NewsOne honors the GAME CHANGERS: Everyday heroes whose actions make life better for the people around them. SEE ALL OUR GAME CHANGERS HERE.

Byron Patrick Hurt

Place of Residence: New Jersey

Why He’s a Game Changer: Hurt’s documentary “Soul Food Junkies” takes a serious look at the fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, pigs’ feet and salty pork-seasoned collard greens that many of us grew up on and asks an important question: Is our culture killing us?

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In a way, you can argue that that’s the theme of much of Hurt’s work. His previous film, “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” examines misogyny, homophobia, and sexism in hip-hop.

“I’d say I’m trying to make the culture better and stronger and challenge people to think critically about their culture,” said Hurt.

The food that our forebearers ate and then passed down to us holds an important place in our hearts. It links us to the past. But what happens when it exacerbates already high rates of diabetes and heart disease?

“Slaves did what they needed to do to survive and make it through harsh times,” Hurt told KQED.  “Then that way of cooking got passed down from generation to generation. And today there is a reluctance to let go of the vestiges of the way of life of our forefathers and foremothers, even though things have changed: foods are now processed and full of chemicals and we’re not as active as previous generations.”

Dick Gregory calls soul food “death food” in the documentary.

But does that mean letting go of those traditions entirely? Not necessarily.

Not every soul food dish has to be cooked in grease. Deep fried chicken can become oven fried chicken. Greens can be cooked with turkey as opposed to ham hocks. A variety of herbs can season food well and replace the need for a slathering of salt. Isn’t a side of collard greens better than the greasy Chinese fast food I see so many kids scoffing down? Or what about all the processed food I see loaded into the shopping carts of black and brown shoppers at the supermarket?

And don’t forget that in many predominately minority areas, it’s easier to buy a 40 ounce than 40 ounces of fresh vegetables.

Hurt uses his own family as an example of how food choices can affect your life.:

It was my sister who set the first example in my family, when she changed to a plant-based diet and I saw how healthy she looked. I had started to gain weight in my late 20s and early 30s. I realized that not being involved in athletics anymore [Hurt was a football quarterback in college], I couldn’t continue to eat and eat and eat the same way I had been. So I changed my diet and lost weight and felt better. My mom was more open than my father. She was a nurturer. She changed the way she cooked because she wanted to make us happy.

Hurt’s dad resisted and died at an early age due to pancreatic cancer. He was overweight and in poor health when he came down with the disease.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, according to food activist and eco-chef Bryant Terry:

When people say African-American cuisine, they think it’s synonymous with Soul Food, the deep-fried fatty meats like fried chicken and sugary desserts like red velvet cake — which used to be just for holidays and celebrations. I’m not necessarily trying to discard those completely but get people to recognize these are only a part of our food ways. Things have changed over the past 40 to 50 years. My grandparents had an urban farm. They grew vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Any dietician would tell you we should all be eating more fruit and vegetables. Somehow growing food has taken on the meaning of being backward and just country folk. But it is vital to our society.

That’s why Hurt sees the film as part of a larger, important conversation about food and health and social justice. He tells NPR:

And so, you know, the point with my film is not to throw the entire tradition out, you know, in the trash, but it’s really to say we can continue to enjoy our great tradition if we change the way we prepare it and the way that we cook it — to make modifications, and that’s really what the film is suggesting.

But we also have to pay attention to some other larger food issues that are affecting our community too — like the fast food industry and processed food, you know, that is so easily accessible and readily accessible in our neighborhoods.

So, you know, while the film uses soul food as a jumping off point, it’s a much bigger conversation about food and our relationship to food as a community, which may be a factor in what’s making us so sick.

Check out this hilarious clip from “Soul Food Junkies,” where Hurt runs in to a little Southern Hospitality wrapped in pigs’ feet and turkey necks:

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Reuben Jones

Place of Residence: Philadelphia

Why He’s a Game Changer: Jones was in prison serving a 15-year sentence when he fought for and won custody of his son. When he got out of prison, he started Frontline Dads because he knew how important it was for men to take responsibility for their children.

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“Many times men will say it’s too late to be a Father to their children. Well, it’s never too late. No matter what, every child, every human being wants to be connected to where they came from,” Jones told the Examiner.

Frontline Dads helps men develop communication skills to better guide their children. The group is also targeting young kids who are on the verge of getting in trouble. The goal is to keep those young people from becoming involved with the criminal justice system.

And that’s obviously a difficult task.

Young people are more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system if they have parents or close relatives who have been incarcerated.

“If we are not there to teach our children and be role models, then you better believe that there will be someone on the corner who will. Only they will teach them about stick-ups and dope packages.

“Boys need men to teach them how to be men.

“If they only have negative role models, then that will be their frame of reference. They will think that negative role model is what a man is supposed to be.”

Jones was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Black Male Engagement Project of the Knight Foundation and Open Society Foundation to continue his important work.

Jones originally filed his petition in prison because he wasn’t allowed to see his son, but even when he started seeing his son, he realized there was a lot he didn’t know. Parenting classes helped and Jones realized there were so many men like him out there.

“Some men coming out of jail have never even seen the child they are trying to connect with. They have to understand the anger and resentment that child has. They have to understand the emotional and spiritual needs of that child,” Jones said.

Jones is also a poet. Watch him spit some words below:

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Iesha Sekou

Place of Residence: New York City

Why She’s a Game Changer: Sekou is on the front lines, trying to prevent gang and gun violence on the streets of New York City and Harlem where she lives, but Sekou is not just one of the activists that you see at the press conference denouncing violence after someone’s been shot and killed.

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Instead, with her group, Street Corner Resources, Sekou, 55, is engaging young people by helping them to express themselves through various media, such as producing their own radio show, newspapers, and music.

And Sekou has turned her young charges into activists, helping them to lobby at the New York statehouse and in Washington, D.C., for everything from changes to the gun laws to funding for programs to help young people.

Sekou has been working with young people in one capacity or another for three decades now, but Street Corner Resources started in 2007, after two 13-year-olds were shot to death in Harlem in quick succession.

“I said we have to educate kids, find out what they like, and use that to get them to think about their behavior and its consequences,” Sekou said in an interview with NewsOne.

Sekou has seen the cycle before: Kids who grow up in homes where there is not sufficient parental guidance tend to influence their peers with negative behavior. Some of that behavior, such as violence as a response to minor conflict and drug use, is gleaned from their environment and even music where some artists talk about being “high all the time” and putting the “chrome to your skull.”

“The young person who pulls the trigger is promoted by a circle of young people before they ever  pull the trigger. They have to shoot to resolve conflict to keep a reputation among those people.

“There is a culture around having a reputation and maintaining it, but it’s fake.

“When they get arrested and are behind bars and facing 25 years to life, they cry, they have nightmares, and they wish they could bring the person back.”

The effort comes in showing that young person a different route, said Sekou.

“We try to help them create a new circle of influence of people producing music, graduating from high school, going to college, and getting training,” said Sekou. “They represent peace in the street and when other kids see it, they want to be involved. They are the pied pipers, but it doesn’t happen overnight.”

Sekou is also using her influence to make larger change. After the shooting at Newtown, Sekou got a call from Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s office. The governor was assembling ideas on ways to help end gun violence. Sekou talked about mental health, the private sale of guns, closing the gun show loophole, and updating firearms. Some of her thoughts were used as Cuomo formulated changes to New York’s gun laws in the form of the SAFE Act, which he recently signed into law.

“I was happy to get the call,” said Sekou.

Sekou tries to remain optimistic, but it’s tough. Recently, she met a Mother who said she had lost her 17-year-old son. Sekou assumed the teen had been killed, but the mother surprised her when she said he was alive and serving life in prison because he had taken someone else’s life. The woman was old enough to be Sekou’s daughter; the teen could have been her grandson.

“I’m optimistic, but it is happening all over the country. This is an epidemic we can no longer flip the channel on and say that’s happening in Chicago or Indianapolis. I get messages all day long about shooting across New York City,” said Sekou.

That’s why she plans to hang around and continue to influence the lives of young people in a positive way.

“I want to be there to answer the question or to resolve the conflict,” said Sekou.

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Joseph Cole

Place of Residence: Nashville

Why He’s a Game Changer: Cole is mentoring young people who want to follow in his footsteps. As a high school student, Cole always wanted a career in the construction industry. His involvement in Nashville’s Architecture, Construction and Engineering Mentor (ACE) program led him to get a degree in Architecture from the University of Tennessee.

