In today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Maqubé Reese, welcome guests Nordia McNish and Teyaqua Davis, two resilient women of color.

While it is true that our past can shape us, it does not have to define us. Life experiences can be traumatic, but they can be overcome and serve us in positive ways. As Jesse Jackson would often say in his days of civil rights   advocacy, “I am somebody!” And the late Maya Angelou penned in 1978, “Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise. Up from a past, that’s rooted in pain, I rise.”

The stories of this evening’s guests, Nordia McNish and Teyaqua Davis, exemplify how women of color have endured, persevered, and overcome obstacles on their way to achieving success.

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This is a rebroadcast from September 20, 2022:

Today on Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and William Hosea, speak with James T. Averhart, the National President at Montford Point Marine Association, Inc., and Joe Geeter, the former Present and current National Director of Publications at Montford Point Marine Association, Inc.

Montford Point Marine Association, Inc. is the organization for The Montford Point Marines Memorial. It is dedicated to the legacy of nearly 20,000 African-Americans who served in the Marine Corps but trained in the segregated training facility known as Montford Point Camp in Jacksonville, NC from August 26, 1942, until the camp was decommissioned on September 9, 1949. The memorial tells the story through architecture and sculpture. The memorial is located within the LeJeune Memorial Gardens in Jacksonville, NC.

As of June 25, 1941, racial discrimination in the defense industry or in government was prohibited with the signing of Executive Order 8802 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Owing to the threat of strike and a march on Washington, D.C. by the first African-American labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the need for more recruits to fight WWII, President Roosevelt desegregated the armed forces and the federal government.

President Averhart, and former president Greeter, of the Montford Point Marine Association, Inc. explain more about the grand history of Montford Point and the role of African American soldiers in WWII.

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On today’s edition of Bring It On!, host Clarence Boone continues the conversation about COVID-19 with Penny  Caudill, health administrator for the Monroe County Health Department and former “2021 – Bloomington Woman of the Year”, and Shelli Yoder, Indiana State Senator for District 40 and a former Miss Indiana and a Miss America 1993 contestant. Today’s focus is on COVID-19 vaccination rates and booster shots.

In trying to explain low vaccination and booster rates compared to other industrialized countries, the New York Times offers the following: “The United States has a vaccination problem. Moreover, it is not just about the relatively large share of Americans who have refused to get a shot. The U.S. also trails many other countries in the share of vaccinated people who have received a booster shot.

The vaccinated-but-unboosted more closely resemble the country as a whole. Millions of Americans have already received two vaccine shots — eagerly, in many cases — but have yet to receive a follow-up. The unboosted span racial groups. One answer is that medical care in the U.S. is notoriously fragmented nor equitably service all communities. There is neither a centralized record system, as in Taiwan, nor a universal insurance system, as in Canada and             Scandinavia, to remind people to get another shot. Many Americans also do not have a regular contact point for their health care. As a result,  preventive care — like a booster shot — often falls through the cracks.

Today’s host is Clarence Boone.

Today’s show is a rebroadcast from December 27, 2021:

On today’s Bring It On!, hosts, William Hosea and Gloria Howell spend the hour with Drs. Tennisha Riley, James Brooks, and Amrita Myers to help us better understand the mental state of college students in general and how they appear to be coping during a pandemic era.

Dr. Tennisha Riley is an assistant professor in the Counseling & Educational Psychology department with an appointment in Human Development.  Her extensive research seeks to expand our foundational knowledge of adolescent emotional development and situate that knowledge within a sociocultural context for Black youth. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University’s Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society.

Dr. James Brooks, assistant professor of Counseling Psychology at Indiana University. Dr. Brooks has expertise in relationship counseling and the impact of race & racism on multiracial families and interracial relationships. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Brooks has worked with students on campus (here at IU and at Tennessee State University) around their mental health needs and has worked with students who are counselors in training to help them.

Dr. Amrita Myers is a renowned Ruth N. Halls associate professor of  History and Gender Studies at Indiana University and a consulting editor of the Journal of American History. Amrita is a historian of the black female experience in the United States, and her research interests revolve around issues of race, gender, freedom, and power and the ways in which these constructs intersect with one another in the lives of black women in the Old South. She is also the author of Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston, 1790- 1860.

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Today on Bring It On!, host Clarence Boone speaks with Shatoyia Moss, director of Safe and Civil Cities for the City of Bloomington, and Gloria Howell, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, about Black History Month.

The foundations of Black History Month started with Daryl Michael Scott, Professor of History at Howard University, in Chicago during the summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. to participate in a national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois. Thousands of African Americans travelled from across the country to see exhibits highlighting the progress their people had made since the destruction of slavery. On September 9, 1915, Woodson met at the Wabash YMCA with four others and formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH).

