AKAlades!!!

[AKA_Monet]

It is so wonderful to see that my old chapter sorors are doing so well...

The last time I visited Spelman after my 1990 graduation was in 1999 and there had not been a line that year...

So she was on the Indemnity P.T.W.N. line... I believe she is on the same line as one of my line sisters from Aesop's Fables...

This is so cool!!!

[Lady of Pearl]

Way to go Soror ! She is pretty and intelligent too- A Doctoral candidate at Emory, go ahead now!

[AKA_Monet]

Making history

Danica Tisdale, the first black Miss Georgia, wants to inspire other women of color

BY CHRISTOPHER BOYCE

Staff Writer


Twelve hours after winning her Miss Georgia crown, Danica Tisdale stood in the lobby of the Wyndham Hotel in uptown Columbus, still surrounded by a buzz that had subsided only slightly.

After a night that yielded just three hours of sleep following photo opportunities, interviews and a post-pageant party, the 24-year old Tisdale was up for another round of interviews, the signing of her Miss Georgia contract and plenty more congratulations, handshakes and photos.

Though, to even her surprise, her glowing eyes sent no hint that she didn't get a proper beauty queen's sleep.

"I don't know what I'm running on anymore," Tisdale joked.

A good guess is that she was and will continue to be fueled by the exhilaration of a dream fulfilled.

Like many women, Tisdale grew up watching and admiring Miss America. Though she had long flirted with the idea of entering pageants, she didn't take her chance until it was almost too late, with 24 being the maximum age for contestants.

"I never really thought about winning or losing. I just didn't want to look back in 15 years and wish I had done it," Tisdale said.

And as the first black Miss Georgia in the 60-year history of the pageant, Tisdale said she was encouraged by the idea of making history.

"It's an incredible honor," Tisdale said of her landmark crowning. "I always thought I could be the one. I was never discouraged."

But due to her strict dedication to her academic career, this opportunity almost slipped by Tisdale. After graduating high school, Tisdale completed her bachelor of arts degree at Spelman College in Atlanta and then went straight to Temple University in Philadelphia where she earned her master's in English. While at Emory University, where she is currently working toward her doctorate in English literature, she began considering competing for Miss America.

Unlike many other pageant contestants, Tisdale had no lineage of beauty queens to turn to for advice. Instead, Tisdale turned to the Internet, researching the competition on the Miss Atlanta Web site www.missatlanta.org. Intrigued by what she saw, Tisdale began the process of interviewing for a spot in the pageant.

"As an academic, I'm always thinking about political and social issues and I think that really helped me in my interviews as well as with my confidence on stage," Tisdale said.

Tisdale will be forced to take a leave of absence from Emory in order to fullfil her duty as Miss Georgia, which includes competing in the Miss America pageant on Sept. 18. However, Miss Georgia says she has every intention of returning to Emory "to become Dr. Tisdale," and of eventually earning a position as a university professor and administrator. Her $15,000 Miss Georgia scholarship should help her in the effort.

Tisdale said that while it will be difficult to be pulled away from her school, family and friends by the busy schedule she has acquired, she feels a great sense of honor and responsibility to commit herself to her primary goals. She will be working to increase awareness of the importance of hospice care. And, as she also holds a specialization in women's studies, Tisdale also looks forward to giving attention to women's issues.

"I hope to serve as a role model for all women across the state, but especially for women of color who might not have seen the possibility of being Miss Georgia as an opportunity," Tisdale said.

Tisdale, who never sought coaching for her pageant run, said she still didn't think of herself as a front-runner during Saturday night's competition. She said this attitude, along with her past experience speaking in church and in oratorical contests, helped calm her nerves on stage.

Beginning her Miss Georgia duties, Tisdale will meet with the Japanese consulate in Atlanta on Wednesday. Then she will be staying in Columbus for the duration of the summer with the pageant's business manager, Tate Sasser, while preparing for the Miss America pageant.

Having shared a room this week with Miss Columbus, Samantha Daniels, Tisdale said she looks forward to getting to know the city with one of many new friends she made during the pageant

[WenD08]

yay, a Soror Spelmanite making history! i'm so happy for her. i will be watching the pageant w/my fingers crossed

[AKA2D '91]

Soror Maya Angelou has a group of greeting cards that are distributed through Hallmark called Life Mosaic. You can find them at Wal-Mart.

[AKA2D '91]

I heard a soror won on Tuesday. She participated in one of the track events. She trains in South Carolina, but represents the Bahamas.

[TheEpitome1920]

I saw an email about it on the NPHC listserv. Tonique Darling won a Gold Medal.

[AKA2D '91]

Thanks for the name. I saw the race, but I didn't pay attention to her name. I was concentrating on the good ole USA.

