Thanks to the forerunners who have broken down barriers decades ago, we’re now in the midst of a new wave of Black excellence in which African Americans are making stellar achievements in their fields. We thought we’d take a step back and celebrate these eight talented brown brothers and sisters for making their marks in a major way.
Geraldine S. Hines was just appointed to fill a Supreme Judicial Court vacancy in Massachusetts and will be the first Black woman to serve on the state’s highest court. Hines, who grew up in the Mississippi Delta South during the Jim Crow era, will serve about four years before hitting the court’s mandatory retirement age of 70.
[Image: BET]
Michelle J. Howard was recently promoted to her new rank at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. She’ll take over as the vice chief of naval operations, the No. 2 officer in the service. Howard is not only the first woman to hold the job, but the first African American.
It wasn’t until Mario Balotelli scored Italy’s 2-1 victory over England, in Brazil during the World Cup, that the European media finally claimed their first Italian-born and bred Black soccer hero. Balotelli, whose birth parents hail from Ghana, was adopted by an Italian family. He’s received scrutiny and even threats from soccer fans, hurling racial slurs from the stands. Those same naysayers were cheering him on during soccer’s most coveted tournament.
[Image: The Guardian]
Political forecasters have predicted that Mia Love, a former Saratoga Springs, UT mayor, will “easily win” the seat she lost in 2012 to retiring Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, by less than 800 votes. If the predictions are correct, Love would be the first Black female Republican to serve in Congress. Equally as impressive, Love, who will turn 39 shortly before she would take office if elected, would also be the youngest Republican in Congress.
[Image: Deseret News]
Late last year, Keija Minor, who was an UPTOWN editor-in-chief, was appointed editor-in-chief of Brides magazine. This was monumental not only because Minor became the first Black editor at Brides, but the first leading editor at any Conde Nast publication. “It’s exciting to be the first in any sort of category, and it’s an honor,” explained Minor, “But I don’t wake up every day thinking, ‘Okay, you’re the first Black woman to hold this title.’ I think about, ‘What are you going to do to move the magazine forward?’”
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Dean Baquet, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and former editor of the Los Angeles Times, became The New York Times‘ first African-American executive editor. Baquet took over for Jill Abramson, who previously lead the paper while Dean served as managing editor. “It is an honor to be asked to lead the only newsroom in the country that is actually better than it was a generation ago, one that approaches the world with wonder and ambition every day,” Baquet said in a statement.
Shanelle Davis was announced the 2014 class valedictorian out of the 845 students in the graduating class at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens, New York. Davis made history as the first African-American to do so at the Bayside school and has accepted a full ride four-year scholarship to Harvard University.
[Image: Huffington Post]
The LGBT Community Center of Charlotte has elected Ranzeno Frazier as its youngest and first African-American chair of its board of trustees. The 26-year-old executive is an unpaid board member, but is said to be committed not only to establishing new partnerships with other organizations—such as Power House, Time Out Youth, the Charlotte Lesbian and Gay Fund, and the Foundation of the Carolinas—but also to repairing damaged relationships.
[Image: Rolling Out]