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While at college, Cole gave a glimpse of the contribution he planned to make in the future when he earned an award for improving diversity throughout the campus and was instrumental in reactivating a National Organization of Minority Architecture Students chapter.

At the same time, Cole was active in INROADS, which helps place minority and underserved youth in positions in business and industry.

“Volunteering gives our students, our youth role models,” said Cole. “It’s very rewarding for a volunteer, but it also pays huge dividends to our community.”

Cole secured a job at Thomas, Miller and Partners in Brentwood, Tenn., after graduation and continues to give back. He’s now a mentor at ACE, the  program that inspired him to pursue a career in architecture. He hopes to increase diversity in that field and serve as a role model to other young people.

“ACE serves the purpose to introduce students to design and construction-related career fields,” said Cole. “I volunteer with the students and provide them an everyday perspective of what architects do.”

Cole was acknowledged for his efforts with the 2013 Allstate Give Back Day Heroes award, which recognizes people who uphold the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Cole said being a recipient of the honor was “rewarding.”

“It shows that the time invested, the resources and exposure we give our youth, is paying off,” said Cole. “Dr. King inspired me to get involved with community service, because I have a responsibility as someone who has had others invest in me to invest in others who need help and opportunities.”

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Toni Carey and Ashley Hicks

Why They Are Game Changers: Four out of five Black women are overweight or obese. Hicks and Carey  are out to change that. They launched Black Girls Run! (BGR!) as a blog to document their own experiences, but it turned into something that is now inspiring thousands of other women across the country to get out, exercise, and pursue better health. Carey told Black Enterprise:

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One of the things that sparked this whole conversation was when I first started running, I called my mom and said, ‘Hey, I want to start running. I got these shoes, they are dope,’ and she says, ‘Black girls don’t run.’ Just like that. ‘It’s something White people do.’ ‘Really, Mom? That’s racist,’ was my response.  She would say things like ‘your uterus is going to fall out,’ which is a myth, and that was why women couldn’t run marathons until the ’60s. That all led to the creation of Black Girls Run!

What started out as a way to dispel the myths about hair and other impediments to getting Black women moving has turned into a movement.

There are more than 67 Black Girls Run! groups around the country, and the women have thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook.

One of the group’s mantras is “Preserve the Sexy.”

“We’re really changing how people see beauty, how we see health and fitness and all of these things — beauty from the inside out,” said Hicks.

And the effect that the group is having on women across the country is amazing.

“The majority of Black women will take care of their kids, other people’s kids, and family members,” said Janelle Alexander, BGR! Atlanta member told ESPN. “We are the last ones to be taken care of. BGR! allows me to take care of myself.”

SEE ALSO: Community Coordinator Helps Unemployed Find Jobs While Helping Local Entrepreneurs Grow Businesses

Tia Norfleet

Place of Residence: Virginia

Why She’s a Game Changer: It’s usually a diss to say a woman is fast but in Norfleet’s case, it is a compliment like no other. That’s because Norfleet is the first African-American woman to be licensed as a driver for NASCAR.

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Norfleet, daughter of racing veteran Bobby Norfleet, made her debut in August. Earlier this month, she started in the ARCA racing series, which serves as a stepping stone to the major NASCAR events. Wouldn’t it be great if Norfleet was in the pole position one day like trailblazer Danica Patrick was Sunday for the Daytona 500?

Patrick finished 8th, the highest finishing spot for a woman. Norfleet has aspirations to smash records one day.

I have been inspired by her a lot,” Norfleet told Reuters about Patrick. Danica has shown that as a female we can hang with the boys. We can do it just as well as anyone else can….She is motivation for me to get out there, do good, and give it my all while knowing that I don’t have to back down because I am a female. It makes me work even harder.

Norfleet started racing in a battery-powered Barbie car that her dad souped up, because his young daughter had a need for speed. Norfleet says she drove the car until “the wheels fell off.” Norfleet’s love from the sport just grew from there and she knew she wanted to race for a living by the age of 14.

Now that she has started on her path to success, Norfleet wants to inspire others. She has a literacy foundation called “Driven2Read.” She tells Reuters:

That’s my main goal — to motivate young girls of all colours, all races and all creeds, and to let them know that you don’t have to go out and do something that is immoral or not right….I want them to know you can be positive and you can achieve things. When people tell you you can’t do something, I just want to motivate them to be all that they can be…I’m all about empowerment and, at the same time, I want to grow into the woman that I want to be.

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Chris Wilson

Place of Residence: Baltimore

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Why He’s a Game Changer: Wilson, a university student and an employee of Greater Homewood Community Corporation, started the Barclay Business School to help local entrepreneurs improve their businesses and to provide desperately needed employment.

While doing outreach, Wilson noticed a problem.

“A lot of people weren’t able to attain jobs or were falling out of the pipeline,” Wilson said.

And then he looked around the neighborhood and saw a handful of entrepreneurs that needed help. That’s when Wilson came up with the idea to connect the two groups. What if the unemployed and underemployed were able to help the entrepreneurs scale up their businesses?

“A lot of these local entrepreneurs needed things to develop their website, maybe consulting or things like how to secure contracts,” said Wilson.

In reaction, Wilson developed a social entrepreneur program and created a coalition of people to help business owners grow their businesses.

“Maybe everyone doesn’t want to start their own business, but they want to develop the skills to get a job,” said Wilson.

During a 12-week program, participants learn the skills needed to help grow a business. For example, a man with an upholstery business was helped to create an assembly line process that he could use to increase his business. The potential employees will be people from the neighborhood in need of work, and the more contracts the man acquires, the more people he can hire.

“By creating a new model that addresses the needs of Baltimore city’s large low-skilled population, [we] will not only serve as a benefit to businesses but to the community as well,” Wilson told the Grio. “The entrepreneurs also have an incentive because we work closely with them to develop their business models and access resources.”

For this great idea, Wilson, studying for a second Bachelor’s degree in business administration, was recognized by the Knight Foundation and Open Society Foundations as a part of its “Black Male Engagement“ Program.

It’s an idea that needs to spread across the country: It’s a breath of fresh air to see how chronic problems, such as unemployment, underemployment, and the struggles to be an entrepreneur, can be tackled if groups of people with like interests are connected.

“A lot of times, the solution to the problem is right there,” said Wilson. “This is a community that is helping itself.”

Check out Wilson talk more about his innovative project below:

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See footage below.

Kris Kross performs:

Usher performs:

In one eyebrow raising moment of the evening, Jay-Z, making a climatic surprise appearance, seems to address his wife Beyonce’s lip-syncing controversy. Jay twice stopped his performance when he realized that the DJ was playing versions of  songs with his vocals on them. When the crowd, excited and puzzled, screamed for him to continue, he set the record straight:

“I don’t f*ck with the vocals my G,” he told Dupri who was on stage with him. “Let me do my own sh*t. Y’all ain’t have to come out here for that. You could have just played the sh*t and put a picture [of me] up there. I’m sorry my G, I came a long way, I gotta do this sh*t right.”

The crowd roared with laughter and approval.

Jay-Z performs — comments at 3:13:

As previously reported by NewsOne, in the face harsh media backlash, Beyonce admitted to lip-syncing at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, but said that it’s standard industry practice.

 “Well, I am a perfectionist. And one thing about it is that I practice until my feet bleed,” Beyonce said. “I did not have time to practice with the orchestra. Due to the weather, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk. I decided to sing along with my recorded track, which is a common practice in the industry. It was one of my proudest moments. I am very proud of my performance.”.

Though the controversy lasted well past it’s expiration date, Jay-Z never weighed in. He did, however, make a rare appearance on Twitter to brag about her electric (non lip-syncing) Super Bowl performance that literally caused the lights at the Super Dome to go out.

Whether Jay’s comments were in reference to his wife’s Inauguration performance or not, we know at least one person in the Carter household won’t be doing any lip-syncing. Ever.

But even with Jay’s star power, the night was truly about Jermaine Dupri. Pastor Troy, J-Kwon, Xscape, minus Tiny and Kandi, Bow Wow, Bonecrusher, Anthony Hamilton and many, many more all came through and showed the ‘Mayor’ major love.

