Ticker tape

Jet, April 8, 2002 by Simeon Booker

Confidential: The sudden withdrawal of a famed Black astronaut as Deputy NASA Administrator mystified many on Capitol Hill. President George Bush nominated Marine Maj. General Charles F. Bolden Jr., a four-time shuttle astronaut, for the post and then withdrew him the day before the Senate confirmation hearings.

No one is talking for the record but insiders hint that the job called for a civilian and the Marines' highest ranking Black officer did not want to retire ... Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, received national acclaim for his challenging science projects for Black students. He has gone from a young man who marched with Dr. King in Birmingham to the leader of a predominantly White research university--and is regarded as one of the best ... For the past nine years, Xavier University has led the U.S. institutions in the acceptance of students at medical schools. With 94 accepted in 2001, the school more than doubled the total of second place Spelman College, which had 38 accepted. Harvard University was third with 37 ... With it's headquarters having been a former slave market, officials of the Alexandria (VA) Urban League take pride in the building with bars still remaining on some doors. Executive Officer George Lambert says the operation was one of the largest in the country, furnishing manpower for plantations in the Deep South ... Voting Rights Institute chairperson Donna Brazile was one of six women honored by the Democrats in Washington ... Passed: Johnnie Mae Newton Berry, 91, the widow of Theodore Berry, the first Black Mayor of Cincinnati.