September 29, 2024

Good morning. Welcome to our weekly Sunday newsletter. We will delve into Damian Williams, spotlight a new documentary on Earth, Wind & Fire and what national organizations are mobilizing young voters this election season.

^{Who is Damian Williams, the Man Prosecuting Eric Adams and Sean “Diddy” Combs} 

By Lisa D.Tinsley

• In November 2021, Damian Williams was appointed by President Biden to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan to lead the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. 

• His appointment made him the first Black person to lead the storied 234-year-old federal prosecutor’s office.

• Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Williams was reared in the Atlanta area, where his family moved when he was an infant. His parents, immigrated from Jamaica in the early 1970’s, met as students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where his father studied medicine and his mother, nursing.  He attended a private day school, Woodward Academy, excelling in academics and serving as student body president in his senior high school year.

• Mr. Williams majored in economics as an undergraduate at Harvard University, earned a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge and a law degree from Yale University.

• After law school, Mr. Williams clerked for Merrick Garland, now the U.S. attorney general and then a federal judge, and for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Mr. Williams moved on to work at the prominent law firm, Paul, Weiss, as an associate litigator, before becoming a federal prosecutor under Preet Bharara in 2012.

• As an assistant U.S. attorney, Mr. Williams helped to secure a conviction of New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, for bribery and other crimes after an earlier conviction was reversed. 

• In 2018, he was promoted to chief of the office’s securities unit, prosecuting white-collar crimes and obtaining a guilty plea the following year from former Representative Chris Collins, a Republican, for insider trading.

• In March, the office secured the conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, for fraud. 

• On September 17th, Mr. Williams announced sex-trafficking and racketeering charges against the music mogul Sean Combs. Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty.

• On Thursday, Mr. Williams announced charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, a Democrat, after a lengthy corruption investigation into whether he and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.

• Mr. Williams is married to Jennifer Nicole Wynn.

campus chronicles // hbcu edition

• Miles College and Birmingham-Southern College have signed a purchase agreement for BSC's 192-acre campus.  The purchase will scale the impact of Miles, an HBCU based in Fairfield, Alabama, that generates nearly $70 million in total economic impact for its local and regional economies and creates hundreds of direct and indirect jobs.

• Texas Southern University has announced it will break ground on its new baseball and softball stadiums in October. The building of the on-campus stadiums is part of an investment from the Houston Astros Foundation.

• Adidas Basketball honors HBCU pride with the launch of the Crazy 8 Low collection. This special release pays tribute to the heritage of five HBCUs.  The collection aligns with the 2024 homecoming season that captures that spirit, with each of the five colorways representing a school’s unique history. 

election insight

• Over one quarter of younger Black men say they would support Republican candidate Donald Trump in this year's U.S. presidential election, an NAACP poll showed on September 13th. 

• An estimated 41 million young people turn 18 this year, making them eligible to vote for the first time in their lives. Nearly half of them (47%) are young voters of color.

• HeadCount, a nonpartisan organization focused on youth voters, has an ambitious goal: mobilize 10,000 HBCU students to vote in this election cycle.  Their Say It Louder tour, part of a nonpartisan voter engagement program called Vote HBCU, visited ten campuses during welcome week or orientation events, bringing music, speakers, voter registration and workshops on voting and civic engagement. Organized with the help of Vote HBCU student fellows on each campus, the tour aimed to roll voter education into the traditional fun of celebratory campus events.

black history in quotes 

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our community in numbers

Community: Tyler Perry is making a huge impact by donating $750,000 to help senior citizens near his Atlanta studio with rising property taxes. His donation will cover back taxes for nearly 300 low-income seniors and freeze taxes for 100 homes for 20 years. 

Health: Black people who live in the "Stroke Belt", which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, have higher stroke mortality rates than whites.

Business: The number of Black farms fell by 4,187 from 2017 to 2022, a drop of nearly 15 percent, according to the census. Between 2017 and 2022, all of the shuttered Black farms were smaller than 500 acres.

culture

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is set to direct a new documentary on the legendary band Earth, Wind & Fire, exploring their remarkable journey from humble beginnings to cultural icons. Celebrated for their soulful music and indelible impact, this documentary promises to share the band's real story of joy, struggle, and self-discovery. 

Our editor, Lisa D.Tinsley, would like to thank you for spending part of your day with KISA News Radio.

See you next Sunday.

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