Mariah Carey makes a surprise appearance:

As Lil John, who served as the DJ for most of the night said, “This feels like a muthaf**king family reunion [up] in this thang!”

Salute to So So Def and here’s to twenty more years!

Sony Pictures announced Sunday that Quvenzhane (kwuh-VEHN’-juh-nay) Wallis will play Annie in a contemporized adaptation of the Broadway musical and the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip. It’s to be directed by Will Gluck, who loosely based his 2010 film “Easy A” on “The Scarlet Letter.”

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The 9-year-old Quvenzhane is one of the youngest Oscar-nominated actors ever. She’s also shot a small role in Steve McQueen’s upcoming film, “Twelve Years a Slave.”

“Annie” is planned for release during the 2014 holiday season. Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Jay-Z are among the producers. The Smiths’ daughter, Willow, had originally been slated to play Annie.

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Pioneering film-maker Ava Duvernay (pictured) has won an Independent Spirit Awards for her poignant and powerful drama Middle of Nowhere.

The film took home the John Cassavetes Award for Under $500,000.

As previously reported by NewsOne, Nowhere is a compelling drama that chronicles a woman’s (Emayatzy Corinealdi, Young & The Restless) separation from her incarcerated husband (Omari Hardwick, I Will Follow) and her intense journey to reconcile her marriage with her identity.

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This is Duvernay’s second feature film. Her first, I Will Follow, debuted on March 11, 2011, to stellar reviews. The groundbreaking film-maker believes that her work is resounding with Black audiences who are thirsty for a more comprehensive view of Black life than is currently embraced in film:

Black people loving and losing is something we don’t see enough of. We’re always in these heightened situations like something big is happening, something funny or something violent. And you know what? Sometimes we die of breast cancer or a broken heart. Things happen that are just not being explored cinematically. It’s time we reinvigorated that type of film.

The Spirit Awards air Feb. 23 on IFC at 10 p.m. eastern.

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Christine Carter

Place of Residence: New Jersey

Why She’s a Game Changer: Christine Carter is the CEO of the Against All Odds Foundation, which provides educational programs and social services for at-risk youth, but she could be the organization’s charter member.

SEE ALSO: Jeff Friday, American Black Film Festival Founder, Tells Our Stories

As a child, Carter says her mother, a teen prostitute, traded her out for sex in order to get drugs. Her father was also a drug addict. At 5, left alone home with her infant brother, Carter took him to school with her. That’s when she became a part of the foster care system.

When she was 7, Carter’s mother died of complications from HIV/AIDS, and she began bouncing between foster homes and relatives who lived in the rugged housing projects of Newark, New Jersey. Facing abuse and neglect, Carter describes herself as the “residue of the 1980s crack era.”

“My childhood was one that no child should endure. I was physically abused, neglected, and literally left for dead,” Carter told TheBlackManCan.

But Carter refused to let the troubles of her early life define her.

“The adversity that I faced as a child prepared me for life’s greatest challenges. Growing up as an orphan compelled me to become a social worker and give back to those most vulnerable. If it were not for my childhood, I would not be where I am, nor would there be an Against All Odds Foundation,” Carter said.

It all started at her high school, where Carter had a teacher who took interest in her, tutored her and pushed her.

Despite working two jobs while also looking out for her younger brother, Carter made it to Norfolk State on a full scholarship, where she studied social work.

She began working in New Jersey child services, and at 24, she decided to start Against All Odds. Carter told Forbes about her motivation for starting her non-profit:

I think everyone is able to create change. I don’t think that some are chosen over others. For me, what drives me – Against All Odds echoes my life. Against All Odds is not a statement or a phrase. It’s a life and a movement of resilience. At the core, it’s not just a program. Growing up, I was an orphan, homeless, neglected, and academically disadvantaged. Now, I use my adversities to create systemic change in communities.

Now, Carter’s Against All Odds runs a community center and Newark Family Success Centers at one of the city’s public housing complexes. Her group helps raise student achievement and also helps parents learn the skills they need to be successful.

Carter has made sacrifices to help her agency grow. She took out a home equity loan to seed it and used her own funds to keep it going when budget cuts came. There were periods when she didn’t take a salary or have health insurance for the good of the organization.

“At times I call Newark the ‘Non-profits R Us’ because everybody wants to start one,” Rep. Donald Payne Jr. told Star-Ledger columnist Barry Carter (no relation) about Christine Carter. “But she’s different. She’s putting clothes on kids’ backs, making junkies go to rehab. She’s one of the few who does the work. When she says she’s on it, she’s on it.”

And despite all the big picture work she does, Carter still finds time to give back on a more personal level. Carter mentors a 16-year-old whose mother died and is helping Minnie Cuevas get her life on track.

“She gives me a sense of motivation,” Cuevas says. “She’s in tune with me and I’m in tune with her. I’m about action right now.”

That’s why Carter tells everyone that what she went through happened to her for a reason.

“This is God’s work,” she told a Newark church. “It’s the only plausible explanation for the hell I went through.”

Amen.

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Jeff Friday

Why He’s a Game Changer: Jeff Friday, founder of the American Black Film Festival, boldly compares his work to that of a Historically Black College or University. Friday writes in Ebony:

Black film festivals work year-round to find new ways to help promote our stories and storytellers who too often remain marginalized. We rally to build a strong network within the industry, to grow the power base and the opportunities. Yet, our efficacy is often challenged: “What’s the relevance of Black film festivals?”

The same question is often asked of Black colleges. And across the board, it’s a level response: Underlying their respective missions is the goal of creating a supportive community. And let’s not fool ourselves – we can use all the support we can get!

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The mantra of Friday’s company, “Because Hollywoodn’t,” says it all. Friday sees the film festival as a way of uncovering marginalized story tellers. The festival, hosted in Miami, celebrated its 16th anniversary in 2012. The 5,500 attendees were more than double when the festival first launched.

This summer, the festival screened the Oscar-nominated film “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” The festival has provided an outlet for independent filmmakers as movie studios pursue a strategy of blockbusters, sequels, and super-hero movies.

“There are essentially two or three films a year, in the past three or four years – if you count them … that are either directed by or made for an African-American audience,” Friday told The Grio.

Given that the playing field has changed, Friday’s advice to Black filmmakers has also shifted. Instead of aiming solely for mainstream theatrical releases, Friday told The Grio he sees opportunities in television. New channels, such as Magic Johnson‘s Aspire, are looking for independent films. The American Black Film Festival has a show on the channel. There are also opportunities at places like HBO.

I think filmmakers have to recalibrate how they think about their film, [and ask] is it realistic that a big studio’s going to pick my film up and it’s going to be on 3,000 screens? Probably not. But can I come to ABFF and get in front of all the major networks that support us and get exposure and possibly get acquired by HBO or one of the other networks I mentioned?

The answer is yes.

So TV (and the Internet) are really the next frontier for independent film. The theatrical thing I think might just continue to be a challenge.”

And Friday wants the film festival to be there to help with those challenges.

“I think true artists have to stay on course,” he says. “Because art breaks through. Art breaks through all kind of biases; I truly believe that.”

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Andre Dandridge

Place of Residence: Detroit

Why He is a Game Changer: When Dandridge was a 21-year-old senior at the University of Michigan, he found out he was going to be a Father. He also found out that there weren’t many resources geared toward young Black men to help him prepare.

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“My first reaction to the news was not joy,” Dandridge told the Michigan Bulletin. “I knew the responsibility of being a Father was going to be a life-changing experience, and I didn’t want to be irresponsible.”

That’s when the idea for Dandridge’s group, New Young Fathers, came into being. He knew there were other young men out there who wanted to be good Fathers to their children but they likely did not have had the guidance and resources to help them do so.

According to the U.S. Census, approximately 50 percent of Black children are being raised in single family households where the Mother is the head.

African-American children living in  households headed by a single male account for only 3.5 percent of the total.

Now 39, and married with two children, Dandridge, a law school graduate, is hoping to help young men 25 and younger become better fathers.

Dandridge has used New Young Fathers to host meetings and workshops for young Fathers that deal with everything from anger management to parenting skills. The group has also produced DVDs and materials to help young Fathers. A rap CD with stories told from the perspective of young Dads was another successful project. The goal is to teach young men how to successfully manage their responsibilities in one of the most-important jobs in the world: fatherhood.

