Gwen Ifill with the Dalai Lama in 2010

Gwen Ifill, the first Black woman to host a major political TV program has died. She was 61. Gwen Ifill was one of the most prominent political journalists in the United States. She has covered major events and campaigns. The most notable political events she hosted included moderating the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential debates and a presidential primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.  

 Gwen  Ifill was the best-selling author of The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama". 

In his remarks  about Gwen Ifill's passing, during a press conference before his last international trip as the US President,  President Obama gave the following tribute:

Read more …Gwen Ifill, PBS Anchor, Dies at 61

Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, NASA mathematician, physicist, and scientist. Credit NASA

Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson is known as the NASA mathematician, physicist, and scientist who used her math genius to guide to and land Apollo 11 on the moon and bring it back to earth. As  NASA chief Charles Bolden, in a Vanity Fair Magazine article,  recently put it, Katherine "advanced Human Rights with a slide rule and a pencil", and the "frontier of human achievement at the same time."

Yet, at the time of her birth, on August 26, 1918,  the odds of reaching such a human achievement were remote at the best, if not impossible. It was the time when women were not encouraged to pursue high degrees or math and sciences. Moreover, Katherine Johnson was a Black woman, born in a segregated America. Hence,

Read more …Katherine Johnson: Black Woman Who Advanced Human Rights and Humanity With A Slide Rule and a...

Gaudence Habimana Nyirasafari, President Juvenal Habyarimana and Jeanne Habyarimana

 "If I die, it will be my day. And remember that no one can escape his destiny,"  the late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana said on the evening of April 05, 1994, the eve of his assassination. President Habyarimana made the prediction at his residence in Kanombe, when walking out some of the guests he had entertained that evening. Among the guests were Mrs. Gaudence Habimana Nyirasafari and her husband, Phocas Habimana.

 Mrs. Gaudence Nyirasafari was one of the prominent Rwandan politicians and perhaps the highest ranking and most recognizable woman in the Rwandan politics, over more than 2 decades. She is also known as the first Rwandan woman to have obtained the most advanced university degree, that she earned from a Belgian university in early 1960s. Known for her integrity, she was well admired by Rwandan intellectuals and common people and trusted by Western diplomats in Rwanda and by governments around the World, especially the United States.

With the support from  the United States government, she was entrusted with the most important program funded by the Unites States, Family

Read more …Assassination of President Habyarimana: Book Published by His Daughter Recounts Premonition of...

President Obama, President Bush and Vice-President Baiden, along with their spouses, in Dallas on July 12, 2016

President Obama, President Bush and Vice-President Baiden, along with their spouses, in Dallas on July 12, 2016 ,  paid respect to 5 slain officers.  In their speeches, Obama and Bush called on Americans to do deep soul searching on race relations. Below are extracts from the main speeches during the event:

Read more …Obama and Bush, in Dallas, Call for American Soul Searching on Race Relations

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