and decade. But the cost of ty’s dedication to student success and providing un- landed a spot in the top 30 for The Most Innovative living keeps rising. So, paralleled opportunities on par with the top institu- schools by US News and World Report in 2021. low-income people fall further and further be- hind. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would lift millions of working people out of pov- erty. This is especially true for families headed by women, especially Black women, who are dispro- Black Teen Earns More portionately clustered in minimum-wage jobs. It would make a big dent in the income and Than $1M in Scholarships wealth gaps that make Black Americans poorer and their families more vulnerable. And it would From 18 Colleges help right something that is seriously wrong with our economy, which keeps pushing a greater share Philadelphia, PA — Shanya Robinson-Owens, a of the country’s overall wealth to the tiny percent- 17-year old high school student from Philadelphia, age of the most ridiculously rich people at the is excited after getting accepted into 18 colleges and very top. receiving more than $1 million in scholarships. This is a moral question as well as an eco- “I was really shocked. I didn’t know what to nomic one. do,” she said. “I didn’t know if I should cry, laugh. I If the minimum wage had kept up with the didn’t know what to do.” rise in workers’ productivity over the years, it ence, has a 3.2 GPA. She said her favorite subject is Aside from getting accepted from schools in- would now be closer to $25 an hour. But it didn’t. chemistry and she plans to study psychology in col- cluding La Salle University, Temple University, In other words, as a society, we have been lege. Moravian College, Lincoln University, and Cabrini effectively stealing from the people who already She has so far been accepted to 18 out of the 20 University, she also received $1,074,260 in total have the least. colleges she applied to. She said she’d take some scholarships. So this is about justice. And it is specifically time to wait to hear back from the two other schools “We are overjoyed,” her aunt Christine Owens about racial justice. before checking out the campuses and finally decid- told Good Morning America. “I knew she wouldn’t According to congressional testimony from ing which college to attend. have a problem getting into colleges, but we didn’t the Economic Policy Institute last month, “Due to Shanya shared that to achieve educational goals, know they would award her this much money in the impacts of structural racism and sexism, wom- it’s important to be patient and stay focused. She scholarship funds.” en and Black and Hispanic men are concentrated added, “If you need to have some time away, it’s OK. Shanya, who currently studies at George Wash- in low-wage jobs” and would greatly benefit from You can tell your teachers that because they know ington Carver High School of Engineering and Sci- a higher minimum wage. you’re stressed.” A higher percentage of Black women are full- time minimum wage workers than any other racial group. More than one-third of Black women have en’s rights activist Sojourner Truth; aviator Bes- InWOMEN’S Chattanooga,, HISTORY MONTH been in frontline jobs during the pandemic, where sie Coleman; entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker; they are still paid less than white men. Patricia Roberts Harris, the first Black woman to This is about the health of our children and serve in a U.S. Cabinet post; barrier-breaking sing- families. About 80 percent of Black women are er Marian Anderson; and Hattie McDaniel, who sole, primary, or co-breadwinners for their house- in 1940 became the first Black actress to receive holds. Bringing home a few thousand more dol- an Academy Award (supporting actress for “Gone lars per year could be transformative for low-in- With the Wind”). come families. Also spotlighted are jazz singer Ella Fitzger- When he was campaigning, President Joe ald; Anna Julia Cooper, Ph.D., author, sociologist, Biden told voters that he supported a $15 mini- activist; politicians Barbara Jordan and Shirley mum wage. House Democrats included it in their Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to U.S. most recent COVID relief bill. But because of an Congress; tennis pro Althea Gibson, the first Black interpretation of Senate rules, the minimum wage woman to win a Grand Slam; civil rights and may not be included in the final bill. women’s rights activist Dorothy Height; performer That cannot be the final word. The adminis- Lena Horne; and lauded journalist Gwen Ifill, who tration must put its weight behind the Raise the appeared on the 2020 Black Heritage stamp. Wage Act of 2021, which would get us to