“When I found out I was going to be a Father, I had to make some conscious decisions about my behavior,” Dandridge said. “I soon found out that I couldn’t afford to buy both liquor and diapers.”

For his much-needed efforts, Dandridge was named a 2012 recipient of a $25,000 grant from the Black Male Engagement Project from the Knight Foundation and Open Society Foundation. The foundations spotlight Black men working to improve their communities.

There is no cavalry coming to save the day in Black communities in America. The answers we’re looking for reside right within the hearts, hands, and heads of community residents, Shawn Dove, campaign manager of the Open Society Foundation’s Campaign for Black Male Achievement, said in a statement. BME recognizes Black men and boys as assets to the community, not as problems to be solved, and we’re thrilled to be a partner in this strategy.

Dandridge will use the money to give in-depth workshops to young Fathers with the goal of connecting them to a local support network.

“They could be the toughest dope-selling young men, but in their hearts they want to do good for their children.” Dandridge said. “They want to do good and we pull that out of them.”

Check out one of the videos from New Young Fathers offering support and advice to the young Fathers here:

Rue Mapp

Place of Residence: Oakland

Why She’s a Game Changer: We’ve all heard the myths that surround Black folks and the Great Outdoors: “That stuff is for White people” or “I’ve never met anyone Black who is into hiking, camping, or nature.”

Rue Mapp is out to destroy those lies with her group, Outdoor Afro. She deserves to be a Game Changer for the name of the group alone, but wait, there’s more. Mapp uses social media to connect  African Americans with outdoor activities and to family and new friends. Health, both physical and mental, is also part of the equation. Mapp tells Bay Nature why she founded the organization:

I founded it in 2009 after some soul-searching about what I really cared about. There have been a few constants in my life: love of nature, the desire to connect in nature with people who look like me, and technology – when I was younger I was always on my Commodore 64! Later, I studied art history at UC Berkeley, which helped me to understand the power of visual representation to tell stories, to dispel the myth that African Americans don’t engage with the outdoors. And recently, social media has allowed me to connect with people in a more strategic way.

Mapp gained a love for the outdoors as a child when she would split time in Oakland and at her family’s working ranch. It was there that she connected to the outdoors and learned to fish and hunt.

Today, her blog has posts, such as “When Camping Goes Wrong,” and talks about fun outdoor activities like geocaching, which uses GPS to lead people on a fun scavenger hunt to new sites.  Mapp’s efforts are leading people to discover nature that they pass by every day but didn’t know exist. Mapp believes that there are a myriad of benefits to becoming reconnected with the outdoors.

“I consider recreation in natural settings as a form of “dating” the outdoors. I believe that repeated recreational experiences leads to a deeper relationship, passion, and eventual love for natural settings that are necessary to fuel curiosity….,” she told Sciencetopia.

Mapp has been invited to the White House to help with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” health initiative and President Barack Obama’s “America’s Great Outdoors” initiative to develop a conservation and recreational plan for the next century.

“Outdoor Afro has become a bridge to help me connect to many different communities that I never anticipated helping. It has given me a way to enjoy all the parts of who I am – nature lover, family person, technology geek – and get to do some good in this world,” said Mapp.

Check out Mapp below discussing what is known as Nature Deficit Disorder:

This Black History Month, we honor the GAME CHANGERS: Everyday heroes whose actions make life better for the people around them.

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Kenneth Frazier

Place of Residence: New Jersey

Why he is a Game Changer: As the chief legal counsel for pharmaceutical giant Merck, Kenneth Frazier decided to try a series of cases individually for the painkiller Vioxx instead of as a large group. Vioxx was a drug Merck made that was found to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and the company was poised to lose enormous amounts of money in claims and legal issues.

Instead, Frazier’s unconventional and counter-intuitive move saved the drug company by limiting settlement costs, catapulting Frazier to his current position as the company’s CEO and the first African American to head a major pharmaceutical company.

SEE ALSO: Teen Chess Prodigy Smashes Record Books

Now as CEO, Frazier has yet to stop going against the grain. At a time when other giant pharmaceutical companies are bowing to the immense pressures of Wall Street and slashing billions from research and development to keep the bottom line looking healthy and issue dividend checks, Frazier has kept his research and development  division intact.

Instead of snagging drugs from other small companies, allowing them to bear the initial risks, Frazier has tried to keep Merck in the drug development game as original creators. While other companies slashed billions from their research and development budgets, Merck leads the industry with a gaudy $8 billion research and development budget.

Fierce Biotech writes:

With sales eroding, cost cuts help pump up earnings and finance dividends. It can help prop up stock prices (in theory, anyway), or at least buy time for a company to rebuild its product portfolio, one way or another.

Not Frazier. Soon after he took the reins, Frazier pulled the company’s earnings projections for 2013, saying he wanted Merck to focus on delivering long-term gains, not achieving short-term numbers. No “indiscriminate” cost-cutting for Merck. No worries about becoming pharma’s biggest research spender, with an $8 billion budget. “It isn’t we couldn’t cut costs enough to make long-term guidance,” he said at the time. “We couldn’t do that fast enough without sacrificing opportunities.”

The decision by Frazier represents an acknowledgement that short-term gains aren’t necessarily beneficial for long-term growth.

Despite the ethical concerns that have been voiced about Big Pharma in this country, research and development could lead to important disease treatments that could help millions of people.

And even though his strategy has had some successes and failures, with Frazier having to make some concessions, he continues to stick by his decisions.

“When one runs a company like Merck that has long lead times in terms of development,” he recently said, “you’re not necessarily running the company for the immediate reaction of the stock market.”

It’s a worldview that many African Americans understand but are unfortunately getting away from. How many African Americans sacrificed themselves doing dirty, dangerous jobs at the bottom of the totem pole so that the next generation would have the opportunity to run a pharmaceutical company?

Frazier says his worldview was driven in to him by his father:

It’s actually misleading to say I grew up in North Philadelphia. I grew up in my parents’ house, which by accident of geography was in North Philadelphia, Frazier told the Harvard Law Bulletin.

My father had a very strong view of what it took to be successful, and he in effect brainwashed all his children to think that we could do anything. He had very high personal standards. Although he was a janitor by accident of birth, I believe he could have been a CEO of any company.

Maybe it was that same worldview that helped Frazier free James Willie “Bo” Cochran, an Alabama man convicted of murdering a White store manager after 21 years on death row.

Five years after first examining Cochran’s case, Frazier said he found that “despite evidence suggesting an accidental police shooting and cover-up,” Cochran was “denied virtually all of the fundamental rights we associate with a criminal trial, including effective assistance of counsel and a fairly selected jury of his peers. He was ‘railroaded’ in the classic sense,” Frazier wrote in the Toledo Law Review about the case.

“To create justice in the world and to do the things that really matter, you have to be a lawyer who not only has ideas in your mind but also conviction in your heart,” Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative who worked with Frazier on the case told the Harvard Law Bulletin. “I definitely think Ken fits that description.”

And just because he’s the head of one of the biggest drug companies in the world doesn’t mean Frazier has stopped challenging what he sees as injustice. Earlier this year, the Merck Foundation stopped charitable giving to the Boy Scouts because of the organization’s policy of barring gays from its ranks and leadership team.

Merck Foundation has suspended all funding to the Boys Scouts of America. The Merck Foundation will consider funding the BSA again when the organization’s inclusion criteria has been expanded, the company wrote in a statement.

SEE ALSO: Atlanta Teen Advocates For Children In Foster Care

                                                ————————–

Freedom Wright

Place of Residence: Atlanta

Why She’s a Game Changer: As a former foster child, Wright knows what it’s like to go without. She understands that the next meal, new clothes, love, and warmth aren’t guaranteed facts of life for everyone.

SEE ALSO: Public Health Advocate Fights To Increase HIV/AIDS Awareness

Luckily, this outgoing 17-year-old was adopted when she was 4 years old, but it was a rough ride.

By the time she was four, Wright had been moved four times.

In 2011, half of the kids entering foster care in this country were children of color. African Americans make up 27 percent of the foster care population despite Blacks making up only 13 percent of the country’s population.

But Wright has decided to reach back and help kids who were once in her position.

Wright hosts “Free Your Mind” backpack drives for foster children. And raising awareness about older kids in foster care is also part of her effort to give back. The enterprising teen also speaks to community groups about her experience in foster care.

