Another biopic is being developed that may draw the interest of the Black community.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, songwriter and entrepreneur John Legend’s production company will produce a biopic on one of the “original kings of comedy,” Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, also known as Bernie Mac.

The project will be done in partnership with Legend’s production company, Get Lifted, and the Bernie Mac estate. The news was revealed at a panel discussion at the 2021 Tribeca Festival by Legend’s production partner in Get Lifted– Mike Jackson.

“We just partnered with Bernie Mac’s estate to cover Bernie Mac’s story,” Jackson told the audience. Apparently, the announcement caught Legend off guard. Jackson said the info was “something that John doesn’t know about yet” and that he was “very excited about” the deal, which “just happened today.”

“Look at you breaking news over here,” Legend responded.

Legend and Jackson went on to reflect on Bernie Mac’s legacy, including The Bernie Mac Show, “It was beautifully done,” Legend said of the sitcom, which ran from 2001 to 2006. “His humor was always edgy, but it always had so much heart to it at the same time. You could tell he was a family man. You could tell that he loved the people he was talking about.”

According to theGrio, Get Lifted was launched back in 2012 by Legend, Jackson, and Ty Stiklorius. The newly formed company had produced the TV series Underground for WGN, and they also produced the Academy Award-winning La La Land. It also produced a 2017 revival of August Wilson’s Jitney, which received a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.

Bernie Mac, whose career launched into high gear as one of four “Original Kings of Comedy,” died in August 2008 at the age of 50 in a Chicago-area hospital from complications of pneumonia.

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

June 11, 2021

Philadelphia Police Officer Being Investigated After Body Camera Revealed He Deleted Video From Jacob Giddings’ Cell Phone

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A police officer in Philadelphia is under investigation after he allegedly deleted footage of an arrest he made in March.

According to ABC News, Officer Tyree Burnett’s body camera footage allegedly showed him deleting the cell phone footage of the interaction, which had been filmed by Jacob Giddings, the person he arrested.

The incident took place on March 23 as Giddings was sitting in his car at a gas station. Police officers had approached him, and according to Giddings’ attorney, Lennon Edwards, the cops asked Giddings for identification but did not offer an explanation for the request.

As the officer approached the vehicle, Giddings had advised him that he was recording the incident by telling him, “I got you on camera. Go ahead and grab me again.”

The officer then grabbed Giddings and proceeded to take him out of his car. He was then arrested.

.@PPDCommish says officer who allegedly deleted cell phone video during an arrest back in March, has been on restricted duty since April, and that there is an internal affairs investigation into the incident. Video was released by the attorney of the man arrested. @6abc pic.twitter.com/Y6er0QOYlc

— Christie Ileto (@Christie_Ileto) June 9, 2021

According to 6ABC, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has stated that Burnett is on administrative duty pending the internal affairs investigation.

“We are aware of this incident, and he’s actually been on restricted duty since, I believe, April. But there is an active and ongoing internal affairs investigation right now.”

The Boston Globe reported that a Fitchburg High School graduate named Verda Tetteh walked up to the lectern during her high school graduation and requested that the school awarded her a $40,000 scholarship to another student who needs assistance paying for community college.

The Harvard-bound scholar accepted Fitchburg High School’s General Excellence Award on June 4, 2021. After listening to her school’s assistant principal speak about selflessness and doing the right thing, Tetteh was immediately inspired to act.

“I am so very grateful for this, but I also know that I am not the one who needs this the most,” Tetteh proclaimed onstage.

Tetteh already has a great deal of help covering expenses when she attends Harvard University. Additionally, she witnessed her mother’s educational journey to earn a bachelor’s degree at the age of 47 by attending community college, said The Boston Globe.

Tonight | Massachusetts student Verda Tetteh tells @caroloffcbc she was thinking of her mom when she returned to her graduation stage and asked for her scholarship to be given to someone who needed it more.https://t.co/RcwqMIavFE

— As It Happens (@cbcasithappens) June 9, 2021

CBS News said that her mother, Rosemary Tetteh, struggled when she was attending community college. Her 17-year-old daughter remains inspired by the woman who cheered loudly when the new high school graduate verbalized her decision to help someone else instead of simply thinking of herself.

