July 31, 2026
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
Vol.31, Issue 26
AframNews.com
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African-American News&Issues
“Addressing Current & Historical Realities Affecting Our Community”
THE INAUGURAL FOUNDING CLASS OF 23 THRU ME LLC — SILAS JOSIAH COLEMAN (#52), KURT AXEL FLORES DEAN (#11), CALVIN FLOWERS (#7), SAMUEL JOHNSON (#41), ALICIA WIGGINS (#3), AND JADEN O. REED WILLIAMS (#32) — HOLD THEIR FRAMED JERSEYS FOLLOWING THE HISTORIC NIL LETTER OF INTENT SIGNING AT THE STUTTGART HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR AWARDS BANQUET, PANZER KASERNE, STUTTGART, GERMANY, MAY 16, 2026. PHOTO CREDIT: HYLA MELLOY PHOTOGRAPHY | PHOTOGRAPHY@HYLAMELLOY.COM
JOURNEY LEADS TO HISTORIC FIRST IN U.S. MILITARY SCHOOL HISTORY
By: Fred Smith
By: La’Queda Davis
La’Queda Davis wasn’t a top-rated high school recruit growing up in Houston’s Acres Homes neighborhood. Overlooked by scouts, she pressed forward anyway — playing basketball since age 4 — becoming the first woman from both S.P. Waltrip High School and LeTourneau University (MBA, 2012) to play professional basketball across five continents, including Romania, Australia, Brazil, Taiwan, and Germany — a career she continues to actively compete in today. That experience revealed a gap in recruiting support that Davis couldn’t unsee — so she founded COMMITTED — The Scholar Athlete Source to close it, now as Founder and CEO of 23 THRU ME LLC. While playing professionally in Stuttgart, Germany, Davis led what her company believes may be the first NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) Letter of Intent signing in the history of the Department of War Education Activity (DoWEA) and U.S. military schools worldwide. On
LEGACY OF RESISTANCE, HISTORY AND LIBERATION
May 16, 2026, six scholar-students at Stuttgart High School signed as the inaugural Founding Class of 23 THRU ME NIL. Davis serves globally, where 23 THRU ME LLC continues to provide opportunities and platforms — including Little Pro’s Youth Sports — for young athletes and individuals at every level, operating globally since the company’s founding in 2016 — and this is just scraping the surface of what’s to come. Davis is also the founder of The Two Three Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to empowering communities globally. “What Breaks The Average Builds The Greats®,” said Davis. “That’s not just our company’s slogan — it’s the heartbeat behind it. It’s the story of my own path, from Houston, Texas — Acres Homes — to reaching globally and worldwide. I’m honored to be building opportunity for young people everywhere 23 THRU ME LLC reaches.” AA
Black August is observed each August as a period of remembrance, education and reflection on Black resistance, political struggle and the long pursuit of freedom. Its modern roots are generally traced to California prisons in the late 1970s, where incarcerated Black activists established the observance to honor people who died in struggles connected to racial justice and prison activism. Over time, Black August expanded beyond prison walls and became an opportunity for communities to study African American history and examine the continuing meaning of freedom and equality. The month has particular historical significance because several major events in Black history occurred in August. On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner began an uprising of enslaved people in Virginia, one of the most consequential slave revolts in United States history. Decades later, on August 30, 1856, abolitionist John Brown and his supporters fought pro-slavery forces at the Battle of Osawatomie in Kansas. These events emerged from very different circumstances, but both became Legacy on pg. 3 part of a broader history of