When she arrived at the home of the woman who would become her mother, all of her possessions were in a garbage bag, said Wright.

“I remember bouncing from house to house,” said Wright. “You never knew where your next meal or set of clothes were going to come from.”

“I understand that sense of always wanting to hold on to things,” Wright added.

Wright has collected more than 250 new or gently used backpacks. She wants kids who were once in her position to have something of their own.

“When you’re in foster care, it’s kind of hard because certain things aren’t yours to keep. Other kids, they know that pair of jeans, that pair of shoes is theirs to keep, but when you’re in foster care, you don’t have certain things,” said Wright.

Wright was recently named a a 2013 Allstate Give Back Day Hero, an annual award that honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Freedom Wright is an outstanding individual who keeps Dr. King’s legacy alive through her unwavering devotion to bettering the greater Atlanta community,” said Vicky Dinges, vice president of public social responsibility for Allstate.

Not only is Wright of great service to her community, she is also a good student. She was recently awarded a four-year scholarship to Syracuse University.

Just imagine the bright future this young woman has in front of her. She has decided to let her past propel her to greater heights rather than have it be a hindrance.

“Even if I don’t meet a person I’m helping directly I know my actions are still helping them because every little bit helps,” said Wright.

SEE ALSO: Olympic Medalist Is Out To Save Lives

Cullen Jones

Place of residence:  Charlotte, N.C.

Why he is a Game Changer: How do you top being only the second African American to win an Olympic gold in swimming? If you’re Jones, 28, you do it by winning another gold medal and two silver medals, in addition to your first individual medal, in your second Olympic Games.

RELATED: Cullen Jones Talks 4 Olympic Medals, Inspiring Black Youth, And Rio

Jones, the only African American to hold a record in swimming, did that in 2012 London Games without, it seems, breaking much of a sweat. But don’t get it twisted, years of hard work and training went in to helping Jones reach his goals.

He lost the gold medal in the 50m freestyle by just a hair.

“I’m thankful that I got second. I was dreaming of gold and I really wanted to get first, but it wasn’t in the cards this time. Getting silver is enough motivation for the future,” Jones said after the event.

But the words were spoken like a true champion. Jones didn’t trash his opponent. Instead, he said he planned to use the second place finish as motivation for the next time.

It’s similar to the way Jones’ mother used his near drowning as a child as a motivation for him to learn how to swim. It’s turned into an excellent career for Jones as well as foster a passion to help others.

Jones has worked with Make A Splash, an anti-drowning initiative from The USA Swimming Foundation, to teach kids and parents, especially African-American and Latino parents, about the life-saving benefits of learning how to swim.

Seventy percent of Black and 50 percent of Latino kids don’t know how to swim even as drowning is the second-leading cause of child death.

And the biggest factor keeping Black and Latino kids out of the water the USA Swimming Foundation found is not money or lack of access to a pool, it’s parents’ fear of the water.

Jones knows firsthand that fear can be deadly. He toured 9 cities with Make A Splash in 2012 and shows no signs of slowing down in 2013. Here are Jones’ thoughts on the importance of learning to swim:

I always hear so many stories from different people, even in my own family, where they’ve had such bad experiences with being in the water and swimming that I can really relate. I can sit back and go, This is what happened to me. I completely get it. But that’s never a reason for you not to learn how to swim. You see a lot of that, especially in the African-American community. Something happens, and then it’s the first instinct — and I think it’s only natural — is to kind of back away. But the famous saying is when you fall off the horse, you’ve got to hop back on. It’s the same thing when it comes to swimming.

As long as kids are (A) unfortunately out there drowning, and (B) I have a platform from which I can continue to give kids that exposure to a sport that many kids don’t know about and (C) they’re willing to listen, I’m definitely open to doing this.

Jones has a bright future ahead of him. He has an interest in fashion and wants to launch his own denim line one day. He was at Fashion Week just after the summer Olympics, and 2016 and the Rio games are right around the corner. It sounds like Jones is going back for that individual gold.

“Yes, I am pretty focused in that effort. Some of my best swims are still ahead of me. I’m putting it out there—I want to go!” he told Teen Vogue.

SEE ALSO: Chicago Woman Helps Minority Girls Access Careers in Science, Math, And Technology

                                                                                           ————————–

Kevin Fenton

Place of residence: Washington, D.C.

Why he is a Game Changer: Fenton, who just stepped down from his position as the Center for Disease Control’s Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD & TB Prevention, ramped up efforts to increase testing and increase understanding that social issues such as racism, incarceration, poverty, and homophobia have a big effect on disease transmission.

“We’ve accelerated our efforts to focus on not just the individual behaviors…but the social, cultural, and contextual drivers of HIV,” he told GA Voice.

Fenton, a gay man, also led CDC efforts to make HIV testing a routine part of medical care and the rollout of a new system to more accurately measure the number of HIV infections. He also partnered with affected communities to fight the disease and introduced the first new HIV public communications campaign in two decades.

Fenton’s work is so important because of the way HIV is devastating the African-American community. There are 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States. Blacks make up just under 14 percent of the U.S. population but accounted for 44 percent of new HIV infections in 2009.

Black men made up 70 percent of new HIV infections among Blacks, while the new HIV infection rate for Black women was 15 times higher than that of White women.

Gay Black men have a 1 in 4 chance of contracting HIV by the time they are 25 and a 3 in 5 chance by the time they are 40.

It’s not only HIV but also increases in STDs such as gonorrhea and syphilis,” Fenton said, “that really suggests to me that we need to be ensuring that we are both identifying young people who might be at risk before they become sexually active in our schools and ensuring that we are equipping them with the right information so they can make informed choices when they do become sexually active.

Fenton is returning to England where he will reunite with his partner and assume a new role as Director for Health Improvement & Population Health for Public Health England. It would be wise if the CDC continues to make efforts to fulfill one of Fenton’s guiding principles:

All Americans need the basic tools about HIV to protect themselves. Everybody should know about HIV testing and how HIV is transmitted, and that is work we will always have to do.  But you can target some messages to people who are HIV positive and people who are at high risk of acquiring HIV — the fact that we have very good treatments which are now available, that people who are living with HIV should be on treatment, suppress their virus and practice safer sex to reduce onward transmissions. There’s a balancing act. And that balance is the reality of HIV 30 years into the epidemic.

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Jackie Lomax

Place of residence: Chicago

Why she is a Game Changer: When Lomax learned that her daughter wanted to be a dentist, she was thrilled. But soon she found the resources weren’t  available to help her daughter achieve her dreams. That’s why Lomax started Girls 4 Science in 2009. The nonprofit organization helps minority girls from the ages of 10 to 18 develop an interest in science, math, and education. It is the only all-girls science program in Chicago.

SEE ALSO: Jazz Pianist Soars Ahead But Doesn’t Forget His Roots

“There is a big gap in underserved communities,” Lomax told ABC. “When we talk about resources, we talk about opportunity as well as the potential to see future role models.”

There is a persistent gender gap when it comes to careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. Women hold only 24 percent of the jobs in those fields even though they hold 50 percent of the jobs in the country, according to the Commerce Department. Women also hold a disproportionately low amount of degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, especially engineering.

Even if a woman gains a degree in those fields she is less likely to work in one of them.

Why does it matter? Women who work in the science, technology, engineering, and math earn 33 percent more than women not in those fields.

“As a Mom, I worked very hard to create a solution, to create an opportunity that would empower, enrich, and graduate the next scientists out of Chicago,” Lomax said.

At Girls 4 Science, participants are placed in a non-competitive nurturing environment where they get science literacy, hands-on experiments, mentoring, field trips, and scholarships that points them toward the careers of their choice.

Those tactics are important because researchers believe that the disparity in STEM jobs for women could be due to a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping and inflexibilty in science, technology, engineering and math careers when it comes to raising a family. These are all obstacles that can be overcome with the help of initiatives such as Girls 4 Science.

So far, 300 girls have participated in the program. For her efforts, Lomax was recently named a 2013 Allstate Give Back Day Hero. The annual award honors those who are honoring the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

“Jackie Lomax is an outstanding individual who keeps Dr. King’s legacy alive through her unwavering devotion to bettering the greater Chicagoland community,” said Vicky Dinges, vice president of public social responsibility for Allstate.