“I was just happy. I stood up and started shouting so loud! I was afraid those in front of me would be like, ‘Why is she that loud?’ But I was so happy with her decision,” Rosemary told CBS News.

She and her mom moved here from Ghana when she was a kid.
Mom made it by working and studying at a community college.
The daughter is headed to Harvard.
She just won a $40,000 award—and asked donors to give it to someone going to community college instead.https://t.co/tyDnkpWfKQ

— David Beard (@dabeard) June 9, 2021

According to CBS News, Tetteh said that giving what little you have and thinking of others while thinking of how you can assist them is all it takes to lend a hand. Although it is unclear who will receive the scholarship from the Massachusetts resident, it will surely make a positive impact. Someone will find it hard to forget the moving story behind the special gift.

On June 4th,2021, @verdatetteh recapped how proud she is to graduate alongside people who have climbed an academic hill with her.

“We had an amazing graduation, and I’m so glad I got to spend these four years with my amazing friends and the RESILIENT class of 2021! #thehillweclimb,” Verda posted on her Instagram account.

Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, known as Megan Thee Stallion, is making money moves toward advancing a young student in pursuit of higher education.

The Grammy Award-winning musician and entrepreneur has recently announced that she is planning to provide a full-blown, full-tuition, four-year scholarship for a student looking to pursue their education at the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports, and Entertainment Long Island University.

“Getting an education is incredibly important to me,” Megan said in a written statement. “I still have academic goals that I want to achieve, so if I can use my resources to open doors and create opportunities for at least one student, then it’s a victory. It’s important that we encourage our students to pursue their passions and put them in positions to become the next game-changer in whichever fields they choose.”

Megan also used this opportunity to announce that she will participate in Long Island University‘s “Industry Expert Speaker Series.” She will be speaking to students who are enrolled at the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports and Entertainment to delve deeper into her industry expertise.

Long Island University has also announced that hip-hop producer 9th Wonder would be joining the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment faculty. He is slated to be a visiting professor and artist-in-residence, where he would teach courses in hip-hop history and the making of an album. 9^th Wonder will join a roster that includes award-winning soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and renowned baritone vocalist Colin Levin. They all are on the growing roster of artists who will serve as instructors at the new school.

Students looking to enroll in this program, which is starting in Fall 2021, can apply for Megan’s scholarship opportunity at the school.

Last summer, Roc Nation announced that it will be collaborating with Long Island University to open the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment based in Brooklyn, New York. The newly formed school will specialize in undergraduate degree programs in music technology, entrepreneurship, sports management, and more. The school also promises to help students graduate debt-free and provide scholarships reserved for 25% of the enrolled students.

• News

by Andrea Blackstone

June 11, 2021

Martha White, An Organizer in the 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott Movement, Has Died

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According to the Associated Press, a Black trailblazer named Martha White, who helped start the 1953 Louisiana bus boycott, died at 99 on Saturday.

64 PARISHES explained that on June 15, 1953, White was a housekeeper who had worked on her feet for the duration of the day. After walking miles to her bus stop daily, White wanted to sit down on a bus. Although the only available seats were for white passengers in the front,  White boldly sat down on one of them. After the driver demanded White to leave, another African American woman told other riders to stay on the bus and took a seat next to the woman. The driver threatened to call the police to arrest them, but Rev. T. J. Jemison, the bus boycott leader there, spotted the police near the bus. He told the police officer that White had a right to take the seat after testing the waters. Then, the bus driver also told Jemison to leave the bus.

The situation led to the bus company manager’s involvement, suspension of the driver and union entanglement. 64 PARISHES added that on June 24, 1953, the city council responded by passing Ordinance 251. However, according to the article, the agreement led to questionable changes over the reservation of white seats.

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The AP also reported that White was 23 years old when she was involved in the bus incident. After bus drivers participated in a strike, and later the ordinance was not honored, the Black community in Baton Rouge began to boycott. This was ultimately helpful in providing a model for Rosa Parks’ actions that led to Montgomery, Ala.’s boycott.

”‘Can you imagine working on your feet all day and just wanting to sit down?’” Jemison remembered White commenting, according to the AP. “She was the same way from when she was young to when she was 90 years old. She knew that what she did was for the good of everyone in Baton Rouge.”