a $15 While the Black Heritage series is the Postal minimum by 2025. Service’s best-known effort to commemorate Af- For congressional Democrats and the Biden- rican Americans, Black women also have been Harris administration, fighting for a $15 minimum featured in other series. In 1998 the Legends of wage is a place where moral obligation and politi- ist Ida B. Wells, who is pictured on a 25-cent stamp American Music series honored gospel singers cal interests intersect. issued in 1990. Mahalia Jackson, Roberta Martin, Clara Ward and Biden and Democrats campaigned on a $15 In addition to Wells, there are several other Sister Rosetta (Tharpe). In 1993, the series show- minimum. And they are in the White House with a women with Tennessee connections who have cased singer Dinah Washington, and in 1994 Ethel Senate majority because Black women organized been honored on postal stamps. The legendary Waters, Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey, and Ma and turned out the vote. blues performer Bessie Smith, who as an impov- Rainey. Rev. William Barber recently reminded us erished child performed on the streets of Chatta- The current Netflix film “Ma Rainey’s Black that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called for a $2 nooga in the late 1800s-early 1900s, was featured Bottom,” which delves into the life of the legend- an hour minimum wage almost 60 years ago. That in the Legends of American Music series in 1994. ary blues singer, is based on the celebrated play by would be over $15 today if it kept up with infla- The 2004 Distinguished Americans series August Wilson, who is pictured on the 2021 Black tion. showcased Olympic gold medalist Wilma Ru- Heritage stamp. Actress Viola Davis portrays Ma King talked about racial equality as an unful- dolph, the Tennessean who set world records in Rainey in the movie, which also stars Chadwick filled promise from the nation’s Founding Fathers. track and field with successes in the 1956 and 1960 Boseman (“Black Panther”) in his last role before Democrats cannot let a living wage remain an un- Olympic Games. Rudolph graduated from Tennes- his death in August 2020. fulfilled promise to Black Americans. see State University in 1963 and became an educa- In addition to Memphian Mary Church Terrell, Ben Jealous serves as president of People For tor and coach. other Black women the Postal Service showcased the American Way and People For the American Civil rights and suffrage activist Mary Church in its 2009 Civil Rights Pioneers series were Mary Way Foundation. Jealous has decades of experi- Terrell, who was born in Memphis in 1863, is White Ovington, Daisy Gatson Bates, Fannie Lou ence as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for commemorated in the 2009 Civil Rights Pioneers Hamer, Ella Baker and Ruby Hurley. social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In series. She was among the first African American Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever presi- women to earn a college degree, and then a mas- to win a Pulitzer Prize, was honored with a stamp dent and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of ters. And there is novelist and librarian Nella Lars- in the 20th-Century Poets series in 2012, and Edna Columbia University and Oxford, where he was en, educated at Fisk University in Nashville, who Lewis in 2014 with Celebrity Chefs. Dynamic Jo- a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton is honored in the Voices of the Harlem Renaissance sephine Baker was featured on a stamp commemo- and the University of Pennsylvania. series in 2020. rating Vintage Black Cinema in 2008. Celia Cruz “The contributions and legacy of Black wom- was feted with Latin Music Legends in 2011, Kath- en who have appeared on U.S. postage stamps are erine Dunham with Innovative Choreographers in noteworthy and serve to tell America’s story,” says 2012, Ethel L. Payne with Women in Journalism in Postal Service spokesperson Roy Betts, a Mem- 2002, and Zora Neale Hurston with Literary Arts phis native. “To appear on a stamp is one of our in 2003. nation’s highest honors and illustrates how Black Several Black women were featured on stamps women have made a difference in the betterment not part of a series, including civil rights icon Rosa of society.” Parks in 2013, writer Maya Angelou in 2015, and The Black women celebrated on stamps cer- jazz singer Sarah Vaughan in 2016. tainly have made a difference. Also honored in the There is a wealth of women’s history captured Black Heritage series are educator, civil rights ac- on postage stamps. Let’s share the knowledge ANYTIME ONLINE tivist Mary McLeod Bethune; abolitionist, wom- among ourselves and around the world. ChattNewsChronicle.com