As early as 1920, Woodson urged black civic organizations to promote the achievements that researchers were uncovering. In 1924, they responded with the creation of Negro History and Literature Week, which they renamed Negro Achievement Week. The 1960s had a dramatic effect on the study and celebration of black history. Before the decade was over, Negro History Week would be well on its way to becoming Black History Month. Since the mid-1970s, every American president, Democrat and Republican, has issued proclamations endorsing the Association’s annual theme.

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On today’s  Bring It On!, hosts Clarence Boone and William Hosea speak with Monroe County Prosecutor Ericka Oliphant, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Kehr, and State Police Captain Ruben Marté about the killing of black men and BLM allies.

2021 has been a year of high-profile court cases involving lethal crimes to people of color, or cases tangentially related to people of color. Noticeable cases have included the Ahmaud Arbery, Kyle Rittenhouse, and the Kim Potter court cases. Recently, a stray bullet fired by a police officer killed Valentina Orellana Peralta, a 14-year-old girl, who had recently moved to Los Angeles from Chile. This senseless killing has enlisted Ben Crump, the civil rights lawyer who has represented the families of high-profile victims of killings around the country to get involved.

Here to help us with an analysis of the disturbing and growing trend of senseless lethal violence to people of color, and how to hold individuals accountable are Monroe County Prosecutor Ericka Oliphant, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Kehr, and State Police Captain Ruben Marté.

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Today’s Bring It On! hosts, Clarence Boone and William Hosea speak with Dr. Eddie Cole. He is the keynote speaker for the City of Bloomington’s annual MLK celebration. He is speaking on “The Challenge of Action and the Challenges of Action.” Dr. Charlie Nelms also joins the conversation.

Dr. Eric Cole is an associate professor of higher education and organizational change at UCLA. In 2021, Education Week named Dr. Cole as one of the most influential U.S.- based education scholars. His work and speaking events on college presidents and race has appeared in multiple popular press outlets, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among others.

Dr. Charlie Nelms, a native of the Arkansas Delta, has devoted his life to equalizing opportunities for disenfranchised peoples. He is currently a senior scholar at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and a senior consultant for the Association of Governing Boards, specializing in HBCU governance and leadership, as well as retired Chancellor, North Carolina Central University, and IU Vice President for Institutional Development and Student Affairs Emeritus.

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It’s not enough to demand justice for a week and simply move on. If we want to make real change in this country [the U.S.], that change needs to be reflected in our leaders, starting at the local level. Black people are tired, but are dedicating themselves to their communities and their country—consistently putting in the work to remind us that Black lives have and always will matter.

-Rachel Epstein, Marie Claire editor

Today’s Bring It On! hosts, Clarence Boone and Natalia Galvan speak with Jennifer Crossley and Isak Nti Asare. They are both notable, black public figures dedicated to serving the public. Clarence Boone and Natalia Galvan spend the hour speaking with both about how to better serve the public with a particular emphasis on issues that are affecting the African American community.

Jennifer Crossley is a woman of firsts. She was the first black woman to chair the Monroe County Democratic Party and now she is the first black woman to serve on the Monroe County Council.

Isak Nti Asare, a faculty member at Indiana University,  is a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Indiana’s ninth congressional district. In addition to his scholarly work at IU, Isak is an advocate for affordable healthcare, a national economic bill of rights, and a federal bill of digital rights.

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On today’s Bring It On!, hosts, William Hosea and Gloria Howell spend the hour with Drs. Tennisha Riley, James Brooks, and Amrita Myers to help us better understand the mental state of college students in general and how they appear to be coping during a pandemic era.

Dr. Tennisha Riley is an assistant professor in the Counseling & Educational Psychology department with an appointment in Human Development.  Her extensive research seeks to expand our foundational knowledge of adolescent emotional development and situate that knowledge within a sociocultural context for Black youth. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University’s Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society.

Dr. James Brooks, assistant professor of Counseling Psychology at Indiana University. Dr. Brooks has expertise in relationship counseling and the impact of race & racism on multiracial families and interracial relationships. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Brooks has worked with students on campus (here at IU and at Tennessee State University) around their mental health needs and has worked with students who are counselors in training to help them.

Dr. Amrita Myers is a renowned Ruth N. Halls associate professor of  History and Gender Studies at Indiana University and a consulting editor of the Journal of American History. Amrita is a historian of the black female experience in the United States, and her research interests revolve around issues of race, gender, freedom, and power and the ways in which these constructs intersect with one another in the lives of black women in the Old South. She is also the author of Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston, 1790- 1860.

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