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The Advocate added that Jason Roberts, co-owner of the Baton Rouge African American Museum, is also the son of another late activist named Sadie Roberts-Joseph.

“We really lost a true pioneer for civil rights,” Roberts commented to The Advocate about White’s death.

Many large corporations have added Black men and women to their corporate boards in the wake of last summer’s Black Lives Matter resurgence. However, a board diversity census shows Black men lost progress in the two years before.

According to the Board Diversity Census, which was conducted by the Alliance for Board Diversity and the consulting firm Deloitte, 82.5% of directors among Fortune 500 company boards are white.

The census pointed to the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement as the moment the significant lack in diversity among corporate boards started to gain traction. According to ISS Corporate Solutions, between July 2020 and May 2021, 32% of newly appointed board members among S&P 500 companies were Black.

The effort was an 11% jump from 2019. However, in the two preceding years, the number of Black men actually fell.

The census shows between 2018 and June 2020, the number of women serving on Fortune 500 boards rose 4%. The number of Black men on corporate boards fell by 1.5% during the same time. However, the number of Black women during the same time frame rose 18%.

Despite the rise of Black women in corporate boards, they and other minorities are still being left out of corporate board rooms. The Census found Black, Asian, and Latino women have made significant diversity increases on corporate boards. Still, for every minority female on a corporate board, three white women also gained a seat.

For its study, the census reviewed two years of public, corporate filings through June 30, 2020. During that time, corporations were responding to pressure to include more women on boards. That includes a law California passed in 2017 requiring publicly traded firms based in the state to have at least two directors by 2021, depending on their size.

Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new similar bill into law, giving companies until the end of next year to have at least one member from an underrepresented ethnic community or an LGBTQ member on their corporate board.

Other moves are being made to ensure corporate diversity on boards.  For example, NASDAQ filed a proposal last December with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt new rules requiring companies to disclose board diversity statistics publicly.

• News

by Derek Major

June 11, 2021

FBI Director Says ‘Serious Changes’ Are Coming After Probe Of Capitol Riot

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Reuters – FBI Director Chris Wray on Thursday suggested “serious charges” are still coming in the criminal investigation of the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

“This is a very ongoing investigation and there’s a lot more to come,” Wray said during an oversight hearing held by the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. “I would expect to see more charges — some of them may be more serious charges.”

Wray testified that the FBI considered the attack an act of “domestic terrorism.” He said he understands why Democratic lawmakers have called the attack an “insurrection,” but said it would not be appropriate for him to use that word because of the effect it could have on pending criminal cases.

“In my role as FBI director, because that’s a term that has legal meaning, I really have to be careful about using words like that,” Wray said.

Democratic lawmakers repeatedly grilled Wray, appointed by Trump in 2017, over what they said were intelligence failures that left law enforcement ill-prepared for the deadly attack.

“The FBI’s inaction in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 is simply baffling,” Nadler said. “It is hard to tell whether FBI headquarters merely missed the evidence — which had been flagged by your field offices and was available online for all the world to see — or whether the Bureau saw the intelligence, underestimated the threat, and simply failed to act.”

Wray responded that on Jan. 5 an FBI field office in Virginia issued an explicit warning, sent to U.S. Capitol Police, that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence.

Wray added that “almost none” of the 500 people charged so far with participating in the attack had been under FBI investigation previously, suggesting it would have been difficult for the FBI to have monitored them in advance.

“You can be darn sure that we are going to be looking hard at how we can do better, how we can do more, how we can do things differently in terms of collecting and disseminating” intelligence, Wray said.

Asked whether the FBI was investigating Trump or his associate Roger Stone, Wray said he could neither confirm nor deny any FBI investigation.

“I’m talking about Mr. Big, Number One,” said Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, referring to Trump. “Have you gone after the people who incited the riot?”

Wray responded: “I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to be discussing whether or not we are or aren’t investigating specific individuals.”

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)

• Business

by Black Enterprise Shop

June 11, 2021

This 6-Course Bundle Will Take You To Advanced Proficiency Level In Excel

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Getting familiar with Excel is a valuable career skill that can increase your chances of getting hired by showing employers that you have great analytical skills. Proficiency in Excel also makes you a valuable asset to your company, makes your work more efficient and helps you organize loads of data in little time.

