Ticker tape

Jet, Jan 21, 2002 by Simeon Booker

Confidential: The U.S. State Department under Secretary of State Colin Powell is under review by Congress for an underrepresentation of Blacks in high-level positions. New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne, the ranking member of the House subcommittee on Africa, has asked for the statistics of Blacks in both high- and mid-level posts as the starting point in his review ...

Moving up: Chicago Rep. Bobby L. Rush has been chosen to chair the Black Caucus legislative conference this fall. Previously he engineered the 2001 annual prayer breakfast ... Promoted by President George W. Bush to career ambassador ranks in the foreign service were envoys George Moose and Ruth Davis, the first Black woman to reach the rank. She currently serves as director general of the Foreign Service-in charge of 46,000 people. Moose is assigned to help Howard University develop diplomatic programs ... Unusual Project: Because of their adoption by the National Congress of Black Women, which is headed by Dr. C. Delores Tucker, the Thompson quints, now 5 years old, have received clothing, a home from Freddie Mac, a four-year Howard University education, toys until they reach 16, and NAACP life memberships. The quintuplets appear at an NCBW function every year ... Harvard Professor and cultural critic Henry Louis Gates was named the 31st Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The lecture, to be given March 22, is the highest honor of the federal government for achievement in the humanities ... Finally a national African-American museum will be erected on the Mall in the nation's capital. President Bush signed a bill approved by Congress that established a 23-person commission to study a site and raise the necessary monies. The bill gave the commission $3 million to begin its work.