“Each of our heroes has truly made a commitment to community service, and we hope that their dedication will serve as motivation for others to give back on MLK Day and every day.”

Lomax, who started out wanting to help her daughter but who has uplifted her community and served as an example for others, understands the significance of what she’s accomplished.

“As a young girl growing up, you always want to have value for the things you do,” said Lomax.

And Lomax’s daughter feels she’s on the right path because of her mother’s efforts.

“This program is motivating me that I can be a female, successful dentist by showing us that other people can do it as well,” said Lauren Lomax.

                                                                                                                                                      ————————–

Jason Moran

Place of residence: New York City

Why he’s a Game Changer: Moran, 38, an international jazz musician, is increasingly becoming an ambassador for the art form while remaining one of its top practitioners. He was named Artistic Adviser for Jazz at the Kennedy Center. He was also the recipient of a 2011 McArthur Fellowship and has received Downbeat magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year Award for 2011.

Moran is simultaneously enmeshed in the history and the future of jazz. Together with singer Meshell N’degeocello, the jazz pianist and composer put together a show called “Fats Waller Dance Party” for Harlem Stage, where they update the music of Waller to give modern day fans an idea of what it might have been like to get down at Smalls Paradise in Harlem. That’s Moran in the picture below rocking a giant Fats Waller mask at one of the Harlem Stage performances.

But at the same time, Moran is not afraid of exploring ways in which  jazz can learn and grow from hip-hop music. The brother did a version of “Planet Rock” on his 2002 Blue Note LP titled Modernistic.

It’s this combination of a deep respect and understanding of the canon but a recognition of how things change that has many critics praising Moran’s work.

“Jazz is a global cultural phenomena as is Hip Hop,” Moran told me in a July interview.  “As jazz morphs, the audience is supposed to change with it,” he added.

He’s also interested in nurturing the next generation of artists. Despite traveling the world, and teaching, he finds local jazz efforts, such as Harlem Stage, of great importance.

“I’ll play in New York and then got to Poland and Japan, but the question remains how does anything artists create in the community stay in the community,” asked Moran in the same interview. “Harlem Stage allows me to still sprinkle the salt uptown to the people who live in the neighborhood.”

The Washington Post writes the following about his appointment as Artistic Adviser for Jazz at the Kennedy Center:

One of Moran’s primary tasks will be to strike that at-times elusive balance between honoring jazz tradition and pushing innovation. Moran, who has played with the likes of Greg Osby, Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz, Christian McBride, and Cassandra Wilson, is generally seen as a musical innovator who blends the traditions of blues and jazz with more modern elements of funk, rock, and hip-hop.

He has received several ‘Rising Star’ awards from Downbeat magazine’s critics polls, as well as a 2010 MacArthur fellowship, and has released eight albums, both solo and with his group, the Bandwagon. He has become a prolific collaborator, particularly in the past five years, forging dialogue between jazz and the visual arts, dance, documentary film, and other musical traditions.

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With a mega-watt smile and eyelashes to die for, one would never assume 17-year-old Michaela DePrince narrowly escaped a harsher life. Born in Sierra Leone at the height of the civil war, DePrince vividly remembers the day she learned that rebel fighters murdered her father.

SEE ALSO: ‘Biggest Loser’ Winner Talks Black Obesity

“Usually, I would go with my father every single day to the trading place. For some weird reason, I didn’t go that day and I stayed with my mom,” DePrince said. “My uncle came back [to the house] and said for us to come outside and he explained how in the barrel was my father.”

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DePrince and her two sisters, Mia and Mariel, were then taken to a local orphanage.
Their mother, unable to fend for herself, later starved to death.

At the orphanage, all the children were given numbers. Mariel was No. 1, which meant she was the most desirable to adoptive parents; Mia was No. 26, because she wet the bed; and DePrince was No. 27, the last of all the orphans.

“I was the least, least favorite,” she said. “It was because of my vitiligo, and they thought I was the Devil’s child because of it.”

Vitiligo is a condition that causes depigmentation of the skin, which also led to deep confidence issues for DePrince.

“When I got adopted, it took me forever to build up my self-esteem. I used to hate looking in mirrors. I would cover up…it was a lot.”

DePrince says growing up it was difficult for her to talk with her adoptive mother, “Cry Bloody Murder” author Elaine DePrince, so dance was her only outlet.

“Being a dancer for me is the only way that I can express myself. When I was younger, it was very hard for me to talk to people and open up to people,” the 5’4″ dancer said. “So dancing was how I got through the day, and I was able to communicate with my mom and [get away from] my terrible past. It was just a way for me to forget about it and just be in my own little world.”

Despite everything, all hope wasn’t lost. Before DePrince and her sisters were adopted, she saw a photo of a ballerina ripped from the pages of a magazine. For DePrince, that crumbled-up photo meant hope and purpose.

DePrince decided early on she wanted to dance and dedicated her life to perfecting a craft she describes as something “you get to fall in love with every single day.”

But everyone hasn’t always been supportive.

“One of my teachers told my mom, “She’s really good and she has a lot of talent, but we don’t really invest a lot into the Black dancers because they all end up getting fat and big thighs and big boobs.’”

DePrince considered quitting — for a week. She then laced up her point shoes and got back in the dance studio.

Her resilience paid off:  Since August, DePrince has taken her talents to the Dance Theatre of Harlem. As the youngest member of a new crop of dancers, DePrince and 17 others will showcase their talent Oct. 20 at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville, when the 43-year-old ballet company begins touring the country again for the first time in eight years.

Inspired to bring new opportunity to the lives of the young people in the Harlem neighborhood in which he grew up by the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Arthur Mitchell and the late Karel Shook founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem in the basement of a church in 1969.  The Dance Theatre of Harlem was the first major ballet company in the world to make black dancers a priority.

The company has performed around the world transforming lives and changing perceptions of millions of people. Tours sponsored by the U.S. Department of State include South Africa China and Russia, to name a few. The DTH School and education programs impact over 10,000 people of all ages each year.

Since then, The Dance Theater of Harlem has toured worldwide, and made stops in South Africa for Nelson Mandela, China, Russia and the White House in 2006 for former-President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.

DePrince’s goal is to become a prima ballerina, but hopes to do more with her life.

“I just want to inspire people.” DePrince said.

Watch DePrince’s story in the documentary “First Position” here:

Ben Bratton

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Naturally, Bratton would be expected to take his winning ways to the 2012 London Summer Olympics. But he will merely be a spectator like countless others because he is not allowed to participate in this summer’s Games, The Daily reports.

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It seems that with regards to fencing, the International Olympic Committee puts a cap on the number of medals the sport can receive, one team from men’s and women’s fencing is eliminated every four years as part of a rotation. So this year, the men’s team epee in which men use the tips of their swords to score points by touching a competitor anywhere on their person, was eliminated as an Olympic event.

Although Bratton won’t be seeing Big Ben or the London Bridge this summer, his World Championship medal is still a hugely satisfying accomplishment. The 26-year-old Queens, New York native is still keeping hope alive that he’ll be able to participate in the Olympic Games in 2016. “Everything’s happened very quickly,” he said. “I’m always looking forward. I don’t have much time to reflect right now, there’s still a lot of things I need to do,” he told The Daily.
Bratton has been fencing since he was ten-years-old. After graduating from St. John’s University in 2007, the young man set his eyes on competing in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Although Bratton didn’t make the fencing team, he didn’t want to give up his passion. Though he worked as a beer distributor and a real estate agent to pay the bills, but he never gave up fencing. He eventually got back into fighting form during his off-hours and made the national fencing team.

The young athlete decided that he had to sacrifice those day jobs in order to give fencing his full attention, so he began to train twice a day. This meant moving back into his mother’s house.  “It’s about sacrifice,” said. “The Olympians we have here, you talk to anyone who’s ever done it, that will be the common thread.”

Bratton is determined to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games and nothing will deter him.  “Now I have the tools to get there. I’ve gone through all the ups and downs and know what can be thrown at me in an Olympic year, completely,” he said. “I feel more prepared for the next go around.”

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The tragedy of Martin’s untimely and senseless death will forever haunt his mother, Sybrina Fulton (pictured), and this Mother’s Day, she will be without her beloved son.

Still, the unfortunate Martin murder has inspired a campaign, For Sybrina Project, that will hopefully allow Fulton to feel an outpouring of love and support on Mother’s Day.