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Prices subject to change.

A Black fifth-grade teacher at Monroe Elementary School in Minneapolis was applauded by his students and peers while receiving a $50,000 check to help pay off his student loans.

Markus Flynn, executive director of the nonprofit Black Men Teach, personally handed Thetis White the large sweepstakes-sized check to help the educator pay off his loans and take off some of his financial burdens, EdSurge reported.

“It’s a great thing that they did. I know that he deserves it very much,” one of Thetis’ students said. The teacher was overcome with emotion and broke out in tears while accepting the reward, as noted by Blavity.

Flynn prides himself on the nonprofit’s work while also working as a part-time teacher in Minnesota himself. The state is regarded for having good schools but a poor track record for serving Black students.

“When I started looking into education studies I saw some of the most compelling statistics I’ve ever seen—in any field,” Flynn said on the EdSurge Podcast.

He already understood the importance of Black students having Black teachers but seeing statistics opened his eyes even more. He cited studies that said if a Black student has at least one Black teacher by the time they reach third grade, they are 13% more likely to enroll in college. Black students are 32% more likely to go to college if they have two Black teachers simultaneously.

He noted the harsher treatment Black male students are often subjected to when compared to their white counterparts.

“They represent 10 percent of the student population but 42 percent of the discipline incidents,” he said.

Despite the education disparities people of color face, Flynn was motivated to teach in Minnesota because of all the change he knows the state can bring about.

“A place like Minnesota is actually a place that should be the first place looking to change because the outcomes are so disparate, and it’s so obvious,” Flynn said. “And in Minnesota right now, it’s the hub when it comes to like this focus on equity and justice, given the murder of George Floyd and Daunte Wright. And so this is a place where the work really needs to be done.”

Marsha Guerrier, 47, is a book lover who wrote “Just as I Am Kindness” with her 6-year-old son Joshua Guerrier amid the pandemic, according to The Amsterdam News. Guerrier is a New Yorker who previously published a book about her own life and experiences called “Life Balance for Women on the Rise.”

The business leader started a nonprofit, Yva Jourdan Foundation, to give back to her local community. The Just As I Am Reading Program underscores inclusion and embracing youth with various special needs.

“We started with the nonprofit giving out books about kindness, so I would read and hand out books to classrooms in the Nassau area. Then it dawned on me that most of the books that we were handing out were predominantly Caucasian families and kids and I really wanted to have stories that represent not only myself but the kids in the underrepresented communities through my program,” Marsha told The Amsterdam News.

Guerrier shared that Joshua expressed interest in co-authoring “Just as I Am Kindness.” And now, she hopes that their book will encourage friendliness in children who do not look like each other.

It’s Children’s Book week. This year Joshua and I published our first book Just As I Am – Kindness. Joshua teaches kids all the ways he shows kindness. It is a great read for the whole family. Order your copy on Amazon https://t.co/8fRWw5BbFq #ChildrensBookWeek #EllenDeGeneres pic.twitter.com/RU2bfA2QAP

— Marsha Guerrier (@HerSuiteSpot) May 5, 2021

The 32-page book strives to help remind others to integrate kindness on a daily basis.

“The book is about prompting people to have a conversation about kindness and anti-bullying,” Guerrier explained in a press release, “while making sure kids at the elementary-school-age are well equipped to support one another.”

The author mentioned that many youths are not taught ways to display kindness or accept people who are different. Her point about kids learning the value of kindness dovetails with a study presented by PLOS ONE. Their study found that doing good deeds regularly—which is a form of exhibiting prosocial activities— contributes to happiness and being well-liked, even in classrooms.

“Similar to being happy, being well-liked by classmates has ramifications not only for the individual but also for the community at large. For example, well-liked preadolescents exhibit more inclusive behaviors and less externalizing behaviors (i.e., less bullying) as teens,” the study found.

And when it comes to Black and brown kids seeing themselves in literature, identifying with the characters does matter. Scholastic noted that is important for children to see themselves represented in literature because it links to identity, cultural insight, and connection with self. The demand for diverse titles is rising. Scholastic also said that 47% of parents desire literature that features books with people of color, according to their findings from their “6th Edition Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report.”

Learn more about “Just as I Am Kindness” by clicking here.