Author: Carma Henry

            The fourth annual HBCU Legacy Bowl is among us, with 90 of the top draft-eligible HBCU football players putting their talents on display for the final time with their respective schools on their helmets. 

The 2025 recipients of the YMCA of South Florida’s Dave W. Cash Leadership Awards and Spirit of Community Awards were announced during the Y’s 21st Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Inspirational Breakfast in Broward County and Inspirational Luncheon in Miami-Dade County, both presented by Delta Air Lines.

On Saturday, February 22, 2025, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. – Fort Lauderdale Chapter hosted its highly anticipated Diamond Jubilee Gala at the Renaissance Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The evening was a dazzling celebration of 75 years of service, scholarship, sisterhood, and finer womanhood, bringing together distinguished guests, community leaders, and members from near and far to honor the chapter’s legacy and impact.

Navy Office of Community Outreach

     How far and how wide Lift Every Voice and Sing resonated was a surprise to its creator. James Weldon Johnson wrote in his 1934 autobiography that “the schoolchildren of Jacksonville kept singing the song,” after he and his brother John Rosamond Johnson moved on to other ventures.

Cecil Howard, associate provost for academic programs and interim dean at Florida A&M University (FAMU) College of Law, has named Orange County Judge Faye Allen as chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council. Roberta Walton Johnson, general counsel and legislative director for the Orange County Clerk of Circuit and County Courts, has been named vice chair.

Closing out Black History Month on a high note, “Water Works: Distillations” opened on February 21, 2025, as the newest exhibit of the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum. Curated by Allison Bolah and featuring original works by artist, Franklyn Sinanan, “Water Works” explores the binding relationship between Black communities and the natural bodies of water that surround them.

     One of the results of the northern “Great Migration” was the development of the “New Negro.” When World War One ended it brought home thousands of Black men who had sampled the nectar of freedom abroad.  The National Archives estimated that over 380,000 Black men served in the Army. Shockingly, they weren’t called “Boy.” They were called “Sir”, and treated with respect, class. New dignity is intoxicating and it only  exacerbates the angst of being treated like 3/5ths  of a person. This resentment started bubbling up, first in our art, songs, poems, and in every part of Black culture. 

Patterson & Sons’ history is a remarkable one. That the only Black-owned automaker, founded by a former slave, found success in a malicious culture for three generations is a phenomenal feat. Remember this was an era defined by virulent racism, from President Woodrow Wilson’s segregation of federal workplaces to the popular acclaim of D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” That resilient Nubian chromosome led to Charles Richard Patterson and his son Frederick being inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2021.

Stephanie Browne wears many hats, and has several earnest life passions. But, of course, as an acclaimed wine industry veteran, and a lover of all things entertaining, cooking, cocktails and dining, she places wines, wine-pairings and education at the very top of her list. For Black History Month, she took some time to acknowledge and celebrate a few of her peers who are hard at work and about the business of making history, in an industry where African Americans have long been underrepresented.