Huffington Post BlackVoices has partnered with writer and activist Michaela Angela Davis for the Sybrina Project.  Davis, is best known for her controversial stance against hiring a White fashion director at ESSENCE magazine a couple of years ago.  Now Davis is making a heartfelt plea, asking that folks show their love and support to Fulton, so that she does not feel alone on the day that Mother’s everywhere are celebrated.

The public can honor Fulton this Mother’s Day with words of encouragement, poems, photographs, and drawings. To contribute to the For Sybrina Project, send your cards:

• Directly to the For Sybrina Project Tumblr
• E-mail them to forsybrina@gmail.com
• Share them on Twitter with the tag #4sybrina
• Share it on Instagram with the tag #4sybrina

Submissions will be shared on the For Sybrina Tumblr site.  The contributions that stand out the most will be placed in a photo book that will be sent directly to Fulton.

For further information about the For Sybrina Project labor of love, check out the video below:

We can talk about his barrier-shattering accomplishment on the baseball field on April 15, 1947 — 65 years ago today.  Crossing the color-wall of “America’s Favorite Past-time” with confidence and integrity, Robinson became the first Black American to play in a Major League Baseball game when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers on the field. He eventually became the first Black American television analyst in Major League Baseball.

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We can touch on the fact that his #42 jersey was retired in 1997 and that April 15 was designated “Jackie Robinson Day” by the MLB in 2004.

We can even discuss his storied matriculation through the University of California, Los Angeles, where he became the university’s first student to win varsity letters in four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball.

It would also be interesting to shed light on his brief time in Hawaii with the semi-professional Honolulu Bears in 1941, before he was forced to enter World War II.

But his contributions to the world of sports — as larger-than-life and transcendent as they unequivocally are — dwell parallel to the passionate civil rights advocacy that defined his life.

Married for 26 years, his widow, Rachel Robinson, has always made it clear that baseball was but a facet of her husband’s life:

To the average man in the average American community, Jackie Robinson was just what the sports pages said he was, no more, no less. He was the first Negro to play baseball in the major leagues. Everybody knew that. . . . In remembering him, I tend to de-emphasize him as a ball player and emphasize him as an informal civil rights leader. That’s the part that drops out, that people forget.”

Born in Cairo, Georgia on January 31, 1919, young Jackie was the youngest of 5 children raised in financial poverty by a single mother. After excelling in sports throughout high school and college, he proved during WWII that in spite of the malicious racism running rampant in the United States, he would not let this country define his manhood. Refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus during training camp, he was arrested and court martialed — over a decade before Rosa Parks refusing to give up her bus seat to a White person would spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

In fact, three years before that fateful day in 1955 that introduced the nation to a young Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Robinson was calling out the Yankees organization for not having any Black players on their team 5 years after he joined the Dodgers.

Retiring from professional baseball in 1956, Robinson never stopped breaking barriers. Feeling that it was of the utmost importance that Black people have control of their own money, Robinson worked diligently as an executive for the Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee company and restaurant chain to realize another dream — the financial security of Black Americans. That vision manifested into the Freedom National Bank in Harlem and before it’s eventual closing, it was the largest Black-owned and operated bank in New York state.

Not stopping there, he joined and became a pivotal figure in the NAACP, dedicated himself to developing housing construction and also penned columns for the Amstersdam News and The New York Post.

Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously from President Ronald Reagan in 1984, these two honors serve as iconography of a multi-faceted life of complexity, unwavering skill, truthfulness and fearlessness.

From that first defiant stance on a military bus on July 6, 1944, to the time he was forced to flee Sanford, Florida in 1946 due to racist threats — a razor-sharp depiction of a town  that serves as the bloodied landscape of Trayvon Martin‘s murder –  to his death on October 24, 1972 of a heart attack, Robinson has been a beacon of light in the Civil Rights Movement. His sheer tenacity and refusal to accept invisible boundaries continues to illuminate the path of men and women walking proudly in his footsteps.

In his last public appearance during Game 2 of the 1972 World Series, Robinson said that there was a need for more diversity in baseball’s ownership and coaching roles. Though that need still persists, it is nothing less than poetic justice that NBA legend, Earvin “Magic” Johnson became the first Black owner of a Major League Baseball team when he and a team of investors bought the Los Angeles Dodgers, formerly the Brooklyn Dodgers — the very team where Jackie Robinson made history on this day in 1947.

While there is much to say about the life of this great man, no words are more poignant, powerful and profound than those of Robinson himself:

Baseball was just a part of my life. Thank God that I didn’t allow a sport or a business or any part of my life to dominate me completely. . . . I felt that I had my time in athletics and that was it.

The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.

I don’t think that I or any other Negro, as an American citizen, should have to ask for anything that is rightfully his. We are demanding that we just be given the things that are rightfully ours and that we’re not looking for anything else.

I guess you’d call me an independent, since I’ve never identified myself with one party or another in politics. . . . I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label.

Civil rights is not by any means the only issue that concerns me–nor, I think any other Negro. As Americans, we have as much at stake in this country as anyone else. But since effective participation in a democracy is based upon enjoyment of basic freedoms that everyone else takes for granted, we need make no apologies for being especially interested in catching up on civil rights.

I won’t ‘have it made’ until the most underprivileged Negro in Mississippi can live in equal dignity with anyone else in America.

I believe in the goodness of a free society. And I believe that society can remain good only as long as we are willing to fight for it–and to fight against whatever imperfections may exist.

The measure of a man delves deeper and reaches higher than mere statistics and trophies. And on this day, April 15, 2012, even in death Jackie Robinson stands as a giant among men.

Newsone salutes you, Mr. Robinson.

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“She is the most formidable person I have ever met in my life,” the designer and humanitarian said of Winfrey at the event, held Friday night at the United Nations. “What is extraordinary about Oprah is that she has done so much and yet she is still a little girl. She is still very pure and you can make her cry and laugh so quickly.”

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Upon accepting the award, Winfrey was expected to talk about her career, but instead used the majority of her time to praise another honoree, Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted when she was 11 years old and held in captivity for 18 years by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. She was raped and gave birth to two children before she was eventually rescued. Her captors were convicted.

“I wanted to have the opportunity to meet her and to tell her how much her story and her life meant to me,” she explained. “I said to Diane, `I know Diane Sawyer should be the one to introduce her, but would you please let me do it.’” Winfrey went on to thank Sawyer, who was also in attendance, and praised the television special she did with Dugard.

“Jaycee Dugard, I am so proud of you, your courage, your ability to press onward toward the future and toward a more victorious life for yourself and for using your courage your strength and your power to show the world that you care,” Winfrey said.

Following Winfrey’s introduction, Dugard took to the stage, getting emotional as she thanked her mother for never giving up hope of finding her. She also spoke about her JAYC Foundation, which aims to give support to families dealing with abduction and other tragedies.

“My hope is to be remembered for what I do and not for what happened to me,” Dugard told the audience.

Earlier in the evening, presenter Jessica Alba showed off an acorn necklace she was given by Dugard. The necklace represents Dugard’s charity.

The DVF awards honor women who are courageous and fight for justice. Artist Panmela Castro, who battles against domestic violence; Chouchou Namegabe, who fights for women’s issues in her native Congo; and Layli Miller-Muro who founded the Tahirih Justice Center, which protects women from human rights abuses, were also honored.

The awards were part of the festivities surrounding the Women In the World conference.

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Natalie and Derrica Wilson

Why they are local heroes: Tired of not hearing about missing persons cases involving people of color, Derrica Wilson and Natalie Wilson decided to do something about it. Using Derrica’s background in law enforcement and Natalie’s experience in public relations, they created the Black and Missing Foundation to bring attention to missing persons cases involving African Americans.

While Blacks only make up 13 percent of the country’s population, they make up more than 33 percent of those reported missing in the FBI’s database. Given the limited coverage that Black missing persons cases receive, though, one wouldn’t think that was the case. According to the National Crime Information Center, there were almost 30,000 active missing persons cases in the country. Blacks make up almost 12,000 of those cases or about 40 percent. Of the 173 Amber alerts in 2010, 30 percent were for African-American children.

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The disparity in media coverage between Tamika Houston, a young Black woman from Spartanburg, S.C., and Natalie Holloway, a young White woman who went missing in Aruba, is what really motivated the sisters-in-law duo to found their foundation.

