Updated: 6:38 PM CST February 9, 2021
DALLAS No matter the roadblocks or reasons she shouldn t have been able to, Juanita Craft lived a life built around bringing equality for the Black community in Dallas.
Craft was not only the first Black woman in Dallas County to vote in a public election, but she also served more than 50 years with the Dallas chapter of the NAACP.
Early life
Juanita Jewel Shanks Craft was born in February of 1902.
While she was a granddaughter of slaves, Craft was an only child of schoolteachers David Sylvestus and Eliza Balfour Shanks.
Credit: Juanita Craft
Her mother, Shanks, died from tuberculosis after being refused treatment because there were no state hospitals for Black Texans.
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AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Legacy Collective, a giving community dedicated to funding nonprofits addressing systemic issues with sustainable, innovative solutions, today announces its partnership with Thrivent and Notley to launch the first Social Enterprise Pitch-Off. Students in the School of Business and Technology s Biz Ready Program at Huston-Tillotson University, Austin s only Historical Black College and University, will be challenged to create a nonprofit solution to meet a need in the community. The winning team will receive $15,000 donated by Thrivent and Legacy Collective to launch the nonprofit or donate it to a nonprofit in their community meeting a similar need.
Saint Augustine s University campus
Historically Black colleges and universities received much-needed debt relief from the federal government as part of the recent COVID-19 relief bill, a change leaders say allows them more financial freedom to invest in their futures.
Congress passed a behemoth spending bill last month that included a variety of COVID-19 relief measures and earmarked $20.2 billion for colleges and universities. Also buried in the omnibus spending package is $1.3 billion in loan forgiveness for HBCUs that borrowed money through the federal government s HBCU Capital Financing Program. The program was established in the 1990s to provide access to low-rate capital that would allow HBCUs to refinance existing debt, make infrastructure repairs and renovations, and work on new construction.
Apple commits $100 million to racial equity programs while disclosing its own diversity hiring record
The tech giant says 53% of its new hires in the U.S. are from historically underrepresented groups.
Apple employees attended an event about Apple s new campus announcement in Austin in December 2018.(Ricardo Brazziell / AP)
By Tribune News Service
As Apple continues its rapid growth in Austin, the tech giant says it’s strengthening its national investments in education, technology and venture funding programs as part of a goal to combat injustice faced by communities of color.
The donations are part of a $100 million racial equity and justice initiative designed to reduce barriers and provide opportunities for people of color across the country. The programs are the first identified by the company since announcing its intentions in June, as social justice protests erupted around the country.