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Nebraska’s Only Black Owned Newspaper Vol. 82 - No. 15 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, July 24, 2020
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75 cents
Family of the Week:
Media Pioneer Named to Creighton’s Board of Trustees
The Farmers By Illana Lewis When John Farmer and Monique Harris met during a blind date matchup made by a close friend in December 1997, they were both college freshmen and had no idea they’d met their future spouse. “Those early days of our relationship seem like a whole world ago,” said John, a Captain and Arson investigator with the Omaha Fire Department. “At the same time, it seems like it was just yesterday,” said Monique, a Professor of Practice at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. “Time flies.” On July 7, the couple celebrated 19 years of marriage. The Farmers have three children, John Farmer III, 18, Aaliyah Farmer, 14, and Jordan Farmer, 11. During holiday and summer breaks from school, their niece, Iesha Bryant, 20, makes herself available to help tutor and transport the younger Farmer children to activities. Bryant, a pre-medical school student and college junior attends UNL. John III is a recent Omaha North High School graduate. He is UNL-bound, where he will study engineering. In high school, John was a member of National Honor Society and a tri-sport athlete: football, basketball and track. “We are very proud of his high school accomplishments and we look forward to seeing where his studies and aspirations will lead him,” Monique said. Aaliyah will be a sophomore at North this fall. She runs track, plays basketball and has spent the summer participating in Girls Incorporated of Omaha’s Eureka Program as a virtual extern. Aaliyah hopes to pursue a career in pediatric cardiology post high-school. The couple’s youngest son, Jordan, will enter 7th grade at Alice Buffett Magnet Middle School this fall. He plays football and also runs track like his older brother and sister. Jordan wants to be an airline pilot when he grows up. John and Monique are both Omaha natives. John graduated from Omaha Northwest High School; Monique graduated from Omaha South High School. “It makes for intense rivalries at the house during football and basketball season,” Monique said. “We’re each rooting for our individual alma maters.” The family unit is very important to the Farmers. The walls of the family room at their home are decorated with photos of past family vacations and Family Rules like: “Share. Say I Love You. Hug Often. Use Kind Words. Love Each Other.” When the nation isn’t in the midst of a pandemic, the family enjoys traveling domestically and internationally. They also enjoy simple pleasures like sitting around a firepit in their driveway, listening to music and enjoying each other’s company. The Farmers said they look forward to getting back to normal life/life beyond COVID-19, but that they are enjoying a much-welcomed slowdown from the usual hustle and bustle of demanding work schedules, volunteer commitments and managing the school and sports schedules of three children.
Catherine L. Hughes, an Omaha native and owner, co-founder and executive chairwoman of Urban One – the nation’s largest distributor of radio, TV and digital programming for Black audiences – has been named to Creighton University’s Board of Trustees. “I am thrilled to welcome Catherine Hughes to our Board of Trustees,” said Creighton University President Hughes the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD. “She will provide great perspective and insight at this important level of Creighton governance, and I am looking forward to working with her. Not only is she a highly successful entrepreneur and business executive, but her connections to Omaha and Creighton run deep.” Hughes is a graduate of Duchesne Academy in Omaha and attended both the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) and Creighton University. Her father, William Alfred Woods, was the first African American to graduate with a degree in accounting from Creighton. She was drawn to broadcasting when she volunteered at KOWH, a newly formed radio station that found its primary audience in historically African American North Omaha. Hughes bought her first radio station in Washington, D.C., in 1980, and worked as a morning show host while growing her company, Radio One (now Urban One), into a national radio market leader. In 1995, Hughes became the first woman owner of a No. 1-ranked major market radio station, and in 1999 she became the first African American woman to chair a publicly held corporation when Radio One held its initial public offering. Today, Urban One owns more than 60 radio stations and is a market leader across several media channels. She was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and the Cathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard University is named in her honor. In 2006, Black Enterprise Magazine named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in business. Creighton awarded Hughes an honorary degree in 2006, and in 2018 the Johnny Rodgers Foundation and the City of Omaha named a North Omaha boulevard in her honor and she was recognized as the Omaha Press Club’s 157th “Face on the Barroom Floor.”
Google News Initiate Student Fellowship The Omaha Star is one of nine newspapers in the country selected to host a post secondary student to participate in the Google News Initiative Student Fellowship Program (GNI). The student will be selected by the newspaper after an application process. The fellow will work remotely at the paper for a maximum of 12 weeks and receive a $6000 stipend. In partnership with the National Newspapers Publishers Association, the National Association of Hispanic Publishers, and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia launched the program aimed at developing and supporting students of color who are interested in careers at the intersection of technology, media, and journalism. U.S. newsrooms often don’t reflect the diversity of the audiences they cover. A 2019 survey by the American Society of News Editors estimates that less than a quarter of newsroom employees identify themselves as a person of color, compared to the U.S. population, which is 24%. The percentage is even smaller for newsroom leadership. The Google News Initiative Student Fellowship program intends to address the barriers of access to early career opportunities many students of color face, as well as support investigative journalism, technological innovation, and digital transformation in local newsrooms that serve diverse and underrepresented populations. To apply: https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/training/fellowship-us The application deadline is August 1, 2020.
From the iPublisher’s Pen By Terri D. Sanders COVID-19 continues in our world. I believe when death occurs it comes in threes. Marshall Taylor, C.T. Vivian and John Lewis are the three I refer to at this time. All three are icons. Each is now with our other ancestors and each has left an impression on our community. Marshall Taylor, founder of the AfraAmerican Book Store at 33rd and Lake Street was a community icon. An incredible wealth of knowledge, a successful entrepreneur, a success
in North Omaha. A soft tone, but a firm meaning represents Mr. Taylor in my memory. His store had an inventory that was not duplicated anywhere in our city. If he did not have it, he would order it. His wife, Annette carries that same soft spirit and Mr. Taylor’s spirit will inhabit that space forever. Marshall Taylor we SALUTE your life and the work and the impact you have had on every person who you enacted with. Great persons have emerged and moved into global influence with their start in Nebraska. Watch
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Our Community page for a year of spotlight and enlightenment on great Nebraskans. The Omaha Star provides the good news in our community. This paper has always provided a platform for young people to express their thoughts through writing for the paper. Recently John McCaa, a Creighton graduate contacted me through social media and shared that Mrs. Brown published his first article. He continued his Journalism career at WOWT (1976-1984) and now resides in his home
state of Texas. Symone Sanders, current Sr. Advisor to Presidential Candidate VP Joe Biden wrote for the Omaha Star while a student at Creighton. She was the youngest National Press Secretary to Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders at 25 years of age. Cathy (Woods) (Liggins) Hughes began at the Omaha Star. She was recently named to the Board of Trustees at Creighton University. Howard University (Washington D.C.) has honored her journalistic work by naming the Cathy Hughes School of
Next Issue: August 7, 2020 Information submission by July 30, 2020
Communications at the University. In 2020 the Google News Initiative Fellowship has selected the Omaha Star as a participant to give a Post Secondary student a paid opportunity to exercise their writing skills at our paper. The Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center sponsors the Junior Journalism program that provides exposure to Secondary School students to the various careers available in Journalism. Since 1938 the Omaha Star has been a staple of communications in Omaha,
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Nebraska. Amid COVID19 the legacy continues. We celebrate the icons, promote our #goodtrouble and provide opportunity to young people.
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