[Steeltrap]

I was just about to post this. I found an article on Soror Williams-Darling on the "other" USC's listserv:

http://uscsports.collegesports.com/s...080504aaa.html

[Paradise359]

I didn't know she is a Soror!! Yall I thought the police was going to be called on my sister & I! We were screaming so loud & jumping up & down during the race & when she won! I always love it when my fellow Bahamians do well! The Bahamas is so proud of her, she will surely have a parade upon her return! I am now doubly proud to find out that she is a Soror also!

[rho4life]

YAY! That's wonderful!

[AKA2D '91]

UC honors pioneering African American educator
Building named for teacher, donor Jackson

Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday,
August 31, 2004


She was gifted, no doubt about that.

She could read by age 3, an impressive feat for the
youngest of eight black children whose father had been
a slave and who lived in Mississippi, in the heart of
the Jim Crow South.

Lincoln had been dead but 40 years, women couldn't
vote and many blacks lived in fear of lynching. Little
Ida Louise Jackson followed her older brothers to
school and taught other children to read.

Everyone said she was unusually bright, but who would
have predicted that one day, eight years after her
death at age 93 in Oakland, she would outshine even
the midday August sun?

That's what seemed to happen at an emotional ceremony
Monday when the Ida Louise Jackson Graduate House
became the first building at UC Berkeley to be named
after an African American woman.

A harsh noontime sun beat down on the podium and many
of the chairs set up in the courtyard of the newly
christened Jackson House -- a recently built graduate
student dorm at College and Durant avenues. But the
hot glare seemed eclipsed by the glowing tribute for a
woman who broke through barriers of injustice, paved
roads to advanced education for African Americans and
inspired generations of others with her devotion.

"It's awesome. Thank you for this wonderful tribute,
this incredible tribute," exclaimed Inez Dones, a
friend of Jackson's and trustee of the annual
fellowship that Jackson endowed for African American
doctoral students at Berkeley.

"We hope that as we unveil her name, it will become a
beacon of light, a beacon of inspiration," Dones said.


Jackson was one of only 17 black students in 1920 when
she enrolled at UC Berkeley, where she founded the Rho
chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first African
American sorority at Cal. She later served as the
sorority's national president.

"She's quite well known in Berkeley because of her
trust and her fellowship," said Mary Ann Mason, dean
of Cal's graduate division.

"She became the first African American woman in the
state of California to receive a teaching credential,
which she did in 1924," Mason said. "And then she went
on to become the first African American of either
gender to teach in the Oakland public schools."

Her assignment in Oakland, where she taught for 15
years at Prescott Intermediate School, "was met with
protests," said Barbara Phillips, also a former
national president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, who came from
North Carolina for Monday's ceremony.

It would be 13 years before Oakland hired another
black teacher, Beth Wilson, whose daughter, Diane
Wilson-Thomas, was at the dorm's christening. "She and
my mom had great energy," Wilson-Thomas recalled
before the ceremony.

"She dedicated her life to education," Mason told the
gathering. In 1933, Jackson started the Summer School
for Rural Teachers in Mississippi.

The following year, she established the Mississippi
Health Project, which brought nurses and doctors to
poverty-ridden communities. Her contributions were
recognized the same year by then-President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, who invited her to the White House for the
Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.

She served a short term as dean of women at Tuskegee
Institute and returned to Oakland, where she taught at
McClymonds High until retiring in 1953.

She spent 17 years managing the family sheep ranch in
Mendocino County and then gave the 320-acre spread to
UC, providing the means to establish her fellowship.
It offers an African American Ph.D. student $15,000
for one year plus an additional $2,000 if the
dissertation is finished by May of that year.

"It's been wonderful to have a fellowship named for
Ida Louise Jackson," said last year's recipient,
Kathleen Sterling, who attended Monday's ceremony and
has been researching 13,000-year-old stone tools in
caves in the Pyrenees.

As the event drew to a close, about 50 Alpha Kappa
Alpha members of all ages stood in a circle, held
hands and sang their sorority hymn.

The closing act came when a banner was lifted from
Jackson's name on the front of the building.

"Oh, that's marvelous!" said Christine Hill, president
of a foundation that gives scholarships in Jackson's
name to a half-dozen graduating high school seniors in
the Bay Area each year.

"Oh, how beautiful," added Hill, who wore Jackson's
special sorority pin marking 50 years of membership.

[abaici]

I saw the plans at the FWRC. What a wonderful tribute to Soror Ida. She was truly a trailblazer!!

[Ideal08]

Originally posted by abaici
What a wonderful tribute to Soror Ida. She was truly a trailblazer!!

Echo that, Soror!

[viziondetroit]

that girl has some wheels