Derrica watched Houston’s family fight for media attention while Holloway, though missing in another country, dominated the national airwaves for hours at a time.

“The Black and Missing Foundation, Inc. was born out of necessity,” Derrica Wilson told NewsOne. “The public is mislead in believing that the victims of kidnappings and abductions are blond, blue-eyed and female. In actuality, 40 percent of all persons missing in the United States are of color.”

In a few short years, the pair has been able to create a resource that is helping to make a difference.

“Black and Missing Foundation provides much needed platforms to bring awareness to missing persons of color,” says Natalie,” which is essential in ensuring the safe return of the missing individual or closure for the families. We are committed to providing an equal opportunity for all missing persons.”

In addition to working with the show “Find Our Missing” with TV One and NewsOne, the Black and Missing Foundation has also partnered with radio personality Michael Baisden to feature missing persons of color on his nationally syndicated show, and newswoman Jacque Reid is now the national spokesperson for the foundation.

So far, the Black and Missing Foundation has helped to facilitate 72 reunifications or closures for families. One of the most recent was that of Stacey Nicole English, a bank teller whose body was found in January in southeast Atlanta. Black and Missing worked with English’s family throughout the ordeal.

But that’s not nearly enough for Derrica or Natalie.

“That is a good number,” says Natalie, “because we started out wanting to help just one family. But there are so many more families that need help. That is what we are focused on doing.”

Game Changers 2012

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Rashad Robinson

Age: 33

Place of Residence: New York, N.Y.

Why he is a local hero: As the new head of Color of Change, Robinson is responsible for helping to challenge the messages coming out of the media during this crucial 2012 presidential election.

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Whether fighting to save the life of Troy Davis or helping to force clemency for Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio woman jailed for sending her child to a school outside of her district, Robinson has had his hands full since taking the reigns from Color of Change founder James Rucker in May.

Robinson, who previously served as senior director of media programs for GLAAD, planned to “dive in feet first.”

“We are dealing with a cultural landscape that is showing Black people as criminals on a regular basis,” says Robinson. “It’s not that every image has to be ‘The Cosbys,’ but right now we are dealing more with ‘Atlanta Housewives.’”

The images depicted from the media impact how people view the world. When Donald Trump was garnering news coverage for saying some very over-the-top things about President Barack Obama last year, Robinson and Color of Change struck back. Robinson called on “Celebrity Apprentice” contestants Star Jones and Lil Jon to speak out against Trump, organizing a Twitter push to pressure the pair to speak out.

“We’ve gotten a lot of people tweeting. (They) can’t have a relationship with the Black community and have a relationship with Trump and not call him out for his actions….They’ve remained in silence and now it is time for them to speak up,” said Robinson.

Now Color of Change is on a mission to stop attempts to change voter identification laws by the conservative group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Color of Change is targeting the companies that support ALEC.

The fact is that voter fraud rarely occurs, and when it does occur it does not happen at a scale that would change the outcome of an election. The kind of voter fraud addressed by the ALEC voter id bill happens as infrequently as death by lightning……The truth is that voter ID laws are discriminatory — Black people, Latinos, the elderly, students, people with disabilities, and the poor are all less likely to have the photo IDs necessary to vote under these laws.⁶

For example, if you’ve recently moved because of foreclosure or some other economic circumstance, you’re more likely to have recently ended up in a new state which won’t accept your out of state driver’s license. If you don’t have a car, you’re less likely to have a driver’s license in the first place, Robinson wrote on Color of Change’s website.

Using digital media, the group wants to pressure ALEC’s corporate supporters.

Some of the companies supporting ALEC may simply be unaware that the group is involved in voter suppression. Others might think that voter suppression will benefit their political interests, and hope that they can get away with supporting it because so few people have even heard of ALEC.

We’ve started reaching out to these companies to make sure they know what they’re supporting, and to demand that they stop. Adding your voice to this campaign will help us convince these companies that continuing to support ALEC will hurt their reputation with consumers. We hope that many of them will simply do the right thing and stop supporting ALEC. If they don’t, we’ll be prepared to shine a spotlight on them and make sure the world understands what they’re involved in.

This is a game changing effort that could have a significant impact on this year’s presidential election.

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Game Changers 2012

Start Gallery

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Dr. Velma Scantlebury

Why she is a local hero: Scantlebury is working to increase the number of minorities who are organ donors and to bring more minorities into the field of organ transplant surgery.

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The story is simultaneously sad and hilariously funny.

Scantlebury, the first Black woman to become a transplant surgeon in this country, was headed in to surgery with a patient whom she had never met. Because of the emergency nature of transplant surgery, a patient’s regular doctor may not be the one performing the transplant. The patient first noted that Scantlebury was a woman. Next, he noted that she was Black.

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“Please, please, please don’t kill me!” The frightened patient said, “I have a young daughter,” Scantlebury recounted to a group of young women during a summer program, according to Western Pennsylvania Hospital News.

As the first Black female transplant surgeon, Scantlebury is used to odd questions. Still, she has also been incredibly successful in her career, performing more than 200 live donor kidney transplants. Now, Scantlebury is out to bring more minorities to the field but also looks to increase the number of minorities who are organ donors.

According to the U.S. Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health:

Minorities make up 54 percent of those on the organ transplant list but [are] only 33 percent of those who receive transplant surgery. African Americans comprise the largest group of people in need of a transplant at 29 percent, but make up only 14 percent of donors. And because of a greater incidence of diabetes and high blood pressure among African Americans, we are more at risk for organ failure. Organ types are more likely to match if they come from individuals of the same ethnicity.

Scantlebury is working to break down the mistrust that African Americans have of the medical establishment, including the belief that doctors won’t work as hard to save your life in an emergency situation if you are an organ donor — the legacy of the Tuskegee experiment linger even until this day.

At Delaware’s Christiana Care Health System, where she heads the division of transplantation, Scantlebury is doing research to increase the life span of organ donor recipients. She also works with Linkages to Life.

“My passion,” she told Ebony Magazine, “is to educate the African-American community and to empower dialysis patients with the knowledge and understanding that they, too, can have a better life through the gift of transplantation.”

Scantlebury is also committed to increasing the number of minorities and women in her field so that future generations won’t have to deal with patients concerned about their doctor’s sex or race.

“I’ve always said that I would not retire until there are at least 10 other African-American women in transplantation,” said Scantlebury.

So far, there is only one other, but don’t doubt what a determined woman like Scantlebury can accomplish.

As for the patient concerned about her race and sex, Scantlebury ultimately prevailed.

“He did well. And we have become friends since that day,” she told the roomful of young women.

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Parker explained her decision at a monthly meeting for the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas:

“I do not perform them because it is not an equal application of the law. Period,” she said.

According the Daily News, Parker, the first openly lesbian African-American elected official in the history of the state according to NBC News, is honest with the couples that she turns away, refusing to let them leave unclear about her decision:

“I use it as my opportunity to give them a lesson about marriage equality in the state because I feel like I have to tell them why I’m turning them away,” said Parker. “So I usually will offer them something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t perform marriage ceremonies because we are in a state that does not have marriage equality, and until it does, I am not going to partially apply the law to one group of people that doesn’t apply to another group of people.”

Though the Dallas Voice reports that there have been critics who claim that Parker is willfully neglecting her judicial duties by not marrying hetero couples, her response makes it clear that they do not have a clear understanding of the law:

I faithfully and fully perform all of my duties as the Presiding Judge of the 116th Civil District Court, where it is my honor to serve the citizens of Dallas County and the parties who have matters before the Court.

“Performing marriage ceremonies is not a duty that I have as the Presiding Judge of a civil district court.  It is a right and privilege invested in me under the Family Code.  I choose not to exercise it, as many other Judges do not exercise it.  Because it is not part of our duties, some Judges even charge a fee to perform the ceremonies.

According to GayMarriage.ProCon.com, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Washington, and the District of Columbia have all legalized same-sex marriage. Governor Martin O’Malley (D-Maryland), signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in his state on February 24, reports ABC News. Thirty states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage — Texas is one of them.

That brand of legal revisionism and inequality lives at the root of Parker’s refusal to join heterosexual couples in matrimony:

“…It’s kind of oxymoronic for me to perform ceremonies that can’t be performed for me, so I’m not going to do it,” she said.

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